Chapter 1847

Just after solving Erik's trouble, another trouble came to the door. Because Pepper was in a fit of anger, Stark didn't dare to provoke her. After he initially completed the first-generation armor, he drove back to his residence to get a change of clothes.

He had just opened the door of his villa when he turned his head and saw a man wearing a sweater standing at the mailbox at the door, looking like a neighbor passing by.

Stark glanced at him and then withdrew his gaze, but he didn't expect this man to take the initiative to walk up, place his hand on the open villa door, and say: "Mr. Stark, wait, can you give me two minutes?"

"You wouldn't be an insurance salesman, would you?" Stark took off his sunglasses, looked the man opposite up and down, and said: "You should know who I am? No matter what garbage you want to sell, I won't buy it."

"We met once before, Mr. Stark." The man revealed a smile and said.

Stark thought he was some speculative investor at a banquet who wanted to run to him to pull investment. He appeared somewhat impatient and wanted to close the door, but suddenly he heard the person opposite say: "In the base in Afghanistan, I was standing behind the crowd. Have you been okay recently?"

"Are you an agent of S. H. I. E. L. D.?" Stark immediately became nervous. He stared tightly at the man's face.

The man nodded generously, took a business card out of his pocket, handed it to Stark, and said: "Hello, Mr. Stark. Phil Coulson, Level 7 agent of S. H. I. E. L. D."

In order not to let himself appear too vigilant, Stark also put an arm on the door, took out his previous style, took the business card to look at it, stuffed it into his clothes pocket casually, and then said: "I've been waiting for you for a long time. After all, flying to Afghanistan isn't cheap. Send the bill directly to my company. I have things to do, so I'll go first."

After finishing, he turned and left. Coulson stopped him as expected. Stark paused, but still opened the big door, invited Coulson in, and said: "If you hadn't saved me, I wouldn't receive spies. You are all a bunch of guys who look for trouble."

"I hope you can change this view after contacting S. H. I. E. L. D." Coulson didn't get angry at all, smiled, and said: "I was just entrusted by the director to come and confirm the recovery status of your injury."

"I didn't suffer any injury." Stark shrugged and said: "I'm fine, but I'm quite curious. How are you dealing with Hydra?"

Coulson's eyes flashed and he said: "In fact... not very smoothly. After catching Hydra's clues in Afghanistan, the director immediately started a crackdown on a group of Hydra organizations in Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, they are too cunning, and we are short of manpower."

Hearing the four words "short of manpower," a flash of insight appeared in Stark's brain. He remembered the unmanned robot he built in the cave in Afghanistan.

Stark wasn't a skilled hunter, but he also knew the principle that setting traps required bait. He coughed lightly twice and said: "That's really a pity. Is there anything I can help with?"

Stark deliberately spoke in a somewhat impatient tone full of polite meaning, roughly indicating that I didn't want to return your favor at all, a completely heartless white-eyed wolf style.

Sure enough, Coulson felt somewhat embarrassed. Seeing his expression, Stark knew that S. H. I. E. L. D. really had a request for him. He rolled his eyes and changed the subject: "That group of Hydra actually dared to kidnap me. I must give them some color to see. You said you have combat operations against them in Eastern Europe. Can I go and see?"

Coulson looked at Stark somewhat shocked and said: "That is the front line now. The firefight between agents is very intense..."

"I haven't seen spies fighting a war. Even if you want weapons, you have to let me see how you strike Hydra, right?"

Stark tried his best to take out his businessman style and said: "Aren't you just wanting weapons from the Stark Group? We are open and honest. You help me take revenge, and I will give you weapons. It's that simple."

Coulson was slightly relieved, pretended to be nervous, rubbed his wrists, and said: "Then I won't hide it from you. The front line is indeed a bit tight, and the weapons needed for spy operations are different from the army. We might need some miniaturized but relatively lethal weapons..."

"By the way." Stark said as if he had just remembered: "How is that Hydra who almost killed me? Is the jury ready? I think the legal team of the Stark Group must come forward. He almost twisted my neck!"

"Uh..." Coulson appeared somewhat embarrassed again, but he still spoke: "That Hydra has important intelligence about the Eastern European Hydra organization. We are still interrogating."

"Are you kidding? You actually haven't let him go to jail yet?!" Stark appeared very dissatisfied. He raised his voice and said: "Is this S. H. I. E. L. D.'s work attitude?!"

After finishing, he put his hands on his hips, pointed outside the door somewhat angrily, and said: "I tell you, don't think that you can order me just because you saved me. Do you know how much tax I pay to the federal government every year?! This is what you should do!"

"Go back and tell your boss that I want to see him standing in court within three days. Otherwise, I won't give you any help! Get out of my sight immediately!"

After Coulson left, Stark breathed a sigh of relief. He believed Pierce would agree to his conditions, because if Pierce was really a Hydra, even if Shiler went to prison, he would have a way to fish him out.

But standing in court to accept trial always had to go through a process. Whether it was collecting evidence, opening a trial, or jury discussion, the time would be at least a month and at most half a year, which could at least win some time for Shiler.

But this was still a difficult task for Stark, because he had to bring down Pierce during this period. Otherwise, Shiler would still fall into his hands.

Stark took the clothes and returned to the Stark Building, but found Erik waiting at the door of the laboratory.

For some reason, Stark had a headache when he saw Erik now, and there was a kind of hidden fear. It wasn't fear of Erik as a person, just that he knew there would be trouble as soon as he saw Erik.

Stark had actually always been a relatively simple scientist. Fear of trouble, especially those secular troubles, was engraved in his bones.

He had experienced too many similar troubles during this period of time, so much so that every disturbance was consuming his remaining patience, making him take a big step toward the worsening of anxiety.

Erik walked up happily, patted Stark on the arm, and said: "You're finally back. I've been waiting for you for a long time."

He said this to create guilt for Stark, but Stark was having an anxiety attack and just wanted to hide. So he pressed on Erik's shoulder, stopped him from entering the laboratory with him, and said: "Erik, I have a very urgent project that must be completed tonight. Can you come back tomorrow?"

Erik didn't find Stark's abnormality. He just blocked Stark's shoulder, walked into the laboratory, and said: "My good buddy, I think you should listen to my thoughts now. I didn't have time to tell you before. Actually, I don't care about the position in the Stark Group. That's not the work I like to do."

Saying that, Erik took a roll of drawings out of the inner pocket of his jacket and laid it flat on the surface of Stark's experimental table. Stark glanced at it and found that it seemed to be a drawing of some robot.

"This is the robot I designed. It's a design drawing I drew in my spare time after leaving Wakanda."

Erik deliberately made a sad expression, as if implying that there was a hidden story behind this. But his expression was completely in vain, because Stark's attention was now focused on the drawings on the table.

Stark scanned the specific design part and didn't look at it anymore, because in his view, it was completely outdated, not even comparable to the Iron Wall 1 he knocked together in the cave.

Moreover, the previous experience in Afghanistan had completely denied the security role of unmanned robots, otherwise he wouldn't be working overtime here to make combat suits. Stark noticed the special paper used in this design drawing.

Stark didn't know whether Erik knew that the Stark Group actually had technical cooperation with Wakanda, but Stark had seen this kind of paper in the hands of Wakandans.

According to them, this kind of paper is a specialty of Wakanda, and in some cases, it can be used as paper for confidential files, which only shows patterns under the irradiation of special light.

But Erik said this was a design drawing he drew after leaving Wakanda. Could it be that he deliberately brought some of this paper when he left Wakanda?

But at this time, Erik began to talk eloquently about the design of the robot. If you ask about Stark's opinion on his remarks, it was probably that Erik knew a little mechanical engineering, but not much.

For a top scientist like Stark, anyone talking about his professional field in front of him was a bit like showing off in front of an expert. Even experts in this field were like this. There was a barrier between Stark and the technical level of the vast majority of people on Earth.

And Erik's exposition on unmanned robot technology didn't even reach the level of an expert. In Stark's view, it was no different from an infant.

If it were put in the past, making a robot might still make him feel a bit fresh. After all, he had been making arms before. But now he had made it himself, and he knew this thing wasn't magical. He could even knock it out with a hammer in a simple cave. Taking it so seriously to have a technical discussion was a bit of making a mountain out of a molehill.

But in order not to dampen Erik's interest, Stark nodded and said: "I will talk to the shareholders. Perhaps the military will be interested in unmanned security robots."

Erik's movements stopped. He could see that Stark wasn't surprised or enthusiastic. He even doubted whether Stark had looked at the drawings seriously. This was a secret drawing from the Wakandan Royal Research Institute.

But seeing Stark's tense expression, Erik knew he couldn't go any further. Although he said he wanted to conduct scientific research with Stark, Erik still took the drawings away before leaving.

This made Stark's suspicion break through a critical point. After all, academic fraud was absolutely a minefield for any scientist, and academic impersonation was even more of a minefield.

Stark was now very suspicious that the drawings in Erik's hands weren't drawn by himself. On one hand, the paper material was wrong, and on the other hand, Erik's level wasn't enough.

And there was also that Stark knew very well that the projects scientists spent their efforts researching had a general idea in their brains. Some could even draw the key parts of the design anytime and anywhere. But the things on these drawings were so simple that as long as a graduate student participated in the project, they could restore something similar from memory. But Erik treasured this drawing very much.

This was very wrong. Stark originally hadn't made up his mind to investigate Erik, but he happened to step on Stark's tail this time.

Stark sighed and picked up the phone to say to Pepper on the other end: "I'm very sorry, Pepper. Erik has caused you a lot of trouble. Can I trouble you to help me investigate him?"

And the people who saw this scene in the Devouring Engine looked at Nick one after another. Nick spread his arms and said.

"Always remember one sentence, friends. In interpersonal relationships, the exhaustive method is the worst choice."

"When encountering a minefield, please walk straight forward without looking back. The result of taking a step in every direction to test the location of the mine is that you will inevitably step on a mine."