I apologize if some calculations are off, I kinda suck at math and physics
Enjoy and review..
After an hour of pretend sightseeing and establishing a cover as tourists, Clint and Natasha came to their target building. They took a couple of pictures of it and the surrounding area.
"Think we have enough, honey?"
"I do, why don't we go and grab some pastries?"
"Sounds good."
"So, the best entry point is the second story window." Clint noted. He was sitting on the floor of their safe house while Natasha lay on the bed.
"Which means that they know it too. That's why we're going through vent on the 3rd story balcony. We'll use those archery skills of yours to get us in there."
"I love the way you think. I can shoot an arrow from this building here." He pointed on the map. "First one to quietly blow the vent shaft and then another in the fence above it so that we can zip down directly into the vent. That way we don't trigger any alarms on the roof. Once we're in, we can figure out the rest."
"Sounds like a plan. I've already sent a couple of untraceable e-mails. Some basic intelligence correspondence which are easy enough for them to catch and decrypt. That should keep them up tonight."
"I'll go on a run in the morning and do some gossiping of my own. You can sleep in. We don't start until night anyways and it's not like we can set up shop somewhere and surveil them."
"How much do you wanna bet that something will go wrong?"
"Oh, definitely." They both laughed.
"Sir, we've got a problem." A tech operator informed Coulson as he entered the mission control room in the New York base.
"What is it, Agent Vlah?"
"We got a flag on the security cameras on the Budapest airport." The brunette showed Coulson a picture of the man exiting the terminal.
"When was this?"
"Yesterday at 1900 CEST."
"Why am I just hearing about this?" Coulson exclaimed.
"Standard system upgrade and diagnostic. We were locked out of the mainframe for 15 hours. Agent Ahmadi from the Hub sent us the access codes 90 minutes ago."
"How sure are we of this?"
"Facial recognition has it at 87%."
"Send the file to Director Fury."
"Right away, Sir."
"Good job finding this, agent."
"Thank you, Sir."
Coulson rushed to Fury's office.
"Agent Coulson, the Director is expecting you." Fury's secretary informed him.
"Thank you, Melanie." He smiled at her and entered the room.
"Why is it that every time Barton is on a mission there is a complication?"
Phil chuckled. "Luckily Sir, he always finds a way to come on top of it."
"That is true. Did you inform them of this?"
"Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first, Sir. Thought we could video call them to see the reaction."
"Well then let's call them." Fury hit a few keystrokes.
Natasha was sitting at the table, cleaning her guns, while Clint had just finished his arrows.
"Hey Nat, we got a video call." Clint called to her. They both took a seat on the bed and put the laptop in front of them.
"Agents, we've got a critical update for you." Fury informed them.
"At 1900 CEST yesterday security cameras at the airport caught a glimpse of a man which Agent Vlah managed to enhance to get a facial recognition."
"Who was he?" Clint asked.
"Dimitri Ivanov."
"Wait the former KGB analyst who tried to kill Director Carter back in the 90's?" Clint questioned surprised.
"The one and the same. He entered under an alias Bence Tar and checked in at the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Unfortunately, we've been unable to track him further than that so we don't know if he saw you or not." Coulson replied.
"Hold on." Natasha leaned back on the wall and looked up. One of the advantages of her photographic memory is the ability to recall everything she saw, whether she noticed it at the time or not. Brainwashing did mess up her mind and made recalling Red Room memories difficult, but the new ones are fair game. "He was there, but not while we were running surveillance. He was sitting in the café across from the pastry shop."
"Since the two of you are compromised, I'm scrapping the mission. Clear the safe house and get back here."
Clint looked at Natasha and after she nodded he spoke to Fury and Coulson.
"With all due respect Sir, we would like to continue with the mission. We have a good plan and are confident we'll able to fulfil the objective."
After a few moments of silence, Fury replied. "Very well, proceed at your own risk. Can't say I'm surprised."
"Be careful both of you. I'll have an extraction team on standby in case something goes wrong." Coulson informed them.
"I thought we don't get an extraction."
"Usually not, but given that we already know that you're both compromised, we'll make an exception." Fury added.
"Aww I knew you liked us, Sir."
"Agent Romanoff, could you please keep your partner quiet."
"I'd have a better chance of drying the Atlantic Ocean with a straw."
Clint started complaining so Fury intervened.
"Good luck, Agents. Try not to get yourselves killed." The feed cut off.
"Rule 33." Natasha muttered.
"Murphy is always right." Clint added. "What do you think? Should we revise the plan?"
"Honestly, I don't know. I don't see Ivanov's angle. I mean, he's an old guard Russian spy, loyal only to the Motherland. He doesn't work for money. He's not even an assassin. The hit on Carter was just because he was at the same place as her."
"Maybe it's a coincidence." Natasha looked at him. "Right rule 18. Could he be after you?"
"I thought about it, but how did he know I would be here now? We arrived on our own, no flight plan. He arrived 2 hours after we went to the city. I mean, the usual flight time between Moscow and Budapest is over 2 and a half hours. Something doesn't add up, I just can't see what."
"Hey, don't work yourself up. Whatever happens we can handle it. I see better from a distance and you from up close, so we'll see them coming." Clint reassured her.
"How can you work in this business for so long and still be an optimist?"
"It's a gift." Clint joked.
As the night slowly started falling, Clint and Natasha hit the ground running. They got to the building across form the 3rd story balcony and Clint pulled out an arrow.
"One Splodie coming up." He commented quietly.
"One what?" Natasha turned to him confused.
"The arrow, it's called Splodie. You know, because it explodes."
"You name your arrows?"
"What? Your special gloves have a name. At least mine makes more sense."
"Nothing about you makes any sense."
"Oh really?" He looked directly at her and let the arrow loose. As per usual it landed exactly where it was supposed to and quietly blew out the shaft.
"Showoff."
Clint shot a second flammable cable arrow into the fence above the vent and secured it. They slid down the wire directly into the vent. When they got inside, Clint burned the wire. They weren't planning on using it for their escape and it could get them compromised if anyone saw it. The floor was empty, not a single person anywhere.
"Something's wrong." Natasha whispered.
"Yep." Clint replied. He gestured to the staircase. "Shall we?"
SHIELD New York base - 15 minutes earlier
Agent Vlah stormed into Coulson's office. "Sir, you need to see this!"
She handed him a tablet.
"Where's Ivanov now?"
"He entered the building 37 minutes ago." She informed him.
"Barton and Romanoff?"
"I've tried every frequency we have for the past 10 minutes. No answer."
"Go to Director Fury's office and show him this. Tell Melanie that I sent you and it's top priority." Coulson told the young agent and then rushed to the control room.
"Listen up everybody. Turn off everything that's not mission critical to an ongoing op and open the file, code name: BALOON. You'll find pictures of a building in it. I want to know everything about it, who's coming and going, security, weak points, how many bathrooms there are. Everything! Focus on the last hour and if you spot agents Barton and Romanoff anywhere, call me immediately."
Fury and Agent Vlah came back just as Coulson finished giving instructions.
"Look's like we're gonna need that extraction team after all." Fury commented.
"What's going on?" Agent Sitwell asked, approaching from the south entrance to the control room.
"It's Barton and Romanoff. They were infiltrating an organization of former operatives, but were seen by Dimitri Ivanov yesterday. Now we can't get a hold of them." Coulson explained.
"Why on earth would they continue with the mission if they knew they were compromised?"
"Because they're good agents." Fury responded. "Phil, take that extraction team and get to Budapest. Tell the pilot to go full speed. Sitwell and I can watch over things from here. Agent Vlah will keep you updated."
"Yes Sir."
Coulson went to the lounge, one of two usual hangouts for extraction team agents. All agents who are in an extraction team have to be on base until that op is finished so they usually hang ether in the gym or the lounge.
"Everyone who's on the Budapest extraction team gear up. We fly out in 10 minutes."
A little short of 5 hours later Coulson and the rest of the extraction team landed in a clearing, 15 minutes away from their target building.
"We haven't had any communication with Strike Team Delta for 8 hours. We're going in under the assumption that they have been captured and are most likely being tortured for information. Finding them is the first priority so we shoot to kill. Understood?"
"Yes Sir!" Everybody answered. They exited the quinjet and after a few minutes of walking they finally had eyes on the building. They entered quickly and cleared it floor by floor. It was completely empty. Coulson called it in to Fury.
"Sir, we just checked the whole place. There's nothing here. It doesn't look like a base of operations for anything."
"Are there any signs of Barton and Romanoff?"
"Not that we can find and even if they were here, they wouldn't leave much evidence."
"Agent Coulson, I've got something." Agent Pal called form the 3rd floor. Coulson rushed to him.
"What is it, Agent?" He put Fury on speaker.
"An arrow head in the fence and the vent below it has been blown open. I'm guessing Barton shot the arrow form the building across and they went down a zip line directly into the vent. It's a really nice entrance."
"They did say that they had a good plan."
"We know that they got in. The question is where they are now?" Fury finished.