Chương 53: Ch53. Fury's reaction
Nicholas Fury came to his office in the morning and sat on his chair with a sigh as another day in his work to protect the world from itself started.
The very first thing he started doing was his daily routine of pouring himself a cup of coffee and opening his favorite newspapers. They were his favorite because there was not much frivolous bullshit, mostly just hard facts and goings-on in the world.
One or two times, some news in it managed to surprise even him, the most informed person in this hemisphere!
But that was fine. Even if he was the director of SHIELD, he could not be in the know for every happening. That was simply physically impossible.
For example...
Fury was quite aware there were mysteries even he had no idea about in the world. His little spat with aliens some years ago was proof of that. Who knew what else was real.
As he was calmly reading the newspapers with a peaceful quietness of his office, his lone eye suddenly widened as it landed on a particular headline.
'Stark finally getting married?'
Fury spat his coffee in front of him... at his poor table and computer.
He was not informed of this! How could he not be informed of this!?
Fury's mind started whirling at the possibilities...
Stark getting married was of huge importance to SHIELD! There was always a team of agents shadowing Stark. Especially so since Afghanistan.
And Fury had to say, the man was extremely boring, spending most of his time shut in his house.
The agents kept a respectful distance. Both to make sure Stark would not notice and to keep far out of the reach of his Artificial Intelligence. They never dared to enter anywhere near Stark's property for this reason.
When Stark called he wants Romanoff... Fury was angry at his audacity but deep down, he was mostly amused. Stark was not dangerous. He was just a petulant, spoiled, arrogant ponce who thought too highly of himself.
He was no threat. Stark could make weapons all he wanted but he did not have it in himself to be a genuine danger. He was just an annoyance. An annoyance related to one of the SHIELD founders.
What a headache...
For so long SHIELD tried to get an agent close to Stark, sending their people to his company with hopes to get close to Stark, only for it all to fail.
Sending Black Widow on the infiltration mission to Stark Industries was the last resort. If she failed, Fury would have had no agent with better chances to succeed. Surprisingly, Natasha got in on her first day and became Stark's favorite. Somehow.
As expected from Black Widow, her infiltration was successful.
Even if she wouldn't be exactly working in the company but her work would be performing well in Stark's bed.
So, when she stopped reporting on her scheduled times after this happened, Fury got concerned. Yet, he still hoped Natasha was smarter than that. That she had some difficulties and this didn't mean she really used this opportunity to play Stark and get out of SHIELD through him.
But he was wrong.
Black Widow has betrayed them.
And when Barton returned from the meeting between them, Fury could only sourly acknowledge that her reasons were valid. During her first years in SHIELD, she was treated as high flight-risk and a strict stick-carrot policy was enforced on her. She would work for them, and she would be rewarded for it. But her work would be demanding.
Fury never really considered she might feel dissatisfied that this didn't change even after she proved herself. That she was still treated as if she was just a tool or a slave for SHIELD. In hindsight, he should have changed it. Natasha did more than any other SHIELD agent to gain her rank and a degree of trust.
But he never thought of it. She never talked about it nor requested a change and he was always swarmed with more important work. He didn't bother looking at the circumstances of a singular agent!
No matter how valid Natasha's grievances were, she betrayed them and that could not be left unanswered.
Yet, Fury was having a hard time coming up with possible retribution yesterday so he went home to sleep it off.
And today... this happened.
Fury's eye quickly started to scour the article, looking for the name of Stark's fiancee, hoping it was not who he thought it would be.
So, when he finally found the name and read it...
'Natalia Romanova.'
His breath hitched for a second before a quiet but heartfelt, "Motherfucker!" left his mouth.
This was a veritable disaster! What should he d-
The door to his office suddenly flew open, jerking Fury out of his inner conflict, and Alexander Pierce hurriedly walked inside, visibly shaking and seemingly on the verge of a heart attack.
"What is this!?" He shouted angrily and threw the same newspaper Fury was reading on his table.
Fury's lone eye lazily slid to his long-time friend, observing him for a moment in an unnerving manner. "That... is a newspaper." He simply said, making Alexander bristle.
"Nick, don't play coy with me! I know you read the same newspaper as me in the morning! You are letting Black Widow marry Stark!? Are you insane?"
"I am not." Fury calmly said as if describing the weather, "She betrayed us."
Alexander's mouth opened but something gleamed in his eyes and he stopped himself from talking. Fury knew his friend enough to know when his gears were working in overdrive. He just silently waited, focusing on his own thoughts in the meantime.
Alexander found the situation fishy. He knew there was something he was missing.
It didn't take a long time thinking to come up with a possible theory. He looked at Nick, "When did she betray us and why didn't you report it to the World Council? You know Black Widow is not just some nameless agent. She could be a very serious threat and knows far too much to be left alive."
Alexander's words were calm and reasonable. He wasn't accusing Nick. He just wanted to know his reasoning.
Fury was reluctant to reveal this but he knew he had no longer a chance. "A few months ago. She was sent on a mission, as usual, was exceptionally successful, but this meant she had to go awol. We had no contact with her for some time. After a few months, it seemed too suspicious even to me so I sent Barton to meet her, only to find out she used the situation to get out of our grasp."
"The situation?" Alexander asked, sitting in the chair in front of Fury. Both knew he was asking about the specifics of her mission.
Alexander wasn't one of Fury's subordinates. He would not be satisfied with half-truths and misdirecting statements. He wanted to hear what was going on. He would not accept being told there is a 'situation'. He wanted to know what that situation was!
Fury closed his eye and sighed, "Stark threatened me to cut his funding. He demanded Black Widow as his spoils of a sort. He will continue to fund us but she would be fully his. He even basically told me to forget she even existed."
"Just a rambling of a petulant child with too much money and technology for his own good." Alexander snorted. When he was the director of SHIELD, he observed Stark for quite some time with the intention to recruit him so he knew the brat well enough.
"I thought so too and expected Black Widow to play a double agent for us, pretending to do everything to satisfy Stark's vanity while secretly working for us." Fury sighed.
"But she did not do that." Alexander nodded in understanding, starting to form a picture in his head.
The woman was experienced enough to know what her boss expected of her in that kind of situation. This was definitely no miscommunication.
Alexander's lips suddenly stretched into a helpless smile, "Well, this is a disaster then. We can't do anything against her at this stage."
"No. I think that was the whole point with... this." Fury knocked at the newspaper on the table.
"Damn, that woman is good. Becoming Stark's fiancee gave her just the right renown to prevent us from blatantly acting against her." Alexander spoke, his tone holding a hint of praise.
"We still could act." Fury carefully said but Alexander just snorted at him.
"Don't be stupid. I know you were chosen to be my successor because you have guts and are exceptionally daring while capable of seeing the consequences. You know as well as me that this is beyond us now." He scoffed. "Stark can cause problems for us through funding or reveal our existence and that is bad enough as it is. Provoking him by killing his to-be wife? Even if Romanoff is using her body to make Stark dance to her tune, the boy is probably smitten with her by now. And I am not even talking about the possible repercussions if it came to light that SHIELD assassinated the fiancee of someone as important as Stark. The politicians would eat us alive."
Fury grunted in dissatisfaction, not voicing his opinion on the matter. He knew SHIELD needed a good reputation and this was just the situation that could ruin it. They could not afford to act.
Black Widow even used her real name which was bad enough.
The Stark boy was important but not important enough to compromise the entirety of SHIELD for his safety. He would just have to stay under the tender care of Black Widow and enjoy her seduction techniques for a while.
As long as Black Widow doesn't threaten the safety of the world, she successfully got out of their grasp with this stunt.
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