"Winter Soldier?"
Iron Man raised an eyebrow.
This name was something he had never heard before. A thoughtful look appeared on his face. "Why 'Winter' Soldier? Does this codename have any special meaning?"
But without knowing anything, Iron Man couldn't analyze much.
He immediately ordered his AI, "J.A.R.V.I.S.… Search for all clues related to Winter Soldier."
"Sir, there is no data on Winter Soldier in the secure network,"J.A.R.V.I.S. quickly replied after completing the search.
"Activate Level 1 retrieval permissions, continue searching."Iron Man said without hesitation.
"This may take some time, please be patient, sir..." responded J.A.R.V.I.S.
"He is just a ghost. Over the past fifty years, he has been considered responsible for over twenty assassinations."
At that moment, Black Widow began introducing while piloting the fighter jet.
"Over the past fifty years?"Iron Man could hardly believe it. "Even if he started missions from birth, he'd be fifty years old now! Is your intel reliable?"
"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear physicist out of the Middle East when someone shot out my tire near Odessa."
"The car lost control, we fell off a cliff… but we escaped in the end. Winter Soldier was there."
"I shielded the physicist; his bullet passed through me and hit the physicist. It was a bullet from the former Soviet Union, without a ballistic trajectory."
"Tracking him is impossible. I've already tried."
After Black Widow's words, Iron Man fell silent.
Since Black Widow had fought the Winter Soldier, her words were highly credible.
Plus, as a senior SHIELD agent, she wouldn't share this kind of intelligence unless she was fairly sure.
"So this Winter Soldier is like Captain America?" After a moment's thought, Iron Man concluded.
If this were the past, such a thing would be hard to believe, but now, they had someone frozen for seventy years right next to them, still alive.
Believing in another similar being wasn't so difficult anymore.
Nick Fury said nothing, but his expression was extremely serious. The organization behind the Winter Soldier had ambushed them, and that was bad news.
It caught this intelligence chief completely off guard.
"Sir, some data related to Winter Soldier has been decrypted."
After a brief silence in the jet, Iron Man received good news from J.A.R.V.I.S.
He perked up, "Send everything to my phone."
One after another, files appeared on Iron Man's phone screen — information from American intelligence agencies, related organizations, and the military all about Winter Soldier attacks.
Iron Man skimmed through and exclaimed, "This guy really is a ghost!"
Unfortunately, in those very limited video clips and photos captured, Winter Soldier was always wearing his distinctive mask.
His true face was never revealed.
It's worth noting not all data about Winter Soldier was on the network — some older files were stored on paper or memory sticks.
Like the video of Winter Soldier killing Iron Man's parents.
So, Iron Man hadn't yet found that crucial footage.
For now, Winter Soldier was just a terrifying assassin from a mysterious organization.
"Stark, could you send me those files?"Nick Fury asked quietly.
That was no problem. Iron Man immediately told J.A.R.V.I.S. to forward some data to Nick Fury.
Nick Fury started scrutinizing the files with his one eye.
Silence fell inside the jet.
"Sir, we're almost there."
After a moment, Black Widow suddenly spoke.
Nick Fury nodded, then stood up and said solemnly to Iron Man, "Stark, thanks for your help this time, but you should leave now. I'll contact you afterward."
"That's cold — I saved your lives just half an hour ago."Iron Man shrugged.
"I appreciate that."Nick Fury remained impassive.
"What about him?"Iron Man pointed at Captain America lying in the jet. "You two alright?"
"Stark, you're Iron Man, but that doesn't mean everyone depends on you."
Clearly, Nick Fury had a full plan. "My people will regroup with me soon. The nearest safe house was activated twenty minutes ago — no problem."
That was why Nick Fury wanted to part ways here with Iron Man — they were about to move Captain America into the safe house.
And if a safe house's location leaked easily, what good was it?
While saying this, Nick Fury pressed a button and the jet's hatch opened.
"Nick Fury, we still have a lot to discuss."
Iron Man didn't insist. After reminding Nick Fury, he zipped away.
Nick Fury regrouped with the SHIELD support team and successfully moved Captain America into the safe house.
The medical team was en route; everything was proceeding smoothly.
The North Pole rescue of Captain America was finally over.
Of course, this was mostly Nick Fury's business, not Iron Man's. After returning, he quickly put this behind him.
Instead, he eagerly pulled out the system reward hard drive to check it.
He was really looking forward to what armor blueprints the system would reward him.
"Mark 7 armor?"
Iron Man raised his eyebrows.
He roughly scanned the blueprints and confirmed it was indeed his Mark series armor — the basic design philosophy was the same.
But it was more advanced than his current Mark 3 armor.
"The weapons system includes classified propulsion packs, equipped with small tracking missiles, laser cannon converted to core direct function… this is completely my design thinking!"
Iron Man clicked his tongue in admiration.
Many designs on the Mark 7 blueprint were improvements he was currently thinking about but hadn't implemented yet.
Could his previous guess be right — these blueprints were from another parallel universe's Iron Man?
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(End of Chapter)