Read Online The Ultimates: Against All Enemies by Alex Irvine - Free Book Online Page A

tells us quite a bit about where they think they are strength-wise."
    "Well, that's not going to help the reporters," General Fury said.
    "No?"
    "No. Because we're not going to tell them that," General Fury said. "People do not need to hear that alien suicide bombers got into the Triskelion. They are more than willing to laugh at what incompetent idiots we are, accidentally blowing ourselves up, but they'll forget all about that the next time we save their asses. They will not forget the idea of infiltration, and that is what needs to be managed here."
    "Managed," Steve said disbelievingly. "You're worried about how to manage this."
    "Would you rather see our funding gutted because we come across as a bunch of amateurs? Would you rather go back to working out of whatever space the Army can spare at Fort Drum? Remember what we talked about the other night, Cap."
    Steve looked around and spread his hands. "Isn't this part of what we talked about the other night?"
    "What did you two talk about the other night?" Tony wanted to know.
    "Nothing," Steve and General Fury said in unison.
    A silence fell, broken by the thud of circling helicopters and the scrape and shuffle of the tissue-recovery detail. "Fine," Steve said. "Okay. My offer to take media point stands. You let me know how we're going to handle it."
    "Well," Tony said. "That's a little disappointing from our straight arrow." Steve spun and jabbed a finger in Tony's direction. "You get that one free," he said quietly. "But don't ever say anything like that again. Is that clear?"
    He could tell Tony was trying not to smile, but right then Steve didn't care. Tony Stark could have his bravado. That, and money, was all he had.
    "Clear, mon capitaine ," Tony said.
    "French," Steve said with disgust. "On top of it, he speaks French." He stripped off his gloves and threw them on the dock. "General. Permission to stand down until a briefing whenever you decide to schedule it."
    "Okay," General Fury said. "Where are you headed?"
    "I have a date. If Washington can screw around while we get infiltrated by aliens... " Steve let the thought trail off. "You always know where to find me."
    "A date," Tony said as Steve walked away. "He's learning." And later that night, after steaks at Peter Luger's— which made Janet laugh about how old-fashioned he was, but somehow she was the only one of the team who could make that joke without it making him angry or maudlin—Steve took a piece of paper out of his pocket. He was walking down Broadway in Brooklyn, under the elevated BMT tracks. No, not the BMT anymore, now everyone just called it the JMZ line. There was no more BMT, no more IRT, everything was just the MTA. Janet was on a cab back over the Williamsburg Bridge. He found a pay phone on Havemeyer and made a call. On the way back to his apartment, he dropped the paper down a storm drain.
    11
    Nick had maybe five minutes' notice that Tony Stark was about to appear in his office and was, in the words of the desk sergeant, "loaded for bear." Fury put away a report he'd been about to sign off on and started to straighten his desk, a pre-meeting reflex he had ingrained in himself when he'd made the transition from commando to command. It was useful in that it cleared the mind as well as the desk. Two minutes after he'd been served notice of Stark's approach, there was a knock at the door. "Come on in," Fury said, and in walked not Tony but Steve Rogers.
    "Don't tell me," Fury said.
    Rogers looked like hell, at least for him. Physically he wasn't any different, but there was a look in his eye that Fury didn't like at all. He remembered thinking, the day before yesterday after Tony had said He's learning , that he didn't want Captain America to learn. He wanted Captain America to act when he was told to act.
    Now it looked like Steve had both learned and acted, and hadn't done either one the way he was supposed to. "What else was I supposed to do?" Steve asked.
    "I said don't tell me," Fury