Chapter 468

before deciding it could climb over the old families and take control?

Absolutely not.

Fortunately for the Red Skull, the old families were among the most secretive forces within Hydra.

And fortunately for them, the Red Skull’s defeat came quickly enough that most of his attention remained focused on Captain America.

Otherwise, if he’d discovered exactly who had been undermining him from behind the scenes, he might have died of rage before the Americans ever got to him.

But history had a way of circling back.

Now Malik stood on the verge of achieving what his family had wanted for generations.

The world was almost within his grasp.

Would Pierce’s faction try to do to him what Malik’s family had once done to the Red Skull?

Would they sabotage him at the last possible moment?

Malik tried to put himself in Pierce’s position.

The answer made him uneasy.

He couldn’t afford to underestimate them.

Hydra currently existed almost entirely outside the public eye, hidden beneath layers of secrecy. Very few people even knew the organization still existed.

That made internal betrayal particularly dangerous.

The greatest threat to a hidden organization rarely came from the outside.

It came from the people already inside.

Before the New York incident, Malik had served comfortably on the World Security Council.

His position had allowed him to acquire greater influence for Hydra while simultaneously keeping an eye on the organization’s newer factions.

Then came the nuclear incident during the Battle of New York.

Malik resigned in disgrace.

With his position gone, so was his ability to monitor Pierce effectively.

He was almost blind.

And Pierce was no fool.

He had turned his faction into an incredibly tight-knit organization. The few informants Malik had managed to place inside could barely touch its inner circle.

They knew only one thing for certain.

Pierce was preparing something enormous.

If he succeeded, Hydra could potentially seize the world in a single stroke.

Malik had finally had enough of dancing around the subject.

"So your company’s ultimate objective is to reopen the path to godhood and turn humanity into something divine?"

"Exactly," Evenson said.

"What method?"

"Genetic engineering."

Evenson’s answer came without hesitation.

"God divided humanity overnight. We don’t believe that division refers to ethnic groups. We believe it refers to genetics."

He leaned forward.

"God degraded the human genome. That corrupted genetic sequence didn’t merely make humanity weaker. It became a lock, sealing away the power that originally belonged to us."

"We call it the God Barrier."

"Or, more simply..."

Evenson’s eyes narrowed.

"The genetic lock."

Malik and Stephanie exchanged a glance.

Evenson looked directly at Malik.

"Actually, you should already be familiar with this phenomenon."

"We are?"

Malik frowned.

"Why?"

"Inhumans."

Evenson’s gaze became distant. He rested both hands together in front of his face, his voice dropping into a quiet, deliberate tone.

"We all know the Inhumans exist because the Kree conducted genetic experiments on early humans."

"But nothing comes from nothing. Especially not in biology."

He paused.

"From what I understand, the Kree conducted Inhuman experiments on numerous worlds during that period because they desperately needed soldiers."

"Yet the experiments on Earth were the ones that succeeded."

"Why?"

Malik’s expression changed.

A terrible possibility had just occurred to him.

"You mean..."

He swallowed.

"When the Kree created the Inhumans, they weren’t actually giving humans new powers."

"They were unlocking the powers we already possessed."

"The power sealed inside our genes."

"Exactly."

Evenson nodded firmly.

"The Kree who came to Earth weren’t scientists. They were recruiters. They needed soldiers, and they needed them quickly."

"So they only performed a preliminary unlocking of the human genome."

"That’s why Inhuman abilities are so wildly different from one person to another. The Kree never attempted to reconstruct the entire sequence and discover what humanity would become if every genetic lock were removed."

He paused.

"Of course, they may have tried."

A faint smile appeared.

"And perhaps they reached the same conclusion God did."

"They saw humanity’s potential."

"And they were afraid of it."

Evenson’s expression hardened.

"But we’re different."

"We won’t be afraid."

He rose from his seat.

"We’re going to finish what they started."

"We’re going to accomplish our ultimate objective."

His right hand shot toward the ceiling.

"The Human Completion Project!"

His voice rang through the room.

"May humanity’s glory endure!"

Malik stared at him.

The revelation had left him shaken.

But after a few moments, his thoughts returned to the practical implications.

He spoke carefully.

"Then... is Peggy Carter the result of a completed process?"

"Or is she simply an incompletely unlocked weapon?"

His eyes sharpened.

"If she’s a weapon, can she be replicated?"

"And if so..."

"How many more weapons like her could we create?"