Somewhere in the workshop of an eccentric genius.
«'Jarvis, transfer some of the systems to the skeleton of the suit,' the man said, finishing a call to the suppliers of the details of his future project.
«Which model to base it on? - the speakers clarified.
«"Use the one that was prepared for Project Warrior, and use the kid's blueprint if possible," the man threw back, dialling a new number.
«Yes, sir.
***
«So, how was your trip? - Alexander asked his son.
«Good. I saw the cities. It's good to travel abroad, but it's good to know your own country too, - the boy answered calmly, trying to turn the subject to his previous holidays.
«Well, where have you been? - The man kept up.
«Shall I list all the cities? - The guy asked with a smile, pouring juice into a glass and sitting down to eat breakfast.
«Well, for example, what city was the end of your journey? - Pierce asked as if casually.
«New York," Raine answered briefly with a mocking smile.
«And before that? - Alexander tried not to show his anger.
«Hartford,' the boy named the city.
«Oh, it's a nice town. It's quite pleasant this time of year," Pierce said, looking his son in the eye.
«Pleasant? Are you sure you're talking about Hartford? It's a fucking icy hellhole! - Raine was outraged, and even shuddered as if remembering the place.
The man tried a couple more times to catch his son in a lie, but he was defeated in those attempts, and left with a single sentence:
«If you run away from the guards again, I will deprive you of all your money and until the age of 21 you will not leave the walls of this house!
And with these words Alexander left the kitchen.
***
After breakfast I called the publishing house and arranged a new meeting. Firstly, my earnings from Brotherhood had increased my account by $3,423,000, and sales were still growing, and the number of fans waiting for the sequel was sure to make the second book a success.
My account now has finances of $15,234,000. You ask, where did the rest come from? Well, it was "my" songs. They may not yet be as well known as the one I recorded that night... but then again, let's not bring up the bad parts of life. Anyway, they're doing pretty well for themselves too, considering I hadn't released anything before them. And that's all, by the way, not counting the account I used to pay for those months in the team. There's a couple of lakhs in there too.
During the breaks I took after work, I managed to write a few more books, apart from the second part of the ring story. It was Harry Potter, or rather the first two parts, and The Da Vinci Code.
At a meeting with the people of the company, I gave them the amazing news that we were releasing a trilogy. And that I had three more books for their publisher. The news was so good that their faces were full of the desire to strangle me. They even asked me for time to discuss some of the finer points of things. It looked like they were deciding how they could change their original negotiating tactics to get as much out of me as possible.
When they returned, they decided to listen to my demands for other books first. I requested 1,000,000 copies for Two Fortresses, 800,000 each for both parts of Potteriana, and 2,000,000 for The Da Vinci Code.
While they thought my request for Fortresses was small considering the success of the first part, the demands for Potter and especially The Da Vinci Code shocked them. It looks like a couple more meetings and this publisher will have to include free treatment of cardiovascular disease in the social package.
We left the office after four hours of heated debate. We agreed on 1,500,000 copies for the Two Fortresses, 500,000 for both Potter films and 1,100,000 for The Da Vinci Code. With Fortresses I'll only get 25% this time, but for the third part they'll pay me 32% and, the whole trilogy will be printed by their publisher. For Harry, I'll get 30%. I was able to bargain for the full 37% of sales. The publishing bosses didn't have much faith in the success of the book because the genres had changed too much. And the third part was too attractive to them, and they knew that if the news got out, the big business sharks would rush to grab their share.
After saying goodbye to all those cheapskates, I returned home and decided to devote the rest of my time to raising my level of code knowledge and bypassing security systems. Even software that's shit is still software.
***
«I heard your prodigal son is back," the voice on the phone said.
«Yes. He's home again," Alexander Pierce replied.
«So, what did you decide to do? - The male voice asked, with a note of mockery in it.
«I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet. - Pierce replied.
«Well, you do. Remember, our offer still stands. And it's quite effective," the man on the other end said and hung up.
***
Today I went to a secret facility in Queens that was bought out by Hammer Industries last year. It's where Wanko now works and lives. And no, I didn't decide to deal with him ahead of time. I just need to get something from Hammer's servers. Using the electronic key I got by hacking into the main server responsible for the locks in this building, the emergency exit was unlocked without incident. Hammer does like to show off its technology. Why does he need remote access to the droid workshop? So he can open and close doors while sitting on a couch?
I sneaked in, disguised as a guard, using blind spots in the camera coverage area and my speed to get to the server. And finding the right entrance, I inserted the flash drive and connected the hard drive in the right place. The programme installed in it would activate automatically at 22:37 on the last day of the exhibition. At that time, our Russian friend would already have to fly in his suit to meet Stark again.
After getting out, I went to my room to prepare for tomorrow's meeting with the evil Russian.
***
I was back at the Stark Expo. Taking a seat in the front row, I waited for the Hummer presentation to begin.
We skip the unimportant no-names, and here comes this turkey. After doing his dances, he finally gets round to making his speech.
«Ladies and gentlemen! For too long, our country has lost its brave sons and daughters to war. The Iron Man made us think those times were behind us, but unfortunately this technology has not been shared with the people. That's not fair. It's wrong. And finally despicable!
«Oh my god," I heard from behind me.
I turned around and strained every muscle in my face not to look surprised. Natasha and Pepper were sitting behind me. I looked away for a second, but strangely enough, I caught the Widow's gaze directed at me. And it wasn't the kind of stare you'd throw at a random person in a crowd. I was distracted from thinking about it by the liquid applause that erupted at Hammer's joke. It was a joke, wasn't it?
Realising that his efforts to appear as great a businessman as Stark were not appreciated, he finally got to the point.
«Ladies and gentlemen. Today I present to you the new face of the United States Armed Forces, the Hummer Drone!
After his words, rows of death machines began to emerge from beneath the stage. And people began to cheer and applaud. Not knowing that in a couple of minutes these machines will go to attack them.
Just as the second pack of droids appeared, my phone rang.
«Hello?
«Ryan, you're at the exhibition right now, aren't you? - I heard Stark's voice on the phone.
«Yes," I confirmed, knowing exactly what he meant.
«Come to the front of the hall. I'll send you a present," Stark said and hung up.
***
In the sky three minutes from the exhibit.
«Jarvis, how ready is the costume? - Tony asked, trying to squeeze everything out of the new reactor.
«The suit is 63% complete. The main armament is installed and the armour is ready for use, sir.
«What about the speed of delivery? - Stark asked, looking at the graphs with the armour information.
«It's a minute behind you, sir," Jarvis replied.
***
Standing at the entrance, I noticed Stark's figure flying by, and I didn't know whether to run inside or stay behind to wait for his gift. But logic outweighed impulsiveness, and I waited for the armour. Why armour? Well, what else could Stark send? Even with my speed and regeneration, I don't think I'd be able to dodge a couple of machine-gun bursts.
A few dozen seconds later, a jet-propelled coffin descended before me. When it opened, it revealed a suit that looked somewhat like the one I'd drawn. Climbing inside, a bunch of screens appeared in front of my face. After a couple of seconds, I was greeted by Jarvis' voice.
«Greetings, Mr Pierce," Said the AI.
«I see you didn't waste any time and managed to find out who I am," I said, adjusting to the sensation of moving around in the suit and heading inside the building.
«I'd like to point out that you weren't exactly hiding, sir," the AI said.
«Well, it is what it is. Now tell me, what's already working in this bird? - I asked, squaring my shoulders.
«The combat systems haven't been tested, and the suit hasn't received a full set of armaments. Right now you have machine guns on your wrists, two grenade launchers on each arm with three charges each, a disposable giga-beam on your chest, and a rocket launcher," the AI listed my weapons.
«How long will it last without charging? I haven't seen a reactor in it," I clarified one of the most important things for me.
«The suit is powered by Mr Stark's old design, and this battery will last five hours of active combat. Also, firing a giga-beam won't affect the run time, as it works separately from a disposable power source, - the AI rejoiced me.
«What about adjusting for size? - I asked, running into the room and watching Rowdy aim the machine gun at Stark.
«That technology requires more fine-tuning, and Mr. Stark didn't have time to adjust it to the armour systems," the AI replied.
As Tony took off, I shouted to Jarvis to warn Stark not to fly through the glass top, but it was too late, and he chose the ceiling to escape the fire.
The glass, broken by the drones' bullets, fell in shards downwards and killed at least 20 people and maimed many more. And that was only 10-20% of the entire ceiling, and what would happen next when the aerial drones that flew up behind Stark punched through the rest was frightening to imagine. There were screams and pools of blood from those who'd been pierced by the pieces of glass. I don't know what prompted me to act at that moment, but I couldn't just stand there and watch the scene. One of the grenade launcher charges managed to shoot down 2 drones in flight and they fell to the left of the stage. But the others continued to fly on, not paying attention to me. I ripped off the front of my helmet, which was obstructing my face as I transformed, and the moment the drones hit the ceiling I gave in to the desire that was tearing from within. I screamed, though in this form it was more like a howl. My howl was so intense that it began to make the glasses burst, and raising my head to the sky, I amplified my scream to the maximum power possible for my ligaments. The shards that should have killed most of the guests were just shattered to sand. And as such they were only dangerous to those who could look up at that moment, but I could see from the general mood of the hall that they had a more attention-grabbing sight - me. They were now trying to see if I was the enemy, and thankfully I was wearing Stark armour, which did little to lessen the fear my appearance caused.
«RUN!!! - I shouted as hard as I could at them.
And, as if waking up from a dream, they realised that most of the drones had stayed in the hall, and they were moving towards the exit without stopping, crushing the corpses and wounded who couldn't get out of their way.
At that moment, the mission screen hung in front of my eyes.
Assignment received:
"Iron and Blood.
Rescue the people at Stark Expo and destroy the Hammer drones that have taken control. Also help Iron Man and Warrior in the battle.
Reward for completion: depends on the number of drones destroyed and lives saved.
Punishment for failure: loss of Stark's respect, inclusion on the Shield's threat list, and public hatred.
***
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