Chapter 12
KATE’S P.O.V.
Technically, Yelena worked for Kate now. So, Kate put her on medical leave for the time being and went into work early the next day. To make sure no one asked questions, the report she put in was the same as when she called 911; that Yelena had been mugged, shot, and she added the doctor’s mention about what medicines Yelena was on.
Kate stared at the profile on her Bishop Security computer, knowing she’d found who she was looking for. Uninterested in wasting time, she dialed the number she’d found onto the work phone nearby. The ring on the other side went on and on until the tone gave her the signal to leave a message. Needless to say, she was frustrated. It had taken her almost all day to track this Valentina, being a major connect-the-dots situation. At least she knew the details and knew what to look for.
Come on. How many people named Valentina Allegra de Fontaine could there possibly be on this planet? Let alone being hired by mommy dearest to recruit Yelena? To kill Clint Barton? It wasn’t hard to narrow down once she got the names, phone calls, and wired transactions. But there were walls to get past on the computers, plus other jargon she wouldn’t be able to explain.
According to Yelena, Valentina had assured her that those Red Room bases, or whoever they were, would back off. Yet they came anyway, so something was wrong. Yelena was the expert on the whole deception game and had grown up in the vile place her niece was being taken to. So, if SHE was spooked about all this, it had to mean something. So, Kate intended to do something about it. For that, she needed something concrete. Helping run the company, thank God, would allow her to do just that. Especially since she inherited her mother’s credentials and all that jazz, giving her access to the security database.
Frustrated, she dialed again. When the leave-a-message tone went off again, she then heard it switch to another sound. It had been picked up! Strangely, it was quiet as if no one was there. But it was clear that someone WAS there, that SOMEONE had taken the call. They just weren’t talking. They were probably waiting for Kate to speak up first.
In the silence, she held the work phone close and said into it clearly, “I know you recruited Yelena to kill Clint. I know you two also had a deal recently, but clearly something went wrong. We need to talk now. Like RIGHT NOW. If you won’t talk over the phone, then meet us in the North Woods at Central Park tomorrow. The Pool. West Side at 100th and 103rd Streets. Come alone, you bitch. No backup. Just you, Yelena, and me. Broad daylight. If you don’t show before sunset, we’re gonna find you. I just tracked you down already. I can do it again.”
-/-
YELENA’S P.O.V.
Because of the limp that came with that shot to the abdomen, Yelena was using a wooden hiking stick to appear casual and still make sure she didn’t put too much weight on when walking. Through her small bird-watch binoculars she could see the middle-aged woman with a purple-blue streak in her dark hair. Valentina was sitting there in the wide-open sunlit Pool area of the North Woods, people coming and going. Kate had given Yelena a company phone that was secure and couldn’t be traced. She couldn’t see the archer but knew she was watching Valentina as well. Kate had an earpiece, able to hear and talk to Yelena where Valentina couldn’t speak to her.
Yelena stood on the Rustic Bridge, opposite the side of the Pool from where Valentina was closer to the road. Yelena and Kate had anticipated she’d want to be out and done with this as quickly as possible, hence their choice of positioning themselves further from the road. They just knew the ex-widow had to be furthest away for assurance, and Kate had to be closer in case she had to use any of her less-than-lethal arrows. One of them was apparently a bola arrow; three balls on eighteen-inch cables connected to entwine the target.
They both had eyes on. Yelena knew that Kate was sitting against a willow tree that was closer, concealed by the low-hanging branches and her gray overcoat. Yelena had given her a tracer to hide in her boot in case she was also grabbed.
“Well, where are you?” asked Valentina, holding her phone to her ear and looking every which way. Yelena could see the woman’s mouth move and hear her voice through the speaker. “I can’t see you.”
“I need to keep my distance so I don’t cripple you.” Yelena growled into the phone, “And I can see you swiveling your head and holding your phone right against your ear, and that’s the only part that matters. I can see you on a bench nursing your precious iPad, too.”
As she saw the woman shake her head with disappointment, Yelena relished in the fact that she and Kate were both hidden in separate areas of the woods.
“That’s right, shake your head in sadness. See if I care.”
“Pity.” said Valentina, as if she was actually a bit sad. “I was so hoping to catch up, face to face.”
“If we were, you would no longer have a face.” Yelena said threateningly. “You didn’t really think you’d live if I walked up to you, did you?”
The former widow glared across the Pool at the recruiter who’d lied to her about her sister’s death. “You lied to me about Barton.” she growled into the phone.
“Eleanor Bishop was my client, she contacted me first—”
“But you still knew enough and manipulated me.” Yelena interrupted. “Clint Barton tried to STOP Natasha’s death, not cause it. But you were insensitive enough to let me think he was a killer. And now you’ve been lying to Sonya, recruiting her for the Red Room’s agenda. I trusted her, and she came with an assignment to take my niece from me.”
“If I had a clue that things were going to get hairy, I wouldn’t have gone near her.” the woman insisted.
“Why go near a Black Widow anyway?” Yelena asked fiercely, but still quiet enough to not disturb her hidden area. “You remember very well what I said the last time I collected a bounty from you.”
“You said that if something came up and I was behind it, that I would be your last job. That’s how you put it. I’d be your last target.”
“And I meant every word, Valentina. So you’re lucky I’m not over there with you.”
Valentina looked around again, searching, then gave up with a headshake. “I had no idea your friend was working for the Red Room again, let alone that they’d actually come for you. She was operating behind my back.”
“Then who made you the recruiter this time, huh? I blew up Dreykov’s plane myself with him in it. I saw him die. So who’s in charge now? And what’s stopping me from making you my last target after all? Unlike you, I’ll actually keep my word.”
"Let me guess. You and your roommate Kate, right? The new Hawkeye? She said on the phone it would be all three of us here, so—"
"Don't bother asking where Kate Bishop is. All you need to know is she has eyes on you too and is a good shot. All I have to do is give her the signal."
“I did all I could, Yelena. You widows can tell when someone’s lying. So wherever you’re hiding from, look at my eyes and tell me I’m the head honcho here.” She waited a few quiet seconds before continuing. “I did keep my side of our deal, using all the resources I could for this, to keep them away. But the fact is, those bases are everywhere. Dreykov already had Widows planted all over the globe. Natasha knew that. You knew that. They’re like roaches. You can’t just blow them all up like you did to him. Even I have a hard time just knowing where they are.”
“I don’t have to blow anyone else up.” Yelena growled with her accent thicker, staring across the water at Valentina. “But I’ll die before any harm comes to my niece.”
She decided to wait a little longer and let some fear set in. But somehow nothing seemed to faze this woman.
“What else do you know about them? The widows who shot me and took her?”
“Like I said, they’re basically roaches,” said Valentina’s voice through the speaker. “They showed up a little at a time and then altogether, years ago during the Blip. Apparently they were gathering since the aerial Red Room’s crash scattered everything from files to chemicals to weapons. Backup bases all over the east, all underground and impossible to find unless they take you there themselves.”
“Doesn’t sound much different than the last one, except underground.” Yelena replied. “You’re not telling me everything. I can see your eyes.”
“I only have clues. Generic info. What do you expect me to do?”
“I expect you to either tell me everything or I’ll take it from you by force.”
Yelena held the phone further from her face and muted it, giving her earpiece a little tap. Eyes still on Valentina, she said quietly, “Send the message. Thumb release. Make it a clean shot,” before turning the volume back on the phone. As she kept her gaze, she watched to make sure Kate took the shot and that Valentina would do as she was told.
In a matter of seconds, a gray metal-shafted arrow hit the bench Valentina was sitting on. The woman jumped in fright, seeing how close it was. But then she saw it was a suction cup head and calmed down just a bit. The purple vanes pointed in a slighter upward arc, implying that it was shot from close range. But Kate’s position was further away. She was using a stronger bow now, so she didn’t have to raise the arc as high as she used to. Plus, shooting with the thumb draw this time, the bow shifting to the left to reduce friction, gave her an extra-clean shot that lasted a bit longer.
“It’s a message arrow, Valentina.”
A little hinge on the shaft opened a compartment with a rolled-up paper inside. Valentina unrolled it and looked it over.
“Read it aloud.” Yelena said assertively.
“It says, ‘I will come, you’ll give me all the info you have. Try anything and I use a sharp or blunt arrow’.” She put the message on the bench next to her and sat waiting in anticipation. “Alright, so your employer-slash-bestie is going to…”
“Make sure you give us what we need to save my niece.” Yelena said with the speaker only an inch from her mouth. “YES.”
Valentina sat with annoyance, iPad in her lap as she waited for Kate to show herself. After roughly a full minute, Kate emerged from the trees with her bow held casually in her left hand. Her left-hip quiver was hidden by her coat as she walked up to Valentina, her black hair whipping in the breeze. She stopped at the bench and looked down at the lady who stayed sitting.
Yelena checked her earpiece again. “Make sure she gives it to you, Kate Bishop. No loose ends, make sure it’s real.”
Kate pointed to the iPad and gestured towards herself. Valentina reluctantly handed it over and let her go through it. Immediately the girl fished a USB arrow out and plugged it in. The plan was to copy everything on it.
“This changes nothing.” Yelena said into the phone. “You’re going to do everything to hold off every Red Room operative, every base, that your data shows you. You are going to cover our tracks and make sure their data won’t detect us. Make them think it’s only you keeping tabs. I don’t care how much sleep you have to lose. DO IT. If you don’t, we will come back for you, Valentina. I promise.”
-/-
KATE’S P.O.V.
“I was almost worried you wouldn’t make that shot.”
“Oh, well thanks for the vote of confidence.“ said Kate with the wireless uplink plugged into her work computer—the USB arrow she’d plugged into Valentina’s iPad when she handed it over.
With this being one of Clint’s “data arrows'', she was glad to now know what it was for. So getting past Valentina’s wall gave them access to pretty much everything. Kate may not exactly have been a hacker, but she knew enough about cybersecurity since she’d picked up on stuff over the years from both parents and visiting the workplace. Plus, she had to give Clint’s arrow the credit for the jumpstart.
“Don’t get me wrong, I know how good you are with the bow.” Yelena assured her. “But at that distance, once we got there I was a little worried…”
“Oh relax, I set up the scope the second I got there. I measured the distance, angle, paying attention to the wind and all that stuff. Had to make sure it didn’t get stuck to her or some random jogger instead.”
After taking into account all those things, plus her new bow’s poundage when pulled back to the jawbone (instead of just the corner of the lip), how it would launch the arrow off the right side with just one digit around the bowstring this time… she’d had a much better idea of just how to angle the shot if she had to use it.
Kate and Yelena had been hovering over her work computer in her new office, going over the materials from Valentina’s iPad. This was a lot of hack-worthy info they had access to, but it was pretty complicated in some areas. It would either be too complicated to read or it would be the bare minimum, which was frustrating.
“Something’s messed up here.” Kate squinted suspiciously, looking over the monitor when something different came up.
“Is this entire situation not messed up???” Yelena exclaimed.
Kate, trying to stay calm, replied, “Fair enough. Anyway, it says Lena’s real parents are dead.”
“And it happened a year after the Blip. Knew that already, that’s why Natasha took her in.” Yelena clenched her fists, WAY impatient. “Couldn’t find them or any other family who would know.”
“And this doesn’t say how. My guess is that the Red Room erased it so they couldn’t be tracked down.”
“Agh, those…” Yelena let out a few Russian swear words, wringing her hair like she could tear it out. “What else?”
Kate kept on scrolling and going through the detailed but weirdly-arranged pages. The next part shouldn’t be too hard, she thought, since Natasha wasn’t exactly a top-secret agent anymore when the Avengers formed.
“Um… Ah. Here we go. ‘Natasha Romanoff’.” She scrolled a bit further down with details showing a picture of her and another picture of a baby. “Apparently Natasha arrived just in time during some hairy situation and took the baby. It doesn’t say whether it was with the parents’ consent or not, though. Before they died, I mean. But I’m gonna take a wild guess that it was.”
“She would never take a child away from her parents.” Yelena shook her head. “Not unless they handed her over, left her behind, or were dead first.” Yelena came over to Kate’s computer and gazed at it as well, desperately. “What else…?”
Kate kept scrolling, but the info on Natasha and little Lena was still minimal. “All it says left is that she wanted you to raise your namesake, Yelena. She put down something about how the child would be safer under your protection. If not you, then Clint and Laura.”
“This still doesn’t help us. We need better clues about why they want her in the first place. It’s definitely more complex than what Dreykov used to do—stealing more random girls every day.”
Kate looked up from the monitor at her friend. “I think we’re gonna need more personal help as far as info.”