“Hello Nick, fancy seeing you here,” said Wisdom. “Don’t suppose you have a fag on you?”

Fury held a pack of Pall Malls in his hand. He held it out to Wisdom. The Englishman drew one and placed it between his lips. Fury offered a match, but Wisdom already set it aflame with the tip of his finger.

“Handy trick.”

“They’re not Silk Cuts, but they’ll do,” said Wisdom, looking at the cigarette. “So what’s this all about, Nicky?”

“Like I said, Wisdom—full disclosure time,” said Fury. “I can’t protect you or your team anymore. Not after what happened.”

“Wouldn’t be long before it all went to hell in a handbag, eh?” asked Wisdom. “Guess we should’ve known better.”

“Or at least you should have.”

“True,” said Wisdom.

“You weren’t careful enough when you put your team together,” said Fury. “If you looked a bit closer, you probably could’ve seen what was going on.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” said Wisdom. “But it’s all part of the plan, isn’t it, Fury? All part of the big, bad military-industrial complex. And all of us—the superheroes, the soldiers, the spies—we’re all just cogs in the machine. We tried to work with the system and the system buggered us. That’s the way it always works. No justice for the downtrodden.”

He took a long drag on the cigarette before staring directly up at Fury.

“Or the mutants.”

“Don’t play the gene card with me, Pete,” said Fury. “I brought you onboard this operation because I wanted to help out your people. I was tryin’ to do the right thing. And in the end, all you brought me was trouble.”

Marvel 2000 Proudly Presents

ASK DNA
Part Two

By Dino Pollard

Pete Wisdom looked at the three men Weapon X had incapacitated. While sleeping, the former assassin picked up the stray thoughts of a young man whose kidneys were being harvested by these three. He leapt into action, quickly taking down the three thugs.

Unfortunately, the man was too far gone, so Weapon X went into his mind and helped him to die peacefully.

Now, Wisdom, Dust and Weapon X stood before the three culprits, each of them with a pillowcase over their head. Wisdom looked at Weapon X. “You did good, lad. Keeping them alive means we can get some information out of them.” 

The door to the room opened and Maverick and Brass entered. “DNA scan confirms it,” said Maverick. “The victim was a mutant.” 

“That’s what I thought,” said Wisdom. 

“Would it have mattered if he wasn’t?” asked Brass. 

“Not to sound callous, but yes,” said Wisdom. “We deal with mutant rights violations. If the victim was human, we would’ve turned this over to some other division at SHIELD.” 

“Your sympathy knows no bounds,” Brass dryly remarked. 

Wisdom turned and walked past Brass. As he did, he whispered to him, “follow me.” Before reaching the door, he spoke louder so the others could hear: “interrogate them. You know what I mean.” 

With Brass in tow, Wisdom stepped out into the hallway. Brass folded his arms and looked at his commanding officer. “Something wrong?” 

“Yeah, you,” said Wisdom. “I respect the fact that you’ve got some kind of moral code you want to stick to. But there are some things you have to realize, mate—we’re not superheroes, okay? Mutant rights are violated every day and if we start expanding our reach, going after every violation we find, even ones that don’t happen to mutants, we lose focus. The fire brigade takes care of burning buildings, the cops handle the bank robbers, the superheroes deal with the planetary threats, and we’re the ones who go after the ones who hurt mutants. This is a delicate operation we’re running. If you’ve got a problem with the job we do or the methods we use, then you’re free to leave any time you like.” 

Brass remained stoic in his expression, not willing to give in to Wisdom even a bit. But it was obvious the Englishman awaited a response and to spur that response, he finally said: “now, are you quite through wasting my time? Because I’d really like to get back to work.”

Still, Brass remained silent. Wisdom lit a cigarette. “Fine by me. Once this job’s done, I’ll pass on your transfer request to Fury.” 

“…I don’t want a transfer,” said Brass. 

“Good,” said Wisdom, his hand on the doorknob. “Then shut the bloody hell up already.” 

He walked back into the room to find one of the men naked and Dust in a pile of sand. The man grit his teeth in extreme pain. Wisdom looked at Maverick and motioned to the man.

“She’s in her sand form, burrowing into his skin,” responded Maverick. 

“Anything yet?” asked Wisdom. Maverick shook his head. 

“He’s a tough nut to crack.” 

“We’ll see,” said Wisdom. “Dust, if you can hear me love, I want you to start moving around in circles, Don’t just go straight in.” 

In response, the man cried out even louder this time and Wisdom surmised she had heard him and did as she was told. 

“Ready to sing me a song, little birdy?” asked Wisdom, blowing smoke into the man’s face. 

“Okay! Okay!” the man screamed. 

“Who are you working for?” asked Wisdom. “None of you seem like you have the brain capacity to run an operation like this.” 

“Hired… freelance… we’re given the names of donors, take them out, and deliver the organs at the drop point…” 

“You’re given names of donors?” asked Wisdom. “Like a donor list?” 

The man shook his head. “I don’t know… they  just tell us where we should get the organs from… no substitutes allowed…” 

“Your employers, have you met them before?” asked Maverick. 

The man shook his head. 

“So they don’t know what you look like, do they?” asked Wisdom. 

“No, we meet through intermediaries,” said the man. “But they do something to the organs first.” 

“What do they do?” asked Wisdom. 

“Use some sort of machine… scan them or something, I don’t know,” said the man. “If it’s good, then we get our money.” 

“And if it’s bad?” asked Wisdom. 

“Never happened, but I’m guessing they’re not too happy.” 

Wisdom looked up at the rest of the team. “They scan the organs, eh?” 

“DNA test, maybe?” asked Brass. “If they have specific donors they want, could be checking for DNA match.” 

Dust slowly emerged from the man’s body and began to reform herself, speaking as she did. “They’re checking to see that the organs belong to a mutant.” 

“Why mutant organs?” asked Brass. “What’s special about our organs?” 

“Every mutant is a universal donor,” said Maverick. “One of the little perks of being part of an evolved species.” 

“Universal organs can get quite a high price on the black market,” said Wisdom. “But I wonder… what would happen if we turned over human organs? North, we have any image inducers?” 

“I think so,” said Maverick. “Why?” 

“Because we’re going to pose as these three, go to the drop point, and give them human organs instead. Then, we see what happens.” 

“Sounds like a suicide mission,” said Brass. 

“Just go help Maverick with the image inducers,” said Wisdom. He looked back to his prisoner. “Now you—where’s the drop point?” 

“Where… where are you getting the organs?” 

“Where else, mate?” asked Wisdom. 

“Then… I don’t tell you anything, not unless I go free.” 

“Or, we could do it this way,” said Wisdom. “Either you tell us where the drop is or I decide I want to play surgeon. And I don’t use pain killers, so you get to feel every cut as I remove every organ I can find. Oh, and the blood loss won’t kill you.” 

Wisdom lifts his finger and a hot knife forms at the end. “These things cauterize the wound instantly. So no mess and I get to keep you alive for a lot longer.” 

Wisdom circled the hot knife in front of the man’s eyes. “Now then… the drop point. Please.”