Chapter 102: Bonus - : Surprise (V)

Chapter 102: Bonus Chapter: Surprise (V)

Bonus Chapter for 5k stones from last week.

2.5k stones for the bonus of this week.

Get cracking.

...

"I found some information related to her... about Yelena." Natasha finally broke into the topic that had dominated her mind for most of the day.

In reality, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about this since she had learned of it from John; she had spent every waking moment trying to map out the best approach and how she should start.

Although what he gave her was basically breadcrumbs, it was more than enough for someone like her to start sniffing around. And that probing had to lead to some interesting results.

Truthfully, she hadn’t found anything concrete on Yelena yet. The only reason she mentioned it like that was to see his reaction.

What she got didn’t disappoint her a single bit. John turned to her fully, ready to listen further.

There wasn’t a single doubt in his mind that Yelena was out there.

Now, was this his blind trust in John Doe’s information, or was there some other information regarding this that he couldn’t share because of some circumstances?

At least for now, Natasha decided to keep the questions in the back of her mind. There was no need to stir up the hornet’s nest just yet.

She took out a small tablet from her bag and slid closer to him. Her arm hooked around his naturally as she shifted her weight onto him. To any outsider, they would look just like the usual honeymoon-phase couple reading something fun on the tablet.

But there was something else going on under the curtains.

"Black Widows are mainly involved in Assassinations, intelligence thefts, and political incidents. Each Widow has their own specialties; mine was assassinations." As if she had found the data on the screen, a list of high-profile deaths and incidents akin to a quirky joke, she continued to whisper to him with a pleasant giggle.

"But these things happen even without outside interference, and the Red Room doesn’t leave many traces here. But there is another side where they have no choice but to heavily cover up their steps, and still leave traces." Natasha slid her finger across the screen, showing several instances of tampered security footage from certain incidents on the list.

She had spent days searching through the profiles of the people present and involved in these incidents. And not just the victim; she had especially looked into people around the victim and those who benefited from their disasters.

Since she had been active as a Black Widow herself, she knew the usual routes they used to approach a target. That made it easier to narrow things down.

Entering the event as a waitress, impersonating another guest, bumping into them on the road while they were on vacation, getting employed at the target’s usual spots and striking up conversation, or going through others who were in on the plan.

All that just so they could slip into a place they could be alone with the target for a few moments. For a Black Widow, that was the easiest part, even easier than ending their targets.

Natasha already knew the patterns Red Room used, the routes they sourced their identities from, the handlers, and others. Even if they changed their methods, there were still key tells that would always stick out.

She had put tens of thousands of documents through a program she built to flag these tells, and she had gotten a few dozen hits.

’She’s really something.’ John blinked at the rapid-fire explanation and breakdown on the document.

Since he had arrived in Harlem, all he had done was stuff himself with chicken and anything else he could find to eat. Thinking about how even the same fried chicken could taste so different based on the one who cooked it.

On the other hand, Natasha was busy dismantling an international assassin agency and thinking about a million things. Digging into the travel patterns of the flagged identities, their history, and where their activities started or ended.

Planning was not something he was really good at, at least not so good at making documents like these and explaining them. But Natasha did it all like it was the most natural thing in the world, and she did it while playing the fully smitten girlfriend to the common eye.

They were in the farthest corner of the store, with their backs against the wall. There wasn’t anyone to the left, and there was just a wall to the right.

And because of their positioning, they could easily see anyone closing in and change the subject. Like how they did the moment the old woman walked through them with two plates of pasta for John.

"Look at you two." The old woman, the owner of the place, was apparently very interested in their relationship as well. A bit too interested, to say the least. "What are you looking at so closely, huh? Wedding dresses?"

She peeked at the tablet sneakily, or at least pretended to. Even if she had seen anything, it would’ve just been a comic.

"I wish..." Natasha gave John a teasing elbow. "This one just doesn’t take the hint."

"You can’t do that, boy. If you let such a gem slip away, you’ll regret it later." The woman clicked her tongue; she looked about ready to force him.

"I don’t think my heart is ready for this conversation." John decided to play along to get the topic over with; things would only get awkward if he didn’t do that.

"Don’t be like that, just put a ring on her finger." The old woman laughed heartily, patting his shoulder, before walking away.

The moment she left, Natasha quietly reopened the files and seamlessly continued the details. There was no mention of anything else, as she only had one thing on her mind.

Even if Red Room didn’t want to, there were many things they had to procure. Safe houses, Safe house operators, doctors who treated the widows outside of the main facility, weapon suppliers, forgers, intelligence brokers, transporters, and black-market contacts.

She was sure that Dreykov’s net at least spanned all over Europe and Russia. Keeping every part of it hidden was a task too tall for him. And since she already knew which of these were the easiest to catch, it had become easier for her to narrow down her list of possible Black Widows in service.

That brought her to the last stretch. Out of the few dozen, only eight remained. These were the only ones she could get in the time she had, and she was sure that the hasty program had missed more information. But with the time and limited resources, since she hadn’t tapped into SHIELD’s network, this was all she could get.

Natasha made sure that John saw each of them, carefully monitoring his eyes as they scanned over each picture.

All she wanted was a little shift, the tiniest of signs. There was a chance that he knew what Yelena looked like currently.

But John didn’t give her any of that.

It wasn’t because he knew she had broken everything down just for that moment. If anything, he was impressed by the way she had put all of this together, even down to the last moment instead of just asking him things outright.

If anything, it kept him on his toes. The problem was with the shortlisted suspects themselves.

’I don’t know any of them...’ The Yelena Belova he had seen in the movies wasn’t in these pictures.

And even if he supposed that she was in these pictures, he was a bit hesitant to acknowledge her presence. There was no guarantee that the Yelena Belova in this world would be a one-to-one copy of the one from the movies.

Tony Stark looked pretty much like he looked like in movies, Harry too. But Susan didn’t look like anyone from the movies; she looked like the Marvel rival version. Colleen also looked like her Infinity Watch version.

So, there was always the chance that Yelena wouldn’t look the same either.

Even if he could feel her gaze, hoping that he might’ve gotten the full information from John Doe, he regrettably couldn’t help but identify Yelena by face.

Because John Doe, John himself, didn’t have the full picture of this Marvel world.

’I have to be more careful about these types of things in the future.’

It would really hurt if he fumbled the lore he had built so far without finding the real reason Charles had sent SHIELD after him. Because depending on that answer, he might have to continue the fa?ade even longer.

Watching his expression turn deathly serious, Natasha kept her eyes on him for a touch longer before looking at the table. The pasta had already turned cold. She was really curious about the taste before; now, she could only poke at the saucy spaghetti with her fork.

It seemed like no one on the list was Yelena, or it could be that John hadn’t been told what she looked like either. For now, she leaned on the former option. Although she had spent days on this, Natasha had barely scratched the surface.

The worst part was that there was no way of knowing that Yelena was still alive or would be alive till she could find her. There was no guarantee that Yelena wouldn’t die until then, and honestly, that made her heart grow colder.

The worst part was that she wasn’t even sure what she would feel at that point. At that point, maybe it would’ve been better if she had never been told about Yelena, or maybe not.

Still, there was a lot left for her to dig through, a lot of searching.

Honestly, explaining all this after spending nights gathering all the data, and the emotional turmoil going through her already throbbing head. Natasha was really tired for once.

Both her body and mind were being ground down by the stress; usually it was just the mind.

’Is it so hard to reassure me a bit?’ She couldn’t help but sigh at John’s silence.

Maybe she was looking for the wrong thing here; reassurance wouldn’t really help. It hadn’t helped yet. But a light pat on the back and a firm You’ll find her, keep going would be really appreciated right now.

The next minute, something did happen.

However, it wasn’t a pat on the back or anything like that.

John’s arm wrapped around her, pulling her into a tight hug. The thick right arm she had arms around till now wrapped around her waist, as his left palm was firmly positioned behind her head before he pulled her closer. ℴ

Her left cheek pressed flat on his chest, and her vision was smothered in plain darkness, and all she could hear was his rising heartbeat.

And then, the wall to their right turned into a rain of broken bricks and plaster as a truck slammed right into John’s shoulder.