Chapter 492: I Am Hydra (VI)

In that battle, Agent Natasha Romanoff was probably the most seriously injured. A gunshot wound to her left shoulder caused massive bleeding, her right hand was nearly dislocated, her ribs were fractured, and even her internal organs suffered impact damage. While waiting for the potion to take effect, the doctor prescribed her painkillers. However, from start to finish, the woman showed no sign of pain. On the contrary, she remained completely lucid, without needing alcohol.

She smiled as she watched Solomon and Nick Fury bicker.

Solomon mocked the selection of Nobel Peace Prize winners, noting that, without exception, they were all individuals who aligned with Western values—either insurgents and separatists opposing the United States or individuals from third-world countries who had been naturalized by the U.S. and promoted Western democratic and liberal values. In short, they were weak public intellectuals. He also ridiculed the veteran politicians on the Norwegian Nobel Committee, calling them outright Nazis, claiming that since the Cold War, almost all Nobel Peace Prize winners could have been executed by Nazis.

During World War II, when 55,000 Norwegian soldiers failed to resist the 100,000-strong German army, the Norwegian royal family fled to London with the country's gold reserves. Even when the crown prince wanted to stay and lead the resistance, the government rejected his request. Most young Norwegians at the time became fanatical followers of Hitler and joined the Germans on the Eastern Front. Only a small number of resistance fighters remained in Norway to fight against the Nazis, while the political families, without exception, sided with Hitler.

As the war neared its end, more and more people joined the resistance. These individuals were called "late saints"—opportunistic turncoats. After the war, Norway began rewriting history, portraying itself as a nation that resisted the Nazis, heavily glorifying the resistance forces while completely omitting the fact that 100,000 Norwegian youths had joined the Nazis.

Even today, neo-Nazism remains quite prevalent in Norway. The World War II veterans who fought on the Eastern Front have become idols for young neo-Nazis. And it's hard to say if Britain was of much help during that time—after all, the Norwegian royal family spent their exile in London hosting aristocratic salons, raising their esteemed fingers to promise their return, all while living off the gold reserves of Norwegian citizens. Today, all the old political families in Norway had, without exception, collaborated with the Nazis. The idea that they are now awarding the Nobel Peace Prize is nothing short of a joke.

Nick Fury was so enraged that he nearly burst a lung, causing the conversation to derail completely. Sam, as a patriotic American, had never heard of such things, and his knowledge base was insufficient to debate Solomon. Steve Rogers had no interest in these convoluted matters, while Agent Romanoff knew that Solomon was telling the truth but chose not to chime in. If not for Agent Hill slamming a cup of hot coffee onto the table in front of each of them, signaling them to cut the nonsense, the topic would have dragged on indefinitely.

The former S.H.I.E.L.D. director then presented them with three chips—his trump card.

When the three Helicarriers ascended to 3,000 feet, they would use the Insight satellites for triangulation. The super cannons mounted on the carriers would become terrifying weapons, eliminating every person Hydra wanted dead. The three chips Nick Fury provided were the targeting modules. He needed someone to replace all three targeting modules on the Helicarriers; only then could Alexander Pierce's ambitions be completely stopped.

His plan was the same as Solomon's—to seize control of the three Helicarriers for their own use. Nick Fury locked eyes with Solomon, waiting for the mystic to make a statement. He knew that Solomon had access to portals, and replacing the targeting modules wouldn't be too difficult. But Solomon simply acted as if he hadn't noticed.

He glanced at the schematics of the Helicarriers and became 100% certain that Nick Fury had placed his own people among their designers. Whether it was intentional or not, the designers had blatantly positioned the servers in the belly of the Helicarriers, supposedly to aid in cooling. These servers were shielded by nothing more than a semicircular transparent cover.

That thing couldn't even withstand an RPG, and you expect me to believe this wasn't intentional corner-cutting? Anyone that good at slacking off had to be a die-hard loyalist of S.H.I.E.L.D.!

Steve Rogers, who had always opposed Project Insight, never intended to keep those three Helicarriers intact. In a country where even the mere debate over gun ownership sparked endless arguments about freedom, having three airborne battleships capable of eliminating "socially unstable elements" at any time was an obvious problem. In the fragmented federal system of the United States, where S.H.I.E.L.D. was a Western-dominated intelligence agency deeply entrenched in capitalist operations, owning such a weapon was like handing a loaded firearm to an enraged six-year-old.

In situations like this, American police officers often chose to empty their magazines and eliminate a suspect before they could harm anyone. Steve's approach was no different.

What made this even more interesting was that Alexander Pierce's kill list was mostly composed of American capitalists, with superheroes and other "unstable elements" making up only a small fraction. Regardless of how wealth would be redistributed in Pierce's new world, at the very least, public resources would no longer be concentrated in affluent areas.

Because in the future world he envisioned, there would be no wealthy elites—only centralized power. Wealth and authority would be completely controlled by the government.

So, on the surface, Hydra appeared to be an enemy of democracy and freedom. But in reality, they were attempting to dismantle the shackles of American capitalism. Meanwhile, Captain America, who constantly championed human rights, had now become the defender of capitalists, politicians, and racial capitalism.

Now that was truly ironic. Even Solomon, whose coffee from Maria Hill was so bitter it made him frown, had no desire to comment further. This whole situation was steeped in black comedy, and Solomon found it incredibly amusing.

As for the fact that his own name was on the kill list? He couldn't have cared less.

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Solomon stood in a secluded corner of the base, reviewing the latest mission progress updates sent by Tita and Stephanie.

Gideon Malick's faction of Hydra had no direct connection to S.H.I.E.L.D. The Malick family's stronghold was in Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court. Therefore, the Sisterhood's goal was to seize control of the rebellious Hydra faction and claim S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources and technology for the Eternal City. But that alone wasn't enough to satisfy Solomon's ambitions—he had another plan that required Stephanie's personal involvement.

Human resources were still resources, and he refused to tolerate waste.

"What are you looking at?" Natasha Romanoff emerged from the shadows.

"Just some cat videos on YouTube." Solomon chuckled. He put his phone away before she could see anything. "How are you feeling? Even with the potion, your injuries won't heal that quickly," he asked. "Are you really planning to continue the mission?"

"What other choice do I have?" Natasha Romanoff smiled. "Saving twenty million lives is more important than anything, isn't it?"

A silence fell between them, as Solomon didn't respond to what was undeniably the right answer.

"You see S.H.I.E.L.D. as a home, Natasha—you want to protect it," Solomon said, unusually calling her by name. "But I don't. Hydra lacks the capability to rule the world or send civilization into regression, so I honestly don't care. That has always been Kamar-Taj's stance. We don't look at things from the perspective of any single nation."

"Then why are you even here? You knew Nick Fury wasn't dead."

"I'm just here for the fun of it. That's human nature," Solomon replied with a wicked grin. "But tell me something—why doesn't S.H.I.E.L.D. do the things your old employers did? At least not openly? It's because S.H.I.E.L.D. is a collaborative creation, like the United Nations—bloated, bureaucratic, and ultimately powerless. But after the Battle of New York, S.H.I.E.L.D. slipped out of oversight. No one would ever allow such an organization to continue existing."

"You're saying S.H.I.E.L.D. is doomed?" She suspected Solomon had ulterior motives.

"That depends on Nick Fury's plans. I'm sure he already has a backup. If S.H.I.E.L.D. is dismantled, it can always be rebranded. As long as it returns to oversight and is thoroughly purged, it will survive." Solomon smirked. "It's a political issue. Hydra is just a convenient scapegoat—blame everything on them, and all the problems go away."

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