𝙷𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚒𝚛𝚘𝚗

Ch.12

📍 Avengers Compound
(3rd person POV)
4:00pm

"I got something!" Fury yells from the conference table. Bruce, Nat, Steve, and Bucky all rush over to him.

"Look at this," he points to the log on his screen. "I was checking her credit card records. It shows gym memberships, training centers, and car fees. Normal right? But then, if you look here, her pattern breaks on the night she went missing. It isn't a food, wealth, or bill payment like most of them are. No, it's a plane ticket...to Pakistan."

Everyone at the table starts looking at each other

"So...Val's in...Pakistan?" Nat questions.

"No. Well, I don't think so." Nick continues. "There's been an influx in flight purchases recently, specifically to Pakistan. Ask me why."

"...why?" Bucky asks.

"Afghanistan. Afghanistan recently decided to go totally electronic with their travel payment systems. But before they do that, they're temporarily taking down all of the current travel payment technologies in order to make room for the new ones. Therefore, anyone wanting to get to Afghanistan can't go directly, they'll have to fly into a surrounding country first."

Everyone at the table is either starting to get totally confused, or starting to catch on.

"Now stay with me here. Anyone trying to get to Afghanistan probably wants to take the cheapest flight to a surrounding country. And because of this, Pakistan plane tickets have been really low. We're almost there."

"So" he continues. "Anyone trying to get to Afghanistan would pay for a plane ticket to go to Pakistan and then ride trains and whatnot into Afghanistan, but pay in cash, because remember the technologies are down, right?

And when I search for groups in the area, boom. Ten Rings, a terrorist group based in Afghanistan."

"Wait wait wait...you mean like...the group that kidnapped Tony? That Ten Rings?" Nat asks.

"Exactly where I was getting. This isn't their first time doing this. They've taken an avenger before. Why wouldn't they do it again? They know they can." Nick tells.

"But why?" Steve asks.

"Who gives a damn, let's go get her." Bucky goes to turn out of the room, but is stopped by Bruce.

"Now...I could've sworn that we had already gone through her records." He starts, staring Bucky in the eyes. "And I told you two to double check, did I not?" He says hostile, staring at both Bucky and Steve now.

"Bruce this isn't gonna get us anywhere-"

"And if you had done as I told you, we would've found her much earlier." He cuts Nat off.

"Bruce, we have a good shot at finding her now. Let's focus on that." Steve tried to reason.

"But we could've had a good shot and finding her days ago if you had listened to me Rogers!" He snaps.

"Hey, hey. This isn't gonna fix anything-"

"Don't touch me!" Bruce shoved Bucky's hand off of his chest.

"Bruce I know you care about her. But right now, the most important thing is to brief everyone in the building on what we just found, and go get her." Nat reasons.

Bruce stares the two boys down for a minute, looks at Nat apologetically, and sits down.

"Okay...let's get on it." Nick says, getting on the intercom.