Bella had a high cold tolerance and could wear skirts 365 days a year. Though sea breezes blew, Baja California in April wasn't particularly cold. She showed off her long legs, her right arm casually holding a jacket.
Her gaze was calm and warm, with a subtle air of nobility in her bearing. After all, with money in hand, confidence came naturally, and her confidence differed from ordinary people's—it influenced her entire demeanor comprehensively.
Stepping off the helicopter, sea winds tossing her hair, she hadn't even voiced her impressions before another helicopter on the opposite landing pad dropped off a passenger.
Black trench coat, an eyepatch—the other's single eye immediately spotted Bella, and she likewise saw the big guy.
Both hearts jolted!
What's this bastard doing here?
How'd this woman end up here?
Technically they both knew each other's identities, but this was their first face-to-face meeting.
Thinking of how this guy had quietly recruited her dear sister, putting Natasha in danger, Bella's anger flared. As if she hadn't seen him, she walked inside at an unhurried pace.
Baldy couldn't exactly call this woman a disaster magnet who brought catastrophe wherever she went, making this place too dangerous, could he?
He snorted through his nose and strode off the landing pad, heading down the corridor.
The laboratory resembled an offshore drilling platform, though a miniaturized version.
On the seabed, they'd installed dense wire netting, enclosing an entire square kilometer for shark farming!
Victoria Hand's ability to make a name at Stanford, where academic elites clustered, stemmed not just from networking but from deep professional knowledge.
She'd set her sights on shark brain cells, planning to extract these substances to create miracle drugs for treating Alzheimer's disease.
Worldwide, two hundred thousand elderly people developed Alzheimer's annually. The number seemed small, but accumulated over time, it became enormous.
Behind each elderly patient stood a family, happy or otherwise. This disease tortured not the body, but the heart.
Watching deeply loved parents treat you like strangers, watching the elderly repeatedly ask the same question, watching your childhood and youth's pillars of support with clouded eyes and vacant expressions trapped in fractured thought loops—for many family members, it could only be described as unbearably painful.
This was natural aging, always present. Previously, human lifespans were short—people died before brain cells deteriorated. Now that human lifespans had increased, this "non-disease disease" emerged, plunging countless families into extreme grief.
From Bella's perspective, she had no good solutions either. She couldn't very well clone a new brain to swap in, could she?
After the swap, would it still be the same person?
Victoria Hand and her lab team took an alternative approach, targeting sharks. They used genetic technology to make shark brain tissue secrete proteins at five times normal levels, then extracted these substances to activate human brain cells, making already aging brains regain cellular vitality.
Theoretically speaking, no major problems.
On the social level, it would provoke protests from animal protection organizations, shark protection associations, marine life protection societies, and numerous other civilian groups, plus violate several international treaties. However, Victoria Hand chose to ignore them. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s backing could block considerable pressure for her.
When those convention organizations asked questions, they'd just say they were investigating. As for when the investigation would conclude—who knew?
Bella walked in confidently, embraced Victoria Hand lightly, exchanged brief pleasantries, then went aside to chat with familiar friends.
They were both Stanford alumnae with overlapping social circles. Through her connections with Nathan Ingram, the bald Charles, and the Black president, Bella had gradually established networks on both coasts. Of the dozen-plus guests present, she knew six well enough to joke around with.
Comparatively, Baldy knew all the guests present—many down to their ancestors' eighth generation. But as the director of a covert organization, though he knew them, they didn't know him. He could only hide alone in a corner, observing his surroundings.
This fellow's presence was remarkably thin. Combined with his dark skin, standing in shadows, ordinary people couldn't see him at all.
Like Bella's Weyland Company, Victoria Hand's laboratory had recruited considerable talent.
The security chief on site was named Frank Castle—a six-foot-two, taciturn soldier proficient with all modern technological weaponry.
Overseeing the experimental process was Dr. Erik Selvig, a double doctorate holder specializing in astrophysics and biology.
This doctor's personality leaned somewhat toward the eccentric. At fifty, he frequently urinated into the ocean in full view of others, enjoyed streaking, and his two specialties bore no connection whatsoever. He seemed strange no matter how you looked at him. In the future, he'd become Thor's good friend and be recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D.
Bella glanced left and right.
Present were Baldy, the lab investor; Victoria Hand, the senior agent; Frank Castle, the future Punisher. Maybe the crazy doctor had already been recruited too? Or perhaps all the staff here were S.H.I.E.L.D. people?
She didn't overthink it. Whether they were S.H.I.E.L.D. or not had nothing to do with her. She listened with genuine expression as a thirty-year-old woman nearby discussed her elderly mother's Alzheimer's.
"Do you also have relatives with this disease, Bella?" the woman asked.
To respond that your whole family was healthy when someone was so sad would be inappropriate.
Bella wore a pained expression. "My mother—my biological mother's cousin's wife's grandfather has this problem..."
"How unfortunate. May God bless him!"
"Yes, yes, may God bless him..."
While the guests chatted idly on the side, Victoria Hand completed final preparations for the experiment.
To conquer Alzheimer's, this global medical challenge, outside investment in the laboratory had exceeded five hundred million dollars. S.H.I.E.L.D. alone contributed three hundred million. Compared to pharmaceutical companies and conglomerates, it wasn't much, but from an individual perspective, this money was astronomical.
Victoria Hand herself had invested twenty million. The rest was money she'd hustled!
Using other people's money for your own projects—capitalism's normal state. Very satisfying when spending, but if results never materialized, dying would be equally satisfying...
Gathering so many people for on-site observation served to boost investor confidence. If she could hustle some more money, even better.
Victoria Hand eloquently described the formidable properties of shark brain cells. In her narrative, this stuff was thoroughly and completely genuine brain platinum!
Can't be cheated, can't be scammed. Buy a course of treatment for the elderly at home this Christmas—how much face would that bring?