More than a month later.
Los Angeles.
Tony’s seaside mansion.
Roy swept his gaze across Tony’s workshop and garage before finally settling on the Mark III armor Tony was repairing.
Just as Roy remembered, the Mark III used the classic red-and-gold color scheme.
“You didn’t call me all the way over here just to watch you repair your armor, did you?” Roy asked.
“Of course not.” Tony stopped working on the armor, walked over to the workbench, and set down the tool in his hand.
“Did you know I got kicked off the board?” “The directors decided I’d suffered psychological trauma and used an injunction to force me out!” Roy shook his head.
“No.
All I know is that Stark Industries stock has fallen by more than fifty percent.” The moment Roy mentioned the stock price, Tony immediately said, “I had JARVIS look into you, and he found something interesting.” Roy smiled.
“What?” Tony frowned slightly.
“Before I held that press conference, your stockbroker had already started shorting Stark Industries.” “According to the information JARVIS collected, you made at least a hundred and fifty million dollars from that short position.” Roy replied calmly, “Shorting and going long are both perfectly normal stock-market operations.
There’s nothing unusual about it.” “You weren’t the first person to short Stark Industries, and you won’t be the last.” “I’m just curious.” Tony stared at him seriously.
“How did you know I’d announce the shutdown of the weapons division after I came back?” Roy shrugged.
“Intuition.” Of course, he wasn’t going to tell Tony that he possessed the kind of “insider information” that naturally came with being a transmigrator.
“You were willing to put that much money into shorting Stark Industries based purely on intuition?” Tony frowned.
“Weren’t you worried you might be wrong and take a massive loss?” “Let me correct you.” Roy replied.
“Even if I had been wrong, I wouldn’t have suffered a massive loss.” “I may not be as rich as you, but I can still pull together a few hundred million in cash.” “Anyway, enough about that.” Roy pulled out a nearby chair and sat down.
“Why did you call me here?” Tony didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he picked up the whisky on the table and poured two glasses.
He handed one to Roy, then drained his own in one gulp.
After that, he slowly said, “A few days ago, I attended a firefighters’ family fund benefit at the Walt Disney Concert Hall…” He paused and poured himself another glass.
After taking a sip, he continued, “At the event, I ran into a reporter I’d dealt with before…” Before he could finish, Roy interrupted him with a smile.
“If I had to guess, that reporter was definitely a woman.” “And a very attractive one.” Tony shot him a glare.
“That’s not important.” “What’s important is that she showed me several photographs.” “They were taken the day before the event in a town in Afghanistan called Gulmira.” “The photos proved that someone has been selling Stark Industries weapons to terrorists in Afghanistan.” “Including Jericho missiles!” “When I was kidnapped, those terrorists demanded that I build Jericho missiles for them.” “And now, someone has simply sold the missiles directly to them.” “What I didn’t expect was that the person who joined forces with the other directors to push me off the board—and the person selling Jericho missiles to terrorists—was Obadiah!” Tony had personally flown to Gulmira in the Mark III and destroyed the Jericho missiles in the terrorists’ possession.
But every time he thought about what Obadiah had done, he still couldn’t suppress his anger.
“And?” Roy took a sip of whisky.
“I want you to do something for me.” “Go to my office, hack into the main computer, copy the recent shipping records for the Jericho missiles, and get me evidence that Obadiah sold weapons to terrorists.” Tony picked up a black USB drive and held it out toward Roy.
“This has an intrusion program I designed myself.” “Plug it in and it’ll handle the hacking automatically.” “The shipping records should be in the administrative files.” “If they’re not there, they’ll be on a hidden drive.” “Find the one with the lowest number.” “If you can’t identify it, just copy everything.” Roy didn’t take the USB drive.
“I accepted your commission, but the job was to protect you and Pepper.” “It didn’t include doing corporate espionage for you.” Tony had expected that response.
“So how much extra?” “This time, I don’t want money.” Roy raised his right hand and pointed toward the Mark III armor.
“I want that.” Tony frowned.
“Do you have any idea how much a suit like that costs to build?” Tony was rich.
Very rich.
But even he found Roy’s latest demand excessive.
“I don’t know the exact figure.” Roy looked at him calmly.
“But I’d say it takes a lot of thirty-million-dollar chunks.” “If you know that, why are you making such a ridiculous demand?” Tony immediately replied.
“Doesn’t hurt to try.” Roy smiled.
“If you’d agreed, I would’ve made out like a bandit.” “Stop wasting time.” Tony said.
“Name a reasonable price.” “Same as last time.” Roy replied.
“Five hundred thousand.” “Fine!” Tony agreed without hesitation.
Roy drained the remaining whisky in his glass, picked up the USB drive, and said, “Pepper could do this too.
Why not send her?” “She’s different from you.” Tony replied.
“She’s just an ordinary person.” “I don’t want her getting hurt.” Roy said nothing more.
He activated the Flying Raijin Jutsu and vanished from Tony’s sight.
The next instant, he appeared on the roof of Stark Industries headquarters.
The last time he’d visited, he had left a Flying Raijin formula there.
After teleporting in, Roy didn’t hesitate.
He immediately used the Transformation Jutsu.
Poof!
White smoke dispersed.
Roy had transformed into Obadiah Stane.
Wearing Obadiah’s appearance, he passed through the building without obstruction and soon reached Tony’s office.
More accurately— It was Obadiah’s office now.
Roy turned on the computer.
A login screen appeared.
He plugged Tony’s custom intrusion drive into the main computer.
A warning immediately appeared on the screen: SYSTEM INTRUSION DETECTED Only a few seconds passed before Tony’s program cracked the login system and discovered an encrypted hidden drive.
Without Roy needing to do anything, the files on the hidden drive began opening one after another.
The Jericho missile shipping records.
The Iron Monger armor project in Sector 16.
A video sent by the Afghanistan branch of the Ten Rings…
Roy couldn’t understand Pashto, so he entered a translation command.
The video’s audio was quickly translated into English.
“You never told us the man you wanted dead was Tony Stark.” “So, Obadiah Stane, you’re going to pay dearly for your concealment and lies.” “The price for killing Tony Stark has gone up…” Roy wasn’t surprised that the Afghanistan branch of the Ten Rings had sent Obadiah a video demanding more money.
Nor was he surprised that Obadiah had found the Mark I components left behind in the cave and launched the Iron Monger project.
Roy closed the video and began copying every file from the hidden drive.
He didn’t encounter Obadiah even once before the copying finished.
When Roy returned to Tony’s seaside mansion, he immediately understood why he hadn’t run into Obadiah the way Pepper had in the movie.
In the first-floor living room— Tony was slumped motionless on the sofa.
His face was deathly pale.
And the socket in his chest was empty.