"Come with me first!"
After speaking, Yushiro turned around and disappeared into the wall.
Coulson and Bobbi looked at each other, wondering if they should follow, when Yushiro's head poked out of the wall. "Come on, while there's no one around."
"Okay!"
Coulson nodded and strode toward the wall.
He didn't hit it directly but stretched out his hand to touch it—he felt nothing and encountered no resistance.
"It's an illusion."
Coulson turned back to Bobbi, then headed inside.
What came into view was a six-story apartment building in disrepair, with rusted stairs waiting to be demolished.
Outside were dark, narrow alleyways, and inside was a dilapidated apartment complex. While both were common sights in Hell's Kitchen, they were clearly not the same place.
That meant not only the wall but also the path in was a false scene.
No wonder they couldn't find anyone this morning!
Coulson finally understood what Quinn meant when he said they couldn't find Tamayo because she didn't want to be found.
With such an ability, unless a large number of people were sent to investigate little by little, it was impossible to find her.
"This way."
After Bobbi also came in, Yushiro led the two to a door under the corridor.
The house had been cleaned up. Although the building was old, all kinds of furniture were neatly arranged, and the floor, windows, and ceiling were spotless.
"Lady Tamayo is performing an operation on a patient. Please wait for a while." After Yushiro brought them in, he didn't ask them to sit or offer water—just left that sentence and went straight into the inner room.
Coulson didn't mind, instead examining the details of the house.
"This guy has such a bad attitude!" Bobbi muttered and sat down on the sofa to rest.
Coulson didn't care at all, continuing to observe the room's layout and details. After looking around and finding nothing special except that the curtains were opened during the day while outside was regarded as night, he began to think through the situation.
Quinn had asked him to help some people with ID verification and given him a list... After Coulson received the list, he'd given it to Fury as soon as possible, which led to him obtaining information from Fury about the Vongola Family coming from a parallel universe.
At the same time, he'd also obtained reasoning from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s think tank's analysis that "Quinn, Otto, and the demons are also very likely to be travelers, possibly even from different worlds."
After obtaining the list, S.H.I.E.L.D. had immediately launched an investigation of the people on it and finally found an elderly Asian man and a young man who'd appeared out of thin air on 32nd Avenue in Queens this morning.
It was impossible to investigate their origins and life traces on Earth. Combined with the way they'd appeared, there was a high probability they were also dimensional travelers.
Currently, S.H.I.E.L.D. had sent someone to contact them, but due to time constraints, they hadn't obtained results yet.
But Coulson had a strong premonition that these two were Guo Haihuang (Old Guo's real name hadn't been found) and Liu Subaru on the list—not only because they matched their age and race, but also because of the intuition accumulated through his experience as a special agent.
But Miss Tamayo and Yushiro had no news at all.
Yet since these two appeared on the list together with Otto, Guo Haihuang, and Liu Subaru, and Yushiro's dress and behavior had a strong sense of a past century...
Then they also had a high probability of being dimensional travelers.
And through the previous test, Yushiro didn't know the other three people except Tamayo, which greatly proved that the travelers might not be from the same world.
Coulson didn't doubt why Quinn knew about travelers from different worlds... In their previous two collaborations, Quinn had obtained answers without the slightest clue or investigation and helped S.H.I.E.L.D. capture Obadiah, who'd colluded with Middle Eastern terrorists, and averted a country being divided by civil war.
With such ability, even knowing about dimensional travelers was no big deal.
What Coulson wondered was why Quinn had given this list to S.H.I.E.L.D.
Applying for U.S. identity certificates... This was indeed a difficult task.
But in the United States, you could do whatever you wanted with money, and Quinn had made considerable money in his three collaborations with S.H.I.E.L.D.—there was no need for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s help.
Therefore, he could only understand that this list was information Quinn had deliberately handed over to S.H.I.E.L.D.
And he'd only charged a nominal $10.
At that moment, the inner door opened.
A middle-aged woman wearing white surgical scrubs, with a gentle face and her hair in a bun, walked out, followed by Yushiro.
Coulson recovered from his thoughts, hurriedly stepped forward and extended his right hand, introducing himself. "Hello, I'm S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Coulson. This is my colleague, Bobbi."
"I'm Tamayo."
Tamayo shook Coulson's hand gently, then asked, "I'm sorry, please forgive my ignorance. I don't know what department S.H.I.E.L.D. is."
"We, S.H.I.E.L.D., are a United Nations organization dedicated to creating and maintaining peace on Earth. Of course, what we do every day isn't much different from general agencies."
"I see."
Tamayo had no doubts and hung the surgical gown she'd taken off on the hanger, then sat on the sofa. After extending her hand toward the opposite couch to invite Coulson and Bobbi to sit, she continued asking, "Then what brings you to me, Mr. Coulson?
I'm just an unlicensed doctor. Cracking down on such trivial matters as illegal business operations doesn't require such an agency!"
"Miss Tamayo is joking."
Coulson sat on the opposite sofa following Tamayo's invitation and smiled. "S.H.I.E.L.D. is not a U.S. judicial agency, nor do we interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. We're not pedantic people who think you can't operate without a certificate. The specific solution depends on the specific situation."
"Then what brings you two here?"
"Tony Stark!"
When Coulson pronounced the name, he stared carefully into Tamayo's eyes.
Unfortunately, Tamayo's eyes showed no fluctuation, disappointing Coulson, who'd hoped to see something.
He had no choice but to tell the truth. "Tony's wisdom is indispensable to this world. If something happens to him, it will be a loss for all humanity. We heard he came to you yesterday, so we want to ask—did anything happen with his health?"
Hearing this, Tamayo lowered her eyes and seemed to be thinking about something.
After a while, just when Bobbi was about to lose her patience, she said, "As a doctor, I should keep a patient's situation confidential from people outside the family, but this time is special, so I'll tell you everything. His body does have a condition."
Is that really the case?
When Coulson and Bobbi heard those words, their hearts tensed.
Character Notes:
Guo Haihuang - Origin to be revealed (mentioned)
An elderly Asian man who appeared on the list Appeared out of thin air in Queens Likely a dimensional traveler from another world
Liu Subaru - Origin to be revealed (mentioned)
A young man who appeared on the list Appeared out of thin air in Queens alongside Guo Haihuang Likely a dimensional traveler from another world