Nick Fury’s Little Notebook (Third Extra Update, Please Subscribe Fully)

The next day.

"Hi!"

"Hi!"

Lake met Rachel in the airport parking lot. She had flown in from Washington early that morning. After hugging and kissing her, he looked behind her as if searching for something.

Rachel smiled. "What are you looking for?"

Lake took Rachel’s carry-on. "Where’s Helen?"

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Come on, I took the earliest flight in the morning. Your daughter’s still asleep. I didn’t want to get thrown off the plane because of a complaint."

Lake shrugged. "That’s why I said I’d send the private jet to pick you up."

You were the one who didn’t want it.

That was what Lake thought as he got into the car. After driving away from the airport, he said to Rachel, "The guy you’re interviewing owed me three thousand dollars last night. He agreed to give you an exclusive interview. Ask him whatever you want, and while you’re at it, ask about his gossip-worthy news from the past few years. That way, you can split it into twenty-four reports over twelve months, and then you can take the rest of the year off."

Who told him to wreck his sofa just to show off?

Lake wasn’t extorting him. After receiving Rachel’s call, he had already intended to find an opportunity to make Tony agree to an interview. Who could have known that the guy would deliver himself to Lake’s door?

It was the same old story.

Lake had once told Rachel, "You’re my woman. You have the qualifications and the right to share all my glory and power."

Of course—

That excluded Lake’s most vital parts.

Rachel looked a little surprised when she heard this and turned to Lake. "Last night… don’t tell me that when I called you, you were with Stark?"

As she spoke, Rachel seemed to realize something and nodded to herself. "That makes sense. Something as big as what happened in New Jersey must have alerted the Department of Homeland Security… How about giving me a hint about the current investigation results?"

Lake chuckled. "I’d love to tell you, but the investigation has only just begun. Besides, shouldn’t you be focusing on whether Tony Stark is that Iron Man guy?"

"Iron Man!"

"Right."

Lake nodded. "When I left this morning, the New York Daily News had already come up with the nickname. Their speed was downright terrifying."

Tony had revealed his identity at four in the morning the previous night.

The New York Daily News had appeared at newsstands all over New York at six.

In other words, the moment Tony’s identity had been exposed, the article had already been drafted. They had come up with the nickname almost half an hour later.

That speed was far from ordinary.

Stark Industries Building.

Ding!

When Lake and Rachel stepped out of the elevator, Jarvis’s welcome rang out immediately. "Welcome, Mr. Edwin."

Tony, who was having Pepper apply his makeup over there, looked displeased as Lake walked in. "Why does my intelligent butler welcome you?"

Lake smiled. "Obviously, Jarvis has evolved. Politeness is the first sign of an ape evolving into a human. Maybe you should learn from Jarvis."

Although he had known Tony for so many years, to be honest, the utter lack of manners Tony occasionally radiated always made Lake feel like shooting him on the spot.

Pepper came over and hugged Rachel. "Tony has to attend the press conference first, but I’ve reserved two hours for you after the press conference."

Rachel thanked Pepper.

Ever since they had met in Santa Barbara, Rachel and Pepper had gone shopping together several times during Rachel’s extended stays in New York. As a famous Washington reporter, Rachel naturally had excellent emotional intelligence. Otherwise, to be honest, a woman lacking emotional intelligence would never have been able to win over Lake.

Tony became even more displeased when he heard that. "Hey, hey, hey! I only agreed to one hour. Three thousand dollars for one hour of my time—that’s a fantastic deal."

Thinking of the sofa he had broken the previous night, Tony was still full of resentment. If the sofa hadn’t broken then, there was no doubt Lake would have been the one begging him.

Just then—

Jarvis spoke to Tony. "Sir, you have a visitor who wishes to see you."

Tony said directly, "No. Turn them away."

Lake raised an eyebrow and looked at Tony. "They came all the way here."

Tony nodded.

Lake chuckled. Sure enough, S.H.I.E.L.D. might be late, but it would never be absent.

But…

Two minutes later, Jarvis spoke again. "Sir, Ms. Peggy Carter is calling."

Tony froze slightly and looked at Lake.

Lake, sitting on the sofa, said, "Since appealing to reason didn’t work, it’s time to appeal to emotion."

Tony’s face darkened. He grabbed the phone and walked into the inner room to answer it.

Five minutes later—

Tony emerged from the inner room with an even darker expression. Judging by the situation, it was obvious that Tony had compromised.

Lake chuckled inwardly, rose, and said to Tony, "All right, I’ll be leaving first."

He couldn’t be bothered to meet S.H.I.E.L.D.

Even if he wanted to…

He would wait until the Supernatural Activity Detection and Action Bureau made its official debut. By then, he wondered what expressions the people throughout S.H.I.E.L.D. would wear. Lake was looking forward to it.

Tony had already agreed to lend Gardiners Island as the Supernatural Activity Detection and Action Bureau’s headquarters. The demolition crew had already gone to the island, while the headquarters’ design had been commissioned anonymously to Yale University.

Who told Lake to be a Yale graduate? Anyone could design the plans, but the designer had to be a Yale graduate.

Soon—

Almost as soon as Lake arrived at the office building, he saw his little assistant Tiffany eating fries while staring intently at her computer screen.

Seeing that his assistant hadn’t even noticed his arrival, Lake walked behind Tiffany and looked at the screen in front of her.

The computer screen was showing a live broadcast.

On the screen—

Tony looked at the little note in his hand and then, expressionless, said the line that had begun and ended Marvel’s grand curtain.

I am Iron Man!

The press conference instantly erupted.

Tiffany couldn’t help clenching her fist and shouting, "Yes!" "Wow, that was so cool."

Lake asked curiously from behind her, "So your boss isn’t cool?"

Tiffany jumped up like a startled rabbit, turned around, and stared blankly at Lake, who had appeared behind her at some point. "Director."

Lake smiled and walked toward his office.

After finally getting past the cold shoulder and meeting the actual person through connections with the director, Coulson had thought victory was within reach. Now he stood backstage with his mouth hanging open. After recovering, he helplessly dialed his director Nick Fury’s number.

"Director."

Although Nick Fury was already the director, Coulson, an expert at flattering both the living and the dead, still preferred to address him as "Director," since it sounded more familiar. "Tony Stark didn’t follow our script."

Far away at Three Feathers, Nick Fury had also taken time out of his busy schedule to watch the press conference. He said in a deep voice, "I know. I’m watching. Come back."

With that—

Nick Fury hung up. Then he took a file from his desk drawer. The Avengers Initiative was written across it.

He opened it.

There was only one lonely name inside, followed by a list of names that had already been crossed out.

For example—

Frank Castle (Recruitment failed. Refused to join. High-priority military target.)

Lake Edwin (Recruitment plan failed. Relationship soured. Military personnel.)

Bruce Banner (Military system. Currently impossible to contact.)

Tony Stark…

Nick Fury thought for a moment. In the end, he restrained the impulse to cross out the name. After all, Tony Stark was different from the others. In a sense, the Stark family should have been part of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning.

So…

Nick Fury recalled Tony Stark’s files. After a while, he decided to send his strongest undercover agent to make contact with Tony Stark. He then dialed Natasha Romanov’s number.

That afternoon—

When Lake returned to Starlight Tower, Rachel had already come back. She was in the kitchen preparing food with Skye, who had also just returned from school.

It seemed the two of them had even found time to make a special trip to the supermarket.

Rachel handed the two cantaloupes they had bought to Skye and had her put them in the refrigerator. Then she said to Lake, who was taking off his coat at the entrance, "You’re back?"

Lake hummed. "How did the interview go?"

Rachel smiled. "Without a doubt, tomorrow’s front-page headline will be mine."

So what if there had been a press conference?

She had secured a full two-hour exclusive interview. Regardless of what tonight’s evening news or tomorrow’s newspapers published, sorry, the front-page headline was already hers.

That was what Rachel thought before saying to Lake, "Thank you, darling."

Lake shrugged.

As night fell and the citizens of New York began returning home one after another, the NYPD received a case. George had just been preparing to head home when he heard Joe say this. He sighed, apologized to his family, and said that another case had come up and he would be home late.

Woo-woo, woo-woo.

New York had many precincts, and each precinct had its own homicide detectives. But just as cases crossing state lines fell under the FBI, cases outside a precinct’s jurisdiction or major cases were handled by the headquarters’ homicide division.

This case had taken place in an apartment in a slum in Queens. It was the kind of low-income apartment building that was only one step away from leaving its residents homeless.

The person who reported the case was a tenant planning to move into the building that day. According to him, he had called several times that morning, but no one had answered. After getting off work in the afternoon, he had decided to come over and ask in person.

Who could have known…

The moment he entered the apartment building, he felt that something was wrong.

There wasn’t a single person in sight.

It was deathly silent.

Then—

The person who reported the case had planned to take the elevator to look at his apartment on the third floor. But when he stepped out of the elevator, he saw them—an entire corridor of… mummified corpses!

Folks, I’ve joined an event to encourage updates. In the app, go to Discover, then Points Circle, and find the update reminder section. You can leave a message under this book’s post. Thank you, everyone.