Matt Murdock and Luke Cage were currently running interference, keeping the Hydra agents busy across town. That left the so-called Viper Security Company wide open. As a front for Hydra, it was the perfect target.
Infiltration required a specific skill set. Fortunately, they had Spider-Man—who could turn invisible—and the Black Cat, a professional thief who, ironically, didn't seem to steal much lately.
Crawling along the ceiling, Peter phased out of his camouflage. Felicia blinked, staring at the space he'd just materialized from. Finally, the pieces clicked together in her head. It explained exactly how he had managed to get the drop on her back at Oscorp without her seeing a thing.
"So," Felicia whispered, her voice carrying a mix of annoyance and genuine intrigue. "As a spider, you don't just climb walls. You can turn invisible."
"Yep. Spiders aren't like kittens," Peter whispered back, adjusting his grip on the plaster. "Nobody thinks a kitten is a threat. But if a normal person sees a spider on their wall, they're grabbing the nearest rolled-up magazine and going to war."
He scrambled toward the maintenance access panel. For a dummy corporation, Viper Security wasn't messing around. A standalone thirteen-story headquarters in the middle of New York City meant serious funding and even more serious paranoia.
Because he didn't want to risk his upgraded gear on a blind dive into a Hydra stronghold, Peter had deliberately swapped back to his stitched-together fabric suit and his clunky original mechanical web-shooters. He carried nothing but an old-school, short-wave earpiece.
He popped the grate and slipped into the primary ventilation duct, taking the lead.
WhoexactlyisintheViperGangagain? Peter racked his brain. The organization was so obscure in his memory that he could only vaguely recall a few guys who looked less like mercenaries and more like actual, literal snakes. For now, though, Viper Security just looked like a heavily armed PMC with an absurd tech budget.
He navigated the ductwork, eventually reaching the main elevator shaft. He popped the access panel and peered over the edge. The shaft dropped down into total darkness, a bottomless concrete throat staring right back at him.
Whydoeseveryevilorganizationinsistonbuildingunderground? Peter sighed, attached a web-line, and began his descent. The deeper he dropped, the colder the air got. He encountered zero resistance.
Then, his earpiece crackled and died.
He stopped. Looking down into the pitch black, he heard the faint, echoing lap of water. The bottom of the shaft was flooded. The real secret base wasn't just underground—it was underwater.
Peter climbed back up a dozen yards until the static in his ear cleared and the comms re-linked.
He cleared his throat quietly. "Felicia? How's your end?"
"Hard to say," her voice hummed through the earpiece. "I'm guessing these Viper guys are sea snakes, not land snakes. I just don't know how deep they're sleeping."
Peter secured himself to the wall. "They can't hide their entire workforce underwater. The logistics of moving that many people would be a dead giveaway. If the real lab is down there, where is the actual security company keeping their local servers?"
"I think 'Viper Gang' has a nice ring to it. Way better than 'Viper Security,'" Felicia noted smoothly. "And to answer your question... I'm currently standing in their server room."
Peter blinked beneath his mask. "Where are you?"
"Relax, little spider. Just borrowing a few files."
Somewhere above him, Black Cat jammed a decrypted USB drive into Viper Security's mainframe. A moment later, she popped a ceiling grate and shimmied into the ventilation network.
"You really ought to be more concerned about the hygiene in these ducts," she complained over the comms. "If there was literally any other way to bypass the biometric scanners, I wouldn't be caught dead in here."
"Look on the bright side," Peter offered. "Nobody in the real world expects anyone to actually crawl through a thirteenth-floor AC duct."
Peter scrambled up the shaft and slipped back into the ventilation maze to meet her. He rounded a tight corner and nearly bumped into Felicia. She was lying flat on her stomach across the ribbed metal, smirking and tapping her communicator against her chin.
"Hey," she whispered. "Why aren't you invisible anymore?"
"Because nobody can see me."
"Then why are you still wearing the mask?"
"Because..." Peter wiped a thick layer of grime off a vent louver. "There is an unbelievable amount of dust in here. It's totally different from the movies. Movie vents are clean and roomy. Real vents are full of mold, dead rats, and three-millimeter galvanized steel that makes a terrifying popping noise if you breathe too hard."
Felicia rolled her eyes. She shifted her weight, grimacing at the squeak of metal beneath her, and pulled out a modified handheld computer. "I am going to shower for a week when I get home. Thank god it's the weekend, or I'd have to explain to everyone at school why I smell like a wet basement."
"See? That's the advantage of the full-face mask," Peter said, leaning over her shoulder to look at the screen. Lines of code and encrypted video files flashed across the display. "Wait, you're processing their mainframe data on a phone?"
"Handheld terminal. Same difference. And don't worry, if their counter-intrusion software tries to trace the signal, it'll just bounce back to their own server room."
She tapped the screen, pulling up a ripped security feed. She handed it to Peter. "Wait. Isn't this the girl Detective Jones's been looking for?"
Peter squinted at the tiny screen. The grainy footage showed an unconscious teenage girl strapped to a medical gurney. Two armed guards wheeled her into a heavy industrial elevator—the exact one Peter had just found—and hit the button for the underwater sub-level.
Peter met Felicia's eyes in the dark. The puzzle pieces locked into place. He swiped through the rest of the downloaded video files.
"There's no footage of them bringing these people into the building," Peter noted, his voice dropping an octave. "But they're definitely taking them out through the basement. That elevator goes straight to Hydra's new lab. Are these the matching targets you pulled from the hospital registry?"
Felicia took the terminal back and scrolled down. The next video clip buffered and played.
Peter stiffened. The man strapped to the next gurney was older, dressed in a tailored suit that had been violently rumpled.
"Do you know him?" Felicia asked, catching the shift in his posture.
"Yeah," Peter said, his jaw tightening under the fabric. "He's a prominent guy down in Chinatown. Runs charity banquets and shelters for the homeless."
Felicia lowered the terminal. She rested her chin on her crossed arms, looking up at him. "You do community volunteer work?"
"...Why wouldn't I? It's important."
Felicia let out a quiet, exasperated breath. "Right. Okay. We know what they're doing and we know where they're taking them. What are we waiting for?"
Peter looked down the dark, dusty stretch of the ventilation shaft.
"We're waiting for the Viper Gang to take the bait," Peter said. "And get lured out."
PS: The "Viper Gang" or "Serpent Society" has a long, weird history in Marvel Comics as a snake-themed mercenary group that functions more like a labor union for supervillains than a traditional evil empire. They even offer their members health insurance, retirement plans, and paid time off. Hydra using a corporate security front is actually right on brand!