Chapter 197: Arc 5: Chapter 40: Secret Mission

Merlin was currently standing in the waiting area in the airport, he wore his casual suit and had a pair of glasses, seeming to be very decent.

He was waiting for a guest, a friend, to be exact.

A young, pretty friend.

A large group of passengers with their luggage appears before Merlin as the signal for the flight arrival rings. But he didn't look, but still fixed his sight on his email.

In recent days, a group of vampires that had transmigrated from other areas has caused much restlessness in Greenwich Village in New York. Coulson and Melinda were on the scene to handle this sudden event and Merlin needed to be on watch in case they needed backup.

Speaking of which, vampires were quite the troublesome enemies to deal with in SDOLD's routine.

These night walkers were ill-tempered, excelled in night attacks, and were highly dangerous.

Most importantly, unlike the other irregulars that usually hide in the human world, vampires liked to gather and loved to develop their forces.

Yet there are plenty of foolish yet ignorant humans who would treat them as their 'masters' for various reasons.

During the multiple raids on vampires that were initiated by Merlin, what caused the most trouble were not the hidden vampires, but the vampire 'fans'.

Coulson even gave them a nickname, 'vampire fans'.

On one hand, they adored vampires.

On the other, after long exposure to vampires, the prolonged exposure to their negative energy would cause these people to become fanatics, many of which would imitate vampires drinking blood.

But the problem is that vampires needed to drink blood because their bodies lacked the function to create blood, and these vampire fans drank blood only to foolishly salute their masters.

"If this keeps up, the wizards will have to mobilize."

Merlin mumbles to himself while frowning:

"Looks like New York will have to undergo cleaning."

As he finishes, Merlin raises his head naturally to look at the young girl who tried to sneak up on him, he says softly with a gentle smile:

"Hi, Charlie."

Merlin raises his head and greets her at the right time like he had anticipated it, which in turn surprises Charlie, who was going to spook him.

In fact, As Merlin spread his dark senses outward, the movements of the young girl who tried to spook him were as loud as thunder.

In theory, he no longer needed to use his eyes to inspect and observe his surroundings.

"You scared me, Merlin!"

Charlie wore a white shirt and shorts, she had sunglasses on and had colored her hair blonde, showing off her perfect body.

She pats her chest while looking at Merlin, saying:

"It's been a month and you're still weird."

"I'm not weird at all, girl."

As Merlin spoke, he took Charlie's luggage and took the girl to the parking lot where his car was parked in.

"So, where will I be living while I'm going to Empire State University?"

Charlie follows behind Merlin and asks:

"Your home?"

"Didn't I say before? You'll be staying with my sister."

Merlin says:

"Did your parents agree to you transferring schools?"

"What can they do even if they don't?"

Charlie says so while stroking the somewhat exaggerating earring on her ear:

"The transferring procedure's been completed, and my parents can't wait for me to leave so they can spend some quality time together. You don't know this, but while my foster father is already 40 years old, he's still quite the 'romantic' person."

"Mmm, sounds like you have a bad relationship with him."

Merlin walks out of the elevator and says so casually:

"This isn't good, since he's still your family in theory."

"He's more fond of his own child, my brother...someone who likes to play mature."

Charlie seems to recall something and the corner of her lips curves up, Merlin did not miss her expression, and while she sounds like she dislikes her family, there were some good memories of her being with them.

"Wait."

As they approached Merlin's Ford, Merlin suddenly frowns and stops Charlie, as the young girl looked at him in confusion, Merlin says with a cold and disgusted face to the corner of the parking lot that's surrounded by darkness:

"I have a guest today and I don't want to get my hands dirty. I'll give you 5 seconds to scram!"

"Hiss"

An odd hissing sound resounds from the darkness. But as Merlin took off his glasses, the creature hiding in the darkness seemed to have realized Merlin's identity from his eyes and immediately flees the parking lot in a state of panic, leaving behind a maddened woman.

"What was that? Merlin."

Charlie sees the shadow and was frightened, immediately grabbing Merlin's hand and hiding behind him.

Merlin looks at her, shakes his head, and says:

"Don't you want to be a Bumblebee Knight? You're gonna need more guts if you want to fight alongside Bumblebee."

"I didn't!"

Charlie immediately retracts her hands and acts brave, but her trembling fingers still revealed her fear.

Merlin pulls the luggage forward while saying:

"A predating vampire."

"Vampire? Are there really vampires in New York? So the stories Mr. Coulson told me aren't just for bluffing?"

Charlie's eyes widen, as Merlin starts the engine and turns the steering wheel, she stares at the woman who was fainted in the corner of the parking lot through the rearview mirror and says with concern:

"Do we just leave her there? Won't the vampire come back to hurt her?"

"Relax."

Merlin says without turning back:

"They dare not to come back within a short time after my appearance."

"Are you that powerful?"

Charlie turns to look at Merlin and says:

'Are the vampires afraid of you?"

"Young lass, the ones scared of me in this city..."

Merlin chuckles and says:

"Aren't just vampires."

After dropping Charlie at his cousin's place in Queens, Merlin receives news from agent Hill just as he was about to go fetch Erik for a family meal.

Hill said that Fury had some important things he needed to tell him about.

Thus, Merlin could only bid farewell to his sister and Charlie, then gives Erik a call for him to drive to Queens. He promises May that he would drop by for dinner before driving his car all the way to SHIELD's office building.

"I came as fast as I could when I heard that you were looking for me. I must be destined to work without a single day off."

Merlin opens the door and enters Fury's office.

The busy director of SHIELD was currently lying on the table while writing something attentively. Merlin's arrival seems to have interrupted his thinking, which made him stare at Merlin dissatisfiedly.

Fury drops his pen, points to the chair in front of him, and tells Merlin:

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"Sit, I have a few things I want to talk to you about."

"Mmm, from your expression, it must be real troublesome."

Merlin walks to the water dispenser and pours himself a cup of water, he then sits on the chair and says to Fury while drinking his water:

"Alright, I'm listening."

"First off, the DoD agreed to give us the authorization to evaluate and monitor 'Sector Seven'."

Fury leans against his seat and says casually:

"I plan on conducting a raid evaluation there in the next few days."

"This is good."

Merlin was interested in what he heard, he tidied his clothes and asks:

"Where is that? And when will I leave?"

"Hoover Dam. But it won't be you."

Fury shakes his head, he takes a document from the cabinet behind him and gives it to Merlin. The latter takes it and frowns after a glance.

"You're transferring me to Afghanistan?"

Merlin looks at Fury:

"Why? This looks like an exile...did I offend you?"

"This is a kind of protection, Merlin."

Fury says with a headache:

"Pierce gave me some intel, the DoD is using a lot of connections to investigate you. It's clear that what you and your subordinates did in California had pissed them off, and they plan on court martialing you on illegal usage of nuclear weapons. This is a serious accusation, and once that ship sails, you'll be in a very bad spot."

"So you want me to run without fighting?"

Merlin's expression turns cold as he says:

"When I joined SHIELD, Fury, you told me that we were a team, I'll act and you'll clean up. My operation was perfect, but your clean-up this time is quite disappointing."

"This isn't a question about being scared or not, Merlin."

Fury knocks on the table:

"It's about whether or not it's worth it, you're 27-years-old, you're young, and are destined to climb further up the ranks. To act on something like this would only cause a lot of unnecessary trouble."

"The DoD took a heavy hit, and they have to vent their anger somewhere. Pierce took most of the pressure and made some compromisations to get the generals of the DoD to sit down and talk. He's done his part, and it's time for us to do ours."

Fury says softly:

"Also, you have to look further than the surface of things...I can send you to any place on Earth where the DoD can't touch you. But do consider why I'm sending you to Afghanistan."

"Mmm..."

Merlin's anger was only temporary, his mind quickly begins to spin as he calms down.

Soon, something that fit the situation popped into his mind.

"The CIA?"

Merlin asks:

"Keller told us some things back then, we've caught wind of the NSA's Project Monarch and the DoD's Sector Seven, what's left are some activities the CIA is conducting in Afghanistan...you want me to look into it?"

"Smart!"

Fury was satisfied with Merlin's sharp senses, he stands up, walks to the window, and says while looking at the view below:

"When Keller spoke of those secrets, I've been redirecting some of my power into tracking those secrets. Last month, NYPD intercepted a batch of odd drugs transported from the Middle East...do you know how those drugs of high purity made it through the customs?"

"For your attention to be attracted, I assume that it must be wicked."

Merlin says:

"Alright, stop playing the guessing game."

"Alright, you're quite impatient."

Fury turns to look at Merlin as he lowers his voice:

"The drugs were transported in corpses."

"Corpses?"

Merlin frowns, while he knew that great profits would make people lose their morality, this is such an inhumane method.

"Yes, corpses."

Fury lets out a face of disgust as he explains:

"Not just normal body transportation, the corpses were dug hollow and they..."

"Alright, stop."

Merlin interrupts Fury and says:

"I have to go have dinner with family tonight, so don't turn my stomach and just tell me what you found."

"What's important is that those corpses weren't just regular corpses."

Fury deepens his tone:

"They were brought back while being covered under the national flag."

"You're saying that they were public officials before death?"

"CIA agents that were sacrificed in Afghanistan?"

"Yes! Our peers."

Fury nods:

"This was discovered by a drunk warehouse security guard, if that security guard had not been drunk, then this event would never have been revealed. We can't estimate how much disgusting dead money they've made from this. The CIA immediately locked down the news once it got out, but I still found this through my sources!"

Fury takes something else from his drawer and gives it to Merlin.

Merlin takes it in his hand and finds it to be a medal-like item with a weird symbol on it.

Ten rings interlocked each other to form a bigger ring, two combat blades crossing each other were in the center, while there were characters Merlin did not understand in those ten rings.

This symbol was unfamiliar, but Merlin could be certain that it was the symbol of some secret organization.

The symbol gave off a feeling like it was from an association.

"This is?"

Merlin looks at Fury, who says:

"We found this in a warehouse in Brooklynn while searching through the predetermined drop-off spot for those drugs. Some of my experienced friends say that this symbol belongs to a mysterious organization in the Middle East..."

"A very powerful mystery group."

"And that is your mission. Merlin, find out what tricks the CIA are playing with that mystery group, find out what other deals they've made aside from drug dealing together!"

Fury squints his eyes and says:

"If that organization that was meant to protect us has fallen, then..."

"We'll be responsible to cause its rebirth!"

 

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