Chapter 12
“Hey, Cap, I’ve been thinking.”
Steve looked up as Stark came around the corner to the little sitting room off the kitchen on the communal floor.
“Do you remember me telling you about the trouble I’ve been having with the mayor?”
Trouble with the mayor? Was Stark talking about the mayor of New York? “What’d you do, now”
“What?” Steve watched confusion chase across Stark’s face before the professional neutrality that Stark always seemed to show returned. “No, nobody did anything. So, I’m guessing that you don’t remember me talking to you about the quinjet and the problems with having it land on the Tower all the time.”
“What? Stark, there’s no problem with the quinjet’s landing on the Tower. They don’t need a long runway. You should know that, that’s why you built the hanger at the top of the Tower. We need them to be available in case we need to leave immediately. We can’t all fly like you can.”
“Well, yes, there is a problem. I know that the planes can land there with no problem. But the City of New York doesn’t like it.”
“Why not?”
“Why not? Because the City of New York doesn’t like unexpected and unscheduled flights. It was fine until you and the spy twins started going on more Hydra raids. But the Mayor is starting to get more annoyed, and I can’t say I blame him. I’m not exactly thrilled to have a plane that close to the buildings all the time either. I was really planning on the hanger being more for emergency use, to get somewhere that an attack was taking place. The mayor and the city planning board agreed to emergency usage, mostly because of who we are. Not as a regular thing.”
“Well we need the plane. You’re the one that invited us all to stay here. You even put the logo on the Tower. I’m sure you’ll come up with a solution that will make the mayor happy.”
“So you’re leaving it up to me? The mayor wants it to stop, and I agree with him. I was thinking that we could build a nice compound somewhere upstate. Or maybe Long Island. Somewhere with a lot of land and no neighbors to worry about.”
“That seems a little extreme to me, Stark. I’m sure the mayor will be reasonable if you just explain why we need to have the jet in the city.”
“I really don’t think he’s going to change his mind, Cap.”
“You just need to try harder, Stark. Most people will be reasonable if you just explain yourself clearly. I’ve never had a problem I couldn’t resolve by talking with someone.”
“Uh, huh.”
“Do you want me to talk with the mayor?”
Steve looked up from his lists and papers that he had been going through at Stark’s long pause. Stark was just looking at him, but Steve couldn’t interpret his expressions. He itched to draw it, as sometimes that helped him when he couldn’t understand Stark.
“…Uh, sure. You go talk with the mayor. I’ll start looking into land, just in case.”
“It’s fine. I’ll deal with it. You don’t have to worry about it anymore.”
“It’s always good to have a back-up.”
“You’re wasting your time but do what you want.”
As Stark got back up and left; taping that earpiece that he always had in, Steve looked back down at his work. Yet one more thing that Stark was supposed to take care of that Steve was going to have to do himself. Steve was already going through the information from the Air Force about Sam’s wings. The contacts that he had gotten from Stark and Colonel Rhodes had been very unhelpful. Now Steve was going to have to clean up Stark’s mess with the city’s mayor.