7 April 2000
"Director Fury, Secretary Pierce will see you now."
Fury let out a sigh of relief at that before entering the office of his direct superior. While he remained the Director of SHIELD, there still remained a higher authority than him. Many of the lower-tier agents would believe he answered directly to the World Security Council, but in between, there was one guy, Alexander Pierce.
"Nick! Welcome to DC. What can I do for you?" asked Pierce as they shook hands in greeting.
"What makes you think I am here for something?" asked Fury.
"The fact that you found time to travel all the way to DC when you should be in California." said Pierce with a smile. "Take a seat, Nick. You would only be here if the situation would demand it. What can I do?"
"I am here because of Project X." said Fury.
He watched as Pierce froze for a moment before relaxing in his chair.
"I take it that gathering the DNA of the subject didn't pan out." said Pierce after he stood up and took a bottle of whisky and two glasses from a nearby cabinet.
Fury accepted the glass offered by Pierce with a nod and took a sip.
"Didn't work out as well as I hoped, but we did gather valuable intelligence," he said
"That was always your primary intention. The DNA samples were a secondary objective for you, which I disagree with, but I do understand where you are coming from." Pierce said with a respectful nod, having known his subordinate's quirks. Fury always valued information. "Do go on, Director Fury."
"As you already read from the initial report, Mr Vex exhibits extraordinary physical powers similar to Carol Danvers. We can now confirm Mr Vex has either super-hearing or super-vision or both. My bet is on both."
"I am not a betting man, and even if I were, I would not bet against you, Nick. So, what is the verdict?" Pierce said, leaning forward curiously, nursing his drink.
"With our short-term plan to acquire a DNA sample at a dead-end, we are switching to Plan B. I have sent in Coulson, and it may require some adjustments to the initial deal we made with Mr Vex." said Fury, looking none too pleased to go on a fallback plan.
"That is unfortunate but workable," Pierce mused, as they were prepared for just this scenario. They hoped it would not come to this, but he trusted Nick knew what he was doing. "Is there any possible retaliation on a wide scale from the subject?"
"We did extensive research and psych profiling on Mr Vex. According to our analysts, there won't be any violent episodes from him. I can assure you that, Mr Secretary."
"Good. I will keep the Council in the loop but keep the situation on the ground tight. I don't have to tell you that any leaks on this Project will be catastrophic to you, me, the council, and our country." Pierce stared at Fury with a grave look.
"I know, sir. We will keep the heat down in any event." Fury promised.
"Good. Now, walk me through Plan B."
"Plan B calls for long-term benefits. We start with…"
After completing the brief, he was back on a plane to Sacramento. Pierce would keep the World Security Council appraised, and he trusted the man not to let politicians butt their heads into SHIELD, especially considering the latest additions to the WSC. With the dissolution of the USSR, the WSC was expanded to include two more representatives from China and India.
The arrival of new member countries into the WSC was frankly baffling to him. He was no politician, but even he was frankly baffled by this move. China's membership was a foregone conclusion, as they were nearly at superpower status. China was going to be a strategic ally in dealing with the remnants of fringe elements in the former USSR territories and North Korea. Their aid in Africa and the Middle East was also a strategic need of the day. They needed an outside player to broker deals that, in the end, would keep the lid on the region. He was somewhat baffled by India's admission, though. He would've thought a second ally from Asia would be Japan or even Pakistan.
His experience told him that, somehow, geopolitics was shifting, and enemies were becoming fast allies. He ought to keep an eye on DC as well because SHIELD was a circle of accountability. The WSC would keep an eye on him, and he would keep an eye on them. He would come around to doing that just as soon as the situation in Virginia came to a close.
*****
Cerion was hard at work designing some of the internal relays essential to miniaturising the Arc Reactor. While there was no need for a miniature Arc Reactor, seeing as a big one was quite preferable for his ship, there were some significant applications he could see with miniaturised reactors. They could be an excellent backup for his ship, especially on shields and other life support systems.
His venture into corporate espionage was a huge success part in due to accessing the Arc Reactor technology as well as the hidden element in the Stark Expo model. For his own peace of mind, he decided to call the new element Unobtanium. The new element was a tricky one to produce in the physical plane, but he was closing in on that objective. The only delay he was going to suffer was because he lacked a high density of energy to work with the particle accelerator. The device itself was already available to him as it was one of the few things that remained intact within his ship.
Cerion looked to his bedside, where one of his drones was working on something that was earning him quite a lot of money. When he enjoyed stellar success in hacking the Stark Industries satellite, he also decided to do some more digging. There were many shell companies and embezzlement going on, which was frankly disturbing. When this came to his notice, he decided to be a good Samaritan and steal from those who were committing the fraud.
Frankly, having a multipurpose AI at his command and call helped him steal from some of the premier organised crime industries. The money that he looted from these red flag accounts passed through a variety of shell companies and even went through government holdings to finally sit securely in several dummy accounts just waiting to be used. The first set of rent for the Ancient One was paid out through one of these accounts. The money was wired to an account in Hong Kong, and thus, he rented an entire island for a year at an attractive price of half a million dollars. To his mind, that was a killer deal, considering the magical protections on the island.
He did feel guilty for using what was most assuredly blood money or drug money. To alleviate this guilt, he decided to spend a million dollars on charity. Splitting a million dollars into ten equal parts, he wired the money to ten orphanages that were in dire need of funding through multiple accounts. He was sure he could do far more to help, but he knew that time for laying low was up. A lot of people were going to be angry when they found their money had disappeared, and he had no intention of rocking the boat this early in the game. He was also sure that SHIELD and other intelligence agencies might also be looking for the trail but they would be jumping into the cyber black hole that he left in his wake.
It was mighty easy to bug the entire net, and by the time agencies like SHIELD and the CIA caught up, they would get a nasty cyber cold, so to speak. The systems of this era were so easily prone to malware, and he had no second thoughts on exploiting that to kingdom come. To help set up cybersecurity, he was even planning on releasing open-source anti-virus software soon enough. Frankly, a lack of competition in the cyber field was disturbing him for some reason.
A knock on the door of his apartment distracted him from his work. A short scan of his eyes revealed that he had two visitors, Maria Hill and Phil Coulson. He had expected one of them to make contact with him but never expected the duo to visit him together. It would seem Fury was intent on damage control, which could only mean he has another plan running, one which was more subtle than the previous one.
Shutting down all the drones and keeping Optima on stand-by he opened the door.
"Agent Coulson and Maria." he nodded acknowledging them both.
"Mr Vex." greeted Coulson with a simple nod.
"Cerion. Can we come in?" asked Maria.
"Sure. Please do come in." he led them to the drawing-room.
As Coulson and Maria took their seats on a couch, he eyed them expectantly.
"Tea or coffee?" he asked.
"Tea." said Maria. Coulson also chose the same.
A few minutes later, he was sitting opposite the two agents, who were enjoying two cups of tea.
"First of all, please accept our sincerest apologies, Mr Vex."
"Accepted, Agent Coulson, although I do warn you apologies will have no bearing whatsoever in this discussion." he flatly said letting them know that he was serious in his position.
"You have to understand our perspective, Mr. Vex. As you already know, we have only come out of a near nuclear catastrophe. We can't help but be suspicious of people of foreign origin," said Coulson.
Cerion held back the urge to snort. Blaming the Cold War for humanity's suspicious nature was fast becoming out of fashion.
"I understand, which is why I did not bat an eye when I realised I was being watched by two of your agents from across the building. The only condition that I put forth when I agreed to share my knowledge with your agency was breached, and that will change our deal," he said firmly, not budging from his decision.
"Very well then. What are your demands?" asked Coulson.
"I agreed to work for SHIELD as per the norms of the first deal. That will no longer be possible, and I will only work as a private contractor or a consultant, if you will." said Cerion.
"I don't see a problem with that." said Coulson and Maria Hill nodded along.
"Good and that means I decide which technologies will be shared with SHIELD."
"Now, that's not the deal that we made." Maria objected.
"I agree, which is why we are making the new deal," said Cerion before handing Maria a small card.
"What's this?" she asked as she flipped over the card. "Vex Corporation?"
"A new Cyber Security firm that I am starting. One thing I noticed is that you have laughable Cyber Security and I believe there is a huge market just waiting for my expertise."
"You are going public? Are you insane?" asked Maria incredulously.
"Hiding in plain sight is my motto, and insanity seems to be running high in your agency, Maria. You broke the deal we made in good faith, and now the new deal will be on my terms. Tell Fury that I don't like liars and cheats." said Cerion before standing up having enough of the conversation.
"If you go public, we won't be able to provide you with the necessary cover," warned Coulson as he stood up along with Maria.
"You need me more than I need you, Agent Coulson. The first time I indulged your silly and frankly astronomical demands was because I hoped to build trust and a working relationship with mankind. Instead of working together in harmony, your masters got greedy. We could've been friends, but we will now be business partners," said Cerion before plucking a file from a nearby table and handing it over to Coulson.
"What's this?" asked Coulson
"A copy of a contract that I propose between Vex Corp and SHIELD for the exchange of Anti-Grav technology. I will be waiting for your response most eagerly." said Cerion as he held out the door for the two agents.
"We will be in touch." said Coulson before stepping out, followed by Maria Hill.
"Before you go, please pass this message to Director Fury. Tell him that mankind has to learn to crawl before it prepares to run the marathon. Good day."
Closing the door behind him, he returned to his work. He had been working on Vex Corp for a few weeks, and he had great designs for how it would progress. The primary reason he was starting the company was because he needed a front for purchasing some higher-grade steel and other necessary resources to speed up the work on his ship. To that end, he planned to expand from cybersecurity to other fields once the company broke even.
Who knows, this might change in the future. But first, he had to complete the work on designing a modified Arc Reactor that would be suitable for his needs.