Black Panther: Rise of the Princess (COMPLETE)

Chapter 8: Shuri

"Wait!" Peter panted, trying to keep up as I dragged him through the palace. "Where are you taking me? I thought I was supposed to-"

"You can do that where we are going," I told him, before switching to a whisper. "Besides, it may be safer there, anyways. Just come, quickly!"

I dragged him to the shuttle that ran between the lab and the palace, and within minutes, we were soaring above the kingdom. Peter looked out over the side of the rail, and he didn't move for a full minute.

"Do you know how lucky you are to have a view like this every day? Look at that!" he pointed out to the river. "I would kill for a day down there, with just a camera."

"I've seen your pictures from your work," I told him, sitting next to him on the seats lining the rim of the shuttle. "You certainly have an eye for beauty. I don't doubt that you could find something incredible down there."

Peter smiled and shook his head. "Everything about this place is incredible, and I haven't even been here for five minutes. The tricky part would be finding an angle that did this place justice."

I turned to him. "I'm sure your 'abilities' help you find those angles sometimes."

He laughed, before staring at me for a moment. "You were the one who sent the call last night, weren't you?"

I nodded. "Shuri," I offered, holding out my hand the way I have seen other Americans do.

He shook it firmly. "Peter Parker." He turned back to the river, finally seeing the waterfall. "What's at the bottom of that?"

I walked over the the front of the shuttle, where we could see it better. "Well, the water falls and pools into a cliff, before falling farther, down into the valley and out to the sea. You would love it."

"Can we see it, before we go to...wherever we're going?"

I thought for a moment, then altered the course of the shuttle. We were the only two on board, and no one would miss us for a few minutes. We sped out over the side of the falls, and I lowered the shuttle so it was level with the pools where T'Challa had fought for his kingship. When Peter saw it, he didn't speak for minutes.

"It is a sacred place for our people," I told him, remembering the battles won here. "There is a long history here, a history of Kings and Queens. It is a place of power."

Peter's eyes grew large, trying to take in the whole view at once. "I can almost tell just by looking at it. The entire landscape tells its own story."

We stared at it for a while, and I was glad that Peter didn't have to remember the pain that came with this beauty. Its beauty was not in its purity, but in its survival, in its victory, even at the price that had been paid for it. The present had been shaped in this place, and it would continue to shape the future, just as it has shaped the past. Its beauty was in its journey.

Eventually, I restored the course to the lab. We did have work to do, after all. T'Challa had told me to drag him away to somewhere safe to explain what was happening, but I had used the technology discussion to cover it up, since we didn't know who might be listening. The fun would have to wait until later.

The shuttle came to a halt in the dock of the lab, and we stepped off. Most of the technicians who worked with me were out for the day, since today was a day of rest, not of work. That was one of the covers my brother was using for Peter's arrival. There would be dancing and celebration later, but before that happened, we needed to start investigating.

Peter looked around. "There's not a lot of people here. Is there....a reason, or..."

"It's a holiday," I told him. "You will hear more on that later, but come on. There is much you need to know."

He followed me to the elevator. "So earlier, that was just a cover?"

"For now," I told him, and he smiled.

He looked around at the mines. "So this is where your vibranium is stored?"

I pointed out at the rock face. "Not just stored, but we mine it here too. It goes that way, where it is refined and stabilized."

"Yeah, I guess something like vibranium can't be stable in it's natural state." He turned to me. "Do I get to learn about that too, or am I not allowed to know?"

I shrugged. "I'll explain as we go. Maybe I'll get to it, on the way." The doors opened. "This way, Peter."

We walked to my lab, and I locked down the doors, like T'Challa told me. The cameras were deactivated, and the windows turned opaque. Peter looked around as everything closed off, then looked at me, asking me with a tentative thumbs up. I nodded, and he breathed out. "This is big, isn't it?"

"More than you realize," I told him. "Sergeant Barnes found some of our vibranium when you went to Germany last week. Do you remember?" I knew I was being rather direct, but I didn't want to waste any more time. People might be in danger, and we needed to make the most of what time we had.

He leaned against a table. "A few things. I remember it got mentioned, but I didn't know any of the specifics. He didn't talk that much."

"HYDRA stole some of our exports, but none of it is reported as missing, or unaccounted for, and we don't export very much." I pulled up a map, and all of our export locations appeared as blue dots on the black and white projection. "We send one small shipment to each of these twelve locations once a year, spaced out so only one load leaves every month. Some of our forces even go to make sure it ends up in the right hands, but HYDRA had at least four years of shipments in their base, from what Director Fury told my brother."

I added another dot on the map, a red one, where HYDRA's base had been. Pointing at the closest export dock to Germany, in Netherlands, I continued. "We thought some of the shipments from here had been stolen, but all of the vibranium was accounted for. We checked all of the locations, none of them reported any of it missing."

Peter nodded. "So either all of them are covering up the deal with HYDRA, or it's being stolen from somewhere else."

"That is the problem," I turned to him. "The only other place it can come from is Wakanda. There is nowhere else it is held."

"So there's a spy, somewhere," Peter realized, catching up. "And we're going to find him?"

"That's the plan," I told him, turning back to the sand projection.

"Sounds good," He said encouragingly. "When do we start?"

I smirked. Americans could be so funny.

"Now."