Marvel's Venom, starting with a Hydra undercover agent.

Besides this, Phil Coulson seemed to have some other plans for him. Holm didn't know the specifics, but during their phone call today, he could hear the appreciation and satisfaction in the other party's tone. He also responded positively that he had done a good job on this mission and that there would be corresponding arrangements later.

After thinking about the address Daisy had given him, Holm told Gwen and then prepared to leave.

Seeing this, Gwen seemed to have something to say, but didn't know how to start.

Seeing this, Holm smiled and waved to her, then said, "I'll keep the secret, and you will too."

After he finished speaking, he left.

Gwen watched Holm's departing figure without saying anything, simply adjusting her clothes, putting her mask back on, and then drifting away.

Chapter 52, The Murder Plan Begins

"Click!"

After closing the door, Holm placed two large bags of chocolates on the table and then nestled into the sofa.

Venom couldn't wait to peek out as soon as he entered the room. After the chocolate was placed on the table, it immediately burrowed into the bag, sat in the pile of chocolate, and munched on it, looking quite happy.

Seeing Venom enjoying his meal so much, Holm also opened a bag of chocolates, broke off a piece, and slowly savored it.

The rich aroma of chocolate instantly filled his mouth, giving his tense nerves a moment of relaxation.

He had just finished communicating with Daisy about the mission and report, and all his fatigue suddenly vanished at that moment.

After the conversation, Holm also learned that after Daisy learned about the situation from him, she directly called Nick Fury and asked Nick Fury to communicate with Phil Coulson, who was in charge of the whole matter.

Holm was speechless at this thought. Although he told Daisy the truth so that she could play this role, he never expected that she would directly contact the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.

He originally thought that Daisy's connections were limited to Coulson, but he didn't expect that Coulson wasn't high enough, as Daisy was directly connected to Nick Fury, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

If it weren't for their different skin colors, and even their somewhat mismatched races, Holm would have seriously doubted whether Daisy was Nick Fury's illegitimate daughter.

It's really intriguing; what kind of connection do they have?

The question kept popping into Holm's mind, but after a moment he shook his head, sighed, and dismissed it from his thoughts.

Curiosity aside, and gossip aside, he couldn't ask Daisy too many questions directly.

As an experienced professional agent, he could sense that although Daisy had told him about this, she was still keeping the deeper details a secret, so he couldn't press her for more information.

He was certainly curious about such a secret, but he could restrain himself, since it wasn't something he absolutely needed to know.

Even Grant Ward had said not to act rashly, as there were countless people watching Daisy, so Holm would naturally be even more cautious.

Speaking of Grant Ward, Holm reflected on his own combat skills and overall performance in the mission, as well as the appreciation and satisfaction Coulson had shown him.

With his performance today, he should now be on the radar of Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. executives.

In this way, the plan that Holm had been keeping in mind could begin to be implemented.

Grant Ward! He could finally start taking care of this guy.

Thinking about all this, Holm took out a small USB drive from a small compartment under the bedside.

This USB drive was his backup plan, and also a backup that Nathan Landis had intended to conceal.

The contents recorded inside were the same as the metal device he had given to Grant Ward.

He knew that Grant Ward would kill him one day when he went to deal with Nathan Landis, so he had made all the necessary preparations.

These preparations included, but were not limited to, the videos shown to Grant Ward when reporting on the mission, deliberately uncleaned metal devices, and the posture and words displayed when facing Grant Ward's questions.

All of this was done to prevent Grant Ward from noticing anything unusual about him and to lower his guard against him.

Although Grant Ward's intention to clean up his mess will never be abandoned, he can demonstrate his harmlessness and usefulness to prolong the process as much as possible.

Now that his abilities have been demonstrated, it's a foregone conclusion that Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. will be paying close attention to him in the future, and it's time to deal with Grant Ward.

Holm fumbled for the USB drive in his hand, pondering in his mind, while continuing to chew a piece of chocolate in his mouth.

......

As the sun sets, its fiery red rays paint the clouds on the horizon a deep crimson, stretching for miles.

A day has passed since the Lizard Man incident. Although the incident only ended in the early hours of the previous day, the city of New York still exudes full of vitality.

Thanks to the collaborative efforts of various official agencies, the impact of the lizard man incident was minimized, and public attention was diverted by a constant stream of other news before it could even focus on the incident.

Following unified arrangements, the most widely accepted consensus among officials and the public regarding this incident is that an accidental leak of experimental gas occurred in the laboratory, but the matter was quickly resolved thanks to the rapid response of official agencies.

The reason this outcome was achieved with few objections is mainly because the citizens who were turned into lizardmen did not retain any memories of their time as lizardmen; their memories mostly remain from when the green smoke appeared in front of them.

The authorities have provided a reasonable explanation for the deaths of civilians in the incident and have also given their families appropriate humanitarian compensation.

Those who actually know what happened have all signed confidentiality agreements, prohibiting them from revealing or disclosing anything about the Lizardman incident.

With this combination of methods, the matter was brought to a standstill in just one day. The few stubborn and honest people who spread rumors about the truth were mostly considered to be just boring urban legends, which were at most laughed off and not taken seriously.

Grant Ward's job today is related to the Lizard Man incident; he has been arresting people who have leaked the truth privately and are trying to incite further unrest.

What struck him as odd was that, for some reason, starting this morning, he kept feeling certain gazes lingering on him.

When he first had this feeling, he became wary, but after careful analysis, he felt it might be an illusion.

It wasn't until he had the same feeling a second time that he realized it wasn't a hallucination, but that someone was really watching him.

Although he didn't understand why he was being monitored, as a seasoned veteran agent, he continued his work discreetly without revealing the slightest flaw.

While working, he kept glancing around out of the corner of his eye, trying to find those who were watching him.

Meanwhile, he kept pondering in his mind, wondering if he had recently revealed any flaws or done anything wrong. Why would someone suddenly come to monitor him?

Chapter 53, How come it's you?

After thinking hard for a long time, Grant Ward felt that the only person who could possibly be monitoring him was S.H.I.E.L.D., since Hydra had no reason to do so and would not use such methods.

If it were Hydra, no one would be constantly monitoring him; assassins would come knocking before he even realized what was happening.

Although after thinking it over, Grant Ward determined that the person monitoring him should be from S.H.I.E.L.D., he still didn't understand why S.H.I.E.L.D. was monitoring him, or where he had gone wrong.

Grant Ward continued driving home from get off work as if nothing had happened, pondering these questions.

In the rearview mirror, a low-profile sedan trailed far behind his car.

Grant Ward could sense that the people monitoring him were quite skilled; if he weren't a seasoned veteran and extremely perceptive as a double agent, an ordinary agent wouldn't have been able to detect it.

To avoid alerting the enemy, Grant Ward pretended not to have noticed anything and went about his daily routine as usual.

Those who were monitoring him also kept their distance and did not attract his attention; they simply watched and observed him quietly.

Soon, Grant Ward had already driven back to the building where he rented an apartment.

He parked the car in the parking space, then took out his keys and twirled them on his fingers while humming an unknown song as he walked up to the third floor.

Only his footsteps echoed in the stairwell, indicating that the person monitoring him had not followed.

The third floor was reached quickly. Grant Ward, clutching his keys, walked towards his front door.

Meanwhile, he was glancing casually at the room opposite him out of the corner of his eye.

The room opposite his was unoccupied, but he remembered that the layout was the same as his, except that the windows faced the opposite directions; his window faced east, while the opposite window faced west.

The setting sun outside is still ablaze with color, and normally at least some light should be shining through the peephole across the street, just like usual. But today, not a single peephole is letting in any light.

Grant Ward knew this was because someone was also watching him through the peephole from the empty room across the street.

This is because someone is blocking the cat's view, so the cat's eye isn't shining as brightly as usual today.

This detail made Grant Ward's heart sink again, but he didn't show any abnormality and still opened the door smoothly.

"Click!"

As the lock clicked as it turned, Grant Ward quickly checked all the marks he had left behind, confirming that no one had opened the door.

As he entered the house, the curtains were still drawn tightly, just as they had been before he left, not letting in a single ray of light.

The whole house was only brightened up when he turned on the lights.

Since there were people in the houses across the street, it goes without saying that someone was watching him with binoculars across from his own window. Grant Ward knew this without even thinking.

At least he got home, and he was finally able to relax a little and take some time to think of a solution.

Keeping the curtains drawn was his usual habit, and even if it blocked their view of him, they wouldn't suspect anything.

What caused this sudden surveillance? What did he miss? What clues did he miss?

Grant Ward sat on the sofa with a frown, pondering the cause of the incident and how to escape safely.

If he can't retain his undercover identity with S.H.I.E.L.D., then he'll have no choice but to give up his undercover work and return to Hydra to focus on being a non-undercover Hydra agent.

With his years of experience and ability, he could have made the most of his skills in other positions even if he wasn't an undercover agent.

He had great ambitions; his original plan for himself was not just to be an undercover agent.

As Grant Ward pondered his future and the current predicament, the sound of running water suddenly came from his bathroom.

The sudden sound made Grant Ward's hair stand on end. He jumped up from the sofa and drew his pistol, aiming it steadily at the bathroom door.

As he listened to the gradually subsiding sound of the flushing water in the bathroom, the waves of emotion surging within him grew even stronger.

He had carefully checked all the small marks left behind when he entered the room, confirming that no one had opened his door. However, the sound of flushing water now made him feel ashamed and filled him with a deep sense of unease.

“Three seconds. If you don’t open the door, I’ll shoot. Trust me, no matter what you do, my bullet will be faster than yours,” Grant Ward said, looking at the figure that was faintly visible behind the frosted glass.

As he spoke, he gripped his pistol tighter, his slightly narrowed eyes filled with murderous intent.

“There’s only one second left!” Grant Ward issued his final warning.

"Wait, wait, wait, wasn't it supposed to be three seconds? How come it's already down to the last second?" A familiar voice came from the slowly opening bathroom door.

Holm walked out of the bathroom, shaking the water droplets off his hands, and looked at Grant Ward with a somewhat helpless smile.

"You? Why are you in my house? I need a reasonable explanation from you," Grant Ward asked, still holding his gun.

Seeing how Holm behaved in a way that was completely different from how he usually did in front of him, he felt that the current situation was strange and something was wrong.

In all his years in the industry, he had never encountered a situation that puzzled him so much.

Looking at Grant Ward, who was wary but still spoke to him with an undisguised tone of disdain, Holm's smile grew even brighter.

"Hahaha, I really want you to see how ridiculous you look right now," Holm said, leaning against the wall and mocking Grant Ward.

"Clearly confused to death, and probably scared inside, yet still pretending with this annoying attitude."