Two days later.
Kez Merlin arrived in Afghanistan.
The moment he stepped out of the airport, the scorching heat hit him full force, accompanied by the faint smell of smoke and gunpowder lingering in the air.
Most of the people leaving the terminal looked tense and hurried, moving quickly as though none of them wanted to remain outside any longer than necessary.
Although the region was under U.S.
military control, small-scale clashes and insurgent attacks had never truly stopped.
Kez climbed into a taxi, gave the driver an address, and headed out of the city.
…
Elsewhere, inside a hidden cave somewhere in the desert, Tony Stark had already agreed to build a Jericho missile for his captors.
In return, most of his requests had been approved, and the cave was now filled with crude instruments, tools, missile components, and assorted weapons.
Tony had no idea when the Fool’s Blessed would arrive to rescue him, but he had already come up with an idea of his own: build a miniature Arc Reactor.
The car battery hanging from his chest was cumbersome, inconvenient, and, most importantly, looked ridiculous.
Tony had absolutely no intention of being rescued only for the entire world to discover that the great Tony Stark had spent his captivity walking around with a car battery strapped to him just to stay alive.
More importantly, a miniature Arc Reactor wouldn’t merely eliminate the need for the battery.
It could also serve as the power source for something much more ambitious.
A mechanical suit of armor.
Before he could build any of that, however, he needed 1.6 grams of palladium from the missiles his captors had provided.
Tony continued dismantling components as he casually asked the man beside him, “How many languages do you speak?”
Yinsen raised an eyebrow.
“A lot.”
He glanced toward the cave entrance.
“Apparently not enough for this place, though. They speak Arabic, Urdu, Dari, Pashto, Mongolian, Farsi, Russian…”
Tony’s hands never stopped moving.
“Who are these people?”
Yinsen gave him a dry look.
“Your loyal customers, Mr. Stark.”
“They call themselves freedom fighters.”
Tony fell silent.
He had never imagined that weapons manufactured by his own company would end up in the hands of people like this, but his hands continued working without pause.
After watching him for a while, Yinsen crouched beside him.
“Need some help with the preparation? Two people might get it done faster.”
Tony lifted a small component with a pair of tweezers.
“This contains about point-one-five grams of palladium. I need at least one-point-six grams total.”
He gestured toward the remaining missiles.
“Take apart eleven more.”
…
Meanwhile, Kez’s taxi finally came to a stop.
The driver looked back at him.
“Sir, this is as far as I can take you. Everything beyond here is a restricted area. There are armed clashes farther ahead, and I really don’t recommend going in.” The source of this chapter is NovelPing.
Kez handed him fifty dollars.
“Thanks.”
He stepped out into the barren landscape.
The taxi immediately accelerated away, disappearing down the road as though the driver were fleeing from something monstrous.
Kez waited until the vehicle had vanished from sight and confirmed there was no one else around.
Then he reached into his backpack and pulled out a photograph depicting a pack of enormous wolves.
He raised his right hand.
The Dragon Ring flashed, releasing a stream of blue magical energy into the photograph.
“Myriad Imprint: Manifest!”
The image rippled.
One enormous wolf after another bounded directly out of the photograph until seven of them stood before him.
Kez took Tony Stark’s tie from his bag and held it out.
“Find him.”
The seven wolves approached one by one, sniffed the lingering scent on the fabric, then abruptly turned and raced across the desert.
Kez made no attempt to follow them on foot.
Instead, he calmly pulled out another photograph.
This one showed a gigantic metallic eagle.
Once again, the Dragon Ring shone.
“Myriad Imprint: Manifest!”
Blue magic swept across the photograph, and the enormous steel eagle burst from its surface before landing in front of him.
Kez jumped onto its back and settled into place, then patted the metal feathers beneath him.
“Let’s go.”
The steel eagle spread its massive wings and launched into the sky.
Carrying Kez high above the desert, it followed the pack of wolves from a distance as they raced toward Tony Stark’s location.
…
Back inside the cave, Yinsen studied the device Tony had constructed and frowned slightly.
“That doesn’t look much like a Jericho missile.”
Tony looked down at his handiwork.
“It’s a miniature Arc Reactor. I’ve got a much larger one back home powering my factory.”
He gestured toward his chest.
“This will keep the shrapnel from reaching my heart, which means I won’t need that battery anymore.”
Yinsen examined the glowing device with open curiosity.
“How much power can it generate?”
Tony shrugged.
“If I did the math right, three gigajoules per second.”
Yinsen stared at him.
“That could keep your heart running for fifty lifetimes.”
“Yeah,” Tony replied, “or power something really big for about fifteen minutes.”
“You’ve barely put that thing down since you found it. Does it actually do something?”
The object was a Sequence 9 Savant Beyonder Characteristic from the Paragon Pathway.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t exactly anywhere to hide something like that inside a heavily guarded cave, so Tony had simply kept it with him.
The freedom fighters had noticed it before and even inspected it themselves, but they hadn’t discovered anything unusual.
Tony had then insisted that if they expected him to build their missile, the strange object stayed with him.
Since they couldn’t find anything dangerous about it, they agreed.
Tony raised the Savant Beyonder Characteristic in one hand.
“It gives me ideas.”
He turned it slightly, watching the ice-blue transparency catch the light.
“I think it’s my lucky charm.”
“When I get out of here, I’m keeping it. It’ll look good in my workshop.”
Tony still had no idea what the object actually was or how it was supposed to be used.
But simply holding it made his thoughts noticeably clearer.
Mechanical principles, engineering concepts, and technical knowledge he had learned years ago came back to him with startling precision.
Whatever this thing was, it unquestionably belonged to the supernatural world.
At the next Tarot Club gathering, Tony intended to ask the Fool exactly what he had found.
Yinsen smiled.
“First you have to get out of here.”
Tony pulled out the blueprints he had been working on.
“We’re getting out with this.”
In truth, Tony had two plans running simultaneously.
Plan A was to wait for the Fool’s Blessed to arrive and rescue him.
The problem was that Tony had no idea when that would happen.
Plan B was the machine he was building himself.
So while he stalled his captors and waited for rescue, he would construct his own armored suit and create a way out with his own hands.
Yinsen unfolded the drawings.
“What is this?”
Tony took several of the sheets and positioned them together.
“Lay them flat. Stack them on top of each other and look again.”
Yinsen followed his instructions.
As the separate drawings aligned into a single complete design, his eyes widened.
“Wow.”
He looked at Tony.
“That’s incredible.”
With Yinsen’s help, Tony finally removed the cumbersome car battery and installed the miniature Arc Reactor in his chest.
The battery was officially obsolete.