Protective Custody

Chapter 23: The Video

Phil-

“If you need reading glasses, we could have bought you new ones earlier. You don’t have to do without something essential.” Phil, whose whole job was to take care of people, couldn’t help the concern he felt when Ash had told everyone exactly why he wanted to go back to the condo. Reading glasses. He needed glasses and because of everything that had gone on, he’d left them behind when he’d left the condo and gone to live in The Avengers’ Tower.

“Speak up when you need something,” Max had reprimanded. “You’ll get headaches if you read without your glasses.” And then he left the room, muttering about making an appointment with an eye doctor.

After watching everyone leave the room, Phil sat heavily on the couch and sighed before he said aloud to himself, “Why didn’t he say he needed reading glasses? We’d have gotten him a pair.” It would have been no trouble at all to go get his glasses at the condo or to even buy him a new pair. To think that Ash had kept silent about something so necessary...

“Ash doesn’t like people doing things for him.” Phil wasn’t as alone as he’d thought. He’d forgotten Ibe-san was in the room. He was a quiet man and, surrounded by such big personalities as The Avengers, Max, Jessica, and Ash, it was disturbingly easy to forget him. “I expect he was more concerned with getting Jessica and Michael to safety than he was about retrieving his glasses.” Ibe-san sat next to Phil on the couch. “Besides, Ash is used to doing without and I think he may believe that his glasses are a luxury he can live without. We were captured by Golzine, once. Max and I were made to sit through a farce of a dinner party. Tuxedos, servants pouring wine, food that was far too costly. He gave Ash an earring, then. An earring that cost more than my house. He’d had Ash dressed in a very fine tuxedo and made him show off that he could tell one wine from another simply by taste. He bragged about everything he’d done for Ash.” Ibe-san gave Phil a sad look. “But he never did something so simple, so easy as getting Ash the glasses he needed. Never even noticed he needed them. Ash told me that. Ash was thirteen when he got enough money and bought a three-dollar pair of glasses at a drugstore. He is accustomed to taking care of himself and I believe he never considered asking for your help because he is still not used to being given help. He also probably considered him being able to read without getting a headache was not so very important as keeping everyone safe.”

“You’re very fond of him, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but I also admire him greatly. He’s been through a lot, but he still smiles so easily.” Ibe-san shrugged, self consciously. “Maybe I don’t understand him so well as I think I do, but I think he is very strong and very independent. Ash is terribly clever. He’s far more clever than most people give him credit for. Everyone seems to underestimate him. He told me that many people think he’s stupid because he’s good-looking. Isn’t that foolish? Max once said that Ash has the brain of a computer, that he thinks of life like a chess game where he keeps several moves ahead of his opponent all the time. He thinks unlike anyone I’ve ever met. Very brave, very determined... almost ruthless. But he is good. Ah, enough of all that. I just wanted to thank you for protecting him." He bowed his head to Phil before he quietly left the room.

From what Ibe-san said, Phil could deduce that underestimating Ash would be a grave mistake. Underestimating anyone was a bad idea. Tony had been underestimated in his youth when the whole world thought he was nothing but a shallow rich kid. Natasha was routinely underestimated, though she cultivated that image as it helped her with her work. And Bruce? The whole world knew what The Hulk looked like, but very few would know Bruce Banner if they stood nose-to-nose with him, so Bruce, who was shy and quiet, was often dismissed as harmless.

***

With heightened security due to the discovery of HYDRA agents in the city - though Phil had hopes that it was mere coincidence and that HYDRA knew nothing about Ash - two people went with Ash to his condo, Phil and Tony. Ash was quiet on the way over, a thoughtful look on his face as Tony drove them to the condo where Phil had first met Ash when he’d gone looking for Jessica hoping that she could lead him to Max.

“I bought it,” Ash had said easily enough when they started climbing the many stairs up to the top floor. “I got my hands on some money and I needed somewhere to hide out. This place was conveniently located.”

“I looked it up,” Tony said as he trudged up the stairs. Tony wasn’t a bit out of shape, but there were quite a lot of stairs to excuse his panting for breath. “That condo is owned by a Mister Edward Winston.”

“Yeah.” Ash didn’t bother to look over his shoulder at Tony as he led the way up. “That was convenient, too.”

“You know what else is convenient?” Tony asked. “Elevators. Elevators are very convenient. Lovely things that go up and down and you only have to press a button to make them work. I happen to know that there are three elevators in this building.”

Ash kept walking. “I don’t like elevators. Sometimes they fall. You want to take one, go ahead.” He jabbed a finger at a door they passed. “There’s the door to floor eighteen. Go ahead and I’ll meet you up there.”

Phil asked, “You have a phobia?” It would be just this kid’s luck to have that on top of all his other issues!

“No, I just don’t like them. Not my fault you old guys are out of shape.”

Ash seemed to have no trouble at all with the stairs, despite his injuries. He didn’t race up the stairs, but he did keep up a steady pace and Phil wondered how much of that was due to the fact that he was healing well and how much was due to the fact that he was stubborn and really wanted his glasses.

Phil told Ash, “We’re not THAT old.”

“Please, you’re like what... thirty-five?” Ash said, as if he couldn’t quite imagine being so ancient. “And you,” he briefly turned to gesture at Tony. “You're old enough to be my grandpa. God, you’ve gotta be like a hundred.”

“I’m fifty-one!” Tony protested.

“Yeah... maybe you should’ve taken the elevator. You’ll probably break a hip if you fall down the stairs.”

Tony pouted, but just as Ash was turning back around, Phil saw the hint of a playful, trouble-making grin. Ash knew exactly what he was doing when he poked at them for being ‘old’ and he’d gotten the reaction he’d wanted. Ash made a move to get his opponent to do what he wanted and it had worked out perfectly for him. He was not only good and clever and strong, as Ibe-san had boasted, but he was manipulative. How dangerous could he be if he ever got ambitious?

Without warning, Tony suddenly asked Ash, “Do you want to come work for me?”

Ash froze in misstep. “What?”

“Look, I know you’re real smart. J.A.R.V.I.S. is even impressed with you, and almost nothing impresses him. You come work for me and I’ll put you in the research and development department. We make just about everything. If you want, I’ll pay for you to go to school.”

As Ash had been leading the way, they all stopped walking when he did. Ash turned around to face them, then took a step backwards until his back was against a wall. His face was cold and closed-off. “No.”

Tony let out an exaggerated sigh. “Ah, well. Easy come, easy go.” He stepped passed Ash and kept walking.

Ash stayed where he was, but looked confused and even a little angry. “That’s it? You’re gonna let it go?”

Tony laughed and turned around to face Ash. “Well, I can’t throw you in chains and force you to...” he stopped when he saw Ash’s face and his care-free expression faded into shock. “Wait. Did you think... you thought I was going to MAKE you work for me? I’m no slaver.”

“Last person who gave me a job offer didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. He... hurt me. That moron thought hurting me would make me agree to work for him. People are idiots. Then he pistol whipped me and had me sedated so he could kidnap me. Don’t know what he had planned after that.”

And Ash would say no more, he waited for Tony and Phil to continue up the stairs and it seemed clear to Phil that whatever memories were haunting Ash, had disturbed him so much that he didn’t want anyone at his back. Tony picked up on it, too, for he didn’t make any smart comments, but kept walking.

When they finally reached the top floor and stood in front of the door of Ash’s condo, Ash fished a key out of his pocket. The top floor of the building had only two units, Ash’s and the condo directly across the hall. The two condo’s doors faced each other and, before Ash could unlock his door, the door on the other side of the hall opened and a cheerful voice called out,

“Christopher, dear. You’re back! I’ve missed you. And where is that charming young man of yours? Eiji?”

The voice was strong and confidant and Phil wasn’t at all surprised to see Mrs. Coleman standing in her doorway when he turned around. She wrinkled her nose at him and he was all too quickly reminded of their first meeting and how very poorly she seemed to think of anyone who upset ‘Christopher, dear’ and she apparently had a very good memory. Phil smiled and went straight to her, holding out his hand. “Mrs. Coleman, wasn’t it? My name’s Phil Coulson. I’m sorry we didn’t have time to talk the last time I was here.”

Mrs. Coleman wasn’t so easily swayed. She eyed his hand and wrapped her hands around the head of her walking stick. She drew herself up to her full height and managed to look down at Phil even though he was a solid six inches taller than she was. She examined him for a minute, then stepped around him and gave Ash a warm smile. “Dear, it really is good to see you, again. I hope you and your family are all well.”

“Very well, thank you. I’m sorry we all left so quickly. Family stuff... I’m sure you know.”

“Oh, I do, my dear. I really do. Now, you didn’t answer me - how is that sweet Eiji? I hope you haven’t chased him away for some other,” she gave both Phil and Tony sharply disapproving looks from the corner of her eye. “Friends. Really, you ought to stick with someone closer to your own age. Old foggies like that won’t be any fun for a young person. Now that Eiji, he was much better for you. Trust me, I can tell.” And she reached up and pinched Ash’s cheek.

Ash laughed and it was a sound that was surprisingly innocent. “No, no. I promise, Eiji is still my best friend. You remember this guy?” He pointed at Phil. “Well, turns out he’s a friend of my dad. Small world, isn’t it? He invited us to stay at his place, so we’re having a little vacation.”

And, with that little simplification - not a bit of it was a lie - Mrs. Coleman’s frosty attitude thawed, but only a little. “Well, if everything’s quite alright, then I won’t worry. Don’t stay gone too long, Christopher, dear.”

The minute Phil followed Ash into the condo and closed the door behind them, he said, “I think she wants to adopt you.”

“Shut up. She’s nice.”

“And I suppose the fact that she likes Eiji only cements your good opinion of your protective neighbor.” Tony almost immediately began poking around in the condo, looking in every little nook and cranny he could find.

“The fact that she likes Eiji means she’s smart. Anyone worth anything likes Eiji.”

Ash-

Ash liked Mrs. Coleman. He had never known either of his grandmothers, but he sometimes imagined that if he had a grandmother, she would probably have been just like Mrs. Coleman. He also liked to imagine that she had some kind of illicit past - like being a prize fighter in her youth or a bouncer in a biker bar. She was tough enough for anything.

But those were silly thoughts and did no good. Ash had work to do.

He picked up his reading glasses that he’d left on the coffee table and slipped them on while he went into the bedroom. There was only one bedroom in the condo. For how much it cost, it should have had a couple of bedrooms and Ash had never understood why the place had been designed to be so impractical. The living room was ridiculously big, it could have easily been divided up into a couple more rooms. He didn’t dwell on it long. The bedroom had been used by him and Eiji and, later, by Jessica and Michael. The computer sitting on the desk by the window hadn’t moved since he’d been forced to leave the condo. There wasn’t any dust on it. Jessica must have dusted.

Ash sat the desk and he remembered Eiji sitting in that spot as he looked through the photographs he’d taken of the building next door where Dino had done much of his work and entertained his less than respectable business associates. Ash had poked fun at Eiji and Eiji had had sniped back. They’d laughed.

“So, did you get what you need?” Tony asked. He glanced around the room, but didn’t go in. “I thought you just wanted your glasses.”

“Yeah, well, now I need my computer.” Ash opened his laptop and was keenly aware of Tony in the doorway, though he didn’t presume to just walk in and Ash appreciated that. Ash turned his computer on. “There’s a t.v. in the other room. Feel free. Just don’t hover over my shoulder. I gotta check my email.”

“J.A.R.V.I.S. could have done that for you. He’s pretty good at that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, well. I didn’t think of it till I was here. Go on and sit down. I won’t take too long.” Ash heard footsteps when Tony walked away and glanced discretely over his shoulder. Through the open door, he could see Phil and Tony in the living room and decided that it was safe for him to get on with his real reason for going to the condo.

He had wanted his glasses - they were his, after all - but he had a far more important reason for going to the condo. His computer was there and it was easier to work on a laptop where he could type properly rather than his little phone. While he could have asked to use a computer at the Tower, he hadn’t wanted J.A.R.V.I.S. looking over his shoulder. After all, there was no reason to involve The Avengers with what he was planning to do to Sing’s attacker. The most important reason for going to the condo, though, was that it was nearly impossible to slip out of the Tower without every Avenger being alerted and Ash needed to get away from all of them for a while. Getting away from two guards would surely be easier than escaping J.A.R.V.I.S.’ ever watchful observation.

Ash wasted no more time. It took only minutes from him to get on the website of the bank he’d put all his stolen money into and then into the account he’d set up for Sing. He’d put in twenty million dollars for Sing to spread out to his gang and it was all gone. It took a little work here and there before Ash was able to discover that the money had been withdrawn using a cellphone. He slipped this way and that inside the internet and found the name of the person who owned the phone.

Ash had once read a very interesting book in the library about how the internet worked. Such a useful book. That book was the reason why Ash was able to figure out how to navigate his way around the internet and into different systems. Turns out that the internet was much like a library, in Ash’s mind. Everything was there, ready to be looked at and put to use, if one knew how to navigate it and Ash knew very well how to navigate through the internet. He also could hack, which was nothing more than having a skeleton key for locked doors, as far as Ash was concerned. So he used those skills he had to go this way and that until he found the cellphone that had been used to take Sing’s money and, from there, he got into the cellphone. After all, if one could use a cellphone to get on the internet, then it would stand to reason that one could use the internet to get onto a cellphone. It wasn’t all that difficult. He found that his target cellphone had a GPS installed. How handy. After that, it took very little work for him to use the phone’s GPS to track where the cellphone was.

Ash smiled when he found it. Whoever carried the cellphone was still in the city, only a few blocks away. He made sure all the information was on his cellphone and that he could see the location of his target’s phone before he cleared the history on his computer and turned it off.

He looked at the image of a map of New York City on the screen of his phone and watched a tiny dot indicating the target’s phone moving slowly down a street. Really, he ought to give the information to Yut-Lung. The fact was that it was a Boss’ responsibility to take care of such things. If anyone had beaten Bones or Alex like they had Sing, stab wound or not, Ash would have killed them. It was what any good Boss would do. If Shorter had still been alive, Ash wouldn’t have hesitated to give him the information and let him do his job. But Shorter was dead and Sing was the current head of the gang. Custom would have it that Sing’s second-in-command should do the duty of avenging Sing, just as Alex would have done if Ash hadn’t killed Lao. But Ash didn’t know who Sing’s second-in-command was. So the only other person in Chinatown with any authority in the matter was Yut-Lung. But Ash didn’t want to give up the responsibility. After all, Sing was practically Shorter’s little brother and as Shorter’s best friend, it was surely Ash’s place to stand up for Sing.

A very short time later, Ash, Phil, and Tony all started the long walk back down the many stairs so they could go back to the Tower. Again, Ash walked behind Phil and Tony. Ash quietly took out his cellphone and texted a message to Alex, **I need a distraction.** He told Alex where he was and which way he was headed with his chaperons.

A moment later, Alex replied with a text that read, **On the way. Trouble?**

**Annoyance. Don’t hurt them. Just give me a minute to slip away.**

**Got it.**

Ash ran a hand over his head and winced at the feel of his newly short hair being rubbed rather than having his fingers run through his longer hair. Such an odd feeling, like little bristles on the top of his head. He didn’t regret having Max cut his hair. It was different and it was his. His choice. If he wanted it to grow longer, then that would be his choice, too. A stray thought drifted through his mind of Eiji’s admiration of Thor. He had once seen a photograph of Thor in a newspaper with an article about The Avengers. Thor had blonde hair, too. Long blonde hair. ‘Does Eiji like long hair? Is that it?’

The very minute they reached the sidewalk, Ash saw three of his guys walking towards him. Well... running, really. Bones was in the lead and yelling at the top of his lungs. Ash’s eye twitched. If he broke another bone...

“Get away from me!” Bones yelled. “I didn’t touch your girl!”

Alex yelled back, “That ain’t what she said! Get back here!”

They ran around Ash’s chaperones several times while Kong added to the mischief by pretending he was trying to catch both Bones and Alex.

It was a grand little play and the moment when Phil and Tony tried to stop them before someone got hurt (as Ash had guessed they would) Ash slipped away. Three steps back and a little to the left and he was in an alley. He stepped quickly down the alley until he came to a door in the wall. It was unlocked, of course. The owner of the Rubber Ducky Laundromat never remembered to lock the back door. He slipped in and closed the door behind him. From there he went to the office, which was empty and so also never locked. In the office was a stairway that led to the roof. Ash went up to the roof and waited. It was impossible to hear anything over the noise of the traffic, but he waited until he saw, as he’d known he would see, Tony, as Iron Man fly by, undoubtedly looking for Ash.

Iron man flew around the area for a minute and, while he did, Ash kept himself hidden, only peering out of the door that led out to the rooftop. When Iron man flew away, undoubtedly to look in other places, Ash peeked out over the edge of the building and didn’t see any sign of Phil below. He went back down to the street and hurried on his way. Of course, he was reasonably certain they’d already contacted the rest of their team and told them about Ash’s escape and he did regret that he was making work for them and he was almost positive that Jessica was going to have kittens, but there was work to be done and he wasn’t about to get other people involved. Why, they’d probably try to stop him from killing and...

“Hey, Boss!”

Ash turned and saw his guys walking towards him, looking as proud as all get out.

“Was that what you wanted? Didn’t no one get hurt.” Bones grinned as he said it.

“Yeah, you did good. Look, any word about something going on I should know about?” He asked Alex directly, as that was Alex’s job to know such things, but he was aware that Bones and Kong would speak up if they felt they needed to. None of them were shy with Ash.

Alex shrugged. “Not much. I know there’s people acting weird all over the city. They’re just wandering aimlessly around. Everyone’s seen them. They’ve even been down in Harlem and Cain isn’t really happy about it. No one knows what they’re looking for, but they’re all over the place and looking for something.”

“They don’t do anything?”

“Nope. They just sort of walk around. They don’t go into stores and none of them seem to be going to work. I had some of the guys follow a couple of them the other day and they just walked around the city for about ten hours before they went to a hotel. They next day, they did the same thing.”

It was another something to keep in mind. “Well, keep your eye on them and don’t let them know you’ve noticed them. Don’t start trouble.”

Alex nodded. “You need us for anything else?”

Ash felt a twinge of pain in his side where Lao had stabbed him. The wound was healing, but it wasn’t altogether healed. Walking up all those stairs probably hadn’t helped anything. At least the one Foxx had given him was mostly healed. He did want the help, but it was his responsibility to take care of the situation, not theirs. So he carelessly waved away the question. “No. I just needed a little breathing room. You guys go on.”

Kong and Bones did as they were told, but Alex hesitated. When Bones and Kong had gone a distance, he said to Ash, “Look, you sure you’re okay in that place? Super heroes ‘n stuff? I mean... I know they’re not making you stay, but if you gotta sneak away...”

“They’re like a whole bunch of mama bears, that’s all. They’re alright. Don’t worry about me. Don’t I always take care of myself?”

“Yeah. Sure you do, Boss. Boss, about that court thing you’re doing...”

Ash went cold. He’d never really told his guys much of what he’d done when Dino had held his leash, but Alex wasn’t a dummy. He’d guessed some stuff. Probably most of the other guys had suspicions, too, but no one had ever said anything right to his face. Soon enough, as soon as the legal stuff started, they’d all know everything and Ash wasn’t looking forward to seeing the looks on their faces. “What about it?”

“You want me to say anything for you? I don’t know how that stuff goes, but... they do character witnesses ‘n stuff on t.v. shows.”

“I wouldn’t drag you into that.”

“I know you wouldn’t, but if you’re gonna get yourself in trouble with talking about Dino, then I’ll stick up for you. They might make you talk about stuff Dino made you do - delivering things and all the other stuff. It’s not really legal - what Dino had us doing. If you gotta say all that in front of cops ‘n judges... won’t they put you in jail, too? I’ll tell ‘em what Dino was like. They’ll know you couldn’t have done no different.”

Ash was honestly touched. Alex didn’t know, not really. He knew Dino was bad news and he’d never liked being around Dino - something Ash had tried to avoid making any of his guys do - and he knew a lot of the bad stuff Dino would do to people who angered him, but he didn’t know the details of what Ash had been made to do. Still, he was willing to put himself out to help Ash. “Thanks, man. I’ll let you know if I need you.”

They parted ways and Ash was, again, glad that Dino was dead because Alex was safer with Dino that way. Alex was a little too close to Dino’s taste. He was only saved by the fact that he was much bigger and taller than Ash and had sort of a blunt look to his face rather than the delicate look Dino favored. Still, blonde hair and blue eyes was too close for comfort. He hadn’t even liked the rare times when he’d had to take Alex to Dino’s mansion for business reasons and he’d always worked hard to find an excuse to leave Alex in the parlor rather than taking him to stand in front of Dino in the office. No point in making the guy a target.

Getting back to his mission, Ash checked on his phone to see where his target was before he started walking. He had gone only a few steps down the sidewalk when he heard his name, “Ash!” He stopped and turned and there was Nadia, running towards him. She was so out of breath when she reached him, that Ash put his hands on her arms to steady her. She shook and heaved for breath so badly that she couldn’t speak, at first. After a moment, she straighten up and looked at him with wide eyes. “Ash, you’re staying with those Avengers, aren’t you? The rumors said you were and you came to see Sing with Captain America. That was him, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. Sure was. What- ”

“I need to speak with them. Right now. It’s very important. Please.”

“O-okay. Sure. What’s going on? You’re scared.” And he didn’t like that. Not one bit.

Nadia held out a cellphone to him. “It’s Sing’s. He had it when I found him. I didn’t think! I just stuck it in my pocket, but I was so upset about Sing being hurt that I forgot it was there. I remembered ages after Mister Lee mentioned Sing’s phone was missing, but Sing’s still hurt and he won’t wake up I was just so worried. A phone just didn’t seem that important.”

Worry would make a person’s whole world narrow down to the person they were worried about and nothing else mattered, Ash knew. He didn’t blame her a bit for dismissing the phone.

Nadia kept talking and Ash was a little shocked. She’d never spoken so much or so quickly. “But this morning, I thought maybe Charlie should have it. Maybe it’s evidence? I can’t imagine what good it would do, but maybe it would help. I checked Sing’s phone to see if it was working and I saw that he’d recorded something. There was... on it... Oh! Just look!” Nadia turned the phone on and hit a few buttons and a short video played. It only lasted a few minutes and Sing had obviously started recording in the middle of a conversation.

Ash didn’t recognize the men shown on the screen of Sing’s phone, but he took note of each face he saw and each voice he heard.

One of the men Sing had recorded said, “Of course not, but it’s an easy mistake to make. Don’t worry about it. This city has enough murders, one more isn’t going to catch anyone’s attention. Have you had word from the other teams? Someone must have found him, by now. How hard can it be to kill one man?”

“I haven’t heard anything yet, but we’ll meet up at the rendezvous point and compare notes. And don’t dismiss Blanca like that. I’ve heard things about him. They call him, ‘a perfect weapon created by the Kremlin’. Unstoppable and merciless. He’d as soon kill a person as look at them. A completely heartless monster in the form of a man. But he’s smart, too. He’s a doctor, a psychiatrist, and holds degrees in subjects ranging from ancient history to astronomy. He’s also charismatic. One smile and he has anyone he wants falling over themselves to get in his bed.”

“No one’s that good.”

“He is. That’s the rumor, anyway. What I’m getting at is - don’t think he’s like any other man. He isn’t. He doesn’t have feelings like normal people and he doesn’t think like us, either. He’s a weapon - nothing more.”

“You sound scared of him.”

“That’s because I’m not stupid.”

“We’re HYRDA soldiers. A single man, no matter how well-trained, isn’t a match for the fifty soldiers sent out to find and eliminate him. Thema Shehata wants Blanca dead, so we kill him. His reputation is probably nothing but lies he told about himself in order to make himself more intimidating. I’m not falling for any such thing.”

Something happened then, and Sing dropped the phone. From where it landed, Ash could see Sing, both of his hands held over his head by a much larger man.

“And looks like I found a little alley cat.” The man who held Sing’s hands grinned down at him. That made for three men - three HYDRA agents. “And what are you doing prowling around here? Poor little thing, you’re going to get hurt creeping around in the dark.”

Sing sucked in a deep breath, most likely to whistle for his guys, but one of the first two men Ash had seen on the video slapped a hand over Sing’s mouth.

“No noise, alley cat. We wouldn’t want a commotion.”

What followed next was a furious struggle as Sing fought to get free, but as strong and smart as Sing was, he was also a little shrimp compared to three grown men. The struggle ended when one of the men punched Sing in the side of the head. Sing went down like a ton of bricks. One of the men knocked over a garbage can and from the rubbish that spilled out onto the ground, he picked up a broken broom handle. With that in hand, he looked down at Sing and said, “I don’t think I’ll waste a bullet on you.”

The man raised the broom handle over his head with both hands before he brought it down. Ash didn’t flinch when he heard the stick strike flesh. He didn’t blink or look away when he heard Sing yell. He kept watching as, over and over, the man hit Sing.

Nadia started to cry.

On the recording, Sing started to cry. He cried for Shorter, then for Lao.

And Ash watch. He watched every minute. He even watched as Sing managed to reach out a hand and grab the phone. His attackers either didn’t notice or didn’t care. The screen of the phone went dark when Sing grabbed it, but Ash could hear everything. The attackers laughed and talked with each other and the sound of Sing’s cries began to die away. He’d likely pulled his phone under himself, curled up around it to protect it.

‘Sing, you clever kid. You knew you had evidence and you weren’t going to let them get away with anything. Oh, you brilliant kid!’

Soon, it was over. Ash couldn’t heard anything from Sing. He must have passed out. Ash listened to the attackers’ voices for a few seconds.

“Got anything in his pockets?” One of them asked. “Might as well take what we can.”

There was a noise as Sing was undoubtedly moved this way and that as his pockets were searched.

“Not much in his wallet. Chump change. A paper, though. Well... would you look at that? On bank stationary and everything!” The voice sounded very pleased and Ash knew why. He knew what they’d found. “It’s an account number and a password. Who knows? Maybe the kid’s loaded.” It was them who’d taken the number of Sing’s bank account and the password.

The video stopped then.

Ash watched the video a second time and then a third. HYDRA soldiers, dressed like civilians, were looking for Blanca and they were planning to kill him. Why? Sing just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and he’d gotten caught. They hadn’t known him when they’d tried to kill him.

Ash’s mouth pressed into a fine line.

They hadn’t even known who Sing was. He could have been any kid walking by and they’d have done the same thing. They’d have tried to beat any passer-by, any innocent person, to death just because he was there and they were stronger. No reason. No aim or design. It was just an opportunity. What if they’d happened up someone who couldn’t fight as well as Sing? He watched the video one last time, then turned the phone off.

Nadia watched him, expectantly. “You see? The Avengers should know. It was HYRDA and I don’t know... I was just going to the police station to give it to Charlie when I saw you. The Avengers usually deal with HYDRA so maybe they should have it?”

Ash slipped the phone into his pocket. “I’ll take care of everything. Don’t you worry.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to give you more trouble.”

“You’re never trouble. Go on. I know you want to be with Sing.”

She hesitated. “I’m not neglecting you, am I? You know if you need me...”

Ash understood, of course, that Nadia wanted to be with Sing when he was so hurt. God, he couldn’t imagine what was going through her mind. Was she thinking of Shorter and how she hadn’t been there in his last moments? Or that if Sing died it would be one more part of her family gone forever. So Ash smirked. “Please, like I need one more mother hen nagging at me. Go on. Go hold his hand so I tease him when he wakes up. I’ll let you know when I know something.”

Nadia left and Ash went into a nearby alley where he sat on the lid of garbage can to have a think.

Ash didn’t like killing, he didn’t even like hurting people, but there were times when it was necessary. Those men were planning to kill Blanca, who’d always been so good to Ash. Blanca was easily one of the most brilliant people Ash knew, but he wasn't perfect and could be killed just like anyone else. Sing had nearly been killed. Ash was certain that the attackers had meant to kill Sing and it was only by chance that he’d survived. A nameless man was dead. And the men Sing had caught on camera had mentioned Thema Shehata. Ash knew that name very well.

Ash played the video, again.

To Be Continued...