What If...? Rumlow Turned Against Hydra: Book One

23

The Triskelion had many areas for SHIELD employees to have a break, where they could get a meal or grab something from vending machines. Many were busy twenty-four hours per day while others were quiet, a place for those who worked long hours on sensitive projects to try and have some calm before heading back to the stressors of a job not remotely seen as normal. In the cafeterias the noise, while not exactly loud, was still constant. It was a better place to have a private conversation which could be drowned out by the normal din of voices, the clatter of utensils and the clang of the cookware just behind the scenes where the food was prepared.

Paine and Creigh, however, weren't taking any chances as they sat in the cafeteria eating their lunch, chatting with coworkers. They had made no effort to try and communicate alone while they were within the Triskelion itself, in fact they had not made more than a cursory effort to talk at all. Both made more attempts to be friendly to other coworkers, carefully maintaining their cover, not jeopardizing their real mission. The only time they would try to meet up at all was in the apartment set aside only for the organization's tech, when they would work there well into the night, finally feeling safe enough to collaborate as needed. They would go only to sleep to separate apartments spaced far enough apart in the city to not draw any attention, as their false backgrounds demanded. Neither was willing to compromise their actual jobs; both had enough experience to know how to operate under cover for as long as necessary.

The night before had been long, barely allowing them a few hours of sleep, but both of them were well used to long hours when they were in Madripoor. It wasn't uncommon for the computer experts, as well as the analysts and engineers in the organization to rarely sleep at all, by their choice, so completely did they become obsessed with their jobs. Fatigued IT personnel were normal in the Triskelion as well, whether they were only SHIELD or also Hydra so that Paine and Creigh's exhaustion was noted, but not remarked upon when everyone else at the lunch table looked the same. The SHIELD personnel were unaware of why everything was busier than normal, as Hydra pushed forward with their plans unrelentingly, with the SHIELD employees swept along with the Hydra members. Hydra was SHIELD, whether everyone knew it or not.

In spite of their fatigue, both Creigh and Paine were very alert, almost nervous, but too skilled in deception to let it show. Creigh had been the one to introduce Anya's virus into SHIELD that morning, through use of a thumb drive issued by SHIELD itself for internal purposes only. He and Paine had taken their time to add in enough extra code around the virus that any attempt to find the source would lead the people searching in circles until eventually they would find an innocuous email. That email, carefully faked, would supposedly have been received by the cyber security department, then sent along without being double checked. It would be a huge incident, especially since cyber security personnel were supposed to know better, but it was not outside the realm of credibility when everyone was overworked. Paine and Creigh were still nervous if only because there were no guarantees, anything could happen. They were good, Matthias and others in the organization were better, but that did not mean Hydra and SHIELD were amateurs. As the time was ticking down for the virus to do what it was created to do, both had to use all of their skills in keeping their facades of fatigue in place.

"I was given a very high-performance rating," Paine had bragged to Creigh as they worked on the virus and the process to introduce it the evening before.

"Uh huh. Sure," he responded absently but with skepticism. "We've only worked there for what, two weeks at most? They haven't given us performance ratings yet."

"Maybe I'm just better than you," she had said haughtily.

"You wish," was the acidic reply.

They'd worked in silence for over an hour after that before continuing the conversation as if they hadn't had a pause at all. It was how they usually worked together; slow moving conversations peppered with insults while they got their jobs done to the best of their ability.