Natasha sat in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base office scrolling through her phone, Coulson leaned against the wall outside the office scrolling through his, and Simmons walked by also glued to her phone, while Nick turned a corner and stood at the end of the corridor, hands on his hips.
"I really don't understand what you all are looking at every day," Nick shook his head in helplessness, glaring at everyone with his remaining eye and said, "Please look at me, I'm your boss, and you have the guts to goof off in front of your boss at work?!"
"Hey, Natasha, what are you looking at?!" Nick strode up to Coulson, the closest to him, gave him a glare, then walked into the office and rushed over to see Natasha's phone.
With a swish, the page was closed, and Natasha looked at him innocently and said, "Nothing much, just watching some short videos."
"What's so interesting about that noisy stuff?" Nick commented, "I've never felt as old as I do today, I'm even starting to understand Captain America."
Natasha gently raised her hand, walked around the desk with her elegant steps, sat down on the chair, and said, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type to watch videos during work hours."
"So were you just attending an online classical music concert?" Nick scoffed.
"Clearly I was completing the task you assigned to me." Natasha propped her elbows on the armrest, tilted her head, and said, "Wasn't it you who told me to check out the Doctor's background?"
"And your method of investigation is to watch short videos?"
"Well, you say that," Natasha snapped her fingers, pointed with a finger, and said, "those online whistle-blowers seem very credible, spouting lots of details we can't even find, yet they speak as if they know it all."
"Are you planning to put these baseless rumors into his file as evidence?" Nick tapped on the desk and said.
"I never said that was all I was going to do, we still need to check the facts, right?" Natasha sat cross-legged but straightened up her body, resting her hands on her knees, and looked at Nick, "I know what you care about the most, things like Shiller's birth and upbringing, the parts about his beliefs and personal relationships you don't care for, you're only concerned about why he would cooperate with the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
"That is indeed worrying, I'm not saying Shiller should only work for S.H.I.E.L.D., but he couldn't have been born all-knowing and potent, and the FBI is especially cunning."
"You're worried the young Shiller was duped?"
"Getting tangled up with the FBI is never good," Nick said with a slight shake of his head, "Even if he had some unavoidable reasons, it would be a blemish on his record, inevitably to be exploited by opportunists."
"That's true," Natasha nodded and said, "It would significantly lower his stature, and could even be used to prove he's a fool, so what do you think, covering up his past for him?"
"No need for that, he didn't conceal it himself, he must have his reasons," Nick stroked his chin and said.
"Maybe he did it so you would find out someday," Natasha said with a smile, "I know you secret agents can't stand not having a hold on someone."
"I don't plan to use that to threaten him, I just want to figure out what exactly is going on. Now, cut the chatter, you've watched enough videos, go get verification, ma'am."
With hands pressing down on the armrest, Natasha stood up and said, "I think this can serve as further evidence of the FBI's idiocy."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you forgotten about that medal?"
Of course, Nick hadn't forgotten, and Natasha remembered it vividly.
She recalled it clearly; at the time, Nick had set up a trap, but before he had a chance to stuff those National Defense Medals into Shiller's bag, Natasha found a Red Flag Medal there.
She was sure it was a real medal, it must have represented some astonishing honors of the past, and the once scenes appeared before her eyes the moment her hand touched the medal.
"One day in the future, a person will make the whole world believe that he can resurrect the Soviet Union and even communize the world all by himself, what do you think the world will be like on that day?"
"Indeed, these things can be forged, but unless you've never seen the real deal or are completely unaware of the manufacturing process, it's impossible to make it look so convincing..."
"There's nothing going on between the two of you, at least not currently, and if you want something to happen, you'll need to do as I say."
"He's a born kidnapper, so all you need to be is a hostage."
In the silent, deserted corridor, a figure deftly climbed onto the balcony, then reappeared at the end of the corridor, crouching down, moving swiftly and silently.
Natasha pressed her earpiece, and Skye's voice came through, "All the cameras and alarms have been taken care of, go ahead with confidence, ma'am."
Natasha nodded her head, a slight smile on her face, the FBI was always so complacent, no matter when.
Natasha clenched the handgun in her hand and continued to move swiftly forward. Upon arriving at her destination, she looked up to see the door number flickering with a faint light.
She gently pushed the door open, finding no one inside of course, only countless drab folders. But to Natasha, these were treasures, as they contained records of all the social professionals employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the years.
This was quite within the FBI's wheelhouse. The organization could not be maintained, nor any real work accomplished, by relying solely on their rigidly-minded special agents.
It could be said that these agents were akin to shepherds with whips, the real work entirely conducted by these hired professionals, lured by various means, most of which were rather unsavory.
Breaking down doors, flashing badges, and saying, "We need your cooperation," was shameful enough, but this was far from the FBI's bottom line. They were best at fabricating troubles for ordinary people, using their organization's attributes, then pretending to be saviors, rescuing them from a crisis, only to have them willingly work for the agency.
The vast majority of ordinary people lacked the capacity to contend with such a colossal organization; the intelligent ones understood this and didn't want to trouble themselves, leading to the FBI often acquiring an unlucky soul who worked for nothing in return.
Would Shiller be one of these unlucky fellows?
Natasha didn't think so. She believed there must be a major conspiracy behind Shiller's collaboration with the FBI. She needed to sift through these documents for clues, to see if things were as netizens suspected – that Shiller simply provided professional psychological consulting to the FBI as a psychologist.
There was a wealth of information here. Natasha spent most of the night searching before finally finding some keywords related to the doctor, largely focused on the part about Columbia University.
This university had produced many talents, providing plenty of professional assistance to the FBI. However, most help came from long-established professors, whereas during the era Shiller was discovered to be cooperating with the FBI, he was still a student.
Estimating the timeline, Natasha found something amiss; Shiller wasn't famous back then. Even the Hand of God, Strange, would not become a world-renowned brilliant doctor until five or six years later.
With this realization, she was confident her previous conjecture was correct – the FBI's interest in Shiller extended beyond his impressive psychology talent. There had to be another reason.
Following this lead, Natasha stopped focusing on the keyword "psychologist" and began to investigate the younger recruits of the FBI.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of the young people unearthed and recruited by the FBI were not prominent experts or scholars known in their fields. Instead, they were more adept at field operations.
In plain terms, the FBI preferred to recruit young people capable of handling the dirty work, and their methods of recruitment were not exactly public knowledge, often involving erasing the individuals' past transgressions and offering them a chance to regain their social standing to coerce them into performing dubious tasks.
S.H.I.E.L.D., given its nature, rarely enlisted such agents, but Natasha knew well that both the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency required a vast number of such individuals for street-level investigations, intelligence transmission, and infiltration.
Being locals from the streets, although they lacked professional agent training, their familiarity with the environment provided these organizations with valuable intelligence.
Was Shiller one of these people?
At first, Natasha felt puzzled, but after some thought, she didn't find it strange. Judging by their confrontation in the ice fishing shack, Shiller seemed to be at the top tier of physical strength, even amongst field agents.
Recalling the immense strength Shiller had shown, a pain still faintly echoed in Natasha's abdomen, yet she didn't have time to dwell on it, as she continued to follow the thread of evidence.
A record from 20 years ago caught Natasha's attention. It roughly stated that, one day 20 years ago, a Hydra head was found dead in her own home in Manhattan, precisely in her own bed.
Natasha scrutinized the case because she recalled Strange asking her 14 years ago whether she knew of a case that occurred 6 years prior.
At that time, Natasha naturally didn't know, as she was not trusted and was a marginal figure across various special agent organizations. Many even called for her execution; she had trouble simply finding a foothold, let alone paying attention to some murder.
But wasn't the case from 14 years ago, referred to as happening 6 years before that, precisely the one from 20 years ago? Could Shiller's cooperation with the FBI have been due to this case?
Continuing her investigation, Natasha discovered more details.
First, the female victim was found unclothed, but there were no signs of sexual assault on her body. Second, there were no signs of struggle in the room, and the woman's body bore no additional injuries.
Then, traces of a drug were found in her system, a common morphine injectable, but it was impossible to determine the timing and dosage of the injection due to the delay in discovery, though an overdose was suspected.
Finally, the eyes of the female Hydra leader had been removed with professional skill, even leaving the eyelids unharmed, and to this day, those eyes have not been found.
Natasha wasn't one for stereotypes, but she could only say that this case seemed very much like Shiller's work.
She felt certain that only those under the High Tower could commit such insane acts. But why?
At this point, the investigation hit a standstill. Shiller's motives were a mystery, and with nearly 20 years having passed, there were no concrete leads to surmise his motivations.
Natasha brought these documents back to S.H.I.E.L.D. and, combining them with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s prior records about Shiller, she drew a conclusion—Shiller had a vendetta against Hydra.