Special Agent 2: The Dark Soldier

Chapter 47

Gibbs drove toward Ghost Street, Rogers in the front seat and McGee, Torres, and Kate in the back. They were driving the car Torres and Kate had taken to the cabin, having left the other two cars, one along an abandoned road and the other in a supermarket parking lot.

"What do you know about Ghost Street?" Rogers asked Kate, twisting around in the seat to meet her gaze.

"Just that there's a connection to the roots of SHIELD," Kate said. "I never knew much about it, other than that. I know Barnes spends time there, after missions, before he's recalled for reconditioning."

"Enough time where he became its ghost?" McGee asked.

Grimly, Kate nodded. "From what I know, Barnes has been wandering Ghost Street since he's been operating over here. I remember hearing the stories about him when I first came to DC to join the Secret Service. Never thought they were real, until he took me there."

"Romanoff mentioned Ghost Street was haunted by the ghost of a WWII vet," Rogers said. "But I've never been there."

"Torres, what do you know?" Gibbs asked, glancing in the rearview mirror as he increased their speed.

"Because Ghost Street is abandoned, SHIELD uses some of the old buildings for drop-off points and other covert meetings," Torres answered. "And where SHIELD is, HYDRA is. We're their shadow. I know there is a research lab based on the premises, to study the effects of the gravitational anomalies. But because of the reports of strange things happening on Ghost Street, no one looks too hard if something goes foul."

"Until Captain Morris," McGee said. "And NCIS."

Torres nodded. "I don't know much else, beside that the anomalies have been growing stronger and more frequent over the past year."

"The Convergence," Gibbs said.

"What?" Rogers asked, glancing over at him.

"The Convergence," Gibbs repeated. "Odin mentioned it when I was last in Asgard. It's when the Nine Realms all align or something like that. He said it dissolves boundaries between the worlds."

"The worlds?" Torres repeated, furrowing his brow.

"Asgard, earth, Jotunheim," Gibbs began, frowning. "He didn't list the rest."

"So we know that Ghost Street is somehow important to Insight and Blackout," Rogers said. "And that the Bradendale Mall also holds significance. We just don't know what, or why."

"We'll find out," Gibbs said grimly. "We will find out."

****

Ghost Street was just as empty as it had been when Kate had blown a hole in Captain Morris' head, not that long ago. She felt a spasm of guilt, thinking about killing a Navy Captain, whose death, caused by anyone else, she would have formerly been charged with investigating in order to find and bring to justice his killer.

In this case, his killer was her.

Gibbs pulled into the side alley Kate and Loki had woken up in, after falling out the window and into that strange other realm, where they had encountered the crimson power that now coiled inside her, restless and waiting for something. She had felt it burn, earlier, but then it had faded again. Gibbs shut the engine off and they all climbed out, Torres, McGee, and Gibbs drawing their pistols as Rogers and Kate got their shield and sniper rifle out of the trunk.

"I don't like this," McGee muttered. "We're too close to SHIELD."

"We have to figure this out," Rogers said to him, looking serious. "And that means getting close to SHIELD."