I Am The Storm

Chapter Seven

 Tony Stark put his head in his hands, frustrated with almost everything and everyone. He had just gotten a call from his best engineers about the newest StarkPad; apparently they couldn't figure out how to expand the storage space without making the battery life smaller, so Tony would have to take on the project himself. He had a dinner with Pepper tonight that he needed to get ready for, Iron Man suits to update and repair, a charity event to organize, and the revised Sokovia Accords needed to be read by at least Friday.

For the millionth time, Tony thanked whatever had possessed him to hand off Stark Industries to Pepper all those years ago. Although he wished it had been under better circumstances (not dying perhaps), he was thankful that he had done it.

The phone on his desk started to ring (he might not run the company anymore, but unfortunately he still had to have a desk and not just work out of the lab all the time). He sighed and read the name on the receiver; Thaddeus Ross, a man currently on the list of Tony's least favorite people. Tony picked up the phone, hoping this would be short.

"This is Tony Stark. Do you have the wrong number?"

"Very funny Stark. You know what I'm calling about." Ross said in a low growl.

"Do I? I have had a lot going on right now, so you should probably understand that while I am a genius, I do tend to forget what others deem important. If you could refresh me?"

Ross sighed.

"The girl you captured a couple days ago. She is with Hydra and it is vital that you get as much information about her as you can. Though Hydra might not be as prominent as before when they infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., they still have means of causing chaos and destruction,"

"Our best interrogator talked to her today. Apparently she only said three sentences," Tony sighed, dragging his hand down his face. He would have more grey hairs by the end of this week, he was sure of it.

"Well obviously he didn't use the right tactics."

"The interrogator was a she. She did great. The girl obviously had some training when it comes to dealing with interrogation,"

"I don't care if the girl had training! I need information about her!" Ross' voice rose in volume to the point where Tony had to pull the phone away from his ear.

"Well, I can't really control that,"

"Do you think I care, Stark? I need information and you have the source,"

"I don't think she'll just hand the information to us. The girl obviously has genius level intellect, whether natural or otherwise. She made blueprints for nanotech that most scientists couldn't dream of. I have talked to her-"

"I couldn't care if she was the most retarded person in your building Stark. Do I need to tell you why?"

"Is it maybe because you want information?" Tony could hear Ross scoff over the line.

"You never fail to amaze me Mr. Stark,"

"Please, Mr. Stark was my father,"

"Sometimes I wish I was dealing with him instead of you," Ross said slowly, "I could take the girl to court and see how she fares. For all we know, she could be a murderer or an assassin,"

"She murdered one of my employees," Tony said, no emotion in his voice, "Who turned out to be a former Hydra employee,"

"More against both her and you. How did you end up hiring a former Hydra employee?"

"So you see, I didn't personally hire her. The background check only goes to a certain extent so I had to dig to get her full file,"

"Sounds like you're slacking. What if I just seized the girl and used other methods to get information out of her? She is a minor with no legal guardianship, no connections, nothing."