CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
( ROGUE ONE )
"CAN I HAVE everyone's attention, please?" Edith's voice beckons everyone's attention up at her all at once. The department was slow today, Quinn had just begun working on the last bit of code for her part of the new firewall for the update that was about to go live in the next couple of days or so.
Usually, they'd know what to call updates so they wouldn't get confused, however, Edith strictly said there was no name for this one yet and it would get its name once it had been released.
Something felt strange about it, but it's not like anyone would question her. Anyone who did would get humiliated, no one was in the mood for that.
Quinn tosses Dustin a confused look who does the same to her and then turn his attention towards Edith, who stood up on a chair. Something about the sight was off-putting to her. This wasn't usual Edith behavior, something was up.
It takes a moment for Edith to find the correct words as all eyes have turned towards her. It looks like she had been crying as she sniffles out an attempt to speak, Quinn's face grows concerned as she looks all over the office at the many faces who also wore the same expression, Dustin, Kara, Jack - everyone. "It is with a heavy heart," Edith begins with a sniffle that turns into a blatant sob.
Quinn's nerves are on fire with anticipation. Her eyes widen with worry. Was this about Steve? Did something happen to him? She had just spoken to him last night.
Anxiety floods her veins as she watches Edith sob. Quinn turns to look at her phone. No new texts from Steve nor Blair, Natasha or Clint, the three closest people to Steve.
Someone would have told her, even if none of them did Fury would've sent Agent Hill or someone to tell her. Yet she couldn't shake the thought of something bad happening to him.
Edith finally is able to compose herself in front of her department, apologizing for how she must look right now, earning a murmur in inquisitive questions. "It is with a heavy heart, that I must inform you, that Director Fury has been proclaimed dead by an assassination attempt," Edith informs the department.
Quinn's head absentmindedly tilts to the side in question. Fury was the most paranoid and vigilant individual she knew, yet somehow he gets assassinated. It didn't quite make sense to her. Quinn's mind quickly runs to Steve, she wanted answers.
"Director Fury was an amazing individual, who oversaw everyone's commitment to S.H.I.E.L.D. from Captain America to us down here," Edith continues. "He knew everyone's names, to their families, out of protection or out of pure familiarity I'm unsure but he'd always ask me how my kids were whenever I saw him...I never told him once I had kids but he knew,"
"That sounds unsettling," Dustin whispers over to Quinn, cracking a smile in the process while Quinn's face remained as stiff as a board, something she never seemed to do until a couple of days ago.
What Edith was saying was true. He knew about her mother, he knew about her brother and father, he knew about her law enforcement degree. She had thought it was because she told Steve all of this, and he partly acknowledged this by saying he watches the cameras, but it didn't seem far-fetched to her that he would look into everyone's backgrounds. He had the right to be obsessively paranoid.
She had a million follow up questions for Edith as she stepped down from the chair, but she already seemed so upset. It would be rude to even ask her. She could ask Steve but knowing how closely he worked with Fury he may be busy investigating or trying to find said assassin if they hadn't found him. She couldn't remember if she saw him enter the building or not today.
Usually, if they caught each other's gazes in the morning they'd nod at each other from a distance and continuing ignoring one another until they could talk in private. Something didn't settle right about the situation with her.
How could Fury be assassinated if he was always paranoid that he was being watched? He was the most secretive man she knew about and yet he slipped up and got assassinated? That didn't sound like the Nick Fury she encountered, the one that instilled fear into her heart. If Fury knew about everyone, why would he tell her that he knew everything about her from what she said to Steve? We're others just so careless just to tell their life stories here?
She knew Jack had kids and a wife but he wore that like a badge of honor.
Dustin? She knew absolutely nothing about other than what she sees at work.
Kara? She knew she was friends with Lillian now but she knew nothing about her otherwise.
Edith? She disliked Edith and tried to remain out of the loop with what's going on with her. But Edith knew about her mother, she had to inform her of that when she requested overtime. But did Fury tell her about her lessons with Blair? How every night Steve Rogers would to the department and sit at a desk and learn things from Quinn and watch her work sometimes?
Fury was a secretive person, how would he get assassinated so easily? Her hand instinctively latches on to her phone in her desk drawer, immediately going to her messages to talk to Steve.
If it was fishy to her, it was fishy to him, and unlike herself, Steve wasn't afraid to put himself in harm's way to get some answers. She hesitates as she stares at the screen of their former conversation, watching the cursor blink in the box as she tries to find the right words to get his attention.
She stops herself. If Fury was being watched, if he was assassinated so easily, who's to say that they're not watching Steve at this very moment? Fear courses it's way through her body, as she thinks of Steve getting assassinated.
Even though the next person in the pecking order would be Alexander Pierce, he should've been the first one, she had an odd feeling that whoever it was, they were going after Steve next.
Quinn places her phone in her back pocket, pushing herself hastily out if her seat, causing several eyes to look up at her. "I have to run to the restroom, I'm going to be sick," she excuses herself from the prying eyes of her co-workers and darts out the doors.
Edith's eyes remained locked on her as she exits the department quickly and into the hallway. Her lips press into a firm line as she heads down the hallway quickly, trying to seem as nonchalant as possible.
She freezes mid-step as her eyes connect with Blair's. She tilts her head to the side once again as she looks at her heading towards the restroom with a jerk of her head. Quinn swivels her head around to see a couple of other people in the hallway but none have paid her any attention.
She quickly follows Blair's lead and heads into the same restroom, bumping into her at the sink once again. "Hey," Quinn breathes out shakily. Blair doesn't acknowledge her until she checks all the restrooms and then paces over to the bathroom door to lock it.
"What's going on?" Quinn whispers as Blair turns towards her. "I thought you were on a mission,"
"Well, news of Fury getting assassinated is big enough to warrant an immediate return," Blair shrugs off. She grasps on to Quinn's arms, holding them down at her sides. "Listen to me, you're not safe," her voice is low and warning, her look is stern. "No one is safe, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised,"
The statement is enough to make Quinn's blood run cold. S.H.I.E.L.D. was the most fortified intelligence agency known, and it had been infiltrated. "Compromised? By who?" she questions. Blair looks over her shoulder, as she hears voices pass by outside of the bathroom. "I'm not sure, we're still trying to figure that out?"
"We're?"
"Steve and I. Well, mainly myself, but he asked me to come find you to make sure you were okay and to be alert if anything happens," Just as Blair utters out the last few words the bathroom along with the hallway lights go off and instead start blinking with red lights as an alarm goes off.
"Like that," she huffs out before quickly heading towards the door to unlock it. "Stay behind me," she instructs Quinn as she takes out a handgun from the holster on the side of her catsuit. Quinn doesn't argue, she simply nods her head and follows as instructed as they exit the restroom. She can hardly put a single string of coherent thoughts together over the blaring alarms and strobing red lights.
"This is a threat level five lockdown. Please remain inside the facility until authorized otherwise," the voice over the P.A. instructs repeatedly. "Threat level five?" Quinn questions as they come to the end of the hallway where the stairs are. "Isn't that like super bad?"
"No, it means the ice cream man has come to pay a visit. Yes, it's bad!" Blair shouts as she kicks open the doorway to the stairs, pointing her gun at the stairwell and all around as they enter. Once she deems it's clear she places the gun back in her holster and begins running up the steps along with Quinn.
"So do you think it's them?" Quinn asks as they run up the stairs. Under lockdown, the elevators do not work, and there's usually an agent at every door to the compound but as they pass each floor Blair notices the lack of agents or security, ignoring Quinn's question.
Blair kicks the door in on the floor that leads to the main entrance, noticing a small group of people gathered by the front entryway but none of them had seemed to notice them. They were all looking out the window and thanks to the lack of agents haven't been instructed to seek shelter away from any threats.
Blair rolls her eyes as she paces towards the group staring out the window from the entryway, Quinn closely in tow. "Ladies and gentlemen," she announces her arrival, catching all of their attention. "This is a threat level five lockdown, please take shelter and step away from any windows," she instructs them, gesturing with her hands to step away from the window of the entryway.
A few step back but most remain glued to the window, frustrating Blair. "But Agent Norris," one of the individuals speaks up catching both of their attentions. "It's Captain Rogers,"
"What?" Both Blair and Quinn say simultaneously. Quinn pushes past Blair and the patrons standing by the window to catch a glimpse of what was happening on the bridge a half-mile away.
A quinjet hovers above one of the bridges of the parking structure where agents park at, shooting at none other than Steve. Quinn places a hand over her mouth to refrain from gasping as she watches the quinjet begin shooting at Steve on his motorcycle that looked tiny in comparison to the aircraft.
She watches idly by as he flips the motorcycle she's become so accustomed to hearing at the quinjet and jumping on top of it, using his shield to ricochet off the aircraft's engines and turbines. "It's like a frisbee," she whispers, hearing Blair chuckle from beside her.
"Yeah, it is, but we should probably go," she urges by yanking back on her arm, dragging her away from the window. "Will he be all right?" Quinn questions as Blair pushes her into the stairwell with her. "He'll be fine, trust me," Blair states, once again grabbing on to the sides of her arms. "But we need to get out of here, it's obviously not safe if they're claiming Rogers as a threat. Any ideas on how to get out of here?"
Quinn taps her hand against her lips as she thinks of a good way to get out of here while flying under the radar. They could take her car, get in touch with Steve somehow, find a way to take S.H.I.E.L.D. back, save the day. She winces as she realizes what she has to do. "Yeah," she states her tone sounding unenthusiastic.
"I need you to grab the staff from the gymnasium for me just in case we run into any trouble though and then I need you to meet me back here, give me like a half-hour," Quinn instructs Blair, as she shuffles to head down towards the I.T. level of the building. "Make it twenty!" Blair shouts after her as she starts to descend down the stairs with her thumb up in agreement.
Her head spins as she tries to catch her breath at the level the I.T. department was on. She can't find the right way to wrap her head around everything that's happening. Fury's death, S.H.I.E.L.D. compromised, Steve has gone rogue, if anything else happened today she would flip her lid.
She tries her best to compose herself as she exits to the stairwell to the I.T. level, a couple of agents that were sweeping the level look up at her in surprise. She innocently raises her hands above her head. "I had to make a phone call, I didn't want to leave the stairwell in case there was a threat," she lies, flinching in the process hoping to throw them off guard.
They ignore her and continue to sweep the rest of the hallway, she sighs at how easy they let her off. Perhaps they weren't doing their job right. She enters the I.T. department, all eyes on her, including Edith's. She ignores them all and heads to her desk to grab her purse and pack up her personal belongings.
She didn't care if anyone gave her questioning looks, in less than fifteen minutes Blair was going to bust down that door, guns hot if she didn't meet her in the stairwell. She couldn't stand to see anyone in here get hurt.
"Miss Cruise," Edith beckons her attention as she paces her way down the line of desks towards her. Just as she calls her name her phone vibrates from her back pocket, alarming her on an incoming call. She quickly pulls it out to see Steve's name come across the top.
"Edith give me a sec," she instructs her supervisor, her voice on edge. She can hear the sharp intake from Edith as she puts the phone up to her ear. Before she can even greet him, Steve speaks up. "I need you to say 'Hey mom, how are you?' and excuse yourself from the room," he instructs her. "Hey Mom, how are you?" she follows the order, giving Edith a tight-lipped smile and excusing herself towards the hallway, purse in hand.
"Hold on," she whispers over the line to Steve as she turns back towards Edith who stands with her arms folded across her chest glaring at her. "Edith I have to go, I have a... family emergency. I'm really sorry. Use my PTO if you have to. Bye!" she rushes out of the door, ignoring Edith's protests and threats of firing her on the spot if she doesn't come back to her station to explain herself.
As soon as the door shuts she tells Steve to go on. "As you can see, I'm in a bit of trouble. I need you to meet me at the mall in thirty minutes. If you can meet me there, say 'That sounds great mom',"
Quinn heaves the heavy door open to the stairwell, becoming out of breath just looking up all the flights she was going to have to climb up. "Gee mom, I don't know. Captain America just turned into a fugitive. It's going to be hard to leave unwatched in thirty minutes or less," she stresses as she begins her ascent towards the main floor where Blair was supposed to be waiting for her.
"Stick with Norris, she'll make sure you guys get out of there undetected. Can you meet me?" his voice is urgent now, it sounds so desperate that it causes Quinn to stop dead in her tracks. She catches her breath before she responds.
"That sounds great mom," she heaves out as she continues her ascent, three more floors until she reaches Blair and they can get the hell out of there. "I'll explain everything later," he responds, but before she can even say goodbye the line disconnects.
Quinn shakes her head as she places her phone in her back pocket once again. "Rude," she breathes out from under her breath.
She huffs and puffs her way back to the floor that she's supposed to be meeting Blair on and comes in contact with her. She's sitting on the bottom step, staff enclosed in her hand. It was broken down to where Quinn could easily conceal it in her purse.
"You've got to work on the stair master," Blair teases, causing Quinn to roll her eyes as she digs in her purse for her keys. "We have to meet," Quinn hesitates for a moment, looking both up and down the stairwell just in case there were lingering ears listening in to their conversation. "My mom. She's at the mall," Quinn covers up, hoping that Blair would understand.
Thankfully she picks up what she's saying and nods her head in agreement. "Trade," Quinn demands tossing her keys into the air at the same time Blair tosses the staff towards Quinn. A small smirk plays on Blair's lips as she stands up and looks at the set of keys in her hand. "Let's go to the mall,"
~A/N~
Just a little reminder that if you don't want to be left on a cliffhanger you can read the next chapter of this on Wattpad. Trust me, the next chapter is what we've all been waiting for ;)