Hell’s Kitchen, 12:00 a.m.
Ever since Bullseye was killed and Kingpin put a price on the assassin responsible, Hell’s Kitchen had somehow become even more chaotic and dangerous than usual.
Private mercenaries, professional hit squads, former special forces operators, and every other kind of heavily armed opportunist had begun flooding into the neighborhood.
Inevitably, they clashed with the local gangs already fighting over territory.
Gunfire and gang wars had become almost constant.
They were all here for the same reason: the twenty-million-dollar bounty Kingpin had placed on Calvin’s head.
That was right.
After every gunman Fisk sent after him ended up dead, Kingpin had doubled the original reward, apparently determined to see the assassin buried no matter what it cost.
With that much money on the table, more and more organizations had joined the hunt, hoping not only to claim the bounty but also to establish a relationship with Wilson Fisk in the process.
Every one of them seemed convinced they would be the last group standing.
They searched relentlessly for their target while doing everything they could to eliminate the competition along the way.
What none of them realized was that the man responsible for this entire mess was currently driving through Hell’s Kitchen in plain sight.
In a brand-new car, no less.
“Even Level One agents get company cars.
S.H.I.E.L.D.
really does have money to burn.” Calvin rested one hand on the steering wheel while casually watching another gang shootout unfold outside.
“Fury must have turned expense-account fraud into an art form.” He had already heard that Kingpin increased the bounty.
What Calvin could not understand was why.
‘Was Bullseye secretly Fisk’s favorite son or something?
Why go this far over one dead assassin?’ Unless…
Maybe the drug Bullseye injected had something to do with the human experiments mentioned in Calvin’s current mission.
Most of Hell’s Kitchen’s criminal organizations had some connection to Fisk, and Bullseye had just happened to be using a drug capable of dramatically enhancing his physical abilities.
It was difficult to believe those two things were completely unrelated.
Following the mission file’s directions, Calvin soon pulled his car to a stop outside an abandoned factory.
This was where he was supposed to meet his partner.
The moment he opened the door, a figure emerged from the shadows and approached him.
She had long, dark-red hair and wore a skintight black tactical suit that blended almost perfectly into the night.
The faint moonlight was enough to reveal an impressive figure, although she was considerably shorter than Calvin had expected.
“Agent Calvin.” The woman extended her right hand, a faintly seductive smile appearing on her lips.
“Black Widow.
I’ll be your partner for this assignment.” “Nice to meet you.” Calvin took her hand and gave it a light shake.
Then his expression paused almost imperceptibly.
She had just traced one finger across his palm.
‘Is she…
flirting with me?’ His thoughts immediately accelerated.
Something about this was wrong.
Calvin knew perfectly well that he was tall, muscular, and unfairly handsome, but he was not narcissistic enough to believe a veteran operative who had spent years manipulating men for a living would start hitting on him simply because he had a nice face.
Then he remembered something from the S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent handbook.
New Level One field agents were accompanied by a more experienced operative on their first assignment, supposedly to prevent mission failure and protect the rookie.
Anyone who thought about that arrangement for more than five seconds could figure out the second purpose.
“Protection” also meant surveillance.
The senior agent would observe the recruit during an actual operation and evaluate whether their judgment, temperament, professionalism, and overall behavior met S.H.I.E.L.D.
standards.
Which meant Black Widow was not simply his partner tonight.
She was his evaluator.
The phrase honey trap suddenly flashed through Calvin’s mind.
No wonder Fury had paired a brand-new recruit with Natasha Romanoff instead of sending Coulson, the unofficial tutorial NPC who had recruited him in the first place.
Fury had done this deliberately.
The more Calvin thought about it, the more sense it made.
Given Nick Fury’s legendary inability to trust anyone, it would have been far stranger if he hadn’t arranged several different ways to test a civilian recruit.
Once he reached that conclusion, a brilliant smile spread across Calvin’s face.
Instead of releasing Natasha’s hand as he normally would have, he tightened his grip and completely enclosed her hand inside his own.
If he wanted a steady supply of high-quality S.H.I.E.L.D.
missions in the future, Black Widow was simply going to have to suffer a little.
Natasha felt the warmth of his much larger hand and raised an eyebrow.
A teasing smile appeared on her face as she looked up at him.
Fury had asked her to assess the new recruit’s overall qualities and identify any potential weaknesses.
She had not even seen his abilities yet, and apparently she had already found one.
A man who looked this straightforward and dependable had an obvious weakness for beautiful women.
Natasha lowered her head and slowly brushed a strand of dark-red hair away from her face, deciding to see just how badly this supposed womanizer could be distracted.
Then pain suddenly shot through her hand.
The warmth vanished.
An unimaginable amount of force surged through her arm as Calvin’s grip seemed to transform from a human hand into a hydraulic clamp.
Natasha Romanoff had survived more fights, ambushes, and assassination attempts than most people could imagine, yet she did not even have time to react before the night air began screaming past her ears.
She was airborne.
Calvin’s face remained perfectly calm as he swung one arm in a brutal full circle, taking Natasha with it.
Her body whipped through the air before crashing hard into the pavement.
BOOM!
Dust erupted around her.
“Ugh…” Natasha lay facedown on the ground, her brow tightly furrowed as pain rolled through her entire body.
She could barely move.
The attack had not been meant to kill her, but it had left her incapable of putting up much resistance for the moment.
‘Of all the ways to get caught off guard…’ Natasha cursed inwardly.
She had never expected Calvin to attack without warning, and she certainly had not expected his physical strength to be so overwhelming that even her enhanced body could offer almost no resistance.
Despite every muscle protesting, years of training took over.
Without drawing attention to the movement, she activated the recording device hidden on her person.
Then she snapped angrily, “Who are you?
Did you go through all the trouble of joining S.H.I.E.L.D.
just to assassinate me?” Calvin pulled both of her arms behind her back and pinned them there before planting one knee against her to keep her restrained.
He sounded genuinely puzzled.
“I think I should be asking you that question.
What did you do with the real Black Widow?” “Ah…
what?” Natasha froze.
For perhaps the first time that evening, she looked completely lost.
‘What does he mean, where’s the real Black Widow?’ Was she somehow not Black Widow anymore?
Was he not an infiltrator?
“I am Black Widow,” she said flatly.
“Bullshit!” Calvin had to fight hard to keep himself from laughing as he answered in a cold voice.
“Black Widow is a Level Seven S.H.I.E.L.D.
agent.
She’s also supposed to be my superior and my mission partner.” He tightened his hold slightly.
“What kind of senior agent starts flirting with a brand-new subordinate the second they meet?
What did you think this was, some cheap spy porno?” “…” Natasha had no immediate answer.
She had spent years as an operative, completed more missions than she could count, and encountered every imaginable category of lunatic along the way.
But Calvin was the first man she had ever met who responded to her flirting by immediately swinging her through the air and slamming her into the pavement.
Her body still ached, but from a professional standpoint, she could not deny that his reaction had earned some approval.
Extremely powerful.
Unconventional thought process.
Decisive.
Cautious.
And apparently so rigid about professional boundaries that he was nearly impossible to seduce.
Natasha quietly added each observation to her mental assessment.
That was, after all, part of the mission.
“Ahem.” She cleared her throat.
“I can prove I’m Black Widow.
There’s a communicator in the pocket at the back of my belt.
It connects directly to Fury.” Calvin gave a skeptical snort but did not immediately reach for it.
He had just opened his mouth when a faint sound cut through the air.
Something fast.
Calvin reacted instantly.
He grabbed Natasha by the belt, lifted her completely off the ground with one hand, and lunged sideways.
Three shuriken struck the exact spot where they had been a moment earlier, burying themselves deep into the pavement.
Calvin turned toward the darkness surrounding the factory, his eyes sharpening.
“Well, damn.” He stared into the night.
“Looks like we’ve got ninjas.”