Playground
After the discovery of the true meaning of the alien symbols, the attention of Coulson's team was focused in identifying the mysterious city, although there were agents responsible for monitoring HYDRA's activities and search for Grant Ward's whereabouts.
The morning was quiet with Leon, Skye and Tripp working in the communications room for clues about the city. Although they were focused on the job, the three chatted in a relaxed and casual way, until they were interrupted by Skye's phone ringing. The agent realized that the call was from an unknown number and answered with a simple "Hello?", And shortly thereafter, her companions in the room could see how much Skye's expression became tense, as she put the phone on speaker and her fingers ran fast by her computer's keys as she spoke:
"Ward. What you want?"
Leon and Tripp rose, standing next to Skye, who was trying to trace the call.
"You don't have to be so cold with your old SO, Skye. Well, I'm just calling to say that I'm leaving a gift, in my location. By the way, I know you must be tracing this call right now. Great, do it."
"I'll tell Coulson." Tripp said, leaving the room with quick steps
"That was the Tripp? Shame he left so fast, I had missed him! I also believe that agent Kennedy is there with you, right? You can learn a few things from him, Skye. He's surprisingly good. Speaking of which, Kennedy, remember I said that I would leave some gifts to Coulson? Then consider this the first of many."
"He's a much better partner than you Ward, this I can be sure. And we don't need you to leave gifts to us, like a cat bringing dead birds. We just need you behind bars." Said Skye, with contempt in her voice.
"I think it might have been enough time to you to track me, right? Well, dear agents, I need to go now. I have personal matters to attend to. See you soon." After that the connection was cut, leaving the two agents in silence.
Coulson designed Leon and Bobbi to check the address of where Ward had called, and inside a dark and abandoned warehouse they found Sunil Bakshi, which Bobbi recognized as Whitehall's right hand man. In fact, whether they like it or not it, Ward had really left a great gift for the S.H.I.E.L.D agents.
Some Hours Later, in The Playground
When they returned, Coulson charged Bobbi to take care of Bakshi's interrogation, since the agent was excellent in setting up psychological profiles (she also had a doctorate in biology and was still extremely skillful in combat. S.H.I.E.L.D knows how to recruit the best, after all. ) and then headed to Hawaii with Skye, Tripp and Fitz for a mission related to the search for the mysterious city.
Leon and Mack watched the monitors as Bobbi questioned Bakshi, who was saying:
"We grew stronger each day, while the S.H.I.E.L.D desperately clings to a world they don't understand and doesn't fit anymore."
"Yeah, yeah... I've read the HYDRA pamphlet. Why don't you tell me something I don't know yet?" Bobbi said, as she stood from her chair.
Mack approached Leon, looking to with concern as he asked:
"I know you met the director a long time ago. But what do you think it happened to him last week? He was violent. Out of his mind. Have you talked to him about it?"
Leon took his eyes from the screen, turning towards Mack as he crossed his arms and said:
"He's fine Mack. Don't worry. I know it was bizarre, but we got the information we needed, and we took the killer out of the streets. That's what matters."
It seemed that Mack was about to retort when Jemma entered the room, also watching the interrogation by the cameras.
"Hey Jemma" Leon smiled, taking advantage of the distraction. The truth is that Coulson's behavior was really violent and unpredictable. But he believed in the director's word when he said he was ok. He has every reason to trust Phil Coulson. Always had, and would not change now.
"Mr. Bakshi almost killed me a few times..." Jemma said, in a disgusted tone as she pulled a chair and sat next to Leon.
"I'm surprised with her being so…civil." Continued Jemma
"Wanted to see him taking a beating?" Mack asked with raised eyebrows.
"Would not it be so wrong, would it? But I could not be there in front of him so calm." Answered Jemma.
"It's one of several interrogation techniques. She's trying to get inside his head. Get him to talk." Leon said, turning to the monitors.
"But a man as important as Bakshi will not talk out some important information like this ... at least I do not think so." Jemma said, with a unsure voice.
"Bobbi doesn't want him to talk something important. I mean, she wants to induce him to say something. Something he can miss out and we can use. The secret is in the details...of course, if all else fails I can beat him a little and see what happens. It's not like he didn't deserve." Said Leon, as the trio went back to watching the interrogation.
"Seriously. You could be a James Bond villain. Why follow Whitehall? Why not lead?" Said Bobbi, scanning Bakshi with her eyes as she walked back to sit facing the man, who replied:
"My time…will arrive. Just like Whitehall, I care about the bigger picture."
"Hmm...and I worry about the fact that maybe you've been brainwashed. I've seen the HYDRA using it in its laboratories. How can you be sure that not happened to you?" Asked Bobbi, tapping her finger on her chin.
"I'm not one of those fanatics HYDRA controls! is a disciple of the great Red Skull! The founder of HYDRA, shares his vision! I'm part of history!"
Bobbi then shook her head and stood up, leaving the room and crossing the hall towards the room where were her companions were watching.
"Think Bakshi was really brainwashed?" Asked Mack, giving the agent a bottle of water.
"No. But let him think that. Actually he said something..that did not seems quite right. He called Whitehall "a disciple of the Red Skull". The impression he gave was as if Whitehall was a contemporary of the Skull. That does not make much sense. But definitely exists link between them..." Bobbi said, after taking a sip of her water, while May also entered through the room.
"Well...the Red Skull died at about the time that the Obelisk was recovered by the SSR, the agency that became S.H.I.E.L.D. Here was one of the SSR old bases, before Fury restored it. It should be full of files!" Jemma said in an excited voice.
"So we look for it. It's like Coulson says: know your enemy. Mack, Simmons, you come with me. Bobbi can continue with the questioning. If you think you need a little more force, the Leon can step up." After this May proceeded with Mack and Jemma to the file room.
The interrogation continued for a few more hours with Bobbi giving spaces between sessions to think and to try to leave Bakshi insecure. Leon had gone to inform Coulson of the things they had discovered, and when he returned, he saw Bobbi alone in the room where they were before, turning her fighting staves with a thoughtful expression.
Leon closed the door and approached the agent, putting his hands on her waist and bringing her close to him as he spoke:
"Trying to understand Bakshi? If you want, I can go in there and play the bad cop for a bit."
Bobbi laughed, giving a quick kiss on Leon's lips as she answered:
"Actually this interrogation has allowed me to make his psychological profile. He grew up on the streets...probably Southall, London. Works hard to hide his accent, but still struggles with the letter "t", absent parents, started with petty crimes until the military straightened him, which must have gone fairly well, until the military realized something off and kicked him out…"
"And that's how he should had ended up in the private security industry, right?" Leon asked.
"Uh-huh. Somehow, Whitehall gave Bakshi a second chance. His borderline personality disorder causes him to values his relationships, thank the parents for that. In the end, it was not difficult for Whitehall to get his loyalty. The puzzle here is Whitehall. He has something in him that Bakshi sees, and we don't" Said Bobbi, making a slight grimace.
"OK. You're really good. I don't know how you can surprise me anymore..." Leon laughed, stealing a kiss from Bobbi, who also smiled as she answered:
"Hmm..but I still think I can surprise you enough. I could..."And she brought her lips close to Leon's ear, saying something while sensually smiling and then walking away, slightly biting her lower lip.
"Okay, how do you expect me to focus for the rest of my day after you tell me that? This is very cruel, angent Morse..." Leon said smiling as the two agents kissed again and then pulled apart, with Bobbi returning to read Bakshi's file and Leon watching him around the screen, trying to notice signs in his behavior.
It was then that Jemma, May and Mack returned to the room with animated expressions (With May's exception, of course.) that said they had discovered something important.
"Tell me this happy face is because you guys found something that Bobbi can use against him...or that you are giving me permission to go in there and give the son of a bitch some scares. I'm happy with any of the alternatives." Leon said, while Jemma approached him with a file folder in her hands.
"We, my dear American friend. - Almost all of us here are Americans, Jemma (amended Leon) - discovered Whitehall's identity! His name is Werner Reinhardt. He was one of the Red Skull's commanders, in the World War II."
Leon opened the file and it had a picture of Whitehall, with the same look of his actual file. The name on the photo was Werner Reinhardt and it was dated from 1945. Leon handed the file to Bobbi, who then asked, with frowned eyebrows:
"Wait. I saw Whitehall in the eyes, and he had the same look as in this picture. It is impossible that he has not aged! Care to explain?"
"Actually, yes he has aged. Reinhardt was captured by the Allies in 1945, and remained in S.H.I.E.L.D custody until 1989, when he received medical freedom, since he was dying." Jemma said while May showed Leon and Bobbi a photo of Whitehall in the 80's, with an aged appearance that would be consistent with his picture of the 40's, but not with the face he had now.
"He's...Asgardian? Alien? Found Aladdin's magic Lamp? Discovered the fountain of youth? " Asked Leon as he crossed his arms.
"That we don't know. Reinhardt's records disappeared after 1989. He changed his name, hid his German accent and was good to go." Mack said, also with a curious expression.
"The first records of Daniel Whitehall emerged in the 90's, according to the files. This fits into the timeline, except for the part he rejuvenates 40 years." Completed May. Leon stood up, handing the file to Bobbi, with a slight smile as he said:
"What he did, we can find out later. But these files have the key to break Bakshi. It's up to you, Bobbi."
Minutes later, Bobbi had returned to the interrogation room and was face to face with Bakshi again, while Leon and the others watched by cameras.
"Tell me...your devotion to Whitehall is based on fear or respect?" Bobbi asked, with a cooler voice than previously, flipping through a file, but making sure Bakshi could not see what it was.
"My devotion goes far beyond it." Bakshi said, also calmly.
"Fear goes beyond respect, in case you forgot. Better to be feared than loved, as Machiavelli said." Bobbi added with a small smile, turning to look at the files again.
"That's not what I meant..." Bakshi continued, but was interrupted by Bobbi:
"What are you so afraid that Whitehall's gonna do to you?"
Bakshi swallowed, before joining his hands on the table and looked deep into Bobbi's eyes, saying with a smile:
"I wonder...if your friends know what you are capable of. If they imagine the things you had to do to climb HYDRA's ranks? Afraid of their judgment about the things you did?"
"Fear of judgment. You couldn't be more precise. You're not afraid of Whitehall. You are afraid of disappointing him." Bobbi answred, smiling and using a calm voice as if she had ignored what Bakshi said before, and then continued: "And you know he will be disappointed when they find out you gave him out."
"I did not gave anyone." Bakshi said, crossing his arms with a look of triumph in his face.
"Au contraire...you gave us everything, Bakshi. His name, his adventures with Red Skull in World War II, his age. You knew he was hypertensive? We did." Bobbi smiled triumphantly as she threw the folder on the table, just opening on the page showing Reinhardt's photo.
Bobbi then stood up, walking near Bakshi's chair, as he leaned back on the table and continued to speak:
"He gave you a second chance in the past, but do you really think he'll give you a third, after learning that you told us exactly how to kill him? You failed with your boss, Bakshi. We already know who Whitehall is. The question that remains is...what kind of man are you?" Said Bobbi as she leaned, smiling confidently, while Bakshi kept a tense expression, with sweat running down his forehead until he looked at Bobbi, giving a weak smile and simply saying:
"A loyal one."
And Bakshi seemed clenched his teeth and seconds later fell to the ground trembling and took Bobbi a few seconds to realize that he probably bit some hidden poison capsule. Classic spy trick. By the time Leon and Jemma entered the room, Bakshi was already foaming, while Bobbi was down by his side, still bewildered.
"Cyanide! He took the James Bond thing too seriously! How we missed this? We checked his teeth!" Leon said, paving the way for Jemma and a group of agents coming to provide medical care.
"Capsule built on the cheek. You bastard, you will not get out of that easy!" Said Bobbi, with an angry tone as Jemma and other agents began to remove Bakshi from his cell.
A few hours passed and Bakshi was stabilized. Jemma told Leon and Bobbi he would survive, but was not sure how long it would take to him to wake up. The two agents were standing in front of the infirmary, watching Bakshi by the glass. Leon broke the silence by asking:
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine...I just miscalculated. I was sure he was going to give away. I screwed this." Said Bobbi, slightly shaking her head and moving away from the infirmary, walking the corridors toward the bedrooms, with Leon at her side.
"It was not your fault. I don't know if there was any way he would gave Whitehall away. Anyway...I'm sorry." Leon said, holding Bobbi's hand, while she leaned against the agent's bedroom door.
"For what?" Bobbi asked, affectionately squeezing Leon's hand as she looked upon his eyes.
"For the things that you had to do while infiltrated in HYDRA. I imagine it wasn't nice, but sometimes we need to make sacrifices for the greater good. I know how it is. Not exactly that way, but I know..." Leon approached as he spoke, putting his free hand on Bobbi's face, caressing her cheek. "It's never easy. But that's why you're so good. You do what must be done, sometimes it works, sometimes not, but no one would have done better than you today in the interrogation."
Bobbi then began a kiss that soon turned into a second, a third and soon the two agents entered the room while clothes were thrown all over the place.
When they finished, the two agents were still holding each other in bed with Bobbi resting her head on Leon's chest, who stroked her hair. The agent smiled as she said:
"You know, I wish you had accepted the Coulson's job offer sooner. So we would have known each other way before..."
Leon smiled, kissing Bobbi's head while he answered: "Me too, to be honest. But what is past, is past. I believe that we still have plenty of time..."
Although Bobbi has agreed with a nod, her heart sank at the same time. Bobbi knew that she was falling in love with the agent, and what hurt most was knowing that when Leon finally finds the reason Bobbi accepted Coulson's invitation to join his team, he probably would hate her forever.