Viper settled into the seat with a serpentine sway, gave a theatrical little hmph, and let her displeasure show in every feature. "You used my formula to swindle the Typhon Group. In certain people's eyes, our connection is already compromised. You've created a real headache for me."
"How big a headache?" Daisy asked, suddenly attentive.
"Heh." Viper covered her mouth and laughed quietly. "Caught me completely off guard at first. I covered for it."
Her voice was barely above a whisper. To sell the act, she even reached over and pinched Daisy's cheek—the gesture so natural it didn't draw a single curious eye.
"Hands off." Daisy paid her back in kind. With a flick of her finger, she sent a focused pulse of vibration into Viper, a small reminder of that particular torture from their last meeting.
Their little exchange was subtle. But it scared Sitwell half to death across the room.
Grant Ward was a peripheral asset—several layers removed from the inner circle of the HYDRA branch. He'd never met Baron Strucker, let alone Viper. He only knew them by reputation.
Sitwell was a different animal. He'd built his entire career on climbing HYDRA's ladder, and he'd memorized every senior file Pierce had on hand. He recognized Viper the moment she sat down.
He still couldn't wrap his head around how his partner—the rising star of S.H.I.E.L.D.—had ended up tangled up with Viper of all people.
The conversation between Daisy and Viper was brief. It hadn't been a major exchange to begin with. Viper had bailed on HYDRA more than once and rejoined just as many times—she didn't really care about the organization. She used HYDRA mostly as a shield. She'd made her quiet warning to Daisy, faked a tipsy stumble as cover, and gone off to work the rest of the room.
The gala wound down. The city's elite had no real interest in the Disaster Relief Foundation. There were no big pledges, and Stark ended up footing most of the bill out of pocket. Two days later, though, he found another large donor willing to share the load—Fury, who happened to have a little budget to spare and was still pushing hard to assemble the Avengers Initiative.
Daisy didn't know what they actually said to each other or how long the conversation ran. All she knew was that Fury's face got darker by the day.
To most attendees, the Stark gala was a routine social occasion—Stark himself probably hadn't taken it that seriously. The press took a few cheap shots and the story died.
But what happened in that one corner of the gala? For HYDRA's S.H.I.E.L.D. cell, it registered as a full-scale earthquake.
No way. Pierce's first reaction.
HYDRA is sending someone to take my territory. That was his second reaction, the moment Sitwell finished briefing him on Daisy's encounter with Viper.
Pierce was furious. He'd personally cultivated almost every HYDRA agent inside S.H.I.E.L.D. The idea that the upper leadership had now sent someone to undercut him was intolerable.
"Kill her," Pierce said in a voice cold enough to freeze. The pronoun didn't need clarifying.
But for the first time ever, Crossbones—who had never disobeyed a single order—said no.
"Sir. I'm loyal to HYDRA." Crossbones was perfectly clear. He was loyal to the organization, not to any one man. Years of cooperation had earned Pierce a degree of preference, but not blind allegiance. He wouldn't betray HYDRA.
If Daisy really had been planted inside S.H.I.E.L.D. by HYDRA, Crossbones would stay neutral. Help Pierce kill another HYDRA operative? Out of the question.
Pierce turned to Sitwell.
Sitwell broke into another sweat across his bald scalp and stammered, "Sir, we need more intel before we make any decisions."
Pierce's heart sank. One of his two trusted lieutenants had gone neutral, and the other—technically—had also gone neutral.
A man as paranoid as Pierce couldn't help spiraling. Had they already been turned? Were they playing him?
Stab-in-the-back was HYDRA's standard operating procedure. The behavior was suspicious as hell.
"Fine. I overstepped. We'll keep watching."
That was what he said. But in his mind he could already see a venomous snake coiled in the shadows, waiting for him to drop, ready to swallow him whole.
Fear. Doubt. Every weapon HYDRA had ever wielded for him was now poisoning him from the inside.
Sitwell might still have some lingering doubts about Daisy's HYDRA credentials, but Pierce was ninety percent convinced. Daisy's day-to-day conduct simply didn't fit a person dedicated to keeping the world safe. The thought of having spent thirty patient years building this empire only to watch someone else swoop in and reap the harvest—Pierce couldn't suppress his rage.
But the way Sitwell and Crossbones had folded today had chilled him. Without those two backing him, he had no clean way to direct his HYDRA assets. The situation was bad. Letting it slide would be worse. If Daisy locked down both of his lieutenants, she'd have him by the throat. S.H.I.E.L.D. would just retire him quietly. HYDRA wouldn't.
Two days of brooding finally produced something close to an opening.
Crossbones had iron in his backbone—no amount of talking could move him. So Pierce, like Daisy before him, turned his attention to Sitwell. Sitwell's spine was famously flexible.
"Go test her. See how she reacts," Pierce ordered.
"Test her? How?" Sitwell looked lost. The word test made him very nervous.
The corner of Pierce's mouth twitched. His eyes hardened. "Recite our slogan, obviously. That'll confirm her real identity."
"No, no—" Sitwell shook his head furiously. He wasn't an idiot. He wasn't going to martyr himself. If Daisy was HYDRA, fine. But if she wasn't? A noncombatant HYDRA pen-pusher walking up to a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and shouting Hail Hydra? That was a death wish.
Pierce had anticipated the refusal. Mobilizing real numbers required Crossbones's cooperation, but quietly pulling together a dozen men was well within his reach. The instant Sitwell tried to refuse, three HYDRA operatives closed in around him, and a dozen more emerged from the periphery. The threat didn't need to be spoken.
"Jasper. If she is, we confirm her identity. If she isn't, I won't let you fall into her hands. What's there to hesitate about? Hm?" Pierce knew that, after today, his relationship with this subordinate was over. He didn't care.
He had a deeper play in mind. Whichever way it broke, he could just have both Daisy and Sitwell killed. HYDRA didn't hold grudges over corpses.
Beyond the dozen visible loyalists, he'd activated one more piece in reserve. He'd rather not use it. But he would.
Pierce had spent his entire life turning S.H.I.E.L.D. agents into HYDRA agents. He used to take pride in claiming half of S.H.I.E.L.D. answered to HYDRA. It had been his trophy for years. Right now, every fiber of his being was praying that Daisy Johnson was a loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He didn't want a war with HYDRA's leadership. He could only beg the universe—Daisy, please don't be one of us.