Chapter 3
"What kind of evidence?" asked Fury hard.
Clint fidgeted on his seat. "Do you remember the arrow I used to sabotage the helicarrier?"
"Oh yes, I remember vividly. Our IT-Department needed a few weeks to clean the server of the virus he transmitted", said Fury sourly.
"Sorry, Boss", said Clint dejected.
"Not your fault, Barton", said Fury somewhat kinder.
"There is something I always wanted to know, Clint, from where did you get this arrow?" asked Steve curios.
"I build him myself. The tesseract showed Eric how to build the portal and it showed me how to improve my arrows and more."
"I always thought Stark built your arrows, your quiver and your bow?" asked Wanda astonished.
"I don't need Stark to build anything for me, I do all the maintenance on my weapons myself and I built what I need. He tried one time to touch my gear to 'improve' something but after I gave him a lesson, he never tried it again." Clint chuckled as he remembered how he pranked Stark as retaliation.
"Was that the time as one of his favourite suits was filled with confetti?" asked Natasha and smiled.
"Yes, and I let behind the warning to never touch my gear again or the next time I wouldn't be so nice to him. Why do you think he never liked me much?"
"Because you don't want anything from him, he has no sway over you or can manipulate you, and you got one over him by this opportunity", said Wanda thoughtful.
"And I managed to hide the big secret about my family. Stark doesn't like it when people have secrets, only he has the right to have secrets or so he thinks.
To come back to the arrow, there is something I never told anyone about. It not only transmitted the virus but it downloaded files to an external server and information about operations in progress in the SHIELD server, among them were Jarvis' searches."
"What?" Fury stand up, his hands on the table.
"I promise, Boss, I had all but forgotten about it. Loki wanted all information that SHIELD had."
"Who is this Loki again?" asked Bucky curios.
"Let's say, you and me have something in common, we were both mind-controlled to kill for our 'master'", spat Clint out, shame and self-flagellation on his face.
Laura touched Clint's hand. "Not your fault, Clint." She looked to Bucky. "And not your fault either. You were both forced to do things which you would have never done under normal circumstances and your own free will. It is like the Sokovia Accords, a way to take away your own free will and to make decisions for you. Nobody has the right to do that to a human being!"
Clint took the hand of his wife and kissed it. "Thank you." He looked at Fury. "To this day I don't remember all I did for Loki and I'm afraid there are waiting a few more surprises in my future.
As I was back in Wakanda after the visit by Sharon I started to close my mail-accounts and I found the download from the helicarrier, only then I remembered it again.
I looked at the information that was downloaded and I tripped thereby over Jarvis' searches. Yes, he searched for information about SHIELD but there was running another hidden program too. What is diabolic I don't think that Jarvis knew about this program. It searched for every mention of Hydra and deleted every connection to Stark and then it corrupted the rest of the information. I don't know many people who can write something like this."
"But you did say, that Jarvis didn't search for Phase Two", objected Sam Wilson.
"He didn't. As you came in, Boss, to confront him about his spy program, Tony called up the data from his server at the Stark Tower. The data come from Stark himself not from the server of SHIELD."
"And you have the evidence for this?" asked Fury quietly, a building rage in his eyes.
"Yes, it was a smoke screen to hide the true purpose of Jarvis' actions or should I say Stark's. That it seeded distrust against you and SHIELD could be called a bonus for him at this moment. Phase Two was a project ordered from the council and guess who was a member of the council?" asked Clint.
"Gideon Malick. And he was the one, who sent the missile against Manhattan", said Fury.
"Yeah I bet, Stark was not very happy about this. The great Stark had to do something selfless or at least pretend to", snarked Clint.
"After the attack of Manhattan Stark again changed his strategy. Till then it was about supporting SHIELD to earn your trust and get called as an Avenger, it was about protecting and helping. But then came Projekt Insight, a project from Hydra and Ultron, who are both about taking decisions out of the hands of many people and put them in the hands of a few. Both projects are only about control."
"But Tony was standing on the death list too", said Natasha.
"I don't know everything, but the algorithm was about who could be dangerous to the goals or the leader of Hydra, in this moment Pierce. Stark is not somebody who is content to play the second fiddle, he wants to be the only one, who gives the orders or decide, someday he would have gone against Pierce."
Fury nodded. "Sounds like Stark. Another point where he isn't like Howard at all. Sure, Howard could give orders but he was capable to compromise and work in a team too."
"Hank didn't like him", said Scott.
"He had his reasons to be angry with Howard but if you ask him I'm also sure he would say that he respected Howard."
"That I can do. The most positive I ever heard him say about Tony was that the ironman suit is a silly construct and Tony a spoiled child."
"I must say, that the Howard Stark that Tony described und the Howard that I knew and you talk about sound like 2 complete different people", said Steve confused.
Fury snorted. "Stark's view of his father is absolutely screwed. Howard was a man, who knew loyalty and who cared about people and wanted to protect them. He was a co-founder from SHIELD, he build his company alone from the ground up, he donated money for charitable institutions and he cared for his family. He tried to be a good father to Tony, tried to teach him to show responsibility, to work hard and to care about other people and that only because he had money through his parents that he was not better than anybody else."
"How do you know that?" asked Steve.
"Peggy told me a few things before her illness …" Fury shrugged. "She told me also, that Maria Stark sabotaged Howard's parenting by every opportunity and told Tony to do the exact opposite. And of course Tony listened to the parent who told him to have fun and that he was the centre of everything.
I remember something that Howard told me a few weeks before his death. One, that his son was a spoiled brat through his mother who only cared about himself and two, that he loved his son but that he didn't like him very much anymore. And he said that his son had too much of the character of his mother."
"What other things did say Howard about his wife?" asked Clint curios.
"He never said much about her other than to defend her to me, not that I ever said anything against her. I know better than that." Fury looked sad. "The day before his death he called me to say that he would bring the serum to me before he and Maria would go on their journey. It was the last time I talked to him. He said that he found something out about his wife's family that troubled him and he didn't wanted to do it over the phone."
"Did you make inquiries?" asked Natasha.
"Yes, but I never found anything suspicious. Of course I had help through my adjutant, John Garrett. He was the one who packed the containers with Howard's things. It would have been simple for him to smuggle something about Hydra and Maria Stark in it. Or Howard himself hid the information he found in it, that could be possible too. If anyone would have been able to find this hidden information it would be Stark."
"I don't think we will ever know it", said Clint soberly, "and it isn't important anymore. So I gave you what I found. I know it is not much but I'm worried, there are too much connections, too many coincidences. What do you think?"
"Oh, I can say, that I am concerned too", said Fury, the ultimate spy and Natasha, the world's foremost expert for espionage and infiltration nodded.
"I'm too."
"Forgive me when I say that, Clint, but you have a bone to pick with Tony. How can I be sure you didn't manipulate the evidence?" asked Steve, afraid he had offended his friend.
"No problem, Steve, it is a valid question and a good point", answered Clint kindly. He grabbed in his pocket and removed USB-sticks. "On every one of this sticks is the original download from the helicarrier. These of you who know enough of this stuff can authenticate that it was not tampered with. On it is all I found in my research too with links and everything everybody of you needs to verify my results. Doubt me, scrutinize me, that it is alright for me as long as you are honest with yourself and have an open mind."
Fury was the first, who took a stick, after him came Natasha and T'Challa.
"I made enough for everybody. I know that not everyone has the ability to control my work but you can see the unfiltered data and make your mind up about it." Clint took the rest of the sticks and laid one in front of everyone, his wife too. "How long will you need?"
"One week", said Fury. "I will give it to a specialist who is absolute trustworthy, very good in this and I know she is not Hydra."
"Would that be Daisy Johnson?" asked Clint seemingly innocent and Fury glared at him.
"Yes", answered Fury reluctant.
Natasha looked bewildered and narrowed her eyes again. There was something going on between Fury and Clint, something she didn't know about but her interest was now definite roused to start her own research over a few things.
"One week is sufficient for me too", said T'Challa who had ignored the byplay. He gave the stick to one of his bodyguards. "Bring it to Shuri in the lab." He stand up from the chair and everybody followed. "We will meet again in one week to compare our findings and to make a decision."