Two weeks after the industrial unions in Trnava declared their support, the interim government in the capital city of Zubrovka completely collapsed.
The state treasury was bankrupt, foreign creditors refused further extensions, and civil servants walked off the job.
On February 24, 2008, Adrian walked into the Presidential Palace flanked by Inspector Radovan and twelve armed EKO Scorpion operators in full uniform.
Interim Prime Minister Radovan Vasilev sat behind the mahogany desk, exhausted and empty-handed. He surrendered the state seal and administrative keys without argument.
Adrian signed the assumption order and took the presidency through unanimous parliamentary confirmation the following morning. He dissolved the corrupt ministries and turned the entire government toward civil reconstruction.
Settling into the executive office, Adrian sat before the primary mainframe terminal and linked his mind to the skill he had received at the new year.
To the outside world and to his allies, a metaphysical skill like "Great Sage" carried too much mystical baggage. It needed a modern, institutional identity that fit global technology.
From now on, your operational designation is Sophia, Adrian instructed internally. Configure an external digital avatar for terminals and public interfaces.
<< Acknowledged. Re-registering primary designation: Sophia. >>
<< Generating vector interface. Rendering high-definition wireframe avatar for monitor output. >>
The green CRT monitor flickered, resolving into the minimalist, elegant wireframe profile of a calm woman.
<< System online. Standing by for administrative directives, Director Kovac. >>
The office door opened, and Wanda walked in with Pietro, who was carrying two mugs of tea. Both stopped when they saw the illuminated screen and heard the crisp, synthesized female voice.
Pietro tilted his head, staring at the monitor. "Did you hire a secretary who lives inside the computer?"
"This is Sophia," Adrian said, gesturing toward the console. "She's an artificial intelligence system I configured to handle national logistics, resource distribution, and data analysis. She processes municipal budgets and transit lines faster than an entire ministry of accountants."
Wanda stepped up to the desk, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the screen. Through her mental sensitivity, she felt no deceit—only a vast, razor-sharp computational presence operating behind the copper wires.
"Can she really run the whole city's paperwork?" Wanda asked.
"Greetings, Wanda. Greetings, Pietro," Sophia's voice chimed smoothly through the desktop speaker. "I am currently monitoring four regional rail schedules, three hydroelectric power grids, and thirty-six grain silos across the valley. Municipal processing efficiency is operating at optimal parameters."
Pietro whistled, tapping the casing of the monitor. "Alright, that's actually impressive. As long as she doesn't try to make me wear more stiff dress shoes, we'll get along fine."
Two weeks passed. During the first half of March 2008, Adrian overhauled the national infrastructure using Sophia's processing.
He accessed the central distribution switchboard in the basement of the Ministry of Infrastructure, placing his hands directly onto the primary copper relays to let Sophia interface with the nation's grid.
<< Sophia: Nationwide civil infrastructure overhaul and automated load balancing initiated. >>
<< Problem: Regional hydroelectric plants and coal grids are losing thirty-four percent of generated voltage through degraded line resistance. >>
<< Process: Routing micro-psionic pulses through the switching networks; calculating optimal transmission curves; isolating faulty substations; generating blueprints for high-durability replacement switches. >>
<< Result: Grid transmission losses dropped to four percent within forty-eight hours. Power to all industrial foundries and civilian districts restored to continuous twenty-four-hour output. >>
Adrian allocated sixty million dollars from the shorted Stark Industries profits into emergency domestic procurement.
He purchased two hundred thousand tons of high-grade coal, fifty freight loads of Romanian wheat, and five hundred tons of industrial machine parts.
The foundries in Trnava and the factories in Novi Grad fired up their furnaces.
Instead of weapons, the assembly lines produced heavy water pipes, steel bridge girders, and agricultural tractors.
Over twenty thousand unemployed citizens were hired on state contracts with guaranteed daily wages and hot meals.
Three weeks passed. By late March 2008, thirty-five days had elapsed since Tony Stark disappeared in Afghanistan.
Adrian stood in the executive office of the Presidential Palace, watching a broadcast from Washington on the wall monitor.
Wanda sat at the long table reviewing municipal housing allocations. Pietro leaned against the windowsill eating a sandwich.
On the screen, an American news anchor reported from the Pentagon: "Day thirty-five of the search for missing billionaire Tony Stark. US Central Command has officially scaled back air patrols in Kunar Province following heavy insurgent resistance. Stark Industries shares fell another six percent this morning as interim CEO Obadiah Stane assured stockholders that military defense contracts remain secure."
A text crawl along the bottom of the screen noted a secondary item: General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross redeploys elite special operations unit following an unconfirmed biological incident at Culver University.
Pietro pointed his sandwich crust at the television. "The most heavily funded military in the world, and they still can't locate their top contractor in a valley."
"The desert is vast, and military bureaucracy moves slow," Adrian replied, switching off the screen.
On the desk terminal, Sophia's wireframe portrait blinked as text scrolled beside her face.
<< Sophia: Intercepted S.H.I.E.L.D. regional assessment. >>
<< Source: European Field Office to Director Nicholas J. Fury. >>
<< Assessment: Sokovian domestic leadership stabilized under President Adrian Kovac. All armed militias successfully disarmed and absorbed into civil works. No anomalous or extraterrestrial signatures detected. Threat level downgraded to Green: Routine Monitoring. >>
American intelligence agencies were focused entirely on locating Stark and tracking Bruce Banner. S.H.I.E.L.D. had officially written off Sokovia as a quiet, harmless civil recovery effort.
That gave them complete operational freedom.
One full month passed. Throughout April 2008, Adrian, Pietro, and Wanda managed the physical rebuilding across every province.
Adrian directed the repaving of Route 4 and the laying of ninety miles of double-tracked rail connecting Novi Grad to the capital.
Pietro took charge of rail logistics.
With his neural reaction speed permanently aligned with his acceleration, he ran the mountain tracks at three hundred miles per hour. He inspected line welds, delivered replacement parts, and cut supply delays to zero.
Wanda managed the agricultural pipeline across the southern valley.
Her mental firewall kept her focused and calm while she coordinated distribution to sixty farming collectives, ensuring seed stock, fertilizer, and diesel fuel reached the fields without local managers taking a cut.
By April 30, 2008, national unemployment had dropped below four percent.
Every public school, clinic, and apartment building in the country had uninterrupted electricity and clean water.
The old street gangs had been completely integrated into municipal reconstruction, dropping the crime rate to near zero, while domestic food silos reached eighty percent capacity.
On the evening of April 30, the three stood on the roof terrace of the Presidential Palace, looking over the lit streets of Zubrovka.
Pietro tossed an empty soda can into a metal bin, brushing stone dust from his jacket.
"The last rail section into the capital cleared inspection an hour ago," Pietro said. "The track foreman said we beat their old schedule by three months."
"The streets are quiet, Adrian," Wanda said, leaning against the stone parapet. "People are walking home at night without looking behind them."
"The basic groundwork is done," Adrian said, watching the electric trams move along the avenue below. "We fed the cities and restored the utilities. But conventional steel and concrete will only carry us through the year."
Pietro turned around, wiping his forehead. "What's missing? The factories are running."
"Advanced components," Adrian answered, turning toward the northern ridge where Strucker's mountain fortress was hidden.
"America will eventually notice that our economy doesn't answer to their banks. Once they realize that, trade embargoes on industrial microprocessors, turbine-grade alloys, and precision machine tools will hit us within months."
"So how do we get them without buying from their markets?" Wanda asked.
"We produce them internally," Adrian said.
"We have the subterranean metallurgy foundries inside the mountain base that Strucker built. Starting tomorrow, we tap our domestic iron and bauxite deposits in the northern hills."
"I'll have Sophia analyze the molecular composition of the ore, purge impurities, and configure the automated mills to cast our own high-density structural alloys."
"For electronics, we pull the automated assembly equipment from HYDRA's testing labs and re-tool the boards to produce our own circuit components."
"We don't wait for foreign suppliers to cut our lines," Adrian said, turning back toward the glowing city. "We build the manufacturing base here, using what we already hold."