"And if we identify this Inhuman?" Pierce asked. "Then what?"
Silvet didn’t hesitate.
"We make him comply."
"And if he refuses..."
"We eliminate him."
Pierce waved the suggestion away in annoyance.
"And then Nick Fury follows the trail straight back to us."
He leaned back in his chair.
"Fury is an old fox."
"If I were him, I’d be waiting for someone to make a move against that Inhuman."
"As soon as we do..."
"He’ll reel in the entire line."
An Inhuman connected to a Level Ten classified operation.
The individual responsible for exposing Hydra’s existence.
Did anyone seriously believe Nick Fury would leave someone like that unprotected?
Pierce certainly didn’t.
By his estimation, Fury had already surrounded the Inhuman with layers of surveillance, patiently waiting for Hydra to reveal itself.
Even if every surveillance agent happened to be Hydra...
It wouldn’t matter.
If the Inhuman suddenly vanished or turned up dead, Fury would personally drag everyone involved into an interrogation room.
Enough truth serum later...
Hydra’s infiltration inside SHIELD could unravel from a single loose thread.
No.
Touching the Inhuman now offered no strategic value.
It would satisfy nothing except wounded pride.
The Inhuman’s survival or death had no bearing whatsoever on Hydra’s long-term plans.
Attacking him would only hand Fury new evidence.
It simply wasn’t worth it.
The thought of Nick Fury made Pierce rub his forehead.
He knew Fury’s capabilities better than almost anyone alive.
After all...
He had been the one who promoted him.
For years, that had been an advantage.
Hydra remained hidden, and Fury’s brilliance strengthened SHIELD without threatening Pierce personally.
Now everything had changed.
Hydra had been exposed.
Even if only partially.
For the first time, Fury’s relentless competence had become a direct threat to Pierce’s own operation.
When he’d first learned Fury suspected a mole inside SHIELD, one thought had flashed through his mind.
Kill him.
The idea lasted only a moment.
Because it created a far bigger problem.
Who replaced Nick Fury?
Certainly not one of Pierce’s loyalists.
None of them possessed Fury’s talent.
There was a reason Pierce had chosen an outsider for the Director’s position all those years ago.
He’d chosen the best man for the job.
Hydra had spent decades feeding on SHIELD.
The stronger SHIELD became...
The stronger Hydra became alongside it.
If SHIELD weakened, Hydra lost the resources, intelligence, funding, and influence that sustained its own growth.
Pierce’s life’s work depended upon SHIELD remaining powerful.
And SHIELD remained powerful because Nick Fury ran it.
Under Fury’s leadership, the agency operated with ruthless efficiency and consistently delivered results.
Those successes gave Pierce the leverage he needed to defend SHIELD’s oversized budget and extraordinary authority before the World Security Council.
In Pierce’s eyes...
No one alive could do the job better.
Replace Fury with someone mediocre, and SHIELD’s performance would decline almost immediately.
No amount of political maneuvering could save it after that.
The Council would slash funding.
Strip away authority.
Distribute SHIELD’s responsibilities to other agencies.
Every piece carved away from SHIELD...
Would also be carved away from Hydra.
So, for now...
Nick Fury had to live.
Only when Hydra had matured enough to emerge from SHIELD’s shadow...
Only when it no longer depended upon the organization that had unknowingly nurtured it...
Only then would Fury become expendable.
That day simply hadn’t arrived yet.
Pierce rubbed his temples again.
"Enough."
"Our priority is stabilizing the situation."
"Everything else can wait."
"As for that Inhuman..."
He let out a dismissive snort.
"Once Hydra’s revival is complete..."
"What can one Inhuman possibly do?"
"Whether we crush him..."
"Or reshape him..."
"That decision will be ours."
"Understood, sir."
Silvet rose to leave.
"I’ll begin making preparations."
Pierce stood as well.
Just before Silvet reached the door, Pierce straightened his subordinate’s collar with almost fatherly care.
"If this operation goes wrong..."
"If you leave behind even the smallest loose end..."
"I’ll have no choice but to offer someone important as a scapegoat."
He smiled pleasantly.
"Who do you suppose that someone will be?"
Silvet’s face drained of color.
Looking around the room, he couldn’t think of anyone more suitable than himself.
Cold sweat broke across his forehead.
"I understand, sir."
"I guarantee there won’t be any mistakes."
Pierce nodded.
"See that there aren’t."
Silvet hurried from the office.
Only after the door closed did Pierce finally allow himself to relax.
The sudden exposure of Hydra had caught him completely off guard.
For a brief time, he’d genuinely feared his own division would be uncovered.
Fortunately, through careful manipulation, he’d redirected the crisis.
Now all he needed was time.
Delay everything.
Keep SHIELD chasing shadows until Hydra’s grand design was ready.
That alone would be victory.
Nick Fury had also been manipulated.
Ironically, the scheme had still benefited him.
He now knew Hydra existed decades earlier than he otherwise might have.
The problem...
He had gravely underestimated the scale of the infestation.
He imagined one spy.
Perhaps two.
He had no idea Hydra had spread throughout SHIELD like roots beneath a forest.
Nor did he suspect that the trusted man advising him at every step, Alexander Pierce, stood at the center of it all.
At that very moment, Fury was fully occupied organizing SHIELD’s covert internal investigation.
The World Security Council wouldn’t interfere.
Agency operations wouldn’t grind to a halt.
Hydra wouldn’t realize exactly what he was searching for.
Everything seemed to be unfolding perfectly.
Sooner or later, he was certain the mole would reveal himself.
Perhaps SHIELD could even turn that mole into a channel for feeding false intelligence back to Hydra.
At least...
That was what Fury believed.
Meanwhile, the true architect behind the entire affair sat comfortably at home, slurping instant noodles.
Evenson Richter’s objective had been accomplished long before anyone else realized they were playing his game.
The moment Coulson and Melinda had appeared at his apartment, he’d already reached the obvious conclusion.
If SHIELD had found him...
How long would it take for Hydra to learn about him as well?
Not long.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t simply tell Coulson:
"By the way, your organization is crawling with Hydra agents."
"Your own superior is their leader."
Even if he said it...
No one would believe him.
So he had chosen a different solution.
Expose Hydra first.
Force them into crisis.
Keep those fanatical lunatics busy tearing their own house apart instead of coming after him.
At the very least, they’d hesitate before making another move.
As for Alexander Pierce flying into a rage and sending assassins anyway...
Evenson considered that unlikely.
Anyone capable of deceiving Nick Fury for years...
Anyone capable of quietly pushing an operation as ambitious as Project Insight through layer after layer of approval until Helicarriers filled the skies...
...wasn’t the type to make emotional decisions because his pride had been wounded.
Not unless he’d suddenly lost his mind.
Everything Evenson had done amounted to simple self-preservation.
It hadn’t even required much effort.
A few irredeemable gangsters.
One corrupt police commissioner.
That was all.
And in death, those people had managed to throw both SHIELD and Hydra, two of the world’s most powerful organizations, into complete turmoil.
For men like them...
That was almost an honor.
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