My Glorious Purpose

Try

(Tera's POV)

I hurry up the stairs I saw earlier, hoping Stern's office was up there. My face was still hot from the kiss I gave Loki. I hope he wasn't annoyed from it. I was trying to solidify to Stern that Loki and I are a couple. Also because I was worried Loki would lose his temper.

I speed walk down a hall, passing rooms with name cards. I finally find one with Stern's name. I try the handle and to my absolute shock and surprise, it opens easily. It shouldn't be this easy. As a precaution, I take out some matches I have hidden in my clutch. I light them and blow the smoke towards the room, checking for a laser grid. I was surprised by how many people actually use them. Nat had taught me this trick after she laughed at me when I said we could use perfume to find the lasers. Apparently perfume can scatter the energy and raise the alarm anyway. I didn't see anything near the door, so I stepped in carefully, still wafting the smoke around me, checking for any kind of security. I walk closer to the desk, when I see faint lines surrounding the computer. I inch closer to them, careful to avoid contact. I look on the desk, trying to find the source, when I see paperweight that had a skull with six arms, shaped like an octopus, engraved on it, emitting a dim red light. There is a second paperweight with the exact same marking, sitting on the opposite side of the desk, also creating the shield. I look around the room for something to interfere with the system. My eyes land on a small picture Stern had on a shelf. I pick it up, take out the picture of Stern posing with two young women, clearly neither of them his wife. I tried not to barf. I remove the glass from the frame and walk back to the desk. I carefully placed the glass between the two paperweight, reflecting the laser back to the source. With that out of the way, I turn on Stern's computer but I can't go any further. A password. I facepalm. How on earth am I supposed to get the password? It's not like I can read his mind!

I smile, realizing I knew someone who did.

Loki!

I waited. I wasn't sure if Loki could hear my thoughts from this far away.

What's wrong dove?

I hear his silky smooth voice respond in my head.

I need a password! I can't get into his computer without it. Do you think you could-

Say no more dove.

I waited a few minutes, waiting for Loki to intrude in on Stern's mind.

Hail Hydra.

What? I thought back, utterly confused. Weren't we supposed to be fighting HYDRA?

That's the password! Goodness.

Sorry, I thought back sheepishly. I could almost hear him sigh exasperatedly.

I typed in the password and the computer unlocked.

"Yay!" I whispered to myself.

I insert the flash drive into the computer and wait. Instead of having to search every single file on Stern's computer, S.H.I.E.L.D. gave their agents flash drives that can hold a ton of info. So I waited, downloading everything from his computer. I was halfway done when I heard a noise that made my heart drop. It was the sound of someone walking past the room. I saw a light coming from under the door. I had made sure to close it when I first entered, not wanting to leave a trail. The light disappeared and the footsteps receded. I released the breath I was holding.

Come on dove. I hear Loki's voice say. We need to go before anyone gets suspicious. Plus I'm not sure how much more time I can spend with this troll.

I smiled. I'm almost done. Just a few more minutes.

Sure enough, in the next few minutes, I had downloaded everything. I took out the flashdrive and removed the glass that was blocking the lasers and put the picture back. I turned to the door to head back to Loki, only to find myself face to face with the bouncer.