The Tales of a New S.H.I.E.L.D. | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. [BOOK 1]

Chapter 1: Shadows

LOCATION: ALEXANDRIA, VA

On one rainy day at the end of May, thunder rumbled with heavy rainfall, while inside an abandoned warehouse building, Agent Skye jumped down to the lower level swiftly and touched her ear speaking into her comms device. "We've got ears on them. The package is in the open," she informed.

On one of the upper levels of the old warehouse where she came down from, Melinda May, along with other specialists Antoine Triplett and Monica Green, was watching over the negotiations by their new allies. "Don't engage until the deal's done."

May heard the sound of Skye's gun cocking. "Copy that."

She turned to see Trip and Monica, who were trying to get a visual of the deal from servers down. "We got eyes?"

"Now we do," Trip answered, bringing up the video footage of the transaction. On the lower level, three people stood around a table having a serious conversation. A sinister-looking man, guarded, was on one side of the table while two men and a woman stood at the opposite end. The deal so far was done smoothly.

The lone man pointed towards the table. "That's what I'm selling." There was a picture of a black metal box, presumably very old by the looks of the picture, labeled 0-8-4.
"I'm sure you'd like to see some credentials."

He pulled out his wallet and held it over the photograph. It happened to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. ID, which labeled him as Agent Roger Browning. An Ex- S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent.

The woman, though suspicious of the guy, tries to unravel the man's intentions.
"Agent Browning, for ex-S.H.I.E.L.D., you seem awfully indifferent to who we are."

Browning scoffed. "What you are is the highest bidder. Whether you're in it for profit or for HYDRA, it doesn't concern me, not anymore."

"That's what we want to hear." 

In the upper level, May tried to decipher the group's intentions. "What are they buying from him?"

"Intel, not hardware," Monica replied. "Of what seems like a picture of an old box."

They saw the man who was standing off to the side carrying a case over to Browning and set it on the table between them, the case holding a big stack of cash. Browning looked at it with longing and reached out to it, but the other man who was standing next to the woman slammed the case closed and leaned on it. 

The man spoke with a refined English accent. "The mystery I'd like to solve is – why should we be paying you so much? This looks like a box. Sorry – a picture of a box...a picture of a box that you don't have." he said smugly, crossing his arms across his chest.

Browning glared. "The government has it. Along with thousands of other assets they've seized from S.H.I.E.L.D., and they don't know what to make of half of them. I worked in a S.H.I.E.L.D. containment facility that had hundreds of boxes that looked just like this."

He closed the folder holding the picture, where it was marked as S.H.I.E.L.D. "But this is the only one that has a Level 10 classified file dedicated to it."

The woman got the catch. "You're selling us a needle in a haystack."

"Finding the haystack is up to you. I know your reputation. I'm sure you'll be fine. What I don't appreciate is you changing the terms on me now."

She sighed. "We're asking for clarification, Browning. You're the one who changed the terms bringing more than the two guards we agreed upon."

Browning was confused. "I only brought two guards."

He looked behind him, only to see a tall, burly man rushing at him taking out both of his guards, further taking hold of Browning's head, and twisting his neck. The English Man took out his gun and fired at the newbie, who surprisingly seemed unfazed by the bullets, even though they hit him in the chest. The English Man and the Woman both opened fire at the same time on him, but he didn't go down.