Under or Over: Hawkeye & Black Widow

CHAPTER #16

Agent Barton and agent Romanoff followed the two men all over Angeles City.  The stops the men made appeared to be random, but not to trained operatives.  Agent Barton saw an usb flash drive passed to one of the men, when they paid for lunch.  Another day found their targets purchasing a large quantity of a pharmaceutical drug, illegally.  The drug was p38 MAPIC, used as a neural inhibitor.  Apparently these men had a shopping list to fulfill.  Agent Romanoff interrogated each person the men came in contact with, but no one knew anything.  Thanks to agent Barton's phenomenal eyesight, they were able to maintain a loose tail.

"I think they use some kind of drug to cause memory loss with anyone they come in contact with,"  Natasha observed.

"Must be.  Too many people are immune to your interrogation.  They're doing something to them," Clint agreed.

"They've made at least a dozen stops.  Strange that there's no urgency."

He nodded.  "Look, if we plot a map with their movements, a pattern does develop.  Also it's moving us further south west and away from Angeles City."

"Towards Manila?"  Natasha asked.

"Maybe.  What did that last guy tell you?"  Clint asked as he studied the map.

"The guy with the finger missing?"  She asked to clarify.

"Yes.  That's the guy they bought the p38 MAPIC from right?"

Natasha nodded, then answered his first question.  "He said the name 'Rafael'.  Why?"

"What if that wasn't a person's name, but the city?  It's the right direction if they're going to Manila," Clint observed.

"That's a long shot without much information, but it's all we have."

Barton looked down the street.  "They're on the move again and they changed to a different taxi,"  he reported.

Agent Romanoff put their rental car into gear and followed their mark.  Three blocks later and the taxi stopped.  Agent Barton watched as the HYDRA men entered a restaurant.

"They went into Yats Wine Club- The Grill Room.  Unusually classy for them," Clint said.

Agent Romanoff pulled over. "I'm going in there.  I want to see who they're meeting."

"You can't go in wearing what you are and there's no time for you to go change."

"Damn.  Well then you go in, as a waiter or something."  Natasha said with frustration.

He was already out the door and heading towards the alley beside the restaurant.  "Can you hear me okay?"

"Yes.  Let me know what you see," she replied.

"Don't I always?"

"Do you always have to be a smart-ass?"

Clint smirked even though she couldn't see it.  "Better than being a dumb-ass."  While they chatted he'd already knocked a waiter unconscious and stollen the clothing.

Agent Barton confidently walked through the kitchen and grabbed the water jug.  He scanned the dining room and saw the table where the HYRDA men were.  He filled some water glasses from other tables as he went, before approaching their table.  He topped off the glasses.  The other person at the table was a woman.  Barton dropped a tracking device in her purse as he passed by her chair.  He returned to the kitchen.

"It's a woman and no one we've seen before.  She's not a HYDRA agent, as no tattoo on her wrists.  I dropped a tracker into her purse."

"I wonder who she is.  I'll report to Fury, while you get back here."  Natasha's voice said in his ear.

"I think her accent was Lithuanian."

"That's odd,"  Natasha remarked.  "Fury said we stick with the HYDRA agents."

Agent Barton took off the waiter's clothes and put them back on the guy he'd stollen them from, as best as he could.  He returned to the car shortly after.  

** ~ ~ ~ ~ ~**~ ~ ~ ~ ~ **

This cat and mouse surveillance continued over the next few days.  As agent Barton had predicted, they travelled slowly south towards Manila.  Most of the distance travelling was done at night.  The HYDRA men changed cars regularly and continued to make various stops during the day, on the way there.  Agent Barton and Romanoff traded off the driving, so that they both got cat naps of an hour or two at night.  Since the time with her eyes closed was short, agent Romanoff had no nightmares.

Agent Hill reported that the Lithuanian woman was identified as a brain surgon that had her license recently revoked.  They had another agent tailing her, but she hadn't left Angeles City as of yet.

"So far nothing surprising has happened.  The body bags had adults in them, but we know that HYDRA is involved with the human trafficking of children.  Any reports of children's dead bodies?"  Natasha asked agent Hill.

"Not yet.  I'll contact you if anything new develops."  Agent Hill disconnected.

"They just entered Intercontinental Manila Hotel.  Shall we?"  Clint asked.

"I hope they stay the night.  I'll be right back," Natasha announced with a wink.  And then ten minutes later she was.  "The front desk clerk said that they paid for a room until the end of the week.  He also mentioned that a message had been waiting for them.  The note apparently said 'on schedule.  Arrival tomorrow room #256.'  He confirmed no one currently was in that room, but it was prepaid under the name Smyth."

"Did you book us a room or two?"

"One room two beds," Natasha confirmed.

"Finally a bed to myself to sleep in," Clint grinned.

Natasha wrinkled her nose.  "I recommend a shower first, or you can sleep in the hall."

"You don't smell like a daisy either," he teased.

"Exactly."

She loaded him up with their gear after parking.  Romanoff already had the room key.  As soon as they were in the room, she started stripping off her uniform on the way to the shower.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," Clint said.

Natasha called after him, "check on next door while you're at it."

** ~ ~ ~ ~ ~**~ ~ ~ ~ ~ **

When he returned she was talking on the phone.  After Natasha hung up she said, "the thing about nice hotels like this one, is no shortage of hot water and room service."

"Our guys already did the same.  The empty dishes are outside their door.  They ate a lot.  I left some money with your favourite desk clerk, to ring us if they see them leave." Clint explained as he rummaged around in his pack.  He took out fresh clothes and then disappeared into the bathroom.

The food came while he was still in the shower, but she was too hungry to wait for him and began eating.  Somehow being on the road, made the food taste all that much better.  Clint came out of the bathroom already in a t-shirt and track pants.  "Leave anything for me?"

"I'm hungry, but not heartless."

He raised an eyebrow, but let it go.  "Oh, this just tastes great."  He too ate his fill. 

"Nothing on TV, not like I expected there to be."

Clint gave her an odd look and then said, "I'm going to bed. This clean, comfortable bed."  

He did exactly that and shortly she could hear his even breathing.  She on the other hand lay in bed for an hour, before sleep finally came.  But she woke up every two hours, like clock work.  She'd look at the clock, roll over and go back to sleep.  This happened three times, before Romanoff gave up on sleep. Barton continued to sleep soundly and she envied him for that.  Using an optical scope, she went out into the hall and checked to see if the HYDRA agents were still in their room.  Everyone was sleeping, except for her.