Chapter 10: Secret Collaboration

Although Dr. Wilson's tone wasn't particularly emotional, Russell could sense the dissatisfaction and helplessness in his words.

As a renowned biologist within Hydra, Dr. Wilson had been tasked with developing the Abomination soldiers and had made significant progress.

Although there was still a considerable gap between his creations and the true Abomination, he had successfully engineered two generations of Abomination soldiers.

Just as the third generation was on the cusp of completion, Hydra headquarters suddenly issued an order to terminate the project. For Dr. Wilson who had poured all his energy into the Abomination project, this was a devastating blow.

More importantly, the termination of the Abomination project not only meant that all of Dr. Wilson's previous efforts had gone to waste, but it also signaled that Hydra was losing confidence in him and beginning to doubt his professional capabilities.

For a highly intelligent professional, you can oppose or doubt them in other areas, but you must never question their professional competence. To them, this is the most severe form of insult and blow.

Even S.H.I.E.L.D. had once extended an olive branch to Dr. Wilson, which speaks volumes about his exceptional talents.

But now, those very talents were being doubted by HYDRA.

Seeing the despondent look on Dr. Wilson's face, Russell suddenly had an idea...

Perhaps Dr. Wilson was the key to solving the problem of the Electroshock Explosive Collar around his neck and successfully escaping the base.

"Is it the Extremis soldiers developed by Dr. Killian?" Russell asked calmly, though he was certain that as long as Dr. Wilson had not completely lost his rationality, he would understand the implications behind his words.

"You... how do you know that? Even I just found out that the Extremis soldiers are Dr. Killian's creation. No one else in the base is privy to this information!"

As Russell had anticipated, Dr. Wilson was shocked by this revelation and stared at him in disbelief.

"I know more than that. I also know that HYDRA headquarters doesn't have the complete data on the Extremis virus, nor do they have blood or DNA samples of the Extremis soldiers..."

Russell continued to speak calmly. His goal now was to bring Dr. Wilson onto his side and make him an ally.

"Additionally, HYDRA headquarters has chosen someone else to oversee the Extremis virus project. Not only have they terminated the Abomination project, but they've also halted your research career."

"How could you possibly have such detailed information? You have no way of contacting the outside world! Even if you did, you couldn't have obtained such precise intelligence! Who are you, really? How do you know all this?" Dr. Wilson was struggling to contain his shock.

He even began to wonder if Russell had some form of telepathy, which would explain how he knew so much.

However, he quickly dismissed this idea, as even he himself hadn't known that Hydra headquarters lacked the complete data on the Extremis virus or biological samples of the Extremis soldiers.

"If there's a chance in the future, I'll tell you the reason, but not now... Right now, I just want to know: do you want to continue the Abomination project, or even take charge of the Extremis soldier research and development in the future?" Russell laid out his bait. Whether Dr. Wilson would take it was up to him, "If you're willing, we can collaborate! You help me remove this collar, and I'll provide you with the funding, equipment, and data you'll need for your future research."

If Dr. Wilson agreed, it would be a win-win situation.

If not, Russell would have to place his hopes on the 'Dionesium Factor' and gamble on whether he could survive escaping the base.

After carefully considering all possibilities and weighing the costs and benefits, Dr. Wilson finally made his decision and began explaining to Russell, "Do you know how much resources are required to develop and research these things? Even Hydra headquarters can't ignore the massive output of these projects. That's why they terminated the Abomination project and reallocated resources to the Extremis soldiers."

When Dr. Wilson asked his first question, Russell knew he had taken the bait.

Only someone who was hooked would start considering these practical issues, which meant Dr. Wilson was genuinely interested.

For these highly intelligent professionals, offering them a challenging research project and providing strong support for their work was the greatest temptation.

"I'll handle those issues. You just need to help me remove this thing from my neck..."

As long as he could escape the base and regain his freedom, Russell was confident he could secure the resources Dr. Wilson needed. So, he wasn't worried about these problems.

"Although I'm the project lead for the Abomination project, this isn't within my area of responsibility. This falls under Commanding Officer Jack's jurisdiction. I can help you find out how to remove it... Do you have any other needs? I can try to provide whatever else you require!"

It wasn't hard for Dr. Wilson to guess why Russell wanted to remove the Electroshock Explosive Collar, so he didn't mind offering assistance in other areas as well.

Russell nodded, "If possible, I need to know the exact number of armed forces within the base and whether there are any other weapons that could harm me..."

"I'll do my best to investigate that. Once I have the results, I'll send them to your tablet via a secure email."

After confirming their method of communication, Dr. Wilson completed the rest of Russell's checkup. Then, as usual, the two silently left the lab.

...

Russell never expected that a routine checkup would bring him the hope of successfully escaping the Hydra base.

This sudden stroke of luck made him wonder if the goddess of fortune had taken a liking to him.

After leaving Dr. Wilson's lab, Russell headed to the base's training ground to help Allen and Heather with their combat training for the day.

But as soon as he entered the training ground, he noticed something was off.

The usually sparsely populated training ground was now filled with six neatly organized Hydra squads.

Moreover, they were armed with the very weapons Russell feared the most: high-caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles and what looked like sci-fi inspired electric pulse cannons.

The commander in chief, Jack, spoke with a serious expression as Russell arrived, "Today's training has been modified. The target is no longer the second-generation Abomination soldiers but you, the first-generation Abomination soldier! Today, we'll be training your reaction and evasion skills. You'll need to dodge their shots within the training ground, and you're only allowed to evade...

A friendly reminder: today's training will use live ammunition!"

Hearing Jack's words, Russell's first thought was that Jack was looking for an excuse to kill him. However, he quickly dismissed this idea.

Jack definitely had not received any orders from the headquarters to execute him. If Hydra had intended to kill him, Dr. Wilson wouldn't have bothered with the routine checkup earlier, nor would he have agreed to a secret collaboration...

Since it wasn't an order from headquarters, there was only one possibility left: Jack was using the training as an excuse to vent his personal grievances and torment Russell.