On the Colonel's desk, there was a set of ornaments: a row of small balls suspended and constantly colliding with each other through the conversion of kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy, and Deathstroke's gaze seemed fixated on them.
These little balls kept colliding, making faint 'click-click' sounds, like gears ticking in a clock.
The atmosphere in the office had grown tense due to Howard's earlier remarks, and the Colonel's expression at the moment was as twisted as if he'd eaten excrement.
His white hair trembled non-stop, as if infuriated by the suggestion of 'calling the police'.
In contrast, Howard had simply sat down on a sofa to the side, his legs on the coffee table, pulling out a cigar from his suit to puff away.
He had gradually come to understand that as long as he stayed at Caspian Camp Headquarters, he was safe.
The people wanting to kill him relied on firearms, whereas here, the SSR had more guns.
"Colonel, you called for me?" A person's arrival eased the awkward atmosphere; it was a young man in a vest and a white coat: "Ah, Dr. Stark, you're here too."
He had short blond hair and wore a mustache very similar to Howard's, with a warm smile on his face.
Before he finished speaking, he pushed open the door and walked in, seemingly oblivious to the tense atmosphere, and greeted Howard cheerfully, starting a conversation.
Howard's mustache twitched, and he turned his head to one side: "Dr. Richards, you've caused me trouble. What on earth is that blood sample you gave me? Now, an assassin is lurking in my toilet."
Nathaniel scratched his head and reached out to hook Stark's shoulder, knowing that Howard wasn't truly angry; he just wanted to know what was going on.
With the curiosity of a researcher and Howard's obstinate nature, what he said turned into words like these, which Nathaniel could understand.
"I didn't know this would happen, so Howard, have you found out anything? Isn't the blood sample and the tissue slices fascinating?"
Howard wiped his hands on his trousers and leaned back on the sofa: "I've handed this over to Anim. I've recently met some charming ladies who are very interested in physics and keep pestering me with questions. I'm extremely busy."
"Really? That's great, Dr. Stark."
Nathaniel didn't doubt Howard's words at all, instead showing a gratified smile, as if he really saw a few rising stars of physics emerging.
Su Ming stood in the corner of the room with arms crossed. In a way, Howard wasn't lying; those ladies asked him about friction, piston motion, fluid mechanics, and other physics questions.
But the current issue was the disappearance of the 084 item, and Howard being targeted for assassination over the blood sample. Although these matters weren't done by the same group, the timing was too close for Su Ming to think it was a coincidence.
Despite hearing many physics-related innuendos, Nick Fury remained expressionless, while Nathaniel maintained his enthusiastic smile, occasionally responding earnestly to Howard.
He truly believed that Howard was discussing mechanics.
"Dr. Richards, could you tell me where that blood sample came from?" Su Ming interjected, watching Howard shamelessly use various physical phenomena to imply that particular matter.
"Ah, hello, sorry I didn't notice there was a guest." Nathaniel saw Su Ming, nodded with a smile, and straightened his hair: "The blood sample was obtained from a corpse."
"Where's the corpse?" Su Ming noticed that Nathaniel seemed somewhat absent-minded, possibly too absorbed in his research.
"A friend asked me to investigate it; one night the body suddenly appeared at my doorstep and really gave me a fright."
"How do you know the body was something someone asked you to investigate, and not a homeless person who froze to death at your doorstep?" Su Ming asked again.
Nathaniel patted his head, picked up a bottle of wine from the coffee table, and poured drinks for himself and Howard, both clinking glasses with smiles: "Because the body was dressed in very upscale clothing, with a note pinned to its chest."
"A note?" Fury raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, here it is." Nathaniel pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his white coat pocket and handed it to Fury with a smile.
Nick Fury glanced at Deathstroke, who gestured for him to go ahead and open it.
The slightly yellowed paper had some unknown brown stains, looking like rings left by coffee cups. The ink showed signs of dragging, indicating the paper was folded immediately after the note was written.
More like a note or scrap of paper than a letter, the elegant Gothic script bore a single sentence, and Fury read it aloud like a robot.
"Investigate the corpse, or die, thank you."
With a snap, Fury pressed the note onto the table, bent down with both hands on the coffee table, glaring at Dr. Richards, pressuring him with body language.
"This is a threat! Coercion and extortion, why wasn't it reported up the chain?"
Nathaniel, who was toasting with Howard, paused, blinked, and looked at the Colonel and Howard, as Stark gave him a helpless look.
"Is this a threat?"
He asked Howard beside him, who grinned, shook his head a few times as if comparing which side of the balance scale was heavier, then rested his head on Nathaniel's shoulder and nodded.
"Yes, it's a threatening letter."
Nathaniel was skeptical. He picked up the letter again and read it, asking puzzledly, "But he wrote 'Thank you', that's very polite, isn't it?"
Howard poured himself more wine, noticing the Colonel giving him a strange look.
"Handling a corpse is a huge hassle. This guy dumped a body with an unknown cause of death at your doorstep late at night. He should have said 'thanks very much'. Feel it, don't you think his gratitude doesn't seem sincere now?"
Nathaniel stroked his moustache, looked at the letter then at Howard: "Indeed, Dr. Stark knows a lot."
"Of course, hahaha..." Howard burst into laughter, feeling quite satisfied. Compliments from peers are the best praise, and Howard Stark is indeed a top figure in the physics world!
Fury looked at them as if they were crazy, is the key issue the use of language? Isn't the real issue dumping a corpse and sending a death threat?!
Genius scientists always have some abnormal quirks, but these two were abnormal beyond common sense.
Su Ming found the drama intriguing, almost like a cold joke, but more important matters were at hand: "What's your friend's name?"
Nathaniel scratched his head with a reminiscent look, but quickly shook his head: "Sorry, I don't know his name."
Fury straightened up and looked outside, exhaling a bit: "You just said he was your friend."
"Yes, we are friends." The Professor hid behind Howard, Fury's gaze was chilling: "One day, I went to a bar for drinks, he came over and said: 'Friend, shall we have a drink?', I replied: 'Sure.', and that's how we became friends. We talked about many social issues, like racial discrimination."
Fury closed his eyes in pain, what kind of friends are these? This one clearly has ulterior motives, right?
Looks like Dr. Richards will need stronger security around him in the future, preventing him from making friends recklessly. No, his emotional intelligence really isn't suitable for working at SSR....
As if in tacit agreement, Fury and the Colonel exchanged glances, nodding slightly.
Su Ming wasn't angry, just like he thought before, SSR was none of his business, he was here to solve the case, to owe Professor X a favor, and then make the timeline clear: "What features does your friend have? Age, height, appearance."
This time Richards answered promptly: "He's around 180 cm tall, approximately 50 years old, has a Pirate-like fluffy white beard, is balding, healthy, but bears many scars, even on his face."
Fury immediately sent someone to investigate, while Su Ming focused on the scars: "What kind of scars?"
"Looks like he was attacked by beasts, maybe a bear, or Bigfoot." Dr. Richards answered and was pulled to have drinks by Howard again.
"Where's the corpse now?" Su Ming asked again.
"Uh, to put it simply, the corpse melted, or sublimated is more fitting." Nathaniel raised his hand making a floating motion: "I initially dragged the corpse into the car, planned to take it back to Caspian Camp for examination because my home doesn't have biological equipment, and I'm not an expert in this field, but when the sun shone on the corpse, it transformed from solid to gas and disappeared."
"So you only had time to take some blood and a bit of flesh." Su Ming added, as if knowing what it was.
"That's right, I have a saw in my car's toolbox, I stored them in a secret place and brought them back to Caspian Camp."
The rest is he entrusted these things to his so-called 'more versatile' Howard, who then passed the matter to Zola.
Because Zola was under house arrest, unable to leave at all, the assassination attempts were all focused on Howard. Perhaps Nathaniel also faced assassination, but his nerves were too thick to notice.
"Does the biology lab have a UV sterilization lamp? I want to borrow it." Su Ming took out a blood smear from Nick Fury's box and shook it in his hand.
Howard squinted his eyes: "You don't think they're that, do you? Come on, those are Mythical Creatures."
"Sometimes myths aren't far from us; if you want to solve it earlier, show me the way." Su Ming extended his hand, like catching a Rabbit, pulled Howard up from the sofa and headed out.
The Colonel looked at Fury: "Follow them, and you, Dr. Richards, you can leave."
The two left silently, Nathaniel wanted to distance himself from Fury, but Fury stuck closely, so much so that the Professor's neck pulled back into his body, stiff as a board.
The Colonel got up, closed the office door, went to the coffee table, picked up the bottle of wine to pour himself a drink, seemingly venting his frustration.
A moment later, he sat behind his office desk, picked up the phone, and dialed a number.
The call took a long time to be answered, by a person with an American Southern accent.
"What's the matter?"
"Elder, the plan is going smoothly..."