Chapter 20: Investigation

Back in New York, morning has come, while Giotto was still deep in his sleep, at exactly 8 am, a group of agents wearing all black walked into Celestial Enterprises main headquarters.

"Good Morning sir, how may I help you?"

The receptionist at the front desk did not panic and instead welcomed the agents with a smile. This reaction made the man she was facing look warily around as he took out a badge from his suit's inside pocket.

"I'm Agent Coulson from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. I wish to speak with the CEO of Celestial Enterprises, Emma Frost"

The receptionist gave Coulson a pensive look as she responded saying-

"Sorry sir, but to meet with Miss Emma you would need to schedule an appointment ahead of ti-"

But as she was explaining, Emma Frost, her big boss suddenly appeared saying.

"That won't be necessary, these gentlemen seemed to have come here for no good reason."

She told the receptionist before turning her attention towards Coulson before she continued.

"Agent Coulson, I believe our companies have all gone through the necessary checks. There is nothing wrong with our operations and if there we the local government or federal officers would have been first to act"

Emma said as she looked at the badge that Coulson presented for a moment before she continued to say-

"I don't recall any legal organization called, Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

Her words made Coulson look at Emma calmly as he responded.

"That is, we are actually a branch of the CIA tasked with protecting the country from local and external threats"

To this explanation Emma shot back saying.

"So another waste of taxpayer dollars? Protecting the country is the duty of the military and I believe the National Guard functions the role you spoke of."

Emma responded with a smile, Coulson wanted to respond but Emma was not done with her words as she continued.

"If what you are saying really is the truth, then for what purpose are we sending young Americans overseas? Why are we risking our nation's people in wars if we have so many problems locally that we have many unknown government organizations working for national security."

Emma's words were really a mix of incoherent rambling and exquisite speaking skills. She was using facts and BS to make Coulson look like a bad guy.

Moreover, she was publicly denouncing a "Government Organization", though her words did hold a truth. Why do they need such an unknown organization moving around when they already have other organizations?

"Agent Coulson… I believe carrying a badge is a heavy duty. I don't think you can flash a badge and meet just any celebrity or businessman you want. This is an abuse of power, if you wish to talk with me, please schedule a meeting with my secretary, that is if you wish to talk about important business."

With those words, Emma turned around and left, not allowing Coulson to speak any further.

Seeing this Coulson did not do anything anymore, instead he turned and signaled his men to leave just as people started to take out their phones and take videos.

He did not rush but he walked quite quickly and entered the black car he came here in.

Once inside, Coulson initiated a call to his superior, a man with dark skin and an eyepatch over one of his eyes.

"Sir, the target was not flustered and was able to turn us away"

Hearing Coulson's response, his superior gave Coulson a serious look as he said.

"Did you question her about the possibility of their company hacking into government databases?"

Coulson sighed and replied with a tired look saying-

"Sir, I think using Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, was a bad idea. Couldn't I just use my CIA badge?"

His superior gave him a tired look as he responded with an annoyed look and in an even more irritated tone.

"Those assholes are scared of backlash! Celestial Enterprises have strong connections to not only local but international NGO's. They used their "green technology" to get support from these hippy's and now politicians are taking a hands off approach…"

The dark skinned man paused for a moment before clicking his tongue as he continued-

"If we moved yesterday we could have used more tricks but after Tony Stark released his analysis of their technology talking some new picotechnology and how Celestial Enterprises has control over this technology made majority of politicians and influential figures take a step away from doing anything major"

Hearing his superior's words, Coulson's brows scrunched up as he asked.

"If that's the case then why did you even send me? There's no way I could have done anything! Moreover, what we did could have caused us our anonymity!"

The man on the screen shook his head as he replied to Coulson.

"Well I wasn't really expecting much to begin with, what I need is the mission report, after reaching the base give me a full report on what you have seen inside Celestial Enterprises, the people and… were you able to talk with the target?"

The explanation given by his superior made Coulson understand what kind of mission he was given. Although he was sent on a mission not knowing what he was supposed to do, this was something he was long used to.

After all, his superior, Nick Fury, the director of the hidden organization Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, acted in this way out of caution. For an organization like theirs moving in the dark was basically the norm and the people they faced would almost always be the same type of agents they were.

Liars, killers, psychopaths and whatever kind of crazies are out there. As such, Fury's actions of not completely giving his agents the scope of the plan was also a strategy to avoid leaking of vital information.

After going through such thoughts, Coulson let out a sigh as he replied.

"Yes, although I was not given much time, I was able to pick up some things from her speech, her actions and the way she interacted with me. Although this may all be an act sir so I don't think my knowledge is enough"

Hearing Coulson's words, Nick Fury had a serious expression on his face as he replied.

"That's fine, remember to send me the report. Also don't do anything too extreme. That woman, Emma Frost, she may not be the main power behind Celestial Enterprises but she is still dangerous"

Hearing Fury's words, Coulson nodded his head as he replied.

"Yes sir, I have done enough background checks on her to understand how dangerous she could be"

But Fury shook his head upon hearing Coulson's words as he said.

"You don't know everything, just remember, even the POTUS treads carefully around her"

After Fury finished warning Coulson he cut the call leaving the agent silent. Coulson glanced behind him at the Celestial Enterprises headquarters thinking.

*That woman… How did she make such an influential individual- fear her? Was it blackmail? Or something else? Or maybe its a combination of all those things… but, based on what the Director said… Celestial enterprises is not normal-*

Coulson took out the information he had on Celestial Enterprises.

The information he had was quite detailed, but what interested him was the fact that all it took was a week for the company to reach the point that it was at.

From continuous media coverage that they bought with money, connections which were once again bought by money…

*All of their success was hinged on the use of what could only be described as an endless amount of wealth…*

Coulson then looked at another document, unlike the others it was not really filled up much but it detailed the life of a single individual.

"Giotto Giovanni…"

All the information on Giotto, how he inherited his wealth and all his secret wealth scattered not only in the US but all over the world. His papers and identity were clean, even the paper trail was complete.

But an interesting thing that Coulson found out about Giotto was that most of the people he wanted to look for were… dead-

"The doctor and nurses present during his birth are all dead, the hospital where he was born burned down two years ago. He never attended public or private school, instead he was homeschooled but all his teachers are already dead. Their relatives don't know about their work but these teachers were known to take tutoring commissions…"

Coulson went over the information, to him the document that was Giotto Giovanni's profile did not look like a normal persons file. Instead it looked very much like the file of an agent, an agent like himself.

All the information was clean but when you tried to dig deep you'd find yourself reaching dead ends. Moreover these dead ends could only be counted as unfortunate dead ends and the like.

On the other hand, Emma Frost and the other CEO's of the subsidiaries under Celestial Enterprises were true normal people.

Their identities were truly normal, some were even dramatic. Coulson knew that Fury was probably trying to find a way to contact Giotto.

Emma Frost was just a connection they were trying to use to get to Giotto, much like how Pepper Potts was the bridge to Tony Stark.

Unfortunately, unlike Tony Stark, getting into contact with not only Emma but even Giotto was near impossible.

*Now, I'm being told that even influential individuals are treading lightly around them…*

Coulson could smell it, something was amiss, and many other probably had the same thought but-

"Connections to philanthropic organizations, donating to homeless shelters, products that are trying to solve climate change. Electric vehicles, solar panels, data companies… These companies are all showing great potential."

Although the companies were all nothing more than hype, right now they were showing more and more technology that attracts not only the rich and famous but even the middle class.

They didn't even discriminate with the lower class, though instead of products what they offered these populations were jobs and support.

Philanthropic activities and creating jobs during this recession was what allowed Celestial Enterprises to really shine.

The name of the company was now known all over, but what was even more surprising was that, despite the obvious amount of funds supporting the company and the scale it was running in-

"They chose to remain private…"

For a small company with limited funding, going public was both an opportunity and a huge risk, but for a large company like Celestial Enterprises going public should have been their best bet, moreover this would have also explained why politicians and competitors would not touch them.

Coulson contemplated these things and yet he still could not understand why, why is Celestial Enterprises able to run the way it was?

Shaking his chaotic thoughts, Coulson decided to go over the information on Emma frost and what he read made him see a light-

"Her family history, the movements…"

Coulson read through the struggles that the woman Emma Frost had to go through. How she led a social movement that slowly died down-

"That was the reason why she was able to get connections to various social movements but how did she evade the trouble that is her father and his allies?"

This question bogged him, Coulson dug through the data and soon he found a piece of information which he had not read before.

It was a simple report but it was considered as unimportant, in the report it explained how Emma Frost's father had died in a "Cabaret Club", he was found in the morning after his "partner" woke up only to see the millionaires dead body.

The police report showed a natural death, even the photos of the scene did not show anything out of the norm.

But maybe it was due to him reading the file on Giotto, Coulson felt that something was wrong with the death of Emma Frost's father.

There was something more to it, especially now that he looked more into it.

Recalling Nick Fury's words about influential people taking a step back, he analyzed the timeline of events involving Celestial industries and found that-

"After this death, the pressure that Celestial Enterprises was experiencing reduced significantly, their permits and documents suddenly passed by quickly and their competitors started to lay low. They did not go completely silent but players such as the Roxxon Corporation went from being extremely vocal to just acting annoyed…"

The move of the corporations, the death of Emma Frost's father-

*Did Emma frost… no, did Giotto kill him? Who is Giotto? Where is he now?*

At this point, Coulson felt that the real problem was not Emma Frost or her people, instead it was the mysterious man that was rarely talked about.

"The Company and its subsidiaries are all headed by beautiful and talented women… they always catch attention when they appear and they all have different personalities… they are like idols- idols that grab attention"

Coulson analyzed the actions of the CEO's and found that they were great at grabbing attention and leading crowds. They were less like other CEO's who were cold, always staying neutral avoiding too much publicity and hiding from public scrutiny.

Instead, these five women all did their best to grab attention, Coulson looked over the photos of these women and as he thought of their actions he noticed something-

"They always wear wireless earpieces…"

It was not a new technology but the earpieces that the Celestial Enterprises CEO's wore was not similar to any that was present in the market.

"A company product that they are not releasing, so wearing it is not to garner attention… moreover they use their hair to hide it, few would notice its existence- some may even assume they were hearing aids…"

Coulson thought long and hard as he analyzed the documents, then he suddenly had a thought, this thought was a crazy assumption but he felt that it was close to the truth-

"Their actions, plans and methods are all coordinated, to an insane level in fact- What if… they were being told what to do instead…"

This thought would explain why they did not act like your standard CEO. They acted like a perfect CEO who could counter whatever it was that was shot at them.

The reason many CEO's chose to stay silent or hide is because they did not have the mind of a computer. If they were to answer a question with an even slight mistake, the media would immediately use this against them.

The five women of Celestial Enterprises were so perfect that it was hard for anyone to say anything against them except for the fact that they were women and most of them did not really have a degree or any related experience in managing a company.

The worst slander given to them was all on the side of them being part of some crazy harem built by Giotto Giovanni but even these types of slander were pushed back.

Activist and social movements, feminist movements ganged up on the organizations that try to use such slander, as such only small groups without much influence talked about such topics.

"This is…"

As his ideas went down this train of thought, Coulson felt like the truth was just one step away. All his ideas could be explained by one mystery and this mystery was-

"Giotto Giovanni… who are you really?"

Coulson whispered as he stared intently at the young man's photo in the file.

"Director… he told me to hold back in meeting Tony Stark and Emma Frost- but I have a strong hunch that this Giotto Giovanni is an even bigger fish than Tony Stark."

With such thoughts, Coulson began to write his report on Emma Frost, he also added his analysis on Giotto and his ideas regarding Celestial Enterprises.

The mystery behind Giotto was quite obvious but Coulson tied a lot of things, even stuff that was hard to tie to Giotto. There was even a file related to the death of Wilson Fisk in the pile, various mysterious purchases that were related to Celestial Enterprises were redirected directly to Giotto.

Under all these assumptions was one line-

"He is the answer to all our questions, if we could find him"

Back in the headquarters of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, Nick Fury read the report that Coulson had sent him.

At first he was going to go through the report on Emma Frost but he found that Coulson had sent two documents.

Fury looked at the second document and was intrigued at the fact that it was about Giovanni Giotto.

In truth, Fury had long been suspicious of Giotto, but all the documents about him were good. They were so good in fact that Fury could not help but want to ask him how he learned to falsify documents without the help of government agencies.

Yes, Fury had long understood that Giotto's identity was a lie, unlike many people in the world who had no idea about individuals with influence or potential to be influential, Fury knew them all.

As long as his memory was not failing him, he was sure that Giotto Giovanni was a made up name and his family history was all made up as well.

At first he wanted to focus his investigation on this but when he thought of doing so he felt that such an action would lead to trouble.

The main reason for this thought was the fact that Giotto Giovanni appeared out of thin air, and then he made huge and downright crazy moves that did not cause people to doubt him. This was already a red flag to Fury, but after he tried to investigate Giotto he found that not only was it difficult to find any flaws on the man, it was even harder to trace him.

"It's like we will only find him if he wants us to…"

Fury noticed that agents were only ever able to track Giotto when he purposely went out and appeared in public.

Even when the agents secretly entered his house, they were met with nothing more than a bunch of cops arresting them for trespassing, attempted homicide and a variety of other crimes. 

His agents were caught going through Giotto's house, guns at the ready, some even looking through his room and other parts of his home.

Police always arrived just as his agents were trying to look for Giotto which led to his agents being brought in.

Because of these incidents, Fury held back on sending people to meet Giotto directly. Moreover, in public Giotto always appeared with minimal security and yet he was never in danger.

A bounty was already placed on his head, yet, few people tried to get the commission and those that did disappeared from the face of the earth.

"I didn't want to say it like this but he really does seem like some godly mafia don…"

Fury muttered as he saw the connections that Coulson drew, from the death of Kingpin to the chaos in the criminal underworld. The disappearance of many hitmen and even some earthquakes that were not caused by seismic activity.

It was almost like Coulson was grabbing at whatever string he could find and tying them to Giotto hoping they would stick.

Yet, Coulson's report did not seem to be an act of randomly grabbing at strings. His connections all had logical reasonings but they all lacked something. There was one thing that seemed to elude Coulson and even Fury.

"Giotto Giovanni… it appears like I need to focus on this"

With a sigh, Fury placed the file down as he took the phone on his table and dialed a number. Hearing the other side pick up, Fury didn't wait for the person to speak as he immediately said-

"I have a job mission for you-"