Chapter 78: Project Insight

Chapter 78: Project Insight

A/N: All the world's a stage...

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“This is ridiculous. You can’t possibly think you’ll get away with this.”

How utterly cliché. No longer having to keep up appearances, Pierce rolls his eyes before fixing Councilman Singh with a closed lipped smile.

“We already have, Singh. Look around you. HYDRA has already won. The launch of Project Insight will only cement our victory.”

As he speaks, a couple of the guards grab Stark’s body from the middle of the room where he’d dropped and drag him off to the far wall so he’s no longer in the way. Pierce appreciates that, his corpse was really starting to be a mood killer truth be told. None of the Council Members comment on it either, so he thinks they probably all privately agree.

“I never took you as a terrorist, Alexander.”

Looking over at the sole female member of the WSC, Pierce chuckles.

“I’m not a terrorist, Pamela. And neither is HYDRA. That’s what I’m trying to tell all of you. That’s what I want to show all of you. This is a new dawn... a new day. You only have yourselves to blame if you force me to leave you behind.”

Moving over to the console, Pierce swipes away the HYDRA specs that Tony had brought up, bringing forth communications instead. A moment later and Arnim Zola appears on the large monitor in front of their eyes.

“Secretary Pierce. I assume that Stark has been liquidated.”

“He has, Dr. Zola. Everyone, allow me to introduce Dr. Arnim Zola. You have him to thank for the new and improved HYDRA.”

“Hm. Yes. I have spent the last seventy years rebuilding HYDRA within SHIELD. Even when my mortal body failed me, I did not let that stop the mission. I uploaded my mind, became a digital consciousness, and continued advising the leaders of HYDRA from the shadows. You, all of you, have indirectly benefited from my guidance as well.”

Councilman Rockwell scoffs at that, his withered hands curled into angry fists.

“Benefited from a bunch of Nazi Scum, you mean. I’d rather be dead.”

Pierce doesn’t hesitate. He can tell that Douglas means it... and truthfully, he has no love lost for the man. He was far closer to Nick Fury, and he’d ordered the SHIELD Director’s death all the same. Hell, he was closer to Tony Stark, and he’d pulled that trigger himself. By comparison.

“As you wish, Douglas.”Diiscover new stories at novelhall.com

A simple press of the button on his phone and the security badge goes off, killing Rockwell on the spot. The three remaining Council Members all jolt a little bit, even as Pierce just smiles.

“Please don’t test me, Councilmen, Councilwoman. Not today. I have no reason to show mercy to those who have no vision for the future.”

“The future, you say. And what exactly does this future look like?”

Councilman Yen’s own hands are also curled into fists at his sides, but at least he has the good sense to keep his tone respectful. Straightening up from the console, Pierce gives him his full attention.

“A good question. To correct one common misconception... we are not Nazis. HYDRA abandoned Nazi Germany’s ideology and methodology near the end of World War Two, giving it up as a lost cause. They were far too narrowminded, as well as... discriminatory. Modern Day HYDRA does not discriminate on basis of skin color, ethnicity, or anything else that you have no control over. The HYDRA of this era is concerned only with two things.”

Chao Yen frowns, but his curiosity overcomes him.

“... And what would those be?”

“Order. And Chaos. We in HYDRA exist to bring order to the chaos. Peace and prosperity for all. An end to all wars. In that way, your own government aligns quite well with our common goals, Councilman Yen. Order above all else. An end to the Chaos, once and for all.”

Indeed, while some in China’s government would still have to go, given they were using their power and authority for their own ends instead of the betterment for the world, it was actually rather ironic but China’s authoritarian government was better than the United States. Democracy was a failed institution, and it was time to curtail certain freedoms that had been allowed to run rampant for far, far too long. The world was on fire... but once Project Insight launched, they would finally have enough water to put those fires out.

“So what? We’re just going to stand here for another ninety minutes?”

Pierce chuckles and shakes his head at Councilwoman Hawley’s caustic tone. She’s lucky he likes her more than he liked Rockwell, or he might well terminate her for that comment. As is...

“No, Councilwoman. I suspect we can pick up the process now that Dr. Zola here is able to move freely through our systems.”

As Alexander Pierce slumps down dead, fully falling off the console, Tony makes a show of keeping a gun trained on him for a moment before moving to pick up the Secretary’s phone. With a few taps, he disarms the security badges the remaining members of the World Security Council are wearing and then sets the phone down while giving them a nod. At the same time, the incoming video calls from the muted heads of HYDRA wink out.

“Those badges are no longer primed, Council Members. Feel free to take them off.”

Singh, Yen, and Hawley waste no time in doing exactly that. Tony tries to feel bad about Rockwell’s demise... but honestly, while the man was no Nazi, he was a curmudgeonly old fool who had all but asked for death. And frankly, Tony didn’t have time to mourn him.

Moving to the console, Tony calls out for the benefit of the audience he currently has.

“J? How are we doing?”

“I have managed to destroy the uploaded mind known as Arnim Zola, Sir. He believed that he’d neutralized me earlier, which was what prompted Secretary Pierce to try and end your life. In reality, I simply hid myself away on the network of Insight Satellites until he’d let his guard down enough that I could time my ambush to coincide with yours.”

A load of bullshit, of course. But the remaining WSC members didn’t know that.

“Excellent. Do you have control of the Insight Helicarriers?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Lock them all down, JARVIS. And with Zola gone... we can finally do a deep dive of HYDRA’s files. Find out who’s involved with HYDRA. I want the names of every single living recruit they have on file.”

“As you say, Sir.”

Again, complete theater. Tony already knows who HYDRA are. But the WSC doesn’t know that. In fact...

“Stark, how did you survive?”

Turning to face Councilwoman Hawley, Tony smiles at her and the others.

“A little insurance policy of mine called Extremis. It provides... intensely powerful regeneration. It’s what I used to save Agent Coulson during Loki’s attack on the Helicarrier back in 2012. I suppose it skipped Pierce’s mind that I might have given myself a more permanent version of that drug.”

It hadn’t, of course. Pierce had actually brought it up to Zola at one point, only for ‘Zola’ to tell Pierce that it was fine and Tony didn’t have anything that powerful. What he’d used on Coulson was ‘experimental’ and a ‘one time use’ item, so as long as Pierce killed Tony quickly enough, it wouldn’t matter. Or so the dead man had thought.

Of course, he immediately sees hunger in the eyes of the remaining members of the World Security Council. They want Extremis. They want the ability to tank an assassination attempt like that and keep on trucking. Well, they could discuss that after this was all over.

Singh is the next to ask an obvious question.

“You knew about Pierce and HYDRA? You knew their plans?”

Tony shakes his head, feigning a perfect grimace.

“All too late. I knew some of their plans, but fortunately JARVIS and I realized that they had Arnim Zola acting as a Quasi-AI of their own rather early on. Zola was one of the HYDRA scientists that the SSR recruited for Operation Paperclip back in the day, before they became SHIELD. His recruitment allowed him to rebirth HYDRA inside of SHIELD, just like he said.”

Sighing, Tony looks back down at the console.

“Once I found out what HYDRA was up to, I did my best to stop them where I could. I’ve been fighting a shadow war against Pierce for over a year now, since shortly after I was invited to join this Council. I’ll be honest, I hoped he didn’t know about me... but it seems JARVIS and I were found out along the way, because Zola attacked JARVIS the moment I separated from the suit earlier, and Pierce tried to have me killed the moment he thought JARVIS was out of the picture.”

Taking a deep breath, Tony pretends like he’s about to continue... only for JARVIS to ‘conveniently’ interrupt him.

“Sir. I have finished my deep dive into HYDRA and SHIELD’s files. I can say with ninety-nine percent certainty... that every single human being currently onboard a Project Insight Helicarrier is HYDRA.”

Silence falls in the Council Room, as those words reach the ears of the rest of the WSC. Tony barely has to wait a second for them to all start speaking at once.

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A/N: I know people wanted Pierce to die slowly, or to have a big reveal scene. But at the end of the day, he dies without a whisper because he must, because it serves Tony better for him to never be able to reveal Tony's ties to HYDRA.

Next time, the stageplay continues as the World Security Council deliberates~