Metallic Lights {Metallic Charms Book #3}

Chapter 30: Audio Threats

Chapter 30: Audio Threats

~~~~~~~~~~~{Starlie’s Point of View}~~~~~~~~~~~

 

 “Look,” Clint said in a hushed tone as we walked through the lobby with Danielle closely in front of us. “I know you don’t necessarily get along with other people, but you have to at least try. She says she knows something about Steve’s death-”
“But he’s not dead!” I protested. “He’s alive and well.”
“But whoever did this, obviously doesn’t know that.” Clint replied in annoyance, as if it were some kind of general knowledge. I rolled my eyes and he pinched his nose in frustration. “Okay, I’ll go get her checked out by Bruce and the others, you go show this to Fury. That way, we don’t have to add another name to your victim list. Got it?”
“Got it.” I repeated, taking the black box off of him as he jogged to catch up with Brandt and escorted her down the hall for security checks.

The elevator up to Fury’s office was, luckily, a private one –thanks to his paranoia about people wanting to kill him. Which, I guess, couldn’t really be seen as paranoia any longer since somebody had a hit on Steve –who was to say who was next? It could be any one of us.

“Come in, Banner.” Fury called before I even knocked on his door. He probably saw me coming –he had all the security camera footage feeding up to his room, live. There was nothing this guy missed.

“Director, Barton and I –we found something.” I said, placing the black box onto his desk. It landed with a dull and heavy thud, and dusty debris poofed into the air like a mushroom cloud. I waved my hand in front of my face trying not to breathe it in –there had been reports of asbestos having been in that building.

“Have you gone through it?” He asked.
“No, sir.” I replied.  “It seems we may have to watch or listening to a recording. Its like one of the black box devices found on planes that help solve crashes.”

Fury pulled out a cable from one of the many draw in his desk and checked to see if it fit into the port on the box. The first several cables were nowhere near being able to fit. But the ninth one, that one slid into the port perfectly and Fury hooked it up to his computer. It took a few moments to load up, but soon there was a black screen, and a thickly accented voice echoed throughout the room.

“Director Fury, and colleagues, you have my deepest condolences.” The male voice said, “Captain America was a great –no, a good- man. But his sacrifice was necessary. Soon, the world will be rid of the vermin who have called this Earth home for millennia. There will be a new era of strength. And it will last for aeons. It will start with ‘history will repeat, reap the Earth of what it’s worth. Evil rise, Yule Tidings pulverised.’ Over the next few months, more bombs will go off. More wars will start. More lives will end. To stop this, you must hand over the girl. You must leave her in Chicago, she will be safe there. If you do not do this within the fortnight, another Avenger will die. Your choice, Director Fury. The girl, or Hawkeye –or will it be the Black Widow? Maybe even the infamous Iron Man. Tick Tock.” The voice dropped off with the gloomy prophecy ringing in mine and the Director’s ears. The screen flickered and a five second video of Noel escaping from the prison she’d been held in for the first month or so of her being on Earth came up.

“How the hell did they get a hold of that?” I exclaimed. “We have a security breech!”
Fury leaned back in his chair and rubbed his hand over his chin and mouth, trying to figure out what to do. “That prophecy...”
“Is about the end of the year.” I said, giving him the answer the Avengers had discussed at length the moment we’d gotten it. “At Christmas. Yule is Christmas in Norse –or something-, Thor told us. We don’t need to worry about it for months. Right now we have a mole.”
“Banner, we do not have a mole.” He said coldly. “A day or so before the blast, we detected a breech in our network, so that must have been them taking that file. We’ve been searching for them ever since. We have nothing.” He straightened up again and safely, carefully, unplugged the black box. “That prophecy –or whatever it is- how did he know about it? Is it common knowledge, is it written down somewhere? Something tells me you’re all wrong about what its all about. Ask Thor about it, perhaps there’s something you missed.”

A few moments of silence passed over the pair of us. We both stared at the black box for a little while, letting everything sink in. Whoever this was, thought that Steve Rogers was dead. It had to stay that way or he would just try and kill him again.
He knew about the prophecy which meant that he had a far reach over the world. Possibly spies.
He knew about Noel, and probably knew what she could do otherwise he wouldn’t be after her.
He was going to kill more Avengers unless we handed her over –just dropped her into Chicago and ran like we were knick-knockers on Halloween.

“Why don’t we just give her up?” I asked. “She betrayed the agency. She’s a danger to everybody here. If we told her about this, she would go.”
“We’re not going to show her this.” Fury snapped. “She can’t be trusted yet, and while this concerns her, I do not want another agent dying. There have already been eleven this week.”
“But she’s not an agent!” I protested. “She’s on probation!”

I realised I’d gone too far when Fury snapped his face up to look at me. His one good eye glared through me like I was a ghost. It was as if he could incinerate me with his mind if he wished it hard enough –and I wouldn’t have put it past him. I stepped back and away from Director Fury’s desk, away from the possible weapons he could use against me if he got mad enough to want to break something.

I didn’t know if the rumours about him were true, but there was one currently floating around that he’d gotten so mad once, he’d broken the Secretary of Defence’s arm.

And since the Secretary of Defence currently had a broken arm, I wasn’t taking any chances.

“That’s enough for today, Agent Banner.” He said in a scarily quiet and calm voice. “I hear you have a new contact. It’s best you make her feel welcome. The team already seem to like her.” His eyes flickered to a screen showing footage from the second floor cafeteria. All the Avengers –bar Natasha and Steve- and Noel were sitting around Danielle Brandt and Clint Barton talking about something, using animated gestures and throwing their heads back to laugh. Every now and then, they’d all look a bit sad, like they were missing someone. But it was just an act for Brandt, to make her think that Steve was truly dead.