The Fall

30. Excellent work.

JUNE 30, 2018

The man's mobile phone vibrates on his desk; turning, he picks it up. 

"It's your first day at the Avengers compound and you already have news for me?" he asks, not bothering with pleasantries.

"Yes, sir. Réa left with Romanoff and Maximoff, so I placed several devices into her suite: three in her living room, and two in her bedroom. And Stark placed Barnes across the hall from Réa, so I even managed to do the same in his suite, since he was out with Rogers." They pause. "Honestly, I was lucky to have the opportunity to place them; Stark had to do a reboot on F.R.I.D.A.Y.—his A.I system, which, in addition to being a personal assistant of sorts, is also responsible for the compound—and that gave me the chance to set them up."

"You said you were lucky...I'm assuming this A.I. reboot is not a typical occurrence?"

"No, sir," the source responds. "Stark informed us upon our welcome tour that he'd have to reboot F.R.I.D.A.Y., and assured us this was an incredibly rare event. And as I said, the A.I. is responsible for the compound. It handles security and maintenance: that means cameras—both exterior and interior—alarm systems, motion detectors, door and window locks, biometrics, computers, heating and cooling systems, lights...pretty much everything. That means that all of the technology and all of the security measures become nonfunctional during a full reboot."

"That information will be useful later." The man pauses. "Excellent work," he says before he hangs up.

He swivels his chair, turning back to the other figure in the room. "I suppose you heard all of that."

"Yes."

"So we wi—"

"Yes. We will continue with the plan. If there is a threat to those that Réalta cares about, she will do anything to protect them. This means that you will need to identify those individuals, then report back to me." With that statement, the other leaves.

'Ass,' the man thinks before turning to his computer. 'Now let me see how well my source did with these devices.'

After several clicks and button-presses, the footage from all ten devices appears as a ten-way split screen. Two of the screens show different angles of Barnes unpacking; clicking one of those screens, the man unmutes the audio to make sure it picks up. He hears Barnes's footsteps along with the sliding of drawers and the rattling of hangers. He checks the audio on the other as well, before backing out to the split screen. He notices that Réa's suite is empty and quiet, and is a bit disappointed; he'd hoped to at least get a glimpse of her.

'Oh well. Later,' he thinks.

There's a knock on his door. "Come in."

"Sir," an operative enters. "You're needed in Sector Three."

'It's always something.' With a sigh, he strides from his office.