2 Chapter 2: Ambush and Plans
After setting his target as Long Island, Ethan disappeared at the end of the road without looking back, leaving the female reporter and Stark both staring at each other.
"Actually, how about you come and do an interview with me or something, right here at my house?" Stark patted his car, "My house has a superb bed!"
Ethan's parents lived on Long Island, so every time he went back to New York. He didn't go to a hotel but went straight home, for which he had built his own Helipad in his yard to park his father's Bell helicopter.
"Boss, do you want me to block that reporter?" Kate asked, seeing Ethan in an upset mood.
"Why, just because she said a couple of truths, I'm not a dollar which everyone likes, why should I care about her? Massacres, prisoner abuse, which one hasn't been done, don't pay any attention to her!"
"Yes!"
Seriously, if he was afraid of public opinion, Ethan wouldn't have created Atlas Corporation at all, when he had just taken over the mess left behind by the US Army, Atlas Corporation's clearance forces had secretly taken out hundreds of tribal forces just because these guys liked to attack logistic lines.
Upon arriving home Ethan noticed that no one was there, only to remember that it appeared that his father had taken his mother and the bodyguard out to sea to go fishing, leaving him and Kate alone in the house, and as for the cleaning maids would not be here until tomorrow morning, so.
"Boss, that's not good!"
"Is it? I think it's fine!" Ethan carried the little secretary straight to his room.
And Kate looked like she couldn't resist, but in reality, Kate, who came from a navy diving search and rescue team, could have broken free with her hands if she really didn't want to.
..................
In the dead of night, Ethan walked naked from his bedroom to the open terrace outside, a cigarette in his mouth, and lounged comfortably on a wicker chair.
A wisp of golden flame appeared in his hand from time to time and Ethan appeared to be meditating with his eyes closed, but in fact, in his sea of consciousness, he was staring at a bright golden flame of psychic energy.
Ethan did not know when it had appeared in his body, but there was no doubt that the flame, which he named the Star Torch, had helped him many times.
The first time was when he was in the Marine Corps and he was in close combat with an enemy, he simply glared and the guy who had him in a death grip bled to death.
This scared Ethan so much at the time that he thought he was a mutant, even though he had never even heard of mutants or anything like that in this world. Of course, after some careful research, Ethan discovered that this flame could also allow him to travel to other worlds, which is why Ethan named it the Star Torch. Of course, psychic energy does not only allow him to travel through time and space, but also has many different abilities, such as interfering with the powers of others, releasing elemental attacks like fire and lightning, or using numinous power to choke a guy weaker than himself through space.
After confirming that the Star Torch could randomly travel through time and space, Ethan made a move that resulted in a run to the world of Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, where he relied on his skills to join Irons' Atlas Corporation and rose through the ranks to become Irons' second-in-command. After Irons began attacking the United States, Ethan mastered many of the Atlas's secrets.
On the eve of the defeat of Altas Corporation, Ethan took almost all of its technical data, since Irons was dead at the time, the technicians did not suspect him and hastily gave him all the data before evacuating the base.
Upon his return, relying on the technical data and the money from the Boston Local Development Corporation, Ethan set up Atlas Corporation again within three months of his discharge.
Relying on his contacts in the military, Ethan was the first to win the favour of the military in light weapons and armoured vehicles, and then Ethan used this as a springboard to gradually become an international arms dealer in heavy equipment.
The second time he crossed over, Ethan went to the world of Ace Combat, where he jumped from camp to camp and became a second-rate player, obtaining data on a series of superweapons.
It's a pity that Ethan hasn't been able to digest the data thoroughly yet, because, for one thing, the Atlas has too few technicians and lacks scientists to carry the load, and for another, because Ethan considers that this is not the time for a flood of superweapons and that the Atlas's emergence could easily become a thorn in the side of the US government, just as they later forced Stark to hand over his Iron Suit technology.
"A long way to go!" The billions of human beings on Earth, just living their lives in peace and quiet, not provoking anyone, but the end of the world has come. If everyone in the world was Captain America or Iron Man, would that Grape Ape still dare to come to Earth?
"What's on your mind?" Kate woke up at some point and leaned on the balcony door frame, looking at Ethan with a smile.
"A man's got to have an afterthought!" Ethan stood up, took her into his arms and bent his head down to kiss her.
"Really? But I don't think it's over yet!" Kate blew gently towards Ethan's chin.
"Now that you've said that, it's time to show you what I am made of!" Ethan said. He's never been afraid of anyone comparing his physical ability!
At eight o'clock in the morning, when the alarm clock went off, Colonel Rhodes had already changed into his uniform, his cap was set properly, his tie was meticulously tied and even his shoes were immaculately polished before he stood like a tower at the door of Tony Stark's private jet, a modified Boeing 737_800.
When the time pointed to quarter past eight, Colonel Rhodes looked at the empty runway and realised in an instant that he had to wait for Stark, well not really, after all, they were going to Afghanistan on Stark's plane, so technically.
When the time changed to nine o'clock, Rhodes decided not to speak to Stark for half an hour.
When the hands settled on ten in the morning, Rhodes decided that the next second, he would call Stark his father if he showed up in a minute.
As for calling the other man to hurry him up? Rhodes said lol, Tony Stark would only choose to answer the phone when he wanted to, if he didn't want to, then no amount of phone calls from you would help.
Rhodes waited until eleven o'clock, the stewardess had put lunch on the plane, and Tony Stark, who had been fighting with a beautiful woman all night and had repaired his car all morning, arrived at the airport in his sports car at a leisurely pace.
"You're here early!" Rhodes eventually broke his vow and took the initiative to speak to Stark.
"Don't worry, man, this plane is fast, just get some sleep and we'll be in Afghanistan!"
"I've already had one sleep!"
"Two drinks then, come on, don't be shy, come on, come on, girls, get the music and the wine ready!" Stark pulled Rhodes over and ran for the plane.
"No, no, no, no, today is business, not a drop of alcohol!" Rhodes tried to wrestle away.
"No negotiation?"
"No!"
...
Five minutes later, Rhodes, who had ripped the top buttons off his shirt, was pushing back and forth with Stark with his glass of wine, so happy that the powerful music even reached outside the cabin through the thick glass, and even the stewardesses serving them lifted their skirts to reveal their tiny waists and danced hotly.
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As Stark flew to the Middle East, more than a dozen overbearing heavy APC armoured vehicles swept up in a burst of sand before parking firmly in the middle of the camp at a Stark Industries mineral exploration camp in Afghanistan.
"Get off! Speed up!" Arthur Morgan, dressed in sand-coloured combat fatigues, jumped out of the vehicle and clanged his right fist twice on the body of the armoured vehicle, followed by four or five more armed soldiers in the same dress jumping out of the rear hatch of the armoured vehicle.
"Who's in charge?" Behind Arthur, a soldier with a large beard shouted at the crowd that had gathered on the Stark Industries side.
"I am, are you guys here to make a delivery?" A tall black man stepped out of the crowd, wearing a white vest just above him, his tanned skin glistening in the sunlight.
"Yes, the weapons you want!" Arthur pointed to the armoured car behind him, and then dozens of huge crates of weapons were lifted out of the carriages of the armoured car by these soldiers.
"A thousand rifles, sixty rocket launchers, grenades, bullets, all desert specialised, you can bury them in the sand for a day and they'll still work! It's just that you're in a hurry, some of these weapons are in stock and others are for our own use, so they look a bit old, but the quality is absolutely fine! And as you requested, we removed the fingerprinting device and the enemy identification system, check it out!"
"Can't help it, it's what the boss asked for, but it's impressive that you guys managed to get the stuff together in one day!" The man opened a case and picked up a desert coloured weapon and examined it for a moment, then nodded in satisfaction.
"Very good, compared to you Atlas Corporation guys, our weapons are like expensive works of art, not weapons that kill people!"
"That's because you haven't seen our big guys!" Arthur kicked the box.
"OK, the goods have been delivered, so we'll take our leave!"
"Take care!" After the Atlas Corporation convoy left, the man took out his mobile phone as he had his men carry the weapons into the warehouse.
"Sir, it's me, Hamas, the weapons you asked for have arrived, is it as usual?"
"Good, it's not worth the triple price I paid, you take a few men and drive the car and pull the arms up around the mountain, do you understand?"
"Yes, sir!"
After hanging up the phone, Obadiah looked at the picture of him and Stark on the table, a struggle flashed across his face, and finally, he took a deep breath and made his decision.
"Mr Hamel, I have the goods you asked for, you'll see him with GPS, but I have one more request!"
"Of course, Mr Obadiah, we are friends, so go ahead and ask!" The voice of a middle-aged man with a thick accent came from the other end of the phone.
"Kill Tony Stark!"
"Tony Stark?" The voice on the other end of the line paused for a moment, "No problem!"
"So goodbye, friend!" With that Obadiah hung up the phone and not a moment later the computer screen in front of him showed another large amount of money wired into his offshore account in the Cayman Islands.
"Tony, Tony, go ahead and rest easy, I'll make Stark Industries great!" Obadiah said, with a few tears coming out of his eyes.
On the other side, those Middle Eastern terrorists that Obadiah contacted were muttering at the moment, weren't Obadiah and Stark very close uncle and nephew, why did he want to kill Stark?
Even the terrorist bosses are muttering, isn't Tony Stark the most powerful arms dealer in America, isn't it a bit of a waste to kill him? Our aim in the Ten Rings is to dominate the Middle East, how about, kidnapping him to build weapons?
The idea was instantly overwhelming, and after half an hour of careful thought, the leader found that the plan was really feasible.
"Abdullah, pack up and let's go to the city!" The terrorist leader, having made up his mind, immediately called out to one of the more resourceful of his men.
"Chief, what are we going into the city for? The Americans and their dogs have put a bounty on us!" A small, thin, dry man was puzzled.
"We're going to dig for treasure! Remember to take that tablet with you!"
"Treasure? Shouldn't we take a few more men with us?"
"No, we're just going scouting!"
"Gentlemen, welcome to the future!"
The mushroom cloud swept over the entire mountain range with a violent wind, the strength of which could be felt more than ten kilometres away.
The leader of the Ten Rings looked at the mushroom cloud slowly rising in the distant sky with a frenzied look on his face and mumbled, "This is Allah's miracle, this is Allah's miracle!"
The men to the side were also terrified, the most powerful explosions they had ever seen in their lives were Hellfires or calves dropped by US drones, Stark's Jericho missile was a multi-component charge, the destructive effect was not comparable to those things.
"I want him, I have to have him!" The Ten Rings boss could even see his grand vision of unifying the entire Arab world and rebuilding the great Ottoman Empire with the help of the arms Stark made, he will be the Sultan, the Pasha, Saladin reborn!
And when the time comes, he will smite these white skins with the whip of God!
Now that he had made up his mind to get his hands on Stark, the Ten Rings boss immediately pulled out his phone and started to gather his men, as Obadiah would keep him informed of Stark's location anyway and they could wait for him, but of course, before they could do so, they needed to get their hands on the goods Obadiah had sent them.
Although Obadiah and the Ten Rings had business dealings, they still had to do what they had to do. After all, the Ten Rings were blacklisted in the United States of America, and Stark Industries was a designated supplier to the United States military, so the weapons Obadiah sent over-relied on his men in Afghanistan who were in charge of mineral exploration to do the job, either by a bunch of guys getting drunk and sleeping on the base and leaving the gates and Weapons depots, or a couple of guys wandering around the mountains in a truck full of arms, only to have the terrorists accidentally rob the truck and release the people, in short, these are all accidents, they are uncontrollable, and Stark Industries is not going to sell weapons to the enemies of the United States of America!
If Ethan was here, he would have laughed at Obadiah. Also, Ethan has to spit out a habit of Stark Industries, which is to put the Stark Industries mark on everything, of course, to make a brand name, but the consequence is that all these things that are sold everywhere end up being a Stark problem.
With Atlas Corporations there will be no such problem, except for the ones sold to the military of each country will have the Atlas mark, those things sold to civilians will either just be marked with the place of production or with the Hammer Industries mark, anyway, Justin Hammer the man is very fond of producing homage models, then Ethan does not mind helping him to build more.
..................
After learning that Stark was leaving Phoenix Firebase in a ground vehicle to visit Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, the Ten Rings immediately went into action. The mountainous terrain of Afghanistan provided them with strong cover, and under the noses of US satellites and drones, the Ten Rings militants managed to set up an ambush position.
"Amir, it's up to you when the time comes!" The leader of the Ten Rings gang with a G36 in his hand looked at his men with a serious face.
"Don't worry, boss, with this guy, I guarantee that none of those vehicles will get away!" The militant called Amir was clutching the Stinger M7 launcher in his arms, a four-round multi-purpose launcher from Atlas Corporation, with a range of three kilometres, which could hit planes and tanks without any problem, and came with an intelligent fire control system that could control the direction of the missile flight and automatically attack the enemy's weak points.
"Good, give me a good shot, you're the only one here who went to primary school, if you miss, go back to herding sheep!" The boss admonished uneasily, the Stinger M7 launchers they had gotten this time were only ten, with a base reserve of ammunition and stuff, instead there were quite a few of those unguided Stark rocket launchers.
"They're coming!" The smoke of the vehicles moving was so conspicuous in the middle of the desert hills that it could be seen from miles away.
To escort a big man like Stark, the military had sent six vehicles, two mine-resistant anti-ambush armoured vehicles one in front of the other and three Humvees in the middle, as for Stark himself, he was in the APC heavy armoured vehicle from Atlas Corporation, which was a bit bigger but had active defence systems and infra-red warning systems, and a huge crew compartment that could hold 12 fully armed infantrymen, or of course It can also be modified to turn the crew compartment into an operating theatre or command room. In terms of weaponry, it has four weapon stations and can mount everything from 7.62mm machine guns to 25mm machine guns.
"Ready! Give me a shot!" Watching the convoy enter the ambush circle, the leader of the Ten Rings gang stood up, raised the G36 in his hand and fired a volley into the sky.
The chequered Stinger M7 held in the terrorist's hand locked onto the lead ambush vehicle first, and four missiles spun out of the chamber, hitting the cab of the ambushed vehicle across a kilometre in a matter of seconds.
The steel plate that had been able to withstand the fragmentation of the 105 Howitzer and the sweeping fire of the 23mm gun was pierced by the warhead like a layer of cardboard, then the smart fuse activated the explosive section and before the two soldiers in the ambush car even understood what had happened, the front half of the vehicle was reduced to an exploding ball of fire and flying debris.
"Quick, reload!" The successful attacker began to reload, while the remaining militants copped Stark Industries rocket launchers and began to saturate the rear of the convoy.
The rockets that fell in quick succession turned the Humvee and the ambushed vehicle at the rear of the convoy into a burning mass of scrap metal, killing its occupants before they could even leave their positions.
"What's happening?" Stark looked in horror at the armoured vehicle that was dripping with alarms, then there was a sudden thud from outside the vehicle, that was the active defence system intercepting an incoming rocket.
"Mr Stark, please stay in the vehicle!" The American soldier escorting him said and jumped out of the vehicle ready to fight, but was hit before he could fire a few shots, radiating jets of blood gushing all over the windows.
There were a few more thumps in quick succession, then the armoured car's voice began to alarm, "Active defence system is overloaded, please reload!"
"What, what?" Stark leapt up in fright and flopped back in his chair leaning back to look at the electronic screen that kept flashing the warning.
"Rockets locked and about to fire, please evacuate!" The electronic voice warned again.
"No, no, no!" Stark rushed to open the car door in terror, but the soldiers escorting him had locked it from the outside and Stark, who could not escape, could only watch as four spiralling flames flew in the distance.
At the critical moment, the good v-shaped structure of the APC armoured car resisted the deadly missile, and the whole car was lifted by the explosion, spinning several times in the air before landing heavily.
"Who the fuck are you hitting!" Seeing the APC being blown away, the terrorist boss stormed out and kicked the terrorist carrying the Stinger to the ground.
"I... I see that car is still firing!"
"Fire you motherfucker! That's automatic, you son of a bitch, dumbass!" Big feet flew up and fists and rifle butts rained down on the terrorist, beating him up and down.
"What are you guys waiting for, go and see if Stark is dead, my kingdom my future!" The Ten Rings gang leader shouted to the rest of his men in a loud voice.
The trembling men immediately grabbed their weapons and rushed down the valley, a few of them were in such a hurry that they stepped on their feet and rolled straight into the mess in a ball of gurgling.
The smell of charred meat and burnt rubber filled the nostrils of the militants as they hurriedly donned their gas masks and rushed towards the smoking and sparking APC.
"See, he's not dead! Allahu Akbar!" One of the terrorists carefully got down on the ground and leaned towards the broken window of the armoured car, and the next thing he knew he was eye-to-eye with Tony Stark, whose face was covered in blood.
"What are you waiting for, fish him out quick!" The Ten Rings gang leader's face immediately turned all smiling when he learnt that his weapons expert was still alive.
"But he looks like he's hurt! He's all bloody!"
"What? Quickly save him! Didn't we kidnap a doctor last time, let him come!" The Ten Rings gang leader ordered before grabbing the armed man who fired the missile and saying in one word, "If Tony Stark dies, I'll send your whole family go with him!"
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The attack came and went as quickly as it came. Although these militants of the Ten Rings gang are not trained, they are soldiers who have been in battle for a long time, otherwise, they would not have been so active under the strikes of the American troops.
And it took even more than an hour for the US ground troops to get here, but all that was left to them at the scene was a trail of steel debris and blood, and those terrorists took the bodies of the fallen US troops with them as they were going to make videos to show off.
"What? Tony Stark is missing?" Obadiah's stunned expression caused a group of Stark Industries shareholders to let out a sigh of relief, look how good these two are, Obadiah's face turned pale.
"Don't panic yet everyone, let's stabilize the share price first, I'll figure out Tony's side!" Obadiah pretended to look sad and several shareholders instructed, "This is the time to be on guard, especially Hammer Industries and also Atlas Corporation, those guys will definitely find a way to rip a bite of flesh off at us, even Osborne who has nothing to do with us will fall on his sword!" Although the mouth said so, Obadiah is not worried, some shares, lost, but Tony Stark is gone, this company does not belong to him, the money they lost, he'll just earn back later!
And Ethan's side, David Hudson, who is in charge of Atlas Corporation's finances, was the first to call Ethan and ask if he should snipe Stark Industries' share price.
"Snipe, if you want to snipe, but remember to dump instantly, it's not time for a massive takeover yet!" After saying that Ethan hung up the phone? Other things are much more important than this.
"Oh, my dear, welcome home!" At the moment Ethan was being held in the arms of a middle-aged woman, and next to her was a middle-aged older man carrying a fishing pole and wearing a sunhat.
William Hunt, Lindsay Hunt, Ethan's parents.
"What are you still doing, brat, come and get your stuff!"
"Didn't I send you guys bodyguards?"
"I gave them a holiday, they'll come back to work tomorrow, it's been hard on them after following us for so long at sea!"
"Oh yes, son, I heard that Stark is missing, is it true?"
"It's true, Stark's convoy was attacked in Afghanistan, and It's not confirmed if he's alive or dead!"
"I don't know why the Stark family is so unlucky, I think the two Howard's died in a car accident for no apparent reason, the murderer or whatever was never caught, and now his son is in trouble, how can this family be so miserable!" Ethan's mother had attended several women's events with Howard Stark's wife when she was younger, and knew her, and was now a little sad to hear the news.
"It should be fine, those terrorists should have captured him to demand ransom, after all, Stark has so much money, and the US military surely won't just sit back and do nothing!" Ethan had another sentence to say, Stark can definitely run out, and will also build a battle armour, when Stark's battle armour is exposed to the public eye, he can take out the exoskeleton technology that he has been preparing for a long time to sell, after all, Stark's technology is impossible to sell to the military, but the Atlas Corporation can.
Stark has been missing for almost a week now, the US military in Afghanistan has deployed all personnel, not in combat positions, planes, cars, and even the 160th Special Search and Rescue Mission and the PJ parachute rescue team from home, even the PMC company in Afghanistan has gotten hired to search for Tony Stark.
Even Ethan, who is far away in the United States of America, received a call from the military, hoping that he could send more people from Iraq, with flying machines and drones that would be even better. Ethan was going to refuse at first, but the military said that the costs were all-inclusive, with overtime driving triple and damages compensated five times.
I really didn't want to say yes at first, but the price they offered was too high!
So with the attitude that it was a no-brainer, Ethan sent another group of men and Y32 Xi'an VTOL transports (from ARMA 3) from the Atlas Corporation base in Iraq that had been used to support the CIA black ops.
The Y32 looks very similar to the S.H.I.E.L.D. equipped Quinjet, but does not have as much black technology as the S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet. The reason Ethan had the research department build this was mainly to bang S.H.I.E.L.D. to see if it could rake in a wave of royalties. Although the Y32 is called a transport, it can carry a 30mm gun, air-to-air air-to-ground missiles, anti-radiation missiles, and can also mount a rocket launch nest with 192 rounds of reserve ammunition, as well as transport 20 heavily armed soldiers or mount two MD-type armed mobile turrets.
Despite the arrival of reinforcements, the search operation was still a lost cause. The mountains of Afghanistan were too innumerable, with mountains following mountains and ditches following ditches, and a few thousand searchers were scattered like salt into the sea, disappearing in a flash. Poor Tony Stark was left shivering in a cave trying to find a way to escape.
Unlike poor Stark, Obadiah was happy. Without Stark, the board of directors was now his monopoly, selling weapons to whomever he wanted, African warlords, European gangsters, Latin American drug dealers, anyone, as long as you had the money, then Stark Industries would be at your service.
Obadiah was happy, but the people in the war-torn regions were unlucky. The genocide between warlords in Africa became more efficient, and even these bastards who only ran and shot AKs had the guts to attack the peacekeepers.
In Brazil, South America, the Gendarmerie responsible for clearing drug traffickers thought they had an absolute advantage with their Gargoyle's specialised armoured vehicles for street fighting, but the barrage of rockets that came their way showed them what a large number of rockets can do, and the ordinary civilians living in the slums were also killed and injured.
The Chechens, who make up a third of the country's population, felt that their inability to make a fortune was due to government incompetence, so after obtaining funds through drug trafficking, they ordered a massive amount of arms from Stark and staged a coup to overthrow the existing government in Sokovia, turning civilians of other nationalities into slaves for sale.
The blood and death did not awaken Obadiah's conscience, but even spurred him on more, and he even built two new production lines within a month in order to produce enough goods.
"Under my leadership, Stark Industries will be number one in the world! Not some Tony Stark, without me, there's no way the father and son duo would be here today!"
It was true that he had ambitions, but Obadiah had underestimated the role of Tony Stark. The research project that was originally under Tony Stark's responsibility was taken over by Obadiah's research team after his disappearance, but Tony Stark was able to complete one per cent of the progress in three days, while Obadiah's researchers hadn't even mastered the drawing models in three days, let alone get their hands on them, and Tony Stark had sneakily hidden a bunch of drawings and files and stuff in his basement before he left, in a place that even Pepper didn't know about, which made Obadiah feel better than before.
As the old saying goes, there will be brave men under heavy rewards. Faced with the boss's naked money offensive, a group of scientists have set up a military order, saying that from now on the laboratory is his home, the instruments are his wife, and they will not leave until they have produced results.
As a matter of fact, with the incentive, the research progressed much faster immediately. The recoil engine that Tony Stark was working on before was still just a drawing when he left, but now, those scientists have already rubbed a sample out by hand.
"Very good, very good, a bonus for you all, three more days off to spend with your families, then come back and finish all the rest of the work!" After learning that the wind tunnel test had been successful, Obadiah's old face was as young as twenty years, cheerfully encouraging the scientists under his command.
"Thank you, boss!"
With a smile on his face, he watched as the scientists went on holiday, and Obadiah planned to go and relax with a drink when his mobile phone suddenly rang.
"It's Obadiah! What? Say that again!"
"Boss, Tony Stark isn't dead, he's alive, and this will have been sent to the US military base by the mercenaries who found him!"
"How is that possible, he ..." Obadiah's words came to a screeching halt, he was never expecting that those terrorists would dare to lie to him.
"I know, take care of him on your side, keep him steady, remember, don't show your hand!"
"Yes!"
On the other end of the phone was Obadiah's confidant in the Middle East, he was responsible for the clever delivery of the weapons Obadiah was selling to the terrorist sellers, yes, through various accidents, and was known as the Taliban transport captain. Although he didn't know Obadiah was going to kill Tony Stark, he knew that if he was found out about this, it would be the end of him and Tony Stark would definitely find connections to send him to Guantanamo prison for sure.
But since the boss had given the word, he could only pretend to be excited and enthusiastic as he rushed over to Stark, who was lying in a hospital bed, to show his loyalty, and sent over all the good nutrition and other things he usually saved.
