Chapter 127: Arc 4: Chapter 15: Merlin’s New Partner

On the second morning, Merlin, as promised, came to SHIELD's headquarters located in New York.

The building's exact location is classified, and from its external looks, it didn't look like a secret organization, it instead looked like an ever-increasing high-rise office building.

And from what Merlin knew, SHIELD had 3 office buildings like this one located in New York alone.

Fury had always wanted to build a real headquarters of SHIELD around New York, but this was difficult.

Not counting the funds needed to build the new headquarters, Fury's proposal couldn't be easily passed by congress just from the fact that it was for a secret organization.

But things soon changed as they entered 1995.

Under Pierce's suggestion, SHIELD transformed from a national defense organization into an operations and logistics organization under the WSC.

This means that the organization Merlin worked in was slowly shifting from the shadows into the front stage.

Secret work became one of the new purposes of SHIELD, and for an international organization that's just been founded on the surface, it's perfectly normal for them to have their own office building in the busy New York, right?

And from some rumors Merlin heard of, Fury's proposal of a new headquarters was already being discussed in the congress, and it has a high chance of passing.

Supposedly Fury had even given the not yet to be seen new headquarters building a name.

He's going to call it the Trident Building.

Mmm...it's quite fitting for Fury's naming sense.

Of course, Merlin did not care about these things. It's been 3 years since he joined SHIELD, yet he's hardly worked in an office building.

From the day Merlin became an agent, he seems to be drifting outside of SHIELD's main structure.

Fury needs Merlin to help him handle some abrupt supernatural occurrences, and supernatural occurrences are known to be mysterious; the things that cannot be known by ordinary people are kept confidential, even Merlin's name is sealed inside those secret files.

Many staff members don't even know they had someone like that in SHIELD"s management team.

And the ones who truly know of Merlin's existence are quite interested in this mysterious level 5 agent.

You must know, the highest level agent of SHIELD was Nick Fury himself, and he was just a level 6 agent.

Merlin in his gray suit carried a handbag and wore frameless glasses, he looked like a young and promising senior salesman.

He walks into an elevator without drawing attention, and as the elevator doors closed, he takes out his ID card and swipes it on a hidden notch in the elevator. A green light bulb lights up on the elevator panel, and Merlin presses 6 times in a rhythm with his finger.

"Bang"

Following a light sound, the slowly ascending elevator immediately speeds up, and 40 seconds later, Merlin arrives on the 34th floor, near the top of the building.

"Ding"

A light sound and the elevator doors open.

A busy work scene appears before Merlin.

Men and women dressed in back uniforms were working on their work spots, they walked around holding documents or were typing on the keyboard.

In the conference rooms on both sides of the walkway, were ongoing meetings; on the large television hanging on the wall was a world map with several red spots, seemingly representing the events occurring across the world.

The morning sunlight shines into the open office area through the high-rise glass, revealing a busy work scene.

To be frank, Merlin's first impression of this place wasn't that of a secret organization, it felt more like a busy commercial company.

Merlin presses his glasses, he then walks into the office with one hand in his left pocket and right hand holding a handbag.

The suddenly appearing unfamiliar young man attracted the attention of these internal agents; many people were looking at Merlin as he walked by. A more cautious agent had picked up the phone. But as this agent prepares to dial a number, a pair of hands pressed on the dialer.

"Officer Merlin."

A voice resounds behind Merlin, the bald internal agent Jasper Sitwell shakes his finger at the cautious agent, tidies his clothes, then walks quickly towards Merlin.

The latter turns to look at him, a smile appearing on his calm face.

"It's been a long time, Sitwell."

"Mmm, indeed."

There was also an expression of reunion on Sitwell's face, he makes a 'please' gesture and says in a low tone:

"I don't see you here every day, sir. Please come with me, your office is straight ahead."

Sitwell gestures for the others to continue with their work, then he brings Merlin to the more quiet senior office area.

Merlin notices the badge on Sitwell's chest had changed, he says:

"You're a level 2 agent now?"

"Yes, I was promoted just last month."

Sitwell says:

"Thanks to you, I received a commendation from the internal system after participating in taking down Keller. Of course, I'm still a long way from you, sir."

"You can't say that."

Merlin shrugs and says to Sitwell:

"I may not come here every day, but I know promotion is slower for internal agents than field agents; you proved your abilities to be promoted so quickly. Speaking of which, Sitwell, I'm still lacking a helper, wanna try being a field agent again? I think you're quite suitable running across the world with me."

"Err, nevermind."

Though he knew Merlin was joking, Sitwell still instinctively stroked on his bald head; it seems he has quite the psychological shadow from the half-demon event last time.

After walking for a few minutes, he brings Merlin to an office near the window, on the door was the name 'Merlin Reilly', the title being 'special operations supervisor'.

Sitwell turns around and tells Merlin:

"This is your office, sir. It's been here for quite a while now, but you never dropped by; it's been idle, but don't worry, we have special people who clean up twice a week, so it's clean as new."

Merlin nods, he takes out his card and swipes it on the door lock, the office door then proceeds to open.

"Oh right, sir, I've received news from the director, your partners will come to your office a while later.

Sitwell looks at his wristwatch and reminds:

"In about 15 minutes."

"Mmm, alright, that's why I'm here today."

Merlin enters his office and says without looking back:

You are reading story The Path of Shadow in American Comics at novel35.com

"Go do your thing, Sitwell, I may leave around noon...to be honest, the atmosphere here sure is oppressive."

He complains like so while placing his handbag into the drawer.

Merlin reaches out and turns on the black computer in front of him, there was a lock interface on the screen, needing Merlin to type in his ID and password. This thing was allotted to him when he came on board, but for 3 years, he's hardly ever used it aside from his time in the office in the European branch.

It was now 1995, personal computers were being widespread, the newest edition computer in front of him was more advanced than the one he used in the European branch.

He first opens the mailbox as earlier this morning, agent Hill had sent him a revised report on Monarch.

Merlin clicks to open the report and gets a cup of cold water from the water dispenser nearby, he then proceeds to read the revised report while drinking his water.

Like Fury had reminded, this originally evident and photo-filled report has been revised into a big and general, plausible article.

In the report which Hill wrote herself, she only expressed a hint of 'secret' in some vital areas; this article uses the exaggeration of some external truths about Monarch and Project Monarch along with some outdated secrets guide normal people away from the true core fact.

All information about Rodan, Kong, and Skull Island was nowhere to be seen on the report.

Godzilla had become widely known by the people due to it withstanding the Kree's dismantling ray not too long ago, so this mysterious beast could not be easily ignored.

Hill simply and directly pastes the Lawton incident during WWII, as well as the truth behind the nuclear tests in Bikini Atoll to prove Godzilla's existence; then she uses a long speech to persuade the security representatives, to make them believe that Monarch had always grasped Godizlla's activities.

Anyways, Merlin spent 10 minutes reading this report and he found it to be perfect.

Agent Hill's writing ability far exceeds Merlin's, and she perfectly finished Merlin and Fury's new requests on the report in just a night's time.

This made Merlin feel as though there was nothing for him to revise or suggest.

So he contemplates for a moment and replies to Hill an email; on it were five simple terms:

"Good job! Keep it going!"

And as Merlin finishes writing the email, a rhythmic door knocking sound resounds in the office.

"Come in!"

Merlin leans against his office chair and shouts softly.

Then, a familiar face appears in front of him.

Phil Coulson in a black suit holds a document bag and enters the office with a slight uneasiness, and as he saw Merlin sitting on the office chair, the young man with a slightly high hairline was stunned.

Merlin was also stunned.

He never could've imagined that the new partner Fury had assigned to him was Phil...

It was his former* brother.

After the end of the Kree event, Merlin had been consciously keeping his distance from Phil, as he's worried he may implicate Phil into the dangerous work he was now doing.

He was planning to give Fury a suggestion to place Phil into the internal system, let him do some logistics and management like Sitwell. Yet he did not know Phil would stubbornly choose the future of becoming a field agent and mobile expert.

This made Merlin slightly angry, but it also made him slightly apprehensive; was this a coincidence, or did Fury discover the potential connection between him and Phil?

Logically speaking, this shouldn't be...he hid it so well and he had never disclosed the existence of the COulsons' family.

But Merlin could not get angry now, nor could he reject his new helper.

Because there was another newbie right behind Phil.

It was a young female with black hair and was about 170 cm tall. Her face looked partially Eastern, she had short hair and wore a black suit just like Phil, looking to be very capable.

But those smart eyes of hers meant that this was a newbie with great ideas.

She was like Phil, holding a document bag while contemplating her new superior with a curious gaze.

"Are you not going to introduce yourself?"

Merlin holds a pen in his hand and taps on the table. His eyes behind his glasses turn sharp as he contemplates the two young people in front of him like an interviewer.

He acted like he didn't know Phil at all.

But Phil did not panic, he glances at the girl next to him, the two seemed to be friends that have known each other since the academy. The girl nods and Phil, like she was encouraging him.

Phil takes a deep breath and places the document in his hand on Merlin's table, he then takes a step back and starts introducing himself.

"Hello, Officer Merlin, my name is Phillip J. Coulson. I'm from..."

Merlin on the surface seemed to be listening to Phil's introduction attentively, but he was contemplating on Phil's fate in his mind.

As one of the few level-5 agents in SHIELD, he had the authority to reject Phil's onboarding, he also was confident in persuading Fury to transfer Phil to clerical work.

But doing so was risky, as Fury would suspect his motives behind this since he knew clearly how much of a shrewd and hard-to-deceive soul was under Fury's appearance.

Secondly, with his understanding of Phil, even if he dismisses him, Phil would still find other ways to become a field agent. He has had this stubborn character hidden beneath that always smiling appearance of his ever since he was young.

Man is like so, the more you reject him, the more he'll want to prove himself.

So rather than letting Phil go under someone else's wing, he should keep him next to himself.

In this way, it'll be much easier for him to protect and train him.

The expression in Merlin's eyes changes as he seems to have made up his mind.

He reaches out and knocks on the table, interrupting Phil's self-introduction; he raises his head, looks at Phil, and says simply:

"Alright. Welcome to my special team, Phil Coulson."

"Now, ask the lady next to you to introduce herself...what's your name?

The girl who sat on the side was also surprised as she never thought that Merlin would ask her so directly, but she soon gets up and replies in a calm and crisp voice:

"Sir, I'm May, Melinda May."

"Mmm, talk about your experiences."

Merlin picks up Melinda's file while listening to her introduction.

But the expression in his eyes changes as he takes a glance. On Melinda's file, there was a name he was very familiar with in the recommender's field.

Peggy Carter!

This girl...she's personally recommended by Peggie Carter just like him and Fury!

This made Merlin evermore curious, what exactly is the background and identity hidden behind this young and lively girl?

You can find story with these keywords: The Path of Shadow in American Comics, Read The Path of Shadow in American Comics, The Path of Shadow in American Comics novel, The Path of Shadow in American Comics book, The Path of Shadow in American Comics story, The Path of Shadow in American Comics full, The Path of Shadow in American Comics Latest Chapter