Guiding Arrow

“Special Agent Winters I need back up for a recon to check on agent Hawkeye on his undercover mission. He has gone too quiet.” Black widow asked me. But when she said too quiet I actually feared never seeing Hawkeye again.
“Alright. I have to tag a mark first and should be done by 2100.” I say coolly not looking up from my screen sending off my last 3 marks reports.
“Good. The hard copy report will be in your box. We roll out at 2300. So don’t take long.”I hear her heels click away and since sighing would still give my real emotion away I just pop my chain in my mouth and brush my tongue over the links. He has been undercover for just 2 months so I don’t see how or why he wouldn’t be reporting in or even leaving crypted codes for the agency.
*****
The train whirs in my ears and my hair flies back. I time it right by instinct and with a trained leap and backwards spiral I land on top of the train on the last car. I slither down and hop down in front of the car door. It’s locked so I use the precision laser on my ring until the lock is split. I step in and a bum looks up at me. Sensing that I wasn’t a normal civilian he just turns back over. I smirk and rest my hand on his shoulder. He looks back at me.
“I’m gonna ask you to sit a little farther away from the back door. I’m gonna need this again in a short while.” He nods and I supervise as he moves all he has to the back corner. I salute him with my index and middle finger and pull out my guns from the holsters strapped to my thighs. I open the door close it and cross into the marks cabin. He has 6 men and a woman. Black Widow?
The woman comes at me first chucking daggers that literally buzz as they pass by my ears as I dodge and spin in the tight space. I look back when I land with one leg outstretched on the floor. The buzz beeps twice and then explodes.
“Well don’t you mean business?” she smirks at me and jumps up in the air and when she straightens out her leg to come down on my head I see my mark being escorted. I roll to the other side under the seat and pull out my snap pin ankle bracelets. They are a thin metal band that upon impact coils and unfurls pins that go for pressure points and immobilize my enemy. She squats down and spins her leg towards me and I pull myself towards the doors and use my other hand to fling the bracelet at her. It catches and she screams. She pulls her dead leg out from under the seats and I set my gun to stun and shoot her in the neck. She slumps against the seat and I go after my mark. Professor Tamigawa. A ruthless scientist and surgeon who has been adopting orphans with brainwashed surrogates and performing deadly enhanced experiments. I wonder if I just went up against one. The train is slowing and I am wasting time. I need to go find Hawkeye. I just need to get a tag on him. As I’m running and am loading my gun with needles that have tracker nanides on them. The second they touch blood they infiltrate and resonates a signal that the agency can track. I am delayed again by 3 of the 6 guys.
“I don’t have time for this.” I mutter under my breath. Once they circle me I flip my eye patch up and using my gift of eye-to-eye psychosis I order one of them to take out one of the others and himself. While the last one is in shock I elbow the side of his neck and he goes down. I decide to be quicker and swing up to the top of the train. Timing my steps effortlessly, 6 steps and a jump, I hear a door open and see the Professor. As he looks up I shoot his shoulder and he falls into the car beneath me. The guy with him shoots the roof and that isn’t my problem anymore.
“Tag complete. Time. 2045.” I say into my intercom bracelet. I run back to the bum and he claps having been watching.
“The way you took out that blonde chick was cool.”he said in a gruff voice. My eyebrows knitted together as I thought back. She looked like Black Widow at first. Was it a trick like mine? Psychic mental re-imaging? I looked back to see she was blonde. The trained stopped and the oncoming train on the next rail was coming. I got my hook out and attached it and aimed at the next set of tracks. I ran gaining momentum and jumped and fired. Once I heard the metal grip I was pulled back into the darkness of the tunnels.
*****
“Yes. I’m certain that she looked like Special Agent Black Widow when I first encountered her. But, was a blonde haired little girl when I was finished with the tag.” I answered having been requested to see Fury before going on the mission with Black Widow. She entered after I said that and stood by my side at the podium as Fury looked from me to my report and back.
“Well, good work Agent Winters. But, I do have a concern for why you used your own ability on such low-key thugs on the train. What was the hurry?”
“I didn’t feel like being delayed repeatedly for a simple tag. I found it easier and more efficient, as well as less time consuming.” I answered bluntly.
“Clear. You two may go and locate and if necessary, retrieve Special Agent Hawkeye, by any means.”
“Clear.” We both said and walked out the double doors.
*****
“This is a note for you from Hawkeye. This is the real reason why I chose you to accompany me. He is indeed in danger. But, instead of something more informative for us all to follow he left a note for you.” Widow whispered this to me in the air cruiser and slid me the note. I only clenched my jaw. I read what the note said:
There is a fire some place too cold for heat. The warmth finds the eyes like light to dark. No wind for an arrow to make it true. All that is are stairs. They are feeble and leading in hopes of a regretful life.
“No!” My eye saw everything. He knew how to illustrate to my heightened image receptors.
“What? We shot this off of an enemy agent. He tried to get field agent Kameron to explain it to her.” She said hesitantly resting her hand on my shoulder.
“He is in a cavern. An ice cold cavern. He is holding out there and can only get out with the few arrows he has left. He is wounded though and that takes too much energy for him to do and his dead weight makes him heavy. He made a stairway to get out with his arrows. He is dying down there.” I explained the words in a rush running my fingers along the words so she could decipher how I knew. I stood up angrily. I put my chain in my mouth. “Are we there yet?!” I barked. I stormed over to a database computer and looked up the topography of the area. I plugged in where Kameron got the note. Satelitte coverage of the area put the base where the goon came from to 3 miles east of her location at the time. The caverns are behind the forest. It shield the buildings from the country folk of Finland. He is somewhere in these. They must have him surrounded. A local news feed says there has been excess hunting so they are taking his food supply. Caribou meat lasts one or two months depending on the size. So worst case he has 3 days of meat left.
“We are over the base and invisible. Drop here?” the pilot requested.
“Go to the tree clearing.” I walked over to look out the window. “Down there in that animal clearing. We can drop there.” He nodded and tilted the plane left. I stood and pressed the hatch open button. Widow stood next to me.
“You know where he is?”
“Yes. He is down in one of those ice taverns. This is an arrow head of his. It should light up when we get close to another arrow.”
“When did he give you that?” she asked with her short red hair flying all over her face and glancing at me from the side of her night goggles.
“When he almost got me killed 2 years ago in Brazil.” After I said that I jumped tucking the arrow in my boot.
*****
We had been running straight west for 20 minutes without break at full sprint. Widow stopped in front of me and grabbed my collar stopping me. I looked down and saw dots. She let me go and kneeled to my boot. She took the arrow out and I had a sigh of relief. She put it back and we circled till we found an arrow that wasn’t broken. I kicked my boots together and the toe blades came out and then I backed up, ran, and jumped forward. I had my chain in my mouth and it grated my cheek a little.
“Not my most gracious landing.” I muttered. Even with the whistling wind I heard Widow chuckle at my remark. I unhooked my heel and started my way down. Widow had a grapple gun and shot above me and swung. She outstretched her hand and as I reached a shot just barely missed both our fingers. I looked back and saw 4 men at my six. I used my glove and shot 2 with pins at the base of their neck. Widow shot the other two down. We heard yelling so I hopped on her back and we whirred down. We ran out of wire and it looked like we still had a ways to go. I swung off and hooked back into the ice. She gripped my coat and was almost securely on my back when someone cut her line and we both fell.
*****
“Special Agent Winters. Candle? Wake up. Come on. Wake up.” I opened my eye and saw Hawkeye. He cradled me in his arms. So very compromised. I gave in and hugged him back.
“Where’s Widow?” I asked. He loosened his hold on me and pointed to her huffing body right beside me.
“A rock got a good cut in her side and she lost a bit of blood before I got to the both of you. She isn’t doing so well.” He explained as I limped over. I took out my med kit. He looked at me incredulously.
“Wish I had known you had that.”
“It was supposed to be for you.” I clenched my jaw when I let that slip. He rested his hand in between my shoulders.
“Relax Candle.” He whispered and kissed my cheek. I treated Widow’s infection. I pulled out my lighter and burned the needle before sewing her side up. I took the wrap and cream and finished her up. My com was broken and his had run out of power. I took Widow’s.
“Requesting evac from signal coordinates. Hostiles at the ready. Stranded. Widow. Hawkeye. Winters. Severe medic needed for Special Agent Widow. Roger.”
“Roger.” Was my reply in static. “ETA 2 hours.”
I took my coat off and put it on Widow. Hawkeye’s arms engulfed me. Then we kissed for the second time. I crawled into his lap. He held me closer. My arms snaked around him and just in case Widow was awake I blew out the fire so she could see nothing. I felt his muscles. I searched for his lips again. But, he had already attached them to my neck. Then he rolled us around and he was on top. My legs were locked around his waist and his hands travelled from around my waist and down to my knees. He released himself from my grip and leaned in closer pressing against me.
“Long time since Brazil.” He murmured into my ear before nibbling it. My impatience got me and I directed his lips back to mine. I tangled my hands into his hair and he gripped my chain and I could feel from the lack of weight on my cheek that he had put it into his mouth. He kissed my cheek and found my scar. His tongue brushed against bringing tingles of pain and pleasure, a slight sting and a chill. His hand went into my shirt and the other into my back pocket. He gripped me firmly and kept kissing me sweetly and passionately. My hands searched for the scar that intertwined us from the Brazil case from 2 years ago. But, that is a different story for a different time. It was a jagged scarred line across the middle of his back to match the one across mine. I arched my back and he caressed our matching scar. We both started to calm our desire for each other and with one last sigh we pulled away from each other. I set the fire again. A larger one. He left to uncover his remaining caribou. We were cooking when Widow awoke.
“How long have I been out. Just a little under an hour from when I woke up.” I answered.
“It took about 30 minutes for Agent Winters to come to when I found you two.” He added. She sat up and I came closer to here to prop her up on all the coats. She realized and tried to give mine back and I refused. There was a huge flare and we all looked up.
“Well there comes our cavalry.” Hawkeye said standing up grabbing his bow and arrow.
*****
My follow up mission for the Professor starts in 12 minutes and I can’t find Hawkeye. I pressed the down button in the elevator and begin to head down to the aircraft bay. I step through passenger door and my hip lights up. I look at the pilot and see his cheek rise. The arrow turns off and I put my helmet on and kiss Hawkeye’s cheek before we take off.