11 Chapter 11: It's Raining Money

Looking at the large automatic pistol, which was as long as his own arm, Kate had a whole new concept of self-defence weapons, 19mm cartridges, twelve round magazines, fully automatic firing, that even with a large amount of composite material used, the gun was over 3kg.

What is this thing? FYI, an M4A1 carbine was only 2.86kg, and this pistol that Ethan was talking about was heavier than a rifle.

"You don't understand, that's every man's romance!" Ethan was already in a frenzy, in his last life he had spent a fortune on an MA37 model air pistol and hadn't been this excited when it arrived.

"Give me a twenty-metre target!" The loaded Ethan pulled the bolt to cock the gun and raised it, and with the zipping sound of the rail, a human sternum target was hooked by the sling to a position twenty metres from Ethan.

"Friendly reminder that this thing can be a bit loud!" Ethan grinned and pulled the trigger.

"Boom!" The deafening sound of the gun and the bright muzzle flame appeared at the same time, and almost simultaneously the man-shaped target was blown to pieces.

But to Ethan's surprise, the gun's recoil was greater, though still manageable, like a 12-gauge shotgun.

"The adjustable floating stock, along with a special treatment to the muzzle bore and a flame-reliever that releases almost all of the flame and gas like both sides, now the only problem is the loud firing and the obvious fire! And because of the composite material used, this thing is best not used in close combat!" Samuel explained meticulously.

"Of course, we also make heavy rifles with 50 round drums, that thing is made of all steel, the rifle weighs over 17 Kgs, and no one can even use that unless they are soldiers equipped with exoskeleton armour! So is it going to be a different material? Or maybe downsize the calibre, as small calibre rocket-propelled ammunition is still a bit difficult for us to produce on a small scale at the moment!"

"No, don't scale it down, you guys keep working on it, there'll be more grants, plus pack two of these for me first! By the way, Samuel, get me another mechanic with good engraving skills!"

...... ...... ...

Abdullah Hussein carefully put down the carving knife in his hand, just some time ago a big-breasted beauty visiting their village ordered a silver bracelet from him, this is worth 300 US dollars, in the past he could not even think about it, as a child he and his father learned the craft for more than ten years but finally took up AK74, if not for the policy support of the Atlas Corporation. Abdullah would never have dreamed that he would actually have the day to live off his ancestral craft.

"Aruba! Quickly wrap this up!" Confirming that the silver bracelet was finished, Abdullah immediately called out to his eldest daughter, who worked as an accountant at the front desk.

"Yes, father!" The young woman with the hijab covering her head immediately came running over with a box.

"It's packed, Father!" After skilfully packing the ornaments with wrapping paper and ribbon, Aruba walked out of the room with the box in her hand.

"Clang!" Abdullah, who had just stretched out, gasped when he heard a crunching sound.

"You guys, you better not tell me you broke the box!" A tired-hearted Abdullah viciously lifted the curtain of the door and walked out.

"What are you looking at?" Seeing the beautiful silver bracelet fall to the floor, Abdullah was about to scold her daughter when he noticed she was looking at the sky with his mouth wide open.

"Daddy, what's that?" Aruba pointed to a black dot in the sky that was rapidly approaching.

Abdullah squinted and saw that it looked like an armed transport plane of the Atlas Corporations, something that had gotten him into a lot of trouble in his early days as a militant.

"It's just a plane, what's there to see, get the box ready, the guests are waiting!"

"But Dad, that plane looks like it's coming towards us!"

"What?" Abdullah looked up and stared carefully for a few seconds before confirming the fact that the transport plane seemed to be coming right towards him.

This can't be coming to get me, can it? Wasn't it the policy that if you lay down your weapons and serve out your term of labour, you'd be absolved of any wrongdoing? A million thoughts flashed through his mind but Abdullah had no intention of running away. The Atlas Corporations had already registered the entire population and he would not be far from the town's National Guard.

Anxiously, Abdullah's heart was in his throat when he saw the transport plane land in front of his door with blue fire.

Abdullah almost fainted when four soldiers in training uniforms hanging tactical vests and rifles on their chests stepped out of that Xi'an VTOL transport because that's how the Atlas Corporation's security police were dressed.

"Who is Abdullah Hussein?" A pony-tailed female officer at the head of the group asked loudly to the crowd.

"I am, I am!" After taking a deep breath and stroking his daughter's head, Abdullah stepped forward and said respectfully.

"You are the best silversmith here?" The female officer asked again.

"Yes, I ... am a silversmith and dare not call myself the best yet!" Abdullah who was going to say I am a prisoner of war froze for a second after hearing the female officer's words, they didn't seem to be here to capture him.

"Fine then, come with us, there's something we need you for!"

"Ah!" Abdullah was a little dumbfounded.

"What are you waiting for, get on the plane, we're on a tight schedule!"

"Ohhhh!" Reacting, Abdullah hurriedly put on his white hat and followed the soldier onto the plane.

The news that Abdullah had been taken away by the soldiers soon spread to the nearby villages, and his wife, who had taken her young son to her mother-in-law's house, naturally learned of the news. They sat in their room and waited until the evening when Abdullah walked in with a thousand dollars in his pocket and a lamb leg on his shoulder and his wife fainted.

"What a lemon trip of events!" Abdullah, who had heard the story from his daughter was furious and laughed at the same time, but with his wife unconscious, he had to go and bring the doctor in again.

Abdullah had to explain that he had been brought in to help some big boss sculpt ornaments and that his work was so good that the other party was so pleased with his work that he not only paid him twice as much but also gave him a stack of food coupons, which he exchanged for some imported pastries and a leg of lamb before his wife burst into tears.

"Go and cook the lamb and give me a cup of tea, I'm exhausted after walking all the way from town to get here!"

In fact Abdullah is not an exception, over the past few years, because of the increasingly harsh living conditions, a large number of militants chose to come out of the mountains to surrender to the Iraqi security forces and the Atlas Corporation security forces, and after screening these guys, the most criminal ones rolled off to Africa to play in the sand.

While the other unlucky ones were dragged off to labour camps to build their beautiful homes, and of course, Ethan let these guys through various training courses in the camps to teach them various skills, welding, cooking, hairdressing and excavation.

As long as they learned well, they could shorten the time of their labour service and be released early for good behaviour.

All in all, Iraq is now back to its previous level in all areas except perhaps quality of life, which is much better than it was under the Saddam regime and even more so in terms of healthcare and transport and communications - after all, the Iraqi people had no access to smartphones and tablets under the Saddam regime.

It can even be argued that if Atlas Corporation were to withdraw from Iraq, the country would revert to the state it was in before 2003, with no central government, local factions and warlords, so even if there were a few local Iraqi officials who felt that Atlas Corporation was too big to fail, they would not dare to make the slightest move. If they do, the civilians who are paid by Atlas will tear them apart alive.

Therefore, even if some educated people know that the Atlas Corporation is a cup of poison to quench their thirst, they still have to drink it, only that after drinking it, Iraq will slowly turn into the shape of the Atlas Corporation.

...... ...... ...

Looking at the hole less than 20 metres away, Ethan took a deep breath and swung his club with a flick, the golf ball rolled over and came to an abrupt end less than a palm's length from the hole.

"Looks like there's still need for some practice!" Ethan's father smiled as he handed the club to his bodyguard and walked over to the cart not far away, taking two bottles of chilled mineral water from it, tossing one to Ethan before grabbing the other and drinking most of it in one go.

"After all, it's not like I fight every day like you guys do!" Ethan took a sip of the mineral water, then stomped on the turf under his feet and let out a long breath.

After inspecting the Atlas Corporation base in Iraq, Ethan returned to his old home turf, Boston, the capital of Massachusetts.

Boston is not only the largest city in the northeastern United States, but also a city rich in history and culture. It is home to Harvard and MIT, but it is also the site of the roots of the outbreak of the War of Independence, Boston Tea Party, the shooting of Lexington, Bunker Hill, Concord, so to speak, and it has a long history of the anti-British atmosphere.

And Ethan came here, first, to attend the annual regular meeting of the Boston Consortium. Secondly, he had come to find a man ready to take the bullet for him; after all, he was going to mess with the McCallum Group, and if the Atlas Corporation alone came down to wrestle, it would be very noticeable, and if a few more good men came along, then the fight would turn into an ordinary business conflict.

"I understand what you're thinking, but this McCullen Group, it's not as easy to deal with as you think!" Although no longer much involved in family affairs, Ethan's father's knowledge of the various complex and entangled relationships between these conglomerates was something Ethan still needed to learn.

"James McCallum, their history goes back to the Hundred Years War, when their family was a very important arms supplier to the French army, and they could have made a very good earldom with that credit, but his ancestor felt that the war was stalemated, so he chose to bet on both ends!"

"And then France won and liquidated them!" Ethan picked up on this, something he had a vague memory of from watching the film.

"Yes, liquidated, the McCullens were forced into exile in England until after the death of Charles VII, when they returned to France, kept their heads down, and rose again during the French Revolution, relying on the rise of Napoleon to become France's arms supplier again! Then there was just WWI and WWII, and to say the McCallum Group was still working for Spicy Crisp in WWII, but nothing at all after the war was over, can you believe it!" Ethan's father clicked his tongue when it came to this.

"It's all Spicy Crisp's pot anyway, they were forced to do it!"

"That's right, they were forced!" Ethan's father crumpled the finished water bottle into a ball and shoved it into the trunk of the car.

"I'm saying all this mainly to tell you that forces like the McCallum Group, who are so intertwined with those families on European soil. If you want to bring them down, you have to have a mastermind!"

"How about James McCullen being the financier behind the terrorists, for example?" Ethan said thoughtfully as he stroked his stubble.

"Ahem, that's not something to say, you know, son, I know your ideals are beyond me and your mother, but we'll support you unconditionally, so I'll talk to the rest of the family about your idea, I think they'll support you too, after all, are we the Boston Consortium!"

"I understand, Father!" Ethan nodded and wanted to incite a few more words when another electric car drove up, a sporty dressed Kate wearing a sports vest on top and a pair of sports shorts underneath, next to a similarly dressed Ethan's elderly mother the two sat in the back of the car greeting loudly.

"They're all on their way! You guys still want to play?"

"Got it! John, tell everyone to gather, we're going back to the hotel!" Ethan nodded and greeted John who was following him and told him to gather the bodyguards, the rest of the consortium's family would be on their way and now they had to get there too, or at least not be late!

At the moment an old fortress hotel outside Boston was surrounded by big men in black suits and dark sunglasses, snipers in unmarked training uniforms were already in position on high, and patrols with big wolf dogs were going back and forth in two or three minutes.

"If the Atlas Corporations were to do it instead, it would only take thirty soldiers to take care of the defence here, we would set up guard turrets at key junctions, set up stealth drone attack planes, and of course snipers, I've found some good talent in this year's recruits, there's a guy who's a first-class marksman!" John said as he steered the Mercedes.

"That can't be helped, who asked the host of the day to be named Kennedy!" Ethan straightened his shirt and waited until John had parked the car in front of the hotel and then slowly walked down.

"Look who it is, Ethan Hunt, the leading man of our young generation, hey bro, how's it going?" A sunny and handsome looking suited lad with short thinning hair and slanted fringes stepped forward and gave Ethan a hug.

"I am enjoying my life very much!" Ethan felt the touch on her chest and couldn't help but feel a little sorry for her, it was a C plus in college, so how come it's like this now!

Ruth Fitzgerald Kennedy, the most mischievous person in the Kennedy family at the moment.

Ethan kinda wanted to have some story with her back in his college days but it turned out that she was a lesbian and she treated Ethan as her brother but Ethan wanted to be inside her.

Although the play with the brother thing fell through, Ruth didn't treat Ethan badly, and whenever she was with the beautiful woman, she would drag him along with her. I didn't expect that after graduating and joining the group, she cut her hair, got a tattoo and even shrunk her breasts and openly mingled with some beautiful female secretaries in the group.

The fact that she was so deviant naturally worried her older brother and parents at home, but her grandfather doted on her, plus she had outstanding abilities of her own, and Harvard was for nothing, using her own strengths in Boston to make a name for herself in the IT space.

"Where's Kate, why haven't I seen her?"

"You can pull it off, I only have one capable female secretary and I don't want her tangled up with you much!"

"Aren't we good buddies, good things should be shared shouldn't they!"

"STFU! Don't even think about it, you come within ten metres of Kate and I'll send a video of you and those cheerleaders jumping s**t to the press!"

"Yeah, like you weren't stripped naked that day!"

"Don't mention it!"

"Well, enough about that, what's the latest good business, let's enjoy the convenience of following the multinational trust too!"

"Business?" Ethan pondered for a moment, the Kennedy family is currently involved in the business is nothing more than traditional manufacturing, aerospace, materials, finance, and electronic products, energy, oil and the McCarran Group business has a lot of conflict with them.

Ethan nodded and was really about to give the other man a word about the initial idea when he noticed the guy was already walking to another BMW sedan.

"Oh, you girl, as odd as ever!" A twilight old man grinned as he stepped out of the car, while Ruth had eagerly taken the other man's arm.

Rex Kennedy, rumour had it that he was a cousin of President Kennedy back in the day, and had once served as the then one-term Director of the NSA, but with Kennedy being taken care of by a Carcano rifle, his tenure as Director had quickly come to an end.

"Good afternoon, sir!" Reasonably enough, Ethan, who represented the younger generation of the Hunt family had to show his courtesy, and he greeted the other man with a slight nod.

"You too, good afternoon, Mr Hunt! How come I haven't seen your grandfather this time?"

"They're off on an expedition ship to see the penguins in Antarctica, my Uncle is leading the team this time, and they've gone in!"

"Oh-oh, I should go in too then! Can't let them just wait!"

Ethan didn't move when Rex went inside, he smoked a cigarette outside first, in fact, he didn't want to be involved in this so-called consortium meeting at all, after all, compared to other families, he was busy at a different point from them all.

After smoking a cigarette, Ethan paced slowly into the meeting hall.

A balding, middle-aged man was rattling off a bunch of financial figures, what with the increase in market share, the completion of market development in which countries, and of course the accusations against Rockefeller and the curses against the Morgan Group.

The movement of Ethan's entrance was neither too big nor too small, and naturally, the noise was noticed by many people, but they only glanced at it and then returned their attention.

"You're smoking again?" Just as he sat down in his seat, his cheap father asked in a whisper.

"Just one!"

"Then you smoke something nice too, a $9 Marlboro, are you serious?"

"Mostly because I like to take a $99 shoe and stomp over a $9 cigarette!"

"You! Always coming up with new tricks!"

Ethan laughed as he grabbed a mineral water bottle from the table and took a sip.

At the moment, the man in the room had been replaced by a spokesman for another family, who were responsible for the textile industry over almost half of the whole of America, and they're now planning to start some alpaca farming in Peru, so they had come to the banking sector controlled by the consortium to finance it.

A bunch of old men in their 50s, 60s and 70s muttered for a while, voted in favour, and so the man got an initial investment of a billion, with more to come later if the alpaca market could explode.

"How long do we have to wait here?" Ethan couldn't help but yawn and asked Salient Hunt, who was sitting next to his right. He was Ethan's Uncle and also one of the four shareholders of Atlas Corporation, of course, he only had a token of five per cent in his hand, but the annual dividends of this money also had at least hundreds of millions of dollars.

"It's still an hour away!" His Uncle understands how Ethan is behaving at the moment, in fact, he is also impatient, the time spent on this crap meeting would be better spent playing golf and drinking or buying a few paintings for his collection.

"How do you all usually deal with this!"

"What do you mean?"

"Just meetings and all that!"

"Look at your dad!"

Ethan turned his head to look, only to find that his father was fast asleep right now but his body was sitting up straight, and nodding every now and then as if he was attending the meeting earnestly.

"All right!"

After almost thirty more minutes of waiting, his Uncle straightened his suit, pushed back his chair and walked up.

The Hunt family actually started out selling aircraft, such as Bell Aircrafts, when it comes to the company name many people may be confused, but when it comes to their products? UH-1 Iroquois, AH-1 Cobra and MV-22 Fish Hawk rotorcraft are all Bell products.

Of course, now add the MV44 Cormorant. This thing is a four-rotor heavy transport aircraft. This is considered to be Ethan's shareholding to Bell, in fact, at first, Ethan wanted to buy Bell directly, but finally gave up.

The first reason is the size of the Bell company is also considered a large international enterprise, the second is the company has a lot of Hunt family members, so finally, Ethan chose the technology into the shares.

The Ministry of Defense proposed a light-armed reconnaissance helicopter concept, Bell combined the AH-1 Cobra, OH-58 Kiowa Warrior and RAH-66 Comanche with some extra features, plus the culverted vortex fan provided by the Atlas Corporation, integrated a shape that looks like a smaller version of the Comanche codename OH-70 helicopter because it is the military's requirement is light reconnaissance armed, so this helicopter is small, similar to the OH-58, with a speed of around 270 km/h, with optical stealth capability, while having a total range of 500 km, equipped with high-frequency spectral radar, infrared thermal imaging probe, while integrating a data chain to guide rear attacks and in terms of weapons,

"This list will create roughly six thousand jobs and solve six thousand low-income families in Boston in ten years, so ..." he made it clear, these are the jobs you want them or not.

The six thousand jobs, divided among the downstream companies in the helicopter manufacturing industry, would bring economic benefits as well as the social impact that would be a bargain.

"We are in charge of electronics, we should be given more!"

"Bullshit, we are responsible for the supply of materials, we should be given more!"

After some rebate, each family agreed on their share and then called a truce.

"First things first, let's go!"

Led by their close attendant, Ethan with his family left conference the hall, walked down the corridor and entered another small, rather dimly lit house.

"I hope I'm not too late!" Ethan's father convenient said as he pushed open the door to a couple of men inside.

"No, close the door now!" A middle-aged older man sitting directly opposite the door beckoned, then pointed to the spot beside him.

This was probably the real head of the Boston Consortium! Ethan roughly scanned the room for a few moments to confirm that these guys, who were in the same year as his father, were pretty much the key players in the various families.

"Well, Ethan, what did you want to talk about when you called a few of us over here specifically?"

"Chris, I hear you guys have been getting screwed by the McCallum Group in Africa and Europe lately is that right?"

"More than that!" The man called Chris rubbed his brow; Ethan remembered that he was Ruth's cousin's uncle.

"And the rubber in South East Asia, those French bastards, they went straight to the local army chiefs with their tickets, sent money and beautiful women to get the rubber there, and then raised the price for me! What pisses me off is when they cause car crashes and threaten the men I send there, and the police keep pushing back!"

"James McCallum, he's as pretentious and superior as a traditional Frenchman!"

"Can't help it, after all, it was the French who helped us gain our independence!"

"No, it was Louis XVI who helped us and has had his head chopped off by them, the French have nothing to do with us now!" Ethan said, shaking his head.

"Ha ha ha, that's true, has James McCullen messed with Atlas too?"

"Pretty much, the McCullen Group used our product as a target in the exoskeleton armour trade a while back!" Ethan admitted as much with a flourish.

"The McCullen Group, with a market value of 500 billion specifically, they even have a collision with the French government, so if they were to go after them, would it cause diplomatic controversy?"

"What if their relationship with the French government comes into question?" Ethan pulled out his own invitation.

"James McCullen wants to invite me to an event he's hosting to agree on a new international arms order by the way!"

"Stark's not even dead yet, and the McCullen Group is so eager to make a dash for the number one spot?" Ethan's Father looked disdainful.

"I'm going to scout it out and see what's available, I don't believe James McCullen's ass is clean!" Ethan remembered the movie where McCullen was a thief, but I don't think there's a special forces unit called GI Joe in the US at the moment, so maybe he could give the Pentagon an opinion that day?

After a short exchange, they reached a preliminary agreement, but of course, this agreement does not count, if the McCullen group does not leak and they will stay put, but once the McCullen group has any problems, these guys will swarm like sharks that smell blood.

And how to deal with McCullen is a matter for Ethan to look at carefully.

Brazil

A small village in the Amazon rainforest.

Obadiah walks out of the hut he has built, topless, and as an old man in his sixties, it is rare to have a fit body, and Obadiah is just such a man.

Casually taking a coconut stacked next to the room, Obadiah took a knife and in three strokes peeled it down to the white skin, then slammed his fist down and the coconut was smashed open with a big thud.

Gulping down the coconut juice, Obadiah wiped a handful of his water-stained beard in the style of a good man on a mountain.

Tossing the finished coconut shell casually into a pile of grass, Obadiah glanced at his phone, which displayed an unknown message.

M: Are you serious about the price you're asking?

"That stingy man!" Upon seeing the message, Obadiah snorted disdainfully, then walked over to the other wooden room and opened the door with force.

As the dust cleared, Obadiah stepped into the room and looked at the humanoid object wrapped in rain cloth under two hydraulic pillars in the centre of the house and lifted his phone.

After a few snaps of the card and a few pictures were sent, the phone buzzed and another unknown popped up.

M: I want to see the goods, and if it's okay, you'll get what you want!

"Those French bastards!" Obadiah looked at the message and cursed, he was a big shot and now he was being bullied by a dog, in the past, there were only a few thousand people in the whole of America who dared to talk to him like that.

I, for one, put up with it!

Obadiah also suffered as a child, born in the war years, he was very bold to go to the war zone during the Vietnam War to solicit the soldiers' opinions on Stark Industries' weapons, such a dedicated work ethic naturally got Stark's father's appreciation, the two of them made Stark Industries bigger and stronger, so even though he now lives in a ramshackle house in the Amazon, Obadiah is still not discouraged, as long as he finds an opportunity, he could turn his life around immediately.

Paris, France

James McCallum was humming in his soft boss's chair, his phone vibrating every now and then, but McCallum ignored it and reached out to the female secretary crouched beneath his chair.

"Awesome~" patting the female secretary's face in encouragement, McCullen then picked up the phone and swiped to unlock it, then several pictures of the Mark 1 battle armour leapt out, along with several messages.

S: Here's my chip.

Looking at the message, McCullen let out a smug chuckle.

Then he sent a message over as well.

Address, I'll send someone to pick you up!

A few seconds later, a string of latitude and longitude popped up.

After copying and pasting the address into his browser, McCullen found that it was in South America.

"Anna, you and White Ghost go to this place and pick up someone, remember, be polite, this one is our big baby!" After confirming the address, McCullen picked up his phone and called a number out again.

...... ...... ...

Amazon

After confirming that the other man would pick him up, Obadiah sighed, the man he used to be had no regard for a jumped-up clown-like James McCullen, but now, in order to get his revenge, he had to turn to the guy's power, what? Why didn't Obadiah pick Justin Hammer? Obadiah was sure that Justin Hammer would have brought the FBI to arrest him as soon as he got the call, and then brought the Mark I Battle Armor back to his company, saying that he had developed it and that he had been fighting with Justin Hammer for over ten years. Even with James McCullen, Obadiah had kept his hand in.

"Whoosh!" A wind whistling sound different from the movement of the rainforest reached Obadiah's ears, who was very familiar with engines and could not hear what type of engine it was, but he was sure that it must be ion propelled.

The treetops shook more and more sharply, and then Obadiah saw a streamlined unidentified craft whistling and hovering above his small ramshackle house.

"Looks like I underestimated McCullen after all!" Obadiah frowned and just subconsciously thought about how Stark Industries should react, then he realized that he was no longer at Stark Industries.

Smiling to himself, Obadiah then walked towards the flying machine that was slowly landing.

"You are Mr S?" A hatch opened on the side of the craft and a row of overhanging ladders lowered, then a beautiful brunette in a leather coat jumped out of the craft on her long boots.

"Yes, it's me!" Obadiah looked at the beautiful woman who was struggling to pull her boots out of the mud and suddenly wondered a little if he had made the right choice.

"Huh!" The brunette struggled a few times without pulling her shoes out, and she was too embarrassed to ask Obadiah to help, so she had to ask her companion to come over.

"White Ghost!"

A white figure flew out of the hatch and after a nimble harrier flip in the air, he too stomped into the mud, but he was quick enough to jump out before he sank.

"Pull me out now!" The brunette stared and offered her hand to the man in white.

As the two men wasted their time struggling out of the mud, Obadiah had already pulled the Mark I prototype out of the house.

"I'm Anna and this is the White Ghost, welcome to the McCullen Group!" The brunette touched a handful of mud, gave an ugly smile and pointed to the white Asian man on the other side who was rubbing mud spots.

"Let's get going!" Obadiah nodded, indicating that he knew.

...... ...... ...

Ethan didn't know that because of this butterfly of his, the plot had started to fall apart, but even if he knew he didn't care, although he wasn't strong enough right now, he could still do it by washing the world's floor with missiles, big deal, we'll just turn the table over and everyone will stop playing!

"Why do you keep staring at this cup?" Kate looked rather curiously at Ethan who hadn't moved for almost half an hour.

"I'm trying to make this thing float!" Ethan was still staring at the cup with dead eyes.

He hadn't paid much attention to his Star Torch since his return from Mars, so it hadn't occurred to him that it seemed like that upgrade he had given himself two more ways to use his psychic powers in his head, no, two ways to cast spells to be exact. First being telekinesis.

"Many think they have superpowers and they can make things float but in the end, they end up farting by concentrating a lot!" Kate said in an unpleasant voice, "You might as well help me with my statement if you've got the energy!"

"No, there's a second one!" Ethan took a fruit knife out of the dining room and slashed at his hand as Kate watched in puzzlement.

"You're crazy! I'll get the medical kit!" Kate was so frightened that she immediately turned to leave, but Ethan called out to her.

"Don't worry, look at this!" Ethan's right hand slowly covered the wound, scratching across the skin a little, and the area where his fingers had grazed became intact.

"Where did you learn that magic trick?"

"No, it's not magic!" Ethan picked up the knife, still covered in his own blood, yes, this was the second ability Ethan had gained, healing, though the limits of this ability, he hadn't tried it yet.

"I still can't believe it!"

"Trust me, in a few years you'll find something even more amazing than this!" Ethan wasn't worried if Kate would spill the beans, the two had known each other for well over a decade, three years on the battlefield alone, Ethan had even saved Kate's life, and according to Kate, she had belonged to Ethan from the moment he had rescued a badly wounded her from a torpedoed destroyer.

"So what the hell is this, magic? Or some kind of genetic mutation?"

"I call it psychic energy, although it has similarities to magic, although the source of the power is completely different!"

"And does this whatever psychic energy only heal your scars?"

"No, it has many functions, except that my strength can only go so far!"

"So, can I have this power too?"

"In theory, it should work!" Ethan thought about it, it was logical that the two had snapped so many times that Kate should have been transformed by the power too, but now it seemed unresponsive, shouldn't it be time to step it up?

"Maybe in time I'll have something up my sleeve!"

"I'd better get to the statement then!" As Kate turned, her draped hair scraped down on a file Ethan had placed on the table, and several sheets of paper floated out with a whimper.

"Shit!" Ethan subconsciously reached out in the direction of the paper, and then he noticed as if the paper had stopped its tendency to fall.

Then Ethan powered his psychic energy and slowly lifted his palm, and the paper slowly rose with his movements.

"Holy shit!" Immediately rejoicing, Ethan released his palm, not caring that the paper fell to the ground, and he turned his attention to the cup that had not moved after all his previous efforts.

Feeling his state carefully, Ethan found it really was as if a large invisible hand had lifted the cup, then he tried the bench, the coffee table, and Kate's halter top.

"Are you looking for death?" Kate, who felt her chest go cold, glared angrily, but looking at Ethan, who was hemming and hawing like a fool, could only hold her forehead and sigh, was it too late to change bosses?

Compared to the Americans, the French are more attentive to delicate feelings, something they probably bring with them naturally, like the frenzy during the Revolution, the anger during World War I.

James McCallum was naturally one of those people, and the moment he saw Obadiah, he pounced on him with unbridled excitement, without any regard for whether the other man was dirty or not.

But even if Obadiah was dirty, McCullen wouldn't have cared, maybe he would have even pouted of his own accord, help me become king of the world, please!

"Oh my dear Mr Obadiah, you have made my humble abode look so good with your presence!" James McCullen said, pointing to his sixty-five million dollar estate.

"What a humble home!" Obadiah took off his coat, which hadn't been washed in weeks, and casually dropped it on McCullen's half-million-dollar leather handmade sofa.

McCullen looked at the dirty sofa and the two equally dirty henchmen and could only cough.

"That, Mr Obadiah, you've had a hard journey too, I'll send someone to lead you to rest, take a shower, eat something, get a good night's sleep and then we'll take our time to talk about the cooperation!"

"Yes, lead the way!" Obadiah didn't object, he wasn't worried about what McCullen would do to him or what the Mark he had put away would do to the other side later, he had Tony Stark's reactor here anyway and the Mark I battle armour was just an iron shell, if he James McCullen wanted that M134 machine gun then he could have it!

After Obadiah left, James also waved his hand and told his two best men to go wash up as well.

"BOSS, is this old guy really that important?" The White Ghost, who was spinning his bitterness in his hand, said in disbelief.

"He's a businessman, he's also a scientist, and most importantly, he's a former executive of Stark Industries! Do you think he's not of much use now that he's wanted?"

"Uh!" He was born in Japan and had been valued by the local ninja clan since he was a child, and had even become the disciple of the master Arashikage, only to be forced to leave at the age of ten for some reason, and his years of martial arts training combined with his displacement had left him with little schooling and instead, he had a natural contempt for technicians, what's the use of knowing anything, you're still something I can kill with a single slash. Even if you're good, it's only a matter of two slashes!

But that's what McCullen was hoping for... a killer who's a hard worker and doesn't care much about modern technology, or an operative who spends his time with a computer and a high-tech weapon on his back.

"Obadiah has deep roots in America, otherwise how could he be so secure in South America?"

"So which one do we have for him?" Anna, a beautiful brunette standing on the other side, interjected.

"No, not yet, Obadiah is still suspicious of us, and that tin battle armour you brought back, does it look familiar!" McCullen said pointing at Mark I with his tablet.

"I don't know, how many times can this thing stop me?" Still bewildered and confident, the White Ghost.

"That's space-grade titanium armour, your knife won't work against that thing!" Anna splashed cold water from the sidelines.

"If you keep talking nonsense, I'll kill you, my apprentice!" There was nothing the White Ghost could hear more than someone saying his blade wouldn't work.

"It's true, but with Obadiah around, maybe he can contribute some recipes to strengthen your blade!"

"I feel that there is a similarity between this black tin can and the one that appeared on the news a while ago, except that this one looks uglier and bigger, and that gold and the red thing looks more aesthetically pleasing!" Unlike the White Ghost, Anna, who was on the other side of the room, but who usually brushed up on the news, could see where this thing came from at a glance.

"You're saying that this thing has something to do with Stark Industries? Is that right?"

"Yes, it's probably the work of that stinking idiot!" At the mention of Stark, James McCullen hated it with a passion.

In Switzerland that year, James McCullen, who was eager to open up the American market, though that Stark would be a breakthrough, so he rushed up to say hello, thinking that his status as the only designated arms dealer in France would make Stark look good. James McCullen rattled off a bunch of his company's aircraft and missiles, only to have the other man shake his head and say that they were all untechnical and that no one would even want them even North Korea.

The truth is that James McCullen was so intent on growing his family that he spent every day at the research institute, developing equipment that the British, French and Germans used and said was good, but how could it be rubbish in Stark's mouth?

The key thing is that McCullen had his eye on a girl at that time, but he was dragged by the God damn Stark for a threesome.

"I will not be a man until this revenge is avenged!"

"Then let me go and kill him!" Hearing that his boss had so much deep hatred for that whatever Stark, White Ghost yawned and said in a bored voice.

"No, I'm going to make him, in disgrace, if I just kill him that's a cheap shot!" McCullen said viciously as he picked up a metal mask hanging on the wall behind him, "I'm going to make him worse than dead, that would be the most fitting end for him!"

"Argh!" Far away in New York, Stark was still being a good boy in his mansion at this time, he couldn't help it, wearing his improved Mark II having just returned from being a street vigilante Stark was dejectedly asking Jarvis to remove his armour when Pepper suddenly walked into his room with the paperwork.

Because Tony had given Pepper permission earlier, Jarvis was not going to call the police when she came in.

"Pepper, listen to me please, no, let me explain, it's not what you think it is!" Stark decided to make a pre-emptive strike, so he spoke up first, interrupting Pepper's query.

"I haven't said anything yet? What's the hurry?" Pepper also forgot for a moment what she was supposed to say because of Stark's snappy answer.

"Uh, I'll say it first!"

"I'll say it first!"

"Then you go first!"

"Then you go first!"

"Speaking of which, I didn't know we had such an understanding!" Stark poured himself a glass of gin and took a small sip.

"What are you going to say? Then say it quickly!" Pepper also blushed a little at how the two had just spoken in unison.

"Actually that one just now, it's my ... well ... my high tech prosthetic, you know, I haven't been in very good shape because of the chest wound, and although the shrapnel has stopped the flow, it's still a mental torture for me There are great side effects, so I built such a thing, just to help me walk in general!"

"Walking?"

"Well, actually, occasionally I choose to fly, you know, flying's always been a hobby of mine!"

"Anthony Edward Stark!" Pepper's expression was extraordinarily serious at the moment, "Do you think I look like a three-year-old girl? Do you think I don't watch the news? You think I'm that gullible, do you?"

"No, it's my fault!"

"Look at all this!" Pepper, now as angry as a tigress, stepped forward and pointed to the small craters in her steel battlesuit from the bullets and shell fragments.

"I understand you, but you should also understand that you're just a normal person, and these bullets kill people! Just because you were lucky this time doesn't mean you'll still be that lucky next time!"

"Actually, the titanium alloy has an excellent defence against close-range fire from large calibre weapons, I'm a professional, you'll have to trust me, Pepper!"

"But guns, cannons and bombs are dangerous, can't you learn from Mr Hunt? He has a lot of soldiers under him, can't we also form a security company and recruit some people to do what you're trying to do?"

"Why would I build this thing then?" Stark reached out and stroked Mark's battle armour that was his heart and soul, the most impressive piece of work he had ever created in his life, and the first piece he had built not to kill but to protect.

"Then you must promise me one thing!"

"Ten things will do!"

"No, just one, protect yourself, we can't do it without you, Mr Stark!"

"Of course!"

Pepper had come to Stark because the reactors the company was delivering to the Colossus were controlled items and had to be signed off by Stark, but instead, she had come across another layer of Stark's identity here, which was a surprise.

"The four reactor cores for the Colossus have been completed, should we ship them now or wait, the final payment from the Colossus is still outstanding!"

"Send it to them, I have a feeling that Ethan Hunt is going to make a big story out of it lately!" Stark thought about the satellite drawings the guy had sent him last time, and suddenly thought, he should get a similar one, something that would launch his own battle armour, so that if it ever broke and needed to be replaced it could be done directly on the battlefield, no need to go back to base!

"Jarvis, do the maths on how much this satellite will cost!" Stark pulled up a 3D view of a square-shaped satellite and had Jarvis start creating the data, "Sorry Pepper, I just had another idea for the company, you decide!"

That said, Ethan found that it seemed that no matter what world it was in, old Europe didn't have much of a presence, and if it did it wasn't a good picture, like when the naughty princess of Asgard came and Germany knelt on a street, or when Malekith came and stuck his ship on British soil and arrogantly broke the Brits' F35. (TN: I intentionally wrote princess. Why? Cause Loki's so sassy.)

As for France? The only thing it's famous for is that the French contributed half of the experimental material in Hydra during World War II.

...... ...... ...

"What, you're going to France for the auction?" Ethan's father knew that he was going away on a trip and also his mother was all excited when they learned the news.

"France, Paris is the capital of romance, think of me and your dad on the banks of the Seine with the breeze and the food, can't tell you how great it is!" Ethan's mother fished out her treasured postcard and pointed to the lavender on it, "This is Provence, this is where your father proposed!"

"I'm going to an auction, not a trip!" Ethan pulled a washed tub of cherries from the dining room table and lay on all fours on the sofa in the conservatory, through the window he could even see the beach in the distance, if October in New York wasn't so bad for sunbathing, Ethan would be carrying his airbed to the beach to tan.

"So when are you going to go? I'm going with your mother and we can go and relive our youth again!"

"He's off on business, we'll just take a couple of bodyguards on a first-class flight ourselves!"

"Ugh!" Looking at his mother like I'm going to save money for my son, Ethan was not the least bit impressed. In fact, his parents had used his private plane before, a C17? It was a military transport plane and definitely not as comfortable to sit in as a business jet, so since then, once they had to fly, two people with a combined age of 100 years preferred to go first-class.

"Are you taking Kate on this trip?"

"No, in case I get high and offend a powerful European, the fewer people there are the easier it is to run away!" Ethan had already made up his mind that he would take only a select group of the best from the various units of the Atlas Corporations, and no one else.

"Then take the Pleskow with you, we'll feel better with him!" His mother said, pointing to a black German shepherd running around the yard.

"Ha, will my dad agree to that, it's his heart and soul!" Ethan remembered that this German shepherd had been given to his dad earlier, a super-pure bloodline kind, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"As long as you don't lose him!"

...... ...... ...

Iraq

Atlas Corporation Base

"Report, the operations team is in position!" An Atlas Corporation security force officer pushed open the door to Cormac's office and reported loudly.

"Let's go, go check it out!" Cormac nodded, although he had already read the biographies of these people on the information, it was a matter of his boss's safety and security, he still had to confirm it again.

At a training ground not far from the headquarters building, a team of proud soldiers and brave men were already waiting, they were.

Sniper Katsumi Kimura, codenamed Recon, specialising in long-range sniping and reconnaissance, from Japan.

Heavy fireman Erin Baker, codenamed Battery, specialising in demolition and heavy firepower operations, from the USA.

Barrier Breaker Tony Walsh, codenamed Ruin, specialises in mobile shooting and fire breaking, from the USA.

Ambushman Tavrojas, codename Wanderer, specialises in mine setting and wilderness survival, also skilled in dog training, from Colombia.

Firefighter Kieran Makai, codenamed Dry, specialises in blockades and ambushes, is a warm-hearted man who likes to fight.

Tactical Commander David Weeks, who specialises in shooting fighting driving, is one of the few all-rounders in the Atlas and is a reserve front-line commander, from the USA.

Medic Jorabaz Bazra, codenamed Thunderbolt, specialises in field ambulance and is fluent in several languages, a great team player, from Australia.

Fireman Kratov Hayek, codenamed Fireblock, specialises in the use of flamethrowers and chemical protection equipment and is from the Czech Republic.

Breakout player Kokroso, codenamed Eyas, specialises in defensive counter-attacks and is proficient in light weapons fire, and is from South Africa.

These nine men can be said to represent the entire Atlas Corporation security force. They come from all over the world, and many of them have been ostracised by their former units for their own reasons, such as Ruin and Recon, the former of whom was dismissed by a court-martial for refusing his officer's order to attack and choosing to rescue trapped friendly troops, and the latter of whom chose to give his own officer a rough lecture on new recruits after his training camp officer had hospitalised several people with injuries The latter was kicked out of his unit after the officer made a spectacle of himself at a military meeting by slipping a strong laxative into his coffee.

These unruly pricks are hard to tame but that doesn't mean they are mediocre. Ruin can throw a grenade through the window of a moving car forty metres away and the Recon, known as a human scope, can hit a peach on a playing card with a Locus sniper rifle from three thousand metres.

"All stand at attention!" Seeing Cormac approach, the Recon, standing at the head of the group, immediately shouted.

Whereupon the other eight, who were instantly somewhat scattered, quickly stood at attention and waited with their heads held high for the arrival of their superiors.

"Sir!"

"At ease!" Cormac looked at the few men before him and waved his hand casually.

"Sir, are we being summoned for some sort of mission?"

"That's right!" Cormac nodded and beckoned the soldier behind him to take over several backpacks.

"This is?" Codenamed Battery, Baker, a muscular female soldier with a pink Mohican haircut, curiously flipped open the backpacks to find a pile of papers inside.

"Your cover identities and funds for your activities, you will leave tonight, enter Paris, France by different means and meet at a safe house in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, where the BOSS will give you an account of your mission, understood?"

"BOSS? Which BOSS?" wondered Dry.

"The one who pays our salaries!" said a hated Eyas, "You could at least respect the leader!"

"Er, my bad!" Dry scratched his beard in embarrassment, he was genuinely embarrassed, since coming to the Atlas Corporation, although the training was harder, there were no brain-jerking officers here, not to mention the terrible food, and as a result, he had forgotten the name of his boss.

"When you get back run 10,000 metres in the playground and write a 20,000-word review that you're going to read to the Boss! I'll let it go if he nods!" Cormac said with a black face.

"Yes!"

After the small interlude, Cormac returned to his serious expression.

"Gentlemen, before the BOSS gives you the task, I will first give you a task, no matter what happens, you must ensure the safety of the BOSS! Understand?"

"Don't worry, sir!" Recon with a dirty braid nodded, he who had excelled in the army was personally poached by Ethan, naturally, there was no way he would let anything happen to Ethan.

"Your equipment will be delivered to the safe house as well, now, if you need any special gadgets, just say so!"

"I want a sniper rifle!" This was the Recon.

"A grenade launcher!" This is Gunner.

...

After noting down all the needs of the operation team, Cormac sent them to the airport, where the members of the operation, disguised as different nationalities and identities, would then transit through the airports of several countries before finally arriving in France.

On Ethan's side, because he was going there on a C17, Ethan only took John and a six-man security team, and of these six men, only two were to follow him and John, while the remaining four were to guard the plane.

After confirming from Cormac that the operations team had departed for Paris, Ethan also boarded his own C17, which would cross the Atlantic Ocean, cross the British Isles and arrive in Paris, France.

"So, about your transport, what's your choice? A bit too high-profile to be looking at six-wheeled armoured cars on the streets of Paris, if you ask me!" As Ethan's bodyguard and driver, John pointed to the wheeled armoured vehicle parked in the cabin, which had been modified to look less like a murderous military vehicle and more like a sci-fi looking heavy off-road vehicle, right down to the weapon system of a single M247 self-defence machine gun, which was still built in, although the armour and power remained in its original configuration.

"Indeed, an armoured vehicle in the capital of romance is a bit high-profile, so I'll get another one!" Ethan nodded, then with a roar, a blue Lamborghini LP560-4 Spyder slowly drove up to the hangar.

"Hmm, good idea, a Lamborghini is more discreet!" John nodded, "But it looks like you won't need me as a driver to drive this one?"

"Actually I'd quite like you to drive it, but that six-wheeled armoured car needs a driver too!"

"OK, you and the dogs go first, I'll follow you with them!" John nodded, indicating that he would definitely keep Ethan close.

From New York to Paris, four hours was usually enough if it was a military plane, eight hours if it was a civilian, and Ethan's C17 took just under three hours, and Ethan hadn't even finished watching a ten-episode set of the TV series. The plane was already parked on the runway at Charles de Gaulle airport.

"Welcome to Paris! Mr Hunt!" The majestic C17 pulled into the airport's purpose-built hangar under the direction of the pilot car, and the staff who had come to greet Ethan couldn't help but smack their lips at the huge transport plane; it wasn't that they hadn't received wealthy people in private jets before but it was the first time they had seen a wealthy person in a converted military aircraft.

"Would you like us to provide you with a hotel and food reservations and viewing business?" Unlike the pretty welcoming lady Ethan had imagined, the man who came to greet him was a fat older man in his forties, his blue overalls stretched taut by his body as if he would break free in the next moment.

"Sure, I want the best!" Ethan nodded, there were about 18 hours before the auction was due to start and naturally, this was a time not to be wasted, he was going to go to the hotel and rest for two hours before going over when the Recon had finished gathering the team at the safe house.

Despite his poor image, the chubby man who called himself Char was very efficient and had Ethan's hotel sorted in less than ten minutes.

"The Peninsula Paris, Monsieur Ethan, this hotel is just off Place Charles de Gaulle and close to the Seine, easy access, perhaps you would like to book on the Champs Elysees, but I wouldn't advise you to do so, it's a shopping street, very busy but lacking in privacy, and the Peninsula is also close to the Champs Elysees, and most importantly the rooftop restaurant there is the best in the whole of Paris and even the best in France, which you certainly don't want to miss!" Worried about any concerns Ethan might have, Charles, spelt out his thoughts.

"No problem, the arrangements are excellent, thank you very much for your help!" Since the hotel was booked then didn't dilly-dally, Ethan took out his wallet and handed four fifty euro notes as a tip for him.

"Ah, this!" Charles looked at the two hundred euros in his hand, his previously bright smile turned even more eager, and trotted all the way after Ethan towards the C17 which was opening the rear hatch, and when he saw that Ethan was about to get in, he even grabbed John's job by the way and pulled the door open for Ethan.

"If there's anything you need me to do, please just ask!" Once Ethan was in the car, Charles respectfully handed over his card.

"Well, good, then Mr Charles, goodbye!" Ethan took the card and stuffed it into the car, then stepped on the accelerator, the roar of the Lamborghini causing Prescott to wail a few times in some excitement.

"I'll go first, you guys follow behind!" After greeting John, Ethan drove off in his sports car and left the hangar.