After a bunch of celebratory events, I had returned to work. We were using Dolly and Ken to administrate Extremis in the wild to a variety of plant and animal life, trying to get it stable enough. I was looking into the project that had administrated Falcon's backpack flier thing at this point, which is something of a signifier of how far down the list we were from core priorities of exploitable technology I had dug into from the canonical MCU exploitable tech.

That was when I got an invitation to Senator Heartwood's office.

I showed up in a nice suit and a professional demeanor. After being pat searched, they sent me inside. The California Senator's office was not as august as I had expected, she had a relatively modest modern desk and a bizarre taste for kitschy art and clay figurines which cluttered up the space. Senator Heartwood was in her early sixties, she had her gray hair tied back into a bun and a formal suit dress that seemed a little bit dated.

"Mr. Trent," she said, rising from her seat and extending a hand.

I took the hand and shook it in return. "Senator Heartwood," I said. "What did you want to see me for?"

"We can spend a moment on pleasantry if you like," she offered with a laugh.

"We just finished a somewhat acrimonious race," I said, my tone as neutral as I could make it. The woman had said I was 'running over the grave of the victims' which was rude.

Heartwood shrugged her shoulders and sat down, gesturing for me to do likewise. "Have it your way. Mr. Trent, who would you say were the brightest minds in the world on December 8th, 1941?"

"Pearl Harbor? Abraham Erskine, Howard Stark, and Arnim Zola."

Heartwood nodded her head. "Arnim Zola was already working for our enemies in '41. But on the 9th, a senator was dispatched to persuade each of the other men to join the allied war effort."

"They sent Senators to do it? Kind of ostentatious isn't it?"

"Mr. Trent, you know that Stark Industries was one of the biggest weapons contractors in the world for the past seventy years. We cut that deal, but they needed to know that we could sign the checks."

"So I'm here for you to recruit me," I said. Shouldn't they have sent, I don't know, California's other senator? It didn't seem prohibitively difficult to just send the one I had no animus with. Maybe they just wanted to see if I could play ball with one of their committee chairs. I could, there was no real reason for a feud between Heartwood and I. My feelings were a little sore, but they weren't 'prevent productive work' sore.

Heartwood gave a half hearted smirk like she was reading my thoughts, "We're getting to that. Mr. Trent, the story of Senator Brandt's approach of Abraham Erskine is something of a legend within the Senate. The deal he got was so ridiculously stringent it made his blood boil. Sole proprietorship of the serum. Sole administration of the Serum. The Serum's formula to be held in confidence by Erskine and Erskine alone. It made it impossible to have any failsafes beyond Erskine and if Erskine died we'd lose it. Brandt walked. The goddamn moron almost cost us Captain America."

Oh. So they weren't sending her to test me, they were sending her to convince me they were willing to beg.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"Brandt had to be plied and persuaded by the SSR and then he underfunded the damn project, shoving it into the middle of New York City and leaving it vulnerable to attack. If the assassin had moved just a little faster, if he had been a bit less risk averse, we would've lost Captain America and, with him, much of the East Coast if not the whole war. Mr. Trent, I understand that your feelings may be sore from our race. My feelings are sore from our race. But I want you to know, I am not Senator Brandt. The whole world has seen what you can do. In May, the United States of America faced the first barrage of an attack by the first technologically superior opponent it has faced since the War of 1812. The United States will not be caught with its pants down again. So, how much will it cost to get you to come work for us?"

"I'm sure that I'm very valuable," I said slowly. "But I'm also already the richest man in the world and my slush fund is more than sufficient for most of my research interests. It's not as if I've been unwilling to sell to the U.S. government."

"Mr. Trent, you came of age during the war on terror. You are thus accustomed to Congress uniting only in order to tamp down on civil liberties, start unnecessary wars in the Middle East, and rolling back welfare," Yes, the Democratic Senator from California was very liberal. "But the current Congress has super-majorities and we have them with an express purpose - To ensure that America is ready for the next attack from Thanos. I know that you're rich - If you want to be richer, I can be back here next week with a check with your name and eleven zeroes before the cents mark. But if you have other things you want, if money isn't your only objective, as I suspect that it isn't since you wasted all that time in a run against me, we're ready to provide it."

"And what do you want in exchange?"

"We want you to work under our aegis with SWORD to build protective technology for the planet," Heartwood said. "And we want your other technology to be used and provided at a mass scale. Particularly, we want to break your patent on your wireless power transmission system so we and other countries can use it. We're willing to give you a basically unlimited budget. I want you to help America transition into the future today, just like your campaign promise. But if those things aren't agreeable to you, I cannot emphasize enough that I am not Senator Brandt and I will take whatever you will give me."

"I'm… interested," I said after a moment. "What's happening with Stark?"

"We've tried with Stark, and while he was happy to contract for sixty more Arc Reactors in the United States over the next two years, he's still on his pacifist kick."

Sixty more arc reactions? He already had twenty five running and another ten contracts with various municipalities. If you added that up, it was literally more power than there was demand if you took out gas cars. I guess we were looking to modernize the power grid. Damn, it's a good thing that my plants can ship solar panels all over the world.

"Well," I said after a moment. "I have no intention of turning you down, but I guess my first request would be for time to think."

"Of course," Senator Heartwood said, standing and extending her hand, "But please, Mr. Trent, every minute lost might be a minute too many."