Black Widow was dressed in a tight-fitting suit, and the well-dressed Hill stood in front of her.
As deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D., she had to personally be on the frontline.
This showed how tense the personnel situation was at S.H.I.E.L.D.
They went to the police station together.
Natasha took out the documents that had long been prepared: "From today, the murder case in Hell's Kitchen is being transferred to us."
If this were one of the regular cases, the police who had the case taken away would be furious.
But now they were even a little grateful.
"Here is all the information, and the witnesses William and Carl can be called to testify at any time." the policeman said with a smile.
"What's this?" Natasha had already been given the documents on William and Carl, and she knew nothing else could be obtained.
However, among the evidence provided to them by the police, Natasha saw a scrap of black paper.
Natasha saw a sheet of paper covered with a black substance.
It looked like a fragment torn from a newspaper or book page.
It had distorted, revolting symbols inscribed on it, and Natasha frowned as she examined the fragments.
"It looks like some kind of inscription, but I can't recognize it."
"Maybe it's graffiti?" Hill said casually.
"This is what we found in the car that hit the monster, and the black substance on it was identified as the creature's blood," the policeman explained.
Natasha and Hill looked at each other.
"Black magic?!"
"What?" The policeman stared at Hill and Natasha in confusion, wondering what they meant.
"Thank you for your cooperation, we have to go now."
The heightened sense of smell told Hill and Natasha that if the handwriting on this fragment could be deciphered, it could definitely change the direction of the case.
Taking the paper fragment, they returned to S.H.I.E.L.D.
"We found this." Hill took out the fragment of paper, which was neatly wrapped in an evidence bag.
"There should be some inscriptions or religious symbols on it, if they can be translated, it could be very useful."
Nick Fury didn't hesitate with the fragment in hand and immediately called out: "Get the linguists, symbol experts and cryptographers to my office immediately!"
On Nick Fury's order, dozens of experts soon arrived.
"Decipher this."
The experts looked at the fragments and stared at each other.
They passed the paper fragment around for a long time.
And only then did one of the experts with a gray beard, squinting slightly, utter: "It looks like an ancient script that was lost long ago in the Middle East."
"Can this be deciphered?" Nick Fury said joyfully.
The ancient writing expert shook his head and said, "I can only recognize a few words that cannot be translated, and I'm afraid few people can decipher such writing."
"These symbols are too ancient."
"What can you recognize?" Nick Fury asked, "Start by deciphering the words you know."
"I can recognize four symbols," said the ancient writing expert, pointing to four symbols on them.
It turned out that these four symbols were connected.
"Book of the Dead?" Nick Fury was full of doubt, he was just an agent, not a literature researcher.
How could he have heard of this book?
"Do you have any information about it?"
"I don't know, maybe someone who studies ancient Middle Eastern literature knows about it." said the ancient literature expert.
Nick Fury immediately replied, "Do you know him? Contact him immediately..."
The Book of the Dead and the risen dead man.
If there was no connection between them, there could be no success in the case!
People from the Middle Eastern Society for the Study of Ancient Literature were immediately called up.
"We are willing to pay a high price for the original text of this and information about the Book of the Dead."
Nick Fury looked at the gathering.
"Book of the Dead?"
"Never heard of it."
"I've read a lot of ancient Middle Eastern literature and archaeological information, and I've never heard of such a book."
"I should have remembered this unusual title if I had ever seen it."
They all denied the existence of the "Book of the Dead", which puzzled Nick Fury somewhat.
Maybe he just translated it wrong?
The man picked up the paper, and the smile on his face turned to horror.
"This!"
"Such writing is from British Columbia, yes."
"It's the eternal long sleep not of the dead, in the secret ages even death itself disappears."
"This seems to be an aphorism, who said it?"
"There's another on the back: 'What is written in the Book of the Dead should not be made public, otherwise those who divulge it will suffer.'"
"A warning curse? I've never heard of the Book of the Dead."
"This work is too new, could you show us the original version? Or do you have more complete content?"
After confirmation, these ancient history scholars went crazy.
"Ancient script, it's an ancient script that was lost long ago."
"My God, can such writing be translated, can this not be a dream to us?"
Nick Fury's eyes widened, although he knew the meaning of the text on the fragment.
But it seemed that knowing it was as good as not knowing.
At the moment, a book called "The Book of the Dead" aroused great interest in Nick Fury.
"Only after the Chitauri invasion of Earth did humanity learn that there are other beings beyond it."
"However, many unsolved mysteries remain in humanity's long history."
"The greatest of them is magic, evidence of whose existence has practically disappeared, but traces of it still manifest from time to time."
"The Book of the Dead may be evidence of magic."
S.H.I.E.L.D. did not know of the existence of the Sorcerer Supreme, but they did know something about the Hand.
They also knew that the Hand possessed some means similar to magic.
"Could this matter be related to the Hand? Could it be magic passed down from the Hand?"
Nick Fury carefully considered all possible options before finally making a decision.
"Notify all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who are not on assignment that I am organizing an operation."
"You must catch this monster!"
"Yes."
All the S.H.I.E.L.D. elite arrived.
Hawkeye, Natasha, Hill and Captain America.
"That's for sure," Nick Fury thought with a sense of duty fulfilled.
At least half of the Avengers were ready.
"Even if the police are on the lookout, this monster will break free."
"If it comes down to it, he will definitely appear again tonight."
"I've mobilized satellites to monitor every corner of Hell's Kitchen, as soon as we spot this monster, we have to catch him."
Captain America nodded, after the Chitauri invasion Captain America looked more mature.
"Maybe we should call on Stark, Stark is a bit of a pain in the ass, but he knows quite a lot."
"This time it will be an independent S.H.I.E.L.D. operation, we have enough of our own resources." Nick Fury waved his hand.
Thinking to himself that if he manages to get the Book of the Dead, dragging Stark along would be problematic.