Little Bird's Vengeance Chapter 16 Who's Right, Who's Wrong?

Nick Fury watched the proceedings in Interrogation Room 3 on the screen on the Bridge. Red Robin was hunched in on himself, twirling his metal shard- they'd been unable to pry it out of his grip without risking injury to his fingers when they sedated him to remove the bullet in his shoulder. The rest of his gear had been confiscated; the bloody garments Stark had lent him replaced with the black jeans and red shirt bought on their little outing. The top few buttons had been left undone, revealing the edge of the bandage wrapping his shoulder.

The agent questioning him, Jasper Sitwell, was an expert at the 'good cop' routine. Leading to cups of coffee and a plate of doughnuts. The approach should work well, if Red's own interrogation technique was anything to go by. But the kid was ignoring everything but the cup in front of him.

"C'mon, give me something," Sitwell was saying. "Why did you feel it necessary to maim that woman? Was the hardline act really needed?"

"Look," Red said, voice strained, speaking up at last. "Let's get a few things straight. Your friend, co-worker, whatever, shot me. Twice. The drugs your doctor gave me have done nothing but give me a headache. I'm not in a terribly good mood, and you know what? I've been thinking." He finally looked up, fixing Sitwell with a piercing gaze, too full of pain to be truly scary. "You've been playing games with me. You knew within minutes of us leaving the Tower, hell, quite likely the moment I left Rogers' line of sight. And you almost certainly had us under surveillance long enough to know there were shooters out there. Maybe even before I saw them. You deliberately let me deal with it. And I don't mind that. Perfectly good way to learn about me, and my tactics, and the way I work. Can't fault you for that. But without the Iron Man suit, Stark's defenceless. A civilian. And YOU put him in the line of fire. That's either inexcusably clumsy, or irredeemably callous. So don't try getting all high-and-mighty that I did what was needed to secure him as quickly as possible."

Fury frowned; Red was sharp. His deduction was no different from one that would be made by any experienced agent, or a number of the newly-recruited. An interesting fact to note. He had also answered the question of why he'd picked such a brutal interrogation method; not because he was incapable of something more subtle, but because he was in a hurry to get the answers he needed to protect Stark. If his goal throughout the incident was to secure Stark, every action made perfect sense; up until he let himself get shot. Admittedly, Agent Quartermain had been a little quick on the trigger, and Red had been distracted by the improvised explosive device, but he should have been able to avoid it. No matter; he'd pulled up a point they'd hoped he wouldn't notice.

It was certainly interesting that Red was more angry that Stark had been at risk than his own treatment.

He clearly had a sense of morals, he just wasn't under control. SHIELD had ways to deal with uncontrolled variables. Time to get involved personally.

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Tim was not happy. In fact, if he wasn't feeling so terrible, he would probably be furious. As it was, the combination of the burning pain in his shoulder and thigh, after-effects of the cold, pounding headache from the drugs and come-down from the adrenaline high had left him too worn out for anything more intense than being upset. Half was directed at SHIELD, they really should have been able to avoid putting a civilian in the crosshairs, and half at himself. How could he have been so stupid as to assume the agent would give him the benefit of the doubt? After the messy interrogation in the street, his actions against their pursuers and the constant flight, he should have expected the agent to treat him with suspicion. And he should not have looked away from a pair of drawn, cocked handguns until he knew they weren't going to be discharged at him. Bruce would be furious with him, and for good reason.

Sitwell was still droning on, asking the same questions. What was his motivation? Why was he so aggressive? Where had he been trained and who by? Tim wasn't in the least inclined to answer; either he'd told them already during his earlier captivity, or it wasn't any of their business. Besides, if they were expecting him to talk to this guy, skilled at wheedling information but not terribly high in the chain of command, they were wrong. He'd talk, but only if he could gage the Director's reaction as he went. There was too high a risk of misinterpretation otherwise.

The door opened behind him. Tim stopped flipping his batarang. The agent didn't seem to have realised he was using its highly-reflective surface to view his surroundings without lifting his head, and it was now showing the one-eyed director in the doorway. His unvoiced wish had been answered.

"Sir," Sitwell said, rising.

"Agent Sitwell," Fury acknowledged, gesturing him out. He circled the table as his junior left. Tim kept his eyes directed at his cup, twisting the batarang to watch. "Red Robin," Fury said, once they were alone.

"Director Fury," Tim replied, quiet but proper.

The door chimed, and Fury bid the newcomer enter. It was the agent who'd shot Tim. "Agent Clay Quartermain," Fury said, introducing the agent. "Repeat your debrief to Red Robin."

"Sir," Quartermain nodded, although he was clearly confused and a little suspicious. "While monitoring Stark Tower, the target, Red Robin, was observed leaving in the company of Stark. Captain Rogers called in to report that Stark had taken it upon himself to take the target out shopping. As Stark did not have on his person the Iron Man suit or any of its control units, he was classified as temporarily inactive. In response to standing orders, I, as monitoring agent, followed."

Tim frowned, and nodded to himself. He flicked a look at Fury, who it seemed was also a master of the emotionless façade. It seemed a reasonable state of affairs Quartermain was listing. He finally relaxed slightly, sipping his coffee.

"The target and Stark were tracked to a clothing store," Quartermain continued. "An accurate observation was not possible, but it appeared that the target remained within four feet of Stark whenever observed. They were in the store for approximately forty-five minutes."

Tim suppressed a wince; he really hadn't wanted to spend so long in the shop, but, well, Stark. And he had kept pretty close to the older hero.

The agent hadn't finished. "As the target and Stark left, it came to my attention that a number of armed suspects were arranging themselves on nearby rooftops. I called in the activity and requested back-up. A Quinjet was dispatched, but ordered to wait until the suspects made a move. Stark took the target to a café, and another suspect appeared on street level. At this point the target became aware of the suspects. As he was preparing for combat, the decision was made to give the target scope to deal with it, while keeping him under close observation to step in as needed. The Quinjet was held on standby to prevent alerting the suspects, although counter-snipers moved in and took out the furthest suspects from the action.

"The target removed Stark from the firing line as the ground level suspect took her shot. He interrogated the suspect, causing several minor, painful injuries. It was revealed that the suspect, and quite likely her associates, were ex-Hammer Tech employees who sought revenge for the destruction of their careers. The other suspects were unable to take clean shots at Stark, as the counter-snipers had already removed those who had been optimally positioned. When the NYPD arrived on the scene, a smoke bomb was released, and the target removed Stark from the area and they took to the rooftops. As this activity seemed acceptable due to the decreased risk of civilian injury, although not a common procedure, I followed from a distance but did not interfere at that time. The remaining suspects pursued. Over the course of the pursuit, the majority of the remaining suspects were incapacitated, although some were left behind and the back-up took them into custody. At the apparent terminus of the operation, I confronted the suspect. As I had orders to use all reasonable force to bring him in, and he was apparently attempting to escape SHIELD custody, I fired at him twice. I had intended them to be very close warning shots, but the target's movement put him in the line of fire. It transpired that, unknown to me at that time, a further pair of suspects were preparing an improvised explosive device. The target succeeded in subduing the suspects, despite bullet wounds to the thigh and shoulder. Is that all you require?"

"That's all, Quartermain," Fury told him, and gestured to the door.

Tim set down the batarang as the agent left. The brief recap from the agent's point of view had certainly cleared up the issue. "I apologise for assuming you allowed the situation become out of control," he told Fury formally.

"S'ppose it's understandable," Fury said, taking Sitwell's vacated seat. "So how about he get down to the important stuff?"

Tim clasped his hands on the table and leant forwards. "What did you have in mind?"

AN: You know the saying "you learn something new every day"? Well, last week, I learnt that no matter how facetious I'm feeling when writing ANs, I should never suggest that next chapter Fury might turn someone into a hamster. Thanks, Glimare.

So, what questions do you want Fury to ask? I won't be back to this for a fortnight, so if you're quick about it, I'll see if I can fit in some of your suggestions. Just in case you wanted a little audience participation.

Next week is a Black and Red week. And currently in Family Ties, there's a rescue mission underway.

Back in a fortnight.

Katara

AN2: There have been some edits as a few of you were dissatisfied with the previous version. While there have been no major changes, there have been new details added. 21-Oct-2013.