Chapter 126: Arc 4: Chapter 14: Merlin’s Evaluation Report

"Ah, finally back in human society."

In the lounge of an airport in Bangkok, Merlin finishes the Coke in his hand, moves his shoulders, and lets out a satisfied groan.

He says to agent Hill next to him:

"Dorris, get me another cup."

Agent Hill didn't refuse, she obediently takes the cup from Merlin's hand; moments later, another cup of coke with ice is delivered to his hand.

"What's up with you?"

Merlin takes the coke, he then notices the expression on agent Hill's face and asks:

"Are you unwell? Or are you unhappy? The mission's over, we've come back to the city from the isolated area, shouldn't you be happy?"

"No, no, sir."

Agent Hill sits next to Merlin, brushes her hair, and says with slight disappointment:

"I just feel like I haven't been of much help during this mission. Officer Fury sent me here to assist you, but you did all the work yourself. Maybe I'm just not a qualified agent."

"Mmm?"

Merlin with his baseball cap takes a sip of the cool coke, he leans on his seat and looks at the descending and ascending planes outside the window, saying softly:

"I'm not that good at comforting people, Dorris...Hill."

"But I do know one thing, when doing any job, regardless of how much preparations you've made beforehand, you'll always make a mistake when you put it into practical use. Some mistakes aren't much, but others are lethal."

"Not to mention that you're currently undergoing one of the most difficult jobs out there."

Merlin says:

"Your performance this time is somewhat lacking. I was hoping that could acquire more information from Vivienne, but clearly, you're not as astute as that scheming girl."

"Fury asked me to take you along is probably for you to personally experience what the daily life of an agent is like. I learned in the academy before, I know what the atmosphere there is like...restlessness of young people, stupid self-confidence to be a hero, childish expectations for the future; I know it all too well."

"But in reality?"

Merlin looks at Hill next to him and says:

"In reality, the life of an agent is indeed wonderful, you've seen Rodan, the strange views of Skull Island, those creatures, etc. But there aren't that many dangers in the world waiting for us to change, there aren't that many madmen hellbent on destroying the world either."

"Collecting data, organizing data, flying across the world, conversing with different people, disguise, cheat, and threaten when necessary. This is our daily life, it's slightly boring, but occasionally we get surprises."

Merlin finishes the coke in his hand, he stands up and pats on the girl's shoulder, saying:

"Change your mood, think about your gains and losses over the past few days, and prepare to work alone. Fury has very high expectations for you, perhaps he values you the most in this term of newbies."

"Don't disappoint him."

As he finishes, Merlin casually throws the cup in his hand without looking, and the cup accurately lands in the trash can nearby.

He picks up the suitcase, pulls his cap down, and says to Hill:

"Come on, it's time to board."

"Fury's still waiting for us."

"By the way, they'll be an evaluation report in Washington tomorrow afternoon, the powerful elderly men and ladies of the WSC desperately wish to know the inside story and safety evaluation of Monarch...I'm not an expert in these kinds of things, so you'll be responsible for this meeting."

"Any problems? Agent Maria Hill."

"No problems! Sir!"

Hill straightens her body and says seriously:

"I won't let you down this time!"

---

Later that night, in New York Hell's Kitchen.

A taxi stops outside of Merlin's house, Merlin in a gray casual suit exits the cab with his suitcase. He takes out his wallet and hands the cab driver a dollar note, he then says:

"Can you lower the volume of the music next time?"

On the way here, this Indian had been talking while playing music from India loudly, it gave Merlin a headache and made him want to strike him from behind.

But he ultimately resisted the urge to do so since he's such a steady driver.

"Alright, sir."

The young Indian driver makes a hand gesture to Merlin, he hands Merlin a name card and says with an accent:

"If you still need taxi service next time, sir, you can call this number, I'll come to pick you up as fast as I can."

"Oh? Do cab drivers offer such services now?"

Merlin talks with the young driver for a short while before seeing him off, Merlin glances at the name card and sees the young driver's name on it.

"Dopinder? Odd name."

Merlin shakes his head, he wanted to throw the name card into the trash can, but eventually, he placed it back into his pocket.

Merlin takes out his keys and looks at the house he had not seen for so long, along with the messy garden that hasn't been tidied for a long time.

But then, Merlin senses a figure moving in the dark room in front of him.

This made him stop opening the door, he then vanishes into the night.

"Pa"

In the dark room, something cold is suddenly held against Nick Fury's neck, causing him to instinctively raise his hands.

Fury guessed who was behind him and says in a low tone:

"You came back a little late...I've been waiting here for nearly 30 minutes."

"I headed over to my cousin's place, she was frightened by the Kree bastards' invasion before.

Merlin turns on the lights and throws the canned beer to Fury, he also opens a can for himself; he leans against the wall and looks at Fury who was cutting the sausage, he says:

"You plan on making a midnight snack here? Why not eat back home?"

"Nobody's home."

Fury places the cut sausage onto the heated bread and takes a bite, while chewing, he turns to look at Merlin and says:

"My wife's gone traveling, and I've nowhere else to go after work."

"Alright."

Merlin glances at the black eye-patch on Fury's left eye, he sits back onto the chair, takes out a few documents from his suitcase, and places them on the table, saying:

"Although I believe you're here because you have something troublesome to trouble me with, yet I have no proof...take a look at this first."

Merlin points at the documents and says:

"I believed I should let you see all the inside story I've collected on Monarch before showing them to the bigshots."

Fury did not refuse, he quickly finishes the bread, wiped his hands, then sits on the chair.

He flips and reads the shocking images and documents, Merlin could feel Fury's changing mood and attention. It would seem that these things gave him quite a shock too.

And as the two had a night talk, a flapping sound resounds from the window behind Merlin. Merlin looks back and sees an orange cat with a silver collar lying by the window, it stared at him with its yellow eyes while flapping the closed window with its tail.

Merlin waves his hand and the closed window is opened by invisible mana, the orange cat Goose leaps into the room, straightens its tail, and swiftly runs to Merlin; it then rubs its head against Merlin's leg in an act of humbleness and welcome.

Merlin holds Goose in his arms, he takes out a small piece of oddly-shaped bone he had picked up from Skull Island and places it next to Goose's mouth.

The fantastic beast disguised as an orange cat sniffs the bone, and like it had found a new toy, it reaches out and tightly grasps the bone.

A dozen minutes later, Fury finishes reading the first document; he lifts his head and sees the orange cat that was playing with a bone in Merlin's arms. Fury then acts like he had seen some kind of horrifying monster.

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"Mo********er!"

He abruptly takes a step back and instinctively covers his left eye, he then screams at Merlin:

"Hey! Get that thing away from me!"

"What?"

Merlin raises his head and looks at Fury, he puts Goose on the table, grabs its paws, then waves them around like he was playing a game with it. He says to Fury while wearing an odd smile:

"Why? See how cute it is. Right? Goose, look at how cute and well-behaved you are."

The orange cat which was in a good mood after getting a new toy meows as if it's assenting with what Merlin had said. But Fury was one of the few people to know Goose's true identity, he looks at the small cat with caution and a hint of fear, he says:

"For real! Don't joke, Merlin! That thing is dangerous...my eye is proof, hurry up and get it away! I want to talk to you about something!"

"Alright."

Merlin places Goose onto the ground, he pats on its head then says to it:

"Be nice for the time being, I'll go buy the cat food you like in a few more days...now go back to your room and nap."

Goose the cat meows, it then bites on its new bone toy and quickly rushes up to the second floor like it understood what Merlin had said. Young Erik had specially made a cozy cattery for Goose on the balcony of the second floor.

Seeing Goose leave, the frightened Fury returns to his seat.

He looks at Merlin and says:

"You actually get along well with that kind of creature..."

"If you ignore the terrifying characteristics, Goose is quite easy to get along with."

Merlin lights a cigar lazily and says:

"This guy's living with me now, my cousin and young Erik like it very much. And before Carol left, she told me that the Flerkerns are cat-like creatures that protect their nest actively...so what I'm trying to say is, the next time you drop by, it best be when I'm around."

He glares at Fury who liked to be mysterious and warns:

"I don't want to collect your corpse from cat poop when I come back."

"Speaking of which..."

Fury looks at Merlin and asks in a low tone:

"You and Carol? Are you two?"

"When did you get so gossip?"

Merlin did not want to talk about this, as the smoke arises, he says softly:

"We're just friends with the same experience."

"Alright, enough of this."

Fury shrugs, he points at the document in front of him and says to Merlin:

"Some things need to be deleted from these documents."

"Delete what?"

"All the detailed research data and results on ancient titans, including the location of Skull Island and Isla de Mona, delete them all!"

Fury picks up a blurry picture and tells Merlin:

"Only these blurry, ambiguous pictures like this one can stay."

"Mmm?"

Merlin frowns, he says to Fury:

"I thought you would want the WSC to know to whole truth?"

"No, what they need isn't the truth."

Fury says softly:

"What they need is peace of mind, they need the feeling that everything is under control and not these things that cause chills to run down their spines just by reading them. You would frighten the bigshots if you simply handed this to them like this."

"More importantly, Merlin."

Fury knocks on the table and says to Merlin:

"The representative seats of the WSC aren't life-tenured, and these things will eventually be shown to the representatives that will ultimately be replaced; do you think they can guard this secret?"

Fury picks up the second document and tells Merlin:

"5 life-tenured directors, they'll be the ones to see the whole truth. In fact, if we want to keep something a secret, the best way to do so is to make sure as few people know of it as possible."

Under the not-so-bright light, Fury's voice becomes lighter as he continues:

"Secrets are always leaked due to foolishness, I've seen too many of such cases. The idiots know a secret then they start acting like a pregnant woman...desperately trying to spit out the secret. The secrets kept in their heart make it difficult for them to sleep at night."

"Alright."

Merlin nods and says:

"I'll contact Hill to edit the report."

"Talk about Hill."

Fury raises his head and looks at Merlin with his remaining right eye, he says:

"How'd she perform?"

"She's passable for now."

Merlin shrugs:

"But she's self-motivated and is a quick learner, she has a special talent, and she can become the qualified helper you need with hearty cultivation."

"Mmm, very good."

Fury nods, he keeps the two documents in his suitcase and looks down at his watch, he then says to Merlin:

"I won't occupy you for long then. COme to the office building tomorrow, your new office has been vacant for far too long."

"Oh, right, I've assigned you two new helpers. At the same time, you'll have to act as the two newbies' supervisor until they become qualified field agents; for the time being, you'll keep in touch with Monarch. I'll contact you when there's a new mission."

Fury stands up, pats on Merlin's shoulder, and says:

"Take a good rest."

"Wait, Fury."

Merlin stops the leaving Fury, he says to his superior:

"I may have to take a long vacation this July, I'm telling you this beforehand."

"A long vacation?"

Fury asks in confusion:

"Where are you going?"

"To deal with some personal matters."

Merlin lets out a breath:

"It's time for me to return what I borrowed from someone else."

 

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