Chapter 49
"Is that Victoria?" Peggy said as she noticed the picture on Agent May's mother's phone. Yes, it definitely was her, she realized as the phone was handed over so she could have a better look, tucked into a makeshift bed on the floor, IV in one arm and monitors hooked into place. "Shouldn't she be in an actual bed? I know that we had actual beds when I was in charge of things for our sick agents. Sharon?" She waved for her niece. "Why on earth did Nick get rid of beds for sick people?" Maybe he did need to be here if he thought that was a good idea. Poor, poor Victoria. She looked terrible, and what in the world would her grandparents think if they found out that their poor, sick granddaughter was having to sleep on the floor? And she knew her memory was a bit spotty at times, but wasn't Victoria a bit taller than she looked in the picture?
"This flu's really bad, Aunt Peggy." Sharon said as she came hurrying over. She didn't like the way that the doctor had looked up when he heard what her aunt had said. Could someone thinking he had gotten rid of beds for the sick be used against the director to get him a permanent room in the mental home? "I heard someone was shivering so bad from it that they fell off their bed and broke their leg in four places. The floor's probably safer."
"Don't they make beds with rails for the sick?" Peggy demanded. "Or did Nick get rid of those? Really, Sharon, what is he thinking?"
"No, we still have those, but they tend to be located in areas filled with other sick people, and they're trying to limit the amount of germs Agent Hand's exposed to right now. She had a pretty bad fever and they're being really careful with her to keep her from getting another infection." Sharon said. Wait. Pictures. Pictures of Agent Hand. Would that be enough to convince the doctor that Director Fury wasn't insane and should be released from the mental institution before he could be forced to have shock therapy? "Doctor?" She called. "What if you could see a picture of Agent Hand? Would that be enough for you to agree to release the Director?"
"Pictures can be Photoshopped." the doctor said as he came over and frowned as he looked at the picture on the phone.
"Photoshopped. That would explain why Victoria looks smaller." Peggy said with a nod as it finally came to her how tall Victoria was. "She's six feet tall. Does this look like six feet to you?" she asked the doctor. "Really, Sharon, what is wrong with Shield, that they're doing something like this? Things were never like this in my day! Poor Victoria's grandparents were so upset and then to have something like this added to their troubles? What is Nick thinking?"
What Sharon was thinking was that she might be heading for a room in the mental institution herself if she wasn't careful. She didn't like the way that the doctor was looking at the picture and frowning at all.
"Six feet tall, you say?" The doctor said. "This picture definitely looks smaller than that. And were you planning to show this picture to that poor woman's family, to try to convince them she's still alive?" He frowned, thinking about what he knew about the situation. Honestly, Shield had allowed the woman's family to find out she was dead through her obituary being published in the newspaper. Even if the obituary was the nicest bit of writing he had ever seen, her family probably had grounds for a lawsuit there. Did Shield have some idea about fooling her family into thinking Agent Hand was somehow still alive in order to save themselves from a suit? "You are aware that fraud is a crime, right? A crime that I would feel morally obligated to report?"
"Fraud. I can reassure you that Shield wouldn't even think of committing fraud." Sharon said, trying to fight panic. Surely Fury hadn't reported Agent Coulson's death and collected his life insurance! They definitely needed to avoid any fraud reports until she had a chance to warn Agent Hill to double-check that.
"Your organization has apparently reported people dead at least twice and then have turned around and tried to claim they were alive." the doctor said. "First this situation, and then the other agent, his name was Coulson, did you say?"
"Agent Coulson. Yes, that was a communications issue. He was injured during New York, and somehow his name got put on the list of fatalities instead of the list of injured." That sounded believable, right? "We have corrected that situation, I can reassure you."
"A communications issue?" Peggy said. "We never had communications issues like that when I was in charge of Shield. And Steve was talking about how much he regretted not signing Phil's trading cards when he had the chance when he visited me two weeks ago. It didn't sound to me like the issue had been corrected. What is Nick up to, Sharon?"
"He thought he had corrected the issue. It turns out he missed a few people when he was correcting it. He has it fixed now though. And believe me, it's not going to happen again. We might have a few issues with communications at Shield, but we're definitely not guilty of anything beyond that."
"Saying people are dead when they aren't or possibly trying to convince people that dead people are still alive, that seems like some sort of fraud to me, or worse." The doctor said with a frown. "I am surprised that Agent Hand, who from what I read was fairly healthy, and what was she forty-two or forty-three? It surprises me that she was the only fatality of this virus that has been reported so far. Plenty of senior citizens, young children and people with pre-existing conditions got the defective shots. You would expect to see fatalities in those groups, but the only death is a fairly young, healthy woman. Something doesn't seem right there. Tell me, what sort of treatment did Agent Hand receive?"
"They sent my daughter's team to deal with the situation." Agent May's mother said before Sharon could say anything. "Six people to take care of three hundred sick agents. Melinda's been calling me for advice on dealing with the situation for days."
"Six people…." The doctor's eyes went wide. Six people and three hundred sick people? A ratio like that would be illegal in any hospital he knew. "Could I ask what in the world made your agency think that sending that little help for those poor people was a good idea?"
"They were the only agents we could confirm had shots from an outside source that we felt might be effective against the flu. And they're one of our best, most highly trained teams." Sharon said. "They've managed the situation with exceptional skill."
"Except that you've had the only fatality out of I believe 5000 people now who had the sabotaged shots and developed the flu as a result. And a fatality of a fairly young and healthy person." The more the doctor thought about it, the more concerned he was about that death. Six people caring for that many sick people, at best it was negligent, but at worst…. "They didn't do an autopsy, did they?" But with such a short time between death and the burial, when would they have had time to do an autopsy? A cold chill washed over him as he thought about it, and all of the possible, preventable causes of death that might have been missed without a proper autopsy. He had a sudden, very bad feeling about this, but who could he report it to? There had to be someone. "If you'll wait here for a few moments, I have to make a few phone calls about this situation."
Sharon didn't like the look on the doctor's face, and she definitely didn't like the way he had sounded talking about Agent Hand, and how she wasn't the most likely person to die from the flu. Not good, this was not good. Their major fear had been the director getting electro-shock therapy, but now she was suddenly worried that they all ought to be fearing a negligent homicide charge instead. She pulled out her phone and quickly dialed Agent Hill's number. "I'm still at the mental institution." She said as soon as Maria picked up. "The doctor saw a picture of Agent Hand that someone had sent to Agent May's mother. He thinks it was Photoshopped and we're possibly planning some sort of fraud. Or worse, he's thinking we're trying to hide something suspicious about Agent Hand's death. I think he may be calling someone to try to have us investigated for potential murder. What do I do now?"