American Comic Dimensional Trading Device

"Hey, it's all because of a few guys causing trouble, especially that Calvin Chadwick. He's absolutely against your return to the council!" Malik said, feigning helplessness, while also trying to put Chadwick in his place.

"Really? Is it because of Whitney? To treat me like an enemy for the sake of a mere woman, the leader of Aetheran is not very magnanimous!" Josie raised an eyebrow and said. Although he knew Malik was trying to sow discord, he also understood that the other party could not have fabricated such a story out of thin air.

Calvin Chadwick? Heh, I'll remember that.

“Who can argue with that? But it’s fortunate that you’ve successfully become a core member of the Chicago consortium during this time, and that you’ve taken over Schmidt’s influence, which has made those old guys quite appreciative of you. Otherwise, with just my words, this matter might not have been possible!” Malik exclaimed.

"So, they've already agreed?" Josie asked.

"Of course, they've invited you to meet in New York for a formal club meeting. But you need to be careful; they know you're planning to take the Chicago consortium to Europe to make money, so they want a piece of the pie!" Malik said. "Those old guys are up to no good, so you'd better watch out!"

"What? Do you think they can eat me? Or do you think I'm afraid?" Josie sneered upon hearing this.

“Of course I know you’re not afraid, and you’ll be back in your seat. Those old fogies won’t do anything to you openly; that would violate the council’s rules. But they can’t stop them from playing dirty tricks, using normal business methods to seize your profits—that’s what they’re best at,” Malik said meaningfully.

When Hydra was founded, it also made an oath that its directors would not fight amongst themselves.

This internal strife mainly refers to the use of force.

That is, assassination or something similar.

You can do whatever you want with outsiders, but you can't do that with other board members, otherwise everyone will target you.

This is not only to maintain the continuation of the organization, but also to protect the directors themselves—how can an organization with constant internal strife last long?

Of course, it's not entirely impossible, as long as you do it discreetly enough to avoid being discovered.

However, once discovered, you'd better expect to get your table flipped.

Schmidt was completely abandoned by the council because he violated this rule.

However, this restriction prohibiting internal strife clearly does not include normal business operations.

The Malik family was brought down by several other companies using business tactics.

But would Josie, with her cheat code, be afraid of business tactics?

If you dare to cheat me, I'll crush you with my technological superiority!

A few days later, Josie and Malik traveled to New York together.

Just like when he joined the Chicago Consortium, after a brief gathering, Josie was given the iconic Hydra insignia and officially became a member of the Hydra organization.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Hydra may seem like a mysterious and high-class organization.

But you'll only realize after you actually get to know it that, under normal circumstances, it's not much different from a regular commercial club.

Aside from each board member needing to allocate funds annually for various collaborative projects and sharing important intelligence and political resources, they generally operate independently and are highly autonomous.

Apart from a few directors, the directors' respective factions generally do not interact without orders.

It is precisely because of this loose structure that this organization is even more difficult to eradicate.

This is not good news for Josh either.

This type of cooperation can also help the development of Qiaoxi's industry very quickly.

However, this also made it more difficult for him to completely control Hydra.

Fortunately, Josie is young and can afford to wait!

As Malik had previously warned, the council was also prepared to get a share of the profits during its trip to Europe.

To be precise, the Council originally planned to carve up Europe after the war, but the appearance of Josie and the return of the European Hydra branch to the organization made it easier to carry out its plans.

However, beyond these normal operations, Josie, who had just gained a seat on the council, also witnessed another side of Hydra and became involved in one of its major events.

“Now that the war is basically over, it’s not appropriate for Roosevelt to continue sitting in that position. Otherwise, given his personality, it won’t be long before he turns against us!” At the club meeting, after discussing Josh and European-related matters, Thomas Gloucester, as the leader of the contemporary council, raised a new issue that startled Josh.

Good heavens, Hydra truly lives up to its name.

They certainly pulled off some explosive moves.

Who is Franklin D. Roosevelt? He's the one in the White House, of course.

Because before that, there was a president named Theodore Roosevelt, and the current Roosevelt is Franklin Roosevelt, the former being the latter's distant cousin.

It is precisely because of this relationship that the former is known as Theodore Roosevelt, while the current one is known as Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Today is an election year, and this is a crucial moment in the election. The council is clearly trying to interfere with the election and prevent Roosevelt from continuing as president.

"This matter may not be easy, right? That one is at the height of his power right now!" Josh tentatively asked. As a major capitalist, Josh did not want Roosevelt to continue as president. A president with too long a term and too much power is not a good thing for any major capitalist or financial group.

Roosevelt happened to have all of them.

In the original timeline, Roosevelt was still the winner of this election, and by a landslide.

However, just a few months after the victory, on the eve of the complete end of the war, it happened by sheer coincidence.

Josie wasn't sure if there was anything wrong with this.

But what Josie is now certain of is that if Roosevelt in this world continues to be elected and then dies, there will be a big problem.

And it's very likely to be related to myself.

Wow...it sounds pretty exciting.

Adding the hydra was a good idea.

"Heh, Josh Kahn, now that you've joined the council, you have to get used to its rules of conduct. So what if you got elected? There are so many elected presidents, and just as many who have run into trouble. What difference does one more make?" Calvin Chadwick, sitting opposite Josh, gave him a provocative look and said casually.

Chapter 111 Research data on nuclear weapons? I have it!

"Enough, Calvin!" Thomas Gloucester, sitting at the head of the table, snapped at Calvin, then turned to Josie and said, "Our actions aren't actually that extreme. Most of the time, we're just doing things out of necessity. You're a businessman too; you should know that many of Roosevelt's measures are unsuitable for the post-war economy!"

“Of course, sir, I understand perfectly!” Josie nodded, feigning honesty.

“It’s good that you understand. You don’t need to get involved in this matter. After all, you’ve just returned to the organization. Although you’ve joined the Chicago consortium, your roots in the United States aren’t deep, so it’s not appropriate for you to get too involved in American politics. Helping us regain our footing in Europe is your most important task!” Thomas Gloucester said with satisfaction, looking at the sincere Josie.

He had initially thought this young man, who had achieved early success, would be as arrogant and boastful as Schmidt. He only agreed to let him return to the organization because the other party had taken control of the European branch by chance. He even thought that the other party was just a shield pushed out by the European branch. However, judging from his performance in the short period of time, he was actually a very calm young man.

In comparison... Thomas glanced at Calvin and shook his head inwardly.

Aetheran Energy made a fortune during the Great Depression and should now be a behemoth like Citigroup or Roxon. It's just a pity that old Chadwick died at a crucial moment, leaving behind an incompetent man like Calvin.

"Of course, I will do my best!" Josh was also surprised to hear Thomas's words. He originally thought that Thomas was trying to make things difficult for him by bringing up such a big deal as interfering in the election and undermining Roosevelt, and to find fault with him.

It turns out that this wasn't the case at all.

It seems that Hydra is quite lenient with its own people.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. Giving a task that could potentially affect the fate of the organization to someone like Josie who has just joined would be playing with his life and fortune—even if Josie joined as a director, it wouldn't be right.

Therefore, the other board members nodded in approval of Thomas's statement and Josie's performance.

"Speaking of which, there's another matter. After Whitney's death, the research progress on atomic weapons was greatly delayed. I think the council should come up with a backup plan for this. After all, if we can't manufacture atomic weapons as soon as possible and let the world see them, it won't be so easy for the United States to gain world hegemony!" Seeing that Josie seemed to have the approval of the other council members, Calvin Chadwick couldn't help but ask a question.

"Speaking of which, Whitney's matter is related to you, isn't it, Josh?" Upon hearing this, the other board members also looked at Josh.

Calvin's incompetence was only relative to the seasoned veterans of the council.

However, for most ordinary people in this era, Calvin, who received a rigorous elite education from childhood, can hardly be considered a good-for-nothing.

Although the Manhattan Project is a national project of the United States, its creation and operation are still inseparable from the interest groups behind the executives present here. In a sense, it is also a project of Hydra itself.

As mentioned earlier, Whitney was just a female celebrity on the surface, but in private she was one of the key researchers involved in the project by Hydra. However, because of her female identity, she was never able to directly participate in the project.

Calvin's use of this to provoke Josie was quite clever.

“That’s right, I did it. This woman’s act of stealing the Nightlight Potion almost got me sent to a military court. If it weren’t for my research institute’s discovery of the Nightlight Potion, I might not be sitting here right now… What? If you were in this situation, would you let her live through Christmas?” Unlike Malik’s evasive answers last time, Josie admitted it very readily this time.

Because the situation has changed. Before he joined the council, the two sides were not on the same side. Josie admitted that the other side could use this matter to retaliate against him.

However, now that Josie has become one of the highest-ranking directors in Hydra, Whitney's previous behavior can be considered "insubordination."

Other board members can use this to criticize themselves, but they can't do anything to Josie; that's the privilege of being a board member.

“While Whitney was at fault first, Josie, your handling of the situation was a bit too violent. It doesn’t matter how you punish her, but killing her outright was inappropriate!” Hugh Jones, the head of the Roxon Corporation, also spoke up at this moment. “However, this matter is not irreparable. I have a fairly good personal relationship with that genius scientist, Howard Stark. Perhaps we can try to persuade him to participate in the Manhattan Project. In terms of ability, he should be stronger than Whitney.”

Upon hearing Hugh Jones's words, the other board members immediately expressed their agreement. Although Howard Stark was clearly not one of them, that did not prevent them from using this super scientist under other pretexts.

Previously, Howard Stark had been recruited to the front lines by the Strategic Scientific Corps to be in charge of the research and development and manufacturing of various special equipment, so the Council had not been able to make a move against him.

However, with the end of the European war, Howard Stark, like Josie, had returned to the United States, which gave the council an opportunity.

However, no one noticed that when Hugh Jones mentioned his personal relationship with Howard, Josie looked at the top of the council leader's head with a strange expression.

why?

Of course, it's because of Howard's personal conduct issues.

It cannot be denied that both Stark and his son are geniuses, and in many ways, they are also responsible "heroes".

However, compared to other upright heroes like Captain America, the private morality of this father and son is not so good.

If you want to be friends with this father and son, you should first consider whether you'll end up being cuckolded.

And coincidentally, Josie knew that Hugh Jones, who claimed to be a close friend of Howard, was one of the victims... Josie hadn't seen Agent Carter 2, so she didn't know Whitney Frost and Calvin Chadwick before.

However, Hugh Jones is an exception, because the Roxon Corporation, which he controls, has a very high appearance rate in Marvel comics, movies, and TV series. Therefore, Josh once specifically looked at the information about the Roxon Corporation collected by those YouTubers.

Among these, the love-hate relationship between Hugh Jones and Howard Stark was mentioned.

To put it bluntly, Hugh Jones treated Howard like a brother, but Howard slept with his wife.

From that time until the time of Tony Stark, the Roxon Corporation relentlessly targeted the Stark Corporation.