The two agents were out of sight so Clint stripped out of the HYDRA gear and dressed the guard again, taking care to leave everything exactly how he'd found it. Placing the guard in the chair was a pain; it was worse because the man kept lilting to one side once he was in the chair.

He grabbed the gas canister on his way out and did a final check of the room before he left and sprinted back towards his safe house and the cover of trees.


He crashed when he got back to the safe house. He could feel the adrenaline bleeding out of his system as he trekked back up the mountain. He came down hard the moment the door shut behind him but he dragged himself over to the computer.

Clint absolutely had to get the bugs live and start the program to record every word they picked up.

The program was already loaded onto the computer, for which he was extremely grateful, but he had to manually add each bug's identification code and get each one up and running. While it located each device he set up a different program to scan the recordings for a series of key words and phrases and flag them; with that many bugs he'd never be able to listen to everything.

He'd focus on the bugs he had in the planning rooms but it wasn't like he could sit in the house all day for the next couple of weeks and listen to them all. Plus, with everything recorded it would be possible to go back and have the techs analyze everything down to the last syllable once it got back to SHIELD.

At least he'd have something to listen to in the silence of the house. The program would scan through every word once it was recorded and highlight sections when a trigger word was identified. He could go through those parts at a later time. It was a little trickier since it would all be in German, but Clint would manage.

The signal that the program picked up from the bugs was small enough that he didn't worry about it being traced. There were enough wireless waves coming from those rooms and the rest of the building that the small ones from the bugs would most likely go unnoticed.

Satisfied that it was working, he left the computer and barely made it to his bed before he passed out; the stress of the day had been murder on his nerves.

When he woke up it was late in the afternoon and the program had been running smoothly the whole time.

His hands were still shaking slightly; a result of the sudden high and then crash that he'd gotten from his lack of sleep over the week and from sneaking around the base. He knew he'd need to work it off before he did anything else.

The punching bag was set up in the basement with a training mat and a few weights. He would have liked to go for a run or climb something but as that was impossible in his current situation, he settled for taking it out on the bag.

He wrapped up his hands with tape and went at it.

The motions became smoother as his body warmed up and he let his mind go blank. Long hours of practice and experience meant that he didn't need to focus completely on the movements he was making to know that he was executing them perfectly.

Jab. Jab. Hook. Jab. Jab. Cross. Grab. Knee. Jab. Front kick. Jab. Jab. Roundhouse. Uppercut.

He picked the tempo up, moving around the punching bag as he attacked it, trying to simulate a real fight.

He switched to free-weights after a while, settling into a routine again and still wishing he could shoot something.

When it got dark he went back out to scout around, focusing on finding some of the other smaller houses that HYDRA was using.

Although he hadn't found anything by the time he came back in the morning he felt better just having been outside.

He keyed up the bug from the private room he'd managed to get in under the table and listened to the voices speak as he moved around the safe house completing his daily routine and preparing the detonators to the explosives he'd planted.

A loud slamming noise had him pulling his gun and tensing in a heartbeat before he realized that there was no one else in the house with him.

Confused, he listened for any kind of noise and realized that there weren't any voices coming from the bugged room anymore. There was only silence.

They slammed the door shut behind them when they left. Fuck.

With the bug so close to the door it would pick up the sound every time the door opened and shut.

Willing his heart to slow he went over to the computer and switched to another device to listen to.

Clint spent the next four and a half weeks doing the same thing.

At least once a day he left the house to make sure his perimeter was secure and search for other HYDRA locations. So far he'd managed to find nine others. The last six had to be on the other side of the border. He'd check in with Coulson when his handler called and updated him on anything he'd learned.

The bugs continued to hear everything going on in the area and he reviewed any flagged sections daily, making a mental note of anything that seemed important to report on later.

As far as he could tell the base was more of a research and development location than anything. There was a lot of discussion about projects and weapons. He'd talked to Coulson at the last check-in three days ago when they mentioned harnessing some energy for weapons.

Phil indicated that they might have been able to find a way to replicate the weapons that they'd been using during World War II on a smaller scale.

They utilized some kind of secret energy source that no one at the time had been able to copy. If they had kept any weapons from the war, Coulson agreed it was possible that they were using modified versions to run on less energy or a different source of power.

Apparently the weapons were extremely powerful and volatile and Coulson told him to steer clear of any kind of weapon that gave off blue light.

Awesome.

It was just after three in the morning and he was reviewing a flagged section that had been picked up from the private room. He pulled the sound clip open and listened carefully from his bed.

"It's definite. He has the information we need and he's prepared to come in. He'll be here tomorrow."

"Is it too soon? If we pull him out too early we could lose everything. We can't afford to alert the Americans before we're ready."

"No, this is the perfect opportunity. No one will suspect him until it's too late. By that time his cover will be irrelevant because we'll have everything we need to take them down."

"And the Secretary doesn't suspect anything about his trip here?"

"No, he's too worried about the peace talks to care where his Deputy goes at the moment. He told him he's taking a little bit of personal time to visit some extended family around here. He's already on his way."

"And his information is good?"

"It's more than good. He got it straight from the Secretary's office; his access is almost unrestricted. There's no way they'll discover the missing information until after the bomb has hit. Even then it'll take some time and they'll be scrambling to recover and find a leader since the explosion will take out the President and his top cabinet members."

"Fine. We'll prepare for his arrival tomorrow afternoon. I'll make sure security is tight."

Clint couldn't breathe.

He frantically replayed the segment and listened again. He yelled in anger when he heard the same thing.

Shit. This is really fucking bad.

He wouldn't be contacted for an update for four days and he didn't need an emergency evacuation, which was the only other way he could communicate with Coulson and SHIELD. Unless Coulson called him, his only line of communication was to open his comm. and give the evacuation code. It would automatically trigger a response team to come to his location.

If he called for the evac and they came in now HYDRA would be alerted to their movement and they'd never get another shot at the mole or the intel they were discussing.

He was on his own.

He scrambled to assemble all of his weapons while his mind raced. How the fuck had they managed to get someone so high up in the first place?

Intelligence leaks were an unfortunate but true part of the business. But having an actual mole, not someone who turned traitor and sold information, but someone whose sole purpose was to climb the ranks, get information, give misinformation, and cause a fuck-ton of problems was a whole different animal. Having someone as high as they did was almost impossible to achieve.

He knew it wasn't a traitor because they mentioned a cover. That implied that they had planted someone there with specific training. It would have taken years to achieve the title of Deputy; they must have been planning this for decades. He assumed they were discussing the Secretary of State and his Deputy because they mentioned peace talks distracting the Secretary.

The current Secretary had made those peace talks the cornerstone of his term. And as Secretary of State he certainly had access to information that HYDRA could use. There was no telling what the mole had done as far as sabotage. Any amount of information could have been somehow copied for HYDRA or altered to screw the government over later.

And of course, he had access to information on the United State's military personnel and weapons, specifically nuclear weapons. There was no way he'd be able to get codes for those but there was sure to be an abundance of information on weapons programs from countries who were easier to steal from or bargain with.

All it took was one missile and the United States could be crippled. That many top leaders taken out in one blow could only mean panic; even without factoring in the countless other deaths from the blast and then the nuclear fallout. It'd be a nightmare.

If he hadn't heard it firsthand he definitely wouldn't believe it.

Obviously HYDRA command was keeping this close to their chests since they were meeting with the guy tomorrow and he'd only just heard about it today after having the bugs in place for over a month.

He had to stop this guy and get the information back. There was no question in his mind that his orders had gone out the window the second he'd heard that conversation.

Clint had little time to prepare and he had to go with the first wild plan he thought up.

The mole would give up the information once he was inside the base and secure. He didn't know if the information was in the man's head or in some kind of drive he'd be carrying, but regardless, he had to be able to physically check over the man to ensure that nothing was being left behind.

Which meant getting close enough to check the body after he took him out.

His best option for getting out of this alive was to stop the mole before he entered the compound. Most likely he would arrive by some kind of vehicle because an aircraft going right to the base would be too noticeable.

But there were at least a dozen potential access points to the compound from the ground that Clint knew of and more that he didn't know about or have access to. He'd never be able to narrow down which entrances were more likely to be utilized or do anything to force the mole into a specific entrance.

In addition, the man could be in any kind of vehicle. He might have one guard in the car with him or he might have an envoy of trucks to guide him. Clint didn't have that information.

So he'd have to go back into the compound and take the mole out from inside HYDRA's strongest controlled location in the region.

Grabbing the rest of his supplies he darted out into the night, mind still churning with ideas and concerns.

He'd only been inside the base once before so he'd have to use the same access point as before. He had a working layout of the compound but it was built around that specific spot as the entrance and exit. Using another entrance would throw that off even if it might be a little safer.

Clint knew he would have to be in the compound for a while- as a time frame 'afternoon' was horrendously inexact, although he definitely preferred it to not knowing anything.

He'd have to take out the guard and agents before he went down and pray that no one noticed it in time. It was a fool's hope; with the mole coming they'd be doubly tight on security, but with no backup or support to leave behind and keep up the ruse for the agents, he'd have to take his chances.

He ran down the mountain a little and carefully looked over the route he'd take on his way there and back. He focused specifically on anything that he could move- roots or large rocks- without anyone noticing the changes.

Anything he could do to make sure that he could run back up the path later and not trip over anything would help if he were under fire or being chased.

He set up a few more small charges that could be detonated remotely and one that he buried in the ground. Finally, he pulled out a trip wire that he tied off between two trees.

Feeling a little better he ran back up the short distance to the safe house and prepared. He threw everything he might need into his shoulder bag and then got the rest of the house ready for his return.

It was more than likely that he'd be returning in a hurry so he pulled together everything he wasn't bringing but would need later and made sure nothing was left out.

He kept the bugs running but moved all of the files he'd recorded during the month onto the external hard drive and set the rest of the files to record directly onto it as well so he could secure all the information in one spot and grab it quickly if necessary.

The bag with the rest of his gear was placed next to the computer. Everything else was put in the burn bin and sealed for disposal.

The sun was close to rising as he made his way outside again. He'd decided that if he had to take out the guard and agents at the house and create a security concern he might as well make it a bigger problem and kill the guards at the other locations he knew about.

He wanted to be inside the compound by noon to give himself enough time to find out when the mole was arriving and set up a location to take him out.

There were roughly six hours until that time and he had nine houses to get to all over the mountain. The first step was to take out the guard in the central house; the other locations were monitored from there and if he moved on any of the other houses first he'd be spotted.

He cursed when he realized he'd screwed up the timing. It was close to five and there would be agents coming to check-in at six. It was too early to kill them so he'd have to come back to wave them off.

He could get to the three houses close to his safe house and make it back within the hour. Clint ran down the rest of the way to the house and eased the door open gently. There couldn't be any signs of a struggle and a broken door or blood spatter on the windows was a dead giveaway.

The guard didn't turn as he stepped through the door and he closed the distance between them in two steps. He had the man's head and neck in his hands and twisted sharply to break his neck.

One down.

He left the guard in his seat and closed the door as he ran to the next location.

Each of the satellite locations had only one guard; since they were monitored by the main house there weren't any agents nearby to check the area. He still couldn't simply shoot them through a window though, since he didn't want there to be obvious signs of a problem visible too soon.

So he quickly stalked into each location and killed the guard. He took a radio from the first one and kept it with him.

It was a quarter to six when he made it back to the main house and grabbed the man's gear. It would be a pain to take it off again only to put it back on, but he moved better in his own uniform and he had to keep the guard in the chair when he left.

The agents came right at six and Clint waved them off. He twitched nervously while they moved slowly away from the house and he quickly shucked the extra clothes off. From what he'd observed, the agents went back down to the town after they did their sweep of the area.

Two new agents would replace them in three hours and none of them made contact with each other but he couldn't afford kill these two this early.

Plus, he'd have to stash all the bodies somewhere and it was a small house. Better not push his luck.

When it was clear he headed down the mountain to the next location so he could make his way back up to the house later. He'd have to be there for the nine o'clock check-in as well and he needed to get at least four of the houses done since there were two that were a little ways off and he would need more time to get to them.

He was getting tired and forced himself to eat one of the energy bars that SHIELD provided and drink some water despite the nausea and nerves that were upsetting his stomach.

The four other guards were down and he set himself up behind a tree to the side of the house and waited for the two agents.

It would have been easier to shoot them and pull their bodies into the house but then there would be blood everywhere and he didn't feel like dealing with that.

Instead he prepared an arrow with knock-out gas and waited until they stood together in front of the house, obviously waiting for the guard, before he fired.

The canister opened on impact and they both inhaled several lungfuls worth of gas before they realized what was going on. Clint raced across the space between them to silence them for good before they tried to yell out.

A vicious punch to one man's head had him slumping to the ground but the other man took the opportunity to deliver a hard kick that clipped his shoulder as Clint ducked under it.

While the agent was off balance from the kick he lunged in and tackled the man to the ground. The man got in a body shot to Clint's stomach but he managed to get underneath him and lock his left arm around the agent's neck.

He wrapped his legs around the man's thighs to reduce the range of motion he'd have while his right hand gripped his left wrist to keep the maximum amount of pressure on the man's throat.

The agent's arms flapped wildly, clawing at Clint's hands and gouging deep scratches down his arms in an attempt to force Clint to release him.

He ignored the pain and arched his back, stretching his legs out to give him more space as he twisted and felt the man finally go limp.

Taking deep breaths, he quickly dragged both bodies into the house and checked over the ground for anything that might hint at the fight. The arrow was still good so he tossed the empty canister into the house and stashed the bolt back in his quiver.

There were two more houses to go and he had to be back by twelve. It took him the better part of an hour to get over to the first house and he wasted no time in killing the guard. The second house wasn't far off but it was a pain to get to and he'd have to be careful to be unseen.

He stalked up quietly but found the last guard oblivious to his presence so he took him out quickly.

He had half an hour to rest by the time he made it back to the house so he laid on the floor and tried to recover from his morning. His body was humming with energy but he could feel the beginning of exhaustion creeping in after the extended run he'd just completed.

He drank more water and ate another energy bar, trying to even out his breathing and go through some light stretches to ensure he stayed warm and prepared.

Clint pulled the guard's HYDRA uniform back on and sat patiently while waiting for the noon guards to arrive.

He saw them coming and let them get to the usual spot without greeting them. He could see the confusion in their faces when no one opened the door and they walked closer.

They didn't have any radios or devices on them to alert anyone so he let them get all the way to the door without worrying about an alarm being raised.

One pushed the door open and he received an open-handed chop to the throat to silence him. He leapt at the other guard and pulled the man's head down at the neck to meet his knee in a swift motion. He could feel the man's nose shatter and he finished him off before tossing his body by the others.

The other agent was still down and Clint reached down to grab him in a chokehold. The man asphyxiated quickly with the previous damage to his windpipe and he dropped him where he fell on the floor.

Making sure the bodies were away from the direct line of sight from the windows, he shut the door and rigged it with his last explosive and trip wire in a fashion similar to what Natasha had used at her safe house in Warsaw; anyone who opened the door would set off the charge.

Clint quickly opened the hatch and draped his jacket over it again to keep the light from alerting anyone that it was open and descended down the ladder.

He couldn't hear anything as he made his way down and the halls were empty as he stepped down.

He was in.


So yeah, things are happening now. Wasn't all the build up worth it?

A lot of people didn't want me to switch between Clint and Natasha in a couple of chapters (which was the original plan) so I will work on finishing the rest of the storyline from Clint's pov. I think I will end up posting Natasha's pov as a separate story because I might need more time to work on that now that I have to get moving on more of Clint's chapters and put her on the back burner, so to speak. We'll see.

Huge thank you to my reviewers and subscribers both old and new although I really appreciate everyone who has reviewed for several chapters- it's fun to hear from you!

Always

Sinkme