Nick Fury paced the room in tight, measured strides, forcing himself to think through the impossible situation.
This wasn’t a hostage crisis. It wasn’t a terrorist demanding ransom at gunpoint.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had never negotiated with people like that.
This was something else entirely.
A hidden organization with the capability to erase any city on Earth from existence wasn’t making demands from a position of desperation. They were issuing a strategic warning.
And Fury couldn’t dismiss it.
He knew exactly what helium-3 was.
A single ton of the isotope could generate enough electricity to power a city the size of New York for an entire year. Turn that same energy into a weapon...
The Tsar Bomba, the most powerful nuclear device humanity had ever detonated, dwarfed Hiroshima thousands of times over.
A ton of helium-3 contained roughly twice that amount of potential energy.
The thought alone was chilling.
What made it worse was that Fury didn’t doubt Umbrella’s resolve for a second.
If the situation ever became desperate enough, even if he refused to yield, the World Security Council would reach the same conclusion from the opposite direction. They wouldn’t use a helium-3 superweapon.
They’d launch a tactical nuclear missile.
When forced to choose between sacrificing a few and saving billions, governments rarely hesitated.
Fury finally stopped pacing.
"...I accept your gesture of goodwill."
The words tasted like ash.
Then he turned toward Peggy Carter.
"Agent Carter, please escort her somewhere she can rest."
Peggy immediately seized Dorothy Underwood by the arm.
"Listen carefully," she said coldly. "My eyesight’s a lot better than it used to be. So don’t try anything clever. Otherwise..."
Dorothy tilted her head innocently.
"Otherwise what? Throw another electrified fishing net over me?"
Peggy’s lips curled upward.
"You know... I’d almost forgotten I did that."
She smiled.
"That’s actually a wonderful idea."
Dorothy pouted dramatically.
"I can’t wait."
The two women disappeared down the hallway.
Maria Hill stepped beside Fury once they were gone.
"Director... are we really letting her walk away like this?"
"You have a better option?" Fury asked without looking at her.
Hill hesitated.
"We could try to extract more intelligence. She’s a live Umbrella operative."
She had personally organized S.H.I.E.L.D.’s special task force dedicated to investigating Umbrella.
So far, it had accomplished almost nothing.
No arrests.
No infiltrators.
No meaningful intelligence.
Now the first genuine Umbrella member had practically delivered herself to headquarters. Letting that opportunity slip away felt unbearable.
Fury gave her a sidelong glance.
"Could you get Natasha Romanoff to tell you the truth?"
Hill thought about it.
Then slowly shook her head.
Interrogating Natasha was like trying to nail fog to a wall. Even with a polygraph, you’d never know which answers were genuine and which were carefully crafted lies.
"Dorothy Underwood is every bit as dangerous," Fury said. "And Umbrella would never send someone here who knew anything truly valuable."
He paused.
"But..."
A sharp light flashed in his eye.
"The person behind the message slipped once."
Hill frowned.
"What did they reveal?"
"Two words."
"’Helium-3.’"
"’Supercannon.’"
Hill fell silent.
Then understanding slowly dawned.
Helium-3 was Earth’s ideal fusion fuel, producing virtually no radioactive waste. The problem was supply.
Earth had almost none.
The Moon, however...
The Moon possessed enormous reserves.
As for a supercannon...
Cannons fired along a direct trajectory. No matter how advanced they became, they couldn’t strike every point on Earth from the surface of Earth.
If a single cannon truly had global reach...
Then it probably wasn’t on Earth at all.
Unless Umbrella was using "supercannon" as an intentionally misleading name for a missile system...
Its most logical firing position would be the Moon.
Combined with the information Evenson had supplied previously, Fury felt he had finally pinpointed Umbrella’s headquarters.
The far side of the Moon.
Perhaps it was time to convince NASA to accelerate lunar exploration.
His thoughts were interrupted by a frantic transmission.
"Director! Agent Coulson’s crashing!"
Fury’s face changed instantly.
He broke into a run.
Not Coulson.
Anyone but Coulson.
Unfortunately, he arrived too late.
He caught only the final moments.
After leaving a few quiet last words behind, Phil Coulson slipped away.
Silence settled over the corridor.
"What a tragedy."
Standing in the hallway, Evenson watched as agents carried Coulson’s body toward the morgue.
He stepped aside respectfully, lowering his head in silent farewell.
Only after the stretcher disappeared around the corner did he uncurl his fingers.
A tiny violet sphere rested in his palm.
A Soulstone.
One he had secretly prepared for Coulson long ago.
A slow smile spread across his face.
"I wonder how you’re planning to thank..."
The smile froze.
His pupils contracted.
He stared at the crystal.
Then looked again.
"No..."
His breathing stopped.
The Soulstone was empty.
Empty.
"Damn it!"
The shout echoed through the corridor.
He hurled the bead to the floor with enough force to shatter stone.
The crystal burst apart.
"How is it empty?!"
Fragments scattered beneath his boots.
He crushed them into powder.
"No! That’s impossible!"
Again.
And again.
"How could this happen?!"
Only after several long minutes did his breathing finally steady.
But no answer came.
Why hadn’t Coulson’s soul been preserved?
Had Loki’s scepter interfered with the spell?
Had Evenson made a mistake while casting it?
Or had some unknown force disrupted the magic entirely?
He simply didn’t know.
Without realizing it, he found himself standing at the place where Coulson had fallen.
This was the first time someone he genuinely knew had died.
A little while later, Captain America and Iron Man arrived together.
Apparently Fury had already spoken with them.
Tony spotted Evenson first.
"So this is where you’ve been."
He hadn’t seen Evenson during the briefing and had wondered where he’d disappeared to.
Evenson’s lips parted.
For a long moment, no words came.
"...Coulson."
He swallowed.
"I’ve known him for years."
"The first S.H.I.E.L.D. people I ever dealt with were Melinda... and him."
A faint smile appeared despite the grief.
"He was a good man."
"I gave him plenty of headaches."
"I pulled some terrible pranks on him."
"I drove him absolutely crazy more than once."
His voice trailed away.
Then he shook his head.
"He wasn’t supposed to die here."
Warlocks learned early how to harden their hearts.
Evenson believed manipulating S.H.I.E.L.D. had been necessary.
He had planned around them.
Used them.
Even deceived them.
But never...
Never had he intended for the people he knew to pay for those schemes with their lives.
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