Half an hour later.
Nick Fury was stumped.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents brought along for the ride were equally dumbfounded.
There was no other way to put it. Under the potent influence of the truth serum, Megan had absolutely no opportunity to lie. Whatever Nick Fury asked, Megan answered with clinical precision.
But it was exactly because of this honesty that Fury felt like he was losing his mind as he listened to the reasons behind her desertion.
The reason was devastatingly simple.
Megan accused Nick Fury of robbing her of her childhood. She pointed out that no one had ever asked her if she actually wanted to be an operative. She defected because she realized she could choose a different path—one where she could be like any other teenager, attending high school and experiencing the life she had been denied.
Good grief.
This answer truly left Nick Fury at a loss for words.
This had drifted straight into Fury's intellectual blind spot. Leaving a career as a top-tier operative to become a student? Who does that?
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent standing next to Nick Fury looked at him tentatively and offered a theory: "Maybe... it's just puberty?"
After all, adolescents are notoriously rebellious.
Nick looked at the agent. "Is that really how it works?"
The agent shrugged. "My daughter is exactly like that. She's a massive headache. Recently, she started dating some guy covered in tattoos; I've half a mind to put a bullet in him myself."
Nick Fury's gaze drifted to the agent, who happened to be covered in tattoos.
The agent froze for a second before stammering, "Director, mine are for deep-cover requirements. You personally assigned that mission; I didn't want these either."
Nick Fury remembered the mission, nodded, and turned back to Megan. "So, you haven't defected to join another organization?"
Megan shook her head, tears finally spilling over. "I just wanted to experience a normal life for someone my age. Going to school, dating, learning how to use makeup... instead of focus on demolitions, assassinations, and infiltration."
As she finished speaking, her tears became an unstoppable torrent.
Seeing this, Nick Fury panicked slightly. "Stop crying, stop crying. God, I can't stand it when women cry in front of me. Quickly, untie her."
The agent scrambled forward to release Megan from her restraints.
Nick Fury rubbed his forehead in exasperation.
So... this was it? This was why his prized Agent 83 had faked her death and vanished? The restless, rebellious heart of a teenage girl?
But why didn't the other agents do this? Was it because only the most elite possessed this kind of independence?
Come to think of it, Victoria had defected in her teens as well. Was that puberty too?
Jesus Christ. Why hadn't this happened before he took over?
Wait. It was only after he took over that they started rounding up infants from across the globe to build a self-sustaining agent pipeline.
Motherf*cker!
Nick Fury's face darkened even further. Had he focused too much on their skill progression and completely forgotten to monitor their psychological well-being?
It seemed genius and madness were two sides of the same coin. Victoria and Megan were prodigies; they weren't like the rank-and-file. They had more complex emotional needs. Was the inability of the base to provide for those needs what triggered their departure?
Fury sighed, feeling the weight of the blame shifting onto his own shoulders. He shook his head and looked at Megan as she wiped her eyes. "I won't pursue your defection any further."
Megan looked up, startled. "Really?"
Nick Fury nodded, his mind already pivoting to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s current intelligence priorities. "In fact, I can even agree to let you continue your schooling."
Megan blinked, her expression one of pure disbelief.
The agent beside them, who had also graduated from the same training base, immediately felt a surge of jealousy. "Sir, back when I—"
"Shut up!"
Nick snapped at him with a darkened face before turning back to Megan. "As it happens, we have a suspected target currently enrolled in that same school."
Megan frowned.
Nick Fury continued, "Locke Broughton. Do you know him?"
As the titan of the secret intelligence world—an agency that claimed to manage everything from the heavens to the earth and the air in between—S.H.I.E.L.D. naturally stuck its nose into everything. While they wanted to control everything and often failed to control anything effectively, it never dampened their enthusiasm.
In fact, S.H.I.E.L.D. genuinely believed the world was a safer place because of their existence, though no one quite knew where they got that idea from.
Three years ago, when Callum Lynch led a group of escapees out of a Templar breeding facility, S.H.I.E.L.D. had taken notice—specifically of the legendary Apple of Eden.
However, after a few brushes with Callum, including failed attempts to seize the artifact covertly, Nick Fury had altered his strategy. He turned his focus toward other factions, like the New York Fraternity.
After the New York Fraternity was wiped out and whispers of movement came from the Roman Fraternity, Fury sensed a pattern. S.H.I.E.L.D. research indicated there was more than one Apple of Eden.
Naturally, Nick Fury had set his sights on the true culprit behind the Fraternity's demise: the Peerless Assassin.
But, like every other organization, even S.H.I.E.L.D. found it impossible to dig up any concrete leads to locate or identify the Peerless Assassin.
The reason they had zeroed in on Locke wasn't because of Victoria or Callum. It was Big Data.
S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Big Data analysis.
It was simple: when Locke arrived in New York, the Peerless Assassin arrived in New York.
While many Texans had moved to New York during that same window, the vast majority had since returned home. The Peerless Assassin, however, remained active in the city. When cross-referenced with those who stayed, the list of suspects shrank significantly.
Furthermore, during the incident at the textile mill, Locke was a hostage. Compared to anyone else, the probability that Locke actually knew the Peerless Assassin was extremely high.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had been preparing to make contact with Locke, and it was during the surveillance setup that an agent had spotted Megan walking home with Liz.
Megan frowned upon hearing Nick Fury mention Locke's name. "I know him. He's a prominent figure at Midtown High—a total heartthrob."
Nick Fury ignored the last part. "It is highly probable that he has a connection to the Peerless Assassin."
"What?"
Megan certainly knew of the Peerless Assassin. At the training base, high-profile assassins were profiled for them to study. The Peerless Assassin was the most enigmatic of them all; aside from a name, everything else was a void.
However, Megan shook her head. "That's impossible. Locke was once kidnapped by the Peerless Assassin."
Nick Fury smirked. "And that is exactly why no one would suspect they are working together, isn't it? Don't forget, he came out of that ordeal completely unscathed. I remember."
Megan couldn't help but stare at Nick Fury. "What are you trying to say?"
***
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