"As expected of the place with the most secrets, the firewall is indeed powerful. Saturday, be careful. Don't leave too many traces, or they'll find us!"
"Yes, master."
No sooner said than done. In the middle of the night, Artoria activated the hundreds of cloud computers she had just bought to provide Saturday with more computing space and began invading the secret S.H.I.E.L.D. network. This was fairly simple; you just had to find where the firewall was strongest, and there was basically a fifty percent chance it was a S.H.I.E.L.D. computer. It was originally a guess, but Artoria's luck was good this time, and she found the right place.
"This data is so old, and it doesn't seem important."
Looking at information from over a decade ago, it was mostly Nick's exploits from back then, plus a lot of recent data on the Hulk, which she already had. Artoria even found her own file. Unfortunately, there was very little; their analysis of her was minimal. Her Spirit Dress perfectly covered her whole body, and her voice was slightly disguised. Unless Artoria exposed herself voluntarily, most people could only guess; she was merely a suspect.
"Can you try to find something from further back?"
"I will do my best, master."
She flipped through some X-Men files and the records of the Mjolnir. There was too little. A lot of the data she knew wasn't in there, like the Cosmic Cube Base or files on Captain Marvel. Descriptions of the Kree and Skrulls were non-existent. Artoria wondered if Nick had even entered them into the computer. If not, it would be troublesome; she would have to go in person to look at physical documents.
"master, we need to hurry. If we don't stop now, we will be discovered soon."
Artoria patiently looked through the materials Saturday searched. Before she could finish, Saturday issued a red alert. It seemed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s foundation was not to be underestimated. She couldn't expose herself now. Artoria nodded, indicating they could stop. On the screen, a mass of data quickly began to clear and reset to zero. Whatever needed to be deleted was deleted, and Saturday cleaned up her traces without leaving a single spot behind.
"Saturday, have you finished the statistics? How many S.H.I.E.L.D. branches are there in the United States?"
"master, do you mean fixed ones or non-fixed ones?"
"Fixed."
"According to the data, S.H.I.E.L.D. has over 300 fixed branches and over ten thousand non-fixed outposts, which are constantly being added or removed. These branches only stay in a fixed location for a year before changing places."
Hearing Saturday's data, Artoria was stunned. Good grief, as expected of the wealthy S.H.I.E.L.D. If an ordinary company changed locations twice, they'd probably go bankrupt. This organization was like a mole digging holes, changing spots every year; you couldn't find where the headquarters was at all. Looking at this massive capital, no wonder the Military was so envious and had a poor relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. Most of the annual funding probably went to the Vampire (Nick) at S.H.I.E.L.D., so the conflict between the Military and S.H.I.E.L.D. was only growing; they both found each other an eyesore.
"Over 300... do I have to search them one by one?"
Looking at the number, Artoria had a bit of a headache. Even using clones, it would take a while. Who knew if some branches had expired and moved already? It wouldn't be good to come up empty-handed. Her main goals were three: one, the Cosmic Cube, which was essential; two, Kree and Skrull corpses or blood; and three, alien spacecraft. Each of these three was worth Artoria taking a risk for.
While 'Loki' hadn't arrived yet, she could take control of the Space Stone first. Facing Thanos would then be more winnable. Even if the Space Stone didn't recognize her, she would use 'A Knight Does Not Die with Bare Hands' to force its use. She wasn't going to indulge these stones' bad tempers.
"Print out all the addresses for me, Saturday. We're going to play a big game."
"Yes, master."
Artoria quickly decided what to do. This was the best opportunity. She hoped she could make it before Loki descended, then everything could be changed, and she could breathe a sigh of relief. But could things really go as smoothly as Artoria imagined? As the saying goes, 'plans can never keep up with changes.'
"What on Earth happened? You called me here in such a hurry."
Nick was still very sleepy in the middle of the night. Although you couldn't see dark circles on that black face, he had actually been pulling all-nighters for days. Even if he was anxious to assemble the Avengers, things were relatively smooth for now. As a spy chief, he couldn't be like those politicians who rant all day and sleep at night without overtime. He was a spy leader who used any means necessary to achieve his goals; even when resting, he had to be busy. Though he often couldn't sleep at night because he calculated too much, couldn't you scientists just give him a moment of peace? He was busy enough, and now he had to manage research projects he didn't understand. He felt a bit tired.
Complaining inwardly, Nick's face showed no dissatisfaction; he was quite calm. His single eye looked at the anxious white-haired old man. It seemed this was the one who had called Nick.
"The Tesseract... it hasn't been peaceful for an hour. Its energy has started to riot."
Knowing it wasn't the time for useless talk, the elderly researcher began leading Nick to the instruments. The fluctuating energy lines symbolized the gravity of the situation.
"What's going on exactly? Barton, have you spotted any suspicious people coming over?"
One sentence was asked of the scientist, and the next was directed at Barton on the level above. He hoped someone was messing with it, as that would make it easy to solve. If the Tesseract was acting up on its own, then even if Nick hadn't read many books on energy, he understood it was a bad omen. If it was the Tesseract's own doing and that massive energy went out of control in an instant, then Earth would be in danger.
"No suspicious figures found, Director."
Barton slid down a rope. His sharp eyes looked at Nick as he spoke seriously, negating Nick's Hope. Now Nick felt the situation was serious and completely out of control. This feeling was quite unpleasant.
"I don't quite understand it either, but if this continues..."
Although they had held the Cosmic Cube for so many years, they understood it even less than Red Skull did. It had been peaceful for so many years; who knew this would happen? But if this continued and the volatile energy was released, it would be a total disaster.
"Notify everyone to evacuate within ten minutes. Doctor, I'll give you half an hour to shut it down."
Knowing the situation was grave, Nick didn't hesitate. He began ordering all elite Special Agents to retreat. These guys were his life's work; it was best to avoid non-combat casualties if possible. Nick kept the old doctor behind and spoke to him very solemnly. If possible, he didn't want to give up the Cosmic Cube.
"This!"
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