Visitations

7

Any normal human would have plenty of qualms about a five-mile walk to the public library in order to use a computer. Naomi on the other hand, or at least the post-imprisonment version of herself, would look for any excuse to get out of her own house. Even today, when it was only Evelyn's mostly pleasant company to deal with. When her mother was being particularly obtrusive, it was obvious. On afternoons like this, she couldn't really explain what drove her to separate herself from her – well everyone. Something about being surrounded by four walls. But she knew without a doubt she wanted to ostracize herself from everyone. So she took the five-mile walk in stride and even picked up an iced coffee on the way. Despite the stuff she'd seen on the news that prompted this journey in the first place, she was still in good spirits after Loki's visit. Mine as well make the most of the motivation.

In the time prior to her abduction, it had been a major irritation even to drive to the library for the sake of using a computer. She had one, but it caught a virus somewhere along the line and she didn't have the disposable income to fix it or buy a new one. Upon her return and being almost instantly swarmed by reporters from every damn paper and news station in the tri-state area, she found every nook and cranny of solitude that existed around here. Fortunately for her sudden lack of vehicle, courtesy of her mother, many of these places she'd found were within walking distance. Her new definition of walking distance anyway.

The public library was the next best place, next to a church, as far as avoiding publicity. Naomi didn't worry about that as bad as she used to, not since some divine force – probably S.H.I.E.L.D. – intervened. But back when they did still trail her like vultures, this particular library offered her sanctuary and ensured the reporters couldn't follow her in. Talk about librarians restoring faith in humanity.

She pushed through the revolving doors that had at one point been viciously guarded by old ladies in horn-rimmed glasses. They greeted her with a tad more enthusiasm than the others. To this day, she wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. But if they wanted to look out for her, she certainly wasn't going to argue, so long as they didn't start asking questions like most potential friendlies did. They were probably extra friendly today because she strolled in carrying a cheap coffee and she was still wearing her pajamas. Maybe they just thought she was insane. She slept in sweatpants and a t-shirt. She only looked slightly more like a bum than she normally did. Oh, whatever.

Naomi smiled in passing before she trashed what remained of her beverage and began her search for the most isolated, vacant computer.

There was an obvious lack of privacy with researching in a public library. Anyone and their mother could easily glance over her shoulder and see what she was looking up. But by the same token, it was the safest place to do Internet snooping since the history was erased on a daily basis. That wouldn't stop S.H.I.E.L.D. from probing, but there was something to be said about peace of mind, however small.

She parked herself in the back corner, behind the research section, the one that stocks about six hundred identical books about court cases and other stuff that people aren't frequently looking up. Case in point, nobody hung out back here. So she started digging.

At first, it was just article after article about the bombings: where they occurred and all the details she could find on them. If she had any doubt they were connected, she didn't anymore. They all began with a single explosion and in the panic that ensued after, as many as three more smaller bombings followed. Not to mention the fact they had all only occurred over the past few days. From what she could collect via hundreds of articles and videos, there was none of the usual particulate to confirm what type of device caused the explosions. But that fact was consistent among all of them. Authorities told the press that so far not enough material remained to determine the type of bomb was used. On top of that, there were a lot of deaths surrounding these attacks that were very clearly not caused by an explosion of any kind.