Chapter 24: Location Unknown

God dammit, would you turn around? He had a feeling this one was a bit more important than the others, and he felt like on this occasion he couldn't simply wait and hope for a better picture. The man's silhouette was hardly useful. If he got into the building without- a small flock of birds, startled by some unknown predator, took off to his east and the man's head whipped around. He looked like he was ready to kill. The man hiding in the tall grass snapped a few close pictures before the other one turned and entered the shack along with a dozen Hydra guards- judging by their black tactical suits.

The Avengers (damn stupid name) probably knew this guy already. He dressed weird, and the eccentric ones tended to be more well known. The guy looked like he came out of some sort of Norse painting- long flowy white beard, big eyebrows, and more muscles than a man that old had any business possessing. He was also eight feet tall- which kind of added to the Norse-God look. The eccentric ones weren't just well known- they tended to be more dangerous.

He backed down the low slope he'd been laying on and extended his senses in all directions around his position- smell, hearing, sight- he could feel the ground humming with the lowering elevator as the man descended. Shack my ass. That was the entrance to a bunker. But he'd already figured that one out. As he adjusted his position, no movement betrayed a watcher, no sound signaled someone turning as well. He was going unobserved as always. Perfect. He rose up a bit and jogged away at a low crouch until he rounded a bend, then vanished into the trees of a small creek that wound through the land. He ran in the shallow stream of water for several miles, until he was soaked, exhausted, and panting.

The creek ended in a lake where kids loved to run and jump and play- the perfect place to hide. Stomping around, he'd found where the lake bed hid a sort of U-bend. With his enhanced abilities he'd found his way down to it the first time. Kids had probably died trapped inside- there was a metal grate over the rocks that marked the entrance, but he'd removed it easily enough. It must have been down there for decades, if not a century or two. The thing looked ancient.

He pulled the bars aside and dove down, then angled up sharply with the contour of the tunnel. When he reached the air pocket, he resisted the urge to gasp for air- it stank to high hell down here. From his backpack he pulled out plastic bags that protected a mobile printer and all the accoutrements it would require. In the secrecy of the cavern, still half in the water, he printed out the photographs he'd just taken. He tossed them in a folder, drew a red hourglass on the cover, and slipped them back into the plastic they'd come from. He had to keep moving.

He didn't know why he was taking these pictures for the Avengers. He didn't even try to puzzle it out- he just did it. It had kept him alive up through now, his policy of just doing whatever seemed natural. He only hoped they got their heads out of their asses long enough to figure out whatever this Sebastian Morris guy was planning- if that was even ever his name. He was a whisper at the back of the minds of several of Hydra's higher ups- a faint, nagging sensation no one could really pinpoint in their records. Whoever he worked for, they were powerful, and not in the buy-the-police kind of way. In the hire-a-psychic kind of way.

The Psychic, now there was another issue. He had pictures of all the men Morris was recruiting, he'd shared them all, but he didn't dare take a picture of the psychic. He'd only ever met one other, but that girl always knew when her picture was being taken, no matter what. He wasn't about to blow the whole thing on one photograph. Besides, the kid living with the Avengers looked smart enough. He had a feeling she wasn't fooled. There was something in her eyes, an icy blade, that told him all he needed to know about her. The psychic couldn't be all that good anyways, if she didn't even realize the kid wasn't on her side. The other Avengers didn't know about the psychic, and he didn't exactly trust the girl to clue them in, but it was beyond his control.

He dove back into the water once everything was sealed up tight and swam for the far end of the cavern. He'd laid out a rope through the area with the least amount of underground projections to watch out for, and on either side of it he'd installed buoys with internal power supplies to feed a dim light. The guy he'd bout them off of swore up and down they'd last for a week apiece. So far he'd been right.

In the water, here and there, corpses floated. Side caverns and tunnels were filled with more bodies. Silver leaked into the water here, but it didn't matter. The poison (as he thought of it) didn't seem to harm anyone it touched- so long as it didn't hit blood. No pipes or wells drew from the cavern either, probably a decision made by the same early farmers who put the bars on the tunnel. They didn't want to drink water that probably held the remains of their children (and indeed there were a few small skeletons down here). He had a good enough idea who was responsible for the corpses. The kid really didn't like Hydra.

It took about half a hour to swim across the cavern slowly. On the other side it was an easy enough matter of following a dirt path down several marked side tunnels and branches, crawling in some places and squeezing through others. Clint Barton thought he was so smart, building his farmhouse on top of an underground tunnel system- the perfect escape should anyone try to take out the SHIELD agent. If he'd been a bit more careful, perhaps he'd have found all the tunnels. Or even any of the interesting ones. Clint's tunnels ran for several miles, then angle upwards to a hatch he'd installed. These tunnels came from beneath, and scooped around the entire property. The man who ran inside them now had only to feel for where the vibrations were quicker, more tightly connected, then break through into the main tunnel. On his way out he was careful to pile up the rocks. They'd at least pass a cursory inspection.

He followed Clint's tunnels until he reached the hatch under the farmhouse porch. This was where the man got nervous every time. He pulled the folder out, removed it from it's plastic bag, and listened carefully for the other Avengers. They were inside the house and the barn, separately working on the riddle of the other photographs he'd delivered. He lifted the hatch and dove out from under the porch. He grabbed a rock that lined the flower beds and set it atop the folder, which he placed in front of the back door, before running back into his tunnel as fast as possible. He didn't know if Stark's suits were on alert for new life signs suddenly popping up inside the perimeter, but he wasn't willing to find out. He just hoped the Avengers weren't stupid about the photographs he was risking his neck to deliver.

As he ran back through the tunnels, covering his tracks all the while, he wondered what they would do if they knew their enemy was camping out just ten miles down the street...

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Also, as we get closer and closer to 50 reviews, I just wanted to say again how amazing you all are! Every comment has been fun to read and I love hearing the little ding on my phone alerting me to a new review! I'm floored that out of 88 reviews between Parts 1 and 2 they are all positive, no trolling! I hope everyone continues to enjoy "Project Echo" and I promise that with what is coming in "Part 3" (which is actually almost written now), you won't be disappointed in the explosive finale to this series!