Line of Fire

2x02; heavy is the head

"...The markings on the 084 were the same as the ones you've been having me research..."

Skye's words repeated in Coulson's mind on an endless loop as he paced his office. This was, for lack of a better word, bad. A stronger word. Coulson needed something that said 'things have just gone to crap and I don't know how they could get much worse', but he was currently failing to come up with one.

Well, he needed something better to do than stand there and pace his office all day. Preferably something pertaining to the writings. Instantly, he knew where to look. Coulson stopped pacing and headed towards the Bus. There was someone there he needed to see.

Thankfully the Bus wasn't a far walk and he already knew where he would find just who he was searching for. If only he had pictures of the Obelisk to show her...

"Director Coulson!" Mara exclaimed, catching him enter the room out the corner of her eye. She jumped to her feet, nearly falling out of her chair, only for him to politely indicate for her to sit back down. "Is there something wrong, sir?"

"Nothing's wrong, don't worry," Coulson shook his head, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I was just wondering how far you've gotten with the work I've given you."

Mara made a displeased face before she could stop herself. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm afraid it's been nothing but disappointing so far," She shook her head, staring at the tablet in her hands.

The brunette picked the device up, showing Coulson the screen. On it were pictures of the mural Coulson had carved into the wall less than a week ago. Of course, Mara didn't know that. Still, Coulson felt an unwelcome twitch in his fingers upon seeing the writings. He balled his hand into a fist, hoping that would somehow stop it from shaking.

"From a linguistics standpoint, it doesn't even make sense. There are no repeating patterns to indicate some form of syntax and the symbols don't follow any known grammar rules," Mara went on, pointing to various parts of the picture as she explained. To be honest though, most of what she was saying only went over Coulson's head anyway. "From the way I see it, this isn't even a language. Director, sir, where did you even get these markings fro-"

"That's not a concern at the moment," Coulson cut her off. "And I'm sure you'll figure it out. I wouldn't have put you on this if I didn't think you were capable."

"Thank you, sir," Mara replied, her lips curling into a small smile. "For your confidence in me."

"Just keep doing what you're doing," Coulson told he, somewhat glad she didn't seem to catch the disappointment he felt. He nodded to her once and turned to walk out. However, after several steps, he turned back around to add over his shoulder, "And, hey, maybe it's some sort of code. Have you tried working with some of the base's algorithms?"

"I can certainly try," Mara grinned. "Have a nice day, Director!"

~x~

And another algorithm failed. Mara bit back a sigh and erased everything from the terminal once more. Okay, she thought as she tilted her head and rolled her eyes at the screen, so it isn't some kind of code. At least, not a code Mara knew how to break. Mara's specialty wasn't codes, it was languages. But then again, wasn't every code a language unto itself?

Maybe I should just go back to the language algorithms, Mara thought glumly. How frustrating. Mara was working so hard on this damn assignment Coulson had given her that she felt like she was going to break out into a sweat. Wait, no- Mara was actually flushing. The Bus got so damn hot sometimes. Thankfully, it still had those airplane-fan-things Mara was quickly becoming a fan of.