"What is this?" Ophelia raised an eyebrow as she looked at the crystal-clear liquid in the ornate crystal goblet brought before her by a maid.
"I've decided to trust you and cooperate with you, but I think certain precautions are necessary. This is a special poison...after drinking it, as long as you take the antidote on time every seven days, nothing will happen. But if you miss a dose, it will rot your insides and you'll die a horrible death," Josh said with a smile. "So...let's see if you're sincere."
Upon hearing Josh's words, not only Ophelia, but even Vito and the others gulped. Was there really such a powerful poison that could control people?
"Fine, I'll drink it!" Ophelia's face turned from pale to flushed, hesitated for a long while, and finally gritted her teeth, picked up the glass, and downed it in one go.
"Straightforward!" Josh clapped his hands with a grin.
"Alright, now...wait, why am I..." Ophelia was about to speak when she suddenly felt dizzy and collapsed onto the table in front of her.
"...Boss, didn't you say it would only take effect in seven days? What's going on?" Vito asked, stunned.
"Tch, did you really think there's such a poison in the world? I bluffed her. That was just a strong anesthetic. Don't just stand there—tie her up, tightly!" Josh rolled his eyes. This wasn't some wuxia or fantasy world; there was no such miraculous poison with a precise time delay.
"Ah...I get it. Hehe, the boss knows how to play!" Vito chuckled.
"Get what, my ass—hurry up!" Josh urged.
Without further delay, Vito pulled out a rope and tied Ophelia up tightly.
Once he was sure Ophelia couldn't resist at all, Josh, ignoring the suggestive looks from his bodyguards, drove them out of the room.
He didn't bother arguing with them. After they left, he shoved Ophelia into the transaction device and handed her over to Yuri. After explaining his plan, he walked out of the reception room.
Seeing Josh come out so quickly, the bodyguards outside glanced at each other—was their boss that fast?
But seeing that his clothes were completely untouched, they realized they were overthinking it. Clearly, their boss hadn't done anything to that woman.
They were wrong, of course. Josh wasn't planning to do anything himself—it wasn't necessary, and he wasn't capable of it either.
"How's Lindon?" Instead of fussing over trivialities with his bodyguards, Josh asked about Lindon.
That old man was over fifty, scrawny and small. Josh was genuinely worried he might not be able to handle any rough treatment.
"Mr. Schneider is resting in the guest room. I was very careful. He should be fine after a nap," replied Brook, who had already returned.
"Good. Since there's nothing else going on, you guys go pack up. We'll be heading to France soon!" Josh nodded.
As he had said before, he planned to cooperate with Ophelia's branch of HYDRA, and he didn't even mind joining them.
As for how the cooperation would work, that was still up for discussion—he needed to maintain control.
But no matter how it went, France was a must. With the Allies advancing successfully in France, the Allied command had already relocated there.
Supporting the Austrian coup needed approval from the Allied high command—specifically from Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces.
In fact, even Eisenhower, as the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, couldn't make the final decision. Approval from Roosevelt and Marshall back in the U.S. was still necessary.
But if Josh could get Eisenhower's support, that was already a third of the job done. The White House's opinion would be another third.
The final third would come from Britain, France, and the Soviets.
When Josh mentioned going to France, the eyes of the bodyguards lit up.
France, huh!
The French Rose, huh!
They'd had their fill of British roses for a while now—time to change the flavor.
"Go, go, go—hurry up!" Seeing their lecherous expressions, Josh waved them off in disdain.
The guys didn't care and happily went off to prepare.
After giving out instructions, Josh returned to his study and called a familiar officer from Army Aviation to request a plane headed to the frontline command the next day.
Given the wartime tension, there were naturally no civilian flights—barely any civilian ships either. All vessels in the English Channel were military.
Luckily, with Josh's current ties with the military, especially the Army, getting a plane was as easy as saying the word.
After the call, the dimensional transaction device gave a notification.
Josh looked at the time—less than half an hour since sending Ophelia over. Yuri was efficient.
He immediately returned to the bedroom, opened the device, and Yuri sent Ophelia back along with some equipment.
Ophelia hadn't changed much from before—except that the restraints were removed, and she now wore a silver metallic collar around her neck.
Of course, there were other changes that couldn't be seen.
For instance, a small device had also been implanted in her brain.
"How's her condition?" Josh asked Yuri, looking at Ophelia in the system's storage.
"Very basic psychic control ability—just at the level of an elite psychic infantryman. I've completed the modified mind control setup you wanted. Plus, with the collar and the micro bomb in her brainstem, she's entirely under your control," Yuri reported. "I also read her memories—they match what you told me. The rest of the related intel is in that notebook."
While helmet-type psychic defenses were reliable, wearing a helmet all day was too conspicuous. So Josh had asked Yuri to convert it into a military tag-style necklace.
Of course, that reduced its effectiveness, but it was enough to counter someone like Ophelia.
Having obtained what he wanted, Josh thanked Yuri and closed the device.
He then retrieved Ophelia from the system, tossed her onto the bed, and went off to handle his own affairs.
When Ophelia finally regained consciousness, it was more than half an hour later.
Everything that had happened while she was traded to another world had occurred during her unconsciousness, so she had no idea what had transpired.
The moment she woke up, Ophelia checked her body vigilantly. After confirming her clothes were intact, she breathed a sigh of relief.
She might be a well-known Madame Hydra in the Marvel universe, but at this point she was still quite green—barely out of the HYDRA Academy, just a bit over twenty, and still a virgin.
But just a few seconds after relaxing, she felt something strange on her neck. Reaching up, she touched the collar.
Frowning, she walked over to the full-length mirror.
Inspecting the collar, she instinctively tried to remove it. But the moment she pulled on it, the collar released a powerful electric shock that sent her spasming to the ground.
When Josh heard the commotion and walked in, what he saw was a beauty writhing on the floor in convulsions.
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