Nick Grows Suspicious

Skye ultimately chose to leave the United States because she needed to search for news of her parents and couldn’t remain stuck in New York. As for being hunted, she believed she could handle it. Besides, reaching the Tenth Heaven required fighting.

After Skye left, Natasha asked curiously, "You sit here all day, so how did you confirm that Skye wasn’t working with the aliens? You even seem to know who opened the space portal?"

"I’m not the only one who knows. A lot of people do. Your Director Garrett knows too." Zhan Liu took a sip of tea and leisurely dangled the answer in front of her. "As for why, I’ll tell you after you reach the Tenth Heaven."

Natasha rolled her beautiful eyes and turned to leave.

Once she was outside the Martial Arts School’s grounds, Natasha took out her phone and called Nick Fury, reporting everything she had just heard.

Nick was silent for a moment before saying, "Ever since Garrett took over, his way of doing things has indeed been somewhat strange. I plan to investigate. Unfortunately, you can’t leave your post, so I’ll get Clint."

After Nick hung up, Natasha called Director Garrett and reported on her work.

John was much more perceptive. He immediately said that he would slow down the search for Skye. But when Natasha indirectly brought up the opening of the space portal, John hesitated before saying:

"We now have reason to suspect that Loki, the little prince of Asgard, played some dishonorable role in this incident. However, because of the diplomatic relations between our two countries, we can only act according to the ‘evidence.’"

After hanging up, Natasha sat in the car, lost in thought.

What John had said made perfect sense, but as someone who operated in the darkness, Natasha believed only thirty percent of his words.

To outsiders, Captain America’s personal show had seemed like a completely accidental event with no clues to follow. But to agents at Natasha and Nick’s level, it clearly bore signs of manipulation.

Yet everyone knew that manipulating an event required a great deal of preparation beforehand. It was impossible to face a sudden incident and then flawlessly turn it into a result favorable to one’s own side.

In other words, S.H.I.E.L.D. had been prepared for the alien invasion all along.

When Nick was in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D., he often carried out dirty work, but his ultimate goal had always been good—world peace. But after John became Director, he had done things like supporting Captain America in running for president.

If having Captain America run for president could be explained by his deep love for the United States and his desire to make it better, then this alien invasion had purely been intended to pave the way for Captain America’s campaign.

There were many ways to win votes. Natasha didn’t object to S.H.I.E.L.D. using its advantages and media resources to support Steve, but putting all of New York in danger was absolutely not S.H.I.E.L.D.’s style. Moreover, this way of doing things felt strangely familiar to her.

After sorting out the cause and effect, Natasha started the car and left the Martial Arts School town.

Based on the information Lyden had left on the dark web, Skye successfully found the place where Lyden was hiding.

After opening the door, Lyden cautiously poked his head out and looked around before letting Skye in.

"I’ve been worried sick these past few days. I was constantly afraid something had happened to you! I never should have let you go back. You ended up being framed so badly!"

"It wouldn’t have mattered. Even if I hadn’t gone back, I couldn’t have escaped responsibility for hijacking that car. S.H.I.E.L.D. would still have suspected that I was an alien-colluding mole."

"What do we do now? We can’t stay here for long, or word will definitely get out."

"Don’t worry. I’ve already seen my master. We only need to leave the United States as soon as possible, and no one will come after me in the meantime. My master believes I’m not the one who opened the space portal, but…"

Skye sighed and spread her hands, shrugging. "He refuses to tell me who did it. He wants me to reach the Magnetic Field Rotation Tenth Heaven before I go back to ask him."

"Huh?" Lyden froze, then thought for a moment before saying, "The person who framed you must have quite a background, or perhaps it’s a powerful organization. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so cautious."

"Did you look through the documents in that box? Did you find any news about my parents?"

"I did find something, but… you need to prepare yourself."

"Prepare myself for what? Forget it, let’s talk while we walk. Let’s leave first and go to Mexico."

The two took the documents Lyden had prepared and got into the car. Lyden drove while Skye sat in the passenger seat and read through the file.

The file was very thin, and Skye finished it quickly. She closed it, casually dropped it onto her lap, rubbed her temples, and lamented, "So, I’m not actually human. I’m the child of a demon, something like Hellboy?"

Lyden had been watching Skye from the corner of his eye. Seeing this, he hurriedly comforted her, "Um… look on the bright side. You’re more likely to be a villager’s child, since your skin isn’t red. Besides, if your parents were the culprits behind the village massacre, they would have come looking for you long ago."

He asked with concern, "Do you want to keep investigating?"

Skye sighed. After hesitating for a long while, she said, "Let’s keep investigating. Even if my parents may have died in that massacre, I still want to go pay my respects."

"Then we have to go to China."

"Perfect. We’re already leaving the United States, so going to China works too."

"But you’re still wanted. Won’t you be in trouble there?"

"The United States issued the warrant. What does it have to do with the Chinese?"

"All right, you have a point."

Amid their bickering, the two drove into the vast night.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Los Angeles, a brown-skinned beauty in a qipao carried a briefcase as she swayed gracefully into a private clinic.

The place was crude, without even a sterile room. A simple cloth curtain separated the operating room, where a man lay on the operating table while a doctor removed a bullet from his chest. Two burly men dressed like gangsters stood at the door, watching everything menacingly.

When the qipao-clad woman entered, the white doctor set down his instruments and abandoned the operation in progress, turning eagerly toward the case in her hand.

"Hey, Doctor, the operation isn’t over yet!" one of the gangsters complained, reaching out to grab him.

"No, it’s already over!" A murderous glint flashed in the doctor’s eyes. A scalpel slid from his sleeve into his hand. He spun around and swiftly struck several times before turning back toward the briefcase in the woman’s hand.

Behind him, the two gangsters and the gang leader on the operating table all clutched their wounded throats and collapsed, twitching.

The woman paid no attention to what had happened. She placed the briefcase on the table, opened it, and pushed it over.

"Here. The Obelisk you wanted!"

Inside the case was a strange stone stele with a broad base and pointed tip. Strange patterns occasionally flashed across its surface.

"Well done, Raina!" The doctor reached out excitedly and gently stroked the Obelisk.

"With the Obelisk, your dream can finally come true, and I can find my daughter. After all these years, she must have suffered so much…"

Tears shimmered in the doctor’s eyes as he sank into his memories.