UNDERCOVER ⧗ BLACKHILL

Testing - 16

(Wanda's POV)

It's been a few days since Marci moved in, and I haven't seen anything that would tell me that she's not really on our side. But then again, we're all trained to hide things, aren't we? I've also kept this to myself the whole time, not wanting to raise anyone else's suspicions. The less people know, the better.

Ok, Natasha knows the possibility, after all, she was the one who helped me get audio so we could take that extra precaution something is too good at face value. What she doesn't know is that we actually did get something on audio, I did tell her no. That may have been wrong, I admit, but then I can't actually confirm if the words have any value to them.

Deciding to basically test Marci, seeing how she reacts to certain situations, and I just have to hope something shows because after all let's say she is not one of us, she's trained. She knows how to handle surprises, make up lies on the spot. After all, the lives she lives to others is all a lie. No one knows, or they do, they've been silenced.

Since Natasha is the only one who's in on the possibility of Marci being not who she claims, I go to her to get her input on my ideas.

"Hey, Romanoff, can we talk?" I ask her in passing.
"Sure, now?" she replies, holding a cup of water.
"Preferably," Natasha nods at this, following me back to my office, sitting down in the chair opposite my desk.

"What is it, sounds urgent," she notes, and she's not wrong.
"So you're the only one here that knows about the possibility of Marci not being who she claims, and maybe if we throw her some surprises, we can monitor her reaction," I explain my idea out to her.
Natasha looks at me seriously, "Can you be honest with me, Maximoff?"

I don't know what she could want me to be honest about, but I'm going to have to go with it, I want her to help and if I lie, that'll just crumble all the trust we have.

"Sure," I breathe in, running answers through my head for a multitude of questions she could ask.
"Do you believe Marci isn't one of us?"
"There's always that possibility," I start, but she cuts me off.
"She's done nothing to make us believe otherwise, and I'd like to say that'd be pretty hard to do living with us, and being here a lot of the time. Why do you want to throw her a surprise? Is there something I don't know about?" she trails off toward the end.

I stay silent, giving her the answer she needs.
"What is it?" Natasha presses me for an answer again.
"Do you have evidence?" she questions, waiting for me to reply.

"Maybe," I say so quietly, that it must've been hard for her to catch.
"Well, show me then," she says confidently, but I know that play of confidence. She's nervous on the inside.
"It..." I collect my breath before I continue. "It's from the tape," I spill out before I can say something else.
"The tape?" she thinks for a second. "The tape that had nothing?"

I can hear it in her voice, she's a little upset, and rightly. I would be too.

"Yes," I confirm her suspicions, "I'm sorry, I know you've become friends with her."
"I, I just-" Natasha stumbles over her words. "She doesn't seem like the person that would have anything to hide."
"Let me teach you something here, undercovers, cops, they all are like that. They seem just like the rest of us, but they're just able to hide that motive. If you think about it, yes, Marci checked out, yes, the deal has been going well, but what has she told us herself?"

Natasha goes quiet, "Not much," she looks down into her glass.
"Do you want to hear?" I ask her.

Looking back up to me for reassurance, "I probably should, yeah?"
"Would you be able to act as if nothing happened if you do, I mean, you already know, but if you heard?"
"I have to do that, I already know half of it," she tries to go the humor route.
"Ok, well, there's only two understandable words," I say as if it's any comfort, pulling the tape up on my screen.