Pierce had been keeping a close eye on William Devonshire for a long time. The moment Selene appeared, he immediately recognized her. He even knew she was a member of the vampire bloodline.
However, despite S.H.I.E.L.D.'s extensive investigations, they had never figured out how Selene and Nyssa were able to walk freely in daylight. The only logical explanation they could come up with was that William had found a way to solve their weakness to sunlight.
Standing at the edge of the spaceship's hatch, Selene scanned Pierce's office. After a brief assessment, she took a few steps back, sprinted forward, and leapt across the ten-meter gap to the office's balcony.
Her agility left Pierce stunned, his mouth hanging open in disbelief. Selene calmly walked to the glass door and tapped it lightly with her knuckles.
Still hesitating on whether to let her in, Pierce was startled when his phone rang. William's voice came through, his tone laced with amusement and menace.
"If you don't open that door, Pierce, I'll have the ship crash through your window. Don't worry, the ship will probably just lose some paint while your office gets obliterated."
"Damn it," Pierce muttered under his breath. His jaw clenched in frustration. This bastard was playing games with him.
Making a mental note to order the removal of every balcony in the building and upgrade the windows to missile-resistant glass, Pierce approached the door. He couldn't afford to have such brazen intrusions happen again.
Grumbling, Pierce unlocked the door and let Selene inside. He made his way back to his desk and discreetly pressed a button on the phone to notify his security team that he was fine, though it was also a signal for them to be on alert.
Selene, on the other hand, acted with no hostility. She nodded at Pierce and said bluntly, "Where's the item William asked for?"
"Item? The item?" Pierce's face darkened with irritation. He muttered a curse under his breath before snapping, "We haven't even discussed the terms, and I haven't agreed to anything yet!"
Selene raised an eyebrow but maintained her composure. "Sorry, Mr. Pierce. All I know is that William sent me here to retrieve something. The rest is between you two."
She then donned the pair of smart glasses William had given her, their lenses equipped with energy-detection technology. Her gaze slowly scanned the room until her focus settled on a section of the wall. A soft beeping echoed in her ear as the glasses detected a powerful energy signature.
Without a word, she turned her expressionless face back to Pierce.
Seeing her reaction and the faint glow from the glasses, Pierce's curiosity was piqued. He gestured toward the glasses. "Ms. Selene, would you mind letting me take a look through those glasses?"
Before Selene could decline, William's voice crackled through her earpiece.
"Let him try them on, love," William said.
Selene immediately understood that this was part of William's plan. Without hesitation, she removed the glasses and tossed them to Pierce.
Pierce didn't care that someone else had worn them. He eagerly put them on and turned toward the wall containing the hidden vault. Numbers appeared on the lens display, rapidly increasing as the glasses locked onto the Tesseract's energy signature.
After a few seconds, a warning alarm blared in his ears.
"Warning: Energy levels critical. Continuing analysis may damage the device. Immediate shutdown recommended."
Pierce's eyes widened. He knew the Tesseract possessed vast energy, but these readings were beyond what he had anticipated. He felt a mixture of awe and dread at the realization of how much raw power the cube held.
With a deep breath, he glanced at Selene through the glasses. To his frustration, there was no similar energy reading around her. Either the glasses couldn't scan living beings, or William had implemented protective measures to block such scans.
Pierce's thoughts shifted to the ship outside. Perhaps the glasses could detect something from it. He turned toward the spacecraft, and the display reacted instantly.
"Beep! Beep! Beep! Warning: Unauthorized scan detected. Self-destruction initiated."
The alarm startled Pierce, causing him to instinctively rip the glasses off and hurl them toward the corner of the room.
The moment the glasses hit the floor, they began to emit smoke. The lens frames caught fire before collapsing into a charred heap.
"Haha!" William's laughter echoed from Selene's phone. "My bad, I forgot to mention—everything I design has anti-surveillance measures. But really, Pierce, after all your years as a spy, you should know better than to scan classified tech without permission."
Pierce took a deep breath, regaining his composure. He didn't even bother to retort. His mind was now preoccupied with the numbers he had seen before the glasses self-destructed.
How is the ship's energy output so much higher than the Tesseract's initial reading? Pierce wondered, struggling to make sense of it.
Unbeknownst to him, the Tesseract's power was being limited by both the protective case and the vault it was stored in. Meanwhile, William's ship, powered by energy crystals from the Predator world, had been optimized to emit a controlled surge just for show.
Pierce couldn't know this. All he could do was rationalize that no matter how high the ship's energy levels appeared, they couldn't match the infinite potential of the Tesseract.
Still, the comparison unsettled him. His confidence going into the negotiation had taken a serious hit.
Without further prompting, Pierce walked to the hidden vault. He entered a series of codes, scanned his fingerprint, retina, and voice print, and finally opened the secure compartment.
Inside was a silver case. He carried it to his desk and unlatched it, revealing the Tesseract—a glowing blue cube that pulsed with a mesmerizing, otherworldly light.
The instant William saw it through Selene's phone camera, he grinned. He had been waiting for this moment ever since Pierce had first tried to establish contact with him.
Finally, the Tesseract was within reach.
(End of Chapter)
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