I made some changes; here is the revised version of Chapter Two-
CHAPTER TWO
The east wing of the shopping mall was almost completely deserted. Every store front was dark, an empty cage behind its security gate. Only a popcorn shop remained open, radiating aqua and red light and the smell of buttered popcorn from the last corner Natasha had passed.
Down here, by the back wall and the emergency exit, there was no one.
She wedged her back into the corner, between a trashcan and a ficus tree, where she could see both the exit and the roof access door and tried to focus solely on her phone and the mission. Push all the feelings away. Growing up as a brainwashed assassin-in-training, she had never had to deal with feelings, not about anything. Now, even so many years later, feelings sometimes threatened to overwhelm her. Especially around her birthday.
Especially around Clint Barton.
Damn him. What did he think he was doing, anyway? She always took the Christmas missions, and she always did them alone. It was her time to be alone with memories and consciously ignore them, purge them from her system.
It was her time to buy herself something. A book, maybe, or a jacket. A gift, if she would allow herself to see it that way. To make up for all the years without gifts of any kind, for any reason at all.
She scrunched herself farther into the corner, hearing the new leather of the jacket squeak against the tiled wall. Whatever. Whatever, whatever, whatever. Just watch the phone, track the dot. Follow the target, intercept the drop. Complete the mission. Be a good girl and go back for a pat on the head and an entire bottle of vodka, alone in her apartment.
The dot hadn't left the Forever21 store yet. It was after nine o'clock.
Footsteps sounded at the entrance of the deserted concourse. Natasha pressed even further back, becoming invisible as only she could.
It was Nelson Parker.
A quick glance at her screen confirmed the tracking device was still in the store, unmoving.
He had found it. She had been made.
Parker was holding the new backpack, glancing back the way he'd come. She shoved the phone into her pocket and checked for her gun under the jacket.
He bolted. The emergency exit alarm wailed as he burst out the doors, Natasha right behind him.
Parker was headed for the employee parking at the back, but he didn't make it. Natasha swung up onto a semi platform, jumping off the railing onto Parker's back, bringing him down to the ground in a roll.
"Where are the plans, Parker?" she demanded, straddling his back and wrenching his arms behind him.
"You can't have them—"
"You want to bet? Where are they?"
"They're in the bag, but you don't understand—"
She dragged the bag over with her foot, still holding Parker down.
"—I promised them to someone else—"
"You sold them, Parker." They were in the bag. Damp, from the snowmelt puddles on the asphalt, but there. The folder and two flash drives.
"N-no, not exactly…"
"Hello, Agent Romanoff."
Natasha's head whipped up, in time to meet the side of a gun across her cheek.
She ducked and spun off of Parker's back, kicking her leg up and swiping the gun out of her assailant's hand. In one movement she was on her feet, gun drawn.
Granger. Kellan Granger, enemy HYDRA agent. He was backed by a wave of HYDRA agents, dark figures in long coats, all armed, all pointing their guns at her.
"Merry Christmas, Natalia," Granger said, his British accent sliding across her other name. One of her other names. "All I want is what was promised to me, Natalia. We don't have to play rough." He smiled. "Unless that's what you want."
"Tell your little boys to stand to stand down, then," she said, not lowering her gun.
"You first."
There was a scraping sound. Nelson Parker had the backpack in his hand and was scooting backwards, away from the group of agents.
A single shot and he fell.
Natasha fired at the HYDRA agent who'd killed him as Granger launched himself forward. She twisted out of his path, feeling him latch onto her jacket. With a rough jerk he brought her down with him as he fell, two other men converging, boots raised for kicks and blows. She rolled over Granger, pushing him into their range and wriggling out of the jacket.
The backpack was only three feet away, half under Parker's body. She lunged for it as Granger's boot connected with her lower back. Grunting, she grabbed the bag and stood up, laying out an oncoming agent with a roundhouse kick to the jaw.
There were too many of them, twelve counting Granger. She'd lost her gun when she went down, and she had to protect the schematics.
She threw the bag up onto a loading dock, gripped the railing and pulled herself up after it. Bullets sparked off the metal railing as she dropped to the other side, picking up the bag again and heading for the emergency exit. A hail of bullets hit the door as she reached it, ducking to avoid the ricochets. Locked. It was locked again from the inside, without even a handle or a lock on the outside.
She ducked down again as another volley of bullets flew, under the railing on the other side, dropping down to ground level again, into the dim lee caused by a wing of the building.
Face to face—face to gun—with Granger.
"You do like it rough, don't you, Nata—"
He dropped, a black arrow protruding from his chest.
