Episode 3: The Asset
PART 1

A tractor trailer traveled quickly down the road. It had the words: "Rocky Mountain Office Supply. Colorado's Office Supply Superstore" written on it. A man was in the car, singing along to the song playing on the radio.
"High and low I've traveled, far and wide I go. From the desert tracks to the mountainside, I'll bring you this traveling show." He stopped singing to pick up his cup and took a drink.

He put down his cup when a male voice came over his CB.
"Big boy, this is little boy. How'd things go down at the chicken coop?" The man picked up the receiver and talked into it.
"Weight-station inspector needs to learn some adult words and a bit of hygiene, but he waved us through. The cargo is secure. Looks like a clean shot from here."
"Roger that. Little girl will take point on your front door. See you at the drop station, Mack. I'm clear."

Looking out his window, Mack saw two black SUVs driving alongside the truck. He looked down at the woman driving the SUV and gave her a nod. She gave him a small wave with a few of her fingers. She quickly pulled in front of the truck while the second SUV stayed behind.

Suddenly, the front SUB was lifted from the ground, almost like there was an explosion under it. However, Mack saw no fire or any other indication of what caused the SUV to go airborne. It flew quite a distance into the sky then landed in front of the truck on its roof. The truck quickly swerved to avoid the SUV.

Mack ended up taking the truck onto the median between the opposite lanes of traffic, but then got it back on the road. He picked up his CB.
"You see that?"
"Little girl is down. Escort 2 is down!"
"I know, Sherlock. What the hell hit us?" He reached up to the ceiling and hit a button.

His windshield became a touch screen computer. He hit a few buttons, keeping the truck on the road. A bright red line appeared on the window in front of him. He waved it away then clicked the button on the ceiling turning off the computer. He picked up his CB.
"We need to go alt two, alt two."
"Nothing over our shoulder."

The SUV that was in the back moved up in front of the truck.
"Back door's clear. Protect the cargo at all costs." Mack started talking, but not to the CB, just into the cab.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. region CT, this is Agent Mack. We are under attack from an unseen I-don't-know-what." He was looking up and all around, trying to find out what was going on.

As he looked around, the SUB in front of him went airborne, just as the first one did. Expect this time, it was shoved off the road, it didn't land in front of truck. He got a female response to his earlier statement.
"Agent Mack advise as to the nature of threat, over."
"What in the Holy name of –"

He was looking up in the sky, but his words were cut off when the truck went airborne. The truck went into the air at a 90 degree angle from the ground.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. Region CT… oh, hell, I can't explain." The truck suddenly dropped, almost like it had been held up by a string that had now been cut. "Oh, no!" he yelled.

It landed on the ground, knocking Mack out cold.
"Mack, come in! Are you there, Agent Mack?" Men in camo ran around the back of the truck, using the arm of a backhoe to break apart the bed or the truck.

Once it was open, they stormed inside, pushing out empty paper boxes that were covering a door with a keypad and the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo. One of the men in camo took a blowtorch to the door. When they made an opening, they kicked away the metal. Inside the room was a man strapped into some sort of chair. He put his glasses on as they opened his room.
"Are we there yet?" he asked.

In the cargo hold, Sara fiddled on her tablet as Ward punched at a punching bag. He was about to punch it again, when he saw someone, causing him to stop.
"You know, you're late," he remarked. Sara raised her head to see Skye walking down the spiral staircase.
"I'm tired from the morning's workout," Skye said. "I thought I was joining S.H.I.E.L.D., not 24 hour fitness."

Skye stepped up to the punching bag and Ward stood next to her.
"It's called relative strength training, starting with the basics." He too her hand and messed with the tape. "And next time, you do 15 push-ups for every minute you're late." He dropped that wrist and picked up the other one.
"Fine, Mr. Fun Machine. Better than pull-ups. I don't ever want to another pull-up again."
Sara glanced at her, "You find yourself hanging off the edge of a building 20 stories up, you're gonna want to do it at least one."

Ward stopped messing with Skye's tape and took a fighting position face the bag.
"Stand here," Ward commanded. He put his hand up high, near his face. "Jab, cross, like this." He showed her how he wanted her to hit then backed up. "10 minutes." Skye hit the bag, but with nowhere near the force Ward was using. "You know the hardest part about boxing?" Ward asked.
"Getting punched in the face?" Skye guessed.
"Keeping your hands up."

He against put both of his hands up by his face, showing her. She dropped her arms in frustration.
"Why do I even have to do this? I'm sure Fitz-Simmons' supervising officer didn't make them do this muscle stuff." She weakly hit the bag a few times while speaking. Ward stared at her.
"You said you wanted to be a field agent, like Coulson. Well, if you'd like to switch disciplines…"

Ward looked into the lab where Fitz-Simmons were wearing lab coats. Fitz had an aerosol can in his hands, spraying it to show a laser line as Simmons looked at Ward.
"What did your S.O. give you guys for morning drills?"
Simmons grew excited, "Oh atomistic attribute drills. Yeah, we'd name the mechanical, chemical, thermal –"
"Electrical properties of materials," Fitz added.
"Okay, okay, they made your point," Skye said, hitting the bag again.

She looked over at Sara.
"What did you do, Sara?"
"Both," Sara answered with a yawn. "I learned the periodic table while during doing pushups." Ward sent a grin in her direction before focusing back on Skye.
"There will come a moment when you have to commit to this or bail. Every field agent has a defining moment. Ask Coulson. When you have to make the card call to either dedicate yourself to this or to curl up in the ball and run."

Skye stopped hitting the ball and looked up at him.
"How can you run if you're curled up in a ball?" Ward sighed as she started hitting again.
"It's my job as your S.O. to make sure you don't die before then." He grabbed her hands, lifting them higher by her face. "Come on."
"What's yours, Agent Ward?" Skye asked.
"Ten minutes."
"Your defining moment?"

He stayed silent as he moved to sit beside Sara. Skye stopped hitting once more and turned to look at him.
"Come on, tell me. I want to know." She started to hit again. "I can get Coulson to give you some of that truth serum. You could spill your little heart out to me again."
He frowned, "You mean my level one overshare that miraculously got you to cooperate?" She looked away unsure, then back to him. "I hate to tell you this, rookie, but we don't have a truth serum."

Skye's mouth dropped open in shock.
"Wha—" There was a ding overhead and May's voice came over the speakers.
"Changing course, briefing in three." Sara stretched as Fitz-Simmons pulled off their lab coats.
"Ah, looks like we're on the move." Ward and went up the stairs as Skye sulked.

In the living room, Fitz-Simmons, Ward, and Sara sat on a couch while Skye stood nearby. Coulson entered from the opposite side of the plane.
"A few minutes ago a S.H.I.E.L.D. transport was attacked while carrying a priority red protected asset off Route 76 near Sterling." Fitz whistled while Simmons frowned.
"Priority red?"
Coulson nodded, "The asset was Canadian physicist Dr. Franklin Hall. Known for his work –"

Fitz-Simmons and Sara's faces turned strickened at the name: Franklin Hall.
"Oh, no. Not Frank," Simmons cried.
"Dr. Hall?" Fitz repeated. "He was our chemical kinetics advisor our second year."
"Yeah," Sara agreed, "he's so enthusiastic about science."
"We just adored him," Simmons added. "We can rescue him, can't we?"
"He's one of ours," Coulson said. "We're gonna try."

Ward moved slightly in his seat, looking up at Coulson.
"And the attackers?"
"Invisible." He walked off as Skye gave Ward a confused look.
"Wait, invisible?" She laughed amused, "Cool." Ward shared none of her humor or excitement, she dropped the smile from her face. "But terrible."

The group walked down a dark street in Sterling, Colorado.
"Dr. Hall was an asset?" Skye asked.
"One of a few select scientists S.H.I.E.L.D. has been protecting," Coulson said, "people our enemies would love to get their hands on. We keep them hidden, keep them on the move."
Simmons nodded, "Which is why Fitz, Sara, and I were so lucky to have him."
"We don't have him anymore," Sara reminded her.
"And, what does priority red mean?" Skye asked.
"It means security should have been…" Sara trailed off when they heard the groaning of metal. They looked up to see one of the SUVs inside a tree. "… heavy," she finished.

Mack sat in the back of a van, alive, but had a large bandage on the side of his head.
"It was pretty damn scary," Mack told Coulson. "And I don't spook easily, boss." Fitz and Sara had their tablets out and were scanning around.
"Nothing in the air from above?" May asked.
Mack nodded, "Nothing over our shoulder, but what's scary is they knew our route. They were waiting for us."

Coulson frowned, "Are you saying they were working with somebody inside S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Mack looked down and away for a moment, almost embarrassed then looked back at Coulson.
"Sorry to say… it had to be."

Simmons called to them.
"Fitz, what am I seeing here?" Fitz and Sara walked over to her. She had a pair of green goggles and was holding a metal instrument in her hand.
"Well, I'm not wearing the full-spectrum goggles I designed, so – no clue."
"We designed," Sara corrected. The rest of the team drifted over to them and Ward wrapped his arms around Sara.

Fitz reached out to Simmons.
"Let me have a look, come on." She stopped him.
"No, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, don't move!" She looked down at his feet when he stopped. "Wait a second." She picked up some rocks off the road and threw them into the air. They gathered together swirling all around each other like a tornado.
"What in the hell?" Skye asked.
"I think the electro-static field scanner activated some… thing."

Simmons smiled and they ducked when a batch of rock and dirt went flying every which way, taking out one of the lights as it did so.
"Okay, can we deactivate it?" Coulson asked. "Now?" Simmons hit a few keys, but it became more aggressive.
"Have to increase the density," Fitz reminded her.
"I tried, Fitz, but—" Piece of rock were hitting metal all around causing panging sounds as the others randomly ducked.
"Fitz! Sara! Do something!" May snapped.

Sara pulled away from Ward, taking the remote that looked like a mix between a cell phone and a walkie-talkie, away from Simmons. She clicked away on it and one of the rocks hit the remote, doing some damage.
"Whoa," Fitz exclaimed.

Suddenly, it all died out. Simmons bent down to the ground and picked up a small sphere up off the ground using tweezers. She held it out for Coulson to see.
"That did all this." Coulson plucked the sphere off the tweezers and into his fingers. Everyone stared at it.
"What is that?" Skye asked. It was tiny and looked like two rings that formed a sphere. Inside those rings, at the center was a gray material that was constantly moving.
"Something big," Coulson answered.

Fitz and Sara stood inside the lab, staring at the device that they had place in a machine. Fitz was wearing glasses that were lit on either side. The machine was holding it in a mechanized gripper. He lowered the device as Coulson and May watched.
"Either some cracked our comm system," Coulson said, "or Dr. Hall's movements leaked from inside S.H.I.E.L.D."
"You really think we have a mole?" May asked.

Skye, who was standing beside Simmons nervously, turned her head slightly to listen, but didn't look at them.
"I think you should go through communication logs, rule it out. We'll work on the tractor tread that we found on the scene." Skye leaned back from the table.
"I can do that, instead of pull-ups. I can upload an image of the tread pattern and check to see if there's any sort of—"

Her words were cut off by Ward as he walked into the lab.
"Already done," he said, pulling up a screen. "Matched it to a 2010 model. Found a list of purchases within a 500 mile radius. Narrowed down to those with priors, financial troubles, or propensity for risk-taking." He hit a button on Sara's tablet and pointed. "Three suspects."
"Who may have sold their construction equipment to the kidnappers. We'll ask," Coulson.

Ward left the room and Skye turned to Coulson.
"Hey, so, Ward said a funny thing. He said that you guys don't have a truth serum."
Coulson smiled, "Did he? Ward said that?"
"Yeah," Skye nodded.
"Interesting," Coulson mused.
"Yeah." Coulson said nothing else, walking away much to her frustration. "Hey, wait!"

May walked up to her.
"Hey." Skye turned her attention to May, who dropped a giant binder into Skye's waiting arms.
"Do you want me to bench press this?"
May shook her head, "Read it. Every communication out of HQ since they decided to transfer Dr. Hall." May walked away, leaving a shocked looking Skye.
"Hang in there, doc," she muttered. "It's gonna be awhile."

In Barnroof Point, Colorado, a man rode his horse down a trail. When he got to the bottom of a small hill he saw Coulson, who was leaning against Lola.
"Excuse me," Coulson called. The man stopped his horse.
"Who the hell are you?" the man asked.
"A concerned citizen, who happens to be a member of a giant bureaucratic organization that's tracking your every move."
"I haven't done anything wrong."
"Of course not," Coulson agreed, "but you sold your excavator to some people who did."

Taking off his sunglasses, Coulson studied the man.
"And you're hiding out here until things cool down because you know." The man's shoulders suddenly tensed, going on guard. "I just want to know who paid you." The man pulled his shotgun, pointing it at Coulson.
"Paid me enough not to answer any questions."

Suddenly, Ward appeared, gripping at the man's shot gun. He pulled hard, causing the man to fall off his horse. The man landed on his back, holding up his hands in surrender as Ward pointed the shotgun at him.
"Feels like the Old West," Ward remarked.
"They gave me money for my equipment, that's all," the man said, his voice shaky. "I never saw a face. I never heard a name."
"And how did you receive this money?" Coulson asked. "They write you a check?"

The man pointed at his saddlebag. Ward lowered the gun, just a bit, and reached over to the saddlebag. He gave the bag a shake and thin bars of gold fell out. Coulson bent down and picked one up.
"Paid you in gold?"
"Now it really feels like the Old West," Ward smirked.

Sara startled awake as a heavy bag was dropped on her desk.
"Can you analyze this?" Ward asked.
She yawned, "Yeah. Give me a few minutes."
"Coulson will be down in ten." She glared at his back as he marched out of the room. Unbeknownst to her, he had a smirk on his face.

Placing them on a table, Sara ran a wand over the gold bars. She rubbed at her eyes tiredly as Coulson walked into the lab.
"It looks like this because it's a Dore Bar," she said. "It means it was made at the mine rather than in a refiner. It's only about 92% pure. The cowboy got cheated a bit."
Coulson pursed his lips, "Can you determine the mine based on the impurities?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah," said Fitz. He had been looking at the gold bars but now he turned to his computer. "We've done that already." He clicked on the computer keys. "It's from the Dacey Mine in Tanzania, which is owned by –" "Quinn Worldwide," Coulson interrupted. "I'm sure you studied the CEO in your chemical engineering classes, or saw him on the cover of Forbes – Ian Quinn."

In the Republic of Malta, a man and a woman walked down the pathway of a fancy house. The man was speaking on his cell phone.
"We can't just pluck it from the ground like a potato. It needs to be extracted from the ore and enriched… I know… You know, tell him this investment paid for that ridiculous yacht of his and that he'll thank you at the shareholders meeting." He took the phone away from his ear and handed it to the woman.

Inside a room, Dr. Hall was sitting on a chair. He perked up when he heard the door open and the man walked up to him.
"Why is he tied up?" the man asked.
"Quinn," Dr. Hall said flatly.
"Does he look like a threat?" Quinn asked. Another man walked to Hall and used a knife to cut his bonds.

Quinn looked at Dr. Hall.
"I'm sorry about these guys." He grabbed a stool and sat down. He gave Dr. Hall a big smile then laughed. He reached forward and clapped Dr. Hall on his legs. "Welcome to Malta, Frank." Quinn laughed again, but Dr. Hall didn't seem amused.
"You know, it's one thing to steal my ideas, Ian, but stealing me?"
Quinn shook his head, "First of all, I never stole our ideas. We always agreed information should be free."
"It's amazing how much money you've made off free information."
"And secondly," Quinn continued, "think of this as a rescue mission, Frank. In fact, in a moment, I think you'll be thanking me. My staff intercepted a communication about the movement of a certain asset, and when I deduced that asset was you, I couldn't pass up on the opportunity. It's a little out of my comfort zone, sure."

Quinn held up a finger to Dr. Hall and stood, the other man following suit.
"Malta, you're not stupid," Dr. Hall observed. Quinn walked over to a cabinet and opened them, pulling out a bottle of liquor. "S.H.I.E.L.D. can't come after you here."
"Not just S.H.I.E.L.D. I am now a naturalized citizen of this fair country. Stunning beaches, beautiful tax laws and a deep seeded hatred of outside forces telling them what to do."
"Sounds like your dating profile."

Dr. Hall smiled at Quinn, who laughed.
"Right. I moved my whole operation down here. Bought the old Prime Minister's estate. It's not really my style, but they had this huge underground facility, so I figured, hey." He walked around the table, back to Hall with the drinks.
"Always been a stubborn bastard. Now you've finally found a place where the watchdogs can't touch you." Dr. Hall took the glass from Quinn, holding it up. Quinn brought up his own glass, chinking them together.
"Not without breaking international law."

The two men took a drink.
"But, more importantly, old friend, they can't touch you." Quinn pulled a small device out of his pocket. He set it on a table above the monitor and looked at Hall.
"Recognize the design?" he asked. Dr. Hall picked it up and looked at it. "We were barely old enough to drink when you sketched the blueprint. That's just a miniature prototype. A theoretical machine powered by a theoretical substance." Dr. Hall looked up at him in surprise. "Frank, you were right," Quinn said. He nearly smiled.
"You found it?" Dr. Hall exclaimed.

Fitz and Sara stood in front of a monitor, which showed an atom behind them.
"Gravitonium. It's an extremely rare high-atomic numbered element," Fitz said.
"It powers the device," Simmons said from beside Skye.
"Yes," Sara nodded. "It's so extremely rare that most people didn't believe it existed, much less the theory than an isolated positive charge –"
"Would turn the flow from isotropic –" Fitz cut in.
"Guys, High School drop out here. How does the device work again?" Skye asked.

Simmons got out of her seat and walked to the picture of the atom on the monitor. She went into schoolteacher mode, speaking slower and pointing at the atom like a spokesmodel would.
"Well, Gravitonium distorts gravity fields within itself, causing an undulating amorphous shape." Fitz tried to give it a try too.
"Yeah, which causes these, um, wiggly bits here, but when the electric current is applied the Gravitonium solidifies." He too was using basic hand gestured and spoke slowly.

When he said "solidifies" he brought his hands together like a ball.
"And those gravity fields erupt…" He began shaking his hands showing the movement of the atom then blew them apart. Sara glanced at Skye, who still seemed confused. "Randomly changing the rules of gravity around it," Fitz continued. "Well, so, now you can imagine what would happen to a big rig at 100 kilometers per hour." He paused on his way to his desk. "Or, uh, well, you could just remember, cause we saw it already. Didn't we?"

Sara grimaced, "Yeah, and guess which genius published every theory about Gravitonium and possible applications, years ago?"
"Dr. Franklin Hall," Skye said.
"Correct. And Dr. Hall attended the University of Cambridge at the same time as Ian Quinn." Skye started shaking his head.
"Coulson maybe off on this. Quinn is a notoriously good guy. His charity endowment's something like $8 billion."
"Yeah," Simmons said, "with money made from leeching the Earth of its resources. Looks like he's dug up another."

Dr. Hall held the device carefully while Quinn spoke.
"20 years, 12 mines, 6 continents, but yes, I finally found it. And now?" Quinn laughed. "We get to play with it." He continued to laugh as Dr. Hall scoffed a bit.
"Do you remember in all our talks on Orchard Street, the part where it's very, very dangerous?"
"Everything powerful is dangerous," Quinn dismissed. "But, I'm not going to convince you with more talking, talk of 50% shares, talk of Nobel Prizes. No, not you. You…"

Quinn reached to the monitor and slide his finger up, pulling something up on the screen.
"… will just have to see it." Dr. Hall looked over as doors were opened. His jaw dropped at the sight of a bigger version of the device he held in his hand. "I built a full sized generator, but I need you to tell me how to control the gravity fields. You can complete your life's work. I plan to do this, with or without you, but I know you. I know you'd want it done right." Dr. Hall gave a tiny nod of his head and Quinn clapped him on the shoulder. "Now is the moment when you think me."

Skye walked towards where Coulson and Ward were talking.
"The man's a prisoner, and it's up to us to get him out."
"We've checked the specs," Ward argued. "There's no way into Quinn's compound without a large S.H.I.E.L.D. strike force or a man inside." As Skye entered the room, she saw the rest of the team in there as well. "He's got a Neodymium laser fencing surrounding the property."
"They'll never allow a strike force into Malta," Sara said. "Plus, this weekend, Quinn Worldwide has got its annual shareholders gathering. We'd risk global outrage, but –"
"If we go in alone –" May interrupted.
"S.H.I.E.L.D. can disavow us, claim ignorance," Coulson finished.
"Without a man inside, it's impossible, unless you're immune to Neodymium laser emissions," May said.

Fitz perked up, "If we had a monkey, we could get in." Simmons squeezed her eyes shut in frustration while Sara let out a small sigh.
"Ugh, Fitz!" Simmons exclaimed.
"If we had a small monkey, he could slip through the sensors," Fitz continued, "and disable the fence's power source with his adorable little hands."
"Well… He's not wrong, Simmons," Sara shrugged. Simmons glared at her friend, who put up her hands in defense. "But it would be difficult to… you know, train it." Ward smirked, wrapping an arm around her.

Skye looked at them.
"I could go in," she said meekly. Sara's ears perked up, looking over at her.
"Drop me in the hills outside Valletta," Ward said. "I'll spend a few weeks establishing a cover gathering intel –"
"Hall doesn't have a few weeks," Coulson reminded him. He walked away from the table frustrated.
"And to restate," Simmons said, "any agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. caught on Maltese soil can be shot to death with bullets –"
"Yeah," Fitz nodded.
"Legally," Simmons finished.

Sara looked at Coulson.
"Skye has a point," she said. The group stopped and looked at her. "She could go in."
"Sara, this is serious," Ward said, all traces of humor leaving his face.
"I'm being serious," Sara said with a small frown.
"She's right," Skye said. "I'm not an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., so I could go in without breaking all these stupid rules." She pulled her phone up and started typing.

Simmons shook her head vigorously.
"International laws."
"This isn't something the Rising Tide can hack, Skye," Ward told her.
"Did you hear the deadly laser part? Fitz asked. "Without a brave monkey –" Skye looked up from her phone.
"You said you could go in with a man inside."
"And you want to be that man?" May asked.
"Fitz-Simmons and Sara loved the guy, and he needs help. They could be torturing him, or worse, making him do strength-training."

Sara smirked at the look Skye threw Ward before going back to typing at her phone.
"But you don't have the background or clearance or experience with any of this."
"I know," Skye shrugged. She held up her phone, showing them the screen. "But I've got an invitation. Well… technically it's an e-vite."

Coulson stared at a large rack of suits, talking with Ward.
"I understand your concern, but we don't have a lot of options." He pulled one suit out, examining it.
"Hey, I'm impressed. She just wrangled an invitation on her phone using insider back-channel voodoo in minutes. But sending her in with no training, you're taking a huge risk."

Ward followed Coulson as the man walked further into the room.
"I know Director Fury felt he owed you after you sacrificed for your self..."
"And my card collection," Coulson muttered.
"He gave you some autonomy, but Skye on a covert op?"
"Are you worried about her safety or her loyalty?" Coulson asked.
"Both," Ward answered. "The Rising Tide is the reason she got an invite. Who knows how many protocols she violated."
"That's her job. Ignore protocol, find connections, and back doors that nobody else can see." Ward sighed and walked away.

Ward found Sara relaxing in their bunk, her laptop on her knees.
"Hey, make room," he teased, pushing her over. He sat beside her, staring at the screen. "I have a problem," he said.
"What?" she asked, not looking up.
"Skye's holding back. She says she wants to be an agent, but she won't commit. She doesn't listen, makes jokes, you saw it." She slowly closed her laptop.
"Were you hard on her? I haven't been paying too much attention." He kissed the top of her head.
"Yeah, I've tried playing nice too. I need a new strategy."

Sara adjusted herself so that they were facing each other.
"Try no strategy. Stop thinking like an operative, start thinking like a person. Maybe Skye will let that person help her."
Ward frowned, "Help her with what?"
"Help her think like an operative." She gave him a small smile.
"What would I do without you?" Sara leaned forward, brushing their lips together.
"Be lonely forever," she teased. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll come watch this afternoon's lesson, okay?"

Sara sat in the cargo hold, watching Skye practice with Ward. Ward had a gun pointed at Skye's chest.
"Now, again, slowly, what's first?" She looked at his wrist then took hold of it. She spun herself so that Ward's gun arm was over her shoulder and her back was to his chest. "And then?"
"Then?" Skye asked, her voice morphing into a southern accent. "Things are moving too quickly. I'm a proper southern girl."

Ward's head dropped in disappointment.
"You'll make me untidy." Ward let out a sigh and took her other hand, placing it on top of his holding the gun.
"Twist the thumb, palm the barrel." He pulled the gun out of her grip and walked away.
"Ow!"
"You're gonna die and leave us hanging out to dry, you know that? You're going in with no self-defense skills –"
"I have a few tricks up my sleeve."
"You need muscle memory, fundamentals, the tools to turn yourself –"
"Into a whole bag of tools?"

He groaned, throwing a helpless look over at Sara. She shook her head, motioning to Skye.
"Keep going," she mouthed. He turned back to Skye.
"How did you learn computer science without committing yourself to it?"
"C.S. comes naturally to me. I'm sorry I'm not a natural… whatever you are." Sara froze, looking at Ward in worry.
"You think this came naturally? Ward asked angrily. "I had a brother who beat the crap out of me, me and my little brother, for nothing. For eating a piece of his birthday cake. I had to learn to protect us, the way I am trying to protect you."

For once, Skye didn't have anything flippant to say.
"That was my moment," Ward said. "You asked."
"Sorry. I didn't mean to push." There was a moment when they just stared at each other, however, Skye broke the tension by holding up Ward's gun. "But I did manage to take this."

Sara smiled lightly, but Skye could tell she was keeping something hidden.
"Getting the gun is one thing," she said. "Pulling the trigger, that is another." Ward took the gun, pointing at Skye's chest again.
"Now, again, slowly, what's first?"

Inside the planning room, Coulson talked the team through the mission.
"Skye will walk in the front door. The only external access point to Quinn's underground facility is from a beach cove." He walked over to the large screen where the blueprints of Quinn compound could be seen. "A two man extraction team could slip in there, but it's not easy. Fitz-Simmons, Sara."

Walking closer to the screen, Fitz started to talk.
"The perimeter is surrounded by a 20 foot high neodymium laser grid. Touch it and you're toast."
"Dead toast," Coulson said. "The only way to disable the grid is to crack the system and trigger a reboot. This would give the team three seconds to cross. Of course, Quinn's too smart to allow any wireless access on his property." "That's where I come in," Skye said.

Simmons opened a case that was sitting on the table.
"Yes, a working compact – holds up under x-ray." Fitz got it out as Ward and Coulson moved closer for a look. Fitz opened the compact and showed the inside to Skye.
"Desert Rose, to match your complexion," Sara informed her. The Hacker smiled softly at that.
"But, oh, what's this?" Fitz asked.

The mirror of the compact showed five red dots on it.
"A read out," Sara said. The lights switched from five red on the left to five green on the right side. "Turns green if you're in close enough proximity to a computer to gain wireless access."
"When it does, you just drop this nearby and walk out," Simmons said. "We'll do the rest. Easy as pie."
"Or it will be, if you stick to the plan," Ward said. Ward racked his gun, causing a distinct click.
"Got it," Skye nodded quickly. "Plan, green, drop, walk… pie."

As Fitz handed her the compact, Coulson walked over to May.
"I don't want to question your orders, sir," May said.
"Good." He stepped around her to start of the room, she sighed and spoke anyway.
"But, I've already seen far more combat than I bargained for. This two man extraction team? It's exactly the kind of action I was hoping to avoid." Coulson turned to face her.
"That's why you're not on it."

May's face turned disbelieving.
"Specialist work is different from field work, believe me. When was the last time you—"
"Hall's one of ours and he's in trouble. I need two men to get him out. Ward makes one. And Sara makes two." Coulson turned away from her. "All right team, suit up."

May stopped Sara before she could leave the room.
"Are you sure you're up for this?"
Sara shrugged, "I'll have my inhaler in-case I really need it. It's been a while since I've been on out on a mission like this May, I did train for it." May nodded slowly.
"Just be careful."
"Yes Mum," Sara quipped. May hit her shoulder lightly with a small smirk.