Chapter 35
"Ok, listen up," Ruby raised her voice to be heard over the nose that erupted in the auditorium after the strident ringing of the bell. "I expect your completed homework assignment on my desk no later than the end of the day Monday. Your score on it will count for 20% of your midterm."
A loud groan came from the herd of undergraduate students as they made their way towards the exit. Picking up a pile of papers from the corner of the desk on the stage, Ruby tucked them into her Hello Kitty backpack and exited the room through the faculty door next to the stage.
Eight months had passed since she left the SHIELD compound and nearly seven since she accepted the position as an associate professor in the Mathematics department at Berkeley. She hadn't applied for the position and had assumed that Fury or SHIELD were behind it somehow, but, even though she had still been angry, she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Plus, it almost certainly meant Hydra wasn't behind the offer.
As for her invitation to visit the Kree Institute, she had pushed that off until next summer. When she informed the Dean of the department about it, he has almost hyperventilated, then hastily assured her that the position would be held open for her until her return. He went so far as to suggest some of the papers she could publish about her time with the alien civilization.
Pushing through the door of the office she shared with two assistant professors, she crossed to her desk and dropped the backpack on its cluttered surface. As she sat down, her phone chimed with a text from her TA saying she was running late and would be there soon. That gave her a few minutes to thumb through the stack of papers, sorting them into two unequal stacks. The larger of the two went back into her backpack along with her laptop. Ruby glanced at the clock on the wall; it was nearly 5:00. If her TA got here soon, she would still have time to make it home to shower and change for her date tonight.
The door burst open with a loud thud, making Ruby jump. Even after all this time, she was still overly sensitive to sudden noises and movement. Her therapist assured her it was expected and would get better with time, but still.
"I'm so sorry, Dr. Beaumont! I swerved to miss a black cat in the middle of the sidewalk and struck a planter. My bike tire blew out and wouldn't air up. I didn't have a spare tube, so I had to push it…," the young man rambled on for a few more sentences while Ruby pretended to listen.
He had been one of the brightest candidates that applied for a TA position, and she was astounded when the other professors had passed him over. Now she knew why. For as smart as he was, he was wholly unreliable and was more likely than not to be late. Always with some story that was just outlandish enough to be believable.
Handing him the smaller stack of papers, she smiled, "no worries. I need these graded by Monday."
She really needed them by Friday next week, but if she told him that, she wouldn't get them back until the next Monday.
"Monday?" he asked with a sour face.
"There's only fifteen there. I took the rest. You should be able to work those in, right?
He nodded, but his expression made Ruby wish she had kept all of them to do herself. She'd be lucky if she got all of them back from him by Friday. Ushering him from her office, she grabbed up her backpack.
"Why do you put up with him?" Wendy, one of the assistant professors she shared the office with asked without looking up from her laptop. "He makes more work for you than he helps with."
Ruby shrugged, "it's easier than having to justify firing him. I just chalk it up to lessons learned."
"You're a better person than me, then," Wendy sniffed.
"See you Monday?" Ruby said instead of addressing the comment.
"Yeah, but not until after lunch. Dr. Jenner has me covering his morning classes. And Doug won't be here either, remember."
"Oh, that's right," Ruby paused, "he's defending his second thesis."
"Third," Wendy rolled her eyes.
"Well, you know what they say: third time's a charm."
"Either that, or we'll have another officemate soon," Wendy scoffed.
"Have a good weekend."
"You too."
Ruby did make it back to her apartment on time to get a quick shower, do her hair and makeup, and get dressed before Rob knocked on her door.
"Wow," he stopped and appraised her. "You look amazing."
She blushed, "thanks. You don't look so bad yourself."
She was right, he looked great. Wearing a deep, burnt orange shirt that accented his tan and sun-kissed hair, he looked more like a movie star than a real estate agent. He had found this apartment for her and they had hit it off from the very start. She gave him a kiss, careful not to smudge her lipstick or get it all over him.
"Shall we go?" he asked.
"Yeah, let me get my purse."
A few minutes later, they were driving across the Oakland Bay bridge.
"Where are we going?" she had only been into San Francisco a couple times since she had been at Berkeley.
"It's a surprise," Rob wagged his eyebrows at her, not taking his eyes off the traffic.
She gave up and looked out the window at the ocean passing below them. The water was dotted with a handful of boats, some with sails, coming or going from the bay. Rob owned a sailboat and had promised to take her out on it when the weather warmed up. She was looking forward to it. Without warning her mind wandered into forbidden territory, recalling the last time she and Izzy had been out on the water in the gulf. Ruby forcibly pushed the memory aside, but the treacherous mass of neurons had other plans. Her next thoughts were even worse. Had Bruce ever been sailing? He didn't seem like the sailing type.
"You're doing it again," Rob gently broke into her thoughts.
She made a disgusted noise, "I can't help it. Izzy was a big part of my life."
"So, you were just thinking about her?"
Ruby flushed with guilt and ducked her head.
Rob didn't answer, but she saw his grip tighten on the steering wheel.
"It's not like I do it on purpose," she said defensively.
"Yeah, but it's not like you are moving on either," he countered.
"What do you mean? I've been seeing you for over three months."
"And all we've done is kiss and a little light petting," he twisted his grip on the wheel as if he was strangling it. "You act like you're a virgin, for Christ's sake, and we both know that's not true."
"Well, I'm sorry if I didn't immediately fall on my back with my legs open for you," she snapped. "No, I take that back. I'm not sorry. When and who I decide to have sex with is my choice. If you're not happy with it, then you're dating the wrong woman."
Rob sighed and release his white-knuckled grip on the wheel. Reaching across, he grabbed her hand, "I'm sorry, Baby. I didn't mean it that way. Of course, it's your decision, but you can't blame me for hoping you'll decide soon."
Now Ruby was the one that felt guilty, "I'm sorry too."
For the rest of the drive, Rob told her about his day showing a couple penthouses across the bay area and Ruby tried her best to pay attention and not let her mind wander. She wasn't completely successful.
Rob held the door open for her to enter the darkened interior of the Waterbar restaurant. Walking up to the hostess podium, she addressed the tall, slim blonde manning it.
"Party of two. McKenzie."
The woman scanned the screen and shook her head, "sorry, I don't have a reservation in that name."
"It would be under Beaumont," Rob said, coming up behind her.
Ruby frowned. Why would he reserve a table under her name and not his?
"Ah, yes," the hostess replied with a smile at Rob. "The other party has already been seated. If you'll follow me?"
"Other party?" Ruby looked at Rob in confusion.
"Please, don't be mad, Baby."
"What have you done?" she asked with a sinking feeling.
"You won't answer his calls or texts, so he reached out to me. You really need to hear him out. Then, if you still feel the same, then you can go back to ignoring him."
"Rob! This was my choice to make, not yours," she tried to push past him.
"Give us a moment," he told the uncomfortable hostess and led her out of the building.
"How dare you!" she turned on him angrily.
"Come on, Baby. You're having a hard-enough time putting all that mess from New York behind you. At least you can get some closure with this."
"You don't understand," tears filled her eyes.
"I do," he said firmly, gripping her by the shoulders. "You need to face him and tell him how he made you feel. You need to hear his side of it, too. Then, maybe, you can move on."
"I don't know," she waivered.
"Trust me," he said soothingly. "Go on. Give him a few minutes. What harm can it do? I'll wait out here for fifteen. If you come out before then, we'll go get gyros from your favorite place and spend the rest of the night watching movies on your couch."
"Okay," she sniffed. "You better wait for me."
He gave her a wide smile, "you bet."
Walking back inside with her head high, she nodded to the hostess and followed her across the restaurant to the table. The man sitting there stood as they approached.
"Hi, Ruby," he greeted her with an uncertain smile.
"Dad," she replied coolly. "I'm only doing this because Rob begged me. You have ten minutes."
As she took her seat across from him, a waiter approached to take her drink order.
"I'll just have this water," she waved him away. "I won't be here long enough for anything else."
Her father frowned at her announcement but didn't say anything.
"So," she turned her attention to him, "what do you want to say to me that's so important?"
"I don't where to begin."
"Well, your time is ticking, so make a decision fast."
He smiled sadly, "you've become more assertive. Reminds me of your mother."
"Don't," she shook her head, "don't you dare bring her into this."
"But she's part of it. All of it."
"What do you mean?"
"Didn't you ever wonder how a perfectly healthy woman suddenly took ill and died within a handful of months?"
"She had cancer, dad. That's what happens." She took a sip of her water. Just saying it out loud left a bad taste in her mouth.
"That's what she told you and everybody else, but we knew the truth and it's time for you to know it too."
She stared at him warily, "what truth? What are you talking about?"
She watched as her dad took a steadying breath while staring at his drink.
"Audra was murdered."
Ruby sucked in her breath, "What? No! That's not possible."
"I know how crazy it sounds, Ruby. Believe me." He looked up and met her eyes. "We didn't want to believe it either. We went from specialist to specialist trying to find an answer. Everything pointed to leukemia, but nobody could find it. She just got weaker and weaker. By the time we figured it out, it was too late. It had already spread to her organs and central nervous system."
"What was it?" she asked in a small voice.
"Polonium," he answered. "She was deliberately poisoned with Polonium."
Ruby sat in shocked silence letting it sink in before she asked, "why? Who?"
He looked down again. "Hydra," he said in a quiet voice that wouldn't carry to other diners.
She swallowed. "Why?" she asked again, but she already knew the answer.
"They kept trying to recruit me and, when that failed, they went after my business. I have ties to a lot of powerful people, and I have my fingers in almost every pie along the gulf coast. They wanted to tap into that potential, and they wanted it bad enough to turn threats into action when I refused to sacrifice my principles." His eyes shown with unshed tears, "I ended sacrificing your mother instead. I'm so sorry, Ruby. After her death, I couldn't risk you too. I started working with them."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"We were trying to protect you. I kept trying to send you away, keep you out of the business while seeming like I was trying to involve you. When that failed, I tried to drive you away. But, damnit, girl! You're just as stubborn as your mother. The harder I pushed, the more you dug in."
"So why tell me now?"
"After everything that happened last year, leaving you in the dark was putting you in more danger than letting you know. Then you refused to talk to me for months."
"I was angry."
"I know. And I deserved it."
"No," she assured him, "you didn't. At least you wouldn't have if you had told me what was going on. You shouldn't have faced this alone. I could have been by your side, helping you get through it."
"I'm so proud of you, Ruby. I've always wanted to tell you that."
She blinked back tears, "let's get out of here and go somewhere we can talk in private."
As the father and daughter left the restaurant, Izzy watched from across the road. Her intel had been correct, it looked for all the world like they were reconciled. She was going to have to move sooner than anticipated.
The chaos at the SHIELD compound that day had covered her escape. Everyone had been so focused on the submersible in the river, that she had been able to make it to the tree line. She had only been able to go about a mile before blood loss and shock got the better of her. When she woke up, she was in a local hospital. The clipboard at the end of the bed read Jane Doe. Why SHIELD never found her, she had no idea, but by the end of her second day, another operative made contact and got her discharged.
She hadn't fared as well at the secret facility, having dismally failed two-thirds of her assignment. The only thing that saved her was the device she had installed on the server. With all the information Hydra was getting from it, they would stay ahead of SHIELD and the Avengers for years to come. Minor operations had already been successfully executed to test the validity of the information and more were planned over the next few months. The commander of the cell was confident they would have SHIELD on its knees within a year.
Now, she had a new assignment, one that would determine her future within Hydra. Unlike her last one, she had no qualms about going through with this one until she followed her target here. Now, Ruby was back in play.
Maybe with a little luck, she could manage to kill John Beaumont and help her old friend at the same time.
Ruby and her father talked until the small hours of the morning at Ruby's apartment. For Ruby, it was cathartic to air out all the hurt and anger she had felt over the years since her mother's death. It was like a weight was lifted off her chest and she could finally draw a full breath.
John told her about being approached by Hydra while she was still away in college and how he had told them in no uncertain terms that he was not going to work with them. The organization had first tried blackmail, but what little they had for leverage was old news and wouldn't hurt him if it came out. Her mother already knew all about it and they had moved past it years ago. Then Hydra resorted to sabotage.
"Was that the explosion on the container ship?" she asked, remembering the incident.
Her father nodded, "in the Indian Ocean."
"What happened?"
"Several of the containers in one of the holds were full of aerial fireworks but were misdeclared on the manifest. We never found out what caused the initial ignition, but it wasn't an accident. At first, it was a complete disaster for us. The ship had just been commissioned and had cost sixty million to build and launch. It was fully loaded with almost two-hundred million dollars' worth of cargo."
"Ouch," Ruby cringed at the figures.
"Not really. We were tied up in courts for a while, but eventually the insurance company paid out the cost of the ship. Then we sold it for scrap for another twenty million. The cargo was covered under the insurance of the companies responsible for the shipping of the products."
"So, you made a profit off it?"
"Oh, it gets even better," John grinned. "The company that bought the remains of the ship rebuilt and renamed it. Then when the stock market crashed in 2008, the company went under and we snatched it up for pennies on the dollar. We sold it off a few years later after the recovery and made nearly five times what we bought it for."
"Wow," Ruby arched an eyebrow. "You know, you're not far from rubbing your hands together and laughing about the success of your evil scheme. Did you even stop to consider the people who lost their lives? Their families? The small businesses that didn't come out of the disaster intact?"
Her father frowned, "I'm sure they were compensated."
"Are you?" she challenged. "Did you even bother to look into it?"
From his expression, he hadn't. "Honey, our business touches thousands of lives around the world directly, possibly millions indirectly. There is no way I can be expected to keep up with what is happening to every one of them. That's the job of others."
She smiled sadly, "and that's is just another reason I can't take it over. That's not me, dad. I need to know that what I do doesn't cause harm to anyone. I care about people, not money. There is a lot more to life than making money."
She saw that he wanted to argue but stopped himself.
"I think we got off track," she offered as a way out of the conversation.
He nodded, "yes, you're right. Where was I? Oh, right, sabotage. They tried a couple more times but seemed to give up when I didn't give in to their demands."
"And that's when they went after Mom?"
His eyes teared up. Even though years had passed, the wound was obviously still painful for him.
"They sent a messenger to give me a warning, but I refused to see him. Then the worm confronted me at a restaurant where I had taken Audra for our anniversary. I had him thrown out. That seemed like the end of it."
Ruby waited silently for him to continue, giving him the time he needed.
"Then Audra got sick. That weekend she said she didn't feel well. She was nauseous and lethargic. We were convinced she just had some stomach bug. When she started feeling better a few days later, we didn't think anything of it. Then she started losing weight for no reason. She had no energy."
Ruby swallowed painfully. "She was almost all skin and bones by the time I got home."
"She didn't want you to come home, you know. She wanted you to stay at school. But I couldn't do that to either of you."
"I would have never forgiven you if you had."
They both sat, silently sharing their sorrow over the loss of the woman they both had adored.
"When…," Ruby's voice broke and she closed her eyes to gather herself. "When did you find out it was Hydra? That they had…, had deliberately poisoned her?"
"Right after you got home when she got the tremors. They sent someone to the clinic where she was being treated. This time it was a nurse. She slipped into the room while we were waiting to see the specialist. By that time, we were grasping at straws. She took your mother's vitals like a real nurse. Then she turned to me, looked me straight in the eye and said, 'maybe you should reconsider your options. Especially if you don't want this to happen to your daughter too.' I too shocked to do anything but stare at her. She pulled out a small vial and set it on the counter, smiled, and said 'hail Hydra' before walking out. I immediately jumped up and followed her out, but she was gone."
"We had the contents of the vial tested and it was Polonium-210. By then, it was too late to treat. Palliative care was all we had left." His shoulders slumped and he seemed to sink in on himself. Suddenly, her father looked much older than his fifty years.
Ruby crossed the room to sit by her father and wrapped him in a hug, touching him for the first time in several years, "it's not your fault. You tried to do the right thing."
"And look what it cost me."
