Resurrection - Chapter 18
Nothing is a given when Chitauri weapons are involved, and when Coulson's team is outflanked by another SHIELD team, the results are bound to be unpredictable...or worse, deadly.
Chapter 18
Melinda and Skye piled into the rented SUV, a vehicle large enough to give Skye room to operate the various devices she’d brought along and sufficiently anonymous to not seem out of place driving through a large industrial complex. There was no visible site security at the entrance to the area, so they had no real problems at the start of their exploration.
Unlike some Muslim countries women were allowed to drive freely in Bahrain, but Melinda had decided to wear a hard scarf as a minor bit of disguise. She knew, however, that it would instantly become useless if she exited the vehicle since her usual working attire was completely out of place, not to mention her slightly asian features would also be a dead giveaway to the locals.
They began with a drive straight through the middle of the area, a route which did happen to take them along one side of the buildings they were interested in. They hoped it would appear they were simply heading to the far side, and Melinda drove fast enough that they didn’t appear to be dawdling along the way.
When they reached the parking lot and exit on the far side Melinda pulled into an empty parking space. “Well?”
“I got three cameras, one on each corner and one aimed at the big roll-up door. The corner ones can probably get a decent view of that row of doors.” Then she looked at the side-scan, back-scatter unit video. “The first door opens into a small office. Nobody there right now. The second is apparently an electrical room. The third one…the one nearest the roll-up door, goes into an open workspace in the middle of the building. There’s several trucks parked in there, look like they’re in couple of rows.”
“The first one has some sort of logo painted on it, but I can’t read it here. Maybe back in the lab we can clean it up a little. It’s in…well, it’s the English alphabet I think. Not Arabic in any case.”
“What can you see inside that long wall?”
“Looks like some machinery of some sort. I’m guessing it’s a manufacturing area. There are a few people standing here and there. I…looks like a normal factory to me.”
“Okay, let’s check the north side next. That way the building will always be on our right. You don’t have to reset.” Skye nodded, and they were off, navigating through a series of narrow roads and alleys, pausing now and then to avoid a forklift or people on walking.
“Coming up on the right,” Melinda said quietly and Skye bent to her instruments, paying no attention to anything outside the darkened windows.
“Camera. Door. Door. Camera. Make that two cameras. Door. Camera...that’s tracking our motion!”
Melinda completely ignored the words and concentrated on driving right on by, not overly worried about the actions of the camera. It was most likely motion-sensitive, and would track anything moving. It didn’t automatically mean a problem, but it was worth noting when it came to plan their next visit.
They cleared the building and Melinda continued on, driving out the complex and back out onto the highway. “We’ll give it a few minutes, just so they don’t get curious.”
“Sounds good to me,” Skye responded and returned to studying her readouts. “There’s some kind of transmission. I’m not sure what it is. It might be some kind of motion sensor, but it’s...I don’t know. I can’t really tell. Maybe Basil will know.”
“Just keep the readings and we’ll check it when we get back.” She started to turn, and then thought some more. “Keep an eye out for that when we go back. If they’ve got more than one, or it’s multi-directional it just might be important.”
* * * * *
“I think maybe we’re being scanned.”
“What do you have?”
“Over here,” he said, pointing towards the southeast corner of the building. “There! Look at the camera.” Everyone in the room focused on the screen. There were two men walking slowly toward the building, wearing body armor and carrying a number of weapons. The man in front was also carrying some sort of device.
“Do we go get them?”
Bennett Gross considered the situation. “We could just wait, to see what they do. I’d really rather not have a public brawl here.” He turned to face the others. “We know this base isn’t very secure, but for the moment it’s handy. I want to do a couple more jobs here, and then we can move.”
“What if we just drop them. We can use the blasters, and that other thing. No noise. No bangs…no booms! Drag them inside and nobody will be the wiser.”
Gross considered the proposal. “Let’s saddle up. If we can lure them to a door we’ll invite them inside.” With that they all stood up, walking the tables and lockers to don body armor and pick up their weaponry.
* * * * *
“Nothing at all on that side,” Skye said, checking everything again. “Not a peep, no cameras, no scanners. The backscatter showed nothing significant, just some office spaces occupied with the usual equipment and people. “I don’t think this end of the building is being used by them.”
“Okay, we just need to swing by the other end and then we’re done. I’ll take the next alley around the big building and then head south.” Skye reset the video recorder and prepped for the last pass.
As Melinda turned the final corner she discovered a problem. “There are two guys out here. They’re armed. This looks like they’re preparing an attack or something.” She slowed, turning into a parking space to observe.
Skye looked up from her laptop and then picked up a pair of binoculars. “They’re SHIELD!”
“What?”
“They’re SHIELD. Look at the shoulder patches.”
“What the...they must.... It’s Clark.”
“Wasn’t he told to keep his men out of the area?”
“Yes, he was,” Melinda said, her voice clearly sharing her disgust and disdain for the man. “He doesn’t listen well.”
“Now what?”
Before Melinda could respond a door opened and three men stepped out. Two were carrying handguns of some sort while the third had a much larger type of rifle. The first pointed his weapon, firing a beam of red light towards the original pair. It missed them both, and they began to return fire.
“Shit!” Melinda shoved the shift lever into Park, and yanked her door open, ducking behind the front fender and sighting in on the bad guys. Before she could fire another jet of red light knocked down one of the SHIELD agents. She glanced briefly at the fallen, and then focused on the assailants again. Her first round, fired from an icer, took down the leader, leaving just two, but before she could sight in again a blast of purple light grazed the top of the hood and took her to the ground.
“May!” Skye screamed. “May!” Skye tossed aside her laptop and shoved everything else out of the way and climbed out of the back seat. She had drawn her own icer, but when she peeked over the hood she saw the opposition dragging their fallen comrade back inside the building.
“May. May. Melinda, are you okay?” There was no response. She reached for a pulse and felt somewhat relieved when she detected a nice strong heartbeat. “Oh shit. Now what?”
Feeling she had no other options left, she yelled to the SHIELD agents. “I’m SHIELD! Bring him over here and get in! NOW!” She began dragging Melinda back, roughly shoving her legs into the back seat and then folding her up until she could close the door.
With the wounded man also in the back, Skye jumped into the driver’s seat and slammed the car into gear. Rather than back out properly she drove over the curb and bounced across a loading dock as the second agent struggled to hang on and close the door. Once she made it to the main highway she looked around, deciding which way was home before glancing over her shoulder. Melinda still wasn’t moving and she’d turned a really pasty shade of white.
Chapter 18
Melinda and Skye piled into the rented SUV, a vehicle large enough to give Skye room to operate the various devices she’d brought along and sufficiently anonymous to not seem out of place driving through a large industrial complex. There was no visible site security at the entrance to the area, so they had no real problems at the start of their exploration.
Unlike some Muslim countries women were allowed to drive freely in Bahrain, but Melinda had decided to wear a hard scarf as a minor bit of disguise. She knew, however, that it would instantly become useless if she exited the vehicle since her usual working attire was completely out of place, not to mention her slightly asian features would also be a dead giveaway to the locals.
They began with a drive straight through the middle of the area, a route which did happen to take them along one side of the buildings they were interested in. They hoped it would appear they were simply heading to the far side, and Melinda drove fast enough that they didn’t appear to be dawdling along the way.
When they reached the parking lot and exit on the far side Melinda pulled into an empty parking space. “Well?”
“I got three cameras, one on each corner and one aimed at the big roll-up door. The corner ones can probably get a decent view of that row of doors.” Then she looked at the side-scan, back-scatter unit video. “The first door opens into a small office. Nobody there right now. The second is apparently an electrical room. The third one…the one nearest the roll-up door, goes into an open workspace in the middle of the building. There’s several trucks parked in there, look like they’re in couple of rows.”
“The first one has some sort of logo painted on it, but I can’t read it here. Maybe back in the lab we can clean it up a little. It’s in…well, it’s the English alphabet I think. Not Arabic in any case.”
“What can you see inside that long wall?”
“Looks like some machinery of some sort. I’m guessing it’s a manufacturing area. There are a few people standing here and there. I…looks like a normal factory to me.”
“Okay, let’s check the north side next. That way the building will always be on our right. You don’t have to reset.” Skye nodded, and they were off, navigating through a series of narrow roads and alleys, pausing now and then to avoid a forklift or people on walking.
“Coming up on the right,” Melinda said quietly and Skye bent to her instruments, paying no attention to anything outside the darkened windows.
“Camera. Door. Door. Camera. Make that two cameras. Door. Camera...that’s tracking our motion!”
Melinda completely ignored the words and concentrated on driving right on by, not overly worried about the actions of the camera. It was most likely motion-sensitive, and would track anything moving. It didn’t automatically mean a problem, but it was worth noting when it came to plan their next visit.
They cleared the building and Melinda continued on, driving out the complex and back out onto the highway. “We’ll give it a few minutes, just so they don’t get curious.”
“Sounds good to me,” Skye responded and returned to studying her readouts. “There’s some kind of transmission. I’m not sure what it is. It might be some kind of motion sensor, but it’s...I don’t know. I can’t really tell. Maybe Basil will know.”
“Just keep the readings and we’ll check it when we get back.” She started to turn, and then thought some more. “Keep an eye out for that when we go back. If they’ve got more than one, or it’s multi-directional it just might be important.”
* * * * *
“I think maybe we’re being scanned.”
“What do you have?”
“Over here,” he said, pointing towards the southeast corner of the building. “There! Look at the camera.” Everyone in the room focused on the screen. There were two men walking slowly toward the building, wearing body armor and carrying a number of weapons. The man in front was also carrying some sort of device.
“Do we go get them?”
Bennett Gross considered the situation. “We could just wait, to see what they do. I’d really rather not have a public brawl here.” He turned to face the others. “We know this base isn’t very secure, but for the moment it’s handy. I want to do a couple more jobs here, and then we can move.”
“What if we just drop them. We can use the blasters, and that other thing. No noise. No bangs…no booms! Drag them inside and nobody will be the wiser.”
Gross considered the proposal. “Let’s saddle up. If we can lure them to a door we’ll invite them inside.” With that they all stood up, walking the tables and lockers to don body armor and pick up their weaponry.
* * * * *
“Nothing at all on that side,” Skye said, checking everything again. “Not a peep, no cameras, no scanners. The backscatter showed nothing significant, just some office spaces occupied with the usual equipment and people. “I don’t think this end of the building is being used by them.”
“Okay, we just need to swing by the other end and then we’re done. I’ll take the next alley around the big building and then head south.” Skye reset the video recorder and prepped for the last pass.
As Melinda turned the final corner she discovered a problem. “There are two guys out here. They’re armed. This looks like they’re preparing an attack or something.” She slowed, turning into a parking space to observe.
Skye looked up from her laptop and then picked up a pair of binoculars. “They’re SHIELD!”
“What?”
“They’re SHIELD. Look at the shoulder patches.”
“What the...they must.... It’s Clark.”
“Wasn’t he told to keep his men out of the area?”
“Yes, he was,” Melinda said, her voice clearly sharing her disgust and disdain for the man. “He doesn’t listen well.”
“Now what?”
Before Melinda could respond a door opened and three men stepped out. Two were carrying handguns of some sort while the third had a much larger type of rifle. The first pointed his weapon, firing a beam of red light towards the original pair. It missed them both, and they began to return fire.
“Shit!” Melinda shoved the shift lever into Park, and yanked her door open, ducking behind the front fender and sighting in on the bad guys. Before she could fire another jet of red light knocked down one of the SHIELD agents. She glanced briefly at the fallen, and then focused on the assailants again. Her first round, fired from an icer, took down the leader, leaving just two, but before she could sight in again a blast of purple light grazed the top of the hood and took her to the ground.
“May!” Skye screamed. “May!” Skye tossed aside her laptop and shoved everything else out of the way and climbed out of the back seat. She had drawn her own icer, but when she peeked over the hood she saw the opposition dragging their fallen comrade back inside the building.
“May. May. Melinda, are you okay?” There was no response. She reached for a pulse and felt somewhat relieved when she detected a nice strong heartbeat. “Oh shit. Now what?”
Feeling she had no other options left, she yelled to the SHIELD agents. “I’m SHIELD! Bring him over here and get in! NOW!” She began dragging Melinda back, roughly shoving her legs into the back seat and then folding her up until she could close the door.
With the wounded man also in the back, Skye jumped into the driver’s seat and slammed the car into gear. Rather than back out properly she drove over the curb and bounced across a loading dock as the second agent struggled to hang on and close the door. Once she made it to the main highway she looked around, deciding which way was home before glancing over her shoulder. Melinda still wasn’t moving and she’d turned a really pasty shade of white.