Hello Captain (Steve Rogers)

Curtain Call

Sarah's POV

"Do you remember how to get to the dining room?" Nadia asked, turning to go.

"Yes, it's not far from here. See you soon."

Clint met Nadia leaving our rooms. He smiled when he saw me all dressed up.

"You look very beautiful, my dear." He pulled me into his arms and kissed me lightly before letting me go. "I'll change and then we can go to dinner. Did you and Nadia have a good time?"

I went into the closet to get out his suit while he stripped, not ready to see him naked. I switched back to Portuguese. "We did - it was nice to have a little girl talk. We were practicing our English, too."

"So I heard. You're getting better at it."

"Did you win at poker?" I asked, handing him his shirt first and then his pants.

He smiled at me as he did up the fasteners. "Some. Hunter is a better player." He quickly dressed and turned to me to tie his necktie. "You didn't miss much, just a lot of bragging by Hunter and our host - mostly Hunter."

"Good to know," I said, smiling at him.

Vidente was certainly trying to show off to us. A large table was covered with a pristine white tablecloth and set for the six of us. All of the men wore suits, which was interesting considering it was at least 100 degrees still.

The men continued drinking their spirits and I hoped Clint and Hunter had hard heads for the amount of liquor they were consuming. There was also wine from a nearby vineyard that Vidente owned for his own private stock. It was a refreshing change for my palate and it went well with the meal. Our glasses were filled often, and I drank a fair amount in an attempt to settle my nerves.

Following the meal, the servants showed in another player. Khan was his codename and it wasn't lost on me that all of the larger players had names that translated to 'ruler' in various languages. The only exception was our host, Vidente, whose name meant Prophet.

Khan was a handsome, Middle Eastern man who was sufficiently westernized to not openly gawk at us in our form fitting evening gowns. He was younger than I expected, closer to my age than Clint's - probably in his early twenties, with dark hair and olive skin; he was well dressed in the manner of a rich man's son, his clothes well tailored. 

Khan would bear watching if he was ruthless enough to rise to the head of his region as quickly as he had. Based on his accent, I would have said he came from Riyadh, but I didn't hear anything in his words to confirm that.

While Khan only glanced over both Bobbi and Nadia appreciatively, his eyes focused on me more than I liked to see. I'd have thought he would prefer blondes, but that apparently wasn't the case. Hunter was openly amused, Vidente watched with interest. Clint noticed it as well and his hand twitched like he was going to reach for his concealed pistol more than once. I ignored the princeling and instead focused my attention on Clint, hoping Khan would take a hint and cease watching me in a way that would get him shot sooner rather than later.

Based on the information that Shield had given us, it wasn't difficult to believe that all of these rulers were regional leaders of the Ten Rings; it made sense given the global scope of the organization.

With at least three of them coming to this meeting, I hoped to be able to enable the trackers built into the dummy parts to be able to locate each of their bases. It was going to be difficult to do while under I was observation, and there were cameras everywhere, including the bathrooms.

*   *        

After we retired to our rooms, I showered and wrapped the towel around me to dig through my suitcase to find some pajamas. Since Natasha had packed, I wasn't sure what they looked like - but I was certain they didn't resemble my comfy tank tops and shorts I wore back home. I made a frustrated noise and gave up, much to Clint's amusement when he came in from Hunter's room.