Shadow trail of the beautiful world

Chapter 670 25. Haste for 5 Minutes

"Dear Members, according to the information collected by S.H.I.E.L.D. from various channels, there are currently more than 300 bio-augmentation test projects in the world. These are only projects promoted by officials or medical consortia. Some uncontrolled private projects of a nasty nature."

In a meeting room in Washington, members of the World Security Council and lawmakers sat together, listening to the report of Merlin Riley, deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This is not a formal meeting, it is more like a high-level internal closed-door meeting. After the basic common understanding is determined, these things will be brought to a formal meeting for discussion.

Of course, this is also because some of the information that Pierce instructed Merlin to come up with is not suitable for public discussion.

"Like this!"

Merlin, who was wearing a neat suit, waved his hand. On the projector in the conference room, a mission report and some bloody photos were released, causing many members of the audience to exclaim.

"Abstergo Corporation, I'm sure many of you know about it, even I myself have attended the company's charity reception."

Merlin pointed to the projection behind him with a serious expression, and said to the members:

"But what you may not know is that this company has a project called 'New Fluoride', which aims to develop a new type of drug that can strengthen the human body and delay aging. They call it 'Order Enforcer' internally. , sounds great, right? Guys."

"However, in order to experiment with the drug, this company released a completely unproven experimental drug in a small town in Central Asia in July last year, directly resulting in the death of 7 people on the spot, including 475 minors. ..."

There was another whisper among the congressmen. Obviously, this matter is a bit appalling.

"Most importantly, everyone!"

The chairman, Alexander Pierce, who was sitting not far from the podium, took over Merlin's words. He aggravated his voice, knocked on the table, and said with a trace of anger:

"This matter has been concealed!"

"The top management of Abstergo Corporation used a web of money and power that they had created in recent years to easily conceal this appalling incident. In the past few months, many congressmen from the North American The senators cry, but my friends, you have absolutely no idea why they were removed from office."

"This..."

Pointing to the projection behind Merlin, Pierce said:

"Here's why! The deaths of 475 innocent people would have been covered up if it hadn't been for the brave souls who really cared about serving social order to come forward. But that's not the only thing that makes us feel insane , Mr. Merlin, please continue."

"Um"

Merlin nodded, the projection behind him changed again, and the video clip of the night of the Hulk incident was played, and Merlin said to the councilors:

"Speaker Pierce's anger is justified, gentlemen. What I'm about to tell you about happened a week ago, and I think you've all heard about it."

"The military, the North American military is promoting some dangerous experiments without permission, which resulted in a terrible nuclear material leak in the University District of New Mexico, directly threatening the lives of 10,000+ people."

"If it wasn't for the quick response of our agents from S.H.I.E.L.D., if they hadn't risked their lives to prevent the spread of nuclear radiation with advanced technology, I am afraid that the explosion that night would have become the most terrifying incident in this century. A homicide."

Accompanied by Merlin's description, the video on the projection was enlarged, and the heroic picture of Agent Phil Coulson directing the agents to rescue people in the fire scene was displayed.

"Everyone!"

Merlin's tone became heavy, and he said sincerely:

"These dangerous incidents could have been avoided. We are no longer in a civilized civil war. The pursuit of biological weapons like super soldiers has now become a very dangerous sign. In fact, I It feels more like a country-to-country arms race, the difference is that the focus of our competition has changed from rifles and tanks to super soldiers."

"But how much longer are we going to ignore something as bad as this?"

Merlin shook his head, and said sincerely:

"In this era, this era of advocating peace, the competition between countries and countries, between forces and forces should no longer be determined by pure force. We are not beasts..."

"We are human beings, we have wisdom, and we should treat each other with kindness. I still have a lot of materials about the bad consequences of various dangerous experiments we have collected, but due to time constraints, these cannot be shown one by one. gone."

Merlin put away his folder, he nodded politely to the councilors, and exchanged glances with Pierce again, after receiving Pierce's nod of approval, he politely said to the others:

"This concludes my speech, thank you all."

Merlin walked off the podium, and his last initiative for peace was applauded by some MPs.

After Merlin stepped down, Pierce also stood up and took over the leadership of the meeting. The old man said seriously to the members present:

"Thank you Director Merlin for your disclosure. This is the purpose of my impromptu meeting today. Everyone, we should set up a nuclear non-proliferation treaty for these dangerous experimental projects that will endanger social stability and people's safety. Make a treaty too."

"We are happy to see the development of technology and the progress of society, but this should not be at the cost of the tragic death of innocent people. Dangerous experiments like Abstergo's 'New Fluoride' project should be stopped immediately!"

"At least from an official level, we should not advocate or condone the continuation of such experiments, and we must do the same!"

Pierce exchanged glances with several directors around him, and then he said to the other congressmen:

"Let's think about it, everyone. After 15 minutes, we will have a preliminary discussion and vote."

At the end of the meeting room, on the last row of chairs, Merlin reached out to untie his tie, took the water from Fury beside him, and said to Fury:

"The old man Pierce always dares to accept troubles that other people don't want to touch. The things he does will bring him a lot of trouble and pressure. Not everyone is thinking about world peace. I just said At the time, at least 7 people in the audience wanted to kill me with their eyes..."

"Hehe, it's a pity they can't do it, can't they?"

Fury smiled, and he replied:

"Your story is wonderful. As for Pierce, when I met him, he told me that someone always has to reach into the dirty things and find the hidden good things."

"He told me so, and he did it, so I admire him."

"But to be honest, I have serious doubts about the point of this Treaty on the Prohibition of Dangerous Tests."

While sipping water, Merlin said:

"People who abide by the law will not conduct illegal research, and those who are conducting illegal research will not stop immediately because of a treaty. For example, the soldiers of our Ministry of Defense, each of them has Severe persecution paranoia, as if you can't sleep peacefully without holding a nuclear bomb in your hand."

"Weapon X project, the Hulk incident this time, maybe there are other biological experiments that we haven't discovered, etc."

Merlin complained:

"Who knows how many things they have hidden. Seriously, before you let Thaddeus Ross go, let me see his memory. Maybe I can find a lot of interesting things."

"This is just an initiative, and the existence of this treaty is symbolic."

Fury said:

"We only need that kind of symbolic meaning. We can't intervene in the friction between major powers. They can be resolved through negotiation and compromise. We only need them to agree to the implementation of this treaty on the surface. Then those unregistered Hazardous testing would be legally defined as a crime, and that's what we're going to deal with."

"Like private companies like AIM and Abstergo, the illegal research they conduct will be banned."

Fury shrugged and said:

"There are enough superhumans and super monsters. We have to stop the spread of supernatural events from the source. Without those messy experiments and those weird drugs, it would be very difficult for ordinary people to become super criminals or superheroes." .”

"Well, I guess, once this treaty is signed, there will definitely be many scientists and scientific research consortiums who will angrily accuse the World Security Council of brutally interfering with their research freedom..."

Merlin said in a strange tone:

"Maybe there will be a parade or something."

"As you said, Merlin, people who abide by the rules and regulations only need to file in advance to continue their research. Those who don't plan to file and plan to mess around with their temper, giving them the freedom to do research can only be harmful. People hurt themselves."

Fury said softly:

"We're just preventing them from further harming themselves and others."

"Your statement is a bit interesting."

Merlin smiled, and he said to Fury:

"I'm out for a cigarette and I'm going to give a report later on the changing superhero population and the dangerous situations they cause...Hell, you should let Hill do these things, she's better at this kind of speech than both of us .”

"Hill is busy."

Fury said:

"The negotiations with Wakanda have just made some progress, and she has been there recently."

Merlin shrugged, he reached out and patted Fury on the shoulder, and then walked to the balcony outside the meeting room, where the wind was blowing, and he lit a cigarette. Some pictures and documents danced on Icarus's lens, for Merlin sorted out the data needed for the next speech.

It would be nice to have an artificial intelligence assistant, at least for the speech script, Merlin doesn't need to do it himself.

He stood by the balcony, looking at the White House not far away, letting his thoughts diverge.

Merlin was thinking about what Fury said just now.

There are always people in this world who yearn for freedom, more freedom, and they think they can do something good in the name of freedom, but in reality, they are only hurting themselves and others.

As an agent, Merlin has seen this kind of thing a lot.

When everyone is shouting for freedom, who will speak for those who are hurt by excessive freedom?

There are always cancers that must be eradicated.

According to Merlin's many years of work experience, for the lives of ordinary people, the so-called freedom is far less important than safety.

Fear smooths out conflict.

Just as security always convinces freedom.

"Oh, I'm still too emotional."

Merlin leaned on the railing, looking at the night ahead, he said:

"It's the job to stop people from hurting themselves and hurting others."

"Drip, drop"

A message popped up on Icarus' glasses, from an old friend who hadn't been in touch with Merlin for a long time.

It's a Psylocke.

That pretty mutant mercenary with purple hair.

But the information attached to the message made Merlin frown. There were only three letters in the message.

"SOS"

"Icarus, confirm the coordinates of the source!"

Merlin pushed the mirror frame, and the next moment, a communication coordinate from Mexico was located on the virtual map, which was the last sending point of the Psylocke's distress signal.

"The transmitter has been destroyed, Merlin."

Icarus's data signal tracking was interrupted after a second, and she said to Merlin:

"Miss Lingdie may have encountered danger and was captured or imprisoned."

"Let Horus pass."

Merlin says:

"Let it find Spirit Butterfly, and I will rush over immediately after finishing the next report."

"No need, Merlin."

Icarus marked another coordinate on the map, and she said to Merlin:

"Mr. Clark Kent's location signal is not far from the place where Miss Psychic Butterfly last disappeared. You can entrust him to help you find your missing friend."

"Clark?"

Merlin blinked in surprise, and said:

"What is he doing there? Interviewing?"

Icarus quickly connected Clark's phone for Merlin, and after a few seconds, Clark's deliberately low voice sounded from the other end of the phone:

"Hello? Merlin, what's the matter?"

"Is there a woman by your side?"

Merlin keenly caught the voice of a woman in the background of Clark's voice, but he ignored it. Who Clark was with and what he was doing had nothing to do with Merlin, that was Kryptonian freedom.

He said to Clark:

"A friend of mine is in danger in Mexico, Clark, but I can't leave now, you go and help her for me, I'll send the coordinates to your phone, act as soon as possible!"

"no problem."

On the Mexican side, Clark hung up the phone and looked at Louise who was writing a press release on a laptop beside him. He scratched his hair, picked up his handbag, and said to Louise:

"Louise, I'm going to get some drinks, do you need anything?"

"Bring me a can of coffee."

Louise waved her hand without looking back, Clark went to the door, closed the door gently, and then stretched out his hand to open his shirt. Under the shirt was his cool Kryptonian dress. battle suit.

On the chest of the combat uniform, there is a big S-shaped mark, which is the abbreviation of the word "hope" in Kryptonian text.

"Don't make Louise suspicious..."

Clark lightly rushed into the night sky. While flying at supersonic speed, he used his super vision to search the ground for traces of spirit butterflies. He said softly:

"Well, it must be done within 5 minutes! Speaking of which, who is this spirit butterfly?"

"Tsk tsk, Merlin has so many girlfriends..."

(End of this chapter)