BANG! BANG!
Two bullets ricochet from the cement pillars.
SWISH!
An arrow passes dangerously close to Natalia´s right leg and that only happens because she turned left to slip into the corridor. She doesn't look back even when she is up three flight of stairs, he is still chasing her, she knows. After two weeks of playing cat and mouse with this man it would be a mistake from her part to assume otherwise. He may fall back from time to time but never loses her. She reaches the last floor and looks around, his rapid footsteps echo all the way up from the stairway.
Ten minutes before he catches up. She thinks while walking to the big opening where a window should had been. No apparent escape route except the stairs. She turns, eyes narrowing and teeth biting her lower lip, the ceiling is exposed leaving the air vents at plain sight. A smirk appears on her face, her eyes glinting dangerously.
Agent Clint Barton was exhausted, the woman known as the black widow had not been easy to find. Keeping up with her had resulted to be even more difficult. He saw a black shadow disappear in to the stairway and he followed, running up every step despite having every part of his body scream at him with fatigue. He was down to ten arrows which seemed to be a flimsy number for a direct confrontation with someone as skilled as her. Maybe is time to fall back and regroup Barton. God knows you won´t be able to do much as tired as you are. Suddenly he could only listen to his own footsteps so he gave a brief look up in search for her shadow. He saw nothing but the light coming from a door which could only go either to the last floor of the building or the roof. He prepared a grappling arrow, from his experience in the last two weeks it was most probable she will be jumping to the next building to make her scape and he will have to follow. Tonight won´t be the last stand off it seems, he still has time to decide.
When he came out of the stairway two things happened. He saw no one and relaxed, thinking his assumption had become true, then when he had reached the center of the room a shadow fell upon him. Sneaky little… He had only time to take his bow between his neck and the slim wire.
"Aagh" he grunted while using all his strength to stop his target from strangulating him.
Why don´t we finish this game once and for all? Natalia said.
"Nngh, I have no idea what you just said so how about this? You drop the garrote, I drop the bow, and we can talk like the civilize people we are. Preferably in English."
American accent, ten arrows left inside his quiver. Her mind was running a mile a minute, they were at a stand-off and any second now it could tip to either side. She jumped of him taking out her gun and pointing it towards him. "What makes you think I want to talk?" she asked after letting a few seconds of silence pass. The man lowered his hands but otherwise did nothing, he looked right into her eyes gauging her. She did the same, looking first at his black uniform and the dirty state it was in, then noticing how fast his chest rose with each breath he took. He was as tired as she felt. S.H.I.E.L.D agent, that explains how he had been able to follow me. He has an earwig so someone is relaying him the Intel necessary to find me, which means… Natalia´s hands moved slightly, looking like a small tremor had run through her body and her eyes were wide open for just a fraction of a second, not enough time for the man in front of her to notice the change but somehow he knew.
"Left holster, little black dot." He just said.
Without taking her eyes from him she moved her left hand leaving the right one to hold the gun. She found a small disk like thing glued to the fabric of her holster. A tracer and brilliantly placed at that. I didn´t even felt when he put it in there. She smirked rising her eyebrow to make a silent question.
Just like before he understood easily. "A small gift" he said moving back slowly to sit on top of a desk that had probably seen better days. "To prove I´m willing to talk this out."
Her face went back to a blank stare, her body stepping back without moving the gun from him. She extended her arm to grab an old beaten chair that was knocked over its side and placed it right. She sat and looked at him, not saying a single word for almost four minutes. The man fought the urge to squirm and instead tried to meet her stare minute by minute. "Why is S.H.I.E.L.D following me?"
"They want you dead." She sprang up from the chair both hands on the gun ready to pull the trigger. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Do you see me pointing any weapon towards you? In fact you are the one pointing that gun at me."
"It could be a trap." She says not ready to give up that possibility yet.
"Fair enough, but hear me out first then you can decide whether shooting me is a good idea. I think it could be in your best interest to keep me alive."
She took her time to mull over this proposal. I´m tired and pissed off. I could shot him and be on my way. But I would never know why S.H.I.E.L.D wants me dead and will probably end up with them sending another hound to kill me. She scowled not liking the idea of listening to him. The man took this as his cue to start talking before she changed her mind.
"One or two of your clients had make you cross paths with S.H.I.E.L.D one too many times for my boss´s liking. He started wondering if the black widow was in some sort of campaign against the organization or mere coincidence was placing her in our path. Of course considering your reputation he didn´t want to risk it. For him it seemed easier to have you killed than sitting down to talk." Natalia gave him a pointed look, the irony of the situation wasn´t lost to either of them. "And between you and me, he is kind of a sore loser."
She looks at him, searching for any sign that he is lying. His body is relaxed and his breathing is almost completely calm. There isn´t any sign of perspiration aside from the one that is product of their last chase. What is his plan? He can´t be proposing I turn myself in? Natalia was a tiny bit confused by this man´s approach. I just gained my freedom back, there is no way in hell I´m giving it back to any organization. Once was enough for her. "What is your suggestion?"
He looked surprised, it was obvious he didn´t thought he would make it this far. "To be honest I didn´t thought I would make it this far."
No shit Sherlock. It was a humorless statement that went unsaid.
"You got an impressive resume and a skillset that would fit perfectly with S.H.I.E.L.D´s agenda. Why not apply for an agent position?"
She didn´t let herself hope "What about your boss´s suspicions?" she said with a deathly smile "I thought he wanted me dead, not recruited."
"We never found anything to proof or disproof his suspicions, until this two week assignment happened. Now I know you were only doing business and the guys back on base have it all beautifully written on paper, so you are clear on that side."
It was a tempting offer, she couldn´t deny that, but it wouldn´t be the first time an organization had lied to her to have her on board. Whether to kill her or to have her on the payroll. She glared at him. Hard. Adjusting her gun to aim between his eyes. "You could easily have me killed once I lower my guard to go on with your offer. Why should I trust you won´t do that?"
"There is no reason for you to trust me… but I guess a leap of faith every once in a while it's a life requirement for someone in our line of work." He looked her in the eyes and seemed to ponder something for a minute. Then his face relaxed when he made his decision. "You know, I did never find the answer as to why you would willingly chose clients that were directly involved in one of our operations. I can´t believe someone with your skills didn´t know S.H.I.E.L.D was involved. Maybe one time, but seven?" he paused, giving her time to deny or confirm his theory, she did none. "Later I checked all the reports of the subsequent follow up of each operation where you were involved in some way. In all of them the more truculent business were halted or thwarted in a way. And somehow the one that ended being blamed about it was S.H.I.E.L.D. That made me think you were out to even out your score, make amendments."
Natalia´s trigger finger twitched. You are not far off. "What if I am?"
"Well, wouldn´t S.H.I.E.L.D be the perfect place to do just that?"