Sins And Sinners (Marvel X Male!Reader)

Chapter 3

Soon enough, everybody arrived in the conference room, just as you were finishing up your hot tea. You've always been observant, but you've paid special attention to Obadiah since he entered the room. You can tell that he's trying hard to seem concerned, but there's something off. He's overcompensating, he's a good actor though. Being in business for years means he's acquired more than decent skills in acting, but you're you. You have a feeling that he's got something to do with this. So far he's only confirming your suspicions with the way he's behaving.

When it was time Obadiah was sitting to your right, with Pepper to your left. There were 2 people from the military and 3 from the company responsible for organizing the entire thing. One of them was a colonel who you'd seen before but couldn't for the life of you remember the name of and the other seemed new.

"Colonel Robert Frank and Sergeant James Smith. You met the Colonel at an award ceremony and he was the one who planned the trip, so you met him to discuss some logistics." PAM's voice in your ear helped you put names to the faces you were seeing as she usually did, cause God knows you're as terrible at names.

Frank came up to you, greeting you with a firm handshake."It's good to see you again Colonel, just wish it were under different circumstances." You said, returning the handshake.

"You too Mr. Stark, let us begin." Frank gave you a grim nod and returned to his seat.

One of the people from the company came forward and explained the entire situation. The air tense, faces grim, everybody knew this shouldn't have happened. The floor was then opened to discussion. Obadiah took that as a cue to begin, "There are a couple things to discuss here, first one being - how did they get the information in the first place?"

"It's next to impossible to have a leak happen on our end, it's more likely that they got the information from your end. The line we used was secure and private, there's no tampering with that", you continued, foregoing sitting down in favor of walking around the table to the front of the room. That wasn't necessarily true. If your suspicion is correct then the leak did happen at your end. But you can't tell them that. You had your own plans in place here. Either way, the military men did not like that, Frank being more composed than the other.

"Mr. Stark, I don't appreciate you suggesting that we didn't do our job right." Frank says, expressing discontent, but politely. You see why he was the one the military sent here, he knows that this is not a place of crude warfare, even if it is verbal. That and he knows better than to be disrespectful.

"Colonel, I am in no way trying to point fingers. My apologies if it came across that way. I'm just saying that the only people who know about the route from my side are in this room. There is no benefit to anyone here in this situation. They've been with us for a long time, there's no reason for them to do this. In addition to that we've checked for suspicious activity and out of ordinary occurrences. The line we used was as secure as it gets, there is no way they got it from there. That leaves the military. Now I'm not playing the blame game here, I'm just trying to help you figure out how this got out, cause if this was from your side then you may have an even bigger problem on your hands." You like people like Frank, they understand when someone is trying to point fingers and when they're just stating the facts that'll help them solve the problem, even if it's not something you'd like to hear. Smith on the other hand did not have that perception.

"Respectfully sir, why should we listen to you tell us what we did wrong?"

The entire room froze, as you held his gaze. Raising an eyebrow, you slowly turned to Frank, as if to say, really? Frank stood up abruptly, sufficiently shaken from his frozen state. "I apologize, Mr. Stark, he's new. And we'll definitely look into it."

But you weren't done just yet. You looked from Frank to Smith and then back to Frank, with an expression that said - I am waiting...

Smart Frank understood what you wanted and immediately elbowed Smith, who was looking increasingly nervous. Lucky for Smith, he understood what Frank signaled when the elbow was paired with a hard look briefly. He said the wrong thing, he messed up. It dawns on him only now that his superior may have a reason for addressing you as respectfully as he does.

"Sorry sir, I was disrespectful, please forgive me." He said in a steady voice, having learnt his lesson. You nod, accepting his apology with only a tiny lift of one side of your lips. Barely noticeable as you turn away from them to face the room.

You go back to walking at the front of the room, the tension finally gone. Gesturing with a wave of your hand, you ask everyone if they've got anything to add. Obadiah nods, bringing the attention to himself. "What is everyone here planning to do about........"

As the discussion takes its course one thing is clear, they don't know who is responsible for this and why they want him. The fact that they had the resources to pull this off narrows it down quite a bit, still not enough, but it's a start. The meeting lasts for another 2 hrs. Search and rescue was in progress and all the stuff you basically already knew they would be doing for a case like this.