Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Ghost reports back to Spymaster about his mission. He claims to have killed Tony Stark/Iron Man but failed to steal the laser weapon he was sent for. Spymaster correctly guesses that this Iron Man was a remotely-operated decoy. And now Stark is forewarned.
Ghost intends to quit. The anti-corporate terrorist is only concerned with destroying Stark International, and killing Stark will do that. But Spymaster coerces Ghost into going back for the laser weapon, by revealing that he has created a device that can switch Ghost's intangibility tech off.
Besides, he knows Stark isn't dead because Tony has been on a TV interview confirming that he will attend the opening of the new non-profit Benedict Research Institute.
Sinclair Abbott, Spymaster's alter ego, also attends. He verbally spars with Tony. His wife Greta makes sexual advances towards Tony, but he turns her down.
In response to Ghost's attack Stark has moved the laser weapon to the SI Long Island site, along with Maggie Dillon's attempts to contact the Living Laser trapped within it. He installs disruptor fields around the site, but ignores comments from his staff that the system has some weak points.
Stark has also seriously upgraded the tech Dillon is using. He also makes Dillon wear a crude Iron Man-like suit that will monitor her to avoid the earlier physical problems. This time she makes clearer contact with the intelligence in the weapon, confirming that it is Arthur Parks.
Later Tony and Maggie have dinner. Tony is still keeping up the fiction that he is no longer the man in the Iron Man armour. But he breaks of the meal when Maggie exhibits signs of mental stress. He tells his chauffeur to take her back to her hotel. But Dillon makes the chauffeur take her back to work instead.
Ghost invades the Long Island factory. But Stark had left the security holes deliberately to lure him in to a special room. When activated the room neutralises Ghost's intangibility. Now Iron Man has a chance to catch him.