"All right, if you like comics then go draw them. I'll be waiting to read them." Peggy kissed him on the cheek again, her hands hooked behind his neck. "But you'd better draw them well. If I've wiped out Hydra and you still haven't made a name for yourself, I am absolutely going to laugh at you."
"You never know. Maybe Red Skull will see my comics, be moved by the art, and turn himself in. Could happen."
Steve laughed too, lowered his head and kissed her. He'd faced more setbacks than he could count since childhood. Now it looked like the United States no longer needed Captain America. That was a blow, but not one that would knock him down.
"Huh, since when did you get so good at joking around? When we first met you said you didn't have a single humorous bone in your body. Liar." Peggy lightly thumped his chest, slipped out of his arms to straighten her uniform, took out her little mirror again to touch up her lipstick, and murmured wickedly, "Okay, darling, leave the Shield here, then go wait for me in my quarters."
Steve's expression went stiff for a second, but he quickly understood. The Shield really did belong to the government. "...You're so busy, let's skip today. I'd like to go check on the old house in Brooklyn. Haven't been back in too long, it needs a good cleaning."
As he spoke, he reached back and unhooked the Shield, looked at the star in the center, and let out a long breath before lifting his head and handing it to Peggy.
The Shield was a bit heavy; Peggy had to put in some effort to catch it, and because of that she didn't see Steve's face. "All right, if I have time I'll come help you wash the windows. Now let's get out there and have our meeting."
"It's you having the meeting. I'm heading out. Remember? I'm off the board."
Steve waved, forced a smile, pulled the door open first and walked out of the break room, cutting through the conference room and vanishing into the hallway.
Seeing Steve hurry off, and Peggy walking back in with the Shield, the people around the round table couldn't help looking at one another. Howard kept throwing glances at Fury.
"Something go wrong? Why did the Captain leave?"
Fury was very experienced at sticking his neck out and taking the fall. He stood up as if preparing to go after him, but his feet didn't move at all.
He could feel that Steve's mood wasn't great, but Peggy seemed not to notice.
"Hm? Nothing's wrong. He just refuses to accept the President's restriction order, so he won't be joining our new organization." Peggy struggled to set the Shield down on the tabletop, raised both eyebrows, and rolled her shoulders. "But I think I can still get him to help out from time to time. The Shield's just being stored here for now. You can't seriously expect him to lug it back to that place in Brooklyn, can you? We all know what the crime rate is like there."
Howard shrugged; that explanation he could accept. "True enough. The local specialty there is thieves and muggers. The Shield's made from a special alloy we still can't replicate. If it gets stolen, we're in trouble."
Fury frowned and slowly sat back down. "But who could steal the Shield from Captain America? Aside from those politicians in Congress. That Shield isn't just a national symbol; it means a lot to the Captain personally. We shouldn't be taking it away from him."
"I don't want to either, but that's the order. We may not be soldiers anymore, yet we're still government employees. All right, let's stop talking about him. We've still got a pile of issues to work through. I don't have much experience in a lot of areas, and I'll need your help."
Peggy went back to her seat, opened the folder in front of her, and picked up her pen.
"Ah, let me take care of one thing for you first. While you and Steve were whispering sweet nothings, I already came up with a name for the new outfit." Howard crossed one leg over the other, looking very pleased with himself despite his shabby clothes, and pointed theatrically at the air. "We'll call it the Strategic Hazard Intervention and Intelligence Logistics Department. With a mouthful of a name like that, even if the public hears it they'll have no idea what kind of agency it is. Nice and covert, right?"
Fury tried to repeat it and accidentally bit his tongue, his face twisting in annoyance.
But the rest of the people at the table rattled it off one after another, all those words jammed together; you get used to it.
Peggy lowered her head and muttered it twice, then nodded, very satisfied.
"Logistics Department, huh. That cover sounds non-aggressive. In these times we need to keep the people upstairs feeling reassured. I'll submit this new name. Next, let's talk about the department's structure and personnel reshuffling..."
....................
It could be said that later the same day the meeting was held, Su Ming and his two companions far away in Sochi got the news.
The few girls who'd been undercover in SSR, thanks to their outstanding performance and high reliability, unsurprisingly received a new notification in the first round, instructing them to report to a certain coordinate in New Jersey.
"Strategic Hazard Intervention and Intelligence Logistics Department." Su Ming rolled over on the sofa, watching TV as he spoke to the two women. "SSR's moving into phase two. They're short-handed right now. I'll have the others get some Leviathan intel ready. Natasha, you're going to play a defecting Leviathan Special Agent and join the new Logistics Department."
"Why use a defected Leviathan agent identity? Wouldn't it be better to go in clean?" Natasha didn't quite get it.
"No. A dirty background draws suspicion, sure, but if that background is partly the Truth, it's different. You can pose as the sole Survivor of that old Red House program. That kind of identity stands up better to investigation. As long as you show you're valuable, you'll start from a higher rung than the others."
Su Ming watched the Fur Bear lady host on TV, her delivery as impassioned as those North Korean announcers would be someday. He turned up the volume and lowered his own voice.
"Scorpio, Element Zero, the Winter Soldier project—an entire series of Leviathan black files. I know most of them. That intel alone should be enough to land you as an Advanced Agent."
"When they think I've sold out that much critical Leviathan intel and burned every bridge behind me, that's when they'll trust me twice as much, right?" Natasha tapped a tiny fist against her palm; she understood now.
"Exactly. If the opportunity arises, I'll arrange for you to 'capture' a batch of Leech Potion. Immortality is tempting to anyone. As long as you have value, you're absolutely safe. The Logistics Department has cut loose from military control and its autonomy has shot up. Peggy still doesn't know how her own immortality came about, so she'll be very interested in the Leech and Leviathan."
Su Ming held out a hand to Gin, who passed him the bottle, then went to get three glasses.
Natasha thought it over. The plan didn't sound very risky, and Leviathan was even more mysterious than Hydra. As the first defecting Special Agent, her value would be immeasurable.
If she could really trade Leviathan intel for her own success, Natasha was more than willing.
"I'll start getting ready. But you'd better arrange some people for me in the United States as well, so we can stage a show." Natasha took the glass. She was willing to trust the boss's plan.
Su Ming began pouring. He lifted his glass to show them his black Ring.
"Car chases, explosions, assassinations—the full set of classic 'spy on the run' scenes will all be queued up for you. I just activated a new power recently, so I've got a large stock of suitable cannon fodder. If a hundred people are hunting you down and you still make it out alive, bringing crucial intel and valuable items to defect to the Logistics Department, that's one hell of a calling card."
Natasha laughed, raised her glass, and clinked it lightly against theirs. "Cheers. I'm going to pull this off."