Chapter 205: Alexander’s Insight. 2014 CE

[6 Hours before the attempted assassination of Fury]

Fury quietly walked into his dark office with his usual attire. As the door opened, Fury scanned the entire room, checking if there’s any anomaly in the place. He didn’t react at all, meaning that he thought that there was no danger.

The director of SHIELD continued to walk towards his desk, he didn’t sit on the chair though, instead, he only tapped the desk, thinking deeply. Suddenly, as if he wanted to throw off the opponent, he pulled a pistol from his holster, pointing it to the corner of the room.

“No point in hiding anymore,” said Fury coldly. “Although, it’s impressive you’ve been able to bypass all the security checks of my office.”

“Cautious as always, director.” a voice sounded, but there was nobody. “Though, you’re aiming at the wrong corner.”

Fury frowned at the man’s words, as if his pride had been wounded. A man then appeared right besides Fury, alerting him even further. Fury quickly turned, his pistol pointing towards the man.

It was an African-American man, wearing a futuristic looking black armour with a helmet that hides the face, but the visor is opened right now. The armour had lines that looked like muscles, in fact, it probably looks more like an exo-skeleton rather than the modern armour that Fury is used to.

“And you are?” Fury coughed, trying to forget that he just aimed at the wrong corner.

The man just smiled. He didn’t mind that Fury kept pointing his pistol at him, but the man walked towards Fury’s desk, and he suddenly tapped the glass part of the table.

A projection of a computer screen was suddenly displayed in front of them, showing an empty folder.

“Subject Eterni.” said the man in an exo-skeleton. “Empty folder huh?”

“Are you the one who deleted it?” Fury asked again, probing.

“Oh, we’re not the ones who deleted it.” the man shrugged. “It's… more of collateral damage.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“It’s a long story.” the man said while leaning on the desk. “Anyway, as my intel suggests, you just got back from meeting Secretary Pierce, correct?”

Fury held his gun ever tighter, but didn’t answer.

“You asked him if you want to delay Project Insight right? Because there was some data you cannot access?”

“Who are you? A mole?” Fury asked again.

“We’re just trying to do what’s best here, director.” the man smiled. “The name’s Isaiah Bradley.”

Fury’s frown deepened at the name, making Isaiah’s smile even wider. “Heard the name? Who am I kidding, of course you have. Relax, director, I’m not here to seek revenge against the state, in fact, I’m here to deal with her problems.”

Isaiah took out a flash drive from god-knows-where, and showed it to Fury. “Mind if I show you what’s inside? Though, I suggest you sit down, director. Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you.”

“We?” Fury pointed out, but Isaiah didn’t answer. Seeing that there was no threat, Fury put his pistol back to his holster, but his hand stayed holding it.

Fury sat down, his body looking at the projector on the glass. Isaiah quickly inserted the flash drive, and files of data appeared.

“What do you know about Project Insight, Director?” Isaiah asked.

“It’s a top secret project, I don’t—”

“The project involved three Helicarriers that would patrol Earth and, with the use of an algorithm that evaluated an individual's behaviour, eliminate humans who posed a possible threat. Isn’t that right, director?” Isaiah smiled.

Fury could only sigh at the statement. “It was a response to the Battle of New York and all the incidents in the past couple of years. The algorithm will target highly dangerous individuals and eliminate them.”

“That’s the world you want to be in, director? A world where you will be judged for a crime that you didn’t commit yet?”

“That’s not how it works,” said Fury calmly. “At first, we will watch those highly dangerous individuals, and when they are about to commit the crime, we will strike them down.”

“Well, Secretary Pierce seems to not like that.”

Fury frowned. “Meaning?”

“Look at this.” Isaiah then displayed a list of names in the projector. “Dr. Stephen Strange, Mr. Jonathan Smith, King Grodd of Zimera, Dr. Maya Hansen, Dr. Helen Cho, and so on and so forth. Are these people a threat to humanity, Director?”

“Where did you get this?” Fury stood up, watching the list of names intently, he even spotted his own name in it.

“Alexander’s server,” said Isaiah. “Well, more like HYDRA’s server.”

“What?” Fury frowned.

“Look at the file name,” said Isaiah. “Alexander’s insight.”

“And I am supposed to believe you?” Fury said accusingly. “You haven’t answered my question. From the looks of it, the armour you’re wearing is Zimeran tech, King Grodd’s spy?”

“We don’t serve any kings or presidents, directors,” said Isaiah. “We serve mother earth, and those who stand with her.”

Fury pulled his gun once more and said to Isaiah. “And what is your objective here? To show some lies to break SHIELD’s trust with each other? To ensue chaos in our ranks?”

“To show you the truth.” Isaiah answered. We the Unseen ones have been targeted lately by HYDRA, I mean we destroy their bases all the time, but still, one of them has been able to track one of our members recently, so we request your cooperation, director.”

“You show up here without saying anything about yourselves, yet you want my cooperation?”

“It’s your mess.” Isaiah smiled. “The supposed Earth’s best intelligence agency has been infiltrated by nazis, that must be embarassing for you, director.”

“Do you have any proof except this ‘file’ that can easily be forged?”

Isaiah’s smile dropped as he looked tired. “Look, director. You either cooperate, or not. It’s that simple. We can do this on our own, I can guarantee you that Alexander wants your head now, especially after you ask him to delay Project Insight.”

Fury raised his brow. The room went silent for a couple of seconds, but then Fury put his gun on the holster again, seemingly stopping his hostility. “And what is your plan exactly, Mr. Bradley?”

Bradley chuckled. “You’re not going to like it, director. But I can’t tell you here.”

Fury just stared at him. He looked hesitant, but then, Bradley interrupted him. “Look, you can find the evidence yourself in your database. If you decide to cooperate, we’ll know, and we’ll come to you. Remember, director, we can do this on our own, the difference is, whether the US can contain the situation is up to you. Don’t trust anyone, there’s a reason King Grodd never comes to the meetings anymore.”

Bradley then took out a flash drive, it was black, and he put it on the desk. “Skeleton key, handy decryption tool. Put it on your computer, run the software, and any encrypted file will be decrypted in less than a second.”

Without waiting for Fury’s words, Bradley pressed a button that was on his belt, and he was quickly swallowed by blue light, disappearing into thin air.

Fury just stared at where Bradley used to stand, he was tapping the desk rapidly, as if trying to calm down his anxiety.

Finally, he took the flash drive, and put it on a socket. The flash drive clicked, and the data was connected to the computer.

“Open the files of the Lemurian Star Satellite launch,” said Fury calmly.

There was a split second of silence, before a cold and flat voice answered. “Access denied.”

“Run the Skeleton Key Decryption tool.” Fury continued.

“Please wait… Decryption successful… opening folder…”

Fury then saw the black flash drive burned from the socket, a self-destruct mechanism perhaps. He took out the flash drive and put it in his drawer, before checking the files of the Satellite launch.

The data was all there. The list of names, the ones who are involved, and the ones who actively modify the project. Fury could only sigh at the data. He copied all of that data to another flash drive, and he put it in his pocket.

He quickly exited his office, heading towards his car. And six hours later, an attempt on Fury’s life almost succeeded.

—

A/N: I just realised that there might be no Falcon in this story lol. Unless you want me to write some bullshit scenario…