Episode 4: Eye Spy

Stockholm, Sweden

In the center of the Square was a band of drummers playing music. There was a group of people circled around watching the band as others went about their business. There were people milling about, dancing, taking or walking quickly. A person wearing a suit, hat, and a bright red mask covering their face walked into the Square. He was quickly followed by more people dressed exactly the same, each of them carrying a briefcase.

People started to take notice of the large group of red masked people entering the center of the Square. A young African woman was standing in the center of the Square and the red masked people all went around her. She had earphones in and closed her eyes as they passed.

As one passed her, she opened her eyes and stared at him, then turned her body to watch him go. The masked men entered the area where people were dancing and listening to music. A few were stopped when people got in front of them dancing.

The men in red masks rode down an escalator down into the subway system with regular people mixed in between them. One of the people on the escalator, right behind the last man in the mask, was the woman from the Square.

As the men in masks got off the escalator, some of them went to the right, while the others went to the left. She followed the group going to the left. Once she entered the area of the platform, the people in the area started to take notice of the strange men with bright red masks. There were people with their phones up high, taking photos and videos.

The men in masks stood in a straight line, shoulder to shoulder at the edge of the platform when the train arrived. The doors opened and they waited for the passengers to get off then entered the train. It seemed to be two men with masks per section of train. The woman from the Square also got on the train looking around.

She stood close to one of the men in the mask, hand in her pocket. The doors closed and the train started off. There was a beeping noise of an intercom and the conductor of the train said something to the passengers. The woman glanced at the men in the masks, five of them in her car.

The one closest to the woman turned her head and started at her, then the second, the third, fourth, and fifth all turned their heads to look at her. She glanced down at her hands and saw the metal briefcases handcuffed to their wrists.

The woman looked back up to their faces, all of them still staring at her, then she closed her eyes. With her eyes closed, she smashed her elbow into a fire box, breathing the glass. The lights in the train went out. There were flashes of red masks and people were being jumbled about.

The train pulled into the next station and every car was blacked out, there was no light coming from inside the train. People rushed off the train, leaving behind the men in the mask who were either unconscious or dead, slumped in seats.

A police officer entered the train and looked around. He saw one of the masked men on the floor, dead with his eyes open. The case that was handcuffed to his wrist was gone, his hand chopped off and the case removed.

In a dark area, the sliver case sat on a hard surface, blood on it. The woman was entering a combination into it. She opened the case nad lifted a piece of cloth. Underneath the cloth was a small, but expensive box of diamonds, about the size of a cigar box. The woman took the box out, shaking it. She put the box into a bag around her shoulder.

There was a loud noise of a train. She had been sitting on a little half wall in the tunnel of the train's path. The train passed in front of her, and when it was completely past, she was gone. She was back in the shadows.

May was at the controls in the cockpit. Sara was sitting beside her, curled up as if she was asleep. The door behind her opened and closed admitting Coulson. He leaned against one of the walls and looked out at the sky.
"Maybe I should learn to fly. It's not too late, right? I could learn." May took a deep breath, saying nothing. "What do you like best, the freedom? The view?"
"The solitude," Sara grumbled, shifting slightly in her seat. Coulson nodded his head, getting the message.
"Got it. See you in Sweden." He left and May gave a hint of a smile.

Ward stood inside the lab. He was holding a tiny blue vial between his thumb and index finger.
"I only get one shot. And it has to knock a person back, as well as out." Fitz nodded, walking up behind him.
"Which is why we're perfecting this little beauty." Ward caught sight of a gun in Fitz' hand. ".45 caliber cartridge, semi-automatic. Each mag…" Fitz loaded the gun. "Contains eight therapeutic rounds of Dendrotoxin."

Simmons, who was behind Ward, piped up.
"In case you miss." He sent a glare over his shoulder that made her drop her smile.
"Or have… multiple assailants." Ward looked back at the gun and reached out to take the gun.

Fitz protectively brought the gun in closer to his body and away from Ward's reach.
"Yeah, w-we're gonna have this new night-night pistol working in no time. Okay?" He turned away from Ward, still holding the gun.
"Great. One thing, we're not calling it that." He went to leave the lab and Simmons' face light up.
"Ah, told you!" she exclaimed.
"Yes we – Yes, we are!" Fitz called after him. He frowned over at Simmons. "Sara likes it."
"Sara is your sister. She has to like whatever you do," Simmons told him. He grumbled under his breath and turned away.

Ward walked out of the lab and met Coulson who was doing down the spiral staircase.
"Have you seen Skye?" Coulson asked.
"Not since weapons training. Have you seen Sara?"
"Cockpit. Has she stopped saying "bang" when she pulls the trigger?"
"Mostly," Ward shrugged, heading up the stairs. "Now, if she could just learn the difference between the safety release and the magazine release, we'll be making real progress."

Ward disappeared upstairs and Coulson looked over to the black SUV parked in the cargo hold then walked over to it. He knocked on the window and it rolled down.
"What's up, Phil?" Skye asked.
"I'd prefer you not call me "Phil"," Coulson said.
"Okay, you're the boss… A.C."

Coulson couldn't help but smirk at that. "Just missing my van a little bit, taking a little me time." She had her laptop open and was clicking on the keys while she talked to Coulson.
"I want your help with something," Coulson said. She looked up, took a deep breath, and sat up closer to him.
"Hit me with it," Skye said.
"You ever rob a bank?"
"No."
"An armored car?"
"Nope."
"How about a casino?"
"Should I be offended?" Skye asked.
"Somebody's stealing millions of dollars in diamonds. They've found a way to crack the security systems. I want you to figure out their exploits." Skye perked up, interested.

Coulson, May and Skye walked through a train terminal with military personal guarding the walls.
"Yesterday, 55 men, all military, were hired by one of the largest gem brokers in the world. They dressed the men in identical outfits, gave each one a randomly assigned briefcase, and sent them along 25 different routes here in Stockholm," Coulson said. "No one knew which briefcase contained the diamonds, but they were still stolen."

Coulson stopped to sign a clipboard as Skye looked down at her phone.
"Why the Kabuki theater?" May asked. The three of them entered the train.
"They were afraid because somebody's targeting diamonds, an armored car in Milan, a safe in Monte Carlo, and now this. Over $30 million in total."

The bodies had been removed from the train, but Skye was taking in all the blood and damage.
"Each theft occurred despite heavy security." Coulson bent down to where the man, who had his hand cut off, had laid.
"They sound like an inside job," May said.
"A lot of people share that opinion." "You don't?" Skye asked.

Coulson looked up at her.
"CCTV camera catch any of the action?"
"Fitz-Simmons and Sara are checking. The system went dark for an hour. They think it was hacked."
"It was the same thieves each time?" May asked.
"Yes, but it was just one thief, a woman. And she did it all with her eyes closed."
"Eyewitnesses I.D. her?" May asked.
"Black, athletic build, late 20s, early 30s."

Skye glanced at him.
"So, you asked how she could have cracked the systems. I have a pitch, but, it's way outside the box."
"I live outside the box," Coulson said. Skye raised her eyebrows in shock.
"There are people with superpowers, right? What if this woman as ESP or something?"
"There are no credible studies that support precognition, telepathy or extrasensory perception," May said.
"Okay, so science says no. But this woman knew impossible tings. And why did she shut her eyes?" Skye asked. "That's either random or totally important. Was she listening… or was she reading minds?"

Coulson and May stared at her until she became uncomfortable.
"I'm gonna go… play with my phone now." She sat down on one of the seats as May got closer to Coulson.
"Why does H.Q. want us to investigate these heists?"
"They don't," Coulson said. "I picked this op." He turned to Skye as May gave him a look. "Any luck?"
"Yep, I'm getting full bars, which means, if I was down here and 55 guys were in scary red masks, you know what I would do?" She took a deep breath and stood. "Instagram." Coulson and May walked closer to Skye, staring at a picture with one of the men in the mask.

Sara stood with May and Skye inside Coulson's office.
"It's amazing," Coulson said. "Every year this part of our job gets easier. Between Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr, people are surveilling themselves."
"Not that you would understand," Skye teased Sara.
"Just because I don't like putting my personal info online, doesn't mean…"
"Yes it does," Skye interrupted.
Sara sighed, "Whatever."

Skye smirked before looking back at Coulson.
"With many filters to choose from. I could do this pretty well when I was hacking for The Rising Tide, but you guys tag and search in ways the rest of us never dreamed of."
"I can run facial recognition software on the photos," May said. "Cross-reference them with our criminal databases."
"You don't have too," Coulson said.

Using his tablet, he pulled up a photo and zoomed in. There was a picture of a woman from the train.
"That's the thief. Her name's Akela Amador."
"You're certain?" Sara asked.
"I should be, I trained her."

The women followed him down the hallway and into the living room as he talked.
"Akela Amador was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Seven years ago, she led a raid on one of Vanchat's Gulags. Everyone believed that she and the other two agents on the mission were killed. I had my doubts. So I sent in a second team, just in case. They found a lot of carnage, but couldn't confirm that any of it was Amador, left the possibility open."
"That's why you chose this op, when you heard about the heists," May said.

The group turned to look at her.
"There are only a few women in the world who could pull off something so impossible," Coulson said. "Since you and Sara were on The Bus, I thought it had to be her."

They walked into the planning room where Ward was waiting.
"Swedish customs confirmed that Amador left the country using an alias on a Swedish passport." Up on the big monitor was all the information they had on Amador. "She flew to Belarus, brought a train ticket to a town called Zloda. I've also put together a list of individuals who may fence that many diamonds."

Sweeping his fingers across the tabletop screen, Ward fed information to the monitor.
"There's been no contact or activity," Ward said. Amador's list of contacts appeared on the screen.
"Maybe she's saving them for a rainy day, buying something special," Coulson said. "Let's focus on finding Amador."
"I'll let H.Q. know she's alive so they can assist with the manhunt," May said.
"I'd like to hold off on that," Coulson said.

Everyone in the room gave him a questioning look.
"Until we know more," he added. "Contact the Belarus authorities, May. Find us a place to park The Bus." He glanced over at Wad. "Put together a list of inns, hotels and pensions near Zloda. There can't be that many of them. We'll find her."

Amador sat in a hotel room. She sat with a blank face, staring straight ahead. She closed her eyes and then turned her body to the right. She turned so that she was facing the door and moved quickly. She picked up a golf club from a bag nearby and opened the door. On the other side was a man, he gasped as she opened the door and grabbed his shirt, pulling him into the room.

Throwing him onto the bed, she used to golf club to pin him to the mattress.
"The agreement was to come alone."
"I did!" the man exclaimed.
"What about the man in the next room?" He guiltily glanced at the wall separating the room. "Or the one by the stairs?"
"They're here to protect me, for when I leave, with the merchandise. Please."

Hesitantly, she lifted the golf club and got off the bed. The man wiped his face with relief and got up as well. Amador remained on guard, holding the golf club.
"I'm sorry, I've never done this before." He put as much room as he could between himself and Amador, giving her nervous looks. "May I see them?" he asked.

Amador turned and put the golf club away. She reached into a pocket on the golf bag and pulled out a tube of golf balls. She took the top off the canister and dumped one of the golf balls into the man's hand. In her other hand, she picked up a pitcher of water, which she poured onto the golf ball.

The ball fizzed in the man's hand, disintegrating. The man squeezed his hand closed into a fist. When he opened it, he had a palm pull of diamonds. He gasped and looked up at Amador with a little smile.
"The rest, they are…?"
"In the bag," Amador answered. "You can carry them through customs. No one will know. Now, it's your turn."

The man reached into an inside coat pocket, taking out a small credit card thing, handing it over to her.
"When I said 30 million dollars, I never thought anybody would –" She interrupted him.
"If it fails, I will find you."
"It will access all the levels, as promised." He took the canister of golf balls, exhaled, then stepped around her. "But, once you're inside, do you have a plan?"
"It'll come to me," Amador answered.

A white van drove down a country road. As they passed over a bridge, Simmons glanced over at Fitz.
"How exciting. I've dreamed of visiting Zloda since I was a schoolgirl." Sara looked at her, her eyes bored.
"Zloda, Belarus? A dream come true. Really?" Simmons' smile faltered.
"It's the birthplace of Nobel physicist Zhores Alferov. I mean, technically he's from Vitebsk, but that's less than an hour from here and I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't know that. Besides, you would go pairs."
"I know who Zhores Alferov is. Father of heterostructure transistors, thank you very much."

Ward shot a confused look toward her, which she ignored.
"And, Simmons, my dream come true would be getting Ward to go to Disneyworld." Ward rolled his eyes at the pointed look she sent him.
"Disneyworld?" Skye asked. "Aren't you a bit old?"
"Not really, he just wouldn't take me to Stonehenge, and our compromise was Disneyworld… Are you okay Fitz?"

The three women looked at Fitz, who seemed slightly pale.
"I'm just a little bit preoccupied. Our first and only other time in the field wasn't exactly a picnic, was it?" Coulson, in the passenger seat, turned to look at them.
"You guys are only here to search for Amador electronically. You won't even need to leave the van."

As Coulson turned back around, Fitz let out a relived sigh and Simmons smiled in agreement. Sara's ears perked up at the sound of May's voice.
"Bus to short bus."
"Go for short bus," Ward said.
"Next time, I'll decide what we call ourselves, okay?" Coulson said. Sara snorted at the confused look Ward sent his boss.
"H.Q. has requested a status update," May continued.
"What'd you tell them?"
"That we're tracking a potential suspect, nothing more," May answered.
"I owe you one."
"More like three," Sara muttered.

As the van slowed to a stop, Coulson took off his seatbelt and addressed the others.
"If Amador is here, she'll have to contact her buyer. Scan for cellphone transmissions, encrypted emails, anomalous broadcast signatures. Call us if you find anything that indicates her presence."
"Why am I here?" Sara asked.
"Because May said you needed to get out," Coulson answered before getting out of the car. Ward glanced at them.
"Maintain radio silence unless you really need help."
"Well, what exactly defines needing help?" Fitz asked. The door slammed without an answer.

Coulson and Ward walked through the streets of downtown Zloda.
"So… you said no to Stonehenge?" Coulson asked.
"I can only imagine how painful this must be for you sir," Ward said, dodging the question. "Betrayed by someone you trained and believed in."
"We don't have all the facts yet," Coulson said, getting the hint.
"True, but I have to assume the worst, that Amador sold out the two other agents on her missions."

The older agent stopped walking and Ward turned to look back at him.
"Wonder what she got in exchange."
"I don't know," Coulson said. "But until we do, I'm not going to assume anything." Coulson started forward again as Ward watched him go.

Simmons looked at a screen.
"There's barely electricity in this town," she remarked. "Can't be too hard to find our mystery woman."
"Unless she already knows we're here," Skye said.
"No," Sara said, shaking her head. "You're not suggesting some sort of precognition or telepathy because –"
"I know, it doesn't exist," Skye said. "And not long ago, I would have dumped ESP in the "alien and portals are for crazy people" pile. But now…" They all froze when they heard a beep sound. "Found a server," Skye said, glancing at her laptop.

Coulson spoke to one of the locals as Ward watched. Coulson held up his phone to the local, showing a picture of Amador. The local pointed a direction and Coulson thanked him. Ward's phone rung and he answered.
"Did you locate Amador?" Ward asked without saying hi.
"What?" Skye asked. "No, not yet. But we've found a broadcast. With some weird signal encrypted into it."
"You think Amador might be communicating on that signal?" Ward asked.
"Maybe, but I called with an equally pressing question for you, my S.O. What are we supposed to do if we have to pee?"

Ward lost a step when he heard her question. He stopped as he heard Sara chuckle lightly.
"You broke protocol because you need a bathroom break?" he asked. "Just ask Sara."
"It was a really, really long drive, and everyone's nervous. Oh, and Sara is the one who told me to call you." Ward had to conceal a smile.
"There's a container in the bottom of the blue chest."

Skye whispered quietly to Simmons.
"Bottom of the blue chest." Simmons opened the chest and took out something then went back into the chest, she pulled out an empty water bottle and sent Sara a glare as the agent started laughing. "Not the water bottle," Skye said to Ward.
"That's the one."
"Did you never learn the thing where boy parts and girl parts are different?" Skye asked.

Ward rolled his eyes, clearly hearing Sara's amusement.
"Agent Coulson and I are trying to find a dangerous criminal. If there's nothing else pressing…"
"Actually, hold on a sec, listen, Fitz wants to know if you packed any snacks?"

Fitz raised the tone of his voice so that Ward could hear him.
"'Cause I'm feeling a bit peckish…" Skye heard a click and Skye took the phone away from her ear.
"Uh, hello?... He hung up."
"I have almonds and gum in my bag," Sara said, her laughing quieting.

Ward and Coulson walked into a hotel and up to the front desk, where a woman was setting down a vase of flowers.
"Dobryy Den," Coulson said in greeting.
"Good afternoon," the woman said kindly.
"I'm Agent Coulson, this is Agent Ward." The woman looked back and forth between Coulson's warm smile and Ward's hard mask.
"We're looking for this young woman," Coulson continued. He turned his phone to her, showing a picture of Amador.

The woman looked at the picture and smiled.
"Oh, she's my angel." Coulson and Ward shared a confused look.
"Why do you say that?" Ward asked.
"She has a gift, knows things. She told me to go to doctor. He found a tumor. I'm having surgery next week. This girl saved me." Once again, the two agents shared a look.

Inside the van, the four agents looked at the broadcast signal. It was showing different flashes of things, the clearest was a road with trees above it.
"I can't stabilize it," Fitz said. "There's an encrypted local signal competing."
"Mirror it over," Skye said. "I have a couple of Rising Tide exploits that might work."

Fitz hit a couple keys and the feed appeared on Skye's laptop. There was a beeping from her laptop as she typed on the keys.
"One last thing." She entered a few words into a box and when she hit enter, the feed cleared up. "Ta-da, and you're welcome!" Skye said. They stared at the feed, which showed a street.

Coulson spoke to the woman behind the desk as Ward glanced around the small room.
"It's very important that we talk with her," he said. "With her gift, I'm sure she knows you're coming."

Fitz-Simmons, Sara, and Skye watched the feed on Skye's laptop. The feed went past some bushes then they saw a parked white van.
"Russian TV's kinda boring," Skye said.
Sara frowned, "That looks like our van."

Suddenly, the feed went from a normal looking camera feed to one of an x-ray vision feed. They could see four skeletons inside the van. Skye looked down at a very worried looking Fitz-Simmons.
"What are we looking at?" Skye asked. Simmons looked at Skye while Sara stood up, while still watching the screen. She raised her hands and waved them around. The center skeleton raised its hands as well.
"Us," she answered.

The view of the van grew larger, whatever was filming them was moving closer. A very hard hit rocked the van slamming them all to the ground and knocking things around.
"Let's get out of here!" Skye exclaimed. Sara scrambled into the driver's seat and turned the key, the engine stuttering to a start. She went to reach for the petal, but it was too far away.
"Stupid tall boyfriend," she muttered.

Sara turned around to look at them.
"Fitz-Simmons, call Coulson. Skye get the gun." Skye picked up the gun and tossed it to her, accidently releasing the safety. Sara pointed the gun out the window, seeing Amador in the other car. She went to fire before noticing the mag missing.
"Brace yourselves," she called out. Amador hit the driver's side door, pushing the van off the road and onto its roof.

May stood on the catwalk as the team walked into the cargo hold. Coulson looked up at May as he passed. She glanced at Sara, who had her arms crossed, talking angrily with Ward. Fitz-Simmons seemed rattled and even Skye looked shaken up. There was a long gash across Sara's forehead.

In the planning room, Ward leaned over the table, talking with Coulson.
"Sir, Amador attacked you and your people. Whatever regard you hold for her isn't reciprocated," Ward said. "She just kicked us in the teeth."
"How's the team?" Coulson asked.
"Rattled, no broken bones. We're lucky she just knocked the van over so that she could get away. Probably make a while for them to refocus."
"I think I can recover the data signature of that encrypted broadcast," Skye said in the doorway. Ward turned to her. "I don't understand it yet, but that's how she was watching us. Give me an hour. Maybe we can start watching back."

Fitz-Simmons stood behind Skye while she worked on her computer.
"Something's wrong," Skye said. "It's the same feed that was watching us in the van. Uh, put it on the big monitor." Ward, Coulson, and May entered, and Fitz-Simmons walked over to the monitor.
"Maybe the lens broke when the van rammed us," Simmons tried.
"Hope she broke more than that," Sara muttered. Ward wrapped an arm around her.

The group watched the screen as Skye pulled up the feed. At first, all they saw was a white mist, then a black hand came into view and wiped the moister off a mirror, although, they couldn't see a face.
"It's a mirror. Are we recording this?" Coulson asked. He walked around the table to get closer, Skye did the same.
"Uh…" She hit a button on her tablet. "We are now."

More of the moisture was wiped away and they could see Amador appear in the reflection.
Fitz startled, "Whoa."
"How are we seeing this?" Coulson asked. "Where's the camera?" The camera feed panned down to show a box filled with what looked like little screwdrivers. The feed showed them that the was looking into the mirror, pulling down the skin under one of her eyes. She lifted the screwdriver nad proceeded to put it into her eyes.

Sara and Fitz instantly squeezed their eyes shut and looked away. Sara buried her head into Ward's shoulder.
"It's her eye, she's a camera," May said. Amador looked in the mirror and when she blinked, the feed looked like x-ray vision.
"It switches to backscatter when she closes her eyes," Simmons said. Skye looked at Ward.
"You're a robot, can you do that?"

Ward rolled his eyes then looked at Fitz.
"Who has tech like this?" Ward asked.
"We don't," Fitz said. Coulson turned around and looked at him.
"Not like this," Sara corrected, pulling away from Ward. She glance at the screen before grimacing again. "That's small and internal. That's at least a decade ahead of anything we've seen."
Fitz shrugged, "Though now that I've seen it, I could maybe approximate it. The backscatter x-ray, a microtransciever that somehow doesn't fry her brain, and internal power source –"
"All miniaturized honestly, it's…" Simmons said.
"That's genius," Sara said, sitting up straighter, a thoughtful look on her face.
"Genius," Simmons agreed.

Amador opened her eyes and her vision returned to normal.
"We have to bring her in," Coulson said.
"We have to take her out, she's a weapon," May argued. Skye and Ward glanced at her, the latter nodding. "I'll call H.Q., see if we can bring a task force in to help us." May began to turn, but Coulson stopped her.
"Our team can handle this."

Skye rolled her eyes at the tension just created as May walked closer to Coulson.
"I get it, you feel responsible, maybe you pushed her too hard." Coulson looked at May. "But she tried to kill four members of our team."
"If she wanted us dead, we'd be dead," Coulson said.
"We got lucky. You want to risk out lives again?"
"You told me you were ready for combat, that you had my back."
"Don't ever doubt it," May growled. "But you are defending this girl at the expense of the team."
"Because we're protecting our own."
"With all due respect, sir," Ward said. "She's not one of our own."

Coulson turned away from May at Ward's words.
"Guys," Skye called. They all turned their attention back to the screen. Amador was writing something on a piece of paper.

CAN I SLEEP?

"Why does she have to ask for permission?" Simmons asked. Words were being fed into the feed, like someone typing on a computer screen.

STAND BY

"She's not being watched," Coulson said. "She's being controlled. We have to find her." May dropped her head in disappointment. "Sooner or later, she'll look at something that will clue us to her location."
"I'll take the first watch," May said. Coulson looked over to her and gave her a small nod then walked away.