"I thought you would beat me up."
More than ten minutes later, at the top of the mansion next to the California Bay, Tony, who had changed into casual sportswear, sat at the table. He touched his face and he was still a little dizzy.
He said to Merlin:
"You don't seem to like me very much."
"That's because you're annoying."
Merlin looked at the steak, red wine and various exquisite food on the table in front of him. He looked at the bodyguards standing a few meters away around him. He picked up the knife and fork and said:
"Let them stay a little further, you don't want your own affairs to be known, thank you for this late-night snack."
Tony waved his hand, and the other bodyguards retreated obediently. There was only one fat man in a suit and sunglasses standing behind Tony with a cold face.
"Happy is the person I trust the most."
He said to Merlin:
“He is trustworthy.”
"I don't care."
Merlin picked up the steak and cut it with a dining knife while saying:
"This is your business, and I can't control it if you're willing to tell it to anyone."
"Tell me, tell me."
Tony took a sip of red wine and calmed down his beating heart. After a moment, he breathed a sigh of relief, picked up a cigar, and the bodyguard next to him immediately handed the lighter.
"In fact, things are not as complicated as you think."
Merlin picked up the dining cloth and wiped his mouth. He leaned against the chair and said to Tony, who was shining with anxiety in front of him:
"The death of your parents was indeed not an accident."
"They went to the airport that night, probably to escort the Super Soldier's serum to the agents of the Strategic Science Legion. The rumors outside are true. Your father may really know the specific formula of the Super Soldier's serum, but I don't know why he didn't reconfigure them until 1991."
"How do you know they're shipping serum?"
Tony asked:
"At that time, you were just an ordinary person? You couldn't know those."
"I've never been an ordinary person, Tony."
Merlin picked up the wine and shook it in his hand, and he said to Tony:
"And I'm pretty sure that's the super soldier serum, because the last residue of those serum is in my body."
"you?"
Tony looked at Merlin and said:
"You've injected that serum too?"
"Yes, I had no choice."
Merlin took a sip of wine, and his mind returned to nearly ten years ago, and he whispered:
"The murderer who killed your parents has been chasing me. At that time, I was very weak and I couldn't protect myself. Because of my reasons, many people suffered misfortunes. I wanted to end this disaster with my own hands, so I injected it."
"The other serums your parents shipped evaporated in the explosion, leaving only half of the normal dose, so the serum did not show as outstanding as Steve Rogers in me, but it still gave me the weak to the ability to confront the enemy head-on."
"You killed him?"
Tony stared at Merlin, his hand tightly grasping the wine glass in his hand, and he asked:
"Is he dead?"
"If it were a few years ago, you asked this question, I'll tell you that he's dead."
Merlin sighed, he did not hide it, and said truthfully:
"But now, I can't be sure. I've only recently learned that there are some ways in that organization that can allow people who are dying to escape death. Maybe the killer is dead, maybe he is not dead, but there is no doubt that he hasn't appeared in more than ten years."
"who is he?"
Tony's voice became cold, and he asked:
"What's that organization?"
"He is called the Winter Soldier, also known as the Winter Soldier, and is the product of the former Soviet Union's Super Soldier Program. Ten years ago, he was a world-famous assassinator. As for that organization, it was called Hydra, you should have heard of this organization, and your father had fought against them."
Merlin put down his glass and said:
"Your father, Ms. Carter, and the Roaring Commando, they thought they had destroyed that organization, but they didn't. They just changed their ways and continued to live in the shadow of the world, like vines, tangled around the organization that destroyed them, growing little by little until we discovered the clues a few years ago."
"We are fighting them, it is a secret war, and up to now we have a slight advantage, but they have chosen to dive after being hit, and the struggle will continue until one of the sides completely falls down, or both sides die together."
"Hydra"
Tony was pronounced this name, and he closed his eyes, as if he wanted to carve the name into his bones and in his soul.
After a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at Merlin, and he said:
"Tell me about the scenes of my parents being killed."
"Why do you know this?"
Merlin frowned and said:
"The more you know, the more you will be in pain."
"Because I don't believe it, my father died like that!"
Tony gritted his teeth and said:
"I didn't have a good relationship with him, but when I became an inventor and scientist like him, I really realized how terrible my father's wisdom was, how could such a person die casually in an assassination? Maybe, maybe it was just a fool, he just left me to do something more secretive."
Merlin stared at Tony, and after a moment, he said:
"You're paranoid, this is not good."
"This is my business!"
Tony's tone was a little cold, he said:
"You just have to tell me what happened that night."
"All right."
Merlin didn't care about the excitement in Tony's tone, and he whispered:
"That night, I was walking by the Hudson River and I heard the loud brakes, as if it was a car accident, and I rushed over as fast as possible."
"Your parents' car hit a tree on the side of the road, but they were still alive and seriously injured. I tried to help your father, but he asked me to save your mother first. I carried the unconscious Mrs. Maria out of the carriage, and I turned to help your father. He was bleeding. He was an old man, and the impact made him very painful."
"But at that time, a motorcycle stopped by the empty road."
Merlin stopped, he glanced at Tony's serious expression, and he continued:
"The headlights are very bright, making me unable to see who the person is. But he didn't think of saying hello to me. He was carrying a military rifle and fired at us without saying a word. I dragged your parents to try to leave the battlefield, but the firepower was too fierce. I felt that I was not facing a person, but a well-trained team."
"I was forced to leave, and the guy took out the box with serum from your father's car, but he didn't give up chasing me."
"What did I say at that time? I don't know how to fight well, and there is no fighting will a soldier should have."
Merlin shook her head:
"I was forced to go to the point of nowhere, so I turned around and fought with him. I injured him with my unexpected ability and exploded and destroyed most of the serum. He ran away, and then I went to find your parents."
Speaking of this, Merlin sighed:
"Sorry, Tony, by the time I go back, your mother has lost her breath. And your father still has a last trace of life. He told me to let me go with the serum and he warned me that the organization would not let me go."
"I had the chance to take them away, but I couldn't save them. Sorry, Tony."
Merlin closed her eyes and said:
"I was too weak at that time. I wanted to do good things, but I couldn't do anything. I wanted to stop bad things, but I couldn't do anything."
"It's not your fault"
Tony finished listening to Merlin's memories in full. He leaned on the chair in a daze, staring at the sea under the dark night in the distance without any focus. He said:
"When they left home that day, I quarreled with them because they couldn't celebrate my birthday. I sulked with them and I felt that they didn't care enough about me, especially my father, who had never said those gentle words to me since he was a child."
"He was always busy, doing business, flying around the world, and he gave me expensive gifts, but on my birthday, he wouldn't even show up. I later learned that he was actually a secret agent, just like you, Mr. Merlin."
"His life must have been wonderful, but he chose not to tell me that he was indifferent to me to protect me, and to protect me."
Tony lowered his head, he didn't want others to see his face, he covered his face with his hands, he said:
"I don't understand him, I didn't understand from the beginning. When I started to understand him, he had left. I didn't have the chance to chat with him again, I didn't have the chance to travel with him again, and I didn't even have the chance to have a meal with him again."
"If you want to know what Mr Howard has done in the past."
Merlin said to Tony:
"I have a lot of information left by Ms. Carter, maybe it can help you."
"No, no need."
Tony whispered in grief:
"Your SHIELD's database defense system is so bad. I've read all the information you have a few years ago."
Merlin blinked, and he accidentally found the culprit for frequent invasions to S.H.E.L.D. databases in recent years, but seeing Tony, the playboy, is so sad now, he decided to pretend that he had never heard of this sentence.
Young people always do some reckless things regardless of consequences, especially things that concern their relatives. Merlin can understand him.
"I'm not very good at comforting people, Tony."
Merlin looked at Tony with tears on his face. He took out his pocket watch, looked at the time, and said to Tony:
"And you already know everything you want to know, so it's time for me to leave, thank you for the late-night snack, it tastes good."
He stood up, picked up the handbag containing Captain America's shield and was about to leave, but was stopped by Tony who came to his senses.
"Merlin, can you tell me how to find those Hydras? And that Winter Soldier"
"Stop this idea!"
Merlin turned around and looked at Tony seriously, and he said:
"You are just a rich young man, you are just an ordinary person. It is not a slight benefit to you in such a secret war. The rules of the world you know do not apply to them at all, and you cannot deal with them."
"Ms. Carter and I have a good relationship, and Mr. Howard and I have some connections. I am here to warn you seriously, Tony! Don't participate in this matter."
He turned his head and looked at the fat and strong man standing next to Tony, and he said:
"Your name is Hapi, right? You are the person Tony trusts the most and you are responsible for protecting him, so do your job. If you find that your employer and friend want to do something that threatens your life, you'd better stop him!"
"He is a billionaire, but he cannot be protected."
After saying that, Merlin glanced at the expression on Tony Stark's face, and he knew that this guy didn't listen to his advice at all.
But he didn't say anything more, but left the mansion with a shield.
A few minutes later, Merlin returned to the Trident Building, and Fury was waiting for him in the office.
"Bang"
The shield was placed on Fury's table, Merlin leaned against the side and said to Fury:
"The things were taken back, and those things were told to Tony Stark. He was a paranoid guy. Your plan was successful. Fury. He would definitely find a way to search for all clues related to Hydra. You found a guy who was not easy to deal with for our opponent."
"Um?"
Fury keenly felt the dissatisfaction in Merlin's words. He raised his head and looked at Merlin. After a moment, he sighed:
"Merlin, Merlin, you're good at everything. The occasional unsuccessful compassion makes people feel a headache. Do you think we're dragging Tony Stark into this secret war to harm him?"
Merlin didn't answer, he had no expression on his face, but that said it all.
"No! We are not harming him!"
Fury emphasized:
"Hydra killed Howard, and they and Tony were enemies. And they targeted Howard in order not to let Howard affect their evil plans. How could someone like them leave another person behind to rebuild the destroyed cause after killing a tricky person?"
"If we hadn't hit Hydra in recent years, I'm afraid they would have targeted Tony long ago. Don't forget. Tony is an inventor and researcher who is as powerful as his father. No one knows whether Howard left any news for Tony before his death."
"We would warn him in advance, which is much better than letting him fall into the siege of Hydra in a daze. That group of people is a threat, whether it is for us or Tony, he would better be prepared in advance."
Fury snorted, and he said:
"Put your meaningless compassion, Merlin, I'm not a villain who just treats other people's lives as games. All we do is necessary."
"Um"
Merlin nodded, he seemed to be convinced by Fury.
But a few seconds later, Merlin suddenly woke up. He took a step back, pulled out his wand, aimed at Fury, who looked shocked. As the light of the Avadassori curse was pounding, he shouted:
"What's going on? You were using mental induction on me just now?"
"When did you learn it? Are you Fury?"
Frey didn't speak with a face.
He felt a little depressed. During the period when he was able to obtain his ability, he had not discovered this ability before, but he was discovered by the first time he used it on Merlin.
Fury shrugged at Merlin, then reached out and pulled open his blindfold, revealing his eyes that looked weird with a black light in the white.
He said:
"I was also hit by the previous energy."
Chapter completed!