Scars and Origins

Chapter 11: The Truth Will Out

Chapter 11: The Truth Will Out

"There! The Good Bean," Natasha pointed out, the clock reading 12:59. Clint turned right into the small shopping center, and they pulled up next to the SUV the director was idling in. Rolling down her window, Romanoff greeted Fury with a nod. 

"Security cameras in this area have been mysteriously scrambled. Glad you figured out which target I meant. I was a little vague," Fury said, turning off his engine and exiting the vehicle. He held the door open for Natasha as she climbed out, balancing on her good foot.

"Well it was fairly obvious that you didn't want us to fly back to Canada," Clint joked, collecting Natasha's crutches and passing them to her. He donned a pair of dark sunglasses and a hat to help hide his bruised face.

Like a true gentleman, Fury led them into the coffee shop, holding the door as Natasha swung by. Clint offered to wait in line to order coffee, knowing both his associates' typical orders. His boss likes a strong, black coffee, while Natasha was more of an iced coffee fan. And for Clint, a blended mocha.

While Hawkeye flew the coop for the caffeine his tired eyes desperately needed, Natasha broke out the laptop and reopened the contents of the flashdrive. She split the screen between the list of aliases and the security camera footage of Morse driving down the road the day of the email. Lastly, she placed the screen capture of the library's computer sign in on the keyboard, and slid it to Fury. He took a minute or two to review the evidence, and Barton approached with their drinks.

"Clearly, Agent Morse is your primary suspect here, but you mentioned Coulson, too. How do you think he plays into this," Fury questioned. Clint sat next to Natasha, sliding the beverages around to each person.

Clint began, "Well to answer that, we need to ask you something first. Did you ask Coulson to call Natasha for a welfare check yesterday?" Fury scoffed in response.

"No, I was called to Norfolk for a meeting with the Lieutenant of the Navy. I was 30,000 feet in the air that morning, then I spent the rest of the day on the base. Did he call you," he asked, now directing his attention to Natasha specifically. He sipped on his coffee that was the perfect temperature. Clint was practically chugging his, and the other two agents suspected he would get a brain freeze any minute. If he did, they never noticed.

"Coulson called and asked where I was, claiming you wanted to know how I was doing. And we knew there was no way you would be calling for a check up less than 24 hours later," Romanoff responded, sampling her hazelnut latte. She opened her phone up to the recent calls page, showing Coulson's phone number listed on the previous day. Fury had a concerned look on his face, since Coulson was someone he trusted deeply.

"No one is suggesting Coulson is rogue, but maybe he is being unknowingly guided by someone. Morse seems to spend an awful lot of time with him, do you know why that is," Barton inquired.

"Well, that's partially on my orders. After Morse's incident in Morocco, I asked Coulson to keep her at headquarters as much as possible. Consequently, she ended up following him around a lot," Fury concluded. STRIKE Team Delta exchanged a glance at each other, remembering the way Morocco had shaken everyone. Very rarely did a SHIELD agent fail, and when someone did under suspicious circumstances, it put the whole agency on edge. They had pieced together from hearsay that Morse's rifle had supposedly failed, but no one knew why. Her partner, Agent Jimenez, claimed he was out of ammo, too.

Beginning to dig in his pocket, Fury pulled out a still of camera footage from headquarters, showing Morse holding a rifle. A small tool was inserted into the cartridge slot. "I did some digging of my own about Morse after Morocco, and found footage of her sabotaging her own weapon. The weapon that she claimed malfunctioned and caused her target to escape. Your botched mission gave me the last piece of the puzzle that I needed to prove Morse is a rat. Her target's name was Frederic... Blanc," Fury revealed. A wave of realization washed over them.