Back again with the third chapter, things are starting to get moving from this chapter on, small warning, this is going to get ugly as the story moves on but don't you worry I'm sure I'll come up with a happy ending. (I hope so).
Thanks to all the people who review, fav, follow and generally read this fic, I'm grateful for your attention and dedication, but mostly at your patient with me.
So I tried I new method with the languages, will put in cursive if the characters are speaking in another language and in normal text if they are speaking English, hopefully this will make to read a little bit easier.
Disclaimer is the same as always I don't own anything that you recognize and neither win anything from writing this, just the self satisfaction of sharing my crazy inspiration with you fellows!.
SEARING ENTERPRISES MAIN OFFICE – BERGEN CITY, NORWAY – SEPTEMBER 21, 2:01 PM
A shiver runs down his spine putting him on the edge once again, the place resembles so much like a ghost town, it is hard to see people around, even when he is guided by one of the guards down a narrow white hallway lined with laboratories in each side, empty of life except for the occasional doctor milling about the area.
The guard had told him that due to the recent installation of this facility in Norway, they hadn't manage to contract that much people, some of the personnel of the other branches around the world volunteer to come but apparently for them it wasn't enough and he had offered his thanks to him for trying to apply for the job. After that they both had remained in silence until they reached the main office area.
"Good afternoon Lisa" the guard leaned over the front desk speaking to the secretary in impeccable Norwegian, letting his companion standing a little bit awkwardly behind him, the woman –Lisa- offered a smile to her co worker.
"How can I help you with Rudy?"
"I got an applicant for that special guard job Mister Hargrove wanted" he signaled to the man behind him which offered a small smile in return. She smiled back nodding at the chief of security, the man turned to his possibly new worker patting him on the shoulder "Miss Baylor will sort you out from him, good luck Teint"
"Thank you"
Rudy inclined his head as farewell and abandon the place to fulfill his duties probably behind a desk with two other guards to play poker with him out of boredom. Clint smiled to himself as he stood his ground playing the part of an ex army man, waiting for the secretary to make the first move.
"So Mister Teint is it, do you bring any papers with you?"
"Yes ma'am" he pulled the folder containing all the information on his fake life onto the desk, Lisa rummaged through the papers slowly, almost like she was looking for something out of place. Unfortunately for her, SHIELD didn't make mistakes. She was about to say something to him when the double doors behind her opened and a flash of white and blue ran out towards the hall.
"Jesse come back here!" A man in his latte forties stood on the doorway watching the other figure disappear into the dark, his Norwegian was tinged with a little American accent as he turned to his secretary "Lisa call security, tell them Jesse is at it again"
"Right away sir" the woman moved towards the phone dialing a number from memory, for Clint it makes it seem like this was an everyday occurrence. He chose not to comment on it as he keeps looking at the point where the other man had disappeared. He suddenly felt someone behind him and turn to face it.
"You must be one for the job interview? Mister William Teint?"
Clint offered his hand with a smile on his face "That's me; you're Mister Hargrove, pleasure to meet you"
"Please call me John, we are like a big family in here you see," he opened his arms to emphasis his words, and then motioned for Clint to follow him inside the office for more privacy. Clint could see the weird stare Lisa was giving him as the door got closed "Have a seat Mister Teint and we may begin"
"Oh, you can call me William if you like; we're in first name basis after all"
"Okay William, my chief of security have spoken wonders of you and it seems you have an impeccable curriculum, your just the sort of man we're looking" John said letting his awe drift into his voice, Clint could tell the man has trying hard to keep his cool, and he was sure it must have had to do something with the guy who ran away.
"What sort of job do you expect me to do?"
"You see, since we opened this place we have problems of intruders and the sort, our job here in Searing Enterprises is very important for the medical field and we cannot deal with this sort of thing, a friend of mine suggested me to hire more guards and here we are, the safety of the doctors and employers on the laboratories are of the most importance to the company and we need someone who can be there with them, someone trust worthy we can rely on keeping them safe and not stealing our precious ideas"
Clint nodded his understanding.
"Have you worked in this type of area before?" the Director of the company questioned.
"Well, no actually, I sort of just decided to try now, but I believe is not that different from keeping my partners safe out there in the battle field, right?"
John chuckle at the response seem satisfied by it "Not quite the same but fairly close"
Clint also smiled letting the man direct the chat towards what he expected from him and what sort of job he was going to do, salary and the precautions to take in certain areas, he even offered to give the archer a tour which he promptly accepted. The two head out chatting a little bit more about the job and other random things.
John showed him the main building littered with the offices and technicians, staff that deal with other personnel and visitors; it remained Clint of the technicians back at SHIELD. They walked into the cafeteria, the small buildings in which the employees have their quarters, and some other areas that didn't held much interest to the agent as it didn't hide anything suspicious.
Their last stop was to the laboratories, in which Clint would be working for the rest of his stay in the company, it was a much larger building almost at the edge of a forest and the end of the mini city that was Searing Enterprises, it seem like all the activity was develop here since there was a lot of people coming and going from rooms to rooms with no end. Large windows panel showed many of the things that were going on, chemistries, doctors, engineers, working on things that were yet to be understood by the archer.
Through one of the panels, Clint saw a boy no older than fourteen or fifteen, wearing a white long sleeved shirt and dark blue pants, sitting at an examine table with two doctors moving around him, he was hocked up to an IV and a heart monitor. The agent watched as one of the doctors asked him a question and earned a glare before what seem to be a heated response was produced; the doctor didn't appear affected by the boy attitude and move on with his business. Green eyes locked into his own pale blue before a hand on his shoulder startle him away from the panel.
"William, we should keep moving, there is still one more thing to show you"
He nodded absently turning his head slightly back towards the panel, but the boy had already looked away, seem content with the sleeve of his shirt. Clint couldn't help but think how lost those eyes had seem, like pleading for him to help. He follows after John Hargrove knowing he still got plenty of time to resolve the mystery behind the boy before he have to make an official move.
"And here is where you'll be working" the Director say enthusiastically letting the marksman into an office at the far end of the hall, half a dozen cameras feed were in the opposite wall and some other surveillance equipment Clint didn't see since he was still too busy thinking about that boy. He half listened to his new boss as he moved about the area, looking for exits, hiding spots and vent systems before turning to John as the man say "Do you like it?"
"It is way better than my last job, and the pay is higher" he commented half joking earning a laugh from the other man "I think you just hired your new chief of laboratory surveillance"
"Excellent, I'm glad you accepted the job, you're the man I was looking for" John offered his hand again to shake "Welcome aboard William"
"Thank you so much for this, I won't let you down sir"
John dismissed the formality with his hand "Then I should get onto the contract to set this on, you may begin next week"
"If you don't mind, the faster I start the better, I can be present to work tomorrow" Clint offered knowing the man wouldn't decline the offer which he didn't as he once again expressed his content, asking him questions about himself and telling him about the uniform he was to use, how they will get it ready for tomorrow, the codes and other things he was going to need.
They were moving back towards the man's office, passing back again in front of the panel with the boy, Clint casted another look to see it empty and he frowned. It didn't take them more than ten minutes to go to his new office and back, so where was everybody.
"Is there a problem?"
Clint pointed at the room "There was a boy in here not ten minutes ago"
"Oh, yes, that was probably young Jesse, you met him at my office, he is a patient of ours"
"Patient?" Clint repeated confused falling back into step with John, real curiosity showing on his face as the other man nodded.
"Have you forgotten already, we're a medical research facility, in order to create vaccines, pills and equipment we need to see what we are dealing with, doctors cannot work only on theories"
"So you use people as lab rats?"
John shook his head slightly alarmed "Of course is not like that, this people is here to volunteer or is send by someone else because we can help them, Jesse is an example of that, tough so far we haven't figure out how to help him, he is a tough case"
"What's his problem?" Clint asked pushing open the door to the outside, John placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him from walking further. There were barely any people on the outside since most employees were having lunch or working in something really important. The archer eyes followed John's every move.
"Jesse is one of our youngest patients here, he is the only kid we have here, he lost his parents when he was much younger and barely remember them at all, he had quite a rough childhood and on top of everything he develop an illness so far yet to be heard, the trauma for the accident that took his parents away caused his body to lose energy ten times faster than your average human, one minute he is bouncing with energy and the next… well, we don't know what is causing the energy changes, his body is almost like crystal, very fragile and yet he is still able to move and perform normal activities for very short periods of time without any problem, like as he was a born built athlete"
"So he is losing energy way too fast, doesn't a diet help? Eating proteins and vitamins and stuffs like that?"
"I'm afraid you don't understand, his body doesn't know how to take the required calories from food or drinks to fuel himself, many doctors diagnosed him with lack of energy due to the various symptoms he is presenting…"
"But those symptoms aren't only for lack of energy I presume"
John shook his head lamely looking back at the building that probably held the topic of their conversation in one of their rooms.
"No, some of the symptoms are very odd, he is lacking some of them and paying them with different, he had being with us for nearly two and a half years now and we aren't close to figure out what is wrong, we have many patients like him with strangest diseases but so far he is the only one that cause us trouble"
"Should I keep an eye on him for my own good?" Clint joked, earning a laugh of the man as they began their journey again, the tense atmosphere gone.
"He is harmless unless provoked, and he doesn't like doctors that is why he is such a troublemaker, and perhaps the influence of that brunette that comes to visit him from time to time, that boy is the only one able to make Jesse happy it is unfortunate that he may not see him anymore" the man seem to space out for a minute, Clint wouldn't have pay any attention to it if it wasn't for the fact that the air had change again and to one of darkness that send another shiver down his back "You shouldn't be troubling himself with this, the boy is in good hands and specially since you're gonna start working here, I suggest you go home and rest, tomorrow you have a big day"
"I suppose you're right" Clint offered his hand to shake smiling lightly at the other man "Thank you so much for the job… see you tomorrow"
John wave him good bye just as the agent made his way towards the rent car Phil had get him, he was reviewing all the conversations he had manage to eavesdrop in and separating the information he knew would interest his handler and help for the mission.
He wanted to be prepare for tomorrow.