The Offer
Kaz sat in a chair in front of Director Fury and Secretary Jan Van Eck, while Inej sat perched on a window nearby with cloth covering the bottom half of her face. It had been a few days since Loki had declared war on Earth, and Fury had been gathering a team to find him and the Tesseract. Something about his Avengers Initiative, which of course Kaz and his Crows knew nothing about……
But Kaz didn’t care too much about that. If Loki did end up becoming Earth’s ruler, chances were good crime rates would still be up. The Crows could go undercover. No, Kaz and Inej had been researching the staff as much as they could without leaving. Neither had been given leave by Fury to leave, so leaving would be considered “treason”, according to the Board of Directors.
Three years after Kaz had escaped Rollins and declared war on Hydra, he had run into Nick Fury. Seeing the SHIELD emblem on his chest, Kaz knew that Fury was his best shot at getting revenge on Rollins. So, after demonstrating some of his strength and skill, he had made a deal with Fury. While slavery by name was illegal in the US, the amount of people secretly engaged in it was shocking, and Kaz was unfortunately one of them.
Kaz would belong to SHIELD for 30 years, using all of his skills to the best of his ability to benefit SHIELD, and the Board of Directors would let him hunt down Rollins without legal interference. But only after his sentence was complete. Kaz today was furious over this predicament, confident that now he would have been able to bargain for a more beneficial deal, but now there was nothing he could do about it. Fury had had him find old pieces of art that had been stolen, infiltrate terrorist meetings, and bring in criminals that had escaped trial for decades. Inej and Jesper had always been there to help him, but now he was missing one of his Crows.
Finding Jesper would have been impossible if they weren’t out in the field, so while Kaz and Inej were stuck at SHIELD headquarters, they studied everything they knew about Asgard and Jotenheim. Without calling on the two ex-lovers. Kaz didn’t want to call on them until he and Inej were free to go. Now that they had finally been summoned to this meeting, Kaz hoped that he and his Wraith would be able to go search for their missing Crow. Fury spoke up, beginning the meeting.
“Let me start this meeting with this question. How much would either of you two want to be free?” Kaz raised an eyebrow. This had to be a trick. “I mean completely free. No marks on either of your records, no agents tracking your movements, and no debt labeled in your files. Wraith,” Fury turned towards Inej, who leveled her cool gaze towards him.
“You wouldn’t be charged for your crimes, and you would have the chance to find your family. Brekker,” Fury looked at Kaz, who steeled his expression.
“You could be cut free from SHIELD, and you would have legal immunity long enough to get your revenge on Pekka Rollins, and then your record will be wiped clean.”
“Just cut to it, Fury.” Kaz interrupted. “What is it you want from us that would supposedly give us this?”
“A heist,” Van Eck cut in. Kaz smirked.
“I perform countless heists for SHIELD just about every damn week. What makes this one so special?”
“Because this one might determine whether Agent Fahey lives through the next two weeks.” Fury said, tilting his head at Kaz, eyebrows furrowed in a serious way. Kaz stilled, and he could feel Inej’s fear from the window sill.
“We already have collected a team dedicated to finding and bringing in Loki, the staff, and the Tesseract. What we need from you two, and whoever else you decide to bring in, is Bo Yul-Bayur.”
Van Eck stood up at this, and moved to one of the Stark Industry projection computers. Typing in some keys, a few pictures popped up, all of the same man; old, Asian, and dressed nicely. Kaz noticed one picture in the corner, a younger version of the man with a small Asian boy in his lap. They shared the same nose and eyes, so most likely his son.
“Bo Yul-Bayur is a Chinese alchemist who used to work side by side with Bruce Banner.” A picture appeared of a 20 year old Banner next to a 40 year old Yul-Bayur, seemingly accepting an award.
“After the unfortunate incident that caused the Hulk, they split ways. But while Bruce Banner continued studying the game radiation that created him, Yul-Bayur studied jurda parem.” Van Eck turned and looked at Kaz expectantly. “Jurda parem is why you will be bringing him in in return for your freedom.”
“Why? What is this jurda parem, and what does it have to do with Jesper?” Inej asked. She had moved to stand behind Kaz’s chair as Van Eck had been talking, and Kaz saw Fury start at her voice. He felt a glimmer of pride for his Wraith, as usual.
“Yul-Bayur had always been slightly interested in the jurda drug, but he discovered its potential on the day Banner absorbed radiation. It was kept from the public, but once Banner first returned back to his human form after becoming the being we call Hulk, his partner discovered that his body was slowing down. His heartbeat was skipping, his lungs were struggling to take breaths. On an impulse, Yul-Bayur injected jurda directly into Banner’s heart, restarting his body.” Kaz turned his head and looked up at his Wraith. She had removed the cloth in front of her face, and she stared back at Kaz for a moment before looking back at Van Eck.
“Yul-Bayur discovered with further studying that its cousin jurda parem was a drug that when brewed correctly, could keep a person’s heart, brain, and lungs going even when they should have shut down. Even when there was a bullet put through the brain.” Kaz decided not to ask if Yul-Bayur tested this by shooting his “volunteers”.
“They were not alive, they had no consciousness. But their lungs were breathing, and their hearts were pumping.”
“To repeat Inej’s question, what does this have to do with Fahey?” He asked, raising his eyebrows at Fury.
“Loki’s staff seems to be controlling the way his victims think. He is controlling their entire body. Now, I don’t care how ancient someone is, but using the mental capacity needed to focus in order to keep multiple people’s hearts pumping and their lungs breathing, while planning a war for yourself will simply become too much for one person.”
Fury stood up as well and moved in front of the desk, leaning on it with his arms crossed. Despite having only one eye, his intensity in his gaze could put some people to shame at moments like this. But Kaz was not one of those people intimidated by it, and he looked back unflinchingly.
“Loki has obviously been planning this for a long time, and has Erik Selvig on his side now. If he doesn’t already know about jurda parem, he will soon enough, and getting the alchemist that can effectively brew it will be a priority to him if he wants to keep his army.”
“Your priority is to get Bo Yul-Bayur into custody before Loki can get him.” Van Eck folded his arms. “We don’t care who you get on your team, what laws you break, how many funds you spend, just get him alive as soon as possible, and before Loki gets him.”
“And then?” Kaz asked, adjusting his grip on his silver cane. He gave an inquisitorial look. “Do we just keep him in our den until the war is done? What do we get in return?” Van Eck sighed, annoyed.
“Keep him safe, alive, and away from peering eyes until we give you the all clear. And once that is done, yes, you two will achieve full freedom.” Inej put her hand on Kaz’s chair. He didn’t look at her.
“What about anyone else on our team? What would they get?” Inej asked quietly. Van Eck shrugged.
“How does 10 million dollars sound?” At Inej’s intake of breath, he clarified, “That would be total for your team, not each person.”
“And Jesper Fahey? What about him?” Inej straightened her stance at her own question, preparing herself for the answer. Fury sighed, but then looked Kaz in the eye.
“Agent Fahey was a valuable asset to SHIELD, and every moment he is against us is a moment of tragedy. If there is a way to get him back, that would be wonderful and highly encouraged. However,” Fury hesitated before looking Inej in the eye. “He is now a liability. Do not hesitate to remove him from the equation if his return is not possible.” Kaz tightened his grip on his cane, and looked to the side. Van Eck nodded.
“Go.”
Kaz stood up at the dismissal as Inej turned towards the window, resealing the cloth around her face.
“Your apartment,” Kaz muttered before she leaped out of the window. She gave him the smallest nod to show she understood, and then she was gone.
Half an hour later, Kaz allowed the DNA detector on Inej’s door to examine his right eye. It looked like a doorbell, but was actually the key to unlock her apartment. Walking in, he looked around for Inej. The Wraith appeared to be absent. He closed the door, and relocked it while resetting the Detector. Turning back around, he went to sit on her padded chair facing the window. Sitting down, he looked up, and there she was.
“Who are we getting on the team?” Inej asked, perched lightly as if she was a bird instead of a ghost. Kaz put his cane in front of him, putting both hands on top of it.
“First we need to decide if we’re going to take this job.”
“Take it?” Inej was appalled, and swung completely inside the room, shutting the window soundlessly. “Kaz, first of all, we literally have no choice. We need to obey SHIELD, or else we’re going to be executed for “treason.” Second of all, this job could give both of us our freedom. Third of all, this is Jesper’s life we are talking about!” She had slipped into Russian as her anger grew, and Kaz answered in the same language.
“Yes, this is his life we are talking about. Which is what brings me to my point.” Inej froze. Kaz raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to show she was listening. She crossed her arms, and raised her chin slightly. He accepted this.
“This heist might determine whether Agent Fahey lives through the next two weeks. That is what Fury told us, yes?” When Inej gave him a nod, Kaz continued, “Did you notice that they didn’t tell us what exactly would happen to Loki’s mind-controlled army if we got the jurda parem first? We were told that he needed this drug in order to keep his soldiers alive while he controlled them, and then were told that Loki was not to get the drug.” Inej was still, but her eyes betrayed her surprise. “Getting Bo Yul-Bayur safe from the Asgardian might cost Jesper and Selvig their lives.” He paused once he finished speaking. He needed Inej to fully understand the risks they were taking when they made this decision.
In the silence, he took a moment to reflect on the atmosphere in the room. It felt empty without his sharpshooter giving out of pocket comments, or sarcastic editorials of the conversation, or even without hearing him messing with his precious guns.
“We can get him back, and get the drug,” Inej said quietly. “It’s just a mental control shift. Loki’s brain is the one in control instead of Jesper’s. I know how that feels, you know that.” She did, Kaz quietly admitted to himself. She unfolded her arms.
“A hit to the head, a hard enough impact, could literally knock Loki out of Jesper’s mind. All we would need to do is find him.”
“But we can’t do both at the same time.” Kaz reminded her.
“The pure fact that Loki felt comfortable enough mind controlling Selvig and Jesper tells me that he can keep this going for a little more time. Hopefully enough time to get our alchemist, and then take back our sharpshooter. We can complete the job, earn our freedom and 10 million dollars, and then get back your Crow.” Inej was pleading with him now.
He met her desperate gaze for a few seconds before looking away and thinking it through. He looked back at her once he made his decision. Her panic cleared with relief as she took in his expression, before he even began speaking.
“Obviously we need someone who knows about Yul-Bayur’s past, and with Loki coming we will need people who know about both areas of his past. What he knows and what he doesn’t. Asgard and Jotenheim.” She tilted her head.
“That’s Zenick and Helvar, but who are we going to get for Yul-Bayur?” Kaz gave her one of his smirks.
“I’ll worry about that, along with getting Helvar. You focus on finding Nina.”
The man punched Nina across the face. Groaning from the pain, she put her head back, hanging behind the chair. She had been on a date with Töten Braichen, a German crime lord expert on breaking and entering high security buildings when she had been jumped. Waking up, she found herself in an abandoned warehouse, tied to a chair, surrounded by five big men with guns.
"Also, das ist das berühmte Herz-Rendering. Ich muss zugeben, ich bin enttäuscht.” Braichen said tauntingly to Nina.
“So, this is the famous heartrender. I must admit, I’m disappointed.”
“Nicht so enttäuscht wie Sie, dass wir nie in Ihrer Wohnung gelandet sind. Schade.” Nina said back, wincing as she picked her head up to look at him.
“Not as disappointed as you must be that we never ended up in your apartment. Too bad.” A man to her left laughed.
"Du bist hübsch, aber zu schlau für dein eigenes Wohl.” Stepping forward, Braichen grabbed her chin roughly, tilting her face up and then side to side, examining her.
“You are pretty, but you’re too smart for your own good.”
He let go of her before gesturing at the man on her right. He pointed a gun at her head. Nina could feel their heartbeats so clearly. All of them calm, all of them thinking they had the upper hand.
“Sag mir, was will die Hexe mit mir und meiner Crew? Soll sie uns verraten? Da musst du dir schon mehr einfallen lassen, liebe Nina Zenick.”
“Tell me, what does the witch want with me and my crew? To turn us in? You’ll have to do better than this, dear Nina Zenick.”
So, Töten Braichen knew who she was. Must be why the rope around her wrists was so tight. She straightened while glaring at Braichen, pulling at the ropes around her wrists when her phone started ringing. He had put her phone on a nearby table, and everyone’s heads turned to look at it as it rang. Nina felt a sense of satisfaction as she felt fear pumping the men’s hearts for the first time, even though she had no idea who was calling her.
One of the men walked over to the table and answered the phone. After listening for a few moments, he held the phone out to Braichen and said in accented English,
“It’s for her.” He nodded towards Nina, who glared back. Braichen scowled and snatched the phone.
“Ich weiß nicht, wer du bist, aber du solltest besser-”
“I don’t know who you are, but you had better-“
And then he froze. Whoever was on the phone was being very persuasive, Nina could tell. There were only a few people Nina knew who could be that persuasive in that amount of time, and she did not want to talk to any of them. The racing of Braichen’s heart sped up, confirming her thoughts. He looked at Nina’s phone for a moment before putting it to Nina’s ear. She put her head down, clamping it between her ear and shoulder.
“What?” She snapped. She was trying to hire a man who could get Matthias out, whoever was interrupting her had better have a good reason.
“Kaz has a job that could get us all what we want, but he needs your skills.” Surprisingly, it was Inej Ghafa’s voice, not Kaz Brekker’s, that spoke to her through the phone. So the little Wraith did have a dark side of her own. Shocker.
“No. I don’t do that anymore, not on Earth anyways.” At this, Braichen and his men looked around at each other with surprised expressions. She rolled her eyes at them. They could wait.
“We have Helvar.”
Nina froze. How the hell? She had been trying for years, and those three just freed Matthias on a whim? She grit her teeth as she thought about this. Braichen, seeing her silence, started to grab the phone just as she made up her mind.
“I’m going to have to put you on hold,” she told Inej just as he grabbed the phone. Nina kicked out with all her might, striking him in the crotch.
Good, you don’t deserve children, she thought savagely as she heard the crunch and watched him crumble.
Hearing his men cry out and cock their guns, she thrust her body to the right, rolling onto her front on the ground, and stood up next to one of his men. As he grabbed for her, she hooked a leg behind his and used the chair to knock him to the ground. Spinning, she jumped onto her back, breaking the wooden chair and freeing her hands. Mortals would have been hurt by that motion, but Asgardians such as her had to go through worse before being bruised.
Now that her hands were free, she threw them up in the motions Frigga Mother had taught her, and stopped their hearts. Everyone fell to the ground dead around her.
Stepping over Töten Braichen’s lifeless form, she bent to pick up her phone. Walking towards the door, she asked Inej,
“Where do I need to go?” Surprisingly enough, Dirtyhands himself was the one who responded.
“Leipzig. Ask around for the Van Eck establishment. You might need to hail a certain reptile before you are allowed inside. Tell the boy the rest of the team is coming soon. And then we will discuss terms.” His cold voice, as always, annoyed the hell out of her. Kaz really didn’t have any moods besides being angry or detached.
“On my way,” she told Kaz before hanging up and running her finger through her dark brown hair exasperatedly.
Jesper Fahey sat in front of one of Stark Industry projection computers, researching a certain alchemist. As he studied what the computer screen showed, his eye caught two things. A hospital record, and a fan's search history. When he had read them both thoroughly, Jesper could not stop his grin from spreading widely. Kaz Brekker was going to get the shock of his life if he thought he was going to win in this race to jurda parem. He turned away from his computer.
“Hey boss! You might want to take a look at this!” A man across the room talking to Selvig abruptly stopped talking and turned towards Jesper. Loki’s blue eyes shone like his staff as he came over to Jesper’s computer. Jesper smirked as Loki read.
“Perfect,” Loki smiled, sounding triumphant. He pressed a kiss to Jesper’s hair. Jesper felt a small shiver run down his spine at the touch of Loki’s lips against the back of his head that went straight between his legs.
“Well done, Fahey. Victory is already here.”