“Someone hacked the surveillance equipment?”
“No doubt.”
Natasha pressed the pause button, and the screen stopped in the gap between repeating segments, with a very slight black frame flashing.
“From an intrusion technology perspective, it should be the work of the CIA, but we can’t rule out someone acting under their identity.” Nick looked up at the two trusted Agents, “What are your thoughts?”
Coulson remained silent. In places like New York and Washington D.C., the ones who most liked to impersonate the CIA were S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel like them, but it couldn’t possibly be S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel who stole the body.
Natasha also didn’t speak. There were many forces in the cities near S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, but considering who could hack S.H.I.E.L.D. and take things, the options were truly limited. She leaned towards it being the CIA’s doing.
Seeing that neither of them had any ideas, Nick switched the screen.
The screen displayed the book that Coulson had brought back.
“The internal appraisal experts conducted a preliminary assessment. The book’s elements in all aspects conform to the characteristics of the 19th-century Arab cultural sphere.”
“However, the entire book, apart from the text on the cover, is blank inside.”
“Impossible!”
Coulson interrupted Nick, and meeting his gaze, Coulson shrugged, “Director, I’m very sure there’s text inside.”
Seeing Coulson so certain, an idea flashed through Nick and Natasha’s minds: the item had been swapped.
If that were true, then S.H.I.E.L.D. would truly be a sieve.
A body stored in the morgue could be stolen, and important evidence just acquired could be swapped. What kind of Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division was this?
“Let’s go, let’s check the appraisal room.”
The appraisal room Nick referred to was located on the B5 level of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Triskelion building.
Levels B5 and below were primarily used to house various special items, such as the Tesseract, one of the fuses of the World War.
Without large-scale experiments and tests, they were sealed in independent rooms, and the doors alone required DNA + iris + brainwave triple verification to open.
Therefore, the full name of the appraisal room was actually the Special High-Risk Item Appraisal Center.
Without prior notice, Nick directly entered the Appraisal Center. The head of the relevant department rushed over, his actions and expression quite flustered.
Glancing at the department head, Nick went directly to the appraisal room that was currently in use.
Through the transparent, protective glass, two appraisal experts and technical personnel were conducting an in-depth examination of the seven calamity wheel book.
“Stop for a moment, open the first page of the book.” Nick opened the microphone and commanded.
The appraisal expert paused, then, following the instruction, angled the book towards the glass, and slowly opened the first page with his White-gloved hand.
It was indeed blank.
Nick frowned.
“‘The Self-Devouring Record of the Stealer’… Is this the summary of the book?” Coulson suddenly spoke.
Natasha turned to look at him in surprise; she hadn't seen anything either.
“Continue turning the pages.” Nick continued, his eyes fixed forward.
The second page was turned, and the Arabic script, like tiny ants, came into Coulson’s eyes.
“‘The Three Laws of Misfortune Transfer’…” Coulson said, glancing at Nick. Seeing that he made no move, he wrote a word on the glass, “What does this mean in Arabic?”
Coulson’s Arabic was quite good, but not yet at the level of translating ancient texts, especially such old books, where the meanings of many words had changed over so many years.
“Based on the 19th century as a baseline, this word means ‘arcane art,’ but with a slight derogatory connotation, tending to refer to malicious techniques, similar to the concept of ‘witchcraft’ in Chinese.”
The appraisal expert indeed understood. He specialized in various linguistics and quickly provided an explanation.
At this moment, Nick’s phone rang. It was a communication from Hawkeye’s team; they had been sent out to search for the missing body.
Looking back at the head of the Appraisal Center standing behind him, Nick thought for a moment and did not ask him to leave, but directly answered the call.
“What’s the situation?”
“Target found, but they’re all dead, from various accidents.”
“Elaborate.”
Hawkeye was silent for a while, seemingly trying to organize his words.
“The opposing operatives were a three-person team. We discovered them because their communication equipment might have malfunctioned, connecting to our internal communication channel.”
“Through signal tracking and satellite positioning, we located their position and began real-time monitoring. At the time, they were moving towards Pennsylvania in a cold chain vehicle.”
“After being located, based on the conversation in their channel, we deduced that their vehicle might have had a problem. The smell of gasoline inside the car was extremely obvious, the engine began to idle, and the temperature in the cold chain compartment started to rise.”
“After the accident occurred, the three targets temporarily stopped to wait for support, but were hit head-on by a speeding vehicle driving against traffic.”
“The vehicle driving against traffic was at the time being pursued by the Police. Through communication with the Police, it was confirmed that the reason for the pursuit was that the driver was suspected of transporting prohibited items.”
“During the collision, the cold chain vehicle had a minor explosion, the driver died on the spot, and the other two escaped from the vehicle wreckage.”
“The vehicle driving against traffic collided with a road barrier due to the impact, and a wheel flew off, hitting one of the surviving targets directly in the head.”
“The last target attempted to rescue the body, but was crushed by the coffin, which had come loose due to the impact, when he opened the rear compartment door, and was then ignited by the spreading Fire.”
“I have uploaded the relevant accident video to the internal system. We are currently en route to the scene. The scene is currently controlled by the MPD (Metropolitan Police Department).”
Listening to this description, images formed in Nick’s mind.
Agents do not believe in coincidences, but when there are too many coincidences, that too needs to be questioned.
“What’s the situation with that body?” Nick asked.
“Still unclear. Despite our strong intervention, the MPD personnel did not open or move the coffin. In fact, we currently cannot be 100% certain whether the body is in the coffin.” Hawkeye stated.
Normally, such matters would be reported only after confirmation, but this time it was truly too bizarre. Hawkeye felt that even for his own protection, he had to inform his superiors in advance.
“Alright, if there are any further developments, continue to contact me directly.”
After hanging up the phone, Nick looked at the book. His intuition told him that there should be some connection between the book and the accident.
However, there was a problem: currently, only Coulson could see the text on it.
What? You say Coulson is trustworthy?
Sorry, Agents do not believe in 100% trust.
Nick thought for a moment and then spoke, “Natasha, you take people to rendezvous with Hawkeye. Director York, you go prepare a Level 3 containment room. Other than that, no one is allowed to leave, no one is allowed to communicate externally, until the translation work is completed.”