Being the Chief Head of Hydra had its advantages. The deference is only part of it - My external role was still more minor, technically as an "international coordinator of research and education" for SWORD. But also, it meant a chance to lay goals and direct an overall scheme. I had persuaded Pierce on the basics of my plan, so the shift here was not revolutionary.

There was also a chance to deal with the… poorly considered… plans of my underlings. I walked into the post-operation hospital room where one of them was sleeping.

"Hello Ruby," I said, doing my best to not sound too condescending to the potential future leader of Hydra. Good lord, picking them before insemination. She was thirteen! They need to think about things before they did them.

"Sir," she said. She didn't appear to like me very much. That was understandable. Giving it away, not as much. Her temper wasn't in control. The reports were right about that.

"Ruby, why were you born?"

"I was born to become the perfect weapon of Hydra."

"And that," I said calmly. "Was the first mistake."

Ruby glared at me. "I'm twice as good as anyone in my class."

"I've seen that. I don't think that Hydra should choose people for destinies and duties before they're even born. What I haven't seen are the true qualities of a Hydra leader. Calm. Cunning. Conviction. I've seen ambition. I have no problem with ambition. But I have a problem with a failure of our forces to fully consider their place in our organization." In many ways, as an ambitious Hydra agent without conviction myself, I knew the danger that Ruby Hale posed to me and my organization.

"Are you going to kill me?"

"No, your mother is a respected Air Force general. I just wanted you to know that we implanted a small bomb inside your chest. If you try to kill me, if I die, if you betray Hydra, if any member of Hydra is killed by you, if I decide you have become a liability for us, that bomb will be detonated. Your ambition won't save you from that."

She looked offended. "How dare you?"

"See? That's what I'm talking about. They created you to be a perfect weapon, Ms. Hale. A weapon that can't be safely used is no weapon at all. I hope that you rise and have all the success that you deserve. You may yet be a fine agent."

——

The Particle Infusion Chamber would've been substantially more interesting if we had an abundant supply of Vibranium. As it was, we would be compelled to use the Gravitonium supply and I just have to say explicitly, absolutely not. Gravitonium with near contact to human cells messed them up something bad. Maybe using it to make and then deliver a human bomb of some sort, but probably not. I had ordered it boxed and buried far, far from anywhere people might find it.

As it was, we had a total supply of about twenty five kgs of Vibranium. We'd had to return the majority of it to Wakanda, Cap had a vague sense of the weight class and wasn't liable to lie in a sworn affidavit, but we were able to fudge it with some cooperation by Klaue. That was enough for a few Vibranium spiked super soldiers, but it wasn't enough for a Vibranium Army and it wasn't enough to see if it could be safely added to one of our super-soldiers without undertaking a substantial loss.

So that was also off the table.

Since Extremis was probably more valuable than any of the more mundane elements and those same elements prevented us from injecting it, that was all of the table. We could still use the chamber for other agents of course, but as a top level choice it didn't have much to offer.

——

"Leave Stark alone," I said as I sat across from Stern.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"But sir, he's undermining the U.S. international position with his reckless actions…"

"Stark protects civilian targets," I said, taking a drink of water from a cup. "He's cut down on what remained of international conflict to nearly zero. The U.S. should learn to take the W."

"Other countries will be substantially less happy with that," Stern pointed out.

He wasn't wrong. Tony's international shenanigans weren't the most popular part of the U.S. present internationalist strategy. But people were able to put up with them and Stark was bringing down international conflict numbers, thus shoring up the majority of humanity's safety. It did cut into military funding, which was a slight frustration for us. What good was it if someone didn't die in a border skirmish, compared to if we were underprepared for Thanos' invasion. Nonetheless. "Well, you can make some slight pushes and things that look good in the press, but don't do anything too much to piss him off. His work is important - Other countries who want to compete with him will look to us."

——

"To immortality," I said, raising a glass to the other PRIDE members. It was good to be back in the United States among my friends.

We were celebrating Osiris' one year anniversary. Osiris was buzzing with internal activity. We had nearly ten thousand citizens in our little simulated reality. We made money hand over fist that way, the only maintenance costs were the same as for any other set of servers, and in light of the extraordinarily cheap cost of power, that was practically free.

"To immortality!" They agreed and everyone took a drink.

"How's the baby?" Victor asked. He was the last of the PRIDE men not to have taken the Super Soldier Serum. Understandable, given the relative strength enhancements and his temper issues. Janet had taken it, but she still flinched when he got angry.

"She's wonderful," I said happily. Persephone had been growing so fast and I'd been so busy jumping from place to place that I hadn't gotten to spend as much time as I would've liked with her. I know, I know, 'Alexa Play Cats in the cradle.' I would've liked to be more present in her early years, but it was better to be more present when she could remember me. If Thanos came in 2018, that would mean she was four and a half years old. Better to be here for the years after it.

"You having another one any time soon?" Stacey asked, taking a bite of salad.

"Oh my gosh!" I said, rolling my eyes. "I'll let you know. We are using… various non-chemical interventions at this point."

"So glad I got my tubes tied, not ready for another one at my age."

"We could handle it," Dale said before scurrying to add, "But it's good that we're not."

"Gert and Molly have been a big help," I said. Honestly, they knew Persephone nearly as well as I did. But I had catching up to do on other members successes. "How's market penetration doing on Wizard phones, Tina?"

"The new design is about 45% of new phones," Tina said. "We think we can get it up above that in the next few years."

"Good to hear," I said. That would expand my market penetration still further. "How's the judge race going Catherine?"

"With your support," Catherine said, putting down a glass of wine, "It's all over but the counting."

"Congratulations," I said sincerely. "I've always said we need more defense lawyers in the judiciary."

The dinner wound down and we finished eating. It was a good night, things were going well for us. I was on top of the world.