Putting aside the fact that Tony wasn’t interested in dealing with the paparazzi right now, even if he was, Mark 6 was about to fall apart at any moment. How could he appear on the news in such a sorry state?
A moment later, Luke walked out of an alley in the distance in his original clothes, a phone in his hand. “Boss? The thing at the Wall Street subway station should be finished. Iron Man has already flown off; it seems he was in a big fight inside. There’s no sign of Batman; he probably left.”
Dustin was stunned. “Oh? How about Simon and Targo?”
Luke said helplessly, “Dead. Their subordinates are dead too.”
Dustin asked, “Are you sure?”
Luke said, “Yes. Iron Man would know. Should I call him and ask about the situation?”
After a brief hesitation, Dustin agreed. “Okay. Try to confirm the intelligence so that we can deal with this ‘big surprise’ without worry.”
Luke: “Got it.”
After hanging up, he was no longer in a hurry.
Selina and Gold Nugget had already arrived at Chester Arthur School where the “big surprise” was.
Seline had only needed to take the dog head one round to confirm that the liquid in the “big surprise” really was just syrup and not raw materials that would explode after being mixed together.
The alien dog head didn’t have Luke’s weird sense of smell, but it was quite sharp.
If it said it was syrup, it was syrup; it could even guess who the manufacturer was.
That meant that the case of the serial explosions had basically been wrapped up.
Luke had learned from Targo and Simon that they hadn’t placed any other explosives, since the “big surprise” was enough to draw everyone’s attention.
They were here to rob a bank, not to sacrifice themselves for some ideal.
It was natural to run after the robbery.
The last question was, where did the original 2,400-pound “big surprise” go?
Pondering this, the clone had already gotten Alfred to start searching for clues left behind by the robbers.
Luke simply stayed at the subway station entrance and stopped the paparazzi and nosy parkers from entering. He also made a call and passed on the information.
Everyone else didn’t matter, but Tony had to make an appearance.
At the very least, this tycoon had to give a clear statement and confirm that Luke had contributed in the operation to capture Targo and Simon.
As long as he said that, the Detective Bureau would have done a great job in this operation.
That was because Luke was Dustin’s direct subordinate and a police officer who had killed dozens of robbers.
For the sake of its reputation, NYPD had to obtain this merit.
Otherwise, everything would’ve been done by Batman and Iron Man, when ten thousand NYPD police officers hadn’t been able to do anything at all. In the end, they only found a 2,400-pound fake. How embarrassing would that be?
Not only that, Tony’s testimony would also confirm the truth of the “game” between John and Simon, which helped Tony and Batman lock onto the criminals.
There was no way NYPD would mind taking a little more credit.
The FBI and Homeland Security were nothing. NYPD wasn’t subordinate to these two departments.
On the contrary, as the largest local police department in America, NYPD had always hated the two departments encroaching on their jurisdiction.
After the twin towers incident in New York a few years ago, these two organizations had started to muscle in on NYPD’s territory and started operating brazenly in New York, using the phrase “terrorist threat” to send the police department packing.
Now that NYPD had contributed a lot in this serial explosions case, it would get at least 10 to 20% of the credit.
Conversely, the FBI and Homeland Security had done practically nothing, and only poked their heads in when everything was almost over.
There was no doubt that a few mid-level executives in the two organizations would be stepping down.
It wasn’t that their careers were ruined, but wasting three to five years was inevitable.
Luke quickly arranged everything while he was at the subway station.
Then, Phil arrived with a team of agents in black suits.
Luke wasn’t surprised at all.
The terrorist incident wasn’t SHIELD’s jurisdiction, but Batman, the Enchantress, and the fish-egg monsters definitely were.
They looked at each other. Luke was smiling, but Phil looked conflicted.
When they shook hands, he couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “Why are you involved again?”
Luke blinked. “The Detective Bureau was looking into the subway explosions. The boss called me over to guard this place, and I ran into robbers in disguise. There was nothing I could do about that.”
Phil was lost for words.
The Detective Bureau had taken the lead in this investigation, and Luke was the most capable detective in the department.
It was reasonable for him to be involved. If he was kept out of it, it could only be said that his boss was an idiot.
And from Phil’s investigation, Luke’s immediate superior, Dustin, wasn’t an idiot. Instead, he was a capable enough person to become executive manager of the operations department if he were transferred to SHIELD.
He nodded helplessly and patted Luke’s shoulder. “Be careful in the future. Actually, you should’ve called me back then.”
Saying that, he gestured for them to talk inside the subway station.
There were too many buildings around them from where they could be easily monitored. It was better to head in first.
Thus, two agents in black suits posing as FBI took over from Luke.
He and Phil entered the subway station and found a relatively clear corner to talk about what happened.
There was no helping it.
This time, Luke had fought alongside Batman and Iron Man, and had witnessed the appearance of that mysterious troublemaker.
There was also the witch and the huge group of fish-egg monsters, all of whom had extraordinary powers. And Luke as an ordinary person was right in the midst of them.
Phil had been surprised when he received the news, but then relieved.
Other people might not know all of what was in Luke’s file, but how could Phil not know?
Even if Phil didn’t want Luke to get involved in these mysterious events, he had to admit that Luke, who was only a little over 20 years old, was already a special person with “extraordinary combat ability.”
Of course, such people were common in America, and Phil himself was one of them.
Otherwise, given how often he dealt with mysterious things, if he didn’t have extraordinary abilities, he would have been buried long ago.
They talked for almost an hour, and Phil turned on his phone and recorded everything that Luke said.
After Phil turned off the recording, Luke coughed and said, “This is just a guess, so don’t record it down; just listen.”
Stumped for a moment, Phil then pressed on his earpiece and turned off his comm. “What guess?”
In a low voice, Luke told him about the witch’s appearance and her suspicious movements. “It’s possible that the witch isn’t related to the terrorists, but… is a secret weapon of some organization.”