"Maybe I should learn to fly." "It's not too late, right?" "I could learn." "What do you like best?" "The freedom?" "The view?" "The solitude." "Got it." "See you in Sweden." "I only get one shot." "And it has to knock a person back as well as out." "Which is why we're perfecting this little beauty." ".45 caliber cartridges, semi-automatic, each mag contains eight therapeutic rounds of dendrotoxin." "In case you miss." "Or have multiple assailants." "We're gonna have this new Night-Night Pistol working in no time." "Okay?" "Great." "One thing." "We're not calling it that." "Told you." "Yes, we are." "You seen Skye?" "Not since weapons training." "She stop saying "bang" when she pulls the trigger?" "Mostly." "Now if she can just learn the difference between the safety release and the magazine release, we'Il be making real progress." "What's up, Phil?" "I'd prefer you not call me "Phil."" "Okay, you're the boss." "A.C." "Just missing my van a bit." "Taking a little me time." "I want your help with something." "Hit me with it." "You ever rob a bank?" " No." " An armored car?" " Nope." " How about a casino?" "Should I be offended?" "Somebody's stealing millions of dollars in diamonds." "They found a way to crack the security systems." "I want you to figure out their exploit." "Hmm." "Yesterday, 55 men, all military, were hired by one of the largest gem brokers in the world." "They dressed the men in identical outfits, gave each one a randomly assigned briefcase, and sent them along 25 different routes here in Stockholm." "No one knew which briefcase contained the diamonds, but they were still stolen." "Why the kabuki theater?" "They were afraid because somebody's targeting diamonds." "An armored car in Milan, a safe in Monte-Carlo, and now this." "Over 30 mil, total." "Each theft occurred despite heavy security." "They sound like inside jobs." "A lot of people share that opinion." "You don't." "CCTV cameras catch any of the action?" "Fitz-Simmons is checking." "The system went dark for an hour." "They think it was hacked." "It was the same thieves each time?" "Yes." "But it was just one thief." "A woman." "And she did it all with her eyes closed." "Eyewitnesses ID her?" "Black, athletic build, late 20s, early 30s." "So you asked how she could've cracked the system." "I have a pitch, but it's way outside of the box." "I live outside the box." "There are people in the world with superpowers, right?" "What if this woman had ESP or something?" "There are no credible studies that support precognition, telepathy or extrasensory perception." "Okay, so science says no." "But this woman knew impossible things." "And Why'd she close her eyes?" "That's either random or totally important." "Was she listening?" "Or was she reading minds?" "I'm gonna go play with my phone now." "Why does HQ want us to investigate these heists?" "They don't. I picked this op." "Any luck?" "Yep, I'm getting full bars, which means if I was down here and 55 guys were in scary red masks, you know what I would do?" "Instagram." "It's amazing." "Every year, this part of our job gets easier." "Between Facebook, Ilnstagram and Flickr, people are surveilling themselves." "With many filters to choose from." "I could do this pretty well when I was hacking for the Rising Tide, but you guys tag and search in ways the rest of us never dreamed of." "I can run facial recognition software on the photos." "Cross-reference them with our criminal databases." "You don't have to." "That's the thief." "Her name's Akela Amador." "You're certain?" "I should be. I trained her." "Akela Amador was a S.H.l.E.L.D. agent." "Seven years ago, she led a raid on one of Vanchat's gulags." "Everyone believed that she and the two other agents on the mission were killed." "I had my doubts." "So I sent in a second team, just in case." "They found a lot of carnage, but couldn't confirm that any of it was Amador." "Left the possibility open." "That's why you chose this op." "When you heard about the heists." "Only a few women in the world who could pull off something so impossible." "Since you were on the bus, I thought it had to be her." "Swedish Customs confirmed that Amador left the country using an alias on a Swedish passport." "She flew into Belarus, bought a train ticket to a town called Zloda." "I've also put together a list of individuals who could fence that many diamonds." "There's been no contact or activity." "Maybe she's saving them for a rainy day." "Buying something special." "Let's focus on finding Amador." "I'Il let HQ know she's alive so they can assist with the manhunt." "I'd like to hold off on that." "Until we know more." "Contact Belarus authorities." "Find us a place to park the bus." "Put together a list of inns, hotels and pensiones near Zloda." "There can't be that many of them." "We'Il find her." "I'm not so special after all." "I'm not your first protégé." "Relax, I'm teasing." "I know I'm not a protégé." "Hell, I'm not even a real live S.H.I.E.L.D. agent yet." "You two couldn't be more different." "Amador was smart, talented, fearless." "Wow, there's nothing in common." "Let me finish." "She didn't play well with others." "Found little value in teamwork." "I thought I could instill those qualities in her, so I pushed her." "Maybe too hard." "Don't blame yourself because this chick went to the dark side." "Whatever path she went down, whatever weird stuff she got into, it's on her." "The agreement was to come alone." "I did!" "What about the man in the next room?" "Or the one by the stairs?" "They're here to protect me." "For when I leave." "With the merchandise." "Please." "I'm sorry. I've never done this before." "May I see them?" " The rest, they are..." " In the bag." "You can carry it through Customs." "No one will know." "Now it's your turn." "When I said $30 million, I never thought anybody would..." "If it fails, I Will find you." "It will access all the levels as promised." "But once you're inside, do you have a plan?" "It'Il come to me." "How exciting." "I've dreamed of visiting Zloda since I was a schoolgirl." "Zloda, Belarus?" "A dream come true?" "Really?" "It's the birthplace of Nobel physicist Zhores Alferov." "Technically he's from Vitebsk, but that's less than an hour from here, and I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't know that." "No, of course I know who that is." "Father of heterostructure transistors, thank you very much." "We're all well aware of that." "I'm just a little bit preoccupied." "First and only other time in the field wasn't exactly a picnic, was it?" "You guys are only here to search for Amador electronically." "You won't even need to leave the van." " Bus to short bus." " Go for short bus." "Next time, I'Il decide what we call ourselves, okay?" "MAY"." "HQ has requested a status update." "COULSON'." "What'd you tell them?" "That we're tracking a potential suspect." "Nothing more." " l owe you one." " More like three." "If Amador's here, she'Il have to contact her buyer." "Scan for cell phone transmissions, encrypted emails, anomalous broadcast signatures." "Call us if you find anything that indicates her presence." "Maintain radio silence unless you really need help." "But what exactly defines needing help?" "I can only imagine how painful this must be for you, sir." "Betrayed by someone you trained and believed in." "We don't have all the facts yet." "True, but I have to assume the worst." "Amador sold out the other two agents on her mission." "Wonder what she got in exchange." "I don't know." "But until we do, I'm not gonna assume anything." "There's barely electricity in this town." "Can't be too hard to find our mystery woman." "Unless she already knows we're here." "No." "You're not suggesting some sort of precognition or telepathy because..." "I know, it doesn't exist, and not long ago" "I would've dumped ESP in the aliens-and-portals-are-for- crazy-people pile, but now..." "Found a server." " Did you locate Amador?" " What?" "No." "Not yet." "But we found a broadcast with some weird signal encrypted into it." "You think Amador might be communicating on that signal?" "Maybe, but I called with an equally pressing question for you, my S.O." "What are we supposed to do if we have to pee?" "You broke protocol because you need a bathroom break?" "It was a really, really long drive and everyone's nervous." "There's a container at the bottom of the blue chest." "Bottom of the blue chest." "Not the water bottle?" "That's the one." "Did you never learn the thing where boy parts and girl parts are different?" "And our parts aren't penises?" "Agent Coulson and I are trying to find a dangerous criminal." "If there is nothing else pressing..." "One last thing." "Fitz wants to know if you packed any snacks." "Yeah, I'm feeling a bit peckish." "Hello?" "He hung up." "Good afternoon." "I'm Agent Coulson, this is Agent Ward." "We're looking for this young woman." "Oh, she is my angel." "Why do you say that?" "She has gift." "Knows things." "She told me to go to doctor." "He found a tumor." "I'm having surgery next week." "This girl saved me." "I can't stabilize it." "There's an encrypted local signal competing." "Mirror it over." "I have a couple of Rising Tide exploits that might work." "One last thing." "Ta-da, and you're welcome." "It's very important that we talk with her." "With her gift, I'm sure she knows you're coming." "Russian TV's kind of boring." "That looks a bit like our van." "What are we looking at?" "Us." "Let's get out of here!" "Stupid tall person." "Call Coulson." "Get the gun." "It's her." "Safety off." "Bang?" "Sir, Amador attacked you and your people." "Whatever regard you hold for her isn't reciprocated." "She just kicked us in the teeth." "How's the team?" "Rattled." "No broken bones." "We're lucky she just knocked the van over so she could get away." "Probably take a while for our folks to refocus." "I think I can recover the data signature of that encrypted broadcast." "I don't understand it yet, but that's how she was watching us." "Give me an hour." "Maybe we can start watching back." "Something's wrong." "It's the same feed that was watching us in the van." "Put it on the big monitor." "Maybe the lens broke when the van rammed us." "I hope she broke more than that." "It's a mirror." "Are we recording this?" "We are now." "Whoa!" "How are we seeing this?" "Where's the camera?" "It's her eye." "She's the camera." "It switches to backscatter when she closes her eyes." "You're a robot, can you do that?" "Who has tech like this?" "We don't." "Not like this." "Not this small and internal, that's at least a decade ahead of anything I've seen." "Though, now that I've seen it, I could maybe approximate." "The backscatter, X-ray, a micro transceiver that somehow doesn't fry her brain, an internal power source." "All miniaturized." "Honestly, it's..." " That's genius." " ...genius." "We have to bring her in." "We have to take her out." "She's a weapon." "I'Il call HQ, see if we can bring a task force in to help us." "Our team can handle this." "I get it." "You feel responsible." "Maybe you pushed her too hard." "But she tried to kill three members of our team." "If she wanted us dead, we'd be dead." "We got lucky." "You wanna risk our lives again?" "You told me you were ready for combat." " That you had my back." " Don't ever doubt it." "But you are defending this girl at the expense of the team." "Because we protect our own." "With all due respect, sir, she's not one of our own." "Guys." "Why does she have to ask for permission?" "She's not being watched." "She's being controlled." "We have to find her." "We'Il take shifts watching the feed." "Sooner or later, she'Il look at something that will clue us in to her location." "I'Il take the first watch." "I just wanted to give you a quick update." "She's still at the hotel." "So..." "And that's the update." "It's a pretty weird day, huh?" "It's like we were trapped in a van-shaped pinata." "That should never have happened." "It's okay. it wasn't nearly as terrible as watching Mom and Dad fight downstairs." "That shouldn't have happened either." "You regret coming along?" "It's pretty impulsive." "Even for me." "I still don't know much about you." "Except for you value really old stuff." "And you value me." "You're the first person to do that in a long time." "So I happen to believe you're an excellent judge of character." "If you think this woman deserves a second chance, we should give it to her." "Even though she tried to kill me and I kind of hate her guts." " Fitz." "What happened?" "Where's May?" " What?" "I don't know." "She was watching the transmission." "Amador must be sleeping." "Play it back." "There." "She got another message." "Todorov Building." "Wait." "Stop." "Can you get closer on that receipt?" "Damn it, May." "Wake the others." "Whoever's monitoring you, do they have audio?" "No." "But they'Il use facial recognition to determine you're a S.H.l.E.L.D. agent." "So I don't have to introduce myself." "Did Coulson send you?" "No." "He feels sorry for you. I don't." "I'Il bring you into S.H.l.E.L.D., you'Il get a fair trial, and no one else gets hurt." "You have no idea, do you?" "We know that you receive orders." "Then you know that once they see you, only one of us gets to walk out of here." "They built in a fail-safe." "Either I kill you, or they kill me." "You should've stayed in bed." "Hello, Akela." "You're safe now." "Give it a minute." "I hit you with a powerful dendrotoxin." "There's a kill switch in my eye." "Why hasn't my handler blown it yet?" "As far as your handler knows, you fought Agent May, you both went down, then you got up and left the building to complete your mission." " How?" " We hijacked your feed." "One of my agents is wearing a set of glasses mimicking your implant." "Right now, it's transmitting his point of view as if it was yours." "It even has backscatter imaging." "AKELA"." "I get messages from my handler." "We're receiving those as well." "My agent's on his way to the Todorov Building, completing your mission while we disable the fail-safe in your eye." "I promise they can't see you." "You're okay, Akela." "Look at me." "How long have they been monitoring you?" "Years." "Why are you doing this, Coulson?" "I need to know why a prox card is worth 30 million..." "No." "Why are you doing this?" "Why are you helping me?" "Where's the "I told you so"?" "That's not me anymore." "I'm just glad you're alive." "Vanchat would've never caught us if I'd just done my job." "I should've listened to you." "Trusted my team the way you insisted." "If I had, they might still be alive." "Where are we?" "Todorov Building." "I think it's research, not military." "Looks like a prison." "We wireless yet?" "Yep." "Ready to detach." "Don't look at me." "They need to think you're her." "And, oh, my God, superspy is ticklish." "How'd you manage to escape?" "I didn't." "Got caught in a crossfire." "Went down." "Woke up in some half-assed triage bay, blind in this eye." "Spent the next four years alone in a cage at the bottom of a copper mine." "We looked for you." "Heard rumors you'd been taken to Shanxi province." "When a team finally came," "I thought it was S.H.I.E.L.D. at first, but..." "Who were they?" "I don't know, even to this day." "But they were organized." "They took me to a clinic." "I had multiple surgeries, until one day, I could see out of both eyes again." "I was so grateful." "Until I realized what they'd done." "Somebody was watching." "My every move." "I had no idea until they sent the first message." "Then the assignments started." "Mostly it was, "steal this,"" ""follow him," "break into there."" "I just tried to ignore them." "But when I did, I'd get this pain, like an electric migraine." "The fail-safe." "Polite way of putting it." "Now when I think about my years in the cage, I miss it." "I wish I could go back." "Be alone." "Sleep in peace." "I know you're tired, but I need your help." "If you want information on the prox card, you're out of luck." "You can't go on missions without intel." "It comes in pieces." "A name, an address." "it would suck to live like this." "Wondering if someone's watching." "Testing backscatter." "Good to go." "Remember, I can't look at you, much less help you." "Got it." "Don't count on you for help." "I'Il be watching." "Come on, Akela, you've never spoken to or met anyone in person?" "No." "Only contacts are the messages I receive from the Englishman." "The Englishman." "Your handler?" "How do you know he's English?" "The way he refers to certain things." "He uses "lift" instead of "elevator,"" ""boot" instead of "trunk."" "Think about the messages." "What else do you know about him?" "He's late 30s, early 40s." "Uses dated references." ""Disk drive" instead of "flash drive,"" ""Burma" instead of "Myanmar."" "How's his typing?" "Clumsy." "Makes a lot of mistakes." "Thick fingers." "Maybe heavyset." "I forgot how good you are." "Sir, we're ready down here." "Fitz and Simmons are prepped for surgery." "Should be any minute now." "Hey, remember, you have man hands, so don't look when you scan the card." "I know." "Ward's on-site, so we don't have much time." "To remove her eyeball." "Ocular surgery's not really my field of expertise." "We've got no other choice." "There's a kill switch inside Akela." "Could be a poison, could be an explosive." "Either way, if Ward's caught, they'Il kill her instantly." "Where are you going, sir?" "To find out whose finger's on the trigger." "Approaching Delta Three." "Careful!" "Mirror." "Don't need your help." "Handler's definitely local." "Any idea where he's transmitting from?" "Somewhere here." "Every time he sends a message, we get closer." "Keep me updated on comm three." "I'm headed out now." "I'Il track him down if you wanna stay here and oversee the op." "Thank you." "This one's mine." "And about earlier..." "Go." "Find the guy." "I may need your feedback during the operation." "Which means I have to inject a local anesthetic into your eye rather than putting you under." "Whatever's necessary." "Right." "Let's begin then." "Let me." "What do they mean, "target"?" "It's never good." "Especially for the target." "Let's hope it's a knockout and not a kill." "You should get out of there." "I've come this far." "I'Il finish." "Whatever it takes." "Help." "I'm sorry, did you say, "help"?" "Because a minute ago you said you didn't want or need my help." "That was before they asked me to go all Mata Hari on this guy." "I'm just gonna knock him out." "Ward, wait." "We may need him to get through the next door." "Remember, it said seduce, not kill." "I don't think I'm his type." "Let me see." "Cheap haircut." "Five o'clock shadow." "Nope, odds are you guys play for the same team." "You're gonna have to bromance him." "Talk sports." "Vodka." "The Victorianov's Secret catalog." "Be friendly, Agent Ward." "Can you be friendly?" "Please don't die." "Guess not." "What now?" "Are you supposed to grab one of these guys?" "They just sent another message." "Coulson, he's close." "Only a few blocks from you." "He's somewhere in Victory Square." "One more message should lock in his precise location." "Figured out what I needed the guard for." "His password." "Maybe I can talk you through a hack." "Just give me a minute." "No more minutes." "Meet me on the south side of the building." "ASAP." "Got ya." "Which Way's south?" "Please tell me it's out already." "It's mostly out." "What's wrong?" "Nothing." "But Doctor Fitzy needs to step in now." "This is his area of expertise, not mine." "Fitz." "All right then." "Most likely both the power source and kill switch are located within the eye itself." "So how to disconnect without triggering the kill switch." "Oh." "I know what to do." "I just need to clarify one thing." " Ward?" " What?" "You sound winded." "Is this a bad time?" "Little bit." "Well, not so good for me either, considering I'm holding a still attached prosthetic eye that could explode at any second." "Are the wires exposed or shielded?" "Cut it now." "Cut the wires now!" " What's happening?" " No problem." "Ward explained the sitch." "Coming your way." "I don't know what that means." "Let's go." "He probably left as soon as he threw the kill switch." "He's there. 20 meters from you." "I think I got him." " Excuse me, sir?" " l'm sorry, but I'm very late." "I'm With S.H.l.E.L.D." "Oh, God." "He was a former MI6 officer who fell off the grid a few years ago." "My handler was as trapped as I was." "Which means the real threat's still out there." "Big S.H.I.E.L.D.'s still trying to decipher what was written on that chalkboard." "Nobody's ever seen anything like it." "Couple of people think it might be alien." "Possibly an equation." "Must be important if it's worth $30 million." "We'Il figure it out." "You'Il get a fair trial." "I plan on testifying." "I know people." "You deserve a second chance." "You already gave me one." "Doesn't matter how it plays out from here." "I'm free." "Thank you." "Good luck." "What happened to Agent Coulson?" "He's different." "Well, he's loosened up a bit." "He nearly died before the Battle of New York." "But what did they do to him?" "I'm sorry?" "Never mind." "Are you still needing your you time?" "There's always room for A.C. Slide on in." "What's wrong with "Agent Coulson" or just "Coulson"?" "Nothing, I guess." "A.C.'s just way cooler." "'Cause you are." "Cool." "Not many people would've made that call." "Give Amador a second chance." "I got one." "Seems only fair I extend the same opportunity to others." "I see why you like it in here." "Yeah." "It's kinda like my van." "Without all the bums trying to break in." "I don't miss that." "It's more peaceful here." "It's also cool knowing that someone has my back." "No matter what." "Peaceful's good." "I call." "And raise 100." "Hmm..." "You know how I know I'm gonna beat you?" "By losing?" "You have a tell." "A physiological tic that lets me know you're bluffing." "If I watch you carefully..." "If I watch you carefully..." "Sorry." "Hang on." "You know if I do this that not only will I see Ward's cards, but I'Il see you without any clothes on?" "I fold." "You win." "Hmm."