Chapter 64
Avengers Tower
September 2011
“We’re gonna fake her death,” Bruce said.
Steve blinked. “Ah… why?”
“Somebody’s trying to kill her,” Darcy said, twirling her pen around her fingers. Bruce saw Loki tracking the movement. Tracking her. “If they think they’ve succeeded, they’ll drop their guard. Hopefully.”
“What about Sharon?” Maria asked. “She’ll tell Fury Bruce and the SHIELD researchers treated me in the tower clinic.”
“Clinic,” Tony muttered. “She calls a state-of-the-art private hospital a clinic.”
“Sharon trusted Steve enough to get you here,” Darcy said, ignoring Tony. “But she’s gone already, back to SHIELD. We’ll dupe her like everyone else.”
“Cold,” Jane said quietly.
Darcy looked at her friend. Something flashed between them. “Necessary.”
Jane nodded and went back to her tablet. That easily.
“And how are you going to fake my death?” Maria asked. So logical, even wounded and barely mobile, eyes glazed by drugs. Going one step at a time through the whole plan.
Bruce twisted his hands together beneath the countertop. He was standing behind the granite because it made him feel more secure, separated from the situation, and he needed that illusion of control. The other guy was raging and furious at this transgression, this attack on someone Bruce considered colleague/ally/friend, and Bruce felt dangerously close to the edge.
“An experimental drug to drastically lower heart rate and core temperature but keep the body’s essential functions alive,” he said. This was good. This was cold hard science; this was something he was good at, could focus on, and still be productive. It was a life raft and it would keep him afloat. “It’s serious, but you’re in no real danger now. We’ll fake a complication. Internal bleeding… that’s plausible. We inject you tonight. I’ll dose you enough for twenty hours. More than that and you risk not coming back. Then it’s a simple matter of rushing Maria’s “body” down to the tower clinic. They’ll confirm she’s dead, put her in a body bag, and send her over to the morgue. Hardest part to fake will be rigor mortis.”
“I’ve got myself down for cremation on SHIELD files,” Maria said.
Clint met her eyes. “So we do a body swap at the crematorium, and I start planning a memorial service for you.”
Maria nodded.
“I can find a Jane Doe who looks more or less the same for the swap,” Bruce added. “I’ve got friends at the cadaver labs at a couple universities in the area.”
“Clint, you can handle the swap?” Darcy asked.
Clint frowned. “I’d prefer a partner. It’s kind of hard to fight and disable security cams while carrying a dead body.”
“I’ll go with him.”
Everyone stared at Natasha.
She lifted her chin and looked between them. Surety gleamed in every line of her posture. “We’ve been partners for years. No offense meant, but Steve and Tony, you’re our other fighters and you are not great at subtlety.”
“Hey,” Tony said, offended. “I can be subtle.”
“Like that one time we found you in a depressed funk, bloody and bruised, eating donuts on top of the donut shop in your Iron Man suit? Subtle like that?” Natasha shot back.
Darcy snorted. “Please tell me you have pictures of that glorious moment,” she said.
“Absolutely,” Tony said. “They’re all in my file. You can read them as soon as you break the four levels of encryption and bypass JARVIS’ mainframe.”
“I’ll get there,” Darcy said with supreme confidence.
Steve rubbed his temples. “So… we’re doing this?”
“Guess so,” Clint said, looking perfectly content.
“I’ll get on the phone,” Bruce said.
“Mr. Rogers, there is a call coming for you from a classified number,” JARVIS broke in.
Steve patted his pockets. “My phone…”
“Here you go, Grandpa,” Darcy said, and passed over her own. “JARVIS, can you reroute it?”
“Consider it done,” JARVIS said. Seconds later, Darcy’s phone began to ring.
Steve stared at the screen for a moment, then pressed Accept on the screen, and put it on speaker.
“Captain Rogers?”
“Rumlow?” Steve asked, frowning.
Maria lifted her head. Bruce realized that at some point she and Clint had ended up holding hands.
Tony reached for a viewscreen folded up near the ceiling, pulled it down, and started typing.
“Yeah, it’s me. You’re wanted at headquarters.”
“The Triskelion? I’m in New York,” Steve said.
Tony swiveled the screen to face the team, and they saw a mug shot of a SHIELD agent. Hard-faced, dark-haired, with an impressive list of successful missions. One of Fury’s top agents. Maria’s and Clint’s faces tightened.
“I didn’t make the call,” Rumlow said.
“Who did?”
“Pierce and Fury.”
“Of course they did,” Steve muttered. “I’ll be there in a couple of hours.”
“See you then,” Rumlow said, and hung up.
“You’ve worked with Rumlow?” Tony asked.
Steve shrugged. “We’ve met a few times around SHIELD headquarters. Scuttlebutt had it he was going to be assigned a task force under me, but then we kind of broke with Fury, so… that’s probably not going to happen.”
Maria frowned.
“And Pierce?” Bruce asked. He really needed to pay more attention to people.
Or he could be like Jane. He glanced over and saw that, as usual, she was not paying attention, her thoughts still immersed in the tablet that she was furiously typing away on.
“Head of SHIELD, member of the World Security Council,” Maria said. “Friend of Fury’s. Be careful, Steve. Rumlow…”
Tony angled his head toward Maria. “What do you know about Rumlow?” he asked.
“Nothing concrete,” Maria said. “But you know I wouldn’t say anything if I wasn’t sure.”
“I have good instincts,” Clint added. “And I agree. Don’t trust him.”
Steve looked troubled. “This should be fun,” he muttered.
“I’ll have a jet prepped,” Tony said, and headed for the elevators.