Agent Mikaelson

Chapter 6: A Chat with Alexander Pierce

Hope's POV:

After a few minutes of waiting Steve and Nat come out of the room where Fury's body is. "Natasha!" Steve calls. I stand from my place on a spare chair. I walk over to the two. "Why was Fury in your apartment?" She asks him. I can see the pain she's trying to hide behind hostility.

He sighs. "I don't know." "Cap, Mikaelson, they want both of you back at SHIELD." Rumlow says. "Yeah, give us a second." He says. "They want you now." I turn and glare, showing my golden eyes. He looks frightened. "Okay." Steve answers for us, putting a hand on my shoulder.

Rumlow walks away from us. "You're a terrible liar." Nat says when we turn back to her. She then walks off. I sigh and rake my hands through my hair. I turn to Steve who looks like he's thinking. He then proceeds to put the flashdrive into the vending machine next to us. "What are you-"

"Come on." He says, ignoring my obvious confusion. He leads me by the arm over to Rumlow. "Let's go." He says. Rumlow nods and follows after us. We are led to SHIELD and told to change into mission ready gear. I quickly change and meet Steve by the elevators. 

We take them up to Pierce's office. "Agent Mikaelson, Captain Rogers." Our neighbor says. I need to find out her real name. "Neighbor." Steve says cooly, obviously pissed she lied to us. I send her a small smile. She was under orders. I get that, sort of. 

"Captain, Agent Mikaelson. I am Alexander Pierce." He says, sticking out his hand. We both shake it. "Sir, it's an honor." Steve says. I nod in agreement. "The honor's mine Captain. My father served in the 101st. Come on in." He says. We follow him into the room. 

We take a seat and then we are handed pictures. "That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met, when I was at State Department in Bogota. E.L.N. rebels took the embassy, and security got me out. but the rebels took hostages." He begins. 

"Nick was Deputy Chief of the SHIELD station there, and he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, 'no, we'll negotiate'. Turned out the E.L.N. didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They storm the basement, and what do they find?"

I lean forward, knowing how this is going to end. "They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order, and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil, and saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter." Pierce explains. 

"So you gave him a promotion." Steve summarizes. "I've never had any cause to regret it." Steve and I both nod at this. "Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" He asks. All my mental warning shoot up. 

Yeah, he could just be a friend wondering why his friend died where he died, but there is something about him I don't trust. It isn't like Nat's question. She asked because she was pissed. He sounds too calm to be pissed. Steve and I shake our heads. "I don't know." Steve says. 

"Did you know it was bugged?" He asks. "I did, because Nick told me." Steve says. "Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Ok this guy is defiantly up to something. He's trying to get us to betray Fury because of his sketchy behavior. 

Fury died keeping a secret that he gave to us in that flash drive. I'll be damned if he died for nothing. Neither of us answer him. "I want you two to see something." He says.He turns on a projector. Batroc comes on. "Is that live?" Steve asks. 

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers." He says. "Are you saying he's a suspect?" I ask, speaking for the first time since we left the hospital. "Assassination isn't Batroc's line." Steve says. He also doesn't have a metal arm. 

"No, no, it's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star. He was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer, and then the money was ran through 17 fictitious accounts." What is he saying? I don't trust this guy one bit. 

"The last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech." He says. "Are we supposed to know who that is?" I ask as Steve takes the folder. He starts sifting through it cautiously, trying to figure out if this is the guy. 

"Not likely, Veech died six years ago. He last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick his mother lived at 1437." Pierce says. "Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?" Steve asks, confused. I am too. 

"The prevailing theory? The hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death." Now I know he's bullshitting us. Steve Rogers is the last person Fury would give the drive to if he wanted it to be sold.

I don't care how desperate they are trying to make him out to be. Steve is such a do good guy that Fury would never even consider him a possibility. "If you really knew Nick Fury, you'd know that that's not true." I say, glaring. "Why do you think the three of us are talking?"

He then gets up and walks over to the window. Steve and I follow. "You see, I took a seat on the council, not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists." Oh boy, I wonder what this is going to lead to. I think sarcastically. 

"We knew that despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. That makes enemies." I narrow my eyes. 

The reason Insight was created was to neutralize threats, not to build a new world. I look at Steve and know that he's thinking the same thing I am. Pierce is what's wrong with SHIELD, Fury was right. 

"Those people who call both of you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today makes me really, really angry." He say. 

Just because people oppose what you do and what you believe doesn't mean you have to tear them down, it's means you prove them wrong. I've been proving bastards wrong my entire life. I'm not going to stop now, when everything seems to be falling apart. I'm going to try harder. 

"Captain, Agent Mikaelson, you were the last two people to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident and I don't think either of you do either. So, I'm gonna ask again. Why was he there?" Pierce asks. I can hear the hint of anger in his voice. "He told us not to trust anyone." Steve says.

"I wonder if that included him." He says. "I'm sorry. Those were his last words. Excuse us." Steve says, grabbing my arm and pulling me from the room. "Captain, Agent." We turn to face him. I am using all of my will power to keep my eyes the right color and to not shove him with magic.

"Somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone." He says. Love the subtle warning. "Understood." With that Steve pulls me from the room. I know not to talk here, bugs everywhere. We need to get somewhere safe.