Gold Strike: Arachne

Anonymity

Ana was driving her car down the road.

Jax was in the passenger seat.

Tony was in the backseat, going through the file.

"What's it say?" Jax asked.

"Just a lot of stuff that I don't get," Tony answered. "I don't know what MIA means in this case, what the code's for, any of it."

Ana held her hand toward him. "Let me see."

"Hey, hey, hey," Tony told her. "Eyes on the road. We're precious cargo."

Ana rolled her eyes, taking the file from Tony, looking it over. She looked at the paper with MIA, flipping it over, reading it as AIM.

    🚀      

Rhodey was in Pakistan, suited up as Iron Patriot, walking in, looking at the people inside. "Don't move." His phone rang. "Uh... Hang on a second." He answered the phone. "Hello?"

Jax was on the other line, his phone on speaker. "You ever have a chick straddling you, and you look up, and suddenly she's glowing from the inside out, kind of a bright orange?"

"Yeah, I've had that," Rhodey told him sarcastically. "Who is this?"

"It's us, pal," Tony told him. Rhodey started to smile. "Now, last time I went missing, if I remember correctly, you came looking for me. This time, my son and his girlfriend go missing with me, and you don't. What are you doing?"

"A little knock-and-talk, making friends in Pakistan," Rhodey answered. "What are you doing?"

"Your redesign, your big rebrand, that was AIM, right?" Ana asked.

"Yeah," Rhodey answered.

"I'm gonna find a heavy-duty comm sat right now," Ana told him. "I need your login."

"It's the same as it's always been, 'WarMachine68'," Rhodey told them.

"And password, please," Ana told him. 

"Why should I tell you?" Rhodey asked. "I know through what the world knows you as, Ana. I don't know you personally."

"Look, you can give me the password, or I can hack in myself," Ana told him. "I'm really good at hacking into things."

"It's not the '80s," Tony told them. "Nobody says 'hack' any more. Rhodey, just give her your login."

Rhodey sighed. "'WAR MACHINE ROX' with an X in all caps."

A man laughed.

Rhodey aimed his gun at the group.

Jax laughed.

Rhodey nodded. "Yeah, okay."

Jax smiled. "That is so much better than 'Iron Patriot'."

    🚀      

Tony, Jax and Ana were in the hotel.

Ana was at her computer, typing in Rhodey's login, accessing his AIM account, bringing up a video of Killian and Savin.

"What would you regard as the defining moment of your life?" Killian asked.

"Well, uh, I think that would be the day I decided not to let my injury beat me," Savin answered.

Ana pulled up a video of Killian and Brandt.

"Will you please state your name for the camera?" Killian asked.

"Ellen Brandt," Brandt answered.

"Okay," Killian told her. "So, the injections are administered periodically. Addiction will not be tolerated. And those who cannot regulate will be cut from the program."