On one level, the presence of one extra super soldier and one reporter was not a crisis. Most of what was happening was emissaries flitting between rooms where this or that diplomat would tell them his country's position and receive an update on the emissary's position. Unless Steve broke directly into one of those offices, which seemed unlikely, mostly that was going to be deceptively simple.

The main downside of their presence was that if you were smart and you counted, if you had been here the whole time, then you might have noticed the change that my arrival brought in the delegations of the "authoritarian wave" nations, AKA my puppets, to the side of Asgard. Russia would maybe have the appearance of the leadership on the matter, but Daisy and Steve had just seen me walked out. The aids scurrying around didn't duck into rooms before discussing things, so I had to assume that they would figure it out. Steve was smart and Daisy wasn't dumb, even if her politics were the most noxious form of reflexive anti-authority whining.

I called in to the guards with my government phone, "Hey, did you let in Steve Rogers," I asked.

"Yes sir," the guard said, "I guess the potential hostile contact might not be necessary."

I stifled a laugh. Steve Rogers had broken into the U.N. by walking in the front door – I would've thought of it, but I was surprised he did. Steve Rogers was clever but he was usually fairly straight-laced, maybe it had been Daisy's idea. "Of course," I said politely, "let your team know that I said to bring them my way. I insist they have an escort." I gave them a location out of the way where they could send the pair of them.

Soon enough, Steve and Daisy met me in the out of the way hallway where only a few aides were flitting through. "Mr. Trent," Steve said, his voice much more icy than it had been the last time we had talked.

"Mr. Rogers," I said, extending a hand for him to shake. He just glared at it. Still mad about that joke about Hydra half a decade later – Or maybe he was getting suspicious of my role in the vote or my position within SWORD. I turned the hand to Daisy, "Ms. Johnson. I'm a fan of your work." Which was a lie – Johnson was a genuinely obnoxious pundit with no understanding of politics who sometimes received a leak of something that really hurt my interests. It wasn't talent, but trust that made her even an inconvenience to me. If she'd lived in one of our controlled countries, she'd have been fired or maybe even vanished – But probably not, she had a useful power and I still didn't have access to Afterlife to try to crack it.

"Then I'm not doing it right," Daisy said, shaking my hand briefly. Steve smirked at the remark.

The problem with the heroes of this world is that they were all glib and clever, not even a little bit persuasive to other people. If Daisy had said that to a normal person, it could get her in trouble – But I had been working on my ego since the conversation with Gao. "Anyway," I said, moving on, "if only you'd called ahead, I wouldn't have to fire the desk guard for letting you through."

Steve winced, "You shouldn't punish him for what I did."

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Look, I need to ask for your help, so I'll just give him a firm lecture, but you should think before you pull that stunt again." Truthfully, he couldn't be fired soon for fear of embarrassment to the United States and firing people for losing to long-tail Main Characters like Steve Rogers would only encourage unhealthy escalations. But there was no need to say so. "Honestly, you're fairly untouchable, but that doesn't mean the people you deal with are."

Steve and Daisy had the basic human decency to look as if they felt genuinely bad for a minute. "What's the help you need?" Steve siad.

I looked at Daisy and made an apologetic face, "I don't think this is the sort of thing I should release to a hostile press."

Daisy crossed her arms and looked at me like I was something she'd scraped off her shoe. To be fair, given what I knew about her vibration power, she could probably liquidate my insides. "Do you have something to hide?"

I have so many secrets it makes me tired to count them, let alone manage them. So many lies that the only ones that I actively focused on were the new ones. Disturbing the old ones would disturb questions like, 'Am I actually a synarchist?' 'Did I just marry the most convenient person?' 'What happens when Thanos is dead?' and I'd rather just leave all those in their unresolved beds. Instead, I smiled at Daisy and rolled my eyes, "No comment, Ms. Johnson," I said.

She looked back at me and I had the most intense eye contact I'd had with a woman who wasn't my wife in years. Practically adultery, I know, but it did make both of us pretty uncomfortable. I wasn't going to be pushed around by a woman seven years younger than me. Eventually it was Steve who broke the conversation, "I'll walk with you, Mr. Trent," he said.

Daisy looked at Steve like she had been betrayed. He put a hand on her arm, "If it's criminal or immoral, I'll let you know. You have my word."

Daisy hesitated a moment and then the mighty power of Captain America's Word broke her will and she sighed. "All of it, I want like every word if he wants you for some black-ops strike force."

"I'll do my best," Steve said, looking back to me. "Alright, come on."

We walked down the hall, turned a few corners, and I looked him in the eye. "We're hoping to make contact with an off-planet alien who associates with a human who last saw Earth in the eighties. A trustworthy face like yourself might be vital for us in that endeavor."

Steve looked at me for a moment, "Why are you making contact with the alien?"

"Military reconnaissance on Thanos," I said. "No dissections or anything like that, we just want word on his present whereabouts." To ambush and kill him, I didn't say. Not because I think Steve wasn't reliable, but because I wanted something that - if leaked to the press - wouldn't hurt us too much. "Would you be available for that?"

Steve nodded his head, "I'm glad to hear that SWORD is protecting Earth from actual threats as opposed to snipe hunting on Earth with their all-seeing eyes."

Well, it could work.