"Heh. Mr. Wade Wilson, let me give you a piece of advice. When you have time, go to a hospital for a checkup. Your illness is already very serious." Daisy had no interest in wasting words on Wade. Daisy was busy, so she simply drove away.
"Hey, don't go! Is your animation company hiring artists? I'm really good at drawing..." Wade paid no attention to the remark about getting examined. He did not want to give up on a fat sheep like Daisy, and he kept pitching himself even as she got into the car.
After Daisy left, Wade began recommending himself to Coulson instead. He said they could help rebuild the school, clean it, do the students' homework, escort them to and from school, and so on.
Back in her office at Hammer Industries, Daisy found the place largely intact, far better off than Skye Pictures with half its building collapsed. After silently criticizing Stark for being petty, she began taking stock of the losses.
The loose cash in her drawer was gone. That was the first thing Daisy discovered. Had the Chitauri stolen it? Unlikely. She suspected someone had simply helped themselves to it during the battle.
She had installed no surveillance cameras in her office and possessed no power to turn back time. The scene had been chaotic, and even if clues existed, she would never find them now.
Daisy sighed. Her finances had suffered yet another loss, but she did not even know how much she had lost. Who normally counted how much loose cash they kept in a drawer? She could only make a rough estimate.
Perhaps several thousand dollars? She could afford that much.
She summoned Justin Hammer and James Wesley to ask how many Chitauri weapons their side had seized.
The great braggart knew nothing about such matters. His only job was boasting. Wesley now handled all actual business.
"We recovered 1,129 energy guns, but most of their power has been exhausted. Only 422 still work. We didn't obtain many Chitauri bombs, only ninety-five. We seized 775 flying craft, though many of those are damaged as well, and the people below haven't finished calculating the exact numbers. We collected the most alien corpses, over two thousand. We also gathered thirty tons of armor fragments from their bodies, and we managed to bring back two of those giant Chitauri Leviathans."
Wesley finished reporting their gains. Hammer Industries' haul was second only to that of the military and S.H.I.E.L.D.
In particular, both Chitauri Leviathans had been brought down by Daisy's Atomic Cutting. Their interiors were basically intact. The moment she shot them down, she ordered her subordinates to haul them away, leaving the military no chance to intervene.
"Have our people step up the research. Take this data and use it as a foundation. Combine it with Chitauri technology and develop domestically produced energy weapons." Daisy handed over Wolfgang von Strucker's research on energy guns.
Hydra still owned shares in Hammer Industries, but those shares were now all in Daisy's and Viper's hands. Excluding the scattered holdings on the open market, in the military, and among political figures, Daisy already controlled nearly thirty percent of Hammer Industries. That was no small proportion. Stark owned roughly the same amount of his own group.
Combining Chitauri technology with Baron Strucker's research results would make domestic production effortless.
Viper could handle the baron's side while Daisy stayed behind and made money without pressure.
If Baron Strucker could take apart Daisy's robot soldiers for research, then Daisy could naturally use his energy-gun technology in return. A struggle at this level remained entirely within the rules.
Still, to preserve the military's dignity—or rather, to maximize her profit—she instructed her subordinates to shelve the results once the research was complete. They would wait for the military and the other arms companies to test the waters first. Upgrading every weapon used by humanity would touch the interests of countless people and could even trigger a world war. Hammer Industries did not need to be the first to enter the field.
Hammer Industries was only a secondary concern. Daisy's main focus remained S.H.I.E.L.D. As the commander who had led humanity's allied forces to victory in the Battle of New York, her name had undoubtedly entered the history books alongside the first alien invasion.
In the future, American children would probably encounter a question like this on their exams.
Choose the commander of the Battle of New York from the following three famous figures:
A. Steve Rogers B. Daisy Johnson C. Tony Stark
Just imagining it felt wonderful. Greater prestige naturally brought greater authority. With Alexander Pierce and Brock Rumlow still undergoing treatment, her reputation within S.H.I.E.L.D. had already surpassed Fury's.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had lost many agents in this battle. Warriors from both Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. had died on the battlefield. Setting aside their personal motives and ambitions, they had all been warriors who fought for humanity.
Both S.H.I.E.L.D. leaders agreed that death benefits had to be paid. Their dispute arose only when they discussed how those benefits should actually be distributed.
The U.S. military paid a one-time benefit of 650,000 dollars for each casualty. A fallen service member's spouse received a monthly allowance of 948 dollars, while each child received 237 dollars, continuing until their deaths.
Agents were far more valuable than ordinary American soldiers. They spent years living under false identities, and their families had no idea what they truly did. Now that they had died, S.H.I.E.L.D. owed those families an explanation.
"How am I supposed to speak to their families? How am I supposed to hand over this money? Hmm? Should I tell them their son won the lottery, then died in a car accident, so I brought back both his body and his winnings? Nick, we cannot keep doing this."
Daisy lost her temper, a rare occurrence. Fury had always handled such matters this way, and he intended to follow the same procedure again.
They would enlist several lottery-company employees to cooperate, then give the relatives a large prize. The families of dead agents would assume their son or husband had been fooling around outside and gotten himself killed. They would accept the money while cursing their relative for finally bringing them some small benefit.
The method was grotesquely distorted. The sacrifices agents made year after year were ignored without the slightest trace of humanity.
Coldness, disregard, indifference—and under such a system, S.H.I.E.L.D. still demanded that its agents remain loyal, fulfill their duties, and devote themselves to humanity. It was a joke.
Daisy once again raised the proposal she had made before.
"Register them. Register every person who died in battle. If we could not honor them while they were alive, then after death, we will use the name of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division to give them the honor of having died for their country."
Her tone was harsher than ever before. Hill, who had originally wanted to offer a few words of advice, instantly shrank back. She had never known that the habitually cheerful Daisy possessed such a severe side.
"S.H.I.E.L.D.'s previous approach was wrong. This is decided. Commander Maria Hill, take the Operations Division and compile the names, nationalities, and surviving relatives of every colleague who died in battle. I'll negotiate with the Pentagon. Each of them will receive a military rank according to their agent level. They deserve a dignified funeral."
Being addressed by her full name and rank made Hill automatically straighten to attention. She did not relax until she had pulled open the door and left.