In the
hospital, elderly Lottie Hederman tells FBI Agent Carter Tenko how impressed
she was at Ebon Flame’s power and conviction as she led her FreedomsLight
soldiers to rob the SHIELD warehouse. Tenko is again taken with her vibrant
descriptions and asks if she was a member of FreedomsLight. Lottie denies it,
saying she was there because of her son. She describes how she returned to the
secret stronghold to see the Cerebral Matrix, a device which allowed SHIELD to
track its agents anywhere in the world but now, with the trigger device, is
capable of erasing all evidence of SHIELD agents from the world. And then Black
Widow entered, beating up all of the soldiers then taking on Ebon Flame who
arrived suddenly, and in the heat of battle, Ebon Flame casually admitted that
she was an undercover agent to bring down an urban terrorist gang who realized
the benefits of uniting all the gangs under one banner, so she formed
FreedomsLight as a cover for her to extort money from SHIELD. The two women
parted and Natasha brought Lottie home. So the terrorist leader Ebon Flame
turned out to be a common thief. Lottie says she was disappointed that she
didn’t get to see her son. And then the old lady dies. Tenko covers her with a
sheet and then erases the part of the recording that reveals Ebon Flame was a
thief. After he leaves, Lottie sits up and tears off the elaborate disguise,
revealing Black Widow who departs via the window….
Black
Widow addresses the reader (actually Nick Fury) to explain what has been going
on here: Lottie Hederman, under her real name, Lottie Eikenski, was a Nazi
death camp commander who escaped to America after the war. Not content to live
a quiet life, she took advantage of all of the angry people online to create
FreedomsLight and its never-seen leader the Ebon Flame, along with a fictitious
son, while running the group herself. When SHIELD learned about the assault on
the dock warehouse, Black Widow was sent to investigate. When she discovered
that no one had ever seen the leader Ebon Flame, Natasha decided to impersonate
her, hoping to draw out the real leader. Lottie took advantage of this and
acquired the trigger so Natasha undermined Ebon Flame, presenting her as a
crook out to rob he organization. And it was Natasha impersonating Lottie who
was interviewed by FBI Agent Carter Tenko to find out what Tenko was after. She
requests permission to follow up on Tenko and is denied because SHIELD is on
top of it. In the next room, Dum Dum Dugan is questioning Tenko. The FBI man
suggests he be allowed to go undercover in FreedomsLight to stop the group.
After he leaves, Dugan gives the order to have him arrested in the parking lot;
Tenko was working for Lottie all along and when he learned that “Ebon Flame”
was a traitor he intended to take control of the group himself. Fury
congratulates the Widow who points out that she is being congratulated for
lying, cheating, and stealing. Fury calls that “spying” and she acknowledges
that there will always be a Black Widow….
Give that special marvelite a timely gift