Chapter 4
Natasha stood between the open French doors that lead to what Mrs. Coulson called the library. She was not going to leave Clint alone in case Carina was hiding somewhere in the house. She left the searching of the ostentatious house to the rest of the team. She failed to hide her startle response when Mrs. Coulson addressed her.
"Young lady," Mrs. Coulson asked, "do you intend to hover there for your entire stay?"
Clint couldn't stop laughing even though Mrs. Coulson was eyeing him with disapproval and Natasha's eyebrow was raised to a dangerous height. Once he got himself under control, he whispered something into Jamie's ear before he lifted the little boy off of his knee and lowered him to stand on the floor.
Natasha was pretty sure that a little boy running toward her and yelling "Auntie Tasha" was probably the last thing she expected to happen today.
"Come on, Auntie Tasha," Clint said, "cop a squat."
Natasha took Jamie's offered hand and let him lead her to sit next to Clint. Once she was seated on the sofa next to Clint, Jamie climbed onto her lap and wrapped his arms around her neck.
"Clint," Mrs. Coulson asked, "are you going to introduce the young lady?"
"Mrs. Coulson," Clint said, "this is Agent Natasha Romanov, Tasha this is Phil's mother Eleanor."
"It's nice to meet you, Agent Romanov," Mrs. Coulson said. "Now are one of you going to explain all this?"
"Agent Barton," Natasha said, "is in command of this operation, ma'am."
"Then I suppose Agent Barton should be the one to explain," Mrs. Coulson said.
"Carina's student," Clint said, "the one she talked about over dinner, turned out to be a Russian spy. We have reason to believe that Carina is her handler."
"You can't be serious," Mrs. Coulson said.
"Deadly," Natasha said.
"This student tried to kill Phillip?" Mrs. Coulson asked.
"No," Natasha said, "she tried to kill Clint."
Jamie tumbled over Natasha and onto Clint's lap. "Are you okay, Uncle Clint?"
"I'm fine," Clint said, "Phil and Tasha had my back."
"And you think Carina has something to do with all this?" Eleanor asked.
"That is the working theory," Natasha said.
"Did Phil tell you that Carina married Edward almost five years ago?" Eleanor asked. "That was before Clint even met Phillip."
"That's the strange part," Clint said. "If Carina's mission was to get to Phil then why send her asset to kill me? We've been asking ourselves that."
"We think that somewhere along the way the mission changed," Natasha said. "What we don't know is why."
"Excuse me, Agent Barton," Agent Davidson said.
"She's not here," Clint said.
"It doesn't look that way, sir," Agent Davidson said. "The rest of the team is finishing-up clearing the house, just in case. I think you need to see this, though."
Clint stood-up and handed Jamie to Natasha. "What did you find?" he asked.
"Her phone and some letters," Agent Davidson said, handing the phone and the pile of papers to Clint.
"This should be interesting," Clint said.