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

Having identified his special abilities and figured out what he needed to do next, this matter came to an end. Next, he needed to make some preparations regarding William Baker's situation.

......

As the sun gradually set below the horizon, Brock Rumlow, having finished a busy day, walked home as usual, carrying a bag of beer and cigarettes.

He has indeed been busier than before during this period. After his last contact with the Viper agent, his abilities have gradually begun to be noticed.

After his outstanding performance over this period, he quickly rose through the ranks and became the captain of a special team.

Just a few days ago, he led his team to perfectly coordinate with the agents during the Sandman incident and evacuated the hostages in their assigned area in the fastest possible time.

With such outstanding achievements as a foundation, his position as captain has become increasingly secure, and he will surely have a solid foundation to stand on when he climbs higher in the future.

Thinking of this, Brock Rumlow's steps became lighter, and he felt that his future was indeed becoming more and more promising.

Meanwhile, from his window, Holm was watching all of this from behind the curtains.

Chapter 126, Hydra or Viper? Rumlow's Choice

"Click!" As the door was pushed open, Rumlow stepped into his home.

As soon as he stepped into the hallway and saw that familiar figure sitting on the sofa in the living room, he immediately stood up and said in a deep voice, "Sir, you've arrived. Is there a mission for me?"

Hearing Rumlow's enthusiastic attitude, Holm waved to him and asked, "How much does it cost to use a large hammer to smash the wall?"

Upon hearing Holm's command, Rumlow stood still beside the sofa and replied, "One hundred and eighty dollars a glass of wine."

"Sit down." After the command was completed, Holm pointed to the sofa next to him, indicating that he should sit down.

Upon hearing this, Rumlow sat somewhat awkwardly on the sofa, feeling uneasy about what kind of task Holm would assign him.

This was the first task Holm had given him after he was awakened. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't afford to make any mistakes. He had to complete the task perfectly, no matter how difficult it was.

“I’ve seen your performance over this period of time, and you’ve done a great job. If you continue on this trajectory, your future is promising…” Holm said to Rumlow with his dark face.

Rumlow nodded humbly upon hearing this, indicating that it was all thanks to Holm's appreciation and the organization's support.

After a few pleasantries, Holm stopped talking and took a folder from the side, handing it to Rumlow.

"Look, this is your mission objective."

Upon hearing this, Rumlow took the folder with both hands, opened it, and pulled out the contents.

The folder contained only a few A4 sheets of paper with a photo of a little girl printed on them. Next to the photo were her name, age, and the orphanage she lived in. The next sheet contained some of her information.

"Katie Pride, 14 years old, Lesputt Orphanage, has a withdrawn and eccentric personality and is older than expected, so she has never been adopted..."

Looking at the girl in the photo, whose face was filled with unhappiness and stubbornness, Rumlow paused for a moment, then looked up at Holm and asked hesitantly, "This child doesn't seem to have anything special about her. Should I... go and get rid of her?"

Even though Rumlow was an agent who operated in the darkest of times, he still hesitated when he saw that the target was a girl who was only 14 years old.

However, his hesitation was just that—hesitation. If Holm still insisted that he deal with the girl, he wouldn't say anything more.

Fortunately, in response to his question, Holm simply shook his head and said, "Your task is not to kill her, but to adopt her."

"Adopt her and take good care of her; she will be very useful in the future."

“I will give you $10 to cover all your expenses during the mission, including schooling, food, clothing, and accommodation.”

"If you run out of funds, contact me and I will continue to provide you with funding."

Rumlow was somewhat surprised when he heard Holm's mission requirements. He wasn't surprised that the mission was too difficult, but rather that it was surprisingly simple.

Basically, all he needs to do is adopt the child, and Holm will reimburse him for all the expenses incurred in taking care of the child.

Holm will reimburse him...

Suddenly, Rumlow seemed to understand something.

This mission has nothing to do with Hydra; it was a mission given to him personally by Holm, so he is only responsible to Holm personally.

This is why Holm only mentioned himself when introducing the mission, including that he was the one who funded the mission, without mentioning Hydra at all.

So although the task itself wasn't difficult, it contained a lot of meaning; it was Holm's requirement for him to choose sides.

Although he had expressed this idea during their last meeting, words alone were not enough, and Holm could not trust him based on just a few words.

Given this, Rumlow had to consider whether or not to accept this mission personally assigned by Holm. After all, if he took it on, he would naturally need to conceal the mission from the organization, and thus he would have made a choice, standing on Holm's side and being branded as a serpent.

A burst of inspiration can happen in an instant, and after considering this aspect, Rumlow quickly grasped the hidden meaning behind the task.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but raise his head to look at Holm's face, trying to find some clues, but what he saw was still that face that was completely dark and obscured.

After explaining the mission, Holm didn't say anything more, but simply leaned back on the sofa, tilting his head slightly to look at Rumlow.

Just by looking at Rumlow's expression, Holm knew that the other party had understood his meaning. After all, judging from his performance last time, this guy was a smart man.

However, even a smart person needs to choose sides. He needs to know whether Rumlow is someone he can continue to use, and whether his future plans can be handled by this person.

Rumlow was also thinking and making a choice. He knew he only had about two or three seconds to make this choice, because if he took too long, it would seem insincere.

Holm's choice to take sides was both a risky option and a potential opportunity for him.

After all, he could tell just by looking at him how special this Viper agent was, and he seemed to have quite a bit of ambition.

If you want to climb faster and have higher ambitions, it's perfectly fine to team up with someone like that; only someone like that can lead you to rapid progress.

The only problem is that if they make this choice, they will be passively bound together. If something goes wrong, Hydra will not let him go, and it will be unlikely that he can live a good life.

Living well... When Rumlow thought of these words, he chuckled to himself. He must have been out of his mind to even think of those words.

From the day he became a secret agent, and a double agent at that, those words were basically a thing of the past for him.

He either chooses to live a life of great achievements and die a life of great achievements, or he chooses to live a life of utter despair and die a life of utter despair.

It's practically impossible for secret agents to die a peaceful death. If they die without much pain and are left with a complete body, that's already a great honor.

As his thoughts raced, Rumlow had already made his decision.

As he lit the papers with a lighter and let them burn in the trash can, he looked at Holm and made a confident and firm promise.

"Please rest assured, I will complete this task well!"

Chapter 127, The Explanation of Daisy and John Calculus's Summoning

Holm was satisfied with Rumlow's choice; a smart man is a smart man, he knows what to do without needing to be told.

After giving him instructions and leaving him $10 in cash, Holm quietly left again.

After walking two blocks away, the person who emerged from the alley again was no longer Agent Viper, but Holm Clint.

"Why is a shirt priced at 9 pounds 15 pence? Isn't this in US dollars? And what does this code mean?" Venom once again questioned Holm's newly set code, as it could never understand the logic between the question and the answer.

Upon hearing Venom's question, Holm responded with a pre-prepared answer: "It's just a code. The last thing you should be thinking about is the logic between them. If there's a logic between the codes, wouldn't it be easy for someone to guess them?"

"So stop worrying about what it means, because it doesn't mean anything at all. It was just a thought that flashed through my mind at the time."

Hearing Holm's answer and explanation, Venom still felt something was off, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Seeing that Venom had finally calmed down, Holm breathed a sigh of relief. He was most afraid that Venom would keep asking questions like last time, which could drive a person crazy.

Holm glanced at the message and address Daisy had sent him on his phone again, then drove his newly bought car toward his destination.

Twenty minutes later, Holm had barely sat down when Daisy impatiently said to him, "Hurry up and explain what you said you wanted to say last time. You promised to tell me after the mission was completed, but several days have passed now."

Daisy was referring to his promise to explain things about Natasha, which he had made previously.

Holm hadn't expected Daisy to keep it in mind, and to be in such a hurry. He had barely sat down and hadn't even had a sip of water before he was being urged to speak.

Seeing Daisy's curious eyes, Holm had no choice but to ask the waiter for a glass of water himself, and then said, "Actually, it's not something that's particularly hard to figure out. Perhaps you already have a guess in your heart..."

“I have no guesses, just tell me,” Daisy said, shaking her head.

Holm smiled at her, then lowered his voice and said, "On the surface, things do seem the way you think, but there's actually a deeper reason. Do you know what it is?"

Hearing Holm's statement, Daisy looked at him with disdain and said, "You said that things are indeed as I think, so what other reason could there be?"

"As expected, men are all like this... No matter how rational and cautious they are usually, they can never control themselves..."

"And that woman too, you two got what you wanted, right?" Daisy's eyes were practically overflowing with disgust as she said this.

Seeing this, Holm could only wave his hand and then said in a low voice with a sense of helplessness, "You misunderstood. She is indeed not simple. It can't be said that we each got what we wanted. She approached me because of the mission requirements, and I responded to her because I knew she had mission requirements."

After two encounters, Holm had a general idea of ​​why Natasha had approached him. Besides the fact that he was indeed handsome and capable enough to meet her needs, it was likely that the suspicious Blackie had given her a secret mission: to contact him and then screen and investigate her during the process.

"Mission requirements? But she's also SHIELD...!!! I understand, you mean they don't trust you, that's why..." Although still shocked, Daisy quickly understood Holm's meaning.

Daisy had always seen Holm's special abilities and outstanding talents. She originally thought that someone like Holm deserved all the attention and promotion he could receive, but she never expected that there would be such arrangements in the dark.

Within S.H.I.E.L.D., there are few people capable of making such arrangements for Holm, and Nick Fury's name almost instantly popped into Daisy's mind.

After all, her uncle is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Even if he didn't make this arrangement, it still needs his approval to be implemented. So no matter what, her uncle must be someone in the know.

Thinking of this, a complex emotion rose in her heart, and the disdain in her eyes disappeared, replaced by worry and apology.

Daisy's reaction was within Holm's expectations, after all, he had come to understand Daisy's personality after spending so much time together.

So after Daisy finished speaking with some disbelief, Holm smiled and looked at her with a gentle, reassuring gaze, saying, "Actually, it's nothing. After all, my abilities are indeed very special, and it's normal for the department to make such arrangements for me."

"On the contrary, I should be grateful to them. After all, they just observed me quietly instead of arresting me and taking me to do experiments. To be honest, I don't want to become neighbors with Dr. Lizard."

Holm ended by cracking a corny joke to lighten the mood.

But Daisy's mood was clearly not lifted by his joke. After a pause, Daisy looked at Holm and said softly, "I'm sorry..."

Upon hearing Daisy's apology, Holm waved his hand and said with a smile, "If you are apologizing to me because of the department's arrangements, then there is no need for that, because I don't feel there is anything wrong with it myself. After all, if you are upright, you have nothing to fear."

"But if you're apologizing because you misunderstood me, then I can only say that those two words don't show any sincerity at all. You should at least treat me to two meals."

Seeing Holm's easygoing demeanor and his teasing, Daisy didn't say anything more. Instead, she pursed her lips, nodded slightly, and said, "Then I'll treat you to three meals..."

"Beep beep beep!" Before Daisy could finish speaking, Holm's phone rang.

Seeing this, Holm gave Daisy a somewhat apologetic look, and then took out his phone to check.

“I’m really sorry, my smoke alarm is going off again. It seems to be a bit old and hasn’t been working very well lately, but I’ll have to go home and check it just in case,” Holm explained to Daisy as he put his phone back in his pocket.

Daisy, of course, had no doubts about such an excuse and reason, so she and Holm paid the bill and left, and then went home separately.

Watching Daisy's figure disappear at the other end of the intersection, Holm stepped on the gas and drove his car home as fast as he could.

The smoke alarm was just an excuse; the real reason was that there was something more important in his house than the smoke alarm going off.

Judging from the coded message in the text message, John Garratt, whom he hadn't contacted for quite some time, was at his house, so he had to hurry back.