Chapter 133: Eleven Minutes
Natasha opened the authorization attached to the duplicate truck entry. The clearance led to the file of Daniel Mercer, a S.H.I.E.L.D. recovery specialist who had died in Jakarta six months earlier.
His account had been closed after his death. It remained inactive until the Destroyer cleanup, when it reopened for exactly eleven minutes, approved the false transfer, and closed again.
"Mercer had no connection to New Mexico," Natasha said after checking his previous assignments. "Someone chose a dead agent because he could never challenge the order."
Hill looked at Ethan. "The organization you warned Fury about?"
"Probably," Ethan said. "But this only tells us someone can reopen archived accounts. It doesn't tell us who gave the order or who received the fragment."
Natasha checked the terminal record again. "The person who entered it may not know either. They could have received a transfer request that looked completely legitimate."
"Then we don't touch them yet," Hill decided. "This stays between us and Fury until I find out who reopened Mercer's account."
She glanced at the Plumber analyzer case resting on the table. "How much damage can they do with the fragment?"
"They can study the metal and how it handled Asgardian energy," Ethan said. "They cannot build another Destroyer from one sliver."
"And you still can't locate it?"
"I can confirm it after we find it. I can't track dormant metal across the country."
Hill turned back to Mercer's account history while Ethan and Natasha returned to the Sanctum.
That evening, Natasha's secure phone vibrated.
"We found him," Gwen said when Natasha answered.
She and Matt had followed two Fisk-linked transport trucks to an old, brick commercial laundry in Hell's Kitchen. Matt could hear generators and heavy equipment running inside, while Gwen had already spotted Phineas Mason through an upper window.
"The trucks leave after midnight," Gwen reported. "They're splitting the remaining disruptors between different crews across the city."
Ethan opened a portal directly to the rooftop where Gwen and Matt were waiting.
Matt kept his attention focused on the laundry across the alley. "Guards upstairs and in the basement. They're loading smaller machines into the trucks, but the main controller is still running below the building. Mason keeps moving between it and the loading bay."
Gwen watched another heavy metal case disappear through the rear doors. "We move before those trucks do."
Ethan looked across the alley. "Where do you need me?"
"Outside," Gwen said. "Watch for another dimensional signal. If Mason rebuilt anything like the first beacon, handle it."
She pointed across the alley. "Matt takes the roof. Natasha enters through the rear and reaches the basement controls. I go through the upper floor and keep everyone looking at me."
Gwen turned toward Natasha. "When the disruptors start, call the gaps."
Natasha studied the dark service entrance below. "You're sure you'll follow them?"
"I learned what happens when I don't."
Natasha checked the guards around the loading bay. "Give me two minutes."
She dropped into the alley, landing with barely a sound.
One guard stood beside the service door, smoking a cigarette in the cold air. She approached from behind, caught him before he could turn, and drove a sharp strike into the side of his neck. He collapsed against her, and she lowered him quietly behind a row of trash bins.
The electronic lock took several seconds longer than expected, but it opened without raising an alarm.
Matt crossed onto the laundry roof while Gwen waited beside an upper frosted window. He listened through the building and passed along the guards' movements in short, precise updates.
Natasha reached the top of the basement stairs and stopped abruptly. A thin wire stretched tightly across the lower doorway, connected to a small charge hidden inside the wall.
"Hold," she said over the comm. "The basement entrance is trapped."
Before she could disarm it, heavy machinery started beneath the floor.
The first disruptor fired.
The sonic pulse struck Gwen's spider-sense from every direction at once. The acoustic mesh woven into her suit dulled the worst of it, but jagged, false warnings still tore through her head.
Matt flinched on the roof as the overlapping frequency filled his hearing with footsteps and heartbeats that were not actually there.
Gwen's muscles coiled, and she shifted aggressively toward the window.
"Stay still," Natasha ordered through the earpiece.
Gwen's fingers tightened against the cold brick, but she stopped.
In the stairwell, Natasha ignored the piercing hum and watched the indicator lights on the basement junction boxes brighten and fade with each pulse. After three full cycles, the pattern became clear.
"Four seconds on. Six seconds off," Natasha said. "Move on my count."
Gwen waited beside the window while Matt braced one hand against the roof.
"Three. Two. One."
Gwen crashed through the glass as the pulse stopped. She dropped the first guard, webbed the second against the wall, and reached the concrete pillar as the machines began charging again.
Matt entered through the roof hatch during the next gap, keeping one hand against the wall while the false echoes continued to interfere with his radar.
Natasha pinned the tripwire's trigger in place, stepped over it, and entered the basement control room.
It was empty.
The main console controlled only the portable emitters being loaded into the trucks outside. A thicker, heavily insulated cable ran behind it and disappeared through the concrete wall toward the old boiler room at the rear of the basement.
Before Natasha could warn the others, steel shutters slammed across the upper corridor, cutting Gwen off from Matt.
The intercom system clicked on.
"Seal the upper floor," Mason's voice ordered, echoing over the generators. "She's already in the basement."
Natasha looked up at the small security camera mounted above the control room door.
She raised the Plumber sidearm and destroyed it with one quiet pulse, then followed the thick cable toward the boiler room.
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