The Ghost

          If  it  were  up  to  him,  he  wouldn’t  allow  Ava  back  into  the  field.      He  would  ban  her  from  it,  force  her  to  go  to  therapy,  and  maybe  pick  up  a  normal  activity  or  job.      That’s  not  in  the  cards  though,  and  he  knows  that.      Nerves  twist  up  in  his  stomach  as  he  watches  her  through  his  thermal  goggles,  a  demand  and  less  of  a  request.      If  he  was  going  to  let  Ava  go  out  there  and  be  in  charge  of  the  mission,  then  he  was  going  to  pull  out  all  the  stops  so  that  he  could  really  see  where  she  was  going.      If  they  didn’t  have  eyes  on  her  in  some  way,  he  knew  he’d  be  a  nervous  wreck.      Part  of  him  is  afraid  that  she’ll  go,  she’ll  run  and  won’t  come  back.      She’d  have  all  the  gear  she  needed  and  her  phone  was  full  of  contacts  that  could  help  her  obtain  the  quantum  particles  that  she  needed  regularly.      There  really  was  no  reason  for  her  to  stay  with  the  organization,  not  after  everything  that  they  had  put  her  through.      But  from  what  he  had  heard,  there  hadn’t  even  been  a  discussion;  Ava  was  cleared  and  put  in  the  field  as  if  she  hadn’t  just  nearly  died  because  they  didn’t  know  how  to  fix  her,  like  they  had  taken  such  good  care  of  her  and  hadn’t  been  using  her  as  a  weapon.      It  only  serves  to  make  that  anger  brew,  even  if  he  tried  to  contain  it  around  the  woman.      None  of  this  was  her  fault;  he  just  wanted  to  let  her  play  pretend  a  little  bit  longer. 

          When  she  enters  the  building  and  her  voice  crackles  over  their  comms,  he  feels  that  chill  sweep  up  her  spine.      Her  voice  doesn’t  sound  like  hers,  and  he  knows  it’s  from  her  mark,  but  it  doesn’t  serve  to  make  him  feel  any  better.    She’ll  be  fine,  he  knows  it,  all  of  his  thoughts  are  erratic  and  he  knows  irrational.      But  every  part  of  him  wants  to  curl  up  close  to  her  and  shield  her  from  this  all,  knowing  that  it  only  takes  a  few  missions  to  revert  back  to  old  habits,  to  not  be  able  to  break  free  from  it. 

           ❝  We  have  you  in  sight.      You’ve  got  twenty  minutes  before  the  next  sweep.      The  hard  drive  should  be  in  the  bottom  drawer  and  in  the  far  back.      Make  sure  you  leave  no  tracks,  Ghost.  ❞

“Ghosts don’t leave tracks,” she said into her comms, a smirk hidden under her helmet. She began rifling through drawers. She was incredibly careful in making sure nothing moved too far out of place. No hints, no evidence. She was called Ghost for several reasons. Not leaving a trace was one of them even if the biggest reason was her ability to go invisible and walk through walls.

The Ghost dug through the bottom drawer and pulled out a hard drive. She observed it through her HUD goggles, searching for anything that might be out of the ordinary. All the while, she listened to the chatter on the comms. Bucky was oddly silent. Deadly quiet. Maybe that was just how he worked. She didn’t know. This was their first mission together. But the rest of the team seemed very communicative which was necessary on a group op. Everyone needed to be aware of everyone else and their surroundings.

Nothing out of the ordinary. Hard drive seemed fine. She pulled a superficial copy of it from her belt and set it down where the original had been.

“Starting file transfer now,” she said, plugging the hard drive into the computer. She didn’t want to miss any file just in case it was helpful. It was a lot of information, though. She’d be cutting it close. Closer than Bucky would like. She knew it. “Someone distract the security team before the sweep. They won’t see me, but I’m still cutting it close on time and would like to take some of the stress off.”

“Distract how?” she heard another agent ask.