About fifteen minutes ago, Coulson's squad had left Adela's home by car, intending to investigate the home of the fifth witness. This witness was not American, but a Canadian living in a small town near Niagara Falls.
So, Coulson and his squad prepared their identification for customs check. The process went smoothly. The Canadian Customs hardly stopped Americans. Coulson showed his identification, didn't even have to stop his vehicle, and was allowed to pass through.
While on the road, Coulson thought about the process that Adela had told him of her encounter with the Guest in the Fog.
Years of dealing with supernatural events prompted Coulson to speculate about the conditions of the Fog Guest's appearance. Could it be reaching a certain speed with the vehicle? Could it be at a certain intersection? Or even after fueling at a specific gas station?
It sounded absurd, but the Mysticism was just that absurd. For many years, S.H.I.E.L.D. had not perfectly resolved any event, most of them were just pacifying influences, because many supernatural phenomena occurred irrationally.
It might suddenly appear, cause disaster, and then never appear again, and nothing would allow the human race to explore its pattern or prepare for it.
This job often made Coulson feel the insignificance of the human race, the last time he perfectly handled a supernatural event was the hammer that fell in New Mexico, but it wasn't really perfect, as the owner of the hammer solved it, not him.
Coulson was lost in thought. When he snapped back to reality, he noticed that fog was starting to form around them.
Simmons reached out from behind him, patting his shoulder. Coulson turned to look at her, nodding his head, but everyone silently refrained from speaking.
Coulson knew what he had to do. He slowly stopped the car, rolled down the windows but did not open the doors or get out. It was apparent he was mimicking what Adela had done.
He fiddled with the satellite positioning device and found no signal as expected. Replacing his foot on the accelerator, the car sped off.
But this time, Coulson consciously noted the distance he had covered. He realized that Adela's perception was indeed not very accurate, and the judgment of the two scientists behind him was more precise. He had driven nearly 200 kilometers before the car ran out of fuel.
A 200-kilometer ride wasn't short, and it should have felt very long, but it seemed to pass quickly for them.
Finally, when the fuel was exhausted, the car slowly stopped. Coulson didn't rush to get out, instead he quietly stared into the dense fog in front of him.
As expected, a faint figure appeared at the end of the fog.
Now Coulson completely understood the sight Adela had described, it seemed like a person, but it wasn't a physical human being, but the shadow of the fog.
No, that wasn't quite accurate either, Coulson thought, he wasn't the shadow of the fog, rather a mysterious guest emanating from it.
The other three in the car each opened their doors and got out; Coulson could definitely feel some mysterious force affecting them. Was it the fog?
Or perhaps they were the actual guests in the fog, and the figure was the master of it.
Coulson swallowed slightly, uncertain about whether he should start a conversation with the figure. Despite his judgment telling him it would be futile, he nevertheless stepped slightly forward and spoke up, "Who are you? What do you want?"
No response.
He stood there silently, watching everything unfold, making it clear he was intently observing the surroundings, wanting to say something, but his presence felt as elusive and silent as the fog.
Coulson took a deep breath, stepped back, and told the others, "Get ready with the adrenaline, we need to observe how the fog dissolves, it may be hiding the secrets of this mysterious Fog Guest."
Yes, Coulson intended to outwait the Fog Guest.
As Adela had said, her emotional state was unstable at the time; she broke down and fell asleep sobbing in the car after the encounter. When she woke up, she found herself already gone.
But Coulson was a professional agent, his squad battle-hardened, they didn't think what was happening now was a disaster, it was just another part of their job. So there wouldn't be any emotional fluctuations.
That being the case, they could just stay here, record the time, and see when the dense fog dissipates. Then by comparing the time they entered the fog, they might find the pattern of its appearance and disappearance.
Coulson nodded, "Return to the car, take turns keeping watch, let's see who the fog is really appearing for."
This was another test, because so far, all the witness reports were single-person ones. There were only photographs of multiple people with the Fog Guest in the same scene. To clarify the conditions of the Fog Guest's appearance, they had to change the number of people.
Coulson quickly arranged the watch shifts, he was the first, so the others went back into the car.
According to Adela, from the time she started crying until she fell asleep, she felt it was about 40 minutes; thus, the first watch was set for an hour. The second watch was extended a bit longer, with each shift lasting two hours, and so on.