It was the middle of the night when Tilly woke up and needed to use the bathroom. She crawled out of her tent and crept over to the bush they had labelled the ladies room. That was when she had heard the helicopters. She immediatley knew something was wrong. They were in a no fly zone.
She ran back to the tent they were all sharing and woke the other two up. Together they listened to the helicopters.
"We should get out of the tent. If they are after us then they might fire on it." Ward suggested.
"And I still need to use the bathroom." Tilly deadpanned.
She went back to the ladies bush and Ward and Skye crept the opposite direction. From her vantage point Tilly could see something being thrown from the helicopter. She saw a blue flash and four people propel themselves towards Ward and Skye. She also heard the gunshot
She could see Ward frozen mid turn. He had only turned to react to the shot. He hadn't realised that it was aimed for him. Skye was crouched in front him, also in a half turn. Tilly watched the men as they picked Skye up and fastened her to a harness and hoisted her into the helicopter.
She felt powerless. She knew she could defeat all of the men on the ground, but she had no idea what weapons they had, what weapons were fitted to the helicopter or even how many people were still on board. Ward and Romanov had taught her better than that. She decided she could get more information and raise the alarm quicker if she remained an observer.
Coulson had Ian Quinn on his knees in front of him. The order from Director Fury was clear.
Strike him off.
Just as Coulson was screwing a suppressor onto his weapon his phone rang. It was Tilly so he answered.
"We got Quinn. We are about to strike him off. You can come home now." He told Tilly over the phone.
"There is a problem here." Tilly told him, voice quavering. He knew she was at the top of the Inca Trail at Machu Pichu. He didn't know what sort of problems they could have encountered.
"Tilly?"
"Grant is frozen in place after dodging a bullet and Skye is gone." She said on the verge of tears.
"When you say frozen do you mean he froze in a fight or literally?"
"Literally. His eyes are open and he's still breathing. But I can see all of the veins in his forehead. It's a little creepy. Skye got taken in the helicopter with the men. She was frozen too.."
Coulson looked at Quinn and noticed the smug look on his face. He clearly had something to do with this.
"We will come by and get you both. Then we shall look for her." Coulson promised.
He grabbed Quinn by the scruff of the neck and dragged him back to the cell on the bus.
"If you think your stay here last time was uncomfortable then you clearly underestimate me and my team." Coulson told him before slamming the door in his face.
At the top of Machu Pichu, May flew the 'bus in as close as she could. Being an internationally protected site she was unable to land, so Fitz-Simmons, Kain and Amber winched Tilly and Ward up. Once they were in and the cargo ramp was closed May took off.
Coulson was still in his interrogation of Quinn. He was getting nowhere.
He hit the button for the intercom.
"Ward please."
"You do know after the incident where Ward was captured for months he has never been able to torture anyone. So in that case bringing him in here he will be next to useless. Even if she is the only person who he has feelings for."
"Garrett tell you that? I am going to tell you this. Garrett threatening to rip your tongue out of your head will seem like a pleasant memory after Ward has finished with you."
"Really." Quinn answered, smirking again.
"Really" Ward said from behind him.
Quinn's smile faltered.
Coulson headed for the door. As he reached for the handle he turned to Ward and said:
"Make him comfortable."
"With pleasure, Sir." Coulson opened the door. "Wait, You remember those nails that I wouldn't let Fitz-Simmons throw out?"
"The ten inch one's that had more rust covering them than metal?"
"Could you bring them and the package I keep with them?"
"Sure." Coulson didn't know what Ward was planning, but he did know Quinn would give up soon.
Ward sat on the table. He was staying silent. He was a good enough manipulator to make Quinn talk, but he owed him some pain.
Five minutes later Coulson returned with the items that Ward had requested.
Curious to know what was in the package, he stayed in the room. Ward unrolled the wrap on the table to reveal what looked like a pair of large rubber based gloves, a chin strap, a glass orb, some electrical cables, a hammer, a large battery and a device Coulson had never seen before. It was the most unusual torture kit he had ever seen.
"Right. Where to start?" Ward asked, putting on the rubber gloves. Quinn's face paled as Ward picked up one of the longest, rustiest nails he had ever seen.
"Ok. Here's what I'll do. First I'm going to plug the cables onto the battery. (Which he did as he was talking) Then I am going to attach them to you and..." He hit the cables together and there was an almighty spark of electricity.
"You're crazy. That'll bring down the plane!" Quinn yelled. Coulson was thinking the exact same thing, but he trusted Ward.
"So tell me what I need to know!"
"NO!" Quinn yelled.
"Well. How stupid do you actually think I am? That is what these are for." He said, pointing at the nails.
He picked the nails and the hammer and walked over to Quinn. He placed one of the nails pointing diagonally through his right knee.
"You see. If I put this only half way through your knee, and place the other one on the other knee, then attach the electric cables, only your body will be affected. The chair you're sitting in won't conduct any of the electrical surges, which will allow the plane to stay in the air. I hope you've had your tetanus shot!"
Coulson breathed a sigh of relief. He was suddenly aware of his phone ringing. He answered it while he watched Ward, slowly and painstakingly measure up Quinn's knee. He knew that drawing it out was part of the trick in making hi talk. He had a brief conversation with Director Fury and hung up.
"Ward, wait." He said, just as Ward was about to tap the hammer on the nail to embed it into Quinn's knee. He was clearly going to do it millimetre by millimetre.
"What's up?"
"That was Director Fury. Since the game has changed and we have had to capture this piece of scum instead of striking him off, he has asked that we show no outward signs of torture."
"So no nails?" Ward asked, disappointed.
"No nails."
"Oh." He said, disappointment growing in his voice. "Well never mind. Onto the next one." He added brightening.
He walked back to the table and set down the hammer and nails. He swiftly, out of view of Quinn also disconnected the battery. He would use that to threaten him later if the next step didn't work. Quinn wasn't to know it had been turned off.
Ward picked up the funny looking device, the chin strap and the glass orb and walked back over to Quinn. He put the orb in his pocket and fastened the chin strap around the top of Quinn's head. He then inserted the weird device into Quinn's mouth and activated it, which opened his mouth wide enough for the orb to be placed between his back teeth. Ward removed the device.
Quinn immediately tried to spit the orb out, but the chin strap prevented him from moving it at all.
Ward picked another orb out of the roll and turned to face Quinn with it between his fingers.
"Right. Let me make this as simple as I can. You will tell me and Coulson what we need to know or every thirty seconds I tighten that chin strap. As it gets tighter and tighter you will notice just how fragile that glass orb is. The harder your teeth bare down on it the more likely it is that it will just..." As he was speaking Ward was pressing the orb tighter and tighter with his fingers so Quinn could see. As he trailed off the orb shattered into fine glass dust. Ward continued:
"You will then bleed, but the location of the orb means you will swallow all of the blood and glass dust which will then cause internal bleeding as the dust perforates, well, anything it wants. Do you want to tell me what I need to know?"
Quinn made a strangled sound that sounded like 'go to hell'.
Ward walked over to him and tightened the strap, just a little. He needed it to last a while.
"I'm already there!" He replied.
It took five minutes of chin strap tightening before Quinn felt the orb crack.
"'m rfdy fo fork now." Quinn gurgled.
Ward loosened the chip strap so Quinn could spit the orb out.
"Let me make this clear. If you don't talk this goes straight back in."
"She's at my base compound."
"Which is where exactly?"
"Small private island off the coast of Majorca." Ward stepped back and let Coulson take over.
"What's security like?" he demanded.
"Security guards running patrols every five minutes. Laser grid fencing to keep people out."
"The same laser grid fencing that you had at the last place we broke into?"
"Yes."
"How do we disable it?"
"There is an override code."
"What is it? And how do we enable it?"
"There is a keypad panel outside the fence on the beach side of the compound. Type the code into there and it will disable the fence. Had to install it as an emergency protocol."
Ward left the room and came back with a sheet of paper and a pen. He threw them to Quinn.
"Draw us a map of the compound and a layout of the building." Ward demanded.
"And remember this. If you sell us out, those nails will be the least of your problems." Coulson added. He knew Quinn, and knew that he would try and give them bad information that would lead to them all getting killed.