CHAPTER #26
After talking things over with Stark, Barton decided not to go to Fury. They tracked Romanoff's movements, determining she was Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker's right hand. The operation from Larne moved to the Isle of Man. The interesting thing was, she never removed the tracker and Barton knew she would have found it five minutes after he had planted it. So was she or wasn't she a HYDRA agent now? If she wasn't, then why did she say she had to kill him? If she was, then he would already be dead. She didn't miss with her gun fire at close range like that. Until she left that island, nothing could be done. So Barton worked with Jarvis to make some changes to his bow, quiver and arrow heads. Stark continued to play with the black diamond.
"What I want to know is what universe or alien planet did they want to build a portal to Earth for?" Clint asked Tony.
"That's the money question," Pepper said as she handed them both a drink.
"Well if we can figure out where the diamond came from, maybe that will answer the question," Tony said logically.
Clint scratched his chin in thought, "well Reeser didn't get it from Fury or anything S.H.E.I.L.D. related. Fury had me watching video of him working in the lab. If he did get it from them, it was done off camera."
"Then it came from HYDRA. We need to know if this is one of a kind or if there are more of these diamonds around," Tony said.
Pepper smiled, "Jarvis pull up the map of the known sites for HYDRA." With a finger she circled the map in the air. "Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia are where I would put another location. Those countries were all allies of the Nazis."
"Beauty and brains, that's why I love her," Tony grinned.
"We know of their locations in Egypt and Japan already," Clint added.
"Tony tells me you're freelance now that Fury kicked you out of the agency," Pepper said.
"I think it was more I walked out, then stole a quinjet." Clint laughed and clinked glasses with Tony.
"So you've got the time to go find HYDRA locations," Pepper continued. "And it will help you keep your mind off of Natasha."
"I don't have that kind of cash stashed away Pepper." Clint ignored the rest of what she said, even though she was right.
Tony caught Pepper's eye and shrugged. "We do and this is important."
Clint thought about it for a second, "alright where do you want me to go first?"
Holding up his hand to stop everyone, Tony said, "Jarvis show on the map all the active operations for S.H.E.I.L.D." Another screen appeared in the air. "Now remove all the operations that are not about HYDRA."
"Fury is all over Egypt and Japan. So I don't have to go there," Clint said.
"We'll need a few days to get your equipment ready. Go relax at that cabin of yours in the mountains. I'll bring Bird to you when it's time to go. Make sure you do some visible, normal things so Fury thinks your not up to anything," Tony instructed.
"I'll feel naked without my bow and quiver."
"I knew you'd say that, which is why you will take the prototype I want you to test. Be careful though, because the heads detach and the shaft has a homing device on it. I haven't worked out all the kinks yet. That's why I need you to use it and tell me what needs to be tweaked."
Barton knew Stark was being overly generous, to help distract him from his ex-partner. "Tony thanks for everything. But you think she's gone bad, don't you?"
"Everything suggests that. But I don't know her like you do."
Clint grinned, "Pepper don't you hate it when he's too smart for his own good?"
She laughed and kissed Tony, "brains and he's sexy…. what can I say?"
Barton rolled his eyes. He stayed with them for diner and then took one of Stark's sports cars and made sure he was seen bar hopping. Girls on each arm and he went to their house to have some physical fun. The next day he took both ladies out for lunch and then they parted ways. He went to a shooting range and then visited some old friends. Finally he returned Stark's car and booked a flight out of New York. But his cabin reminded him of her too. So he was almost relieved when Iron Man and Bird arrived.
"Money, passports, coms, your suit, equipment, pretty much everything you need is in Bird. Like her new hover ability?" Tony asked when he lifted the mask of Iron Man.
"Excellent. What about fuel cells?" Clint asked.
"Taken care of. How'd that bow and quiver I gave you work out?" Tony asked.
"We need to work on the balance of the shaft, now that it has the weighted end from the homing devices. When I get back from overseas, we'll work on it."
Tony put his mask back on, "Jarvis already uploaded the flight information to Bird. So you can just have her fly you in on auto pilot."
"See you in a few months," Clint said getting into Bird.
Iron Man flew in one direction and Bird flew in the other. It wasn't long before they were over the ocean heading to Europe. Since it was a long flight he activated the auto pilot and sat back to relax. He looked at the various passports he'd been given, the bank roll and list of new arrow heads. He was impressed with what Stark had provided. Bird also had some language programs, that helped pass time. Unfortunately the countries he would be searching for HYDRA locations, were all near Budapest. And of course that brought back memories of the woman he was trying to forget.
Try as he might, he couldn't keep the memories from flooding his mind. When they had been on the assignment watching FuturePharm and killing time, Romanoff had explained how she remembered Budapest. She said that they had been on an operation together, where she was the lead and he was tactical support. She had to extract a Russian defective that was playing both sides of the Armenian vs Azerbaijani conflict. The Russian was selling alien grade weaponry. When Black Widow had gone in to manipulate the Russian into following her exit strategy, they discovered that he was really a HYDRA agent in disguise. Both factions joined forces with the HYDRA team that had been sent in to kill Black Widow and Hawkeye. They fought side by side, back to back for a while before S.H.E.I.L.D. sent agents in to assist. They got their target as required, and got out. But Barton remembered it differently and they had squabbled back and forth about who's memory had been correct. He agreed with everything except, he didn't remember fighting anyone except HYDRA's men. And he remembered the HYDRA men retreating, before S.H.E.I.L.D. arrived to pick them up. In the end she had said that he'd probably been hit in the head and that's why he didn't remember the fighting correctly. He had noticed her irritation and kept his mouth shut.
Now as he sat in the modified plane, he wondered if she'd been right. It was very possible he had been knocked out for a while. Anything could've happened back then. They'd been on so many operations together, both as part of other teams, with Captain America or just on their own, that the details often blended together.
Clint rubbed his hands over his face, "Bird how much longer?"
"One hour, ten minutes, forty-three seconds."
"So arrival is around 2 am. Just great, I don't suppose anyone booked me a hotel room?"
"Already taken care of sir. You have a room at Hotel Nobel Tirana, for two days," Bird answered.
"Did you do that for me or Jarvis?" Clint asked, bemused.
"Jarvis sir. But if you would like me to book you a room elsewhere, I can do so," Bird replied.
"No thank you, that's fine."
As soon as there was a road visible, he converted the machine back to the motorcycle. Bird monitored the frequencies to make sure entry into the country was undetected. The rest was pretty standard. He wasn't as well versed in languages as some agents, but he knew enough to get by.
While Barton was in Europe, Romanoff was on the Isle of Man with HYDRA. They were about to mobilize and move the whole operation to a new base. She hadn't been told yet where that was, except that she'd been there before. Considering how many different locations she'd been around the world, that could be anywhere. They had possession of equipment that had the potential to open universal portals, the problem seemed to be that the unit was missing a component. So they were looking into another source. Because she had not successfully killed agent Barton, HYDRA still didn't trust her 100% to give her all the details. But with her superior skill set, Baron Von Strucker would soon tell her everything. All she needed to do was either kill a S.H.E.I.L.D. agent or an Avenger. If Barton came around again, he wouldn't escape so easily.
CHAPTER #27
Stark was busy trying to work with the black diamond. He wished he could contact Hank Pym, but that would mean letting S.H.E.I.L.D. know what he was in possession of. Instead he contacted Bruce Banner and asked him to come for a visit. They determined that the organism didn't like extreme heat or extreme cold. Banner suggested they work on seeing if it can duplicate itself or reproduce. They focused on that and trying to figure out a way to determine it's origin. It was something that they were both intrigued by, since the Tesseract.
Jarvis got updates from Bird on Barton's progress and reported to Stark. "Barton was in Albania just a week and he started a bar brawl after a soccer game. He's fine and reports no HYDRA activity in that country."
Bruce laughed, "I'm telling you that guy loves stirring up trouble when he's bored."
"He's got a solid chin I can vouch for that. And after training with the Cap, he's got fast hands. He can hold his own in a fight even without his arrows," Tony advised.
"Be truthful, did you send him on this trip to find HYDRA or keep him out of trouble with Fury?" Bruce asked.
"Banner, do you really think I care?" Tony asked casually.
"You might put on a good act, but I know you care. Otherwise Pepper would've been long gone."
"Barton can be very single minded when it comes to Romanoff. I don't doubt that he would have eventually captured her and taken out whatever HYRDA compound she was in. But we can't stir up trouble right now. So it's a little of both. Now can you check the energy levels in that crystal?"
Banner grinned and got back to work. Stark might come off as an arrogant ass to an outsider, but he cared about his people and team. It didn't matter if taking care of them meant spending money or time, he'd figure out a way. The man was as much of a genius as Banner, himself.
"Barton is on his way to Bulgaria, had a little trouble at the border crossing. He says to thank you Tony for the cloaking feature on Bird," Jarvis said.
Stark and Banner laughed and shared an amused look, before going back to work on the black diamond. They were putting various elements, with the alien organism to see if it would replicate itself. So far the only progress was with another diamond and a crystal. The organism responded by transferring it's colour. But the microscope didn't detect any other changes. Later on in the day, when they were working on harnessing the power of the diamond, Stark told Jarvis not to interrupt them with Barton's status unless he needed their back up.
Bird reported back to Barton this information, to which he replied, "that's cool with me Bird. Book me a week at Hotel Light in Sofia."
"Yes sir."
"And give me some back ground information on Sofia, Bulgaria," Clint said.
The AI unit in the helmet gave him a quick summary of geography, culture, climate and war history. "Also you might be interested in knowing that there is a local tournament for shooting this weekend. Bulgaria did well in the summer Olympics for shooting."
Clint was interested. "Where is it being held?"
"The National Sports Academy, but public is welcome. There is an entry fee of 500 BGN, which is $326.23 US."
"That's not bad. I'll go there this afternoon to register. So what do they have; pistol, rifle, skeet and trap?"
"Yes sir. Only first place gets prize money," Bird replied.
"It's not about the money, it's more about pride and knowing you're the best. Which I am," Clint explained.
"Your statistics show that you do have a …." Bird began to advise him of his accuracy.
"That is all Bird, thank you."
"Yes sir."
The motorcycle raced down the road to the hotel. He checked in and then went to the local bar. As he had a pint, he listened to the patrons and their various conversations. He may not speak Bulgarian well, but he did understand some of it. One pair of men, were speaking in english. They were also in town for the tournament. Barton realized then that he could make some side cash with betting. Even drunk he was still a good shot and he wasn't even close to feeling a buzz yet. He bought them a pitcher of beer and joined the conversation. The men showed him their guns and told him the events that they were in. Both had team events and were in the pistol events. They went outside to the alley and demonstrated their skill on a few cans. One guy offered his gun to Barton. Now because they were competing in the events with him and he planned on betting there, he made a fair display of accuracy. The other men bought him diner as a way to show him, that not all was lost, just a few dollars. For Barton he loved this kind of game, it was the one he played before joining S.H.E.I.L.D. He was an expert hustler and this time was no exception. Not forgetting why he was there in the first place, he learned that the tournament brought in a lot of marksmen from the surrounding countries. If he was a HYDRA agent recruiting men, it's where he would go.
When he got back to his motorcycle he instructed, "Bird can you pull up a list of all the current entrants and what country they are from for the shooting event?"
"Yes sir. May I also suggest auto pilot, due to your blood alcohol level?" She asked.
"I'm fine to ride. It's not like we have far to go. If you see a police officer, just cloak us," Clint replied.
Once she had the requested information, he learned that there would be two people from USSR, one from Russia, two from Hungary, two from Germany, one from Romania, five from North Korea, five from Japan and three from Serbia competing. He recognized a few of the names, but none were associated with HYDRA, that he knew of.
They encountered no problems on the ride back to the hotel, as he predicted. At the hotel he took a shower and then went to bed. In the morning he went to the bank to get the correct currency and then to the National Sports Academy to register for the tournament. He entered in the 300 meter rifle prone, 50 meter rifle prone, 50 meter pistol, 25 meter rapid fire, 50 meter running target mixed, double trap and skeet competitions. Barton read over the official rules and safety guidelines. Next he took apart the guns he had. They would provide him with the rifle on competition day, as he paid extra money for that arrangement. After cleaning and checking his equipment, he put them in a case he had bought on his way back to the hotel. He was looking forward to some non-alien competition.
When the weekend came and he got to the tournament, he made sure that he placed in the middle of the pack, just enough each time to go to finals. The side bets he had for the finals, would give him a nice pay day. One of the guys that he knew was Yavor Hristor, who had competed in the summer Olympics. They were discussing distance shots.
Yavor said, "I hear a rumour that you prefer archery over pistol competition."
Clint grinned, "you heard correctly."
"Care to show me your skill and maybe do a side bet?" Yavor challenged.
"Sure if I have any money left after the finals," Clint replied.
Yavor chuckled. "I think you will. I see how you have analyzed your fellow competitors. I'm glad I'm not in the same category as you have been in. I too prefer the bow than the pistol or rifle. I have a friend who lives on a farm not far from here, where we can have our bet take place," Yavor said giving him directions. "Until then, my friend."
Some men used a computer feed out during practice for the 300 meter rifle prone finals. Some had additional scopes to use, not just on the gun itself. Himself and one other, did it all old school. It was the final competition of the day. He lay down on the mat, lined up his shot and waited for his turn. His breathing was calm and he shot as he exhaled. After his shot, he checked the scope and confirmed what he already knew. He stood up and was congratulated on the win. He collected the cash from the betting and his winnings, before returning the rifle.
There were a few sore losers, so he left right away for the farm he was meeting Yavor at. There were a few men he recognized from the 50 meter running target and double trap competitions. Both of which Barton won. The man who won the skeet, recognized him and waived him over.
"I hear you won everything you entered, except the one I beat you at," the man said.
"Any time you want a rematch or even a rematch at skeet using archery, I'm game," Clint said. He had let the man win, because he was the local favourite.
"Guns are all I know. Yavor is one of the best at archery, but I'm betting on you to win."
"Thank you for the vote of confidence."
"I've gone against you before, you're accuracy is incredible. So if a bow and arrow are your weapon of choice…." the man smiled and winked.
Together they went to locate Yavor. Barton had his quiver on his back, but none of his usual arrow heads. They were all standard arrow tips. His bow he carried in his hand. During the competition and also here at the farm, he noticed a Russian and a Romanian that were watching him. He had a feeling that they would follow him after he left the farm also. Whether they were HYRDA agents or local law or no good thugs, he wasn't sure yet.
"I have set up some stationary targets and have moving targets also if you like."
"Whatever you prefer Yavor," Clint said easily.
Yavor looked at his bow, "nice recurve bow. It's been modified I see."
Barton nodded, "so what's the bet at?"
They discussed the odds and who would hold the money. Then Yavor chose the targets. He had Barton go first, so he could adjust if the wind changed. Of course Barton had no problems hitting his targets dead centre and he also hit both of the moving targets in the correct bows-eye. The few people who had bet on him winning, cheered. Yavor went next and two of the stationary targets he was just outside of the centre. For the moving targets he hit them, but not as accurately as Barton. Unlike some of the crowd, Yavor was not upset that he lost. He was an olympian and had excellent sportsmanship.
"You sir are fantastic with a bow and I am glad you didn't go to the olympics. It's an honour to meet someone with your skill," Yavor said.
Clint gracefully accepted the praise, being humble. "Thank you for saying that. It was just my lucky day."
One man stepped forward and arrogantly said, "you against me, 500 meters. I use my rifle, you your bow.
Sensing the man's aggression, Barton declined. But the man wouldn't take no for an answer and pointed a pistol at him. So he told him to put his money where is mouth is and they gave the cash to Yavor to hold. Betting went crazy for the next five minutes, as they got set for the match. They had to fire at the same time, but different targets at the same distance. Just before betting closed, Barton winked at Yavor and the other man who had bet on him from the start. They placed their last bets and then they were told to fire. The twang of the bow matched the shot fired. Then everyone walked to the targets to see the result. The marksman who had bullied Barton was just off centre of the target. Barton's arrow was perfectly in the dead centre.
"Thank you for the money boys, it was a pleasure competing with you," Clint said as Yavor gave him his share of the money.
"Who are you?" The looser demanded.
"A bored American on vacation," Clint grinned as he folded his bow and put it in it's mount on the motorcycle.
"Why would you come here for a vacation?"
"Got in trouble with the law back home, needed to come overseas, this seemed like as good a place as any. Good-bye gentlemen, it has been a pleasure," Clint said mounting the running motorcycle and putting on his helmet.
Clint rode off, "Bird let me know if any projectile is coming at us from behind or if we pick up a tail."
"Yes sir." After five minutes she said, "no projectiles, but there appears to be a dark car following us. The last two streets, it has gone in the same direction of travel as we have."
"Don't let me loose them. I want them to follow me to the bar we were at last night. I need to find out if they are HYDRA or just men up to no good."
The car tailed him all the way to the bar. He parked in the alley, left his quiver and helmet. Since no one was around, he told Bird to convert to air jet and park on the roof. Then he went in the front door, he didn't have to look to know there were two men running across the street to follow him inside. Barton bought a beer and sat at a table, where his back was to the wall. Then he waited.
The men got a table on the other side of the room and pretended to ignore him. Barton had a two beers and then left. He went up the fire escape of the building next door and then waited to see if men came out. When they didn't he had Bird pick him up. He knew it was not a coincidence that the two men had followed him to the bar. But he didn't see the mark of HYDRA on their wrists, so he didn't follow up. For the rest of his stay in Bulgaria, there was no further incident. Next stop would be Romania.