Seeing Hill's reaction, Raymond knew that his explanation had already half convinced her.
He had deliberately described his power as "having different personalities with different jobs," using common roles like martial arts master, private detective, and special forces soldier. This mixture of truth and lies was part of his plan.
Information that's partly true and partly false is often the hardest to see through. Raymond had already prepared this story when he decided to pretend to be a mutant.
For him, it was definitely more helpful than harmful to tell so much truth right now.
The advantages were obvious.
First, it got rid of the danger from the Clockwork Psychiatric Hospital.
By revealing that he had powers and that his ability was related to multiple personalities, even if the director sent someone to ask about his condition, they wouldn't find anything strange. After all, he was never really "cured," so there was nothing to reveal.
Besides, since Hill's team had found other intruders dead in the hospital, they would probably send people back to investigate further. There was always the chance that they would discover something.
Raymond didn't think he'd left any evidence behind, but you never know what might happen.
By choosing to tell part of the truth now, he removed that risk early on.
It also gave him a reason for any strange actions he might take later. For example, if he used his Deadshot personality to teach, no one would be suspicious.
Of course, there were still some risks.
He wasn't really a mutant. If someone used a machine to test for the 'X gene', it would show that he didn't have it.
But the good thing was that he had never actually said he was a mutant. It was Hill who guessed that on his own.
So even if they found out later that he wasn't a mutant, it wouldn't be his fault.
And there were hundreds of different kinds of superpowered people in this world. Mutants were just the most common, so people thought of them first.
There were other groups, like the Inhumans, created by the Kree, or people like Spider-Man and the Hulk, who got their powers from outside forces.
And those were just the ones people knew about. There were even more that people didn't know about.
No one could say for sure they knew every kind of superpowered person on Earth—not even S.H.I.E.L.D.
So Raymond wasn't too worried.
Even if the truth came out someday, the director wasn't going to blame someone who'd gone crazy over the "Tahiti Project" for such a minor misunderstanding.
"There's one more thing I don't really understand..." After absorbing the shocking news, Hill spoke again with some hesitation.
"Go ahead," Raymond said, motioning for her to continue.
"Even though your Special Forces personality can teach at the Combat Division, isn't it still more troublesome than if you were just teaching psychology yourself?" Hill asked thoughtfully.
"If someone else had asked me that, I probably would have come up with an excuse. But since it's you, Miss Hill, I'll be honest," Raymond replied.
His face became serious. "The reason is simple—I want to stay far away from psychology. As far as possible. If I don't have to, I don't want to touch that field for the rest of my life. I hope you can understand that."
Raymond didn't answer Hill's question directly. He just showed that he didn't want anything to do with psychology. But considering his past and the heavy look on his face, Hill filled in the rest herself.
To her, it looked like Raymond had been deeply affected by the Tahiti Project. It had left him with psychological scars and even made him hate his own work. That's why he would rather expose his condition and even mention his possible mutant abilities than go back to psychology.
It showed how much he wanted to avoid it.
"I appreciate your trust, Doctor. I understand how you feel," Hill said earnestly. "And please don't worry. Other than reporting this to Director Fury, I promise I won't tell anyone else unless you say it's okay."
"Thank you, Miss Hill," Raymond said, looking relieved.
But deep down he didn't care about her promise.
If he dared to say that out loud, it meant he wasn't afraid of others finding out. Even if the news spread, he wouldn't care.
"We should be the ones to thank you, Doctor. After all, we owe you this," Hill said, shaking his head. "I'll try to explain things to Agent Weaver, too. Don't worry about it."
Seeing how understanding Hill was, Raymond decided not to continue. Things had gone well enough.
There was no need to overdo it—too much acting might ruin everything.
Hill returned to the Triskelion building alone and went straight to the director's office on the top floor.
Fury was busy working when she arrived, but stood up to greet her with a broad smile. "You did a great job, Hill. I owe you one."
"You should focus on repaying what you owe Dr. Raymond first," Hill replied, not in the mood to joke.
Fury quickly noticed her serious expression and asked, "What happened? Is there a problem with the Academy's arrangements?"
"No, it's not that..."
Hill shook her head and summarized her conversation with Raymond.
"A mutant?" Fury frowned after hearing that, his face becoming more serious.
Obviously, this was not the answer he had expected.
He had thought Hill might be upset about how the academy handled things or something like that—not this.
"I can't say for sure that he's a mutant," Hill said. "But what he went through is very similar to how most mutants awaken their powers—triggered by strong emotional stress."
"That sounds very similar," Fury said thoughtfully.
"What are you going to do about it?" Hill asked.
"I'd thing to end here."
"You know what most governments think of mutants. Their lives aren't easy. Some extreme groups even hunt them down in secret..."
Fury's face turned grim. "S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been a bridge between the superpowered world and the normal world... We don't take sides, but we can't control how others treat them either. And it's not our place to get involved in their conflicts."
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