Five Winter Soldiers (First Update)

S.H.I.E.L.D. Triskelion Headquarters, Director’s Office.

Egghead was in an excellent mood as he toyed with the Resurrection Serum in his hand.

Over the past few days, he had tried several under-the-table deals. Some succeeded, some failed, but overall, the results had been pretty good.

One injection was all it took. No matter how aloof the other party had been, they immediately became warm and enthusiastic, practically throwing themselves at him.

The only annoying part was that those people were too greedy. They all wanted a few extra doses, saying that relationships were the most important thing in life. If they were going to live longer, their aunts and uncles should live longer too. Otherwise, how lonely and miserable would it be to live alone in this world? Director Fury, you understand…

I fucking understand all of it!

"Don’t you just want to stash a few extra doses away in case something happens, then find a reliable laboratory to test and analyze them to see whether they can be replicated? Everything you’ve thought of, I’ve already thought of!"

What national laboratory could compare to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Technology Division?

If I weren’t certain that no substance could replace Dragon Bone, would I dare give you these injections?

He opened the case and counted them, growing irritated.

He had originally planned to save two-thirds for people he trusted, but he had only made deals with half of them and was already down to twenty-three doses. No matter how he calculated it, it wasn’t enough.

After thinking for a moment, he said in a low voice, "Activate the encrypted communications protocol. Connect secure line 314."

A gentle, pleasant female voice sounded. "Confirmed."

A three-dimensional hologram appeared before him. It was Coulson.

After confirming that Coulson was one of his own, he had appointed him as the person in charge of the Tahiti Project.

Egghead asked, "Coulson, have you finished analyzing the Resurrection Serum?"

Coulson promptly replied, "Sir, the Resurrection Serum’s formula isn’t complicated. The project team has completed its analysis. As long as we have Dragon Bone, we can produce it."

Just as expected… Egghead was delighted. "Give you three days. How much can you make?"

Coulson hesitated for two seconds, clearly in a difficult position. "Sir, for the Tahiti Project, one-third of the Dragon Bone you provided has already been used up, and we still need some for subsequent research. In fact, I sent you an email half an hour ago. It was an application form listing one hundred and thirty-seven materials and pieces of equipment, including Dragon Bone, along with an additional three hundred million dollars in research funding…"

Egghead rubbed his temples and checked the email.

"Ten Kree corpses, one hundred kilograms of Dragon Bone… Coulson, your joke is ice-cold. If I had any more Kree corpses, would I refuse to give them to you? Don’t tell me you don’t know where that Kree corpse came from!" Egghead’s face darkened.

That was hard to say. Who knew whether you had hidden corpses behind my back? You’d done that sort of thing plenty of times… Coulson coughed. "Sir, you may not have noticed that Kree corpses are nonessential materials. It would be best if we had them, but it’s fine if we don’t. The most important thing is Dragon Bone…"

"There’s no Dragon Bone either!" Egghead forcibly cut him off.

One kilogram of Dragon Bone cost ten million dollars. One hundred kilograms meant one billion dollars.

So many S.H.I.E.L.D. bases had been damaged, so many personnel killed or wounded. Rebuilding bases cost money, treating the wounded cost money, recruiting new people cost money, and they still had to pay massive death benefits—not to mention that money-grubbing Master Wang…

Egghead sighed. It seemed he would have to make more under-the-table deals. Tony had plenty of money and was easy to work with. He was a good choice.

"Where the hell did Master Wang run off to? We can’t even track his signal, and he won’t reply to my messages."

The more Egghead thought about it, the worse his headache became. He cut off the communication and said, "Send Master Wang another message, same content as the previous few times… Send one every hour until he replies."

As soon as he finished speaking, the doorbell rang.

Long-legged Hill entered and handed Egghead a document. "Sir, one of the high-ranking officials from various countries you’ve been monitoring has been assassinated. A senior European Union official."

So I’ve lost another potential deal partner… As Egghead read the document, he asked, "Who did it? Hydra again?"

Although they had been constantly purging Hydra, it was extremely difficult. Many people had gone into hiding, and retaliatory attacks had continued. There had been more than a hundred in one month, though they had all been minor incidents.

This was the first time such an important government official had been assassinated.

Hill said, "A super soldier. According to the investigation, his physical abilities are roughly on par with Captain America and the Winter Soldier. The weapons used were also similar to the Winter Soldier’s—former Soviet Union weapons with tremendous firepower and no ballistic trajectory, making them almost impossible to evade."

Egghead froze.

Hill hurriedly added, "We’ve already contacted Skye and can confirm that it wasn’t the Winter Soldier. We can’t track him, but Skye guaranteed that the Winter Soldier has been carrying out a secret mission the entire time."

Egghead grew irritated and said in a low voice, "No. It was the Winter Soldier."

Hill did not understand.

Did you not trust Skye, or did you not trust Master Wang?

Or did you not trust me?

"Deploy every field agent we can spare. Use every connection we have. We must find the assassin."

Egghead offered no explanation and directly gave the order. "Remember, there isn’t one of them. There are five!"

Five Winter Soldiers?

Hill still did not understand, but she did not ask. She turned and left.

Once the door closed, Egghead spoke again. "Connect secure line 404."

The female voice sounded. "Confirmed."

Coulson’s hologram had long since disappeared, replaced by Black Widow’s. "Sir, Agent Barton and I found Hydra’s secret base in Siberia. We arrived too late. Those five Winter Soldiers…"

"Were released." Egghead cut her off.

"It can be confirmed that they were released on the day Hydra fell apart." Black Widow paused.

"Sir, they were all Hydra’s most elite death squad members. Every one of them had a stronger physical foundation than Captain America and Sergeant Barnes. After being injected with the Super Soldier Serum developed by Howard Stark, they became the most dangerous assassins in the world. No one could escape their assassinations…"

"I know that better than you do." Egghead cut her off again, in a terrible mood.

The Winter Soldier was not one person, but a codename—a program.

Sergeant Barnes had been the earliest Winter Soldier, but Howard Stark later restarted the Super Soldier Program and developed an imperfect Super Soldier Serum. As a result, he was assassinated by Hydra agents, who stole the serum.

They injected five people and created five Winter Soldiers.

Hydra’s Winter Soldier Program had been extremely secretive. Even Sitwell did not know its exact location; he only knew that such a thing existed.

Even after dispatching his most elite field agents, it had taken him half a month to find it. He had never expected that someone had already awakened them.

Hydra, on the verge of destruction, was far more insane than it had ever been before. If they were allowed to continue operating, who knew how many countries would fall into political instability? It was terrifying.

Even the safety of the president and himself was now in question.

"Agent Romanoff, you and Agent Barton are to proceed to Europe immediately and track the Winter Soldiers," Egghead said.

As he spoke, all the documents were converted into electronic form and sent to Black Widow.

After cutting off the communication, the gentle female voice sounded again. "The message to Master Wang has been drafted. Send it?"

"Add one more sentence."

Egghead said, "Send the electronic files from just now to Master Wang and ask him to help capture the Winter Soldiers… Remind him that he is helping me capture them. Those five Winter Soldiers belong to me… I’ll pay him a satisfactory reward."

At the thought of compensation, his head began to ache again.

After hesitating for half a minute, he finally said, "Put me through to Tony Stark."