Take Flight ↬ L. Fitz [1]

Chapter Four

"Aurora," he repeated, forcing a smile. Aurora suddenly found it hard to swallow herself as his accent wound itself around her name. "Got it." 

She nodded and left the lab, that feeling still swirling inside.

⊗⊗⊗

Once they had landed in Sweden, Coulson, May, and Skye departed from the bus to look around the robbery's location. According to the quick debrief from Coulson, 25 military men had dressed in identical outfits, with identical briefcases, in order to transport diamonds to a secure location. But, while the men were on route, someone had managed to steal them.

It was a rather impressive feat. Especially because it had been accomplished by one woman with her eyes closed. Literally.

Aurora was waiting for the agents in Coulson's office when they returned. Skye connected her phone to the screen on the wall and images of the incident began cycling through.

"It's amazing," Coulson said, watching. "Every year, this part of our job gets easier."

"And makes mine harder," Aurora muttered, crossing her arms. Between her and Romanoff, they practically owned a wig and Sephora store in their attempts to stay under the growing social media radar. She ignored the questioning look Skye shot her.

"Between Facebook, Instagram, and Flicker," the man continued, "People are surveilling themselves."

"With many filters to choose from," Skye said. "I could do this pretty well when I was hacking for the Rising Tide, but you guys tag and search in ways the rest of us never dreamed of."

"I can run facial-recognition software on the photos, and cross-reference them with our criminal databases." As May spoke, a frown appeared on Coulson's face.

"You don't have to." He zoomed in on the image of a woman's face so it filled up most of the screen. "That's the thief. Her name's Akela Amador."

"You're certain?"

"I should be. I trained her." He picked up a tablet, tapped a few keys, and the image of Amador disappeared from the screen. The man heaved a sigh and marched out of the office, May following behind obediently. Skye gave Aurora another look and gestured to the door.

"What? Do we just follow him now?"

Aurora rubbed her eyes and nodded, exhausted by the dramatics of the men on the bus. "We follow him now."

When they caught up to the other agents, Coulson started talking again.

"She was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Seven years ago, Amador led a raid on one of the Vanchat's Gulags. Everyone believed that she and the two other agents on the mission were killed. I had my doubts. So I sent in a second team, just in case. They found a lot of carnage, but couldn't confirm that any of it was Amador-- left the possibility open."

"That's why you chose this op--" May said, almost accusatory. "When you heard about the heists."

"There are only a few women in the world who could pull off something so impossible," he looked between May and Aurora. "Since the two of you are on the bus, and Romanoff's on a mission with Cap, I thought it had to be her."

To punctuate his sentence, he turned and walked into the debriefing room where Ward was waiting for them. He had pulled as much information on Amador and her involvement as he could find and had displayed it on the screen.

"Swedish customs confirmed that Amador left the country using an alias on a Swedish passport," Ward said. "She flew into Belarus, bought a train ticket to a town called Zloda. I've also put together a list of individuals who could fence that many diamonds. But there's been no contact or activity."