That wasn’t really the noise the quinjet made as it sped toward its destination in Russia, but Clint supposed it was the best verbalization he could come up with. It felt kind of awkward to say brerghrerghrerghrerghrergh.
It was 24 April, 2001 and the young agent was strapped into a seat at the back of the jet, an open file sitting in his lap. “Aww sir, you didn’t have to! My birthday isn’t for two whole months.” he had teased Fury when the director had tossed the file down onto the desk between them. He had been met with a stern look, which Clint supposed was pretty difficult to do with only one eye. He didn’t push his luck after the first comment -- after all, he was still fairly new to S.H.I.E.L.D. and hadn’t gotten much solo field time yet; He didn’t want to take the opportunity away from himself simply by being a smartass.
Clint had been fairly successful working for S.H.I.E.L.D., and the higher ranking agents only seemed to respect him more and more as time went on. Of course, he had a bit of a reputation as being a goof off, but no matter how unconventionally it happened, nobody could deny that he got the job done. He had worked with nearly every agent in the department, but hadn’t found a permanent partner yet (of course, he liked working with Agent Morse the most, but he wasn’t sure he’d want to always be in the field with his sort of girlfriend person). All the agents (including Bobbi) had pretty much the same thing to say about him -- Barton was a little shit, but God damn was he a good shot.
He opened the file sitting in his lap, and read over the details.
Name: Natalia Romanova, AKA The Black Widow
Occupation: Russian Spy. Assassin. Known affiliation with The Red Room. Femme Fatale.
“I’ll say.” Clint muttered, eyebrows raising as he glanced at the picture of the redhead enclosed in the file. “Babe alert.”
Recently assassinated [REDACTED], the leader of a US operated government facility located in Yugoslavia. Other most recent targets enclosed; targets hail from The United Kingdom, Greece, North Korea, China, Pakistan, Brazil, and Germany.
Clint gave a low whistle as he looked at the case photos from her most recent hits. It was a good thing they were all labeled, or he might not have been able to recognize the men in the photos. “Well... Points for efficiency, I guess.”
Your mission: Eliminate Natalia Romanova by any means necessary
And so Clint was headed to Turkey where Natalia Romanova was known to be lying low in a Red Room safehouse located in Kars.
“What do I do if she leaves before I get there?” Clint had asked before boarding the jet.
"If she leaves, I’m sure you’ll have no trouble finding her again."
The jet finally slowed and hovered over the drop point. Clint unbuckled himself from his seat, and pressed the button for the back cargo door to open. He was greeted with a cold gust of night air as it did, and prepared himself to repel out the back and onto the rooftop below.
“Careful out there.” the pilot called. “We kinda like having you around, Barton.”
"Hey, it’s a simple kill," Clint called back, grinning as he leaned backwards over the opening. "What could possibly go wrong?"