"In light of the events of the past year, I believe our nation lacks the necessary countermeasures for these types of 'incidents'."
"Therefore, we will establish a new department responsible for handling similar cases, protecting all citizens from these harms, and crushing potential threats."
"Its name is, H.A.M.M.E.R.!"
General Ross—now Secretary of State Ross—announced the name of this new department on the television news.
"H.A.M.M.E.R.? Norman Osborn really is an imaginative President." Pierce chuckled disdainfully.
"He's not just imaginative, Mr. Secretary. The former CIA has been reorganized and merged into this H.A.M.M.E.R., and they are investigating us. H.A.M.M.E.R. has explicitly demanded restrictions on our activities within the United States," Fury said. "Thanks to that ctOS of theirs, it's now very difficult for our Agents to operate in the U.S."
"Then correct it and reformulate the operational plan. S.H.I.E.L.D. has decades of history; H.A.M.M.E.R. is just a new organization."
Fury thought to himself: A new organization? Behind H.A.M.M.E.R. stands the entire United States!
Pierce continued to ask, "What about the scepter? Have you found out who is behind the trouble?"
"Regarding that, Mr. Secretary, there are leads." Fury's one eye glanced at Pierce, and he pressed the button on the desk—
A huge red octopus logo with a black background and red border appeared on the desk, and Pierce's breath hitched.
"There is evidence that they have returned."
Pierce thought to himself, Are you kidding me? After investigating for so long, you're telling me that I stole my own stuff?
"They were destroyed, and their leader, John Schmidt, was killed by Captain America Steve Rogers. You know that."
Fury immediately said, "But Captain America has returned from the ice, so John Schmidt could also return, couldn't he?"
As he spoke, he opened all the investigative data and clues.
"On the day of the incident, the scepter and the escort team were not attacked at the same time. There is evidence that the scepter was stolen before they were attacked, and only then did they encounter the attack.
Whether it was actually an attack remains to be investigated—there are almost no traces of combat at the scene, we didn't receive any distress signals, and no secret codes were left at the scene.
In other words, they might be HYDRA—which means Schmidt didn't die but has been lurking in the shadows. It's possible that the team encountered an attack, but it's more likely they ran away themselves."
As for the clues Nick investigated, most of them were arranged in collusion with Harry. They looked incredibly real and could be strung together perfectly.
This deduction left Pierce somewhat confused: Schmidt isn't dead, he's the real HYDRA leader, so had he, Pierce, become a stand-in?
But Pierce couldn't outright deny Fury's deduction. The system of compartmentalized management was something he started playing with, but where did he learn it? It was from HYDRA.
What if he had also been compartmentalized?
"Then we are in big trouble. We should upgrade our threat analysis technology; HYDRA is not easy to deal with.
We need a plan that can help us identify these targets, and we need firepower to eliminate them before they cause destruction."
Pierce said what Nick Fury was supposed to say, which was not surprising.
Relying on the Prism Program, S.H.I.E.L.D. already had a more advanced surveillance network internally; with a slight upgrade, it would become the Insight Project. The core of the Insight Project lay in Dr. Zola's algorithms, and they had always had Zola's support.
Fury's one eye didn't show any fluctuation, but he was secretly pleased: Trying to trick me, huh? Now let me trick you back.
"I agree. I have already invited Iron Man to upgrade our Helicarriers, but it will still take some time.
However, if you are willing to let Osborn also be responsible for some parts, this process should be able to speed up quite a bit."
Hearing this, the look Pierce gave Fury seemed to say: Are you kidding me?
"It's okay, we can wait. This project is very important."
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