30. Subsequent Affairs

The discussion on the Future Technology Foundation is still going on, but Merlin has left Vienna, and he has more important things to do.

Although S.H.I.E.L.D. has adopted a series of "technical" measures to prevent the events in the Eichenwalde area from fermenting, it is difficult to really conceal the big movement that night. This matter needs a final conclusion. Merlin is busy with this.

Fortunately, with the help of Little Hermione and Little Potter's influence among European wizards, SHIELD received the help of a group of wizards from the Ministry of Magic on the second day after the incident. It took the agents of the Bureau less than 5 hours to restore the Eichenwalde industrial area to a "should be" scene.

At noon, the closed factory area was also opened to some reporters. Of course, these reporters were only allowed to enter the factory area for interviews after careful selection.

They are all mainstream media, and they are used to speaking with facts, not those tabloid newspapers who like to catch rumors and spread gossip everywhere, lest the world will not be chaotic.

Among them was Merlin's old friend.

"They said there was an earthquake here last night?"

Ms. Louise Lane was sitting on the smart car in the Eichenwalde Industrial Park. She was curiously looking at the somewhat disconcerting interior buildings of the Smart Industrial Park. She had been to the Numbani Industrial Park in Africa, where she and The atmosphere here is similar, both seem very organized.

But Louise is obviously more interested in the surrounding medieval buildings.

Beside her, Clark was also holding a camera, recording the omnic industrial robots cleaning up the ruins after the earthquake, and some official staff from Germany, who seemed to be surveying the situation after the earthquake.

Facing Louise's inquiry, Clark said softly:

"Maybe it's an earthquake. Didn't the Earthquake Bureau confirm it? A small-scale earthquake, the source of which was in the sea, happened to cover the industrial area, causing the collapse of buildings and damage to some equipment."

"The Onika Group was quite generous this time and did not stop our interview."

Louise grabbed her camera and snapped a few pictures of the robots cleaning up the debris, saying:

"Probably because of the fear of causing public panic, rumors are flying all over this place now. The local tabloids exaggerate that someone saw the mythical monster Kraken rising from the sea, saying that sea monsters are attacking the industrial park, and people who believe it That's a lot."

"That's normal, Louise."

Clark twists the camera and says:

"I heard from some local colleagues that the people in this place have always been superstitious. And the locals don't have a good sense of the industrial park. I heard that when they established the industrial park in Eichenwalde, the nearby residents It’s not very happy, and many people lose their jobs because of it.”

"However, the Aonica Group has built several raw material processing plants near the industrial park, which instead provided more jobs with better pay than before."

Although the famous lady reporter instinctively felt that something was wrong with this incident, she couldn't find evidence. She seemed to be arguing with her boyfriend. She grabbed the smart station and got up, and took a long shot of the smart tower in the distance. filmed, she said:

"And the tax that this industrial park pays to the local government every year is more than ten times that of before. Except for those stubborn people, no one wants this industrial park to move from the local area."

"Hey, why is this pier ruined like this? It stands to reason that even an earthquake would not cause such a large-scale collapse. Could it be that the Onika Group used substandard materials? Internal corruption? Or was it an accident? "

Louise seemed to smell the news. She stopped the smart car, quickly took the camera and rushed towards the completely collapsed pier.

Clark hurriedly followed. After running a few steps, Clark turned his head and saw Merlin in a windbreaker standing on the side of the road like a ghost. He pointed to Louise in front of Clark, and then shook his head. shook his head.

Clark immediately understood.

He turned to his girlfriend and said:

"Louis, the Onika Group's press conference is about to start, we're going to be late, come and see it later!"

A few minutes later, Clark persuaded Louise, who had discovered some clues, to get on the smart car and leave the pier. Merlin watched them leave, and he looked at the collapsed pier again. He pushed his glasses and said:

"To be honest, if I didn't know that Miss Louise is just an ordinary person, I sometimes really think that she also has superpowers. She can always find some hidden information that others can't."

"There are always people who are sensitive in certain aspects. Merlin, you can understand that maybe Miss Louise's superpower is to constantly discover hot news."

Icarus quickly scanned the collapsed pier through the lens, and quickly identified several twisted metal gun barrels buried under the ruins. Next, the undiscovered wreckage was cleaned up and put into a smart car parked nearby.

"To be honest, Merlin, the word earthquake is really clumsy."

Icarus commented:

"It's sure to generate a lot of suspicion."

"But as long as most people believe it."

Merlin says:

"There will be debates about any event, but as time goes by, no matter how boring people are, they will not continue these debates. According to my experience, this matter may be forgotten within a month. After all, the whole world There are so many interesting things going on online that people's attention is always drawn to new big things."

He shook his head and said:

"We, humans, are creatures of forgetfulness."

"Well, from my observation, you are indeed."

Icarus no longer continued this emotional question. Her logical thinking circuit didn't like these topics that were difficult to measure with data. When Merlin got on the smart car, she asked another question.

"Within the Onika Group, several shareholders, including Wakanda officials, have raised questions about the security of the smart industrial park. This action by the Ten Rings exposed previous management loopholes, such as Tony People with sensitive identities like Stark and their high authority have already posed a threat to the security system of the industrial park."

"Mr. Lex Luthor proposed to cancel all secondary permissions to avoid things like this time happening again in the future. But Prince T'Challa disagreed with this view, he felt that all permissions should be included in SHIELD and World Security Director It would also be risky.”

After listening to Icarus' description, Merlin nodded and said:

"The fact that Tony was held hostage was a bit unexpected and tricky. I can't send agents to protect those who have authority 24 hours a day, so I am more inclined to Luthor's opinion. Canceling secondary authority is a good way. "

"But compared to these discussions, what I care more about is, Icarus, how did Mandarin know that Tony has the high authority to freely enter and exit the industrial park?"

"This information is top secret, even members of the World Security Council don't know."

Merlin rubbed his chin, he said softly:

"Although it can be attributed to magic factors, I always feel that this matter is worth pondering. How did this information leak out?"

"Perhaps you should have looked at his memory before killing him."

Icarus says:

"Did you neglect it? Or"

"Mandalin uses magic, Icarus, the Dementia Curse is not omnipotent, for a caster like him, it is very difficult to check the memory information, and his soul is protected by the Ten Commandments, it is not useful at all s things."

Merlin moved his fingers and said:

"In short, this incident reminded me that I need to be more vigilant against the Onika Group."

"A call from Nick Fury, Merlin."

A communication request appeared on Icarus's lens, and Merlin immediately connected to the communication. The next moment, Fury's expressionless, unbeautiful face appeared in front of Merlin's eyes.

"Is there any result in the communication with the German authorities?"

When Merlin asked, Fury replied in a bad tone:

"Well, yes, they agreed that the Eichenwalde Industrial Park will continue to operate, and there will be no restraining order on the industrial park."

"That sounds like a good thing."

Merlin stared into Fury's face, and he said:

"But judging from your expression, there seems to be something bad?"

"Yes, they made an additional request."

Fury looked around, then sighed, and said with a bad expression:

"The German official requested that a military force be stationed in the Eichenwalde Industrial Park. In addition to the existing security system of the industrial park, a new defense system should be reset to ensure that such an invasion as this time will not happen again. Repeat."

"And to make matters worse, the representatives of Russia also made the same request. They demanded that the Volskaya Industrial Zone, which is about to be established, also be stationed in troops. Pierce had a fight with them. Those bureaucrats obviously wanted to take the opportunity to intervene The management and ownership of the intelligence hub."

Merlin's expression changed, and he said:

"That is to say, they also regard the omnibus center and industrial area as part of the new arms competition?"

"Yes, we try our best to keep this matter from becoming part of the national competition, but at present, they are not willing to give in. Maybe there are many people who have the same idea as the war madmen like Mandarin, and they are hidden in various countries. in the government."

Fury said with a gloomy face:

"They took advantage of our weakness, Merlin, they are blackmailing us, there is no doubt about it."

"Either agree to their request, or don't even think about establishing the Volskaya Industrial Zone and the next few industrial zones. Wait until the fourth impact of the fire source comes, and the issue of free omnics in Siberia and other regions will be resolved." I can’t hide it, the plan that has been implemented for several years has been aborted, and the confrontation between humans and omnics has really begun.”

"Damn politicians!"

Merlin and Fury cursed almost at the same time, but both fell silent.

The problem at hand is very difficult, and what the Ten Rings have created has given other countries a good reason to require troops to be stationed in the Smart Industrial Park.

Ten seconds later, Merlin raised his head, his expression was a little subtle, and he said to Fury:

"I've got an idea, Fury. Promise them."

"Um?"

Fury looked at Merlin in surprise, he didn't speak, he was waiting for Merlin's explanation.

"The garrison is fine. After all, the governments of all countries are also responsible for the people. We can understand that what happened in the Eichenwalde Industrial Park exposed our mistakes in this regard, and we are willing to bear the consequences of the mistakes."

Merlin said softly:

"But I don't think that the general army can undertake this task. On the battlefield against omnic robots that may be militarized, ordinary soldiers will not play much role except to increase casualties. Countries hope For troops stationed in industrial parks, there must be special forces that can deal with threats.”

"If they don't, they have to find their own way. If it doesn't work, we can help them train."

There was a gleam in the eyes of the Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He said:

"They provide people, and we provide plans. There are various defense plans for them to choose from. There must be something that will satisfy them. Since they want to garrison troops, they also need to provide funds for training these special forces."

"It takes at least a few years for a special force to take shape from the beginning of training, which is enough for us to complete the construction of various industrial parks. As long as we wait for the residual energy of the fire source to be fully released, the omnic plan will be considered a It's successful, and it's up to them how they deal with those omnic centers afterwards."

Merlin says:

"After the world accepts the existence of omnics, even if they want to tear down those industrial parks, it has nothing to do with us. What we want is not the intelligence center, what we want is the smooth transition of this matter, what we want is world order Not destroyed."

"This idea of ​​yours"

Fury rubbed his chin, and after a while, he nodded to Merlin, and he said:

"It's very constructive. I'm going to discuss it with Pierce and get back to you later."

"hum"

Fury's communication hung up, and Icarus' voice sounded again:

"Aren't you worried that in the future those politicians will use the omnic centers of various countries as bargaining chips for competition and confrontation between countries? If those omnic centers are really militarized, then"

"Will not."

Merlin said to Icarus:

"The control of the 'builder' has always been in the hands of the World Security Council. If the control of the artificial intelligence supporting the smart tower is lost, the smart tower is just an empty shell."

Merlin pushed his glasses, he said:

"Once the 'Builder' program is destroyed, it is not so simple for countries to reverse-reset this program. After all, it was developed by the world's smartest group of people, and those contained in it are used flexibly. The knowledge of Cybertron is not so easy to decipher."

"When the omnic plan started, we had countermeasures. Although we are unwilling to use it, if this plan becomes the biggest factor of instability to the world"

Merlin breathed a sigh of relief, he looked at the sea in the distance, and said:

"Then I'd rather destroy it with my own hands."