Chapter Text
MARIA
Action item, final entry, if I’m lucky. Here is what I’ve managed to piece together. Somebody got Looter hired to work here at The Raft, that was their man inside. While he was here, he managed to locate and steal several items, likely off of a predetermined list. These items were given to Shocker to build a device to allow escape. But any tech needs power.
MARIA
Enter Electro. But he was a dead battery, he’d need to be juiced up first, a spark to start a flame. And when you need flame, you get a pyro. Like Typhoid Mary. Beetle’s notes said they used the wiring from a radio plus a few other pieces to create electricity out of heat, bit by bit charging up Electro enough that they could drain off his power into the batteries to charge their Get Out Of Jail free card.
MARIA
They needed muscle, not all the doors are powered. Someone got tainted food inside and forged orders to give it to the Absorbing Man. After enough of it was in his system, he was able to transform into metal which allowed the group to escape the last layer of protection. But not before stopping off at the private collection to pick up a few things. Souvenirs.
MARIA
Outside was their getaway driver, Overdrive, a known wheelman for hire, paid by someone to pick up the escapees and get them off the island.
MARIA
Then they disappeared into a warzone. Someone organized this, bankrolled it, planned it and made sure it went off without a hitch. And I know who it was.
Interrogation Room #2
WILSON
I trust this won't take long.
MARIA
Hot date?
WILSON
Hm. No. I'm near the end of the novel I'm reading and I'm anxious to return to it.
MARIA
I'll try and be quick. Wilson Fisk. The Kingpin of crime.
WILSON
An unfortunate and prejudicial title that the media has tagged me with.
MARIA
But you are here, in a prison of super powered criminals.
WILSON
A book keeping error, I assure you. As I possess no superpowers, nor access to any dangerous technology, nor the means to make the said same, there's little reason I should be here, even in the minimum security area. And that is exactly what my lawyers are currently arguing in the higher court of New York. I will be moving on soon.
MARIA
I see. I can't help you with that. My clearance level isn't quite that high.
WILSON
Yet here we are.
MARIA
Here we are. I was hoping you could help me. You see, I tend to be fastidious when it comes to numbers. A fascination I've heard we share.
WILSON
Hm.
MARIA
Can you tell me about Staff Up Hiring?
WILSON
I haven't heard of it.
MARIA
That's odd, because you own it. It took some digging, and I had to fight the red tape of several shell companies, but as it turns out Fisk Industries does in fact own Staff Up.
WILSON
My empire is large, Miss. I'm afraid I don't know every single subsidiary.
MARIA
I find that difficult to believe.
WILSON
Your beliefs are not my concern.
MARIA
Maybe they need to be. You see, Staff Up hired Norton Fester. Fast tracked him, actually. They skipped all the background checks, drug screening, just golden ticketed him right into employment.
WILSON
How lucky for Mister...Fester, was it?
MARIA
Maybe. He's in custody now. But the weird thing is none of the employees from Staff Up know why, seems they were directed from somewhere above that this guy should be hired and where he should be stationed.
WILSON
Seems he has a friend on high.
MARIA
Or down low. What about Consolidated Kitchens?
WILSON
Am I meant to own this one too?
MARIA
In fact, you are. Your accountants are clever, but not geniuses. Seems they sent tainted food into the Raft and into the mouth of Karl Creel, but no one can find the specific orders from inside telling them to do so.
WILSON
An untidy way to run a business.
MARIA
That's one way of looking at it. Been to any auctions lately?
WILSON
I've been a bit...incarcerated.
MARIA
Right, right, but we have a report from another inmate, Edward Lavell, that says he was at a black market auction where an agent speaking on the phone to you purchased a particular meteor.
WILSON
Edward Lavell, he's another of those costumed types, his sobriquet, something slimy.
MARIA
The Eel.
WILSON
Yes, that's it. And you believe him?
MARIA
What reason would he have to lie about that?
WILSON
What reason do any of us?
(beat)
I don't know you.
MARIA
We've never met.
WILSON
I mean, I don't know who you are. I make it my business to know the people I'm surrounded by. Inmates, guards, support staff. I don't know you.
MARIA
Maria Hill, agent of SHIELD. I'm nobody special.
WILSON
Hm. And all of this is going somewhere I expect?
MARIA
We're getting there. I finally finished the account of what was taken from the weapons locker. One of Hobgoblin's gliders, Basilisk's Alpha Stone, the gloves of Tatterdemalion. Almost everything has been recovered. But one thing still eludes us. The Doombot.
WILSON
And what is a...Doombot?
MARIA
Sophisticated robots that Doctor Victor Von Doom uses to...cause mayhem. But made so that they can replace him and no one is the wiser. He designed them so you can't tell if it's really him you're dealing with.
WILSON
You've been practicing this speech into your mirror.
MARIA
Maybe a couple of times.
WILSON
Let's have it all, then.
MARIA
Fine. I think you were behind the breakout. You organized Looter to get hired, had him communicate with the inmates you needed, get them the items they'd need to escape and take care of your business.
WILSON
What business is that?
MARIA
The same thing it's always been, keeping control of your neighborhood.
WILSON
(laughing)
If your worst accusation is that I wish to protect my city, Miss Hill, then I confess. You've got me. No one should have to live in fear. Fear of those who would exploit them. All for petty greed, another corner, another ounce, another customer. Those ordinary people on the streets of New York, they don't fear me. Do you know why?
MARIA
I'm sure I don't.
WILSON
Because they don't have to. I'm not the evil that threatens their jobs, their homes, their families. No, if I am any kind of evil, it's the kind that protects them. That swallows the darkness so they can have the light. What I do, I do for them.
MARIA
So you admit to orchestrating everything?
WILSON
I admit...to loving my city, nothing more. If SHIELD considers that a crime, then I guess I'm in the right place.
MARIA
Getting Shocker to steal the Doombot and reprogram it to scare the hell out of the Latverian mob who was threatening your turf - I'm betting I could find a few crimes attached to that. Someone called the Kingpin would know his rivals, including the fact that Doctor Doom is the only thing the Latverians would fear.
WILSON
Playing along here, why would I orchestrate an escape without me being a part of it?
MARIA
Because you don't want to escape.
WILSON
Your food might be better than the average prison, but that hardly makes me want to stay.
MARIA
Oh, you want out, but through the front door, with a horde of press snapping your pictures after your exoneration.
WILSON
Hm. Do you know what a PMC is?
MARIA
Of course.
WILSON
My company recently took control of a private military contractor group named Blackthorn. And we're in the process of restructuring it.
MARIA
Are you actually threatening me?
WILSON
You misunderstand. I'm simply asking you to think about your future. SHIELD agents don't have a long tenure. Not everyone grows up to be Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine. Either you get incinerated by some random alien race, collateral damage in an Avengers battle or you retire, broken, haunted, and damaged. You, my dear, could be so much more.
MARIA
You're offering me a job? As a mercenary?
WILSON
No. You're no soldier of fortune, I can see that. These days, the growth industry is protection. Securing dignitaries, celebrities, businessmen. From my fellow inmates, mostly. That's 21st century work, and I need someone to help organize it.
MARIA
Mister Fisk, I'm flattered.
WILSON
And I'm practical. You're smart, and motivated. I respect that. So, I'll have one of my lawyers draw up the papers.
MARIA
Let me finish. I'm flattered, but I only know how to say No in six languages. Give me a few weeks and it'll be up to ten.
WILSON
I won't extend an offer like this again.
MARIA
Good, that saves us both some time.
WILSON
sighs I admire your resolve, your nobility. However, you and I know the truth. Civilization wasn't founded on nobility, it doesn't grow out of idealism. Progress is a...painful thing. A rebirth. And in the end, the pain, the sacrifice, it's worth it if it brings about something better. Spider-Man and Captain America have to make judgment calls every day. Who lives, who dies, what must be allowed to fall in order to something else to be saved. A better future for most, at the unfortunate cost of a few.This is the responsibility to those of us gifted with great power.
MARIA
See, I don't get it. You make a speech like that, but don't understand why everyone thinks you're a supervillain.
WILSON
Hm. So you intend to stick with this fixation, this notion that I'm some sort of master criminal. This...story you've come up with. I doubt you have any proof of it, or I'd be having this conversation with someone who had real power, not a glorified pencil pusher.
MARIA
Guess the gloves are off then. You're right. I am a low level lackey. But I can write a mean report. And this one has raised some eyebrows. Got them looking into all kinds of dark corners here on the Raft.
WILSON
Dark corners?
MARIA
Seems that most of the guards in your cell block had seen a lifestyle increase lately. Nothing that set off the radar, but when I ran the numbers comparing them to their fellows, I found a...let's call it a statistical anomaly. They've all be relieved of their assignments pending further investigation by internal affairs.
WILSON
Interesting.
MARIA
Isn't it though? That, plus my story as you called it, wasn't enough to get more charges filed against you, that's true. But it has raised your rep.
WILSON
That's not a bad thing inside this place. If I must suffer a criminal reputation, it protects me inside. Until these meritless charges are dropped, that is.
MARIA
Yeah, well, it let my bosses know that you are much more dangerous even if you don't have powers. Congrats, Mister Fisk, they're raising your security level!
WILSON
What?
MARIA
Yeah, you'll be bunking with a higher class of criminals for your stay down on Gamma Level. Norman Osborn, Otto Octavius, there's even rumors that Baron Von Strucker is going to be there soon. See, you'll even get to associate with royalty. Well, not really 'associate'.
WILSON
Meaning?
MARIA
Down on Level 3, they worry about inmates trying to work together, so you're kept separate. That also means you'll be losing your phone privileges. You'll have to communicate with your army of lawyers through pencil and paper. Maybe you can get a pen pal!
WILSON
I am Wilson Fisk. You can't do this. You're nothing! No one!
MARIA
I'm Maria Hill. I expect you'll remember it next time.