The captured HYDRA agent, whose mask had been removed to show a brunette woman, shook her head. “I'm not telling you anything! You will get no information from me about your agent....or the diary we are searching for!” Her eyes widened as she realized what she had revealed.
Bobbi smiled and shook her head. Could this woman be any more stupid? “Real smart there, dumbass; lucky for you we knew you were searching for the diary. Now…where is Laura Brown? And don't think about lying. You saw what happened to your friends face back in Bombay. Diamondback there doesn't like liars.”
Diamondback nodded, pulling a few diamonds from her earring menacingly. “I hate liars and politicians...which amount to the same thing.”
Elektra snorted. “There are many ways to kill someone, sweetheart, and unfortunately for you I know all of them!” She took a small knife from her boot and grinned. “What will it be...slow and methodical, or quick and messy?”
“T-t-t-they took her to the Immortal Head.” the woman finally stuttered out nervously.
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#3
DEC 11 |
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“...Is Good for the Gander”
Now
Darkness…that was all Laura Brown saw as she emerged from her unconsciousness. The last thing she remembered was the interrogation. Viper was a formidable foe but she had not broken Laura. Finally, after several hours of grueling interrogation, Viper had given up in frustration. Shortly after Viper had left the room, Laura had been knocked out, only to wake up here, in a different room all together.
She was not chained, only bound, and neither was she gagged. It was hot in the room she was in and the air was flat and tepid like a summer day in Los Angeles. Small beads of sweat were forming on her brow and for a moment Laura was about to give into self pity, but she resisted the urge and focused once more on her task.
Unfortunately there was not much in the room to help her. No conveniently placed files or knives, like in the books she'd read as a child. “Think, Laura” she commanded herself mentally. “What would Nancy Drew do?” Nancy Drew had been her childhood hero; the teenage detective always found herself in one scrape or another and she always got herself out of it. However, Nancy Drew was fictional and this situation was entirely real.
Standing up would provide her with a better view of the room but how to get up? She sat in thought for a moment before she threw out trying to stand up. Her arms had been bound in front of her and she smiled in relief. Her hands were bound with zip ties…no one should ever bind people with like she was now using zip ties. Raising her hands above her head, she touched her palms together and then quickly brought them down on her head and, with a sharp hiss of pain the tie broke with only some deep bruising her wrists.
Now to her legs; with her arms free she unlaced both of the black boots she had been wearing. It was amazing to Laura that people often overlooked shoestrings or boot laces. Within a few minutes she had cut through the zip ties binding her feet. After she re-laced her boots, the next step would be to escape from the room she was in...
Bobbi had an errand to run before the team left. It was important to her and, while Sharon had been irritated, Diamondback had understood, which had only irritated Sharon more. Nevertheless, Bobbi had to do this. She had wrapped the warrior she'd bought in Bombay carefully. It did look a lot like a lot like Jack, enough to be his twin. Jack had been her best friend in the Avengers West Coast team; they had shared things far more deeply than people realized. They had never been intimate, both of them respected her marriage vows to much to do that, but it had been an emotional affair, especially after her rape. Jack had understood her in ways Clint couldn't and Bobbi missed him terribly.
She had walked to the Federal Express office, she dared not risk the internal mail. Fury certainly had it watched. Bobbi was wearing a long skirt of light blue, her high heeled shoes barely peeped out underneath the hem of the skirt and she wore a long sleeved white blouse. Her scars were an embarrassment to her, but also a reminder of what she had lost. Entering the office, she took her Gucci sunglasses and put them on top of her blond head. Then she walked over to the farthest counter, away from the crowd and approached its smiling elderly receptionist.
“Hello Fern,” she said to the blue haired woman after glancing briefly at the name tag the woman wore. “I'd like to mail this package. My problem is I do not know the recipients address. He's an old friend but we lost contact...” Why was she telling this complete stranger her entire life story? She hated when other people did that. Still, it felt good and maybe Fern knew how to get the package to Jack.
“I'll try to help if I can honey.” Fern said understandingly. “What is the recipient’s name?” She was typing in on a computer screen, likely a Google search or something.
“Jack....John, his name is John Walker but I call him Jack.” Bobbi replied setting the package onto the counter gently. Jack was one of the few who'd called her Bobbi, a name she much preferred over Barbara.
Fern nodded crisply. “We have a listing for a John Walker. His last known address was an apartment in Los Angeles…a very upscale apartment. There is a note here about all his mail being forwarded to a P.O. Box in San Diego. That's one of the larger ports in California,” Fern said helpfully.
Bobbi nodded. “I spent a lot of time there with my former husband. California has been a second home to me.”
Fern smiled a large smile. “Well, welcome back then. We're glad to have someone as pretty as you are to brighten up the place.” She printed out the address label and stuck it on. “Would you like to include a message dear?”
Bobbi hesitated. Jack could find out she was alive if she wrote the message, but she so wanted to speak to him, even if it was this way that she took the chance. “I'll write it myself.” Bobbi picked up a pen and wrote in the space provided. “Jack, A little birdie told me that this sculpture looks exactly like you. I agreed. Please accept it with our warmest regards. Much love always....” She trailed off and looked at what she wrote. She was so lonely, even though she and Rachel were becoming fast friends, Jack had been...well...he'd been there when no one else was. “B” she signed simply. Let him figure it out if he could.
“Much love always...” Fern read aloud with a smile. “Did you love him, Miss?”
Mockingbird stared at her for a few moments, unsure of what this gift would mean for her future. “I do...God help me, but I still love Jack Walker.”
Laura was alone and, although she knew martial arts, she was not accomplished at it like Bobbi, nor was she an assassin like Elektra. She had no superhuman or mutant abilities like Diamondback or Quake. She was not even glamorous or cultured like the Contessa. What she did have was intelligence and that served her well. She knew she had to get out of the compound she had been brought to, but how?
A movement caught her eye and she whirled around, startled by the sound of approaching footsteps. She ducked into a niche in the wall that held a Coke machine and thanked whoever was watching out for her that HYDRA needed the caffeinated beverage. She'd seen this done only once and hoped she remembered how to do it. Ducking back behind the machine, she took the hair clip out of her hair. SHIELD had developed flashlights that looked like innocent items and she was thankful they had. Using the flashlight she quickly hot-wired the machine to spit out soda cans when a button was pressed.
John Irving, codename Bellerophon, had stepped out for a quick Coke break. Actually, he was a chain smoker but Viper had been insistent that no smoking occur inside the building, so he had to feed the monkey on his back in the damn parking lot. It would be fine if they were in some place warm, like Miami, but this shithole was as frigid as Jeri Ryan. Not that he had any knowledge of the smokin’ hot blonde’s womanhood, but he'd heard rumors. Besides, the old bat at home would kill him if she thought he'd even thought about a woman like Jeri Ryan
Thinking of his wife always made him need a cig even more, but first he wanted a Coke. Not that diet shit some of the women drank; who in fucking hell had caffeine free diet Coke? Why not just drink water with food coloring in it? Putting in his dollar, he grunted. He was now old enough to remember when Coke’s were fifty goddamned cents. Jesus fucking Christ…goddamned Inflation.
He pressed the red button and waited for the satisfying plop of the machine, but instead he doubled over and clutched his groin, groaning in pain as cans came shooting out of the machine. He thought it ironic, before a Sprite hit him in the head, that it was a Diet Coke that had hit him in the nuts
Minutes after hiding Laura smiled as she heard the thump thump thump of soda cans being flung at a body. Stepping out of the shadows she picked up the weapon the HYDRA agent had been carrying and, grunting with exertion, she dragged the body to a nearby closet. It was amazing how heavy unconscious bodies were. Exchanging the guard’s clothes with her own, minus the important things, she stepped into the hallway and tried to look official.
Quickly checking the clipboard she took up she found out that Bellerophon, had been assigned to guard her. Some job he'd done. Now that she'd solved the problem of being able to move freely, she needed to find a way out.
While Laura was trying to find a way out, Femme Force was trying to find a way IN. They had scanned the complex, which was in a bustling part of Lahore, Pakistan. Civilians complicated matters but the team was trying to make an entry with as little collateral damage as possible.
“You’re telling me HYDRA has a base here, minutes from the President's office, and no one knew?' Elektra asked incredulously. “Sounds fishy to me.”
Diamondback snorted. “They have to know, they just don't care. Whoever spends the money gets the prize. Anyway, looks like there are no guards out front…we could scale the wall.” She looked out of the helicopter that they were flying in. “Land the copter in the grounds. There's no one outside.”
The pilot nodded and tried to set down in the courtyard when shots rang out. “We've been noticed!” he yelled. “You'll have to bail!
The women nodded and jumped as one group, deploying parachutes and trying to avoid bullets. Elektra landed first and immediately barrel-rolled over to one of the shooters, surprising him and that brief paused was all she needed. The assassin sprang up, took the gun from the hands of the still shocked man and beat him about the head with it until he crumpled unconscious.
“So, a group of weaponized women scares you?” Bobbi taunted the next man who fumbled with the gun in front of him. Moving with catlike grace, Bobbi swung her leg towards her assailant, knocking him off balance. Standing over him, she flipped him over and tied him up. Chuckling low she said, “You need to relax...you’re all tied up in knots!”
Diamondback, grinning at Bobbi's joke, threw some of her diamonds at the next two guards. One of them was hit and fell to the floor writhing in agony, but the second one sidestepped the barrage and ran toward her, only to be stopped as the ground shook beneath him.
Rachel turned to her friend and said, “Thanks, Daisy!” The other woman nodded and helped the pink haired woman restrain the guards.
The last guard was taken out with a dart to the head. The Contessa smiled. “Blow darts have been used across the Amazon for centuries....”
Bobbi stood and nodded. “That's the last of them; let’s move in..”
Viper stood in the Command Center of the sprawling Compound. “Idiots! Imbeciles! I should kill the lot of you!” She was speaking to a trembling group of uniformed soldiers. “Femme Force is here because of your pathetic failures! You will prevent them from obtaining the second piece or you will not be coming back!”
A small door opened and Laura, in her guard uniform, stepped in. “You...Bellerophon! Is our guest still under control?”
Her toned indicated that she expected the most from Bellerophon and Laura felt bad, only briefly, that said man was now unconscious as a result of too much Diet Coke. “Yes Great Lady...” Laura responded in a deeper voice. “Our guest is still well guarded.”
“Excellent! One of you idiots does something right.” She turned to a gray-haired woman who had been obscured from Laura's vision. “Take the others and make an example of them...”
Rosie nodded and bowed low. “Yes, Great Lady...” She flicked her head toward the other recruits but not before staring at ‘Bellerophon’. Shaking her head she silently moved off behind the row of frightened looking HYDRA agents.
“You are dismissed,” Viper said to a still shocked Laura. “Ready the prisoner for transport; we cannot afford to keep her here. The next diary fragment is in London so we will make our way there.” Then the leader of HYDRA walked off, out of the room.
London! Laura went back out the way she came, running down the hallways to where she was being held previously. Laura knew that the team was here, the trick would be finding them. Suddenly she heard Rosie's voice from behind her. “Stop right there...I don't know who you are, but Agent Bellerophon is five inches taller. Turn around and remove your helmet.”
Laura froze and turned around slowly. “Rosie...” she said, her voice deep. “It's me,..” She blindly tried to remember a name she'd read on the list of Agents. “Apollo. I traded uniforms with Bellerophon. He had to go to...surprise his wife.”
Rosie paused and stared at Laura with such intensity that Laura was sure she had blown something…maybe Bellerophon wasn't married. “Alright...I am sorry, with our guest being such a high priority and all...”
Laura nodded and tried to walk off, before being stopped again. “Apollo and Bellerophon are both men. You walk like a woman. Who are you? Take off your Mask!”
Laura, sighing deeply, did so and Rosie smiled triumphantly. “I knew you were a fake, but I didn't know you were our guest.” She thrust the gun closer to Laura. “Now, Miss Brown, you are going to do exactly as I say or you will die.”
Laura knew she had to buy time; the girls were here somewhere, they were bound to find her. “Why Rosie...why did you do it? Why did you betray us...Sharon, Contessa, me, Bobbi...”
Rosie's face hardened. “I did not betray Barbara...that jackass did. Nicholas Fury betrayed Bobbi the day he didn't allow her to sacrifice herself for Clint. It was HER decision and he took that away from her. I hated him before but I could at least respect his position as director, but not after that. Not after Barbara.”
“Barbara died...” a steel hard voice cut in from behind where Laura stood. “Bobbi was born the day Nick Fury took me from Hell. And although he is a bastard, he did me a favor. Now Clint can go and have all the sex he wants and I'm free to be my own woman.”
“Nicholas works hard to assure a safer world…” Val said, her blowdart tube aimed at Rosie. “He is a brilliant man who owes no one...”
Diamondback snorted. “Yeah Val, he's a real peach, we get the picture.” She shook her head but was silent when Bobbi spoke again.
“Don't you see, Rosalind? That is what Femme Force is and Fury knows it! He knows we are the antithesis of what he and Dugan and Bridge all represent, and now you had to go and set us back by showing that the women can't be trusted. Well, I'm not letting you ruin my second chance.”
Bobbi raised her arm and fired the weapon she held and the longtime secretary of Femme Forcem, a contemporary of Mary Parker, crumpled to the floor as the bullet made contact with her head and exited through the back, spraying brain matter onto Maria Hill's uniform.
“And I just had this cleaned...” Maria remarked, frowning. Looking down at the dead body she shook her head. “Such a waste though; I think we should take her with us. She was an employee of SHIELD, no matter what her actions were before death and even she doesn’t deserve to be left here.”
The other women nodded and silently carried her body back their rendezvous point.
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To Be Continued...
Next Issue: In SHIELD: Femme Force #4: London! A theft, a Curator, South America and the Chalice of Stalin!
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