Speaking of Strucker's suspicion that Captain America was 'one of their own,' one must mention his purpose for coming to New York this time.
Recruiting Luka was only one objective; more importantly, he had previously received a gift from 'Captain America.'
Loki's Scepter!
This matter dates back to the first Battle of New York.
Originally, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s HYDRA team had recovered the spoils of war, Loki's Scepter, after the first Battle of New York.
But as they were preparing to bring the Scepter back to Alexander Pierce, the leader of the S.H.I.E.L.D.-affiliated HYDRA faction, Captain America suddenly appeared, intercepted Loki's Scepter midway, and revealed his HYDRA identity.
This incident was quite a stir among the high-ranking members of HYDRA.
Captain America knew of HYDRA's existence, Captain America admitted he was HYDRA, and Captain America did not reveal HYDRA's existence to the outside World afterward.
Any one of these facts alone would be enough to cause turmoil throughout HYDRA, but their simultaneous occurrence, under conditions of extreme caution, prevented HYDRA from making any rash moves.
Initially, the high-ranking officials of various factions within HYDRA were all testing each other's waters.
They wanted to figure out which faction had such immense influence to recruit Captain America into HYDRA.
After all, Alexander Pierce knew very well that Captain America Steve was definitely not recruited by him.
But the other party not only knew of HYDRA's existence, but also precisely called out his identity and knew the affiliations of Crossbones and other HYDRA team members.
This series of intelligence was unknown even to 99% of HYDRA's own people.
If he couldn't figure out the reason, Pierce truly couldn't rest easy.
Fortunately, not long after, after extensive inquiries and combining various pieces of intelligence,
HYDRA confirmed that the so-called 'Captain America' was actually a fake identity disguised by Loki using an illusion.
Although Loki knowing of HYDRA's existence was not a minor matter, it was much simpler compared to the Captain America issue.
So, in fact, for a long time afterward, while S.H.I.E.L.D. was vigorously pursuing Loki, HYDRA was secretly obstructing them, wanting to find him first.
Lest this alien accidentally expose HYDRA's existence to others.
However...
When HYDRA actually found Loki and reached a cooperation with him,
They heard a request for the Scepter from him, and Loki clearly didn't know much about their organization's internal information.
This made the identity of the previous Captain America even more perplexing.
In fact, the so-called 'Loki disguised as himself' was merely Steve Rogers's one-sided statement.
Most of the surveillance cameras in Stark Tower at that time were damaged, and no one could verify the truth of this statement, which made it difficult for HYDRA to determine Captain America's true stance.
All the high-ranking HYDRA members who knew about this became tense again, as if a Sword of Damocles hung over their heads.
However, these were all from the perspective of Pierce and other HYDRA high-ranking officials.
Only Baron Strucker knew.
On the very day the first Battle of New York ended, another 'Captain America' also appeared at a hidden HYDRA Base with Loki's Scepter, leaving the Scepter inside the Base before silently disappearing again.
And coincidentally, although this Base was in New York, it belonged to the European faction led by Strucker.
Upon receiving the Scepter, the Base commander immediately sealed off the entire Base to prevent news from leaking.
And immediately contacted his leader, Baron Strucker, requesting further instructions.
However, during that period, communication between various factions within HYDRA was frequent, and various chaotic messages were difficult to discern as true or false.
Strucker was both worried that it was a trap and didn't want other factions to notice that he had gained an advantage, which is why he delayed until now to retrieve the Scepter.
And in Baron Strucker's mind, the Captain America who actively delivered Loki's Scepter to him was most likely one of their own.
It was only out of caution that further investigation and confirmation were needed.
However, what Strucker didn't expect was that ever since he left the Orange Family's Villa, all his movements were under Luka's surveillance!
"I was wondering where such a large Scepter ran off to? Steve really botched this up."
Luka, who had pieced together a rough truth from the fragmented information obtained from monitoring these past two days, was now somewhat speechless, complaining about Steve Rogers.
Of course, Luka was naturally not complaining about the Steve he knew.
That Steve is currently busy chasing alien fugitives around the World and fighting interdimensional invaders, working tirelessly like a true model employee.
Luka was complaining about the 'Old Steve' who traveled back from Avengers 4.
When he watched the movie, his line 'Hail, HYDRA' certainly thrilled him, but in the end, it left a mess for Steve at this point in time.
It was only fortunate that Captain America's identity was indeed too sensitive; without absolute certainty, HYDRA wouldn't dare to act rashly against him.
Otherwise, HYDRA, unaware of the situation, might have secretly captured and interrogated Steve long ago.
More importantly, this guy actually directly threw Loki's Scepter to Strucker.
"Restoring the plot isn't supposed to be done like this…"
However, complaints aside.
Currently, this doesn't seem to be a bad thing for Luka.
"Originally, I wanted to keep Strucker around to use him, but now it seems unnecessary."
Looking at the surveillance footage on the screen, Luka's eyes had narrowed into a slit.
In fact, Luka had previously considered eliminating Strucker and taking his place.
However, the Transformation Watch could only disguise appearance and did not include memory like the Skrulls.
At that time, his disguised HYDRA leader wouldn't even know where the main gate of his own Base opened, so it would be impossible to control the European branch through this.
But if he could first get his hands on Loki's Scepter, which can control others' minds, then taking over Strucker's forces would become an easy difficulty.
I just don't know where that Captain America guy got Loki's Scepter? Didn't he only bring back the Mind Stone?
Forget it, a free Mind Stone, wouldn't it be too wasteful not to take it?
Hmm… in Luka's eyes, that Mind Stone was now ownerless to him, and the virtuous would obtain it.
After making up his mind, Luka no longer hesitated.
Staring at the surveillance footage in front of him, he directly ordered Harro.
"Harro, prepare to make a move!"
The next moment, in the scene displayed on the screen,
In the azure sky, a black dot was rapidly beginning to enlarge.
And this black dot, continuously approaching the camera, was precisely the plane Baron Strucker was currently taking to return to Sokovia!