Blood of the Covenant |1| The Dark Waters Series (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.)

Chapter Ten: The Bridge

In her bunk, Skye was clicking through S.H.I.E.L.D. agent profiles on her laptop. Someone knocked on her door, and she looked up to see Coulson. "Mission briefing in five minutes."

"Okay."

He came inside, reading her laptop screen. "Kathrine Shane?"

Skye looked up at him hopefully. "Do you know her?"

"We ran a few ops together in the nineties; she looked after Vee a couple of times." He nodded. "Smart, resourceful. Had a soft spot for Truffaut movies."

"Easy there, charm school," Skye teased. "According to these files, Agent Shane could be my mom."

Coulson hesitated. "Even if Shane was the agent who dropped you off at the orphanage, it doesn't mean she's your mother."

"I started looking into all the female agents active when I was born," she told him. "Needle, haystack, I know, but I factored in age and marital status and then I built a program to narrow down the field."

"You're still looking at a long road," he warned.

"Well, it would be a lot shorter if I could access more files," she pointed out. "Maybe you could remove my internet nanny?" She lifted her wrist. "I'm talking about my tracking bracelet."

"I got that."

"So you'll take it off?"

"No." She sighed and his lips twitched. "But I asked May to look into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s more restricted files."

Skye winced. "I was kind of hoping to keep this private."

"Agent May specialises in private," he assured her, nodding. He turned, walking away. "Let's go."

***

Down in the cargo hold, May and Ward were sparring. May managed to deliver a heavy blow to his chest, winding him, then kicked his legs out from underneath him. Ward crashed to the mats, panting. "Nice feint."

She tilted her head. "I read your file. I know you favour your left."

"That's in there?" He sat up, surprised. "Anything else?"

"Nothing that's news," May admitted, giving him a hand up. "You don't play well with others."

Ward lowered his voice, smirking. "I think I've proven that I can... more than once."

May shot him a look. "Not here."

"Hey, you two," Genevieve called from the gallery, looking down at them. "Towel down. Need you both in the command centre in five." As May and Ward shared a look, she turned and walked away.

***

On the big screen in the command centre, CCTV footage was playing of a prison break-in. "At 0800 hours, three men infiltrated the Havenworth Federal Penitentiary," Coulson was saying.

"Infiltrated?" Skye echoed. "More like cannonballed."

"They were in and out in less than two minutes," Coulson continued, bringing up a close-up image of the men. "Left no prints at the scene, but we do have one lead." He added another picture, showing a familiar device on one of the men's forearms.

"Centipede," Ward recognised.

Genevieve nodded. "It seems they salvaged some of their research from Hong Kong."

"So we were right," Simmons realised brightly. "Chan's platelets solved their combustion problem. Now they can create supersoldiers with no fear of explosion."

Fitz winced. "Maybe don't get so excited about it."

"Two of Centipede's labs have been destroyed, but they keep popping up," Coulson continued. "Now they have at least three of these guys, maybe more."