Saibh Aislin
Chapter Two
He has a mission.
"Where is that lab Donnie Gill keeps her?" Ward asks Fitz as they race up the stairs, Koenig trailing behind.
"It's, um... In the..."
"Do you have any maps? Surveillance? Anything? How did you trace him?"
"Cellphone. He called and it... um... bounced. The signal, yeah, the signal bounced off the towers. Me and Skye, we... she... Yeah, I'll say it but it's a difficult word, okay. It's long."
Ward pushes open the large and heavy reinforced steel door and together with Fitz they emerge in the corridor. It ends on the right side, merely a few steps away from the door, but to the left... To the left it is long, very long and Grant fights the sudden urge to break into a run. To run, run and never stop. His breath quickens and he feels dizzy.
"Triangulated," Fitz blurts. "In the lab."
"What?" Ward snaps at him. His vision is distorted, Fitz's face swims before his eyes, his heart is hammering in his chest.
"The signal. From the cellphone. Bounced off towers. And we triangulated it. And found him. And Coulson took the team, even though May said that he shouldn't ever go into the field again, but he did. All of them. Only Mackie stayed. But then Donnie called again and laughed at me..." Suddenly his face falls and he turns to the side. "I did?" He asks. "But I thought you... Not a single word?" He looks up at Ward again, his brow furrowed in surprise. "I said it all? Without stuttering?"
"Who is Mackie?" Ward tries to latch onto something tangible, something he can works with. Not Fitz's question. No, not Fitz's question.
"A mechanic. He... fixes... things. I can't ask him to take out Donnie but he can take us there."
"Where?"
Fitz points at the ceiling. "Lab. First."
They climb upstairs. The lab is spacious and filled with equipment and things that buzz and beep and clank and...
There is a window.
"Here." Fitz pulls Ward's sleeve but he's far away. Far, far away. The window. "Look. They went to the..." It's day. "The harbor, because the signal... it came from..." Tree. Green. Light. "From this... here... location. Yes! I know it's a warehouse, you don't have to tell me! See," Light. "Ward. Here. Ward! Ward? Why are you breathing so fast?"
When a hand lands on his bicep, Ward feels like electrocuted. His throat constricts and he feels all of his muscles tense, from the arm, through his back, neck, legs, feet. He can't make a move, he can't force sound from his throat but inside he screams, shrieks like a wild creature.
The hand lets go and Ward exhales forcefully. Inhales, exhales and feels like the crumbs that form his body come loose and fall away, one by one. The sound that escapes his lips is something between a moan and a sob.
A voice next to him mutters chopped off sentences.
"I don't know... I don't know, Simmons... I have no idea... Like, what do you want me to say?... I know you're not here, but... I don't... I don't know what to say..."
"Is he the guy?" Another voice asks, incredulous. "Is he the one who was supposed to help us?"
"Stop ordering me around!"
"What? I'm not... Simmons?"
"Order."
The silence falls for a moment and then Ward hears an authoritative.
"Stand straight, Ward, that's an order!"
And the room becomes clear again, focused. A tall black guy stands in front of Ward and glares at him, eyebrows high and furrowed, mouth open. He sighs.
"He's the one they kept in the vault, isn't he?" He turns to Fitz. "Damn it, man!"
"Yeah, I told him it was not a good idea," Koenig appears out of nowhere again. "Why don't we call Coulson-"
"He's on radio-silence, because of Talbot," Fitz snarks. "Besides Gill said that if anyone beside me comes, he'll kill her."
Ward remembers that he had been through stuff like that. Maybe not that long, Garrett had never wanted to completely destroy him, he'd needed him able to perform. But he had been in solitary. It had made him unhinged. But he had always managed to pull himself back together.
He just needed to focus on a mission.
"Where does he keep her?" He leans over the table. "What do we need to get her out?"