thank you guys for reviewing, here's another chapter :)
happy fourth of july!
A rising panic blossomed in the pit of stomach as I imagined how the assassination would take place.
Katie, Megan, and the husband, walking with excitement towards the airport doors to catch their flight for a weekend vacation to a lovely beach. I can imagine Megan, her face glowing with excitement, because I know she loves the beach.
Their happiness ends abruptly when Russell jerks suddenly and his body twists in a manner that sends Katie into a screaming frenzy as she watches her husband fall. Megan stares at the body lying before her, wiping spots of blood from her blond curls.
The other two fall seconds later.
"How can you even look at yourself? Don't you have any family at all?" I screeched with panic. "How can you even say things like that?"
Hurt filled his green eyes. "I had family."
That admission distracted me from my fury. "What do you mean had family? Are they all dead?"
"Agree to provide the information I seek and you and your family shall remain unharmed," the Asgardian demanded, ignoring my question. "Resist me and I will not show mercy," he explained simply.
"All your decision, Agent Pedagia," Barton added coldly, crossing his arms.
Did I have a choice? I looked warily between them, accepting what had happened to me, and that this was my fault. If I had told Sullivan to ask someone else to deal with the disk, I wouldn't be here. I could have changed everything, but I didn't.
My frustration bubbled up and spilled over. "I am not a goddamn agent, Clint. I am a technician. A computer technician," I said through my teeth, staring at the radio in Barton's hands.
"Your classification doesn't-"
"FINE! CALL OFF THE SNIPERS!" I snapped, stepping towards him. The risk of revealing S.H.I.E.L.D.'s information was nowhere near on the same level as the lives of my family.
Barton stared at me with bewilderment at my emotional outburst. Glancing at Loki, then to me, Barton raised a walkie-talkie to his lips and muttered, "Situation resolved. Stand down and report to base within 2 hours."
"Yes, sir," a male voice murmured. "Stand down and pack up."
I stared at the walkie-talkie in his hands anxiously, wondering if he was going to send bullets through their brains the moment I turned around.
"With that being resolved, I suggest you go assist Dr. Selvig in the creation of the device to hold the Tesseract," Barton suggested, crossing his muscular arms and jerking his head towards the doctor. "I'm sure he could use your help."
Feeling irritated, I shoved past them both, knocking into Loki with as much strength as I could muster, and strode through the drapes with flair. Selvig raised his head and smiled warmly at me. "Elliot. Put it right there," he added, pointing to two white coats.
"Dr. Selvig," I greeted him coldly, crossing my arms. "What do you need help with?" I winced as a shot of pain went across my back. Knocking into a mass of steel wasn't a good idea.
"Oh, you're helping now!" he said with pleasant surprise. "Yes, well..." he shuffled past two other white coats. "We're trying to build a device that will harness the Tesseract's power to open a portal."
"A portal for what?" He wasn't just going to start blasting people out of the sky that way?
"He hasn't told me, but I'm sure it's for good use," Selvig explained, setting a gray device on a table next to him. "But there are a few important pieces of information I'm missing for this."
"Which is what?" I said through my teeth. It looked like a replication of the device, but there were five or six golden bulbs around the outer rim.
"I don't know. An element," the astrophysicist responded, momentarily looking stumped. He turned to face me, his eyes eager for information. "Do you remember what was in the old machine?"
"I haven't the faintest idea," I said with a roll of my eyes. "You're the scientist."
"Pedagia," Barton's voice said quietly behind me. I stiffened for a moment and nervously chewed my lip. I don't remember what kind of element was in that machine. I don't understand physics. I understand computers.
"I need something to stabilize it," Dr. Selvig murmured.
Constructed with iridium as a stabilizing agent in order to keep the Tesseract from releasing too much gamma radiation at one time. That piece of information was written in one of the schematics of the Tesseract machine. I kept my passive face on while I stared at the device.
"Pedagia?" Barton asked me. "Any ideas? We're on a schedule."
I lapsed out of passivity and glared at my dust covered boots with irritation.
"Unless..." he trailed off suggestively. "You'd rather I-"
"Iridium," I barked quickly, cutting him off before he could finish his threat. "It was..." I trailed off with defeat. "Iridium."
"Aha! That makes sense!" Dr. Selvig exclaimed, slapping his palm to his forehead. "Iridium is the perfect stabilizing agent! No wonder I used it previously."
"It doesn't sound like it was a good stabilizing agent," I said nastily as Selvig picked up the device. He ignored me and continued tapping away as Barton turned away from the drapes, a smug look on his face.
I tapped my foot anxiously on the floor. "Dr. Selvig, did you send a virus into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database?"
Selvig momentarily looked stumped. Then his eyes lit with understanding. "Virus? I suppose so, a few weeks ago," he said casually, tapping on a calculator. "Don't know why, though. Thought it might be fun." He winked at me and engaged in conversation with some white coats. I leaned against a small table, my hopes temporarily dashed. Although Selvig might have done it, I still believed that he didn't do it. I rubbed my chin. Does that mean he's been under Loki's control for ages? I turned to look at Loki, who sat on a small set of stairs, his eyes watching everyone in the room carefully.
He straightened up suddenly and took a deep breath, rolling his shoulders. His eyes drifted closed and the blue sphere on his scepter began to glow, casting a soft blue light in the corner of the room. Everyone else continued to work. How was no one noticing this?
"How did you get so many people?" Selvig chuckled suddenly, disturbing me from my thoughts. He was speaking to Barton, who slid into my line of vision.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. has many enemies, Doctor. This what you need?" Barton returned, holding up a handheld device. On the screen was a rotating picture of iridium, and next to it was the image of a man named Dr. Heimrich Scheffer.
"Yep! That's iridium. It's found in meteorites and forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get hold of." I glanced between the two of them, sensing something was about to happen.
"Why are you going to use iridium again as a stabilizing agent when it did nothing for the previous model?" I asked with confusion, watching as Selvig bustled about, picking up pieces of metal. "It clearly didn't work before."
"The Tesseract was perfectly under control until it was activated by Loki from the other side," he explained, typing on a tablet. "Unfortunately I've lost access to the black MasterCard I was given, so I can't order anymore." Selvig raised his eyes and looked past me, a grin lighting up his face.
"Especially if S.H.I.E.L.D. knows you need it," Barton added quietly.
"Well, I didn't know. Hey!" Selvig added, walking to the edge of the room as Loki approached from the shadows. I observed that he looked almost sickly, and shaken, a light sheen of sweat across his forehead. "The Tesseract has shown me so much...it's more than knowledge, it's truth."
Dr. Selvig, what kind of leash does he have you on? I thought with disbelief as he looked at the Asgardian with admiration.
"I know," Loki responded with a tight smile. "And what did it show you, Agent Barton?" He turned to face the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, who had walked over towards another table.
"My next target," Barton responded roughly.
"What do you need?" Loki approached him from behind, his hands tightening on his scepter.
"A distraction." I watched as he pulled out a large bow. "And an eyeball."
"An eyeball?" Selvig repeated, mimicking my confusion.
"In order to access the iridium you need, we'll need to access Heimrich's private storage area. He's a scientist as well. Who better?" Barton began adjusting the black cuffs on his wrists. "And more than likely, we'll need an eyeball to get into it."
"Perfect," Loki purred, turning to face Selvig. "I've heard these about this...Germany. I will provide a distraction to lure S.H.I.E.L.D."
"What kind of distraction? An explosion?" Barton began examining the tips of his arrows with years of practice.
"No. Me. All those foolish people want is me in their hands, then they will get it. You will have time to complete your task, and you, Eric, will have time to complete the project without any potential interference," Loki said plainly. He cut his eyes to me. "You, however, hold some information that I need."
"We already established that," I responded, narrowing my eyes. The Asgardian raised one pale, slender finger, and made a "come hither" motion.
"Agent Barton has been so kind to inform me that a team was being brought together to find my precious Tesseract," Loki revealed as I unwillingly moved towards him, pushing the drapes aside. "What team?"
"The A-team?" I tried. Barton, who was in the middle of putting bows away, whipped his head around to fix me with a glare.
"So much for American humor," I muttered under my breath, looking at my boots again. A white hand darted towards me out of the corner of my eye and without warning, my face was tilted up and green eyes bore into mine, demanding more information. I winced audibly when he tightened his grip, as my jaw still hadn't healed from the last time he nearly crushed my face.
"Tell me what you know, Elliot," he ordered.