The Death Knell

There is a set of ornaments on the colonel's desk, which is a row of hanging small balls, the kind of gadgets that keep bumping around through the conversion of kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy. Deathstroke's eyes seem to have been falling on it.

These small balls keep colliding with each other, making a slight "click" sound, like the gears of a clock turning.

The atmosphere in the office was at a deadlock because of Howard's previous speech. The colonel's expression looked like he had eaten shit, and his facial features were abnormally distorted.

His white hair was shaking, as if he was trembling with anger at the suggestion of 'calling the police'.

Howard, on the other hand, had simply sat on the sofa nearby, put his legs on the coffee table, and took out a cigar from his suit to smoke.

He has gradually figured out that as long as he stays at the Caspian Camp headquarters, he will be safe.

People who want to kill him rely on firearms, and here, SSR has more guns.

"Colonel, are you looking for me?" At this time, the arrival of a person diluted the awkward atmosphere. It was a young man wearing a suit, vest and white coat: "Ah, Dr. Stark, you happen to be here too."

He has short blond hair, a mustache very similar to Howard's, and a warm smile on his face.

Before he finished speaking, he opened the door and walked in. As if he was not aware of the atmosphere at all, he greeted Howard and chatted happily.

Howard's mustache curled up and he turned his head to one side: "Dr. Richards, you have done me a terrible job. What is the blood sample you gave me? Now the assassins are going to ambush me in my toilet." .”

Nathaniel scratched his head, and he reached out and hooked Stark's shoulder. He knew that Howard was not really angry, but just wanted to know what happened.

Nathaniel could understand the curiosity of the scientific researchers and Howard's tough-tongued personality, which made him say this.

"I didn't know this would happen beforehand. So Howard, did you find anything? Are the blood samples and tissue sections interesting?"

Howard wiped his hands on his pants and leaned on the sofa: "I leave this matter to Anim. I have recently met some very attractive ladies. They like physics very much and are always pestering them. I ask questions, I’m busy as hell.”

"Really? That's great, Dr. Stark."

Nathaniel didn't doubt Howard's words at all. Instead, he smiled happily, as if he really saw that there would be several rising stars in physics in the future.

Su Ming stood in the corner of the room with his arms folded. From a certain point of view, Howard was not lying. Those ladies asked him about physics knowledge such as friction, piston motion, fluid mechanics, etc.

But now the problem is that item 084 is missing and Howard was assassinated because of the blood sample. Although the two incidents were not done by the same group of people, they were very close in time. Su Ming did not think it was a coincidence.

Despite hearing a lot of dirty jokes about physics, Nick Fury remained expressionless, while Nathaniel maintained a warm smile, and from time to time he even responded to Howard seriously.

He really thought Howard was talking about mechanics.

"Dr. Richards, can you tell me where that blood sample came from?" Seeing Howard shamelessly using various physical phenomena as a metaphor for that matter, Su Ming still interjected.

"Ah, hello, I'm sorry I didn't notice there was a guest." Nathaniel saw Su Ming, nodded with a smile, and arranged his hair: "That blood sample was obtained from a corpse. Come."

"Where's the body?" Su Ming found that Nathaniel seemed to be a natural idiot now? Are you focusing on scientific research?

"A friend asked me to investigate. One night the body was suddenly delivered to my door. I was shocked."

"How do you know this body was someone who asked you to investigate, rather than a homeless man who froze to death in front of your house?" Su Ming asked again.

Nathaniel patted his head. He picked up the wine bottle on the coffee table and poured wine for himself and Howard. The two toasted with smiles: "Because the body was wearing very high-end clothes and there was a letter on the chest."

"Letter?" Fury raised an eyebrow.

"Well, here." Nathaniel took out a wad of crumpled paper from his white coat pocket and handed it to Fury with a smile.

Nick Fury glanced at Deathstroke, and Deathstroke made a gesture of invitation, indicating that he could open it and take a look.

There are some unknown brown marks on the yellowish paper, which look like circles left by a coffee cup. The ink marks have drag marks, indicating that the paper was closed immediately after writing the letter.

It was more like a note or note than a letter, because there was only one sentence written on it in beautiful Gothic script, and Fury read it out like a robot.

"Investigate the body, or die, thank you."

Fury slapped the letter on the table, bent down and held the coffee table with both hands, staring condescendingly at Dr. Richards, putting pressure on him through body language.

"This is a threatening letter! It's coercion and blackmail. Why didn't you report it to your superiors?"

Nathaniel, who was toasting with Howard, was stunned for a moment, blinked, looked at the colonel and then at Howard. At this time, Stark made a helpless expression towards him.

"Is this a threatening letter?"

He asked Howard next to him. Howard bared his teeth and shook his head from side to side a few times, as if he was comparing which side was heavier on the scale. Then he put his head on Nathaniel's shoulder and nodded.

"Yes, this is a threatening letter."

Nathaniel was doubtful about the letter. He picked up the letter and read it again, and asked doubtfully: "But he wrote 'thank you', which is very polite."

Howard was minding his own business refilling his glass, and he noticed that the colonel looked at him strangely.

"It's a big trouble to help dispose of the body. This person left a body of unknown cause of death at your door in the middle of the night. He should have left a message saying 'Thank you very much'. Thanks very much. Feel it again. Do you feel that he is dead now?" Is your gratitude not sincere enough?”

Nathaniel touched his moustache, looked at the letter and then at Howard: "Really, as expected of Dr. Stark, he knows so much."

"Of course, hahahahaha" Howard laughed, he was very satisfied. Praise from peers is the best compliment. Howard Stark is such a person who stands at the top of the physics community!

Fury looked at them as if they were crazy. Is the key question the use of grammar? Leaving a body on someone's doorstep and making death threats is a big deal, right? !

There is always something abnormal about genius scientists, but these two are already abnormal beyond common sense.

Su Ming was very interested in such farce. It seemed like a cold joke, but it was still business that mattered: "What's your friend's name?"

Nathaniel scratched his head with a look of reminiscence, but quickly shook his head: "Sorry, I don't know his name."

Fury straightened up, looked out the door, and blew out a little breath: "Just now you said he was your friend."

"Yes, we are friends." The doctor hid behind Howard, and Fury's eyes were too cold: "One day I went to the bar to drink, and he came over and said: 'Friends, let's have a drink together?', I Said: 'Okay.' And then we became friends and we talked about a lot of social issues, like racism and stuff like that."

Fury closed his eyes in pain. What kind of friend was this? On the contrary, he had ulterior motives, right?

It seems that the security around Dr. Richards will need to be strengthened in the future to prevent him from making random friends again. No, his emotional intelligence is no longer suitable for working in SSR.

As if they had a telepathic connection, Fury and the colonel looked at each other and nodded slightly.

Su Ming was not angry. As he had thought before, SSR was none of his business. He was here to investigate the case so that Professor , height, appearance.”

This time Richards responded immediately and uncharacteristically: "He is about 180 centimeters tall, about 50 years old, with a fluffy white beard like a pirate, somewhat bald, and in good health, but he has many scars on his body and on his face."

Fury immediately sent someone to investigate, while Su Ming focused on the scars: "What kind of scars?"

"It seems like it was attacked by a wild animal, maybe a bear, or a Bigfoot." Dr. Richards answered, and then he was pulled by Howard to drink.

"Where is that body now?" Su Ming asked again.

"Well, to put it simply, the body melted, or it would be more appropriate to say it sublimated." Nathaniel raised his hand and made an upward motion: "I originally dragged the body into the car and planned to take it back to Camp Caspian. Check, because I don’t have biological equipment at home, and I’m not an expert in this field, but when the sun shines on the body, the body changes from solid to gaseous and just disappears.”

"So you only had time to drain a little blood and cut off a little meat." Su Ming added, as if he knew what it was.

"Yeah, I had a saw in the tool box in my car and I kept them in a dark place and brought them back to Camp Lehigh."

The story behind it is that he entrusted these things to Howard, who he thought was 'more versatile', but Howard left the matter to Zola again.

Because Zola was under house arrest and had no chance to go out, the assassination operations revolved around Howard. Maybe Nathaniel was also assassinated, but he was too crazy to notice.

"Is there an ultraviolet sterilization lamp in the biology laboratory? I'd like to borrow it." Su Ming took out another blood smear from Nick Fury's small box and shook it in his hand.

Howard narrowed his eyes: "You don't think they are that, do you? Come on, those are mythical creatures."

"Sometimes the myth is not far away from us. If you want to solve the case early, just lead the way." Su Ming stretched out his hand, pulled Howard up from the sofa like catching a rabbit, and walked out of the door.

The colonel looked at Fury: "Follow them and you, Dr. Richards, you can go back."

The two left in silence. Nathaniel wanted to stay away from Fury, but Fury clung to him, and the doctor's neck retracted into his body, and his whole body was extremely stiff.

The colonel got up and closed the door of the office, walked to the coffee table, picked up the wine bottle, poured himself a drink, and drank, as if to vent his anger.

After a while, he sat back at his desk, picked up the phone and dialed a number.

It took a long time before the call was connected. A man with a southern American accent answered the phone.

"What's up?"

"Elder, the plan goes well."