Summary
Who's the new Director of Shield?
Comments are greatly appreciated: please, let me know what you think!
Chapter
Back to the present, Ward was dialing Coulson's number, and then remained waiting for him to answer the phone.
On the third ring he answered:
"Hello?"
"Director..."
It took a while for Coulson to react to Ward's unexpected call:
"… Ward…"
An embarrassed silence stretched between the two.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of this call?" Coulson asked ironically.
"I need an explanation… and we have only five minutes before someone traces us" Ward answered drily.
"An explanation?"
"Yes.
Why the hell did a selected Shield team attack Skye in the middle of a forest, yesterday?
They were also equipped with power inhibitors on two helicopters!"
Of course Ward knew that: after all, he was the masked man that helped Skye escape…
"What?
I was not aware of that!
Did they manage to capture her?"
"Please, Coulson!
Don't play dumb with me!"
"Ward!
I do not need you, and much less I need to lie to you!
I really didn't know!
Now answer to me: did they capture her?"
"No.
I monitored her closely for months and, when she was attacked, yesterday, I helped her escaping.
Now she is safe.
But, seriously, I cannot believe that the Director of Shield was unaware of such an operation!"
"The Director surely knew that.
Maybe he even ordered it.
But I'm not the Director anymore…"
"Uhm… I did not know…
You didn't tell me that, the last time we saw each other…
I should have suspected that: it was very unlikely for the Director himself to be in the middle of a target recovery operation, even if target was Skye…"
Ward was sincere… and started also to be a little concerned.
He really didn't anticipate such a development.
Coulson explained:
"After Hive… after what I did to you on Maveth, that allowed Hive to return to the Earth… not to mention all the other mistakes I made, with Skye, with Lincoln, with Thomas… I didn't feel worthy for that position anymore.
Besides, having around more or less persons infected in the world didn't help to see Shield as a shield…
And that disaster is all my responsibility."
"No.
It's not your responsibility.
It's mine.
If I hadn't accepted Malick's proposal, Hive wouldn't have succeeded in returning back on Earth."
"If it had not been you, it would have been someone else: nothing could have stopped Hydra, once they discovered how to return back Hive.
Instead, if I hadn't killed you, Hive would not have been able to take over your body and would have died on Maveth, because Fitz had burned the last available body, Will's one.
I could just have taken you as a prisoner, brought you back on Earth with us and lock you in jail for the rest of your life.
And we wouldn't be in the midst of this immense mess.
But yet, in that moment the image of Rosalind Price bleeding and dying in my arms got the upper hand, and I was seized with an irrepressible desire for revenge and I killed you."
"Do you realize that it was Hive messing with your brain, in that moment?"
"Yes… the thought flashed in my mind, sometimes…
But a truly righteous man would have resisted the temptation. And evidently I'm not a truly righteous man.
I voluntarily exceeded some limits, during the last year, which I never should have overcome.
So I'm glad not to be the Director anymore.
But let's not linger longer on this diatribe.
Important people, the President on the front row, thought I had lost my sheen… that I was too old for that role, by now.
So I resigned, even before someone asked me to do it.
Now I'm just a simple level eight operative."
"And who is the new Director?"
"Mace."
"What?
Mace?
As Jeffrey Mace?"
"In the flesh!"
"Oh, this is bad, really, really bad!
We all fell from the frying pan into the fire!"
Ward was flabbergasted, but immediately added:
"No pun intended…"
"None taken…
What do you have against Mace?"
"Mace commanded the team in charge of 'questioning' me, when I was detained in the US Military Maximum Security Prison…
It was him who decided to put me in the terrorists' wing.
It was him who decided to what procedures I should undergo: he was also present, some times, and he wasn't nice.
I will never forget his face, or his words, or his sadistic grin, while I was tortured!
He kept updated on all my eventual 'progresses' and decided whether and how to change 'methodics'…"
"Uhm…
The fact he wanted to extort information from a Hydra mole is not a surprise: he had a grudge, with Hydra.
Me, too, but I would prefer to avoid certain methods…"
"And you got those information, not even touching me."
"Yes, but I had Skye.
Mace didn't."
Ward felt a shiver coming down his spine, and added, darkly:
"He's an incredibly cruel person.
He really enjoys seeing others suffer…
Having him as a Director of Shield is not a good sign, at all.
And thinking of him capturing Skye… makes blood freeze in my veins."
"I didn't know you two met each other on such a personal basis…"
"It appears you don't know a lot of things…
But now only Skye matters to me.
Just stop and think of what Mace could have done to her if they managed to capture her…"
"I agree.
We must absolutely protect her.
Mace subscribed the Sokovia Accords, so for sure he wants to capture her and analyze and classify her powers."
"I never like it when people are put onto lists…
And I know what Shield did on the enhanced prisoners, in the Fridge…"
"Yeah…"
"I will handle this my way."
"Let me help you."
"Even if I know you love Skye as a daughter, I don't trust you.
You have faith into an institution, like Shield is.
And you sacrificed your entire life to it. Literally.
But Shield, like all institutions, talks the talk, and doesn't walk the walk.
Maybe, at the beginning, it had sincere and pure intentions, but time and bad habits and bad men tend to corrupt such organizations.
I have never had faith into any institution: even Hydra was only a mean to reach my goals, to me."
"You had faith into a man…" Coulson pointed out.
"Yes, and that was another big mistake.
'Cursed is the man who trusts in man,
who puts in the flesh his support'" quoted Ward, from the Bible.
"It seems you have no faith left at all!" retorted Coulson.
"You're wrong" answered back Ward.
But he hadn't time to explain his assertion more…
"Besides, minutes are dropping.
One last thing: how are Fitz and Simmons?
Are they succeeding in finding a cure to the meningitis with Radcliffe?"
"They are still working hard on it, but it is very difficult to find a cure…
They are trying different paths, but each and every one of them comes to a dead end, and each promising attempt seems to come to a stalemate."
"This is not what I was hoping to hear" Ward said, concerned.
Coulson continued:
"Moreover, we are trapped in the bureaucracy and… well…" but then hesitated.
"What?"
"I got the feeling that this topic is not at the top of Shield's priorities, by now…
Sometimes I even perceive discomfort in the higher ranks, when I try to approach the problem…
And I also heard rumors that the research funds about the cure for this disease will soon be cut."
"This is strange…
Of course, producing and administering a cure on over 3 billion people isn't easy…
But Shield not pumping on that is strange.
Something smells, I tell you.
Keep your eyes wide open and take care of you and the others."
"Of course.
Let's hope it was only an impression of mine…
The sooner we return to normality, the better."
"I agree…"
"What do you plan to do, now?"
"Keep Skye alive.
Time's over: talk to you soon!"
"Bye."
And with that Ward and Coulson saluted each other.
Ward left the local and threw the phone in the nearer trashcan.