Chapter 8

New York.

" ... comments from the authorities of Monaco have not yet been received, but according to eyewitnesses, Iron Man …" the TV turned on quietly muttered something of his own, but I was not at all interested in this now.

"Yuriko, dear, have you already recovered from the shock?" rising from the chair and finding the former assistant of Stryker in the rented room, I turn to the back of her head.

"I am completely ready to start performing my duties," slightly shuddering with surprise, because before that I just sat motionless and did not say anything, a woman instantly turned to me, which, having got rid of her glasses and loosening her hair, added three times to her attractiveness.

"Okay, I need you to fly to New Mexico and look for a camper there, and tomorrow morning you meet me on the road to Lotsberg or Puerto Palomas, I'm not sure yet. Can you handle it?"

"It will be done," the girl nodded and went to get ready, involuntarily plunging me into annoyed reflections that I should have taken her with me right away. On the other hand, when I went to Mexico, I was not yet sure that I would return to such a company, and indeed the plan with a mobile home had just emerged ...

Nevermind. Here, if anything, a more relevant topic for reflection is outlined. So, I have a very executive lady with a clearly not quite firmly holding roof, who was instructed to fly halfway across the country, what could go wrong? Hmmmm ...

"Please use public airlines, you don't need to hijack Stryker's private jet or anything like that, '' I shouted into the room, turning off the TV forgotten by the girl with a slight magical impulse, where they continued to suck on, apparently, Stark's meeting with Ivan Vanko, although and clearly passed much less spectacularly than in the canon. I'll have to drop by Tony's the other day. Learn everything firsthand, so to speak.

"I ... and did not think to do that," answered the girl, taking out a laptop to me, where the ticket booking page was already open.

"Oh, okay," I may have underestimated her endurance. Well, okay, it's better to overdo it than not to do it.

"Here, there are two flights. Arrivals are Las Cruces International Airport and Deming Municipal Airport. Las Cruces is closer, but the flight to Deming leaves almost two hours earlier."

"Hmm," I greatly underestimated this girl. This time, dispelling the delusion turned out to be marvelously pleasant "let's go to Las Cruces. We do not need to rush, sticking out our tongue and sinking the pedal to the floor."

"Okay, then I'll book a ticket. The flight will take three and a half hours, I will order the delivery of the desired car to the airport in advance and I will be at the place indicated by you in about ten to twelve hours, depending on the road, just in the morning.

"Just excellent. Then I will replace you, and you can sleep. Thank you."

"No thanks, sir. With your permission, I will go and collect my things.

"Yes, of course," I agreed. "And you will need money to buy the right car," I remembered about one more point, "and cash is better. Write down an address where you can get them before your flight ...

Loki, Laura and Sarah, almost Connor.

"No, no, we are not going there," I stopped my companions, on the way out of the bunker they were heading towards the helicopter on duty, which was part of the base staff.

"Don't we need a helicopter?" Sarah worried, squinting intensely from the hot Mexican sun, which, after the artificial illumination of the bunker, slightly hurt my eyes even. "There are no roads nearby, but it's a few days to walk to the nearest settlement," she added, as if really afraid that I would drag them across the desert, despite all the early assurances ... Or maybe thanks to them, I was talking about the need to walk ...

"You don't want the specialists of your employers to discover that one of the helicopters is missing, do you?" Honestly, this will not fit into the legend of your death in the best way, - I wink at the woman. "In addition, we have our own transport," and, turning around, I snap my fingers, thereby dispelling the illusion on an air horse of vertical take-off, borrowed by me back in New York.

It was located specially in the far corner of the take-off field, away from the canopy where the local cars stood, but I still did not become too smart with the distance, in the end, even a live broadcast from the bunker surveillance cameras to the worldwide network would not interfere with my plans. In short, after a couple of dozen steps we were already climbing into the salon.

"Where to go?" asked the scientist when the front door slammed shut.

"To the north, obviously. All roads lead north," I replied nonchalantly, making myself comfortable in the pilot's seat.

"Um …" it was clear that Miss Kinney still would not be imbued with the Spirit of the Hunt and just the situation, but Laura was good, she obviously did not care. Walk through a base full of corpses? OK. Climb into a helicopter that appears from the air? OK. Blow up the bunker to hell? Also approx. Gold, and not a child, still teaches her to smile - in general, the charm will turn out!

"So," I stretched my fingers, looking forward to observing the devices, "you need to pull this garbage, switch this pimp and press this button."

"Do you know how to fly helicopters, Mr. Loki?" Sarah asked cautiously.

"I am an ancient Scandinavian God!" I was indignant. "Of course, I can control this helicopter of yours - I saw something similar in the film! What was he called there? .. Oh yes, "Mad Max"! True, we will be in the sky, but it's even better!" In response, the woman began to convulsively fasten Laura, and then herself. "Yes, I'm joking, just kidding," I reassure the passenger. "All your earthly technology is a creepy primitive. There are no Machine Spirits, no Cyberdemons, or even the simplest neural interface with a genetic marker - just take whoever you want and do whatever comes to mind!"

I, of course, exaggerated a little, but I can't explain that I downloaded the knowledge about piloting from Stryker's memory? It doesn't sound nearly as imposing as the Spirits of the Machine, although what a fool would use them for a vehicle smaller than a strike cruiser - I can't imagine.

Confirming my words, the helicopter hummed with the engine, and soon took off. I headed north-east, mentally prepared to be bored. We had to fly for about five hours, and then for another hour to stomp to the city through the deserted wasteland from the place where I planned to land and hide the turntable, and most of this time I would not have time for entertainment, not even taking into account the numerous phantoms.

When we flew eight kilometers away, a dull bang was heard from behind, a cloud of dust rose over the base, after which the top of the bunker neatly folded inward - the structure could not withstand a powerful explosion from the inside and collapsed like a house of cards.

"Well, that's all," I am relieved to inform Sarah. Say what you like, but keeping so many pseudo-material illusions, and even conjuring through them, even if only one spell, is very stressful.

"You coped with the transformation of such a volume of air so quickly?" the scientist hatched at me in amazement.

" ABOUT! It was not fast, Surtur took him!" I object with all my inner feelings. "I almost got a migraine from the distribution of attention to fifty directions! By the way, there is a thermos with cocoa and a refrigerator with cakes in the corner," I nod my head towards the salon. "Knowing the power of small children, I took it with a margin, but I'm counting on at least one eclair and one cup!" I highlight with my voice a particularly important part of the sentence. By the way, it would be nice to warn Charles that he will be replenished among the pupils. Well, professors, yes ... Although he will already talk about this with a female geneticist himself ...

***

Everything went strictly according to the plan, as it should be with the God of Intrigue, Cunning and Other-Interesting-Things. Charles, however, I did not bother. He is an elderly man, why should he need extra worries? And so it will be a pleasant surprise. And no, this, of course, has nothing to do with the fact that the "woman with a child", dragged by him by a slightly insane history teacher, he won't be able to attach anywhere, but he won't put it out the door either, and therefore the only way out will leave Sarah at school. Well, and then it will endure itself, fall in love ... ahem, in a sense.

Be that as it may, but we landed safely among the hills ... or is it worth talking about dunes? It seems that all sorts of bushes grow with bunches of grass, but the wind carries the sand too ... In short, it doesn't matter. In general, the helicopter touched the ground about one and a half kilometers from some small American town, and I ordered the car to leave.

"Where are we?" did not hesitate to ask Dr. Kinney, looking around through the glass of the cockpit.

"Somewhere in the USA," I answered honestly.

" I understand that, but where exactly?"

"I have no idea," without looking at the scientist, I concisely cut off all the systems, "but it doesn't matter, unload."

" This is a joke?"

" Not. And not a mockery, " I crush an involuntary smile, striving to get out of the face from the sight of a woman. "You just need to get rid of the helicopter - there is nothing left of fuel, and I do not want to suffer with its transformation from the surrounding sand."

" But why couldn't we fly to the city, we saw it from above?" Sarah did not stop her questions.

"Because it will be easier for us if no one finds him."

" But how can they not find him just a kilometer from the city?"

" Oh, these scientists," I turn to Laura with a grin, -"there is no need to wait and see everything, but just let them fall asleep with questions."

The girl said nothing in response, continuing to portray a thinking brick with her face, only her gaze began to transfer from me to my mother and back. Such a good, wary and at the same time very curious look, they say, what will these adults still learn and how to react to it?

"She's a miracle, isn't she?" I turned my attention to the elder Kinney and, without giving her time to answer, slipped out.

In the next few minutes, the hijacked helicopter was finally abandoned by the fleeing family, and I was able to get down to business. This place was chosen by me not only because of the relatively close town and secluded hills, but above all because of the entrance to the shadow paths, which I felt here. In fact, I didn't really believe that even if the authorities found a helicopter stolen in New York near the Mexican border, they would associate it with the destruction of a secret bunker on the other side of this border, and even more so, they would conclude from this that Dr.Kinney survived, but always believed that if you do something, then it must be done ideally. And now this conviction forced me to slightly tighten my muscles, pushing a civilian turntable into a slightly open passage on the paths of shadows, where after a couple of days nothing will be left of it. Not to say that the weight of the car was heavy for this body, but how infuriated I was by the sand under my feet ... Oh, this is beyond words! I was also in weekend shoes, into which this loose rubbish stubbornly hammered ... And there would be no way to transform those back into boots, but it became so inconvenient to do it in front of the audience. In general, deserts are evil! And not once because I am an ice giant!

Next on the list was a stop at some hotel, although, judging by the picturesque area around, more likely a roadside motel, if you're lucky, even a relatively decent one and without any additional animals such as rats, cockroaches and bedbugs. We got to the nearest town for more than an hour and a half - either I got a little confused with the distance, or the whole thing was with my companions. No, Laura did not cause any complaints - with her physiology, the very concept of "physical fatigue" was hardly familiar to the girl, and the short length of steps was replaced by their number without any problems. Sarah is another matter. The woman was not a fan and adept of sports anyway, and sitting work in a confined space did not improve the situation either. In short, the lady ran out of steam very quickly and slowed us down a lot, but she was not ready to be dragged by the "unfamiliar muddy type", Laura could only move her with a drag. But we got there, and thanks for that. Then I brought our view into more or less decent for idle tourists and began to look for where to spend the night here.

Finding a motel took much less time than walking in the desert, and within twenty minutes we were checking into two rooms on the second floor of a two-story long cottage. It was held by a married couple of already elderly people, and a girl of about nineteen or twenty, alas, like almost everything in this universe, was not very pretty, if not frankly ugly, played for the maid. The old people were somewhat surprised that we turned up on our own, nevertheless, as a rule, their clients were truckers or just citizens traveling by car, in rare cases - passengers of regular buses. All this and much more was told to me by a talkative granny while I was filling out the guest book. My response that our car just stalled about an hour's walk from here provoked lamentations and an offer to ride with Frank, who is her husband, and drive her here. Oh, well, no one asked us for documents, of course.

Having fought off the talkative grandmother-God's dandelion with the words that he had already called the service, he was very tired and in general there was nothing to take there anyway, because we had already taken everything valuable, and I was still released "to my family". Nevertheless, after all the Strykers, Rice, Natasha and Kimur, I was pleasantly surprised by a simple, sympathetic rural elderly lady, even though my misanthropy, which has exacerbated recently, has subsided a little. And the dinner provided by the "hotel" in the form of some kind of vegetable stew completely reconciled with reality. Miss Kinney looked at me with a fair amount of suspicion, but she didn't seem to be planning any stupid things yet, although she obviously thought of something like that from time to time. A little innocent girl, holding an ideal poker face on her face, methodically and quickly "tossed" the provided provisions into the furnace, without asking questions at all or showing preferences about food, although it looked from the outside as if she had not been fed for a week. I even felt irrationally ashamed, although this trifle took away my whole cooler bag of cakes and drank a large thermos of cocoa. Let not alone - Sarah helped her a little too, but all the same, but for some reason my conscience gnaws at me for that eclair that was repulsed in her favor. Children are scary! I'll tell you what.

Nevertheless, having finished with dinner, we went to the rooms - Sarah and Laura in one, well, I took the second, not that I really needed it, but what is there. But, lying at ease in bed, I was able to completely switch to my illusion next to Yuriko. It was necessary to clarify our location so that the girl would not pass by, and just keep her company ...

***

Yuriko arrived right after breakfast. A fancy trailer, more precisely, a self-propelled monster based on a full-fledged bus, drove into the parking lot in front of the motel, as if the king decided to look into the yard of a simple farmer. Looking at this steel monster with a fresh mind, I thought that I had overdone it. On the other hand, now you can take your time and move around with comfort. A few sleeping places, a full kitchen, toilet and shower, coupled with a separate gasoline generator in addition to the main diesel engine, provided this very comfort well. In the future, however, such an act could cause a small problem, since any purchases for cash exceeding a hundred dollars in the USA cause some nervousness among sellers and salon managers, or even may cause interest among the guys on the other side of the law, since large cash amounts, in most cases, are obtained from drug sales, racketeering and other bad things. But this is in perspective and, in fact, is not very likely, because my freshly baked assistant sailed off in an "unknown direction" much faster than anyone could react. In particular, another phantom of mine was waiting for another three hours at that airport for the departure of the next flight to Malibu after the Asian woman had departed.

" Ladies, this is behind us, we are turning," I announced to Sarah and Laura a new introduction, putting aside the cutlery, since it was not at all difficult to guess the speed at which breakfast was consumed by the time the car arrived.

" It?" the scientist turned a perplexed look from me to the window, behind which was seen a mobile home, and back. "Aren't we hiding?"

"No, why would the dead hide? So we will go further with the proper level of comfort. Yes, I almost forgot, you will need to take care of new documents for you, otherwise you will not get on the plane or on the train. But that's all, enough talk, it's time to go!" and we did move forward, warmly saying goodbye to an elderly couple of motel owners. In ten minutes they will no longer remember our faces.

"Hi, Yuriko," I entered the salon, dispelling my phantom.

"Hello, sir," the mutant nodded, looking from the place where "I" was just sitting, to, in fact, me.

"Still can't get used to the fact that I can be omnipresent?

"This is… rather unusual," she agreed. But then Sarah entered the salon, obeying my wave, and ...

"A-ah ?!" a convulsive sigh and a jump backwards came out beautifully. Nine out of ten.

"Do you know each other?" I raise an eyebrow. "Oh, yes, Stryker appeared in that bunker a couple of times …" I think, remembering a couple of moments from someone else's memory. "Hey, relax, fighting hamster, no one will offend your mother," I wink at the tense girl that she managed to tensely sit up and raise her arms higher to her chest. "And, Dr. Kinney," I look ironically into the woman's eyes, "don't be so nervous. There are only two people on the entire continent who can harm you while I'm around, and I know both of them. True, I recently hit one of them painfully on the head, and he could harbor a grudge - as if I "reminded" myself of the "unpleasant" moment." What the hell is this? I can't help myself! All the time you want to draw and play on the nerves of others! Even the real Loki didn't behave like that! "But now he is still in San Francisco, besides, he does not attack cute little girls, especially mutants," I hastily reassured the scientist. "In fact, he himself will tear anyone who tries to attack such a person with him. Well, you understand: a difficult childhood in the Nazi camps, moral trauma, all things - give him free rein, and he will not even suit in relation to all those who threaten his appearance. Although he is a good person, he is just a little touched by senile marasmus."

"Oh ... what are you talking about?" The woman shook her head.

"About acquaintances. I hope you are a little distracted and do not want to run away from us anymore, because you saw a familiar face?"

"I…" Sarah shook her head again, closing her eyes slightly to facilitate gathering her thoughts into a pile. "This woman was with one of the curators of the project!"

"That's right," I nod, out of the corner of my eye noticing how the Asian girl involuntarily gripped the steering wheel "she didn't enjoy the memory of the days of being a prisoner of her own body, "as did you and Rice. Yuriko," I turn to the beauty, "do you mind if I tell them your story?"

"No, sir," the regenerator replied after a little thought, "I understand what effect my presence can have on Dr. Kinney, so it will be easier for everyone if she finds out. But ... if possible, no details.

"Okay," I turned back to Sarah, who had already come to her senses a little and was no longer going to take the "last battle", or frantically run away somewhere, and clearly realizing the futility of both options. "So where to start? Hmm ... In a way, I did the same trick with Yuriko as I did with you. The only difference is that you yourself could not escape because of your physical weakness, but it was kept under control by medication."

"Medication?"

"Rice's Trigger is not the most effective chemistry these bastards have. Fortunately for normal people, these bastards remain bastards - ambitious, selfish and considering themselves the smartest, and therefore if they cooperate with their "colleagues", then with great reluctance and leaving all the most delicious trump cards.

"That's how," the woman pursed her lips, no longer paying much attention to my awareness.

"Yes, but I think we can discuss these issues while sitting in the comfortable interior of an air-conditioned van, and not under the scorching sun. By the way, child," I squat down in front of Laura with a deliberately conspiratorial look, "I don't know if you are direct relatives or not, but your abilities are very similar, only your claws are different, so be a good girl and don't offend Aunt Yuriko, let her looks stern, but she is kind. I know for sure," I wink at the girl, noting enough that after my words she glanced with interest in the direction of the driver's seat.

"Understood," Kh-23 answered quietly, almost in a whisper, returning her eyes to my face. And that's all. Again she looks as she has collected water in her mouth.

"Excellent," I rose to an upright position. "Yuriko, thank you, I'll take you further myself, and you can go to rest," the girl nodded and, getting up, moved to the salon ... just to Sarah and Laura.

Hmm, perhaps it is worth creating a phantom there and contributing to the beginning of a conversation and maintaining a general climate in the team. Still, Dr. Kinney is far from a professional military man, her endurance is not steel, but much more fell on her in a day than fragile female shoulders can withstand. So she's still holding up pretty well.

Some time later. One playboy, billionaire, philanthropist and just a sad troll.

"Tony, you have to get out and take control of the situation immediately!" an old friend burst into the holy of holies of the inventor, as if death were chasing him with a scythe.

"Ah-ah," Stark waved away from him the bottle held in his hand, "I have no time for the next idiotic claims of these idiots," perhaps it was too rude, but the state and mood of the billionaire did not dispose to courtesy or even banal politeness.

And the nastiest thing about all this was that for some reason he couldn't get drunk as a lord! The body reached "average" conditions, and then - nothing! He was sober faster than the alcohol acted on his body. It seems that the status of the priest of Loki was not just a funny title, and the guy himself said something about "no drugs". Alcohol, of course, is not heroin, but, obviously, the level when "quantity" turned into "quality" was now magically cut to him. For any other situation, it was cool and almost a dream, but now it was so depressing.

"I've been calling the National Guard all day, trying to dissuade them from rolling the tanks out onto the driveway, smashing everything in here, and picking up the Suits. And they'll take them, Tony! They are tired of these games! You said that no one will master this technology for another twenty years? And what is the bottom line? Someone managed to do it yesterday! And these are not abstract theories!

"ABOUT! So now Uncle Sam wants to break into my house and rob me?" The engineer looked at his friend gloomily, then pressed a button on the handheld communicator. The protective glasses in the showcases where the suits stood were lowered. And the empty armor took a step forward. "Well ... let him try ... But then do not be offended that I will use the third and fourth amendments, as well as the right to self-defense."

"Tony, are you serious ?!" Colonel James Rhodes stared at him as if he couldn't believe his ears. In response, the billionaire looked gloomily at the interlocutor, emphasizing his own amazement at the fact that someone could admit in their thoughts a different outcome with his participation. "You're serious," Rhodey stated in an extinguished voice.

"One of your colleagues has already tried to lay hands on my projects 'in the interests of the United States.' And later it turned out that he is a banal thief who appropriated a part of my father's inheritance," Tony got up from behind the bar and went for a new bottle, because the first one had already shown the bottom. "Rhodey, we have known each other for a long time. I will not give up the armor. Even if I have to fly in it to the president and hang him upside down on the flagpole of the White House."

"Yes, you must understand!" The black officer tried to admonish him. "A loner cannot fight the state! They will still get these technologies, not from you, but from this Vanko!"

Stark grimaced, casting a displeased glance at his friend, uncorked a new bottle and took a greedy sip straight from his throat.

The whole situation with Ivan was simply killing him. Their fathers obviously did work together, and both had complete ownership of the technology, which they passed on to their children. The story there was really muddy and dirty, but you can't ask Howard, and the "reasons for deportation" of Anton Vanko looked completely fictitious.

Espionage? And what was he spying on? Looking for the "dirty laundry" of politicians? How if he almost never left the factory laboratory?

Technologies? From a person who has developed a technical solution so perfect that even after forty years it far outstrips all the closest competitors? Not funny.

"He wanted to sell this technology, use it as a weapon?" So what? The production of weapons is a legal and super-profitable business, Stark Industries was built by Howard on this business, therefore it is simply stupid to blame his partner.

So it turned out, from the point of view of common sense, that his father had really stolen the work of the Russian, and got rid of him himself, except that the guts turned out to be thin just to kill.

Tony had a rather difficult relationship with his parents. He loved him ... realizing this especially clearly when he lost him. But he was not a naive fool who knew nothing about doing business in big business, and fully admitted that Howard could have taken such a step. In the history of American business, this has been seen all the time. It was disgusting, low, smelly, but not all were Tony Starks to pull companies on their own inventions, as a result, such parasitism was found everywhere, and to swear that a father who lived in a much more severe era and was deeply involved in the affairs of Uncle Sam , I never did anything like that ... I wanted to, but it was difficult.

And they were all very lucky - after the deportation, Anton had not become a "handshake" among the Soviet elite (which once again emphasized that he was not a spy), and now Russia (or even the surviving USSR) would be armed with hundreds and thousands "Iron Men". And so everything returned to Vanko Jr.

Unfortunately, their negotiations ended before they even started. It is difficult to carry on a conversation when they are trying to cut you with a power whip. And even though Tony was ready for something like that, taking care of the competent detention and further escort of Ivan, now he found himself in a very ... unpleasant situation.

Yes, we managed to do everything quite quietly, catching Vanko on the way and taking care of the absence of television cameras, but, not having our own special units with special flights for the quick export of the prisoner abroad, I had to ask a friend for help, and now this resulted in the fact that his superiors also aware of the existence of a copy of the reactor and a person capable of repeating this copy. And after this, the Soviet scientist will very quickly become worth his weight in gold. And they will try to get his knowledge out of him. Anyway, The same Fury will run first ...

And Tony was still ready to put up with this, even having already prepared a couple of steps, how painful and loud it was to give everyone a hand, but ... then the nastiest thing surfaced. What he didn't take into account.

An attempt to negotiate with Ivan in an amicable way failed. And not through the fault of Tony himself, who for once really tried to behave decently and with respect to the interlocutor. He even offered Vanko a percentage of the company's shares, publicly admitting the injustice of his father's accusations and ... In short, he tried to restore justice! Honestly! No fools!

And he left as spat upon ...

And it didn't matter how they would try to buy Ivan now - it was crystal clear that he would not even sell for money, but only to annoy Stark. This was his fix idea. Impenetrable ... What was especially annoying! There were thousands of people in the world whom Tony hurt, insulted and humiliated in his life, but it had to happen that the very person to whom he never spat in a glass would be the only one who maniacally and disinterestedly wants to kill him just for the surname!

Tony could never have imagined such a turn of events! Anything but not such nonsense! Even Hammer did not treat him that way, although it would seem that there was no one in the whole world who wanted Tony's death more than Hammer. But Stark could agree with Hammer, but not with Vanko. And now ... all that remained was to wait for Iron Man's technology to become public, and ...

"How soon will this technology fall into the wrong hands, Rhodey? - Six months? Year? How soon will a dozen fighters in suits 'for the glory of the Taliban' or 'Al Qaeda' raze entire cities to the ground?" Stark saw a solution to this problem, but… he didn't like it. Ultimately, his gut was as thin as his father's. He could not kill Ivan. Tony kissed the bottle again.

"…" Rhodey pursed his lips. Of course, he could say something, assure that this would not happen, but ... practice showed that the terrorists repeatedly surfaced samples of weapons, which sometimes the regular army did not yet have. And they could get them only by buying from someone sitting very high.

"Based on the dialogue …" a voice already familiar to Tony sounded from the side of the door, - you could not agree with Vanya.

"With whom?" finding Loki's gaze (at the same time as Rhodey turned convulsively at the sound), Stark asked.

"The diminutive form of the name 'Ivan' in Russian," explained the brunette in a short coat, coming closer. "So what's the main problem?"

"He wants me dead," Tony replied exhaustively, kissing the bottle again.

"Completely tight?" The new guest raised his right eyebrow.

" Yes."

" An extreme option? .." Now both eyebrows of the brunet were raised.

"I don't want to…" Stark winced.

"Pluck your tongue out?" that way the ancient Scandinavian god pointed in the air with his index finger. Tony's answer showed on his face before his slightly alcohol-clouded brain could fully grasp the sentence. "Oh, yes, not that era," Loki caught himself, understanding everything from one facial expression. "Then we also postpone truncation of limbs, crushing bones and gouging out eyes ... How you people love to complicate life for yourself and those around you!" the guest shook his head with annoyance and an obvious reproach in his and Rhodey's address.

"Hey! I don't want to listen to such reproaches from someone who offers to rip out his tongue and gouge out the eyes of a guy who just …" Stark's indignant speech stopped, stumbling upon a lack of the necessary words.

"Tried to kill you?" tactfully prompted this grinning bastard.

" Yes, but …" the damned alcohol began to interfere with thinking exactly when it was required!

"Hey, Tony, can you explain to me who this is and what he does in your workshop?" Rhodey reminded himself with surprise, looking from one interlocutor to another.

"Um…" The billionaire got a headache at the thought of how he would explain something that he himself doesn't really understand. -"Maybe you? .." He looked hopefully at Loki.

"Okay," he shrugged lightly. " How do you answer: so that you believe, or the truth?" He turned his whole body to Rhodey.

"I would like the truth," the Air Force colonel replied cautiously, casting a wary glance at Stark.

"I'm God. Tony and I drink sometimes …"

"Ahem!" the aforementioned Tony was internally glad that at that moment he did not take a new sip, but he hurried to disguise the smile that was climbing on his lips with a cough.

"Do you want me to believe such nonsense?" Seeing the reaction of his friend, Rhodey began to look at everything that was happening even more suspiciously.

" Then I am his squirrel. Or a green fairy, whichever suits you best, " Loki grinned insolently, saluting the man with a glass of absinthe that appeared in the overflow of yellow-green light.

"In this I will believe more …" blinking a couple of times, the colonel admitted.

" Come on, relax. Come on, sit here," Loki pointed to the nearest sofa. "There are things that are better to take while sitting. Now I'll show you everything."

" Exactly?" James Rhodes was in no hurry to reduce the intensity of suspicious eyes from the current interlocutor to Tony and back.

"Yes, it's a long story. However, if you are not interested …" a brunette with green eyes posed a willingness to stop giving any explanations.

"Okay, I sat down," Rhodey quickly complied. " What's next?"

" As I said - I am God," once again saluted the guest with a glass. "Thanks for participating. Say hello to Morpheus, if you see," after which he made some sly gesture, and Tony's friend, rolling his eyes, immediately fell unconscious on the sofa.

" What was it?" the owner of the mansion demanded an answer, pointing with the hand in which he was holding the bottle, at the body of Rhodey.

"The usual sending of sleep," Loki shook the stoves, scattering the glass in his hand as easily as he had recently created. "He may not be a bad person, but it would be a little stressful to speak in front of him.

"Hmmm." Sadly, Tony had to agree. It was possible to explain with Rhodey about some of his acquaintances until the morning and without any guarantee that he would believe. "And what are we going to talk about? By the way, would you like to pour it?"

"No, thanks, I'm driving," the God of Deception smiled at something, but Stark chose not to elaborate.

Recently, he had too many difficult conversations, and the billionaire was not at all in the mood to load his brains with the jokes of his friend-savior-God.

" Actually, I wanted to throw you an interesting topic for research, but now I'm not sure that you will care about this," despite refusing to drink, Loki began to study with interest the selection of alcoholic drinks on the shelf behind him. " And about Vanko ... Is there absolutely no chance there?" green eyes slid to Stark's face.

" I got the feeling that he is ready to bomb the whole world in dust, just to get to me," Tony turned away, again kissing the bottle. "And then there are these ... At least create your own army for such cases," he finished with annoyance.

"Not a bad idea," Loki commented, immediately receiving a reproachful look from Stark.

Who knew how infuriated it was! For so many years to fight off the obsessive attempts of almost all friends to surround him with a crowd of bodyguards, so that life once again puts a boot in his face. But with the advent of the suit, he was already convinced that it would certainly not be needed anymore!

"What?" depicted the very innocence of the brunette. "You have no idea how many idiots you have in the government. And every second person, with the stubbornness of a sheep, is looking for a way to put the world on the brink of destruction, generously spending taxpayers' money for this purpose. In such an environment, situations where a personally loyal army will really come in handy, just to prevent another idiot from grinding the world into dust, there will be many more ahead."

"Oh?" Stark narrowed his eyes skeptically.

"I literally just closed the shop where they were developing biological weapons that were supposed to destroy 95% of the world's population by race. True, they believed that their means would destroy "only" two or three percent of the population, but that does not justify them, "Loki shrugged. " Before that, I closed the shop, where they tried to get the same result, but with technical means with the addition of the powers of certain mutants, and not long before that I ruled out the almost started World War III. And this is only for the last six months. So yes, there are a lot of morons in this world, 'the dark-haired nodded his head,' and they are all very active. And all because one stupid ebony killed all the vampires ... Those, of course, too, were still urodes, but at least they understood what they were doing!"

"Do vampires also exist?" not knowing how to react to the revealed facts, the most fantastic engineer clarified. Tony understood perfectly well that he had a good fuel and was not wiggling his brains as quickly as he would like, but it was still more difficult to believe in the existence of vampires than in ... the first paragraphs.

"Not anymore, but twenty years ago they ruled almost the entire planet. Well, you know, eternal life, wealth and connections accumulated over the centuries, as well as the promise of immortality are very good tools for managing the world from the shadows. Not to say that they totally ruled everything, got into everything and were very friendly with families, but they had enough brains to keep the world from sliding into a total nuclear carnage, as well as to pull off too stubborn puppets from the military departments and governments. And how they were all wiped out by a specially created virus, those who previously simply carried out orders from above began to lead the countries themselves, and this is where all the fucking of the last decades began.

"Oh sh-i-i-t " Stark succinctly gave his assessment of the information dumped on him and washed down this thesis from his throat.

" Okay, let's not talk about sad things. If you don't like the simple solution to the Vanko problem …"

"I understand that you are from that era where just to take and stick an ax into the head of an opponent you don't like is in the order of the norm," Tony interrupted him, looking up from the bottle, "but now the twenty-first century is in the yard, and similar methods already somehow ... not to my liking. In any case, for me," he understood that he was playing a bit, but in the case of Ivan he felt a certain irrational guilt in himself, and for some reason it was disgusting to deal with this peasant in this way.

" Well …" God narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin, "in principle, I can send Vanya away from Earth or ... just block his memory about the reactor and hatred for you."

"Is that possible?" Stark instantly perked up, immediately coming up with a dozen options for how you can arrange Ivan away from any special services, if the problem that he himself will be on the rampage disappears.

" More than, but after that it is better for you not to meet, and in general it makes sense to place him in an environment as far as possible from what he is used to in everyday life. A person can be confused in such a way that he will forget his own name and believe in a completely different biography, but, contrary to popular belief, such an effect is not formatting a hard disk with a new operating system. You can't just take and rewrite a person - even the best mental impact will weaken over time and can always fly off at once from some strong push."

"And what is needed to …" Tony waved his hand in the air, choosing his words and making the final decision on the options for the plan to be implemented, "he became, for example, the owner of a mansion in Hawaii with a good bank account and a couple of shares in Stark Industries?"

"Two hours of work and a ferry to this mansion without any US Air Force agents or emissaries."

"Well!" Tony felt a powerful surge of animation and cheerfulness. " What did you say there about an interesting topic for research?"

"I am currently working on a project for inner universe transitions. So far, the results are not very good, but I know for sure that a portal between parallel universes can be built by purely technical means. I thought maybe you would also be interested in trying to poke around on this topic at your leisure?"

"Exactly possible?"

"One hundred percent. Your reactor, for example, has a one-way portal to one dimension adjacent to our world, thanks to the special properties of physics of which you are protected from kinetic damage."

"Tell me …" Stark narrowed his eyes, "what is your relationship with snakes and apples?"

"Well ..." A shadow of surprise appeared on Loki's face. "At one time I often turned into a snake, and apples ... this is already the last century! Nowadays cookies rule. Yes, the Dark Side is definitely for the Cookies," he nodded to himself with a satisfied smile.

"Okay…" Tony's suspicions only grew stronger. " Okay, then what exactly do you propose on the topic of inter-world travel? Oh, and one more question. What should Rhodey answer when he wakes up?"

" Yes, whatever you want," the guest shrugged his shoulders, " at least an option where your squirrel hit him on the head with an oar, which is why he passed out."

***

"Heart-to-heart" in the women's team did not work out - Yuriko drove for more than twelve hours without a break, and even if it was not a problem for the regenerator's body, the woman still preferred to use the excuse and go to sleep. Looking at her, Sarah and Laura did the same. One night of rest after such intense "adventures" was clearly not enough to calm the nerves, at least in Sarah's case. Well, she, too, decided to escape from communication with my phantom in this way. The girl continued to be a perfect child and amazed with her equanimity, and also bribed with the attentive, that drill bit, glances from time to time thrown at Yuriko and my modest person. No, there was no smell of aggression there, but intentness and something like that ... an animal, because of which Laura was associated with such an animal, whose fur puffed up from the tension on the withers ... I really barely restrained myself so as not to add wolf ears on the top of her head ... I even had to dispel the observational illusion so as not to fall into temptation.

I suppose by this I admitted my defeat. Well, or the child decided that I admitted defeat ... In fact, I'm not sure that Laura at all perceived it all from the perspective of some kind of competition, but the persistent feeling that she went to bed like a winner did not let me go for another three hours. The perfect child ... Well, from the point of view of the God of Intrigue.

Be that as it may, I was not going to drive anywhere, and I decided to make the first halt four hours later, turning onto some more country road than before and seeing on it the first vacant campsite that I came across. The women's team is still Kemaril, as a result I found myself alone with my own mind ... Who said what it means to be completely alone ?! By the way, at that moment I was also reading the "Theory of Explosive Evolution" by C. Xavier in his personal library! That is, I had a book with me, and those who have books are not alone! Well, that was what the past Loki tried to believe ... It doesn't matter! I also had half-drunk conversations with Stark, okay ?! I thought for two, so to speak, under the snoring of the already chopped off third! ..

Why does it seem to me that every next self-justification of mine sounds more pathetic than the previous one?

In general, having parked, I turned off the engine and climbed to inspect the refrigerator. Not to say that I strongly believe in the completeness of the car I just bought, but ... after living for some time in America, I learned that there are many of their own troubles and traditions, including in business. In particular, there seems to be a tradition here to give small gifts in the form of food to buyers of this kind of mobile homes. Well, like, buy a car and get a free barbecue. Alas, either my information was inaccurate, or Yuriko was caught by goons, since only a factory-made polyethylene binding of six bottles of mineral water was found in the refrigerator. In short, we had no food. Sorry…

What's good about American camping? They exist. In a sense, there, of course, there are all sorts of communications that are free from the need to fiddle with the generator to arrange the site, and there is no need to waste water from the tanks, but all this was unnecessary for me. There is no meat anyway. In general, then it was simple - to lay out the chaise longue, recall excess clothes, create a dense illusion of dark glasses and blissfully fall apart in the sun, turning the water in one of the bottles into cocoa along the way. The formula for the spell was not yet very well worked out, and my craft did not stand next to a natural brewed drink of the highest grade, but it could already compete with a couple of varieties of instant drink, which it did well, raising my spirits under a gentle breeze. And I prefer not to raise the question that sunbathing in my case is a priori senseless business! We, men on vacation, do not bother with such trifles, and in general everything is decayed, except for cocoa. Yes, cocoa is good ...

Another hour passed in blissful idleness. Everything was peaceful and wonderful, but then my phantom in Xavier's mansion finished reading the book, and it became abruptly bored, and Tony was already exhausted, more and more often glancing at the sleeping Rhodey with hidden envy, so our conversation was clearly going to an end, and my phantom had to somewhere to hide, so that again you do not have to send it by local airlines. In an amicable way, here I would finally attend to the question of how to feed women, but ... Hey! I'm Loki. I can't just take and do everything as an adequate person. Therefore, instead of a reasonable and logical continuation of the path and searching for a store, I decided to slightly improve my armor with indestructible metal.

A gesture with a strong-willed effort, and a "thermos" was born, and I pulled out the armor from my subspace. Now, Eric's talent would not hurt me - that's who could apply the coating with a truly "thin layer", but in the absence of a mutant-master of metal at hand, we will use good old magic. You can, of course, just "dip" the details of the armor in liquid metal, but I don't need arthouse outgrowths. So, having fenced off the site with a telekinetic barrier that did not allow small particles to pass through, I opened the thermos and proceeded to slowly spray adamantium onto the surface of the metal parts of my combat gear. Magic made it possible to maintain the plasticity of adamantium without any problems, and the metal of Uru was in no hurry to resist the will of the owner when I began to carry out microdiffusion to hold the layers together. And everything would be fine, but slowly. I am not a natural telekinetic, and magical telekinesis is not a third hand that you control easily and instinctively. But it went on ...

When Laura woke up, I, to my shame, missed. Just at one tense moment, when adamantium, obedient to my will, covered one of the horns of the helmet with a layer of two tenths of a millimeter, the girl appeared nearby and silently began to observe how a thin stream of metal rises from the thermos and envelops the artifact.

" Hungry?" I voiced the first replica adequate to the situation that came to mind.

"…" the girl looked at me, blinked twice, listened to herself and nodded in agreement.

"This is bad, because there is no food," I sigh, turning the helmet a new face. " I can offer cocoa."

"…?" brown eyes flapped questioningly with eyelashes.

"That sweet brown thing that was in the thermos," I explained.

"…" they blinked at me again, but now the agreeable nod came noticeably faster.

" There are bottles of water over there," I shake my head in the direction of the link removed from the refrigerator, "give me one."

Laura obediently got up, walked over to the container and returned with a 1.5 liter container. For a second I distract myself from work in order to cast a transformation spell on the liquid, and the girl was able to watch in amazement how the transparent water in the bottle transforms into another liquid right before her eyes.

" Now I will finish making myself shiny and sparkling, and we can move on. A little patience."

" …" X-23 again did not answer, only measuring me with a strange look, but, apparently, having come to something, busily began to unscrew the lid.

So we were found by the awakened women. I am so, muscular and fit, I sit on a sun lounger in green shorts, next to a futuristic-looking metal barrel, from which a trickle of metal rises, settling on the scales of a protective skirt, next to, also on a sun lounger, sits a child, drinks cocoa from the throat of a plastic bottle and attentively watches my manipulations. We were great. I know.

" What are you doing?" Wary looking at the barrel, voiced the question of Dr. Kinney.

" I strengthen my armor with adamantium," I complete the process and critically examine the element of protection, at the same time testing it for the perception of magic by filling it with unstructured power. As with the other pieces of armor that went through the upgrade procedure, the response changed slightly, but did not get any worse, and that was good.

"Adamantium?" the scientist clung to the symbolic word.

" I borrowed some stock from Stryker, now I'm mastering it," sending the protective skirt back into the spatial pocket, I take out the right bracer. "I have almost finished, be patient for about twenty minutes, and we will move on."

" How do you do it?" standing next to her daughter and looking at my work for three minutes, the scientist could not resist.

" A bit of magic, a bit of physics and a drop of inspiration …" without interrupting my work, I replied slowly. "Most of the work is done with the help of telekinesis, and only diffusion has to be done by the point curvature of space …"

The substantive description of my actions, with the adaptation of Asgard's terminology under the earthly conceptual series, took about fifteen minutes, after which the work was completed. Dressed in armor and critically examining the result in an illusory mirror of the "ordinary phantom" look, I had to admit that I had changed for the better. Uru's metal after quenching and polishing is very similar to gold, and this caused me some rejection. Well, because gold and green do not mix well, plus gold is still too pretentious and vulgar. Another thing is the steel sheen of adamantium. Here he looked much more profitable with Loki's green color.

And we will not pay attention to the views and expressions on the faces of any wild dugouts! The fact that armor went out of fashion on their planet five hundred years ago does not mean that the entire universe has become like this same barbaric trend!

"And …" Dr. Kinney could not resist. "Excuse me, Loki, may I ask ... why are you wearing such big horns on your helmet?"

"They act as an amplifier for mental magic. The principle is broadly similar to your transmitter antennas. I agree, it looks ambiguous, but …" I recall the armor, again appearing before the ladies in a light coat and modern suit, " efficiency requires sacrifice. So, are you ready to continue our journey?"

The answer was yes, and soon our mobile home was on its way. Three hours and another thirty-two minutes later, we finally got to "civilization", as far as this proud word can be christened a small town, in which even ten thousand inhabitants will not be typed, located at the devil on the horns. This settlement looked appropriately - a desert landscape, shabby, well-worn buildings and a little less shabby people on the streets. The house on wheels, heaped up with the latest technology, looked frankly alien here. But we, as the inhabitants of this house, did not care about such trifles, but the opportunity to finally stretch our legs and stuff our stomach with something edible that the town provided, on the contrary, worried. True, there were no cafes, restaurants, and even a banal hot dog stand or any other "street food" nearby. Well, after New York, I was almost sure that McDonald's was on the moon. After another disgruntled quack in the bellies of my beautiful companions ... well, I flattered Sarah a little, a strategic decision was made to get supplies in the nearest store. Sandwiches are also food, and if there are any semi-finished products, then there is a microwave in the trailer.

No sooner said than done, and now our company enters a typical supermarket of the class "at the gas station" ... which was logical, because I did not want to spend magic turning sand into gasoline ... Or rather, I could not. It is necessary to sit, calculate the spell, strain ... and then also wrestle with pouring the resulting liquid into the tank - well, he nafig, such happiness. In short, I went to a gas station. Yuriko stayed at the pump to fill in the fuel, and the others followed me. The girl was somewhat shy, looking at the shelves, but after another croak of the belly, she just sniffed and went to the smell of food.

After following her with great interest and pushing Sarah just a little to switch her attention to buying all sorts of feminine hygiene items needed both "in general" and especially on the road, I witnessed a charming picture. And no, the point was not that Laura took packages of chips from the shelves and immediately began to grumble with them, but how she did it!

The eyes of the child scattered from the colored packages and pictures on them, the enticing illustrations of delicious food on the labels made them tossing uncertainty in the shower, and the way of packaging was bewildering. So she took a pack of Pringles, sniffed it carefully, pursed her lips with concentration, examined the lid with her gaze, and only after that was very businesslike and seriously tried to open it. Further, the lid gives in surprisingly easily, and the girl's eyes swing open - she clearly did not expect such ease. But! The autopsy is not over! There was a sealed piece of paper under the lid. Taught by experience, X-23 tries to remove it gently - without effort, but in vain - the piece of paper rests on. The girl is at a loss - her gentle twitching, which would have long been enough for the lid, is not enough. She starts to pull harder, but still gently. Packaging does not lend itself. Laura pulls her brows. The effort increases. Expressive "cr-r-cancer" - and the barrier is torn off, and a sharp smell of spices hits the sensitive nose. The girl wrinkles her nose and looks inside cautiously. Sniffs. Freezes ... And, literally in one second, her facial expression changes, having time to reflect that the object is recognized by a high authority as a food product, after which there is an instant reaction, and her palm is already pulling out the first chip, stuffing it into her mouth. Everything - further activation of the mode "face-brick" and "hrum-hrum-hrum", and eyes-sights are already rummaging through the rest of the shelves in search of new prey.

Oh yes, the still unnecessary covers with cardboard boxes are already on the floor, and there is nothing to do with them.

" Laura!" Sarah jumped up at the sound of a new victim opening - this time buns in a very rustling bag. Apparently, she realized that a child who had never seen the world outside the base could simply not be aware of the concept of a store in general and a self-service store in particular.

"Hey!" noticed that something was wrong and the young guy at the checkout, who had missed some magazine before, who at the entrance only looked at us with a lazy glance.

"Do not worry," I applied my trademark smile, " half a day is expensive, and the refrigerator showed the bottom, so the child is starving and wild, I will, of course, pay for everything."

"Oh, okay" the guy relaxed. "Are you going far?"

"Yes, so," having fenced off our area with a young seller with a slight illusion, forcing a person not to pay attention to the fact that next to him they explain things to a pretty adult-looking girl that any preschool child knows perfectly well, "we decided to travel a little, see their home country, but slightly carried away and did not calculate with the provisions."

" It happens," the obviously bored guy nodded. " Well, at least there were no problems with fuel, getting stuck in the middle of our desert is a below average pleasure …" he obviously wanted to scratch his tongue, but then Yuriko entered the shop.

"Diesel, under the plug," she told me.

"Eighty-seven gallons," the cashier whistled, checking his computer readings. "You're two hundred and fourteen dollars and eighty-nine cents. Anything else, miss?

"Sir?" she turned to me.

" Now my wife and daughter will pick up food, and include it in the bill."

"Okay," you don't need to be a telepath to read a guy's mind. They frankly envied me - an expensive suit, an expensive "tourist trailer" with a very attractive personal driver, and he sits here, wiping his pants. On the one hand, I understood him perfectly, but on the other, I was absolutely not going to be guilty about this. Nevertheless, the conversation faded by itself, and the remaining ten minutes that Sarah and Laura were emptying the shelves, we spent in silence.

But then the woman and the child came to the checkout, and leaving another seventy dollars to the two hundred that were given for diesel fuel, we returned to our transport with a bunch of purchases. Now all this remains, bought from hunger, to be placed in the refrigerator and other places for storing food. Well, then take the time to warm up and absorb part of the above provisions and move on.

A little bit later. Somewhere in the sky.

"Did you find anything, Barton?" A black man with an eye patch turned to his assistant.

"No, sir," the operative shook his head, " in any direction. Moreover, there is a suspicion that the UN has become interested in this issue and is conducting its own investigation."

"Only that was not enough," Fury grimaced. " As soon as any traces appear, report immediately."

"Yes, sir," with this the subordinate left his office, leaving the leader alone with gloomy thoughts.

When did it all go wrong? He could easily answer this question with ease: when Nick contacted Stark Jr. At first, everything went, if not well, then within the limits of what was acceptable and expected. Implementation of Romanoff, collection of biometric data, preparation of the necessary stimulants. To direct the psyche and actions of the billionaire in the right way would be only a matter of time, but suddenly it's like a black streak. Without any prerequisites and intelligence, Stark is not just off the hook, but also presents a number of very ... unpleasant accusations, and Natasha mysteriously disappears, but in the place of her disappearance they find a "souvenir from her homeland."

And as if that was not enough! As soon as there were prospects of getting an alternative to the obstinate billionaire, who, although he did not have such resources, possessed the necessary technologies and, most importantly, could be involved in cooperation with much less difficulties and risks, as ... Ivan Vanko disappeared in the same way!

From a closed camera surrounded by the best agents and tracking technology! And on his bunk there was exactly the same Soviet flag!

And if with the disappearance of Natasha it was still possible, albeit reluctantly and gritting his teeth, to allow both her repeated betrayal and the real possibility of her former colleagues to get to the defector. Even if it was difficult, albeit extremely costly and would require several weeks, if not months of extremely dense preparation, moreover, in addition to everything, it would also indicate that from his headquarters it is strongly flowing towards the Russians and everything that he knows about their current agenda, he is not worth a broken cent, but it was still possible and permissible. It is unreasonably costly and difficult, no one needs it and it is not at all in the style of the Russians, but it is permissible. However, when the same thing happens to a prisoner whose presence no one could have predicted a week ago ... No. No way. Not possible!

But it turned out that it was possible. And such opportunities were frankly frightening. What will happen next time? Will the Minister of Defense be dragged away? President? Will they smuggle a bomb into the Pentagon? It was necessary to urgently take action, strengthen the defense, security systems, push all operatives, agents and even service personnel through the polygraph.

Against this background, Stark's obstinacy faded into the background. Of course, the likelihood of his connection with Russian intelligence or other services of the former Warsaw Pact countries was being worked out, but this probability was vanishingly small - in an extremely rude and harsh manner, he refused to cooperate with the special services of his country, with which his father worked closely, with which to cooperate with others? He even has no commercial interests in that direction! In addition, all his contacts were monitored, and no one, even somehow, through third and fifth hands, associated with "foreign colleagues" was noticed. But at the same time it was impossible not to notice the fact that both disappearances were primarily beneficial to the tycoon. Of course, he did not know and could not know about Romanoff, but if we assume that foreign intelligence services really began to play their game with him, they could be enlightened. As well as "help" with Vanko. But the meaning? With such opportunities, they would no longer need Stark! With such opportunities, they no longer needed anything at all! After all, then Nicholas himself would be sitting now not in his office, but in the cell of the unknown kidnappers and awaiting interrogation!

Again the puzzle did not add up. It is a pity that Stark is too much of a media figure, and he has strengthened his security measures by orders of magnitude - it will not work to simply "invite to talk" by pumping it up with a serum of truth. And then there was the suspicious death of military adviser Stryker, the information hype around which was barely hushed up within an acceptable time frame, and the investigation of his activities not only put the entire department on the issue of mutants on the ears, but also revealed a new loss of the carrier of valuable information - his assistant, although this time and without a flag. And, like the icing on the cake, the management, which noticed the "sharp movements" in his headquarters, began to take an interest in their reasons, which only complicated the overall situation, at the same time preventing them from working normally. Not that this heap of problems was something outrageous for Nick, but there was definitely no pleasant atmosphere in the environment.

It was hoped that the results of the internal investigation would clarify the situation. And what will not be worse ...