Emma Joan Tallis

chapter thirty-eight: Secrets

"If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself."
~ George Orwell

~*~

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Was the first thing Steve asked when we walked into Fury's office.

"Hello, Nick," I said to him. "How are you today?"

"Fine, Agent Tallis. Thank you for asking," Fury said before giving Steve the stink-eye. "I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission than yours."

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share," Steve shot back.

"I'm not obliged to do anything," Fury shot back.

"Those hostages could've died, Nick."

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen," Fury explained.

"Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around and shooting guns," Steve growled.

"The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye."

"That sounds like an interesting story," I mused.

"Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything," Fury said.

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own," Steve said firmly. "She dragged Emma along with her, I could've used her help."

"It's called compartmentalization," Fury said smartly. "Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all."

"Except you," Steve said.

"You're wrong about me. I do share," Fury said as he walked into an elevator. "I'm nice like that."

"Nice isn't a word I would use to describe you, Fury," I muttered sarcastically as we followed him into the elevator.

"Insight bay," Fury said instead of answering me.

"Agent Tallis and Captain Rogers do not have clearance for Project Insight," the computer replied.

"Director override, Fury, Nicholas J."

"Confirmed."

"You know, they used to play music," Steve said as awkward silence descended upon the group.

"Yeah," Fury agreed. "My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My granddad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say 'hi', people would say hi back. Time went on, neighborhood got rougher. He'd say 'Hi', they'd say, 'Keep on steppin'. Granddad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter."

"Did he ever get mugged?" Steve asked.

"Every week some punk would say, 'What's in the bag?'"

"What did he do?" I asked curiously.

"He'd show 'em. Bunch of crumpled ones and loaded .22 Magnum," Fury said with a smile. "Granddad loved people. But he didn't trust them very much."

"Holy Hannah," I muttered when we saw the giant Helicarriers.

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22."

"You think?" I asked. "And I thought the battle of Cannae was impressive."

"This is Project Insight. Three next-generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites," Fury said.

"Launched from the Lemurian Star," Steve concluded.

"Once we get them in the air they never need to come down," Fury said. "Continuous suborbital flight courtesy of our new repulsor engines."

"Stark?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines," Fury admitted. "These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."

"I thought the punishment usually came after the crime," Steve said.

"We can't afford to wait that long."

"Who's we?" I questioned.

"After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis," Fury explained. "For once we're way ahead of the curve."

"By holding a gun at everyone on Earth and calling it protection," Steve said.

"You know, I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff," Fury reminded, and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well," Steve said.

"But we did it so the people could be free," I told Fury with a glare.

"This isn't freedom, this is fear," Steve said.

"SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it to be. It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program, Cap."

"Don't hold your breath."