Snapshot (фотография)

VI

You have a nice day, sugar!" Marion Isbell called in her thick Mississippi accent, handing off the towels to the nice younger man in t-shirt. He was handsome. Chestnut hair that was pushed out of the way of his forehead to expose sparkling green eyes, almost as if he was Clark Gable from the movies she used to watch. He was lightly tanned, and came to her towel stop almost everyday on his way to the pool. She idly wondered if he was married. Of course, she couldn't care in the least. She could look at the menu, even though he was at least fifty years younger than her.

"You too, ma'am." Mr. Lee was polite as well, always greeting her with a smile. He had first showed up to their Miami resort in a suit, uncomfortably stiff when he charmed her. Slowly but surely over the two weeks he had stayed with them, Mr. Lee had become gradually content. Today he was only wearing a band t-shirt and grey sweatpants, most likely hiding swimming trunks underneath.

"Oooh!" She rolled her eyes and turned to see her younger employee, Kate, who was late for the third time this week. "Did I just miss Mr. Lee?"

It was Kate's third summer job, and she wouldn't hold one down for a week or two. "Yes, Kate. You did. You're late again."

She ignored the girl's empty apologies and promised, stacking the towels on the side and handing them off to a family who was heading down to the resort's private beach.

"Is there any news on Tony Stark?" Kate wondered. Marion turned around and saw Kate looking off to the Stark manor on the coast, just a few miles down. Tony Stark had made headline news when it was discovered that he had been poisoned for an attempted attack on his life. Marion didn't care for Tony Stark personally- too much drama and trouble around him- but her younger counterparts like Kate idolised him for his tech and high-speed lifestyle.

"No, I don't think so. Good riddance too." Marion polished their stand plate, smiling contentedly at the beam it gave off from the sun. All of a sudden, screams echoed from the beach as an explosion of light, heat and sound rushed past them.

---

Happy rushed into Tony's lab, where he was behind his desk, pulling up blueprints and muttering to himself as he worked out measurements and equations. Happy's face was red, and from his panting and unbuttoned blazer, it was clear he had rushed up to the penthouse.

"Tony..." Happy huffed, placing his hands on his knees to catch his breath. Tony spun around slowly in his chair, giving his head of security a disturbed expression. He crossed his legs and put his hands together. It could have appeared intimidating, but Tony was also wearing a stained metallica t-shirt and had on sunglasses that were decorated with palm trees.

"Yes, Happy?" Tony said.

"Miami..." Happy tried to search for the words. "House... Bomb...." Tony jolted out of his chair, his unnecessary sunglasses becoming askew on his face.

"They bombed my Miami house?! Who would do that!" Happy fixed his jacket, standing up again, clearly sheepish at his weakened state.

"We don't know yet." He replied. "Natasha and Phil thought they had a lead on where the first assassin went, but maybe they were wrong. They're on their way to Miami right now to work on the case."

Tony blustered and stuttered for a good minute, his face red and his hands worrying at his hair in shock. "T-they better!" He finally said.

---

Natasha picked up a flaming piece of metal from the wreckage with tongs, blowing it off and examining it. It was a pair of sunglasses. Broken shadow boxes littered the ground next to scorched plants.

"Clearly premeditated." Phil Coulson walked up behind her, his hands shoved awkwardly into his suit pants. Natasha resisted her instincts to make sure he wasn't a threat, shifting her position so he wasn't facing her back.

"I thought that would have been obvious." She remarked dryly, placing the sunglasses in a bag and making her nimble way to the still burning wreckage, blinking the acrid smoke away from her eyes. In the middle of the former mansion was a conflagrant debris of gnarled alloy, and Phil pointed to a mess of wires on the side.

"We believe that that was used as the-"

"Bomb. Yes. I see."

"Director!" A blond man in grey joggers came over.

"Clint." Natasha smiled, greeting him with a hug, which was gladly returned.

"I've collected all the security footage from nearby buildings, but there's not much." He confessed, handing Coulson a USB drive.

"Useful." Coulson examined it, then looked to Clint who was wearing the same gloves as Natasha. "Are you here to help us, Barton?"

"Fraid not, Phil." Clint clapped his hand on Coulson's shoulder, making the director flinch slightly. "Just came to drop this off. I'm going to get the eyewitness testimonies."

Natasha raised an eyebrow as he ran away on the beach, running up to the resort to speak with two women in the towel kiosk. He leaned on the desk and chatted with them both before writing something down on his notepad and gave Natasha the one finger salute for still watching him. She chuckled and turned back to her work, making her way through the wreckage. When she looked back, Clint had disappeared, presumably around the corner.

"Still better than paperwork." Nat sighed, combing through the litter for clues on who could have done this.

---

He flipped Natalya off, giving a disarming smile to Marion and Kate before dashing off into the building and entering a men's bathroom. There, he entered the one stall with a window. Pulling off his identity mask and modulator, Peyta smirked.

"Oh Natalya... I thought you were better than that." They hadn't caught him yet, and he was going to make sure they were nowhere close. A little scare wouldn't hurt. Or, at least, it wouldn't hurt him. He dropped into the laundry cart below the window, and gave the go to Karine.

Another explosion rocked the building, and Tony's wreckage was aflame again.