The Widow's Daughter ✔︎

Chapter Eleven

"Is your mum always this vague?" Tony asked me after Himara had hung up and we had moved into the living room.

I grumbled and plonked down onto a chair. "She's not my mum," I replied stonily. "And no. Agent Akiro isn't always like this. Taiga must be driving her crazy or something."

"Who's Taiga?" asked Wanda.

"My little brother," I began to say, the stopped myself. "I mean, Himara and Jeanne's youngest son." I looked around the room and at the concerned faces of all the Avengers. "Do you guys have any peanut butter?"

Thor lobbed a jar at my head with all of his immortal strength and I barely managed to catch it, swearing. "Language!" Steve chastised from where he sat. 

The entire Avengers collective groaned. Tony threw another jar at Steve's head. Wanda caught it with her powers before they could initiate Civil War 2. 

I began to spread the peanut butter over a slab of thick white bread. Natasha joined me and took her own, making herself the same snack. We shared a small smile, me feeling a little amount of warmth seeping into my heart, her green eyes, so very like Tori's were, glittering softly. 

Tori.

I grabbed my locket and ripped it off my neck, staring at the glimmering red stone. "MY GIRLFRIEND GOT SUCKED INTO A VOID BY A STONE LIKE THAT," boomed Thor. "I SAY WE DESTROY IT."

"Avengers, assemble," Tony said. "Kira, Nat, please sit. We need to discuss this matter."

"Since when did he get so posh?" I grumbled to Natasha as we made our way over to the large glass table. She laughed softly and we sat down next to each other. I felt kind-of strange that me and her were getting so close because of this crazy thing that had happened, bonding through both of our struggles and pasts. 

"OK, so... that happened," Bruce said simply. 

Steve nodded. "Yep. It did."

"It really did," Clint finished.

I put the locket in the centre of the table and everyone crowded around to look at it. "Himara said that we would find out Tori's connection to Evelina through this," I said, brushing my thumb over the dark red stone. "This is a puzzle. A code. Now we just have to crack it."

"I can give it to FRIDAY," Tony said. "He'd be able to crack it in no time."

Everyone started nodding, but I shook my head. Not liking being parted from the locket, I picked it up and held it close to my heart. I didn't think that a machine, not even a super-smart AI like FRIDAY, would be able to crack such a personal puzzle. This felt different. 

I was about to say that but Natasha spoke before me. "If this locket is truly a code left by Tori, then she obviously meant for it to be cracked by Kira, and only Kira." She looked at me. "You need to do this."

I nodded, swallowing my nervousness, the memory of me and Tori as kids making me feel stronger. I looked down at the locket in the palms of my hands, the stone in it the colour of blood like that of all the girls I had killed glittering up at me like an eye, as if goading me. I breathed in, and out, noticing every little detail for what seemed like forever.

And the answer came whizzing into my brain.

"It's ASCII," I said, and as soon as I'd heard it, I'd known that it was true. I heard Bruce let out a breath and gave him a weak smile. "It's a simple computer code similar to binary, but instead of using ones and zeros, it uses the numbers 1-256." I ran my finger down the dark metal plating where I could see clear numbers printed on it. "Basically just numbers that can be translated into other numbers." I shut my eyes and concentrated, trying to remember what each of the numbers meant, finally understanding and saying, "they're coordinates."

"Coordinates for what?" Clint breathed.

"43.049503° N, 43.027393° E," I said, certain it was true.

Tony entered the numbers into his phone and gasped when he found the result. "It's Mount Gestola, in Russia," he said. "Do you think..." he broke off, shaking his head.

"...That it's where Tori is?" I finished and nodded. "Yes. I do."

I felt a hand take mine. It was Natasha. She grinned at me and ruffled my hair. "Smart kid," she said.

I beamed at her and clenched the locket between my fists, watching as a hologram of a massive snowy mountain somewhere in the Russian Alps popped up on the table. Tony dragged it around and I saw a red flashing light hover over the peak, saying ERROR 404 where there should have been snow. "What does that mean?"  Clint wondered. But I knew, the newly resurfaced memories of seeing similar things bouncing around in my head.

"It means," I said with certainty, "That Ivan has a base there. And Tori is in that base, and so we're going to find her." I looked at Natasha. "And bring her home."