Protective Custody

Chapter 15: “I Missed You”

Tony-

Tony had worked well into the night, but that was no new thing. He often got caught up in an idea and he had a real hum-dinger with his newest project. It had everything. Chemistry, engineering, saving lives - if he could figure out how, he’d have it make toast, too. So it was early, barely 3 a.m., when he finally left his workshop. He yawned as he walked to his rooms; he hadn’t realized how tired he was.

“Sir, please go immediately to the common room,” J.A.R.V.I.S.’ voice startled Tony to full alertness. “Ash is behaving in a unusual manner that makes me uncomfortable. I do not understand. Please go to the common room. Please go to the common room.”

“I’m on it!” And Tony broke into a sprint to go the last of the distance to the common room. He felt his heart start to race, but it wasn’t entirely the idea that Ash was acting in a puzzling way, it was the tension in J.A.R.V.I.S.’ voice that made him move. J.A.R.V.I.S. didn’t panic, but he sounded dangerously close to doing just that. So whatever was up with Ash must have been something a little more than merely ‘behaving in a unusual manner’. “Alert Max!”

“Yes, Sir.”

He rushed into the common room and looked around quickly. He saw Ash standing near the biggest window that looked out onto the city. The boy faced the window, his back to Tony. He wasn’t moving. Tony moved closer, but kept his pace slow. He knew - he just knew - that sudden movements would set Ash off. “Hey? Ash?”

Ash turned and Tony sucked in a shocked breath. In one hand, Ash held a pair of scissors. In the other hand he held a large handful of golden hair. The hair right over his forehead, right between his eyes, had been cut nearly down to the scalp. His eyes were wide with an almost manic look in them. Ash hissed, “It’s my hair! I can do what I want with it. It’s my hair and my face and my body and I can do what I want with it!” He dropped the handful of hair and reached up to take another big handful on his head which he hacked off in a hurried, clumsy manner.

Tony held his breath for a minute. ‘I’m not up for this! Where’s Phil? Or Bruce? I don’t know what to say, I never know what to say! Everyone says I’m garbage with people things. I don’t do people - I do robots and computers and stuff. What do I say? What do I say?!’ And as those frenzied thoughts ran though his mind, Tony’s eyes couldn’t seem to leave the scissors in Ash’s hand and he imagined Ash getting himself so worked up that he stabbed himself in the eye or cut off an ear or something. So he took a calming breath and said, “Right. Sure. Of course it’s your hair. You want a hair cut, you go for it. You don’t have to rush, you know. Go slow. Take your time.”

Ash glared. “And I can eat anything I want, too!” He stomped to the kitchen and threw open one of the cupboard doors, then took out a box of cookies. He shoved one in his mouth, chewed for a moment, stopped and looked green. He spit it out in the trash can and muttered, “Gross.”

Tony waited for a moment, but Ash didn’t immediately say or do anything. Tony eyed the scissors still in Ash’s hand. “You know,” he hesitantly said and hoped he was saying the right thing. “When I was about nine, my dad went and colored my hair blonde.”

Ash didn’t move a muscle.

“He wanted me to look like this guy he used to know, back in the war. His friend was blonde, so he wanted me to be blonde, too. It was awful. He hired a hairdresser to do it. The stuff stank and it had to be redone every time my roots started showing. It was never the right shade of blonde to satisfy dad, but he kept doing it.” And he thought, ‘Am I rambling? I am. What am I trying to say? God, don’t let him put an eye out!’ He kept talking purely to distract Ash until someone far better suited so such delicate situation could arrive. “When I was thirteen, I had enough. I dyed my hair back to it’s right color. He was so mad, but it was my hair. My choice. I didn’t want to look like his friend.”

Very slowly, Ash looked at Tony. What a miserable sight he was, pale and tired with his hair a catastrophe. “What did he do?” Ash asked. “When he saw your hair?”

“Threw a very old bottle of brandy against a wall. What a waste.” There had been more, but Tony didn’t want to think about it and it wouldn’t do Ash any good to hear it. “I did other stuff when I was trying to get away from this image he wanted me to have. He wanted the whole world to see me as the perfect son, the flawless heir to his empire. So I was deliberately imperfect. I started drinking way too young. Smoked for a while. Did other stuff I’m really not proud of. Made the news a few unfortunate times. In general, I messed up my life to make him angry. So, really, if you want to cut your hair, I don’t think it’s all that awful.”

At that moment, the common room door slammed open and Max, wearing pajama bottoms and a t-shirt, rushed in. “Ash! J.A.R.V.I.S. said...” His words died when he saw Ash, leaning over the trash can, scissors still clenched in one hand and nearly half his hair missing. “Oh... kid.”

Ash straightened up and looked Max right in the eye. It lasted for all of a few seconds before he looked away and his hand drifted up to his butchered hair. “Max... don’t let this go to your head, but I think you might be right. Maybe I need to talk to someone about... stuff. I think I’m broken.”

Max’s jaw clenched and he marched across the room and, without hesitation, swept Ash into an embrace. For a moment, Tony thought Ash might fight to get away and, given his history, it would have been an entirely understandable response, but Ash just stood there and let himself be held. Tony had the sudden understanding that Ash wasn’t quite sure what to do about being hugged. It was a problem Tony was familiar with. His family had never been much for hugging.

“You’re not broken.” Max let go of Ash and stepped back. “You might be bent and little crumpled around the edges, but you’re not broken. And if you want someone to talk to, I’ll find you someone. Someone real good.”

Again, Ash put a hand to the remains of his hair. “Jessica’s gonna freak, isn’t she?”

“Ah, don’t worry about that. It’s only hair. How about I clean it up for you? I’m no barber, but I can give you a crew-cut. What do you say? I used to cut your brother’s hair for him.” So he cut Ash’s hair, nearly down to the scalp and, when he’d finished Ash had a very respectable crew-cut. Funny enough, he looked younger with his face exposed rather than half-hiding behind his hair. Max told Ash, “Don’t worry. Everything will seem better by tonight.”

“Why would tonight be any different than any other night?”

“Trust your pops, would you?”

The three of them stayed awake the rest of the night. Tony hid the scissors. Ash sat by the window, looking out at the city, thinking. Max drank coffee in the kitchen and typed furiously on his phone, sending a message to someone and it looked urgent.

Elsewhere-
Thema Shehata-

Thema sat in her car. A rented car, the most common one she could find - simple and cheap. She sat parked on the side of the street, her hands folded on her lap, and thought. She couldn’t find one of Golzine’s bodyguards. Angie. He’d gone missing and there was no sign of him that she could find. She’d even tried going back to Golzine’s mansion in New Jersey, again, to question the servants, but the police had gotten there. The servants and all Golzine’s other men had vanished. There had been policemen guarding the house and she couldn’t take the chance of being caught so she’d driven on to think.

As Angie couldn’t be found, she would have to find Gregory. With a little hacking, she’d found that Gregory had emptied his bank account mere hours earlier. Golzine wasn’t stingy with his employees and paid well for loyal help, so Gregory had plenty of money. What would he do with it? She ran over several scenarios in her mind. He might run to stay away from the law. He might, once everything had settled, attempt to take over Golzine’s empire.

She closed her eyes and thought about what little she knew of Gregory. He wouldn’t run. He wouldn’t even consider taking over Golzine’s dominion. No, he’d been a loyal man. Quiet and unfailing obedient to his master. In fact, she could almost call him devoted. So, in the wake of Golzine’s death, what would he do? It had been announced in the news that Golzine had died, his body had been found in the wreckage of the mysterious helicopter crash, but Thema had taken a peek into the police records and found notes that strongly hinted that the detectives investigating suspected murder. A witness claimed Colonel Foxx had shot Golzine twice in the chest. If Golzine had been murdered, Gregory would have been irate.

“More than irate,” Thema said to herself. She put her hands on the steering wheel. “He was dedicated to Golzine, even I could see that and I didn’t know him well. He was willing to do anything for Golzine.” Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. “He’ll go after the killer. But Foxx is dead. So... where would he go? He’d get revenge. He’ll need revenge. Did he kill Angie for failing to protect Golzine? Maybe that’s why I can’t find Angie.” It was a possible explanation, but it didn’t feel quite right.

It was at that moment that a group of teenagers crossed the street in front of her car, all them laughing and carefree. One of them was a boy with shaggy blonde hair and she was reminded of her favorite. That made her think of Club Cod and her too rare visits there.

Memory -

When Thema had first gone to Golzine and gave him HYDRA’s offer, he hadn’t seemed very impressed or worried, both of which she’d expected. She hadn’t expected him to, in the privacy of his office at his mansion, bring up her past indiscretion years ago with a young prostitute in Scotland.

“I was surprised,” Golzine said, languidly. He leaned back in his chair and lit his cigar. “Don’t look so pale. I’m really not the type to turn you over to the police, after all. I think we may be able to help each other. I don’t care for having people looking over my shoulder. While I understand your organization is accustomed to getting what it wants, I want to work without such distasteful things as threats and attacks.” He waved his hand holding the cigar lazily, casting smoke into a whirling cloud around him. “So, in exchange for you keeping your people civil, why don’t you keep yourself entertained at my club? At a highly discounted price, of course.”

And that was how she’d ended up at Club Cod for the first time, walking through a smoky restaurant with people eating and drinking, a few dancing. It was entirely respectable until he took her through several doors, down two hallways, passed a locked door and then to a door where he knocked on it and a small window slid open. Small eyes peered out before the window closed. Thema heard the slide of a bolt before the door was opened and a man on the other side bowed to Golzine. “Good afternoon, Papa Dino.”

“I have a new guest. We’re just taking a little tour.” He led her into a quiet part of his club. The lights were low. It wasn’t some seedy establishment. The floors were polished marble. The air smelled like perfume. “Why don’t we go to the dormitory?”

The dormitory turned out to be exactly what it sounded like - one large room with two dozen small cots. It was clean, oddly clean. There wasn’t a hint of dust, not even a stray sock tucked under a cot. Everything was white, almost sterile looking. On each cot was a child, not one of them could have been older than sixteen. The youngest was... very young. They were all dressed alike in bright white nightshirts and white slippers, like a bizarre sort of uniform. They were all very attractive and most of them were either asleep of staring at the ceiling with glassy, half-closed eyes.

“The opium keeps everyone quiet and content,” Golzine had said when they looked in through a glass window in the door of the dormitory. “I do so like a peaceful environment and content little children; there’s no point at all in having them upset and stressed, so a little dose of opium makes them all very biddable.”

Thema’s eyes went to one bed near the back and saw a boy, a blonde, awake and watching them. His face was blank, but he was definitely awake and aware. He was also the only child in the room who was tied to the bed with a rope around one wrist.

“One of my newer boys,” Golzine said when she asked about that one. “He’s learning his manners and sometimes has unfortunate little incidents so a leash seems to keep him out of trouble. Last week he was caught trying to sneak out and he bit the guard who caught him.” Golzine chuckled, fondly. “Such a little scamp. You should have seen him when I bought him - all bruises and covered in filth. He cleaned up quite well. He fights the effects of the opium - he has a remarkably strong will - but he can’t resist long. Soon, he’ll be dozing and peaceful.”

She felt her heart thudding and blood rushed in her ears. She wasn’t stupid. She knew very well what he was offering and she wanted it. She wanted it very much. “I have to give routine reports to my superiors, but, for the most part, I’ll let you develop the Banana Fish on your terms.”

Golzine raised an eyebrow and he took another puff on his cigar. “You’ll LET me? How very generous of you. Now, which one would you like? Boy or girl?”

She had the nagging feeling of being a fly stepping into the spider’s parlor.

End Memory-

Thema shook her head and dismissed the memory. She had thoroughly enjoyed her time at Club Cod, but that was over. No matter. It wasn’t as if Club Cod had been unique. There were such establishments that would cater to her tastes all over the world. China, Russia, Finland, Nigeria, Australia... they were literally everywhere. She would find another as soon as the Banana Fish mess was finished and she would find a new favorite.

None of that changed the fact that she needed to find Gregory and he could be anywhere in the city. He may have even left the city. It was almost completely unthinking that she would ever find him and if she didn’t find him, she wouldn’t get the Banana Fish for HYDRA. Despair began to flood over her as she thought about what her employers would do to her.

A knock on the driver’s side window made her jump and her hand instantly went to where her gun was concealed under her coat. She looked to her side to see what had caused the knock and, to her astonishment, there was Gregory. He looked very different, but there was no doubt it was him. He smirked and knocked on the window a second time before he sauntered to the passenger side of the car and let himself in. He sat and, after closing the door behind him, he put his bag on his knees and turned to look at Thema. “Hello.”

Her hand didn’t leave her gun. “I’ve been looking for you. How did you find me?”

“You haven’t been subtle. You’ve been to the mansion twice just after Papa Dino’s death. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what you looking for. You’re looking for the Banana Fish.”

Her hand tightened around her gun. “I am. And you’re going to tell me where it is.”

“Of course I will.” He said it so easily, so calmly, but stared at her with cold eyes. “I don’t mind giving you the Banana Fish.”

“Then you know where it is?!”

“I do. But I don’t give things away. You’re going to help me.”

“And why should I do anything of the sort? I haven’t been out of the field so long that I’ve forgotten my training. I can force you to tell me where it is.”

He smiled. “No. You can’t. You think I’m afraid to die? Afraid of pain? Go ahead and try. But if you do, I will take the information to my grave and, if I survive, I will let the whole world know that the most respected Councilwoman of the World Security Council, overseers of the powerful S.H.I.E.L.D. and their lackeys, The Avengers, is an agent of HYDRA.”

“You have no proof of anything.”

“Who needs proof these days? A simple rumor of minor immorality can destroy a life. What do you think will happen to you if people think you’re part of a murderous organization with ambitions of world domination? There will be an investigation and I’m sure you don’t want that. Why don’t we work together, instead? I ask so little.”

“What do you want in exchange for the Banana Fish?”

“Blanca.”

Thema gasped at the name and couldn’t help herself. She had never met Blanca, but there were rumors and whispers. She knew people who’d met him, done business with him. She swallowed, hard. “Blanca?”

“He’s in my way. You get rid of Blanca and I’ll put the Banana Fish right in your hands.”

The Avenger’s Tower-
Phil-

Phil was stunned to see the change in Ash when he walked in the kitchen the next morning, but a glance exchanged with Tony advised Phil not to make a big deal of it. So he said good morning and went to get his breakfast. It was the same for everyone as they woke - a curious look at Ash, sitting by the window, before they moved on and got something to eat. Only Michael had no reservation about speaking his mind. He walked in with Jessica and he ran to Ash. “You cut your hair!” He reached up and ran his hands over the short bristles of Ash’s hair. “You feel like a porcupine. I like it!”

Jessica shook her head. “Michael. Breakfast. Leave Ash alone for a bit.”

The morning went quickly and peacefully. All was well. Ash ate a little, though Phil believed he only did so to prevent another scene of Michael refusing to eat. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but at least he was eating. After breakfast J.A.R.V.I.S. brought up the image of the drone’s view of the city and Ash retrieved the controls from his room so he could continue his search from the common room. Ash’s search for the mysterious Gregory, was slightly hampered because Michael wanted to watch the ducks in the park and, apparently, Ash couldn’t refuse Michael.

At nine o’clock, Tony left after telling Phil that he was off to the police station for his meeting with Captain Jenkins. “I expect it’s something about my department store. Maybe they found something already.”

“Maybe. Do you want company?” Phil offered.

It was tempting, but Tony knew Phil had a lot of work to do - he was always busy - so he said, “No. Don’t worry about it. I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll have J.A.R.V.I.S. with me to keep me out of trouble. Right?”

J.A.R.V.I.S. answered, “Yes, Sir. Keep your phone turned on and I’ll listen through it.”

In a short time, Tony walked into the police station. No one really paid him any attention and it was rather refreshing to not be stared at all the time. Inside was crowded and noisy, but he managed to slip over to the front desk. “Hi.” He gave the sergeant his most winning smile. “I’m here to see Captain Jenkins. He asked me to come around.”

Captain Jenkins arrived very quickly. He was short and round with an aggressively receding hairline and a droopy black moustache. He looked like the stereotypical over-worked, under-paid old-school detective. He held out a hand to Tony and they shook. “Mister Stark, thank you for coming by so quickly. Come with me; I have a quieter place we can talk.”

“Of course,” Tony said. “What’s this about?”

“I have a few things we need to talk about in regards to your property that’s under investigation.”

Tony followed Captain Jenkins through the station to a small office that was smaller than a coat closet in Tony’s home. Most of the office was taken up with a desk and chair, a smaller chair for a visitor, and a filing cabinet. There was no room for anything else. Captain Jenkins took his seat behind the desk and motioned for Tony to sit in the other chair. He fished a manila envelope out of one of his desk drawers. “I’ll be quick about this.” He took several photographs out of the envelope and put them on the desk in front of Tony. “Do you know any of these men?”

They were all dressed in military fatigues, looking straight at the camera. They were clearly professional photographs, most likely taken by the military for identification purposes. Tony looked carefully, but had to shake his head. “Sorry. I’ve never seen any of them.”

“We were able to identify several of the bodies we found at your building and these were what we found. You’re sure none of them are familiar?”

“Absolutely sure. So, they are actual military?”

Captain Jenkins shrugged and rubbed his eyes tiredly before he put the photographs back in the drawer. “We’re still sorting things out. Can you tell me what that building was meant to be?”

“A department store.”

“You’re sure about that?”

Tony went silent. He blinked at Captain Jenkins and had a suddenly bad feeling. He leaned forward a little. “Should I have brought a lawyer?”

Captain Jenkins chuckled. “You don’t have to, but if you’d like to call for one, I don’t mind. You’re not a suspect in anything, Mister Stark. We have a pretty good witness about what happened at your building and why the helicopter was there- ”

Tony halfway stood up with sudden excitement and put his hands on the desk in front of him. “You do?! What happened?”

“Let me finish, please. While you’re not a suspect, you are involved in this case as more than just the owner of the building. Would you like to call for your lawyer now? My questions can wait until they get here.”

Tony felt his estimation of Captain Jenkins rise at the offer. He clearly wasn’t worried about playing some elaborate trick to fool Tony into saying something that might be incriminating or trying to catch him at anything. He was just a good cop trying to get his work done. “How about I just record our conversation? You wouldn’t mind that, would you?”

“Not at all, Mister Stark. Go right ahead.” He waited until Tony pull his phone out and set it recording. “Right. You said your building is going to be a department store. Do you have any idea why your department store has three operating rooms as well as a morgue?”

For one of the very very times in his life, Tony was struck dumb. He stared at Captain Jenkins and had no good answer at all. He shook his head.

“During our investigation, we found those things, already completed in the lower levels. One of my officers found blueprints of the building that shows there were also meant to be patient’s rooms, doctor’s offices, isolation chambers, and a room specifically for storage of medication. You’ll have to forgive me if that doesn’t sound much like a department store.”

Apart from being stunned, Tony was acutely embarrassed as he apparently didn’t know what was going on in his own businesses. “I... I don’t know what to tell you. It was meant to be a department store. Not some kind of hospital.”

“Did you ever see the original blueprints?”

Again, Tony shook his head. “This project was originally the idea of Obadiah Stane. When he died I let the project keep going. It was only supposed to be a store and everything had already been paid for. I need to see the blueprints.” He couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what Stane had been thinking. It sounded like he’d been building a hospital, but why hide that under the disguise of a department store? And why a hospital? That wasn’t Stane’s style at all.

“I’m afraid those are evidence.” Captain Jenkins took a drink from a styrofoam cup of coffee and grimaced at the taste. “Were you aware that the construction company used for that project was owned by Dino Golzine?”

“No.”

“Our people have been doing a lot of research into this building and we’ve spoken to the head of the construction company. We’re confident they weren’t involved in the dead men being there or the helicopter crash, but they did show us paperwork that showed Obadiah Stane had signed off on all the paperwork, paid the work crews, and signed off his approval of the blueprints. Did Mister Stane ever work independently?”

“Lots of times. He was basically second-in-command and ran everything when I was busy.” It hit Tony like lightening that Obadiah Stane might have been running any manner of illegal operations in the name of Stark Industries. Tony had always trusted him, right up to the end. He’d never even questioned anything Stane did with the business. He would have to spend days going through all the records Stane had ever touched to make sure there was nothing questionable. “Look, let’s put things plainly. Apparently, my department store is a hospital, right? Is there anything illegal about that?”

“Not at all. All proper permits were filed. There were even building inspectors who went in to see that everything was up to code.”

“Right. Fine.” That, Tony decided, wasn’t so bad. “So, Stane lied to me, but he didn’t break any laws. That’s good. I’ll talk to my people and decide what to do about all this.”

“For now, you’ll do nothing about it,” Captain Jenkins said, firmly. “We’re still investigating. We’re going to need to see whatever paperwork you have for that building, especially in regards to the finances.”

“Of course. Is there something questionable with the finances?”

“We just need all the information we can get. According to the paperwork that was uncovered, your building was going to be a new branch for The National Institute of Mental Health. This one was apparently going to specialize in children and teenagers.”

“I still don’t see how any of this is a problem. It doesn’t seem illegal to have a children’s hospital. In fact, it’s a surprisingly good thing for Stane to have been involved in.”

Captain Jenkins took another gulp of his unpleasant coffee then set it down and folded his hands on his desk. “This is a potential problem because Dino Golzine is involved with a project dealing with children. I want to know how much Golzine was involved. I want to know if your company has any other business dealings with Golzine that I need to look into. I’ll find it all sooner or later, but any information you can give me will help. If you can think of anything that might help us, please contact me as soon as you can.” He handed Tony a business card, shook his hand and walked Tony out.

It wasn’t until Tony was sitting in his car that it hit him. Stane had used Tony’s money to build something for the person who had owned and ran Club Cod. A children’s hospital? Dear God! What would someone like that have done in a children’s hospital? The idea that his money had helped someone like Golzine was repulsive.

The rest of that day was spent going through old records of things Stane had been involved with. He got so involved that by the time he’d finished and concluded that the hospital was the only project Stane had worked with Golzine on, it was well into the afternoon. However, what he did find disturbed him greatly and he knew he had to contact Captain Jenkins, again. Before that, he found Phil in his office, working on paperwork for S.H.I.E.L.D., and brought the problem to him. Tony said nothing at first, just walked into Phil’s office - he’d apologize later for not knocking - and paced the room a few times before Phil set aside his work and looked up.

“Something wrong, Tony?”

“Yes. Maybe. I think so. I’m pretty sure. Look. Look. I told you I went to see that cop. Captain Jenkins. Remember?”

“Yes. Tony, why don’t you slow down a little? Just breathe.”

“I can’t! I can’t slow down. That cop told me Stane hired Golzine’s construction crew to work on my department store. Right? Only, it wasn’t a department store, it was some kind of hospital. They found morgues and things. Stane never told me that, he just said it was a department store. So I didn’t think it was any big deal. I don’t like that he gave my money to Golzine by hiring Golzine’s crew, but I could live with that. But I told Captain Jenkins’ I’d look for more information... financial stuff, you know? And I did, but it looks to me like Stane didn’t just hire Golzine’s construction crew. It sure looks like Golzine provided the construction blueprints and, unless I’m misreading things, he basically hired Stane to build the place for him. So... my company was working for Golzine? I don’t like this, Phil. I don’t like this at all. And why? Golzine had the construction crew and had the blueprints, so he could have done this himself without getting my company involved. He knew what he wanted; Captain Jenkins said the place was going to be another National Institute of Mental Health, but for kids and teenagers. Why did he have to involve me?”

Phil was thoughtful for a moment as he considered Tony’s question. “If, as it’s name suggests, The National Institute of Mental Health is a government facility, a private citizen couldn’t have just built another one, not unless...” Phil’s voice trailed off. He stared into space for a moment, thinking. “Unless he was working with someone in the government.”

The implications were horrifying. “How far do you think Golzine’s tentacles reached?”

“A lot further than I’d thought. I suppose it’s possible that he provided the plans to get the new institute built and had a government official ready and waiting to sign the final paperwork to make it a federal institute. He would have it built the way he wanted it, built by his own people, but a cursory look at paperwork would show anyone who was investigating that it was a government facility, not his. That you built it, not him. Why do you say it looks like Golzine hired Stane?”

“Because Stane left a note on his computer. It says so point blank. Golzine contacted him about nine months ago and made the offer. He paid Stane a big bucket full of money for Stane to undertake the job. I think Stane left the note as proof in case he needed some kind of leverage against Golzine. Like insurance.” Tony finally stopped pacing. He was exhausted and he realized he hadn’t slept in a very long time. “You think Golzine used Stark Industries as... well... camouflage?”

“I think it’s a very real possibility. To the eyes of the public, you built the place and the government buys it. As I said - he hardly looks like he’s involved at all.”

Tony ran both hands over his head and sighed. “I need to talk to Captain Jenkins about all this. God. Someone in the government is involved in all this? This whole situation just gets worse and worse. And what would Golzine get out of building that kind of place, anyway? Other than easy access to vulnerable little kids, of course. Did he build the original National Institute of Mental Health? What did he do with that one? If it turns out that they did have clones of Ash, then that can’t have been all they did. Something else must have gone on there and I have a hard time believing that someone like Golzine or people who would illegally clone an underaged kid would be all that interested in rehabilitating violent criminals, like their brochure says.”

“Max hinted that the man Ash is looking for, Gregory, has something Ash wants found and it sounds like it’s something dangerous. I have the feeling that Golzine might have been a man with his fingers in a lot of pies and, to be perfectly frank, I think Club Cod was not the only project of his we should be concerned with. To answer your questions, you might want to ask Ash. When it comes to Golzine, he’s our best source of information.”

Tony balked at the idea. “I don’t want to give him any more stress. He shouldn’t have to keep thinking about that guy.”

“I know. But the fact is, he will most likely not be able to stop thinking about Golzine for a long time. The court date is coming closer and he will have to testify. Even when that’s over, I don’t think Golzine will be far from Ash’s mind for a long time. It’s not the kind of thing a person can just ‘get over’ and forget.” Then, Phil gave Tony a little smile. “By the way, you did a very good job with him this morning. Max told me that he came into the room to see you trying to calm Ash down. It must have been hard. I’m proud of you.”

Those simple words brought a rush of pleasant warmth to Tony’s chest. Somehow, Phil always knew what to say. Still, he couldn’t forget the horror of finding Ash as he had. “I couldn’t stop him from cutting his hair, but God! I thought he was going to start cutting up his face! I can’t tell you how scared I was when I went into the room and saw him with the scissors and that awful, desperate look on his face. I hate to ask, but do you think he might hurt himself?”

Phil looked down at his lap. “I don’t know.”

After he spoke with Phil, Tony made a phone call to Captain Jenkins, but had to leave a message and ask Captain Jenkins to get back to him as soon as possible. He got a little rest and met with everyone in the kitchen for dinner. Everyone but Max. When he asked, Jessica absently said,

“He had to go out for a bit. He should be back any minute.”

Dinner went well. Ash ate some fish and drank water, but excused himself after that and went into the common room where he concentrated on using the drone to find Gregory. He was intent, completely focused on his task. Tony was halfway through eating when his phone rang. He stepped away from the table to answer it. It was Max. Tony listened to what Max had to say for a few minutes and ended up smiling. “Yeah. That’s fine.” For the sake of the surprise, Tony said nothing when he hung up the phone and waited for Max to arrive.

Max walked in looking entirely too pleased with himself. He must have been an awful poker player. Still, he schooled his expression by the time he walked over and stood next to Ash. “I got your gun.”

Ash turned his attention away from his search and started to stand, but Max put a hand on his shoulder. “Will you stop moving around so much? God, you’re the worst patient! How you haven’t ripped those stitches yet, I don’t know.” Despite the reprimand, Max handed Ash a polished wooden box. “It’s not new, but it’s in real good condition and you said you don’t like the modern ones.”

Everyone had curiously gathered around to see the gun. It was old, Tony noticed when Ash opened the box. Perhaps fifty years old. And old-fashioned six-shooter. The handle was wooden and there were elegant designs engraved on the barrel. The inside of the case was covered in red velvet and there was ammunition as well as the little tools to take care of a gun and keep it cleaned and in working order. Ash checked it out coolly, professionally, like someone very comfortable with a gun.

“It was my dad’s.”

Ash froze. “I don’t need some kinda family heirloom. I tend to lose these.”

“You don’t lose them, people take them from you. I wouldn’t have given it to you if I didn’t want you to have it.”

They locked eyes for a moment before Ash nodded, sharply. He loaded the gun, then stuck it in the back of his waistband at the small of his back. Ash said, “Thanks. I’ll try to take care of it.”

“I know you will. I have another surprise for you.” He stepped a little away from Ash and called out, “Come on in!”

Tony held his breath. Max had told him on the phone what he was planning, just to be sure Tony wouldn’t have a problem with it, but Tony couldn’t help being a little anxious to see how Ash would react.

Everyone looked at the door Max had just walked through. Around the corner came a young boy - perhaps Ash’s age or a little younger - being pushed in a wheelchair by another man. They were both Asian, Japanese, if Tony guessed correctly. The other man was smaller than Max, with a beard and warm brown eyes. The boy had eyes only for Ash, he didn’t even once look at any of The Avengers.

“Eiji.” Ash whispered the word as if it were a prayer while he stood up.

The boy, Eiji, took a cane from the man pushing his wheelchair and slowly stood up. He was shorter than Ash, but there was mass to him that Ash lacked. He was solid and muscular. Once standing, Eiji walked carefully to Ash until they were no more than two feet apart. Eiji never stopped smiling, though walking seemed to pain him. “Ash. I missed you.”

To be continued...