Under normal circumstances, when an agent requested an urgent audience, Nick Fury saw them immediately.
This time, he didn’t.
"Tell him to wait."
Phil Coulson remained standing at attention. He knew Fury well enough to recognize the reason. If Agent Sylvette was being kept outside, it meant the Director had another assignment first.
"The research division isn’t going to make meaningful progress anytime soon," Fury said. "Whoever engineered those mutants built anti-analysis measures directly into the process. We can wait for the scientists to keep trying, but I won’t waste one of my best agents sitting around waiting for updates."
He leaned back in his chair.
"Coulson, the world’s getting uglier by the day. Arms trafficking to terrorist organizations has increased dramatically. Sylvette just finished raiding one of those operations. That’s probably what he’s here to report."
"What do you need me to do, sir?" Coulson asked.
Fury folded his hands.
"Our contacts in the Middle East have confirmed that a terrorist organization operating near Afghanistan recently acquired a shipment of advanced weapons."
"What kind of weapons?"
If Fury considered them noteworthy, they certainly weren’t crates of aging AK-47s.
"Jericho missiles."
The words landed like a hammer.
"Our informants have confirmed the terrorists possess multiple Jericho missiles."
Coulson’s eyes widened.
"The Jericho? Stark Industries’ newest missile system?"
Only recently delivered to American forces in Afghanistan, the Jericho represented the cutting edge of modern weapons technology.
Easy to deploy.
Highly accurate.
After launch, the primary missile separated into multiple devastating submunitions capable of saturating an entire target area.
One launch.
One battlefield erased.
How had terrorists obtained them so quickly?
Weapons like the Jericho were tightly controlled. Every missile fired during training or combat had to be documented. Even damaged units required formal reports and supervised recovery.
There was virtually no opportunity for soldiers to quietly sell them on the black market.
Which left only one explanation.
"...Stark Industries is secretly supplying terrorists?" Coulson asked.
"And not obsolete equipment," he added grimly.
"Their newest technology."
Fury sighed.
"Based on everything we know... it’s the only explanation that fits."
"What about Tony Stark?" Coulson asked immediately. "Was he involved?"
His concern wasn’t solely because Tony was Howard Stark’s son.
Tony himself was Stark Industries’ greatest asset.
Howard had built the company.
Tony had transformed it.
Nearly every revolutionary weapon the company produced had originated from his mind.
Without Tony, Stark Industries would be like a steakhouse without steak.
The market had demonstrated that reality when Tony disappeared in Afghanistan. Stark Industries’ stock had plummeted by nearly thirty percent.
If Tony had knowingly armed terrorists...
It would be a disaster for far more than S.H.I.E.L.D.
"The terrorists possessing the missiles are the same group that kidnapped Tony," Fury said.
"So my first assumption is that he wasn’t involved."
He paused.
"But..."
"I can’t ignore another possibility."
Coulson stayed silent.
"He could have staged the kidnapping himself."
The room grew quiet.
Fury met Coulson’s eyes.
"I want you to investigate everything."
"No assumptions."
"No favors."
"I want the complete truth."
"Yes, sir."
Coulson accepted the assignment without hesitation.
After a moment, though, he asked the question neither of them wanted to consider.
"If the investigation proves Tony knowingly participated..."
"...what then?"
Fury was silent for several long seconds.
When he finally spoke, his voice had become noticeably quieter.
"You’ll resolve the situation discreetly."
His expression remained unreadable.
"It’s the last thing I can do for Howard."
Coulson understood immediately.
Fury wasn’t suggesting mercy.
He wasn’t suggesting a cover-up.
He meant Tony would die.
Quietly.
Officially, it would be ruled an accident.
The threat would be eliminated while preserving Howard Stark’s legacy from the scandal of history remembering a hero whose son had become a terrorist arms supplier.
Neither man wanted that outcome.
Both silently hoped the investigation would prove Tony completely innocent.
"Understood, Director."
Without another word, Coulson departed to begin his mission.
Only after the office door closed did Fury call for the waiting visitor.
"Send him in."
Agent Sylvette entered carrying a metal briefcase.
Judging by his expression, he’d already been waiting outside for quite some time.
He wasted no time with formalities.
"Last night I led the strike against the illegal weapons transaction."
"The buyers have been identified as Ben Hass’s terrorist organization in the Middle East."
"The seller was Yuri Butov."
"The detailed inventory of confiscated weapons is included in my written report."
Fury nodded for him to continue.
"Unfortunately, neither suspect survived."
"Ben Hass resisted arrest and was killed during the operation."
"Yuri Butov committed suicide by poison."
Fury frowned.
"Suicide?"
"Yuri?"
That didn’t sound right.
Fanatics like Ben Hass frequently fought to the death.
Yuri Butov was different.
He was notorious for valuing his own survival above everything else.
Cautious.
Greedy.
Well connected.
Even if arrested, he had enough influential friends to bargain for his life.
He wasn’t the sort of man who chose death voluntarily.
"He loved his family," Sylvette replied.
That was all Fury needed to hear.
Someone had threatened them.
Whatever Yuri knew, talking would have doomed the people he cared about.
So he’d chosen death instead.
Which meant the real reason for today’s report wasn’t Yuri.
It was whatever had frightened him into silence.
Fury’s eyes shifted to the briefcase.
"That case."
"That’s what he died to protect, isn’t it?"
"Yes, sir."
Sylvette placed it carefully on the desk.
Fury opened the latches.
The interior was divided into two compartments.
The upper section housed a compact computer terminal.
The lower section contained six spiral-shaped vials secured inside precision-cut slots.
Each vial held an unfamiliar liquid.
Fury activated the computer.
The screen immediately lit up.
A red-and-white umbrella emblem filled the display.
Then a calm, authoritative male voice began speaking in flawless German.
"It is our great pleasure to introduce Umbrella Corporation’s newest product..."
"...the Tyrant-Series Bio-Combat Enhancement Serum."
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