CHAPTER #26

After talking things over with Stark, Barton decided not to go to Fury. They tracked Romanoff's movements, determining she was Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker's right hand. The operation from Larne moved to the Isle of Man. The interesting thing was, she never removed the tracker and Barton knew she would have found it five minutes after he had planted it. So was she or wasn't she a HYDRA agent now? If she wasn't, then why did she say she had to kill him? If she was, then he would already be dead. She didn't miss with her gun fire at close range like that. Until she left that island, nothing could be done. So Barton worked with Jarvis to make some changes to his bow, quiver and arrow heads. Stark continued to play with the black diamond.

"What I want to know is what universe or alien planet did they want to build a portal to Earth for?" Clint asked Tony.

"That's the money question," Pepper said as she handed them both a drink.

"Well if we can figure out where the diamond came from, maybe that will answer the question," Tony said logically.

Clint scratched his chin in thought, "well Reeser didn't get it from Fury or anything S.H.E.I.L.D. related. Fury had me watching video of him working in the lab. If he did get it from them, it was done off camera."

"Then it came from HYDRA. We need to know if this is one of a kind or if there are more of these diamonds around," Tony said.

Pepper smiled, "Jarvis pull up the map of the known sites for HYDRA." With a finger she circled the map in the air. "Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia are where I would put another location. Those countries were all allies of the Nazis."

"Beauty and brains, that's why I love her," Tony grinned.

"We know of their locations in Egypt and Japan already," Clint added.

"Tony tells me you're freelance now that Fury kicked you out of the agency," Pepper said.

"I think it was more I walked out, then stole a quinjet." Clint laughed and clinked glasses with Tony.

"So you've got the time to go find HYDRA locations," Pepper continued. "And it will help you keep your mind off of Natasha."

"I don't have that kind of cash stashed away Pepper." Clint ignored the rest of what she said, even though she was right.

Tony caught Pepper's eye and shrugged. "We do and this is important."

Clint thought about it for a second, "alright where do you want me to go first?"

Holding up his hand to stop everyone, Tony said, "Jarvis show on the map all the active operations for S.H.E.I.L.D." Another screen appeared in the air. "Now remove all the operations that are not about HYDRA."

"Fury is all over Egypt and Japan. So I don't have to go there," Clint said.

"We'll need a few days to get your equipment ready. Go relax at that cabin of yours in the mountains. I'll bring Bird to you when it's time to go. Make sure you do some visible, normal things so Fury thinks your not up to anything," Tony instructed.

"I'll feel naked without my bow and quiver."

"I knew you'd say that, which is why you will take the prototype I want you to test. Be careful though, because the heads detach and the shaft has a homing device on it. I haven't worked out all the kinks yet. That's why I need you to use it and tell me what needs to be tweaked."

Barton knew Stark was being overly generous, to help distract him from his ex-partner. "Tony thanks for everything. But you think she's gone bad, don't you?"

"Everything suggests that. But I don't know her like you do."

Clint grinned, "Pepper don't you hate it when he's too smart for his own good?"

She laughed and kissed Tony, "brains and he's sexy…. what can I say?"

Barton rolled his eyes. He stayed with them for diner and then took one of Stark's sports cars and made sure he was seen bar hopping. Girls on each arm and he went to their house to have some physical fun. The next day he took both ladies out for lunch and then they parted ways. He went to a shooting range and then visited some old friends. Finally he returned Stark's car and booked a flight out of New York. But his cabin reminded him of her too. So he was almost relieved when Iron Man and Bird arrived.

"Money, passports, coms, your suit, equipment, pretty much everything you need is in Bird. Like her new hover ability?" Tony asked when he lifted the mask of Iron Man.

"Excellent. What about fuel cells?" Clint asked.

"Taken care of. How'd that bow and quiver I gave you work out?" Tony asked.

"We need to work on the balance of the shaft, now that it has the weighted end from the homing devices. When I get back from overseas, we'll work on it."

Tony put his mask back on, "Jarvis already uploaded the flight information to Bird. So you can just have her fly you in on auto pilot."

"See you in a few months," Clint said getting into Bird.

Iron Man flew in one direction and Bird flew in the other. It wasn't long before they were over the ocean heading to Europe. Since it was a long flight he activated the auto pilot and sat back to relax. He looked at the various passports he'd been given, the bank roll and list of new arrow heads. He was impressed with what Stark had provided. Bird also had some language programs, that helped pass time. Unfortunately the countries he would be searching for HYDRA locations, were all near Budapest. And of course that brought back memories of the woman he was trying to forget.

Try as he might, he couldn't keep the memories from flooding his mind. When they had been on the assignment watching FuturePharm and killing time, Romanoff had explained how she remembered Budapest. She said that they had been on an operation together, where she was the lead and he was tactical support. She had to extract a Russian defective that was playing both sides of the Armenian vs Azerbaijani conflict. The Russian was selling alien grade weaponry. When Black Widow had gone in to manipulate the Russian into following her exit strategy, they discovered that he was really a HYDRA agent in disguise. Both factions joined forces with the HYDRA team that had been sent in to kill Black Widow and Hawkeye. They fought side by side, back to back for a while before S.H.E.I.L.D. sent agents in to assist. They got their target as required, and got out. But Barton remembered it differently and they had squabbled back and forth about who's memory had been correct. He agreed with everything except, he didn't remember fighting anyone except HYDRA's men. And he remembered the HYDRA men retreating, before S.H.E.I.L.D. arrived to pick them up. In the end she had said that he'd probably been hit in the head and that's why he didn't remember the fighting correctly. He had noticed her irritation and kept his mouth shut.

Now as he sat in the modified plane, he wondered if she'd been right. It was very possible he had been knocked out for a while. Anything could've happened back then. They'd been on so many operations together, both as part of other teams, with Captain America or just on their own, that the details often blended together.

Clint rubbed his hands over his face, "Bird how much longer?"

"One hour, ten minutes, forty-three seconds."

"So arrival is around 2 am. Just great, I don't suppose anyone booked me a hotel room?"

"Already taken care of sir. You have a room at Hotel Nobel Tirana, for two days," Bird answered.

"Did you do that for me or Jarvis?" Clint asked, bemused.

"Jarvis sir. But if you would like me to book you a room elsewhere, I can do so," Bird replied.

"No thank you, that's fine."

As soon as there was a road visible, he converted the machine back to the motorcycle. Bird monitored the frequencies to make sure entry into the country was undetected. The rest was pretty standard. He wasn't as well versed in languages as some agents, but he knew enough to get by.

While Barton was in Europe, Romanoff was on the Isle of Man with HYDRA. They were about to mobilize and move the whole operation to a new base. She hadn't been told yet where that was, except that she'd been there before. Considering how many different locations she'd been around the world, that could be anywhere. They had possession of equipment that had the potential to open universal portals, the problem seemed to be that the unit was missing a component. So they were looking into another source. Because she had not successfully killed agent Barton, HYDRA still didn't trust her 100% to give her all the details. But with her superior skill set, Baron Von Strucker would soon tell her everything. All she needed to do was either kill a S.H.E.I.L.D. agent or an Avenger. If Barton came around again, he wouldn't escape so easily.