SHIELD Agent Eleanor Flint

Chapter 27

For probably the first time ever, my palms were sweaty. I rubbed them on my pants every two minutes, but that didn't keep the cold sweat from returning and making me uncomfortable. The agents walking through the halls seemed to be in the same boat as I was. Sweat beaded a man's forehead as he brushed past me and papers almost flew out of Sitwell's hands when he bumped into someone because he was staring at a monitor for too long. I made a smart decision to stop walking and watch the monitors from the side as Bell made another attack through our systems. 

As soon as the screens went black, Fury called in agents in level 6 and up to the conference room. Clint and Natasha appeared out of the crowd and I swerved into the hall to join them. The screens repeated the SHIELD sigil glitch, the word "LIARS" appeared again, and then the disembodied voice spoke. 

"SHIELD poses threats to the world. Selling lies to their agents and sending them on life-threatening missions." 

Clint, Natasha, and I picked up our pace when we saw the conference room doors. 

"It's pathetic. Seeing how many people put their trust into this agency when the founders couldn't even trust each other." 

I scowled and shook my head. It's meaningless propaganda, I can't let it get to me. Clint stepped forward and pulled open the conference room doors. Natasha and I entered and grabbed seats without even looking around at the agents attending. Clint followed after us and collapsed in the seat next to Natasha. 

"SHIELD was founded on fear and that fear hasn't gone away. Fear leads to violence and anger." 

Fury sat with Coulson and Hill at the head of the table. In front of them was a holograph of a map where a red dot pulsated. Other computers sat around them and were unaffected by the security hack. With the computers was the stolen CPU that Henry and I snatched two weeks ago. Fury's eye flicked from the red dot to the screen that displayed Bell's attack. I glanced down the table at Henry and Rumlow who were staring at the screen. 

"Location has been locked," Coulson said. I turned my head to look at the holograph showcasing the red dot. So they found him. "We have about two minutes before he realizes we've been tracking him." 

Fury stared at the large screen for a few moments before he held up his radio. "On my word, shut down the message." 

Bell's rant continued. "Do you want the truth? The story behind all the lies you are selling?" 

"Three..." Fury counted. 

"I know every secret, every cancelled project, every secret weapon that SHIELD has kept hidden for years." 

"Two..." 

"SHIELD watches. SHIELD observes. SHIELD hides." 

"Now!" 

The screen went black and the speakers went dead. The tension in the room lifted as the agents turned their attention away from the screen. I exhaled a cloud of vapor and relaxed my shoulders. The agents were unfazed by the cloud and they all looked to Fury. After a brief silence, an agent spoke up. 

"Did we find him?" She asked. 

"We did," Coulson answered. "Thanks to Agent Reed and Flint stealing Bell's CPU." 

There was a murmur of praise towards us from the agents. Henry and I exchanged looks and gave each other small salutes. 

"We were able to track his next hack, he has them pre-recorded and scheduled for different dates," Hill explained. "His location allows for different frequency waves that our tech specialists and statistics department were able to record and set on data sheets."