Getting Stronger in Marvel with Warhammer Simulator Chapter 444 443: The Original Vibranium Supply is Exhausted!

The ti dilation between the Warhamr universe and this one made it impossible to know how long the Carcharodons would need to produce results. Nolan had no way to check on the ten Gang Dogs he had sent through the portal, no way to accelerate whatever process Tyberos was running on the other end, and no productive use in standing in the rotunda thinking about it. He filed the matter under things that would resolve in their own ti and went back to work.

The servo robots removed his power armour in the base lobby, the familiar sequence of releases and separations that returned him to his own fra. He sat at the tal round table and opened the planning docunts David had been accumulating, the ongoing list of decisions that the organisation required him to make and that David had been staging in order of urgency. They worked through it together: the European bases and their maintenance schedules, the status of Imperial Heavy Industries' corporate infiltration program, the question of which Astartes Chapters the diplomacy page's new entries might make reachable.

Nolan had also been pushing small samples outward through the diplomatic system, Antarctic vibranium power swords among the items, testing which factions responded and in what ways. The Adeptus chanicus responses, when they ca, would be interesting. He was not looking forward to them in the way one did not look forward to a conversation that would be both necessary and exhausting.

He swiped through the simulator's support prayer page while David reviewed logistics. The Golden Throne's task rotation had completed its cycle and refreshed: a new set of Imperial pleas arrayed across the screen, the worlds in distress replaced by different worlds in different distress, the success rates uniformly grim. He noted several that fell within a combat scale his current equipnt and personnel could actually affect without requiring the entire organisation to stop everything else. Future options. He did not begin preparation for any of them imdiately.

"My lord." David's voice carried the particular quality it had when the matter was operational rather than philosophical. "One of our cargo and trading operations has encountered a problem."

Nolan closed the simulator page. "Where? Japan? The European installations?"

"Neither." The blue light in David's eyes shifted slightly. "Do you recall authorising Raditus to source original vibranium from the open market?"

"I do."

"Raditus delegated the acquisition work to . I located the only viable large-quantity supplier operating outside Wakanda's direct control: a black market dealer nad Ulysses Klaue. The initial approach went smoothly. I directed an Imperial Heavy Industries field team to make contact, agreed terms at twenty percent above market rate to ensure the transaction completed cleanly, and arranged for full paynt and collection." A brief pause. "Klaue has since changed the terms. He is now requesting a direct face-to-face eting with whoever is behind the purchase, rather than completing the transaction through interdiaries."

Nolan leaned back slightly. "Did you explain to him that this is not how black market transactions are conducted?"

"I explained it. I also demonstrated, as a point of emphasis, that I could remove every unit of currency from every account he holds, across every institution where he holds it, within approximately four minutes. He remained interested in the eting."

"Which ans he either knows sothing about us, or he wants sothing that money can't straightforwardly provide." Nolan considered it for a mont. "What's your read?"

"I believe he has made an educated inference about the buyers' identity. A black market operator of his experience would notice patterns in how Imperial Heavy Industries conducts its field operations. If he suspects what he is dealing with, he may believe a face-to-face eting offers leverage, or opportunity, that a simple transaction does not."

"Or he is simply reckless." Nolan stood up from the table. "Either way, the logic runs the sa direction. We recovered several complete brainwashing devices from the Hydra base. We have been looking for appropriate test subjects to assess their specific effects and calibrate the process before we use them for anything that matters." He looked down at David. "Klaue has volunteered himself for that assessnt by insisting on personal contact. Send the Thunderhawk. Bring him and the vibranium both."

He paused before sitting back down.

"And tell Raditus to stay away from the brainwashing equipnt until I say otherwise. No independent research. No curiosity projects. My order, not a suggestion."

David executed the instruction without requiring further discussion.

An unmanned Thunderhawk carrying the Thinker control system and two full Scyllax Guardian teams crossed the distance to the Indian Ocean in a direct flight. The operation from initiation to extraction took five hours. Ulysses Klaue was aboard an oil tanker that had been stationary in the sa position for long enough that it had beco effectively a permanent address, and the Scyllax Guardian-automata and the Thinker-directed systems made short work of the distinction between the tanker's rcenary security and anything resembling a defensible position.

Nearly two hundred kilograms of original vibranium ca off the tanker alongside its previous owner. David's research had established that this represented the majority of Wakandan vibranium currently circulating outside Wakanda itself. The total supply of material loose in the world was smaller than Nolan had expected when he first began looking for it.

Klaue arrived in the base lobby covered in the remnants of his rcenaries, which he had not had the opportunity to clean off, bound in the chanical grip of two Scyllax Guardian-automata. His eyes moved across the brightly lit space with the rapid assessnt of soone whose professional survival had depended on reading environnts quickly, and the assessnt, whatever it concluded, had not produced anything resembling calm.

Nolan was sitting at the round table with a cup of tea.

"Ulysses Klaue." He took a sip before continuing. "I understand you wanted to speak with directly."

"Strange friend, I want you to know that I had absolutely no difficult intentions here." The words ca quickly, the tone calibrated toward reassurance in the way that reassurance sounded when it was also desperate. "The vibranium, the price you offered: I was satisfied with all of it. The market for this material has been shrinking for years because Wakanda has been increasing its recovery operations. My inventory was going to move one way or another. I simply wanted to discuss terms in person. That is a reasonable business preference."

"So you have not made any inference about who we are."

Klaue's eyes moved briefly in a way that was not quite agreent and not quite denial. "If I tell you the truth honestly, will you consider letting walk away from this?"

"Tell the truth first."

"I knew nothing when my people made the initial contact." He took a breath that was not entirely steady. "When the robots ca aboard my ship and the situation developed the way it developed, I arrived at a conclusion. There is only one organisation currently operating that uses robots as its primary field force at that scale. The na that circulates in certain inford circles is the Guardians of Terra." The fear in his eyes had found its focal point now and was not moving off it. "I guessed correctly, yes?"

"You did." Nolan set down the tea. "David."

David stepped forward from his position near the wall.

"Take him through the brainwashing process. And remind Raditus that the equipnt is not to be touched without my explicit authorisation."

Klaue's composure, which had been holding on the structural minimum, failed completely at the sound of David's footsteps.

"Wait." The word ca out at significant volu. "I have sothing worth more than the vibranium. I know a route into Wakanda. A way to enter without triggering their detection systems. I also have verified identities on several Wakandans currently living in exile, people with useful connections and reasons to cooperate with outside parties. We could build sothing from that. I could be useful to you in ways that go well beyond one cargo shipnt."

Nolan looked at him for a long mont.

"I don't doubt that you believe all of that," he said. "But here is what I need you to understand: after the process is complete, you will tell us everything you know with complete willingness and complete honesty, and you will continue to be useful in exactly the ways you are describing, and the cooperation will be genuine because there will be nothing left in you that is not genuine." He held the man's gaze. "You ca here wanting to negotiate from a position of leverage. I am telling you that there is no leverage available, and also that the outco you are afraid of is not what you think it is."

He nodded once to David.

"Ulysses Klaue, welco to the team." Nolan picked up his tea again. "You are, in the sense that will matter shortly, entirely free."