The silence that followed the mention of the "Rising Tide" was thick enough to cut with a combat knife. Every agent on the deck was deathly still, their eyes fixed on Skye with a mixture of suspicion, betrayal, and cold professionalism.
Leander leaned against a bulkhead, his gaze sweeping over the group. "Is there a problem? Or did everyone just suddenly forget how to breathe?"
Skye's expression was a brittle mask. A month ago, she wouldn't have cared. She would have met their glares with a middle finger and a snarky comment about government overreach. But things had changed. She had started to like the "science twins," and she had even started to respect Coulson. For the first time in her life, she felt the warmth of a family environment, and now, that warmth was being snuffed out by a single name.
Simmons leaned toward Leander, her voice a frantic whisper. "Leander... Skye used to be one of them. The Rising Tide. Phil recruited her right out of her van. She's helped us on every mission since, but this... this looks bad."
"We've been through hell together," Fitz added, his voice trembling with uncertainty. "I want to trust her. I really do. But we've only known her for five weeks. Can you ever really know someone in five weeks?"
Leander looked at Skye. His memories of the show were fuzzy—remnants of a life lived before he became the Golden Legend—but he remembered enough. Skye was a good person, driven by a deep-seated need for answers. In contrast, he looked at Agent Ward, who was currently radiating a judgmental aura. Leander had a vague memory of his old college roommates cursing Ward's name during a late-night binge-watch. Something about a betrayal? He couldn't quite place it, but his gut told him Ward was the one to watch, not the hacker.
Skye caught Leander's eyes, and a bitter, self-deprecating smile touched her lips. She knew how this looked.
"Office. Now," Coulson commanded, his voice devoid of its usual warmth. He gestured for Skye and Ward to follow him. Leander didn't wait for an invite; he simply drifted in after them, curious to see how the veteran agent would handle the fracture in his team.
Ward glanced sideways at Leander, his jaw tight. He clearly wanted to object to a "civilian" being present for a disciplinary hearing, but he remembered the golden light and the crushing pressure from their handshake. He kept his mouth shut.
Inside the office, Skye didn't wait for the accusations. "The Rising Tide is a global network, Phil! It's thousands of people with thousands of different skill sets. It could be anyone from a bored teenager in a basement to a state-sponsored cell. It isn't me!"
"Nobody said it was you, Skye," Ward said, his arms crossed over his chest like a barricade.
"You didn't have to say it. Your face is screaming it," Skye snapped back.
Coulson sat behind his desk, his fingers steepled. "We're assessing the situation, Skye. Objective facts only. A SHIELD data stream was compromised using a Rising Tide signature. You are our resident expert on that signature."
"Then use your common sense!" Skye pleaded. "I've been on this plane twenty-four-seven. I haven't touched a terminal without Fitz or Simmons hovering over my shoulder. If I wanted to hack the Hong Kong bureau, I would have had to do it while I was eating breakfast in front of you."
"Or it just makes the cover story easier," Coulson said, his eyes searching hers. "I want to believe you, Skye. But the timing is too perfect."
Leander stepped forward, breaking the tension with a light, easy smile. "I believe her. But I think 'believing' is a waste of time. Why don't we just find out who actually did it?" He looked at Skye. "You can track them, can't you? Prove it's not you by putting a face to the signature."
Skye nodded fervently. "I can find them. I'll tear their code apart. Just let me at a terminal."
Coulson looked at Leander, then back to Skye. He gave a sharp nod. "Go. The longer Chen is missing, the higher the chance he ends up as a permanent resident of a morgue. Find that hacker."
Skye scrambled out of the office. As she passed Leander, she paused for a fraction of a second. "Thank you, Advisor Leander."
"Don't thank me yet," Leander whispered, his voice dropping so only she could hear. "And look... if you're looking for something else—something private—you should just tell Coulson. He's a good man. There aren't many left in this building, but he's one of them."
Leander had spent his recent downtime reading through the psychology databases Jarvis had compiled. Between his enhanced senses and his "all-seeing" perspective, he could tell Skye wasn't the one who kidnapped Chen. But he could also tell her heart rate had spiked when he mentioned "private requests." She was hiding something—not a crime, but a secret. An obsession.
Skye didn't answer. She just gave him a look of pure shock before heading to the computer lab.
For the next ten minutes, the Airbus lounge was silent except for the frantic clicking of keys. Skye was in her element. Her fingers moved with a blur of speed that left Fitz and Simmons staring in genuine awe.
A faint, confident smile played on Skye's lips. Using SHIELD's massive mainframe was like trading a tricycle for a fighter jet. She was slicing through layers of encryption that would have taken her days to crack in her van.
"Talk to me," Coulson said, leaning over the table.
"I've already isolated the remote access Trojan," Skye said, her eyes fixed on the scrolling code. "And I've identified the compromised terminal in Hong Kong."
"She's currently cross-referencing TCP connections with the signature metadata," Fitz explained, his voice filled with professional admiration.
"And once the signature matches the credit card transactions from the originating IP, the job is done," Simmons finished.
Coulson looked at Ward, who looked as confused as a dog watching a card trick. "Did you catch any of that?"
"I understood 'Trojan,'" Ward muttered. "The rest sounded like Elvish."
Leander watched the screens through his glasses. He wasn't looking at the code; he was looking at Skye's bio-signatures. He noticed a specific search query she'd buried in a background process—something about orphanage records and a redacted SHIELD file from 1990. He made a mental note of it.
"Got him!" Skye shouted, slamming her hand on the table. "Austin, Texas!"
A profile picture bloomed on the main screen. It was a man in his late twenties, handsome, with a well-groomed beard and eyes that looked like they knew a secret the rest of the world didn't.
"Miles Lydon," Fitz breathed a sigh of relief. "It's not Skye. Thank God. It's Miles."
"You know him?" Coulson asked.
"Every hacker with a pulse knows him," Skye said, her voice sounding a little too forced. "He's a legend. He's the guy who leaked those photos of Putin shirtless on a horse. He's hacked the Kremlin, the Vatican... he's the real deal."
"He's also the guy who just sold out a man's life for a paycheck," Leander said, stepping closer. He looked at Skye. "How do you think you stack up against him, Skye? Are you as good as 'The Legend'?"
"I'm... I'm in the same ballpark," Skye laughed, but Leander's glasses pinged. Her pulse was at 110. Her pupils had dilated.
She's lying, Leander thought. She knows him. She knows him personally.
"May, change course for Austin," Coulson ordered over the comms.
"What about Chen?" Skye asked, her concern sounding genuine.
"The Hong Kong team is already on the ground," Coulson said decisively. "Our best lead is the man who opened the door for the kidnappers. If we get Lydon, we get the location of the buyer. We follow the money."
The team dispersed to prep for landing. The lounge emptied until only Leander and Skye remained. She was staring at Miles's picture, her expression unreadable.
Leander walked over and stood beside her. "Do You Want to Talk?"