"Okay, so what we're saying here is that Nazari has someone inside SHIELD who managed to murder someone on board the helicarrier and get away with it? How?"

"The security system went down for that day, there was a lot of panic we'd been hacked, but they fixed it after a few hours" Clint answered quietly, rubbing his temples.

"And no one found that suspicious?"

"Yes Captain, we found it suspicious, but no one would listen to us; they told us we had PTSD and made us see the shrink" Clint snapped back, he was getting tired of the relentless questioning. Natasha squeezed his knee in a calming gesture and offered him a small smile.

"Right, so" Tony cut in, re-entering the conversation, "We need all of SHIELDs personnel files so we can start to dig out the real mole, I don't trust SHIELDs notes from their last investigation"

"I can get them"

"Nat, you need to get some rest, I'll go and get them" Clint said.

"Do you know where they're kept and Hill's access codes? Because Fury is definitely not going to let her just hand them over this time..."

"How do you know where...?"

"My first week at SHIELD, I was curious, I read your file"

"Oh..."

"Okay, so: Nat you go break into the top secret agency you work for and get the files, Bruce and I will carry on working through the paperwork from Latvia, Clint maybe you should get some shut eye; you're not looking too hot yourself, and Cap... I'd love a cup of coffee?"


Natasha got changed, threw some cold water on her face and left, Clint looking worryingly at her as she boarded the elevator.

"We shouldn't have let her go alone, what if something happens?"

"Were you going to be the one to tell her that? Because I certainly wasn't going to be the one to tell Natasha Romanoff that I didn't trust her to look after herself"

"Tony, Clint's right"

"Alright Cap, you go with her"

Steve looked around the room, everyone was concerned for Natasha; she'd been through far too much that day to be breaking into a secret base alone, especially when there was a mole somewhere, determined to take her down. He nodded curtly and turned to leave, Tony shouting after him "you could at least finish the drinks before you go!"


In all the notes Tony read through, one name kept popping up; Mark Gabriel.
Coulson had been unable to accompany his agents on the mission due to a broken ankle; Gabriel had been assigned to be Romanoff's handler while Agent Reeves signed up to handle Barton. Two handlers had been at the suggestion of Gabriel, who insisted the mission was too important to rely on just one. It was Gabriel who reported to SHIELD that the mission had been compromised after 20 minutes of radio silence; Romanoff's and Barton's comm units had been interfered with, and he claimed both handlers had been jumped from behind. Reeves had a concussion and was talking nonsense when Clint made it back to the evac point; carrying an unconscious and heavily bleeding Natasha.
With no one to contradict his version of events and 13 untarnished years experience at SHIELD no one had even considered Gabriel as the mole, he certainly hadn't been looked into when they'd last investigated the mole; in fact, he'd been put in charge of the investigation, despite being the only member of the team to make it out of Latvia unharmed.

They'd have to wait for Tasha and Steve to come back with the personnel filed but Tony was fairly certain he knew where to start looking.