Redback Widow | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. [3]

Girl in the Flower Dress

The Bus, Location: Classified

I was in the hanger, practicing my ballet when I heard the alarm go off. I sighed, trudging into the briefing room. "Chan Ho Yin--just a struggling street performer until a few years ago, when Mr. Chan began to exhibit moderate pyrokinetic abilities," Coulson said. "So what gave him powers?" Fitz asked. "It's still under investigation, but Chan did live near the decommissioned Wan Tai nuclear plant when it caught fire. To our knowledge, no other nearby residents have exhibited similar traits," Coulson said.

"So how did we find out about him?" Simmons asked. "Informants saw him lighting torches in a street show...with his pinkie," May said. "Brought it to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attention. We told him to keep his abilities under wraps. He's been on the index ever since," Coulson said. "The index?" Skye asked. "It's a list S.H.I.E.L.D. keeps of people and objects with powers," Simmons said. "Wait, what? How many are there? Are you saying there are more people--" Skye started.

"Not many," May said. "Enough to keep a list," Skye argued. "A shortlist, meant to protect them," Coulson said. "Though, in rare cases, S.H.I.E.L.D. has to take action," Ward said. "Actions against people or objects? Well, that's drastic with a side of creepy," Skye said when they inhaled sharply.

"How are they monitored--tapped phones, satellite surveillance, body probes in dark, unpleasant places?" Skye asked. "Who's on there?" I asked, veering the topic away. "I'm afraid we can't disclose that information," Coulson said. "Mr. Chan was low-risk. He was assigned a case agent who checked in with him every few days. That's how we discovered him missing," Coulson said. "您好, 关先生. 你好吗?" May asked.

"不如我想象的那么好," He said. "Everyone, this is Agent Kwan, Chan Ho Yin's case agent," May said. "很高兴认识你," I said. "你说广东话吗?" May asked me. "除其他事项外," I answered.

"What can you tell us?" May asked. "Not much, I'm afraid. Chan is a magician, so at first, I thought he'd made himself disappear," Kwan said. "The file says you'd caught him violating his index agreement before," Coulson said. "On two separate occasions--claimed we were 'hampering his artistic expression.' But late last night, he was taken by professionals. The only thing they left behind was this scrap of aluminized material," Kwan said. "Fireproof clothing," Simmons said.

"So whoever took him knew about his powers," I clarified. "Yes, and we think we know why. Over the last few days, tech division discovered a crack into our data stream. It's the same cyberpunks who hacked us before. Somehow, they got in again. It's the Rising Tide," He said, and we all looked at Skye. "Hello? It's got real quiet. You guys still there?" We ended the call with Chan, and Ward, Coulson, and Skye went to Coulson's office. A few minutes later, they reemerged. Skye started to type furiously, trying to trace the hack.

"How close are we?" Coulson asked, coming in. "Almost there," Skye said. "She's identified the remote-access Trojan and the infected endpoint and is searching for a TCP to correlate the hypertext with signature information and then, Bob is your uncle, viola," Fitz-Simmons said. "You get any of that?" Coulson asked Ward. "Only the uncle part," Ward admitted.

"We got our origin--Austin, Texas," Skye said. "You got a name?" I asked. "Just the cafe our hacker worked out of, but I'm in the system. I'm gonna check to see if any credit-card charges from that day match up to any known hackers. We got a hit," She said, as a picture of a man came up. "Miles Lydon, not Skye--that's to all our relief," Fitz said. "You know him?" Coulson asked.

"Every hacker in the world knows him," Skye said. "Not just the hacker world. He infiltrated the Kremlin. Yeah, the picture of, uh, Putin shirtless on horseback--that was his hack," Fitz-Simmons said, smiling. "It was also his hack that got Chan kidnapped," Ward said. "May, set a course for Austin," Coulson said, and there was a beep. "Just did," She said.