Marvel: A Lazy-Ass Superman

Chapter 588 588: Wakanda Forever

Tony Stark spoke indirectly, which meant he had already known part of the truth and had guessed the portion the informant failed to mention.

Even though nobody had admitted anything and there was no evidence to prove the theory, once that missing piece was added, everyone's actions suddenly made sense.

And once again, Tony Stark had been used as someone else's weapon.

That left him thoroughly irritated.

Henry paid no attention to whichever new direction the young billionaire's fragile heart had cracked.

With his mouth stuffed full of potato chips, he mumbled,

"The last time I saw them, not a single one of them said izvini—or even 'sorry' in English.

"Even if I wanted to pretend to be magnanimous and forgive them, I couldn't.

"Besides, if apologies solved everything, we wouldn't need police officers or judges, would we?"

Tony's attitude had already softened somewhat, but he still opposed personally doing such dirty work.

"Do you really have to handle it this way? There's no other method?"

Through his glasses, Henry fixed him with a meaningful look.

"You'll understand eventually.

"Some problems belong to yourself. They shouldn't be handled by others, nor should others decide how you deal with them.

"I can let things go.

"But I won't let them go because someone tells me I have to."

Henry started toward the door, then suddenly stopped and looked back at the young billionaire, who still stood beside the desk with his back turned.

"Oh, by the way.

"Do you believe in magic?"

Will you end up becoming Iron Man... or the Sorcerer Supreme?

"Magic?" Tony scoffed. "That's not exactly a scientific term. Does it really sound appropriate coming from either of us?"

It didn't sound like an excuse.

Henry nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. I don't think it sounds very appropriate either."

So he had forgotten magic, yet still remembered who his enemies were.

When this guy snapped his fingers, what exactly had he wished for?

Henry suddenly felt a strong urge to pry open Tony's skull and take a look.

"Why are you asking?" Tony asked, his usual sharpness returning. He didn't believe Henry asked pointless questions.

"Because it was your question."

Henry answered honestly.

"You posted it on a message board sometime years ago. Though I have no idea whether the record still exists."

He had no intention of covering for whoever was operating behind the scenes.

If he claimed he felt no resentment toward Tony Stark—or Ancient One—for what had happened, he would be lying.

But this poor guy had been manipulated too.

In a sense, they were both victims.

There was no point taking his anger out on Tony.

Henry opened the office door.

Fortunately, there wasn't a crowd of people pressed against it eavesdropping.

Happy Hogan stood dutifully outside.

When the door opened, the increasingly broad-bodied bodyguard stepped aside.

Henry looked toward the restless dark-skinned secretary and said,

"Yulian, please handle my resignation paperwork.

"Everything in my office can be thrown away. If there's anything you like, feel free to keep it.

"Oh, and notify the IT department to deactivate my company account and permissions.

"And thank you for all your help during this time. You've been a huge help."

As a professional employee, Yulian Williams faithfully noted everything down.

But as she watched Henry walk away without even turning back, she suddenly called out:

"Boss! What about your paycheck for this month?"

"Donate it to UNICEF."

Henry stepped past the entourage Tony had brought and pressed the elevator button.

"Just don't give it to Wakanda."

That final muttered remark instantly drained the color from Yulian's face.

Forcing herself to remain calm, she said,

"Boss, what are you talking about? I don't understand."

"Haha."

Henry turned around and pointed at her with the hand holding his soda, wearing an expression that clearly said:

Got you.

Then he awkwardly crossed his arms over his chest while still clutching the giant bowl of chips.

It was the same greeting gesture he had once seen performed by Wakanda's representative to the United Nations when he accompanied Audrey Hepburn to a meeting.

That made Yulian even more flustered.

Yet her acting skills were excellent.

Pretending nothing had happened, she quickly organized her desk, grabbed a notebook, and said,

"Boss, I'll go notify the departments about your instructions."

Then she practically fled down the stairwell.

Chuckling to himself, Henry made no attempt to chase her or reveal any further secrets.

He simply waited for the elevator and stepped inside.

Outside the executive office, Happy Hogan looked toward his employer, who was now leaning against the desk.

The look in his eyes clearly asked whether he should stop Henry.

Tony Stark merely waved weakly.

Let him go.

There was far more going on beneath the surface than appeared at first glance.

Tony already had a headache trying to sort through it all.

What was the right thing to do?

For the moment, he couldn't untangle the chaotic web of clues and relationships.

As Henry left the Stark Pictures building, he found himself thinking about the dark-skinned secretary who had served him for so long.

Discovering that she was a Wakandan operative—possibly one of the legendary War Dogs—had happened entirely by accident.

Although the supercomputer Hollywood Kid officially belonged to Stark Pictures' IT department, the people who used it most were Tony Stark and Henry themselves.

By keeping track of when various departments required large amounts of computing power, they could treat all the remaining time as their personal playground.

Neither Henry nor Tony had any habit of leaving such a powerful resource sitting idle.

Besides the publicly known virtual machines listed under the IT department's management structure, both men secretly maintained additional virtual systems of their own.

They even hacked each other's systems from time to time, leaving little markers behind like dogs marking territory, just to see how long it took the other person to notice.

Now imagine a third—or even fourth—player suddenly joining the game.

Would that attract their attention?

Without question.

Of course it would.

And once they noticed, identifying the intruder became the obvious next step.

Most of the time, it turned out to be one of the company's own cybersecurity employees.

Sometimes someone simply triggered an alarm by accident.

Occasionally someone genuinely discovered one of the hidden systems.

Usually, Henry and Tony responded by deleting the compromised setup and building an entirely new one elsewhere.

It was all part of their ongoing game of hide-and-seek.

And if someone actually managed to keep up with their level of cyber warfare?

That would mean discovering talent on their level.

Naturally, such a person would deserve serious attention.

Unfortunately, most people couldn't even get through the firewall.

Until one day, a little mouse slipped inside.

Then slipped back out again without making a sound.

That immediately piqued both men's curiosity.

The third player thought they had concealed their digital footprints perfectly.

What they didn't realize was that Henry and Tony had watched everything from beginning to end.

This was an external hacker.

No destructive attacks.

Just sneaking in to look around—and perhaps stealing a few files.

After a lengthy investigation, they traced the IP address to a small nation in East Africa bordering Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and South Sudan:

Wakanda.

And the inside contact turned out to be none other than executive secretary Yulian Williams.

Only then had Henry used his X-ray vision and noticed a line of vibranium tattooed text hidden along the inside of her lower lip.

That had happened before the Sentinel War.

Since he had no reference material, he couldn't translate the writing.

But as far as he knew, there was only one country in the world that used secret vibranium tattoos.

And that country was Wakanda.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For 40 advanced chapters, visit my Patreon:

Patreon - Twilight_scribe1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~