Having returned to Queens, Peter resumed his daily life—more accurately, his summer vacation life. It was hard to imagine that nearly half the summer had already slipped away, and a full month of it had been consumed by the "Kang Dynasty."
While most people possessed memories of a timeline where "the Kang Dynasty never happened"—a timeline where the Avengers successfully boarded Kang's flagship and gave him a thrashing—Peter was different. For him, a whole month of his summer had been spent living through the Kang Dynasty, and even after returning, there was still cleanup work to be done.
"And then there's Carnage... even Carnage..."
Peter muttered to himself as he pondered. Carnage and its host seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.
Normally, a symbiote's trail should be easy to find, especially one belonging to such a villainous strain. Symbiotes require phenethylamine to survive, and the simplest way to obtain this substance is from the human brain.
Theoretically, once you found headless corpses similar to those at the funeral parlor, you could track them all the way. But as of now...
Could he have guessed wrong? Was that strange murderer not Carnage at all? It was possible; after all, symbiotes generally fear fire, yet that individual had crawled out of an incinerator.
Peter was deep in thought, his brow furrowed, when his phone rang. He checked the message and grabbed his things, preparing to head out.
Today was his date with Cindy. Since there were no major emergencies on the police band, Peter intended to relax for a while; he needed to clear his head.
However, before stepping out, he made two phone calls. The first was to Jessica.
"Hello, Senior? How is the investigation into Cletus coming along? Executed in November 2012... same as what I found."
The information Jessica had uncovered matched Peter's own. He had already checked these records through the Avengers' systems, which was why he had originally assumed Carnage no longer existed.
As for Cletus being an inmate at Ryker's Island, that could hardly be considered a unique link.
"There is one thing that's quite strange, though." Jessica sat in her home, her computer hooked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s systems as she searched for related intel. "A correctional officer from the death row section of Ryker's Island died two days ago. The cause of death was listed as heart failure, but it looks highly suspicious..."
Peter paused. "Just one guard died?"
"Yeah, just one. Strange, right? Generally, if you're trying to hide something, it's better to wipe out all the leads rather than just one. If this guard really looked after a cell that the others couldn't access, the other guards would still know the area existed. Killing just one person doesn't achieve the primary goal of silencing witnesses."
This wasn't so much a lead as it was a trap—a lure designed to draw someone into investigating.
Such traps usually serve one of two purposes: either to lead someone into an ambush or to set up a series of chaotic distractions to create a smokescreen.
But the question was... why?
"Let's set aside all the clues for a moment, even the one about the enemy being a symbiote. What we know for sure is that a monster crawled out of an incinerator. This monster was a death row inmate at Ryker's, but there have been no recent execution records for that facility."
Jessica laid out her deduction over the phone. "Why?"
"Because someone wanted to keep these death row inmates."
"Why?"
"Based on this murder case, it was for secret human experimentation. They needed test subjects."
This was something Hydra and other organizations had done plenty of times. For example, the experiments on Luke Cage took place in a secret base at Ryker's Island—Peter had even scouted it before.
"Then... would this be an isolated case?"
Peter immediately caught Jessica's drift. Unless it was a unique situation like Captain America's, an experiment is never conducted only once. These trials had undoubtedly been carried out many times. The reason they were only being discovered now was likely because this particular one was a success.
"So, if we investigate the execution records of major prisons and the cremation logs of funeral parlors, we should be able to find these deceased subjects quickly and study their characteristics—if they have any."
Peter rubbed his temples, following his senior's line of reasoning. "And the reason for the cremations was to destroy evidence. Since these inmates no longer exist on record, no one comes to claim their ashes. Incineration is the fastest way to destroy evidence resulting from failed experiments."
Peter's perspective suddenly shifted, and he grasped the situation instantly. "In other words, the death row inmates must undergo the modification during a specific window of time before their scheduled execution."
"Exactly."
Jessica smiled with satisfaction, having already completed her deduction a step ahead. She had pulled the surveillance footage from Ryker's Island within seventy-two hours of the homicide, searching for clues.
"There are two segments of footage missing from Ryker's. Not just those two; it seems all related surveillance on the surrounding roads within that timeframe has a few seconds of missing data. Do you know what that proves, Peter?"
To be able to destroy evidence on such a scale within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s system was, paradoxically, a glaring admission of guilt. There was only one answer: the people conducting these human experiments had to be insiders within S.H.I.E.L.D.
Having reached this conclusion, Jessica's expression soured. She had already learned from Peter and Cindy back at the base that S.H.I.E.L.D. was heavily infiltrated by Hydra.
However, actually coming into contact with it was still shocking and troublesome.
Jessica's deduction reached a temporary stopping point, but conversely, she now had a wealth of information to investigate. Peter hung up the phone and used his Spider-Man-specific mobile to contact the other person tasked with investigating the matter.
Agent Venom, Flash Thompson.
"Good morning, Agent Venom. Any findings regarding the enemy?"
"It's hard to say."
Flash sat pale-faced at the entrance of an apartment. The horrific scene inside had left him terrified; he found it hard to believe such a monstrous person existed—someone who would turn human beings into food and utensils.
He had spent a long time vomiting outside and hadn't quite recovered when Peter's call came through.
"I'm not entirely sure if this is related to the guy we're tracking, but this is undoubtedly the work of a vicious monster. Don't worry, Spidey. No matter what kind of monster this is, Agent Venom will bring it to justice!"
Hearing Flash's forced cheerfulness, Peter let out a helpless sigh before offering a reminder.
"If you need help, Flash, let me know."
"I'm always here."