Ghosts of the Past

Chapter 11 assassins and requests

Authors notes I don't own Marvel Agents of SHIELD. All I own are my OC's Jack Williams, Shadow, the Katana Killer, Carl Berlin, Henry Radcliff and Cobra.

Also I recommend that all my readers check out the fics written by Angels Anthem, Appa Appa Away, LongLiveTheClones, XxheavendragonxX, Aurora Lunar 0Love This0, Icehockeychic4 Canadiancloneluver, Guardian Kitch, Jemmz, Full-Paragon, Fenrisulven13 and lastly Xpredatorx as they are twelve of the best writers on this site in my opinion.

And please if you read this fic then let me know what you think of it good or bad comments just let me know as I want your opinions on it no matter what they are. 16 people now have story alerts on this fic while 5 people have added this fic to their favourite stories list.

I won't be working on the next chapter of this fic until after Wednesday which is when my college exams end.

The main pairings of this fic will be Mayson and Jack Williams/Maria Hill but I might add others later on in the fic.

Lastly I recommend my readers have a look at the Agents of SHIELD fics written by charmed4lifekaren you will not be disappointed once you read them, they are amazing fic's and very well written.

Well that's enough of an author's notes on with chapter 11.

SHIELD Headquarters

Ivan walked over to the room where Carl Berlin and said with a smirk "Hello again Carl."

Ivan continued by saying "The Shadow got worried you had decided to turn informant. Name important names in return for some immunity deal with SHIELD. Prudent but honestly Carl. Did you really think there was a distance you could cover or a hole deep enough that you could hide in? There is nowhere in this world that I cannot reach you, Carl. Fortification be damned. SHIELD can't keep you safe from me. No one can. I will enjoy killing you slowly as I break your will, your body and finally your mind."

Ivan signalled to his men who had Fury brought over and Ivan pointed a gun to his head as he said to Maria "Give us Carl Berlin otherwise I'll kill your boss right here in front of you."

Fury immediately said "Don't do it. That's an order."

Ivan smirked and said "You really are a stubborn man Fury. No wonder The Shadow has a respect for you and SHIELD."

Maria glared at Ivan and said "You kill him and SHIELD will hunt you down to see Director Fury avenged. The world won't be big enough for you to hide in. Even with your boss The Shadow helping you."

Ivan smiled and asked Maria "Are you really going to let your boss die to save a man who betrayed your organization over two decades ago?"

Maria didn't answer and Ivan said "Ten seconds to give us Carl or Fury dies and then I will kill another hostage every 5 minutes until you do what I want or they're all dead."

Just as Ivan started to count down from ten when one of his men contacted him by radio "Sir. We're attack it's Shield they're being led by, ah."

With that Ivan heard nothing and said "All squads check in."

When none of them reported in Ivan said to his remaining men "Cover the door."

He dragged to and said "You're going to be my insurance so me and my boys get out of here alive make a wrong move and I'll take out your other eye."

Suddenly the door to the box was opened and Maria shot Ivan twice in the kneecaps and shot the other two men dead.

Fury merely said "Good work."

Just as Fury put Ivan in restraints and Maria stood guard over Carl Berlin a SHIELD team arrived on the scene led by Steve Rogers, Captain America himself and Natasha Romanoff the Black Widow.

Fury simply said "What took you guys so long."

Italian countryside

Clint and Carlo looked at everyone as they made their way up and down the train looking for Cobra.

Just as the two of them were about to double back and look again, the train stopped as someone activated the emergency brakes.

Clint looked out a nearby window and saw a man running off into the forest, but before he could do anything passengers confused at what was going on were up out of their seats and in Clint's way.

Much to his anger, Cobra had escaped.

With that he and Carlo soon meet up with Jack and the others and told them what happened.

Jack asked Carlo "Where were you to meet Quinn?"

Carlo replied "At his mansion not far from here. Why?"

Jack asked "Does he know who is on your security team exactly?"

Carlo shook his head and Clint knew what Jack had planned and smiled as Jack said "Let's finish your delivery, then we take Quinn into custody and you Mr Mancini can get your pay check."

Skye then spoke up "Quinn has seen me before. If he sees me he'll know this is a trap."

Before any of them said or did anything else several cars arrived and parked nearby with SHIELD markings on them and when they saw the rest of the team was with the new arrivals. They knew the mission now had a better chance of being successful.

All they had to do was hope they got to Ian Quinn before Cobra did.

SHIELD Headquarters

Ivan sat in the interrogation room with a smile on his face and said loudly "I won't talk. Whatever you do to me will be nothing compared to what The Shadow will do to you."

The smile was wiped off his face when Natasha Romanoff entered the room. He then said "Good to see you again. Old friend."

Natasha simply said "We are no longer friends Ivan. I'm here as a courtesy. Tell us all you know about The Shadow and maybe you can be a free man again by the time your 80."

Ivan laughed and said "If I talk I won't live to see next week. The Shadow got people into this building like it was nothing. He did it once and could do it again in order to have me killed. You know what he is like, the KGB and The Shadow had an alliance for many years after all. We both done jobs for him."

Natasha didn't say a word and slid a folder across the table to Ivan.

He looked it over and said "You offer me immunity from any and all crimes I done in the past if I talk. Nice try but it won't be enough. You know Natasha I wonder how your boyfriend would react if he learned that you were mine, before you even met him. Or how your SHIELD masters would react if they learned that you are the reason why Carl Berlin survived the attempt they made on his life 10 years ago."

Natasha replied "They know about that. Why is the Shadow worried about Carl Berlin telling us info on his boss? If he really was that worried he never would have had Carl surrender to us in the first place to present the offer of cooperation against Centipede. What is really going on?"

Ivan didn't reply and Natasha realised the answer and said "You weren't sent here to prevent Carl from talking. There is something Shadow doesn't want him to find out."

With that Natasha stood up and left as Ivan muttered in a fearful tone of voice "They'll kill me."

Fury who watched the interrogation from his office looked at Carl who was looking outside the window and asked "What do you think Shadow doesn't want you to know?"

Carl replied "It could be anything. Who Shadow really is. What happened to my family? His endgame? Who his adversaries are?"

Fury asked "Adversaries? I thought The Shadow didn't have any adversaries. Any that are still alive anyway."

Carl answered "For the past 3 years. The Shadow's organization has been attacked by people from an unknown faction, not with the Clairvoyant, SHIELD. Or any foreign intelligence group from what we know. They have done attacks on Shadow's organization by targeting key players and allies. He won't admit it but these attacks are making The Shadow nervous."

Fury didn't say anything as Carl continued by saying "The Shadow had agent Coulson and his team under surveillance for the last few months. The hacker Skye had been under surveillance for longer even before she joined the Rising Tide. Maybe it's time we find out why. It'll be the perfect way to let Shadow know I'm no longer his man. I have my own people loyal to me. People who can be counted on, all I have to do is say the word."

Fury asked "Can you help me find who the mole was that helped make this attack possible?"

Carl nodded and said "I'll need access to SHIELD's files to do so."

Fury said "I'll give you access."

Carl said "Skye is an 084, object of unknown origin. The same one who SHIELD sent a team to look for 24 years ago. I'll tell you all that I learned about what happened. Then we start looking for any leads to give us answers."

Fury nodded and said "Until we learn all the facts. This will be kept only between us. We can't let The Shadow suspect us."

Carl didn't reply and told Fury all he knew.

Italian countryside

Carlo led the team to Quinn's mansion where they saw the billionaire was waiting with bodyguards.

As Carlo. Clint, Jack, Melinda, Ward and Phil stepped out of the car Quinn said "Good to see you Carlo. I hope SHIELD has been taken care of?"

Carlo nodded and handed Quinn the item he paid for. Once he did Jack and the others took out their guns.

Quinn's bodyguards quickly drew their weapons and moments later a firefight had broken out.

As this was going on Cobra was nearby assembling his sniper rifle while he whistled and made sure that his bullets were laced with Cobra Venom.

Once he had everything set up, the sniper watched the fighting going on and waited for a clear shot at his target.

In a few minutes all of Quinn's guards were either dead or wounded and the team went into the mansion after Quinn who ran inside during the shooting.

The few guards who were inside the building were dealt with quickly or surrendered.

They soon found Quinn in the basement with a pistol in his hands.

Once he was surrounded Clint said "Why don't you put the gun down. That way you get to live. Even if you did manage to shoot one of us and I'm not saying you could. You'd end up dead moments later. So why not do the smart thing?"

Quinn dropped his gun and Jack said "You done the right thing. Even if you did kill us. There is a trained sniper out there who wants you dead for a big payoff. So you were a dead man either way Quinn."

Phil called in for a SHIELD transport to arrive and help them get Quinn out of here without Cobra taking a shot.

Just as they were bringing Quinn upstairs one of the guards who had been previously knocked out woke up and grabbed his gun, taking aim at Phil's back as they walked by downstairs.

Melinda seeing this pushed Phil out of the way when she saw the armed guard standing up near the balcony and got shot instead and the guard was killed moments later by Clint with an arrow going through the guard's throat.

As Melinda fell to the ground Phil took her into his arms and held her before Skye, Fitz and Simmons entered the mansion.

Jack called in for a medevac and prayed Melinda survived. If she didn't than if Phil had anything to say about it. Ian Quinn would pay dearly for what his guard did.

Once the medevac showed Melinda was put on a stretcher and was to be brought to the nearest SHIELD base for immediate surgery and Phil went with them leaving Jack in charge.

He looked at the SHIELD personnel and said "Search the place top to bottom. Anything in this building that does not belong in this type of building is to be brought to my attention. We stay here until this place is clear. For all we know Centipede could have a hidden lab in an underground level or something. Ward, Clint put Quinn in the Cage back on the Bus. Fitz, Simmons, Skye I want all of you helping with the search."

Everyone went to carry out their orders and Carlo asked "You'll keep our deal. I led you to Quinn. So I'm free to go."

Jack nodded and Carlo smiled as he got in his car and left.

Jack walked back into the mansion to oversee the search, the faster it was done. The quicker they could all reunite with the rest of the team. But a question had to answered first.

Quinn bought technology that would give a person who lost a limb, a new limb. So who was the techno limb for?

Soon they found the answer when the search teams found a man inside a hyperbaric chamber. Once the team saw the man inside, Jack noticed the expressions on the others instantly changed and asked "You know this man?"

Skye answered "That's Mike Peterson. We thought he was dead."

Unknown location

The Shadow sat in his office and looked up as his men brought in the man he wanted to see.

He said to his guest "I hope the flight was alright."

Alexander Pierce replied "It was OK. Why did you ask to see me here… and in person no less?"

Shadow replied "I don't have a week to wait around for your minions to pass my request up the food chain directly to you. So that's why I asked you to meet me here."

Pierce said "You should watch your tone."

Shadow cut to the chase and said "I'm under attack and have been for some time now my interests, my allies. Someone has targeted my key infrastructure, and the truth is, I'm bleeding."

Pierce asked "Why should I even consider involving myself in your mess?"

Shadow replied "Because my enemy is your enemy."

Pierce curious asked "What are you talking about?"

Shadow answered "We not only co-exist, we depend on each other to survive. What I possess would lay waste to you and your precious organization. I mean imagine what would happen if I told Fury what you're up to and gave him a list of those who are traitors and those who are loyal to him?"

Pierce simply said "I can imagine that. That should also make you aware that if you do that. There will be nothing stopping us from wiping out your criminal organization and killing you on the spot."

Shadow said "I have no intention of telling anyone this information, unless my interests are threatened. But this enemy of mine, if they prevail and, in so doing, finds themselves in possession of that information they may very well choose not to be so discreet. You're already involved in this mess, Alexander, and if I lose control of the information, you may be exposed. And if I die, it triggers my own protocol for release."

Pierce angrily said "I don't respond too well to threats."

The Shadow said "I didn't ask you here to threaten you. I asked you here to see if we can work together."

Pierce said "I'll talk to the others. See what they think. I can't make any promises."

Without another word said Pierce stood up and walked out of the office.

Italian countryside

Cobra walked along the road as he saw a car driving towards him and smiled when the car stopped and the driver opened the door for him.

Once Cobra was inside and his briefcase was in the backseat he turned to the driver and said "Quinn got taken into custody. I thought you were going to make my job easier not harder."

Carlo replied "There were complications. Besides you can have another chance to kill Quinn. The Shadow has not given you a deadline. As long as Quinn is dead he will be happy. Luckily SHIELD don't know about my involvement with you. If that was learned, my boss would disembowel you."

With that Carlo started the car and headed to Rome. Once there Cobra would take a flight to Washington DC and there he would wait for another chance to do the job.

Authors notes well that's chapter 11 completed please let me know what you think of it read and review no flames though ok.