Chapter 2985: Leisure Time (19)

With a snap, the lights in the interrogation room turned on, and Tim was thrown in by Steve, clutching his neck, shuffling toward the chair behind the desk.

Steve took Tim's phone from another agent, lit up the screen, found it was password-protected, and then placed it on the table in front of Tim, gesturing for him to unlock it.

"I never thought you were this kind of person," Tim said, looking up at Steve. "Everyone says Captain America is the brightest and most righteous hero on Earth."

"It depends on how you define brightness and justice," Steve replied, sitting down with a smile.

Tim cursed inside, "Damn those blue eyes."

Captain America's blue eyes were among the palest of all blue eyes, exceptionally clear, almost as if one could see right through them.

Tim couldn't say he was prejudiced against people with blue eyes, but he found it difficult to look into Steve's eyes.

"You act like the head of agents." Tim complained.

"Because I am a head of agents, and not just now," Steve shook his head slightly and said looking at Tim, "Have you ever heard a story about me portrayed as a general battling valiantly at the frontline?"

Tim shook his head; he hadn't heard many legends about Captain America, only that he had defeated Hydra.

But Tim was smart; he thought about it, Hydra wasn't a country and therefore didn't have a regular army. Initially, they were a Special Agent Organization under Little Mustache, those members causing mischief around the world were also agents.

Although a regular army could also eliminate agents, in most wars, it's a conventional battlefield against a conventional battlefield, and operating behind enemy lines is a different matter altogether. No one would send hundreds of thousands of troops to fight agents.

What Captain America did was always behind-the-scenes: infiltrating Hydra bases, eliminating Hydra's active forces, engaging in intelligence and mobile warfare with Hydra. Even their largest direct confrontations didn't include artillery and trenches of conventional battlefields, at most were urban combat involving hundreds of people.

So what Captain America was doing was essentially the work of a lead agent all along, making Tim's question a bit foolish.

Moreover, those rumors about Captain America, just from the style of the rumors, Tim could tell they were government propaganda. They needed a spiritual leader, and Captain America just happened to fit the public's aesthetic, so they turned him into a deity.

But if he really were a deity, he wouldn't have fought Hydra back and forth to almost mutual destruction; he wasn't as strong as the military and government propaganda claimed.

Since he didn't have overwhelming force yet still managed to strike hard at Hydra, it meant that besides physical strength, he was on par with Hydra's leaders in other areas; he possessed the professional skills expected of an agent.

Now Tim understood the real reason why Steve would teach at the Federal Bureau of Investigation—it wasn't a career change but a return to his true profession.

"Tim, Jason told me you are very smart, so there's no need to waste time on trivial matters here," Steve said. "The sooner you tell us what you know, the sooner you can leave. I know you have thousands of plans waiting to be implemented in your head."

"What do you want to know?" asked Tim, frowning.

"Firstly, the mountain area where you and Shiller were, why was there a plant uprising?"

"I really want to tell you the truth, but the fact is I don't know either," Tim shook his head and said. "I, like you, only know it's Pamela's capability, but as for what deal she made with Shiller, I have no idea."

Steve thought for a moment with his eyes downcast, then said, "Are you telling me you have no idea what Shiller is up to? That doesn't quite match Jason's assessment of you."

Tim swore internally, but ultimately said, "Alright, I once saw him meeting a blind man, I listened from around the corner to their conversation."

"A blind man? What did he call him?"

"Lawyer Matt."

Tim told Steve the content of the conversation between Shiller and Matt, knowing that once captured here, spilling some beans was inevitable, to give some to get some.

In the dimly lit interrogation room, Steve jotted down notes while occasionally looking up at Tim. After finishing recording the dialogue between Shiller and Matt, he looked at Tim and said, "Like I said, you could have driven the boat to Mexico to avoid capture, but you chose to come here."

"Because I wanted to talk to you," Tim finally straightened up, placing his hands on the table, and said, "How much do you know about the struggles between S.H.I.E.L.D., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Hydra?"

Steve's hand on the notebook visibly stopped as he said, "This isn't a secret; anyone can deduce their relationship, as such things are always occurring."

"Yes, then where do you stand?" Tim said with a hint of sarcasm, "Don't say on the side of justice. You know there isn't a single good slice of pizza on that plate. Without the indulgence of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and S.H.I.E.L.D., there would be no spread of Hydra's evil. No matter whether you represent the Federal Bureau of Investigation or S.H.I.E.L.D., their collective interests demand that you do not eliminate your old foes entirely."

"I have been pondering that question," Steve replied. "People are always taught to eradicate evil, but it's not that simple. For now, I believe that S.H.I.E.L.D., which provides The Avengers with the most support, has sufficient funding to better maintain world peace."

"Yes, because you represent the interests of The Avengers, and the interests of The Avengers are tied to those of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Tim said. "And your teaching role in the Federal Bureau of Investigation was also orchestrated by Nick to show the weakness of S.H.I.E.L.D., numbing the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"If it weren't for this, how would they dare to orchestrate the grand play of assassinating a Congressman? It's only because they feel with you there, even if chaos ensues, for the sake of Captain America's reputation, you wouldn't just stand by. You make them feel that you would clean up their mess, which emboldens them to act and hence slip up."

"Radical actions are more prone to errors than conservative ones. Nick treated you as a reassurance pill for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, precisely so they would rush into mistakes, thus allowing him to catch them red-handed and strike back."

"You are very smart, Tim," Steve said sincerely.

"But I don't understand," Tim said, looking up at him. "From your Earth's situation, these three sides should not end up like this. There must be some external force I don't know about controlling everything."

"When people talk about partisan conflict, they think it's politicians engaging in pointless intrigues and wasting time. However, it's not always the case; factional struggles can sometimes be a driving force, just as multiparty systems did indeed achieve mutual oversight and checks and balances when they first started."

"But this is predicated on the party strife not expanding indefinitely, otherwise, it would lead to disaster. From the situation on your Earth, your party politics are controlled within a reasonable range, indeed showing more benefits than harm."

"How so?" Steve leaned forward, seemingly interested.

Tim lightly traced circles on the table with his fingertips and said, "Law enforcement agencies and Terrorist Organizations are not quite like the factional struggles in Congress. You are militaristic organizations, to be precise, tools for maintaining the fundamental stability of Human society."

"A tool will rust if not sharpened, especially on the eve of the interstellar exploration era. You need more and better Agents to maintain order and forge paths in the process of interstellar colonization."

"So, essentially, the party struggle among the three—the Federal Bureau of Investigation, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hydra—is also a form of training. The mutual harm itself means nothing, but the process of your struggle is actually sifting through America's most elite Agents."

"Whether they are people from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, S.H.I.E.L.D., or even Hydra, does it matter? Aren't they all Human? Can they really have feelings for any planet other than Earth?"

"They won't; their Race is their stance. Although these three factions fight incessantly on Earth, once it comes to executing missions beyond Earth, their overall interests remain united. Even Hydra just wants to conquer Earth; no good comes to them if Earth is destroyed."

"In such scenarios, their mutual strife and pursuit, the back-and-forth, actually serve to enhance the strength of Human Agents, and this is beneficial for the Human race as a whole."

Steve nodded, looking at Tim with an approving gaze. The fact that he could deduce to this extent showed that his perspective had indeed been well-developed.

It is actually a kind of talent; a good strategist needs to have the empathetic experience of being in the arena, as well as the detached perspective of overlooking everything from above.

Steve knew that Tim's universe had not yet advanced to the era of interstellar exploration. If it were not for his exceptional talent, his thoughts would always be caught up in the minutiae of struggles within Earth, or even just within one country, and he would not be able to see the different significance of such struggles for all of humanity.

But since he could, it proved that what Jason said was true; Tim is the Robin who is most like Batman, naturally gifted in deduction.

"But things are not that simple," Tim said again. "Once the party conflict starts, it won't be diverted by the will of one or two people; escalation is an inevitable trend, and it will become increasingly extreme."

"It might start with just small quarrels over funding, but the losing side will always want to gain back face, plus interest, leading to an ever-larger snowball. Eventually, it will stray from its original intent until everyone is powerless to stop and unable to turn back."

"According to the situation in your universe, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hydra have coexisted for so long that the strife should have escalated to an uncontrollable situation, and disaster should have already struck."

"By that time, normal methods would no longer be able to stop a train with failed brakes; only by dismantling the most crucial parts could one force, inevitably, be completely destroyed."

"But what strikes me as odd is that such a situation doesn't seem to have occurred; the strife among the three has been mysteriously contained within a range that is good for training, but not excessive."

"This means that there is a force over you all, even over your The Avengers, that can completely crush you, because only such a power could achieve such perfect balance," Tim said with a slight sigh."

"I had thought of this before but later felt it was impossible. Men have personal desires and so do organizations. Even if this organization above all were completely rational, they still couldn't foresee every individual's thoughts or control their actions precisely, so there would always be chaos."

"And once one link goes out of control, it would be like Dominoes falling, destroying everything into a mess, and even this high authority could be dragged down, creating an unmanageable situation."