Unexpected

Interrogation Trouble

Barton looked different from the last time I'd seen him. For one, he had a black eye to match Panit's. For another, his skin was tanned copper which made the grey of his eyes seem all the paler. I could easily believe that he'd been in Egypt hunting these men down for a while. The humor in his eyes hadn't changed though.

"Penny!" he gave me a smile and came up to give me a hug, "You're looking good! How's your ankle and side?"

"It's fine and I'm all healed up." I said, waving away the questions, "It's just good to see you again!"

He pulled away from the hug, "Sorry that I didn't get to see you again at the hospital like I planned. I got assigned to a case trying to hunt down the people who I had gathered for Loki when I was- uh, not myself. During that investigation I came across the selling of those alien weapons from Greece. How the weapons moved across the world to Greece so quickly, I still don't know." He explained quickly, in a low voice so that the other agents couldn't hear him over their own talking. "I understand that you were the one to translate the emails from the address I sent here."

"Yeah. It looked like crazy-talk until we started figuring out the code." I said.

He nodded, "Glad to have you on our side. Nat contacted me a few weeks ago and told me. She probably shouldn't have considering that it made the people I was working with suspicious. I had to go through some... questioning, before they felt they could trust me again."

"Well, I'm just glad you're back." I said, my gaze lingering on his swollen, discolored eye before I nodded to the man in the next room, "So, you brought him in?"

"Yep." He huffed a humorless laugh, "Put up a fight, that one."

The other agents decided we'd had enough time to talk. It was time to get to business. A tall man with a serious face stepped over to us, "Agent Barton, what have you learned from the others?"

"Nothing much. They were just following orders blindly. That's what they're supposed to do. Move cargo, don't ask questions, follow instructions to the letter." Barton's face lost the humor and kindness immediately, returning to his usual stoic, professional expression as he reported to the man, "Panit here was the one giving the orders, so he's the one with the info we need."

"Better go get it from him then." The man said before turning to a line of agents with headphones, "Are we ready?"

"When you are sir." One of them replied.

Barton nodded and gestured with his head for me to follow him out of the room and into the other where Panit was still sitting stock still. This room was absolutely silent, a small rectangle with greyish tinted walls and floors with the mirror in one wall, a simple table, and two chairs, one for Panit and the other one Barton gestured for me to take. I hoped my face wasn't giving away my nerves as my heart hammered in my chest as I sat gingerly in the chair. Opening up the folder I'd been given I took out several bird's-eye-view pictures of what looked like warehouse buildings in the middle of a desert setting, a list of logs, and a copy of the e-mail I had translated in its original form. I spread them out as I peeked behind me to see Clint leaning against the wall beside the mirror, staring menacingly at the handcuffed man across from me. Panit still hadn't moved a muscle since we'd entered, his eyes fixed on a point over my left shoulder somewhere.

Clearing my throat, I began, making sure that my voice didn't waiver as I spoke in his native tongue, "Your name is Panit Mitsopoulos?"

No response, his eyes didn't even flicker from their spot.

I sighed and made my voice more authoritative, "Panit Mitsopoulos, do you know why you're here?"

No response.