Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
( CHAPTER NINE )
TRISKELION, S.H.I.E.L.D. HEADQUARTERS, 2012
"Pham! Leave your project for a moment and come here."
A protest echoed in the lab.
"I promise it's going to be there after you come back!"
"Well, it is a leg, so one can never be too careful," Arden deadpanned as she neared the other woman, wiping her hands on a rug that was much too filthy to do its job properly. Her fingers came away stained with oil and grease; she grimaced.
Her head of department stared at her, unimpressed, though Arden knew that Doctor Morgan actually enjoyed her dry sense of humor, at least a little. The woman had a slim manila folder clasped in her hands.
"What's this?"
"I have a new assignment for you," Doctor Morgan told her as she handed the documents over in her direction. Arden quickly patted her hands over her white coat to clean her skin even if it left dirty handprints all over the fabric and took the folder, which was labelled as classified in big, bold, red letters. She arched an eyebrow.
"From the higher ups," the other woman stated obviously. "They were very satisfied with the prototypes you presented last week and I insisted they choose you for this project. Think of it as a final exam of sorts."
Arden was both pleased and a bit intimidated by the statement, but kept quiet as she skimmed through the pages. Most names and places were crossed out in black stripes, the few pictures she saw giving no clue at to what she would be dealing with. She stared, a bit surprised: not about S.H.I.E.L.D. withholding the information, but at the fact that they would put a project of this caliber in her hands.
"They've been trafficking stolen weapons even in the wake of the New York battle," Arden's mouth took on a displeased line. She didn't experience the fight first-hand, cooped up in her lab in Washington, and she knew she had been lucky: she had followed the events closely on tv and any other social media platform she could get into, hadn't yet managed to get her head around space and aliens and superheros and gods. It was... insane. And scary. The city was left in ruins, a lot of people died. She dreaded to think about what would have happened, had the Avengers not stepped in to save the day.
"The weapons are highly unstable, they want something able to neutralize them, disarm the whole cargo without having the risk of blowing it up and causing more damage. All the data the field agents could acquire is in there," Doctor Morgan gestured to the folder. "Get a look on it and let me know what you think."
