Chapter I – Introduction

Carter

Peggy tapped her foot impatiently, checking her watch. They were forty-seven minutes late, and she had been waiting twice as long. Finally, a small Cessna came into view. It put down just a ways away, and a relieved Peggy began making her way towards it. A door popped open and, to her surprise, a young lady exited, quickly followed by a young man.

Peggy stopped and waited at the edge of the runway as they walked over, taking in their appearances. The girl had curly black hair styled short, topped by a burgundy beret. She wore a black double breasted jacket a simple black skirt, and a white blouse. The man had a thin beard and thick light brown hair. The girl turned, saying something to the man. He laughed quietly. Both seemed amiable enough, and they seemed to be friends already.

Peggy smiled politely, holding out her hand. "Peggy Carter, SSR. You must be the Interpol agents." The young lady shook her hand, then the man.

"Yes, hello. My name is Cassandra LaBelle, and this is my colleague, Maximilian Brisbois." Peggy noted the French accent and surnames. "We're from Lyon. I am terribly sorry about the delay. We ran into unexpected interference." Peggy frowned.

"What interference are you referring to?"

"We've had quite a bout of snow recently. It hit us as we were passing over Beauvais on our way to Le Touquet."

"I see. Well, having another woman around will be a nice change." She began the walk back to the car, and Cassandra hurried to catch up.

"You see, Interpol decided to hire a few women because of you, Mademoiselle Carter—"

"Agent Carter, please."

"—so it's actually thanks to you that I have my job. Please call me Agent Sandra, by the way. You can call my companion Max."

"Can Max not speak for himself?"

"He's rather introverted, and he prefers that I introduce him." Peggy opened the driver's door and slid in.

"Well, he'll have to start speaking at some point."

She started up the engine and Cassandra leaned forward. "I'm afraid it's a bit more difficult than you may think, Mademoiselle– I mean, Agent Carter. You see, Max is deaf." Peggy stopped what she was doing so that she could give them her full attention. "I see." Max looked at her innocently, obviously not knowing that they were talking about him. "He can read lips, I presume?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"He understood when you spoke to him when you were getting off the plane." Peggy smiled at Max. "I'm sure you'll feel right at home. The lab rats are quite friendly." As she turned back to the front she saw Max's confused and slightly worried face and smiled quietly.

LaBelle

Agent Thompson sat cross legged in a chair opposite from Max, awkwardly looking anywhere but at his face. Max had been watching him intensely for the last ten minutes to Sandra's amusement. 'Poor Agent Thompson. Max certainly loves to scrutinize people, even if others are uncomfortable because of it.' She thought.

The entire establishment was so different from how she was used to it. Things were much more serious in France, versus the craziness here. In France everyone had a cubicle, and when they needed to get up to speak to someone, they went up to them and sat down to talk. Here everybody was everywhere, and people were just chatting. At Interpol things were so busy everybody always had to be working, unlike here.

Cassandra yawned. She would have been in a much better mood if it was another day, but she had jet lag and was dehydrated, and so she felt simply foul. She checked her watch for the umpteenth time, and stifled a sigh. It had been two hours since they had arrived with Agent Carter. "Remind me, why can't we see Chief Dooley at the moment?"

Agent Thompson, blatantly relieved to have a reason to ignore Max, turned towards her. "Chief Dooley is watching an important interrogation at the moment." 'Somehow, I doubt that.' She thought

"Is this the interrogation room, Agent Thompson?" No response. "Agent Thompson, at this moment my friends are chasing after Stark. They could be dead, and not a second goes by that I don't think about that. In France we have a saying: On ne peut aider qui ne veut point écouter. He who will not be counseled can't be helped. You are the ones who called for aid, and if you refuse to allow us to help you, than we will not be able to do so. Quite frankly, I don't want to be here any more than you do. So if Chief Dooley is postponing seeing me, I suggest he thinks over what I just told you." Carter watched her with a steady gaze. "Chief Dooley will see you when he sees fit, Agent LaBelle."

"Well, while we have the time to go, I would like to use the restroom."

"Agent Yauch is just outside, he will escort you." Cassandra stood, ignoring the warning signs that Max was sending her. She opened the door and left the room. Agent Yauch stopped her quickly by placing a hand on her shoulder. "Miss, I can't allow you to leave."

"I have Agent Thompson's approval to do so. Ask him if you really care that much." Yauch frowned, and, keeping a hand firmly on her shoulder, he opened the door to do exactly that. Cassandra smirked, twisting his hand off her shoulder and stepping away, walking over to the next door over and opening it before Yauch could protest.

Dooley

Roger Dooley was rubbing his temples, disheartened. He had just finished looking over the paperwork for the Interpol agents, and he still wasn't sure that they were who they said they were. And why would Interpol send another woman? A headstrong one, at that.

Interpol was certainly taking this chance to dump all the useless agents into his department. A deaf man and a desk and field agent who was also a woman. The door swung open and he turned to yell at whoever it was, but stopped when he saw it was the woman, Agent LaBelle. "Ah, good." She said smartly, and sat herself down in one of the chairs, pulling a thin file out of nowhere and sliding it across the desk.

"A message from the president of Interpol, Florent Louwage of Belgium. It also contains my file and Maximilian Brisbois's, along with all the information we have on Stark, Howard."

"You mean Howard Stark?"

"That's what I said." Dooley gave her a final once over. "I'll look over them. In the mean time, Yauch will give you a tour." Cassandra nodded, leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

Dooley sank into a chair, groaning, as Agent Sousa watched on. "I can't deal with Interpol too, Sousa." Sousa looked around awkwardly. "Well sir, you could–"

"I know. We'll partner her up with someone. She won't be able to do any harm that way." Sousa sat down next to him. "Who are you going to partner her with? She won't like being restricted, sir."

"I know," Dooley growled. "She seems… fierce. Match her up with someone who can't take a punch, and she'll get her way out of it quickly." Dooley nodded. "Of course, she'll hinder whoever she's working with, so someone who can work with that is also important. We need a combination of the two." A smile crept across his face. "I know just the man."