While Tony and Yinsen chatted enthusiastically, Evan quietly got to his feet, walked over to the Dimensional Door, and recalled the one he had left inside the terrorists’ cave.
He had no intention of letting a bunch of armed men charge into his restaurant and start spraying bullets everywhere.
Sure, he himself wouldn’t get hurt, and the System protected everything belonging to the restaurant from damage, but Tony and Yinsen certainly weren’t bulletproof.
Besides, Evan had no interest in letting a gang of gunmen storm into his restaurant and run wild.
By the time he finished and returned to his seat, Tony and Yinsen had just wrapped up their conversation.
Evan smoothly picked up where he had left off several minutes earlier.
“About getting revenge on the people who kidnapped you, Tony, I’ve got a suggestion.”
Evan took out a black cell phone and set it on the table.
Once both men were looking at him, he continued.
“Call your best buddy Rhodey and have him bomb the place.”
Tony’s eyes lit up.
“Great idea!”
He slapped his hands together, clearly delighted.
“They wanted the Jericho so badly, right? Fine. I’ll give them a whole damn Jericho special delivery.”
As for how Evan knew he had a close friend named Rhodey, or how he knew Rhodey might be able to arrange an air strike, Tony didn’t bother asking.
Someone capable of running a restaurant connected to countless worlds clearly wasn’t an ordinary guy.
Figuring out Tony Stark’s identity and connections probably wasn’t difficult for someone like him.
“I’ll make the call.” Tony picked up the phone and dialed a number.
The call connected, and a mature male voice came through, sounding slightly irritated.
“Hello? Who is this?”
“Hey, Rhodey. It’s Tony—”
“TONY?!” Rhodey’s ecstatic roar completely drowned him out.
“Where the hell are you?! Are you hurt?”
Before Tony could get another word in, Rhodey launched into a rapid fire barrage of questions.
“Where are you right now? Give me the address. I’m coming to get you immediately—”
A chaotic series of noises came through the phone, as though Rhodey had suddenly started running.
“Stay where you are. Don’t move. Keep yourself safe, damn it! Why can’t we trace your location?!”
Tony didn’t answer right away.
He merely smiled.
I don’t even know where I am right now, and you think you’re going to figure it out from a phone call?
Cute.
“Rhodey, stop talking for a second and listen.”
“I’m safe.” Tony emphasized the point.
“Very safe. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“…All right.”
Rhodey took a deep breath, forcing down his excitement and trying to sound as calm as possible.
“Go ahead. I’m listening.”
“I need a favor.” Tony leaned back in his chair.
“I escaped from the people who kidnapped me. And to thank them for all the wonderful hospitality they showed me, I’ve decided to send them six Jerichos and a bombing run.”
“Uh…” Rhodey hesitated.
“That might be a little difficult.”
He was only a colonel.
He couldn’t casually order six fighter jets and a bomber into action.
“I’ll sell the military a batch of weapons at forty percent off.”
“Deal. I’ll get on it right now. Send me the coordinates.”
Tony had spent his entire captivity locked inside a cave.
Naturally, he had absolutely no idea what the coordinates were.
So he turned toward Evan.
His eyes conveyed one very clear message.
Your idea.
You handle it.
Evan calmly recited a string of numbers, the coordinates he had obtained when recalling the Dimensional Door from the cave.
Tony passed them along.
Then he immediately ended the call, entered another number, and dialed.
“Hey, Pepper? It’s me…”
Evan stopped listening after that.
He turned toward Yinsen instead.
“What would you like to eat?”
“Do you have a menu?” Yinsen asked.
“Not yet.” Evan shrugged.
He still hadn’t gotten around to having one made, mostly because he hadn’t decided which dishes to put on it or how he wanted to rotate the offerings.
“I see.” Yinsen rubbed his chin, only to wince slightly at the roughness of his beard.
After thinking for a moment, he said,
“I’ll have some pasta. I suddenly feel like eating noodles.”
“Coming right up.” Evan vanished toward the kitchen like a gust of wind.
He had no desire to sit there while Tony and Pepper got all sentimental with each other.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
At the same time, at an Air Force base…
Rhodey jogged onto a helicopter.
Not far away, several fighter jets were already preparing for takeoff.
The moment Stark’s location had been confirmed, senior command had immediately dispatched a rescue force.
And with Stark dangling a forty percent discount on military hardware in front of them, preparations were also underway for the requested strike package.
“Once we reach the target area, search the surrounding region first,” Rhodey ordered as he put on his headset.
“Confirm that Stark is outside the blast radius before anyone attacks.”
They still had no idea exactly where Stark himself was.
The last thing they wanted was to rescue him by accidentally bombing him to death.
After receiving confirmation from the pilots, Rhodey gave the order.
“Take off.”
Six fighter jets roared into the sky.
The helicopter carrying Rhodey followed from a safe distance behind them.
The bomber would take a little longer to arrive.
And what was Tony Stark, the man Rhodey had just been discussing, doing at that very moment?
Staring blankly into space.
He had called Pepper and told her to come pick him up.
Then Pepper had asked for the address.
And Tony had discovered that he had absolutely no idea where he was.
He felt exceptionally stupid.
“Evan—”
“Don’t yell. I’ll take you outside in a minute.”
Evan looked up from the open kitchen and shot Tony a glance, cutting him off before he could start making a scene.
“Oh. Fine.” Tony paused.
“Actually, I was going to say I want pasta too.”
Evan merely smiled.
He quickly made two servings and brought them over.
The moment the pasta hit the table, Tony attacked his plate like a starving man.
Yinsen stared at him in disbelief.
Wasn’t this guy supposed to be one of the richest men on the planet?
Why was he eating like someone who had never seen food before in his life?
Then Yinsen took his first bite.
A few seconds later, he was eating exactly the same way.
Evan dragged over a stool and sat nearby, carefully observing them both.
The pasta’s effects were fatigue relief and cosmetic rejuvenation.
With Evan’s enhanced eyesight, he could clearly see the changes taking place across Tony and Yinsen’s faces.
Old, damaged skin was shedding away.
Fresh skin was replacing it underneath.
That works fast.
At the current rate, Evan estimated the transformation would finish almost exactly when they finished eating.
And sure enough, by the time Tony and Yinsen put down their forks, both men looked dramatically different.
Their complexions had become noticeably brighter and healthier.
Yinsen rolled his shoulders in amazement, pressing his right hand against his left shoulder.
“Why do my shoulders feel so light? It’s like someone just took a giant boulder off my back.”
“Standard procedure.” Tony answered casually.
He had already experienced something similar after eating the cheeseburger and vegetable congee earlier.
The soreness throughout his body had disappeared, and his muscles had felt revitalized.
Experiencing another effect now only confirmed what he already suspected.
Different dishes in the Dimensional Restaurant really did have different special effects.
“Come on. I’ll take you two outside.”
Once they were done eating, Evan stood.
He walked over to the Dimensional Door and pushed it open.
A quiet street appeared on the other side.
There were only a handful of pedestrians around.
Evan led Tony and Yinsen through the doorway and onto the sidewalk, then pointed toward the street number.
“This is the address. If you want to come back to the restaurant in the future, come here and open the wooden door.”
Tony followed Evan’s finger, looking at the address and then at the now-familiar door.
He nodded.
Then he raised the phone, which, astonishingly was still connected to Pepper, and gave her the address, telling her to come pick him up.
Only after that did Tony finally end the call and hand the phone back to Evan.
As for why he had left the call running the entire time?
Tony Stark’s position was simple,
It wasn’t his phone bill.
Why should he care?
Evan wasn’t bothered either.
After all, he could always put the charges on Tony’s tab.