"My last question. What is up with the elf thing?" Fury asked. This was another way of asking how his power worked.
"My abilities evolve over time, so it's useless to explain since they won't remain the same for long," Liam replied. It was the truth. The more games he played, the better his evaluations would be, and soon his abilities would rise. But Fury thought this was Liam's excuse for not explaining his powers.
"Uh-huh. So what I'm hearing is, 'I'm not gonna tell you squat." Fury was a bit frustrated. He wanted to force Liam to at least give one proper answer, but he couldn't. It also didn't help that Liam was a minor.
He was a child in Fury's eyes, even though he had caused quite the scene at the pier.
"Fine, I will give you one piece of information that might be useful to SHIELD. The Red Room is still active," Liam said. This made Fury's face change from frustration to full-alert mode.
"How do you know about the Red Room? Do you belong to them?"
"Don't make me think that you belong to the lower IQ category, Fury. The Widow name should indicate that the agents must be women. In the bombing in Budapest, Dreykov and his daughter came out of it alive," Liam said. This made Fury's fingers twitch a bit.
The Budapest bombing involved one of his most prized agents, someone he considered a future Avenger. And this guy knew about it. He was a baby when the bombing happened, which meant Liam was involved with an organization that collected intelligence—intelligence so deep that SHIELD didn't even have an inkling that Liam was associated with it.
Under normal circumstances, he would step forward and arrest him on the charge of espionage, but he knew if he did, it might turn them antagonistic toward SHIELD, and he didn't want that. He needed Liam's cooperation.
"Talk," Fury said.
"I don't know much. I only know that Shostakov might lead you to Dreykov in the end. He holds quite a bit of information," Liam said. By now, Fury was sure that Liam had a deeply rooted organization behind him. Maybe Erik's disappearance had something to do with Liam's secret organization.
Which meant Liam was an accessory here, but he couldn't prove it. And his instincts also told him not to antagonize this man. A person with resources and intelligence was more dangerous than the Hulk monster.
He thought Tony Stark was a handful. This guy was four hands full, and even then, it was spilling out of his hands. He touched his temples and went into deep contemplation.
"You're a pain in the ass, you know that?" Fury sighed.
"I get that a lot. And yeah, you can tell Phil about me. He's a good guy. But on the record, he doesn't get to open his mouth about it to his fellow agents. Not even those with level 9 or level 10 clearance," Liam said.
"Alright. We will investigate your words."
"Doesn't matter even if you do. Don't mind even if you don't. Knock yourself out." Liam replied. While this discussion took place, Tony actively searched for information about the Red Room, and the little he saw made his skin crawl. Though most of the information was redacted, he got a general idea of what it was. No wonder that woman was so capable.
Fury had more questions, but he knew he wouldn't get any more answers. Liam wouldn't say another word about the Red Room, so he had to bail out. After he left, Tony grew more curious, and Liam gave him vague answers.
Tony was scrolling through a holographic screen, his eyebrows raising as he skimmed through what little information was available on the Red Room. He let out a low whistle.
"Well, that's all kinds of messed up," he muttered. "Secret Russian assassin boot camp for kids. Real lovely stuff."
Liam sat back, watching him.
"Most of this is redacted, but the bits that aren't? They make SHIELD look like a charity organization." He finally glanced up. "And you just casually drop this into conversation like it's a fun fact?" Tony continued reading.
"Thought SHIELD should know." Liam gave a slight smirk.
"Yeah, see, that's the kind of thing that makes me wonder why SHIELD doesn't already know. And more importantly, why you do." Tony squinted at him.
Liam didn't answer.
"Okay, let's break this down. You could've joined SHIELD. Instead, you signed up with… whatever your mystery club is. I'm guessing they've got some real juicy secrets?" Tony leaned forward, lacing his fingers together.
"You assume too much," Liam said evenly. "My organization has tech and some vague intelligence. That's it. We're all starting from the same place."
Tony pointed at him. "Yeah, see, that's exactly the kind of answer that doesn't make me feel better. It makes me feel like I should be very, very concerned."
Liam chuckled.
Since the woman was related to SHIELD, it wasn't his concern. They talked about the Expo too, and all seemed smooth, but Liam had a feeling that the Expo wouldn't be as peaceful as it should be. Surprisingly, Hammer Industries also had some robotics to show, and those robotics didn't seem too high-tech at all, as Liam saw in the product description.
"Dude, have you seen the chess competition? It's so wild," Chris said as they walked by on the last day of the Expo. The first two days had been boring for the trio since they didn't find anything useful. Actually, Liam wanted to skip them too, but Bonnie and Chris pulled him into it.
Their argument was: what if they found something useful in the other two days for Marvel? Liam thought these two teenagers had too much hope and maybe had watched too many TV series to start acting like adults. Any major decision needed to be thought through. But to calm their enthusiasm, he accompanied them.
The Expo not only showcased products but also held competitions like chess and others that required brainpower. Chris and Bonnie were disappointed during the first two days, but on the third day, their enthusiasm returned because there were many wonderful things to see and watch.