Chapter 13
As it turned out, they didn’t need to race to the north of England at all. They just simply needed to crash a party.
“I feel slightly bad horning in on a banquet to honor someone who has worked hard to improve the health and lives of children caught in the crossfire of war,” Sharon admitted, tucking a strand of golden hair behind her ear.
“I am less interested in her good deeds and more interested in what she has been doing to get the funds she pours into these charities,” Peggy replied, perhaps with a touch of asperity. They had both dressed to blend in for the occasion without seeming too ostentatious. Sharon had gone for a simple black dress she had packed with her on the off chance she had needed it, a sign of her clear training in modern covert tactics. Peggy had lacked that foresight when hopping a plane, and as most of her things had been removed from her family's house long ago, she’d gone a brief shopping excursion, following in Sharon’s suit. The knee-length dress was neither flashy or daring, sleeveless and square cut at the neckline, clinging to Peggy’s more curvaceous figure. It was lovely, but practical, and still old-fashioned enough to please Peggy’s sensibilities and while blending in with the sort of crowd who would be at a function such as this without them wondering what decade she had stepped out of. Besides, she could fit her fire arm underneath it.
“Just because she’s Ranulph Haldane’s daughter doesn’t necessarily mean she is up to anything,” Sharon reminded her with a hint of warning. “After all, the Darkmoor incident was seventy years ago. I don’t know that she was even alive for it.”
“As you said, we have to cover every base,” Peggy responded, evasively, unwilling to confront the nagging voice in her head that was pointedly reminding her that her niece was right. “Perhaps when she is confronted she will clear it all up for us rather handily.”
“You say that as if you expect her to lie through her teeth about it.”
“I expect nothing.”
Peggy wasn’t particularly sure, but she thought she heard a whispered “bullshit” under Sharon’s rather obvious cough.
The event was being held at a posh hotel along the Thames, a newer construction that looked like any of the thousands anywhere else in the world. Despite the signage for the event, the place had little in security and even less in people manning the door, a fault on the hotel staff and event organizers, really. It was fairly simple for herself and Sharon to slip in, looking as they did, like every other person sitting in the room.
“Should we split up and see if we can find her in all of this,” Sharon leaned in to whisper, glancing around the space to a sea of round tables and well-dressed people.
Peggy glanced about, then up at the stage, where someone was making introductions at the podium. “I don’t think we have to. Look!”
She nodded towards the tall, elegant woman coming up to the podium, shaking hands with the tuxedoed man who introduced her. She was beautiful, no older than her early 60s, with auburn hair that had turned darker with age but had not yet gone white. Her gown of dark greens and golds shimmered in the stage lights as she began to speak.
“Thank you to the committee for this honor tonight! It wasn’t sought out, nor was it petitioned for, but I am so grateful for it on behalf of my team, all the amazing people I work with at the foundation, and the beautiful children who I’ve had the privilege to get to know and help over the years…”
“Come on,” Sharon nudged Peggy, quietly, pointing out a space on the right hand side of the staging area where everyone coming off the stage would have to descend. “We can speak to her there.”
Peggy followed as Siobhan Haldane continued to speak, her voice a soft, cultured lilt as she described the work she was being honored for. In truth, judging from that alone, Peggy would assume she was a kindly, good-hearted, wealthy woman who wanted to do right in the world and help those whom the global community had tended to forget. And, as she reminded herself, rather grudgingly, she didn’t know if Siobhan Haldane wasn’t exactly that. Still, Peggy had met her fair share of those who spoke of saving the world while at the same time hoping to control it, rule it, or subjugate it.
The woman on the stage held up her plaque gratefully before the audience. “Thank you so much for this honor.”
With polite applause, the audience clapped as Haldane smiled and nodded, thanked her presenter again and various people on the stage, then made her way carefully down the darkened steps, holding up the skirts of her dress as she balanced on her heels, plaque in hand. Seeing the opportunity, Sharon dove in, ever helpful, to give the woman a hand down.
“Thank you,” she smiled, bright even in the dim light. “I perhaps shouldn't have worm these shoes on this. Heaven knows what sort of header I could have taken!”
“Glad to be of help,” Sharon nodded, her free hand already snaking to pull out her badge from the dangling, spangled purse over her shoulder. “I actually was hoping to catch you, Miss Haldane. I’m Agent Sharon Carter with SHIELD. I hate to interrupt your event, but I’m hoping to ask you a few questions.”
Haldane blinked, wide, dark green eyes taking in first Sharon, then Peggy glowering at her. “SHIELD? As in the spy agency?”
“More or less,” Sharon smiled, the same sort of smile Coulson used to have when trying to describe SHIELD to anyone. “It is in regards to the bombing last week. Do you have a few minutes?”
Still stunned, she nodded, gripping her award as Sharon led her around the back of the staging area, out towards where the kitchens and the servicing areas obviously were. Peggy followed behind, sweeping the area filled with servers, technical staff, and others, all staring at the three, well-dressed women wandering through, all the while she had her hand against her thigh where her own weapon rested. Experience had taught her not to be too careful where such questioning was concerned.
“Here is fine,” Sharon waved towards a hallway off the kitchens, one that led to the inner parts of the hotel again. There was a smaller hall off-shooting from it, leading to doors marked “service entrance”. At the moment, no one was there.
“I must say, I’m rather surprised at all this cloak and dagger business,” Haldane murmured, something amused glittering in her dark gray eyes. “It wasn’t precisely how I saw this evening going.”
“I know, and I do apologize, but you were in town for this and we wanted to catch you while you were. You spend a lot of time up at your estates as I understand.” Sharon played it smoothly, while Peggy stood watch, gaze flickering towards all the major entrances and exits along the way.
“I suppose I do. May I ask what it is you wish to speak about?”
“In the course of the investigation of why MST was targeted by our bombing suspect, we have reason to believe that he was after something the company is doing. Given your position, we thought we would ask the source.”
“My position,” she drawled, looking even more puzzled than before. “As chairwoman of the board of Mys-Tech?”
“Who else would know all the pieces of what is going on?”
That comment earned a throaty chuckle out of the older woman. “My dear Agent Carter, I don’t know how many Fortune 500 companies you have been around, but I can assure you that the chair of the board of any company has exactly the least amount of knowledge of what is going on, primarily because no one wants to tell him or her what sort of illegal or upsetting thing they may or may not be up to. I could not possibly know every single project being worked on across the myriad of companies under the Mys-Tech banner.”
“Are you saying you don’t know even the ones potentially of interest to someone like this so-called Mandarin?”
A small line formed between the woman’s brows, the only sign she was perturbed at all. “I am saying that nothing I know about is designed, initially, to harm anyone. My interests, personally, are humanitarian ones, the only bottom line I care about is the one that allows me to continue that work, not for profit or wealth.”
Sharon let her gaze flicker to the fine dress, and the understated, but clearly expensive, jewelry without saying a word. The furrow on the other woman’s brow deepened.
“Have I given SHIELD a cause to doubt me?”
Before Sharon could answer, Peggy cut in, coldly, with a single word. “Darkmoor.”
Those two syllables had their intended effect. Haldane’s expression shifted into a troubled one, her gaze cutting over to Peggy in mild wonder. “My estate?”
“No,” Peggy said simply, meeting the other woman’s confusion directly. “The research facility your father once ran on the estate.”
Peggy had to credit Siobhan Haldane, her poise was unshakable. Still, even she couldn’t mask the flicker of awareness, sadness, and anger at that bit of her own history. “So you know about that?”
“SHIELD isn’t precisely unaware of it,” Peggy pressed, rather ruthlessly, her voice hard. “After all, Darkmoor was the reason SHIELD even exists.”
If Haldane was surprised by that ,or even upset, she didn’t show it. Rather, she dropped her eyes, long lashes sweeping her cheeks. “I am well aware of my family’s past and the trouble it caused. I’m not sure what that has to do with this Mandarin character?”
“Neither are we,” Sharon admitted, candidly, shooting Peggy a look that told her not to press. “The truth is, Miss Haldane, that this Mandarin isn’t specifically out for MST Pharmaceuticals or Mys-Tech, he’s hit a lot of targets, and we are looking for a pattern. We are following a lead and we are looking to see if you can help. Honestly, SHIELD is only interested in finding and stopping this man before he does anything else and hurts more people in the process.”
That seemed to get through the other woman’s cool, collected demeanor. She straightened, lifting her chin as she regarded them both. “The dingy hallway of a service entrance at a hotel is hardly the place to be having this sort of conversation, is it? I propose this; both of you come up to Darkmoor as my guests this weekend. I am having a group of people coming up for the usual shooting party, mostly other board members and those tied to Mys-Tech. You are welcome to come and speak with myself or them and see if they provide you with any further information. I would have you stay at the house, but I’m afraid with the party, we are rather full up, but I will make provisions for you at the inn in the village. It’s rather cozy and quaint, and I believe it would suit you both just fine.”
Frankly, it sounded like a horrible idea to Peggy, but Sharon was the one running point and Peggy could see her considering it. “Will your guests make themselves available?”
“I will let them know that representatives from SHIELD will be there to speak with them on the recent business and urge them to share any information they may have that might help your investigation. As for myself, as you will see, I am an open book.”
Peggy glared at Sharon, but her niece ignored her. “Then we will be happy to see you this weekend.”
The other woman nodded, clutching her plaque to her side. “Very good. Am I free to return to my table and the banquet honoring me, then?”
Sharon debated before inclining her head, gesturing at Peggy who moved aside to let Haldane move back through. The other woman slipped by, regal and graceful, pausing only once she was past Peggy to study her, thoughtfully. “I don’t believe I got your name. I would want to know it to inform the inn who to expect.”
“Margaret Carter,” she replied, stiffly. “Director Peggy Carter, if you must tell them.”
Haldane’s gray gaze flickered from Peggy to Sharon and back, but she simply nodded. “Well, then, I will let Irene know to expect you both. She’s a rather charming lady and lays out a rather fine breakfast, if I do say so. I’m sure you both will enjoy your stay there. I look forward to seeing you both this weekend. If you will excuse me.”
She turned on her heel as she walked back down the hall and towards her banquet once again. Peggy watched her go, her fingers tapping in agitation against the holster on her thigh.
“Well, that didn’t go as well as I wanted, but not as bad either.” Sharon was more circumspect about it all. “I always wanted to be invited to a proper English house party. It’s all so very Agatha Christie.”
Peggy snorted, rolling her eyes. “A weekend with the extravagantly rich shooting birds is a lot less posh than you would think it is.”
“You may have grown up around it, but I was raised in boring, suburban America where the height of fashion was going to the neighbors' house for dinner and hoping you didn’t embarrass your parents. A house party is only something you saw on Masterpiece Theater.”
Peggy wasn’t even sure what that was, but nodded more to acknowledge Sharon’s delight, despite her own misgivings. “How do you know we didn’t walk into her own plan for avoiding telling us the truth?
“I don’t,” Sharon acknowledged, much less concerned than Peggy. “But I also don’t think that she is being dishonest here, and I think her inviting us up to Darkmoor, to see for ourselves, is her trying to prove to us that she has nothing to hide. Face it, Peggy, that was all decades ago. I doubt with all the eyes that were on Ranulph Haldane in the 1940s and 50s that he would dare to try and revive all of that in secret or that it would survive to this day without someone noticing.”
Peggy wasn’t as certain of that as her niece. “People have a way of forgetting things. My parents lived through one horrific war only to have their children fight in the next one. People become stupid and foolish when things like national pride are on the line.”
Sharon didn’t look convinced, but didn’t argue either. “Fine, I will concede that people are stupid. For now, let’s plan to do as she asks, go to Darkmoor and check things out, and see if it turns up anything at all for us. If it doesn’t, then we are back at the drawing board without loosing too much time and effort and we cross Haldane, Mys-Tech and MST Pharmaceuticals off our list in the Mandarin investigation.”
“And the question of if they have been researching the serum?” That was what Peggy’s primary worry was at.
“On that...I don’t know. You will have to figure out how to pick that fight. Maybe Betty will have some insight. Frankly, with the US Army having Erskine’s notes on the serum, I wouldn’t be surprised that they farmed that out to several researchers and companies in the hopes of getting it recreated. You may be trying to swat at flies with a butterfly net.”
Sharon wasn’t wrong. Peggy sighed. “I suppose we are going north to Darkmoor after all.”