Thomas Prest: A Simple Magician

Fury started staring gravely at Agent Barton the second he walked inside of his office, already giving the poor man a bad premonition from the get-go. His sole eye keenly observed his agent, as if trying to determine his worth and see through his existence... making Clint feel supremely uncomfortable.

It was an internal joke among the SHIELD agents that Fury was the reincarnation of Odin, only in black and more scowly.

His eye could seemingly see through anything and his perception could be scarily on point. Fury's office was his throne room and SHIELD his Asgard. Many believed nothing could ever escape his notice inside of SHIELD and that made the man that much scarier in the eyes of ordinary agents.

Barton knew differently but he still found Fury's half-stare half-glare creepy as heck.

"Do I have a new mission, Director?" Clint asked, not liking the look in Fury's eye one bit. It told him his upcoming task will be either extremely important, annoying, or hard. Or if he was unlucky enough, a combination of these.

The last few weeks of his life were quite hectic and Clint wanted nothing more than his well-deserved vacation without any worries about Natasha, SHIELD, or missions. Unfortunately, that dream seemed to be far off in the distance for him.

'Why did I have to get so good at what I do? I envy the guys on the security detail who can laze their days away.' Clint inwardly lamented, also wanting to stand or sit in one spot the whole day, doing nothing and be paid for it.

"Black Widow decided to pick up her old profession again. Four more bodies are added to her old count." Fury said, his expression nonplussed, his words instantly freezing Clint's lackadaisical attitude.

'Ah...' Clint inwardly groaned, now understanding why his vacation was once again so abruptly canceled. 'There goes my weekend. Dammit, Natasha. Can't you be at least somewhat considerate of your old pal?' He grumbled in his mind.

Clint didn't need three guesses to know why he had been summoned. SHIELD did not tolerate deserters and… sigh. This wasn't how he expected his and her life to go when he first pleaded with Director Fury to let her join SHIELD rather than kill her.

'What were you thinking, girl? Why couldn't you stay hidden and have a quiet life?' He wryly thought, not liking the difficult spot Natasha's actions put him in. He quite liked her and didn't want to kill her. Unfortunately, most of the time, his job could care less about his desires.

"She is still in England." Fury flatly spoke, breaking Clint out of his thoughts and making him groan out loud at the admission.

'I had just returned from there!' He inwardly whined.

But outwardly he helplessly said, "I really couldn't find her, boss."

'Even if I haven't tried all that much, to be honest.' He added in his mind... and winced at the fact it backfired.

"I don't doubt you." Fury rolled his eye. He was aware that Clint slacked on that particular mission, but he had bigger problems than his best agent being emotionally compromised. "In fact, when I went to check her records in our database after this suspicion of her new activity arose, I only found this."

A screen appeared on the wall and showed a simple message saying, 'F.U.C.K. Y.O.U.!'

"That was all the digital records we had on her." Fury nonchalantly spoke but Clint could almost feel the man's anger in his narrowed single-eyed glare. "Since her prowess in hacking was average at best, we think she possibly joined a new secret organization."

Clint fought the urge to snort as he outwardly winced. If there was anything worse than desertion it was desertion to a competition. Any chance at forgiveness for Natasha was null and void in that case.

Of course, nothing was confirmed yet and all of these were just unproven assumptions at best, but the picture did not look good. Not in the least.

"Why are you showing me this?" Clint furrowed his eyebrows at Fury.

Sure, he already knew he would be assigned to hunt her down but this was not like Fury's normal modus operandi. Usually, Clint would just get the bare minimum of information he needed before they sent him on a mission. Everything else that could possibly be relevant would be in the briefing file for the mission.

Things like the fact Natasha managed to hack SHIELD databases? Yeah, nope. Clint would normally never have gotten this kind of information. In fact, no agent would have been told this. At all.

That's why he didn't react much. He had no idea how to react to this level of truthfulness and what the hell was going on with his boss. Fury was awfully showy and chatty with this case. Clint didn't understand what he wanted to accomplish here. Maybe this was Fury throwing it into his face as some proverbial 'I told you so'?

After all, the man was against sparing Natasha at first so that might be it.

Fury looked Clint in the eyes with a serious expression, "I just want to show you the consequences of your actions. The consequences of mercy to your enemies. Four more people are dead at her hands, and who knows how many more to go until she is satisfied or killed. Their blood is also on your hands, agent Barton." His voice was calm and steady but the dull accusation in it was unmistakable.

Clint grimaced, unable to hold it in, and fortunately for him, his reaction satisfied Fury enough to stop trying to make him spontaneously combust with his stare. The man then changed the view on the screen, showing photos of four men.

"The victims are all four sons of Jason Jasin, the up and rising… entrepreneur in Britain." Fury started, switching the picture on the screen to show Jason Jasin's picture.

"In other words, a mobster." Clint nodded with an eye roll, understanding what Fury meant.

"Nothing was ever proved." Fury snorted, "Heck, no documents even exist of any formal accusation. I have no idea how he managed to do that but fortunately, it is hard to destroy all traces of bribes so we have at least a small insight into his character."

Clint nodded, slightly impressed. So this was a smart mobster. A rare kind.

Not that it changed much. SHIELD wasn't here to deal with thugs that seldom reached past their own neighborhood. The police and several agencies were for that. SHIELD had its own hands full with bigger threats.

Like a certain superspy who was trained to topple down governments from the inside.

Alone, Natasha didn't seem to pose much threat but when one realized how much damage she could do with her experience and expertise...

Assassination here, coercion there, blackmail popping out of nowhere, and suddenly, funds can go missing, a law that has no right to be passed is passed anyway, and a government would slowly crumble on itself due to internal conflict, rebellion, corruption, or a multitude of other reasons.

Natasha was an expert in this on top of being one of the most dangerous assassins. She had to be caught before she made irreversible damage. Clint agreed at least with that much even though he didn't like being the one having to deal with this.

The picture on the screen once again switched, showing the crime scene with Mark Jasin's body.

"Mark Jasin. Typical mafia-style execution with one bullet to the forehead. The bullet was never found. No cameras were in the vicinity during the murder. I'd even go as far as say it was a picture-perfect execution considering what came next." Fury's words seemed jovial but his tone was anything but.

The picture switched, revealing a lifeless man leaning on the table in a puddle of his own blood.

"Jacob Jasin, poisoned in the restaurant of his own brother, Richard. The poison was nothing special, just a few chemicals mixed together to form a tasteless powder that had bad chemistry with the human body when ingested. All we know is that it was in the glass rather than in the wine."

Fury then started a camera feed from the restaurant, showing a brown-haired waitress pouring Jacob his wine.

"The police had no lead to the identity of the waitress." Fury gestured at the woman, "So they did the next best thing and arrested Richard Jasin, the owner. It's a fitting and logical course of action, considering there were four brothers, only one would inherit the family business, and two of them died in quick succession, one of which was in Richard's restaurant."

Clint nodded. That would have been just a standard procedure. Richard was the biggest suspect in that situation so bringing him in for interrogation was normal.

"This suspicion," Fury once again switched a picture on the screen, now showing the remains of an exploded car, "only strengthened when Brian Jasin's wife died in a car explosion meant for him just two hours after Richard was arrested. Brian was supposed to be in that car on his way to the police station in order to give his statement."

Fury then threw a look at Clint that clearly demanded his opinion and assessment of the situation so Clint could only sigh as he started talking.

"Logically speaking, Richard is the most suspicious person in this scenario but Brian could also be the culprit. Avoiding a bomb in your own car if you planted it is quite easy. Yes, his wife died but he wouldn't be the first smart person to think sacrificing a close person would instantly put any suspicion away from him. Especially if there is a good scapegoat prepared." He helplessly shrugged, "But we both know that was not the case."

"But it is important. The police detained both of them because of that same reasoning. And then," Fury switched the contents of the screen once again, showing two pictures. On both of them was a man with a slit throat in an interrogation room. One was bound to a chair with handcuffs, while the other had his hands free.

"Brian and Richard Jasin. Killed in a police station with a quick slash over their neck from behind and neither of them had any signs of resisting." Fury methodically explained before giving Clint a flat look, "There are only so many assassins capable of doing this in the world."

That was true. The feat was not killing four guys in one day. Even though four assassinations in one day were still an impressive 'achievement', the real cause of worry here was the execution of these assassinations.

Dispatching two brothers in a way that would make the other two suspects and bring them both to one place where she could finish them off, and then pulling the wool over the eyes of a police department, killing her targets and disappearing before anyone realized something was wrong? Not making even one mistake during the operation at all? And flawlessly improvising when a bombing attempt on the third brother didn't yield the desired result?

That wasn't an easy task.

Fury then opened another short camera feed, showing a meek-looking petite blonde woman walking away from Brian's interrogation room, heading towards Richard's interrogation room.

"Maria Willow... or so the officers interrogating the suspects identified her as." Fury scrunched his nose, "But in fact, Maria Willow's records, the same records that gave her the fake identity of a new intern, ceased to exist just five minutes after Richard Jasin died. She left no trace. No fingerprints, no hair, no nothing."

And Clint suddenly realized... "The SHIELD database. That's why you think it was Natasha. Or the organization she is working for."

"Except the fact this assassination was as clean as a motherfucker, yes, Agent Barton. Our computer analysts already confirmed the hacking method could possibly have been the same as the one used to erase our databases." Fury scowled.

"Could have been?" Clint amusedly raised an eyebrow, pitying the poor sods in his mind. He could imagine how explaining to Fury that they had only assumptions instead of results went.

"Yes. We have nothing concrete." Fury gruffly remarked, glaring at the image of Maria Willow on the stopped video. "You are going to Britain, Barton, and either drag her back here kicking and screaming, best with all her limbs broken or severed, so we can interrogate her without a risk of her fleeing, or make sure to bury her deep enough that nobody will be able to get her body out of the ground even with heavy machinery." Fury's glare redirected toward Clint, "Coulson is going with you. Dismissed."

With another heavy sigh, Clint nodded.

Frankly, death would be preferable for Natasha if he got his hands on her. The SHIELD's interrogation method for someone who wasn't required to survive the process was... gruesome.

But Natasha would know all about that so Clint doubted he would get her back kicking and screaming. He doubted he could get her to willingly come back in any other state than in a body bag.

"Understood." Clint saluted and left the office, not looking forward to the upcoming days. England was definitely not his favorite country. He had enough rainy days for a lifetime.

As he closed the door, he jerked as he heard a loud and angry, "MOTHERFUCKER!" from Fury's office before a loud crash reached his ears.

The boss was certainly not in a good mood nowadays either...