"Smack"

Empty glasses were placed on the bar, and in the midst of the bustling bar, Merlin was a little muffled, and a voice sounded with a sluggish voice.

"One more drink."

"It's not like you, Merlin."

Josie, the owner of Josie's Bar, turned her head to look at Merlin.

She and Merlin are old acquaintances, and she opened a bar here when Merlin moved to Hell's Kitchen.

Back then, Josie was a famous long-sleeved big sister in Hell's Kitchen, but now she has become a kind aunt.

And almost every week all these years, Merlin would come here for a drink with a short-haired lady.

Well, and Hill.

Ever since Merlin first brought Hill to Josie's Bar, it had almost become a common habit for both of them to come to Josie's Bar one day a week.

The stout Russian aunt picked up Merlin's glass, and while pouring Merlin wine, she said:

"Why didn't you see your girlfriend today?"

"Josie, I've said it so many times, Hill isn't my girlfriend."

Merlin, who was sitting at the bar, smoked a cigarette and said:

"I emphasize it almost every time I come."

"Really?"

Aunt Josie placed a glass of wine with ice cubes in front of Merlin's eyes.

She lay down on the bar and said to Merlin:

"But I always feel like you two are a good match, especially when you're drinking and chatting together..."

"She likes you, Merlin, there's no doubt about that, trust me, I've seen a lot of couples in my life who are intimately intimate, but you're not the same as that Miss Hill..."

"When you first moved in, you were a young man, and Miss Hill has been with you ever since..."

"Look at you, Merlin, you're not young anymore, and Ciel is not young anymore, but every time she looks at you, the way she looks at you is exactly the same as she did more than ten years ago."

The barkeeper, who was always warm to acquaintances, chatted with Merlin and said:

"Don't blame me for talking too much, but you two are really compatible."

"Perhaps, but it's too late."

Merlin muttered, and he pressed the cigarette out in the ashtray.

Then he picked up his glass, raised his neck as before, and drank the wine from the glass.

There was a hint of melancholy in his eyes.

Like those middle-aged office workers who live a depressed and hopeless life, but he has been drinking heavily and has not been drunk at all.

Maybe he's not here to get drunk.

Maybe he was just looking for a place to cool off.

"So, isn't Hill coming tonight?"

Aunt Josie glanced towards the door, and then at Merlin, who was alone in the row, and as she picked up a rag and wiped the bar, she said:

"You two quarreled?"

"Well, she's got a job, tonight... Well, I probably won't be able to come for a long time. ”

Merlin shook the ice in his life, and he said to Aunt Josie:

"Hill has been promoted, she's now the commander... Well, I mean, it's the department manager, who has a lot of people in charge of running all over the world. She's definitely been busy lately. ”

"Oh, I've been promoted."

Aunt Josie smiled, and she said:

"It's only natural for a capable girl like Hill to make a career."

"Then again, Merlin, the last time I met your little Matt, he and Fuji came here for a drink, and I asked him what you do, and he refused to say."

"I..."

Merlin placed the empty cup on the bar, and he winked at Aunt Josie, and said:

"I'm in the same unit as Hill, and I'm still her boss."

"Oh, the office romance."

The barkeeper immediately had a meaningful smile on her face, and she gave Merlin a thumbs up, saying:

"Amazing, no wonder I have been refusing to announce my relationship, I see."

"I said you were thinking too much, Josie."

Merlin folded his hands on the bar as he turned his head to see the crowd in the bustling bar.

Josie's Bar is almost a Hell's Kitchen icon, with people from other districts having fun almost every night.

Business here is really good.

After a few seconds, Merlin looked at the barkeeper with some hindsight, and said:

"You just said that Matt and Fudge came to drink with you? Do you sell alcohol to them? ”

"Well, no, those two boys were going to drink that day, but I refused, and I gave them a glass of watermelon juice. It is illegal to sell alcohol to minors..."

The barkeeper, Josie, was so shrewd that she waved her hand and forcibly turned the subject to the other side:

"Speaking of which, Merlin, you seem to be in a bad mood today, running around alone to drink, what is going on?"

"Huh? Is it so obvious? ”

Merlin motioned for Josie to pour him another glass of wine, and as he shook it, his eyes shining with a dim glint as he looked at the amber liquid in the glass.

He said:

"Well, it's a bit annoying..."

"Let's talk about it."

The bar owner said:

"For the sake of you're a regular customer, I'd rather take the time to hear your complaints."

Merlin was silent for a moment, remembering the advice of his personal psychiatrist, Zatanna, that it was not okay to keep these things in his heart.

Perhaps, he should really talk to someone.

After a few seconds, Merlin took a sip of his wine, and he said to Josie:

"A friend of mine, well, a friend at work."

"He's terrible, he's the kind of guy that almost no one likes, he's dark-hearted, he's a bit of a conspiracy, but... He's barely a good guy, and we've worked together quite happily before. ”

Merlin shrugged, he sighed, and said:

"But overnight, he became an unreasonable bastard."

He remembered the quarrel with Fury today, and he took out his cigarette case with some irritation, took out a cigarette, and lit it.

Today in Nubani Industrial Park, Fury is like a different person, stubborn, rigid, and doesn't know what evil he has fallen into.

Seeing Fury's stubborn reluctance to abandon Project Insight gave Merlin an unspeakable sense of worry and anger in his heart.

He was the one who said he rejected the Insight program.

The one who restarts this plan now, or he...

Merlin seriously suspected that Fury's SSS serum had been taking sequelae, and Fury may have injured his brain when he was attacked before, and Fury's series of actions during this period of time made Merlin completely incomprehensible.

In the smoke rising, Merlin said:

"He's doing something dangerous, and I know how dangerous it is, and I'm trying to dissuade him, but..."

Merlin sighed, and he said:

"I'm in a bad mood, but I still have children at home, so I have to come here to cool off."

"Work?"

The bar owner shrugged his shoulders and said:

"It's always annoying, I used to work before I opened a bar."

"But I always felt, Merlin, that this thing seemed like just an introduction..."

"In the past, you and Hill would talk about some work things, but at that time, it was always Hill complaining, and you were listening, and you didn't seem to be a person who would affect your mood because of the little things at work."

Josie looked at Merlin, and the Russian aunt said as she wiped the table:

"It must be that you are not very happy in your heart, like a powder keg piled together, and you encounter this bad thing, a spark that falls into your heart, and then... Bang! ”

The bar owner made an explosive gesture.

Merlin pursed his lips, he looked at Josie, and he said:

"Wow, you're amazing, Josie, have you found out all this?"

"Hah, Merlin."

Josie snorted triumphantly, and she shook the waist of the bucket, and added another glass of wine to Merlin, and said:

"I've been dealing with all kinds of people for decades, and I can tell at a glance what you're thinking."

Merlin didn't respond to Josie again.

He's had a really bad time this time, the parchment reminder made him feel a kind of depression about to come, plus he and Fury had an argument today.

Indeed, as Josie said, I think it was a spark that detonated all the negative emotions in Merlin's heart during this period of time.

This is normal.

Merlin looked at the liquid that shook in his glass, in which he could see his own reflection, slightly distorted.

For nearly 40 years of his life, he has lived almost in a "game", he was born for this game, prepared for it, and thought about the end every day after guessing the truth.

And now, the endgame is coming.

In this case, if he is not nervous at all, it means that he has given up resisting.

Who is not nervous in the face of this fateful moment.

"I'll ask you for this wine."

Josie straightened up, crossed her waist and said to Merlin:

"Men over there in my hometown have a habit of drinking alcohol and letting the alcohol help them make decisions if they're scared, if they don't know what to do."

"Look at how good you look."

The barmaid knocked on the table, and she said to Merlin:

"Drink this glass of wine and fight like a man! You still have a few younger sisters and brothers at home waiting for you to come home, what's the matter with me! Drink it and get out! ”

"Good!"

Merlin craned his neck and drank down a glass of wine, he stood up, put a few coins on the bar, and said to Josie:

"I probably won't be here for a long time... I mean, if I can drink here next time, why don't I get rid of it? ”

"Give me some good luck, too."

"Okay."

Josie rudely gestured her middle finger to Merlin, and said:

"I'll charge you double the money for drinks next time."

"Hahaha"

Merlin smiled and shook his head, he pushed open the door of the bar and walked out.

At this moment, Icarus, who had remained silent, said:

"Alexander. Pierce sent a text message 10 minutes ago inviting you to come to his house for a sitting, supposedly with Project Insight and Nick. Fury related. ”

"Okay."

Merlin reached out and tugged at his collar, and he said:

"I'm going to look for him, too."

"Huh"

The light of the streetlamp distorted slightly, like a door open through a hole, and Merlin took a step forward.

The next second, he stepped into the living room of Pierce's mansion in Washington.

Pierce was sitting on the couch reading a book when Merlin's sudden appearance startled him.

The old man clutched his heart and glared at Merlin, and he said:

"Before you show up next time, please make a phone call to make me a little mentally ready? I'm in my 70s, and I'm scared to death from you guys one day. ”

"Don't say that."

Merlin moved his body, and he sat down on the couch and said to Pierce:

"You're still healthy, Pierce, you'll have a long time to live..."

"Don't comfort me."

Pierce put down the book in his hand, he waved his hand, and he said:

"I'm very open-minded, I'm not very afraid of death, I'm worried about other things, like, I heard, you had a fight with Fury today?"

"How do you know?"

Merlin looked at Pierce in amazement, and said:

"That's what happened in East Africa, did you old agent have an eyeliner in S.H.I.E.L.D., too?"

"What do you think?"

Pierce picked up the cane on his leg and said:

"It was Fury who called me and told me that he was a little overly verbal in the afternoon, and asked me to appease you... That guy just can't bear his face, as if his face is expensive. ”

"It's not a question of appeasing the uneasy."

Merlin shook his head, he looked at the old man Pierce, and he said:

"What I want to know is, about the reboot of the Insight program... Did you meddle? ”

"Me?"

Pierce shook his head calmly:

"I didn't, I went to Fury that day to do the scrapping process of Project Insight."

"But I don't know what he thinks, and suddenly I was told that maybe the Insight plan could be implemented..."

At this, the old man frowned, and he said to Merlin:

"That's not the point, the point is, Fury told me at the time that he would do a good job of communicating with you, but now it seems that he didn't tell you about it at all, right?"

"But that's not the only thing he didn't tell me."

Merlin looked at Pierce and said:

"Have you noticed that Fury has become a little since he was attacked by the Winter Soldiers..."

Pierce's eyelids twitched, but he asked without changing his face:

"You mean, Fury was brainwashed?"

"No, he didn't."

Merlin shook his head:

"During the afternoon quarrel, I took the opportunity to check that Fury's sanity was normal, and there was no sign of brainwashing or controlled thinking."

"But he's suddenly so extreme that I can't help but think in a worse direction."

"For example?"

Pierce asked:

"What's worse?"

"Like being replaced."

Merlin squinted his eyes and said:

"You haven't forgotten 1994..."

"Skrulls?"

Pierce's face changed dramatically, and he snapped his cane tightly, and he said:

"That's a serious accusation, Merlin, do you have any proof?"

"I didn't."

Merlin shook his head:

"That's the worst part, Skrull's soul changes with his body, and the Dementor Charm is hard to spot."

"Unless I kill Fury now and see if his body changes color, we won't be able to detect if he's the guy we know before."

"And if this terrible conjecture comes true, then what was Fury replaced?"

"Was it the time of the Winter Soldier attack? So was the Winter Soldier attack a game deliberately set up by the Skrulls in order to break into S.H.I.E.L.D.? ”

Merlin makes a series of assumptions:

"Is that Winter Soldier also a Skrull pretend, and most importantly, if Fury is a Skrull, then how many people in S.H.I.E.L.D. are real?"

"What is he doing when he reactivates Project Insight?"

"Say no more!"

Pierce reached out and covered his forehead, and he said:

"You're guessing... Even just thinking about it makes people's scalps tingle. ”

"Merlin, when did we first meet? Where? ”

Pierce asked suddenly.

Merlin blinked, and he said:

"The Panamanian embassy, the basement, you were tied up with the others, you were also punched twice by the rebels."

"Well, you're real."

Pierce rubbed his forehead, and where Merlin didn't see it, a glint flashed in his eyes, and he said:

"But what do we do now? If that Fury is fake..."

"Wait!"

A hint of coldness flashed in Merlin's eyes, and he whispered:

"Up to 1 more month... Carol will return from the stars! ”

"She has the ability to distinguish the Skruls, and this month is at Fury's mercy, if he is real, it naturally doesn't matter."

"But if he's fake, then let him gather all of his accomplices to S.H.I.E.L.D., a month later..."

"They..."

"Dead!"