Secretary Alexander Pierce had not been having a good couple of weeks. As one of HYDRA's heads, the Winter Soldier debacle fell squarely on his shoulders. As much as he might have preferred taking the easy way out and blaming one of his underlings, the truth was that the buck stopped with him. He' d been the one to give the order to bring the Winter Soldier out. He'd been the one to sign off on the mission.
Only, their secret weapon, the legendary assassin who'd shaped the last century of mankind's development… was in the wind. Worst of all, no one could tell him whether the conditioning had broken or whether the Winter Soldier had been captured. They couldn't even properly confirm whether the Soldier had made it to his target. Judging by Agent Romanoff's report to Nick, he hadn't.
That made it seem more likely he'd managed to break free of his conditioning then anything else, but if that was the case there should have been a trail to follow at the very least. The legendary assassin's complete and utter disappearance spoke more of concentrated enemy action than anything else.
Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to pin the action on any of their known enemies. And that meant there was another organization out there who not only had HYDRA on their radar in a big way but was also skilled and hidden enough that HYDRA had no idea who they were.
So yes, Alexander Pierce had not had a very good past couple of weeks. But finally, things were starting to look up.
"Sir, Tony Stark is here to see you."
Smiling brightly, the Secretary reaches over and presses a button on his desk. "Send him in please, Marsha."
A few moments later and Marsha leads Tony Stark, Chief Science Officer and Owner of Stark Industries, into his office. The billionaire genius actually looks a little bashful of all things… even nervous! But he's also got this excited energy to him that's almost infectious.
"Mr. Secretary, sir! Glad to be able to meet with you!"
Waving Marsha off and watching her leave the room, Pierce rises to his feet to take the offered hand that Stark thrusts across the table. It's funny, their file on Tony Stark says the man hates being handed things and hates shaking hands. And yet, here he is, initiating a handshake all on his own. Afghanistan really had changed him, hadn't it?
Hah! But then, of course it had. And most of the world, SHIELD included, didn't know the half of it, not really. "It's a pleasure, Dr. Stark. Please take a seat."
"R-Right!"
Sitting back down as Stark does the same, the Secretary presses another button on his desk. The windows go opaque and a low hum, barely audible to the human ear, fills the air. There's no steel walls that come up or anything truly obvious like that, but in that moment Alexander Pierce has put his office into lockdown. No one can hear a single word of the conversation he's about to have with Tony Stark.
"… We can speak freely now, Tony. May I call you Tony?"
Looking a little bashful still, Tony offers a surprisingly human smile and nod.
"Yes sir. That's perfectly fine." Honestly, when Zola had first contacted him about this, Pierce could hardly believe it. It seemed too good to be true. But now, sitting across from the man and seeing it with his own eyes… he was starting to have faith. This could be just what HYDRA needed to bounce back from the disappearance of the Winter Soldier. But first, he had to be sure.
"You know Tony, when our mutual friend first got in contact with me, I wasn't sure about what he had to say. You are… well, you were one of the last people I thought would dedicate themselves to something as meaningful as this. Your time in Afghanistan must have had more of an effect on you than any of us realized."
Tony offers a tepid smile at that.
"Yes sir. I'm very good at putting on a façade and when I first came back from Afghanistan, that's exactly what I did. I put on a smile and a brave face and promised everyone the world. But really… I was still reeling. I'm still not fully recovered." Stark raises a hand at that, showing a tremble in his fingers even now. Truthfully, Pierce isn't surprised. What the man had gone through would be a harrowing experience for anyone, let alone someone as soft as a civilian billionaire.
"I needed security. I needed to know I was safe, or even if I ever could be safe again. So… I started searching for answers everywhere. And then Obadiah died and… and things got even worse."
Humming, the Secretary considers letting that pass for a moment… but in the end decides it'll be good to see how Tony reacts.
"You know, SHIELD thinks that you killed Obadiah Stane. Aldritch Killian as well."
Tony flinches and looks down at his hands. He doesn't act surprised by that, Pierce notes. "I… I know. I had JARVIS hack into their files. I know what they think of me. I know that they sent Natasha Romanoff to spy on me."
Pierce just nods. That lined up with what Zola had told him Tony and his pet AI were capable of. It was good to hear that Tony was disinclined to lie to him.
"I didn't though, you know. I didn't find out that Stane tried to have me killed until after his heart attack. JARVIS was going through his stuff before the funeral and I… well, I found the video that the Ten Rings sent him about paying more money if he wanted them to finish the job."
His heart goes out to the man in front of him. It must have been terribly conflicting, finding out his mentor was a traitor right after the man died from too much red meat and cigars.
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