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I hope you enjoyed the last lu0ttle cliffhanger!
Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel, only Alexandra
Chapter 9: A matter of principle
"You can accuse me of a lot!", Alexandra hissed at the girl lying below her, "but not about being HYDRA. Is that understood?"
Just when Skye wanted to talk back, there were steps to be heard in the corridor. A tall blonde woman came running towards them, already pulling out a gadget that looked incredibly like a gun. Raising her hands in an apologizing gesture, the Swedish stood up, moving a step backwards so the other one could scramble to her feet.
"What is going on here?", the older officer wanted to know.
Alexandra shrugged her shoulders, oddly calm considering a gun was pointed at her head.
"Simply discussing matters of principle. But I think that is settled now."
She shot Skye a knowing look. Then she took some steps towards the other woman who had just slowly put back her weapon and held out her hand.
"I am Alexandra Edvardson, the cryptographer. But you probably now that already."
Slightly taken by surprise, the other one shook the offered hand.
"Agent Morse. I guess Skye is giving you a tour? Then I won't stand in your way."
She even gave the two younger ones a small smile before continuing to wherever she was going.
"Okay Edvardson, let's go on. And please don't ambush me from behind right?", the dark-haired said with a small smile.
"I guess that might be arranged", the other one grinned, "lead the way!"
After a while they stooped in front of a glass door behind which a lot of weird looking equipment could be seen. Also there were a couple of people in white lab coats running around, so this was obviously the research facility.
"I would introduce you to Fitzsimmons, but I think you probably want to get rid of your bags first", Skye stated, motioning towards the other girl's luggage that she still had to carry around.
"Yeah that would be great", Edvardson confirmed, "and then I probably should better get on with that code. Not to be rude, I really would like to meet everyone, but that piece of work is why I am here."
Together they went down to Level 2 and Xandra started to wonder what it must be like to spend so much time underground with only artificial light. Could one get claustrophobic or did one get used to it at some point? Well, depending on how quickly she could work out the code, she would or wouldn't find that out herself, right? Her arms had gotten pretty heavy by then, even though her bag wasn't, but carrying stuff for a longer time wasn't a usual workout she did. Maybe she should change that. Finally, her guide stopped in front of a simple grey door.
"So this is yours", she said smilingly, handing over a keycard.
Inside, everything looked very plain and simple, probably standard S.H.I.E.L.D. issue. There was a bed, a shelf with an integrated desk, a chair, something that looked like a wardrobe concealed in the wall and another door that led to the tiniest bathroom (well, rather toilet and faucet) that Xandra had ever seen. On the desk, there was a simple lock, lying open, ready to be used.
"What is that for?", she wanted to know.
"Oh that!", the dark-haired girl answered, "well that is for your locker outside in the big room further down. There you can keep gear like jackets and duffle bags and extra pairs of shoes and stuff like that, everything that you don't want to keep here. But judging by the size of your luggage, you might not need it! Now come on!"
The blonde dropped her things unceremoniously on the bed, only carrying with her a bag with "office material" as they went down another staircase towards Level 3.
"Further down this corridor are the gym rooms!", Ske announced, "I am pretty sure they would let you use them. Of course some of the conference rooms are also here. There is nothing that considers you in the levels below, only archives and the huge hangar. I doin't think you have clearance to go there."
"I don't think I have clearance for anything here", the other one deadpanned, making the young agent smirk.
"Fair enough. But honestly, you are a consultant, Coulson suggested you and May approved, so I think you could basically get away with everything. Oh - Maybe I should not have said that."
Xandra's laugh was pearly against the grey walls, making her eyes sparkle. If Skye knew… It was true, she had talked herself out of a lot of stuff. Or batted her eyelashed out of it. Or threatened and blackmailed her way out of it. Though she was not really sure if that would work in this case, so she probably should behave. Also, defeating HYDRA was a priority at the moment.
The door to Conference Room 3 was open, the room inside as uninspiring as all the others Xandra had seen so far. Together the young women set up her laptop and the pile of notebooks, spare paper, pens and erasers she would need before the blonde politely but decidedly ordered the slightly older woman out of the room.
Armoured with her music, she began to work again, it was tedious but at least she felt as if she was making some progress. Step by step, things seemed to fall into place, but she had to leave it to whoever had constructed that code - they knew how to keep her busy!
Without windows, she lost all sense of time, but as her playlist had come to an end again, approximately three hours must have past. To give her eyes a little break, she closed them, resting her arms and her head on the table. The coldness of the surface felt so nice on her heated up face and her body told her that she could really go to bed now. Must have something to do with the jetlag. However when the door handle was pressed down her head shot up, all tiredness forgotten. Coulson was standing in the doorway, giving her a funny look.
"I am sorry Sir, I needed a break", she explained politely, hoping that he would understand.
He gave her a small smile, stepping forward and closing the door behind him. Then he moved over and pulled out another chair to sit face to face with the cryptographer.
"Totally understandable, but that is not why I am here. Well, it is partly. I hope the decoding is working?"
She nodded, finally understanding where this was going. Then her eyes quickly darted over to the far corner of the room and she raised an eyebrow in question. He seemed to understand though, because his smile got only broader.
"I see, you are considering everything. No, the security camera is damaged, happened a couple of days ago and it hasn't been fixed. So we can talk openly. Now, as you have found out, I am still alive. Curtesy to Fury I must say. Hill knows. The Avengers don't. And that should stay this way. We operate out of the shadows, we are the shadows.. So it is important that you keep this under wraps. Romanoff is probably the only one who would understand. So even íf you see them, especially don't mention it to Stark and Rogers. That said, I have seen your work on Theta Protocol, your mathematical achievements are remarkable."
Alexandra blushed under his praise.
"Thank you", she answered, "I didn't know you were involved too though. Actually I didn't know you were alive, Fury was good at keeping that from me."
Coulson sighed, it sounded a bit exasperated and a bit resignated.
"That's what he does, keeping secrets. But you were good at acting indifferent, earlier in my office. Whatever acting course you did, it payed out. Now, you mentioned you wanted to be paid in intel and something about codes, so I guess you already know which ones. Do you have a list?"
Of course she did, prepared as always the young woman pulled out a sheet of paper where several bullet points were written down on. She handed it over, keeping her eyes fixed on the director. While he was reading, his eyebrows rose higher and higher.
"Well, I can help you with some of the points and I understand your interest in some, like the old codes. But there are some documents I can't pass on to you, like the trekking records of the Winter Soldier. This is too classified, even for someone like you."
It was clear to see that the woman was not happy at all and she knew she had several options - she could take what she could get and leave the rest, she could try to blackmail Coulson or she could keep on try to make a deal. The third option was probably the most promising one though, so the cryptographer decided to go with it.
"Alright, but then I want at least the last place where Barnes was seen by your people", she said, her voice firm, keeping eye contact.
After more than a minute of silence and an unnerving staring match, the director finally sighed.
"Alright, but only the last known location. And I want to know - Why? Why do you care?"
Alexandra's eyes became sad, an expression not a lot of people ever witnessed. She always seemed to be such an open, bubbly and happy person. That was true, at least partly. Xandra was all that and she was friendly and usually kind, but she also generally kept all pain and sadness to herself. It was simply that most people didn't realize that.
"It's not for me", she simply replied.
The implication hung heavy in between the two of them, Xandra was praying the director would understand. Them he nodded and gave her a kind understanding smile before getting up and leaving her to the empty grey room.
Thank you for reading!I