Ward's eyes snapped open. A loud clanging sound echoed throughout the cell block. Sitting up he saw the woman being handcuffed and led out of her cell. She walked like a solider, back straight, chin up, eyes forward. She seemed calm.
The guards walked her to the table in the middle of the room and attached her cuffs to a chain under the table. She sat down. The guards stood on either side of her while a suited man entered on the other side of the room. Approaching the woman he sat down across from her and opened a file. Looking up, he scrutinized the woman for a minute. Glancing back at her Ward saw she remained composed and observed the man as well.
The man cleared his throat. "Agent Williams, you are accused of being a Hydra conspirator and of killing Agent Scott. How do you plead?" The man pursed his lips and waited for Williams to answer.
"Not guilty." Her voice was cool and younger than Ward anticipated. "To the first charge." The suited man raised his eyebrows.
"So you admit to killing Agent Scott? Your own partner?" Williams just watched the man instead of answering. He frowned. "Agent, answer the question."
"Does your wife know you are cheating on her Agent Anderson?" Williams merely cocked her head to the side as she waited for the suited man to respond. Ward felt his own eyebrows raise at her question. How would she know something like that? Anderson's face had drained of color and his hands had become fists. He glanced up at the guards before addressing Williams again.
"We are not here to talk about me Williams. Now answer the question!"
"I guess not then. Yes, I killed Agent Scott." Anderson regarded the woman before him silently, the color slowly returning to his face. Likewise, she watched him back. "Are we having a staring contest or do you have more questions, agent?"
"Why did you do it?" Anderson spat at her. "You had worked side by side for years. What changed?"
Williams watched Anderson for a moment before looking down at the table in front of her. "He did."
Anderson stood and slammed his hands on the table, his anger palpable. Williams didn't flinch but just looked up at the man.
"Enough of the cryptic answers! I don't have time for this. Why did you kill your partner?"
Williams' eyes flashed. "I saved him," she seethed.
"Saved him!?" Anderson practically laughed in her face. "From what? You shot him point blank!"
"I saved him from having to choose." Ward almost missed what Williams said it was so quiet.
"Choose what?" Anderson leaned over the table.
Williams glanced up at the man. "From making the wrong choice. Scott was Hydra."
Anderson scoffed. "Bullshit. He was one of the best agents we had."
"No he wasn't. You never had him. When I shot him, it was because he asked me to follow him. To be with him. To become Hydra. He thought I would go with him."
"And why didn't you?"
Williams stood up to meet Anderson, although her hands kept her tethered to the table. Anderson held up a hand to the guards as they moved to push Williams back into her seat.
"I am an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. I am here to protect the millions who can't protect themselves. I will NEVER be Hydra." Williams fixed Anderson with an intense stare.
"How did you know Scott was Hydra?"
Williams sat back down. "The same way I know you are being unfaithful." She looked ruefully from the table to Anderson. "I read him."
Anderson scrutinized the woman sitting before him. "I was unaware your…skill set was so detailed."
"Of course its detailed Agent Anderson. I'm trained that way."
Anderson nodded and pushed back from the table. "Put her back in her cell." He turned and left the cell block. As the guards began undoing the chain keeping Williams to the table, Ward noticed that Williams seemed to notice he'd been watching. Although she wasn't looking directly at him, her head was down and turned slightly his way. The guards lifted her to her feet and as they did, she glanced up. Her dark brown eyes bored into his.
Then her back was to him and the guards led her back into her cell. She waited until the cuffs were off and she laid flat on her cot, staring up at the ceiling.
It was after lunch when the guards came for him. Standing, he allowed them to handcuff his hands and his feet. He shuffled toward the table in the center of the cell block and waited while the guards secured him to it before sitting. He could feel Agent Williams' eyes on him but he sat straight and stared ahead at the door in front of him. The same suited man from that morning entered and sat across from him with a file.
"I know you are having difficulty speaking still so this will be short." Agent Anderson placed a single sheet of paper and a very dull pencil on the table in front of Ward. "You will write your answers. Understood?"
Ward nodded.
"Good. When did you turn into a Hydra sleeper agent?"
Ward reached for the pencil. The guards on either side of him shifted uneasily. He paused for a second watching them out of the corner of his eyes.
I was recruited by Garrett into Hydra when I was 17.
"Hydra is being hunted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Are you still loyal to them?"
I was never loyal to Hydra, only to Garrett.
Agent Anderson sat back and regarded Ward. "You are a dangerous man, Ward. Now that Garrett is gone, who will you serve?"
Ward stared down at the paper. Who was he now? He didn't know.
Ward placed the pencil on the table again.
"That is the question now isn't it?" Anderson stood up and turned to leave. "Until next time, Agent Ward."