Chapter 102 Cat and mouse game (two in one)

  The Howlett family was founded by the British William Howlett. By the 1840s, it had become the largest farmer and rancher and landowner in western Canada, and also one of the richest among all British colonists.

  During the American Civil War, James Howlett, the grandson of William Howlett, as the new generation of family power, poured out his family wealth to support the Northern Union Army, and vigorously developed industry and manufacturing, purchased land, and mined energy minerals.

   After the war, the gasoline internal combustion engine was improved and perfected, and the era of steam power was eliminated

  First, World War II accounted for the entire United States, and more than half of the military supply. Bruce Howlett cooperated with President Roosevelt and strongly supported the Manhattan Project.

Dwight David Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States who just took office and a five-star general, looked at the investigation report jointly submitted by the heads of the three special agencies of the SSR, CIA, and FBI, and wrinkled his forehead with a headache. Layers of pleats.

  He raised his eyelids, revealing the large whites of his eyes, and glanced at the three particularly serious and heavy intelligence chiefs sitting opposite him, wondering if they had any other purpose.

  As the candidate of the Republican Party, and the president who used a large amount of political donations from the Howlett Group, it was difficult for Eisenhower to look at this issue regardless of his personal standpoint.

   "Bruce Howlett has a teacher-student relationship with Steve Rogers, what does that mean?"

  Mr. President looked at the increasingly inexplicable content and information in the investigation report, and asked aloud.

   "Cough, Mr. President, it's not about teachers and students at the educational level. In comparison, it's more like the godfather relationship between Italian gangs."

  Eisenhower pondered for a moment, and suddenly asked: "Is Bruce Howlett still alive?"

  "The last time he appeared in public was at the top meeting of the group six years ago, and before and after his son James II came to the stage, Mr. Bruce disappeared, but no news of his death was sent out."

"This is also the consistent tradition of the Howlett family. James I also disappeared quietly. The heirs of each generation of this family are cultivated in secret. It has never been heard that they have married wives, and once the new head of the family takes power, The previous generation will simply 'disappear'."

  The first director of the FBI, who has been re-elected for nearly 30 years, John Edgar Hoover, told Mr. President all kinds of weird history of the Howlett family in a persuasive manner.

   Eisenhower looked at the director of investigation with thick eyebrows and a very wide forehead, talking freely without showing any expression.

  “A running president beats Hoover with iron”, this is a saying that often circulates in several intelligence and government agencies in the United States.

  In 1924, Hoover, who was still a young lawyer of the Ministry of Justice at the time, was appointed as the director of the Bureau of Investigation BOI, the predecessor of the FBI.

Today, Eisenhower is the fifth president of the United States served by Hoover. Even Franklin Roosevelt, one of the "Big Three", did not remove Hoover from this position, but only supported a new foreign policy. Intelligence Agency - Central Intelligence Agency.

  Director Hoover knows more about every aspect of this country than any other president. No one knows what he has mastered.

   "Rogers' shield and equipment are said to have been given to him by Howlett. We still have no clue about that magical metal material."

   Roger Dooley added aloud that since Steve defected, he has been really worried for a while.

  President Eisenhower looked at the detailed process and information about the defection of "Captain America", and couldn't say a word for a long time. He was the supreme commander of the US military in World War II and personally awarded a medal to Steve Rogers.

   After a long time, Mr. President threw the documents on the table, clasped the table with his knuckles, looked at Director Du Li with a scary look, and said in a deep voice:

   "Why is there such a big gap? Isn't the ability of the re-enacted serum able to achieve theoretically more than 80% of the effect? ​​Give me an explanation, Director Du Li."

  Du Li looked at Mr. President's fingers poking a picture of a destroyed armored vehicle beyond recognition, and many super soldiers with twisted limbs and dead around him. His ears were a little hot, and the shirt on his back was getting wet.

"I, we suspect that this has something to do with the Howlett family. They have always been at the forefront of technological power in the entire world. Even the military's replacement of each generation of new equipment depends on the development of the Howlett military industry, including Rogers' equipment. arms"

  Du Li looked left and right at the two intelligence bosses, and finally said like a mosquito: "The Howlett family may have more advanced body modification technology."

"Mr. President, I propose to suspend the large-scale selection and production of super-soldier project plans. From the incident of 'traitors', we can easily conclude that once such super-individual force is out of control, the consequences will be very dire, especially in the military. Party does not have effective means of control”

  The person in charge of the CIA and General Walter Smith, who is also a lieutenant general in the army, made a proposal. Except for Roger Dooley, who turned pale immediately after hearing this, President Eisenhower and even Director Hoover nodded slowly.

   "Continue to intensify the research on the serum to achieve the same level of combat effectiveness as the 'traitor' as soon as possible, and temporarily stop all super soldier transformation plans currently in progress."

  Mr. President ignored Roger Dooley, who was deprived of most of his political capital, and turned to look at the deepest eyes of the American government.

   "Edgar, don't you have a lot of underground information about the Howlett family since the 1920s? From there, you will not miss any weird things."

  Director Hoover grinned without a smile on his face, and said in a low, but soft tone:

"Even for the FBI, the existing information is very limited. What the Howlett family has done is too clean and neat. Some specious incident information, even my best investigators think it cannot be reproduced. For the Howlett Group The investigation will be protracted, Mr. President."

   "Ho!"

   Eisenhower made a rough voice, snorted heavily, and shouted irritably:

"Do you think I can do something if it is found out? Today, if I arrest James II, tomorrow the country's economic operation will be paralyzed! Not to mention the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives will be crushed immediately. This bigger rotunda!"

The old temper of the five-star general finally came up. The days when he was the president of Columbia University made him a lot gentler, but he had to face how to deal with one of the largest capital oligarchs in the United States and his own campaign sponsor within a few days of taking office. , which really made him jump.

"Hey, sir, what you said is that the capitalists behind the scenes in the United States really want to investigate, and almost everyone is enough. Those gentlemen who sold supplies at both ends during World War II are also the guests of the governments of various places as usual! "

  Hoover said haha, no one knows how to deal with all kinds of activities in the other world better than him. Secrets are like atomic bombs. They are most powerful only when they are not thrown out.

   Eisenhower got better and his temper improved a lot. He loved to hear what Hoover had to say. No wonder no president ever attacked him. This man's abilities and thoughts are too outstanding.

   "Mr. President, suspending the super soldier program will not be conducive to dealing with the Soviet "Hellfire" troops."

  Smith is in charge of the lieutenant general's CIA, focusing on foreign intelligence work. He raised another point with some concern.

  In the stage of the bipolar cold war, the pressure on espionage and spy warfare was very high. Since the inexplicable appearance of various combat teams with special abilities, the Soviet Union has gained the upper hand in many local conflicts.

"Let's leave all the existing super soldiers to you. Go up and have a look first. If it's still so useless, hum. I've read the information on the 'Hellfire' unit. It's just deformities and special equipment. Stalin did it like this. Go down, the danger is great."

Director Du Li, who has improved his authority in the SSR, glanced at Lieutenant General Smith with some resentment, but he hid it well. He really admired the Lieutenant General's pros and cons to take away the last few super soldiers. .

  Lieutenant General Smith was somewhat noncommittal to Mr. President's contemptuous attitude. He invested too many excellent agents and soldiers in the country wrapped in cold winter and ice and snow, and the information he could bring back was very little.

  West Siberia Plain, between the Ural Mountains and the Yenisei River.

  The terrain here is low and flat, with wide swamps and an average altitude of more than 100 meters. Due to its proximity to the Arctic Ocean, warm air from the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, and Indian Ocean is blocked by mountains and plateaus.

  Siberia is one of the coldest places in the northern hemisphere in winter, with the extreme minimum temperature even lower than minus 70°C.

  A black four-wing prolate plane circled over the Ural Mountains, just made a circle, and then circled back, as if it didn't do anything.

  Asazuo in the engine room took the wolves Colin and Opper, and Bucky disappeared in a teleport, and appeared on the windy ice field.

   "Woohoo! It's so cold"

  Azazzo was wrapped in a thick fur coat, with his hands inserted into the sleeves, shivering, complaining constantly, he always hated cold places.

  The three of Baki didn't feel much about the severe cold of nearly thirty degrees below zero. They were wearing black wolf pack combat uniforms, which weren't considered warm, but the material was extremely tough, and there was a layer of vibrating armor on the chest and other vital parts for protection.

  Colin and Opal carried special black firearms with exaggerated caliber and length on their backs, and wore sunglasses. Compared with each other, they seemed to be looking for something.

   "Don't look around, there. The underground is empty over there. Ah Choo"

Asazuo shivered and pointed to the front right. Before he broke through to the third stage of the evolution technique, Asazuo did not dare to teleport to a space that he had never been to before. Can get stuck in walls or anything that might come up.

  After perfectly mastering the ability of teleportation, Asazo has a certain perception of unknown spaces. He doesn't have to worry about the location and direction of teleportation, and to some extent, he has the ability to find hidden spaces.

   But if it is not necessary, he will still choose to enter the unknown space cautiously. In Asazor's words, this is the way of survival of the Red Devil.

Bucky looked at a low and raised hill in front of him, covered with thick snow and ice, the three of them strode over, searched around, and finally found a hidden steel door with a door outside. Set of complicated combination locks.

Opper, who was more than two meters tall, pushed against the iron door and shook his head at Colin. Bucky stepped forward and tore off the sleeve that was stuck with the buckle on his left arm, revealing Ed Man alloy arm.

   Blow up!

  A sharp blade with a length of more than 30 centimeters protruded from the left wrist. The material and the arm are also made of Adamantium alloy. Bucky's metal arm is constantly being improved, with some small changes.

  He stepped forward and punched in, swishing his hands up and down a few times, the heavy steel door more than ten centimeters thick was silkily cut out a passage for one person to pass through, and smashed to the ground with a clang.

   Several people filed in along the corridor.

   This seems to be an abandoned underground military base, but the equipment on display looks more like a secret research institute.

At a depth of more than ten meters underground, the searchlights on the guns of the three of Bucky shot around in bunches. They saw rows of experimental benches still with many reagents and microscope lenses that were not cleaned up. Disabled, the air smells a bit stale, like a strong fermented olive smell.

Colin looked around tactically, found the electric switch, and pulled it down. The humming of the generator and the sound of rows of incandescent lights were heard. This large-scale underground research institute was displayed in front of everyone. the whole picture.

   "After searching for so long, why is it empty?"

  Opper said with some resentment that he managed to win this trip to the field, just to have the opportunity to fight against the special forces that appeared in the Soviet military in recent years.

  Colin and Bucky looked around at the leftover equipment and materials in the laboratory, and felt a little headache seeing that they were all in Russian, so they casually talked to Opper.

"The family's intelligence capabilities in the Far East are already very limited. During the Cold War these years, it is even more difficult to do business. If you just want to fight with mutants from the Soviet Union, there are many opportunities. I heard that the United States and the Soviet Army Many local conflicts have been messed up."

   "Miss Carter should soon start the family's external intelligence work, but the current situation is really difficult to stretch her eyes."

  Bucky squeezed a thumb-thick lock, opened a vertical alloy filing cabinet, and chatted with Colin and Opal.

   "I heard that you and Brother Asazo met that Xiao? Sebastian Xiao."

  Opper asked curiously, and Azazzo flickered around in the underground space, fiddling with cylindrical cabin equipment.

   "Not only have I seen it, but I have also fought against it. My arm was abolished that time."

  Opper pouted, it seems that it is a good deal to get such an alloy iron arm. Asazo teleported to the experimental table next to the three of them, sat down on his buttocks, and opened up the conversation.

"What do you guys think my old man came here for? It's freezing cold in this broken place. I dropped this Xiao from a height of tens of thousands of meters. My father said later that his ability should be to absorb and Release various forms of energy, if you really want to meet him, it will be of no use at all."

  Colin and Opal looked at Bucky with long black hair hanging down. The latter nodded slightly, remembering the experience of fighting Shaw with Steve.

   "Then you are coming here. Take us away at any time?"

  Opper scratched his stubbled hair, and looked at the red devil who was lying down like an old man.

"Why are you so big and stupid, so why come here? Just say hello and leave, hehe, if I can find traces of that Xiao, I will go back and bring my father over immediately. Been waiting to clean up this guy for a long time."

  Asazzo looked at the rows of experimental cabins, recalling vaguely seeing similar equipment in the Auschwitz concentration camp back then, baring his fangs and looking a little fierce.

  Baki finally collected a box of materials, they didn’t understand Russian, they couldn’t recognize them, so they could only take away everything they could find here, and cursed a little annoyedly:

   "This time I missed nothing, it will be even more difficult in the future. I just can't figure out why that Xiao is so powerful, how can he hide everywhere like a mouse."

"Dad has analyzed that this Sebastian Shaw, who has been running around since World War I and doing mutation experiments, is alone and alone. He has never had a strong organization or force for him to use, so he seeks refuge everywhere. Taking advantage of the situation, on the other hand."

  Asazo turned into black smoke, flashed among a pile of looted materials, and thought about it: "His ability probably depends on the input of external energy. Without a large energy supply, he can't do anything."

  The three of Bucky each shouldered an alloy filing cabinet that was as tall as a person and filled with documents, and grabbed each other's arms. Colin finally thought about it, and said loudly:

   "So if you don't consider the influence of other energy sources and don't take the initiative to attack Xiao, then he has nothing to do with me?"

   "Bingo!"

  Asazuo put his arm around Bucky and Colin's shoulders from behind, and the four disappeared instantly.

  On the outskirts of Moscow, in an old farm house that does not exist in people's eyes.

Sebastian Xiao fiddled with a helmet style, spliced ​​together rough and ugly things, and put it on his head carefully. Looking at the sickly white-haired and fair-skinned girl, he clasped his forehead and made a muffled sound , with a smile all over his face.

   "Nina, come on, try to see if you can do something to Uncle."

  Xiao swallowed nervously, and unconsciously grabbed the suit pants with both hands. He seemed to be full of fear for what the girl would do next.

  The young girl Nina is not tall, with short hair and a long skirt, and she sat on the table on a wooden bench, dragging her baby-fat chin, and stared directly at Xiao's with her green pupils.

   "No way. You can't put the seeds in Uncle's head. What kind of hat is that? Nina doesn't like it."

  The little girl pursed her mouth unhappily. She could no longer play games with her uncle like usual.

  There is a pair of twin brothers at the other end of the table, they are not very old, they look like thirteen or fourteen years old, with brown hair and thin, and freckles on their faces. They talked excitedly for a few hours, and after Nina looked over with frowning eyes, she quickly closed her mouth and smiled flatteringly.

   "Uncle is sometimes very busy, so he can't always play with Nina, right? Nina has to be good, just ask what you want uncle to do for you, you don't need to plant something in uncle's mind, remember?"

  Xiao gently patted Nina's little head, coaxing the somewhat sullen girl. He let out a long sigh of relief, and the smile on his face became more real.

   "Nina wants uncle to bring a new set of dolls when he comes back from get off work."

Sebastian Xiao looked at the colorful dolls piled up everywhere in the room, nodded helplessly, but was still very happy, and asked casually: "Just now Nina just wanted to plant an idea of ​​buying dolls in uncle's mind ?"

   "Hee hee, no, Nina wants uncle to drink a bottle of water that can burn through steel after work today, and see what happens to uncle!"

  Nina Ivanovna sang with a big tongue, her lacquered cheeks finally showed a little blush, she squinted her eyes cutely and shook her feet.

  Xiao was silent for a long time. After a while, he gave Nina and the two twins a few words without embarrassment. He didn't dare to take off his helmet, and just walked out of the room.

  In the wilderness on the outskirts, a door seemed to open out of thin air, Xiao walked out from it, turned around and closed the door.

The snow-white ice lake, the gray sky with layers of clouds, and no trace of people left behind. Xiao walked a little farther, and finally took off a few simple helmets that were welded together by metal pieces, shook his hair, and strode not far away. A car at the place went.

  He drove to the downtown area of ​​Moscow, entered an apartment, changed his clothes and went out again, and came to a well-secured institutional office building not far from Red Square.

   "Xiao, test room 36 needs you to take a look."

   Colonel Sergey, who took over the supervision of General Brezhnev who was promoted two years ago and is in charge of the "Hellfire" project, pushed in the door, looked at Xiao who had just hung up his coat, and gave rough orders.

   "Okay Colonel Sergey, I'll go right away."

  Xiao had a happy face and responded enthusiastically. Sergey still looked rough and indifferent, nodded scribbled, turned and walked away.

  Boom! boom.

Through the observation window, Sergey and Xiao watched the solid alloy laboratory being hit by circles of ripples visible to the naked eye, making a rumbling sound. Pressed in the corner of the laboratory.

In the empty space in the middle, a young man in his twenties was sitting barefoot on the ground with his knees crossed. He lowered his head and his body trembled uncontrollably. There are gushes of energy in the surrounding ring.

   "How long will this situation last for Andre."

  Colonel Sergei asked Xiao seriously, and the latter shook his head helplessly, speaking more and more authentic Russian, and explained to Comrade Colonel:

   "We are now more and more perfect in the process of discovering Hellfire fighters, but in the face of completely unselectable mutation abilities, we still lack effective means of control."

   "A power as strong as Andre's is really promising, but from current experience, the more powerful the mutant ability is, the more difficult it is to control. I can only try my best to guide him."

  The colonel supported the tabletop, hammering lightly with his fists. He let out two breaths of irritability, and said sullenly: "Among the fighters who have successfully mutated, there are too few fighters who are capable of combat and practical use."

"Especially the vast majority of soldiers whose appearance is severely mutated has now caused resistance and disgust in many troops. Our image in the military is a factory that manufactures monsters. A healthy young man may grow a long tongue when he walks in. , and sometimes eat live birds!"

"Colonel Sergey, from the very beginning, I have provided information on the situation and proportions of mutation grades. I still remember what General Brezhnev said. If you pile up with a large number of bases, you will definitely find many talented people. , let me try to help Andre stabilize first."

  Xiao walked into the alloy laboratory, not minding the constant impact energy, he walked to the side of the young man and put his hand on his shoulder.

   The room suddenly fell silent, and Andre's body still trembled uncontrollably from time to time, but all the energy disappeared along Xiao's trembling and fuzzy left hand.

  Andre raised his head, the anxiety in his heart eased a little, looking at the man who looked down at him, he seemed to find peace in him.

   Those who are interested in Edgar Hoover can learn more about him, the only "nine-thousand-year-old" in the history of American imperialism.

  

  (end of this chapter)