Chapter 209 - 191: Military Secret?

Osborne Group, Norman suddenly stood up—

The Scorpion had been caught!

And it wasn’t just any capture!

This operation was supposed to have the Scorpion attack from the sewers, take out the target cleanly, and then vanish!

Even if he failed to escape, the armor would activate a self-locking mechanism, leaving no other clues for anyone to find.

Then, his partner would send someone to recover the armor!

But now—The server he used to monitor the Scorpion had burned out! The other side hacked into the company’s server in an instant!

Luckily, he was using an isolated computer; otherwise, Osborne’s internal network might have been completely breached by now!

The person on the other end of the video call asked:

"Something happened?"

"Something big happened! That damn Spider Woman was on the scene, and someone hacked my armor! The security mechanism didn’t work!"

Norman paced back and forth in agitation, crazily saying: "If they dismantle the armor, they will see signs of human modification and the Osborne Group’s bio-link chips!

They will trace it back to me!"

The person on the other end of the line was also silent—this was somewhat unexpected.

But he wasn’t as frantic as Norman; he was just thinking about the evaluation of Lille for the Insight Plan.

It seemed that the random surveillance plan was somewhat effective.

"...Don’t panic; it’s not over yet, is it? Continue testing and see what happens with the remaining products."

"More testing? I’m on the edge here! Don’t you get it?!"

"I understand, Mr. Osborne." The tone of the person on the other end was unchanged, "Listen to me, continue testing, you are working for the country now, don’t forget that.

It’s just a small incident, and we’ll handle it at the right time.

Just heard the news—your witness isn’t dead, he’s in the hospital on the 23rd floor of the New York State University Hospital, so you can test your aerial armor."

Norman continued pacing.

"...Mr. Osborne."

Norman stopped.

He looked at the big screen, which began broadcasting the news.

"Recently, the case of the Third Laboratory, which has garnered much attention from the citizens of New York City, is about to go to trial."

"However, during the transport of witnesses and evidence, an attack occurred at the scene. The attacker was an unknown person in green armor."

"The attacker has been subdued by concerned citizens and the NYPD, and several police officers and marshals were injured in the process and are being treated in the hospital."

"According to reports, the International Gene Cooperation Company provided our brave officers with free plasma and promised to cover all their medical expenses..."

"The nature of the attack has not yet ruled out terrorism, and we will... what are you doing, we are the media!"

The live broadcast was cut off.

When the screen returned, the man on the other end of the video call spread his hands: "You see, you work for America, and America will protect you. So you know what you need to do now, right?"

Norman nodded deeply, any doubts and thoughts he had just risen were evaporated by that scene.

In this world, the organization at the top of the power hierarchy is the country.

And the strongest country is the United States.

However, the United States is very aggressive externally but quite divided internally—the relationships between government, private enterprises, and citizens are very delicate and complex, with any change affecting the whole system.

If someone could really ignore those noisy citizens and act recklessly...

Then sticking close to this "Military-Industrial Club" would be very beneficial.

This club seemed to be rocketing on its way to becoming such a behemoth, if he could get on board, what else would he need to think about?

"I’ll go get ready now."

"Oh, by the way, your network seems a little insecure; I can reinforce it for you—with the technology of our club members."

...

"The witness didn’t die, but he’s almost as good as dead; tests show he was hit by a rare mixed toxin.

Although it’s only been a short time, most of his nerves are already dead, and there’s no telling when he might wake up."

On the phone, Martin’s tone was very somber.

Not dead, but almost as good as dead.

The good news was that the NYPD had recorded some oral evidence, but this kind of evidence was generally weak.

Lille wasn’t feeling too great, but the advantage brought by catching the Scorpion might be even bigger than Ethan defecting to Osborne.

"...Keep an eye on the witness, the technology on the attacker is closely related to Osborne, I can figure out something from this test subject."

"Got it, this is very important to me... to us," Martin paused, "If the Osborne Group falls, it will create a gap in the medical and pharmaceutical fields..."

"I know, I know, Martin, just keep an eye on him."

"I’ll keep an eye on him."

Martin’s voice was low as he hung up the phone, his whole body suddenly turned black and white, like a photo negative that hadn’t been developed.

"Heart Demon Gang, keep an eye on the vicinity of the New York State University."

...

After hanging up the phone, Lille looked at the chaotic NYPD, journalists swarming at the police station entrance, and the police were sweating all over—

George had made a statement, but everyone wanted to come in and take a few photos, ask a few questions, and then ask about the next steps...

If they let them in, the NYPD wouldn’t do anything else for the whole day.

"Lille, can you figure out who’s behind this?"

"I’m trying—" Lille frowned, his knife couldn’t cut through the Scorpion’s battle suit.

Unlike the tail, which could be partially disassembled by a preset program, the suit was welded to the body.

And it was even sturdier than he thought.

"I want to move it to the lab, I can prepare a device for cutting it."

"Alright..."

Before George could finish speaking, the chaotic gate suddenly quieted down, and everyone’s eyes turned to the street.

A convoy of five vehicles stopped at the NYPD entrance, two of which were armored vehicles.

"Citizens of New York, please step back, this is the U.S. Army, carrying out official duties."

The American soldiers, without a word, quickly and roughly shoved the reporters aside, clearing a path.

"What are you doing..."

A reporter was directly pushed to the ground, their equipment smashing onto the ground, causing an immediate uproar.

Somebody tried to record this scene, raising their camera, only to see the soldiers pull out a device that looked like a flashlight and shine it at them—

The people were fine, but their cameras broke down, the images becoming fragmented...

Crackle.

It even started smoking.

"State secrets, non-essential personnel, step back!"

The safety line was quickly set up, and the people saw the fully armed, menacing soldiers and stopped pushing.

George came to the police station entrance, just in time to see someone get out of the lead black car, a bald, black man wearing a black coat.

George’s face was expressionless, arms crossed: "So the federal government is planning to attack the NYPD?"

The bald man pulled out a credential, labeled: Nick Fury.

"Sorry, Chief Stacy, but I received orders, the unknown biological weapon that appeared at the scene belongs to the confidential sequence.

From now on, this matter will be taken over by the Strategic Science Department."

"Strategic Science Department?" George frowned, "What department is that?"

"A long-standing secret department recently reactivated by the Federation and interfacing with the United Nations Security Council.

We will evaluate and regulate the biological weapon and provide accountability to the international community."

"International community?" George found it absurd, "That ’biological weapon’ just caused havoc in New York City, where were your people then?"

"Our people are right here."

Fury nodded at his subordinates, and the American soldiers marched into the NYPD.

George was about to speak when Fury pulled out several documents, including those from the Pentagon, the military, and the New York City government.

The NYPD fell silent.

Fury walked into the police station, just in time to see Lille withdraw his hand from the Scorpion’s battle suit.

"Mr. Lee, this biological weapon is temporarily taken over by the state."

Lille stepped back: "Collecting war weapons for the state, huh? Looks like the Pentagon is desperate after Afghanistan."

"It’s our duty." Fury stood in the room, watching the soldiers take the Scorpion away, and then said to Lille, "But if you join us, you can continue studying this armor; I need talents like you."

Lille raised an eyebrow: "But I don’t need an invasion war to prove my worth. I have to remind you, this guy is also a suspect.

However, I see you didn’t bring an order signed by the Supreme Court."

"No, we didn’t." Fury gave Lille a deep look, "But he has no reason to obstruct our actions—no evidence.

You’d better focus on the Third Laboratory case; military secrets aren’t your concern."

"Screw you." Lille’s tone was flat, but the words were not. "Any evil will be brought to justice."

Fury said no more and left decisively.

George stood with his hands on his hips, helplessly.

"...Damn the federal government, damn the mayor—is he brain-dead?"

"Definitely brain-dead—we still have a chance, the Supreme Court hasn’t indicated that the military has immunity in this case.

I’ve already copied the data and internal circuits of the Scorpion Battle Armor, enough to initiate an investigation of the mastermind."

"But that evidence is too..."

"So we’ve also kept physical evidence—"

Lille snapped his fingers, and Gwen swung in from the window, dropping a large bag of parts.

All the removable parts were there—the people responsible for the recovery weren’t familiar with the armor, and Lille used some trickery to make them not notice anything was missing.

"Hello, Chief, we meet again."

George looked at the evidence, then at Gwen: "Uh... alright, so who do we investigate?"

"Who else? Of course, the Osborne Group. I need to consult Professor Connor about the recent findings."

Obviously—the Osborne Group didn’t have the power to pull something like this on their own.

No single company possessed such power.

Lille watched the departing convoy... feeling somewhat heavy, the concentration of power was deeper than he imagined.

If he were a masked hero, handling these matters would be easy; just kill.

Killing people is easy, even creating a massacre isn’t hard.

But how many people would have to be killed to destroy a corrupt system? And ensure it doesn’t rise again, or the new system isn’t worse?

If he just wanted to live comfortably, it would be so simple, just be a masked hero, ignore everything, and run away—

Not to mention, if he agreed to join SHIELD, getting luxury cars, women, and money would be no problem. Even if he held a massive party with a thousand people, Fury would arrange everything, maybe even wearing a bikini to serve drinks.

But Lille might not know what kind of future is good.

However, betraying morals, ideals, and sinking into depravity, that kind of future is definitely not what he wants.

This matter must be resolved from other angles.

Luckily, the power structure in the United States is quite complex; there’s room for political maneuvering.

Looking on the bright side... maybe this could help them oust the New York City mayor in the upcoming election.