Bug Conflict

Chapter 129 Bug Conflict

Although Hawkeye wanted to argue further, he had to admit that Nick Fury's words made some sense, and in the end he could only resort to personal attacks: "But Tony Stark might make a move on Natasha, after all, Natasha is very beautiful."

Hawkeye's words were so offensive that Coulson couldn't stand it anymore and interjected, "That doesn't necessarily mean Natasha is at a disadvantage, after all, Natasha is a female agent."

"That's sexism! I've never assigned Natasha any missions like that since I brought her back!" As a friend, Hawkeye wanted to clear Natasha's name.

"Alright, let's not discuss this anymore. Hawkeye, you're overthinking it. Even if Tony Stark were to target Natasha, it certainly wouldn't be Natasha who gets hurt. Trust our colleague; she can handle this."

Nick Fury quickly ended the increasingly off-topic conversation, urging Coulson to get down to business.

However, none of the three expected that the topic they were discussing was closest to the truth, with the only discrepancy being: although Natasha was highly skilled, she would indeed have difficulty defeating the exceptionally talented Tony when she was in a state of mental confusion, and she was currently receiving treatment in the laboratory.

Since Natasha was not needed for the time being, Coulson focused on completing his mission to investigate Ivan Vanko. He first logged into the S.H.I.E.L.D. internal system and began searching for Ivan Vanko's information.

As he entered his name and pressed Enter, Ivan Vanko's information popped up, but Coulson immediately noticed a problem.

The latest reports state that Ivan Vanko attacked Tony Stark at the Stark Expo and was subsequently taken into custody by the New York Police Department.

And then that was it, nothing more.

This is understandable, of course. After all, he wasn't on the surveillance list. He was only recorded at this stage because of his connection with Tony Stark. It's reasonable to record him here if no one is following up.

But the part related to Tony Stark is just one sentence, which is illogical.

How was the attack carried out? Was it with a gun or a bomb, or did they rush over and slap Tony, or splash him with water? Even without video footage, the details should be clearly stated in writing.

Secondly, why attack members of an anti-war organization? Were they sent by competitors? Spies? The reasons also need to be written.

Instead of simply writing this sentence, it couldn't be the intelligence personnel's negligence, since no one who can get into S.H.I.E.L.D. is an idiot. So there's only one possibility: someone intentionally erased this information to hide some content.

Coulson immediately thought of Nick Fury, the person who could hide information within S.H.I.E.L.D., but then he realized that Nick Fury had just asked him to investigate Ivan Vanko, so it couldn't be him. That meant there were other forces within S.H.I.E.L.D.

Coulson immediately recalled the last time he met with Secretary Pierce with Nick Fury. It seemed that Pierce or even other forces within S.H.I.E.L.D. might be involved in this matter. Thinking about it this way, S.H.I.E.L.D. was practically falling apart. It was necessary to report this to Director Nick Fury.

Just as Coulson called Nick Fury again, his act of accessing Ivan Vanko's files also triggered an alarm.

The computer-controlled Zola is editing programs to contribute to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, or rather, Hydra's "Project Insight."

After becoming an electronic consciousness, Zola became a tireless beast of burden, working day and night while the programmers at S.H.I.E.L.D. went to work.

While the programmers were off work that night, he was still at work, working overtime to add a Hydra backdoor to the Insight Project, and he had to make it as secretive as possible so that the cows and horses at work during the day wouldn't find out.

That's only because Zola doesn't have a body anymore, otherwise he would be bald.

Here comes another urgent task: the alarm I set was triggered, and someone accessed Ivan Vanke's files.

"Coulson? What does he need this data for?" Zola's thought process was directly converted into electronic signals, jumping back and forth in the computing unit, causing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s electricity bill to skyrocket.

Zola quickly reviewed Coulson's movements. As agents, they were mostly under the supervision of S.H.I.E.L.D. and had to report their whereabouts before leaving the office. Only Nick Fury had some privileges, or rather, abused his power.

After some energy-consuming thought, Zola could only roughly deduce that it might be related to Tony Stark, perhaps Tony Stark was seeking revenge.

At this point, Zola's thinking began to falter.

The act of altering Ivan Vanko's data was Zola's sole act and had nothing to do with other Hydra members.

Creating a body is also very simple; Stark has a relatively mature robot production line.

However, creating a robot capable of housing all of its own computing units is somewhat unrealistic. The robot would have to be the size of Ultraman. Without all of its own computing units, it would be missing something, and its very existence would become a philosophical question.

However, Zola also came up with a solution: to avoid being threatened by Hydra cutting off power, he could create an independent power source and build a power plant.

When the brain has its own power source, it can remotely control the robot, thus gaining the ability to protect itself.

So Zola has been secretly monitoring technological developments in related fields around the world, and has invested in several companies, even considering biotechnology, investing in a biotechnology company called AIM.

Unfortunately, nothing truly impressed Zola until Ivan Vanko attacked Tony Stark.

There were people in the Hydra Council who were interested in Tony Stark's, or rather Umbrella's, technology, so they assigned Zola's cyber intelligence team to keep an eye on Tony and gather intelligence.

Tony failed to gather any intelligence, but instead, Zola saw the miniature arc reactor, and with Zola's knowledge, he immediately recognized its value.

So, with his own selfish motives, Zola first erased the relevant information to prevent Hydra or S.H.I.E.L.D. from noticing it, which would make it difficult for him to operate in secret.

Zola also discovered that Hammer Industries was interested in Ivan Vanko, so he went along with it and used Hydra's hidden influence to help Jasjan Hammer, allowing him to take Ivan away from the police station smoothly.

That police chief was one of Hydra's own people. As an android whose power source was controlled, Zola was highly regarded by the Hydra Council and controlled most of the communication methods between Hydra members. Especially for someone like the NYPD chief who hadn't entered the core and could only be considered an outermost member, he probably would never realize that he was being used by Zola.

Now that Ivan Vanko may have been targeted by Coulson, he probably can't protect him on his own. After all, he doesn't have an action team and can't go head-to-head with S.H.I.E.L.D. If he wants to get Ivan Vanko's technology, it seems that he can only ask Pierce for help.

This is where the bug lies. If you want to hide Ivan's technology to create independent energy, how can you hide it after telling Pierce?

Amid the conflict, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s electricity bills began to skyrocket.