A lot of moments had led up to this moment, as I rose through the Triskellion to the office of the Secretary of SHIELD. Maybe all of the moments since I had come here, if that wasn't too much destiny, had led to this moment. I had to explain myself to Hydra's strongest head, Secretary Alexander Pierce, whose influence by law and by power spread across the world.
I had killed his mentor, his friend. I had killed Arnim Zola. I needed to convince him that I should not be relegated to the back bench if I wanted more power within Hydra, if I wanted to do more than write checks and build gadgets. And, as far as he could see, I had blown one of my first big tests.
"Mr. Trent," Pierce said, standing next to his corner window in a room almost too sleek and new. There was no humanity here, no warmth, no pictures of his daughter or his niece and there was nothing in here of glory or battle or songs. Like all of SHIELD, he had been scrubbed from whatever knowledge base my ROB had stripped my knowledge of people from. No fingerprints, no traces. A sharp and silent room that said nothing. The perfect place for the greatest spymaster, the greatest criminal mastermind, in the whole world.
"Secretary Pierce," I said, standing calmly in my best tailored suit with a briefcase in my left hand. I hadn't been able to smuggle in any of my traditional accoutrements. SHIELD had instituted a search policy that would've stopped me from bringing the shrink ray or my helmet or the pocket RV.
"Zola is dead, I ordered his shutdown this morning."
"That's unfortunate, sir."
Pierce walked over to his desk and pulled out a can from under it. A Dr. Pepper can and he offered it to me, "I understand this is your drink of choice?"
"Yes, sir," I said, accepting the can with unease. Was it poisoned? Laced with a truth serum? Was it just an attempt to intimidate me with knowledge about my life? Oh, there was no escape for me if he wanted me to stay. I propped my briefcase against my foot and popped the can open with a hiss to take a drink.
"Mr. Trent, you're quite brilliant. Can you tell me how you didn't see this coming?"
"I did, sir," I pointed out. "Doctor Zola and I had conversations on the possibility of his death. There were many failed trials, and there wasn't any way of knowing if I had identified the proper exception. It was his choice, not mine, to go through with the procedure."
"Mr. Trent, do you know why I joined Hydra?"
I wished that anyone in this universe would speak in a straight line. But some things are beyond even my excellent social skills to fix. "To assure peace and security throughout the world?" I hazarded.
"That's right," he said as he poured himself a short glass of whiskey. "The world was full of chaos and violence, war in perpetuity. Do you know why?"
I did know why. I knew exactly the answer he wanted me to give. It was not an answer that would help my cause, not at all. But it was Hydra doctrine and it was better to walk into the trap as it clamped shut than to be a heretic at this moment. "Because people do not know how to choose what's best for them."
He held up his glass in silence, looking at it with a sour face. "You're right again, Mr. Trent."
I breathed in and out. There was no point in fleeing this moment. I let it hang in the air for a long, long time. I wasn't going to be the fool who punctured it and gave something for Pierce to lash out at.
Pierce finally put the glass to his lips and slammed the two thumbs of whiskey down his throat in one gulp. "One of the things I like about you," Pierce said, "Is that you know not to say stupid things."
Responding to that would've been a stupid thing, so I just stood silently, waiting.
"And I think you did well at the hearing. I see that and I can't help but think that you could be someone, maybe even an heir." He let the compliment hang, as if waiting for me to take the bait and thank him. But he was angry, this wasn't a compliment session. Any response at all would lead to a sucker punch. Better to let him step out to attack me, to put me into a verbal arena where he had already set the terms. "But then we come back again to your failure to aid Zola in making the correct choice. What happened?"
The lie had been carefully chosen and crafted. Something specific, something clear, and a conclusion that reflected the deep tenets of Hydra.
"I let my heart get in the way, sir. I imagined my life in a box in a ground, my face glued to an internet screen. And I knew of Zola. Andromeda speaks of him with the highest admiration. So I thought that he was wise enough to make the determination. I regret the error and will keep my own counsel on my technology in the future."
"You let your heart get in the way," Pierce said, tapping the rim of his glass. He was thinking. "I had heard you seldom do that. Ms. Albertson's report, failing me at last?"
"I won't lie to you and pretend that Andromeda is unbiased, but neither will I say her report is inaccurate. I had a moment of weakness, he was Hydra. Hydra would never be satisfied with a basement. I should have told him no, counseled patience, gathered more test subjects. But sometimes even our strength fails us."
"That they do."
I wondered if he would pull out a gun and shoot me then, in a brief moment of horror and reflexive memories of Bond villains. But Pierce is a cooler, gentler kind of tyrant. He doesn't dispose of what he can use. He had employed Fury for years, not because Fury was loyal to the same causes, but because Fury was the best choice for the job.
"Tell me, Mr. Trent, what do you think Hydra's plans should be, going forward?"
"In light of the presence of the Gibborim, it is time we gave humanity something new to fear."
I had to hope this worked. It had been my plan for a long, long time - Something that would offset the natural suspicion of what I had previously dealt with.
"The Gibborim is dead," Pierce pointed out.
"Not Gibborim," I said, kneeling down to my briefcase, Dr. Pepper in hand. I popped the briefcase open and fished out the brief in its manila folder. I slid it over to him.
He opened it and peered at it, "I'm not an engineer, Mr. Trent," he commented.
"It's spaceship sir. One that could traverse the stars themselves."
"Mr. Trent, humanity is not ready to encounter the wider universe."
"Of course not," I waved a hand dismissively. "That is precisely why we must go."
"Explain," Pierce said, his voice patient, calculating.
"We send out a small team of our professionals, Hydra preferably but that isn't really important. They gather knowledge and then return to Earth with reports of giants and monsters, like Joshua's spies. When humanity discovers that it is not alone in the universe, it will rightfully be afraid. A whole universe of beings, creatures not as unlike us as we might have hoped or feared, but powerful, numerous, and more advanced than we are. And we will look at each other, we humans, as we do in fire, flood, and famine." I held up my free hand closed it into a fist. "And we will come together. As the allies overcame ideology for fear of the Germans, as Americans overcame our enmity with the Germans to face the Soviets. In one fell swoop, we would be united. One tribe, one blood, one people."
"Perhaps instead fools will slip out to sell us for trinkets, like the Aztecs and their enemies tore each other to pieces before the Spanish."
"I admit it is a possibility. That is why Hydra must maintain a tight control on interstellar travel. But it seems more likely that mankind will at last see its interests united." I said, scurrying at the thought. "We're a long way from a final decision."
"They may never come," Pierce reminded me. I wanted to laugh. I knew destiny was calling for us.
"They have come already and if there are GIbborim, if there are Asgardians, than who knows what greater threats are out there in the universe. There are more. Many more. Stronger, fiercer than us."
"So you want to charge out to meet them," Pierce said.
"I want us to see them," I said. "And I want the world to cast around for a voice, a leader, someone who can speak for all mankind."
"You?" Pierce sounded more amused at the idea than it really deserved.
Yes, of course me, you old fool, I wanted to say, I wanted to shake him. Me because I can see the world, I can see its people, its bright future, and I can chart a path. I who would give them a hope and a future. Not you, hoarding secrets and hiding futures, chewing on humanity like a dog on a bone.
But megalomania is not appealing to other megalomaniacs, even if ambition is respected within Hydra. And if I offered up such a plan, he would've rightly laughed me out of the room. "Maybe some day," I said instead. There was no profit in pretending that there was no profit in it. "But not soon, certainly not now. I'm very young."
"Then who?"
If you want to tempt someone, you have to offer them something they want. And I had an idea of what Alexander Pierce wanted. "There is a global organization, dedicated to the defense of mankind in the face of threats far larger than one government could handle."
And Pierce's lips quirked upwards and I knew I had him.
"It would only be natural to look to it for guidance. To its leader, a seasoned man, a sure man with the years and experience we need for such a massive transition." Worst case scenario, I could always kill him and let Fury take the reins. "You."