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Chapter 24 –Goodbye Daddy—
Bad idea, Barton. Next time you think you have a good idea, remember that it's probably just a really bad idea. Clint chastised himself mentally as he attempted to catch his breath. When he agreed to the change of clothes Tony virtually forced on him, he had no idea what his friend had been so excited about. Apparently the fabric, whatever it was, had a propensity for stopping bullets.
Fancy that.
Holloway yanked at the shirt to see the indent over Clint's left ribs. More than likely he harbored one or two fractures beneath the purple skin, but no obvious gush of blood erupted from him. Confused, the man searched around.
"Kevlar, brother?" Charles asked. A wave of relief seemed to take over him. He crouched down a few feet away, keeping his gun out of Clint's reach.
"Never leave home . . . without your lead . . .underwear." Clint replied breathlessly. Rib shots were never enjoyable. With his liver already growling from the revolver strike, and his chest purple from Ward's kick and gun, Clint felt like the only thing left of him that wasn't going to be bruised were the bottoms of his feet. Given that the entire room was surrounded by explosives, there was no telling whether he would walk out of the death trap alive.
"Well, I bet Holloway really wished he had that himself right now." Barney said.
"Wait! Wait, I did everything you wanted! I got you in! I did – " Holloway exclaimed
Without warning, Barton fired the revolver again. True to the training by Trick Shot, Holloway collapsed to his knees, a perfect circle passed through the front of his skull and erupted from the back like a fist. The man died instantly. Clint fought his way to his elbows. Shallow breaths didn't nearly cover what his brain told him he needed to breathe. One hand reached out and felt along Holloway's jugular. Though he held out hope that somehow his brother hadn't managed to kill him, he knew better in his heart of hearts. Before his own mentor, Trick Shot, died of metastasized lung cancer, he'd taken Barney under his instruction. Barney's aim rivaled Clint's own.
Barney returned to his feet, and motioned to the others. "Take them out, those three. That was the deal."
A few of the black clad agents cut a path into the fray of disgruntled hostages. The three chosen individuals didn't resist being man-handled to their feet. Leaving meant freedom. It meant their very lives, and it came at the price of the deposed Avenger, Clint Barton. Some paused as they went by his injured form. Out of respect, they may have considered helping him up. Clint waved them on. He wasn't willing to let them stop even for him. Who knew if Barney would change his mind?
"Clint, we're out. Are you ok? I heard you get shot." Tony's voice came through his implant.
Carefully, Clint sat up. After all, he was still on camera. He had to show the world at least one person in the room could be relied upon.
"Oh? Not dead?" Barney asked, smiling. "Well, that's pretty fancy lead-wear there, Clint. That a present from Stark Industries?"
"Good ol' Tony." Clint groaned. He stuck his elbow on the top of the coffee table and pushed himself to his feet. He'd already suffered enough on Alfheimr, this pain couldn't even compare.
"Glad to see you're still with us. Ready for round two? This time we get to up the stakes. I know what you think about kids, Clint, and I've just got the greatest little plan ahead of us. Should I tell you what it is?"
"No." Hawkeye stared at the little girl clinging to her father's neck. This wasn't going to end well.
Barney curled his finger, and the closest HYDRA guard grabbed the child from her father's grasp. The President screamed until he found a fist pummeling the side of his face. The little girl was plopped onto the desk. She required no restraint to keep in place. Pure fear prevented her from moving. Barney strode over, and placed one hand on either side of her as he leaned down to her level. His tone reflected a severity that made Clint's spine crawl.
"Kate, right? You're daddy's told me a lot about you." Barney said.
She sniffed, though it didn't prevent the trail of tear-filled mucus from stretching down to her lip. Her face was raised, red. Clint couldn't decide whether someone had actually dared to lay a hand on her or if was simply from her tears. Through the muffle of his hearing aid he could make out Tony's voice and the others beginning to scramble. If Clint didn't get the situation back under control, and soon, they might risk a full breach.
"Barney, let the girl go, she has nothing to do with this!" Clint dared a step forward, arms outstretched in supplication. He had to get the kid out. The last thing they needed to see was the body of a dead six year old riddled with bullets.
But his brother ignored him. Filled with his own fissures of complex thoughts, Barney continued very calmly. "Kate, do you know what an orphan is?"
Clint's stomach churned as the little girl's head pivoted from left to right.
"An orphan is someone who grows up without a mommy and without a daddy to take care of them. I am an orphan, did'cha know that?"
"Barney, don't do this. Give me the girl. Just let me take her out of here." Throwing off any reservation, Clint came as close as he dared. He could make a play for the gun again, hope not to get shot, but Kate would most likely be in the line of fire. How far could he get if he made a grab for her right now? Most likely, it wouldn't be far enough.
Barney continued to ignore him. He spoke only to the child. "Kate, I want you to turn around. Look at your daddy." He waited until the child did as she was asked. "Say goodbye to your daddy, because he is going to die."
"Barney!" Clint exclaimed.
The child hiccuped as she bawled. Barney continued to press her, forcing her until the words came out between the strangle of tears.
"Goodbye, daddy." She said.
"Clint, if you need us to get in there, we will." Tony's voice rattled into Clint's ear like his own conscious.
He made a curt shake of his head in response.
"I'm serious! He's not going to just stop."
"No." Clint said out loud, to both Tony and Barney. He could handle this. He came in to handle it.
"Good girl." Barney stood upright again and said to Clint, "I'm the one in control here, brother."
Now was his chance. He had to beg for her life or risk losing it. "No one's saying you aren't. You have the control. You're the ringmaster to this show. But she isn't like us. She doesn't need to be here. She doesn't need to see this. I told you, and I meant it, that I'm not leaving. If you want me to take another bullet for her then I will do that." Clint pushed in, just a little closer, a little harder, maybe Barney would finally crack. He whispered so the other agents wouldn't hear. "If you brought me in here to lead you to the grave, to be the first of us put down, I've come to terms with that. But Barney, please, let me save her."
The room fell to a graveyard silence as they watched the terrorist consider his options. Everyone held collective breaths, and even the distant world behind the camera lenses waited to see what may happen. Would Clint take another shot? Would he fight for the girl to go free? Would he peacefully rescue another hostage with his bargaining?
"Clint?" Tony whispered his concern. Of course if no one else heard what Clint was willing to do for one young child, Tony did. No doubt the news shook him to his foundation.
"Take her."
Clint moved before the shock of what Barney agreed to hit him. He refused to have Barney repeat himself. He leaned forward, picked the child up in his arms, and whisked her toward the door. Once out of earshot, he planned to call Tony, have him send in Steve or Thor to take the girl from him until this was all over. But before he even reached the door, Barney stopped him.
"She's not leaving this room."
"You told me to take her." Clint replied fiercely. He paused by the closed door and swung the girl to his opposite hip to place as much of his body between her and Barney as possible.
"Take her, sure, but she isn't leaving. Don't you get it? Don't you understand yet why it is we're even here? She's necessary. She's important. She's worth more than anything in this room, including your life. So," Barney lifted his hand gun and sightlessly aimed for the First Lady's forehead. "Unless you want her to be halfway toward the orphanage now, you will take her into a corner and leave her there."
Barney's eyes grew dark like a black hole. Clint stood mesmerized by him.
How had he fallen so far? Dropped right into the hand of the devil himself? What had turned him into the black-hearted beast that had dogged Clint since they parted ways at Barney's first funeral? Clint occasionally speculated what changed normal men into monsters but with his gaze diving into the very soul of his own brother there was just nothing. No clues, no want for life. He had been completely transformed from that child Clint remembered fishing with on summer mornings, or sneaking out of the orphanage with to join the circus. Barney, despite his short comings, had always been an idol to the younger brother. He taught Clint how to take a punch, to stand up for himself against the orphanage bullies, to protect what was his, and the depths of loyalty itself.
"What happened to you?" Clint asked, his heart heavy in the weight of those memories of times past.
Barney stared lifelessly back. "Life. And it'll get you too. That's why I have to do this. I'm—" his voice broke, the gun lowered an inch from the First Lady's head. "Clint, I'm tired."
Could this be his opportunity?
"I know you are." Clint whispered. "Look, I know. I came in here not because you had a White House or a President, or your hand on a bomb. I came in here because I'm your brother. I know you like no one else out there knows you. Mr. Barton? I heard them call you that."
Now the gun pointed at the floor. Barney smirked just a little. "Yeah. Like I'm a Mr. Anything. That's what we used to call the old man. Mister. Like he was too good for us."
"But we aren't back there anymore. I haven't been in Iowa since we got out. We left together, remember that? I followed you out. I was always going to follow you. You're all I've got left." Clint pleaded with him from a place in his heart he forgot even existed. Spending so much of their adult life apart disintegrated whatever brotherhood Clint held for Barney. In that moment, though, the connection breathed back to life again.
"If I'm all you got left, then I've got news for you, Clint." Barney lifted the gun again. "I'm already too far gone."
:(:):(:):
Thor sat with his legs hanging from the back of the ambulance. He held a pack of ice to his disjointed nose while Bruce worked to realign the bones in Thor's left hand. Beside the nose, the hand, and Thor's twisted knee, he survived the official Hulk beat down relatively unscathed. He had no room for complaint after comparing the results to previous occasions. Although, he had managed to get his own fair share of knocks into the Hulk. Mjolnir rested on the asphalt between them with one edge of it covered in red/green Hulk blood. Thor would proudly proclaimed he'd slammed the hammer so hard into his ally that even Bruce Banner did not walk away unaffected (which was true). The doctor's swollen jaw throbbed and his hurt ribs hitched when he inhaled too deeply. Given the mutual all-out-fight, the Hulk was surprisingly willing to let go of his hold on Bruce's shared body when the time came. Thor would, too, proclaim he'd knocked the Hulk all the way out of his body.
With his clothes shredded over most of the White House gates, Bruce ended up in Rhodes' borrowed gym pants after all. The shirt smelled like three-day old sweat, which was an improvement on Bruce in general. He'd been in D.C. since the start of the attack and had yet to leave. With Cap, Stark, and Clint all gone, leading the Avengers fell haphazardly into his own hands. He was all too happy when the prodigal three returned and his own decision making fluttered away.
The ambulance had been backed directly against the overtaken news van. Steve, when he wasn't pacing or discussing strategy, stood in the back of the van beside Tony and Natasha. Everyone watched the live feed from the Oval Office. They didn't dare breach the room with the excessive detonator wire lighting the place up like a Christmas tree. No doubt the minute they punched a hole, the room would go up in an instant. That didn't mean they didn't want to, however. As Barney hammered on, they were more and more tempted to risk the full breach. The longer they waited, the more chance Barney had of just sparking the detonator himself and ending the negotiation with a bang.
Tony remained their constant communication inside. The streaming news channel was their eyes and ears. They had to come up with an alternative plan to get Clint out of there, but how could they hope to do it without risking the President's life? They needed a plan, a strategy, some angle to get them back inside and another round of punch-Thor on the lawn wasn't going to cut it.
"Get her out of there, Clint." Natasha whispered as she watched the power struggle between the two brothers.
Steve alternated between sitting and standing. Rhodes leaned on a stack of electronics with his arms folded over his chest. He, and Falcon beside him, had stripped down from their metal accessories, to fit inside and watch.
"This is killing me." Sam muttered. "He's not going to let her out of there. He's goin' to end up shooting somebody."
"Ok, ok, wait a minute." They watched Clint go back into his bargaining mode. The Oval Office was at a lack of corners in general, but he settled on the curve as far from the center desk as possible. He passed between the other hostages sitting on the floor with their hands in zip ties and their bodies shaking. As he came closer, they began whispering to him.
"Tony?" Steve asked. The cameras and sound system wouldn't catch those side conversations, but Tony listening in the auricular device could. Tony held up a finger, telling them to wait.
Tony repeated the hostage's words which Clint's shoulder blocked them from seeing. " 'Get us out. He's going to kill us. They aren't going to get us out.' " Tony looked up from his concentration. "People in there are starting to panic, Cap."
Steve went back to standing again. He shifted his weight from left to right.
Tony went on, repeating Clint's words. "'It's going to be fine. I'm not here alone. What did that guy mean?'"
"'What are you talking about?'"
"'Holloway, he said, 'I got you in'. Does that mean something to you?'"
"'Should it? He's crazy. We're all going to die in here' "
"Clint thinks Holloway might be in on it?" Rhodes declared. "The guy's been running security since . . ."
"Since what?" Steve demanded.
Rhodes dropped his arms. "Since Sitwell elected him to the position five years ago."
Steve's eyes slid close as the weight of it all slammed home. Not only had Barney invaded the White House, he had help from the inside. Help who thought they were untouchable. "I want files on everyone else in that room. Sam, help Rhodey find them. Anyone with any tie to Agent Yolanda Towns, Sitwell, or any other known member of the HYDRA organization or SHIELD, I want their names."
Rhodey and Sam headed off together.
"Towns?" Natasha asked quietly.
Steve glanced at her and nodded. "Clint told me on the jog over. His research is back in New York unless Fury took off with it, or burned it. Towns was the highest agent rank he tailed. She's the one who stuck the knife in his back. That's what got his cover blown."
"And why he wanted out." She surmised.
Clint used one hand to drag a table out from beside the wall and crouched down to the floor on his knees. He peeled the girl off of his neck, and set her against the wall between the mantel of the fire place and the side table. He grabbed an unoccupied chair and put in front of her, blocking her view of everything else in the room. They watched as Clint pulled off both of his shirts. The outer one had a perfectly scorched bullet hole in it, but the tank top did not. He held the Kevlar-like shirt and shook it out between himself and the child. The over-shirt, he put back on. He was just close enough for a mic on the side table to pick up his conversation. Somewhere out in TV land an audio specialist was, no doubt, making magic happen.
"Katie, do you know who I am? My name is Hawkeye, and I'm an Avenger."
She looked at him with wide blue eyes, but hadn't stopped tearing up.
"Guess who my friend is!"
She shrugged a little, at least trying to interact.
"Iron Man. You know Iron Man, right?"
Tony's bottom lip found itself between his teeth. If Clint didn't make it out of that room alive, someone was going to pay dearly for it.
Clint swept a hand down his face as if to outline Tony's facial hair on his own chin. It was part of the sign language the deaf archer used to indicate Stark's name. The child didn't smile, but they could see a little joy in her again.
"Guess what? Iron Man made me this special shirt. And it can do really amazing things. It's just like his armor, except I don't look really good in red."
Clint held the fabric between them, and her hand passed over it as if assessing its authenticity.
"It can do pretty cool stuff. Like make you feel big and strong, and keep you safe. I want you to put this on, ok? It'll make you feel as cool as Captain America."
Steve's throat choked up on him.
Clint lifted her arms up, and fed the tank top over her clothes. He tugged the bottom as far down her legs as he could. He was lucky the shirt was made big. With it in place, he pulled the chest out a little and tucked her arms inside as well. In the end she looked like a child trying to fit her entire body into an overgrown sleeveless shirt, which she was.
"Natasha says the entire country is watching you be the most adorable man on the planet. Women want to have your babies. But she's not one of them." Tony said into Clint's ear.
Natasha didn't even spare him a death glare. She wasn't the only one. Clint up and ignored him.
"You're going to be my little helper, right?" Clint asked the girl.
"Ok." She said.
"Good, 'cause I need a little helper. This is your job. You've got to keep your hands tucked in, OK? I'm going to find you something to listen to. Now when I tell you to, you're going to walk out with me. Only with me, no one else."
"Are you gonna save my daddy?" She asked.
Clint didn't answer her. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead before standing and facing his brother again. "Can I make a request?"
Barney extended his hands to either side as invitation.
"I'm sure one of your guys has an iPod or something around here. Let me find one. She doesn't need to hear this."
Steve looked at Tony. "What could Clint do with one of those?"
"Disarm a bomb." Natasha answered.
Having finished with Thor's fingers and holding an instant cold pack to his face, Bruce climbed into the van. He'd caught the tail end of the conversation and moved to explain in depth what Natasha may have lacked the details for. "If the remote is infrared based, he might try to crack the screen, redirect the beam like a prism back into itself but to do that, he'd need to know where the trigger was and be confident about getting his hands on it. If the detonator is wire based, he may be looking for metal coils to short it out."
"Which he can get inside one of those things?" Steve asked.
"That or the headphones. I think he's trying to end this." Natasha added.
"You know what your problem always was? You care too much. If you would just stop caring like I did, you might be standing next to me. I suppose there's no way to convince you to do that now?" Barney scoffed and shook his head to the side at his brother's request. Perhaps he didn't see the same danger in giving Clint an electronic that the Avengers obviously had.
"You know I won't."
Barney sighed. He motioned blindly behind him. "Agent whoever-you-are, go get my brother what he wants. And everyone do me a favor; no one gets to shoot him but me. His bleeding heart has robbed him of his armor."
One of the faceless men in black left to complete the request. Before the door could swing shut, Agent Ward thundered his way inside to throw the monkey wrench into any plan Clint may have been working on.
"Uh oh." Steve whispered.
"We've got a problem!" Ward announced. His poisonous anger fell on Clint. "The Avengers broke through after that little lawn show from Thor and the Hulk. Everyone in the White House wings are gone."
"Ah, crap." Tony said.
"It was bound to come out. Took him long enough." Natasha checked her watch. "A full twenty-three minutes since we evac the place and just now he's realized we rolled off with everyone. We should have hung around longer."
What would Barney do once he realized two-thirds of his hostages had been stolen out from under him? Who was going to suffer his wrath?
"Tony, you might want to get your suit on. Thor, gear up." Steve said, picking up his shield. If this went wrong fast, he was prepared to go in guns blazing.
They waited as the cogs in Barney's mind turned over and over. Like the gears in a clock, he considered the options left at his feet. He could keep his word, shoot two or three of the hostages as punishment but then again, that would give him even fewer to work with. The Avengers knew Barney was smart. If he had any hope of keeping control over the hostages, killing them was the last decision he should resort to.
What he did decide on surprised everyone, but Ward most of all.
"Clint, take the rest of the hostages outside."
The archer gave him a peculiar look. Steve, Natasha, Bruce, and Tony did too. Realizing he missed something important, Thor tilted the van down as he squeezed inside with the rest. Clint wasn't about to argue, or get clarification. If Barney told him to take the hostages and walk them out, he was going to do just that until instructed otherwise. He helped the men and women to their feet, grabbed the little girl, and marched them to the door. Before he even crossed the threshold, Barney and Ward raised their weapons.
"Not her, Clint." Barney ordered. "I told you already, the girl stays. She's important. I need her here. I need her to see it. You can't have her, not yet. Take the others, walk them out. But you come back. If anyone follows you, I will put a bullet into the President's skull."
"No, no this doesn't make sense. Why would he just let them go? This isn't right. Something's up, Steve." Bruce whispered, shaking his head.
Ward turned on his boss. "You're going to let him just walk out of here with them? There is no one else left! Don't you get it? They took everyone! All we have left are the people in this room, and you're just going to give him that? Are you nuts?!"
"Barney, let me have her." Clint begged. "I'm coming back, just take me. If you need another body, then pick anyone on our team. They will come in. They'll take her place, and so will I. I swear to you. On madre, I'll swear to that."
"I'll go in. If he asks for one of us, I'm it." Natasha said before anyone else could volunteer. They didn't try to dissuade her, either.
Ward took another step toward his boss. "You can't let him walk out! He brings anyone in here and – "
Barney ceased the argument with a single gunshot.
Clint staggered forward. He set Katie Bishop on the nearest couch and meant to reach down for the fallen agent, but Barney still held his smoking gun. Ward hit the ground on his back. His hand clutched his stomach where the bullet struck. More in shock of the action than the wound, Ward shot a glance at Barney.
"What the Hell do you think you're doing?!"
Without answering, Barney's attention switched to the HYDRA agents standing guard. They were less sure of themselves, breaking the careful arch they created along the room's periphery. Before the first even considered raising his gun against their recruiter and leader, Barney fired his next shots. He knocked them down like bowling pins. He started with one hand gun and finished the clip, pulled his second gun and finished killing the last of them before any was able to return fire. Trick Shot's training served him well. Not a single bullet missed.
"Clint, take who you can and get out of there!" Tony ordered into the headset.
Clint, though, stayed. His eyes dashed into the lens of a camera and very swiftly he shook his head left to right. Defiant to the last. Endlessly holding onto the hope that somehow he might still save them all.
Barney retrieved something from his pocket. It was a small, hand held device with a pin that he removed and dropped to the floor. He looked back at Clint. "Three stay. The others go. If you don't come back alone, then this is all going to be over very soon. You know what this is. You know what I will do. You have five minutes. Don't make me wait. We're going to end this...together."
"Get out of there!" Tony nearly screamed.
The image began to flicker, jump, and then it disappeared completely. Every angle lost signal in the same fell swoop and the Avengers found themselves completely blind. They didn't wait to see if the image would return. Clint was marching hostages out even if he got shot in the process. They had to get a hold of him, warn him about Holloway and the potential others, and they had to stop this before it took anymore lives.
:(:):(:):
Finally, Clint moved. He passed by Ward's bleeding form on the floor, and led the hostages out the side door. There was a dead Secret Service agent a few feet away. He headed there first, searched the body, and came up with a single sidearm. He didn't get the chance to check the chamber before a group of HYDRA agents converged on him. They must have heard the shots, thought the worst, and came running. Clint dropped them with the same accuracy of his brother. None of them had a chance to return fire.
"Come on! Hurry!" Clint instructed, leading again. He herded the men and women onward for the front steps. A few more agents tried to stop him, but they were no match for his accuracy. As much as he preferred his bow, he was deadly with a handgun. Clint's trail of hostages breached the front steps with him in the lead. He lifted his hands over his head, gun facing up.
"I'm coming out!" He shouted to the line of officers who were desperate to shoot anything by this point. "I have hostages with me. I'm coming out! Don't shoot me!"
"On your left, Clint. See us? Steve's coming to get them." Tony's voice buzzed in his ear.
Clint nodded to the people with him. Together, they cut a path across the lawn. Once outside the shadow of the front steps, the HYDRA snipers instantly set on them. The hostages screamed and scattered. Clint's team was suddenly caught between a firefight as the line of Army snipers took aim and fired.
"Down! Get down! Everyone drop!" Clint cried, grabbing the closest hostage and throwing him to the grass. His hands fell on two others and he brought them down too. Bullets outlined their bodies as the Mac-10's went wild. Some agents fell where they stood, others pitched forward off the roof until they free-fell through the air. A hot wave of hydraulic jets dropped over him. Clint lifted his head from beneath his arms for a moment to see Tony leaning over his back, taking the stray bullets for him.
"Fancy meeting you here." Clint said.
"I thought we were going to stop meeting like this." Tony said, a smile radiating in his voice. "You in one piece?"
"For now."
The shooting ceased. Clint jockeyed to his feet and pulled the liberated White House workforce up beside him. He shoved them along into the waiting arms of Thor and Rhodes. They could take over managing their further escape. Natasha came up to him with Steve beside her.
"He cut the video feed. We're blind in there." Natasha said.
"What? Why would he do that?" Clint asked. It didn't make sense. Barney was determined to make this a spectacle. Why would he turn off the feeds for this, his final act?
"You've got me, but I don't like it." Steve said. His face was severe. "What did he show you in his hand? We didn't get a clear picture of it."
"A dead man switch. If anyone takes him out, that room is going to go up like a roman candle. I need to get the Presidential Family out. My time's probably up, I have to get back in there." Clint moved to turn back in.
"Clint, wait!"
"I took out eight more. I don't know if there are many left. I saw at least thirty on my way in. Add my eight to yours."
"Clint!"
Barton paused halfway back to the front door to focus on Tony.
Tony went closer. "Holloway got him in. We don't know why, but Holloway was in on it. Clint, your brother may be too far gone."
Clint made a small sign at him. He knew. He didn't want to face that possibility, but it stared him into his soul like the gaze of a dire wolf. Clint had accomplished so much already. Ninety percent of the hostages were liberated, only one had been killed, and one other injured. Anyone would consider that a positive outcome overall. But that wasn't Clint's primary objective. He wanted to save one person in that room. This was his last chance to do it.
Heading back into the White House took on an eerie quality. Little, if any, HYDRA agents remained alive, whether by Clint's hands, the Avengers, or just Barney himself. It didn't make sense why Clint's brother killed so many. Every time he set out to make a point, he murdered one of his own men. He threatened many things, things Clint could only imagine he would resort to. After all, this was the same man who murdered Arrow in front of him, just so Clint could watch.
The same notion continued to pound through the back of his skull. Endgame. What was Barney's endgame in this? At first, Clint thought he knew. He thought Barney wanted him dead, but he had so many opportunities, why didn't he just take it? Did he really want to get noticed? He'd done that and more. Why had he waited so long to start letting hostages go? Just because Clint got there? That didn't make any sense.
Clint and his brother were close, but Barney took after their father in personality. Despite the blood between them, they never truly got along. Clint had more than a basket full of problems to lie at his brother's feet, from attempted murder, to kidnapping, even torture. Clint wouldn't soon forget what he'd suffered at Barney's hands. So why would Clint try and save him?
And why did Holloway help him in? How many others in that room were in place only to further Barney's final moments? Then Barney cut the video surveillance. His grandstand pulled right out from beneath the world during his climatic ending. It made no sense. It didn't add up and with the older Barton brother, things always had a finale. He didn't do things without purpose, it simply wasn't how he worked. He was wired for action, intent, and completion of the task. Nothing else mattered but the results. That's what got him in trouble with the Army, the FBI, and every other agency he worked for. Barney never delved in the law of right and wrong. If he was given a mission, it would get done however he saw fit, case closed.
As Clint got closer to the Oval Office, he could hear the shouts of an argument between two men. A blood trail flowed across the floor and disappeared down the hall. Ward must have gotten up and scrambled off for his life. Barney spared him. Why? The likelihood of Ward getting very far was minimal with the amount of snipers surrounding the place. Maybe Barney just gave him a slow death.
So if it wasn't Ward and Barney getting into it, the only men left alive in that room were –
Stepping into the doorway, Clint's blood turned to ice. The words filtered into his auricular device, translated in his brain, and bounced around like Mexican jumping beans.
"I don't know how far this rabbit hole goes, Steve. I found Towns, that's as high up as I went. There could be more. I just don't know."
"Barney may be working for someone."
"This could go higher."
"I don't know his endgame."
"None of it makes sense."
"I got you in."
"Holloway was in on it."
Suddenly, all the pieces began falling into place.
Tell me what you think! I need to know:)
Next time: –The World Burner-
And now we come full circle. the next chapter will be the climax of the action!