William Rodriguez calmly hung up the phone.
The light from the phone screen left a final gleam on his face before fading into darkness.
He casually tossed the phone, used for a single-line contact, onto the sofa, where it landed with a soft thud.
William walked to the refrigerator, took out a can of ice-cold cola, pulled the tab with a 'click,' and tilted his head back to take a big gulp.
The icy liquid slid down his throat, washing away the last trace of the superficial tension that had arisen from watching the fire from across the river.
His heart was completely calm.
He even felt a little like smiling.
What he had just done, in insurance terms, was called 'risk transfer.'
Elektra Natchios, this 'asset' jointly marked by The Hand and HYDRA, was a ticking time bomb about to explode.
He knew very well that, with his current abilities, he couldn't handle this level of 'claim' at all.
Forcing his way in would only result in being blown to smithereens.
So, he made the most rational choice, one that aligned perfectly with his survival philosophy—he threw this bomb, along with the defusing instructions, to those who considered themselves heroes.
Matt Murdock was emotional; he would be driven by feelings and responsibility, going to any lengths to save someone.
Luke and Danny were loyal; they would go through fire and water for their friends.
Jessica Jones, despite her sharp tongue, ultimately couldn't stand by and do nothing.
They were the perfect 'fall guys.'
William accurately tossed the empty cola can into the trash, a self-deprecating smile on his face.
He admitted that his plan indeed exploited the kindness and integrity of these people.
He was truly a scumbag... But what did it matter?
In this dangerous World, survival was the highest priority.
He was just an insurance salesman trying to survive, not a self-sacrificing saint.
He had thrown the hot potato of Elektra away, but this didn't mean the risk was completely eliminated.
The Hand was manageable; Kingpin was currently overwhelmed and preoccupied.
But HYDRA... this was a century-old terrorist organization.
It was a huge cancerous tumor attached to the body of this World.
They would never give up after losing an important 'experiment.'
William knew very well.
Daredevil and his friends could temporarily protect Elektra, but they were like a small boat in a vast ocean, liable to be overturned at any moment by the deep-sea beast that was HYDRA.
And he, as the initial intelligence provider, would face an even worse fate if HYDRA traced him back.
He needed to find an organization that could directly confront HYDRA and had the ability to thoroughly muddy the waters.
William sat back down in front of his computer, his fingers tapping lightly on the keyboard.
A moment later, an encrypted communication interface popped up.
The phone rang three times before being answered, and a calm, steady, slightly weary male voice came through.
"William? So late, are you planning to sell your new products to S.H.I.E.L.D.?"
Phil Coulson's voice carried a hint of teasing.
"Good evening, Phil. I do have a big deal here, but I'm afraid it's not for you."
Coulson was silent for a moment, seemingly assessing the truthfulness of William's words.
"I'm very busy, William, if you just want to chat..."
"I never joke about things worth billions of U.S. dollars."
William interrupted him, the flippancy in his voice instantly fading, becoming serious and solemn. "I need to talk to you about a secret. A secret about HYDRA. But I'm sorry, Agent Coulson, according to my risk assessment, the level of this secret is too high; you don't have enough clearance to handle the subsequent 'claims.'"
"...What did you say?"
Coulson's voice instantly tightened.
"I said,"
William articulated clearly, word by word, "I have a piece of intelligence, a piece of intelligence that would make your one-eyed Director fly over from the top-floor office of Triskelion Headquarters overnight to have coffee with me. So, should I wait for you to go through that tedious reporting process, or should I just call him directly?"
These words were full of undisguised arrogance and threat, yet they precisely hit Coulson's soft spot.
He knew William Rodriguez; although the man seemed like a glib swindler, he never did anything he wasn't sure of.
Since he dared to say such a thing, it meant that what he had was truly extraordinary.
Coulson's mind raced, weighing his options.
Bypass himself and contact Director Fury directly?
That was against protocol.
But if William was telling the truth, any delay on his part could lead to irreversible consequences.
HYDRA... the weight of that word was too heavy.
"...Keep the channel open."
Coulson finally made his decision, his voice filled with an unprecedented seriousness, "Don't go anywhere, Rodriguez. Wait for my call."
The call ended.
William took off his headphones, and the smile of everything being under control reappeared on his face.
He knew the fish had bitten.
The wait wasn't long, even shorter than he expected. In less than five minutes, the encrypted communication channel rang again.
William adjusted his collar, as if the person on the other end could see him, cleared his throat, then put on his headphones again and pressed the connect button.
No sound came from the other end of the line, only dead silence. But William could feel an invisible, mountain-like pressure crushing down on him through the thin line.
He knew who was on the other end of the phone.
"Director Nick Fury?"
William broke the silence first.
"You've wasted five precious minutes of my time, insurance agent."
A hoarse, deep voice, seemingly imbued with endless authority, finally spoke, "Now, you'd better use the next minute to prove those five minutes were worth it."
William's lips curled into a slight smile.
This was exactly the effect he wanted.
"Of course, Director Sir."
He presented his prepared statement in the most concise and objective language: "About an hour ago, Daredevil and his friends rescued a woman named Elektra Natchios from a secret research center controlled by Kingpin."
"That sounds like Hell's Kitchen street gossip and shouldn't be on my channel."
Fury's voice held a hint of impatience.
"Of course, if this woman wasn't The Hand's ultimate weapon, 'black sky,' and also the latest experimental subject of a HYDRA project code-named 'chimera,' then it would indeed just be gossip."
William calmly dropped the first bomb.
On the other end of the line, there was another silence lasting several seconds. William could even imagine Nick Fury's single eye suddenly narrowing.
"...Continue."
Fury's voice now carried an almost imperceptible chill.
"Kingpin tried to activate the 'black sky' power within Elektra, but his technology malfunctioned, accidentally destroying the mental shackles HYDRA had placed on her, and instead restored her to her 'factory settings.'"
William's choice of words was playful, but the content was enough to send shivers down anyone's spine.
"Even more interesting, the backup activation command for her is a string of German words."
William paused, then enunciated each word clearly, one by one.
"Longing, rusted, seventeen, dawn, furnace, nine, mercy, homecoming, one, freight car."
As the last word fell, the breathing on the other end of the phone abruptly stopped.
William knew what this string of words meant to Nick Fury, to the entire S.H.I.E.L.D.
It was their nightmare, their indelible shame, the ghost named 'Winter Soldier.'
After a long pause, Nick Fury's voice finally spoke again, terrifyingly calm. Beneath that calm lay an impending, all-consuming inferno of rage.
"Where did you learn all this?"
"I'm an insurance agent, Director Sir."
William replied with a smile, "My job is to assess risks and gather intelligence. Sometimes, there are 'high-risk clients' who are willing to exchange some secrets for peace of mind."
"Your 'peace of mind' is to throw an out-of-control HYDRA super-soldier carrying the Winter Soldier activation code onto the streets of New York?!"
Fury's voice suddenly rose, his rage finally erupting uncontrollably, "Do you know what you're doing, Rodriguez? You're playing with Fire!"
"No, Director, I merely lit the fuse."
William's tone remained steady, "And the powder keg has always been buried beneath S.H.I.E.L.D.'s feet, hasn't it?"
These words were like a heavy hammer, striking Nick Fury's nerves hard.
The other end of the phone fell into a deathly silence.
William could hear Fury's heavy breathing, like a beast trapped in a cage.
He had succeeded; he had perfectly redirected Nick Fury's anger from himself to their common enemy—HYDRA.
"What do you want, insurance agent?"
Finally, Fury's voice regained its cold rationality.
"A policy," William said. "I need to purchase the highest level of security insurance for myself, and for several of my 'clients.' And the premium will be all the intelligence I just provided, along with subsequent... technical support."
"Deal."
Nick Fury's reply was crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
William breathed a sigh of relief, about to say some pleasantries to end the high-pressure call.
"However, Rodriguez..." Fury's voice spoke again, this time with a cold, almost pitying tone.
"Do you think you're just a messenger who lit the fuse?"
"No, you're wrong."
"In HYDRA's system, when a 'Winter Soldier' is unauthorizedly activated and goes missing, the highest priority directive is to eliminate all'sources of contamination' that might have come into contact with the activation information."
The smile on William's face instantly froze.
"Your call, your voice, your encrypted signal, when you spoke those words to me, may have already been intercepted and marked by them."
Fury's voice was like a death sentence being read.
"Congratulations, insurance agent."
"You are now the highest priority target on HYDRA's global kill list."
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