Interrogation techniques
Steve and Tony stood in the hall. "What do you want?" I ask expressionlessly.
"Can we come in?" Steve asks. I think about it.
"No," I decide. "I'm getting ready for bed. What do you want?"
"Tony has a confession to make," Steve says, taking Tony by the arm.
"What now?" I wonder. Tony scowls at both of us.
"The guys with the needles? That's on me. That was my idea," he snaps.
"But Fury ok'ed it," I stated, and Tony shook his head.
"No, he didn't know about it til after." We all look over as the door to the outside opens and Bucky slips through. He halts and takes in the tableau, lingering on my new robe.
"That's a good color on you," he says to me.
"Bucky," Steve remonstrates. "Now is not the time to flirt."
"What are you doing?"
Steve sighs, but Tony cuts in. "Having a threesome, obviously." I roll my eyes.
"Feel free," I say, waving my hand at the hall. "I'll watch."
Bucky grins. His eyes travel the group again. "If you want to conduct an interrogation, a hallway is not the best place for it if you're after more than just a single answer and termination of the target," he tells me. I look at him with interest.
"I didn't think you did any interrogation, just assassination," I say, and he nods.
"I picked up a few things," he said.
Without warning, he slammed Tony into the wall, and Tony's eyes popped wide and rolled between Bucky and me. "Physical intimidation works best," he tells me.
"You can be intimidating. Plus you have that whole reputation," I say, depressed. Tony begins to wiggle. "That's my problem. Nobody's scared of me."
"If you had a weapon..." I reached into the pocket of the robe and took out the switchblade I'd made and carried everywhere. I flicked it open.
"Guys..." Tony's voice began to rise.
"Give it a shot," Bucky said approvingly. Steve just leaned against the wall, probably wondering how he got messed up in all of this. Bucky kept Tony pinned to the wall but moved aside for me. I studied Tony. He'd lost weight from his sickness too and hadn't bothered to shave yet.
I stepped up to him and twisted the knife in front of his face. "This is the same type of blade I made for Odin. Not the same style, obviously, he likes things all big and masculine, but the same metal and the same edge. He says it cuts the wind. It's an obvious exaggeration, but skin is a whole different matter. It even cuts mine." I let him take a good look as the light glints along the blade. "So why would you want to kidnap me? I'd already agreed to come work for the Avengers. What was in that hypodermic?" When Tony didn't answer immediately, I stroked his face with the blade.
"It was just a mild sedative, I swear. It was just so coincidental. Rogers just happens to stumble across you in the middle of the jungle, you just happen to make his perfect shield, Thor just happens to rescue you, you get in good with the ruling class, you host the Avengers reunion tour. You ingratiated yourself awfully fast, is all." I slit my eyes at him and switch cheeks. "After that lunch, I just wanted to make sure you didn't have an outside agenda. You'd have been questioned and taken back, I promise. But after that, Fury agreed with me that you needed to be checked out and we did an investigation. Didn't find anything, obviously, you're pretty boring," he babbled. I heard Steve sigh.
"Switch tactics," Bucky encouraged me.
"I don't think you need to encourage her," Steve's tone was dry.
So I straddle Stark's leg and plaster myself against the part of torso that Bucky's not got pinned to the wall with his forearm. I place the blade to his throat. "What about the plane crash?" I breathe into his ear. Tony starts to sweat.
"That was not me. I wouldn't have risked killing the people on board, plus the plane was expensive." The way his pulse is pounding makes the skin leap against the blade that's resting against his throat, making a tiny cut each time.
"You've got a handsome face, Tony. It would be a shame if my knife slipped," I coo, and he swallowed nervously. "Tell me more," I say icily. Bucky snorts a laugh as Tony's struggles to get away suddenly increase.
"A sous chef at the restaurant overheard us talking about bringing you on and sold the information. Fury made him go back and point out the limitations of your ability, and they lost interest," Tony said.
"Is that all?" I demanded, running the blade over his throat. "Because every time you come out with something awful, I think, 'this is got to be it. There can't be any more ways he could screw me over in just the brief time I've known him.' So now is the time for confession, Tony. Is there anything else that will make me want to dust off my old frog dissection skills?"
"Nope, that's totally all," he assured me earnestly.
I step back abruptly and cross my arms over my chest. "I really hope so, Tony." Bucky started to laugh. I opened the door to my room and stepped inside as Steve started to laugh too. When the door closed, I let myself smile. When I'd been intimidating Tony, I'd shaved a Joker-like smile on his face. He was clean-shaven now except for the enormous grin.
"Usually my interrogations make people wet their pants," I heard Bucky observe. "She's got a whole different style." Steve laughed harder, and I heard them walk away, Tony complaining about something else.
The next morning is a meeting to discuss the investigation after the mission. When Tony walks in, his new facial decoration is missing. He scowls at me. I smile cheerily. Nick calls us to order. The investigation of the site turned up some interesting information; namely, that the hillside that had collapsed had been mined with vials of the genetically modified diseases. He shows a graphic of the action which showed how Night Terror had herded the team toward the hillside. It was a very nice trap.
"The study on the microbes continues," Nick tells us. "It's difficult because they seem to be dying faster than normal ones would. It's speculated that the manipulation has also made them more fragile once they have a brief burst of hypervirulant effect. Last night, Namitar died. The preliminary autopsy indicates that he killed himself. He was a carrier, and the medical staff had determined that he had dozens of diseases in him: typhoid, typhus, measles, whooping cough, influenza, TB, leprosy, Ebola, Marburg, scarlet fever, yellow fever, even Zika. He probably isolated those diseases in order to infect you all. He apparently managed to make them go active in himself and he died quickly although not painlessly. The guards are under surveillance to make sure they weren't infected. They'll have the corpse cremated as soon as possible." He sighed. "Natasha is heading up our efforts to find the mysterious Smith that hired Night Terror as well as to locate the missing two members."
After a few questions, Nick closes the meeting and asks me to stay. The others file out, looking curiously between the two of us. They don't go far. I can see them at one end of the hallway because the conference room's wall to the hallway is glass. They think they're so smooth, but they're so wrong.
"I need to know if you're going to stay with the team," Nick says. "If you don't want to, Tony says you still have a job at Avenger Tech if you want. But I need to know. Your uncertainty is affecting my team." His words felt like a slap, and I couldn't help the gasp. I was affecting his team, which meant that I wasn't on his team.
"Then I quit," I managed to say, standing. "Wouldn't want to distract your team." When I left the room, I went the other way and down the back stairs. I hit my room for my purse, and the dogs and I went to the garage.
When I got back after dark, I stopped by the workshop and retrieved a few things, then went to my room. I didn't have enough luggage for my clothes, but I had stopped by a store and picked up a box of Glad bags with stretchy technology. I'd phoned the store where my suits were being altered and notified that my address was changing and I'd let them know where to send them; it didn't matter much because they wouldn't be ready for a couple of weeks anyway. Then I'd left voicemail for Foggy, asking him to set up a trust for Peter with the money from the bequest and make it look like a scholarship. He'd called me right back and we'd talked about it; he liked the idea of a trust much more and said he'd get to work on it. I felt relieved. That way, no matter where I went, I could be assured that Peter would get his education and have something to live on when he graduated. I thought he'd want to stay in New York, and rents there are dreadful, starting salaries low. He'd need privacy for his crime-fighting, which meant no roommates.
I put my clothes on the bed along with everything I wanted to take with me. Aside from the little table from Austria, I didn't care about the furniture. It would be easier to buy new furniture for my new living situation when I found it, anyway. I rounded up my shoes, the little I had for hobbies--I found remnants of my foray into jewelry, the extra garnets I'd bought when making Sif's torc in case I broke any while mounting them. I wrote a short note to Loki explaining the situation and had sweet little Torburn go deliver it. I wrote another note to Thor, telling him I was leaving, I wouldn't need protection any longer, and asking him to keep the dogs, and had wonderful Sigurd deliver that one. Then I started stuffing clothing into the bags. I didn't have as much stuff as I thought, packing my overnight bag at the same time. I double-checked drawers and the bathroom, and surveyed the load. I thought I could get it out to my car in a couple of loads.
The door opened, and the dogs padded in. The note from Loki thanked me for my kindness to him and said he'd try to behave. I snorted. The note from Thor said essentially that they were my dogs and I was stuck with them. I smiled, a little watery, then got myself under control.
I came back for the second load, and the door opened behind me. I frowned; the dogs were already with me. It was Steve, and he drew me into a tight hug, one hand smoothing my hair. I could hear his heart beating. "He didn't mean that the way it sounded, Emma," he said after a moment. "We tried to get him to hold off asking. Bucky said if you were pushed you'd quit, but Fury doesn't like like anything disturbing his calm."
"He's careful with what he says," I said dully. "He meant it."
"Not like you weren't part of the team too," he argued, and I shook my head.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
"Dunno yet. Maybe open a dog grooming business."
Before Steve could say anything, another person came through the door and made it a group hug. Then Tony stepped back and held out a stack of papers. "Read these," he said impatiently. "There's an offer from Avengers Tech." He held out another. 'Stark Tech. And an offer to be my PA."
"I am not working for you, Tony," I said firmly.
"I can change as a boss. I've been shown the error of my ways. Plus I can't push you around. Do you want to get into manufacturing razors? Because we could make an absolute killing." Some of the pages were still warm from the printer. "Read them," he urged me. "They're not standard employment offers."
They helped me carry out the last of my stuff. Tony restrained himself admirably, with only one quip about my quality luggage. I spent the night at a Seattle hotel with a beautiful view of the ocean. They'd balked at the dogs, but I proposed an extra fee for their behavior, and the objections vanished.
The next day I'd agreed to babysit for Laura and Clint while they went on a date. When I got to their house, the kids were disappointed that I wasn't Aunt Nat, but I planned to bribe them into happiness after their mother was gone; she was meeting Clint in town. I'd been fulfilling my earlier promise of babysitting jobs and now had only one left. They loved the dogs, though, and the dogs enjoyed the kids, so a good time was had by all and we went out for ice cream before watching a movie and bedtime. When Clint and Laura got back, they were sleeping like angels. It hadn't been easy to get them that tired.
"Nobody's happy you left," Clint said, kissing my cheek as I prepared to leave. "Promotions is having a tizzy. Wish you'd come back." I smiled and said good night.
I thought I knew the area well enough, but I went the wrong way and spent some time finding out where I was. I usually don't use GPS, preferring to figure it out myself, but in the end I had to turn it on to achieve my rescue.
The dogs were happy to go to sleep, but around three, I finally got up and started to read. Then I ate some cookies that had come with the room and thought. Finally I picked up my phone.