ANGRBODA ※ Tony Stark [1]

8 - DIRTY SECRETS

"We think Fury's hiding something," he dropped before glancing back at Steve "Well, Banner and I think so, at least."

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ANGRBODA'S EYES widened "What?"

"You never wondered why S.H.I.E.L.D took the Tesseract out of its case? It's the only reason Loki was able to open a portal into Earth."

She paused for a second, glancing at Steve and Bruce who were waiting for her to make the connection, and it wasn't hard to do so "That means they were using the Tesseract, weren't they?"

Tony nodded with a grin "Exactly."

"And that's why you think there's something else Fury's not telling us?"

Tony laid his hands on the table between them "He's a spy, Angie, even his secrets have secrets," he then pointed at Banner "It's bugging him too, isn't it?"

Bruce shrugged fatalistically "I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"Luckily, I'll have answers once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D's secure files," Tony showed a half-full download status bar on the screen of his phone.

Steve's eyes almost popped out of their sockets "I'm sorry, did you say...?"

"Jarvis has been running it since I came here," Tony announced "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret S.H.I.E.L.D has ever tried to hide."

Angrboda had to admit she was quite impressed. It was usually in her nature to be suspicious of everything and everyone but she hadn't been quite herself since learning of Jötunheim's destruction. She hadn't second-guessed S.H.I.E.L.D as much as she normally would have. It was reassuring to know someone was taking the relay.

But clearly Steve was not as impressed, as told by the dirty look he sent Tony "And yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"

This made Tony cock an eyebrow "An intelligence organisation that fears intelligence? Historically, not awesome."

"I have to admit, this doesn't smell right at all," Angrboda conceded.

"I think Loki's trying to wind us up," Steve argued "This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."