Recruitment Drive: Reaching an Accord
Chapter 2
Tomas Calderon looked at the large stone building the two agents stood in front of.
"So this is where Special Investigations is based."
"They weren't kidding when they said that their headquarters was a castle." Bobbi Morse agreed.
The building really was a castle. Given that public records stated that it had been an apartment building until it had been destroyed in a fire a few years back, somebody must have deliberately arranged for the new structure erected on the land to look like an archetypal medieval structure. Bobbi wasn't sure she wanted to know why.
"Do you think Coulson stashed Skye here?"
"No, or at least not yet."
"But this is where he's gathering his Enhanced weapons."
"I don't think Skye counts as a weapon at the moment. When I last saw her she was as much of a danger to herself as she was to everyone else, and everybody knew it. A weapon you can't aim and can't turn off is only useful for suicide missions. Coulson's not going to try using her as a weapon until she can control whatever it is she does." Tomas grunted, conceding the point.
There was a enormous man of Scandinavian descent at the front door. The two SHIELD agents took one glance and immediately classified him as a security guard.
"Can I help you?" The guard asked in a thick Scandinavian accent.
Bobbi produced her badge. "We'd like to speak with Ms. Murphy."
The guard examined the badge carefully, then opened the door for them.
The area immediately inside the door looked innocuous. It was clearly for the eyes of people who got past the door but weren't cleared to know of the real purpose of the Brighter Futures Society. Once past that area, the two agents saw things that they easily recognized the purpose of even if their specific design wasn't what they were used to - labs, briefing rooms, training areas and the like. Finally they reached Karrin Murphy's office.
The first thing they noticed in the office was the SHIELD emblem on the wall, the first such they had seen in the building. The second thing they noticed was that it wasn't the standard SHIELD emblem they were used to. Superimposed on the SHIELD eagle was a five pointed star. Surrounding it were the words Possessions, Evocations, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, Aspects, and Glamours Research Agency of Mortals.
A short woman sitting behind a desk stood as they entered.
"Agent Murphy?" Bobbi asked. "I'm Agent Morse, and this is Agent Calderon."
"Welcome to PENTAGRAM, agents. What brings agents from the main office here? Normally we get word from the Playground if something comes up that they need an in-person meeting for, and I didn't get any word about you two."
So they were acting suspicious just by being there. Terrific. Bobbi hurriedly thought up a reason to show up announced.
"We came here to do an independent assessment of the security surrounding the Obelisk. Since you're our primary point of contact with the Warden, we thought we'd check in with you first."
"You want to visit Demonreach?" Murphy asked skeptically. "It's not a very pleasant place. Still, the Director never went beyond the beach the one he visited, and I'm the only other person in SHIELD who's ever been there, so I can see why he might want to have someone take a look around."
Bobbi raised an eyebrow "A SHIELD facility that nobody in SHIELD has ever been to?"
"Demonreach has been in operation longer than SHIELD has existed. And nobody has ever removed anyone or anything from the island without authorization in that entire time."
That was an impressive claim, if it was true. "You're sure of that?"
Murphy nodded. "And most of the things locked up in there are far worse than the handful of 084s that the Director arranged to be added to the collection. And if anything ever breaches the prison proper, the entire place will self-destruct."
"I've seen people get caught in explosions that should have killed them and turn up again and ready to cause trouble before." Tomas pointed out.
"Not like this." Murphy disagreed. "The self-destruct won't collapse the facility, it will completely obliterate the entire island, as well as the surrounding area." Murphy shuddered as she considered the subject at hand. "Quite a lot of the surrounding area, actually. Anything capable of surviving that likely wouldn't care about some funny alien rocks."
Both SHIELD agents froze in shock. Even if Demonreach was a fairly small island, a blast that could essentially erase an island would be nuclear or something made from unknown tech with equivalent destructive power. How in the world did Coulson manage to build and maintain a bomb that big? The governments that had provided SHIELD with its nuclear arsenal had been very careful in making sure that every one of those weapons was returned to its nation of origin after HYDRA's existence had been exposed.
"Is that the Theta Protocol?" Tomas asked.
"Theta Protocol?" Murphy sounded honestly confused.
"Coulson's secret project! Your facility on Demonreach, all the Enhanced individuals that you've been collecting without Indexing them, the manufacture of nuclear-grade destructive capacity, all of it! Coulson's planning to use SHIELD to make his own personal army!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Don't lie to me. We know that you have information on hundreds of Gifted and non-human individuals and haven't added them to the Index. Why would you be doing this if you weren't part of Coulson's plans?"
"Because I have no right to do so." Murphy bluntly stated. "Given SHIELD's official status in the supernatural world, demanding that everyone my people have to work with be Indexed would be roughly equivalent to Sokovia demanded unlimited inspection rights on NATO's nuclear arsenals."
"You're exaggerating." Bobbi protested.
"Yes, I am. Nobody takes Sokovia seriously, but the world does acknowledge that it's a country. At this time, SHIELD has no official status in the supernatural world whatsoever. Every scrap of influence that PENTAGRAM has at this time comes from the personal relationships our agents have with specific individuals who do have official status. Now, what's this about Director Coulson and this Theta Protocol?"
Bobbi rushed to regain control of the conversation from her colleague. She explained everything that the Council had learned about Theta Protocol and their suspicions that Coulson had been compromised by some combination of the GH325 drug and the woman known as Root.
"You know, back when I was running Special Investigations for the CPD, I learned that one of my consultants was keeping information from me. I assumed that meant that he was involved in the case I was investigating and had him locked up. As direct result of that, I ended up with a loup-garou rampaging through my precinct. Quite a few good men ended up needing closed casket funerals, including my partner. That was a painful lesson in jumping to conclusions too quickly. I'm wondering if you're making the same mistake here."
"You dispute the authority of the SHIELD Council?" Tomas demanded.
"What SHIELD Council? I'd never even heard of this council until a few minutes ago, and from the way you described what was going on I'm willing to bet nobody else has either. You can't accuse a man of keeping you in the dark when he has no idea that you exist or have a need to know. Maybe Agent Groves does have a hidden agenda. I only met her once, and that in passing, so I can't make any solid judgments one way or the other. But you have yet to show me any evidence that the Director needed to be removed from power, or that you had any legal standing to do so.
"If you want to do further investigation on Demonreach, you're welcome to try. But I'd lay odds that no matter what you try, you won't be able to set foot on the island without being detected."
Tomas tried to cow Murphy into submission, but the other agent had spent decades policing the streets of Chicago. All his efforts got him was to have a couple of the giant Scandinavians show up and frog march him out of the building. Bobbi followed quietly, knowing that she caused any trouble, she'd end up getting evicted just as forcefully.
Tomas Calderon watched as Agent Morse pored over a set of nautical charts for Lake Michigan.
"There's no evidence of any island anywhere being named Demonreach, but that could easily just be a codename that nobody who isn't affiliated with Coulson's facility there knows about. But given that Murphy appears to be Coulson's point of contact with the people who run it, it has to be somewhere nearby." She said.
"How could Coulson possibly have acquired a nuke?" Tomas wondered.
"If Agent Murphy's comments before she started clamming up are accurate, he didn't. Murphy was running her own organization until Coulson absorbed most of it into SHIELD during the recruitment drive. Demonreach must have been run by one of the people who didn't come over. Which instead invites the question of where Murphy got the nuke from. Along with the questions of why Coulson never did anything about it, and trusts an outsider to guard dangerous alien artifacts."
"Obviously Murphy trusts this Warden with SHIELD's secrets. The question is whether or not we can. Or her, for that matter. She's pretty much flat-out stated that she doesn't recognize the authority of the Council."
"If you look at it from her perspective, she does have a point. She worked for Coulson, and was never told that Coulson also has to be accountable to others. If we want to make further progress with PENTAGRAM, we're going to have to get them to understand that the Council has the authority to call the Director to account for his actions and was justified in doing so."
"First we're going to need to gather more information," Tomas commented, "And I think I know just where to go in order to get the word on the street."
With that, he strode out of the hanger in which they had parked their plane. Taking out a GPS unit, he programmed in the address of the pub that seemed to the watering hole of choice for the entire Enhanced community of Chicago.
McAnally's Pub was a dimly lit basement. Tomas' trained eyes noted that everything in the pub was done in thirteens. Thirteen pillars. Thirteen fans. Thirteen tables. Thirteen stools at the bar proper. Perhaps there was some occult significance to the number? He'd have to ask one of the boffins in the Analysis division when he got back. Prominently displayed on the pillar closest to the door when he came in was a sign reading 'ACCORDED NEUTRAL TERRITORY'.
A quick scan of the room showed him that though the pub was crowded, the bartender did not have any staff helping out. Anyone who wanted to order something had to go to the bar, and then return to pick it up when it was ready. After waiting for the line at the bar to recede, Tomas headed up, ordered a beer, and headed to a table that only had one person sitting at it. Tomas couldn't be sure in the dim light, but he thought the young man sitting there looked like someone who had been on the way out of the castle as he and Bobbi had been heading in.
"Mind if I sit here?" He asked.
"Sure," The young man replied. Then he looked closer at the other man. "Didn't I see you at the office earlier today?" He inquired.
Tomas pulled out his badge, flipped it open briefly, and then returned it to his coat. "Tomas Calderon. I'm from the main office."
"Daniel Carpenter."
The two enjoyed their drinks while discussing work in sufficiently vague terms that anyone eavesdropping from one of the other tables would not be able to infer anything of importance by doing so. This went on for two beers until the girl arrived.
The girl was rather obviously a goth. Her hair had been dyed into multiple colors, and her face sported multiple piercings. Her outfit looked like it was entirely made of rags, though as she walked to the bar, Tomas could see that it was actually far more intact than it appeared at first glance, as though it had been deliberately tailored to look like it was made out of rags. After collecting her own drink, she headed straight for his table. Or more accurately, Carpenter's table.
"Well, if it isn't the Rag Lady," Daniel said.
"Hello, there, Danny," The woman said as she sat down. "Who's your friend?"
"This is Tomas Calderon. He works for a different branch of the company I work at. Tomas, this is my older sister Molly. She used to work for the Brighter Futures Society before your lot bought us out." Tomas translated that as one of Murphy's people who Coulson hadn't snagged in the recruitment drive for some reason. "So, what brings you back to Chicago, sis?"
Molly sighed. "The usual. Trying to clean up yet another one of Maeve's messes. Murph definitely did the world a favor when she a bullet through her head."
"Who was Maeve?" Tomas inquired.
"Maeve was a key figure in... an associated organization," Daniel said delicately. Tomas inwardly cursed that they were discussing everything so obliquely, but he couldn't demand that he be given straight answers in the middle of a pub, especially since he had been just as vague in his own answers earlier. "She ended up going over to the enemy. When Murphy and the Warden took her down, she was trying to let in an assault that would have made New York look like a children's squabble. Afterwards, Molly ended up getting hired away to take over Maeve's job."
That implied that Ms Carpenter's new employers were a potential threat on the order of Loki. "Why isn't this associated organization Indexed?"
"Indexing?" Daniel laughed, "There are still people who think that's even possible? The White Council has most of the world's top magical talents, has been operating for centuries, and only enforces seven simple rules. And they haven't even come close to being able to track and control every mage on the planet. What makes you think anyone else could do better?"
"Besides," Molly joined in, "My new employers are a bit... out of your jurisdiction."
That statement drove Tomas over the edge. "OUT OF OUR JURISDICTION?!" He raged, "We're SHIELD! The entire world is our jurisdiction!"
"SHIELD doesn't have any authority under the Accords. I and my Court do."
"Do you think SHIELD cares about your silly Accords?" Tomas scoffed.
The temperature around the table suddenly seemed to drop. Tomas almost thought he saw frost forming on the glasses.
"You should," Molly said, "Do you know what happened to the last person to deliberately cause a major breach of the Accords?"
"Are you threatening me?"
"No, I'm just giving fair warning."
"I'm through with your little games, girl," Tomas pulled out a pair of steel handcuffs.
The moment the cuffs touched Molly's wrists something strange happened. The girl screamed in agony as her skin hissed like something exposed to acid in a cheap movie. Tomas wondered why the girl was reacting like that when Daniel punched him in the face. Before Tomas to recover, the barman grabbed him. Tomas watched the PENTAGRAM agent hurriedly remove the handcuff from his sister's wrist - which for some reason looked as if it had been burned - as he was dragged towards the entrance and bounced out the door.
Karrin Murphy was standing at the top of the stairs as he staggered up them.
"What happened here, Mac?" She asked. "I've never seen you evict anyone from the pub before."
The barman spoke as if words were being rationed, but his tone was cold "Denied the Accords. Tried to Index Lady Carpenter. Bound her with Cold Iron."
"He WHAT?!" Murphy looked appalled. "Agent Calderon, did you bother to read any of the briefing information that I sent to Director Coulson before I agreed to merge the Brighter Future Society with SHIELD? Because there was a lot of information on what the Accords are and a basic code of conduct when dealing with the supernatural, and you just broke all of it."
"I did what had to be done..." He protested, but Murphy cut him off.
"Shut up. I told you that SHIELD is not only not a major player in the paranormal world, we're not even officially in the game yet. And the only way to get into the game is to sign onto the Unseelie Accords. Spitting on the Accords is a great way to ensure that we don't get invited to do so.
"SHIELD doesn't have any authority here. What we have is connections and cooperation, both of which you may have just destroyed with your idiotic actions. What you did was the effective equivalent of causing an international incident in a neutral embassy, publicly announcing that you have no intention of respecting the Geneva Conventions, and then assaulting a major official of a superpower for an encore."
"That goth couldn't be..."
"Yes she is. Molly Carpenter left the Brighter Futures Society to be one of the top figures in the most powerful paranormal nations in existence. A nation with a very well deserved reputation for inventively cruel retaliations on anyone who breaches the Accords.
"Get out of Chicago, and take your partner with you. When you next report to this Council of yours, please tell them that your stupidity has ensured that the only way SHIELD will ever be able to work in the occult world again is if I can convince the Fae that you and the Council do not speak for SHIELD."
Murphy turned and stormed away. Before she got into her car, she pulled a phone from a thick metal case and called a number.
"Sound the alarm, we're going to need to fort up." She said.
"Winter is coming."
A\N: My thanks to all the people who provided me with suggestions for what PENTAGRAM might stand for. The acronym I decided to use was created by Wings of Lead.
Mab and Molly's revenge isn't going to be as cruel as what happened in Skin Games, but they're definitely going to make life for 'Real' SHIELD highly unpleasant until they acknowledge that their attitude towards superhumans and non-humans is unacceptable and make reparations. Any suggestions on what they can include as part of the retaliation are welcome.