The Ultimates: Against All Enemies by Alex Irvine Page A

the lab, where the techs were clearing some of the rubble to make way for the sealed freezer. Halfway there he stopped, turned around, and called, "Tony. I meant it. Out. Now." Tony winked at Steve and said, " Au revoir, mon ami . Next time let's fight some bad guys, how does that sound?"
    Steve didn't answer. He watched Tony walk to the cordon and duck under it. A car pulled up out of nowhere, and the door was open before Tony could reach for the handle. A guy like that, Steve thought, everything done for him, everyone bends over backward for him, and what is he? An amoral boozehound with a brain tumor. That's not the kind of person we need running things around here.
    "So that's why Nick brought Tony," Thor said. Steve had forgotten he was there. "What do you think the two of us are doing here?"
    Steve shrugged. "I'm following orders. You, who knows?"
    "Not me," Thor said. "Although it's crossed my mind that the general thinks the two of us might correct each other's worst tendencies."
    "Give me a break," Steve said, and started to walk away.
    "Steve," Thor said, and for some reason Steve stopped. He waited for Thor to go on and deliver whatever loony speech he'd cooked up this time.
    But Thor surprised him. "Steve, you need to stop thinking all the time that you're different from the rest of us."
    Steve turned around. "I'm different from you, that's for sure."
    "Fair enough," Thor said. "If that's the distinction that makes you feel better, go with it. But I'm going to ive you some advice. When someone wants something from you, ask yourself why they want it, and who wanted them to ask you."
    "Okay, Ann Landers," Steve said.
    Thor chuckled. "Funny. Anyway, that's Loki's advice, not mine. He asked me to pass it along."
    "Oh, for Pete's sake," Steve said, and walked over to the lab building's doorway. On the way, he spotted a chalk circle with a spatter of Chitauri blood in it. The team hadn't yet gotten around to sterilizing it. We're chasing them, Steve thought. Always a step behind.
    He went inside. "Watch out for the ants, sir," a suited tech said. "Some of them bite like hell."
    "Thanks," Steve said. The inside of the lab, although partially cleared out, was a complete wreck. He could see from the shape of the bent beams where Hank had gone through the roof, and how on his way through he'd snapped the main support beam, causing most of the rest of the roof to come down. The collapse had crushed most of the ant farms, and the response team was getting ready to fire offa series of insecticide bombs because nobody knew for sure whether Pym had created some kind of mutant ant that might get out and wreck the local ecosystem.
    Fury was observing the removal of the freezer. He saw Steve picking his way through the wreckage and said, "What brings you in here, Captain?"
    "Well, General," Steve said, and finally let go of th question he'd been asking himself all night. "I've got another version of the same question for you. Why did you bring Thor and me?" General Fury looked surprised. "You serious, Captain? Muscle. We didn't know what was out here. Didn't know whether we might have to take Pym down, for that matter. Turned out we didn't need you, but better safe than sorry." He winked his good eye. "Sun Tzu says that somewhere, right?" The next morning, which made it the third day after he'd made the call from the pay phone on Havemeyer Street, Steve was eating breakfast at his kitchen table when he heard a knock at the door. Probably the kids down the hall selling candy bars again, he thought, fishing in his pockets. He still couldn't believe that anyone could keep a straight face while asking two dollars for a candy bar, but that was the world now... and what the heck, if any of that money really did go to whatever cause they said it did, the rip-off would be worth it.
    Opening the door, Steve was all ready to give the kid his two bucks and complain about it, but instead of the kid, he found himself looking at Admiral Esteban