Chapter 20 It Begins

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I spent a bit more time looking for an appropriate face mask than was necessary. I actually found an old ski mask a while ago and it had a large oval hole for goggles, which I didn't find. I spent another fifteen minutes looking for anything at all to fill in the hole and I wasn't successful.

I didn't have the time to try and sew in something, so I had to improvise. I turned it around and put it on, then cut tiny holes for my eyes to see through. I checked in the mirror and it was good enough for now. I would definitely have to rely on my spider-sense a lot while wearing it, because it blocked a lot of my range of sight.

I went to work after supper, where my dessert had made May laugh. It was a really large cake that I intentionally made crooked and I decorated it like I was five years old. She took a picture of it and gave my cheek a kiss for all the effort I put into it.

I worked harder and faster than I usually did, making sure I cleared the place out before I put the debris into the dump truck. I checked it after I was done and it was fine. I also sensed another camera and made sure I checked all around the dump truck for debris and any spare chunks of concrete I found, I tossed into the back with the rest.

I locked the building up and pretended to go home. I rode the bus to where I normally rode it to and walked towards home, then ducked into a nearby alley and put on my dark clothes. I climbed to the roof of the building and did the parkour thing and hopped along over several building rooftops to reach the first destination.

My eyes widened at the mid-high rise building. It looked expensive, too. I thought about trying to climb it to the top and felt a very slight tingle in the back of my head. I shook my head at the thought, because I didn't have my web shooters to save me if I slipped and fell. I moved on and went to the next building.

This was a more moderate one, similar to the one I lived in, and I easily hopped over to land on the outside wall. There was a taller building nearby, so I was completely cast in shadow as I crawled up to the right floor. I went around that side of the building and let my spider-sense guide me. I found an unlocked window that let me enter the building without being seen.

I crawled inside and up onto the ceiling before I looked around. It was a bathroom and it was only lit by the small amount of ambient light coming in through the window. I didn't seem to have any trouble seeing, so I went to the door and carefully opened it. I relied almost completely on my spider-sense and crossed the ceiling of the dark hallway and living room before I dropped down to softly land on the carpet.

I very carefully opened the apartment door and looked outside. The hallway was lit well and that would normally have been a huge detriment to my current outfit. Instead, I was leaving a different apartment dressed completely in black and there were no cameras present. I slipped into the hallway and looked at the apartment door number and smiled, because I was only two doors away from where I needed to go.

I crept down the hallway to the door and took out a single key from my pocket. No rattling was allowed and I put the key in the deadbolt lock. Nothing happened with my spider-sense, so I turned the key very slowly and it softly clicked open. I waited and nothing happened once more. I opened the door and slipped inside the dark apartment and closed the door behind me.

I didn't relax even slightly, now that I was inside the target apartment. It was even more dangerous now, especially if he had family or a girlfriend living there. I glanced around at the decor and almost sighed with relief. It was a classic bachelor pad. I still didn't relax, because there could be cameras or motion sensors.

I crawled up the wall and stayed very close to the ceiling as I searched around and let my spider-sense guide me and protect me. I didn't find anything significant until I tried to enter the target's bedroom. The door had been open, so going in would be easy.

Too easy. I suddenly thought as I lowered my head to look into the room and my spider-sense tingled. Dammit. I think that's a camera. It feels the same as the ones Adrian uses.

That meant a motion sensor and probably a recording device. Perhaps a cell phone or a laptop. That made me pause, because that was what I wanted in the first place. I wasn't going to chance that it was broadcasting like Adrian's did, though. I backed off and went to the window. It was only four feet to the bedroom window from the living room and it was dark.

It wasn't covered by the other building's shadow, however. I reached for the window and froze as my spider-sense went off in a clear warning. I moved my hand away from the window latch and used my gloved fingers to widen one of my eye holes to examine the window. It had electronic sensors that were not like the ones I had seen at school.

Who was this guy? I asked myself and went back to the bedroom. I seriously thought about closing the door, just so I could search the rest of the apartment and not be caught, and gave up on that idea. The door opened inwards and I would definitely set off the motion sensor if I tried anything.

I gave the apartment up as a bust and crawled back across the ceiling to the front door of the apartment. My spider-sense went off again when I reached for the handle and I immediately pulled back and laid against the ceiling. That was really, really weird.

Why would a door handle cause me to react? I asked myself and then let my spider-sense guide me as I examined the door handle, the lock, the door frame, and the door itself. I had missed the nearly invisible wires that I followed to a security panel that was hidden under a To-Do list by the door.

I lifted the paper completely and stared at the 14 digit keypad. It wasn't a 9 or a 10 digit one. No, it was 14. It was a digital keypad for the mechanical lock on the door, which meant I wasn't leaving without the combination. I was glad that I hadn't touched anything except the key on the way in.

Now I needed a way out.

After a quick search from the ceiling, no normal means of escape could be had. Not without setting off whatever alarms were set up in the apartment, silent or otherwise. That meant I had to cause a disturbance as I broke out... or... I could find a sneaky way out.

I did a much more extensive and careful search, without setting off the motion sensor in the bedroom by staying out of the range it could have out through the bedroom door. Whoever set it up had planned it out well.

Almost twenty minutes later and relying almost solely on my spider-sense, I found a potential way out. The central heating vent. It had been hidden behind a comfy couch near an internal wall and it was also just big enough for me to squeeze into. It was also latched with the same electronic trip wire the windows had.

Sneaky, sneaky. I thought and smiled, because I had just figured out how to get out of here without being caught.

*

Twenty minutes later, an alarm went off at a small office halfway across the city.

*WHEET! WHEET! WHEET!*

The woman sitting at the desk hit the button and nodded at the screen, then picked up the desk phone. "Sir, the alarm you were waiting for has gone off."

"Thank you. Send in the strike team. Seal off the building and get me the relevant footage."

"It's already being sent to you, sir." She replied. "The team is on the way."

"Excellent. Good work."

"Thank you, sir." She said and hung up. She checked the computer and nodded when the relevant files had been sent, killed the local alarm, and went back to her monitor screen and observed the team that had been sequestered in the next building. It was normally a boring job until things like this happened, then it was exciting and she was a big part of the background operation. It also paid well.

*

"Nothing." Natasha Romanova said as she closed the laptop on the dead agent's desk. Her dark red hair shook in annoyance as she turned to look at her partner. "Do you have anything?"

"No." Clint Barton said and his eyes scanned over everything. "Nothing's been moved around or disturbed and there are no marks in the thick carpet. We can bring in the rest to secure the scene."

"Dammit. Who enters an apartment and doesn't disturb anything?" Natasha asked rhetorically and took out her cell phone and hit the first speed dial number. "Get me the monitoring agent, please."

The phone clicked several times. "MA23 speaking."

"Send me the footage and the electronic records." Natasha said and her cell phone beeped at her. "How did they leave without breaking any of the sensors on the door or the windows?"

"They did break one of the sensors." The Monitoring Agent said. "It's number ten on the list."

"Thank you." Natasha said.

"You're welcome." The agent said and hung up.

"Where's ten located on the list?" Clint asked as he motioned for the rest of his assigned group of field agents to enter the apartment. There were three of them.

"Just a second." Natasha said and watched the footage. "Son of a bitch."

"What is it?" Clint asked.

"Whoever it was, covered the motion sensor and camera with a doily."

"With a what?" Clint asked.

Natasha walked over to the spot and picked up the slightly heavy white lace thing that was usually put under lamps and things to protect tables. "It only lasted for a handful of seconds before it slid off, which disturbed both the camera's focus and the motion sensor's detection range for a good ten seconds at least."

Clint looked at the spot and back at the open doorway. "How much do you want to bet the tripped sensor is behind that couch?"

Natasha looked and smiled. "That's a sucker bet. A cup of coffee."

"Done." Clint said and walked out of the bedroom.

Natasha checked her phone. "It's the central air vent on the list."

"The couch is pushed forwards, too." Clint said and waved at the group of field agents to help. "I didn't notice because it's covering where it used to sit in the carpet."

"Sneaky." Natasha said and walked over to watch as the couch was moved. The broken plastic grate fell forward when the couch was out far enough and they nodded.

"Do you want to do the honors?" Clink asked with a smirk and waved at the exposed vent.

Natasha smirked back. "If I didn't know your situation already, I could swear you just wanted to stare at my ass as I try to wiggle in there."

Clint barked a laugh and handed her the end of a thin cable line. "I'm married, not dead."

Natasha laughed and hooked the cable to the back of her belt, then she made a bit of a show of it as she bent down and knelt before she carefully slipped inside the vent. The ass wiggle was quite significant, too. Clint's soft laughter followed her inside and down to the next floor.

Natasha checked for handholds, scrapes, or any signs that anyone had been there. "There are traces of passage. Nothing to follow, however."

"Retracting." Clint said and Natasha was slowly pulled back up and out of the vent. The agents had assisted and she nodded to them in thanks for the help.

"We know whoever it was came here for something specific, even if nothing was taken." Natasha said. "I'm only slightly surprised that they discovered the trip sensors on the door and windows."

"They couldn't have had any basic tools with them, or they would have removed one of the windows." Clint said and thought about it. "Maybe they stumbled in here and had to make a quick escape?"

"They had the key to get in, according to the digital lock." Natasha said and nodded. "I agree, they were caught and went out the best way possible."

"We have the others guarding the building's entrances and exits, even the roof." One of the field agents said. "If they try to sneak out while you're searching, we'll catch them."

Natasha and Clint exchanged a knowing look. They knew whoever it was, had been smart. They would have an escape plan in place before ever coming near a SHIELD agent's apartment.

"This site is compromised." Natasha said and walked towards the apartment door. "Clean it up. No one lived here and it should already be listed for rent."

"Yes, sir." The field agent closest to her said and they watched as two of the best agents of their agency left. The man would never ask why they had been assigned to a recently graduated field agent's apartment and would never know the young man had been the son of one of the Security Council's members.

She was quite angry that her son had been missing for several days and no one noticed, not even her. He hadn't been on a mission and the normal monitoring protocols hadn't been set up to watch a new agent's everyday life.

Not a single person had noticed when someone carefully climbed out from under the bed, picked up the laptop and a cell phone that had recorded the redheaded woman entering the laptop's password, and they casually walked out while everyone was occupied with sending the redhead into the vent.

The laptop wouldn't be entered as evidence and no one would ever know that it was missing.

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