A/N: The investigation continues.
Chapter 5: Recognition
"Have you run facial recognition on the clones," Natasha said.
"It is running as we speak, Agent Romanoff."
"Even with Jarvis' power, it takes time to run through every face on the planet," Tony defended his creation. "Start with scientists known for cloning — and with known sorcerers," Tony instructed.
"Narrowing parameters," Jarvis agreed. A picture of Loki, the only cloning sorcerer in Jarvis' database, flashed on the screen. Clint watched impassively. Natasha put her hand on his arm and he covered it with his other hand. Their fingers twined and some of the tension left the archer's shoulders.
The image flipped past with merciful swiftness, followed by images of other men passing so quickly the human eye couldn't follow, then it stopped — on a woman's face.
"Not a match, J," Tony said, while Clint snickered.
"On the contrary, sir," Jarvis said. He brought the two faces up side by side and pointed out the similarities. "Seventy percent match. I would hypothesize a familial match."
The scientist, Lupe Teresa Santos, had no known children but did have a brother, Emilio, who had worked with her for many years. He was a botanist.
"A South American botanist?" Clint mused. "Curare is made from the root of a South American plant."
"Know a lot about curare, birdbrain?"
"It is an arrow poison, Stark."
"Point," Tony agreed and punned simultaneously (because he's awesome like that). "No photo of Emilio, J?"
"Not yet, sir. Dr. Emilio Santos seems to have been extraordinarily camera shy. His sister has attended all the conferences and published all the papers on cloning. Photo located. I'm afraid it's old," the computer apologized.
The college newspaper photo showed Santos speaking as valedictorian at his graduation. Though the man was much younger, it was obviously the face in the attack photos.
"I will endeavor to find a more recent photo," the AI said.
While Jarvis expanded his search for a photo, Natasha read the information about the Santos siblings. "They began looking at cloning as a method of reforesting damaged rainforest habitat. They lost their funding when they began to show extremist views, blaming the U.S. for habitat destruction," she told the others. "Their views did not go over well in their native country, but they are believed to have moved to Panaguay."
"Where anti-American views are encouraged by the government," Clint said. The SHIELD agent was quite familiar with countries that were "anti" other countries.
"That might explain the choice of victims," Tony said, finding it hard to talk about Pepper in that light. "I know Pep, Phoebe and Carl have supported building factories in South America to bring work to poverty-stricken areas."
"Build a factory, destroy habitat," Clint said.
"Everything SI's been involved in has used land already destroyed by slash-and-burn agriculture," Tony said firmly.
"But a fanatic might not see it that way," Natasha pointed out.
"So we have a motive. Does that get us any closer to our cloned eco-terrorist?" Clint asked.
"He — they — have to be here somewhere," Natasha said. "It's only been a couple of hours. They couldn't have gotten very far."
"Our pathetic foe believes he may know something," Thor announced, as he carried Garth in by the scruff of his neck.
"The boss guy — yeah, him!" Garth exclaimed when he saw the image on the screen. "The flash mob had a meeting this morning. He got a call from his boss. I mean, I don't speak much Spanish, but "jefe," that's boss, right? He called someone "jefe" but friendly like, joking." Garth mimicked, "Si, jefe," in light, teasing tones.
"Did you hear a name?"
"I think he called him 'Loopy'," the young man guessed.
Lupe, his sister. His boss.
"When did the call from 'Loopy' come in?" Natasha asked, flipping her knife in the air absentmindedly.
"Um, um, just about 10, because I hadn't had breakfast and I was hoping the meeting would be over soon, so I could eat something before the mob," Garth said hastily.
"OK, that actually helps," Tony said, much to Garth's relief. "Jarvis, we have the number that emailed Garth. Look for incoming calls at 10 a.m."
"There is only one, sir."
"And can you trace the location of the caller?"
Garth held his breath, hoping this phone hadn't also been destroyed.
"The phone is still active, sir," Jarvis reported.
A diagram came up on the screen. It was gibberish to Clint and Natasha and little more than a pretty light show to Thor and Garth, but Tony read the connections easily. The call had been routed through a complicated VOIP pattern.
"You can hide, but not from me," Tony muttered. His finger traced a pattern, back and forth, up and down, as if following Cap's shield as it ricocheted. "Round and round we go and we end up here."
He tapped a spot and an address came up.
"Meet you there," Clint called, as he and Natasha ran for the door.
"Don't start without us," the Black Widow warned.
"Where is this place?" Thor demanded, frustrated.
For Thor's benefit, a map came up, changing to an overhead view — a Thor's eye view of Manhattan.
"Does this help, Mr. Odinsson?"
"Aye. Thank you, wise one."
"What'll we do with you?" Tony mused, looking at Garth.
The young man folded his legs and plopped to the floor. "I'll just sit here quietly and wait until you get back," he suggested.
"That's a plan," Tony agreed. "Jarvis, stop him if he tries to leave."
"With pleasure, sir," Jarvis said with menacing harmonics.
Garth clamped his arms around his knees and tried to not … move … at … all.
To be continued