Main Street
Kurisuta, Selvig, and Rei headed up the street. They're by Arturo's, when a pick-up truck pulled up before them, stopped by traffic. In the back of the vehicle, Kurisuta noticed, partially covered by a tarp, the dark matter analysis machine from her lab.
"Hey! That's my stuff!" Selvig said.
Selvig Lab
Kurisuta, Selvig, and Rei reached the lab, where government vehicles were parked. SHIELD agents hauled equipment out of the lab and loaded it into waiting vans. Other Agents stripped all the equipment from inside the Focus and cart it away.
Still others emerge from her trailer, arms loaded with scientific instruments and documents.
"What the hell is going on here?!" Selvig asked.
The Agents ignored him as Agent Coulson approached.
"Mr Selvig, I'm Agent Coulson, with SHIELD." Coulson said.
Selvig, recognizing the name of the organization, grew wary.
"I don't care who you work for, you can't do this!" Kurisuta said.
"Kurisuta. This is more serious than you realize. Let it go." Selvig said.
"Let it go?! This is your life!" Kurisuta said.
"We're here investigating a security threat. We need to appropriate your equipment and all your atmospheric data." Coulson said.
"By "appropriate" you mean "steal?"" Kurisuta said.
Instead of answering, Coulson gave her a check.
"This should more than compensate you for your trouble." Coulson said.
She threw the check to the ground without looking at it.
"We can't just pick up replacements from RadioShack! We made most of that equipment ourselves!" Kurisuta said.
"Then I'm sure you can do it again." Coulson said.
"And I'm sure I can sue you for violating my constitutional rights!" Kurisuta said.
"We're the good guys, Ms. Selvig." Coulson said.
He tried to walk away, but Kurisuta blocked his path. She was fully herself, fueled by outrage.
"So are we! We're on the verge of understanding something extraordinary." Kurisuta held up her notebook. "Everything I know about this phenomenon is in this lab and in this book, and no one has the right to take it from me."
Coulson gestured to a nearby agent, who promptly plucked the notebook out of Kurisuta's hands and added it to the pile he was carrying. Kurisuta was stunned.
"Thank you for your cooperation." Coulson said.
He got into a car. The cars and trucks pulled away.
Kurisuta, Selvig, and Rei entered, staring in shock at the now-empty space.
"Years of research, gone." Kurisuta said.
"They even took my iPod." Rei said.
"And our back-ups?" Selvig said.
"Look around! They took our back-ups. They took the back-ups of our back-ups." Kurisuta said.
"I just downloaded, like, thirty songs on there." Rei said.
"Will you please stop talking about your iPod?!" Kurisuta said. "Who are these people?"
"No one knows much about them. But I knew a scientist - a pioneer in gamma radiation. SHIELD showed up, and he was never heard from again." Selvig said.
"I'm not going to let them do this. I'm getting everything back." Kurisuta said.
"Please, let me contact one of my colleagues. Dr. Pym has had some dealings with these people. I'll e-mail him and see if he can help." Selvig said.
"They took your laptop, too." Rei said.
Annoyed, Selvig thought.
Lawrence Library
Selvig and Kurisuta in the Focus drove up in front of the town's rinky-dink library. A sign in the window read, "FREE INTERNET."
"I'll just be a minute." Selvig said.
He climbed out and headed inside. Kurisuta looked down the street and saw something that intrigued her.