BaDWolF89: No it's just you. Clint and Grace just know each other from her profiling and him picking up the files she profiled…if that made ANY sense what-so-ever I commend you.
Leyshla Gisel: Haha thank you very much.
"It's something to do with either children or young adults. No one over twenty-one." I said, kicking my feet up on the desk. I was the a viewing room that overlooked Maria Richards cell and I had a direct video feed into her cell. Natasha and Fury were down at her level, talking with her, and Clint was with me, his arms folded over his chest.
"How do you figure?" He asked, looking down at the cell. I rewound the tape to about two minutes ago and let it play.
'I found that it's best to think like a child, that way, people underestimate you.' The video feed stopped as I paused it on Maria's smirk and pointed with a remote.
"That's the first sign, what she says." I explained before pointing to her eyes as I pressed play again. "There's the second sign. It's nigh un-noticeable, but see how her eyes light up the tiniest bit whenever she makes a reference to kids." Clint nodded and I continued. "But she could be interested in young adults as well. Anyone from the ages of five to twenty-one." I stood up and ejected the disk before alerting Fury that I had what I needed. He and Natasha left the cell and joined us outside the corridor as we made our way towards the lab.
"She's worrying." I broke the silence and Fury frowned.
"How so?" I wiggled the disk in his direction.
"I'm worried that I may be right in my assessment," I replied, being serious for once. "If I'm right, then children and young adults who have been reported missing, may be in danger…or dangerous." I lazily saluted Fury before ducking into the lab. I threw myself into a seat and immediately pulled up four or five screens before loading the disk of the video interrogation onto all of them. I ran a few codes by the program before the screens all split. Four main screens surrounded me, all with a different view on Maria Richards. I cracked my knuckles…
…and yawned. The flashing clock next to my right hand read three-thirty AM and I currently had narrowed her down to a simple interest in children. Nothing about her mafia or Hydra connections, so she either had nothing to do with the mafia or Hydra and our intelligence was wrong, or she was really,really good at hiding information. I looked up through bleary eyes as the door hissed open and groaned as Tony walked in.
"Aw, lovely to see you too. You look like shit." He said before setting a cup of coffee in front of me. I propped my chin in my hand and stuck him the finger with my other before sipping on the coffee.
"She's a bitch." I whined, closing my eyes. "She's making me lose sleep and without even being near me, she's managing to give me the biggest migraine ever. And all I got is that she has some creepy fascination with children, mostly between the ages of five and fifteen now." I stifled a yawn and dropped my head on the desk as the door opened again.
"You look like shit." I stuck my finger up at Natasha before lifting my head up for another gulp of coffee.
"Next person who says that is gonna get hit." I muttered before cracking my neck and yawning again.
"Well it's true. Besides, we got a break through with her so-called connections." Natasha said before holding her tablet out to me. "Maria Richards is a ruse. She's a fake." I blinked and looked between the tablet picture and the picture of the scarred Maria in the cell.
"Son of a bitch." I muttered before looking up at Natasha. "How do we know this," I waved the tablet around. "is the real Maria? The one in detention is legit about the kiddy thing." Natasha shook her head.
"The one in your hand is actually Mari Rickards and we've actually got her on files. That's why we bought you in, Maria Richards wasn't on file and we needed a profile of her." I frowned and stood up, well-awake now.
"But-"
"No buts." Fury walked in, with Hill slightly behind him. "Maria Richards is to be released and we start searching for Mari Rickards." He turned and left. I dropped the tablet on the desk and followed him out.
"Sir, I really honestly think something is wrong with Maria. If we let her out, chances are kids will go missing and then we might actually have something on Hydra." Fury held his hand up and I closed my mouth.
"You said so yourself, there's little chance that Maria is involved with Hydra. As I see it, we're looking at a civilian, albeit a dangerous one with an obsession for children. Maria Richards is to be released." He said with a tone of finality.
"At least let her be tailed, for a week?" I pleaded. Fury shook his head and continued walking.
"Focus on Mari Rickards now Agent Carter. She is your priority." I gritted my teeth and spun on my heel before stalking back into the lab.
"Bloody prig he is." I muttered. "So I bluffed a little with the whole Hydra deal, she's legitimately dangerous." I continued to mutter obscenities under my breath as I dug up Mari's file before freezing.
"Shit." I pushed my wheelie chair across the floor and picked up the file on Maria before zooming back to compare her to Mari. "Natasha, do you believe in massive coincidences during investigations?" I asked, still staring at the two files.
"Normally, yes. In S.H.I.E.L.D? No." She answered and I swore again.
"Then we've either got a copy-cat, or identical twins." I said, showing her the files. One the right was Mari Rickards, with short, cropped brown hair and tawny eyes. She had two piercings in her ears. On the left was Maria Richards, with short, cropped brown hair and tawny eyes. She had two piercings in her ears. They were identical right down to the freckle, except for Maria's scar twisting her mouth.
"You're telling me that if we let Maria go, then something bad will happen?" Fury asked sceptically. I nodded and he raised an eyebrow. "And you can't tell me what the bad thing is?" Again, I nodded. "But you want to set Maria out and tail her?"
"Yes sir." I cringed internally. It was a flimsy plan I admit, but it's the best thing I could think of. Fury rubbed his forehead and took a deep breath.
"It has a seventy percent chance of success." I blurted out, curling my hands into fists. Fury blinked and I swallowed before ploughing on. "The risk is high but not only could we apprehend both Maria and Mari, but we could find a steady connection to Hydra and put two child kidnappers away for good. All you have to do is release Maria with a tracker and send someone to tail her. I could man the tracker from my-" Bruce coughed and I amended. "Our lab and figure out what's happening." Fury pinched the bridge of his nose and Tony spoke.
"Good plan. I can provide a decent tracker." He said and it was my turn to blink. "What? I can be nice."
"Yeah if the situation suits you." I muttered before turning fully to face the genius. "I'm thinking if it was like a pair of contacts-"
"Then you could both see and hear whatever she's doing." Tony finished. " And the benefit of contacts is you can't even feel if they're in or not. Smart." I smirked and pushed the sleeves of my jack up my arms. It was the only thing I wore that was non-uniform but I refused to part with it.
"I'm full of smart ideas." I replied. "But would it work?" Tony shrugged and looked towards Bruce. He blinked and shrugged as well.
"You'd have to get the contacts custom made for her eyes, but that would involve testing her. She'll figure something's up." I slumped and scowled.
"Bitch." I muttered for the fiftieth time. Fury cleared his throat.
"It might help if you had approval for it though." He said, shooting me a glare with his one good eye. I flinched and ducked my head, muttering an apology. "Now find a tracker." I jumped before beaming and spun, locking my hand around Tony's wrist, and dragged him away towards my lab.
"Right, it's risky but if we managed to insert a microscopic camera into something on her face, nose, hair or something…would that work?" I asked. "And insert it when she's under anaesthetic to be doubly sure. " Tony raised an eyebrow and held his hands up.
"Take a deep breath and go stare at the lady creep." He said, waving his hands at me. "Go on, let me deal with this while you pull out your creepy personality magic." I rolled my eyes and slapped him over the head before taking off down the corridor.
"I repeat, jack ass in iron."