Temper in Red *Editing*

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

"Coulson's meeting Talbot?" Lance asked as I joined him in one of the break rooms where he making some coffee.

"As we speak." I confirmed.

"Look, I'm sorry about kidnapping you at gunpoint the other day." He began to apologize to me as he handed me a cup of coffee. "I just wanted to help Hartley."

"I know and you were right, I would have done the same thing if it'd been one of my friends that had died." I gave him a small smile. "Just to let you know though, you didn't kidnap me."

"What?" He frowned in confusion.

"You didn't kidnap me." I repeated myself for him. "Trust me, you can't kidnap me unless you have the right drugs. If I hadn't wanted to go along with your little plan then you would have had your ass frozen solid before you could have stepped out of that van."

"Right," he drew out the word a bit as my phone began to ring. I pulled it out of my pocket to see that a number I didn't recognize was calling me. "Something wrong?"

"No, I just need to take this." I shook my head as I left the room, leaving my coffee behind. Once I was down the hall a little ways I pressed answer and brought the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Falconeri." A familiar voice said my name, causing my eyes to widen slightly.

"Fury?" I was surprised to hear his voice on the other end of the line. No one had heard a word from him since he named Coulson the new director, it was as if he'd dropped off the face of the earth. "How'd you get my number?"

"Just because I'm not director anymore doesn't mean I don't still have my ways." He told me. "I need your help."

"With what?" I frowned as I reached my room and walked inside, closing and locking the door behind me.

"I've located a HYDRA laboratory in Sokovia." He informed me. "I want you to go in and check out the area, see if you can find any information on who's behind it's operations."

"Why are you wanting me to do this?" I asked him. "Why not Nat or Steve? Both of them have more experience than me in this sort of thing."

"They're too well known to just send into a HYDRA operation." He spoke as though that should have been obvious to me and, in a way, I guess it should have been.

"When do I head out?" I asked.

"The sooner the better." He told me. "I can have someone meet you to take you to Sokovia within the hour."

"Give me until morning." I sighed. "I need to talk to the team about this. If I just pull a disappearing act on them then Coulson will never forgive me, and I'm pretty sure Skye would kill me."

"Someone will meet you two miles north of the base at six a.m.. And Falconeri, keep the details to yourself." He told me before the line went dead.

〰〰〰

"How'd it go?" Lance asked the others when they returned to base almost an hour after my phone call.

"Talbot seemed to buy it." Coulson told us both.

"I need to talk to you." I told him. He just nodded and led the way up to his office. I made sure to close the door tightly behind me as he walked over and took a seat behind his desk.

"What is it?" He asked me as I sat in the chair opposite his desk.

"Fury called me." I told him, causing his eyes to widen and his eyebrows to shoot upwards.