Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Ten

Even with a Quinjet, the flight to Greenland took 6 hours, which turned out to be so much worse than the flight to Costa Rica. Going from New York to Costa Rica, I could see the sun shining more often, the water getting bluer, and the scenery getting more tropical. Going from New York to Greenland, I could see the clouds gathering more often, the water turning a color like cold steel, and the scenery looking more barren and snowy. Ugh.

At least it was a little less awkward. Even though Grant still clearly didn't want to make small talk, he wasn't giving off "I hate you" vibes anymore which made the flight much more enjoyable than our first trip together. If you ask me, he didn't respect me as a capable agent before Costa Rica. Ever since I'd proven myself with that girl and the trap, he'd been much warmer towards me.

Personal Note: Warm for Grant Ward is cold for a normal person.

"So Grant," I said, deciding to break the silence, "Where are you from?"

I could see him tense as soon as the words left my mouth, but he answered.

"Massachusetts." It was curt, but it was progress.

"Awesome. Any siblings?"

He grit his teeth as he answered: "Two."

I paused. He clearly did not want to talk about this. I couldn't think why, but I didn't want to ruin the new friendship momentum we had going, so I decided to leave that subject alone for now.

"So, what were you doing before you became my SO?" I asked. It seemed like a safer question.

Ward relaxed. "I was running missions with my SO, John Garrett."

"Oh yeah! Coulson mentioned him. Was it fun?"

"Fun maybe isn't the right word when we're agents going on deadly missions, but I learned a lot. After I trained with him I went on my own undercover mission, then started with you."

"Wow! So you're pretty new then. How the heck are you already mentoring somebody?"

"My undercover assignment lasted sixteen months and was a success despite numerous problems. Top brass felt I more than proved myself."

"Cool. What was your cover?"

"I was a Russian attaché at the embassy in Warsaw, Poland."

"Geeze that sounds intense. Did you have any near-death experiences?"

Grant gave me a weird look. "No, thankfully. I haven't had any near-death experiences as an agent of SHIELD."

My mouth dropped open. What was he thinking?

"Dude why would you say that? You totally just jinxed yourself and, by association, me! Quick, find some wood to knock on or something."

I looked around, but the metal plane was disappointingly lacking in wood.

"Would you cut that out?" asked Ward, "There's no such thing as a jinx."

"Oh, well now we're really screwed." I turned around and laid back in my seat. I didn't know what the effect of Grant's craziness would be, but I was not looking forward to finding out.

After flying in silence for a good half hour, I spoke up again.

"So what exactly are we doing in Narsaq?" I asked.

"SHIELD's picked up some communications that mention and orb in Narsaq. We don't know if it's related to Costa Rica, but the transmissions describe it as "glowing blue" and "tech destroyer" so we're going to hang around and see if we can learn anything."

"Wait, so we're going undercover?" I asked excitedly.

"Yup. We're going to land in Qaqortoq for a few days and take a boat to Narsaq. Our cover is a couple who likes to explore the world, and now we're in Greenland to see and learn everything we can."

"Sounds good, but I'm going to need you to pronounce the name of the place we're landing again."

"Kay-Core-Tock. At least that's how google said it."

"Alright. Good to know. And good to know Mr. SuperSpy uses google."

Grant rolled his eyes and went back to flying the plane.

"How much longer do we have?" I asked.

"About two hours."

"Great." I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. I was getting tired of looking at steal gray seas, and if I had another two hours to kill, I was going to take a nap. Who knew when I'd get another chance to just rest peacefully while we were on mission.

****************

I woke up to what felt like an earth quake. I looked over to find Grant Ward violently shaking me awake.

"Dude! I'm up!" I shouted.

"Good. We're about to land." He put both hands back on the control and began our descent.

"Did you even try calling my name or lightly shaking me awake?" I asked as I sat up.

"Nope."

"Seriously?"

"I learned my lesson in Costa Rica. If I had tried the gentle approach, I'd have to carry you off the plane because you'd still be asleep."

I grunted and looked out the window. We were just setting down in an airfield outside of town.

"You don't think this looks suspicious?" I asked.

"No. The Quinjet's got programming that's going to take it back into the sky and make it look like somebody else is flying. That way we can say we chartered a plane to get out here. We wanted the fastest plane possible so that we could make the most of our time here."

"Ugh. I still don't get why we couldn't just fly straight into Narsaq."

"Because whoever's looking for that orb in Narsaq is going to be on the lookout for anything unusual. The Quinjet might stick out too much to anyone who's looking for changes. Besides, if we establish our cover here first, it might carry over with the boat captain and give us a stinger cover in Narsaq."

I sighed as the plane touched down. "Okay. Let's do this."

****************
A/N: Hey guys, sorry this one took me so long. I had some serious writer's block going. Hopefully it turned out alright and please vote and share if you like the book so far! It keeps me inspired despite the writer's block 😊