Chapter 23.
Clint arrived at the Bus with Sam and Jemma a little less than an hour later. Jemma rushed up to Fitz, hugging him anxiously, asking if he was all right. Embarrassed to have been Tasered and taken down so easily, Fitz had been trying to remember everything he'd seen, but he really hadn't seen much. By the time he recovered his senses, he was zip-tied on a bed in a small bedroom at the back of the plane, and Skye was unconscious next to him. They'd been left alone, but for one goon with a gun sitting watching them so Fitz couldn't attempt to escape, for the entire flight, and when they landed Fitz had been carried out to the van.
"The plane took off again ten minutes later," Natasha told Clint grimly. He nodded, joining her at the screens.
"Saw that. They filed a flight plan for Barcelona."
"Yeah, well they're not headed there. They changed transponder codes mid-flight, right over Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, sneaky bastards, I nearly lost them. Picked them up again, fortunately, they turned further east. Looks like they're heading for Italy, or Libya perhaps, though I'm not sure they have the range for that. They didn't refuel either in The Hague or London."
"Why aren't we taking off?" Clint asked, looking at May who was standing in the corner with her arms folded.
"Waiting for Thor. He should be here any minute and once we know where they're headed, we can send him on ahead. But Tony still hasn't figured out how to build him a com system which doesn't get fried by all the lightning." Natasha glanced up at Clint and smiled wryly.
"Maybe we should hand the problem over to Fitz, see what he comes up with. Take him your wings, Sam. He'll do better with a problem to keep him occupied. He's too busy kicking himself right now, not that he had a cat's chance in hell against Rumlow. And ask Jemma to check those scrapes." Clint jerked his head at Sam, who had silently followed him in, before turning back to the two women. "Where's Steve?"
"In the Cage with Barnes." Natasha gestured to a screen. "We handcuffed his human hand to a vibranium shackle in the wall with Thor's Asgardian cuffs. Unless he's willing to rip his hand off, he ain't gonna get far."
Clint looked at the screen, seeing Barnes crouched like a feral animal in the corner, facing Steve who was standing facing him with his hands spread. "Would it not be easier just to keep Barnes tranked while we deal with the current problem?" he reached over his shoulder and fingered an arrow. "I can do it without having to get close enough to use a syringe."
May and Natasha looked at each other. "Eh," Natasha said in the end. "I really can't argue with you. Steve's head is fucked up enough over Rumlow taking Skye. We'll save Barnes for later."
"Go do it, Clint," May ordered. "And if Steve kicks up a fuss, remind him that you're under my command on the Bus and he's a guest."
"Yes, ma'am," Clint gave her a cheerful salute and walked out, unslinging Boudicca from his shoulder.
A crack of thunder made Natasha and May both jump.
"That'll be Thor," Natasha said unnecessarily. "I'll go greet him. You get the plane ready to go."
They shared a brief kiss as they brushed past each other, and then May headed to the cockpit while Natasha ran lightly down the stairs.
Steve whirled around as the door opened, and then relaxed as he saw Clint. "Hawkeye, glad you're here – whoa!" But he'd left his shield downstairs, and without it he had no way to stop the arrow the archer loosed. It whizzed across the Cage. The Winter Soldier might actually have been quick enough to evade it – if his hand hadn't been chained to the wall. It was that hand Clint had aimed at, and the arrow struck squarely in the palm of it. Barnes shouted swear words in Russian for a few seconds before slumping unconscious.
"What the fuck!" Steve shouted.
"Orders. We don't have time for him right now, Cap." Clint nodded at the man lying on the floor. "That was enough ketamine to knock down an elephant – or the Hulk. It'll have him sleepy bye-byes for a few hours, and there's plenty more where that came from." He crossed the room and collected his arrow.
Steve gritted his teeth. "We really need to have a discussion about which orders you follow and which you question or disregard, Hawkeye!"
"I've had that discussion with every superior officer I've ever had," Clint said, unruffled, as they left the Cage and secured it behind them. "But if you think you can get through to me where Fury and Coulson failed, have at it, Cap."
Steve let out an exasperated sigh, and then blinked as May ran past him. "I take it we're ready to go?"
"Means Thor should have arrived." Sure enough, they heard the Asgardian's booming voice a moment later.
"It is good that you have recovered Engineer Leopold, but I am most distressed to hear that Lady Skye is still in the hands of those villains!"
"You and me both, buddy," Steve told Thor as they came face to face.
"We shall recover her directly and smite those who have taken her with our wrath!"
"Yes. Yes we will."
"Oh God, Steve's encouraging Thor," Clint moaned to Natasha. "We're all doomed!"
"Takeoff in thirty seconds," May said crisply over the intercom. "How are we coming with that destination, Natasha?"
Natasha traced lines across the screen with a fingernail. "Can't pin it down until they start to descend. Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily – Malta…"
"We've encountered HYDRA on Malta before," Jemma said, and they all turned to look at where she'd just come in. "The first time we came across Ian Quinn. He's the one who later shot Skye, when she nearly died."
"Quinn was in custody," Clint said, "until Ward and Garrett blew the Fridge."
"Think he's back in Malta?" Steve asked.
"Quite possibly. If so, he's laying low." Natasha was back at the screens again. "Actually – no. Last reported sighting of him is in China, just yesterday." Her fingers flew. "And he's due to meet with the Chinese Defence Minister tomorrow. I don't see him blowing off that meeting. Not since he pissed off the US military at the Cybertek debacle."
"Doesn't mean Rumlow isn't working for him," Clint pointed out. "He could just be heading to Quinn's compound in Valletta with Skye, waiting for Quinn to get back. Quinn nearly killed her once. Maybe he wants to finish the job."
"Never!" Thor boomed, his grip tightening on Mjolnir's handle until even his knuckles turned white. Steve said nothing, but his jaw and his fists clenched tight.
Tears welled in Jemma's eyes, and she leaned against Clint. He wrapped his arm around her comfortingly, knowing that she thought of Skye as the little sister she'd never had. "We'll get her back," he whispered, kissing her brow. "Don't worry. We'll get her back."
"May, set the autopilot for Valletta for now and come back here," Natasha requested. "We need you to brief us on Quinn's place there. We can only assume that's their destination until we know more."
Sam came up to join them then, and they all listened intently to May's briefing, Natasha pulling up blueprints and photographs so they could see what she was talking about.
"They've passed Corsica and Sardinia," Natasha said a little while later. "Should have started descent by now if Sicily's their destination. Too far east for Tunis. It's got to be either Valletta or Tripoli…"
"Fuck, I really hope it isn't Tripoli," Clint muttered. "I've got no desire to visit Libya again. Not after Benghazi."
"What happened in Benghazi, Hawkeye?" Thor asked brightly.
"We do not talk about Benghazi," Natasha said in extremely forbidding tones. Thor opened his mouth again and she shot him a frankly terrifying look, her eyes like two black holes in her face. "We. Do. Not. Talk. About. Benghazi."
"Right. No Benghazi. We got it," Steve said, nudging Thor who still looked like he wasn't going to leave it alone.
Several agonising minutes passed. Finally, Natasha made a triumphant noise. "Malta. Has to be. They've started descent."
"Right." May didn't head for the cockpit, though. "What's the plan?"
"Thor's going to fly me in and we'll kick the shit out of everyone," Steve said almost cheerfully. "Sam can follow as soon as Fitz has his wings up and running and he's within range. You can hover this thing, right?" he asked May, who nodded, looking at him a bit doubtfully. "Good, well do that. Clint can be your gunner and eradicate any visible resistance on the ground, though hopefully by the time you get there we should be done and have Skye. Thor or Sam can fly her back up once we've got her safe."
"That's a fucking terrible plan!" Natasha said sharply, "Clint and I could parachute in and infiltrate…"
"Not happening, that'll cost us too much time waiting. Come on, Thor. Let's go fly."
Thor was in the mood to smite and their pleas to reconsider fell on deaf ears. Clint swore as he watched Thor and Steve fall away from the cargo ramp before Thor raised Mjolnir and the lightning cracked.
"So how fast is Thor?" May asked as Clint joined her in the cockpit, climbing into the gunner's seat.
"He can match Tony, and Tony's hit Mach 3 in his latest suit," Clint said a bit bleakly. "They'll be on the ground over half an hour ahead of us. Without comms, so we'll have no fucking idea what we're going into."
"On the plus side, they're both really hard to take down," May glanced over at him. The lightning was flickering further away in the distance now.
"Yeah, and on the minus side, they're kinda fucking obvious. Rumlow's gonna know they're coming, and he's got an excellent hostage in Skye. Steve should have let me and Tasha go in, try and find her quietly."
"Let's hope Rumlow doesn't realise just how good his hostage is," May matched Clint's bleak tone. They both looked at each other for a long moment before returning their attention to their respective instrument panels, faces drawn tight with concern.
Where oh where is Skye? Stay tuned to find out if Thor and Steve get there in time…
And no. I'm not going to tell you what happened in Benghazi. Like Budapest, you'll just have to wonder ;)