"Sometimes I feel like you're an old lady, but other times I feel even older than you," Pamela said as she sliced her steak with the tip of her knife and fiddled with the piece of meat on her fork, continuing, "I always feel tired, don't want to do anything, lack strong initiative and energy…"
"If you weren't so indulgent, I think the situation would be better." The beautiful red-haired female agent across from her picked up her wine glass for a sip and gestured to a waiter nearby, asking him to change the ice bucket.
Pamela put the steak into her mouth and hummed in enjoyment, "It's still thanks to you, madam, it's been such a long time since I've dined in a restaurant of this caliber."
"If you mentioned this to Doctor Schiller, he would be pleased to treat you," Natasha leaned back slightly, placed her wine glass down and began to eat as she speared a slippery oyster with her fork and looked up, "Nick told me to keep an eye on you, but I guess he meant for me to watch you so you don't mess around with his tender little lambs."
"I am not that indiscriminate."
"The female agents at S.H.I.E.L.D are quite attractive," Pamela revealed.
Pamela hesitated, but still flashed a radiant smile at Natasha and said, "They certainly aren't as beautiful as you, madam."
Natasha showed no sign of offense, merely propping her head up with her hand and saying, "Many people are curious about my relationship with the former Black Widow, making a lot of wild guesses, including that the two of us were actually lovers."
"What do you think?" Pamela asked.
Natasha shook her head and said, "Girls from the Red Room really don't understand relationships borne purely of emotion. In our view, maintaining friendships, love affairs, and marriages is all for gathering intelligence. People to us are just divided into two kinds, those worthy of getting close to and those unworthy of our attention."
"But you are obviously not that simple," Pamela said. "I think I have some value to you, after all, I come from another cosmos and have the power of All Things Green. You could go to bed with Iron Man for intelligence, so naturally, you could with me too, gender doesn't really matter in your considerations."
"In theory, yes."
"Then there must be some things outside the theoretical range," said Pamela, looking away in thought. "Nick ordered you to handle me, and the simplest method is to get me into bed. I believe you're confident that my interest in you wouldn't fade too fast, and before I leave, I would definitely be ensnared by you."
"That's not wrong," Natasha nodded again.
Now curious, Pamela asked, "Then why not?"
"It all depends on what I stand to gain," Natasha said. "Firstly, I'm not a lesbian, I can't discern if women hold any sexual value for me, so sleeping with you, in itself, is unlikely to provide any mental or physical pleasure."
"But it worked with Iron Man?"
"I didn't know he wouldn't perform until before we slept together," Natasha said bluntly. "And I don't think it's not that he couldn't, he was just too nervous and didn't perform well."
"Really?" Pamela said skeptically.
"I've seen plenty of men, I can usually tell. I don't know why, but Tony Stark always seems a bit nervous around me; maybe some people's danger instincts are just stronger than others."
"What else?"
"Nick is my current boss, I work for him, he pays my salary, it seems reasonable, but how many people truly look forward to going to work?"
"Aren't you a professional agent?"
"I was professional in the Soviet Union because my dream was to build a beautiful motherland. If I remained that professional after coming to America, what would my dream be, to build the beautiful motherland's enemy?"
Pamela was left speechless for a moment.
"So when you're on missions in America, you still have to pick someone to your liking?"
Natasha nodded and said, "Actually, most of the world's spy missions don't have to rely on seduction to be completed. If so, why would they have turned me into a cyborg?"
Pamela found this somewhat reasonable, Natasha was already very beautiful, and if it was just about seductive tasks, there really was no need for her to undergo human experiments, wasn't the Black Widow known for her ferocious force?
"Have you ever picked one that satisfied you?" Pamela asked, somewhat gossipingly.
"In terms of appearances, Tony is actually quite good," Natasha smacked her lips and reminisced, "He's one of the older types I like. As for the younger ones... Spider Man is not my type, he's too innocent; the rookies at S.H.I.E.L.D look at me as if they've seen a ghost, it's just boring."
Natasha fiddled with her fork, looking somewhat bored but then, as if she remembered something, said, "I once met someone called Nightwing in the Battleworld games. He had an amazing physique and is the kind of brooding type I like. I was hoping to match with him again in this Battleworld..."
Pamela nearly spat out her drink.
"What about Batman?" Pamela asked.
"Just one dish," Natasha shrugged and said, "Batman is indeed spicy, but I guess I'm no match for him, so I can only get a taste. Of course, I heard that Nightwing is Batman's adopted son, if father and son together..."
Natasha licked her lips, and Pamela hurriedly banished all the images that popped into her mind.
"You better not think about it, I reckon even Batman you can't handle, he's not likely to get serious with a troublesome woman like you."
"Then how did Damian come about?"
"You seem pretty well-informed," Pamela said rather irritably after taking a sip of her drink. "Talya wasn't as troublesome as you, at least she didn't want both father and son..."
"How do you know she didn't want to?" Natasha's response was shocking. "She's definitely the type who would think that way, otherwise you could ask her next time. If she hooked up with Batman, she would definitely want to hook up with his son..."
Pamela was skeptical but decided not to discuss this topic with Natasha anymore, otherwise she would definitely have nightmares tonight.
"I've already agreed to help Nick do plant experiments in his lab. He's really interested in plants that can fight, do you think he's genuinely interested, or is it just to give Doctor Schiller face?"
"I think he's definitely interested," Natasha said.
"Why do you say that?" Pamela was curious. Natasha usually wouldn't speak so definitively unless she had solid evidence.
"Because modern American law can't convict plants," Natasha analyzed. "It's different from pets. If a pet bites someone, the owner has to take responsibility for negligence. If someone is hit by an unconscious plant, the person who threw the plant would also be found guilty."
"But if the plant developed consciousness on its own, came out of the ground, and attacked someone, then both the judge and jurors would find no precedent and would have to make an entirely new ruling."
"Right, but they could still make a ruling."
"No, they couldn't because the person who proposed the euthanasia measures for dangerous pets is still being severely censured by animal rights activists, and that was decades ago when information wasn't as readily available. What do you think the plant activists would do to them if they convicted a plant?"
"Can't they convict the plant owner for negligence?"
"Then the vegans would have something to say," Natasha tapped the table lightly, "They would argue that they've already made great sacrifices for environmental conservation, they can't take more responsibility for watching the cabbage in their fridge."
Natasha sighed lightly and said, "The judge and jury making such a ruling would offend people who are good at making a big fuss out of everything, they like to stir things up without reason, let alone when they have a legitimate gripe."
"So Nick definitely supports your experiment wholeheartedly, as long as he can successfully cultivate aggressive plants, he can legally send cabbages to beat up his old rivals who block his funding, and the judge couldn't convict him,"
Pamela rolled her eyes and said, "Is he really that petty? Don't you think following such a leader is a dead-end road?"
"On the contrary, because he's stingy and cautious, the salary he pays is enough to afford taking you to such a lavish restaurant," Natasha looked around the luxurious decor of the restaurant and said, "Although he never gives us a break, always moaning about insufficient funds, and requires us to die a dozen times a year to help him with reimbursements, he's quite generous with his people."
Pamela nodded and said, "I hope he's the same with me, I'm really a bit short on cash."
"But the currencies of two cosmos aren't the same, are you planning to exchange it for precious metals? Do you have a channel to offload it?"
"I've been considering that too," Pamela's expression became more serious as she gently touched her chin, "Though our security situation has improved a lot, it wouldn't be hard to find a second-tier dealer. I'm not afraid of robbing the robbers, but the prices definitely won't be good nowadays."
Natasha forked a piece of tomato from her salad and said, "In an economic crisis, you'd have to consider liquidity. Black market dealers won't have large intakes, you might need to contact several to offload your merchandise, but more people involved mean higher risk."
"Do you know where most of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's side income comes from? Put nicely, it's from fighting economic crimes, put plainly, it's robbing robbers. Those dealing in precious metals and antiques get caught, hand over the goods and run because most of their clients' goods were also illicitly obtained, they can't raise a fuss about it."
"If you go down the illegal trading route, once the Federal Bureau of Investigation grabs onto a lead, those second-tier dealers won't protect your goods. Once seized, that's a huge loss."
An expression of worry crept back over Pamela's face, "Even in the era when the Gotham Gang was rampant, I hardly dealt with them, I really can't find a reliable channel."
"Then don't swap those kinds of goods," Natasha suggested. "Switch to something that's at least not easily detected on the surface, and if detected, something that the Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn't have the means or channels to handle."
"Like what?"
"Grain," Natasha said. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation can't deal in bulk commodities because they neither have the storage space nor the channels to distribute it. It's too low-value and too conspicuous for them to bother with on a small scale."
"In the context of an economic crisis, grain is a solid currency, the only issue is whether you have somewhere to store it and if you have a reliable outlet."
Suddenly, Pamela had a flash of inspiration, "I know a submerged route from Mexico to the East Coast of the United States that completely avoids all coast guard and self-defense search, and Metropolis is currently in need of grain."
"Isn't that convenient?" Natasha smiled, "With the help of mutants, our universe's Mexico is producing grain in unprecedented quantities. Just convince Nick, and this will be much safer than trading in precious metals."