Clint spent the next two days observing Cassie, only interacting in small doses. Small, stuttering doses. He checked up on some other leads, but his gut told him this all lead to the blonde.
He'd gathered as much intel as he could from the other residents, and what he found only made his hunch that much… hunchier. She disappeared each night, helped people fix their phones and computers in record time and had managed to rewire and fix the heating a few months back.
He couldn't make sense of the track marks, though. She didn't look much like a druggie, save for the deep circles under her eyes.
What had really thrown him for a loop was how sweet the girl was.
Clint had watched her hand out bags of chips, baby formula, protein bars, tampons. Anything she seemed to find, she shared. He'd even seen her going around, giving out clean needles to people. How she got them was guesswork, but who cared? All that mattered to the residents was that she was doing it for them.
Now that he had a closer look, Clint knew two things for sure: she was definitely the hacker, and she was definitely fucked up. Twitchy, paranoid, tech genius all added up to a pretty damning case against her. A love of Captain America, a pathological need to save the world and some sort of guilt complex didn't help her case either.
Who the fuck was this kid?
Clint managed to find a back corner of the storage area that was currently empty. He snuck his phone out of his pocket, quickly tapping on Nat's number. He pressed it to his ear and heard it ring twice before his partner picked up.
"What do you have?", Nat said, straight to the point.
"Wow, you just jump right in", Clint drawled, "No 'hello' or 'how are you'. Gotta say I'm hurt, Nat."
"Hello, how are you?", Nat deadpanned, her voice unimpressed.
"Now that's much better", the archer chided, keeping his eyes on everyone around him just in case they might pick up on what he was saying.
"Do you have anything?", Nat asked again patiently.
Clint glanced over his shoulder, double checking that no one was around.
"I may have something", he conceded, lowering his voice, "But it's tentative."
He could hear Nat humming across the line. Hell, he could practically see that little twitch her eyebrows did when she was thinking really hard. "What kind of something do you have? Any kind of proof?"
"Not exactly", he responded cautiously, "It's some kid. Goes by Cassie Conway. Nineteen, paranoid, supposed tech genius, and about to make a run for it."
"Could be a drug problem", Nat provided skeptically, "Maybe she got in too deep with a dealer and needs to disappear."
Clint's eyes fell on the blonde in question. She was knelt down beside Jerome, spoon feeding him what looked like tomato soup. Her fingers shook so bad that he could see some of the soup spill, but she continuously tried to make sure the old man was getting his food.
"No, I don't think so", he responded, keeping his eyes on the kid, "Something sketchy is going on with the kid, but it's not drugs. I don't know, Nat, something about it just adds up."
"Well, get something more concrete and we'll send in a team." Nat said, her voice solid.
Clint's gaze turned guilty, seeing Cassie smiling up at Jerome while gently wiping some spilled soup from his chin. What was he doing trailing this kid?
"Copy that", he finally responded before shutting off his phone and swaggering towards the girl who was currently wiping drops of soup off of the old man's bearded chin.
"Hey, Blondie", Clint lilted, keeping his face carefully jovial, "How's life?"
Cassie glanced up at him, still unable to look him in the eyes. "It- it's going, I guess."
"Just goin'?", the agent questioned, "Come on, kiddo, you've gotta give a man more than that."
"N-nothin' to give", the girl responded, her face set in a hard line as her greasy hair fell over her eyes, "No ex-excitement in a- a teen r-runaway's life."
"Well, I beg to differ", Clint chuckled, crossing his arms and leaning back slightly, "That's the kinda shit people make award winning movies about."
"Or- or Lifetime movies", Cassie jabbed, her lips twitching slightly at her little joke as she swiped the stray strands from her forehead.
"Fuckin' Jay Leno, over here", Jerome grumbled to himself, giving the girl beside him a grumpy but good natured glare.
The agent chuckled to himself, keeping his eyes carefully trained on the teen in front of him. He could tell what she was doing, avoiding every question. Keeping herself at a distance. It was all pretty impressive when he thought about it. Most guilty people were pretty hopeless at making themselves look innocent, but this girl had practice. Or maybe she was just distant by nature.
"Oh", the girl piped, her brows pulling together as she leaned back and pulled something out from under the cot she was kneeling beside, "I- I wasn't sure if y-you'd eaten today, s-so…"
Cassie pressed her lips tightly together as she held out a bag of potato chips towards Clint. The agent looked down at the offering in mild surprise. The blonde still seemed unable to meet his gaze, and she kept her arm stretched out to keep him as far away as possible, but she still offered him the food. Her face, however, was carefully absent of any expression.
Carefully, feeling like if he moved too fast she might get spooked and run away, Clint accepted the snack from Cassie, putting it in his pocket.
"Thanks, kiddo", he offered, keeping his voice even as he made to turn around, "Why- uh, what's the occasion?"
The young woman shrugged, scratching nervously at her wrist. "Just- j-just that you hadn't eaten in-in a while. At l-least I didn't see you- uh, so I- I though you might n-need something."
Clint's eyebrows rose. "You been watchin' me, Blondie?"
"N-no", Cassie spat back, continuing to scratch at her wrist, "I just- I just pay attention, is all. D-didn't want anyone to starve, or- or whatever."
Still surprised by the offering, the agent pointed back towards his little corner. "I'd better get back to my cot. Ya know, gotta keep my shit safe from shifty hands. Thanks for- uh, for the food. Nice of ya."
Cassie nodded her head jerkily, her hair falling back into her face as she turned back to Jerome and started nervously tugging blankets over his legs.
True to his word, Clint returned to his cot with one last glance over at Cassie, even more confused about the strange girl who offered him food and probably committed the largest act of wire fraud he'd ever seen.
Hours passed and finally most of the shelter was asleep or out doing whatever the hell they wanted. Cassie had slipped out again, but he wasn't planning on following her just yet. First, he had to gather the last bit of evidence he needed.
Quietly, Clint made his way over to Jerome and took a seat next to him. The old man was lazily puffing a cigarette, the embers faintly lighting his face. The smell made Clint want to gag, but he held back and casually leaned back onto his elbows.
"How's life, old man?", he inquired lazily.
"Same shit as always", the man responded with the cigarette still stuck between his lips, ash falling as it bobbed up and down, "You?"
"Can't complain", Clint responded, feeling a smirk tug strategically at his lips, "Bored out of my fuckin' mind, though."
The old man chuckled, a wheezy sound that was definitely a precursor to lung cancer. "What the fuck am I supposed to do 'bout it?"
Clint shrugged. "You could tell me a good spot to hang out."
"Only places our bums go are the park and back alleys", he responded, removing the cigarette from his lips, "And something tells me you ain't into that kinda shit."
The agent raised his hands in a sort of surrender gesture. "You caught me. But there's gotta be someone who goes out without a needle."
Jerome stuck the smoke back between his teeth, thinking. He nodded slightly before blowing out a huge cloud of smoke. "There's Mimi, she's clean. Likes going to the docks. Hassan likes it in the park, but he don't do none a that substance shit. Cassie goes to the library, and Prissy works at the diner. She'll slip you some free chicken if you're nice. They're your best bet."
Clint nodded, keeping his composure as he gathered evidence. "You said Cassie goes to the library? The twitchy kid?"
"Yeah", the older man drawled, "She's real touchy 'bout it too. No idea how she gets in, since those schizo rich people keep it locked up all the damn time, but that's where she said she goes. Said she likes the books, using the computers. Said it keeps her brain quiet or somethin' like that."
The agent took in all of the information and stood back up, giving Jerome a pat on the back. "Thanks man. Think I might check out the docks."
"Do what ya want", the man grumbled, laying back onto his cot with a groan, "You assholes never let me sleep, anyway."
As Clint made his way out, he put the final pieces together. The only library in the area was just inside the suburbs. In the exact area where the code had been traced to. There was no doubt left in his mind that Cassie was the hacker. Why she did it was a question for another time.
Quickly, Clint reached to pull out his phone. As he did, his fingers brushed against the still unopened bag of chips in his pocket. The feeling made his pause. With still fingers, the agent slowly pulled out the bag. The wrapping crinkled as he held it against his knee, staring down at it.
With his gut twisting with guilt, Clint carefully reached back into his pocket and pulled out his phone before typing a message to Natasha.
We've got her.
Cassie strode slowly down the street, pressing her headphones closer to her ears. The beat ripped through her eardrums, the clashing noises calming the ache in her brain. Even all these years later, the constant rush and pull of her mind made her dizzy without stimulation to combat it.
The cold air bit into her cheeks like it had years before, though it had lost its appeal. Now it just made her fingers sting and her ears go numb. Many things had lost their initial appeal. But the feeling of being able to walk on her own at night was still the most incredible thing in the world.
She broke back into the library that night. It wasn't difficult. In fact, the security in that place was laughable. Just a few taps of a screen and she could open up the automated lock. She'd assumed that the affluent area would have sprung for a tighter security code, but no. Just a simple line of code that even a basic hacker could break.
After covering all of her tracks and clearing every bit of her internet history and code, she spent the next hour wandering through the halls, grazing the tips of her fingers against the bookshelves. She wanted to memorize the place, sear it deep in her memory to be tucked away and stored for later. It was truly pathetic, but she didn't want to let go of it all. It had been nice. Safe. Calm. But she fucked up, and now she had to find somewhere new again.
Stuffing her hands into her pockets, Cassie ducked her head against the wind as she made her way along the sidewalk. She shifted her backpack on her shoulder, the weight of it making her back ache. Even with so few possessions, she felt like her shoulder might splinter underneath the bags weight.
Only two more miles to the train, she thought to herself reassuringly, sucking in a deep breath as she tried to warm her fingers inside her pockets.
She'd finally determined that now was an appropriate time to split. Just enough days had passed to let the whole thing pass as coincidence. All she needed to do was get to the train and get somewhere else. Anywhere else. Indiana seemed nice enough.
Just as she turned her head to make sure no one was following her, Cassie accidentally collided with another person, sending her stumbling backwards and her headphones tumbling of her ears onto her shoulders. In a panic, she whipped her head up to see that the person she had smacked into was a tall, red headed woman.
"I- uh, I'm r-really sorry", Cassie muttered, trying to get around the woman. However, it seemed that wasn't going to be as easy as she'd hoped.
"Shit, sorry", the woman responded, her voice deep and confident, "Didn't mean to shoulder check you."
"N-no problem", the blonde responded quietly, ducking her head to avoid eye contact as she tried to sidestep the red head.
The woman, however, refused to get out of her way, making Cassie feel caged in. Her paranoia was working full time now. She could be someone looking for her. Without her music, the world was too quiet and her head began to hurt, which only made her fear worsen and her vision start to get blurry.
"Hey, I'm actually pretty lost", the woman lilted, stooping her head to try and look Cassie in the eyes, "If you could point me in the direction of the metro, that would really help me out."
Cassie glanced up and noticed that there was something demanding in the woman's eyes. Something that meant she wasn't really looking for the metro.
Oh, shit.
"Um, I- I don't know", Cassie muttered back, her shoulders curling in as the noise in her head started to become louder and her breathing more shallow, "I d-don't know the area well. I should prop-probably-"
Just as she started to step backwards and away from the intimidating woman, Cassie felt her heel step over someone else's foot. Feeling her heart immediately slam through her chest, she spun around only to see a shadowy figure grab her by the neck, angrily pull her back against his chest and shove a cloth over her mouth.
Her eyes practically flew out of her head as Cassie immediately began to kick and scratch at the man holding her captive. She began to scream through the rag, rendering the sound muffled and pathetic. She could taste the chemicals sinking into her throat, searing their way into her lungs. In sheer panic, reached back and began to claw at the man's face. She felt her nails embed themselves in his cheeks, but he didn't loosen his grip.
Her screams became harsher as she wildly kicked and clawed at the man behind her, but to no avail. He was practically made of stone. There was no way in hell she was getting out of this one..
As the edges of her sight turned black, Cassie dragged her eyes up to the sky, taking in the stars for what might be the last time.