Boots on the Ground

Is this how it ends.. on the ground in the cold, during a completely preventable terrorist attack in Moscow?

Maria hadn’t even connected that it wasn’t truly Fury who stood before her aiming the barrel of his gun directly in her face. It was just too shocking and painful in the moment for her to put it together. Maria wanted to reach for her gun but the pressure and pain in her abdomen was too much to bear and she couldn’t let go. Maria being shot at such a close range even with a protective gear under her sweatshirt, she felt the powerful force of that bullet even if didn’t breach the material. It hurt so much when it happened Maria forgot she was even wearing anything.

Maria wearing a vest under her sweatshirt was lost on Gravik in the moment. Instead, Gravik wondered which one hurt Hill more: realizing she had been betrayed by Fury or the bullet that was going to kill her. In the brief pause that Gravik took to make sure Maria saw ‘who’ shot her numerous shots were fired in Gravik’s direction. Gravik turned as he tried to decide if he should shoot back in his Fury disguise at the security officers who were firing at him. Instead he ran off, not wanting to risk getting caught. Gravik was irritated as he wasted his moment in front of Maria to gloat and to let the cruelness dwell. He wasn’t hat worried though he knew Hill would die anyway from where he shot her. Not following through with it was just one hitch, otherwise, Gravik’s plan went off better than expected. He’d have to thank Fury for that later.

There were so many officers and medical personnel on site in the rush of the chaos. People were running in every which way trying to respond to injuries, help people get out, find people who were responsible. Nothing around Maria was still and yet she felt totally frozen as she tried to straighten herself out mentally as she was overwhelmed by shock. It was hard to think through the pain, but she was still overtaken by the realization that Fury hadn’t been Fury for quite some time. Every internal and external warning light for Maria had been blinking bright red that something was amiss since she ran into Talos days ago, and she went against all the warning signs. All this talk between Maria and Fury about not trusting or having faith in Fury anymore and it never occurred to Maria not to trust Fury, the person, himself. She was literally on her way out to safety and she still went back to Fury, even after all the wrong things he said today and the days before. Now, all around her red emergency lights flashed brightly all over the square with sirens so loud you couldn’t hear, it was all impossible to ignore now.

One of the police officers stayed behind with Maria and he signaled over to a medic on site who raced over. The police officer pulled Maria’s hands off her abdomen but she shook her head no.

“It’s okay.” She said not thinking and the police officer looked at Maria a little surprised that she just spoke English, and she had an American sounding accent. And then he noticed her earpiece in her ear and then he moved the side of her jacket to see that she did in fact have a gun on her person. This raised the suspicion of the police officer and he removed her gun from her side.

“Did you get shot in the vest?” He asked her in Russian.

“Da.” Maria nodded remembering to answer in Russian this time.

“Who are you with! What unit! What agency! What office! Who shot you? What he did he say!” The security officer asked her in Russian believing she was one of them undercover or something. There were an awful lot of personnel rushed to the square. This would have been a great cover story for Maria to get away but her mind was racing. Maria couldn’t even think of a response to the six questions that were just shouted at her. Another police officer joined the one next to Maria as the medic kneeled down next to Maria and pushed up her sweatshirt and shirt to see her vest. The two police officers started talking to each other and Maria was trying to listen to what they were saying but they talking quietly and it was so loud. She needed the medic to leave and she needed to get away from these police officers whose suspicion was already raised.

Although Maria had worn a bullet proof fabric a standard issue for agents under her sweatshirt, being bullet resistant didn’t actually protect someone form being injured by the impact of force from a bullet. It wasn’t heavy like kevlar, it had far more flex, truly one of the best things that ever came out of SHIELD. It had down falls thought, especially when you were shot at close range like that. Even though Gravik’s bullet didn’t penetrate the fabric, the impact of the bullet itself into the fabric cut into her skin, and it bruised her badly. She could barely breathe as the impact push from the bullet ripped into her skin from hitting the protective gear. She even bled some through her clothes and could feel it on her hands when they were removed from her and it shocked her because she couldn’t even feel that she was bleeding, it wasn’t deep or fatal or anything, but close blunt force trauma to the abdomen like Maria just experienced, if the skin opened, it did bleed for a bit.

It was so hard for Maria to concentrate on what she needed to do for herself in this moment. She had to get away and disappear as inconspicuously as possible but there was a rogue Fury running about the square. Was Talos dead, is that why he stopped answering? Was this fake Fury the one who was shooting people cause the panic that sent everyone back toward the blast. Maria had to snap out of thinking about Fury and start thinking about what to do for herself.

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Maria said again, now in Russian to the medic trying to grab her abdomen again and encouraging him to leave.

“We don’t know that.” He responded looking at Maria skeptically. He had never seen someone just get shot who wanted a medic to leave so badly.

The medic looked up at the two police officers unsure if he should leave and the two officers who had been talking one shook his head no at the medic.

“No, she has to go the hospital she could have internal injuries.” The second officer said in Russian. A vest didn’t protect from internal bleeding, bruising, or injuries either.

“Tell us your name and unit so we can notify them.” The first officer ordered Maria in Russian, he was very skeptical of her now. It was suspicious this was the very first person that had been called in as being shot at this ‘active shooter’ bombing event. At least so far. She also originally answered the officer in English. At first he thought she couldn’t hear from the blast or the sirens, but she was talking to the medic and ignoring the officers, and he thought she had kind of an accent—western or American.

Maria knew she had to answer something and she had to do it quickly because her pass on being unable to answer was closing. Maria had to make something up even just to buy herself some time to get out of here.

“I think she’s in shock.” The medic said in Russian to the police officers standing there. She was. She was in such mental panic she couldn’t think of anything to do to help herself. All she could think about was how she had no idea who was or wasn’t a skrull even the people standing right next to her. She knew there had to be skrulls within the security agencies and the police officers too and now she was panicked at how deep and wide spread this invasion might be.

“How did they miss him?” Maria mumbled, without realizing she said it out loud as she thought about the events that just happened. The police officers yelled first, in a shooter situation where a shooter was about to kill someone you don’t usually warn them. You would take them by surprise them. Instead, the police gave fake Fury a warning to get away, they could have just shot the fake Fury right there. She heard shots fire, he was right in front of them.

She was still so shocked and overwhelmed that it was hard to process the gravity of the pending situation before her. She could not even conjure up one thought in her mind about how to get herself away from these police officers and this medic. She used to be able to think in these tense and scary moments but she couldn’t stop thinking about that evil look on Fury’s face and this revelation that he had been the one messing them up the whole time. It was like the past few days were flashing before her mind nonstop, all the signs were there, weren’t they?

Maria mind was so scrambled and there was so much going on around her that the part of her mind that could plan, be strategic and smart felt like it had shut down. If Maria couldn’t get away from these Russian officers now she was not going to be able to get away from them later. They were going to ID her eventually, but it’s not like she could run away there was security everywhere. Plus, she couldn’t protect herself from fake Fury, the officer took her gun away since she had yet to identify herself. The officer wasn’t wrong either, she could have internal injuries but Maria thought she could worry about that later, she was going to have to find any excuse to get away from these people.

“Women aren’t meant for this type of work you know, that’s why you got hurt so bad.” One of the officers standing over Maria said in Russian but she didn’t look at up him as what he said went in one ear and out the other.

Meanwhile…

Fury protected himself from the nearby blast. He got caught up in the crowd racing away from the explosion. He had to push himself so hard to keep up the pace to prevent himself from crashing onto the ground before he eventually made it out of the square with the terrified crowd. He tried to move against the crowd to find Maria and Talos but it was impossible to go against all those people. As Fury was forced into a safer area out onto the streets people still kept running. No one could get far enough away from the misery that just happened. Finally when Fury had gained some distance from the crowd he kept calling into the earpiece but he heard nothing back because he was too far away. He heard a shot fired and then a few moments later a lot more shots fired. Fury called into the ear piece again for Maria or Talos and he heard nothing back.

Fury caught his breath from the quick paced running he had to do to escape the crowd. He was concerned because he hadn’t heard anything from Maria or Talos. The last thing he remembered was that Maria was running into the crowd and that was not that long before the blast happened. This went so badly, Fury knew that more bad news was waiting for him.

Talos disguised as a security officer raced down the sidewalk after Fury and then he pushed him into an abandoned store front.

“HEY HANDS OFF!” Fury yelled at the the imposing officer unapologetically.

“Shut up!” Talos yelled and then Talos pushed Fury around a corner into hiding as more officers ran past in pursuit of someone.

“Talos?”

“They’re looking for you! I heard it on the radio, they called in your description as an active shooter.” Talos warned.

“Where’s Maria?” Fury asked in an angry huff not even listening to what Talos just said. Maria and Talos were supposed to stay on the east side of the square together apart but still together.

“If she got out she’ll call in.” Talos assured. What else could he say? It’s not like they had time to do roll call. It was chaos, it was hell on earth in that square. Talos barely made it out himself and he was disguised as an officer.

“If?” Fury asked and Talos shrugged.

“I caught a glimpse of her running out with the crowd, she was okay! I couldn’t get over to her.” Talos did see Maria with someone running out of the crowd for a brief moment before there were too many people but he was being moved in a different direction. He couldn’t get over there. There were shots fired shortly after but Talos didn’t mention that part. He assumed was police chasing the bombers.

“We have to go, you have to get out of here right now. We have to go before they shut the city and the borders down.” Talos urged.

“We have to find Maria first.”

“We do not have time! She’s not dumb, she will understand.” Talos scolded Fury. Talos gave Fury a frustrated look, for two people whose relationship was so strained, Maria and Fury were still very codependent on each other. They didn’t want to leave each other but strangely it it sort of seemed like neither of them wanted to stay. Clearly, the two of them were bound by something that other people did not understand. Talos had a similar situation with Fury himself, so he got it to an extent.

Fury knew Talos was right, but Maria hadn’t checked in yet, and he would feel better if he could at least talk to her first and tell her what’s going on. Fury knew he did have to leave right now if they were looking for him. He struggled with the decision, he knew it was wrong to go, but it was going to be really bd if he stayed. Fury was so identifiable, it’s not like there were tons of black men in Moscow and since now he was being identified as a shooter at the event there was no where he could go out here. In fact, Fury wasn’t even sure how he’d leave this abandoned store front.

A wave of sirens came roaring down the street where the store Fury and Talos were hiding in. Fury and Talos hid in the shadows. It was long line of ambulances racing down the street.

“Hill!” Fury whispered loudly into the earpiece, he did it repeatedly to no response.

Talos just shook his head no at Fury but Talos could see the concern on Fury’s face. Maria spent years trying to reach Fury and he ignored her, now Fury was pleading to reach Maria to no avail.

“It probably fell out, mine fell out when I was running. They’re cheap junk.” Talos tried to assure.

Fury appreciated Talos’s attempt to assure him that it was okay to leave but Fury knew it wasn’t. It felt too wrong he couldn’t just take off.

“We have to wait!” Fury said aggressively.

“We cannot wait. What don’t you understand? Who is this person you are pretending to be?” Talos asked emotionally. What was Fury thinking.

Fury and Talos pushed at each other in a brief heated moment but they stopped quickly as their emotions were quite high and they could not afford to be dumb right now.

“She’s probably on her way out right now! Even if she’s not, you can’t help her or anyone if you’re in Russian prison being tortured to death.” Talos reasoned. Back when Hill and Fury were arguing Talos kind of thought she was being a bit harsh at times. Now that Talos was dealing with this strange detached Fury directly who wasn’t making smart decisions he realized Hill was going easy on the old man. Everything Maria had said was right, they should have gotten the event cancelled instead and chased Gravik down with help. Now Maria wasn’t here and Talos had to reign in the Fury crazy train.

“We fucked up!” Fury started to yell as the biggest understatement of the year.

“So let’s not do it again.”

Fury picked up the phone and called Sonya as soon as she picked up she yelled into the phone.

“Have you lost your minds!! What the hell is going on!!” Sonya yelled so loud and intensely angry that Talos could hear it clear as day. It struck a chill down Fury and Talos’s spines. Fury immediately hung up the phone and he glared at Talos. Sonya did not yell. In all of Fury’s life he had never heard Sonya raise her voice. The shock of it snapped Fury back into reality for a moment.

“We have to go.” Fury said finally agreeing with Talos. Talos knew the best way to get Fury out was to keep pretending to be an officer and commandeer a vehicle. And that’s exactly what they did. Talos put Fury in the back of black unmarked police car and then he drove the car off as far as they could get from Moscow. Talos knew they could get a train and get out through Poland. Talos and Fury listened to the radio for any information they could get about what roads and ports wand travel was being shut down. They heard on a radio chatter that there was only person shot, and that it was ‘a police officer’ and that they were taken to the hospital with ‘critical’ injuries. Of course the officers up played the potential injuries to keep the alarm high about the suspect they were looking for a 6’2 black man who was shooting at police. Fury groaned. Gravik was trying to pin this whole thing on him now, wasn’t he? This one was going to be really hard to explain back in D.C.

//////

Meanwhile…

Gravik escaped and found G’iah. G’iah had watched the events unfold in complete horror. It was worse than she could have imagined. She couldn’t believe Talos and Fury failed. All they had to do was grab the bags. What happened? When G’iah saw Gravik she was quick to mask her upset demeanor and she had a calm, not panicked look about her as Gravik approached and sat himself in the front seat of the car expecting G’iah to drive him.

G’iah left the area to where traffic was being directed away from the square. After G’iah and Gravik were away from all the police Gravik leaned the car chair backward and put his feet up on the dash. He looked like had just been crowned the king. A glowing grin was glued to his face as he pulled a candy bar from the glove compartment.

G’iah looked over at the gloating Gravik beside her as she drove. She hid her internal disgust.

“You’re pretty quiet.” Gravik pointed out as he broke off a piece of the candy bar and ate it.

“It didn’t seem to go as planned?” G’iah asked. And Gravik laughed to himself.

“It went even better.” Gravik continued to gloat.

“How did you know Fury would be there?” G’iah asked surprised that Gravik was able to turn the tables on Fury so quickly.

“Raava alerted me, they picked up some chatter, so I had a feeling.” Gravik lied to G’iah and Gravik smirked. He was so proud of himself. Like a child winning his first race.

“I was right.” Gravik continued to praise himself.

“Yeah!” G’iah feigned enthusiasm. She was worried she hadn’t heard anything about Talos and she wasn’t ready to lose her father too.

“This will sure keep him occupied as we move onto the rest of the plan.” Gravik said trying to drop bait for G’iah to take back to Talos and Fury.

“What’s next?” G’iah asked in a clearly excited tone as she also fished for the information.

“Let the dust settle first, kid.” Gravik shook his head at G’iah’s eagerness as G’iah drove back to the safe house.

The Russians had arrested Brogon on site as was part of Gravik’s plan. Brogon screamed and screamed that he was American and they could not do this to him. G’iah heard this part on the police radio and she had gotten her own ideas on how to stop Gravik undetected. She wanted to get him more than ever, but for now she had to play along.

////////

Washington D.C.

As the events unfolded in Russia, back in D.C., news of the bombing broke and the situation room was buzzing.

Val was so mad. The Russians had almost an hour to clear the square and they didn’t, Hill got a warning to them through Sonya, the U.S. tried all the channels they could to get the message to them without outing their operations. And clearly, Maria did not succeed in trying to take out the bomber. Hill had not called in to anywhere since this morning.

Val just looked appalled this was such a clusterfuck. As the reports and news came in from the active shooter to the blast, the chaos. Val ordered her tech savvy analysts to hack into Russian security cameras in the area to pull as much footage and data from the scene as they possible could and as quickly. The CIA was easily able to hack into just about anything in any place. As estimated death tolls and information rolled in the place was a zoo. Everyone was on the phone. Val had a handful of agents she had to get out of Moscow that she was working on. So far, everyone except Hill and Ross were accounted for.

The quiet stillness of the room that waited in the anticipation for the bombing had long been over. Since the blast, the room had been a burst of energy responding to everything.

Val had analysts hack into security cameras in Russia so they could try to get as many realtime updates as soon as possible. A few analysts were backtracking footage to see what they could find. If there was one good thing about Hill warning them early, it allowed the CIA to pull out some stops before the Russians tried to claim something else happened. The U.S. manipulated the truth for their own purposes sometimes, but it was nothing compared to Russia, who was definitely going to milk this attack on the world stage for all it was worth. Val had no question about that.

“Holy shit.” Val muttered to herself as she watched a video Sandy just sent to her marked URGENT. No one even noticed Val’s pause or exclamation as the room was dealing with a lot.

“Something from Hill or Ross?” Rhodey asked Val and Val looked up at him, she looked a little flushed like she had seen a ghost. Val paused as she didn’t answer Rhodes but it was clear to Rhodes that Val saw something bad or unusual.

“Val!” Ritson exclaimed, he did not have time for some woman to get emotional, it was a bombing people got hurt, get over it. Ritson thought to himself.

“Mr. President, I need to show you something in the other room.” Val said urgency.

“We’re the leading security experts in the world!” One of the Joint Chiefs said offended that Val was trying to keep secrets.

The look of seriousness and concern that took over Val’s face made Ritson realize that he did indeed need to look at whatever Val wanted to show him.

“Gentlemen, keep at it.” Ritson said, he stood up and everyone in the room stood up too, Val, the President, and Rhodes went into the adjoining conference room.

“Val what is wrong.” Ritson demanded to know.

Val set the video on her phone to an airplay screen in the room and she played the footage that was forwarded to her from her elite team of analysts pulling any and all hacked footage they could get of the bombing from Russia. The video showed what looked like Nick Fury and talking with Maria briefly and then Hill’s body suddenly jolts and falls backward. Rhodey and Ritson passed as they didn’t understand what happened but then they saw the gun in Fury’s hand and him raise it in Maria’s face while she was on the ground. The shock on Ritson and Rhodey’s face echoed that of Maria’s as it happened in the video. Then the video cut out.

“What the fuck.” Ritson said stressed.

“Why did it cut out!” Ritson yelled.

Val was stunned still.

“We’re trying to find out what happened.” Val answered.

“He shot her that’s what happened!” Ritson said obviously.

The anger that swarmed over Rhodey’s face was intense as he saw what Gravik did. The Rhodey part of Raava’s mind was in complete shock and overwhelmed by seeing Maria get shot like that. The Raava part of her was beyond furious. Did Gravik just switch his plans and frame Fury instead? What the fuck was happening! Raava couldn’t even process, this was not something Gravik could just improvise without warning her! How was she was supposed to advise Riston now, what the hell was she supposed to do.

“Is she dead!” Ritson was still yelling.

Val looked at Rhodes and Rhodes was so angry and upset.

“If she’s not dead the Russians have her.” Rhodey said alarmed.

“Why would Fury shoot Hill? She called him!” Ritson exclaimed he was beyond confused and appalled.

“Well… we didn’t know for sure that Hill called Fury.” Rhodey reminded.

“Oh, god.” Val sighed dramatically. This was true, they assumed it based on the circumstances.

“What! Yes you did, you have been saying it for days.” Ritson glared at the two of them.

“No. We assumed she did based on location data. We couldn’t trace the phone to any person, and the message… it was nothing.” Val explained quietly. She was still stunned by the video.

“Maybe Ross and Hill have been hiding from Fury and that’s why they went offline…” Val questioned out loud. This was something they really hadn’t considered.

“So, Hill found out what was going on and she tried to warn everyone and Fury shot her?” Rhodey guessed. Maybe Gravik did know what the was doing when he learned Maria tried to warn the Russians. Maria tried undercut Gravik’s plan, so instead he was trying to pin it on Fury and he used Maria warning them as a motive for the shooting. Well this definitely got Fury and Hill out of Gravik’s way. Raava thought to herself. She still would have appreciated the heads up from Gravik.

“Do you think the Russians have Fury?” Ritson asked.

“Maybe they killed him.” Rhodey said frankly yet hopefully. He was so angry that he could barely talk.

“If they have either of them the Russians are going to start bragging.”

“We warned them!” Ritson said.

“Yeah but if one of our …” Val paused she couldn’t even get over the scale of calamity of this nightmare.

“Mr. President we just heard that the Russians have an American in custody — Mar…” A joint chief opened the door from the other side room and started to explain the news they just gotten.

“Fuck.” Ritson huffed before the security advisor could finish.

“Mar—tin Wallace.” He finished.

“Martin Wallace?” Val asked.

“Who is that?” Ritson looked at Val and she shrugged. Val called Sandy.

“I need everything on a ‘Martin Wallace’ American arrested in Russia.” Val started to say.

“We already pulling it together. Martin Wallace - Leader of ‘Americans Against Russia’ and from what we are monitoring, on the chatter we are up on we are hearing that he confessed to the bombing screaming he was an American.” Sandy said over the speaker.

“Anything on or from Hill or Ross?” Val added.

“No.”

“How many people have been reported to be shot?” Val asked.

“Just.. the one so far.” Sandy paused.

“We are up on one police channel in Russia that claimed a female law enforcement official was shot.” Sandy explained.

“An estimated current death toll and injury count should be coming in soon.” Sandy reported.

“Sandy have them put up a website on a Russian server to collect videos from the attack, see how many we can get before they shut us down. People are going to have photos and videos, and get our people up on the apps that are popular in Russia too. Collect them all so we can start piecing together what we can’t get from the security angles.” Val ordered.

“Yes Ma’am.” Sandy agreed before the two disconnected again.

“We have to put out an Interpol Notice on Fury.” Ritson said.

“We can’t.” Val said quickly and Rhodey reluctantly nodded with Val.

“What do you mean, he’s killing our agents!”

“The Russians will know we hacked them, and it will look worse for us. Russia has to put out the notice, but we can send what we have to people we are close with who Fury might try to seek refuge with before they know.” Val proposed and Ritson nodded.

Val sent the video to Sonya and some others as a warning not to trust Fury and report any contact by him to her immediately.

Val was then sent a second video of the shooting from a different angle and she showed it to Ritson and Rhodes. This video was longer and they saw the Russian authorities shoot and chase after Fury and one come to the scene and that Maria was still alive.

“She wore a vest?” Ritson asked.

“Of course she did, she’s not an idiot. You don’t go to where you think a bombing is without protecting yourself. Everyone knows that.” Val mumbled.

Now Rhodes and Val looked far more worried as this meant that Maria was with the Russians and the Russians. Raava was concerned too as that was clearly not what Gravik intended and Raava was sure once Gravik found out that Hill lived he’d finish the job, putting the U.S. and Russia in an even more volatile situation.

Val, Rhodes, and Ritson went back to the situation room. They updated the room on what they knew so far. This was far more stressful than any of them could have imagined. An American in Russia claiming he bombed it on purpose, two American agents also caught there, one of them shooting the other for trying to warn what was happening. This was bad and it was much worse that Maria was in their custody and they weren’t disclosing it. Either the Russians hadn’t figured it out yet or they were keeping secrets. You definitely did not want to be the American CIA agent arrested at a bombing committed by an American in Moscow. Every security official in the room knew that.

“Doesn’t Maria Hill know a great deal of information about American security that we don’t want the Russians to know?” One official in the room asked.

Val didn’t say anything.

“Yes.” Rhodes answered confidently.

“Why was a former acting SHIELD director deployed to Moscow in the first place?” One of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked appalled that seemed like in incredibly stupid risk to take for this exact situation, and everyone looked at Val for an answer.

Val didn’t know what to say. What was the answer? Pettiness? Maria wanted to go she was fine with it! She wanted to be a spy again she wanted a job. Val didn’t even want to hire her! Val had so many things to say but none of them mattered.

“Because… she’s one of our best people.” Val answered echoing what Rhodes said last year when they told Val to hire her and Val scoffed at this phrasing then, now she was using it as a defense for her choices.

\\\\\\\\

MOSCOW

It took just as long for Maria to get checked for internal injuries for the Russian police officer to figure out she for sure wasn’t a Russian law enforcement official, or plain clothes officer, or Russian intelligence officer. When he saw her things they took from her she had no badge, no phone, no identification. No officer had that high quality of a vest and gun and that cheap gadget for an earpiece. Maria also kept trying to leave, refuse help, refuse aid. Clearly she wanted to get away and the officer could just tell something was wrong here. When he couldn’t ID Maria from any of her belongings they took at the hospital they checked the serial number on her gun which did not come up registered anywhere in Russia. He recalled she said a few things in English. He thought she wasn’t answering because she was in shock but maybe she wasn’t answering because she wasn’t supposed to be there, or they weren’t supposed to know she was there.

Then they looked at her vest, it was especially sophisticated and on the inside of it, it had a STARK logo imprinted on it. This wasn’t a retail item, she either stole it or it was given to her by someone or something with a lot of money like a government. She really should have been more hurt—not that she wasn’t hurt from being shot at such close range but the officer had seen people get hit in the vest before, even people who had been shot at a distance had sometimes serious complications. Just because a vest could stop a bullet, it didn’t stop all the injuries that came along with being hit with such great force, especially at close range. The officer quickly contacted the FSB with the information who said they were sending agents to the hospital immediately. Something was very strange here and they definitely had some things they needed to clear up with this woman.

Despite the warning the Russians got from Sonya via Maria they had not evacuated the crowd or done anything quickly enough. Finally enough people urged the square to get shut down but it was too late. The Russians were embarrassed for not acting on the information timely and they knew if it got out it would be bad, they did not going to let that get out. In fact, it was skrull officers in the Russian government who repeatedly dismissed the warning as a hoax or a simple bomb threat to stir things up.

Oslo, an FSB officer, a 52-year-old 6 foot 4 white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a rather Scandinavian appearance, he was very tall and lean with a muscular build. He had a bit of an unusual looking nose but he had a sharp jawline. He was a bit intimidating at first glance, but he had an appealing appearance and he was exceptionally charismatic and intelligent.

Oslo was a double agent and had been working undetected in Moscow for 20 years. He was born in Russian to Norwegian parents but grew up in Russia for his father’s work. In his mid teen years he relocated to England and become a dual British citizen. Oslo was a gay man but since he lived in Russia for the last few decades so there was little he could do about that. He wore a gold wedding ring though.

He started young in the British armed forces and then worked his way into the British unit of SHIELD with missions in Poland and Bulgaria and then transitioned into intelligence. He ended up back in Russia as a security officer and as dual agent for England, spying on Russia right out in the open. He had worked his way up in the FSB for quite some time and it was sometimes hard to remember that he was in fact a dual agent there. Oslo did not work for Sonya but he traded a great deal of information with her as they were on the same side. Oslo was the most helpful with extractions. He moved a number of agents out of Russia for Sonya and other agencies in the UK. He did kind of feel like the real life James Bond, but he tried not to get it into his head, Bond was overrated anyway, George Smiley was truly his favorite fiction spy.

Oslo, was one of the select few people who originally received the warning from Sonya. Sonya worked with a few people she trusted. He encouraged the square be emptied but he couldn’t push it too hard when others started questioning it. When the same warning came in through other channels then people got more serious but it was far too late to evacuate and get the all the law enforcement on site.

Oslo was high up in the Russian intelligence service but one of the things he did best for Russia was interrogations, that’s what he liked to do anyway, that way he could edit the information revealed. He got pulled as one of the FSB agents to go to the hospital——well he really volunteered as he was quite interested in this unidentified woman who allegedly claimed to be a police officer and was the only person that had been shot at this attack—- at least so far. She was the only person to see the shooter at the attack so they had some questions for her.

Oslo brought a younger FSB agent with him, Agent Vosko. He was very new but he did good work in the military and he wanted to work on interrogations. He was a smart kid but at the same time rather dumb in his field, he was a mixed bag, but he could be good potentially. Oslo liked him because he wanted to learn and because he didn’t get in the way because he respected Oslo a great deal. On Oslo’s way to the hospital he sat in the front seat as he went through everything the local police had sent up the chain. Vosko drove and he seemed weirdly eager to do this.

“I bet she’s American and one of the bombers, the other one shot her to shut her up, the women always talk.” Vosko said to Oslo and Oslo just laughed. Vosko was relatively knew to this intelligence gathering field but Oslo wanted him to come because Oslo wanted to take the lead and not battle anyone for it.

“Statistically, women are very unlikely bombers, they don’t like messy deaths because they don’t want to burden people to clean it up. Men think about the moment, women think about what happens after.” Oslo generalized, it was true. There was a great deal of literature and studies on the different ways men and women killed. Women, generally, were not terrorists and the often killed in much ‘quieter’ less brutal ways. That’s what the studies and history presented.

“There’s always outliers.” The young kid defended his position.

“True.” Oslo replied very professorially.

“But I guess if you wanted to keep someone from talking and you had a gun, you would execute them.” Vosko undercut himself, he did that a lot, one reason why he needed to watch more interrogations and learn.

“I would think so.” Oslo encouraged the young kid to start thinking broader.

“Maybe they wanted her to get caught and they are planning something from the inside.” The kid really took some leaps but in reality he wasn’t that far off from how the skrulls were operating.

“Or maybe she saw a man with a gun and he saw her gun and he shot her first.” Oslo proposed a more logical scenario.

“Why would she claim to be a police officer?”

“Maybe they just assumed it because she had a vest and a gun.”

“But terrorist have those.” Vosko piped up.

“But she didn’t run and he did.” Oslo explained calmly. Oslo was on his tablet as he pulled up what videos and images had been pulled so far from the bombing. He pulled up one of the first images from the shooting that he could find that been uploaded into their system. He paused as he looked at the image and then he zoomed in. He could have sworn he was looking at someone strikingly familiar holding a gun over this woman.

“Is that…” Oslo stared and he paused. It couldn’t be.

“Is that… Nick Fury?” Oslo started again and asked as he showed the image of a black man holding a gun over a woman on the ground. He couldn’t recognize the woman on the ground from the angle. Oslo recognized the former director of SHIELD instantly. Maybe Vosko was right, maybe this woman was a terrorist!

Vosko looked away from the road for a minute and he looked at the image on the tablet.

“Who is Nick Fury?” Vosko asked.

“Why did you look if you didn’t know who he was?” Oslo questioned. Vosko just shook his head, he didn’t know he just did.

If Nick Fury was shooting this woman maybe she really was with the bomber. Oslo’s mind raced as he tried to piece this together. They were missing a very big part of the puzzle. Maybe it was a man who just looked like Nick Fury.

Oslo got a call on the way to the hospital he put it on speaker so Vosko could hear.

“We think we got an ID on the woman and the shooter through facial recognition.” The voice called in, another FSB agent working this case.

“The shooter a 90% match on a facial ID for Nicolas J. Fury, former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. The woman, 98% match in our software, on a ID for Maria E. Hill, also a former agent and leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. and no surprise these two are also American, like Mr. Wallace, the man claiming to be the bomber.”

“Maria Hill?” Oslo said hiding his shock. This just got even weirder. Why would Nick Fury shoot Maria Hill and why would the two of them be at a bombing in Moscow?

“Maybe the Americans can keep their secret wars out of our house!” The agent on the phone huffed. Oslo hung up the phone.

“Do you know her?” Vosko asked.

“No, I but I know her name.” Oslo explained. He did know of Maria and Fury, but Fury much more so. He couldn’t fathom a reason why Nick Fury would try to kill to a former SHIELD agent in a terrorist attack on Moscow,, unless she was in fact one of the attackers.

“What’s SHIELD?” The young agent looked perplexed. Oslo looked at him surprised but the kid was a kid, SHIELD wasn’t a thing anymore and if you weren’t older when it fell it probably wasn’t news that someone this young knew or remembered.

“It’s very old secret global spy security agency.”

“American?”

“SHIELD was international, it had bases all over the world for awhile.”

“Were you in it?”

“No.”

“Did they let Russians in?” Vosko asked already angry assuming they didn’t.

“Quite a handful of FSB members were once in SHIELD before it fell. When it ended it there was a huge file dump and FSB hired the former agents to decrypt what they could to get the information.” Oslo’s time at SHIELD had been erased so he wasn’t worried about anything from way back then coming back to him.

“Why did it fall?”

Oslo got a text and he checked his phone, it said ‘call me’ from hidden number. He ignored it.

“Corruption, you know the typical story the spy is really a hydra terrorist trope.” Oslo waved his hand like this was lame old news.

“Were they Hydra?” Vosko asked.

“No.” Oslo thought for a minute what a trip down memory lane. It had been a long time since the days of SHIELD but Oslo could not imagine that Maria Hill went from an agent of global security, working with Nick Fury to an anti-Russian terrorist who would be killed by him. People changed, but did they really change that drastically? He supposed anyone could get corrupted. Regardless, Maria Hill clearly knew something about what happened.

Oslo’s phone buzzed again from a text.

“Soon.” The message said. Oslo looked at his phone and he rolled his eyes.

“Who is that?” Vosko asked.

Oslo smirked to himself.

“My wife.” It was really Sonya.

“Oh, checking in?” Vosko asked and Oslo nodded.

“She can wait.” Oslo dismissed quickly.

Oslo called back the agent who called in with the ID on Fury and Hill.

“I need every video and image that we can get of Fury and Hill from the attack as fast as possible.” Oslo ordered and the agent on the phone complied. Shortly after videos and photos started coming into Oslo’s tablet as fast as the agents could compile them they sent them to Oslo as they pulled into the hospital area.

“I have to review this before I can question her. I need you to stand outside her room or inside of it and do not let anyone in or out do not talk to her, tell the locals this is from FSB.”

“Doctors too?” Vosko asked and Oslo looked at him funny.

“Yes, well not if she’s going to die or something.” Oslo rattled off quickly trying not to roll his eyes. How would they get the information then, c’mon kid use your brain.

“No one in and no one out of her room until I have all the information.” Oslo said in a rushed voice and Vosko thought Oslo was onto something so he parked and ran out of the car. Oslo was really just trying to get rid of Vosko so he could call Sonya. As Oslo reviewed what was sent to him and he took out a burner phone from his glove compartment and called Sonya.

Vosko quickly ran into the hospital through the confused crowds and cramped spaces. He looked for one of the local police officers who called it in.

All surrounding hospitals were overrun with people from the bombing trying to get help for their injuries. This hospital was farther out in a suburb, it was taking overflow patients from the hospitals that were taking everyone from the bombing, all the people who had regular emergencies were directed here instead. It wasn’t as chaotic as the other hospitals but between it’s usual demand and all the new redirected patients to the E.R. it was very very busy and quite hectic.

“Finally!” One of the police officers called out as Vosko flashed his badge.

“Where is she?”

“Did you get an ID?” The other officer asked.

“Yeah! She’s an American!” Vosko exclaimed and the two police officers looked stunned as they had knew something wasn’t quite right but they were drinking coffees down the hall from where Maria was. The three of them ran over and the room was empty.

“We didn’t see anyone leave!”

“How could you not be watching!” Vosko yelled angrily. Although the officers had known something was up, Maria had been so quiet and compliant with them that they thought she was afraid and in shock. They didn’t think she was going anywhere. The two officers were tired, and truly a bit traumatized themselves from what they just saw even if they didn’t speak of it. They were drinking coffee in a corner edge just a few feet from where Maria’s room was.

A short middle aged nurse quickly walked by and Vosko stopped her and she looked annoyed.

“Where’s the woman from here?”

“The ‘gunshot’ wound?” The nurse looked at the room number.

“The nurse on this floor she probably took her to X-ray.” The nurse shrugged, she didn’t know this wasn’t her patient she had a lot going on! Then the nurse who worked this suite of rooms came from around the corner she looked stunned to see the other nurse and the authorities outside the door.

“Where is this woman!” Vosko yelled he pointed to the room Maria was in, he was getting hot headed now.

“I was just coming to take her to x-ray.” The nurse looked stunned, there were so many people up and down the halls and so many confused staff members it was wild in here. Some one else must’ve taken her.

“Maybe one of the medical assistants took her.” The nurse seemed unworried. Maria was so quiet and polite with her.

“What does she look like?” Vosko asked the two officers, he texted Oslo that he needed a photo ASAP of Maria Hill.

“5’8, slender, white, chin length brown hair.” One of the officers said.

“She hasn’t even been gone for two minutes.” The police officer said. It was busy in the hall but he didn’t see anyone but the medical personnel slip in and out of that room. But the hallways were busy with rushed people. Still he would have noticed, he was sure.

Then a woman was yelling loudly in Hungarian. Her frustrated angry yells could he heard down the hall.

“Someone probably moved her to x-ray that’s where she was going!” The nurse said she did not have time for this and moved on to her other patients that needed her.

“Someone go find the x-ray area and see if she’s there.” Vosko ordered the two police.

Vosko followed the voice in the woman yelling in the foreign language finally he ran up into a staff area. There were three women standing together in the nurses outfits, dark blue or dark red scrubs, they had masks to cover their faces but the three of them had taken them off in the break area. They all wore white sneakers or white crocs. Except one of the women, she was just wearing socks, and she was the one yelling. Vosko ran over. Two of the women were blondes and the woman yelling had very dark almost black hair, all of them had long hair pulled back into buns or braids.

“What is wrong!” Vosko yelled and the nurses looked at this intrusive man yelling at them.

“FSB, I am looking for a suspect, is someone hurt, what is wrong!” He shouted at the women.

“Someone stole her shoes!” One blonde nurse pointed at the sock only nurse’s feet.

of course! Vosko thought to himself, she snuck in with the medical personnel in scrubs or something to try get out.

“What do they look like!?” Vosko asked in a rushed tone surprising the three nurses. Surely the FSB had more things to do than look for this nurses shoes.

“Are they like hers or hers?” Vosko asked pointing to the white sneaker of one nurse and then the white crocs of the other nurse.

“No, they’re black sneakers. I put them down in front of my locker when I went to get changed when I came back they were gone and there aren’t anymore white slip ons in the supply room! So I don’t have any shoes how am I supposed to work! Look at all these people!” The woman cried and waved her hands in Russian. It was a zoo in the hospital. How was she supposed to work with socks on!

“They’re black?” Vosko asked. Vosko assumed Maria grabbed the first pair of shoes she saw to try and escape by blending in with the medical staff. But looking for black shoes was going to give Vosko a leg up in the hunt, she would definitely stick out, so she had to be racing for the door.

“Do I get to go home if he doesn’t find them?” The overtired nurse asked her colleagues.

It had actually be five minutes since the police officers noticed that Maria was gone, in that time, she dumped her hospital gown and was able to steal a navy blue scrub set and a mask to cover her face. She had covered her bare feet with the booties that they wear at the hospital for emergencies but when she found the break room she did grab the first pair of shoes she saw, but then, she followed one nurse into he supply room and took the only pair of white slip on clogs they had left. Maria was going to put the shoes back so one would think a thing but then she realized that if someone was looking for her wearing black shoes, they probably wouldn’t be looking up at people’s faces. Even though she had a surgical mask on like the other nurses, it just wasn’t that much cover. It just gave her little extra for them to focus on as she tried to get through the chaos in the hospital to get outside unnoticed.

As Maria started to asses leaving the hospital, she noticed a great uptick in security presence that had started rushing in. They definitely identified her now.

MEANWHILE… back at the car where Oslo was alone, he called Sonya.

“I’m in a bit of a situation here.” Oslo said as Sonya answered.

“Aren’t we all.” Sonya replied unbothered.

“I need the location of where they’re going to bring Mr. Wallace.” Sonya asked straight to the point and Oslo just laughed.

“Why.”

“Well I have to ask him some questions before they finish him off.”

“It hasn’t been too much of a talker other than that he is American.”

“Well, I am, as you know, quite persuasive.” Sonya joked

“I don’t know yet for sure, but my guess is they take scum like that to the butcher’s shop on Alekseev street. They get the most talking there.”

“If you hear otherwise, please update me quickly.”

“Uh-huh.” Oslo rolled his eyes to himself.

“Do you know Nick Fury is here?” Oslo asked.

“In Russia?” Sonya feigned surprise.
“Hmm.” Oslo questioned if he believed her response.

Sonya had already seen the video of Fury shooting Maria but she had no idea if Maria was alive and she knew it was skrull pretending to be Fury.

“Why is Nick Fury trying to kill Maria Hill?” Oslo asked directly he didn’t have time to waste. He gave Sonya a location, Sonya needed to give him some details.

“Is she alive?” Sonya asked and then Oslo released that Sonya must’ve seen the footage of been notified of it. Oslo didn’t know how as that information had not been released yet but he knew Sonya had her hands in places all over.

“Yes.”

Sonya was quiet as certainly she didn’t want Maria to be killed but given the situation it wasn’t actually great for Maria to be alive in Russia.

“I would like her back, please.” Sonya said curtly.

“They identified her and she’s in custody.” Oslo said.

“I am going to need her back.” Sonya repeated.

“Uhhh.” Oslo paused. Extraction was someone that Oslo had done for Sonya for others, and he did it very well. He had helped Sonya a number of times but Maria was already in Russian custody getting her out of here would be a nightmare, they had to do this before she got caught or identified. They were closing borders looking for Fury, Maria was way too hot to move right now.

“I’d probably put a rush on it.” Sonya added.

“Are you mad?” Oslo asked Sonya with a tone.

“Are you afraid it’s too hard for you?” Sonya taunted but really there wasn’t anyone else who had the access to the intel that Oslo did, and would be close enough to Maria that he could actually help.

“Jesus Christ himself couldn’t move Maria Hill out of Russia right now.” Oslo muttered, that woman was stuck there until… well possibly forever.

“I thought you liked a challenge?”

“I like living more.”

Oslo looked over the information he had on Maria, the Fury shooting, the videos and images that they pulled from the bombing on his tablet. Sonya was asking for Maria ‘back.’ Did that mean they were working together.

“Why is Hill in Moscow?” Oslo asked looking it all over trying to understand.

“To stop a bomb.”

“Well, she failed.”

“As I recount it, the Russians failed since she warned them.”

“Oh, what? Like an hour?” Oslo tried not to scoff because the warning did help even if people ignored it at first.

“An hour is a great deal more time than most nations get before they suffer a deadly terrorist attack.” Sonya said sternly like she was putting a child in their place.

“And an hour is, in fact, enough time to evacuate an outdoor area. Should it have been acted on appropriately.” Sonya huffed. This was a huge miss on Russia’s part, a lot of people worked hard to get them that intel and help those civilians. Russians refused to believe it.

As Oslo thought about it, he did think it was strange the way the warning that came in was shut down so insistently. It was quite an unnatural response. It did raise his concern that maybe there was something on the inside who wanted this attack to go off successfully.

“That warning was from Hill?” Oslo asked surprised.

“Yes.”

Oslo looked confused, he assumed Nick was the good guy shooting Maria at the bomb site but based on what Sonya was saying, it was the other way around.

“Why would Nick Fury want to murder Maria Hill for trying to stop a bomb?” Oslo asked he needed more information before he took a big risk to help her and get involved in this Sonya mess.

“Do you think you can get her out before Fury finishes the job?” Sonya said swiftly, she didn’t have time to get into the whole skrull invasion story.

“Unfortunately, I uh, I think she may have to play ball for awhile.” Oslo said glumly and Sonya sighed.

“I told you where Wallace was going to be, that’s what I can do for you. Now, you’re asking me to do something impossible.” Oslo sighed. Oslo noticed a pick up of security starting to pull into the hospital. The word on Maria being an American with security and government ties was making its reach through the government and they were coming for her.

“What’s going to make it possible?”

“To try to move one of the biggest ‘gets’ for Russian security of all time?” Oslo laughed.

“We have an American bomber and an American agent who another American tried to kill all in the same place at the same time. Something terrible is going on, and I don’t think I can move the one person who probably knows the most about it out of here—well, without getting killed or caught myself.” Oslo said blatantly.

“You know she is going to be killed before she can share any of that knowledge with you or anyone else… so if you are looking for answers it’s actually better to move her out of here.” Sonya explained and Oslo sighed very loudly.

Sonya wasn’t wrong, Fury was a sophisticated guy, there was no doubt in Oslo’s mind that Maria could be killed before she said a word.

“Are you asking me or are the Americans asking?” Oslo wanted clarification.

“I’m asking, I don’t even think the Americans know yet.” Sonya said sincerely.

“If you hang tight I might be able to get her to you, here.” Oslo proposed, Sonya could worry about getting Hill out of Russia, she seems to travel rather freely. The sooner Hill wasn’t Oslo’s problem the better.

“I’m afraid I am on my way to Mr. Wallace.” Sonya reminded and Oslo sighed.

“She risked quite a lot getting that information out to you, and it almost got her killed, so the least you could do is make sure she gets out before it gets twisted and turned into something it is not.” Sonya tried to appeal to Oslo’s risk and balance based system that his mind worked on. Maria warned them so she she was owed something Oslo agreed.

“What exactly is it, Sonya?” Oslo asked with emphasis.

“I suppose she’s the one who can tell you that.” Sonya quipped back quickly. Oslo did want to know the truth and he had a feeling Americans bombing Russian civilians wasn’t the real story.

“I don’t know what I can do about moving her out but I can help on some end.” Oslo said. If he couldn’t extract Hill he could at least manipulate the interrogation since he was the one charged with doing it. Well he was but as he saw the national police pull in he got annoyed.

“If you do this for me, I’ll buy you a very big cake.”
“I don’t eat cake.” He rolled his eyes. Sonya had seen Oslo before, he had a very athletic build.

“A very.. big salad then..” Sonya joked with a little laugh and Oslo laughed too.

“She’s really one of yours?” Oslo wanted to confirm again. The thing is, former SHIELD agents the non compromised ones did have a certain bond even if they didn’t know each other so Oslo was already kind of drawing in interest in helping Maria get out. He knew of Maria because of how far she went up at SHIELD but she never knew of him, at least that Oslo was aware. If Maria was also tied to Sonya it definitely seemed worth it to at least consider helping her.

Oslo wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but it was clear he had to decide fast. He wanted to help Sonya as she helped him many times. They had a rather good flow of trading information and extractions were really his thing, but Oslo had never done an extraction with such a volatile situation with this much attention and the subject already in Russian custody.

Usually a political situation like this the person never made it out without high stakes international negations and prisoner trades. Oslo really needed to get to Maria sooner. But as Oslo though about it, if Hill was trying to warn Russia, that was probably why she was the only person who was shot at this attack. That started to help Oslo put the puzzle together and it was starting to seem like the Russians didn’t want it to get out that they were warned.

Oslo knew that peace between America and Russia was a prerequisite to a safe world which was what he really wanted. An American planned terrorist attack in Russia was bad, but tying a living breathing government agent to it—even worse and Oslo wasn’t sure what the Russians were going to think. Maria was the one who warned them and it looked like she almost got killed for it too, but they were expert media manipulators.

Oslo did have doubts that Maria would talk to the Russians at least until they forced her to—-and they would force her to. He did not have doubts that if Fury wanted to kill her before that happened, he would do it. Fury was believed to still be in Russia hiding and he was a very skilled capable man. If the truth of what happened was going to come out it was probably going to come from Maria and she needed to be alive to tell it. Oslo groaned to himself as the longer he weighed the options and started to feel strongly one way but he could see his window of opportunity had all but shattered as a great deal of security officers were coming in.

Finding out the truth was for an overall global good, that people like Oslo, Sonya, and Maria held themselves too. Oslo always believed Fury had been one of those people, but now… he really was quite shocked. Oslo’s trust in Sonya though did not waver and if Sonya thought Maria had to get out to stay alive and explain what happened then Sonya was right.

Oslo got a text from Vosko, asking for a photo of Maria and he sent one back that was pulled from a Russian file on her. Then Oslo called Vosko.

“What happened?” Oslo asked as he also headed into the hospital.

“She ran! We have to shut the hospital down before she gets out. No one in or out, she’s pretending to be staff.” As Vosko ran down the hall he started crashing into people because as he was running he was looking down at people’s shoes. Every time he saw black shoes he looked up, usually the men were wearing black shoes and was clear to him he was looking at a man’s foot or leg and he still looked up at them, he didn’t know why but Vosko was just sure he was going to get this woman by her own mistake.

“We can’t shut it down, they are taking all the overflow.”

“We cannot let anyone out until we find her.” Vosko said sternly.

“We’ll put security at all the entrance and exits.” Oslo compromised. They could not shut a hospital down today, especially one this busy. As Oslo made his way inside the national police and other armed guards joined him. The chief of medicine came down to help them, and show them where the security cameras were.

Oslo, and Vosko went into the room where Maria had been before she disappeared. They found what Maria found, some scrubs tucked away in a a cabinet, surgical masks, foot coverings. It was just extra storage.

“She’s wearing red scrubs and black sneakers.” Vosko claimed confidently as he pulled out a pair of red scrubs from the cabinet, he just assumed the scrubs had all been the same color. In reality Maria was wearing blue with white sneakers. Vosko started to call this info in to the other officers.

“Why do you think that?” Oslo asked.

“All the scrubs in here are red, and a nurses black sneakers went missing from he locker room before you got in.” Vosko was proud of his critical thinking skills.

Oslo thought about this for a minute, the vast majority of the medical staff in this hospital wore navy blue scrubs, some wore green, and some wore a maroon-ish red color like they found in the room, but it was far less of them than wore the blue. Almost all the female nurses wore white shoes, but all the men wore black ones. All the medical staff wore surgical masks on the floor and they were going to have to take them off soon. So, Oslo didn’t correct Vosko, that probably she was wearing blue scrubs and white shoes like most people she looked like. He hoped Maria could use this pass Oslo was going to allow to get time to get away on her own. But they had just posted security at all the entrances and exits to check IDs of anyone going in an out. If she didn’t get out yet, it was going to be pretty hard.

After a great deal of searching, checking staff’s IDs looking in patient’s rooms, monitoring all the entrances and doorways, the agents did not have success locating Maria. Unfortunately, hospitals were big and they had lots of places to hide. At one point out of frustration Vosko had every woman in the hospital that he could find line up so he could check and see who they were, even women who were 5’1 and had no physical resemblance at all to Maria and Oslo shut that attempt down.
“She left. We missed the window.” Oslo said in a defeated tone but he was actually glad for her and kind of impressed because she pulled that off real quick.

Maria hadn’t left. In fact, she gotten stuck in the hospital when the security crack down happened, but when the shift of workers changed at the morgue she snuck into the basement with them as their identification had already been checked as in the incoming group going into the basement, the out coming group was checked upon exit. Maria knew this wasn’t the best move because there wasn’t a way she could find out of the basement but because they had already checked in the incoming group she had at least knew she bought herself some time even if it was in the morgue.

The woman who were entering the morgue shift were not the usually crew as so many people had been pulled to different areas of the hospital and other medical staff from other areas had been called in to help with the surge of overflow.

The security checks were not explained to most of the staff as agents didn’t want the information getting out. They were kind of in a bind, they wanted people to help look for her but at the same time they didn’t want Maria to know what they knew about her disappearance that was she was hiding among the staff or anything that could give her a leg up to hide from them.

In one area of massive basement in the hospital was the morgue. It was very cold down there, and very quiet and still. Maria ended up sterilizing instruments in a back room with a few of the other women, only one of them regularly worked down here. The women who ran the solution over the stainless steel instruments started gossiping in Russian.

“I heard they are looking for an American.”

“I hope they find him.”

“It’s a woman!”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No it’s a man, pretending to be a woman.”

“Not much of a man if he can pretend to be a woman.”

“Have you seen the women who work here? They all look like men!” Three of the five women laughed.

“He picked the right hospital then.” A few other women smirked to themselves under their masks.

“Except for you, you are very feminine.” One of the older women said to the younger girl who routinely worked there.

“No, it’s a woman-woman American, and they think she was part the bombing.” The woman who worked at the hospital explained.

“Like the bomber? The news said it was man, American.”

“Is it his girlfriend!”

“I hope they kill both of them.”

“How did she get all the way out here?”

The young medical assistant, was a thin brunette about 5’4 and she wore her hair in a long pony tail, she was the only one of the women, including Maria who didn’t wrap their hair in a surgical style cap. The medical assistant pulled her mask down from her face.

“The police brought her here. They said she was an officer and she got shot at the bombing. Then, they went to check her injury and she disappeared! Those officers got removed from the area, so maybe the police who brought her here are not really police!”

“We are under siege and they are making us come in!” One very reluctant woman said as she finished her sterilization duties.

“You’re quiet?” The older woman of the group said to Maria.

“I’m mad, I want to be home with my kids.” Maria responded quickly and sharply.

“Ugh, Olga talking about your kids already.” The young routine staff worked groaned to Maria, misidentifying her as someone she worked with before.

“But the dead are so much quieter! I come here for peace!” The older woman in the group laughed.

“And it is much cleaner, than kids, usually.” The women all laughed.

Maria wondered how long she was going to have to wait out the sweep before she could really get out of the hospital. At some point they had figure she had left if they hadn’t found her by now and she was just hoping she could blend in and make it longer than they would. Maria stayed in the cleaning and supply area, that’s what these assistants usually did, although sometimes they helped with the removal or remains. Maira could pretend, if she had to but she was really hoping she wasn’t going to get pulled in on that, but the chances seemed high.

Oslo, Vosko, and a few other officers were in the with the head of the hospital and hospital security looking over monitors. To see if they could find when Maria left the hospital.

Security agents grew exhausted of this search turning up no one. Oslo was right, they missed their window and she had gotten away early and she was probably long gone by now too. They more time the spent searching the hospital the farther she was going to get. Vosko looked enraged and disappointed as security teams started the disperse from the area. There was a lot going on today and a lot of places people needed to be. Staying here was waste of time.

The security monitors displayed all the areas of the hospital, and every area was busy and buzzing with people and security. Oslo wasn’t offering any ideas to help even though he had plenty.

Vosko tried to figure out what the best thing to do was, but this his first time chasing down an experienced American spy.

“She could be anywhere by now.” Vosko huffed.

“Spy’s gonna spy.” Oslo joked and then sighed.

Was she hiding or did she go? That’s what Vosko couldn’t figure out. They couldn’t find any woman in red scrubs with black shoes or anyone close to Maria’s description exiting the hospital at any of the doors and all of them had cameras.

“What if we spread the rumor we’re leaving, having all the big groups clear out have a team hide in medical wear? Maybe she’ll come out of hiding if she feels safer.” Vosko proposed.

“Silent sweep.” Oslo agreed. Really probably what they should have started with.

“Is that a good idea?” Vosko asked surprised that Oslo seemed to approve.

Oslo was pretty sure Maria was gone so he thought it would be fine if a team stayed behind hiding out wasting time still looking for her here.

“Yes, very.” Oslo praised, it was a good idea, it was a few hours late though, but Vosko got to it eventually.

As news broke that the American was no longer believed to be in the hospital, the staff and patients were relieved. Things were slightly more tense and the remaining security on site faded. Maria heard the news from the gossiping women. Of course Maria wanted to burst out of there instantly but she knew better, plus she figured, security wasn’t totally removed from the area. She just had to blend in and make it out with everyone else. She hated being in this quiet, sterile dimly light basement, quite literally starting at death. She knew this had to be a metaphor for something but she didn’t want to think about it or how she got herself into this precarious situation.

Maria went to put some supplies away in the back room. The supply area in the morgue was massive, a large open storage area with metal shelves and instruments, an old gross steel sink, and metal counters.

She heard someone also come into the storage area and although her senses heightened she didn’t look or check. There were people down there going in an out even if it was far calmer than the upstairs. More people were coming in and out of the basement now that staff could move more freely and quickly.

Maria caught the sight of a pant leg, green scrubs, and the end of a white doctor’s coat but she was instantly drawn to the dirty combat boots he hadn’t bothered to change and instant give away that he wasn’t a doctor, but whether he was a skrull or a Russian, she had no clue. Maria clutched small sharp surgical scissors in her hand silently as she tried not to do anything sudden.

Without a word, Vosko in his disguise lunged at Maria from the side. He didn’t know what compelled him, but just like she could tell, he could tell too. He barely even saw her clench that first in her hand but just the slight indication of it gave him enough cause to believe it was her. Hiding in plain sight this whole time. The silent and still storage area was suddenly a burst of energy as Maria tried to fight off Vosko.

Vosko pulled Maria’s mask down from her face and he grabbed at her covered hair, he pulled the cap right off her head and she leaned her head backward away from him in the struggle, but when he grabbed her arm she had to come more forward. Maria was trying to fight him off as quietly as possible, but she probably wasn’t going to be able to do this for long. He used his free hand and he struck Maria across the face to try and give her a pause so he could really restrain her.
“You stupid American bitch!”

‘Probably Russian.’ Maria was going to bet and she barely paused despite how much the struck stung her face, her eyes watered from it but instead she kicked at him right between his legs, full force which sent Vosko backward for a brief moment and then letting his grip off Maria just enough for her to pull away. Vosko reached for Maria’s throat in an angry lunge as she backed into a metal shelf. Maria stabbed the surgical scissors into his hand, hard.

“FUUUUUUUUUUCK!” Vosko screamed as red blood escaped his injured hand, Vosko fell a bit form the pain and crashed into the metal shelf knocking a ton of instruments and glass down onto the concrete floor. The metal on metal and metal on concrete and the glass making a terrible noise even louder than Vosko’s cry. The morgue echoed with the sounds of the fight and people got afraid and ran away quickly leaving the basement. Vosko pulled the scissors from his hand as his blood gushed out of him.

He was definitely human, so this was better than a skrull but this situation overall, really bad for her. Despite the horrible pain, Vosko carried on, his moves fueled by desperation and Maria’s mostly by skill but also admittedly she was just as desperate as the struggle intensified between them. Vosko was getting blood everywhere, making it look much worse. Finally Vosko pushed Maria up against a corner but she grabbed onto his bleeding hand injured hand and twisted it downward as he tried to push her back but he screamed in awful pain letting go of her briefly as she escaped from being cornered running over the broken glass and metal that littered the floor. Vosko grabbed Maria’s arm with his free hand, as he moved forward to her while he grabbed her, Maria swiftly punched him in the face and pushed him up against the edge of the metal shelving that was fortunately drilled into the floor. But Vosko hit the side of his head on the metal edge, cutting his face a a bit before he fell to the ground from being punched. Vosko was going to be fine, Maria was just trying to get away not kill the guy.

Maria barely made it toward the door of the storage room before Oslo and one other gun wielding officer arrived all dressed in medical clothes, doing the same bit as her. Maria didn’t look too surprised and she sighed at the sight of them.

Oslo stood holding his gun out right at Maria who put her hands up immediately, she didn’t have anything anyway.

“Aww, and you were so close!” Oslo said patronizingly to Maria and the other agent snickered.

“If you want to stay in the morgue though, we can arrange that too.” Oslo said as two of the other agent went over and restrained Maria and arrested her.

“She’s wearing fucking blue.” The agent called out to Vosko. They spent all day looking form a woman in red. Vosko was getting himself off the ground holding his injured hand, his head and face pounding, his whole body ached from that encounter with Maria.