A certain American comic book's secondary profession master

Chapter 47 Kidnapping? Drekoff Comes to Our Doorstep!

On the private jet bound for Budapest, Levi, who had just finished a phone call, looked Tony up and down with a strange gaze.

"What kind of look is that?" Tony asked, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze.

"It's the kind of look that wants to see if you have a certain kind of easily kidnapped nature!" Li Wei said with a strange laugh.

“You’re the one who’s easily kidnapped… Wait, what do you mean by that? Someone’s trying to kidnap me?” Tony had barely finished retorting when he realized what Levi meant.

“That’s right, Frank just told me,” Levi said, waving the satellite phone in his hand.

"Who is it?" Tony was a little angry; how dare they make a move on him.

Then he saw Levi still wearing that strange grin, and his eyes widened. "Drekov???"

"Hahaha, that's right, I really didn't expect that while we were eyeing him, he was also eyeing you!" Li Wei said with a loud laugh.

"Is this guy crazy? What have I ever done to him?" Tony twitched his lips, momentarily unsure what expression to make.

"Actually, to be honest, there is a little bit of grudge!" Recalling the information Frank had told him, Levi was also surprised by the coincidence, but the coincidence did happen, and it was perfectly reasonable.

“…You don’t mean to say, Obama…” Tony was a little withdrawn.

“Brilliant! Drekoff was actually one of your Stark Industries’ major clients before… well, the smuggling kind. According to Natasha’s message, Drekoff received an email from the United States just before we set off!” Levi snapped his fingers and said.

Indeed, the news that Drekoff planned to kidnap Tony came from Natasha, who had just returned to the Red House.

After capturing Melina, Natasha returned to the Red House—although she had "disappeared" for a few days, it wasn't a big deal.

After all, Black Widow doesn't always succeed. Occasionally, she might fail a mission, get injured, or hide in a safe house for a while, resulting in her being out of contact for a period of time.

As long as it's approved, it's fine.

This is not difficult for Natasha.

Moreover, having Natasha as an inside agent was one of the reasons Levi wanted to recruit her; otherwise, her value would not be as high as that of the Winter Soldier.

As for Melina's disappearance, that's not a problem at all.

According to Natasha and Frank's investigation of Melina Ranch Laboratory, Drekoff would occasionally send someone to inquire about Melina's research progress, but most of the time he left the first Black Widow to her own devices.

As a researcher, Melina lives a very secluded life, rarely contacting the outside world except for the occasional trip to buy daily necessities.

Therefore, it's unlikely that Drekoff's men will notice her disappearance in a short period of time.

Moreover, even if they discover it, they won't be able to contact Natasha for a while.

Therefore, Natasha's betrayal was not exposed.

As soon as Natasha returned to the Red House, she received a new mission: to orchestrate the kidnapping of Tony Stark, the world's richest man, who was about to arrive in Budapest.

The reason is that someone in the United States hired Drekoff to do it.

Clearly, Obama, now imprisoned, was not as harmless as Tony and Levi had previously thought.

This also shows that although Obama was imprisoned, Stark Industries was not completely purged.

"Looks like you'll have to give the company a good cleaning up when you get back! As for Obadi, maybe we should let the Winter Soldier handle him?" Levi said. Actually, Levi had suggested to Tony earlier that they deal with Obadi the same way, that is, have the Winter Soldier assassinate him.

Tony, however, refused to allow it and insisted on putting Obama in jail.

Li Wei couldn't say much about it, as it was Tony's private matter.

“I’ll consider it… but something doesn’t seem right. If it was Obama who ordered it, Drekoff should have killed me directly. How could it be a kidnapping?” Tony said after a moment of silence.

“Yes, Obama does want you dead, but do you remember what I told you about being kidnapped in the future?” Li Wei countered.

"You mean, like the Ten Rings, Drekoff has his own plans?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

“That’s right. Frank and Natasha got the information from Melina that Drekoff’s floating city is already in the works. This thing can’t be built in just a few years. After all, the Red Room doesn’t have the Security Council backing it up like S.H.I.E.L.D., nor your technical support. They can build a new generation of space carriers in just two years, three at a time.” Levi nodded and said, “So, like the Ten Rings, Drekoff has their eyes on you. However, Drekoff’s ambitions are much greater than the Ten Rings’. They not only want your technology, but also Stark Industries’ assets…”

They're after Derekov, and Derekov's after Tony—it's unbelievable.

The reason why this part was not in the original storyline is also very simple: before Obadiah planned to kill Tony, Natasha betrayed him with the help of Barton, and Drekoff had already infiltrated behind the scenes and broken off the deal with Obadiah.

Furthermore, in the original storyline, Tony never went to Drekoff's hideout in Hungary.

"Good, good, really good! I was going to have to come up with an excuse, but now I don't even need one!" Tony, after learning the whole story, was so angry he laughed.

His coming to Hungary was no secret.

It's no secret, at least not to the Hungarian government.

It's true that Tony is the world's richest man and wields considerable power.

However, it is not yet large enough to completely disregard a national government.

In particular, they are planning to do something big in Hungary.

So their pre-arranged reason was to visit Hungary for tourism and take the opportunity to investigate the investment environment. In fact, they were invited by the Hungarian government itself—because Hungary is about to join the EU this year, so it has been frantically attracting investment recently, and had previously sent an invitation letter to the Stark Group.

The Hungarians simply hadn't expected Tony to come in person.

And it makes sense that the Red House's espionage activities were accidentally discovered during the investigation, right?
It's quite normal that Tony and his team would resist after discovering the Red House's espionage activities, tracking them down, finding their hideout, and then the Red House trying to silence them.

Unexpectedly, Tony and his team's plan hadn't even begun.

Drekoff himself delivered himself to their doorstep.

“In that case, I won’t ride in the same car as you!” Li Wei said after thinking for a moment.

"No, we're allies, so you're just going to watch me get bombed alone?" Tony's eyes widened at his words.

"Oh, it's just a little blast, what are you afraid of with your battle suit!" Li Wei said with a grin. "I just had to go scout ahead for you."

Tony didn't say anything, but gave Levi a disdainful look.

If it weren't so offensive to his manners, he would have given the middle finger.

(End of this chapter)