Revamped!
Chapter 28: The Secret World of Espionage Part Three
Two Days Ago - Somewhere in the Baltic Sea - Time Unknown
A blaring alarm wakes Clint and Natasha from their nodding off. They try their best to look at each other in alert and with a slight hope that something in their favour is happening so they could escape. The alarm silences and their door opens. Several armed guards waltz into their room. Two guards cut the restraints off of Clint and Natasha and force them onto their feet, other guards have their weapons pointed at them just in case.
"You know the consequences that will follow if you don't cooperate," they get reminded.
Clint and Natasha obey and go where they're told. Their steps are slow at first since this is the first time they're walking after sitting stiffly in the same position for days. They enter a much brighter, spacious, luxurious, and cleaner room with posh furniture and a window that has a view of the ocean - telling the agents that they're underwater. They see the same man from yesterday who pointed the gun at them. He's sitting in the centre of a round velvet sofa, wearing a crisp white suit and a freshly shaven face.
"It's your lucky day!" He tells Clint and Natasha excitedly. "Someone's here to rescue you."
Clint and Natasha don't smile or jump for joy in any way because they can't believe it. Still, they turn their heads towards the doorway where a woman in a slick scuba suit enters the room, raven hair dripping wet from the ocean (since she swam down here from the surface herself). Her jade-green eyes immediately land on the spies. She grins, only making her sharp cheekbones appear to be more pronounced. All in all, she's an all too familiar face to other people but them.
"Ivory!" The man exclaims gleefully, going over to greet her.
"Sergei Sorokin," Ivory replies with a flirty tone in her voice. And now there is a name to the man who owns the submarine and kidnapped the spies. "I see you have some hostages who are highly in my interest."
"They're not for sale, just show and tell. Look, but don't touch."
"Well, I didn't come for you or your recreational submarine." She lightly pushes him to the side, taking a few steps closer to Clint and Natasha. Her eyes examine them from head to toe. "How about a trade?"
Clint and Natasha could tell that Sergei planned to get some profit off of them. Before Sergei could interrupt, Ivory removes a part of the scuba suit that covers her hand. She slips a ring off her pointer finger and holds it out to him. It's emerald gem and silver band, though a vague description, is recognized by Clint and Natasha in a way that makes their jaws drop.
"The lives of these two Avengers to be under my custody for this ring. In case you're an uncultured swine who is unfamiliar with this piece of beautiful jewelry, it's Emily Stark's engagement ring. It may not have been billions of dollars in cost but it has no price on an emotional level."
Sergei looks tempted but his brows cross in disbelief.
"How the hell did you get that ring?!" Clint yells at her.
Ivory rolls her eyes in annoyance. "I'm a kleptomaniac, how else did you think I'd get it?"
"He has a point," Sergei says. "How do I know that this ring is the real one?"
Ivory takes his tablet and pulls up the newest news articles from several credible sources. They all have headlines and pictures of a distraught Emily Stark and her missing engagement ring, wondering if the wedding is off. Sergei tilts his heads upwards a little, in need of more persuasion. For more convincing, Ivory pulls a keycard from a lanyard around her neck which unlocks any SHIELD prison (which she used to escape).
"Deal," Sergei states.
"Perfect," Ivory replies. She looks over at Clint and Natasha who are giving her the dirtiest look. "Follow me."
"Hey!" Clint exclaims. "First off, I am much more valuable than a ring and keycard. Second, don't Nat and I have a say on where the hell we go?!"
Ivory doesn't even blink. "You can say a eulogy at your daughter's funeral."
Clint stands down, tensing at the mention of his daughter's funeral. Even with Sergei out of the picture, giving himself and Natasha to Ivory now puts her in charge of the sniper on Merida's back. Ivory leads them through the submarine alone. Though Sergei insisted, Ivory declined to have guards trail her, claiming that if she could beat Project: New Generation once, escape SHIELD's heavily guarded prisons, and have Merida's life under the control of her fingertips, then she could handle anything thrown at her.
"That ring is quite the antique, don't you think?" Ivory tells the assassins.
Clint and Natasha glance at each other, no words exchanged.
"Merida will get shot if you two misbehave, you both know that," Ivory tells them. "Is this how you imagined a possible demise for you two? Here at the bottom of the ocean because of your daughter?"
Clint and Natasha don't respond again, not wanting to deal with her. Ivory snickers as she brushes her hair to the side. The two of them spot something odd drawn on the back of Ivory's neck. Natasha subtly nudges Clint who's already grinning once he recognizes it.
-o-
Sergei admires the ring in his hands. How Ivory managed to escape from SHIELD, steal Emily Stark's engagement ring, and locate his submarine is something he'll never understand. She's much too remarkable and more beautiful in person. This ring could play a valuable part in his plan to get rid of Project: New Generation since Clint and Natasha were getting in his way in Mongolia. And now that they're gone, this ring will do the rest. Emily will be an emotional disaster with her missing ring and from what he's heard, read, and studied, she is the centre of the group.
"Boss," a guard says to Sergei, "you must see this."
The guard shows Sergei a couple of new articles involving Emily Stark in the airport. The one part of the articles that stick out for him are the pictures, specifically the pictures of Emily and her beautiful engagement ring that shouldn't be there. Then it hits Sergei that the ring Ivory gave him and her articles were all frauds.
"No…" he mutters, reaching for the SHIELD keycard she gave him.
Sergei scratches the surface of the keycard and paint chips off. He continues to pick away at it and it turns out to be a fraud as well - a coffee shop gift card with, after he checked, no money. Sergei thrashes in anger, throwing it and the fake ring against the wall. He should've known it was a dupe from the start. He's seen booths and sellers with copies and replicas of Emily Stark's engagement ring on display the moment it was revealed she was engaged. Of course, Ivory would do that to him.
"Stop her!" He orders. "Stop her now!"
-o-
Ivory holds up a hand, stopping the agents who trail her as they hear the echo of a scream. They look ahead and see their path suddenly blocked by Sergei and his guards. Even from where they came from, there are guards. Sergei walks closer to Ivory, showing the live stream of Merida.
"I just needed a few more minutes…" Ivory grits softly through her teeth.
"Shoot her," he orders his man behind the sniper pointed at Merida.
Sniper Operative: Copy that, boss.
"No!" Natasha exclaims, launching herself on Sergei before being pulled back by Clint. She claws at his face like a ferocious animal.
"What the hell?!" Clint screams. "We followed every one of your damn orders! You can't shoot our daughter because of what this manipulative thief did to you!"
"Don't you dare touch my Детский! I'll kill you!"
-o-
Two Days Ago - Somewhere in Manhattan - 2:12 AM
She knows that she shouldn't be on the streets at this hour, especially in the bad neighbourhood she lives in.
Merida walks through the empty streets, heading back to her apartment after a long day at work. Her head is down, bracing against the harsh winds and her hands are tightly shoved in her jacket's pockets. She suddenly feels something vibrate in the back pockets of her jeans, realizing that it's only her cell phone. Merida stops on the street corner as she pulls out her phone to see a new text message from an unknown number,
Unknown: The order has been given.
Merida stops, exhaling a breath that she can see in the cold night. She looks up and sees the same glint of light from the other day and it finally hits her that she has been watched this whole time. She drops her phone and as it hits the ground, a red laser dot appears on her heart.
Before she turns around to run, she feels the shot penetrate through her body. Despite seeing that coming, Merida's mouth still opens in surprise as she falls lifelessly to the ground.
[Remember what I said at the end of part one?]
