Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 916 The Fernard School Experiment (Second Update)

"This is the first time in your life you've made a girl in her twenties cry. This doesn't happen every day, Nick Fury."

"You little brat, don't underestimate me! Back in the day—" The former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was about to retort when he let out a long sigh. "I assure you, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in Sokovia were there to protect those mines," he said helplessly. "But as you know, I can't even tell now whether those were S.H.I.E.L.D. agents or Hydra agents. After the news leaked, the US government accelerated the coup. Do you really think S.H.I.E.L.D. can stand up to the US government?"

"Oh, so the subsequent human experiments involving nuclear radiation..."

"That's a Harvard project, it has nothing to do with S.H.I.E.L.D. I can only guarantee that loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agents weren't involved, but I don't know if Alexander Pierce was involved. If I had known, would I be in this situation?" Nick Fury glanced at the one-way glass; he had already guessed that Victoria Hand was probably behind him.

"That makes sense." Salomon nodded seriously. "But I believe you know more, and I'm sure Frank Cassel can find out something else."

"Do prisoners have the right to ask questions?"

"Excuse me."

"Those Skrulls..."

"I'll use the interrogation procedures from the CIA's black jails, Nick Fury. I'm sure you're quite familiar with them, aren't you? But don't worry, I certainly won't use a tube of laundry detergent as an excuse to invade other countries based on Skrull confessions." The sorcerer replied with a smile, his constant sarcasm giving the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. a headache. Even Frank Cassell's interrogation of him hadn't been this difficult. He had originally wanted to tell Salomon that he had prevented the invasion of Iraq, but now he couldn't bring himself to say it. He could guess with his toes that if he did, Salomon would definitely bring up the Vietnam War to mock him. "They'll spill everything they know, I assure you, I'll capture every Skrull who moves freely in human society. So stop thinking about them, think about yourself. Whether you walk out of this cell depends on whether you can provide me with something that interests me."

Salomon told Nick Fury the truth, but not the whole story.

Some Skrulls have already died from torture, providing Maya Hansen's bio-genetic lab with another subject. Including the secrets Salomon unearthed during the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., there are now two Skrull remains in the Immortal City available for research. Maya Hansen is searching for a way to enable humans to freely change form like the Skrulls; the more research material she has, the closer she is to success.

This is a reverse engineering study of the ancient Celestial genetic engineering, much like the Kree's research on their progenitor race. It's a technology unlocked only by those with profound genetic research knowledge—knowledge Salomon acquired in exchange for debt, which he then passed on to Maya Hansen. The Royal Guard is the culmination of this knowledge, a template and experimental project for Salomon to explore the limits and possibilities of human genetics. He already intends to apply this still-unresolved method from Maya Hansen to assassins—assassins capable of transforming into any form would be perfectly suited for incredibly difficult infiltration and assassination missions, an absolutely essential tool for the Immortal City facing a precarious future.

"About Frank Kassel..."

"I handed the culprit over to him for execution, a high-ranking CIA official. I believe you know who that guy is, and Frank Cassel believes you do too. After that, I put him in charge of a team to crack down on the American drug trafficking network in Afghanistan, instead of sending him back to Hell's Kitchen to kill some petty thugs. To be honest, I initially thought he wouldn't go after those American soldiers." Salomon's expression seemed to brighten with these words. "You certainly don't want to see what happened to that poor guy after he tortured him, and frankly, I don't really want to see it either."

"Why would you even think of attacking Langley? Aren't you afraid of making yourself an enemy of the world?"

"Do you think I care about something like that? According to my intelligence, an alien fleet is heading towards the solar system right now, including the Chitauri pirates' bio-engineered fleet. This isn't child's play like the Battle of New York, where large armies had to crawl out of a small hole. This is a full-scale invasion. Even if I don't capture your orbital space station, you and those Skrulls won't be able to hold out for long under such a fleet attack."

"You're planning to fight the alien fleet?" Nick Fury took Salomon's attempt to change the subject very well.

"We need to wipe out all the idiots who want to coexist with aliens, and all of humanity to realize its own insignificance, otherwise extreme selfish liberalism will only lead to failure." Salomon stood up from the interrogation table, casually turning off the brightly lit desk lamp and the air conditioner that was constantly emitting extremely cold air. "I need to go comfort my apprentice; your intelligence was a good test for her. I hope she can pull through and go further on the path of magic. I know I'm a good teacher, thank you for the compliment."

"I didn't say anything!"

"Come in!" Wanda Maximov sniffed and hissed in a heavy nasal voice. The person waiting outside seemed impatient; Salomon immediately poked his head out from behind the door, and then he saw Wanda still wiping her tears with the same towel. He wanted to remind Wanda not to use the same towel for wiping her tears and blowing her nose, but he couldn't bring himself to say it.

The sorcerer tiptoed over and closed the office door behind him.

"Here you go, I added double the sugar." He shoved the perfectly heated tea into Wanda's hand. "Drink it quickly, or Bayonetta will kill me if she sees you like this when we get home. You don't want me to die, do you?"

"I don't know." Wanda sniffed again. Her answer sent a chill down Salomon's spine, but the sorcerer immediately realized he had misunderstood. "Perhaps I shouldn't know these things. Pietro and I even received milk from the American troops when we were kids! I almost got Pietro killed!"

"It seems you've learned your lesson and now know that the milk distributed by the U.S. military contains radioactive material."

Salomon refers to an experiment conducted by Harvard and MIT between 1946 and 1956. Children with developmental disabilities at Florida State School and Waltham State School in Massachusetts underwent a radioactive nutrition experiment sponsored by the AEC, conducted by researchers from Harvard and MIT. The children ate breakfast cereals containing radioactive tracers to test the absorption of plant minerals and calcium, but the children's parents were never informed that their children were being tested for radioactive elements. Under the guise of science, club members would eat cereals mixed with radioactive milk and a series of digestive supplements for breakfast, which administered the equivalent of at least 50 chest X-rays of radiation.

The details of this experiment were revealed by a reporter from the Boston Globe in 1993 and became known as the Fernard School Experiment. Perhaps due to public pressure, Harvard University and MIT moved some of their experiments to other countries outside the United States, with Sokovia being just one of them.

"Now, let me tell you why I have such an ideal, wanting to unite people all over the world." Salomon patted Wanda on the shoulder. "It's a career that has cost me my life, but I don't regret it."

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)