Chapter Text
Coulson had called Barton and Romanoff to his office to discuss a new assignment for Strike team Delta.
After everyone had made himself comfortable, Coulson got down to business. “It looks like there is a gang war going on in New York City. In the last year a new player tried to get a piece of the cake. He goes about it quietly and discreet, he is taking great care that no innocent bystanders are harmed. Of course the media reports the about the gang war but as long as no innocents are killed…” Coulson shrugged meaningful.
“The new gang is interested in drugs and weapons but oddly enough not in human trafficking or prostitution. Their boss is acting pretty brutal against his rivals. Retaliation has already occurred but all those attacks have failed and hostile takeovers followed that have all succeeded. Fury believes that there is more to this case and gave me a few months ago the task of finding out more about this new crime boss.”
“Wouldn't that be more up to the FBI's jurisdiction?” Natasha asked confused.
“The FBI asked for our help. Any undercover agent they planted into the new organization got discovered. Interestingly enough, none of these agents got killed but all of them have serious gaps in their memory that sometimes go over months. Every information, they had gathered and it is beyond doubt that they had it, was taken away from them, be it memories or written reports.”
“So either he found one 084 or he is an enhanced person”, said Barton, who became increasingly interested in the new assignment.
“Most likely, because there is no evidence of drugs or torture to extract their information. We suspect that it is the new gang boss who owns the item or has this ability. We know nothing about him, no photo, no documents, really nothing. It is as if he emerged from nowhere. Nobody wants to talk about him, even the toughest criminals become pale and silent. The only thing we've about him is his name, Klaus Mikealson. At least this was the case until yesterday.” Coulson projected a bank statement onto the wall.
Barton whistled when he saw the amount of money on the account. “Impressive.”
“It is an old account, almost 300 years old. Money gets rarely withdrawn from it, but when, it is always millions. In the first fifty years of the last century money got withdrawn several times, the last withdrawal took place in 1946, after that there was no account movements for more than 50 years.
Four account numbers are assigned to the account, which identify who withdraws the money. One of these identification numbers was used 3 months ago for a criminal transaction that we could clearly pin on Klaus Mikealson. Upon closer inspection of the account, it turned out that he appeared to be the only one who used it regularly.”
“Until yesterday”, Natasha guessed.
“Until yesterday.” Coulson nodded. “Yesterday, somebody withdrew $ 30 million to buy an apartment in one of New York City's most expensive buildings, where only residents with old money are welcome. The buyer is this man.” A photo of a young man appeared.
“His name is Elijah Smith, 29 years old, author and historian, travels all over the world. Comes from a rich family but nothing we have about him, raises any red flags for us, he has a good reputation, good references, nothing suspicious-looking.”
“Why does he have access to this account?” asked Natasha curious.
“It is a family account, not a business account.”
“So he and Klaus Mikaelson belong to the same family or he is Klaus Mikaelson”, Natasha concluded.
“Unlikely because he uses a different identification number”, replied Coulson. “It doesn't fit that Mikaelson would leave hints to another identity.”
“Will SHIELD lock the account?” Clint asked curiously.
“Unfortunately this is no longer possible. Whoever set it up was smart and knew exactly what he was doing. Nobody can access this account, be it through legal or illegal measures, without needing much time for it. We can count ourselves lucky that we were even able to get so little information from the bank.”
Coulson made a face. “Second, the account holders were promptly informed of the disclosure of this information. In response, the account was closed, all funds withdrawn, and moved to hundreds of different accounts. Our finance department tried to follow the cash flow but had to give up pretty quickly.”
“Did we find out who gave the instructions?” asked Natasha thoughtful.
“Yes, they came from Mister Smith's identification number. We are now monitoring all his contacts with other people but there is no hint of an exchange between him and Mikaelson and no hint in which way he and Klaus Mikaelson are connected.” Coulson shrugged. “His actions were quick but all his measures were legal.”
“What is our mission?” Barton asked.
“Pepper Potts' invited Elijah Smith a few weeks ago to a fundraising event and he accepted the invitation. The two know each other, apparently he helped her a while ago. He exposed through his expertise as historian a fake painting and saved so a museum, whose board she belongs to, a lot of money.
After I found this connection I asked Pepper for her help and she agreed. She invited Natasha and me as guests and will introduce us to Smith. Barton, you will work as a waiter and keep an eye on everything!”
“Okay, boss.” Barton suddenly laughed. “Will Stark be there too?”
“Probably not! Charity is not something he is interested in.” Coulson shrugged.
“True, the well-being of other people is not close to his heart”, Natasha agreed. “If he comes, it's only because of the free alcohol or because Pepper has persuaded him to come.”
“Natasha, you try to get to know Smith and find out how he know Mikaelson”, ordered Coulson.
“How far should I go?” asked Natasha matter-of-factly.
“As always, it's up to you. As I said, until now we have nothing to suggest that Smith is in any way involved in Klaus Mikaelson's crimes. I just want to meet him so that I can assess him.”
“Ok, boss.”
The three agents then discussed everything else that was required for the job.
*****
Pepper greeted Phil and Natasha warmly. “Phil, Natasha, so beautiful that you could come.” She greeted them with kisses on the cheek. “You both look stunning.”
“I can only return the compliment, Pepper.” Phil smiled at the CEO of Stark Industries. “How's the party going?”
“Very good, everyone donates for the good cause.” Pepper smiled. “Elijah hasn’t arrived yet.”
“Are you sure he will come?” Phil asked worriedly.
“He promised and he is always careful to keep his promises.” Pepper shrugged.
“What can you tell me about him?” Natasha asked, she searched for a starting point to make a connection with her target.
Pepper frowned. “I like him but he is quite enigmatic. His family has money, but he isn’t arrogant or a snob because of it, he works hard for his living. He has a little business too, which produces important components for the computer industry. He is fair in his business relationships and pedantically keeps his contracts he makes and he expects the same from everyone else.
Obie once tried to break a treaty with Elijah, which didn't go very well for him. Elijah’s reaction to this transgression cost Stark Industries a lot of money, prestige, and contracts, he seems very petty this way.” Pepper shrugged, she was not particularly troubled by Elijah’s reaction.
"Tony tried to resume business several times after Obie's death but Elijah refused to see him. He thinks that, as the owner of Stark Industries, it would have been Tony’s duty to control Obie’s business conduct. He let him know that he had no desire to do business with an immature and narcissistic man-child who is only interested in his own convenience and pleasure.”
Phil grinned amused. “I already like him.”
“After I took over as CEO I asked Elijah for an appointment to discuss resuming our business. After a little hesitation he received me. He was pretty reserved at first but eventually agreed to do again business with Stark Industries but only on a limited scale.
However, he made it clear to me that he would only do business with Stark Industries as long as I remained the CEO or if somebody tried to cheat on him a second time.” Pepper smiled weakly. “He also promised me that if this happened, his reaction would not be as friendly and restrained as with Obie’s betrayal. And I believed him.
On a personal level, he is very respectful and polite. He is one of the few men I encountered, whose eyes always remained on my face and never wandered to my neckline. He never made suggestive or offensive comments about me or tried to belittle me because I am a woman. In terms of his personality, he is unassuming, self-controlled, very careful and precise in the choice of his words and he absolutely never talks about his family.”
“Thank you, Pepper that helps me greatly”, said Natasha.
Pepper hesitated for a moment. “Are you sure he's a criminal? I find Elijah quite even-tempered, he is very nice and you can have interesting conversations with him. He is very educated, has his own opinion but never tries to force it on you.”
“No, we're not sure, that's why we want to meet him”, Phil assured her. “What we do know is that he and a man, we know for sure is a criminal, have access to the same family account. This account has today been closed by Elijah Smith after we investigated it. Because of that there are now certain suspicions against him.”
Pepper sighed. “I trust you, Phil.” She glanced over Natasha’s shoulder and swore under her breath. “Damn it, Kevin Masters is here, Tony’s newest best friend. I swear to you, the guy always looks at me like he wants to eat me.”
“Kevin Masters from Masters Industries?” Natasha asked softly. Pepper nodded. “He does a lot of business on the other side of the law and has there a bad reputation. Murder, human trafficking, anything you can imagine but so far we have not been able to prove anything.
There are rumours that he is a rival of Klaus Mikaelson in the gang war, he even has lost some of his people through him but unlike his other competitors he has taken no retaliatory measures against Klaus. On the contrary, he appears to be deeply afraid of Mikaelson and does his utmost to avoid provoking him.” Natasha looked confused. “And frankly, that is what puzzles us the most.”
“I'm not surprised that he's a criminal, he's really creepy.”
The three talked for a few more minutes before Pepper had to take care of her other guests again.
*****
Coulson led Natasha to the dance floor, where they danced together as they had done on so many missions already.
“Elijah Smith just entered the hall”, said Barton's voice in her earplugs. “Pepper has seen him and is now greeting him.”
The two dancing agents turned so that they could watch the meeting unobtrusively.
Elijah held Pepper’s hand in his and said something that made her laugh out loud. Coulson realized that it was Pepper’s sincere laugh, not the false one she used when dealing with people she didn’t especially like. Then he offered her his arm and Pepper willingly hooked herself in before going to one of the tables together.
Natasha watched her target and whispered her first impressions to Barton and Coulson. “He is confident, self-assured, he knows his body and moves very controlled and smooth with it. I would say, he is trained in various martial arts and probably very good. He knows exactly what is happening around him, he is observant.”
Both watched Barton go to the table and offer champagne to the couple, which were deep in conversation.
“Madam, sir, can I offer you something to drink?” Barton balanced with one hand the tray while holding out a glass of champagne to Pepper with his other hand.
Pepper accepted the glass with a smile, she had never seen Barton before and didn't know that he belonged to Coulson and Romanoff. “Thank you.”
“You are welcome, madam. Sir?” Barton was holding out another glass. Their target took the glass and after a quick glance down at Barton's hand, he looked Barton confidently in his eyes. Fury, Coulson and Natasha were the last people, which had seen through to Barton so thoroughly.
“Thank you, Mr.?” The voice was cultivated, controlled and calm.
“My name is Clint”, replied Clint with a practiced smile. “I am your waiter for the evening. If you want something, just let me know.” With a slight bow, Clint left the table, aware of the thoughtful eyes that followed him.
“He knows I'm not a normal waiter”, murmured Clint into the microphone.
“Hm, interesting. Good thing, your disguise is that you were enlisted as additional security”, Phil replied just as quietly.
While a part of Elijah's concentration focused on talking with Pepper Potts, the other part focused on the waiter. The calluses on his hand came not only from a pistol but also from a bow, which was a strange and interesting combination. His eyes had been observant and a little too interested in him.
Since his arrival at the fundraiser, he had been unable to shake the feeling that somebody was permanently watching him. Whoever it was, understood his job because Elijah hadn’t found him or them out yet. Elijah wasn’t usually as suspicious as Klaus but now he felt very paranoid.
There was also the warning through the bank, in which a small portion of their family assets were stashed in an old account, that a government agency had made inquiries and received information.
Niklaus was the only one, who used it now regularly after he had murdered his other siblings. At least until yesterday, when Elijah had needed a bank account with an older history than usual to buy his new apartment.
Okay, Pepper’s invitation was a few weeks old but that didn’t mean anything. If this government agency managed to get information from his bank than it would be no problem for them to get an invitation to this fund raising too. He was under surveillance, probably because of his access to the account. The question was, what had Niklaus done to get this kind of attention?
Elijah sighed annoyed internally, his brother really was a pain in the ass. Now he had to deal because of him with the government.
The question was, how much were the organizers in the know about this surveillance.
Pepper Potts as the CEO of Stark Industries had direct and good contacts with quite a few government agencies, however, she was not the kind of person who would sell him out for her own benefit.
Not like this twit Tony Stark, who would sell anybody out if it was to his advantage or convenience. Tony Stark presenting himself as the selfless hero, it was almost laughable if it wasn't so sad.
Elijah wrinkled his nose contemptuously. He noticed how Pepper avoided seeing him straight in the eyes. But she looked more a little ashamed than scared or repelled. Well, this answered his question.
He had kept all the time an eye on the waiter and had also listened to what he said. Most were sentences every waiter would say but sometimes he sounded more like an agent who whispered status reports into a microphone.
He could be security, but there were these quick and fleeting glances that only were to him and no other guest. And since he hadn't done anything on this event that justified this attention, only one conclusion remained.
Elijah smiled and focused entirely on Pepper again. Sooner or later, those to whom the waiter reported would reveal themselves.
Pepper noticed how distracted Elijah was because of the waiter, who had served them. To be honest, she felt very ashamed for her deception. If someone other than Phil had asked for this favour, she would never have granted it. She only hoped that if Elijah, whom she thought off as a very shrewd man, noticed her involvement, he would forgive her or at least listen to her side of the story, before he ended their friendship permanently.
Elijah smiled at a remark that Pepper had made but somehow there was now a sharpness in his smile that made her a little uncomfortable and reminded her of Masters.