Chapter 328 — Burn It
When Ivan handed the blueprint to Frank, he had said Frank could do whatever he wanted with it—burn it, throw it away, sell it.
Ivan had no more use for it.
Whatever he was going to do, he hadn't expected to come back alive. Carrying the design with him would only benefit someone else in the end.
If he hadn't met Frank, Ivan probably would have destroyed it himself—maybe tossed it into a fire for warmth.
But they had met on that smuggling truck.
They had talked. They had gotten along.
And Frank had been generous—food, drinks, no stinginess.
So before they parted ways, Ivan gave him the blueprint.
Then Ivan went and pulled off something earth-shaking, made headlines, and became front-page news everywhere.
Frank had worried: now that Ivan had been arrested, would he reveal the existence of the blueprint? Confess everything in exchange for leniency?
But after thinking it through, Frank doubted it. If Ivan had trusted him enough to hand it over, he probably wouldn't stab him in the back like that.
Even so—
the blueprint was still trouble.
Thankfully, when Frank first got it, he hadn't understood a word of it and hadn't taken it seriously. He hadn't shown it to anyone else. He had simply tossed it to Lip.
And Lip, proud as any genius, hadn't asked for help when he couldn't fully decipher it. He'd locked himself in the lab and started researching alone.
---
"Let's destroy it," Frank said suddenly after staring at the blueprint for a long time. "Burn it."
"What? No!" Lip froze, then lunged forward. "Why would we burn it?"
"Dad, this isn't just the original, massive Arc Reactor design. Yes, the base blueprint is for the original reactor—but look at these annotations." Lip pointed at the dense, chaotic handwriting scrawled across the margins.
"There are two different sets of handwriting. The older one—the faded ink—that's the original design notes."
"The newer handwriting is clearly added later. It's modifications—research on miniaturizing the Arc Reactor."
"In other words, if we can fully understand this blueprint, we can build a miniature Arc Reactor like Iron Man's."
"That's why I said you must've gotten this from Whiplash."
"Right now, there are only two people in the world who know how to build a miniature Arc Reactor—Iron Man and Whiplash. There's no way you met Iron Man. So it had to be Whiplash."
"If I can crack this design… I'd be the third person in the world capable of building one."
The more Lip spoke, the more excited he became. His eyes were practically glowing.
To him, this wasn't a danger.
It was history in his hands.
Stark was Lip's idol—just like Captain America was Ian's.
It wasn't just Stark's genius that Lip admired. It was the whole package—the brilliance, the audacity, the larger-than-life swagger. To Lip, Tony Stark represented everything he aspired to become.
And now, if he could decipher this blueprint, he could build a miniature Arc Reactor himself. He wouldn't just be admiring his hero from afar—he'd be running on the same track.
The thought thrilled him.
Which was exactly why Frank became even more determined to destroy it.
The original Arc Reactor blueprint was already enough to give Frank a headache.
Now it contained research on miniaturizing it—work that multiplied its value tenfold, maybe more.
Yes, it was priceless.
But to them?
It was useless.
Worse—it was dangerous.
An ordinary man is innocent; it is the treasure he carries that brings disaster.
Frank reached for the blueprint.
"Dad, don't!" Lip lunged to stop him.
"Let go!" The two of them struggled, nearly grappling.
"What are you doing?!" Fiona rushed over, having heard the commotion. "Lip! Do you have any idea what condition Dad's in?!"
"Fiona—" Lip turned instinctively toward her.
That moment of distraction was all Frank needed.
He grabbed the blueprint and tore it cleanly in half.
Before Lip could react, Frank rushed into the kitchen, lit the stove, and shoved the pages into the flames. The paper curled, blackened, and caught fire.
"Dad!" Lip came running—but it was too late. Half the blueprint was already gone.
With a design this complex, losing even a corner would make it useless. Half of it gone meant it was effectively destroyed.
Frank took the remaining half from Lip's hand and threw it into the fire as well. He stood there, watching until the last fragments turned to ash.
"Focus on school," Frank said quietly, clapping Lip on the shoulder. "Don't get involved with things like this."
Lip stared at the flames, speechless.
Then he turned and stormed out of the house, slamming the door so hard the walls shook.
"What happened? Is Lip okay?" Fiona asked as she came downstairs, completely in the dark.
"He'll be fine," Frank said, lighting a cigarette. "Just a tantrum. He'll cool off."
If there had been another way, Frank would've taken it.
But that Arc Reactor blueprint wasn't just a ticking time bomb.
It was a ticking nuclear bomb.
He couldn't risk it.
Even while alive, Frank wasn't sure he could keep something like that hidden forever. And with his health failing, he might drop dead at any moment.
If that happened, the kids would be left alone.
Could they protect a secret like that?
Now the blueprint was gone.
The danger had been extinguished before it could ignite.
It hurt Lip—but it had to be done.
---
Lip didn't go wandering aimlessly.
He went straight back to school.
"Hey, Lip!" A friend called out to him on the way.
Lip didn't respond.
He sprinted to the lab.
Standing outside the door, he fumbled for his keys. His hands were shaking; the keys slipped and clattered to the floor.
"Fuck," he muttered, picking them up quickly.
He unlocked the lab and rushed inside.
Everything was exactly as he'd left it. No one had been there.
Lip bolted to the computer and began typing furiously, fingers flying across the keyboard.
Lines of data filled the screen.
He stared at it—
Then collapsed back into his chair and let out a long, shaky breath.
He had made a copy.