Birds of a Feather | | Leo Fitz Book One

Chapter 64

The doors should have held, frankly. There was no justifiable reason they wouldn't, Asia thought, rationalizing herself. They would have to have some serious firepower out there to make a dent in those doors, so theoretically, they should have been safe. Still, it was better for them to be prepared with their weapons, than to be sorry. It should have held just fine.

But, suddenly, the lock on the door flipped from red to green, and those ridiculously strong bunker doors slid open.

"What the hell?" Trip muttered, glancing at Coulson out of the corner of his eye as they all raised their weapons to focus at the doors.

"Stay down and take cover," Coulson ordered, looking through the site of his rifle, unsure of what could possibly be coming through those doors next. There shouldn't have been anyone left in SHIELD who would come here, or at least, not anyone without a lanyard. Slowly, his team moved backwards down the hallway, Simmons and Fitz taking shelter behind a corner as Asia, Trip, and Coulson kept their guns up.

Through the doors came several armed men wearing camouflaged combat gear, the soldiers each holding a gun up and at the ready, black metal glinting in the overhead lights. A man in a navy blue, Airforce uniform lead the way. He was tall, and had the most perfect posture Asia had ever seen. It was almost like there was a string on the top of his head, pulling him straight up. He had a neatly trimmed, brown mustache and salt and peppered hair, and narrow, stern eyes as he looked down the hallway at the SHIELD members.

"That's no HYDRA," Asia muttered to her teammates, not lowering her weapon. Just because it wasn't HYDRA, didn't mean they weren't a threat. Afterall, SHIELD members were considered terrorists now, and Agent Monroe had no plans to be carted off to jail at any point.

"It looks like it's the military, special forces..." Coulson said, "But, how did they find us? There's no way Fury would have given out the location of his personal bunkers." The facts didn't add up. Someone must have lead them here, given them access.

Suddenly, the man in charge of the soldiers spoke, his voice deep and booming, reverberating off of the walls of the bunker. "On behalf of the United States Air Force, and all things good in this country, I order you to lower your weapons," he barked, as if he were speaking to his own men. Asia glanced at Coulson out of the corner of her eye for a queue of what to do. Coulson shook his head 'no' with an almost unperceptive movement. None of the SHIELD agents moved to lower their guns.

Coulson narrowed his eyes, studying the man. He couldn't quite figure out where he had seen him before. Then, suddenly, it clicked. This was the same man from the video stream, the man who head threatened to head for SHIELD HQ, and now, here he was somehow, in their secret bunker, having his men point weapons at their men. "Colonel Talbot?" Coulson called out. "Don't you have better things to do than chase down five SHIELD agents? Our organization doesn't even exist anymore."

"Trust me, Agent Coulson," the mustached man replied, "The last thing I want to be doing right now is chasing your ass all around the Canadian wilderness. But, here we are." He crossed his uniform-clad arms over his chest.

"Well, if we come out, will you shoot us?" Coulson asked, partially joking, but also, with this guy, he was partially seriously. Who knows how trigger happy this guy was. "Because if you plan on shooting us, we really aren't going to come out."

"Valid point," Colonel Talbot said with a sharp nod, signaling for his men to lower their weapons. "There, how about now? No one's going to fire unless provoked." He glanced over at Monroe for a second, who had yet to lower her weapon. "So whoever that little spitfire is, you tell her to put her gun down."

Coulson gave Asia a small nod and she lowered the rifle, but didn't set it down completely. Slowly, the group walked around the corner, warily. Asia was making mental note of all the objects in the hall they could use for defense if they needed to.