AN: Please review and us know what you think!

Chapter 7

Matt pushed Fury's visit out of his mind. He was worried about Jess, but that was nothing new. He had been worried about Jess since she left him. But Fury must have triggered something subconsciously, because that night Matt had his worst nightmare yet.

He knew it was a dream as he was having it. Or maybe he just hoped it was.

He was walking home from court where he had been trying a case against Foggy. The trial wasn't part of the dream, but he knew that's where he was coming from. It hadn't gone well. He could feel the tension in his shoulders as he loosened his tie.

"Matthew."

He stopped in his tracks as the blood drained from his face. "Elektra?" He turned his head trying to find the source among the throng of people.

"Matthew."

"Jess." The streets around him were empty. He wasn't even sure he was outside anymore. He couldn't feel the sun. He couldn't feel anything but a chill running up his spine.

"Matthew, you said you'd help me." The voice seemed to come from everywhere.

"Jess." He turned to find her. "Jess! Jessica!"

"I trusted you."

He shook his head. If she had trusted him, she wouldn't have left him. Or had she trusted him to find her, and he had failed. His chest felt tight. He turned again trying to locate her.

"I needed you."

"I'm here!"

"It's too late." Her voice was tired and wet.

"No. No!" He turned frantically trying to find her. There was only darkness. He felt a touch on his left arm.

"Matthew," the voice whispered in his right ear. "You let me die."

"I didn't."

"You had a chance." The voice was fading. It seemed to be coming from above. "Matthew."

Matt turned his face up and felt a drop of something cold and sticky. "Jess?" His shaky voice was enough to give him an image – a woman slowly twirling as she hung by her ankle from the ceiling, like an upside down ballerina or a Cirque du Soleil performer. Her arms were out - flying, accepting, welcoming. Another drop landed just below his eye. That's when the stench hit him. He dropped to his knees gagging and making the sign of the cross. The dead had a distinct odor, and it's all he could smell. "It's not you."

"I loved you," the voice said. It was coming from above breathy and ethereal.

"No. No no no. Please, God, no."

"Matthew, we'll see you in hell."

He sat up gulping for breath. Two voices. There had been two voices saying the last sentence. He had loved them both. He had failed them both. No. Not yet. Not yet. He could still save Jess.

Matt stepped out of the cab on the lower east side but didn't know where to go after that. It was all Fury had mentioned. "Interesting shit in the lower east side," he muttered to himself. He decided to find an alley and a way to get on top of a building. Hopefully he'd be able to hear something from up there.

It didn't take long for him to get up to a roof. He crouched down and listened, doing his best to sort through the everyday sounds of the early morning.

Three blocks over, two men were getting out of a van parked in front of an office building. The driver complained, "I don't know man. There was an outage last night. This new project of the boss' is usin' a lot of power. It's back on now but she wants us to make sure that doesn't happen again. Too big a risk if we lose power on this thing again. Gotta iron out all the kinks."

The other tech laughed. "Heh. Kinks. I heard the boss has lots of – OW! Whaddya do that for?!"

"You fuckin' moron, she's got ears everywhere. Just shut up and work." The two continued talking about more mundane things as they entered the building.

Well that seemed promising. There didn't seem to be anything else interesting going on.

Matt climbed down the building. This wasn't his neighborhood, and he felt out of place here. The sooner he figured this out, the better.

He found the voices again and headed to them. He held his stick in one hand and had the other in the pocket of his black jacket. He probably should have worn his suit in case he needed to meet a client or something, but he couldn't put one on after that nightmare.

The men were in a large building that practically crackled with electricity. He could hear them complaining about their backs and their boss, the usual stuff. Matt was sure their complaining would eventually turn to their significant others.

Someone with normal sight would be able to look at the number on the building, walk to the corner, and find out the street. He had to be a little more creative. After taking a breath, he walked up to the building sweeping the ground with his stick. He made a small show of finding the front door. Then he headed inside.

"Hello?" he called.

"Hello. Can I help you?" A professionally perky voice responded just in front of Matt. Clearly, this was some sort of secretary.

He smiled in a way he hoped was charming. "Yes. I hope so. Is this 35 Essex Street? I'm supposed to meet a friend, but I got all turned around. And I left my phone at home." He sighed. "It hasn't been my best morning."

"Oh, I know how that is." The receptionist responded in the same tone she greeted him in. "This is 31 Essex. 35 is two buildings over. Turn left when you walk out the door."

"Thank you so much, Ms…"

"Davis." The receptionist supplied politely. She looked at the security guard briefly then returned to her computer. "At least that one didn't ask too many questions." She muttered under her breath so that only she could hear (or so she thought).

He assumed she was just busy since she'd think he wouldn't be able to see the movement. "Thank you, Ms. Davis. Have a nice day." He turned around and walked back out the door as he wondered how many others had come to the building asking questions. Outside, he took a left and didn't pull out his phone until he was in front of building 35. Only then did he ask his phone what was at 31 Essex Street.

According to his phone, the building was owned by Transia Corporation, a technology company. Matt didn't recognize the name. This was something he was going to have to research further.

But first he needed to be sure of something.

Sneaking into an alley, he climbed up a fire escape to the roof.

He crouched, listening to the sounds around him, searching for the one voice he needed to find. "Come on, Jess," he murmured. "Say something."

All that could be heard were the swear words of the technicians as they continued to work on whatever they had been hired to do. A guard walked up to them. "You lot done with this shit yet? Boss needs to tweak the system for some project she needs to do. Can't do it 'til your dumbasses reinforce the power. She was pissed she almost lost her subject."

"Tweak? Last time she tweaked the system, she almost fried the whole thing."

"We'll be done today," the other worker promised. "End of day."

"Ya know, would take a load off this place if the other locations were actually work-" the complainer was cut off as the guard wrapped a hand around his throat.

"Do not concern yourself with the other locations. Understood?"

"Yeah sir." he sputtered.

"Good." He let the complainer drop and stalked away.

So there were other locations. Matt made a mental note to see what other buildings this Transia Corporation owns. Then he'd come back here tomorrow to see who this subject was. He doubted it would be Jess. He didn't get that lucky anymore. But maybe it would be someone who could lead him to Jess. That would be enough.

There was a lot that could be learned from legal papers, particularly involving corporations. There were incorporation papers to submit, trademarks to file, taxes to pay. Transia Corporation was no exception.

The tech startup was another Silicon Valley success story. Some college kids with nothing but a garage and a couple of massive loans from their beloved parents came up with an exoskeleton. It was originally part of a school project and was meant to help the brother of one whose back had been broken in a car accident.

Transia started to make great strides. But before it could release a product, Rowan Hamilton and Gideon Malick bought the company. Both were now deceased. There has been an interim CEO running the company ever since. All pretty dry. But the interesting thing was that Gideon Malick used to be on the World Security Council. He was also assigned to the Advanced Threat Containment Unit (ATCU), a government entity created to deal with the "Inhuman" problem. After the Triskelion incident in D.C., the ATCU was exposed as being one of many entities that had Hydra agents within it.

Long story short, the company that owned the building was owned by someone who was likely part of Hydra.

Matt didn't know who the boss' 'subject' was, but he knew he needed to save them. Now he just needed to figure out how to get in touch with Fury. He considered either putting a plant on his window sill or using masking tape to make an X on his window. Then he remembered that Jess had programed Fury's number into his phone. Now he just needed to remember what name she had used.

It was a phrase. A movie. A really stupid sounding movie. He chuckled when he remembered it.

"Call 'Snakes on a Plane'." He felt stupid just saying it.

"So, you decided to help out after all, Murdock." Fury answered on the second ring. It wasn't a question and there wasn't even a hello.

Matt barely notices. "I found some information. I'd like to pass it along."

"Pick a rooftop to meet me at in four hours. I'll find you." The line went dead.

He imagined Jess laughing at him and doing an 'I told you so' about Fury. He decided to go to the old office where Nelson & Murdock used to be. It was easy enough to get to the roof. Then he sat and listened.

Matt didn't have to wait long. "So, what you got Murdock?" Fury whispered from a dark corner of the rooftop.

"31 Essex Street," he began without moving or acknowledging the other man. "It's a building owned by Transia Corporation which has ties to Hydra. They're upgrading the power to be able to handle a lot. More than a lot." He listened to the steady heartbeat of the spy. "They've got some sort of new tech. The boss is itching to use it on someone, a subject, no name given. And the boss is a woman, which means it isn't Transia's interim CEO." He wondered if he knew all this already. "Whatever they're doing there, it's being replicated at other locations. I'm waiting for electrical usage records to try to locate those."

"Not bad Murdock." Was all Fury responded. Murdock had only confirmed what Fury's other sources had told him. But the fact the Murdock got it without quite all the resources he had was impressive. "The woman is Madam Hydra, also known as the Viper. Murdock – be careful going forward. She has a fondness for poisons, and unlike Drew, you are not immune to them."

He turned his head toward him then. "Going forward? Pretty sure this is where I let the professionals handle things."

"You mean professional. Singular. I don't have the resources I used to. Dead, remember?"

"You don't have contacts you can tip off anonymously? A dead guy and a blind guy do not make for much of a team."

"Unfortunately, no one I would trust with as sensitive a matter as this. But, because of your relationship to Drew and considering how she feels about you – " Fury drifted off, leaving Matt to complete the rest of the sentence himself.

"I'm just a lawyer," Matt responded evenly. "Whatever I may have been before, I'm just a lawyer now." He wanted so much to remain just a lawyer.

"Is that so? And that's what you really want right now? To remain a lawyer despite what you know?" Fury tilted his head and squinted at Murdock, the expression would be lost on the lawyer.

"It's what's best for everyone," he insisted. "I'm not a spy. I'm not Captain America. If these people are as bad as Jess says, I'm no match for them."

"Didn't take you for a quitter Murdock." Fury sounded disappointed. "You know, despite all she's been through, Drew is pretty spot on with her assessment of people. First time she's been wrong."

"I was a different person then." He actually thought he could help people with violence while dressed in a red suit. "I wouldn't even know where to start with this."

"Bullshit. What the hell do you think you've been doing?" He shook his head. "I'd beat some sense into you, but I need you to see the job through. Jess' life could very well depend on it. So stop your pity party and meet me tonight on the roof of the building behind it. Once you confirm the subject is Drew, we'll assess the situation and decide on our next move."

The words stunned Matt speechless. He stood there as Fury turned and walked away. Jess was right. The man gave no room to say no.