Chapter 17
“No way you are twenty-eight!” Juan’s disbelief rang through the restaurant, a high-end one according to Peggy’s understanding, though to her eyes it merely looked like someone had put tables and chairs in an unfinished, red-brick room and called it an eatery. Still, from the way that Juan and Julio carried on, it was one of the best restaurants to ever have been invented, using science to recreate simple dishes in new and creative ways. Peggy thought longingly of Angie, the diner, and the cherry pie there, but agreed to the scheme they had concocted with Sharon to celebrate her birthday. The question was if they actually served any real food or if it was simply the sort of mad concoction that Howard's engineers would have brewed up. But more at hand was Juan’s question, which had Peggy blushing as she nodded, sipping from her a cocktail that was delicious and curiously non-cocktail-like. “I am exactly twenty-eight today.”
“Girl, you have the best skin. I bet you are going to look amazing forever.” He shook his head, looking to Julio. “Why can’t any of my girls look this good?”
Julio, who had heard some of this rant before, benevolently rolled his eyes. “Because they don’t bother with their skin regime?”
“No, they don’t, no matter how many times I tell them that theater will kill your face. Do they listen? I had one of the ladies coming in for a replacement costume, and I swear she slept in her makeup the night before. I almost sent her to the restroom with the extra bottle I keep in my kit to wash it off, but you know, there are only so many battles you can fight in a day, and that wasn’t one of them.”
“See what I have to put up with.” Julio shared a grin with them both.
“You know you love me for it!” Juan leaned up to peck his cheek, as unapologetic in his open displays of affection as he was about everything else. “Anyway, enough about my work and the horror stories of the theater backstage, what’s up with you ladies in the world of espionage?”
“The world hasn’t burned yet,” Sharon offered, a careful dodge of the truth. She knew Juan, ever curious, was digging.
“But not for lack of trying,” Peggy followed up from the depths of her cocktail glass. It had been a long two weeks with not a lot to show for it, and that was just on their end of the Tony Stark investigation. Elsewhere in the world, other problems brewed.
Julio, as practical and pragmatic as his partner was not, laughed in knowing commiseration. “I know, right? The growing unrest in Afghanistan has locals here worried. I had calls all day into the office of groups, mostly refugee advocates, begging to get time with the mayor and discuss the situation. I suppose they are hoping he can use whatever clout he has to try and push through efforts to recognize them as political exiles, which right now, I don’t know how well that will go over.”
All Peggy zeroed in on in the sentence was the words “Afghanistan” and “refugee”. “They are that worried about the situation?”
“Warlords doing whatever they want, running parts of the country with an iron fist and completely outside the boundaries of any internationally recognized government, so yeah, lots of people are worried about families left back there, or villages, places they grew up. It’s sad, not going to lie, but the mayor's office isn’t where you start with that sort of thing.”
“Seriously, though, it’s scary over there.” Juan whistled before sipping from his own frothy, magical concoction. “Mmm, you know that’s where Tony Stark got kidnapped! Can you believe that?”
“We know,” Sharon sighed, glancing sideways at Peggy. “There are people all over looking for him.”
“Really? They find anything?”
“Not yet,” Sharon muttered into her drink. Peggy stayed tactfully silent. In her few months of acquaintance with Juan, she had discovered he was someone who loved gossip and knew when to give him something and when not to. He was a dear soul, no doubt, but a chatterbox in a way that, beside him, was not.
“It’s so sad, don’t you think?” Juan stirred his drink idly. “I mean, he was just there, and some warlord has him in some cave somewhere. I would be terrified! “
“I can’t figure out what he was doing over there,” Julio shook his head. “Seriously, it’s bad enough he’s tearing up half of Queens, now he’s flying to war zones too?”
“Tearing up half of Queens?” Peggy hadn’t caught on to what he meant by that.
Julio rolled his eyes. “The Stark Expo he’s been building. Started it two years ago and made this big announcement that it was back! I guess his father used to put on these big World’s Fair-like events back in the day. He’s updated it to be half fair and half Ted Talk, displaying technology and serving funnel cakes. Like the world’s biggest tech convention except more of a pain in the ass.”
“We got tickets already,” Juan grinned, giddily. “Through his office.”
“I can see you are torn up about going,” Sharon chuckled.
“Well, free tickets are free tickets,” Julio shrugged, grinning easily. “No, he’s been giving hell to the permits office, or at least his team is. For a while, they were calling in every other week for something new or crazy they needed permits for because their boss had an idea. Stark believes if you throw enough money at something, it will solve the problem.”
Juan frowned in thought. “Was it Martha or Theresa who bitched about how if his lawyers called one more time she’d shove her shoe up his ass?”
“Theresa and she went to Catholic school. She learned how to fight from nuns. I wouldn’t cross her.”
Their shared laughter subsided as the waiter presented them with their ordered dishes, most of which Peggy wasn’t as sure were food. This idea of “molecular gastronomy” sounded like something that would feature at a Stark Expo, breaking food down to its particles and essence. She had eyed both Sharon and Juan with doubt when they had suggested the place for her birthday. Now, she stared at a plate of dark-colored pasta topped with a froth called “lemon air” and glanced warily at her friends. “This looks like a bird’s nest someone pulled from a tree.”
“It’s pasta in cream sauce with lemon zest,” Juan chided, pushing a plate towards her of rolled-up pieces of thinly sliced ham covered in small balls of something orange. “This is like nothing you’ve ever tasted before.”
Hesitantly, Peggy poked at one with a fork. “You do know I’m British, right? We aren’t known for our food culture.”
“Close your eyes and think of the queen,” Juan deadpanned, causing Julio beside him to choke on what Peggy thought was a vegetable puree.
Ignoring the urge to kick him, she daintily picked up a rolled slice between her manicured nails and placed it in her mouth. Immediately, the tiny balls burst into some sort of pure melon flavor, like distilled melons, mixing sweetly with the salty ham, the flavors bursting in her mouth. It was like nothing Peggy, with her war rations and beans-on-toast sort of pallet, had ever experienced.
“Oh my god,” she breathed, holding a hand to her mouth, eyes wide.
“See why I brought you here,” Sharon laughed, nudging her.
“When she said you had never tried anything, I knew we had to do it. Papí knows the owner and got us in.”
Peggy thought she could kiss Julio just for that. “This is insane.”
He blushed, shrugging. “Well, you proved me wrong. you weren’t another crazy cat Nito dragged in after all.”
“Give me some credit,” Juan muttered, disgruntled.
Thus was the tenor of their conversation, warm and convivial, with the occasional back and forth between the couple across the table. Peggy found herself content and happy with wine and conversation, and it only occurred to her after the waiter brought them a complimentary bowl of ice cream and sherbert, of course, all done in this magical, scientific way, that it was perhaps the best, happiest birthday she’d had in years. Probably since the war...since Steve.
“Thank you all for the lovely evening,” she heard herself saying as Julio and Sharon had some sort of secret war over the check far from Peggy’s prying eyes.
“Girl, it was nothing." Juan brushed it off with his characteristic generosity of spirit. "You are good people, and we need to stick together. Everyone needs friends and support around them. That’s how we get by in the world.”
Another moment of nostalgia. Edwin had said the very same thing once. She’d brushed him off then, not understanding how right he was. How she missed him. He’d have been fascinated with this place. Magic balls of melon juice, froth clouds of lemon air, Edwin would have been in his element! Well, perhaps not with the decor. She was sure that would have scandalized him.
Would she ever stop missing any of them?
“Well, now what, ladies?” Julio asked solicitously, wrapping an arm around Juan. “Somewhere else for drinks? Coffee, maybe?”
“Oh, no, I’ll be up all night,” Sharon said, shaking her head just as their purses both buzzed. “Uh oh!”
Peggy was already in her bag, a practical one that held everything but the kitchen sink, made by a designer Sharon liked by the name of Spade. The phone inside was glowing, and Peggy turned it inside the purse to see a message from the number she knew SHIELD used for such communications. It simply read, “We got a hit.”
“We have to go,” Peggy ordered quietly before remembering herself and looking to the other two apologetically. “I’m so sorry, you were so lovely for my birthday! It’s just...work.”
“No, we get it, go save the world!” Juan would likely be forever delighted at the work they did, whatever he imagined it to be. He rose as she did, arms wide as he hugged her, a gesture that was still strange to Peggy, unused as she was to such displays of open affection. But she was learning this way he shared his care with his friends. “Happy birthday, girl! Go out there and kick ass!”
“Of course,” she laughed, before returning Julio’s more reserved embrace. “We’ll get together for drinks perhaps later this week.”
“We should have you over the house, come to one of our dinner parties. You are part of the group now.”
“This coming from the man who was convinced you were a cracked-out druggie four months ago,” Juan rolled his eyes, laughing.
“Everyone can change their mind,” Julio shrugged, before hugging Sharon and waving them off. “Be safe.”
“Always,” Sharon called as they made it out of the restaurant and to the street already looking for a cab to hail. “Not the way I wanted to end your birthday.”
“Not the first birthday to end that way and I’m certain it won’t be the last.” Peggy was already dialing on her phone, pleased she could get that far with the technology on her own. She wasn’t surprised when it was Burk who answered. “You got something.”
“You in a secure place?”
“Not yet, but I’m with Sharon and we are on our way.” She nodded to Sharon who had managed to flag down a cab.
“Good, because I think we found him and not in the way you would have suspected.”
“We will be there soon.” Peggy clicked off, climbing inside after Sharon who eyed her curiously. “We may have found him.”
“About time,” she muttered as she rattled off the address to SHIELD headquarters to the driver.
Fifteen minutes later they were in the office, both in their evening dress, Sharon in a soft floaty skirt and halter top that would never have passed for fine dining in Peggy’s youth, while Peggy had gone more conservatively in a green wrap dress that was nothing like the severe suits she preferred for the office. Both of their outfits caused Agent Burk to stare at them speculatively.
“You look nice. I didn’t break up a party, did I?”
“As a matter of fact, you did, but that’s all right,” Sharon teased, nodding to Peggy. “It’s her birthday.”
“Really? So how old are you?”
“A lady never tells, Agent Burk, you said you got something?”
“Happy birthday to you, Director, I think we might have pinpointed Stark.” Burk began pulling up photos on the large screens in the command center he was centered in, other technicians working around him. “I’ve been pouring through the Stark communications satellite data that Pepper Potts let me have access to. Turns out it was like we suspected, each of the satellites had a part only Stark used for his private network. Only a handful of people have that link up, so once I picked out which one it was I started looking through the data. Stark’s phone sent a message right before he was captured. After that, it pinged once, ten miles to the north and east, and then nothing else. Either it was too damaged or they found it on him and destroyed it, probably the latter.”
“So how did you find him.”
“I went through all the other data on the network from that region over the next few weeks, and there was quite a lot. Someone was using the network, all encrypted, and all to one location deep in the mountains north of Kandahar via another encrypted Stark satellite login.”
Sharon frowned, tucking a curl of hair behind an ear as she studied Burk’s data. “Someone else at Stark Industries was communicating with someone in those mountains.”
Burk nodded knowingly. “You said it yourself, Carter, someone in Stark Industries has been selling arms to these guys. What if they are someone in Stark Industries, someone who got access to this network, either by hacking or by some other means, and they have been using it all this time to coordinate weapons runs to known terrorists, disguising it in a private signal, knowing no one would go looking for it there. More than that, even if they did, they’d assume Stark would be in on it and he would be the fall guy for it if it came to that.”
The pieces started falling into place. “You said that they have been in continued communication with someone there, even after Stark disappeared?”
“Yeah,” Burk brought up a screen of information, Peggy assumed connections and dates. “Lots of chatter, but we’ve not deciphered it yet. The encryption is pretty thick on all of it, we’ll be a while digging through it. Whoever they were, they knew what they were doing. I guess that they, or a group of theys, have been the real culprits behind the scenes at Stark Industries, coordinating with these groups regarding weapons shipments and passing along the information to them on where to conveniently pick them up. They likely got spooked that someone found out and told Stark and arranged to have him kidnapped to get him out of the way.”
“Why not kill him, then? Sharon, like Peggy, felt something was wrong with that. “That would be the smarter plan.”
“Who knows,” Burk shrugged. “Maybe the terrorist changed the plan. He’s more valuable alive than dead, you got to admit. But that’s not the most interesting part of all of this, no sooner had me and the team pinpointed the signal and sent a satellite to check it out than there were these interesting images that we took.”
On the screen, grainy black and white photos of a mountainous area, perhaps a canyon, covered in boxes and trucks finally emerged. Just as the picture started to resolve itself, the entire scene began to explode, plumes of smoke rising as one after another bright flashes began to mushroom to life. After several moments of that, the chaos seemed to subside, but the area was left in ruin, destruction covering everything.
“What happened,” Peggy asked, confused by what she saw.
“Explosions, but we think that it was a weapons stockpile. The images we got of the area before everything went to hell seemed to indicate there were all sorts of weapons there, but a lot of Stark Tech. Most all of it is now gone...on purpose.”
Something like hope leaped into Peggy’s heart as she glanced toward Sharon. “By Stark?”
“Funny thing, that. Right as this explosion started going off, there was a projectile that was thrown through the air and landed miles away in the deserts beyond the mountain. When we went to go trace it, there was shrapnel everywhere, but a closer look had a line of footprints walking out into the desert.” He had a photo pulled up of a small crater of sand and broken metal and a trail leading off into the desert, a lone figure wandering away from it.
“That’s him,” Peggy breathed, despite the blur of the picture. “It’s got to be, no one else would be insane enough to build something to propel him that far and blow up all that weaponry.”
“Do we get a hold of Rhodes?” Sharon didn’t look as certain as she studied the image.
“What can it hurt? It’s the first lead we’ve had and he’s in Afghanistan now. He can pull the military resources there to get them out there.” Peggy glanced to Burk. “Can you get him called in?”
“I can get him via video if he is near a camera. All I have to do is patch into the UN Command in Afghanistan.”
The wonders of modern technology would never cease to amaze Peggy. “Get him on the line, then. He’s been waiting for word for long enough.”
It took some twenty minutes of calls back and forth through several different commands before they hit upon Rhodes. He was indeed somewhere that had video capabilities, hopeful perhaps for the first time since January when it all happened. “Do you have something?”
Peggy nodded. “Agent Burk is sending coordinates now. If it’s him, he’s alive out there and he’s escaped.”
The grin that broke across Rhodes’ face could have lit up New York. “Son-of-a-bitch, I knew it. If he was alive, he’d find a way out of it. Is he all right, is he healthy?”
“No way of knowing, all we got are satellite images,” Burk offered, stepping into frame. “We’ll send them over to you as well as the location of the camp he just vacated. I’ll be honest, though, I don’t think they’ll be there when you find it.”
“Probably not, but if we find Tony that will make my lifetime. I can’t believe that you all did it.”
“Thank Agent Burk, Colonel, we’d not have found him if not for him.” Peggy was well aware of who did the hard work in this situation.
“I’ll thank all of you when I get a chance.”
“How about you go find your friend, Colonel, and get him home as soon as possible, preferably in one piece.”
“I’ll do my best. When can I expect those coordinates?”
“Any moment,” Burk was glancing to his team as they were sending data.
“You’ll send us an update,” Peggy asked.
“As soon as we have him in hand,” Rhodes replied, already checking with his team to see that it came through. “I think I know where you all are talking about. We can get there in two hours, tops.”
“Remember he’s on the move, he might be hard to spot,” Burk warned. “But he will be in that general vicinity.”
“We’ll find him. We got this far.” He looked into the camera once more. “Director, thank you.”
“It was the least I could do,” she replied quietly. “I owed it to an old friend to see him safe.”
Rhodes didn’t know the particulars, but nodded. “I’ll be in touch.”
He signed out and Peggy let out a sigh of relief.
“I can’t believe we found him,” Sharon murmured, clearly pleased and stunned.
“It took work, but we got it.” Burk looked to them both. “I have to say, that was one of the more challenging cases I had in a while. Not to make light of another’s misfortune, but it was fun to pick it apart.”
“I thank you for your work, Agent Burk.” She considered what he had mentioned about his history with the Howling Commandos. “I think Morita would have been proud of that bit of quick thinking.”
“You had the idea,” he insisted, though pleased at the comparison. “Now if Rhodes can find him, he’ll be home safe and sound and we can put this to rest.”
“Not quite,” Sharon replied, nodding to the data still up on the large, glass screens. “You said it yourself, someone in SI is selling weapons to terrorists and was conspiring to remove Stark from the equation. Someone is up to shady shenanigans and we don’t know who yet.”
“I can keep having my teams work on the data if you like.” He looked to Peggy for confirmation. She considered, knowing Coulson was probably going to ask the same thing once she filled him in on the details.
“Do it, if nothing else because we want to keep an eye on if the shipments continue in the future. Also, if they are still at Stark Industries they may try something even more outlandish next time. If blowing him up in Afghanistan didn’t kill him, something else might, and if they get desperate we have no way of knowing what they will resort to this time.”
“Got it,” Burke agreed, clearly disturbed by that notion. “I can see what we can do. In the meantime, someone might want to consider saying something to Stark Industries.”
“Or at the very least having someone check into their records more thoroughly than I could,” Sharon sighed. “I went in as a SHIELD agent. They weren’t going to show me anything suspicious and even if I caught something I couldn't dig into it without a warrant, something the US government would be loath to give me as a SHIELD operative.”
That was a dilemma, but one Peggy was well used to circumventing. “A good thing SHIELD works in espionage and not policing, now isn’t it?”
The light clicked for them both at Peggy’s slow smile. Burk nodded, impressed. Sharon grinned, liking the idea.
“Who did you have in mind,” she asked, curious. “Not me?”
“No, they know your face, now.”
She frowned. “Not you?”
“Oh, certainly not. All I need is one of them to have been digging through Howard’s files and recognize me, or worse, me being so idiotic to new technology I give myself away. No, we need someone who can blend in anywhere and is so skilled at it no one would think to question it.”
It hit Sharon like a lightning bolt, her eyes widening as it occurred to her who Peggy meant. “She’s going to hate it.”
“I’ll ask Coulson nicely.”
“She already doesn’t like you.”
“So, she will be angry with me some more. Is there anyone else you want to poach for this?”
Burk was clearly left out of the loop on this and blinked between them. “Who are you thinking of sending in?”
Peggy smiled wickedly. “Natasha Romanoff is not my biggest fan in the world.”
“The Black Widow? You are sending her in to spy on Stark Industries?” Burk rubbed a hand across his bald head. “I mean, you know she can kill a man with a shoestring and a paperclip.”
“And she’s also highly skilled in blending into her surroundings. I think it will be good for her.”
Sharon didn’t look as if she thought so, but held her hands up as if to leave it to Peggy to decide. “You have the conversation with Coulson. If he agrees, sure. I’m just saying, it is a bit beneath her pay grade.”
“Then I won’t go to Coulson,” Peggy replied. “This is a matter of international security. If someone is selling weapons to enemies and hiding it under the table and trying to kill off the head of the company to cover it up, then we need to find out why. We use the assets we have.”
“All very true,” Sharon agreed. “I’m just stating the obvious.”
“Duly noted,” Peggy replied, glancing at the time on the screens around them. “It is still early enough I could go for a drink, and I think something a bit stronger than whatever that was we had with dinner. A celebration is in order. Would you care to join us, Agent Burk, considering you did the work?”
He looked shocked she even asked. “I...well thank you, Director, but...my team did the hard work. Besides, it’s late and my wife is likely wondering if I died here.”
Peggy chuckled, realizing she hadn’t known Burk had a wife. Why not, clearly many agents had lives outside of SHIELD. It had been slightly different in her day, men often put in long hours and thought little of wives and girlfriends back home in the suburbs. She put a good face on it, however, glossing over it. “Well, then, perhaps I can reward them all with drinks later in the week.”
“Great! I’ll keep in communication with Rhodes and keep you posted.”
“Thank you.” With that, Peggy made her way out of the command center, already jubilantly digging her phone out of her bag. Sharon behind her patted her on the shoulder.
“Good job, Director. You found Tony Stark.”
“We did, you mean. If it wasn’t for you, Cassandra, and Burk back there, not to mention Romanoff, Barton and Coulson, we’d never have found him.”
“True,” Sharon conceded. “You calling Coulson?”
“I am. I want him to hear the good news.”
“And about Romanoff?”
Peggy shrugged as the phone began to ring through. “And perhaps help strategize how to go about breaking the bad news.”