(Chapter 28)Arnim Zola

Mr. Trent, the risks you speak of are no risks at all," the green-dot designed face said as we talked amidst the whir of the magnetic tape that was his brain. "In the event of an alien invasion, we will simply do the sensible thing and surrender." Arnim Zola was a magnificent mind - He had designed Hydra's weaponry in World War Two (or as Hydra agents sometimes called it, the Open Conflict) and he had participated in Operation Paperclip, including the Moon Landing. I was fairly sure, given what I could find based on untraceable FOIAs and a dozen books, that the Hydra internal structure was also a product of his design. Somehow, against all sense and reason, he had managed to design a social system in which ambitious people had to advance the group to advance. Organizational design and cliodynamics had become a dominating passion of his in later life. He was one of the most brilliant men who had ever lived, possibly the most brilliant man before the MCU movies started.

"How'd that work out for Poland?"

"The Polish people survived, Mr. Trent," Zola said. "And there were many opportunities to work both sides of the conflict. It is not as if aliens will be interested in carrying out an ethnic cleansing, if anything such a government would cut down on genocides. Race theory may have been the cutting edge of intellectual thought in the thirties, but time has proven it false and I doubt they will have any interest in it. In some ways, an alien regime might be an improvement of conditions. They are likely centuries ahead of us. Better to be a slave in the palace of Xerxes than a yeoman worried for his next meal."

I didn't agree with that at all. It was better to be a yeoman worried for his next meal than to live beneath the caprice of a tyrant. But it wasn't something you could argue with in Hydra's worldview. Power was its own justification and it could not be argued with. "And what if they want to kill us?"

"Mr. Trent, even the deployment of a few thousand nuclear weapons would suffice to destroy us. If they prefer it, they could drop them from orbit. In short, if the aliens come here to kill us, we will simply do the sensible thing and die."

It was hard to argue with full honesty here because Thanos' plan was somehow the most unreasonable thing imaginable. Cutting life, possibly all animal, possibly just sapient, in half was clearly a mistake. It didn't make sense on the face of it. Why not make more resources? Or schism the universe? Extract resources from unoccupied systems? Thanos' ego substituted for any kind of moral clarity and his insistence on proving, once and for all, that he had been right during the death of his own world was an egregious mistake. How was I supposed to convince people that some megalomaniac with reasonably opposable goals was coming?

"Look, maybe." I admitted, "Why send up a signal flare like the energy from the cube? Why not consolidate our control on earth before we take the risk?"

"Mr. Trent, the Tesseract is a product of science and artifice. If indeed there are mighty alien species abroad, no doubt they have their own equivalent technologies. Sooner or later the human race must move forward and it shall continue doing so. Even if you could convince me, SHIELD has other masters. The man we have placed in charge, Fury, would prefer that we focus our energies upon the cultivation of heroic individuals. But the World Security Council has insisted."

Ah, yes, the world security council. The dumbest, most worthless characters in the entire MCU. The ones who tried to nuke New York. A plan that doesn't even make sense. What if they'd had anti-nuclear missile equipment? What if they'd simply jumped here with their spaceships? What would be the upside to having killed millions of Americans in the scenario? Would that win loyalty? Would it strengthen our resolve to fight? "Are you sure the Tesseract is a created object?"

"As near as can be. The discussion is closed, Mr. Trent, and I would appreciate you to respect our methods as we respect yours."

"Of course, Doctor Zola," I said, bowing my head in deference. "I simply felt that I should attempt to persuade you on the issue."

"A reasonable decision," Zola replied. "Hydra is not interested in being stupid. We welcome voices that offer alternative strategies. The days of a dictator ordering us around, those are behind us. But while I appreciate your input, your concerns about the Tesseract are not the primary why I invited you here today." I nodded my head for him to continue. "Your shrinking device, it is a… disappointment that the shrinking cannot easily be grafted onto human subjects."

"Pym's cunning was greater than we anticipated," I said apologetically.

"You are right of course. A clever man never reveals all of his resources, and Pym more than most was like that. Still, there is a non-biological person we could shrink."

Ah, that made sense. "Well, I don't know how that would effect your tapes."

"I understand," Zola said as if discussing the weather. "But in truth, I am not altogether enthusiastic about continuing in my present state. A chance to move about the world, to see the world up close once more, I would like that very much. And we have test subjects, who could go on ahead of me. They are… quite incoherent, to be sure. But we kept them online and running to see the long term effects."

God in heaven. They'd kept a sample for what looked like at least forty years. Human beings, stacked inside boxes where they couldn't move or touch or taste. Quite possibly where they could not see or hear anything but silence. "If I might ask, that seems like a lot of bases worth of power."

A mechanical laugh echoed through the voice synthesizer. "Ah, Mr. Trent, I was an early prototype. We store them much more compactly now. Did you think that we had given up on the possibility of immortality?"

No, I supposed not. "Of course not, Doctor Zola. Your vision has always been expansive and ambitious."

"And of course, if those test subjects are insufficient, we can always provide you with more."

"I shall," good Lord what was I saying, "endeavor to make do without putting more strain on our resources."

"Your frugality is appreciated Mr. Trent," Zola said in dismissal. His face flicked off the screen and the whir of the machines continued. I climbed up into the elevator and ascended to the base's ground level.

On the upside, I now knew where Zola was. The old base he was built under was in New Jersey of all places. Downside: I had no idea how to kill him without it being traceable directly back to me and he wasn't listening to me at all. Pierce had seemed more persuadable and he had more noble aspirations to a world of a Pax Hydra, a Pax et Securitas. Zola seemed to be unconcerned with those things. Power, and power alone, was on his mind.

After I had cleared the base and gotten back in range, my cellphone pinged.

Victor: Janet and I would like to have you over for dinner, she is making my favorite dish.

That was the signal that he thought he had cracked time travel.