19.
Avengers Facility, Upstate New York, 2017
"Say what?"
"There was a break in at the facility," Pepper repeated. Kass had put her on speaker phone.
"Uh, no."
"Tony-"
"That's impossible. Security is untouchable." Tony was in complete denial.
"You two had better get over here."
Well, this wasn't exactly the welcome home they had been expecting - they had been feeling something more like pajama day and order in multiple kinds of take-out. Not investigating a break in. But fate, it seemed, had other plans in store for them.
"We were gone for like five minutes," Tony said as they greeted Pepper outside the front of the building.
"Actually it's been over a week since we were last at the facility," Kass corrected.
Tony shrugged. "Same thing."
"At least in your books." Pepper rolled her eyes. "This isn't in my job description - I'm head of Stark Industries, not the Avengers. That's your job."
"It was my job," Tony sighed. "We got any security camera footage? I mean, we should, unless whoever did this took out the cameras."
"Nope, we've got some."
"Good. What sort of damage are we looking at?"
"That's the strange part - none."
"Huh? Then what was the point of breaking in in the first place?"
"To leave this, I guess." Pepper held up her tablet on which there was a photo of a large envelope sitting innocently on the desk.
"Huh. So they left something, didn't steal something?" Tony clarified.
"As far as we can tell, yeah. It's funny, because it almost seems to me, when watching the security footage, that the person wanted to be caught on camera."
"This is all backward." Tony turned to Kass. "You're an ex-thief-"
"Ex-merc, still a thief."
"Still a thief. Tell me this is all backwards."
"It's all backwards."
Tony turned back to Pepper while gesturing to Kass. "See, take the word of a professional."
Kass squared her shoulders. "I am very professional."
Pepper rolled her eyes at the couple. "Yeah, you don't have to convince me. Something weird is definitely going on here. Just wait until you see for yourself." Pepper pulled up the footage on her tablet and handed it over to them to watch.
For the first few seconds, nothing. Then, a hooded, masked figured entered the main offices, looking around, before placing a large envelope on the desk.
Then, before leaving, they turned and looked up at the camera, giving it a long, lingering glance before disappearing. Almost as if they knew where the camera was...
"So, by the looks of things, they broke in, left something, and then left themselves, they didn't actually steal anything." Backwards indeed.
"But left something instead." Tony pondered aloud.
"What's in the envelope?" Kass asked Pepper.
"Not sure, haven't opened it yet."
"Why not?"
"Cause it's addressed to you."
Kass blinked back. "Me?"
Pepper nodded. "Yeah."
So someone had broken into the facility just to leave something for her? What the hell?
"Can I see it?" Kass asked after a long, shocked moment.
"Yeah, we just left it sitting there, didn't want to tamper with any evidence, just in case. We've upped the security guard presence, just to be on the safe side."
Pepper led the way into the facility and do the offices where, untouched, the envelope sat.
ADDRESSED TO:
KAZIMIERA KONSTANTIN
AVENGERS FACILITY, UPSTATE NEW YORK
Well, it couldn't be too much clearer - it was definitely for her.
This was all ringing a lot of bells.
Get in.
Get the prize.
Get out.
This sounded exactly along the lines of her own missions, all with the same purpose:
Get in.
Get the prize.
Get out.
Or in this case, get in, leave the prize, and get out.
But why? Why reverse it in the first place?
"This sounds a lot like something I would do, the kind of mission I would do. Only usually I would be taking something, not leaving something," she spoke her thoughts aloud.
Someone obviously wanted her to receive something.
But what?
Whatever was inside the envelope, the envelope she now held in her hand.
She guessed she would just have to open it and see...
Kass sat on the couch in the common area, the envelope clearly addressed to her and delivered via break-in sitting on the coffee table before her.
Why go to such lengths to stage such a discrete break in and leave this for her? It was all so strange.
Screw it. She had done enough pondering over it with no ideas as to why, so she decided just to open it and see if that held any answers.
She was just reaching out to pick it up when-
"WAIT!"
"Jesus!" Kass jumped in her seat when Tony entered the room and yelled, stopping her from picking up the envelope.
"It could be dangerous - you have no idea what could be in there."
This was true... In the confusion and strangeness of it all, she hadn't considered that it might be a potential threat. She had held it in her hands, which seemed safe enough so far, but she hadn't opened it yet.
"How should I open it?"
Tony held up a finger signalling for her to wait. "Be right back."
He disappeared and then reappeared a few minutes later, as promised, his arm and hand covered by one of his suit gauntlet and gloves.
"Okay, Let's open this baby up-" He slit open the top of the envelope, tipped it upside down, and shook the contents out onto the table.
A single piece of paper was all that emerged.
"Well, you can put away your suit now. Clearly you don't need it. Clearly nothing harmful or shocking." Kass picked up the paper.
At least so she thought, until she read it.
Her shock must have clearly shown, for Tony asked, "What's it say?"
"Um, well... Apparently I have a sister..."
Duh, duh, duh! Haha, couldn't help it! ;)
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)