Frostbite: The Time In Between// Book 6 of the Frostbite Series

Chapter 8

Tony sat in the living room slouched deeply into the armchair that faced the TV, his fingers pressed to his mouth as he stared at the screen, his shoulders tense.

"Tony," I said, leaning against the wall with a bowl of cereal.

Tony jumped at the sound of my voice, he glanced at me, grabbed the remote, turned off the mute button and rewound the footage.

"New York's 'Spider Man' made an unexpected appearance in Washington, D.C yesterday afternoon at the Washington Monument when an elevator malfunction threatened the lives of touring high school students," a female newscaster spoke. My mouth dropped open with shock and I walked further into the living room. "Spider Man was able to save all of the students from a deadly fall. The New York hero disappeared from the scene shortly after."

"Holy shit," I muttered.

"He could have gotten himself killed." Tony pointed at the screen.

"Yeah, but he did save those high school students-" I began.

"He also put his identity at risk, he's putting a lot at risk- what was he thinking?"

"Tony," I spoke softly, putting my hand on his shoulder. "Take a breath, you're stressing yourself out. Yeah, Peter acted out of line, but if he hadn't been there those students would have died."

"Those were his own classmates." Tony looked up at me.

"Oh, I guess that is really out of line." I looked back at the screen. "Still, he saved lives."

"You seem to have gotten a hold of yourself since the last time I saw you," Tony deduced. "Did you do some meditation with Clint?"

"Yes, actually," I replied, walking around the arm chair and sitting on the couch. "Just like SHIELD training again. Clint really took the position of my S.O to the max."

"How is he doing?" Tony shifted in his seat to face me.

"He's good," I imagined. "Still pissed at you."

Clint and I still called each other so that much was true.

"I thought so." Tony nodded.

Our conversation was cut short when a beeping came from the conference room. We had a call. Tony stood up headed towards the glassed in room, tapped the key pad on the table, and Secretary Ross appeared as a hologram.

"Great," I muttered.

I turned away from the two of them to avoid any sort of socialization with Ross, but Tony called my name.

"Ellie." I turned to look at him, giving a visible expression of 'I don't care'. "He has a mission for us."
Well, now I do care.

I followed Tony into the conference room. Secretary Ross watched as I sat down and waited till Tony was seated before he began.

"You both know I wouldn't be calling you in if this was not of utmost importance." He gave a wry smile. "One week ago we received an anonymous message containing death threats and threats to steal government information. We were able to trace that message to its sender's location in the New York subway systems."