"Are the robots you created operational now?"
Striding into the cave, Shiller posed his question to Stark. His serious expression stifled Stark's curiosity. As Stark was about to reply, Shiller cut him off with hurried words, "The anti-governnt bases around here have been bombed, it's not safe here anymore. Locals are organizing an evacuation."
"If you're planning to leave, now's the best chance. You can use your robot to hijack a supply truck. Drive south until you reach the governnt military base, they'll send you back to Arica."
Having said that, Shiller began to tidy up the cave. Stark stood frozen in place. As Shiller bent down to pick up his coat, Stark caught a glimpse of a gun barrel pointed at him from the corner of his eye.
"Who the hell are you?" Stark asked Shiller, staring him down.
Shiller released his grip on the coat, slowly straightening his body. His hands hung at his sides as he replied, "I've already told you, I am not your savior, nor your friend."
"Answer my question, Doctor Shiller." Stark's eyes never left Shiller's, concealed behind the gun's sight.
"Do you think this will work?" Shiller took a small step forward, causing Stark to retreat a step backward, despite the firearm in his hand. Shiller cocked his head to the side, a small smile playing on his lips, "Did soone tell you sothing?"
"Answer !" Stark bellowed.
"I'm an assassin, my job is to kill you, so can you put the gun down and cease this pointless struggle?"
Shiller's tone was so placid that Stark couldn't discern whether he was joking or being serious. However, he was sure that the small pistol in his hand, loaded with only two bullets, might not be fatal to Shiller even at such close range. If Shiller was telling the truth, his life was in grave danger.
"Then why didn't you just kill at the start?"
"You've beco rather annoying." Shiller turned his back to collect his coat, ignoring Stark's enraged queries. He muttered to himself, "But if you don't want to go back to Arica then quickly pack your stuff, we are retreating with the main forces."
Stark slowly lowered his gun returning to his workbench beckoning a robotic arm to rise from the pile of scrap with the flick of a switch.
With a clanking sound, an arm erged from the rubble. As the robot surfaced, scarlet light flickered in its eyes.
Shiller turned back to watch as the large robot slowly rose from the pile of scrap. The cave, which seed enormous to humans, was a bit cramped for the robot. It could only kneel, extending its arm towards Stark.
Stark turned back to Shiller, "Regret not killing sooner, eh?"
Shiller's eyes lit up as he carefully examined the massive robot, from head to foot. His focused gaze reminded Stark of a child examining a toy robot on the shelf of a shopping mall.
Suddenly, Shiller turned his gaze towards the mouth of the cave.
"We need to move, we're out of ti." In a flurry of activity, Shiller gathered his belongings. Stark also had to quickly pack so important equipnt. He glanced back at the giant robot he'd created before following Shiller to the mouth of the cave.
"Are you planning to leave it here?"
"I can start it up whenever I need to. It can fly and is much faster than you'd imagine."
Shiller turned to him, "You can try using it to kill , and everyone here."
"I'm not you, I'm not an assassin."
The two n left the cave one after the other. They were t by the local nad Big Beard who glanced at Shiller, then Stark before waving them towards a truck without uttering a word.
Shiller sat in the driver's seat, with Stark as the co-driver. As soon as he settled in the seat, Stark turned to Shiller and asked, "Are you a Hydra? I thought that antique organization had been eradicated a long ti ago."
While keeping an eye on the bombing planes in the sky and maneuvering the steering wheel, Shiller replied, "Every terrorist organization in this world has a longer lifespan than you'd imagine."
"What is actually happening?" Stark looked at the smoke rising from the missile explosions in the distance, "The governnt forces, the anti-governnt forces, the U.S. military, Hydra, rcenaries, what are they all doing here?"
Preoccupied with driving, Shiller turned to glance at Stark, but said nothing.
Stark slamd a fist against the car window, amplifying his voice to shout, "You can't keep in the dark about everything, it makes feel like I'm responsible for sothing!"
"Shut up." Shiller squinted as he turned his gaze out the opposite window.
Suddenly, the sound of grenade launchers pierced the air from outside the window. Shiller sharply twisted the steering wheel, causing Stark's head to smash against the window glass.
Half-blinded by blood, Stark still managed to look in the direction of Shiller's gaze. He saw a familiar insignia—the symbol of Erik's rcenary corps.
Several jeeps and pickup trucks were chasing their vehicle, appearing to overtake and intercept them. Shiller forcefully changed gear and floored the accelerator — the truck sped away at full throttle.
"What the hell is going on? Why are they chasing us?!" Stark clutched his throbbing forehead in his hand.
"Can't you keep quiet for a mont?!" For once, Shiller raised his voice, shouting at Stark.
"But I fucking want to know what's going on!! Tell !! Or else I will haunt you in hell!!!"
Shiller drove in silence, soon shaking off the pursuers. About twenty minutes later, he suddenly hit the brakes. Stark almost knocked out his front teeth as he jerked forward. He looked up to find the vehicle at the ledge of a cliff, surrounded by dense forest and steep cliffs.
The distant rumble of thunder echoed around them. The low-hanging, dense gray clouds signaled the approach of a heavy rainstorm.
Shiller and Stark got out of the car and ran swiftly towards the side of the cliff. As he ran, Stark remarked, "We can't keep going on like this, I'll call Iron Wall 1 over."
"No need, follow ."
Shiller quickly led Stark through the mountains, and they soon reached the other side of the vast cliff. Brushing aside so shrubs, Stark saw a familiar military symbol on the cliff face - a large laboratory door.
Shiller operated a control panel, and the door quickly opened. He stepped inside and beckoned Stark, who hesitated before following him in.
Then he discovered that this was an abandoned base. Wherever he looked, there was nothing but sand and dust. The furniture - tables and chairs - was strewn haphazardly on the floor, and there were suspicious bloodstains on the walls.
"Where is this?"
"An abandoned lab." Shiller pulled up a chair and sat down, with Stark settling opposite him.
"You can tell what's going on now, right?"
"They want your brain."
Stark was stunned.
"Who?" he asked, taken aback.
"Everyone."
"Soone disclosed that you're still alive," Shiller said succinctly. "The public thinks you're dead, with the terrorists in Afghanistan taking the bla for your death. But if you're actually still alive, it ans they can kidnap you without bearing the responsibility, and they can get you."
Stark took a mont to understand what Shiller was saying. But once he did, he realized that these individuals' intentions were no different from those of the terrorists.
In simple terms, kidnapping or killing Tony Stark would trigger an imnse pressure that almost no one in the world could handle, because Stark represents a class.
If soone dared to violently assault the world's biggest capitalist, then the rest of that class would never let the perpetrator go unpunished. They'd make sure the culprits suffered a miserable death as a deterrent to ensure their own safety.
But in the current situation, the known culprits are the terrorists in Afghanistan. The Stark Group and other capitalists have begun retaliating, which verifies the societal death of Tony Stark.
This ans that Stark now has no social value, only his genius brain. If they manage to kidnap him, they could control him and make him work for them for life, all without paying any price, since a man can't die twice - the Afghan terrorists had already paid their dues.
Stark stared at Shiller and said, "So they all aim to kidnap ?"
Shiller looked at him without uttering a word. Stark sighed lengthily, looking upwards as he said, "Alright, Stark is just so popular, the world's most sought-after party star, huh?"
"Wait." Stark suddenly realized sothing. "Who leaked the news that I'm still alive?"
"It can't be the terrorists, they're still expecting to make weapons for them. They wouldn't voluntarily attract others to snatch ."
Just as Stark thought about asking whether Shiller was behind it, Shiller stared at him with an expression that read 'you idiot.' Stark then realized that Shiller was also one of the people who'd made contact with him, and he was a winner too, just like the terrorists. There was no need to bring in competitors.
At that mont, Erik's worried face flashed across his mind, and Stark's facial features contracted. He muttered to himself, "I knew sothing was off. If he couldn't understand what I was trying to do, then he's not a hero. If he's not a hero, why did he insist on taking away?"
Imdiately after, Stark rembered that Shiller had ntioned that the rcenaries were doing the army's dirty work and might represent the military in hunting him down.
Connecting this to the screams he'd heard over Erik's radio, he realized that the rcenary organization Erik belonged to had been silenced. But who did it? And why? If the news of Stark still being alive was spread by Erik, it all made sense. The army wasn't trying to silence the entire rcenary organization, but Erik himself.
Erik was the one who'd told the army about Stark's survival; if Erik knew, the military would know that Stark was alive. Only with Erik dead could the army claim ignorance.
"Have you heard of The Ten Commandnts?" Shiller suddenly asked.
Stark was slightly taken aback. After racking his brain for a mont, he shook his head. Shiller lowered his head to adjust his trouser leg and said, "Do you rember when you let those locals look for the Stark Group's missile?"
Stark nodded, and Shiller continued: "There weren't many bombed areas, even fewer saw combat. They followed the tire tracks of the car you'd driven and found a place where there were fragnts of Stark Group missiles."
"That's where I was attacked the first ti!" Stark exclaid anxiously. "Did they find an intact missile? Did they bring it back?"
"They no longer need an intact missile." Shiller took an object from his jacket pocket and handed it to Stark.
Stark was startled by the strange texture when he accepted the object. Looking down, he saw it was a piece of human skin with a tattoo.
"This is The Ten Commandnts' tattoo. The Ten Commandnts kidnapped you."
"So, who ordered them to do it?"
"The Ten Commandnts is a group that's often active in the border areas of Asia; they have bases in Afghanistan and xico."
"xico..." murmured Stark, his head bowed as he examined the tattoo. He closed his eyes in distress for a mont then opened them to say, "Obadiah... before I ca to Afghanistan, Obadiah went to xico twice, even though we had no business dealings there."
But Shiller changed tack, shocking Stark as he said, "Yes, but their attacks were unsuccessful, and the second ti, you were attacked by Hydra, or to put it another way, ."
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