Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story. This is just for fun and I hope you enjoy reading it.
Child of Silence
By Angelwings Sorrow
Chapter 7 "Eyes, Spies, and Lies"
Coulson and Fury
Harry was sitting in the living room with Shadow on his lap, listening to his Father and Director Fury, argue about him leaving the tower. The two had been going at it for a good ten minutes neither one willing to bend or compromise. It all started because he needed glasses. Since Harry's location was top secret he had to go to the eye doctor at SHIELD headquarters a place where his father was not allowed to go.
"This is not up for debate Loki you are not going to Shield Headquarters!"
"And I told you I am not letting you take my son from my sight!" The two men were standing face to face; one with magic crackling around him the other was reaching for his gun.
"If I may Director Fury, I can watch young Harry and take him to the appointment." Coulson interrupted. No other man would have dared to put himself in the line of fire between the Director of SHIELD whose name just happened to be Fury and an equally angry Norse God. "I have been here several times in the past two weeks and Harry knows me. Also Natasha and Clint will be in the offices today so he'll have added protection."
"That's not a bad idea; is that acceptable to you Loki?" Nick trusted Coulson most out of all his subordinates.
"Yes, Agent Coulson has proved several times his worthiness and he is very honorable. Plus I trust Lady Natasha and Clint more than you. Haraldr, come here please." Loki kept his glare on the Director of SHIELD. Harry placed Shadow on the seat next to him before he quickly made his way to his father's side and looked up to him in question. "Don't worry son, Agent Coulson will be taking you to get your glasses. You do not have to spend time with the one eyed man any longer than necessary."
"Daddy, stop glaring at Uncle Nick, he is nice. I'll be fine with Uncle Phil. I'll be good." Harry rolled his eyes and tapped out on his disc. "Uncle Tony said he'll be home after his meeting soon; so you won't be lonely."
"I do not need that man to keep me entertained. And do not call him 'Uncle' it only encourages him to visit unannounced." Loki muttered hugging his son to his chest. This was the first time he ever left the tower without him. The God of Chaos and Lies would never let anyone know he was terrified to let his son leave where he could not protect him.
"I'll see you later, Dad. I'll be back for dinner. I'm ready to go Uncle Phil, Uncle Nick." Harry wiggled out of his father's arms and took Coulson by the hand.
"He'll be home by five Prince Loki." Agent Coulson nodded and led the child to the elevator. Fury and The God of Chaos shared one more glare before both of them retreated to their respective corners.
XxXxXxXxXx
"Director Fury, glad you're back these cases need your immediate attention and these need your signature so they can be filed as closed." Agent Carter greeted as the trio stepped off the Elevator in SHIELD's headquarters.
"Okay, I'll read these once I am back in my office but I will not sign off on Grant's case as he still is lacking evidence and there is two hours of surveillance that is unaccounted for." Fury took the offer files and handed the one back to Carter, and then strolled purposely through the hall.
"Is he always so busy?" Harry asked curiously.
"Yes, he runs SHIELD and has a lot of important things to over see. Come along Harry the Medbay is two floors down but first we need to stop by my office; I need to file some reports." Coulson smiled leading the boy to one of the many offices.
Harry followed Coulson while letting a light layer of magic surround him to keep him alert. He was out of the safety of the tower and his HYDRA training was kicking in. There were a lot of agents milling about and it reminded him of HYDRA, the only difference was that they had different uniforms. Harry stiffened briefly as he felt something not right brush against his magic. He looked around but he didn't see anyone he put it to the back of his mind for now. Coulson stop at a tiny office that looked more like a broom closet.
"I know it's a bit small but I am mostly in the field and not here long enough to feel cramped." Phil smiled. The agent quickly filed the papers he had in his brief case and printed out new ones while sending out a few memos. "Okay all done we can go. Later I'll show you my Hero Card Collection. I have Captain America and some Avenger ones too."
"I would like that. Uncle Phil, what does SHIELD do?"
"Well, like HYDRA we are an organization that trains and keep watch on the world, but we are the good guys looking to stop bad guys. We want to keep everyone safe and it's our job to handle things behind the scenes so the public can live worry free lives."
Harry nodded his understanding as the approached the Doctor's office. Before he entered the office he felt something brush his magic once again. It wasn't another magical he would have said something if it was but the energy he felt was not friendly. Harry pushed his feelings on the energy to the back of his mind because he was greeted by the eye doctor.
"So this is the young man you told me about. Hello Harry I am Dr. Swinden, I am the medic of Shield but I was an Optometrist before I came here. Let's get you measured for glasses." The doctor was tall but not as tall his Uncle Thor but taller then Uncle Tony. He was nice and had kind brown eyes and short spiky brown hair. Dr. Swinden was gentle and it didn't take long to get his prescription written out. Uncle Phil said that they would later go to a store to pick out frames and they would be ready after their lunch hour. First they had to do the rounds of the daily routine. It was a bit weird being at SHIELD. They were the literal opposite of HYDRA but everyone was so nice to him and no one looked at him like a freak or a weapon that should be ignored or degraded. Harry liked it here, but only to visit. He liked living with his family at the tower a whole lot more.
"Okay Harry, now we are going to go and get updates of on going cases. Let's go to the conference room." Phil smiled. It was a light caseload nothing above a level 3 so it was safe for Harry to listen in on. He even brought a laptop with some games in case the child became bored. Which was a possibility because even he became bored listening to junior agents drone on and on before getting to the point of their investigations.
"Okay Uncle Phil." Harry sat at the table with his voice disc and the laptop. Uncle Tony had been showing him how to use computers and how to get Jarvis anywhere. He half listened to the agents that paraded in and out of the conference room. Harry was fine until the bad energy appeared again. The young wizard looked up to see a man that was of medium height Brown hair brown eyes and the seemed to blend in and not stand out. The perfect spy for infiltration, but he wasn't classified as one. Harry began to type fluently on the keyboard and began talking to Jarvis. He kept the volume on mute and was reading everything Jarvis was sending him on the Agent who was giving his dull report. Suddenly Tony was in on their message board asking what the mini hacker was up to.
IManT: Okay, Munchkin what are you up to?
MiniM: Uncle Tony?
IManT: Yup, now what are you and Jarvis doing rummaging through SHIELD's databases; that's my Playground.
MiniM: I'm at Shield and I don't like this agent that is reporting to Uncle Phil.
IManT: First thing, his name is Agent not Phil. I don't know why he's corrupting you with such nonsense. Secondly why don't you like this guy Albert Smyth? He seems pretty common and dull.
MiniM: I have been feeling something bad in the office since I got here but not magic. I thought someone had a bad day and their feelings were in the air. But it got stronger when this agent came in to report. Something is wrong but I'm not sure. He acts like a regular agent but agents don't dress like him or is as perfectly dull as he is. So Jarvis and I are being detectives.
IManT: You are not wrong Mini Me. I just went over what you and J. have found. Good eye on the shoes. Okay now sign off and go to your Uncle Eye Patch's office I'm going to call Uncle Agent right now.
MiniM: Okay I'll see you at dinner.
Harry closed the laptop and picked it up along with his disc. Coulson was about to stop him when his phone rang.
"Hello? How did you get this number?" Coulson asked as he was called on his personal cell phone that he was sure he turned off when he entered the building. "I see. Very well then, but stay off the internet. I'm sure his father would say it was your fault for teaching him. I will handle it from here." Coulson hung up and turned to Harry who was tapping out a message.
"I'm going to visit Uncle Nick he said I can meet him now that he has time."
"That's fine Harry. Agent Hill! Can you escort Harry to the director's office? Please call Clint and Natasha here." Coulson called out to the passing agent.
"Sure come along Harry." Maria nodded and gently took the boy by the hand, and out of the conference room.
"You better call them now Uncle Phil is alone with a traitor." Harry tapped out and Hill picked up her steps while dialing the spies on her cell phone. By the time they reached the Director's office Fury was just slamming the phone down.
"Thanks Hill, go and join Coulson in interrogation and squeeze every last drop of Intel from the traitor."
"Yes sir." Maria replied and left in a hurry.
Nick studied the boy as he sat back in his chair. "Well Harry, I have to thank you for the heads up on the double agent, but I also have ask, how did you know?"
Harry pulled out his laptop and proceeded to load all the files he had found with the help of Jarvis and then he opened the voice program to explain what happen. It would go a lot faster than tapping out on his disc.
"Well Uncle Nick when we got to this floor I felt something bad brush against my magic. It wasn't another wizard though. Even Muggles can give off bad or good vibes and it can be felt by anyone whether they have magic or not. At first I thought some one was having a bad day because the contact was brief and I didn't think anything of it. Then the feeling passed by me again but I was just about to see the doctor so I forgot about it. After I saw the doctor Uncle Phil and I went to a room to listen to reports on minor cases. It was real boring and then Agent Smyth came in and my magic felt like it was being pushed on by something unknown and a bit dark. I remembered what my Dad said when he caught Lady Sif in a lie when she said her visit was requested by my Grandma Frigga. A lie is a half truth that is fueled by emotions. He told her that as the God of Lies she could not hide her feelings from him as they were beating on his magic like a hammer. The stronger the emotion that fuels the lie, the Harder the hammer hits on our magic. That's what I felt with Agent Smyth when he entered the room. He was lying about his existence within SHIELD. Besides the physical clues I could feel bad things from him and it got stronger the more he talked to Uncle Phil even though he didn't change his tone or speech patterns."
"Okay I get that your magic is telling you that something about the guy was wrong, but what do you mean by 'there were physical clues'?" The director narrowed his one good eye.
"Well his shoes were too nice and expensive and do not match his inferior department store suit. They were the kind of shoes Uncle Tony wears to his meetings. I had Jarvis run a search on the type of shoes they were."
"What is wrong with wearing nice shoes?" Nick asked curiously.
"Nothing but Uncle Tony spends like thousands of dollars on one pair of shoes to match his equally expensive suit. I am sorry to say this, but SHIELD does not pay that well. A mid-level agent could not seriously afford those Tom Ford Gianni Laced Up Oxford shoes unless it was one of three things. One reason could be that he won the lottery. I had Jarvis check the state lottery winners for the last three years and he wasn't on the list nor did he file a claim on his taxes for a lottery or casino winnings that large. Second reason would be that he inherited the money. Again there was no filing on his taxes for such a large sum also Smyth is an only child and his parents are still living as well an uncle on his maternal side. His grandparents on both sides are deceased and they were of moderate income. The third reason would be he is trying to hide the fact that he has money to spend but still wants to indulge in the finer things that only money can buy. The only reason to hide his wealth would be because…"
"He was a traitor selling secrets for cash." Nick hissed. "And the only way he could indulge in spending was his shoes because no one really looks at a man's shoes. Was there any thing else?"
"His work habits and his desk. Jarvis went through the security cameras and found his cubical. He has no personal items to identify that he works here. I know there are regulations on how a SHIELD workspace should be kept, but that rule is bent as long as it doesn't interfere with the job. Uncle Phil has a tiny office but he has a poster of Uncle Steve on the wall and his hero cards are in a wooden box on the corner of his desk. You have a tidy office as well but you still have pictures of loved ones and an orange Flerken on your desk. His work habits are predictable. Smyth clocks in on time leaves on time; he does no more and no less than what is required of him. There is also very little interaction between him and his fellow agent since he started working for SHIELD."
"I follow you. When you break it down that is very suspicious behavior. Also how did you know Goose is a Flerken? She looks like a normal tabby cat to me. Hell, I didn't even know what a Flurken was until she swallowed an alien." Fury was stood up and started pacing the floor. This child was brilliant. It seemed that during his time at HYDRA Harry had been taught more than just magical endurance and Morse code. Being the son of the God of Lies it wasn't surprising he could see through human deception but Harry was a master of human behavior. In the files regarding Harry that Stark had let him look over at the Tower there was no mention of these skills let alone the boy's intelligence. Then it hit him 'survival'. The only way to survive captivity was to study your captor and mould yourself to their will so that you would live to see the next day.
"My Grandmother has sent me books about Animals of the Nine Realms since I now have Shadow. He's a Jinx Cat from Alfheim." Harry smile and pulled up a recent picture on the laptop of him and Shadow.
"He looks bigger than Goose." The director smiled and walked closer to the desk. That's when they heard a knock on the door.
"Excuse me Director, Harry, sorry I took so long. He isn't being cooperative plus we need to finish the investigation you started Harry, before we have another go at him." Coulson entered the room giving the little wizard a warm smile.
"I bet. Harry has already briefed me on what led to this internal investigation. I want you to do an Official write up and take all of Harry's data that he and Jarvis compiled. I want that traitor locked up for a long time. In the meant time I assume you have Romanoff and Barton putting Smyth on ice right now."
"Yes sir. He'll be held there until further notice. Come along Harry we still need to get your glasses and have lunch. Your father would be very upset if you skipped a meal." Coulson said taking the mini god by the hand. Harry nodded his agreement as his tummy began to grumble. He left the laptop with Uncle Nick and took his disc in hand.
"Bye Uncle Nick; see you after lunch."
"See you later Harry. We'll talk more after lunch when you get back." Nick leaned back against his desk watching the two head out to lunch. Once he was alone he closed and locked the door and engaged the sound proofing of his office. Then he sat down before moving the Laptop to a better position on his desk turning on the Jarvis app Harry had installed on the computer.
"Good afternoon Director Fury. How can I help you?"
"Well let's start with pulling up everything you found on Smyth for Harry and then explain to me how he was able to install you on a government encrypted computer."
"Well, Popeye that is top secret information that you can't have but everything else you can have." A video window popped up and Fury was staring face to face with the annoying creator of Jarvis.
"Stark, I should have known you had a hand in this. Funny how I get a call from Agent Carter about an anonymous tip that Harry uncovered a traitor."
"What can I say? Sharon and I grew up together; I always got her on speed dial. Now I take it the soon to be former Agent Smyth has been arrested."
"Yes, but I have some questions about Harry. The boy is highly intelligent and observant. He displays such much maturity when dealing with serious situations like a seasoned soldier or agent but in the blink of an eye reverts to childish glee when taking about his cat."
"HYDRA messed him up but not in the traditional sense. Loki and I noticed that when he feels safe, he allows himself to be the kid that he was meant to be. But as soon as he steps outside of the Tower he is on guard. His mind ages to that of an adult. His speech patterns change from using Daddy to Dad and his vocabulary triples in size. I wouldn't be surprise if HYDRA made him swallow a dictionary as his spelling is often better than my own. The one thing they didn't teach Harry was how to write. I don't think they wanted to give him anything that he could use as a weapon or a means of escape. Rock of Ages and I have been trying to teach him how to write in both English and Norse."
"So they conditioned him to an extent to be the perfect spy and disposable weapon." Fury sat back and stroked his chin in thought.
"Don't go there Eye Patch! Harry is only nine and I don't think Loki will allow you recruit him into SHIELD or The Avengers." Tony glared through the computer.
"What, I'm just thinking of possible futures. He is also very proficient in reading human behavior. He caught Smyth's lie effortlessly. Harry explained how Loki recently caught someone in a lie and he learned how to do the same."
"Oh he told you about that? Yeah a friend of Thor's from back home came down here in hopes of being his rebound girl. She gave the excuse that their mother sent her to check on them and her new grandson. The Lady Sif doesn't get she has been in the friend zone for centuries and Thor has no plans or desire to move her out. Loki calls her a stalker with high expectations"
"Sounds like no matter what world you live on there always a few crazies who won't take no for an answer. I'm glad I missed the visit. Now I want you to stay out of SHIELD's databases. How do I remove the Jarvis app from this laptop?"
"You don't. Jarvis will remove it at the end of the day once Harry is home for the evening. I need a way to keep an eye on Harry for Reindeer Games' peace of mind. He really didn't want you and Agent to take him out of the tower. He was stalking around the living room like a caged panther restless and ready to kill when I got home. It took a lot of talking and Fig Newtons to calm him down and not let him go storming your HQ. So where is my Mini Me anyways?"
"Agent Coulson took him to get the glasses made and have some lunch. Barton is probably following them by roof tops as added protection."
"Yeah that sounds like Legolas. Okay well I need to go before Pepper finds me playing hooky in my Lab. Jarvis will be on hand to help move things along and keep Harry entertained. See ya, Popeye." Tony waved closing the video chat.
"If he wasn't a genius I would have shot his annoying ass years ago." Nick muttered before having Jarvis place an order at his favorite sub shop for Agent Carter to pick up. It looked like he would be working through lunch and Carter was demoted to his gofer for not telling him about being on Stark speed dial. "An anonymous tip, my black ass."
XxXxXxXxX
Harry could not stop smiling. For the first time ever the world was clear to him and he saw the details in every little thing. Uncle Phil helped him pick out small round frames in a silver grey color with red and green accents on the arms of the frame. Even his magic was humming with happiness.
"Hey Coulson, are you on your way in?"
"Agent Carter, are you going on a lunch run?" Coulson asked the exasperated blonde.
"I just did the lunch run; now he's sending me for more coffee. I swear I will get Stark for this." Even though she complained about the genius she was still fond of the bastard like he was her annoying brother.
"If you want I can ask my Dad to turn all his cars green." Harry offered smiling at the agent. He was rewarded with a smile.
"Thanks I'll think about it. I've heard a lot about you Harry my name is Sharon. I grew up with Tony so he tells me everything. He has been talking about you non-stop and how cute you are. He really loves you and calls you his little Hare-Bear."
"I love Uncle Tony too. He made this so I can speak again." Harry held out the disc to Sharon.
"Yup that sound like something he would do. Well, I better get that coffee or Fury will feed me to his cat. But if I get any more pointless earns than I will definitely take you up on that offer of pranking Stark." The blond gave them one last smile before dashing off for the required caffeine.
"Sharon is really nice."
"That she is Harry. It was her Aunt and Tony's Dad that helped to create SHIELD after World War Two." Coulson inform the little wizard making their way to the upper floors. "Director Fury worked closely with Howard Stark and is the greatest Agent of SHEILD."
"Coulson you are such a kiss up and a Fan-boy." Grant Ward smirked.
"Agent Ward I thought you were on assignment." Phil nodded in greeting.
"Oh you know me I am nothing if efficacy itself. I just handed off my report to Maria and I'm on my way out. But before I head out I didn't know it was bring your kid to work day, dad." Ward said sarcastically. Harry noticed the agent was slightly younger and taller then his uncle. He had this aura of confidence and deceit. He also had and ego that would put his Uncle Thor to shame.
"Harry this is Agent Ward. He has a ninety-eight percent mission success." Coulson introduced tightly.
"Yeah I'm one of the top agents here maybe you'll get there one day Phil." Ward laughed proud of his record knowing Phil's record had been trashed thanks to the Avengers. "Well I got to go. I hot date tonight. Enjoy celibacy Phil."
Harry glared at the departing man's back he did not like the man one bit. While the man didn't lie about his record and accomplishments he was being deceitful. About what, he didn't know. He didn't want to open that can of worms just yet. He thought he had done enough this afternoon with calling out Smyth as a traitor. For now he would settle with just embarrassing the man as he placed Ward's wallet he had summoned to his hand in his jacket pocket. No one messes with his family and gets away with it.
"Don't mind him Harry he can be a bit hard to handle sometimes. Now let's go up and meet the Director. He'll tell us how things are going in the case you opened." Coulson gave a strained smile leading Harry to the elevator.
"Okay Uncle Phil." Harry though had some other ideas on his mind right now like making Ward pay for making his uncle sad. He would start with Jarvis looking up everything he had on Perfect Agent Ward and see if they could give the man a case of bad luck.
XxXxXxXxXx
"Haraldr!" Harry was almost tackled by his father as he exited the elevator. The God of Mischief had been informed of Harry's activities at SHIELD by Clint who stopped by after lunch to let them know that Harry was safe before heading back to work. The father went into over thinking mode and worried about what could have happened if the traitor had known it was Harry that ousted him as a double agent. "Oh my little Prince I missed you."
"Let the kid breathe Lokes. He just got home. He doesn't need you squeezing all the air out of him." Tony laughed.
"Shut up Stark." Loki reluctantly let his son go trying to regain his composer. Then he turned his attention back to his son. "How was your day with Agent Coulson my son?"
"It was great Dad! I can see everything so clearly now. Uncle Phil took me to a place that served really Spicy food I liked it a lot!" Harry smiled up at his father and Tony.
"We had Thai Food for lunch this little place that I know of close to Central Park." Phil said announcing his presence to the others.
"Thank you, for taking care of him today, Agent. I know my Dark Prince was near panic with our Mini Merlin gone all day. It helped knowing he was in safe hands." Tony said shaking hands with Phil while ignoring the glare from Loki.
"No problem, it was a joy to show Harry the sites and to help him pick out frames that reminded him of his two favorite people. Well I got to go I have a few more things to finish before I clock out for the night."
"Thank you again Agent Coulson. I knew I could trust you." Loki nodded to the departing man.
"Well since you had Thai for lunch I say we have Pizza for dinner." Tony said once the elevator closed and they were alone once again.
"No, you have already had Pizza three times this week. I had Jarvis order some steaks for dinner. Thor has been training with Steve and James all afternoon they will need the protein." The God overruled the billionaire. "Haraldr would you like to help me with dinner while Anthony goes and warms up the grill?"
"I told you my name is Tony, Reindeer Games!" Tony's protests were ignored as the ravens headed to the kitchen.
"Yes Daddy! I like steak! Can we have those roasted potatoes you made last week?"
"Of course we can son. And after dinner you can tell us about your day over ice cream and brownies."
"Fine, ignore me! I am going to set the patio on fire so you can cook the cow flesh!" Tony huffed but he couldn't really be mad at them because he loved the family that they were becoming.
A/N: Well I did it I got another Chapter done unfortunately it wasn't as soon as I wanted. After the holiday my whole family became sick and I was the only one well enough to take care of them. So that left little time to write. Anyways some minor facts Harry's screen name MiniM mean Mini Merlin Tony like to think it means Mini Me after him. Tony's screen name is of course IManT for IronManTony. Just having fun with the MCU and HP characters. Thanks for reading and Keep feeding the Plot Bunnies with Reviews.