Interlude SHIELD: Clint Barton

Location: Unknown

Date: April 25 2008

When Clint read the mission file, his bullshit meter went off the charts with the tenth wave alert. It was bad, like deadly bad. Not only is he going after, already famous in their circles, the Black Widow, but apparently he knows when, where and what she will be.

Did he finally piss off someone enough to sell him out? In moments like that, he was happy that he made his home address off the book. Nobody, except Fury, should and would know where his family lives.

Hm, what if someone sold out the Widow? Could it be? Probably.

Unless someone needs her to "disappear" and what is a better way to do that than get her "deceased" by SHIELD? Especially if he is the one who does that. He has a reputation no less fearless than her. Some might even believe it happened.

Possibilities, possibilities. What if he can recruit her? If someone sold her out, why not?

Maybe.

But first, he is going to look under and then under the under and maybe then only he will shoot or recruit.

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His suspicions about this mission were confirmed, when supposedly Black Widow bought a flight ticket to Pakistan.

Instead of preparing for her own mission target (it was stated in intel that she is after Ukrainian businessmen - Anatoli Burlakov), she was skipping the country altogether. He just had enough time to hop on the same plane.

Quick contact with local airport security forces allowed him to get passport information: Natalia Romanova, a citizen of the USA.

The follow-up request for a personal file was quite surprising: she was born in Los Angeles, dropped out of the USC, and opened a private investigation practice. Taxes records. Parking tickets. Not so stellar credit history. Two years ago she paid out all credits; moved to a more respectable neighbourhood - Brentwood and bought a motorcycle - a Ducati 999 S, red paint.

It did not match with the information in his mission file. Is it another cover story that SHIELD missed? If it is, then it is either a masterpiece or just a shitty one. You don't suddenly pay out all your credits out of nowhere if you're trying to stay under the radar. You don't buy an expensive motorcycle that costs nearly six months' salary, either.

Unless you know what your enemy knows and they know what you know and you play that. Was it enough of the "know know" this time?

When they landed, she disappeared as soon as she left the airport. He tried, really tried his best, but whenever he caught the lead on her, it was already cold.

It did not go the way he expected.

"Not at all, Sir."

"Yes, Sir."

He has no other options, except to report mission failure and return to the US.

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When he was on his way home, already savouring the moment of seeing his wife and kids, he got a call: his target unexpectedly reappeared in Pakistan and was now en route to Los Angeles.

He doubted they would see her again anytime soon, especially using an alias that had been compromised, but here is she. He put her name on alert watchlist just for precaution and by protocol, really not hoping to have any results.

He had to rush to the closest airport to get to LA on time. 

On the way there, he read all that he could find on her. He needed anything to pin her down, to prove her connection to the Red Room. Maybe he missed something.

Four hours came and went and he still found nothing.

Even the team he dispatched to investigate her residential address returned without success. Well, technically, they did come back alive - it was already a success in the case of Black Widow. They even brought a twenty-page report and several gigabytes of video and pictures, but it didn't aid him in the slightest.

He would prefer if there would be some shooting with maybe dead bodies, preferably Rumlow's body in the mix. That would be too much to ask, right?

Anyway, He had nothing. The longer he looked at it the more he thought that someone was making fools out of SHIELD. The question is who?

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He got nothing after interrogating her either, it did not even surprise him by now. 

If it is her cover and not her real life, it is done masterfully. What really disturbs him is her ability to push his buttons, it is like she knows all his little ticks and knows how to get under his skin, but he couldn't pin it down to anything. Maybe they just don't mix well? He hates fucking bubble gums.

Even before a report from the cab driver, that they arranged from their local agent's pool, arrived he knew that nothing would come out of it.

He looked at the file again and pulled details on the transaction that happened two years ago: Apparently, she met Stark in Las Vegas back then and he paid her for some services that she did as PI.

She even paid taxes on that.

Then it was like a light bubble. She disappeared in Pakistan, which is next to Afghanistan. And a few days later Stark fucking drove into the US base all by himself, claiming he escaped his captors.

Finally something! Director Fury needs to know it ASAP.

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