Capítulo 12: Discovery

If Miss Stark hadn't developed this special synthetic fabric beforehand, she would have had to wrap herself in thick, bulky clothing to venture into the far north. That cumbersome polar expedition gear was nothing like the lightweight jacket she wore now. It wasn't just lightweight; it was self-heating, cold-resistant, windproof, waterproof, and even bulletproof. What better clothing choice could there be?

Indeed, one could say that technology is the primary productive force—but right now, what mattered most was the task at hand. The main body of the Valkyrie bomber was encased in ice-cold seawater, sealing off the cockpit as well. Fortunately, the bomber's wingspan was long enough that, despite most of it being submerged in ice, part of it remained exposed.

The metal wings, covered in snow, blended in with the surroundings so well that it was nearly impossible to distinguish them from the environment. It's no wonder no one noticed anything amiss here; even standing in front of the wing, it would be hard to recognize its metal structure. If it weren't for the scanning equipment installed on the Quinjet behind her, Miss Stark would have spent more time searching for it.

First, she used the cutting equipment on the disaster relief robot to slice through the wing and the ice covering it. What was revealed was an air pocket, isolated by the wing's internal structure. Seawater had flooded in, but the upper part of the wing was sealed, so the air trapped there formed a chamber.

This made Miss Stark's task easier. She immediately set up a laser cutter to melt the ice and climbed inside. The Valkyrie bomber, a doomsday weapon built by Hydra, was terrifyingly large. Even the peripheral areas inside the wing were spacious enough for Miss Stark to move around freely.

Beneath her feet lay seawater frozen for over seventy years, and the light inside the wing was poor, with the area below shrouded in darkness. Reluctantly, she left the laser cutter in place and pulled a light cable from the robot outside.

The disaster relief robot had been equipped with high-powered searchlights for nighttime operations. Once the searchlight was brought inside, it illuminated the pitch-black interior of the wing, revealing something eerie beneath her feet—several corpses dressed in black military uniforms, encased in the ice.

Blond-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian men, soldiers of the Third Reich, though they bore not the Iron Cross but the silver Hydra emblem. They were Hydra agents, likely frozen to death, for not everyone had the superhuman constitution of Steve Rogers.

The scene was a bit eerie, even a little creepy, but Miss Stark wasn't too fazed by it. After all, they were just a bunch of dead men. Even if they were to come back to life, it wouldn't be much of a problem for her.

"Jarvis, help me focus. I'm about to set up the laser cutter," she instructed.

With Jarvis's assistance, she completed the setup of the ice-melting laser cutter in just a few minutes. Miss Stark didn't want her laser to melt through the bomber's hull and cause it to be flooded with seawater. This required precise angles and limited power, ensuring that the laser would stop upon reaching the cockpit.

Fortunately, Jarvis could adjust the laser cutter's settings in real time based on sensor feedback, so the task wasn't difficult. The cutter's front end opened like an octopus's tentacles, slowly rotating as it emitted comb-like orange-red lasers. The eight laser beams rotated with the device, gradually melting the old ice in front of it into water.

Nothing could withstand the lasers for more than a few seconds—not ice, not metal, not even the bodies. After about four or five minutes, the laser cutter finally came to a halt, leaving behind a smooth, one-meter-wide ice tunnel. The melted ice water had refrozen on the remaining ice, making the tunnel exceptionally smooth.

"Structural integrity is at 98%. You may proceed safely, Miss," Jarvis's voice came through the Bluetooth earpiece.

Miss Stark nodded lightly, acknowledging his message. Outside, the disaster relief robot had extended four anchors to firmly secure itself to the ice. She clipped the climbing rope from the robot onto her belt, tested its tension, and slowly descended into the ice tunnel.

The bomber was tilted in the water, so the tunnel wasn't steep, but the wingspan was so long that she would need the climbing rope to pull herself back up. The laser had melted not just the ice but also the structural steel inside the wing and even some bodies.

As Miss Stark slid down the tunnel, she glanced at one of the bodies, wrinkling her nose in disgust. One of the corpses had been in the laser's path, and half of it had been cleanly vaporized. Fortunately, everything inside was frozen solid, so there wasn't any blood to spill; otherwise, it would have been quite disgusting.

Following the laser-cut passage, Miss Stark made her way down, flashlight in hand, heading toward her destination. The tunnel opened up into the midsection of the bomber's wing, where she saw a lot of scattered debris. It was clear a fierce battle had taken place here.

She took a few seconds to tear her gaze away from a storage cabinet filled with energy weapons lining the walls. What blocked her path now was the door to the cockpit—a thick door, which wasn't the real obstacle. The real challenge was the solid ice filling the cockpit.

The battered cockpit couldn't keep out the seawater, and after seventy years, the water inside had long since frozen solid. However, the man wrapped in tattered battle attire was lying just a short distance from her feet, encased in a thick layer of ice.

"Damn it, this structure makes it impossible to locate the Tesseract," Miss Stark muttered, her face showing frustration as she looked at the ice wall blocking her path.

She had come here not only to find Captain Steve Rogers but also to retrieve the bomber's energy source. "Then again, I don't even know if the Tesseract is still on this aircraft," she mused.

Miss Stark hadn't found any records of the Tesseract in Howard's research notes. Even though a few records mentioned the Tesseract in passing, they didn't provide any significant information about it.

But then, Miss Stark suddenly considered a possibility—and to verify her theory, she needed time, special tools, and a specific person.

Soon, she transported the energy weapons she had dug out from the ice to her Quinjet. Returning to the cockpit, she pulled out her phone and initiated a video call.

The call connected quickly—Maria Hill, looking exhausted with dark circles under her eyes, appeared on the screen. It seemed she had been up all night.

"I'm working. What's so important that you had to contact me, Tony?" Maria Hill asked. As Nick Fury's deputy, Maria Hill had tasks that would overwhelm most people. As a result, she often worked late into the night. When Miss Stark contacted her, Maria had just finished her backlog of work.

"Maria, I think it's time I introduced you to someone," Miss Stark replied, raising her phone to show the ice wall behind her.

Through the camera, Maria Hill could clearly see the ice wall and the person encased within. When the bomber crashed into the sea, seawater rushed in, forcing Rogers from his seat to the far end of the cockpit. This was why Maria Hill could clearly see who was inside the ice.

"You never cease to surprise me. I'll report to the director—please send me the coordinates," Maria responded.

Miss Stark wasn't sure how Maria Hill would approach Nick Fury with this, but she did plan on "selling" Steve Rogers—or, more accurately, pulling him out a few years ahead of schedule.

Since she hadn't yet completed the integration of the Iron Man suit project, she needed someone else to step in. It might be better to let Captain America emerge first and adjust to this world seventy years after his time.

Moreover, Captain Steve Rogers would become a valuable gift she could present to S.H.I.E.L.D. as part of their next deal.

All right, Miss Stark admitted that this might be a bit much, but at least without her, S.H.I.E.L.D. might have taken years to find him. This gift, named Captain America, would become a bargaining chip for Miss Stark in her future negotiations with S.H.I.E.L.D.

The direct distance between the United States and Greenland was less than the width of the U.S.; it wasn't far. A larger passenger plane could cover the distance in just two or three hours, even faster than a flight to Europe.

About two hours later, a large, black, vertical-takeoff transport plane landed on the ice field. When news broke that Captain America might still be alive, S.H.I.E.L.D. went into high gear. Especially after specialists calculated the survival rate of the frozen super-soldier once thawed, Nick Fury deemed the situation important enough to personally lead a team to the coordinates Miss Stark provided.

The plane landed on the ice, not far from the black-and-white Quinjet. As Maria Hill exited the cabin, she immediately spotted Miss Stark inside the Quinjet's rear hatch, wrapped in a thick blanket and sipping hot coffee. Miss Stark even waved at her.

"I see you've made quite a few modifications to this transport," Maria observed.

"Yeah, I redesigned it a bit, added some useful features," Miss Stark replied.

Just the optical camouflage technology and the completed Regeneration Cradle had exponentially increased the value of this transport. What others thought didn't matter, but Maria Hill, who served as the bridge between S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries, understood this.

As for Miss Stark herself—she was already pondering how to get the Tesseract from S.H.I.E.L.D. If they hadn't found Steve Rogers, it wouldn't have been a big deal. That big lug wasn't worth too many resources and effort. But the Tesseract, which Hydra had taken, had to be recovered, and it likely had already been retrieved by her father, Howard.

While S.H.I.E.L.D. was on the move, Miss Stark reviewed the memories stored in her mind and realized that the Tesseract had indeed been retrieved by her father, just as she had speculated. However, while she knew the Tesseract was in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s possession, she had no idea where it was specifically located.

If she could acquire it by selling her technology, she was willing to trade all her innovations for the Tesseract. Because Miss Stark knew the Tesseract wasn't just an infinite energy source—it was one of the Infinity Stones.

As she mulled this over, the other side of the black transport plane's cabin opened, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s top boss descended. He was wearing his signature long coat, looking as thin as ever, yet the cold wind didn't seem to faze him.

He was probably wearing something made of special materials, or maybe he was just good at withstanding the cold. Miss Stark wasn't sure of the exact reason, but she did notice that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were bustling up and down the plane.

"Get the Captain out, leave a team here to stand guard—notify headquarters, and send more people to pull Hydra's bomber out of the sea," Nick Fury commanded.

Following his orders, a large number of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and technical experts, equipped with various tools, approached Hydra's bomber. An hour or two later, Captain Steve Rogers was carefully extracted from the ice and loaded onto the transport plane, ice and all.

To be safe, they placed Steve Rogers in a cryogenic chamber to maintain his frozen state. This also prevented any unexpected accidents during transport that might cause the Captain, who had a chance of survival, to die here.

Compared to the freezing temperatures beneath the ice, the cryogenic chamber's few degrees below zero felt almost warm. Unfortunately, Miss Stark wasn't interested in the guy; she only cared about how she could get her hands on the Tesseract.

Yes, to "get her hands on it"—and to achieve her goal, using some underhanded methods was entirely acceptable, wasn't it?