Worlds Apart

Chapter 20

When the workday finally ended, Max was more than ready to go home.

The day had been particularly rough and rather long, and she and her coworkers had even had to stay about a half hour later than they usually did to resolve some of the issues they were having. After they were finally done, Max thanked her team for their hard work and told them that they could all go home for the day. Then she began to head back to her office so that she could grab her things and head home.

When she finally arrived at her office, she opened the door and started to walk in. With her thoughts elsewhere (on her bed at home, mostly), she didn't see the person sitting at her desk right away, so when her gaze finally shifted there, she jumped slightly in surprise.

"It's about time you showed up."

Nick Fury. The Nick Fury was sitting next to her desk. Wait, why was Nick Fury sitting by her desk? She had thought she'd somehow managed to avoid their radar back in Puente Antiguo. Had she let her guard down too soon? Was she a fool for thinking she'd somehow gotten lucky, or that there was any time limit on how long she had to wait before she was in the clear?

"S-Sorry?" Max stammered. She cleared her throat and tried to put on an unreadable expression to hide her thoughts. Or at least, one that didn't give away that she knew exactly who this man sitting before her was. "Can I help you?"

"I hope so, Ms. Bowen," Fury answered. He rose to his feet and held out his hand for Max to shake. "My name is Nicholas J. Fury. I'm a colleague of Dr. Selvig. He's told me a lot about you."

Max cautiously accepted his offered hand, shaking it. "He has?"

"Mhm," Fury answered. "He also tells me that you're one of the most promising pupils he's ever had. And when one of the leading scientists in a field you have a lot invested in compares someone to the likes of himself, you tend to pay attention. Well, Ms. Bowen, you have my attention."

"I'm sorry...what exactly does that mean?"

"It means I'd like you to come work for me," Fury stated. He reached into his jacket, pulled out a badge, and held it up to her. "I work for a government agency called S.H.I.E.L.D., and one of the projects we've been working on could use another mind like yours. Unfortunately, I can't tell you what that project is until you agree to work for us, but what I can tell you is that not only would you get to work full-time with Dr. Selvig to advance your studies in the field, but you'd be getting a chance unlike any other you could possibly be offered in the future by anyone else. Plus, the pay isn't half bad, either."

Wait. Working with Dr. Selvig. Did he mean...? Did he want her working on the Tesseract?

"Let me get this straight," Max said. "You want someone who's a nobody in the scientific community and probably not even considered an expert on the subject to come work on some top-secret government project because...Dr. Selvig said I was, what, a good student?"

"Not just that," Fury explained. "But I've done my research, Ms. Bowen. You had a 4.0 GPA at M.I.T., within six months of working at Stark Industries - the most well known tech company in the country - you managed to work your way up to the head of department, and, according to Dr. Selvig, you've been able to learn practically an entire degree's worth of knowledge in just the past year alone, on top of working full time as the head of cybersecurity. You, my friend, have quite the impressive resume, and I tend to like to keep my eye out for folk like you.

"I'm offering you a chance to work on advancing your studies full-time, and eventually, to join our team and work on what has the potential to be groundbreaking studies. You would be more than fairly compensated, since you'll have to relocate, but we would take care of the housing situation for you, as well as anything else that comes with moving across state borders. All you have to do is say yes, and we'll take care of the rest."