"Excuse me sir, but there's someone that wants a meeting with you."
Nick Fury cocked the brow above his missing eye as he regarded the nervous looking agent. "So, book one of the conference rooms and set up a time for a video chat." The director waved at the agent dismissively as he turned back to study some of the proposed plans for a new headquarters.
"Well, I would sir, except she's waiting outside right now." Fury's head shot up in surprise.
"What do you mean, "outside"?"
"I mean she's right in front of the agent stationed in front of the Lift sir. And if Agent Jackson's words were anything to by, she is holding him in a rather uncomfortable position."
The Director felt his eye widen as he rubbed at his jaw in thought.
"Bring her down, and make sure she's escorted by at least a full squad. And get Barton on the phone and tell him to follow them from a discreet distance. I want her dropped like a sack of anvils if she so much as sneezes aggressively, understand?"
"Yes sir, understood."
The agent scuttled away quickly, already grabbing his phone and dialing the necessary numbers. Fury turned and made his way to one of the facility's meeting rooms, his mind spinning as he tried to unravel the mystery that had just dumped itself on his lap. A quiet beeping brought his attention to his own communicator, where all the available files as to the identity of his guest had finished downloading.
He perused them with mild disinterest; nothing within was of any note, the woman was to all appearances a simple Japanese housewife, except for the fact that she had managed to track down SHIELD's headquarters and hold one of its trained and alert operatives hostages. His eye grew slightly wider as he finally got to the section on her relatives.
"Well now," he muttered to himself. "Isn't this interesting."
He wouldn't have been too surprised to find out that one of the Captain's old squad member's had decided to settle down in one of the countries he had visited, but for his kid to come back to his home country after so many years certainly threw him for a loop. It did go a way to explaining how she had managed to track them down as well; SHIELD headquarters was still connected to the same front buildings and exits that it had back in the forties and fifties, and Fury wouldn't have put it past the Captain to have told his men where to find SHIELD if they needed to.
He set his phone down on the table in the meeting room he had chosen and took a seat so that he could face the door. A minute passed, then two, which quickly became five and then ten, until the door opened and in strode his guest. Who was noticeably missing her guards, causing Fury's eyebrows to rise as she pulled out her own seat across from him.
"Mrs. Saotome," he said flatly. "What can SHIELD do for you today?"
The redhead smirked at him —
smirked at
him — and withdrew a couple files from her sleeves that she set on the table. "Actually Director, I believe the question you should be asking, is what can I do for SHIELD?" Fury felt his eye begin to twitch as her smirk grew wider. " Now, where to begin..."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The Director of SHIELD had been chosen for many reasons, chief among them; the ability to not let the strange and unusual disturb him. That ability had been sorely tested by his newest pair of agents. He couldn't let them walk out after the elder Saotome had explained how she had come by the knowledge of SHIELD — his predecessor having failed to include any mention of an agent stationed in Japan — as well as everything she and her son could offer him.
If he was honest with himself, the offer had been almost too good to be true, and certainly one he wouldn't — couldn't — refuse.
Tapping his finger against the table he offered the woman across from him a considering look. "Alright, say I accept your offer, just how are you gonna get your kid to go along with it?"
"I'm sure I can think of a few ways to... persuade him," she replied with a glint in her eyes. "If all else fails I can also promise him that you might have a cure for his... condition."
Fury nodded as he looked at the files the woman handed him upon sitting down. He narrowed his eyes as he reread the section on her son's curse. Something about it was ringing all sorts of little bells at the back of his mind, but he couldn't for the life of him understand why. He could certainly see the possible advantages of such a thing, as well as the disadvantages and the social stigmata bundled together with it, but there was no possible way he could cure it. A shape-shifting agent would be a godsend for some of his jobs, just like that one that used to work for the Canadians back...
The Director's eyes widened momentarily as his mind suddenly made the connections it had been straining to reach. "Mrs. Saotome, I think I may have something that can solve several problems for both of us. Tell your son that we might have a way to offer him some control over that condition of his if he signs on with us.
Finally alone, Fury pulled his phone from his pocket and quickly entered in his password before scrolling through his contact list.
"Coulson, get on the horn with Department K, I want them to send over all their files and data from '
that' project. Make sure they include everything concerning Wilson and Carlysle." Fury paused as Coulson responded. "Good, and see if you can't track down a Dr. Robert Windsor. Tell him that we might have found a viable subject for Project M.I.T.H.R.I.L."
Fury grinned as he put down his phone. Leaning forwards, he rested his elbows on the table before folding his hands in front of his mouth. If the Council ever found out what he had just arranged, they would have fired him faster than he could tell them to screw themselves. As far as they would be concerned, he would simply have hired two potential new agents for the organization. Two agents that, if necessary, could handle the worst that might come SHIELD.'s way. Somehow, the future looked a tiny bit brighter.
