There is a set of ornaments on the colonel's desk, which is a row of hanging small balls, the kind of gadgets that keep bumping around through the conversion of kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy. Deathstroke's eyes seem to have been falling on it.
These small balls constantly collide, making a slight 'click-click' sound, just like the gears of a clock turning.
The atmosphere in the office was at a deadlock because of Howard's previous speech. The colonel's expression looked like he had eaten shit, and his facial features were abnormally distorted.
His white hair was shaking, as if he was trembling with anger at the suggestion of 'calling the police'.
Howard, on the other hand, had simply sat on the sofa nearby, his legs resting on the coffee table, taking out a cigar from his suit and puffing on it.
He has gradually figured out that as long as he stays at the Caspian Camp headquarters, he will be safe.
People who want to kill him rely on guns, and here, SSR has more guns.
"Colonel, are you looking for me?" At this time, the arrival of a person diluted the awkward atmosphere. It was a young man wearing a suit, vest and white coat: "Ah, Dr. Stark, you happen to be here too."
He has short blond hair, a mustache very similar to Howard's, and a warm smile on his face.
Before he finished speaking, he opened the door and walked in. As if he was not aware of the atmosphere at all, he greeted Howard and chatted happily.
Howard's mustache curled up and he turned his head to one side: "Dr. Richards, you have done me a terrible job. What is the blood sample you gave me? Now the assassins are going to ambush me in my toilet."
."
Nathaniel scratched his head, and he stretched out his hand to hook Stark's shoulder. He knew that Howard was not really angry, but just wanted to know what happened.
The curiosity of the scientific researchers, as well as Howard's tough-tongued character, made him say this, and Nathaniel could understand it.
"I didn't know this would happen beforehand. So Howard, did you find anything? Are the blood samples and tissue sections interesting?"
Howard wiped his hands on his pants and leaned on the sofa: "I leave this matter to Anim. I have recently met some very attractive ladies. They like physics very much and are always pestering them.
I'm asking questions, I'm terribly busy."
"Really? That's great, Dr. Stark."
Nathaniel didn't doubt Howard's words at all. Instead, he showed a happy smile, as if he really saw how many new physics stars would rise in the future.
Su Ming stood in the corner of the room with his arms folded. From a certain point of view, Howard was not lying. Those ladies asked him about friction, piston motion, fluid mechanics and other physics knowledge.
But now the problem is that item 084 is missing and Howard was assassinated because of the blood sample. Although these two things were not done by the same group of people, they were very close in time. Su Ming did not think it was a coincidence.
Despite hearing a lot of dirty jokes about physics, Nick Fury remained expressionless, while Nathaniel maintained a warm smile, and from time to time he even responded to Howard seriously.
He really thought Howard was talking about mechanics.
"Dr. Richards, can you tell me where that blood sample came from?" Seeing Howard shamelessly using various physical phenomena as a metaphor for that matter, Su Ming still interjected.
"Ah, hello, I'm sorry I didn't notice there was a guest." Nathaniel saw Su Ming, nodded with a smile, and arranged his hair: "That blood sample was obtained from a corpse.
Come."
"Where's the body?" Su Ming found that Nathaniel seemed to be a natural idiot now? Was he focused on scientific research?
"A friend asked me to investigate. One night the body was suddenly delivered to my door. I was shocked."
"How do you know this body was someone who asked you to investigate, rather than a homeless man who froze to death in front of your house?" Su Ming asked again.
Nathaniel patted his head. He picked up the wine bottle on the coffee table and poured wine for himself and Howard. The two toasted with smiles: "Because the corpse was wearing very high-end clothes and there was a letter on the chest."
"Letter?" Fury raised an eyebrow.
"Well, here." Nathaniel took out a wad of crumpled paper from his white coat pocket and handed it to Fury with a smile.
Nick Fury glanced at Deathstroke, and Deathstroke made a gesture of invitation, indicating that he could open it and take a look.
There are some unknown brown marks on the yellowish paper, which look like circles left by a coffee cup. The ink marks have drag marks, indicating that the paper was closed immediately after writing the letter.
It was a letter rather than a note or note, because there was only one sentence written on it in beautiful Gothic script, and Fury read it out like a robot.
"Investigate the body, or die, thank you."
Fury slapped the letter on the table, bent down and held the coffee table with both hands, staring condescendingly at Dr. Richards, putting pressure on him through body language.
"This is a threatening letter! It's coercion and blackmail. Why didn't you report it to your superiors?"
Nathaniel, who was toasting with Howard, was stunned for a moment, blinked, looked at the colonel and then at Howard. At this time, Stark made a helpless expression towards him.
"Is this a threatening letter?"
He asked Howard next to him. Howard bared his teeth and shook his head from side to side a few times, as if comparing which side was heavier on a scale. Then he put his head on Nathaniel's shoulder and nodded.
"Yes, this is a threatening letter."
Nathaniel was doubtful about the letter. He picked up the letter and read it again, and asked doubtfully: "But he wrote 'thank you', which is very polite."
Howard was minding his own business refilling his glass when he noticed that the colonel looked at him strangely.
"It's a big trouble to help dispose of the body. This person left a body of unknown cause of death at your door in the middle of the night. He should have left a message saying 'Thank you very much'. Thanks very much. Feel it again. Do you feel that he is dead now?"
Is your gratitude not sincere enough?”
Nathaniel touched his mustache, looked at the letter and then at Howard: "Really, he is indeed Dr. Stark, he knows so much."
"Of course, hahahaha" Howard laughed, he was very satisfied. Praise from his peers is the best compliment. He, Howard Stark, is such a person who stands at the top of the physics world!
Fury looked at them as if they were crazy. Is the key issue the usage of grammar? Is it the big problem to leave a body on someone's doorstep and issue a death threat?!
There is always something abnormal about genius scientists, but these two are already abnormal beyond common sense.
Su Ming was very interested in such farce. It seemed like a cold joke, but it was still business that mattered: "What's your friend's name?"
Nathaniel scratched his head with a look of reminiscence, but quickly shook his head: "Sorry, I don't know his name."
Fury straightened up, looked out the door, and blew out a little breath: "Just now you said he was your friend."
"Yes, we are friends." The doctor hid behind Howard, and Fury's eyes were simply too cold: "One day I went to the bar to drink, and he came over and said: 'Friends, let's have a drink together?', I
Said: 'Okay.', and then we became friends, and we talked about a lot of social issues, such as racial discrimination and so on."
Fury closed his eyes in pain. What kind of friend was this? On the contrary, he had ulterior motives, right?
It seems that the security around Dr. Richards needs to be strengthened in the future to prevent him from making random friends again. No, his emotional intelligence is no longer suitable for working in SSR.
As if they had a telepathic connection, Fury and the colonel looked at each other and nodded slightly.
Su Ming was not angry. As he had thought before, SSR was none of his business. He was here to investigate the case so that Professor
, height, appearance.”
This time Richards responded immediately and uncharacteristically: "He is about 180 centimeters tall, about 50 years old, with a fluffy white beard like a pirate, somewhat bald, and in good health, but he has a lot of scars on his body and on his face."
Fury immediately sent someone to investigate, while Su Ming focused on the scars: "What kind of scars?"
"It seems like it was attacked by a wild animal, maybe a bear, or a Bigfoot." Dr. Richards answered, and then he was pulled by Howard to drink.
"Where is that body now?" Su Ming asked again.
"Well, to put it simply, the body melted, or it would be more appropriate to say it sublimated." Nathaniel raised his hand and made an upward motion: "I originally dragged the body into the car and planned to take it back to Camp Caspian.
Check, because I don’t have biological equipment at home, and I’m not an expert in this field, but when the sun shines on the corpse, the corpse changes from solid to gaseous, and then disappears.”
"So you only had time to drain a little blood and cut off a little meat." Su Ming added, as if he knew what it was.
"Yes, I had a saw in the toolbox of my car. I kept them in a dark place and brought them back to Camp Caspian."
The later story is that he entrusted these things to Howard, who he thought was "more powerful", but Howard left the matter to Zola again.
Because Zola was under house arrest and had no chance to go out, the assassination operations centered around Howard. Maybe Nathaniel was also assassinated, but he was too nerve-wracking to notice.
"Is there an ultraviolet sterilization lamp in the biology laboratory? I would like to borrow it." Su Ming took out another blood smear from Nick Fury's small box and shook it in his hand.
Howard narrowed his eyes: "You don't think they are that, do you? Come on, those are mythical creatures."
"Sometimes the myth is not far away from us. If you want to solve the case early, just lead the way." Su Ming stretched out his hand, pulled Howard up from the sofa like catching a rabbit, and walked out of the door.
The colonel looked at Fury: "Follow them, and you, Dr. Richards, you can go back."
The two left silently. Nathaniel wanted to stay away from Fury, but Fury clung to him, and the doctor's neck retracted into his body, and his whole body was extremely stiff.
The colonel got up and closed the door of his office, walked to the coffee table, picked up a wine bottle, poured himself a drink, and drank, as if to vent his anger.
After a while, he sat back at his desk, picked up the phone and dialed a number.
It took a long time before the call was connected, and a man with a southern American accent answered the phone.