Checkmate
November 4, 2025 - Moscow, Russia - 1:03 PM - Washington D.C - 5:03 AM
Maria, Talos, and Fury had all separated to observe the event space and the square. Maria was back in her car sitting in the driver's seat alone. She had a somewhat decent view of the square from where she parked, but she didn't park too close, she just needed them to be able to get out of there quickly once they had the bags.
Something about what Fury said to Maria convinced her this plan could work. It was like he talked circles over all of the concerns she had raised. For awhile she really believed him because she still believed in him, despite everything that had happened between them up to this point. However, as the clock ticked closer to them executing this plan Maria’s confidence in it started to fade again. The reality of their recurring failure was very clear to her and pressed on her mind almost as much as this potential bombing did.
Then Maria realized what Fury was doing. He was playing this ‘one step at a time.’ Just like he said at the bar when they were playing chess the other night. Maria told Fury to look back at where he went wrong in the match and he refused he didn’t want to think about the mistakes of the past. Maria knew from the get-go they had already made this mistake, this was not a plan they could execute. She said this from the beginning that they were just repeating the same bad plan and this time with much higher stakes. Instead of talking sense into Fury and Talos, they had just talked nonsense into her. This wasn't 15 years ago when Maria was just learning and following Fury's instructions and ideas. This was a change in Maria and Fury's relationship that Nick could not seem to grasp.
Although Maria knew this grab and go style plan was wrong, Maria struggled with what to do instead. There was a 50/50 chance that all three of them died today, but if they didn’t try there was a 100 percent chance a lot of people would die. Maria could replay all the mistakes she made in her head leading up to this point. It wasn’t that much different than her counting Fury’s chess moves backwards. Why did she flinch in the tunnel with G’iah? Why didn’t she think more about that night with Rhodes before she left? Why didn’t she call Sonya right away? How did she let go of that bag and was she going to do the same thing today? Maria thought these things to herself. Then she thought about what Fury said when they were playing chess, Fury asked ‘what I should do now?’ That was the problem Maria was perplexed by as well. Maria knew Fury's decisions were not great but she really had no confidence that hers were any better. The one thing that was nice about working with Fury--back in the day-- is that when she wasn't sure he did always give her the support she needed to make sure she was right. Now neither of them seemed capable of doing that for each other.
Then Maria thought about something Prescod once joked to her, an old Russian proverb that was popularized by Ronald Reagan in the 80s, ‘trust but verify.’ Talos and Fury trusted G’iah the same way Maria blindly trusted Fury. Maria decided to use trust by association but now Maria was having second thoughts about G'iah. She wondered why nobody had second thoughts about what G’iah told them. Talos told Maria himself that skrulls ‘were good at minds games.’
G’iah could have given the bombs to Talos in the tunnel, and she could have given them to him a second time when she met with him later and gave him the intel. But she didn’t! No one seemed alarmed by this. Instead Talos and Fury alleged it was for G'iah save herself, but Maria did not think that was good enough. Especially if Fury and Talos thought they were going to succeed today, why would G'iah need to save herself, why wouldn't she take the bombs and leave? If G'iah wasn't gone like Talos hoped, she could have joined Fury, Talos and Maria and helped instead she went right back to Gravik. Maria couldn't even see the parallels between G'iah's situation and her own.
All G’iah did was offer some information that nobody confirmed, investigated, or verified. There was no proof G’iah was even going to spray the bags like she said she was. It wasn’t even that good of information she didn't even tell them what area the bombs were planned on being placed and it was a big square with many potential strategic blast zones for Gravik. This was the least G’iah could do given the situation. As Maria thought about it, she thought that if anything, strategically, it was worse for G’iah to do it this way, she went back to Gravik's safe house after sharing the information like she didn’t care if she got caught? Shouldn’t it be the opposite? Shouldn’t she have taken the bombs and run? G’iah had two opportunities to step up and she didn’t. Why would G’iah be doing the right thing this third time? It just didn’t make sense, something was not quite right.
Thinking about this made Maria recall how she was unsure if she could trust Talos a few nights ago when they ran into each other unexpectedly, but again she trusted Talos by association. She knew Fury trusted him and she assumed she should too. But then a chill ran over Maria as she recalled something Fury said to her at the bar that she didn’t give much thought to at first considering how Fury had been acting. Fury told her, ‘Talos knows how to call me.’ Yet, Talos was the one who pressed Maria repeatedly to do what she could do to get Nick’s attention. Talos never said he did anything. Something here was not adding up. Maria didn’t know what but this whole thing was just off.
It was easy for Maria to fall back into her old ways of letting Fury take the lead. But, she wasn’t a kid anymore, she wasn’t his second in command, she had years of experience and she knew when something was awry, and if Fury couldn’t see it then she had to figure something else out on her own. Everything about what they were doing was so unsafe, it was unsafe for all of these civilians and it was unsafe for them and Maria knew she was going to have to protect herself. The only problem was that Maria had very limited options available to her in her car. She knew she was going to need something more than a sweatshirt to protect her from flying debris and who knew what Gravik packed that bomb with? Shrapnel, nails, biological agents, all three? Surely, it was whatever would take the most people out. Maria groaned to herself, she did not want to do this, but she pulled an emergency field gear bag that she stored under the carseat to grab what she could hide on herself and she debated over the options she had about what would be the most useful. She didn't have as many choices as she thought.
Maria wasn’t sure what the best move was now, but she knew from years of working in intelligence and security that keeping this kind of information from the people who needed it lead to the worst outcome. Why did she think Fury had to be the one to disclose this intel? Maria could do it and it didn’t mean she didn’t trust Fury or anything about their relationship, if she did. She wanted very to disclose it but that didn't mean it had to be from him.
As Maria thought about this conversation from the other night Maria started to resent it. It was condescending and manipulative even if that’s not the way Fury meant it. Fury expected an old form of loyalty and trust that just couldn’t exist between Maria and Fury anymore. Fury burnt that bridge between them even if he apologized for it. Maria wasn’t totally ready to rebuild everything perfectly like it was once before, but she did know she could trust Nick overall, she had no questions or wavering about that, it was just his ability to think clearly that concerned her. Talos was right the other night at the bar, Maria just couldn't leave Nick stranded. Her own deeply rooted abandonment issues prevented her doing so. Even if Nick and Maria's relationship wasn't the same as it used to be, this was one thing that she could not change about herself, she wouldn't just leave him, even if he had left her hanging she wouldn't do the same return. Maybe that old form of loyalty and trust between Maria and Nick did still exist.
Maria did not have a lot of time and she struggled with the options available to her. She did not want to risk giving up their location to secret skrulls and she didn’t want to put them in a situation where they were the ones caught with bombs in Russia because that would be an unimaginable disaster. As she weighed her options, she knew she was right before when she wanted to get the event shut down. All they had to do was make one call, but now people were there already there, the celebration was happening and it was packed. She questioned herself with G’iah and it messed her up, and now she questioned herself with Fury and Talos and she let them convince her this was okay.
When Maria was alone in her car, she pulled her work phone from its blocker case and turned it back on, it had been off for days and she knew just turning her phone on and leaving it on for 30 seconds would give out location information. She had a lot of missed calls and messages, mostly from the analysts who worked in the office at Langley who kept in contact with people on the ground, but people went offline for safety reasons, they had to. Maria knew any message she sent to anyone or any call she made was definitely being monitored whether it was by skrulls pretending to analysts or actual people who were looking out for her.
Maria quickly drafted a text a message but she wasn’t sure who to send it to. She knew someone had to be in the office checking in despite the early time back in D.C. But Maria needed to take a leap of faith in herself to send it this info to someone. She could send this message and it could alert Gravik they were there if someone who saw it was a skrull and then he and his rebellion could be in the wind, but if G'iah with them and she was really on their side that wouldn't the worst thing. G'iah could tell them where they headed next and then could be prepared. If Maria could get the message out it could help get a lot of security in place or even the event shut down and save a lot of people in the process. She just had to hope that the Russians would trust the information. It went against what Fury and Talos wanted to do, and it created a lot of risk for Maria, Fury, and Talos. Fury and Talos wanted everything to be kept in a tight closed circle so they could grab the bombs and get out without Russian security forces knowing and opening up this whole mess that is one million skrulls hiding on earth. Maria understood that point, but in the end they were out maneuvered on time.
Although Nick had a serious talk with Maria about keeping her faith in him she couldn’t shake the feeling she had the night before. She told Fury he wasn’t up for this, her gut was right. She couldn’t just dive into everything blinded by her admiration and trust in him. He wasn’t the same Fury he used to be, he was out of the know for a long time. He was behind, he just wasn’t on top of the things he thought he was. He just couldn’t see it. Maria could see it and she had to do something in case the three of them couldn’t pull this off. If Gravik detonated these bombs so many people would get maimed and killed. And it would lead to a lot worse carnage too. Maria was just mad at herself that she didn’t send this intel along sooner. The window was so narrow now, but before she worried that if she gave up their location they'd never even make it her to try and stop Gravik.
As Maria debated what to do, she knew any message she sent to Sonya would be seen by people at work watching her device. Which was both good and bad. If it was someone working who was on her side that could help her, or it would out her location to potential skrulls and put Nick in serious danger. She just didn’t have time to get some encrypted and protected sent to Sonya. This was the problem with the mission they were on, there was nothing but bad choices for everyone. A good choice for Maria was a bad one for Nick or Talos, a good choice for Talos was a bad one for Maria or Nick. It just wasn’t fair. But it occurred to Maria that no one was really thinking about what was the best choice for world, as a whole, and that was shutting this event down as soon as possible and in Maria’s opinion it was also the smartest. But the time to do that had passed. Maria was mad at Fury for making mistakes throughout this whole thing but she made just as many mistakes as he did and she was just as mad at herself.
Maria sent a text message to Sonya: ’11/4/25 3 bombs being planted at Vossoyedineiye Square set off estimate 14:00 concealed in bags - highly credible source.’ Maria went to turn her phone off as she saw her message was delivered and Sonya immediately called her back. The message hadn’t even been delivered for one second before Sonya called. Maria knew she had to turn her phone off but she answered it instead. She looked around from the car she was in to see if Fury or Talos was watching but both of them were gone. Maria turned her earpiece off and answered the call on speaker phone but turned way down.
“I can’t talk.” Maria said quickly but she did want Sonya to know the message came from her.
“Where are you?” Sonya demanded before Maria even finished the word talk.
“Vossoyedineiye Square.”
“Well, get out!” Sonya yelled. Maria just said a bombs were going off there in 45 minutes, what did she mean was there?
“I’m working on it, can you reach anyone?” Maria started to ask.
“I’m already on it but you... and your 'friend' need to get out of there.” Sonya warned seriously. What were Maria and Fury going to do there? Really? Sonya was kind enough not to name drop Fury on the phone.
“We’re going to try one last thing.” Maria said before she hung up the phone.
“No! Hill! Leave!” Sonya called out in a frustrated tone into the disconnected phone as she used her other hand on another phone reaching out to an acquaintance, formerly in the FSB, essentially once the Russian version of Sonya or Fury himself, he now worked high level intelligence gathering missions and had made good connections with people in the U.K. The U.K. was often a safe go between when dealing with sensitive issues between Russia and the United States. Sonya got a great deal of information from him and she often pretended to give him a great deal of intel as well but secretly she got a lot more than she ever gave. The intel from Hill was going help foster this good relationship even further. Sonya was a trusted source and she had deep networks that could help her get this intel through.
Maria had mixed feelings about what she just did. Did she just out herself and Fury to the skrulls that they were there, or did G’iah already do that? Maria knew it was not the best plan but she knew Fury and Talos’s plan was worse, way worse. Maria turned her phone off and put it away again so she couldn’t be tracked. She felt kind of dirty, like she betrayed Nick, but there was a lot more at stake here than a professional relationship on its last legs.
////
November 4, 2025 - Washington D.C - 5:04 AM
In the damp basement of a CIA office that was monitoring people who needed to be heard from, people whose intel the agency was waiting on, and anything urgent, a young 28-year-old woman sat sleepily at her desk near the end of her all night shift watching her ‘box.’ The box was a slang shorthand for a sophisticated computer system monitoring targeted government devices for texts, messages, calls, and location data. Maria’s phone was set for alerts on all of them, as was Ross’s.
The half awake analyst was once in the military herself, she never expected being recruited to the CIA meant staying up all night and working in a basement. In the military, her convoy was hit by an IED and she lost her foot and ankle. She wore a prosthetic and you could not tell but it kept her from being put in the field despite her natural talents for this type of work. Of course, the government still found a way to put her skills to use even if they were sometimes quite dull.
The analyst stirred her lukewarm stale decaf coffee as she mindlessly did a few administrative tasks at her desk. She accidentally hit her keyboard with her elbow which pulled up a red flashing alert that took over her screen.
Device Activated Maria Hill - 0503 the screen indicated then included a geographic tag for Moscow, Russia 0.3 miles from Vossoyedineiye Square.
“Oh, shit.” She mumbled to herself as she started to send an alert up the chain of command. She was sure Maria was dead, it had been days since she came back online. The screen gave another red alert.
Message Sent - Maria Hill 0504
“11/4/25 3 bombs being planted at Vossoyedineiye Square set off estimate 14:00 concealed in bags - highly credible source.”
The analyst went to send this exact message right to the Deputy CIA Director but before she could hit send the screen went red again and interrupted the analyst’s ability to send the message. She finally sent the message to the Deputy as she then pulled up the call and put her headphones in to listen.
Call Received - Maria Hill 0504
The analyst pulled up the call as she started working on another message to send to the Deputy immediately. She knew this was big, and needed attention by the higher ups as soon as possible. She listened to Maria tell Sonya where she was and that she wasn’t leaving the square. The analyst realized they have 56 minutes before the estimated attack time. Time was definitely going to be tight. After the analyst sent the call to the Deputy, she looked up who the call was from and who the message was sent to - Sonya Falsworth. That wasn’t unusual that was who Maria was working with, but when Maria and Ross went silent the CIA started to suspect Sonya was the one not on their side, but if Maria contacted Sonya and no else, that had to mean the person or people Maria and Ross did not trust was on their end… and not Sonya’s… this gave the analyst a brief pause because Maria had to know that the CIA was tracking her device information and data. Was she just using her time wisely or was she trying to send a signal to whoever was on this side of the desk and just hoping it was one of the good guys.
Another analyst on the night shift a tall lankly man sat in the far corner, he was truly a skrull in disguise who was supposed to be watching for intel just like this coming in. He saw the hurried and rushed nature of his female counter part across the room.
“Are you okay?” He asked. His box had been silent so far and his computer went to sleep for a minute while he did other things. Because the female analyst had accidentally bumped her keyboard as the alert came in, it moved to her box as her box was the one set 'currently active' which accepted all immediate alerts as first come first serve. The Hill alert never made it to him. So he had no idea what had come in, but he was on heightened alert today.
The female analyst didn’t pause, instead she hustled to get the information to the Deputy through their emergency alert system set up for something just like this. She ignored her coworker. They weren’t really supposed to share what they were working on in the moment unless they needed help, it could just get too chaotic and too many cooks in the kitchen.
“What is it?” He asked alarmed after she ignored him.
“I can’t talk.” She quickly echoed what Maria had said on her call. She then alerted and sent the data to the Deputy alerting her that a warning came in from Hill. The male analyst walked across the room to see what she was doing. This was behavior the female analyst thought was strange but she thought it was more sexist than anything. She hit the screen hide button before he came over. If Hill was sending a coded message to the analyst on the desk by not reaching out, this analyst was going to keep this information close to her chest.
“What was it?” He asked as he leaned over the edge of the female analyst’s half walled cubicle.
“I’m all set.” She said to her male colleague and he looked annoyed.
“Okay..” He raised his eye brows and rolled his eyes as he went back over to his desk to watch his own box.
The female analyst then got a phone call, it wasn’t from the Deputy but from Val herself and the female analyst was not even surprised based on what she had just sent up the chain.
“Yes, Ma’am, I’ll come right up and meet you when you get here.” The analyst said into the phone.
“I'm headed to the White House. Watch the box in case she comes on again! Stay alert.” Val ordered from the phone as she was headed to the White House immediately.
The analyst knew Maria wasn’t coming back online but she might as well watch the box for now. She just had to keep peering eyes away.
The skrull analyst just had a strange feeling. He started to go through the box logs and see what had come in. Maria’s details got pulled into his coworker’s account so he couldn’t see them without access to her specific box.
The female analyst unlocked her screen with her finger print and then she entered her pin to unlock the information she had hidden when her coworker came over. Nothing else had come in from Hill since but she watched her screen as she knew the higher ranking officials were working on getting the information where it needed to go.
Val had never gotten to the White House faster in her life, but still there was only 44 minutes of estimated time left, and the bombing could happen sooner than Hill suggested. As Val sat in her car with her Deputy Director she played the phone call between Sonya and Maria.
“HILL! What do you mean you’re not going to leave!” Val yelled into the air. At least Sonya had a freaking brain even though Val could not stand her. What was wrong with Hill? Val looked at her Deputy Sandra Smith. Another former military woman, relatively young for her position but given the world history this is who there was, Sandy was smart and very reliable, in fact she was not unlike a young Maria, except she had blonde hair that she pulled back in the same tight low bun that she had in the military.
Val groaned.
“How can a woman this smart be this dumb?” Val asked Sandy.
“I’m sure it’s very stressful there, Ma’am.” Sandy answered the way she would a ranking officer in the military.
“Because Fury fucking told her not to, so she’s going to stay and get hurt or killed or arrested. Can you imagine being some alleged feminist who is this blinded by a man?” Val raised her hands in front of her shoulders and then made them into fists of frustration.
“And she called Sonya! Sonya! Not me?” Val said in anger and then she took a pause as she realized calling Sonya first was actually the right thing to do, technically, that is who was heading her unit over there. Sonya had deep ties and could get things to Russia fast.
“When she said 'us' do you think she meant her and Ross?” Val asked Sandy and Sandy didn’t want to but she shook her head no.
“She means Fury, doesn’t she.” Val sighed.
Sandy nodded.
“I think she meant Fury but who knows.”
“Are we sending this through our channels?” Val asked.
“We did it immediately through the U.K, and we can try to reach a contact through our allies in Vietnam and India, if needed as they have solid relations with the Russians.”
“Get them on standby right now.” Val ordered Sandy and Sandy started texting and messaging frantically.
“The U.K is having trouble getting through to Russia.” Sandy explained as the car pulled up the white house.
“We're having trouble getting through to them about a potential terrorist attack?” Val asked stunned.
“It’s a holiday in Russia, today.” Sandy explained and Val really groaned.
“Oh no.” Val mumbled as she started looking up what was going on in Vossoyedineiye Square.
“It’s going to be packed.” Val sighed as the gravity of this situation just got drastically worse.
“How the fuck did she get this information.” Val sighed as she started to ask as she got ready to head into the White House's secure entrance.
“The President, he’s going to have to call President Vladimov, and we’re going to have to out our agents there.” Val looked and Sandy and Sandy pressed her lips together.
“And they might find Hill and Ross and arrest them and accuse them of being terrorists even though they are the ones trying to alert them.” Val paused, the Russians would flip to get ahold of CIA agents, especially Hill and Ross. Fury would also be a big get for them. Russia would have no problem manipulating the story.
Sandy nodded as that was definitely a possibility. It was going to be very tricky and they were navigating a very tight and thin rope to do this just right.
“Well.” Sandy paused because this was true and it was very scary.
“Hill clearly wanted someone to contact Russia before it happened, maybe to try to get the event shut down or something.” Sandy said obviously.
“Well, she’s really cutting it really close!” Val said looking at the time on her watch as she and Sandy left the car and raced into a secure room.
“What do you think she means, ‘we’re going to try one last thing?’ Is she going to stop the bombs herself?” Val practically joked as she got into a secure room and called her office.
“Get me that analyst from the dungeon—basement, I mean basement. Now.” Val said to the on call assistant. The dungeon was also a shorthand for the miserable basement where many of the analysts worked.
The female analyst got the call to go talk with Val and the Deputy in private. She locked her screen again and left in a hurry. After the female analyst left, the skrull analyst went over to her desk. They had been the only two on this shift. He shape shifted into her form and the skrull pressed his disguised finger tip into her ID pad, unlocking the screen. The screen then asked for her pin. Because the female analyst had just put the pin in, the skrull was able to recall it as a recent memory. He entered the four digit pin and unlocked what she was working on. The skrull knew he had to be very fast because she could come back any moment.
The skrull pulled the info that the female analyst was working on. He saw the message with the warning from Hill. The skrull immediately called Raava who was already awake learning about what was being called in from Val.
“What is it?” Raava asked in a grumpy Rhodey voice.
“It’s Hill, she alerted Falsworth about the square.” The skrull explained.
“How does she know?” Raava asked.
“She didn’t say she just dropped the location and the information.”
“How did Val get it before you and me?” Raava huffed.
“It didn’t come to me, it went to someone else I tried to get it as fast as I could. Should I delete it?” The skrull asked wondering if he should delete the root of the message to undercut Val.
“You can’t delete it now, it will show in the metadata. And it’s too late Gravik is already there.”
“It’s not too late just tell him to reset and leave, Hill estimated 2 PM for an attack time, if he doesn’t want to turn back maybe tell him to move faster.”
Raava groaned.
“There’s a mole between Fury and Gravik, and Hill just outed them.” Raava mumbled.
“Just so you know, Hill only called Sonya, she didn’t notify here, she might know something is up.”
“No, she knew you guys would see it anyway and didn’t want to waste time.” Raava dismissed, that was not that uncommon of a move, why do the same work twice. Raava hung up the phone as she called Gravik immediately.
Gravik answered his phone and before he said a word Raava started talking.
“Fury and Hill are there.” Raava said in a warning urgent tone.
Gravik just laughed.
“I know.” He dismissed quickly. Of course they were there!
“You have to reset. Hill told—-” Raava started but Gravik cut her off. He was offended Raava told him he ‘had’ to do something.
“I don’t have to do anything. They aren’t going to stop me.” Gravik said with a smug voice dismissing Raava before even listening to her warning, he hung up the phone.
“Gravik!” Raava called into the phone, but Gravik had already hung up on her.
“You, fuck.” Raava mumbled to herself in harsh hateful tone about Gravik. Raava was going to have to figure out how to play this in the moment.
Gravik was such an idiot Raava thought to herself, she didn’t get to tell him that the Russians were being alerted or anything. He was just going to do what he wanted, so much work went into all of this for Gravik to just do what whatever and throw the plan out the window. Raava threw her phone in frustration against the wall and the screen shattered.
Gravik was confident in his choice, nothing was going to ruin this day for him. Raava was the last person he wanted to talk to now. All she had to do was advise some barely functioning human of a president. Truly Ritson was practically of a corpse of a person. If anything Raava had the easy gig, she needed to shut up, sit back, and let Gravik do what he needed to do. If Fury and Hill thought they were somehow invincible, Gravik knew he could set them straight. Gravik would do it without a second thought. What was Raava going to tell Gravik that he didn’t already know? Of course they were here, they’d been here hunting him for days. How were Fury and Hill going to stop his bombs?
Get in my way, I dare you. See what happens. Gravik thought to himself about Fury. In fact, Gravik felt emboldened by Raava’s warning. This was game on for Gravik.
“Come find me, Fury, stop hiding.” Gravik muttered to himself. He saw Fury, Hill, and Talos the other night, they were worn out, worse for wear, just ruined, sad beings, all three of them. They were well over their heads. Just like Gravik heard Hill tell Fury, Fury ‘held himself to too high a standard.’ Fury and his ‘merry men’ were no match for Gravik and they were about to find this out the hard way.
///
Val was feeling sick to her stomach as waited for the President to arrive with Sandy. She started briefing the President on the phone but the determination of whether they notified President Vladimov and outed their agents was serious. They had to find a way to have gotten intel through someone else. That’s why they were trying to reach the Russians through the U.K, India, and Vietnam. Nations that Russia had more trust in than the U.S. As truly sad as it was, saving the lives of Russian civilians ranked somewhat lower than keeping strategic U.S. national security investigations in place—-to the United States anyway, but the backlash of not telling Russia something like this if they knew would be worse. Plus the U.S. didn’t want any ties to the attack as being on the wrong side of things with Russia was dangerous for the world.
When Rhodes got to the briefing room and actually saw the message Hill wrote, Raava was relieved. It didn’t say a word about skrulls, aliens, imposters, in fact it was straight to the point ‘there’s a bomb, it’s going to be here and be set at this time.’ Raava had to appreciate that despite how frustrating it was that she was able to get a message out and Gravik had no care in the world about it. Hill was really taking the shock factor out of these plans and was definitely going to make the skrulls have a different approach than to manipulate and blame the U.S. for their alleged part in this planned attack.
“The Russians are going to start asking a lot of questions after this.” Ritson sighed, but he had to hope they acted first on the intel and asked how it came about later.
“We’ll get a story in place, don’t worry.” Val said confidently. This was far from the first time the U.S. had to give out information to stop a terrorist attack and hide how they got it.
“We have to pull everyone out of there immediately.” Ritson added and Val and the military officers in the room nodded in agreement.
“We’re working on extraction details for everyone we can.” One of the security officers acknowledged.
“We just got word that the ambassadors from Vietnam and India did reach the Russian ambassador with the warning, and the Russian ambassador forwarded the information to the appropriate security team.” One officer in the room called out as he checked messages on his phone.
“We think Russia’s moving to evacuate the square?” Ritson asked. Ritson could swear he could hear every second of the clock beating even though the room did not have any analog clocks.
“Falsworth probably reached a contact, 40 minutes ago when she got the message from Hill.” Val added, she hoped anyway. Val thought Falsworth was the problem and who Hill and Ross were hiding from, but it turns out it must’ve been someone else and that gave Val a great deal concern. It was not lost on Val that Maria didn’t send anything back to D.C. She had to wonder if that in itself was a warning or if Hill was trying to just make a good use of her very limited time.
“This is tough, how are they going to pull everyone out there without a panic and not risk their security teams?”
“Mr. President…” Val started and she exchanged a glance with Rhodes.
“We have to start preparing that they might not take this information seriously or be able to move on it the way we would hope. It was too close in time and they probably won’t be able to get everyone out. Hopefully the attackers get spooked by the security and abandon their plans to regroup but if not …” Val started to warn, there was a very good possibility that Russia did not act quickly enough this information. Val had to wonder that if they hadn’t moved by now, it is possible the Russians weren’t going to move on it at all. Maybe someone dismissed the warning. Val wouldn’t put it past a bad actor.
“What if it’s a test to see how long it takes the information to get back to the Russians and through our networks and channels?” One of he high ranking Security officials asked and this piqued the interest of Ritson which was clear on his face.
“Hill doesn’t cry wolf.” Val surprisingly defended.
“She might not know she is.” Rhodey agreed with Ritson and the other officer. Raava just had Rhodes say this just to gain points with Ritson.
“She couldn’t share anymore information—like who is responsible? Or reach out sooner?” Ritson huffed in a frenzied voice, Hill was really cutting it close here. There wasn’t very much for anyone to do except warn Russia and wait.
“Considering the circumstances, I’m sure we’re lucky we got a heads up at all.” Rhodey responded.
“We aren’t ‘lucky,’ it’s her job! Or well, was her job after this mess.” Val raised her voice at Rhodes would this man ever stop defending this woman, the woman dropped a bomb on them at 5 AM with 45 minutes to prepare!
“Let’s focus on this emerging international crisis before you go off your personal vendetta for no reason.” Rhodey rolled his eyes at Val. Throwing suspicion onto Val was a great way to keep it off Rhodes, and it really did seem to work. Val just looked so petty.
“If she went and got Fury involved then obviously she thought it was important enough to share information with some people, and not others.” Val said in a frustrated tone as she glared at Rhodes. Val told them this would happen and they did not listen to her.
This was an interesting yet tight space for Raava to be in and she wasn’t totally sure how to play it, yet. It really depended if Gravik was going to carry out the plan or abandon it. Raava really wasn’t expecting for Hill to drop that intel, she was sure Fury and Hill would try to make it go away before it became a thing. A couple things could be happening here that Raava was’t sure of. Did Hill not trust Fury anymore and that’s why she reached out? Did she think hope was lost for them to succeed at stopping Gravik? Hill knew it would put her and Fury at great risk to reveal what she knew on a phone that she knew was being monitored. Hill just happened to catch a minor break that the other analyst caught the activity instead of the skrull. Raava was definitely going to have words with him after this.
If Rhodes turned on Hill in this meeting that would seem alarming but if Hill made this warning and nothing happened because Gravik changed his plans because she outed the attack, then Hill got everyone worked up and nothing. Then they could pull Hill and Fury back to DC and get them out of there to explain themselves. Raava really doubted that the first thing Hill and Fury would claim was ‘shapeshifting green guys did this.’ Even they knew they couldn’t just drop that information without a whole lot of explaining.
If Gravik was still going through with this plan like he wanted despite Hill’s advance notice, it’s not like Hill gave them enough time to do anything except raise a lot of questions from the Russians. Hill did kind of put the brakes on part of Gravik’s plan to blame the American government by the Americans trying to get word out to Russia, but she also ousted a mole in Gravik’s ranks. How Gravik couldn’t see it was best to put this plan on hold and try something else, Raava couldn’t explain. Gravik was like a kid who couldn’t wait for Christmas. And maybe that’s why Hill warned them, because she wanted to see if Gravik pulled the plan. It wasn’t really a win for anyone, truly it was more like everyone lost this way but Raava could tell Hill’s line of thinking, if she spooked Gravik with the info drop it was probably the best way to pull the attack plan out from under Gravik for awhile and saving lives in the process-temporarily at least. As Raava analyzed in her mind, she could tell that was exactly what Hill was thinking, and that must mean that Hill and Fury knew someone on this end of things was a skrull who would warn Gravik.
Raava could already see Hill’s plan backfiring on her and Fury a great deal. Hill had to know that too, but she put her faith in something that that Raava couldn’t put her finger on. Maria was far too experienced to blindly trust the system, she had more reasons not to trust it than almost anyone except maybe Fury. Raava didn’t get a feel from the messages with Sonya that Maria was putting her faith there either. Were Maria and Fury making a play? This perplexed Raava but in the end she just had to assume that Maria wanted to stop Gravik and she was going to try any number ways to get him to stop this plan. Maria was right too, he should put it away for now with everyone on alert.
All Gravik had to do was leave and put this plan on hold until they could recall Hill and Fury back. Gravik had a huge opportunity to get them out of the way and he couldn’t even see it. Gravik didn’t know how to play this game, he just wanted to hit the big red button and make something blow up. Raava had to roll her eyes to herself as she thought about it. Raava assumed Hill made the best move available to her, that would under cut Gravik the most successfully. But Gravik was just playing this one step at a time and not even thinking about the bigger things at play and the options available to him if he just took one step back. Gravik wouldn’t even listen to Raava as she tried to warn him, it was’t just that Hill was there, it was that she dropped the intel, Gravik had no idea the Russians already knew. At least, if he did, he didn’t get it from Raava.
As the moments neared closer and closer to 2 PM in Moscow, the room grew quieter. It was so strange to just be waiting for an attack to happen that no one in the room could really stop. Professionally speaking, this was truly one of the few times that many of the people in that room felt completely powerless. It was like they were just waiting for the news to break. They couldn’t even get cameras or drones up there. They already had to tread on such thin ice with Russia but if the warning of the attack could be traced back to the U.S. at least it gave the U.S. something if the attack really happened.
“What did Hill mean when she said ‘there was one last thing they were going to try?’” Ritson asked as he reviewed the very limited information that he had on this pending attack.
“She means she’s going to try and take out the bomber before he can set them off.” Val explained a bit glumly.
“She’s going to execute someone in broad daylight! In Moscow! With a bunch of security forces are on their way?!” Ritson asked stunned, that was a good way for her to get killed on sight or caught.
“She’s not going to do that.” One of the high ranking military officers said sternly, that would be crazy.
“There’s way too many people there.” Another one added.
“Well, I don’t think she believes she’s going to miss.” Val grimaced. Val knew that’s what Hill had to mean, that’s what she would do if she had no other options.
“What if the bomber shoots her first?” One of the officers in the room asked.
“They might.” Rhodey said sternly with concern in his voice.
“Security and Russian bomb squad are gearing up to the square now en masse.” One officer called from the phone as he got updates through a chain of contacts.
Everyone in the secure room looked at each other the tension could be cut with a knife as every second felt like a minute. There was no report of a bomb going off yet and even though every second felt so long, every minute flew by as there just wasn’t enough time for anything more meaningful to be done.
MEANWHILE
Falsworth dispatched people to the area, she had some people nearby already as they had picked up chatter related to this, but Sonya lacked all the details Maria shared. Sharing the intel with a Russian contact she knew was risky for her agents but Maria was right, if they knew they should try to warn them, if not it was like they concealed it from them making it much worse for everyone. This was why Maria had such a problem with Fury and Talos’s plan. When it came down to it, they were only doing it this way to save G’iah not everybody else.
What exactly did Hill and Fury think the two of them were going to do by themselves, Sonya wondered. If Hill was calling Sonya, Sonya had to think that Hill was out of options. Although Falsworth knew it was complicated to dispatch this information and risk lives to be there investigating it, it actually was good that Maria dropped it because if Gravik succeeded it would be much harder to control the skrull story from the Russians and the world, and that was also imperative to success here. Post-blip the world was still a very fragile place, the last alien who showed up to earth snapped half of existence out of the universe. People were not over that yet. Learning that an alien race lived among them that could shape shift to look like anyone and sound like anyone … it would be chaos all over again.
///
After Maria talked to Sonya in the car she turned on her ear piece on to talk to Talos and Fury.
Maria sat in her car and she pulled up a holograph screen that outlined the square. She could see the east entrance of the square from where she parked the car.
“Okay so from what I was able to get around the perimeter of the square and the event space inside is that there only two open entrances into the event area, and two open exits. One each on the east side of the square facing Arbat street and then the same on the west side facing Sivstet. The northern section of the square is all blocked off with barricades for the event, and the southern side has the archways that are all gated closed to keep people from breaking into the event.” Maria explained to Talos and Fury.
“Talos can you see is the security checking bags?” Maria asked curiously. Maria wondered how fast news she just sent to Sonya was going to travel. Bag checking would be a pretty easy way to shut this down. As Maria was watching she seriously just debated calling in a bomb threat to the event to get everyone to leave now. It was making her uneasy.
“It’s not security, it just ticket collection.” Talos answered as he observed the eastern entrance that lead into the event space at the square.
Maria sighed to herself. It’s 2025, check bags at your events, C’mon. Maria rolled her eyes to herself. But this was Russia, it was as violent and chaotic as the United States with large crowd events.
The square was a pretty large area for events and gatherings in downtown Moscow. It was surrounded by beautiful historic brick archways. Some of the archways had lockable gates for events like this that kept people from sneaking in. But it was usually open on all four sides but on the day of an event it had all kinds of vendors and things to do, and there was another wider area around the square where people and venders were gathering and mingling before entering. Who ever was planting these bombs likely had to pretend to be security which Maria wouldn’t put the past skrulls, that was the easiest way to blend in and not get caught.
And then Maria had another awful thought. Maria had to think in Gravik’s head for a second, if he wanted to kill the most people, would he place bombs on the outside of the event space and then force fleeing people into the contained event space and set off another bomb, or would he place all three bombs in the most crowded space with the the most limited exits? Would the bombs go off at different times? Would he place one bomb in the crowd another set for a different time near the limited exits? Maria sighed to herself, there were too many unanswered questions and possibilities. This is why she hated going forward on such limited information.
The event space was the most crowded space. One whole side of the event space within the square was completely blocked off with concrete barriers, that meant there were potentially only four exits out of the event space into the main square and then onto the street. It would be impossible for fleeing people to get out that space without trampling and stampeding others, and it would be very hard for help to get in to help people who were injured.
“The gates in the archways, we’re going to have to get those open.” Maria made a decision, if they weren’t going to succeed between Maria’s warning and trying to find the bombs themselves they needed clear pathways for escape for people.
“We don’t have time.” Fury chimed in.
“We need to make the time.” Maria snapped back. Fury was right they didn’t really have the time but this was a potential looming problem that could get a lot more people hurt.
“I can, I can get them opened or unlocked.” Talos said. He had an idea to shape shift as a supervising authority and order the gates open, for safety reasons, he could order guards to keep posted or direct people to the event entrances instead. Maria was right, open up the space and make more exits.
“It’s going to make it a lot harder for us watch for the bags with more potential entrances.” Fury explained into the earpiece.
“You know, potentially if people are fleeing harm it’s going to be much harder for them if there’s limited open gaps in that space.” Maria retorted. Having his conversation with Fury was a great reminder to Maria about why their relationship became so strained and the reason they departed ways in the first place.
“They’re not going to have to flee if we can spot the bags going into the event at one of the entrances. If you open the space between the arches and the pillars that’s a lot more space to cover for the three of us and we could miss them.” Fury countered and Maria sighed.
Maria looked at the time, Fury was right they had very limited time to make these decisions. Fury and Maria were just on different wave lengths Maria was thinking they were going to fail and they had to make it the easiest way possible for people to escape or evacuate. Fury was thinking this would go off without a hitch and Maria was wasting time.
“But the people carrying the bags, they aren’t going to go through the event entrance. They’re going to pretend to be security so they can move freely, at least initially when they get here.” Maria said out into the earpiece.
“Guys you have to make a decision.” Talos added in.
“Hill, you’re thinking too strategically, not practically, they are going to do this the easiest and fastest.” Fury said annoyed.
“No. We’re doing what is the easiest and fastest! They’ve had months, we’ve had hours. You are cutting corners. Fury, check yourself.” Maria snapped aggravated at Fury, vaguely referencing their chess debacle the other night and their emergency code. If Fury couldn’t feel that coded reference, they were really in trouble. She couldn’t even believe she said this to him but the situation of literally waiting for a bomb to go off was so stressful, and being the only potential person there to stop it, in a country she wasn’t even supposed to be in? Much more stressful. There was silence over the radio between the three of them.
Maria looked over her shoulder and up the street to see if any emergency vehicles or bomb squad was coming yet and nothing. She looked over at the square and everything was just as usual. She thought maybe she should just call a local police station with a bomb threat. What else could she do. She tried to warn the Russians through back channels, she tried to get Fury to see what he was doing was wrong. Sonya told her to leave and Sonya was probably right but if she left Talos and Fury hanging that could be worse. At least if there was three them, they probably had a better chance to grab these bags and go quickly. Of course she did just add this extra risk of potential security coming so they had to be smart. Maria paused as she questioned herself.
“Opening the gates might direct more people to the event space instead of less.” Fury finally countered. This was a good point Maria thought, but Maria figured there was a simple solution to that.
“Talos, can you tell them to put cones or tape up instead? Just tell them the closed exits are a security issue.” Maria guessed that was the best thing for Talos to do. Seriously what else could they do? No one would be there to open the gates after they got blown up. Sure it made it risky for them trying to monitor people going in and out of the event space, but Maria figured that they might already be in there anyway. It was large space to cover, and Maria knew arguing with Fury was a waste of time but not taking care of this could be really bad.
“Maria’s right.” Talos chimed in, even if he did agree with Fury in some respects, overall keeping those spaces closed off made things really hectic if the bombs did go off. Plus Talos wondered if when he ordered this at the event if he got pushback those people might be ones to watch.
“You have to be fast.” Fury said back.
“You’re the only one in this crew who isn’t fast.” Talos tried to joke to Fury to break the tension on the line and no one said anything back to him.
“I can’t.” Maria muttered almost silently to herself, it wasn’t picked up on the ear piece. This was such an unbelievable mess. How were they going to pull this off? Maria looked around an observed the area again, still no pick up in security, people weren’t being evacuated yet? Maria groaned. Maria had to guess Gravik had someone on the inside who quashed the threat, maybe it never even got to the Russians, or maybe it did and Gravik and his people already left.
Fury was alone watching the west side of the square. His glasses already on. He felt just as alone as he looked, he felt as slow as Talos just called him out on. Apparently, his talk with Maria at the bar did not recover too much good faith between the two of them, but Fury knew she was stressed. She made good points, she always tried to prioritize safety and be smart and strategic. Fury couldn’t fault her for being uneasy and uncomfortable with the flaws in this plan. It had no room for error, Maria was right about that for sure. Fury knew he was even lucky Maria stuck around to help but he did long for the days when working with her wasn’t constant tension and disagreement. He wasn’t trying to be argumentative with her but he wanted her to see that her ideas had flaws they had to consider too.
Working with Maria used to be so easy, they worked so well together. Maria used to anticipate everything Fury wanted to do. He trusted her with everything. She was one of the few people who knew about his personal and private life, and he knew about hers. Now, working with Maria was like working with a stranger. Fury knew Maria didn’t want him here, she told him this to his face. She told him that he could not do this, and that he was making bad choices. In return, he asked her for her help just one last time. Even though she obliged, she didn’t let up on Fury. The funny thing was, if he saw Maria do this to someone else, he’d be on her side, but when it was happening to him? It sucked.
As Fury watched the perimeter he knew they were probably going to have to go into the actual event space where the crowd had been forming over the last few hours to watch for people coming in, instead of watching from behind. Maria and Sonya’s conversations with him did get into his head. He was afraid of messing this up. He didn’t want anyone to go into that crowd because it put them all at risk. Maria had to know this too and that had to be why she was also so concerned about getting out. Fury decided that was the rule he was going to make, Talos and Maria couldn’t go deep into the crowd, he’d only risk himself for that.
Meanwhile, Gravik, Pagon, G’iah, Brogan disguised as Martin Wallace, and two skrulls masked as humans made their way toward the square. They did not all walk together like they knew each other or anything. Other skrulls were hiding in plain sight as humans as well. Gravik noticed that the gates he expected to be closed and locked between the southern pillars and the arches were open and replaced with caution tape and cones. Gravik thought that was annoying, but not alarming or unusual, events like this did security measures like that. It didn’t perk his suspicions up just yet. Although it should have especially with the call from Raava he hung up before she dropped the news about the warning Hill tried to get to the Russians.
The group of the skrulls wandered farther away from each other inconspicuously. Gravik and Pagon came back together again and they had the bombs really but the bags G’iah marked with the spray were with Brogan and one other skrull and Gravik also had a decoy bag as well, as he suspected G’iah was up to something. He didn’t place the bomb in the decoy bag though. He just wanted G’iah to see he had it.
Instead of heading into the event space Brogon and the other skrull with the decoy bags mingled in the gathering area almost like they wanted to get caught by Maria and Talos——and they did. They were looking for them to get their attention and to lure them into the crowded area where the real bombs were going.
Gravik turned to G’iah who was still lingering nearby.
“Go wait in the car, have it on and be ready to go when I get there.” Gravik demanded and G’iah obliged leaving the square to go back to the car. She hoped Talos and Fury got the bags and got out of there before Gravik could get away with this, but she knew if she stuck around to try and help them Gravik would know what she did and he would kill her, just like he promised he would do to ‘anyone who gets in his way.’
Gravik smiled as he looked around the bustling square. It was packed, there were thousands of people. He couldn’t have been happier. He noticed there were a lot more families, kids, and people in the gathering space buying foods and drinks, balloons, flags, etc, that could be in the event space.
“Maybe we should make this event ‘open admission.’” Gravik joked with a laugh to Pagon and Pagon nodded in agreement as he left to go dismiss the skrulls that were disguised and working the ticketing at the entrances. This was definitely a good way to draw more people into the event. Although he did want to get those southern gates closed, he didn’t want to delay himself. Gates closed? Gates open? What did it matter to Gravik. It was going to be carnage and chaos like no one had ever seen before.
Talos stayed masked as a security officer as he watched the east side of the entrances to the event, and tried to notice if anyone in security was acting shady.
Maria got out of the car and she headed over to the event. She checked again for any signs of a security pick up and she was yet again disappointed. It was 30 minutes to 2 PM. She didn’t expect Gravik to be right on the dot but he could always be early and she was concerned about that.
Maria put her glasses on and she made it to the gathering area of the square, where people were mingling before going into the event space. Everything at the event seemed normal, there were tons of people and it was stressing Maria out. She watched around for any bags with the infrared spray and she saw nothing. A bit later, she noticed that cones that had marked off the southern gates from being an entrance were being removed by security officers working the event.
“Talos, what’s happening?” Maria asked.
“Apparently the 2:00 event is now open to everyone.” Talos explained, he heard it over the radio.
“They’re trying to pull in as many people in as they can.” Maria groaned. Maybe Maria’s argument with Fury was over something irrelevant now but it did make her remember what lead to their split in the first place. At least Fury and Maria were right that the bomb was definitely going to be in the most crowded area. Both of them knew that opening the event up to more people was somehow Gravik’s doing.
Large crowds started moving into the event space that had now been opened up to everyone. People started hustling toward the event area quickly, and it definitely made what Maria, Talos, and Fury were trying to do so much harder. It was impossible to try and find one of the bags and Maria was ready to give up on this until right out of the corner of her eye she saw the red X painted on the backpack of Martin Wallace.
“Oh, fuck.” Maria mumbled to herself.
“I’m going after one. 6’4, white brown hair in a black beret, white and black camp jacket, green pants and boots, heading to the south western most arch entrance with the crowd.” Maria called into the ear piece as she started to trek after Wallace
“Hill, do not get deep into that crowd.” Fury warned.
“If he gets past the center walkway, turn around and leave, tell me and I’ll get him.” Fury chimed in. Maria didn’t want to do that! Fury had his own bag to worry about. Maria dismissed Fury’s warning. How was Fury going to get to him.
“Hill?” Fury asked for confirmation that she understood that command the way an annoyed commander asked an insubordinate officer.
“Get ready.” Maria warned Fury back as Wallace was heading to the most south western entrance of the square at least, giving Fury somewhat of a chance, but Maria was never going to let Wallace get into the center.
As Maria’s speed picked up after Wallace, he waited until he heard her fast pacing steps just out of reach and then started to speed up through the crowd. He wanted to lure her far away from that outer surrounding area, and Maria was following him right into it. As Wallace dodged families and people in the crowd making it difficult for Maria to catch up but keeping himself close to her sight line, Maria almost had him a few times before he ducked and got lost for a moment and then popped up again. It was so frustrating.
“I got one too.” Talos called into the ear piece as he started chasing the other skrull with the decoy bag who was hiding in the southern most eastern part of the arches through the crowd.
Fury was waiting for Maria’s call in, she had to call in soon, she better not have chased them into that crowd like Fury told her not to, but then Fury got a glimpse of his own infrared sprayed bag. He didn’t call in it, as he started to follow after it, but then it disappeared into the crowd, the man he was following was gone there was nothing but a child holding a balloon, then she was gone, the old man from the bar? Fury’s attention was piqued. This had to be Gravik taunting him. Fury followed the lure like a fish taking to the bait.
The three of them were so focused on what they were doing that none of them were communicating. Finally, though, Maria caught up with Wallace and she ripped the bag right off him and she was much deeper into the crowd than she anticipated going. Wallace didn’t even fight Maria for the bag as she pulled it from him. Instead he smirked at her and ran and Maria was sure that bag was going to explode the second she touched it. She opened the bag quickly and in a panic as Wallace ran off as she was surrounded by people. And in that panicked moment as Maria pulled the bag open and saw it empty Maria realized there actually was something worse than her having the bomb in the bag in her hands minutes before it was going to go off… and that was not having it. She felt her heart sink in her chest.
“They’re decoys!” Maria called in angrily over the earpiece. Maria tossed the bag in frustration.
“G’iah set us up! It’s a trap! Stop chasing them, they are making us chase them to the crowd!” Maria called in. Fuck. Maria was so mad, G’iah said it right to her god damn face the day before. She literally said it to Maria in the tunnel, ‘are you proud yourself, you followed the decoy.’ Was that the warning or a message? Maria didn’t know what to do now and she knew she had a very short amount of time to figure it out.
As Maria called this into the earpiece Talos’s heart sank as he also chased a skrull with a decoy bag into a crowded area on the east side of the square. He wrestled with the skrull for the bag, he still wanted to check despite Hill telling him not to. The skrull wrestled with Talos over the bag for a minute. He hit Talos, knocking his earpiece out and then after striking Talos the skrull realized people saw him hit a security officer, people nearby looked around worried and the skrull started running away. Talos did not chase him. Talos could tell the bag was a decoy too. Just like Maria said. His shock and disappointment that G’iah tricked them and was as gone to Gravik overwhelmed him that he couldn’t even think about what was going on around him. He had to try and think what he should do and he just couldn’t shake the overwhelming grief because it was like he realized he truly lost a child to Gravik, a radical.
“Talos you need to use your radio and just call in a bomb threat and start directing people out. We have to do something right now.” Maria called in and she heard nothing back from Fury or Talos. She didn’t know what else to do. Maria had run so much deeper into the crowd than she meant to and she was the closest to the main part of the event stage where Gravik likely was going to set off the bombs, but Maria did not know that for sure. She had to believe it was though because that’s where Wallace made her chase him. Unless this was a trick by Gravik to try and get them to direct everyone to the exits. Maria had to think, what did she do? She did everything wrong, again. In her gut she could just feel the looming blast building. There was an even larger crowd coming in through the south archways heading over to the event that was starting soon.
“Talos!” She yelled called in again and she got nothing back. The silence from Fury and Talos was alarming. Did they get caught, or killed? What was going on.
Suddenly someone grabbed Maria by the arm in a light yet rushed manner that set her back putting her hand on her gun inside her coat pocket as she thought it was a skrull but instead she was shocked to see it was Agent Watson, one of Sonya’s M16 agents she dispatched.
“What the hell are you doing?” Watson asked her. He was about the same height as Maria, dressed in plain clothes, and had short trimmed brown hair.
“There’s a bomb, I can’t get it.”
“I know, we have to go.”
Watson looked at Maria like she was absurd for even thinking she could do that, and Maria felt that look deeply. Watson didn’t waste any time though as he pulled on Maria’s arm to pull them away from the more crowded area where they were in.
“We have to call it in!” Maria protested and quickly pulled her arm back from him. She couldn’t stand the way men handled women like that even when they were friends or on the same side.
“We can’t call it in without getting caught.” Watson agreed with Maria but they could not get wound up in this, it would be terrible for them and the broader work they were doing. Maria did know this, she didn’t know how they could report it now, but at some point you kind of had to say fuck that and tell someone before thousands of people were hurt or killed. Watson knew he was going to have to do something because he could tell Hill’s last effort was going to be to get herself caught up in this.
“I have an idea but you have to keep moving with me to outer perimeter.” Watson told Maria and Maria didn’t have time to debate it She moved swiftly away from the event space with Watson toward where some security officers were. Maria thought he was just going to tell them something but instead they passed the two security officers they walked by.
As they passed Watson, lifted a radio from the utility belt of the passing security officer, as stealthy as a professional pick pocket in in a high tourist area. The two of them kept moving undetected as Watson hid the radio in his jacket.
“Where was the drop?” Watson asked.
“I think over in the event space toward the stage area.” Maria guessed, she was actually right on this even though she didn’t know it.
Maria and Watson separated as the moved out of the crowd.
“There’s a bomb threat for the event, evacuate the space now.” Watson called into the radio in Russian.
“We just got a notice of the bomb squad coming.” Someone responded
“Evacuate! Get everyone out.” Watson called into the radio in Russian and Maria even away from him noticed the groups of security listening to the call and starting to move. This was what Maria had been wanting to do the whole time but this lingering request from Fury kept her from doing it, even though she knew it was right earlier, now it was a mess. Watson held onto the radio as he moved quickly with Maria far from the anticipated blast sight. Maria couldn’t find Fury or Talos.
“Fury! Talos!” Maria called in the earpiece and heard nothing back. She couldn’t tell if these cheap earpieces just lost contact or she was being ignored or something happened.
Hill and Watson could see the crowd starting to turn back and return toward the southern arches. Maria wanted them to move faster than this but she also wanted them to avoid the panic. There was no way they could empty the whole square in time at this pace. The police on scene were sending people from the gathering area out as well. The sound of sirens started to pick up and Maria noticed them, believing that now probably the Russians were on their way to this before the bomb took off. This had to spook Gravik enough or ruin his plan for him to reset and give Fury, Maria, and Talos more time. It had to.
Meanwhile…
Fury pulled his gun as he chased the evasive Gravik who baited Fury into following him with the decoy bag. Fury heard Maria call in they were decoys, despite this, he was still going to follow Gravik. Although this wasn’t what Fury was thinking, following Gravik ended up being a good way to keep Fury out of the blast zone as Gravik had set it up so he wouldn’t get injured himself. Finally, Gravik and Fury stared each other down, although they were still aways apart. Gravik looked a Fury with a smug pompous grin, and Fury stared at him hatefully, angry.
As Gravik noticed a swarm of people rushing toward the exits and being directed away from where he was about to set off his blast his previously arrogant look he just gave Fury turned to dismay, but when he saw Fury holding that gun, Gravik decided to improvise.
“Get them heading back north, maybe a warning shot.” Gravik called in to Pagon quietly. Fury couldn’t hear. Gravik did also notice the sound of sirens getting louder toward the square, he would have noticed earlier if he wasn’t playing a game with Fury. Then Gravik looked at Fury like he dared Fury to shoot him as they stood a few meters apart.
Gravik moved closer to Fury tempting him to shoot as he held his hand on some kind of remote.
“Don’t do it, son.” Fury warned.
Son? Gravik thought to himself. How dare Fury utter that word at him.
“What a poor choice of words.” Gravik asked appalled. He did not just call him that. Gravik narrowed his gaze angrily at Fury for uttering those words and Gravik put his thumb right on the button of his detonator.
Fury aimed to shoot Gravik but then he heard the sound of a gunshot coming from the southern side of the square where people were being told to evacuate toward which made Fury uncharacteristically freeze for a moment.
“Shooter! Gun! Run!!!” A terrified woman’s voice let out this warning with a blood curdling scream after the shot was fired sending the entire crowd into a panic and back toward the direction they were being evacuated from. Security officers who were forcing people to leave the event from the north side of the square then started running into the racing crowd, on alert for the gunmen.
Maria and Watson watched the evacuating crowd turn around in a panic from the gunshot and scream.
“No no no!” Maria cried
“They’re sending them back that way.” Watson huffed angrily now sure Maria was right about where the blast was going to be. Usually terrorists did this move in remove in reverse, shoot at the crowd fleeing the blast, now the attackers were instead forcing the crowd into the direction of the looming blast. The calls from the radio were overtaken by the active gunman. But Watson still tried to call in.
“The crowd is heading toward the bomb site!” He called in trying to get someone’s attention to work on crowd control.
This was an absolute horrific mess already and Maria knew it was about to get so much worse. The crowd that was almost escaping the square turned and rushed backward from where they were being evacuated from and Maria and Watson got separated by the push of the crowd heading directly back toward the anticipated blast site. They couldn’t stop the rushing crowd and they knew they could not stop moving or they would risk being trampled to death.
The cries of scared and panicked people started to overtake the square as they ran in fear from the gunshot from one direction while they were told to evacuate the other direction. The sounds of sirens and yelling made it impossible for anyone to think or listen, and it had only been moments since that shot was fired into the crowd. Fury went to fire at Gravik, but Gravik hit the detonator sending a large blast through the crowd that was running straight toward it. Fury ducked from the blast that was not too far from him and Gravik and Gravik was gone when Fury finally went to shoot.
The blast sent the already terrorized crowd into a brief pause as people tried to cover themselves from the force of the bomb. Maria covered her face from debris, as the forced air from the blast rang over the crowd. Then in an instant more chaos erupted and people ran in every possible direction spiraling in an uncontrollable confusion, fear, and panic. The crowd was unsure of where to go, injured persons struggled to move, people trampled over body parts blown from the blast. There was nothing but screams and cries but they were drowned out from the ringing in the ears of many of the people close enough to the blast. There was security running around also in confusion nobody knew what to do, where to go, no one could understand.
As Gravik watched the chaos unfold after he got a safe distance away from the fumbling crowds, he thought it went even better than he could have imagined. He didn’t even mind the last moments of suspense with Fury. Clearly that old man was very under prepared, and Gravik’s last minute improvisation just made it all the more fun for him. Gravik checked his phone and he saw a message from someone saying that ‘Hill warned the Russians.’ The message Raava tried to get through to him before he set everything in motion. At first, Gravik smirked to himself over how little good it did. Fury couldn’t even keep Hill in line anymore? How the mighty have fallen, but then Gravik started to realize that Hill warning the Russians did mess up the underlying purpose of his plan despite all the pain and disaster this caused. The additional security did get here very fast, too fast. Gravik now had to believe Hill’s warning got through.
Maria made her way through the panic, she didn’t even try to call into Nick or Talos as she assumed she lost connection with them. As people quickly dispersed from the scene Maria saw Watson fall in his escape attempt and she ran up behind him to help him up quickly before the escaping crowd that was following them ran over him.
Gravik caught Maria helping someone out of the corner of his eye. Gravik wouldn’t have noticed Maria if she had kept rushing past with the rest of the group, and not stopped to help some man on the ground. Gravik’s last improvisation went so well he felt emboldened to try another.
“Hill!” Fury’s voice called out for Maria’s attention. Maria looked over and saw Fury a few meters away and she started to pull away from Watson yet again, just like she did before.
“No, Hill, c’mon!” Watson pulled on Maria’s arm, they had to leave this area before they got caught—-and for their own physical safety even.
“I have to get Fury!” Maria told Watson as she pulled herself away from their clear escape, she was so close to leaving with the rest of the escaping crowd.
“He can get himself…” Watson started to say to Maria but Maria was already moving to Nick.
“We’ll be right behind you.” Maria assured as she left and Watson kept going, at this point he had to keep moving. She made her choice and there was nothing Watson could do about it. This was all way too much.
As Maria made her way over to Nick she motioned to him to come so they could go. She didn’t even know why she left her clear path out of here to get Nick. Maybe it was exactly what Talos said, she was always the one afraid to leave Nick? In fact, Maria was relieved to see Nick was alive after everything that just happened. Maria could hear a little static noise in the cheap earpiece that Talos had stole from that store. Although it should have given her pause, it didn’t. As Maria walked up to Nick relieved to see him she didn’t know why Nick didn’t start running with her. Maria looked at Nick like they needed to go, quickly. They had to go why was he just standing there?
“Ni..” Maria started to say but then she felt a sudden sharp impact in her lower abdomen, then she heard the sound. Maria looked at Nick gasping as she just realized someone had shot at her but she still hadn’t realized it was Nick who fired until he held up his gun. The shock and confusion that ran over Maria’s face and mind were clear as she fell onto her back onto the cold littered ground, clutching with her hands the area where he shot gasping for breath. Gravik as Fury moved closer to Maria as he aimed his gun right in Maria’s face.
“Checkmate.” Gravik said confidently in his Fury disguise with an evil grin. It was the complete opposite of the meager unimpressed checkmate that Maria uttered the night before at the bar after Fury barely even tried to win.