Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1014, Part 1010: St. Peter's Basilica (Second Update)

The man stands in the cemetery, where the remains of believers and priests are buried.

However, beneath the soil lies more than just bones. This 12th-century church is merely the newest of three churches that once stood on this site, and these believers now lie atop the ruins of churches dating back to Roman times. During the Geneva Reformation in 1536, John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism, expounded his Reformed theology in the Calvin Chapel (then called the Chapel of Our Lady of the New), adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica. Influenced by this thought were the Italian Walledians, the Dutch Reformed, and the Scottish Presbyterians. Therefore, this church was extremely popular, and even a stranger wouldn't attract much attention—especially since both churches are now surrounded by restaurants, pastry shops, archaeological museums, bureaucratic offices, and litigators. Helmut Zemo believes that even if he sat on a pew eating dessert, no one would notice him.

So he did just that. There was a French confectionery shop called Confiserie Arn right outside St. Peter's Basilica. Helmut Zemo bought a small crucible chocolate, with the coat of arms of the Holy Roman Empire on it. He planned to bring his wife here for a trip after the mission was complete—he had found information about her in the latest mission data. After the initial disbelief and elation, Helmut Zemo quickly calmed down. He carefully examined his wife's medical bills and found many suspicious points. He even began to suspect that the Immortal City was deceiving him, because no one could survive such terrible injuries.

Even if the Immortal City possesses extremely powerful prosthetic transplant and biochemical organ modification technology, it is difficult for someone with a comminuted fracture of the jawbone, a broken spine, or even severe lung damage to survive through emergency treatment, let alone get off the operating table and become self-sufficient after rehabilitation training.

He knew nothing about medicine, but his common sense told him it was impossible. He had seen his son's body, his father's body, only his wife was missing. Now, a survivor who claimed to be Mrs. Zemo was there, and he couldn't give up even the smallest hope—once he got the information from his informant, he could dial a temporary number. At that time, the woman claiming to be Mrs. Zemo would answer the phone. He had mentally repeated the number a hundred times, repeatedly confirming that he hadn't misremembered the digits or the secret contact method, and he hadn't forgotten the verification questions he was about to ask.

Every word turned into steel in his heart, scorched red by anxiety and doubt, burning his heart until it smelled acrid. He could even smell the anxiety in his nostrils, almost identical to the smell of corpses he used to burn. He hoped it was true; he hoped his missing wife was still alive; he didn't want to be disappointed again.

Helmut Zemo focused his attention on the upcoming intelligence exchange. Switzerland was a neutral country, at least on the surface; however, everyone knew that the so-called "neutrality" was just a pretext. Although not a NATO member, Switzerland had been providing services to NATO. His original target was André Bratmann, the Commander-in-Chief of the Swiss Army and commander of its corps. However, after careful analysis, Helmut Zemo discovered a more valuable target.

Army Support Base Command (FUB), responsible for providing technical support to the military’s overall command and national crisis management in areas such as information and communication technologies (ICT), command infrastructure, command methods, electronic warfare, cryptography, and embassy radio, is even more valuable as a transit point for NATO military intelligence.

The head of this organization was Brigadier General Jean-Paul Taylor, then Chief of the Army Staff.

Compared to career soldier and Army Commander-in-Chief André Bratmann, information about Chief of Staff Jean-Paul Taylor, a PhD in economics, was much easier to obtain; his information could be found simply through publicly available online resources. Jean-Paul Taylor holds a Master's degree in Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the University of Lausanne. The University of Lausanne, where he studied, was formerly the Lausanne Theological Seminary.

Even now, the college has a theology and religious studies department that primarily teaches in French.

Thanks to Helmut Zemo's investigative abilities and the Immortal City's uncanny information-filtering capabilities, the brigadier general's life story was laid bare before him—Jean-Paul Taylor, a devout believer, went there every Sunday for confession. His wife was also a Calvinist, and the priests who received confessions had signed strict confidentiality agreements to allow them to speak freely. This is why Helmut Zemo believed he could deviate from the plan and obtain a large amount of intelligence more quickly. St. Peter's Basilica is the church of Calvinist Reformed Christians in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and the adjacent Calvin Chapel belongs to the Scottish Presbyterian Church. Helmut Zemo is currently sitting on a pew in St. Peter's Basilica, his hand in his coat pocket, ready to draw his gun at any moment.

If the priest he bribed to install the bugging device had done his job as agreed, no one would have been killed here today.

Helmut Zemo believed he could even orchestrate a kidnapping to obtain the information he desired in the shortest time and with the most violent means. The Immortal City didn't restrict his methods; they only cared about the result, not the process. He actually quite liked this way of doing things; the only thing he disliked was the guy the Immortal City sent to clean up the mess.

Unbeknownst to him, he wasn't the only information processor he'd encountered. Aside from Geneva, almost every city with a significant NATO military base had an information processor, and these individuals were partnered with an assassin lurking in the shadows. Helmut Zemo had merely stumbled upon one of the Immortal City's electronic warfare targets by accident; had it not been for the timely orders from the intelligence command at the heart of the spiderweb to prevent conflict arising from information security levels, the assassin might already be plotting his elimination.

The Immortal City has made extensive preparations for the impending war and is preparing a strategic offensive from three different directions. The strategic objective of this blitzkrieg is to break NATO's military presence in Eastern and Southern Europe and to create living space for Latvia—attacking Romania to the east, Hungary to the north, and Serbia to the south. These three neighboring countries of Latvia either have NATO military bases or politicians who are flirting with NATO.

For Latvinia, where manpower is scarce, this is no easy task. However, with the Immortal City's interstellar missiles already ready, the most difficult part is actually the subsequent governance. How to appease the political demands of so many ethnic groups and prevent subsequent rebellions is currently the Ministry of the Interior's biggest headache. Stephanie's suggestion is to eliminate all local governments, have the locals recruited by the Immortal City directly rule these areas, and use Maya Hansen's half-finished product to build a super-soldier army.

As for the industrial order from Wakanda, Stephanie thought it could be expanded further.

In any case, Helmut Zemo is close to his goal, and soon Wakanda will be a vassal of the Immortal City. Regardless of whether Erik Killmonger will still obey by then, the Immortal City has already won over the vibranium dealer Ulysses Klaue and created a prosthetic arm to replace his arm that Ultron severed. Stephanie Malik and Victoria Hand, under Salomon's instructions, have made thorough preparations and contingency plans to deal with as many possible scenarios as possible.

As later generations often mention when researching the life of the great king who saved humanity and led it to the pinnacle of the galaxy, he once uttered a saying imbued with ancient human wisdom: "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated."

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(End of this chapter)