Pierce retrieved a device from his desk drawer before settling onto the sofa — compact, roughly the size of a thick pen, and clearly not standard S.H.I.E.L.D. issue. He set it on the coffee table and switched it on. A faint hum filled the air as a localized field expanded across the room.
"Anything said inside this range stays inside it," Pierce said. "No signal gets out." He looked at Sitwell. "Now. Why couldn't this wait until after hours?"
Sitwell placed the case on the table, keyed the combination, pressed his thumb to the reader, and opened the lid. The three-star Dragon Ball sat in its foam housing, orange and quietly luminous.
"I recovered this on a field operation months ago," Sitwell said. "It was a stone when I found it. It changed this morning."
Pierce said nothing. He waited.
"When it changed, information came with it. Directly — like something being written into my head." Sitwell kept his voice steady. "There are seven balls total, one-star through seven-star. Collect all seven and you can summon a dragon. The dragon grants any wish. No stated limitations."
Pierce's expression didn't change. "You're describing a fairy tale."
"I thought so too. But there's a file inside S.H.I.E.L.D, which I have. It documents the Dragon Balls going back to their first appearance." Sitwell leaned forward. "The file ties them to Smith Doyle. First cycle, he released the balls. An underground contractor named John Wick collected all seven, took down several criminal organizations in the process — the Kingpin network, the Continental, the High Table. Wick ended up in the Fraternity. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s working theory at the time was that the whole thing was a Fraternity operation to clean out rival organizations using Dragon Ball collection as the mechanism."
"And the current assessment?"
"Outdated. The black market is offering three million for a single ball right now, which means enough people have confirmed they're real to drive that kind of price. The Sky Curtain events — both of them — lined up exactly with Dragon Ball collection cycles. Two cycles, two summoning events, two wishes granted. The correlation is too clean to be coincidence." Sitwell paused. "My conclusion is that Smith Doyle is the guardian. His power pulling so far ahead of every other enhanced individual — that's probably wish-derived."
Pierce picked up the Dragon Ball. He turned it in his hands, examining the stars suspended in its interior, then set it back in the case.
"Does Fury have this?" he asked.
"Unknown. Coulson ran the Sky Curtain investigations both times — if anyone below director level has the full picture, it's him. Fury may have more than the file, or he may have the same gaps we do." Sitwell considered it. "The way to read it is to watch S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resource movements over the next few weeks. If Fury knows the Dragon Balls are live and understands what they are, he'll mobilize — personnel deployments, intelligence tasking, off-books operations. That pattern will be visible."
Pierce nodded slowly. "And the competition structure?"
"The information I received called it a Dragon Ball War — a tournament among holders. Details were sparse, but the implication is that combat determines who earns the right to make the wish."
Pierce was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, his voice had settled into the register he used when a plan was already forming.
"I'll monitor S.H.I.E.L.D.'s internal movements. If Fury knows, we'll see it in the pattern of what gets classified and who gets assigned where." He closed the case. "In parallel, I'll use our external assets to locate the remaining balls. If collection is possible before the tournament opens, we take that path. If not, we field someone for the competition."
Sitwell exhaled. "If we get the wish — a dragon that can grant anything — we use it to finish what HYDRA started. Complete control. No more operating in the shadows of an agency we built as a cover."
Pierce looked at him with the calm of someone who had been patient for decades and had learned exactly what patience was worth.
"If the wish is real," he said, "then we stop managing our reach and simply extend it. All of it. Everything HYDRA has worked toward since the beginning."
He stood. Sitwell stood with him.
"Hail HYDRA," Sitwell said.
"Hail HYDRA," Pierce answered.