Agent Jones- Book One

| Chapter Twenty-One |

Jack came back up and called everyone around. He sat on my desk, so I got up and stood next to him. "Best the scientists can figure, it's a chemical that induces psychosis upon exposure, which I can personally attest to after Sousa tried to bit my nose off," Jack explained. I smirked a bit at the Sousa comment, but didn't make any noise.

Looking over, I saw Peggy walking in with Daniel. Jack nodded and Daniel and smiled. "Hey killer," he greeted.

Daniel gave an awkward nod while Peggy got to the point- she's pretty good at doing that. "I'm surprised Howard would consent to manufacturing something like that," she said. I nodded in agreement. It was very hard to believe womanizing Howard Stark letting murder gas get produced.

"The amount that got me was tiny," Daniel started, leaning up against a desk. "How much of this stuff does Ivchenko have?"

Jack looked down at some papers. "The lab counted 10 canisters. Meaning Ivchenko has enough to send half the city into homicidal rage," he said.

"Oh god..." I whispered, just loud enough for Jack to barely hear me. He gave me a small nudge and said 'it's going to be okay, we can fix this.' At least, that's what I took the nudge to mean.

Peggy looked around. "But why? Why go through all that trouble?" she asked.

Jack shrugged. "Because he's a Russian jerk with a chip on his shoulder," he said, as if that was the most obvious explanation. It was, but I felt like there was more to it. "Why else?"

However, Peggy was satisfied. "No, it's got to be something more than that. Ivchenko has a plan," she said. "He brought us into Russia, he tricked us into bringing him into this country- there's something specific that he's targeting."

I nodded along. "So we just have to figure out what that is," I finished. Peggy nodded and I looked over to Jack.

"The target is me," a new voice added. Our heads snapped towards the source of the sound, and there was Howard Stark standing next to Mr. Jarvis.

Jack stood up quickly and got his gun out, along with several other agents (myself included). I ended up next to Peggy and kept the gun to my side for now. We shared an uneasy look, meaning she also had no idea what Stark had planned.

"Get your hands up!" Jack yelled, and Mr. Jarvis' hands went skyrocketing up. Howard Stark on the other hand just looked greatly offended.

He looked over at everyone and asked, "What kind of welcome is this?"

Sousa was standing now, gun pointed out. "How the hell did you get in here?" he asked.

"You know who designed the SSR security system?" Stark asked instead.

Sousa nodded. "Yeah, the same outfit that secures the White House," he answered.

"Exactly," he said. "They stink." I snorted and tried to cover up the rest of my laugh. Jack looked back at me and rolled his eyes, but he was smiling lightly so I knew he thought it was kinda funny, too. "You should've hired me!" Stark finished.

Peggy looked at Howard, and I couldn't tell what was going through her head. "I know," Stark said quietly, only to her. "You missed me."

She rolled her eyes in response, but I could tell it was a yes. Then he looked over at me, and he recognized me quickly. "Hey, I know you," he said, and pointed at me. I raised an eyebrow, waiting to see where this would go. The gun at my side was telling me to point it at him. I resisted for now. "You're that dame from the Griffith." Now I really wanted to point it at him.

I titled my head to the side. "For starters, it's 'Agent' not 'dame,' and you really don't know me." At this point, I could feel both Peggy and Jack staring at me. They had the same reason possibly, but different motive. Jack was probably slightly hurt and Peggy was probably very confused.