Chapter 897

Thomas Nash was dead.

Ward had shot him without warning, and the people in the room could only stare in stunned disbelief.

Even if Nash really possessed some unusual ability, he was still a helpless, paralyzed man who couldn’t move without assistance. He hadn’t resisted arrest or threatened anyone. Ward, a trained SHIELD agent, had simply shot him in the back.

It was a blatant violation of protocol.

And yes, Nash’s predictions had been disturbing. His smug certainty and threats had certainly made him unpleasant to listen to. But had he really deserved to die for them?

An ordinary person might have lost their temper under the circumstances. Ward, however, was a mid-level agent who had undergone years of training and successfully completed countless missions.

Was he seriously so impulsive that a few provocative words could make him pull the trigger?

Had he given no thought to the consequences? With Nash dead, how were they supposed to investigate the man’s hidden connections or uncover whatever schemes he had been involved in?

Whatever explanation Ward offered, nobody could make sense of his actions. The disappointment was palpable, and some agents had already begun wondering whether he had killed Nash to silence him.

Ward was immediately taken into custody pending disciplinary action.

Evenson listened as Clare recounted the events, then gave her a skeptical look.

"So, based on all that, you’ve concluded that Coulson is the real Clairvoyant?"

He couldn’t help finding the theory amusing.

"Is that not enough?" Clare demanded.

"Before this incident, Coulson had already violated numerous international laws and SHIELD regulations. Blake noticed the irregularities and became suspicious. He took his concerns to Victoria Hand, and shortly afterward, he ended up dead."

"He was killed by the Ghost Rider," Evenson reminded her. "You’ve met that lunatic. He barely listens to anyone. Do you honestly think Coulson could have persuaded him to murder an inconvenient agent?"

The very thought irritated Evenson.

The Ghost Rider’s sudden appearance had Mephisto written all over it. If someone wanted to disrupt Project Insight, there were plenty of ways to do it.

Why send the Ghost Rider?

The man was impossible to work with. He had barely arrived in America before killing one of the supposed good guys.

Not exactly a promising start.

"I have no doubt the Ghost Rider’s appearance was an unexpected complication," Clare replied. "But that doesn’t change the fact that Deathlok was already there. Blake would have died regardless."

She continued, laying out the rest of her argument.

"When we stormed the Clairvoyant’s supposed hideout, Deathlok was present. But if you examine his behavior, it looked less like a fight and more like an attempt to lure us somewhere. He kept leading us deeper into the building, straight toward the Clairvoyant’s location, almost as if he wanted us to find it."

"And after testing Thomas Nash, I became convinced that he wasn’t a real clairvoyant. I don’t think he could even speak on his own. The predictions we heard were probably prerecorded."

Clare leaned back.

"But if Nash wasn’t actually the Clairvoyant, someone had to be supplying him with the information needed to maintain the illusion. The Clairvoyant had correctly anticipated far too many events for the whole thing to be a lucky guess."

She paused before continuing.

"Blake suspected the real Clairvoyant was a SHIELD agent with Level Eight clearance. Judging by what we’ve uncovered, his theory was probably right."

"And then, just before his death, Nash began provoking us deliberately. He was practically begging someone to lose control. Ward took the bait and shot him, conveniently eliminating the supposed Clairvoyant before we could question him further."

Clare’s expression hardened.

"Once Nash was dead, it no longer mattered whether he had been the Clairvoyant. Everyone would assume he was, and the real mastermind could disappear behind the confusion."

Evenson nodded thoughtfully.

"And because Ward works under Coulson, it would be easy to conclude that he killed Nash on Coulson’s orders. A convenient way to silence a witness."

He considered her theory for another moment.

"It’s certainly a logical explanation."

More than logical, really. It was practically airtight.

If Evenson didn’t happen to know rather more about the situation than Clare did—and if he could set aside his personal feelings—he might have believed it himself.

"But stop worrying about it," he said with a sigh. "Coulson definitely isn’t the Clairvoyant."

"Based on what you know?"

Clare narrowed her eyes.

"Ah. So you really are hiding things from me."

Evenson winced.

If you knew that much, why didn’t you tell me earlier? I’ve just spent all this time constructing an elaborate theory for nothing.

"Oh, fine," Clare said sweetly. "You’d better explain everything when we get home. If you don’t, you can forget about sharing a bed with me."

Evenson’s expression twitched.

Then he licked his lips, apparently deciding that the situation wasn’t entirely hopeless.

"In that case, come home tonight. I’ll give you a thorough explanation. Step by step."

Clare fell silent.

Whatever she was thinking, she kept it to herself.

After a moment, however, she returned to the matter at hand.

"You may be certain Coulson isn’t the Clairvoyant, but that doesn’t mean everyone else will reach the same conclusion. Victoria Hand seems particularly interested in the possibility."

"I’m not a mind reader. I can’t control what everyone else thinks."

As long as you stop overthinking things, I’ll consider that a victory.

And, more importantly, what would be the most effective way to explain everything to her tonight?

"What’s going on? Has Coulson betrayed us, too?"

Peggy Carter had approached Evenson from behind, her voice tense with alarm. She still couldn’t understand how someone like Coulson—who seemed so straightforward and dependable—could possibly have turned against them.

"Huh? No. Of course not."

Evenson turned so abruptly that he nearly jumped.

"Clare got carried away and drew the wrong conclusion after someone misled her. You don’t need to worry about it."

Peggy exhaled in relief and nodded.

Then another concern crossed her mind.

"What about Steve?"

Evenson considered the question.

"Since you have some free time, why not go home and keep an eye on Captain America? See if you notice anything unusual. I doubt you’ll find anything, but we’ll know the truth soon enough."

Peggy slowly nodded.

"I suppose that’s all I can do. I’ll head back now."

Clare’s theory might have been wrong, but one part of her reasoning was correct.

Victoria Hand was indeed becoming deeply suspicious of what had happened.

After the operation, Hand returned to SHIELD headquarters and shut herself away in her office.

Blake’s death had affected her deeply. Whether that meant she was grieving or simply too focused on the case to process her emotions was difficult to say.

Either way, she had no intention of wasting time mourning.

A laptop sat open on her desk, and she was studying its contents with intense concentration.

The best way to honor a fallen colleague wasn’t to deliver a heartfelt eulogy.

It was to finish the work he had started.

Blake had suspected Coulson was the Clairvoyant. He had gone into the operation with doubts, and then he had died.

The Ghost Rider had killed him, certainly. But Hand shared Clare’s suspicion that Deathlok had already intercepted Blake before the Ghost Rider arrived. The supernatural intervention might have changed the manner of his death, but it hadn’t necessarily changed the outcome.

Blake might have been doomed from the moment Deathlok reached him.

Then Ward had killed Thomas Nash.

Taken together, the incidents had made Hand increasingly convinced that Coulson was the Clairvoyant. Yet the more she examined the available evidence, the less certain she became.

Had the Ghost Rider’s arrival really been an accident?

She pulled up SHIELD’s surveillance records.

Because of the Ghost Rider’s unusual nature, the organization couldn’t risk placing agents close to him for prolonged periods. Instead, they relied on satellite surveillance to track his movements.

The records showed that the Ghost Rider had spent considerable time in Eastern Europe.

Then, on one particular night, he had suddenly set out for America, traveling an astonishing distance across the ocean on roller skates.

Hand checked the timestamps.

The Ghost Rider’s departure had occurred at almost exactly the same time Coulson convened his meeting with the senior agents.

There was a small discrepancy, but the two events had happened close enough together to raise questions.

The mission had begun, and the Ghost Rider had immediately set off for America.

Was that coincidence?

And after traveling all that way, why had he gone straight for Blake instead of targeting anyone else?

But if it wasn’t coincidence, why would the Ghost Rider cooperate with Coulson’s operation?

Who could possibly give the Ghost Rider orders?

Hand typed several queries into the system, searching for information about anyone who might be able to control him.

A red box appeared on the screen.

ACCESS DENIED.

Hand frowned.

Her Level Eight clearance wasn’t sufficient?

That left Levels Nine and Ten.

But within SHIELD, Level Nine clearance was largely an honorary distinction. It offered no meaningful access beyond what a Level Eight agent already possessed.

Which meant the information was restricted to Level Ten.

The Director and the Secretary were among the few people who could access such material.

Still, the denial itself was revealing. There really was something—or someone—hidden behind those restrictions.

Hand leaned back and closed her eyes, thinking.

Her theory had no concrete evidence. Coulson was one of Nick Fury’s most trusted agents. She couldn’t simply walk into Fury’s office and demand access to classified files based on a handful of suspicious coincidences.

But perhaps she didn’t need direct access.

If the information was inaccessible, she could approach the problem from another angle.

Instead of searching for the person who controlled the Ghost Rider, she could study the Ghost Rider’s past movements and determine who had repeatedly crossed his path.

Hand opened the surveillance records again.

Fortunately, SHIELD’s documented history with the Ghost Rider wasn’t particularly extensive. The organization had begun compiling its records around the time of the Thor incident in New Mexico.

The first relevant report was brief.

Special consultant Evenson Richter and Level Eight agent Melinda May encountered the Ghost Rider while traveling to New Mexico. The parties subsequently cooperated in defeating the rogue Asgardian Destroyer.

That was all.

Hand stared at the entry.

There had to be more to the story. Either the report had omitted significant details or the relevant information was classified beyond her clearance.

SHIELD had begun monitoring the Ghost Rider around that time, but the subsequent records were mundane. They documented his whereabouts and daily activities without offering much insight into his motives.

In his human form, Johnny Blaze appeared to dislike transforming whenever possible. After relocating to Eastern Europe, he had spent most of his time in remote areas, far from other people.

Nothing particularly suspicious.

Then came the Ghost Rider’s second documented interaction with SHIELD.

Special consultant Evenson Richter, accompanied by his partner Clare Ludwig, Level Eight agent Melinda May, and an operational team, traveled to Eastern Europe on official business. The group cooperated with the Ghost Rider.

Hand’s eyes narrowed.

Official business?

What did that even mean?

The report didn’t specify the mission, its objective, or why the Ghost Rider had been involved.

Was the information too sensitive to record, or had someone deliberately kept the details out of the report?

After that, the surveillance records returned to their usual routine of tracking the Ghost Rider’s movements.

There was nothing useful until the present incident.

Hand exhaled.

So much for that approach. If the information was classified, it wouldn’t be easy to uncover anything simply by looking at the records.

Unless—

She stopped.

Something about the previous entries had caught her attention.

Every documented encounter between SHIELD and the Ghost Rider had involved Evenson Richter.

That alone wasn’t suspicious. Evenson was a special consultant, and handling supernatural threats fell within his area of expertise.

But SHIELD had resorted to satellite surveillance precisely because the Ghost Rider was unpredictable. Once transformed, he could become violently hostile, making direct contact dangerous.

Yet the reports used two very particular words to describe Evenson’s encounters with him.

Cooperated.

Cooperation.

Not survived. Not escaped. Not even negotiated.

Cooperated.

The language suggested that Evenson could get the Ghost Rider to work with him voluntarily.

That was a significant distinction.

The identity of the person capable of controlling the Ghost Rider appeared to be protected by Level Ten restrictions. That could mean the person possessed Level Ten clearance, but it could also mean their identity was classified at that level.

Evenson himself had once been subject to Level Ten secrecy.

Although SHIELD had gradually declassified portions of his record, plenty of information about him remained restricted.

Could Evenson Richter be the person who controlled the Ghost Rider?

It was certainly plausible.

The Ghost Rider was an obvious supernatural anomaly, while Evenson was a warlock who practiced magic. The two of them had far more in common than most SHIELD personnel could claim.

Hand continued examining the records.

The next connection was even more interesting.

When SHIELD had first encountered Evenson, the agents involved had been Coulson and Melinda May. Both had worked with him extensively, and their relationships with him were unusually close.

The Ghost Rider had crossed paths with SHIELD three times.

Each encounter could be connected to Coulson in some way.

The first had taken place during the New Mexico incident, when Evenson and Melinda were traveling to the area. Coulson had been in charge of SHIELD’s operations at the facility established around Thor’s hammer.

The second had occurred while Coulson had officially been declared dead. No one knew where he had been at the time, but Melinda—a close associate of his—had been present.

And now there was the latest incident.

Evenson hadn’t attended the operation personally, but he had sent his magical partner in his place. Melinda and Coulson had both been there as well.

Hand slowly raised a hand to adjust her glasses.

A brilliant white glare flashed across the lenses.

Suddenly, the pieces seemed to fit.

Evenson, Melinda, and Coulson had formed a covert group, using their close personal relationships to pursue some undisclosed objective.

As their activities had increased, the group had attracted too much attention. They had therefore staged the latest operation to create a false Clairvoyant, kill him, and disappear into the background once again.

Evenson, who usually seemed willing to appear whenever SHIELD needed him, had conspicuously stayed away. Instead, he had sent his lover to participate.

For additional protection, he had brought in the Ghost Rider, a figure with no obvious connection to him whom SHIELD couldn’t easily question or control.

Blake had noticed the irregularities and begun investigating.

But Coulson and Melinda were both highly capable agents, while Clare possessed terrifying magical abilities.

Hand’s thoughts briefly returned to the moment she had looked into Clare’s eyes.

A chill ran down her spine.

For an instant, she thought she heard a faint whisper beside her ear.

She turned to look.

No one was there.

Whatever the whisper had been, she couldn’t make out a single word.

Hand forced herself to concentrate.

If Clare really was as dangerous as she appeared, Blake’s suspicions might have been discovered from the very beginning. Melinda could then have steered him toward a carefully prepared trap.

Coulson might have sent Deathlok to eliminate Blake, only to reconsider and decide that the Ghost Rider would be a more convenient instrument.

That would allow them to portray the death as an unfortunate accident. Any subsequent investigation would focus on SHIELD’s failure to control the Ghost Rider rather than on the Clairvoyant’s organization.

The entire operation would become a distraction, concealing the real conspiracy.

Hand sat motionless before her screen.

So the real Clairvoyant is Phil Coulson?

Then she shook her head.

No.

A faint, contemptuous smile crossed her face.

The Clairvoyant’s public image was built around omniscience and the ability to foresee the future. It was an impressive gimmick, but it didn’t fit Coulson’s personality.

He could be unexpectedly mischievous at times, but he was fundamentally a conventional man. He wasn’t the sort to cultivate an elaborate mystical persona and surround himself with theatrical claims of seeing everything.

No, the all-knowing, all-seeing prophet was far more Evenson’s style.

Evenson Richter was the one who would appreciate that sort of flamboyant presentation.

Hand’s smile widened as the final piece fell into place.

Evenson Richter was the real Clairvoyant.

There could be no other explanation.

Coulson and Melinda had once been good people—capable, trustworthy agents who had served SHIELD faithfully. Something must have corrupted them, and the most likely explanation was that someone had manipulated them by exploiting their trust and affection.

Someone who had become close to them.

Someone with the knowledge and ability to make such a scheme possible.

Evenson Richter.

Hand leaned back in her chair, utterly convinced that she had finally uncovered the truth.

The only question left was how far the conspiracy reached.