Mockingbird is trapped in A.I.M. on Barbuda, disguised as
scientist Harold Bainbridge; her own scientific training allows her to bluff her
way through the job but she has no idea what his actual projects are—or his
personality, his friends, his routine, or even his password. It’s been three
days and she can’t hold out much longer….
Outside, Taskmaster is introducing the trainees to TESS-One
a giant fighting robot so they can learn basic fighting techniques. He pulls
two “volunteers” out of the ranks and sets Tessie on them while he plays ping
pong with Mentallo. A headdress flung by indicates the need for another
volunteer….
Yelena Belova gives the Scientist Supreme (Andrew Forson) an
update on Taskmaster’s training; she concludes that all he is creating is
cannon fodder. What A.I.M. needs is an elite fighting force and she knows she
is the one to train and lead them. Forson listens, flirting with her in very
unsubtle ways; when he touches her hair she twists his arm, telling him to read
her detailed report and be at the meeting in an hour….
Graviton’s mystical meditations are interrupted by Superia
who shares his misgivings about the company and they enter into a secret alliance….
At a stone tower called the Cathedral on the island, a seeker
of the truth enters and ascends. He passes doors leading to various options for
living: pleasure, contentment, power, power absolute, power divine. At the top
he reaches for truth. Jude the Entropic Man shows him the lost truth inscribed
on the wall and holds the man’s head in his hands…causing him to disintegrate into
a crystalline form….
Mockingbird considers some other possibilities: that she
really is Harold Bainbridge and Mockingbird is a hallucination—or perhaps she is
a Skrull. “His” supervisor then calls him to an important meeting—she is pushed
inside and discovers she is expected to make a presentation to the A.I.M. High
Council….