Acting for a Computer

At Trident Headquarters, Pierce was putting on an act as he argued with the Council bigwigs.

Gideon Malick had resigned to take responsibility for launching a nuclear missile at New York.

Nick Fury had urged Pierce to fill the vacant seat.

Who knew how he felt about that now?

"Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., was brutally murdered. Any normal person would consider him a martyr, not a traitor."

Oscar-worthy actor Pierce remained expressionless, anger hidden behind his glasses as he paced unconsciously.

The other Council members, attending via hologram, immediately fired back:

"He hired mercenaries to hijack his own ship. If that doesn’t make him a traitor, what does?"

"Nick Fury exploited his relationship with you to force the Council to delay the Insight Project. He knew that plan would expose his illegal dealings. At best, he deceived you. At worst…"

"Are you asking me to resign and take responsibility?"

The mud Pierce had thrown at Nick Fury had produced the expected result. He sneered inwardly, his tone gaining a trace of anger.

"I have pen and paper right here!"

"We’ll discuss that matter later!"

Another Council member cut in coldly. Pierce planted his hands on his hips and added more fuel to the fire.

"Will you really discuss it?"

"We’ve already discussed it, Minister!"

Yet another Council member deliberately emphasized Pierce’s position.

"The Council has decided to immediately restart the Insight Project!"

The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. had run into trouble. Fine, he was dead now.

But you, a minister, were clearly in cahoots with your good subordinate and successor!

And you still wanted to petition for martyr status for a disgraceful traitor who had danced under our noses for so long and cost us a respected old friend?!

If Nick Fury could be a martyr, then what did that make us, the ones he had run circles around?

Idiots?

No matter how idiotic we were, we knew that your support for Nick Fury was betrayal, Pierce!

Nick Fury had brought this upon himself. But once the Insight Project went online, your actions, Pierce, would be fully exposed before our eyes!

S.H.I.E.L.D. had usurped far too much power. With you two around, we had never been able to truly keep it in check.

And now, one of you was dead, and your good days, Pierce, would not last much longer!

So, he added one more sentence:

"If you want to lose your temper, do it now."

"Lose my temper…"

Pierce slowly swept his gaze across his four "colleagues" on the Council, then smiled faintly.

"Why would I? Once the Insight Project goes online, I’ll be waiting to see the faces of those who want to kick me off the bus."

New Jersey, the birthplace of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the former training base of Captain America, Steve Rogers.

It had now been abandoned and stood empty, but as the place where a legend had been born, its main structure remained intact.

Night had fallen. After spending some effort locating S.H.I.E.L.D.’s original underground basement, Oaks took out a USB drive and inserted it into an expansion dock on the console before him, one that was obviously out of place with its surroundings.

Beside him stood two Soul Projections—the images of Steve and Natasha.

After receiving the inheritance of the Balance of Life and Death, this was Oaks’s first true application of its soul-based spells.

Soul illusions were much like Loki’s magic. They could create doubles nearly indistinguishable from the real thing, though they could not split into a huge crowd as extravagantly as Loki could.

Making the two Soul Projections visible to ordinary optical cameras and capable of speaking had taken Oaks quite a bit of effort.

After all, soul-based spells were originally meant for living beings. Fortunately, some minor spells Frigga had taught him proved very helpful.

As mechanical whirring rose, the entire computer room seemed to come alive. Dense rows of magnetic tapes began spinning in all sorts of strange rhythms.

On the console before Oaks, a cluster of bulky monitors lit up. The old-fashioned cameras atop them tilted up and down, indicating that they had entered operational status.

A line of green letters popped up on the largest monitor: "SYSTEM INITIALIZATION?" An old electronic synthesized voice accompanied it.

After Oaks entered "yes," he shifted into Cheetah Form and slipped into stealth.

The tapes hummed for a while. The camera above the monitor swayed, then aimed at "Steve" and "Natasha."

"Steve Rogers, born in 1918…"

"Natalia Alianovna Romanova, born in 1984."

Though Zola found it somewhat strange that the images of the two looked odd, he did not pay it much attention.

After all, the resolution of his old cameras was truly terrible.

"I may not be the man Captain Rogers threw into prison in 1945, but I am still me."

Information on Dr. Zola appeared on a nearby screen. Oaks controlled the two Soul Projections and put on an entire performance for the doctor who had become an AI.

"He reminds me of Tony’s AI. It was called Jarvis, I think."

"Natasha" "looked" around at the tapes running at different speeds.

"These things… look creepy."

"Artificial intelligence… hehehe. Look around you. You are standing inside my brain.

My body had a terminal illness, beyond all cure. But my mind was preserved within this two-hundred-thousand-foot database!"

Though Zola’s tone retained the rise and fall of a mechanical voice, Oaks could still hear his pride.

"I am sharper now than I have ever been!"

"All right. I don’t know how you accomplished something this insane in that era, but nowadays, it might be much easier."

"Steve" shrugged.

"Explain it in as much detail as possible. ‘We’ are very patient."

"Then that is excellent…"

Zola wanted to stall for time, but Oaks did not care whether he was stalling. So Zola gave a lengthy explanation, while Oaks controlled the soul illusions to react at the appropriate moments.

"I originally thought you would punch me, Captain Rogers."

After revealing a great deal of valuable information, Zola finally found the attitudes of the two before him somewhat strange.

"It seems your experiences since awakening have taught you some restraint."

"Dr. Zola, you truly are an… era-defining genius."

"Steve" ignored him, as if he had been shocked by Zola’s revelations.

"Natasha," meanwhile, brushed back her hair and shook her head regretfully.

"Unfortunately, your vision was confined to this tiny planet, and you wasted decades amid this pile of electronic junk."

"With current technology, a tiny chip would be enough to carry your entire consciousness and provide you with overwhelming computing power.

Hydra trapped an old predecessor like you, who had devoted himself so wholeheartedly to serving the organization, in such a rundown room. Was it because they were certain your current way of thinking would never lead you to consider ‘improving your living environment,’ or…"

"Were they afraid you were too smart for them to control?"