"Now it's your turn." Noah didn't rush to claim the mission reward after swiftly dealing with the Leader. Instead, he looked at the several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents sprawled on the ground.
Scanning their appearances, Lissandra quickly provided information about them. It turned out all four were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents: three of them Level 4 agents, and one Level 5.
S.H.I.E.L.D. employed a ten-level ranking system for its agents. Ranks, from 1 to 10, weren't determined by seniority, but by the agent's overall abilities and importance to the organization. For example, Black Widow and Hawkeye were Level 7, and Agent Coulson was Level 8. The only one who had reached Level 10 was Nick Fury himself.
These agents before him were low-level. Only agents Level 7 and above had access to classified information. And the one who pretended to be an ordinary passerby was a Level 3 agent, the lowest-ranking in this group.
"They're all from S.H.I.E.L.D. I wonder what Nick Fury is up to." Noah decided to ask Nick directly.
After all, he had just killed the target of their mission and pinned the agents to the ground. It seemed as if he didn't care about their organization. And truthfully, he didn't care much. The Leader was his target, and S.H.I.E.L.D., having acquired the Leader's technology, could cause new problems, just like they did with the Tesseract.
Besides, he wasn't sure if these were genuine S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Maybe they were disguised "little snakes." Thinking about this, he snapped his fingers, and the several agents who were trying to get up instantly lost consciousness.
Finished with them, Noah raised his hand and summoned a holographic projection to contact Nick Fury. More accurately, he simply hacked Nick's phone. A moment later, Fury's displeased face appeared on the screen. His skin seemed even darker than usual. It was unclear whether it was from the sun or if he was simply angry about another phone hack.
"Noah, what is it this time? And can't you contact me through normal channels?" Fury grumbled. These guys with advanced technology always had their quirks. Tony Stark and Noah, in particular, loved hacking into other people's devices. Because of this habit, he had even instructed his cybersecurity specialists to strengthen S.H.I.E.L.D.'s network security to prevent Noah from stealing their classified data.
However, he didn't know that Lissandra had already copied all this data, and now strengthening their security was pointless. The current level of human technology was too far behind to compare with hers. It would take S.H.I.E.L.D. several decades of development or the emergence of a genius ahead of their time to catch up.
"Haha, good evening, Director Fury," Noah greeted him, adjusting the hologram to show the agents lying on the ground. "Director Fury, are these your people?"
"What?" Fury frowned, looking at the image transmitted to his phone. Several individuals in black tactical gear lay on the ground, their helmets beside them. But because their faces were turned downwards, he couldn't see them clearly.
"Take a closer look." Noah sent photos of these people, which he had previously extracted from the S.H.I.E.L.D. database.
"Coulson, check on these people," Fury said, looking at the photos and trying to remember who they were and why Noah decided to contact him about them. After a while, he delegated the task to another person present in his office – Phil Coulson.
"Oh? Coulson is here too? Good evening, Coulson," Noah noticed Coulson's presence only now, as he hadn't made a sound. It seemed that before he contacted them, Fury and Coulson had been busy with something.
"Good evening, Noah," Coulson replied and began searching for information about the people in the photos in the S.H.I.E.L.D. database.
"So, Noah, what's the reason for contacting me this time?" Fury inquired, returning to the conversation.
"Director Fury, you're probably aware of the recent events in Mexico City, in the XX district?"
"Yes, is this related to that situation?" Nick Fury recalled the incident in XX City. S.H.I.E.L.D. had already sent its people there to investigate, and according to the reports, the events in that location were connected to the Hulk.
"Yes."
"Does this incident have anything to do with you?"
"Not particularly with me, but it's related to Dr. Banner."
"Dr. Banner?" Fury frowned, slightly confused, then noticed Banner behind Noah. He knew that the Hulk had recently escaped from General Ross's military base. Back then, he, Tony, and Noah had discussed what to do with him. But it seemed Noah had managed to find him before anyone else.
"Uh, hello," Banner didn't know Nick Fury. He had no idea what S.H.I.E.L.D. even was.
"I knew the situation in XX was related to Bruce Banner, but I didn't think you were involved as well," Fury said.
"Samuel Sterns."
"What?" Noah suddenly uttered the name, causing confusion for Fury.
"Samuel Sterns, you should know him, right?" Noah deliberately mentioned the Leader's name to check Fury's reaction. Judging by his facial expression, these agents probably weren't sent by him.
Although he didn't possess the skill of reading microexpressions, Lissandra did. She could analyze every feature on Fury's face to determine his thoughts. Of course, a top-notch special agent like Nick Fury didn't display many visible emotions.
Fury pondered the name, but the answer came from Coulson:
"Samuel Sterns is a friend of Bruce Banner. During the incident with the Abomination, he helped Banner cleanse his body of gamma radiation. However, after the Abomination's appearance, Samuel Sterns disappeared. Our people searched the entire campus and the surrounding area, but found no trace of him."
Coulson retrieved a file from the cabinet and handed it to Fury, adding:
"Director, I found information about these people. They are indeed S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but we didn't have any missions scheduled for them today."
Fury's eyes narrowed as he suddenly realized something.
"These guys came to find Samuel Sterns. Since you didn't send them, does that mean they are the ones you've been looking for?" Noah was practically certain of their identity. These were Hydra agents.
Fury and Coulson exchanged glances, reading the alarm in each other's eyes. Had they finally come close to unraveling the mystery they had been searching for all this time?