ATPnovel Chapter 559: Delivered Right to His Door
Chapter 559: Delivered Right to His Door
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As soon as Henry returned to the hotel, he immediately received a phone call.
The first thing the caller asked was:
"You left early?"
The only person rude enough to speak like that on the phone—so self-centered he assumed everyone recognized him just from his voice—was none other than young master Tony Stark.
Henry, calm to an almost abnormal degree, replied in an extremely flat tone:
"I received the surprise you mentioned. Actually, calling it a scare would be more accurate."
"What happened?"
Since they were talking over a normal phone line rather than a secure channel, Henry spoke vaguely.
"They found the people who took care of me when I was little. Unfortunately, we didn’t exactly get along back then.
"So the meeting wasn’t the emotional reunion those people imagined. No tearful embraces after years apart. No sitting together reminiscing about old times. Honestly, the fact we didn’t start fighting already shows remarkable maturity on my part as an adult."
To Tony Stark, who lacked the context, those words naturally sounded confusing and unclear.
But the unspoken understanding between the two of them had always been not to discuss the past.
Just like Henry never asked Tony questions like whether he constantly wanted to run away from home when old Stark was still alive.
Though later, Tony realized there was no need to run away.
After all, the busy old man appeared at home even less often than he did.
Most of their conversations centered around technology and research.
As for everything else, they both knew when to stop. At most, they occasionally exchanged crude jokes and teased each other about their private lives.
So when Henry clearly showed he didn’t want to discuss the matter further, Tony Stark—never one to meddle unnecessarily—simply let it go.
Instead, he said regretfully:
"What a shame. I invited quite a few singers to perform at my semiannual conference today. Their voices were amazing. Especially when they scream."
In the memories of this new life, Henry had always appeared to outsiders as a perpetually single man in Hollywood—surrounded by beautiful actresses yet too timid to actually make a move.
For Tony Stark, who changed girlfriends more often than underwear, mocking Henry in this regard was pretty much the only way he could display any sense of superiority.
Though in another set of life memories, when Henry had a steady girlfriend, Tony Stark had instead constantly tempted him with all kinds of beauties while repeatedly insisting he’d never tell "that certain someone."
Which version of Tony Stark was worse, Henry honestly couldn’t judge anymore.
During his earlier contact with HYDRA-S.H.I.E.L.D., Henry had secretly planted a hidden listening device on John Garrett.
Originally, it was meant for self-protection—to record conversations with others in case disputes arose later without evidence.
Though in civil disputes, secretly recorded conversations didn’t always hold legal weight and judges might not accept them.
Criminal cases were different. Matters involving personal safety were on an entirely different level from property disputes.
Now, however, the device happened to be useful for tracking and eavesdropping on HYDRA-S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel.
Not because he intended to use anything in court—he simply wanted to understand what Serpent Shield was planning.
So while half-heartedly listening to Tony Stark bragging, Henry dug out his earpiece and switched it to surveillance mode.
These devices, enhanced with alien technology, weren’t like ordinary bugs limited to a transmission range of only a dozen meters.
They included cloud storage and could record environmental audio across both high and low frequencies.
As long as satellite signals could reach an area, the devices functioned normally.
They were also no larger than buttons, making them highly concealable.
Since the signal wasn’t transmitted through ordinary radio frequencies, commercially available anti-surveillance equipment couldn’t detect them.
The reason Henry remained cautious was because he couldn’t determine whether a secret intelligence organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. possessed some kind of black technology capable of discovering his surveillance devices.
His self-made Kryptonian satellite network only consisted of a single satellite, but positioned in geosynchronous orbit, it covered the entirety of North America.
And since he was the only user, operating it on the East Coast around New York posed no issue.
Never having imagined he’d one day be doing espionage work, Henry quickly adjusted his mindset and began seriously monitoring John Garrett’s situation.
That seriousness lasted less than half an hour.
During that time, all he heard was John Garrett criticizing his subordinates’ incompetence and cursing the Russians for hiding the truth in order to protect themselves.
As an experienced spy, Garrett spoke with great restraint.
At the very least, Henry never heard obvious keywords like "HYDRA," nor did Garrett openly explain any plans from beginning to end as though afraid someone might not understand them.
So Henry quickly gave up on monitoring things personally.
He allowed the device to continue operating automatically, storing all recorded information on a hidden server for later review.
Damn it! Who exactly was it that thought combining super hearing with super vision meant someone could monitor the entire world and instantly know everything?
If people didn’t say things out loud, how the hell was he supposed to know?!
This wasn’t global mind-reading.
Or did people think reality worked like a video game, where everyone came with floating character data boxes and attached autobiographies?
What Henry needed to think about now was something else entirely.
How was this going to end?
All this time, he had never tried hunting down the personnel from the Siberian research facility.
Not because he lacked resentment or hatred.
And certainly not because he believed that, since they had technically raised him, the torture during his later years was somehow acceptable.
He simply didn’t want to chase hatred and lose himself within it.
But now that they had appeared before him on their own...
Whether willingly or with someone else’s assistance, there was no way Henry could ignore this matter.
And after carefully reviewing his memories of the twenty-three people present, he realized something.
What a joke.
They hadn’t brought in any gatekeepers, janitors, or random workers.
Every single person they found had directly interacted with him in the facility.
Which clearly meant these individuals had held significant positions within the institute.
If HYDRA-S.H.I.E.L.D. could locate these twenty-three people and arrange this meeting, then they almost certainly possessed at least some information regarding the whereabouts or fates of the others as well.
After all, locating actual people and bringing them in person was far harder than merely gathering intelligence.
Suddenly, Henry became very interested in whatever files John Garrett might possess.
After ending his call with Tony Stark, he immediately flew back to the Goat Cave Valley Laboratory on the West Coast and changed into his black Kevlar stealth suit.
Black Superman was online once more.
When Black Superman returned to New York, he followed the signal from his listening device from the air, tracking HYDRA-S.H.I.E.L.D.’s convoy.
With the various superpowers of his eyes temporarily—or perhaps permanently—unusable, Black Superman could only take risks and infiltrate HYDRA’s facilities personally if he wanted information.
Fortunately, he had prior experience constructing environmental models purely through hearing—using sound-wave feedback and air disturbances to map surroundings.
So even without his ocular superpowers, Black Superman still possessed considerable advantages.
The downside was that if he wanted to read physical documents, he now had to personally handle them.
Unlike before, when he could combine X-ray vision and super vision to read files from afar.
Many technologies from pharmaceutical companies and machinery manufacturers had been obtained using that exact combination.
Even if documents were locked inside safes, Black Superman could simply read them from outside.
Now, however, he could only find ways to sneak into HYDRA-S.H.I.E.L.D.’s facilities and investigate using more traditional methods.
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