"Recently, a terrorist attack occurred in the suburbs of Sokovia, and the family of Baron Zemo of Sokovia unfortunately perished during this incident.
According to the Baron, it took him two days to find the remains of his family—less than the number of weapon fragments he found.
And on these fragments, the name of the U.S. military enterprise, Hammer Industries, was engraved."
The reporter on the television looked displeased—much like a child going to the police station to claim a drunken parent; although they despised such behavior, they were helpless to do anything about it.
Because no one had paid them off, the television station naturally didn't feel the need to save face for Hammer Industries or the congressmen behind them, and they conveniently released the information about the shareholders behind Hammer Industries.
Ordinary people love to see these people get caught. Earning a wave of ratings now, and another wave after General Ross handles the aftermath—this is a high-quality focal event.
"Secretary of State General Ross has announced that he will thoroughly investigate this matter and give Sokovia an explanation. Let us look forward to the actions of the 'Thunderbolt General'."
On the plane, Harry lay motionless in the neural connection pod.
This was a prototype pod that, by connecting to the human nervous system, used a computer to simulate a virtual reality with up to 100% realism.
However, this prototype pod was too expensive, and since it was custom-made just for Harry, it was unlikely to be popularized.
But this thing had already fulfilled its mission of verifying the brain-computer interface.
In the virtual reality, Harry was lying on a lounge chair by the beach, with the news on one side and Zemo's communication interface on the other.
"Your family has now been brought onto the Helicarrier—they are about to start working, Baron."
Before leaving, Harry had even let them meet, which was considered quite conscientious.
"Alright, where do we start?"
Harry played the phone call Tony had made a few days ago for Zemo and explained the parts he found suspicious.
Zemo thought for a moment and said: "So this time, HYDRA is taking the initiative to make a move against you—why would they want to target you?"
Harry pondered for a moment and said: "There are too many reasons."
Fundamentally, HYDRA was already quite wary of targets like him who could pose a threat to HYDRA; in the original work, they even launched the Insight Project as a violent means of elimination.
Theoretically, that plan was to eliminate these targets and force the World to submit through force.
But speaking deeper, if that plan actually succeeded, it wouldn't be as simple as just eliminating threat objects; it would mean the outbreak of World War III—perhaps that was exactly their goal.
On one hand, there's that; on the other hand, Harry had already taken several actions against HYDRA in secret, revealed the identity of the Green Goblin, and Fury was also investigating HYDRA in the dark.
Thinking carefully, Osborn could completely be listed as HYDRA's number one suspect—and even if it was just suspicion, HYDRA might take action against him, and Fury might have also been exposed.
As for those black technologies, it goes without saying; the whole World wants Osborn to make these technologies public.
After listening to Harry's speculation, Zemo roughly understood the situation.
"Alright, but the fact that they are willing to use Tony Stark to deal with you at this time shows that we must have entered a certain special point in time," Zemo said.
At the mention of a special point in time, the first thing Harry thought of was the Insight Project.
In the original work, Nick Fury also discovered some things he shouldn't have known at that point in time, forcing Pierce to tear off his disguise, assassinate Fury, and put out a warrant for Captain America before the Insight Project was launched.
Thinking about it this way, this matter might really be related to Fury, but Harry couldn't contact him.
Zemo continued: "According to the information you gave me, this S.H.I.E.L.D. Director has likely been controlled—of course, it's also possible he has entered a dormant state."
Harry listed some HYDRA spies he knew of and a list of people who could be trusted for Zemo, which would help Zemo make a judgment.
This judgment was very reasonable; if Fury were still in power, S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't be able to go and control Tony.
"Stark has indeed been controlled—so the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director must have gone offline. Then the next question is, how did S.H.I.E.L.D. control this billionaire?"
Zemo had already discovered that this boss knew quite a lot, and the information Harry provided could not fully reflect the entire situation he had grasped.
Since that was the case, he might as well just act as a guide, leading Harry to think through the problems.
Harry stroked his chin and thought: If Tony had any weakness, it was Pepper.
Because of this, the protection around Pepper was handled by his most trusted security chief, Happy—but there was one person whom both Pepper and Tony trusted, who could serve as an entry point.
Agent Coulson.
Coulson took orders from Fury, but now that Fury's status was unknown, Pierce could use various methods to assign tasks to Coulson within S.H.I.E.L.D.—he could even impersonate Fury.
Thinking of this, Harry used the encrypted line left by Bone to call Skye.
No one answered.
Harry said: "I roughly understand what's going on. There is an Agent whom Tony trusts very much; he is loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D., but he knows nothing about the current situation of HYDRA."
Having said this much, Zemo could also imagine what was going on.
"You think he is coercing Tony Stark? Would he do something like that?" Zemo needed more details.
"No, but he has an old comrade in HYDRA—they were Agents at the same time."
John Garrett; the two of them trained under Nick Fury at the same time, but this guy was abandoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. during a mission, became selfish, and threw himself into the embrace of HYDRA.
Actually, he wasn't particularly loyal to HYDRA either—he was also in charge of the centipede serum, and he just did it to live longer.
Coulson was responsible for making Tony lower his guard against S.H.I.E.L.D., and his old friend John Garrett was responsible for the specific actions. Coulson might not even know Tony's current situation, or perhaps he had also been captured.
"That makes sense; it's exactly what HYDRA likes to do—they have many people they can use, but they aren't necessarily all loyal to HYDRA, and some don't even know of HYDRA's existence," Zemo snapped his fingers on the other side of the phone.
Even for HYDRA members, they implement compartmentalized management.
"But this still doesn't make sense—what's the use of knowing my whereabouts? I can complete an orbital drop from anywhere—"
Harry stopped midway—
"This is where you might become careless. Although I don't like Stark—conservatively estimating, there may have been over 300 billion dollars worth of Stark munitions wreaking havoc in Sokovia.
Although the value of Osborn has far exceeded Stark, you have to admit that this arms expert is a connoisseur when it comes to weapons. I heard that both of your companies have come into contact with Chitauri technology."
An orbital drop is not impossible to defend against; if the drop pod is interfered with in transit, it would be devastating for the airborne troops.
Coincidentally, Stark is quite proficient in various technologies such as intercontinental missiles and anti-missile systems.
Anti-orbital drop is difficult; an ordinary team would need over a decade to research it, but Stark Industries moves very fast. Perhaps he was already considering this technology the first time you demonstrated it.
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