Chapter Two
The next day, Aubrey woke up to a phone call from an unlisted number. She considered ignoring it, but with everything that had happened in the past few days, something was telling her to answer it. She flipped open the phone, pressing her ear, and said in a groggy voice, "Hello?"
"Aubrey." She shot up when Aubrey heard Obediah say her name. "I just wanted to update you that we figured out who was selling the weapons to Afghanistan. They've been turned over to the police, and we're sending men out in the next few days to retrieve the weapons."
Aubrey let out a long sigh of relief. She knew Obediah would handle all this mess. She was about to answer, when Obediah went on, "We still have some things to handle, and I need you to meet me at my office as soon as possible. Again, I have to tell you that this is confidential and you cannot tell anyone what you know."
Of course, Aubrey wasn't going to tell anyone about SI's dirty little secrets (well, other than Jean that is). She reassured Obediah once more that Stark's secret was safe with her, and that she was just happy that this whole thing was being figured out.
After the phone call ended, Aubrey pulled herself out of bed and got ready as quickly as possible. She put on a bit of makeup, hopefully it would make up for the horrible image of her that she burned in everyone's mind yesterday of her looking like a maniac. Now that she had slept and recovered from her energy drink fuelled mania, she cringed at how crazy she looked. In front of Pepper, Obediah, and Tony of all people! If she was going to have a mental breakdown, she wished it was around someone that wasn't her boss.
Within thirty minutes, Aubrey was in her car, driving to Stark Industries. Her car resembled a trash can, so she parked a few blocks away, just in case someone recognized her and saw the cans and empty wrappers tossed around the car. She walked into the building, keeping her head low to avoid anyone who might've recognized her from yesterday. 'I'm never going to live that one down,' she thought bitterly. She just knew the asshole security guards had probably kept a recording of the tape.
Obediah was waiting at the door of his office when Aubrey arrived. He greeted her with a warm smile, welcoming her into the office as if they were best friends meeting up for a friendly chat. Anyone watching them would never have guessed that they were really about to discuss the selling of weapons of mass destruction to Afghanistan. "Thanks for meeting me on such short notice," he greeted warmly.
"It was no problem," Aubrey assured, sitting down in the chair she had been just a day before. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
Obediah sat across from her. "We're sending out a team of men to take back the weapons. It's very covert, and the plan is to be in and out without anyone finding out about the weapons. The only problem is that the men don't feel comfortable flying back with possibly active missiles on the plane."
"Understandable," Aubrey said with a shrug.
"We need someone who can fly in with them to be there in case any of the weapons need to be disarmed before we ship them out. Someone who knows Stark weapons enough to disarm them.." Obediah trailed off as Aubrey's eyes widened.
"Wait, you want me to go to Afghanistan?" she asked, blinking. "I don't know if I'm really qualified-"
"The fact is that we need someone that we can trust to disarm those missiles - and someone who won't let word get out that there were weapons sold to Afghanistan in the first place," Obediah explained. "I know it may seem like a lot but you're the only one that I can trust to do this. Do you understand?"
Aubrey slowly nodded her head, even though she was terrified of the thought of being shipped off to another country - and Afghanistan of all places.
Obediah went on, seeing that he hadn't entirely convinced the young woman. "You'd be on the plane for the majority of the time, until our men have secured the area. Once it's safe, they'll bring you out to disarm the weapons and you'll be back on the plane heading home. If our men can't handle the situation, we'll fly you home before you even get off the plane. You'll be completely safe, I promise."
Aubrey paused, thinking over his words. She ran the scenario over in her head; in terms of heading to Afghanistan to disarm nuclear weapons went, it did sound like a pretty safe plan. It also occurred to her that even though she might not love the idea, was it really her place to say no? If she stayed in LA then Obediah's men would be sent to Afghanistan regardless. The thought of any of them getting hurt by the weapons made her sick to her stomach.
After a long moment, Aubrey finally gave her answer. She didn't realize at the time how her next sentence would change her life. "Okay... I'll do it."
Aubrey felt out of place as she sat on the large cargo plane, sitting next to men in dark uniforms. They weren't wearing any military uniforms that she had seen, and there was a silence in the plane that she found unsettling. For the long flight, they didn't take or joke around, they just sat there, ate, or slept. The only time she had seen them talk was to group together to talk about the plan. Aubrey tried to join in to see what she would have to do, but one of the men stiffly told her, "It's confidential, ma'am."
A few of her friends from back home had joined the military after high school, and on the few occassions she had to catch up with them, they were always going on and on about how the people on their force were like a family and made the missions easier. So when Aubrey boarded the plane, she expected joking banter and light conversations throughout the flight. This was just... off-putting.
Aubrey slept throughout most of the flight, only waking up to eat before going back to sleep. She wished she'd brought a book or something to keep her busy, but she had never travelled before and didn't realize how boring it actually was. When she woke for the second time, her neck was sore and there was some dried drool on the side of her mouth.
She was woken from the men moving around the cabin, preparing for landing. Unlike what she'd seen on TV, with men barking out orders, Obediah's team moved silently and efficiently, as if they had done this a million times and no longer required words. They weren't fazed by the bumpy turbulence as the plane adjusted to the lowering altitude. Aubrey was squeezing tightly to her seatbelt, and when the plane's wheels touched ground, her knuckles turned white. She lurched forward, and held back vomit from shooting out of her throat from the sudden motion. She already dreaded landing again in Los Angeles.
The cargo plane finally slowed to a halt, and Aubrey released her lungs. She started clapping - that's what people do when planes land, isn't it? - but stopped when everyone just turned to stare at her. Her face burned a deep shade of red as she internally cursed herself.
Aubrey stood as the doors to the cargo plane lowered. She stepped forward, when one of the men held out his hand to stop her. "Wait here. You're not to get off the plane until it's safe."
"O-okay," Aubrey stuttered, stepping back and taking her seat again. She felt out of place as the men geared up around her. They only took a few minutes before they were loaded with guns and grenades, and some weapons even Aubrey didn't recognize. They must have been by Stark, but nothing she'd ever seen before. Maybe they were new models that hadn't been released yet?
She watched the men as the ran off the plane and disappeared into the desert. Aubrey held her breath, expecting to hear gunshots or something, but all she could hear was the san crunching under their heavy boots. And then there was silence.
It struck Aubrey as odd that they didn't close the door to the plane once the men were gone. If they were trying to keep her safe, wouldn't it be smart to make sure no one was able to get onto the plane? She tried to ignore the anxiety creeping up her spine, and focused on slowing her breath. This was her first 'mission' so what would she know? They probably kept the doors open in case they needed to make a quick exit. Besides, it wasn't like they landed right in the middle of the camp they were raiding; Aubrey would be well out of the way of danger.
As the time passed, Aubrey's fears of the door being left open shifted to worry about how long the mission was taking. She didn't expect it to be over in five minutes, but with each passing second she thought of a new way that the mission could have gone wrong.
Thirty minutes after the men had left, Aubrey let out a sigh of relief when she heard the steps of Obediah's men coming back to the plane. The footsteps where rushed and unstructured compared to the orderly stomping from before; it must have been one hell of a fight out there. Aubrey stood, grabbing her toolkit and walking over to the ramp to wait for the men to return. She had a feeling they would have something to say about her leaving her seat, but she was eager to get a look at the weapons so that they could get the hell out of this place.
They first man stepped into view, and Aubrey's tools dropped from her hands, clanging against the round. The kit opened, spilling wrenches and screwdrivers across the floor.
Instead of the black outtfit that Obediah's men had worn, this man wore a dusty red rag over his head, with torn rags covering his body. He was holding an assault rifle pointed directly at her.
The Afghan man yelled out at the group of men behind him, yelling out words that Aubrey couldn't understand. She didn't wait to find out what he meant.
Aubrey ran to the back of the plane, banging on the door to the cockpit. "They're on the plane!" she screamed, slamming her fists into the metal door. "Help! Get us out of here!"
She couldn't bring herself to turn around at the sound of the men storming into the plane. All she could do was continue to scream at the pilot to help her.
It all happened so fast. The men were on the plane. Thick hands grabbed her arms, throwing her to the ground. Aubrey lashed out, trying to fight anyone she could. The back of one of the rifles connected with her temple, and everything around her shifted, with stars flashing in her vision.
The last thing Aubrey remembered before finally giving in to the darkness, was the feeling of a cloth bag being slipped over her head, and someone grabbing her by the arms. They were dragging her across the metal floor, and down the ramp. Only once she felt the heat of the Afghan sun burning at her skin, and the sand under her body did Aubrey finally pass out, knowing that she would never leave this place.
When Aubrey woke, she was in a cold, damp room. She blinked a few times, her head still spinning from the blow to her temple. Aubrey couldn't help the small groan that escaped her lips from the pain in her head.
"Ah, she awakes." The voice was cold and thick with an Afghan accent. Her vision was blurry, but she could just make out a tall man hovering over her, with a group of masked men behind him, all holding guns. In her dazed state, she couldn't help but find the humour in how many guns they thought were necessary to keep her hostage.
"Where... am I?" Aubrey croaked up. She tried to sit up, but the sharp pain in her head forced her to stay down. "Who are you?"
"My name is Raza, and we," he gestured the the men surrounding him, "are the Ten Rings. We know all about you, Aubrey Howell. When we got the orders to kill you, it seemed like an easy task... but then I thought, 'What could be so special about this girl that someone would want her dead?' And to go through all the trouble of killing you here, of all places."
Aubrey stayed silent, unsure of what point he was trying to make. Raza went on, "So tell me, Aubrey, who are you?"
"I'm an engineer at Stark Industries," she said quietly. "I help build and design weapons. I don't know why someone would want to kill me... I'm just an intern."
Raza turned to his men, shouting out words in a language that Aubrey couldn't understand. One of the men ran out of the room, as Raza turned back to Aubrey. "What kind of weapons?"
Aubrey shifted uncomfortably. She knew that she shouldn't be telling Raza any details from Stark Industries, but her fear overpowered any rational thinking. "Missiles mostly." She kept her answer short, but it seemed to please Raza.
A grin spread across his cold face, just as his solier returned with a pile of papers. Raza took them, laying them in front of Aubrey. Her head throbbed as she moved to get a better look at the pages. There were different designs of missiles, grenades, and guns, all with detailed equations and measurements. These weren't some designs that Raza and his men had drawn up, they had to come from a weapons manufacterer.
"You could build these?" Raza asked.
Aubrey shifted through the papers, pretending to look over the designs as her mind raced. She realized a number of things in that moment: if she said that she couldn't, Raza would kill her without a second thought. If she said that she could, Raza would likely use the weapons to kill thousands, if not millions of people. The ethical choice would be to take a bullet in the skull and prevent these weapons from ever falling into Raza's hands. But Aubrey was young and selfish and a flawed human. She wasn't ready to lay down her life in a cave in Afghanistant.
"Yes... I could build these," Aubrey finally said. The guilt was already flooding her body, making her sick to her stomach.
"What about something better?" Raza asked, pacing across the room. "Faster. Deadlier."
"I could..." Aubrey paused. She couldn't just make some super weapons from scratch off of a few blueprints. If she promised something and couldn't deliver, she would end up with a bullet in her head. "I could improve your current weapons. Add components from newer models."
Raza smiled again, and said something to the men behind her, to which they laughed. "I'll give you a month. If you don't deliver, I'll do what I was paid for."
To prove his point, he nudged the bloody wound on Aubrey's head with his gun. Her head throbbed to the beat of her pounding heart. Raza and his men then turned around and left Aubrey there, on the creaky cot in the dark room.
Only when he was gone was Aubrey finally left alone with her thoughts. She had all the memories of the previous few days, and was able to connect the dots of what had happened. Someone at Stark Industries knew that she had learned about the sales to Afghanistan - specifically the Ten Rings - and needed her silenced. But even with this knowlege, her head was swarming with questions. Who had ordered the kill? How did they find out about her? Was Obediah in on it?
And then came the horror of what was actually happening to her. She was across the world in a cave, no one knew where she was, and it was more than likely that she would die here. The last time she had seen her family, she didn't even stay for dinner. Her mother's last memory of her would be watching Aubrey rush out of the house and driving away.
Tears rolled down Aubrey's cheeks as she tried to think of something - anything - other than her current situation. She was failing miserably when there was a knock on the door. The metal door opened, revealing a small man with glasses and a neat suit, and a battered first aid kit in his hands. He didn't hold the same threatening presence as Raza, but Aubrey knew better than to trust him.
"Hello, my name is Yinsen." He held out his hand for Aubrey to shake, but the pain in her head and the shock of what was happening prevented her from reaching out. If he was with the Ten Rings, she did not want to play nice anyway. After a moment, Yinsen's hand fell back to his side. "I'm a doctor. I've come to take a look at your wound."
Aubrey said nothing as the doctor came to her cot, gently turning her head to the side so he could get a better look at her bleeding temple. His touch was gently, as he cleaned and disinfected the wound. Aubrey didn't say anything, but Yinsen spoke softly to her as he worked on cleaning out the wound. "You have a concussion, but no internal bleeding from what I can tell. The wound should heal up quickly, after a few days of rest."
As he stitched her up, Aubrey finally broke her silence. "Please don't be so nice to me. You can't kidnap me and then pretend to be my friend."
Yinsen's hand hovered over her temple, pausing when he heard her words. "I am not part of the Ten Rings. I was taken from my family, just like you. I was a doctor in Gulmira when they raided my home."
Aubrey couldn't see his face, but she could tell from the silence that followed that he was thinking back to when he was taken. She was hit with a wave of shame; how could she think that she was so special that she was the only life ruined by the Ten Rings? "I'm sorry," she croaked out.
The man didn't seem phased by her accusation. His hands continued to work, gently and carefully suturing up the mess of a wound on her temple. He hummed as he worked - some lullaby that Aubrey had never heard - and whether it was from his calming presence or sheer exhaustion, Aubrey felt herself drift off to sleep. She knew better than to let herself fall asleep, but at this point, what else could they do to her?
Aubrey's last thought before giving into the darkness, was the hope that she would wake up in her bed in America, and this had all been some vivid and twisted dream.
Aubrey's eyes slowly opened, and she was hit with a wave of anguish when she realized where she was. She was still in the dark room, lying on the dirty cot. The pain in her head had eased, but it still throbbed when she sat up. Ho was on the other side of the room, sitting at a desk where he read a book. When he heard movement from the cot, he set his book down and rushed over to Aubrey's side. He handed her a glass of water, which she gulped down.
"You were out for a full day," Yinsen said once she was finished. "Raza brought in weapons for you to start working on. He wasn't pleased to see you sleeping."
"Well I'm not pleased to be kidnapped and forced to create weapons of mass destruction against my will, but here we are. I guess Raza and I will both have to settle for disappointment," Aubrey spat, venom lacing her words. Of course, she would never say something like that to Raza's face. Still, Yinsen chuckled dryly, as if he had long moved past those feelings. "Let's just get working."
Aubrey pulled the blueprints to the missiles onto the large table in the middle of the room, along with some more blank tracing paper. Ho knew to let her be as she worked, drawing out new designs and calculations. She was taking components from the Jericho missile design and integrating them into the current designs for Raza's weapons. When she could, she would find ways to dial back the deadliness of the weapons, so they were still nothing compared to the newer Stark weapons. A voice in the back of her head reminded her that the weapons would still kill millions of people, but it was the least that she could do.
As she worked, Aubrey couldn't help but let her mind wander to what her life would be like if she escaped. Would she even be able to go back home? Building weapons of mass destruction and letting the Ten Rings unleash them was terrorism. They'd likely throw her in jail the second she stepped foot on American soil. But if she didn't build the weapons, Aubrey would be lying on that cave floor with a bullet in her brain. There was no outcome where she would win.
She briefly contemplated the idea of turning on Raza, and using his weapons against him, but shut the idea down as fast as it came to her. For all the weapons that Raza had dumped in their room, he had double that, and the manpower to use them. Aubrey and Ho would be dead before they had the chance to fire a gun. She just wasn't brave enough to risk her life like that.
The hours ticked by as Aubrey worked. Working up the new designs was soothing in a way; it reminded her of being back in the lab, surrounded by her team as they discussed new improvements and worked out issues. Sometimes she would ask a question out loud, expecting Dr. Humphrey to answer it. When no one answered, or Yinsen tried to give her an idea, Aubrey remembered where she was.
There was a loud banging on the metal door that jolted Aubrey out of her trance. She shot out of her chair, her pencil scattering onto the ground. A loud yell came from the other side of the door, followed by the clanging of the door being unlocked. Aubrey slowly backed away, her eyes wide and face pale.
"It's okay," Yinsen assured her. He placed both hands on his head, and Aubrey followed suit, just as three of Raza's men rushed into the room.
One was holding a tray, while the other two were holding guns pointed at Aubrey and Yinsen's heads. The tray had two plates of rice and meat, which the man set on the table that Aubrey had been working on. They barked out a few words that Aubrey didn't understand before making a quick departure. Aubrey glanced from the food up to Yinsen, asking, "Is it like that every time they bring food?"
"More or less," Yinsen admitted. He took his glasses off his face, wiping the dirt and sweat from the glass onto his shirt, as he continued. "Sometimes they just drop the tray at the door. The worst is when Raza comes. As long as we keep working, he should not bother us."
"How will he know if we're not working?" Aubrey asked. They sat down at the table as they started to eat the food. It was flavourless and mushy, but Aubrey wasn't exactly expecting a gourmet meal.
Yinsen gestured with his fork to the door. It was only then that Aubrey noticed the camera perched above the door, a blinking red light on it. She scowled; they had already taken everything from her, and now they had taken her privacy. "It does not have a microphone on it though, so they cannot hear us."
That made her feel somewhat better. At least she'd be able to have a conversation without Raza listening in on it.
It gave her enough comfort to ask the question that had been nagging her since she'd woken. "Don't you... don't you feel bad for what we're doing here?"
"Hm?" Yinsen questioned, chewing his food.
"Fixing the weapons," Aubrey explained. "I'm trading millions of lives for my own. I just... I can't justify what I'm doing, but I don't know how to stop it. They'll kill me if I don't do what Raza says."
Yinsen nodded slowly, swallowing his food before finally saying, "Then do not make the weapons."
Aubrey fell silent, looking down at her food. Her life would inevitably cost millions of people theirs. The math was simple. The answer was harrowing. She should just tell Raza that she wasn't going to do his dirty work anymore.
But even as Aubrey thought it, she knew that after she was finished eating, she would go back to work. She would push her doubt to the back of her head and try not to think about the families that would be ripped apart because of her. In the end, Aubrey knew what the ethical choice was.
She was just a coward.
"Mr. Stark!"
Tony turned to see three people running towards him, a stack of papers in hand. His first instinct was to duck away and let Pepper deal with the paper work, but when he saw the tear stains on one of the woman's faces, and the pale skin and lifeless eyes in all of them, he slowed to a stop. Happy was close behind them, grabbing the man's arm and tugging him away.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here?"
Tony held up his hands, taking a step back as the three people came to a stop in front of him. They smelled like they hadn't showered in days, and it was already starting to give him a headache. It was a man, a woman, and a teenage girl. They all looked distraught, and Tony's best guess was that they were some environmentalists about to give him a speech on the destruction that his weapons caused.
"Mr. Stark, my name is Kevin Howell, and this is my wife, Karen, and my daughter, Jean. We're Aubrey Howell's family," the man said. They stared at Tony expectantly, as if waiting for some grande reaction. All Tony could do was look to Happy for some form of clarification.
"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"
Their faces fell and a look of betrayal crossed Jean's face. There was a long awkward silence that followed, making Tony's skin crawl. Just as he was about to turn and leave, and most likely pass the family's complaints off to Pepper, Karen spoke up.
"Our daughter, Aubrey, was an intern for your company. She suddenly stopped answering our calls and texts... we spoke to her landlord and she hasn't been in her apartment in over a month now. None of her friends have seen her. We filed a missing person's report but the police don't even know where to look... it's like she dropped off the face of the earth. We were hoping you might know something," Karen pleaded, handing Tony a piece of paper.
Tony glanced down at the paper, not bothering to take it into his hands. It was a picture of a young girl, with red curls, wide eyes, and a bright smile on her face. She felt familiar; a face he passed by in the hallways but never important enough to talk to. One of the many monotonous faces of Stark Industries. MISSING was spelt out in large red letters along the top, followed by her description under the picture.
"Look, there's a lot of people at Stark Industries, you'd have better luck trying someone on her team. I don't really gossip with the interns."
Jean's face reddened and her eyebrows came down. It was a scathing look that Tony had rarely seen in the bubble of adoring gold-diggers he surrounded himself with. A look of pure hatred. "You self-centred piece of shit," she snarled out. Karen and Kevin gasped, while Happy grabbed her arm and started to pull her away. She ripped her arm away from him, taking a step closer to Tony. In a low voice, she whispered out, "I know you're selling weapons to Afghanistan."
It was quiet enough that the others couldn't hear, but her words made Tony's face screw up. He stepped back, as Happy pulled the girl away. "Listen kid, I don't know what happened to your sister, but you're barking up the wrong tree here. She's probably somewhere in Malibu sipping on Mai Tai's. Happens all the time; the interns get burnt out and decide to relive their college years."
He turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder, "I'll put her picture in the company newsletter!"
Behind him, Happy dragged away the heartbroken family.
Despite his lax expression and his snide words, something about the interaction nagged at Tony's gut. He didn't know the girl, nor should he care that she was probably out partying her days away, but there was a quiet voice in the back of his head telling him not to write her off so easily. It followed him home, down the stairs to his workshop, and while he tinkered away at his latest invention.
Finally, after hours of telling himself it wasn't his problem, he called out to his A.I.
"J.A.R.V.I.S, what do you know about Aubrey Howell?" he asked, wiping grease from his hands with a rag.
There was a pause before a blue holograph image of Aubrey appeared. Unlike the missing persons photo, her face was rigid and straight. It was no doubt the picture taken for the Stark Industries ID badge, and she carried the same seriousness of all interns trying their hardest not to mess up their photo.
"Ms. Howell started at Stark Industries three months ago on Dr. Reed's team. She was last seen by her team when they completed the Jericho Missile design. The next day, Ms. Howell called in sick and has not been back to work since."
Tony nodded along, but nothing sounded out of the ordinary. She was a twenty-year old girl - she likely just got burnt out from working on the missiles and realized she wanted more from her life. So many interns started at SI, thinking they'd be the next Tony Stark and after a couple years, realized the were just another cog in the machine that ran the empire known as Stark Industries. But two months? It seemed a little short to come to that conclusion.
"Pull up the last seen video footage of Aubrey Howell," Tony ordered.
Almost instantly, the image of Aubrey was replaced with a video. Tony immediately recognized Pepper walking down the hallway, with Happy close behind. He watched as a disheveled red-head raced down the hallway to Pepper, only to be stopped by Happy. The girl from the video was far from the polished image that had just been floating in front of him. Her hair was in wild knots hanging around her face, and even from the footage he could see the crazed look in her eyes. She looked a step further from burnt out.
Tony wasn't surprised when he watched Obie intervene, pulling Aubrey into his office. The footage sped through about 15 minutes before the girl appeared again, leaving Obie's office with him closing the door behind her. The feeling in his gut nagged at Tony even more; Aubrey still looked like a mess, but her shoulders were resting easily and there was a calmness on her face. She looked... relieved. So then why did she go missing the next day?
"J.A.R.V.I.S, call Obie for me," Tony asked as he began tinkering with his mechanics again. He felt the overwhelming urge to do something with his hands as the phone rang. He was feeling something he rarely - if ever - experienced; uselessness. It wasn't his job to find the girl, but there was something about the video footage that struck a chord.
"Tony! I've been waiting to here from you," Obie greeted, with the same relaxed tone he always had. "How are you feeling about the Jericho designs? We already have the Air Force asking for a demonstration as soon as we have the prototypes built."
"Yeah, that's great," Tony rushed. "I was actually calling about one of the interns, Aubrey Howell. She went missing about a month ago and the SI footage shows you were the last one to talk with her. Just calling to make sure you didn't kill the girl."
His voice was nonchalant, but there was a long pause before Obie was able to answer him. If Tony didn't know better, he'd say Obie was stalling for time.
"Aubrey Howell..." The words dragged out as Obie thought. "Ah, yes, bright young girl! She was completely burnt out after finishing the design for the Jericho missiles. I put her on leave so she could get some rest but she never came back once it was over. My guess is she's on a beach somewhere and forgot to tell everyone where she's been. I've told this all to the police when they first filed her as missing."
Obie's words just confirmed what Tony had already been telling herself. Aubrey Howell's body wasn't dumped somewhere in the ocean, she was just trying to live the Tony Stark life that so many people dreamed of.
But then there was the other thing that had been pestering away at Tony all day. "You know, I heard a rumour floating around that SI has been selling weapons to Afghanistan. You hear anything about that?"
Another long pause.
"Uh, yeah, I did," Obie said, his voice shaking ever so slightly. "I looked into it, but there's nothing in our finances or inventory that prove anything. It's just some rumour the hippies stirred up to cause problems. You know how it is - everyone wants to find a way to make us the bad guys."
Tony let out a small sigh, finally setting his wrench down on his workbench. It wasn't the first time someone had made ridiculous claims about Stark Industries to try and brind them down. In reality, there was no conspiracy and there was nothing suspicious in the way Aubrey disappeared. It wasn't Tony's problem.
Tony ended the call after saying goodbye to Obie, a new relief washing over his body and releasing the tension from his shoulders. He didn't think of the missing girl or the Afghanistan conspiracy for the rest of the day, as he went to one of the various parties that blurred his nights together. In fact, Tony Stark didn't think of any of it until months later, when he was stepping off his private jet onto Afghanistan soil.
A/N: Woooow I'm so happy with all the positive feedback from the last chapter. Thank you to all the follows, favorites, and reviews :) I really appreciate it guys! Sorry about the delay, I'm going to try to be a bit better at updating :)