Episode 4: Eye Spy

Sara sat in her bunk, reading through a book.
"Scoot over," Ward said, entering the small room. He climbed behind her and she settled against his chest. "How's the head?" he asked.
"Mmm?" she asked, looking up from her book. He kissed the top of her head.
"How's the head?" he repeated.
"Fine," she answered. "How's the ego?"

Ward gasped mockingly.
"It's hurt now." She rolled her eyes, tilting her head back. He kissed her quickly. She pulled away and a hurt look appeared in his eyes.
"Sorry, you interrupted me," she said, going back to her book. He grabbed the book out of Sara's hands, pulling her around so that she faced him.
"Aren't I more important?" he teased.
"No."

Sara started laughing lightly at the look that appeared on his face. She leaned forward, leaning her head against his, being mindful of the cut.
"I'm afraid, Grant, that saving the princess is more important."
"Anything I can do to change your mind?" She smiled, pressing her lips gently against his.
"I don't know." He touched her cheek, kissing her deeper.
"Let me try."

Skye knocked softly on the door to Coulson's office before heading inside.
"I just wanted to give you a quick update," Skye said as he looked up at her. "She's still at the hotel, so… that's the update. It's a pretty weird day, huh?" She walked deeper into Coulson's office. "It's like we were trapped in a van shaped piñata."
"That never should have happened," Coulson said.
"It's okay. It wasn't nearly as terrible as watching mom and dad fight downstairs."
"That shouldn't have happened either. You regret coming along?"
"It was pretty impulsive, even for me. I still don't know much about you…"

She looked over at one of Coulson's collections on display.
"… except for that you value really old stuff." Coulson looked around too. "And you value me." He looked back at her. "First to do that in a long time. So, I happened to believe you're an excellent judge of character." He just stared at her. "If you think this woman deserves a second chance, we should give it to her, even though she tried to kill me and I kind of hate her guts." She left the room, closing the door behind her. She didn't see it, but Coulson had a small smile on his face.

Inside the lab, Fitz was asleep next to a pile of wires nad gadgets. Coulson entered the lab and looked at the monitor. The screen was off and black. He walked over and woke Fitz.
"Fitz." Fitz startled awake.
"What?"
"What happened? Where's May?"
"Uh, I don't know. She was watching the transmission."

Picking up his tablet, he typed on some keys.
"Amador must be sleeping," Fitz said.
"Play it back," Coulson ordered. He walked closer to the screen while Fitz messed with his tablet. They saw another computer message scroll on the feed:

TODOROV BLDG; PROX CARD TO DELTA 5 9:00

"There," Coulson said. "She got another message. Todorov building." He watched the feed until it showed a table with food and a bill from room service. "Wait, stop." Fitz did as requested, and Coulson moved closer to the monitor. "Can you get closer on that receipt?" Fitz did as he was told. "Damnit, May," Coulson snapped, seeing the receipt. "Wake the others."

Amador's eyes shot open and the quickly got out of bed. She stopped when she heard May's voice, however, she didn't look in the woman's direction.
"Whoever's monitoring you, do they have audio?" May asked.
"No. But they'll use facial recognition to determine you're a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."
"So, I don't have to introduce myself."
"Did Coulson send you?" Amador asked.
"No. He feels sorry for you. I don't."

May started walked closer to Amador.
"I'll bring you in to S.H.I.E.L.D., you'll get a fair trial, and on one else gets hurt."
"You have no idea, do you?"
"We know that you receive orders."
"Then you know that once they see you, only one of us gets to walk out of here. They built in a fail-safe." Amador looked up at May.
"Either I kill you or they kill me."

She stared at May while still sitting on the bed.
"You should have stayed in bed," May growled. Amador stood up, pointing a gun at May, who easily kicked it out of her hand. With that, the fight was on. There were many hits and kicks going on between the women and seemed pretty evenly matched.

May threw Amador onto a table with dishes. When she hit the floor, Amador saw a knife and picked it up. She threw it at May, who just turned her head and let the knife fly by. It embedded in the ball behind her. Amador stood, closing her eyes. She smashed the floor light, leaving them in darkness. Her view switched to that of her x-ray vision. May stood on guard, trying to figure out where Amador was.

Amador scanned the ground and found May's gun. She picked it up and pointed it at May. Suddenly, the door to her room was kicked open and there stood Coulson. Amador turned towards the door and fired at the same time as Coulson. She fell back, leaving him standing there with the "night-night" gun.

Amador opened her eyes slowly, her head foggy.
"Hello, Akela," Coulson said. She blinked a few times, trying to get her vision clear. Coulson was sitting in front of her as she laid on the bed. "You're safe now." She gasped and sat up. "Give it a minute." She was breathing hard, trying to regain herself. "I hit you with a powerful Dendrotoxin."
"There's a kill switch in my eye. Why hasn't my handler blown it yet?"
"As far as your handler knows, you fought Agent May, you both went down, then you got up and left the building to complete your mission."

Amador looked at him in surprise.
"How?"
"We highjacked your feed. One of my agents is wearing a set of glasses, mimicking your implant. Right now, it's transmitting her point of view as if it was yours… It even has backscatter imaging."
"I get messages from my handler."
"We're receiving those as well. My agent's on her way to the Todorov building. Completing your mission while we disable the fail-safe in your eye. I promise. They can't see you. You're okay, Akela. Look at me."

Very slowly, Amador turned to face him. Her eyes remained downcast, but finally she brought them.
"How long have they been monitoring you?" Coulson asked.
"Years." He gave her a sympathetic smile. "Why are you doing this, Coulson?"
"I need to know why a Prox Card is worth $30 million –"
"No. Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Where's the "I told you so"?"

Coulson looked at her for a moment.
"That's not me anymore. I'm just glad you're alive." She looked away from him again.
"Vanchat would have never caught us if I'd just done my job. I should have listened to you… Trusted my team the way you insisted." Tears were forming in her eyes. "If I had… they might still be alive." Coulson looked at her with sympathy.

Sara drove an SUV down a street, a wire running from her "glasses" to Skye's computer. Skye pugged something in, and a board began to blink green.
"Turn here," Ward said from behind her with Skye.

They pulled up to the Todorov building and Sara pulled into a parking spot.
"How does it feel?" Ward teased. "To drive."
"Feels great. You Americans have it all wrong." She gazed out at the building which looked like some sort of factory.
"Where are we?" Skye asked.
"Todorov building," Sara answered. "I think it's research, not military."
"Looks like a prison," Skye mumbled.
"Are we wireless yet?" Ward asked. Skye hit a few keys before nodding.
"Yep, ready to detach." Ward reached up and grabbed the wires attached to the glasses behind Sara's ear. She tensed slightly.

Coulson passed Amador a water bottle.
"How did you manage to escape?"
"I didn't," Amador answered, taking it from him. "Got caught in a crossfire, went down. Woke up in some half-assed triage bay, blind in his eye." She pointed to her right eye. "Spent the next four years alone in a cage at the bottom of a copper mine."
"We looked for you. Heard rumors you'd been taken to Shanxi Providence."
"When a team finally came, I thought it was S.H.I.E.L.D. at first, but…"
"Who were they?"

Amador sighed, "Don't know, even to this day. But they were organized. They took me to a clinic. I had multiple surgeries, until one day, I would see out of both eyes again. I was so grateful, until I realized what they had done."
"Somebody was watching."
Amador nodded, "My every move. I had no idea until they sent the first message. Then the assignments started. Mostly it was "steal this", "follow him", "break into that". I just tried to ignore them. But when I did, I'd get this pain, like an electric migraine."

Coulson frowned, his brow scrunching up thoughtfully.
"The fail-safe."
"Polite way of putting it. Now, when I think about my years in the cage… I miss it. I wish I could go back, be alone, sleep in peace."

While she took a sip of water, Coulson leaned closer.
"I know you're tired, but I need your help."
"If you want information on the Prox Card, you're out of luck."
"You can't go on missions without intel," Coulson said shock.
"It comes in pieces, a name, an address."

A message scrolled on Skye's screen:

LOACTION CONFIRMED. PROCEED TO DELTA 5.

"It would suck to live like this, wondering if someone's watching."
"Testing backscatter," Sara muttered. She touched one side of her glasses and she looked off to the side. She saw in the inside of another car before turning it off.
"Good to go," Skye said. She closed the case and passed a little remote to Sara. The agent got out of the car and started walking away.
"We'll be watching," Ward said. He could see her posture relax just barely.

Coulson was pacing the room. His soft sympathetic voice was gone, replaced with a harder one of frustration.
"Come on, Akela. You've never spoken too or met anyone in person?"
"No. Only contacts are message I received from The Englishman." Coulson whipped his head up to look at Amador.
"The Englishman – your handler? How do you know he's English?"
"The way he refers to certain things. He uses "lift" instead of "elevator", "boot" instead of "trunk"."
"Think about the messages," Coulson pressured. "What else do you know about him?"
"He's late 30s, early 40s."

Amador sat up on the edge of the bed, trying to remember all she could.
"Uses dated references. "Disc drive" instead of "flash drive", "Burma" instead of Myanmar"."
"How's his typing?" Coulson asked.
"Clumsy. Makes a lot of mistakes."

Coulson pursed his lips.
"Thick fingers, maybe heavyset." Amador smiled softly.
"I forgot how good you are." They both paused as Simmons' voice came over a speaker.
"Sir, we're ready down here."

Sara walked inside the factory, hearing Skye and Ward speaking in her ear.
"Fitz-Simmons are prepped for surgery," Ward said. "It should be any minute now." Sara didn't acknowledge what she heard, continuing to walk through the security checkpoint. "Hey," Skye suddenly said. "Remember you have lighter colored hands, don't look when you scan the card." Sara got to the card reader and scanned it quietly. She waved her card over the reader and the light went from red to green.

Coulson looked at Fitz-Simmons.
"Ward's on-site so we don't have much time."
"To remove her eyeball," Fitz clarified. Simmons made a squeamish face at Coulson.
"Yeah, ocular surgery is not really my field of expertise."
"We've got no other choice," Coulson said. "There's a kill switch inside Akela. Could be a poison, could be an explosive. Either way, if Ward's caught, they'll kill her instantly." He started to walk away.
"Where are you going, sir?" Fitz asked.
"To find out who's finger is on the trigger."

Sara spoke quietly to Skye and Ward as she neared a second checkpoint.
"Approaching Delta 3." She pulled out her card and casually held it over the reader. She dared a glanced at the guard, who was looking at her curiously. She walked through and down another hallway. He passed a guard standing in a recessed doorway.
"Careful! Mirror!" Skye said through her ear.
"Thanks," Sara said, avoiding it.

Coulson and May stood together in the planning room.
"Handler's definitely local."
"Any idea where he's transmitting from?" Coulson asked. May waved her hands at the map on the table.
"Somewhere here. Every time he sends a message, we get closer."
"Keep me updated on comm 3. I'm heading out now."

He started out of the room, but May stopped him.
"I'll track him down if you want to stay here and want to oversee the op."
"Thank you, this one's mine. And about earlier –"
"Go, find the guy," May said. Coulson nodded and left the planning room.

Simmons pulled on a black glove and smiled down at Amador.
"I may need your feedback during the operation… Which means, I have to inject a local anesthetic into your eye rather than putting you under."
"Whatever's necessary," Amador said. She straightened her head and eyes to the ceiling and appeared to relax.
"Right," Simmons said.

Turning on the light attached to a harness around her head, she glanced over at Fitz, who was standing at the opposite side of the table. She nodded to him and he turned on some lights on either side of his glasses.
"Let's begin then."

Simmons grabbed a syringe off the table and gave a nervous little chuckle, lowering the syringe. Her arm stopped about a foot from Amador's eyes. Amador grabbed Simmons' wrist.
"Let me." She slowly lowered Simmons' hand as Fitz made a humming sound, turning away. Simmons let out a relieved breath as the needle went into the corner of Amador's eye.

Sara headed into a sort of room. She seemed to be looking inside a small, empty office space. All she saw was one desk being manned by a guard. A message came over:

TARGET CONFIRMED STAND BY

Sara ducked behind a small section of wall between the two windows so that the guard wouldn't see her.
"What do they mean, "target"?" Skye asked.
"It's never good," Sara said. "Especially for the target. Let's hope it's a knockout and not a kill."
"Yeah, you should get out of there," Skye told her.
"I've come this far, Skye. I'll finish." She quickly glanced inside the room at the guard again.

Another message appeared:

SEDUCE HIM

Sara's eyes widened slightly.
"Oh hell no," her boyfriend growled.
"I agree," Sara said nervously.
"What?" Skye asked. "Do you even know how to seduce someone?"
"I-I... No." Skye couldn't help, but snort. "I'll just knock him out," Sara said.
"Good idea," Ward agreed. "Wait, you may need him to get through the next door. It's just a simple flirt and a smile. You can do that, can't you Sara?"

With an sigh, she glanced into the room again.
"Okay."
"Just be friendly… pretend it's Ward."
"Do not pretend it's me," Ward hissed. Sara headed inside the room, putting a friendly smile on her face. She spoke to the man in fluent Russian.
"Show me your identification," the man said. She pated her pant pockets, as if looking for it.
"How are you?" she asked softly.
"Your I.D.?"

Sara continued to pretend to look for it before dropping her hands in disappointment.
"I think I left it at home. Too bad for you." The man reached out to grab her, but she ducked away. She slammed the guard into his desk a couple times, knocking him out. Ward whistled quietly and Skye smirked at him.

Using the guard's card on the lock, Sara pushed the door open. It looked like it was wall to wall of chalkboard. As the door closed, two men sitting at typewriters looked up in shock and stared at him.
"What now? Are you supposed to grab one of these guys?" Skye asked.

The men looked at Sara for a second more before going back to their typing. Sara walked deeper into the room, looking at the calculations on the walls. She slowly rotated around, taking it all in. She saw something that grabbed her interest on one of the chalkboards behind a man typing.

Sara walked closer to it and took a look. The other chalkboards were covered with equations, this one looked like some sort of electronic circuit board. It was a bunch of circles and lines that made no sense. There was a beeping noise and it looked like a picture was taken from the camera feed. A message appeared:

MISSION COMPLETE GOOD LUCK

May bent over a screen, reading what it said to Coulson.
"They just sent another message. Coulson, he's close, only a few blocks from you." Coulson listened as he walked down the street.
"He's somewhere in Victory Square." Coulson picked up his pace. "One more message should lock in his precise location."

Sara left the blackboard room and stopped when she saw something. On the computer on the desk was a timer. It was set at 10 and began to countdown.
"Figured out what I needed the guard for," she said. "his password."
"Maybe I can talk you through a hack," Skye said. "Just give me a minute."
"No more minutes," Sara said as the monitor began to flash red and alarms sounded. She went to a guard and took his gun off him.
"Meet me on the south side of the building. A.S.A.P."

Ward hopped in the front seat and started the engine.
"Which way is south?" Skye asked. Ward ignored her, pulling out of the parking spot.

Sara walked down a hallway, keeping her head pointed down and looking at the floor. As he passed by the earlier doorway with a guard posted outside it, the guard walked into the hallway and spotted Sara. She glanced over her shoulder, saw the guard, and started to run.
"Stoy!" the guard shouted in Russian. She rounded a corner and continued to run with the guard following.

Fitz grimaced as he heard a sick squishing sound. He squeezed his eyes shut. There was a weird suction noise and Simmons got an interested look on her face.
"Please tell me it's out already," he begged.
"It's mostly out," Simmons said.
"What's wrong?" Amador asked.
"Nothing."

Simmons reached in with what looked like big tweezers and lifted up Amador's eyes.
"But, Dr. Fitzy needs to step in now. This is his area of expertise, not mine." Fitz stared at the eyeball with horror. "Fitz!" He snapped out of it and moved to stand beside Simmons. He took the tweezers and steadied himself.
"All right, then. Most likely, both the power source and kill switch are located within the eye itself. So... how to disconnect without triggering the kill switch."

The two scientists looked cautiously at the eye. Tendons and veins connected the eye to the head were thicker than normal due to the extra hardwire contained in it.
"Oh, I know what to do. Um…" He cleared his throat then directed a question to Amador. "I just need to clarify one thing."

Sara ran through the factory. She stepped into a hallway with the gun drawn looking for anybody. She lowered the gun a bit and started running again. She heard a phone run and she ducked beside a door. She could hear a man speaking Russian inside the room. She hit her x-ray vision and looked in.

Inside was two guards. One of them set down the phone and they both began to move after a few brief words. Sara fired through the wall, taking out one of the guards. She fired against at the guard she could see, but more got up as well. She hit another before turning off her x-ray vision.

Fitz' voice sounded through her earpiece.
"Sara."
"What?" she asked breathlessly.
"You sound winded. Is this a bad time?"
"Yeah, a little bit."
"Well, not so good for me, either –" Sara ducked into a room. "Considering I'm holding a still-attached prosthetic eye that could explode at any second."
"Are the wires exposed or shielded?"

Sara rounded a corner and stopped when she saw someone standing there. She groaned inwardly at her reflection.
"Cut it now," she said hurriedly. "Cut the wires now!" She started off again.

Amador looked at Fitz.
"What's happening?"
"Uh, no problem. Sara explained the switch." He cut the wires running from Amador's eye. They heard a zap of electricity and Fitz dropped it into a metal container. Simmons got the lid on just in time to contain the explosion. Fitz-Simmons flinched then Simmons took the lid off the metal container. There was a lot of smoke rising out of it. Fitz waved it away and they both looked in.

Sara rounded another corner with her gun drawn. She looked down the hall then up a set of stairs.
"Coming your way," Sara said. She started up the stairs.
"Almost there," Ward said. Once more, Sara rounded another corner, looking for threats. She continued to run and could hear yelling in Russian behind her.

She managed to turn a corner right as a guard fired on her. She jumped on top of some crates and shot at the window then jumped out as the guard shot at her. She landed on a metal roof above a door. Under the metal roof, the trainer of a semi was parked to unload. Sara jumped on the trailer then down onto a delivery truck that was parked next to the trailer.

When she hit the ground, the SUV stopped right in front of her. Skye took a deep breath as Sara got into the passenger seat.
"Let's go," Sara said. As Ward slammed on the gas, Sara pulled her inhaler out of in the front pocket.
"Nice job," Skye said, reaching forward to rub her shoulder. Sara didn't answer, holding the inhaler tightly in her hand. But, Skye did noticed that Sara's tension slowly dropped.

Coulson entered a courtyard, looking for the handler.
"He probably left as soon as he threw the kill switch," he said.
"He's there, 20 meters from you," May said. Coulson looked around, but he saw on one with a computer. Finally, his eyes landed on a man exiting a building. He was a heavyset guy carrying a briefcase.
"I think I've got him," Coulson said.

Slowly, he started walking across the street towards him.
"Excuse me, sir." When the man spoke, Coulson heard a British accent like Simmons.
"I'm sorry, but I'm very late." Coulson pulled out his S.H.I.E.L.D. badge and showed it to him.
"I'm with S.H.I.E.L.D." The man lost all color in his face as he looked at Coulson.
"Oh, God."

Coulson heard a quiet whining noise and the man's right eye went to the right and filled with blood as he fell to the ground. Coulson just stared at him as a stranger rushed over to offer assistance to the man.

Coulson spoke with Amador who had a metal bandage over her right eye.
"He was a former MI6 officer who fell of the grid a few years ago."
"My handler was as trapped as I was," Amador sighed. They walked out of the lab and into the cargo bay.
"Which means the real threat's still out there. Big S.H.I.E.L.D.'s still trying to decipher what was written on that chalkboard. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. Couple of people think it might be alien, possibly an equation. Must be important if it's worth 30 million dollars. We'll figure it out."

Amador and Coulson looked out at the end of the ramp. There was a car waiting and two armed soldiers.
"You'll get a fair trial," Coulson told her. "I plan on testifying." She looked from the soldier to Coulson with surprise. "I know people. You deserve a second chance."
"You already gave me one," Amador said. "Doesn't matter how it plays out from here. I'm free."

May entered the cargo hold and stood behind Coulson and Amador.
"Thank you," Amador said to Coulson.
"Good luck," Coulson said. He stepped away and May came forward and led Amador down the ramp.
"What happened to Agent Coulson?" Amador asked. "He's different."
"Well, he's loosened up a bit. He nearly died before the Batter of New York." Amador leaned in closer.
"But what did they do to him?" May looked at her in confusion.
"I'm sorry?" Amador backed away from May, shaking her head.
"Never mind."

When The Bus was in the air, Coulson opened the door to the SUV and found Skye inside. She gave him a smile.
"Are you still needing you time?" he asked.
"There's always room for A.C." Her smiled widened. "Slide on in."

Skye moved her legs and he got in the back of the SUV with her.
"What's wrong with "Agent Coulson"? Or just "Coulson"?"
"Nothing, I guess," Skye said. "A.C.'s just way cooler." They both chuckled. "Cause you are cool," she told him.

Coulson shot her a look.
"How many people would have made that call to give Amador a second chance?"
"I got one," Coulson shrugged. "Seems only fair I extend the same opportunity to others." He sighed and lowered himself in his seat, a smile on his face. "I see why you like it in here." She laughed, making herself more comfortable in her seat.
"Yeah, it's kinda like my van."

Skye laughed a bit more than her smile dropped.
"Without all the bums trying to break in." Coulson laughed. "I don't miss that. It's more peaceful in here. It's also cool knowing that someone has my back… no matter what." Her eyes slowly closed.
"Peaceful's good," Coulson agreed.

Sara had her back against Ward's side as she finished up her book. He was playing a game of poker with Fitz, who was being extremely annoying with his crunching. He put his hand in a bowl of pretzels and glanced down at his cards. Ward flicked his fingers against the back of his cards.
"I call," Ward said. "And raise 100."

Ward dropped chips onto the pile in the center of the table. Fitz gave him a grin.
"Hmm…" He nodded his head a few times and set the pretzel bowl down. He picked up his cards and took a deep breath. "You know how I know I'm gonna beat you?"
"By losing?" Sara muttered.
"You're boyfriend has a tell, Sara. A psychological tic that lets me know he's bluffing." Sara rolled her eyes, turning the page. "If I watch you carefully, Ward…"

The two boys stared at each other.
"If I watch you carefully…" Fitz paused before frowning. "I fold, you win." He quickly got out of the booth and walked away from a confused looking Ward. He glanced down at Sara. "Any idea what that was about?" She lazily held up the glasses from their mission.
"Skye and Fitz aren't the… sneakiest people around. No one cheats at poker." He laughed, throwing down his cards. He kissed the top of her head before shuffling the deck.

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