February 2005

The Hub, Undisclosed Location

Agent Coulson would never admit to being lost, not even under truth serum. He was familiar enough with the upper levels that he frequented often, but this time he was seemingly in the deepest bowels of the Hub. So deep he was pretty sure the light of day had never shone on these walls before. Which would explain the mould.

"Must have been two rights and then a left…" he muttered under his breath.

His footsteps echoes slightly off of the stone walls, a faint metallic thump with each connection of his foot to the floor. He thought about doubling back but at this point he was pretty sure he already had, so onwards it was. 'Maybe if I touch my left hand to the wall and continue to follow it I will lead myself out,' he thought. Isn't that how it worked with mazes?

His thoughts were shrilly interrupted by the distressed cry of an infant. The idea of anyone being down here was concerning, let alone a small child. He listened again, ears straining for another hint of sound, something to either prove he was imagining things or to lead him to the source. On the verge of giving up, shaking his head ruefully at his own folly, he heard it again. Following the corridor to the left from where the noise was emanating from he quickened his steps and braced himself for what he was going to discover. Another strident cry quickened his heart this time, such despondence was painful to hear. As he approached the intersection of corridors he heard raised voices and stopped pressed against the wall to listen.

"Shut that brat up will you! Someone will hear!"

Phil frowned, whoever was around the corner was worried about being discovered, which meant they were either somewhere they were not meant to be or doing something they weren't meant to be doing. He remained backed against the wall to gather more intel.

"She's just a baby, she doesn't understand." A female voice this time. "If you hurt them they cry, that's how they work. They don't come with a mute button."

"It's been six months and she hasn't responded to any of the stimuli. The amount of pain and distress we've put her through, she should have shown signs of any powers by now."

Coulson stifled his gasp. He had a sick feeling in his gut that they were discussing the 084 that he and Melinda had recovered in June.

"If we torture her anymore she won't recover from it and S.H.I.E.L.D will find out what we've been doing to her. Some of the med staff are already becoming suspicious."

"Hydra put the tesseract in her. If S.H.I.E.L.D hadn't of found her in China we would have been able to activate her powers by now. Instead we have to do it in secret. The higher-ups are getting impatient though. Amp up the pain stimuli."

"But sir, any more and it may have a debilitating effect, perhaps permanently injuring her!"

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Hydra was behind the experiments on the baby, and judging by this conversation they had managed to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. What did they mean 'put the tesseract in her'? What kind of experiments were they running? What did they hope to achieve?

One thing was for sure, he had to save the baby from any more pain at the hands of these psychotic doctors. He retreated to the end of the corridor, far enough away that they wouldn't hear him call for back up but close enough to hear them if they moved. He sent a text to Fury, Hill and Melinda to warn them of a breach of security within the agency and to get them to personally come and give him back up without mentioning it to anyone else. Who knew who else within the agency was corrupt, no need to invite more trouble than they were already dealing with.

Coulson used hand signals and sign language to convey to the three agents before him what he had discovered. What seemed like a dark cloud of doom descended over Fury's face and Coulson silently thanked whatever deity was listening that he wasn't the person responsible for that expression.

Fury took point. It was imperative that they round up all the scientists and any of the double agents involved as they couldn't let any of them inform their Hydra counterparts that their cover had been compromised. So, stealth it was.

The four agents worked together seamlessly to take out all the Hydra agents that were guarding the room. All three of them.

The rest of the room consisted of five scientists and a wailing infant.

Unsurprisingly the scientists didn't put up much resistance to being rounded up like cattle and shoved into holding cells.

Melinda picked up the baby and shushed her, trying to soothe the traumatised infant by cradling her to her chest and rocking back and forth slowly. Her cries quietened somewhat but tears were still running down her chubby cheeks accompanied by heart wrenching whimpers.

Fury led them (seemingly with ease which Coulson couldn't help but be awed by, having been lost down here for nearly an hour earlier) the back way up to his office away from the prying eyes of the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D.

When the door shut behind them Fury started to pace back and forth causing his black leather trench coat to swirl menacingly around his legs.

"The child is obviously not safe here until we deal with the Hydra threat. We have to hide her away until we can root them out and crush them."

Maria thought for a minute before dubiously suggesting, "A safe house?"

"No. Too obvious. If Hydra is as infiltrated into S.H.I.E.L.D. as we suspect then this can't be done officially, nothing on the books."

"What if we hide her in plain sight. Put her in an orphanage where her lack of background won't be suspicious," Coulson suggested.

"What if she does develop powers?" Melinda questioned. "We should put in place an invisible protocol so she gets moved every few months, never stays with a family long enough for them to notice anything different about her." As much as it pained her to deprive the girl of a family and stable childhood, her safety was paramount. She was better alive and sad than dead.

Fury looked down at the little innocent eyes blinking up at him trustingly and acceded that anyone who looked at her would want to keep her, love her, protect her.

Maria looked at the Director and saw he was struggling, not just with the idea of not being able to protect the girl, but also with the new knowledge of betrayal from within his own agency. "Let's get her out of here and safe and then we can deal with the rats in our midst so we can bring her back."