Howard smiled, his expression clearly showing relief: "I just suddenly had some thoughts and wanted to come over to verify them, but while calculating just now, I missed a parameter."
He made a helpless gesture, as if mocking his own forgetfulness: "You see, that's how it is when you get old. A flash of inspiration hits, but when you actually start working, you realize you missed a key step."
Kellar nodded understandingly: "We've all experienced that. Do you need help with the recalculation?"
"No need." Howard waved his hand, his expression weary: "As expected, my brain has slowed down now that I'm old. It's better to leave this detailed work to the young people. I'll head back to rest now."
Kellar said with concern: "Be careful on your way. Do you need me to arrange a driver for you?"
"No need, I'll drive myself," Howard said.
"You should get some rest early too, Kellar. Don't follow my example; staying up late for work isn't worth it."
"Alright, Dr. Stark."
Howard nodded and turned to leave.
His pace was much lighter than when he arrived, and his shoulders were no longer so tense.
Watching his receding back, Kellar's eyes turned somewhat complex.
He stood there for a few seconds, as if relieved, let out a sigh, and then turned and walked toward his office.
Entering the office, he closed the door and activated the privacy mode.
After ensuring everything was secure, Kellar's form rippled slightly, like ripples on the surface of water, revealing his original Skrull appearance.
Green skin, a face covered in fine lines, pointed ears—it was Talos, the leader of the Skrulls who had infiltrated Earth.
He walked to the desk, tapped his fingers lightly on the surface, and fell into deep thought.
As an excellent Commander of the Skrull Empire, Talos had reacted immediately after receiving the alert about Skrulls being discovered on Howard's side.
Through an encrypted channel, he issued an emergency order to all Agents on Earth to immediately enter a silent state, suspend all non-essential activities, and avoid any behavior that might arouse suspicion.
At the same time, he quickly assessed the risks. The Tesseract was one of their most important targets, but if the entire network were exposed due to being too eager to acquire it, that would be a catastrophic failure.
So he made a decision: to immediately return the Tesseract that had been quietly taken out earlier.
Fortunately, their "borrowing" was only temporary; in order to conduct a more in-depth energy analysis, there was no plan to move it off Earth immediately.
Talos operated personally, returning the Tesseract to its original position within a very short time and erasing all access records.
Now, the Tesseract sat safely in its original place, as if it had never been moved.
As expected, Howard had come to confirm the status of the Tesseract.
Talos was glad he had reacted quickly and handled it properly.
Judging from Howard's relaxed state when he left, the Old man likely hadn't discovered anything unusual.
Now it should be considered temporarily safe.
Talos also issued a further silence order to all Agents: suspend all operations, minimize going out as much as possible, and absolutely do not continue to expose themselves.
But Talos knew this was just a stalling tactic.
He needed to re-evaluate the entire mission. Although the Tesseract was important, under the current circumstances, ensuring the safety of the entire infiltration network was a higher priority.
Perhaps they needed to temporarily abandon direct action regarding the Tesseract and instead adopt a more circuitous strategy.
Talos restored Kellar's appearance, sat back in his office chair, and began planning the next step of action.
On the way home, Howard's mood was much lighter than when he left.
The Tesseract was safe and sound, which allowed him to put down much of his anxiety.
Perhaps the Skrulls' target wasn't the Tesseract at all, or they hadn't been able to infiltrate that level of security area yet.
But to be cautious, he still decided to strengthen the surveillance of the Tesseract.
Tomorrow, under the guise of a "system upgrade," he would add several new layers of protective measures and adjust access permissions to reduce the number of personnel who could contact the Tesseract.
When he returned to the Villa, it was already late at night.
Maria was still waiting for him in the living room, her face full of worry.
"How was it?" she asked eagerly.
Howard hugged his wife and comforted her: "It's fine, the Tesseract is perfectly fine, everything is normal. I might have been overthinking."
Maria was clearly relieved: "That's good. Ms. Mavuika has gone to rest."
"Let's rest too," he said. "There's still a lot to do tomorrow."
Over the next few days, everything was calm on the surface.
Howard went to S.H.I.E.L.D. every day, pretending everything was normal, while secretly conducting more covert investigations.
Without arousing suspicion, he adjusted personnel assignments for certain key positions and added some extra security protocols.
Days went by, and until the motorcycle Howard had promised Ms. Mavuika was finally finished, he hadn't been able to find any more information about the Skrulls.
That morning, Howard received a call.
After hanging up, he found Ms. Mavuika, who was pruning roses in the garden, his face wearing a rare expression of relaxation for these past few days.
"Ms. Mavuika," he said, "the motorcycle is finished. It can be delivered this afternoon."
Ms. Mavuika's eyes immediately lit up: "Really? That's great!"
Seeing her expectant expression, Howard's mood improved a bit as well.
Over the next few hours, Ms. Mavuika seemed restless. She paced in the living room, looking out the window from time to time, like a child waiting for a gift.
Maria, seeing her like this, couldn't help but laugh.
"You are really looking forward to that vehicle," Maria said.
Around three in the afternoon, the sound of car engines came from outside the Villa.
Not one, but two. One was the low roar of a sports car, and the other was the diesel sound of a heavy truck.
Ms. Mavuika and Howard walked to the door together.
They saw a red supercar turn with a rather ostentatious arc, stopping directly in the middle of the road at the entrance of the Villa, completely unconcerned about whether it was blocking access.
The supercar's doors opened upwards, like a butterfly spreading its wings.
A young man, looking about twenty years old, stepped out of the driver's seat with fluid and confident movements.
He was wearing an expensive custom suit, but the top two buttons were undone, and his tie hung loosely around his neck, completely ruining the seriousness of the formal wear.
A pair of sunglasses covered half his face, but one could see the slightly cynical smile hanging at the corners of his mouth.
The young man took off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of brown eyes that were extremely similar to Howard's.
He looked around, his gaze resting on Ms. Mavuika for quite a while, flashing a hint of amazement and curiosity, then turned to Howard.
He grinned, revealing neat teeth.
Howard's expression changed slightly the moment he saw the young man.
"Tony?" Howard's voice was a few degrees higher than usual.
"Why are you here? Didn't I tell the transport department to just deliver it?"
"Good afternoon! Old man." His voice carried the youthful vitality typical of a young person and a hint of deliberate provocation.
"I'm here to deliver the car!"
He shook the car keys in his hand: "And by the way, I wanted to see why an Old man who usually has a driver for everything is suddenly interested in a motorcycle? Could it be that you've finally realized you're old and want to find some youthful excitement?"
The young man called Tony was none other than Tony Stark, Howard's only son and the heir to Stark Industries.