The next day.
When Locke arrived at the Umbrella Pharmaceuticals facility, he spotted Callum Lynch sitting over there, yawning repeatedly.
"Yo!"
Locke walked inside and took a seat on the sofa. He looked across at Callum—who looked like Magneto from every single angle, yet steadfastly refused to admit he was Magneto—and asked,
"How was the harvest?"
Callum lowered his arm and looked at Locke. "The harvest would have been quite excellent, except you beat us to it."
No matter how one looked at it, it seemed like they were just scavenging for scraps behind Locke. Otherwise, Locke could have easily left them without a single coin to their name.
"Haha."
Locke let out a short laugh and looked at Callum.
"We are brothers, allies, and comrades-in-arms. Whether you go first or I go first, there's no need to divide things so clearly."
Callum smiled slightly but didn't say a word.
A moment later, Rosa came over. With a sharp *smack*, a stack of photographs landed directly on the coffee table in front of Locke and Callum.
The backgrounds of the photographs were very dark. However, the scenes depicted within them—showing the events from last night at the abandoned factory where that Western European woman was taken away—were captured with absolute clarity.
"These were taken last night by an assassin who was staking out the location."
"The Templar Order?"
"No."
Rosa shook her head. "Even if it were the Templars, they wouldn't possess the military's most advanced weaponry. Especially these specific items, which haven't even appeared on the black market yet."
"That S.H.I.E.L.D. organization?"
"Highly likely."
Listening to the conversation between Rosa and Callum, Locke examined the few photographs in his hand and shook his head. "It shouldn't be them."
Rosa looked over at Locke.
Locke explained, "If it were S.H.I.E.L.D., they would typically prefer to completely level the area with heavy artillery, rather than trying to covertly kidnap Rosa in the dark."
The operational standards of S.H.I.E.L.D. might alter because of Nick Fury's death, but their active tactical style wouldn't change.
Whether it was S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra-corrupted S.H.I.E.L.D., they would always opt for a grand, massive display of overwhelming force to pressure Rosa into surrendering the clues.
Callum and Rosa exchanged a look, and Callum shook his head. "Whatever. Just send a warning message to them. The matter right in front of us is what's most urgent."
Regardless of the details, they had already secured a clue to another Golden Apple.
Callum looked up. "Peerless, are you participating in this mission?"
Locke waved his hand dismissively. "I'm heading to the East tomorrow."
Tomorrow was the start of the new school term, and it was time for the Peerless Assassin to find a reasonable excuse to vanish for a while. This was precisely the reason Locke had come over here today.
"However..."
Locke smiled and spoke to Callum, "If you run into any major trouble, you can contact me via satellite phone. I'll hurry back immediately."
Callum nodded. "Alright."
The Peerless Assassin was someone Callum had brought into the fold based strictly on the principle of "if you can't beat them, make them join you."
Unlike the other assassins they had located, who had awakened their ancestral memories and possessed a natural sense of belonging to the Brotherhood, Callum only needed to ensure that Peerless wouldn't use the Golden Apple to bring about the destruction of the world.
However, since Locke indicated he wouldn't be participating in this specific task, Rosa didn't bother bringing out the Golden Apple details they had obtained from the King family to discuss them.
Locke didn't mind either; he had zero interest in the Golden Apple to begin with. Instead, turning his attention to Callum's children, he asked out of curiosity,
"I heard you brought your son and daughter over?"
Callum shook his head and said, "The quality of education in Sokovia isn't very good, and my criminal record in America has already been completely expunged. I've owed them far too much over these past years. That's why I went back last year intending to bring them over, but I didn't expect things to take so long."
As it turned out, that single trip had delayed him for a full year. Fortunately, with Rosa's remote assistance and guidance, his son and daughter finally relented and agreed to return to America with him.
"Right."
Callum seemed to remember something, looking at Locke.
"I've arranged for them to attend Midtown High. There shouldn't be any issues on your end, right?"
Locke smiled. "What issues could I possibly have?"
Callum stated, "I just hope you don't think I'm sending my son and daughter over there to monitor a certain student."
Locke's expression remained completely neutral as he turned to walk out the door.
"I'm off."
'Monitor a certain student?'
'I'm afraid you're just sending lambs straight into a tiger's mouth.'
Locke thought to himself.
...
Soon, it was September 1, 2005—the autumn opening season for Midtown High.
In the parking lot!
"Ah!!!"
"Gwen!!!"
"Betty!"
"L!"
"Cindy."
Just like every spring opening day, whenever a group of close friends reunited, even if it were Kim and Cindy who had clearly just seen each other the day before, they acted as if they hadn't met in ages.
Gathering in groups of twos and threes, they embraced tightly, severely blocking the flow of traffic in the parking lot.
Several students waiting to pull into the parking lot were filled with rage but dared not utter a single word of complaint. They were the absolute picture of dominant student cliques.
"Locke."
"Carrie."
Locke also shared a brief embrace with Carrie, who had driven her own car to school, and then asked,
"Chester hasn't returned yet?"
Carrie shook her head. "He called yesterday, saying he might be delayed by a few days before he can make it back."
Locke laughed. "I knew it."
The day Chester left, he had confidently beaten his chest and claimed he would be back in two days at most. Locke felt that this timeframe would likely need a zero added to the end of it.
After all, when a man gets angry, as time passes, his anger gradually dissipates. But if a woman gets angry and you don't step up to comfort her immediately, the ultimate result will be that she becomes increasingly angrier with every passing moment. This was the third law of women.
Just then, the captain of the school football team, Sam Malik, finished parking his car and walked over, shaking hands with Locke.
"How was your summer break?"
Locke smiled. "Quite fulfilling."
He had taken a trip to West Virginia, advanced to his third class to become an Monarch-grade Blood Sovereign/Vampire, encountered a little vampire girl who might have mistaken his identity, and upon returning, engaged in a massive fight with Blackheart. It was indeed fulfilling.
Locke asked with a smile, "What about you?"
Sam smiled. "Spent time with the team at the estate. Practicing football, you know how it goes."
Locke's eyes lit up. "Right, the high school football tournament is kicking off this month. I'm completely backing you, so don't let me down."
Since taking on the role of Student Council President, several grade counselors had recommended quite a few external students with natural talent in football to him, hoping he could assist with recruiting them into the football program.
It was very simple. Players who were scouted and brought over needed field time; otherwise, what would be the point of bringing them in?
Locke had strictly honored his promise to Sam Malik, directly blocking those requests. If Sam Malik failed to bring home the trophy for the high school tournament's Super Bowl this time around, Locke felt he would undoubtedly face a joint impeachment from the eleventh and twelfth-grade counselors.
Sam patted his chest confidently.
"Rest assured, this is the only shot left for me."
Locke smiled. "I believe in you."
Setting aside family backgrounds and such, Sam Malik counted as one of the few new friends he had made this year. The friends he had made the previous year were Cindy and Kahn.
Inside the classroom, the atmosphere was identical to the first day of the spring term. The students were chattering away, gathering in small groups to share details about their summer vacations.
Locke and Gwen, however, were called to the office by the college counselor, Mrs. Corder.
Mrs. Corder handed the roster in her hand over to Locke and Gwen.
"This is the list of students enrolling for the autumn term."
Gwen looked down toward the very bottom of the roster, noticing several names marked with asterisks indicating new transfer students. She blinked and looked up at Mrs. Corder.
"Mrs. Corder, you've practically emptied out Brooklyn."
My goodness.
The names of the runner-up team from the last High School League Integrated Knowledge Competition—specifically the Brooklyn team consisting of Helen Cho, Jane Foster, and Peter Parker—were clearly printed right there on the list.
However...
Locke raised his head and looked at Mrs. Corder.
"Mrs. Corder, what about Susan and Ben?"
Why hadn't the Invisible Woman and the Thing come along? That didn't seem right. In Locke's view, during the previous knowledge competition, the performances of the Invisible Woman and the Thing were far superior to Peter Parker's.
Mrs. Corder shook her head.
"Susan and Ben were scouted away by Trinity High."
Gwen froze slightly. "Trinity High? Aren't they rumored to have scouted that super prodigy from California this year?"
"Are you referring to Reed Richards?"
"Yes."
"Well, don't we also have two absolute academic deities like you and Locke? When it comes to exceptional students, the more the merrier, of course."
"..."
Mrs. Corder spoke naturally, then shook her head, adding, "It's just that Trinity High indicated they could grant an admission slot to Susan's younger brother, allowing him to attend Trinity High as well."
Gwen countered, "We could have offered that too."
Mrs. Corder shook her head. "There were also reasons involving Susan's parents, of course, but this is already an excellent result."
Out of the five individuals from Brooklyn, Midtown High had successfully scouted three, while Trinity High had only managed to secure two.
Although Mrs. Corder originally hadn't intended to scout Peter Parker, once she heard that Trinity High had secured two students, the school board directors—in their absolute determination to defeat Trinity High—simply insisted that she bring Peter Parker over as well.
That way, it would be a three-to-two victory. No matter how one looked at it, Midtown High had won yet again.
"Helen Cho and Jane will be in the same class as you two. Peter Parker will be assigned to a different class."
"Wait a moment."
Gwen blinked. Hearing this arrangement, she looked up at Mrs. Corder. "Mrs. Corder, you forgot that the Sokovian siblings who were originally supposed to transfer during the spring term but didn't show up are also supposed to arrive today for the opening season. There are only two empty desks left in our classroom."
And it was two more female students transferring in? Their classroom already suffered from a severe gender imbalance.
Most importantly, Gwen cast a brief glance at Locke beside her. Just last night when they were dining out, Helen Cho had been on a phone call with Locke.