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Chapter 37 The Panic-Stricken Hydra

"Haha, don't worry, eat as much as you want! Even if you order ten more servings, it's no problem!"

Nick Fury waved his hand in response.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is currently growing rapidly, and there are many places where money needs to be spent. He is currently short of funds, but he is not so short of money that he has to cut back on even a meal.

"Really? Mr. Fury, you're such a kind person. Waiter, bring me a hundred servings of those two dishes to whet my appetite."

A bright smile instantly spread across Hawking's face.

An hour later, Nick Fury looked at Hawking, who was still eating at an undiminished pace, and his eyes twitched a few times.

They can eat so much! They can eat so much, even pigs can't eat this much!

This is a high-end French restaurant, known for its exquisite dishes, high prices, and ambiance. For someone like Hawking to eat like this, he's really going to have to spend a lot of money today.

It wasn't that he couldn't afford it; it's just that the money for this meal, if spent on other things, would be enough to arm a small team of elite special agents.

But he couldn't say anything. The other person was embarrassed at first, so he ordered twenty apple-flavored black sausages and pan-fried sole. He opened his mouth and told the other person to eat as much as they wanted.

Now that I realize it, I've definitely fallen for this kid's trick.

There's no way around it; even knowing that Hawking's mental maturity was beyond that of an ordinary child, his childlike appearance still had a natural disguising effect, making it hard for anyone to be wary.

Most importantly, he really didn't expect Hawking to have eaten to this extent.

"Beep beep beep beep."

Just as everyone's attention was focused on Hawking, who was wolfing down his food, Nick Fury's communicator suddenly rang.

"It's Hill."

Upon seeing the caller ID, Nick Fury pressed the answer button.

A moment later, his expression suddenly changed, and he abruptly stood up from his seat.

"What? You're saying Colonel Stryker died of poisoning!"

His words surprised everyone present.

The surprise was the same, but the object of the surprise was different.

Everyone else was surprised by Stryker's death, while Magneto and Mystique were surprised that Hawking had actually carried out this poisoning without leaving a trace.

If they hadn't known beforehand that Hawking was behind it, they would never have been able to connect Stryker's death with Hawking at all.

However, the two were shrewd old men. Despite their surprise, they didn't look in Hawking's direction, thus avoiding alerting the agents in front of them.

"Excuse me, I have something to take care of, so I'll head back now. I'll have Coulson pay the bill after we finish eating."

After a furrowed brow and a brief exchange, Nick Fury turned off the communicator.

According to Agent Hill's report, Stryker died suddenly from poisoning while being interrogated by agents.

Because upon receiving Stryker, they conducted a comprehensive physical examination, ruling out the possibility that he had been poisoned beforehand by Professor X, Magneto, and others.

In addition, these people are still having dinner with him now.

Therefore, Hill suspects that one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who later came into contact with Stryker took the opportunity to poison him.

Hill, unsure of who they were, arrested and interrogated them all. To her surprise, she discovered that one of the agents, who had just graduated from S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, seemed to be a spy planted in S.H.I.E.L.D. by some secret organization.

Therefore, the current situation is even more serious than Stryker's death; it's a problem within S.H.I.E.L.D., and he needs to go back and deal with it as soon as possible.

"It's alright, Director Fury and everyone else, please go ahead and do what you need to do. We'll settle the bill ourselves in a bit."

Professor X replied with a smile.

For him, the amount of money Hawking spent on the meal was really nothing, and there was no need to ruin things for Nick Fury, with whom he had just established a good relationship.

"How can we let the customer pay? Coulson, stay behind. The rest of you come back to headquarters with me."

Nick Fury's face stiffened for a moment, and he did not agree to Professor X's suggestion. As the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., he couldn't afford to lose face like that.

At the same time, he couldn't help but marvel at how incredibly wealthy the Xavier family, which had been running the business for generations, truly was.

As Nick Fury led Captain Marvel and the others away from the restaurant in a hurry, Alexander Pierce, the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D., was also having a headache in the Tri-Wing Building's Security Council office.

"Sitwell, you said Hill is interrogating a recently converted agent?"

"Minister, this was an accident, but fortunately, the agent didn't know we were Hydra; he was only after money."

S.H.I.E.L.D. senior agent Sitwell quickly reported the entire situation.

As Hydra's chief recruiter, he organizes his team every year to recruit and transfer a group of suitable agents from among the graduates of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy to join Hydra.

However, for the sake of secrecy, these most junior Hydra spies were unaware that their organization was Hydra.

The agent captured by Hill was one of his Hydra agents who had just been converted this year.

Unfortunately, he was unlucky and got involved in Stryker's poisoning and murder. He also couldn't withstand the interrogation, which led to this awkward situation.

"Nick Fury is a very shrewd and cautious man. Get rid of your subordinate before he gets back, cut off that lead, and then turn the clues to some of the terrorist organizations we've been impersonating."

Also, all activities must cease during this period, including those targeting mutants.

Pierce paced back and forth in his office for a moment, then quickly issued a series of orders.

He handed over the position of Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to Nick Fury, rather than one of his own Hydra members, mainly because he felt that Nick Fury was too outstanding and capable.

Although not Hydra, some of their ideas and ways of doing things are similar to Hydra's.

And that is indeed the case. In just a few years, S.H.I.E.L.D. has grown several times larger than when he was in charge.

This also allowed Hydra, which was parasitic within S.H.I.E.L.D., to grow significantly.

However, he also had to be careful not to let Nick Fury discover the existence of Hydra, so for now, everything should be focused on appeasing Nick Fury, and everything else could be put aside.

At present, Nick Fury is the most valuable person to them.

However, this incident truly is a case of someone sitting at home being blamed for something happening out of nowhere.

Why did he send someone to kill Stryker?

He was also waiting for Nick Fury to extract information about mutants and experimental data from Stryker.

Anyway, he could give a copy of whatever Nick Fury extracted from him to Hydra for research.

Unfortunately, he has no choice but to take the blame. He absolutely cannot let things escalate and allow Nick Fury to discover that there are problems within S.H.I.E.L.D.

The best course of action would be to steer Stryker's death toward fictional terrorist organizations hostile to S.H.I.E.L.D.

Even he is now wondering, who exactly poisoned Colonel Stryker?

At this moment, Hawking, who was frantically eating, was unaware that his attempt to poison Stryker with a Transfiguration spell had nearly detonated Hydra's potential threat prematurely.

……

(End of this chapter)