Chapter 541 It Depends on How She Chooses

"Lenny Testarossa Stark, female, 25 years old, born on August 23, 1989, graduated from MIT at the age of 20, and then joined S.H.I.E.L.D.

On June 11, 2006, his father Richard Stark and mother Anna Stark died in a plane crash on the United Airlines flight they were traveling on..."

Sam held a copy of SHIELD's confidential information about Leni and read the contents carefully.

However, when he took a closer look at Leni's past, he discovered that the reason why this girl "went astray" did not seem to be something incomprehensible.

"Except for the part after joining S.H.I.E.L.D., this girl's life before the age of 20 was simply a human tragedy..."

After a cursory glance at the various blacked-out contents in the second half of the confidential file, Sam glanced at the silent people present and threw the information back onto the desk with a snap.

"So, what happened after she turned 20 that caused such a big change in her."

Nick Fury raised his eyes and glanced at Sam. He already knew the other person's identity and resume, so he didn't have any dissatisfaction with the latter's attitude.

"At the end of 2010, she participated in a secret research jointly conducted by SHIELD and NASA. Unfortunately, she encountered an accident during the experiment and her heart stopped beating for 17 minutes..."

Nick Fury slowly told the story of Leni after joining S.H.I.E.L.D., but did not explain which research the latter participated in or which mission she performed.

"And her ability, in her words, was only due to that accident."

After his heart stopped beating for 17 minutes, he came back to life. Another soul from another world lived in his body, possessing incredible spatial abilities...

All these stories that sounded particularly fantastic to Sam actually happened in the real world, and there were people around him to prove it.

If the expressions on their faces didn't tell the story that it was a lie, he might still think that these people were joking with him.

"In other words, the most likely contradiction is the experimental accident?"

Natasha rubbed her chin and fell into thought.

"If what Leni said before is false, the so-called heaven does not exist at all. Wouldn't it make more sense to see it this way?"

Sam was the first to expand his imagination.

"Remember that Sitwell guy said that the other party recognized his identity as Hydra as soon as they met, and also knew about the existence of the Red Skull. This shows that she definitely did not dare to make such a decision just based on her knowledge of history. This kind of behavior of exposing each other’s identities..."

Following Sam's train of thought, Agent Hill continued:

"According to what you said before, Pierce also met Leni for the first time. Pierce didn't even believe Leni's statement at the beginning."

"Well, that's what Sitwell said, but we can't verify this now, so we can't fully believe it."

Natasha nodded, but a trace of confusion flashed in her eyes. She always felt that Sitwell was far from that simple.

But no matter what, now the launch of the Insight Project is imminent, and they must face Leni.

So, Nick Fury opened a weapon box that had been prepared in front of everyone present, revealing three data chips lying quietly inside the box.

"When the helicarriers reach an altitude of 3,000 feet, they will connect with several Insight satellites in low-Earth orbit to complete weaponization..."

We have to break into the space carrier's main control data processing center and replace the data chips inside with our own.

It's useless to replace just one or two, you have to replace all the data chips of the three space carriers..."

This action plan was planned in advance by Nick Fury and Agent Hill, but they lacked reliable candidates for actual operations.

And they now have to assume that SHIELD is now completely controlled by Hydra, and the three motherships and even the entire headquarters are all Hydra people.

If they want to stop this, they can only prepare for the worst, and then...

Break in!

There is no other way.

"In other words, we have to fight against the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. with just a few of us?"

Crossing his arms over his chest, Sam turned his attention to Steve.

Even he, a Falcon Project pilot who had done similar things before, was not very confident about this kind of mission, which was almost like sending someone to his death.

"To be precise, against S.H.I.E.L.D., which has Leni."

Steve frowned and sighed, everything else was fine, but if Leni was also in SHIELD, they would be in trouble.

"Leni has a kind of radar sensing ability, and the coverage range is far beyond two kilometers. I'm afraid it will be difficult for us to sneak in without her knowing it."

It was not once or twice that he went on missions with Leni, and Steve knew more or less about Leni's abilities.

Just a few of them want to sneak into SHIELD quietly under Leni's radar, even if they are not daydreaming.

"radar?"

Sam was a little confused, but after thinking about Leni's identity as the director of Stark Industries and possessing some extraordinary technology, it didn't seem to be something difficult to understand.

"A set of individual radar perception systems that belong exclusively to Leni are stored in her space warehouse. In her own words, any existence that threatens her will have nowhere to hide."

Natasha explained with a solemn expression:

"However, her radar system is not omnipotent. Unless she actively conducts external exploration, she will ignore some non-hostile targets if it is not necessary..."

Laini had mentioned this to the Avengers in the past. Her radar detection system is divided into two modes: passive alert and active search.

In the first mode, the radar system will only feedback vague data information, and will only focus on all units that threaten itself or friendly forces. In other cases, it is in a normal standby state.

In the second active detection mode, Lainie will actively detect everything within a certain range around her.

Carrying out a carpet search similar to sonar, no suspicious corner will be missed, and any changes in the surrounding environment will be captured by the system, and no enemy will have anywhere to hide.

But in the second mode, Lainie's mental consumption will be very huge, which is also a burden for her in high-intensity combat.

Therefore, unless necessary, she will not maximize the range of active exploration, as long as she can ensure the safety of herself or her companions.

"...So, we are not completely without a chance. As long as we can deceive Lainie's passive perception and sneak into SHIELD before she notices our arrival, the rest..."

Natasha didn't finish her words and looked at Steve beside her.

"Leave the rest to me."

...

Sitting at the table, Natasha couldn't help but recall her past acquaintance with Lainie.

"Who taught you to contact like this?"

"It's not just a token, are you serious?"

"There's a fire starting in my heart~"

"Take it away!!!"

Scenes of Lainie flashed before her eyes. Natasha couldn't believe that this woman who once rushed towards the nuclear bomb without fear of death in the past would actually be a Hydra who regarded human life as worthless.

In Flushing, New York, she was alone with her weak body and strong hatred;

In New Mexico, she once vowed to bring Loki's blood to the sacrifice in order to comfort the dead heroes;

Over Libya, she was willing to endure the lack of oxygen and risk her life to contain an entire nuclear bomb;

The Battle of New York, the desperate virus, the overlap of the nine realms...

To this day, which of these things is not for saving the people of the world?

Natasha didn't think that Lainie really betrayed, even though Sitwell confirmed that Lainie was indeed Hydra.

But Natasha still stubbornly and firmly believed that Lainie must have her reasons for doing this!

Although as a spy, she seemed to have no right to talk about trust with others.

But she still felt that Lainie seemed to be brewing some bigger action.

"Didn't you go out for some fresh air?"

Suddenly, Nick Fury's voice came from the side, pulling Natasha's thoughts back to reality.

"No, I'm memorizing the route."

Natasha didn't intend to tell Nick Fury what she was thinking. Changing one's mind at the last minute was the most taboo thing, not to mention that she couldn't produce any evidence at all.

Nick Fury raised his eyebrows when he heard this, and took it as the truth from the other party, and handed a special equipment box in his hand to the other party.

"This is for you. Agent Hill has specially debugged it."

Natasha glanced at the label on the box and saw the words "static veil" on it, so she nodded and accepted it.

"Pierce recently invited all the directors of the Security Council to the Trident headquarters to discuss the promotion of Lainie. At that time, you can take the opportunity to mix in and pretend to be the British Holly director, secretly protect several directors, and prevent Pierce from jumping off the wall."

"Then what should we do with Lainie? This veil should not be hidden from her perception."

Natasha shook the box containing the static veil.

You know, the actual design principle and technology of this high-tech veil that can change a person's appearance are all derived from the optical camouflage cloak project of the research team of the investigation team.

It can even be said that this veil is an advanced development product of the optical camouflage cloak.

It's okay to use this to fool those who don't understand, but if you use it to deal with Lainie, it's probably useless.

However, Nick Fury's eyes flashed with a complicated look at this moment.

"It depends on how she chooses..."

The next day, after a night of preparation and planning, Steve and others took advantage of the sun just rising and quietly launched their actions.

It is worth mentioning that Steve had abandoned the "stealth combat suit" customized for him by SHIELD in order to get rid of SHIELD's pursuit.

Therefore, Steve "had to" take advantage of the dark and ran to the Smithsonian Museum to steal a set of combat uniforms that were almost the same as when he led the Howling Commandos in the past.

Unfortunately, as a museum exhibit, this combat suit is not the original one made by Howard Stark.

Its material is not the carbon fiber reinforced polymer, so the stab and bulletproof effect is almost infinite.

Regardless, Steve still chose this suit.

He wanted to use this combat suit to wake up his old friend Bucky Barnes who had lost his memory.

On the other hand, when Steve and his friends were trying to sneak into the Trident headquarters with the help of Agent Hill's authority, Natasha, who had set out earlier, had already disguised herself as Director Holly and got on the special car arranged by the Security Council.

As for the real Director Holly, I'm afraid she will have to sleep well in the airport VIP lounge for a while...

Since people were arranged in advance to prepare, when the Security Council's special car drove into the Trident headquarters of SHIELD, it was not questioned or checked by anyone.

Natasha, who turned into Director Holly, looked at the sentry outside the car window as usual, and her heart was mixed with mixed feelings for a while.

Once upon a time, she thought she had made the right choice.

But she didn't expect that she was just jumping from one quagmire to another.

"Welcome everyone."

In a trance, Pierce's voice came into her ears, and Natasha put aside the distracting thoughts in her heart and concentrated on playing her role as the British director.

"Did you have a good flight?"

Faced with Pierce's politeness, Director "Holly" smiled and replied:

"Not bad, but the way from the airport to here was not so good."

"Sorry, SHIELD can't control everything..."

"For example, Captain America."

As the old enemy of the United States, Russian Director Ivanov naturally would not miss any opportunity to ridicule Pierce.

And the effect of this sentence was naturally significant. Pierce was speechless on the spot. He opened his mouth for a long time but didn't say a word to him.

There was no way, who made the other party tell the truth.

Obviously, there was a chance to kill Steve Rogers yesterday, but Rumlow let them run away.

The Winter Soldier is now unstable, and Pierce really has no good way to deal with Steve Rogers.

But the awkward atmosphere did not last long. Under the leadership of Pierce, several directors walked to the main building of the Trident Building, where someone was waiting for them.

"Hello, directors, welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D."

Wearing a tailor-made women's suit, Lainie stood at the main entrance with a dignified posture and greeted several directors with a smile.

However, when they saw that the person who came to greet them was actually Lainie, the faces of all the directors changed.

The most interesting expression was that of French director Pierre, who was the most opposed to Lainie taking over as director of S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning.

But I didn't expect that Pierce would eventually promote this female plague god.

I thought John Garrett in Europe could still hold on, but for some reason last night, this guy actually gave up the competition on his own initiative.

This made Director Pierre particularly embarrassed. He wanted to scold the coward several times in person, asking why he didn't dare to compete with this crazy woman from the Stark family.

Under pressure, Pierre finally had to give up his previous efforts and reluctantly gave his approval at the internal meeting.

"Directors, this is a biometric badge specially prepared for you. With it, you can move freely in SHIELD."

Smiling, Lainie took out a small suitcase containing four custom badges from the void and showed it to the directors.

Pierce hurriedly explained to her, trying to ease the embarrassment caused by Director Ivanov's ridicule.

However, what the people present did not notice was that while they were chatting and getting familiar with each other, three people had already mixed in with the Security Council personnel entering and leaving the Trident headquarters...