Author's note: Thank you all so much! I hope this chapter won't disappoint.
Thanks to everyone for your comments!
I hope you will enjoy sixth chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but probably plot :) - if you recognize something, it's probably not mine. All rights belong to their owners.
Cross-posted at Archive of our own - works/5596210
Thank you for reading!
Chapter 6
Having survived first twenty four hours Jemma was declared officially out of the woods. Even though she was hooked to a medical ventilator, Bobbi assured him that it was for a few days at most. Still sight of tubes and pumps breathing for Jemma filled Grant with helplessness and rage.
Whitehall decided that as no longer requiring specific medical treatment she could be moved so Hydra relocated her back to HQ.
Needing to busy himself while waiting for Jemma to regain consciousness he dug on Scarlotti's files and found out that he actually succeeded in capturing teleporter – having lost nine people.
Grant was impressed – guy sold his freedom highly.
But this presented a problem – Skye will show up to get him out. She was stubborn and reckless like that.
Only it would be in vain because the valuable acquisition was already en route to von Strucker and Grant had no idea there his base was. Well, he had a hunch it was somewhere in Eastern Europe but more than that…
Skye wouldn't care about it. She will try to snoop around and will get caught.
He needed a plan for that case.
ooo
Grant usually liked to be right (very much). But now he would have been glad to be not right.
Skye was captured. Thankfully, Scarlotti and company decided she was just a noisy hacker entangled with the powered people since she didn't have any abilities of her own. But the moment her DNA was checked there just might be found a concurrence in part of it with someone else. And then Dr. Jefferson's death may stop looking as an accident.
Really, Grant was doing it out of self-preservation. Not because he didn't like the thought of her being cut open and kept alive during it – all for finding out what makes her tick.
It sounded weak even in his own head.
ooo
"Keep it on you and be ready to proceed to the address in it." Grant dropped phone in Raina's bag at the hallway's blind spot.
Raina took it in stride and continued her stream of complaints about one of the lab occupants staining her dress with orange juice, can he imagine?
Grant imagined with no problems that soon unfortunate woman will find out that flowers sometimes had thorns, were deadly poisonous and on occasion could eat you alive and when lament about bad indigestion.
Grant was of the opinion that one shouldn't put all sorts of nasty things in mouth but Raina's habits weren't his concern.
Honestly, his backup plan in case operation-save-Skye ended with him being discovered (or caught) shouldn't include a dropbox prepared for Raina personally but damn if Grant was going to allow Raina to get captured after all the trouble he went through to keep her unnoticed.
It was for this reason alone. And he needed to figure out what Raina wanted with all her mind games being weaved around him. Only because of that he was bothering with her.
At another blind spot Raina squeezed his arm.
His excuses really sucked.
ooo
Grant was wrapping up new mission then Bobbi called and informed him that as soon as he would finish he was expected in Miami to provide backup for Bakshi and their newest recruit, agent 33, because Bakshi managed to stumble on Coulson himself at the fundraising gala of all things.
Grant wanted to curse. And not because his careful timing of squeezing personal mission between actual and official ending of Hydra one was going to hell.
Well, that too. But mostly he was pissed at having to work at stupid people. They got their objective. Why stay and risk it? Didn't they know that you should never underestimate your opponent?
To be honest, Grant sometimes made this mistake, too, but Hydra's arrogance was something out of this world.
So he had to clean up in case Bakshi would screw up, which meant going up against who knows how many SHIELD agents, and finding time to rescue Skye in very short window of opportunity, not to mention actually making it to Miami.
And not getting caught, but honestly, it started to sound optional.
ooo
"…man, late forties, Caucasian, 5'9''. And there maybe woman with him – early to mid-forties, athletic, Chinese, 5'4''."
Grant ended the call before agent could say anything and walked away from a payphone.
Part one of the re-imagined plan – ready.
Now he had a plane to catch to the capital.
ooo
Passing by the rear SUV covering a duty truck Grant stuck small bomb on it and then repeated the same with another SUV in the head of the little procession.
It was such a pity that he couldn't use any of the toys provided by Hydra – or even the ones at the same level of technology as SHIELD's. But he had no intention to be found out.
Armored vehicles survived explosions but their destruction wasn't his goal. He maneuvered his bike between panicking drivers after his mark which didn't slow down and increased speed in direction of the Reagan airport.
Another two tiny bombs were cast and stuck on the door's hinges and the truck's rear side blew open.
One smoke grenade later Hydra agents inside were picked off one by one and despite the truck's driver and passenger causing trouble Grant managed to catch Skye who jumped after very vocal and unfavorable choice words about his sanity.
She held on so tight that Grant had difficulty controlling the bike and said so.
In answer he got his visor covered with her hair when she unstuck for a second to no doubt express how much of an idiot he was but changed her mind and clung tighter.
"I can sit behind you," she shouted trying to be heard over the wind in suggestion several minutes later but Grant shook his head. The last thing they needed was for her to try acrobatics at fifty-five mph.
ooo
Pulling over at an alley Grant got off from the bike and handed Skye a bag:
"There is some money, ID, wig and clothes. Don't continue your rescue – your friend is somewhere on another continent and you wouldn't be able to storm the base even with SHIELD's help."
Skye ignored his extended hand and spit out with surprising venom:
"As if I will ask SHIELD for help. They're no better than you. At least Hydra doesn't deny they're evil."
Evil? Can she get even more immature?
"Not impressed with SHIELD, I see." Grant knew her history of interactions with SHIELD was too short to warrant such an emotional response.
"Ace is an orphan, Chan Ho is dead – because instead of trying to help, SHIELD labeled people as too much of a security risk." She was getting worked up. Grant had nothing against the sight but he was on a schedule.
"Look, maybe I'm evil but I'm trying to help you – you will get yourself killed or worse and it will be in vain." She mulishly crossed her arms.
Clock was ticking.
"And there are your friends anyway?" Grant should have noticed earlier the fact that in the report Skye was not only the one captured but also the only one sighted near Scarlotti's temporary safe house.
She stayed quiet.
"Whatever. When you'll get yourself in trouble – again, message me." He took out a phone and having opened app on a profile page gave it to her. She reluctantly accepted.
"Dating app?" She didn't have to sound so horrified. More than ten million visitors in a month – enough to go unnoticed.
"Wall-E?!"
Grant dropped the bag and without responding started the engine.
He was spy for God's sake. Did she really think that he could be unacquainted with popular culture at least in general sense?
ooo
Miami FBI office wasn't a place Grant wanted to make a scene at but he arrived in the city two hours after Bakshi made a complete fool of himself and if not for Grant's emergency plan, Coulson and May would have gotten away and with the painting, too.
The problem was – how to get inside governmental agency and make off with the object currently featuring as the main evidence of the committed crime?
Grant supposed he should be relieved that Hydra team on site at least managed to extract Bakshi and agent 33 without FBI noticing.
And that Bakshi was still unconscious from SHIELD's new toys. Tetrodotoxin rounds. The same toxin from which Jemma almost died trying to create an aerosol weapon.
Grant gritted his teeth and ordered Hydra agents to bring him another sample of Glenn Talbot's blood.
ooo
Flashing military ID at the entrance Grant wanted to groan at hastiness with which he thrown together yet another plan. He just hoped that no one would call Air Force before he made it out of the building.
And have never met Talbot in person because while two inches between his and Bakshi's height might have gone unnoticed – barely, four inches he had on esteemed Colonel were too much.
"Agent Kang? I'm Colonel Talbot, I talked to your people on the phone." Grant shook hands with agent in charge of investigating attempted theft of the painting from Santa Maria de las Flores.
"Yes, I was informed. However, I'm afraid I can't release the painting in your custody." Grant wanted to groan very badly. "Frankly, I don't understand what US military would want with a sixteenth century work of art."
"Matter of National security." Grant put on a hardened expression. "I see that you're the principled person and I respect that but with this case you're getting so in over your head, you can't imagine how much."
Agent skeptically lifted an eyebrow.
Damn him.
"I don't want your people to get hurt in the crossfire because SHIELD is involved." That got his attention. He uncrossed his arms and straightened.
"SHIELD?" Agent Kang was a good actor but not on Grant's level. Something was off.
Grant peripherally saw one of the agents too casually getting to a water dispenser – right in Grant's blind zone.
Damn. He was made. Don't tell him that Coulson actually told FBI about Hydra's interest in the art.
"I thought you declared on TV not so long ago that SHIELD was no longer a threat."
Grant discreetly pushed button on his watch and released it after three seconds signaling fifteen minutes to the extraction team and smiled tight-lipped I-know-you-trying-to-catch-me bureaucrat's smile: "Threat doesn't stop being a threat until all its roots are found and eradicated."
"What about Hydra?" Agents in the room were slowly and inconspicuously relocating. Amateurs.
"You make a difference between them?"
Surprisingly agent shook his head:
"The moment current SHIELD's leadership refused to present themselves before government and continued conducting their operations without governmental approval and adherence to the laws they became nothing more than vigilantes at best and terrorists as Hydra at worst."
Grant suddenly wished that he could have seen Coulson's face when agent Kang said these exact words to him.
Maybe he can bribe Skye to pull up the interrogation video feed?
"SHIELD considers themselves above such petty things as laws and transparency and oversight – they're too busy saving the planet." Grant smiled genuinely.
Agent Kang didn't return it:
"Before I decide if I should give you the painting, can you share any information on what they want with it?"
Grant thought that would be obvious to anyone who has seen the painting's back and didn't deny it:
"Symbols carved at the back are presumably of extraterrestrial nature."
"They interested only in the symbols, not the painting?" Agent's face became unreadable. "I guess, after they're done with it, the painting will be just disposed of?"
Honestly, Grant never even thought to consider what would happen to the painting after it was scanned and analyzed. Maybe Whitehall will put it on the wall in his cabinet? He seemed to appreciate antiquity.
"Probably." He wanted to see FBI agent's reaction.
"Work of art aged more than four hundred years is nothing compared to alien technology for them." Agent pierced him with his stare. "And they don't care that it is whole community's only hope."
Grant kind of admired his passionately held principles, he did. But why did people insist on not seeing the world for what it really was?
"They think themselves above the laws but for reasons entirely different from SHIELD."
Agent Kang smiled for the first time since Grant met him:
"No one should be above the law."
"They don't ask, agent, they take what they want."
Punch to the throat, agent Kang went down – one, his watch was thrown in the center of the room, exploding with enough noise to unbalance everyone not prepared.
Grant dropped to the floor and swept legs out from under agents behind his back – two, three, their guns were appropriated and under cover of the office furniture he placed precise shots at shoulder joints, kneecaps, ankles – four more, rolling over Grant shot at a fire alarm and landed near an open window.
Standing up he shot at the room in general keeping agents down and climbed out of the building's fifteenth storey.
Short distance later he was outside of the bathroom on the level with evidence storage. Shooting at a glass Grant used taken off jacket of dress blues and got inside protecting himself from shards with it.
Exiting bathroom he unbuttoned his shirt revealing simple black T-shirt underneath, rolled up sleeves, put on baseball cap, having pulled nano mask off and stashed it in his pants' pocket already.
Mass of the people leaving due to triggered fire alarm and shooting was easy enough to get lost in.
Guards at the storage didn't waste more than half a minute of his time and cameras he just shot.
Finding the painting right there it was labeled to be in the hacked roster he tied it to his back with shirt's ripped remains and climbed outside from the nearest empty room. After extraction team shot off a harpoon with attached zip line from the building on the opposite side of the road he jumped on it.