SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson recruits James Rhodes for the
Secret Avengers, stressing the need for great personnel sacrifice; Rhodey
accepts as it’s what he was trained to do….
An unsanctioned nuclear facility in Sin-Cong is destroyed by
the fleet of Iron Patriot drones….
Maria Hill is introduced to Charles Dalton, SHIELD’s Interim
Liaison from the United Nations Security Council. She doesn’t care for his glib,
insinuating manner but he hints that he shares her concerns with the agency’s
leadership and addresses her as Acting Director Hill….
On A.I.M. Island (Barbuda), Mockingbird is contacted for a
progress report from Director Daisy Johnson aboard the Iliad. Their mole
inside of A.I.M., Taskmaster, has not arrived for the rendezvous—and then he
shows up with a couple of soldiers and attacks Mockingbird. Daisy goes to the
psy-ops department and their top psychic, Ellis Love, explains that she has been
unable to pierce Taskmaster’s mind with the trigger word. Mockingbird takes
down the two A.I.M. soldiers and she begins a duel with Taskmaster. Finally, Love latches onto the correct part of the bad guy’s brain with the code word
[reverie] and he remembers that he is one of SHIELD’s Secret Avengers….
Coulson explains the problem with the hundreds of sentient
Iron Patriot drones choosing their own targets to Rhodey and SHIELD wants him
to explain the situation to the drones and tell them to stand down….
Taskmaster brings Mockingbird inside the A.I.M. base—some fighting
is required—and they patch the comm system through to Rhodey. As the drones prepare
for battle, Rhodey speaks to them and learns that they consider him the First
Pilot, after the Maker (Tony Stark). So Rhodey speaks to them like a Marine
sergeant, telling them that their performance is unacceptable and he will have
to show them how it is done. He dons the Iron Patriot armor and leads them out….
Having confirmed that Daisy Johnson has ordered agents onto A.I.M.
Island to assassinate the Scientist Supreme, Maria Hill shares the info with
Charles Dalton who tells her she has the backing of the Security Council to
remove Johnson from her position as Director of SHIELD….