Behind the mask, part 2

It took me an hour and a half to get to New York, and another thirty minutes to reach my destination. Since I had all the documents I needed to verify my identity, I allowed myself to use the grand - as far as that word is appropriate when it comes to a secret base beneath the city - entrance.

The nano-mask and the fake pass proved to be excellent, allowing me to pass unobstructed both the security in the business center on the first floor of which was the office, which was a kind of antechamber of the base set up deep under the city, and the control in the office itself. They knew Phil by sight and were not at all surprised by his appearance. There was a risk, of course, that the real Colson had recently used this way and security would get suspicious, but I was lucky. The last time I'd checked on Gwen and Bobby's whereabouts-just before I'd embarked on my plan to return to the world of the living-they'd been held in special isolation cells. Phil's looks and seventh-level clearance would allow me to get in and, with a little luck, even get the girls out of the base relatively painlessly. But that wouldn't solve the problem. Fury and her closest subordinates already knew the superheroines' identities and wouldn't just leave them alone, not after the mess they made trying to save me. And I didn't want the fate of fugitive criminals for them.

Insolence is a blessing in disguise - I went straight to the office of the chief of the base. That was where the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was based at the moment. I knew for a fact that Fury had been personally in charge of the case from the start. It's not every day a college student and a small-time criminal breaks into a secret base of a secret intelligence organization by force. Not to mention how amazing abilities the prisoners themselves possessed. Fury just couldn't help but take an interest in it.

Damn, this base is huge; it took me half an hour just to walk from the elevator shaft I took down from the office on the surface to the door of Fury's office. I hadn't thought about it before, but in my past world, did the Shield have a base under New York City? Why build such a huge base only two hundred miles from the main headquarters in Washington? Wouldn't it have made more sense to place such important facilities at greater distances from each other?

At last came the most crucial moment of my plan. I could count on luck and just use the communicator, hoping that Fury would be there and that an unscheduled visit from a subordinate would not alarm her. Not to mention the fact that I had no idea where the real Phil was at the moment. But for greater effect, I decided it was worth trying to break into the principal's office myself. Ideally, when its owner wasn't there.

The task seems impossible. In a sense, it is. It is impossible for Peter Parker, for all my talents I am not a programmer on the level of Tony Stark, to playfully hack into such advanced security systems, and I do not have a pocket supercomputer. But, not so long ago, I myself was something superior to any supercomputer. No, I didn't retain those capabilities; it would have been foolish to try, but I remember looking for Gwen and Bobby as part of the system. Thanks to that, I had prepared another pass for myself with the highest level of access, which I was about to put into action when the door opened itself.

"Colson!" Fury appeared in the doorway," Why are you here? Did Stark do something stupid again?"

"Um... no," I was a little confused.

I hastily tucked the pass into my breast pocket and gave the woman in front of me a quick glance.

Like her counterpart in the other world, she was very well-preserved for her age. Probably the eternity serum had taken its toll here, too. She was about the same-about six feet tall, and her facial features were vaguely identifiable, as was the patch on her left eye. But that was where the resemblance to Nicholas Fury from my memories ended. Perhaps if I hadn't known that beforehand, I might not have been able to keep the face now, for the local version of Fury had changed not only gender, but at the same time race, from a white man to a black woman.

"You'll tell me later," Nicole said before I could concentrate my thoughts, "there's more important things to do right now! They escaped!"

Fury had no time to talk to me. The furious woman was tearing around, demanding information from her subordinates who fussed around her.

Trying to keep a low profile, I tried to figure out what was going on. Fortunately, no one touched me, because the real Colson, judging by the director's initial reaction to my appearance, should not be at the base, and therefore know nothing about the escape. From what I heard, Bobby and Gwen were the cause of the commotion. And they somehow managed to escape.

Oh, great!

No, I'm proud of the girls, of course. But goddamn it, couldn't they have waited a couple of hours for me to talk to Fury?

"Colson! Colson, are you fucking asleep?! Venom was seen in the west wing! Get your men and stop them!" What's wrong with her? The Nick Fury of my memory had never been so pissed off. Even when things were going badly and Hydra was storming the Triskelion, he kept his cool.

"Yes!" I took the order and flew out of the command post.

It is, in any case, in my interest to control the escape, and to speak to Fury later. As long as no one gets shot at the girls in the heat of battle.

"Hey, you," I yelled to the woman sergeant, shouting something to a trio of soldiers, "Yeah, yeah, you, who thinks you're not! You and your platoon follow me. Keep in constant communication with the center and give me a communicator."

Hopefully, Fury will be satisfied with the general channel and won't call Colson personally. I need her to be able to contact me at any time, and not the real Phil, who is not at all aware of what is going on and, judging by Fury's reservations, is working with the Iron Lady at the moment... if she calls him, it will be a failure.