Chapter 326 The Dilemma of SHIELD

Inside the SHIELD headquarters in New York, Agent Hill, former director of SHIELD Nick Fury's adjutant, is now extremely busy. Because of the previous fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury fell into the biggest political crisis in his life.

He had been removed from all S.H.I.E.L.D. positions before, and was also escorted to a special prison in Washington for detention.

Regarding whether Nick has violated the rules during his tenure, including: whether he has exceeded his authority, whether he has illegally approved arrests, etc., will be listed in the Security Committee for discussion.

As for whether Nick Fury should be responsible for the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and how he should be responsible, this matter also requires more meetings and discussions.

Hill is a little worried about Nick's recent situation. As the former director's adjutant, Hill is well aware of the heavy burden on Nick, and as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent working on the underground front, how can there be no violation of laws and regulations.

But no matter how worried she is about what will happen to Nick Fury now, she needs to put her worries aside for now. Because of Nick Fury's resignation, it was decided after consultation with the safety committee.

Agent Hill, the former Senior Intelligence Adjutant of S.H.I.E.L.D., will act temporarily as the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. As for who will be the official director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the future, it has not yet been decided.

After all, this position is of great importance and cannot be easily decided. It's not just a matter of simply being able to live in it, otherwise Nick Fury wouldn't be pulled down because of a mistake.

There is also this complex political game involved. Moreover, New York City will hold a general election this year, and the old mayor of New York is about to abdicate. It is unknown who will be the new mayor of New York for the next five years.

With New York City as the center, the Greater New York area includes New Jersey, Buffalo, Atlantic City, Philadelphia and other satellite cities. It is of great importance to the whole of the United States.

The Greater New York area that radiates out covers almost 18% of the annual national output value of the United States. Nearly one-fifth of the power of the US economic engine comes from the Greater New York area.

It can be said that it is the economic heart of the whole United States. It is also the most elite area in the United States.

The most important thing in the greater New York area is New York City, which is a city that holds the lifeline of the American economy and can even be said to control the direction of the global economy.

Not counting other affiliated satellite cities, the annual output value of New York City alone accounts for 12% of the country's total output value.

One can imagine the importance of New York City to the entire United States. This year's New York election will be followed by the presidential election that will begin next year.

The current president is at the end of his second term. After the presidential election next year is warmed up, the year after next will be the time when the highest seat of power in the United States will be divided.

Therefore, whether it is the ruling party or the opposition party, or for other aspiring politicians, the New York mayor election held this year and the New York city councilor election held at the same time are extremely critical elections.

Whoever can win a city here will have an advantage in the early presidential election starting next year.

And at this stall, the position of director of S.H.I.E.L.D. is extremely important. Any politician who knows anything about this organization understands how powerful S.H.I.E.L.D. is.

They can easily find out your traffic escape case from 20 years ago. Or tax evasion fifteen years ago. If S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted to, they could easily find out who any politician was having dinner with tonight.

What is done after dinner, is there any sex scandal or other dirty political dealings that can come out.

It can be said that SHIELD's intelligence capabilities in this area far exceed those of the FBI and CIA, and compared with the other two organizations, SHIELD has a more independent structure and is less affected by ordinary politicians.

Former Commissioner Nick Fury was a man who was not very involved in politics, and he never had any special kindness towards any party. Because of his neutrality, S.H.I.E.L.D. has never been involved in any political process for more than two decades.

But who can guarantee that the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D. will not get involved in politics? Politicians always calculate the problems they may face with the worst plan. After all, if they think according to their own ideas, it would be a waste not to use such a good position.

Therefore, the position of the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been pending, and the Security Committee is full of real noise. Because not everyone can embrace a nobler purpose like Nick, instead of being blinded by the power in front of him.

Therefore, the position of Agent Hill as the acting director can be said to be very firm for a certain period of time. Unless one day they suddenly reached some kind of agreement or consensus, it would be difficult to elect someone like Nick to be the director.

For most people who know Hill, this female agent is shrewd and capable and has a sharp mind that is not inferior to Nick Fury, so she can stay with Nick and work as an adjutant. It was only four months before he was kicked out by Nick. And Hill did it for ten years.

What's even more commendable is that Agent Hill, like Nick, lacks interest in politics. She prefers to work step by step instead of paying attention to politics that is laborious and always as dirty as a quagmire.

It was only after Hill assumed the position of director of S.H.I.E.L.D. that Nick Fury had to deal with more complex problems than she could have seen when she was a lieutenant beside Nick Fury.

For example, what she is doing now, countless financial statements are piled up on the desk of her director's desk. These are the parts that are waiting for her signature and approval after the financial department has processed them.

But even though she was so busy, she let Rogers in when Captain Rogers asked to meet.

"It looks like you're a little busy, Hill." Rogers said in surprise, looking at the hill-high folders stacked on Hill's desk.

"Yes, such things, such things. All kinds of clueless things." Hill said without raising her head, and she complained while reviewing the documents. Because many things in S.H.I.E.L.D. are confidential, she has a lot of bitterness to vomit but can't find someone to vomit, and Captain Rogers, who just visited, seems to be a good target.

"The Security Council just rejected our mid-term budget." Hill said bitterly.

"What?" Rogers didn't respond for a moment.

"Our mid-term budget has been cut, captain." Speaking of this question, Hill frowned. "The budget made at the beginning of each year will always be insufficient in the middle due to various problems."

"You know our department is specialized in dealing with various emergency situations, so this phenomenon is very normal. So we will issue a new budget proposal in the mid-term every year for the Security Council to approve."

"Our budget has been cut by the captain. Now it's not just the mid-term budget cut. Because of the arrest of Director Nick and various other reasons, even the budget we should have been blocked." Hill couldn't help but press the button. Pressing her temples, she has a headache when it comes to money.

In Nick's day, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't worry about money. But once Hill started to take over S.H.I.E.L.D., she found that S.H.I.E.L.D. was a bottomless pit of burning money.

The maintenance fee for the damaged sky carrier is a funding gap that the scientific research department will never be able to fill. Disability retired special agent's pension. There are also huge and complicated daily expenses, and S.H.I.E.L.D. is a gold-swallowing behemoth.

This seemingly huge and majestic giant organization relies on countless dollars to pile up. If there are not enough dollars for subsequent expenditures, this mighty-looking behemoth will only become a paper tiger.

"Cut our budget? How much have they cut." Rogers also knows how important a fund is to an organization.

"The annual expenditure of S.H.I.E.L.D. is about 100 billion U.S. dollars, which is almost equivalent to one-sixth of the total U.S. military expenditure. However, the U.S. military has a total of 1.4 million people, and all the employees of S.H.I.E.L.D. are only 15 About 10,000 people." Hill said, frowning.

"Some people in Congress are dissatisfied that S.H.I.E.L.D. occupies such a large amount of funds. So this time they cut almost a quarter of our budget. And depending on the situation, next year's budget may continue to be cut." Hill Very helpless.

"You mean our budget has been cut by $25 billion?" Rogers asked in surprise.

Anyone with common sense understands what it means for an organization to be cut tens of billions of dollars suddenly. Especially the S.H.I.E.L.D., a gold-swallowing behemoth that has only input but no output, has lost external financial support, and consumption alone can drag down the organization to death.

"Yes, it's very troublesome. S.H.I.E.L.D. originally had some special income, but for various reasons it's gone." Hill said that he was even more helpless here.

"What special income?" Rogers asked curiously.

"Special income from the vampire industry." Hill temporarily paused to review the documents, her eyes were tired and she needed to rest.

"Including the vampires buying blood plasma from the government's blood bank and the special taxes levied on the industries of the vampire empire. Originally, these industries could bring in hidden income of nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars to the government every year."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. can also receive a special budget of tens of billions of dollars, but because of Nick. He completely wiped out the vampires in the United States, so this batch of income is gone."

He didn't know much about the vampire incident, which happened before Rogers' return, and he couldn't help whistling after hearing this information. "Nick must have cut off a lot of people's money. I'm afraid someone would like to kill him for this."

"Yeah, that's for sure. The former vampires have become normal people, and they refuse to pay any extra taxes, and it's impossible to add a dime. So the funding gap of S.H.I.E.L.D. is actually bigger than it seems Bigger." Hill felt like he was going crazy.

"So Director Hill, what are you going to do now?" Rogers looked at Hill with some concern.

"SHIELD will stop serving free coffee and donuts starting tomorrow," Hill said.

Rogers: "?"

"We have 150,000 employees, and each of us spends close to two dollars a day on coffee, and close to two dollars on donuts. That alone costs us $219 million a year. So from Starting tomorrow, all the coffee and donuts will need to be charged to the agents." Hill said that he can't help it, and now every penny counts.

"The supply of late-night snacks will also be reduced. Subway's sandwiches are a bit expensive. I will replace them with Donald's burgers in the future."

"Could it be that kind of dollar burger?" Rogers had eaten that stuff before, and it didn't taste very good.

"I have no way to be the captain. Now every penny is very important to us. There are also heating and cooling settings. In the future, the temperature settings must be adjusted to save energy."

Rogers understood this sentence. It probably means that the air conditioner is not cool in summer and the heating is not hot in winter.

"The large washing machine in the staff dormitory is no longer free to use. It will be charged by time like the self-service laundromat outside. In addition, the monthly water, electricity and gas consumption standards for each staff dormitory must be stipulated. The excess must be paid by the agents themselves. "

"The way of eating in the cafeteria also needs to be changed. In the future, we will no longer use the self-serve method. We will be equipped with chefs who make dishes, and the hands of the chefs must not be too steady, and they need to be shaken. These Together, it can save us nearly one billion dollars in expenses every year." Hill racked his brains on how to save money.

But Rogers felt chills behind his back. I am afraid that all employee benefits will be cancelled? These desperate agents must not rebel?

"By the way, Captain, what do you want from me?" Hill thought about a lot of ways to save money, and suddenly realized that he was so busy complaining, that he forgot why Captain Steve Rogers came to find him. Well.

"Well, um." Rogers hesitated a little, because what he was going to talk about was also related to money. He hesitated for a long time before speaking. "Well, here's the thing, Hill. We were short of help during the last S.H.I.E.L.D. prison incident."

"That's why Hawkeye asked Deadpool Wade, who was still in prison at the time, to help out." Hill nodded to indicate that she knew about it.

"But Wade has a price when he makes a move. You understand that he is a mercenary. Everything is a bargain. So Hawkeye Button promised him a reward of one million dollars at the time. So..." Rogers has not yet said the following words He was interrupted by Hill.

"Impossible, dismissed, there is no room for negotiation. If Barton sees that I am worth a million dollars, let him sell me and give the money to Wade!" Hill refused very directly, not at all. Give Rogers a chance to bargain.

"I understand your difficulty Hill, but Deadpool has found Barton's staff dormitory, and sprayed dung, welded doors and sprayed red paint to collect debts from Barton." Captain Rogers is also very desperate now.