The Pirate And His Sea

Chapter 14: How Maria Hill Met Him & Found Out

"Maybe I could help you find them, Mr. Jackson. Who is it that you're looking for?" Maria said, stepping farther into the room and closing the door behind her. She kept a discreet eye on her communicator and the hidden camera in the corner of the room, so that she was in constant connection with the bridge. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary besides the man in front of her, and that made her nervous. When all things are quiet, look for the snake your midst, as her mentor often said.

Jackson let out a little chuckle and he idly brushed off his pants. "It's not really important," he said as he got to his feet. One of his hands strayed to the pocket of his worn black jeans and sat there casually. Maria did not treat it like the absent-minded action it appeared to be – who knew if he had a detonator in there or something? "I won't be here long so it's really not a problem," he continued. His eyes seemed to have gained an ominous glint, but it may have just been a play of the light.

Maria hoped that was all it was.

Maria deliberately put a finger on her communicator and kept her eyes on Jackson as she replied, "I'm afraid that's not quite true, Mr. Jackson. I'm going to have to take you in to the control room so that we can find who you're looking for; the Helicarrier is a highly secretive military base so we have to be very careful with these things." She channeled the mindset she used for arrogant upstart politicians who thought they were the ruler of the world and actually knew nothing about fighting; it was a bit condescending, but it worked on the pompous men all the time.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Jackson was not one of those men, but he did seem like an amiable person because he let out a little sigh and strolled towards her without complaint. She carefully stepped back to open the door to let him out before her (never turn your back on an enemy, whispered the voice of her mentor) and he crossed the threshold without problem. It was as she followed him into the corridor that the problems arose.

The entire hallway shuddered as a loud metallic groan, and Maria stumbled as the ground shook unexpectedly. Jackson wavered a bit, looking just as surprised as she was, but he recovered quickly. "What was that?" he asked her, eyes narrow.

She ignored him in favor of grabbing her communicator and contacting the bridge. "Maria Hill to bridge; what's our status?"

The same agent's shaky voice replied quickly. "We're stable but the port side rear engine was damaged; we believe it was sabotage. There's no record of unfamiliar wireless activations anywhere, so it must have been done manually, ma'am."

The port side – that was the other side of the ship. Obviously Jackson could not have been the person responsible for the malfunction if it was done manually, but that didn't mean he couldn't be an accomplice.

"Keep an eye on everything and try to contact the Director," she told the agent, then grabbed Jackson's arm. "You'll be coming with me."

"What?" he said, eyebrows raised. "You can't possibly think that I'm connected with any of this."

"It's a possibility, so the niceties are over. Shut up and move."

The man growled something under his breath but didn't try to fight her as they made their way to the bridge. Good. If he had tried something, she would have dropped him with the Taser stashed in her belt and called someone to lock him up until all the commotion was dealt with. They were nearly at the large blast doors that opened into the bridge when Maria's communicator beeped.

"Ma'am!" It was the agent, but his young voice sounded panicked. There was the sound of fighting in the background, and the connection wavered every few moments. "Don't approach the bridge! I repeat - - have been compromised! Don't... the bridge!" The message was broken by static several times, but Maria understood it enough to pull herself and her unwilling guest into a side hallway. It was at the last moment possible as well, because the blast doors were flung open like they were brittle wood instead of reinforced steel.