Chapter 227: Past Events

"Arc Reactor... Yes, that is Howard's work." Obadiah responded to the military's question, while Ivan moved his gaze away from Stark and went to glare at Obadiah again.

Obadiah saw his gaze and said: "I know, there is a person here who claims to be the victim, believing that Howard stole his father's achievements."

Obadiah leaned back in his chair, his voice carrying some nostalgia: "Anton Vanko, a scientist from the Soviet Union."

When the name "Soviet Union" was spoken, the oldest general on the field looked at Obadiah. A young general seemed to want to speak to stop Obadiah from continuing, but that old general glanced at his subordinate, and in the end, no one spoke. Only Obadiah's voice echoed in the room.

"Anton was indeed a genius scientist. He was a very orthodox Soviet person, with extraordinary talent in industry and machinery, especially in theoretical knowledge."

"His cooperation with Howard was seamless... I have to say this. Howard was also a genius, but he paid more attention to creativity and had a flexible brain. Anton was more inclined toward technology, with rigorous theory. They were once very tacit partners."

Ivan seemed to want to say something to refute, but Obadiah's tone of reminiscing about the past carried the special imprint of that era, making people see the somewhat faded Iron Curtain era.

"At that time, an American and a Soviet working together on inventions sounded too absurd. Even if Anton said he betrayed the Soviet Union, no one would believe it."

"If you check now, you should still be able to see a bunch of long-winded investigation reports in the CIA files, recording the movements of Anton and Howard."

"Although 90% of them were illusions I inserted, there is no doubt about one point: Anton was indeed worth them spending such great energy to watch, because he really could produce things that changed the world."

"Howard and Anton created the model of the Arc Reactor together. That's right, this was not Howard's invention alone. Anton was also the creator of the Arc Reactor."

The room was silent. It seemed that whether it was Stark or Ivan, they had no objections to this result. Whether the Arc Reactor was created by Howard alone, Stark didn't care much anymore, and Ivan seemed to have expected it long ago.

Obadiah leaned back in his chair, moved his body, changed his posture, and continued: "Now, I am the only one who knows the truth of this story, but perhaps you can all guess it."

"Howard and I knew Anton's true stance very well. He was a firm Bolshevik."

"And because of this, as time passed and the situation in his motherland became worse and worse, the contradictions between them broke out."

Obadiah's tone began to become more and more ethereal, as if the story of that year was playing constantly before his eyes.

"Give it up, Anton! That won't have a good result!"

"Why haven't you seen it yet? Relying on one technology or one person cannot save your country anymore." In the laboratory, Howard pressed Anton's shoulder. Although his figure was much thinner and smaller than Anton's, his attitude was very firm.

"As long as you stay here, the two of us can make more money. We will have no worries about food and clothing, your son will receive the best education, and you have no need at all to return to the ice and snow."

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"Anton, Obadiah has a way to make your fake identity real, as long as you..."

Anton slapped his hand away and said: "This is you, Howard. You don't understand at all what I am pursuing..."

Howard took a deep breath, looking very helpless. He said: "I don't want to talk to you about faith. I'm just stating a fact. It's too late now."

"Even if you take this technology back, what you face might not be praise for a hero. You should understand better than me..."

Anton turned his head to look at Howard and said: "Then who caused this situation?!"

"Do you want to vent your anger on me?" Howard was also a bit angry. He said: "I was just kindly advising you. Facing a result that can already be predicted to be bad, why are you unwilling to be a little flexible?"

"You Americans call this flexibility, yeah..." Anton's tone was full of mockery. He seemed not to want to talk to Howard anymore and picked up the model to leave.

"You can't take it away!" Howard blocked Anton.

"This is the research result of the two of us! Do you want to occupy it alone?" Anton was completely angry. He cursed in Russian. Howard's temper was also very big. In the laboratory, the two broke out into a fierce argument.

"Finally..." Obadiah dragged out his tone: "Anton took away part of the data and returned to his hometown."

"I know, your father should have been very resentful of Howard before he died. He thought Howard was trying to occupy this research result alone, which is why he stopped him from taking the model back." Obadiah shook his head and said.

"But in fact, if he really wanted to take the model to the Soviet Union, then he wouldn't have been able to walk out of New York before being killed by the CIA."

"At that time, that red giant beast was already on the verge of death. No one would allow anyone to give it another shot of adrenaline. At the final critical stage, if Anton got the model, he would have died within three days."

Obadiah's voice fell to the ground. He looked at Ivan and said: "Actually, the data your father took back was already enough. You could make an Arc Reactor from scratch, so they definitely could too, and perhaps even do better."

"But unfortunately, just as Howard predicted, this didn't have any effect. It was already too late then."

Ivan didn't hear the superiority of a winner in his tone, and didn't even hear mockery. Obadiah's tone was very complicated, with nostalgia and regret. Finally, he said:

"December 16, 1991, Howard Stark died in a car accident. December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union announced its dissolution."

Ivan was silent for a while and couldn't help but say: "December 28, 1991, Anton Vanko died."

The air in the room was quiet. Tony Stark, Obadiah, and Ivan Vanko were all silent. They didn't know how to express their feelings with language.

Just like everyone who witnessed the end of that era, the story that happened in that Iron Curtain era was both bizarre and ordinary. When hearing such a story, everyone felt absurd, but didn't know where the emotion came from.

Except for Ivan Vanko, everyone in the room was a beneficiary of the victory results. But when this story fell into the room, very few people could laugh.

"Your father would resent Howard, perhaps because he still held fantasies, feeling that if he had obtained the complete model, he could have saved all of this."

"But perhaps, before he died, he already knew this was impossible, just unwilling to tell you, unwilling to tell you that he only realized when he reached the end that he had no comrades left."

Obadiah sighed again. He looked at Ivan and said: "Your revenge is destined not to succeed, because you are different from your father."

Obadiah's tone in telling the whole thing made those young generals listening feel very dissatisfied. They tried to interrupt him several times, but were stopped by the old general who was the leader.

"These grievances and hatreds are all in the past, Obadiah." That old general said: "We all know that that era will never return."

"Put down these past things, let's talk about practical problems."

Obadiah stroked the fountain pen in his hand and said: "As you can see, the Arc Reactor is not Howard's patent alone. Anton Vanko also enjoyed this achievement, and his son has already made a finished product. If he is willing to hand over this finished product to you, then the Stark Group will not stop it."

"If possible, we still want to cooperate with the Stark Group."

The old general glanced at Ivan's complexion, feeling that rather than trying to get technology from this Russian old man in this state, it would be better to stretch his neck and wait for Obadiah to blackmail them.

Obadiah turned his gaze to Justin, and Justin felt a chill on his back.

Schiller drank the last sip of coffee and placed the empty cup on the table. At this time, Steve walked in. He took a glass of water from the water dispenser next to him, drank it in a few gulps, and said: "Hammer Industries was indeed thrown out by the military to take the blame. It seems the situation is about to subside."

"Where did that Ivan go? He should have been deported back to his country, right?"

Steve shook his head and said: "You might not believe it, but he has the qualifications for legal residence and is not an illegal immigrant. Originally, he should have been handed over to the police, but Nick seemed to have taken a fancy to his technical ability and protected him."

"He is willing to work for Nick?"

"Of course he's not willing, but Nick is much more patient than Hammer. Now Ivan should have found a house on the edge of Manhattan. No one knows what he wants to do."

"He's not seeking revenge on Stark anymore?"

"But before seeking revenge, he should at least fix that armor of his." Luo De also finished the last sip of coffee and said: "His armor and weapons were damaged very badly, or rather, it's already a natural talent for Russian products to still be able to operate after enduring such an attack."

"In short, with S. H. I. E. L. D. agents watching him, there shouldn't be any big trouble." Steve moved a chair over and sat down.

Schiller turned another page of the newspaper and said: "Then Stark's public opinion problem is just going to be left alone like this?"

Luo De sighed and said: "Actually, this can't really be considered a public opinion attack, because they just took what Stark had done and said it again..."

"Even if Stark is really a piece of trash, Pepper should try her best to make him look not so obviously trashy, right?"

"After the negotiations ended, Stark went to find Pepper for the first time. I guess he must have gone to Pepper to discuss the trend of public opinion, right?"

After Luo De finished speaking, the three of them laughed tacitly. ===== CHAPTER 228 =====