Where Morality Takes A U-Turn (November 1995)

Frank looked back at Isabella through the read view mirror but all she could have seen was his eyes with his hoodie up like it was. He had assumed she had known it was him but obviously she did not.

“Isabella...it’s me, Frank,” Frank said as he looked at her. His eyes were intense and alert. “I don’t know what those men would have done to you to get you to talk but You can bet it wouldn’t have been pleasant. Were they friends of yours?” He asked sarcastically. He knew they were CIA and he wondered if she knew them but he could guess she had not gotten a good look at them either.

Isabella blinked as she realized it was Frank. At first she felt a wave of relief come over her that it was someone she knew and not one of those two men. However, that relief quickly transformed into anger as she remembered everything she had recently learned.

"This is your fault Frank! You put me at risk during our relationship and never told me that people might be after you. Now they're after me to get to you! I had to find out all about your vigilante ways from Tony of all people. I knew you were likely doing some illegal stuff Frank, but you should have told me," she said as angry tears came to her eyes.

Frank looked through the rear view mirror. He had intended to just use her at first. And he had. His techie partner had copied her ID badge. Frank had taken it while she was sleeping but after that he kept coming back. He had developed feelings for Isabella and never used her again. He was of the mindset would you didn't know couldn't hurt you but obviously that isn't always accurate.

"Told you what? That I'm killing criminals and corrupt law enforcement officials who had taken a a part in killing my family? They tried to kill me and instead, they killed my family Isabella. And I'm not done yet!" Frank growled. "What would you have done if I had told you? Bring me in? Put me in some kind of witness protection? You know these people, there is no where safe," he said angrily.

Isabella crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. She looked out through the window beside her and then looked back at him. "You put me at risk Frank and if the media finds out who you are and that you and I were involved with me marrying Tony it will be a nightmare." She wiped away a few tears from her cheeks. "Was I just a tool for you? Did you truly even care about me or where you just using me?"

Frank blinked and then nearly ran them off the street as he came to an abrupt stop along the curb. He twisted around and looked back at her with an angry look in his eyes. "You know it was more then that. And I'm sorry I'm messing things up for you. These people took my entire LIFE Isabella. Everything from me. My wife, my boy, my entire life was taken from me and then they tried to frame me for the murders. So I'm sorry if this is inconvenient for you. I'm sorry for not telling you everything but I wasn't certain I could trust you with you being a career woman and all," He said.

Isabella braced herself as Frank nearly ran them off the street and came to a screeching halt. She wasn't buckled in and was jostled around quite a bit. She looked at him and a hurt look came over her when he admitted that the reason he didn't tell her was because he wasn't certain he could trust her. That stung and she shook her head and looked away from him. "If you didn't trust me then you couldn't have cared about me that much Frank." Just stating that out loud and believing it to be true was hard for Isabella because she had cared about him. Fresh tears came to her eyes. "I'm sorry that your wife and child were killed...I truly am."

Frank pinched the crest of his nose as if he was getting or had a headache. And he did have a headache. He tried to moderate his temper and his tone. "None of this changes the fact that 2 men you know tried to abduct you. Likely to take you to some black site and torture information from you. I didn't kill that first guy and the other one is in the trunk. We need to find out whose calling the shots for them Isabella or they won't stop," Frank said.

Isabella sighed and wiped away the tears from her face. She got her emotions under control and thought about the problem at hand. "It's likely someone at the very top of the CIA. No one else would have that kind of power."

Suddenly, she thought about something Frank had said. "Wait a second...is there a dead body in the trunk?"

"No, he's still alive...right now. But he knows you fingered him and he got a good look at me. I have...a place. And I need your help if we are going to...interrogate him," Frank said.

Isabella blinked a little at what Frank said. "Interrogate him? I don't work for the CIA anymore Frank and if word gets out about my involvement in this...

"So you want to...what, just let him go? Is that what you're suggesting?" Frank asked in a wry tone.

Isabella shook her head. "No, that's not what I'm suggesting." She sighed out of frustration and rubbed her temples. "If I help you with this, we need to make sure the media doesn't find out about this."

Frank didn't respond to that and he took a long look at her then turned and pulled back out into the street. Frank turned several times but eventually they ended up in an industrial area in new York. Not a good neighborhood at all and as he approached what looked like an abandoned warehouse the garage door opened. He pulled in and the door closed behind them. Frank got out of the car and pulled from his picket the stun gun one of the men had dropped. He tested it and the blue arc buzzed. He saw Isabella get out of the car and he moved to the trunk. Once he opened it the man inside tried to kicked him. Frank dodged the kick and closed the trunk down onto his knee. The man screamed and he hit his leg with the stun gun. His screams cut off abruptly.

A considerable amount of time later they had the man, A former Navy Seal, shackled to a metal chair that was bolted to the floor. She and Frank decided to do the good cop, bad cop routine where she was the good cop. She would need to appeal to the map to tell them what they wanted to know or Frank was going to do something...untoward to him. Frank knew Isabella was uneasy about this but he knew she had overseen hostile interrogations before.

The man shackled before her was Gerald Rickun. Isabella only knew him and Nathan Philip by reputation. They were both extremely dangerous and performed highly classified missions. Isabella was going to try to appeal to Gerald to give her the information they needed. She hoped he would. Otherwise, she would have to turn him over to Frank.

“Who ordered you to follow me?”

The room they had him in was simple. Cinder block walls and a white, drop ceiling with exposed track lighting. The build was old and the floor was still just poured concrete. Gerald gave Isabella a small grin. "You know how it is Isabella," He called her by her first name. Gerald was actually quite handsome with short, blonde hair that wanted to curl, it was just too short. He had large, deep blue eyes and was fair complected. He had a hard musculature but he was lean. He was shirtless and pantless. He was only in his white boxer shorts.

"You don't leave the company unless their ready for you to leave. You do know they're probably looking for me. If you let me go and help me bring Frank in it will go much easier for you Isabella. Then you can just live your life with Tony Stark. Be the rich wife you want. You'll forget about all of this pretty quickly I think," He said.

Isabella kept a straight face as Gerald spoke. She knew she needed to be careful. She personally had not interrogated anyone while working for the CIA, but she had watched interrogations before and had basic training.

“Listen Gerald. I’m pretty sure you would rather be dealing with me right now instead of Frank. He won’t be as nice as me. Now, I’m going to ask you one last time, who ordered you to follow me?”

Gerald tilted his head at her and his eyes seemed to be sizing her up and he pursed his lips as if he had found her lacking. "I never thought women in the CIA would ever happen. No one really took you seriously. You nor that other tramp...Renee, is that her name?" he said as he looked at her. He shifted slightly and to Isabella he seemed to relax a bit in how he had shifted. He leaned in his toward her.

"You know why?" he asked and his eyes moved briefly down to her crotch then back up again to her face. "No balls," he said. "You women have...no balls," he said. "You are anatomically lacking and also in how you operate. You are more than willing to let your betters...the men around you, do the dirty work. You don't have the mentality to get the job done. Oh you're fun to look at and to fuck but to actually consider you as equals?" he said with a cringe. "God, that is the grand joke. A massive delusion that you must tell yourselves. I mean, why else even bother getting out of bed unless the delusion existed right? Men think of sex when they look at you and thus, you have a job," he said with a chuckle.

"You were out of your league the moment you took your oath. And now look at you? Gunna play house with the mighty Tony Stark. Be his little woman. And I heard he's had 'alot' of women," he said with a chuckle. It was clear to Isabella that he was just going to keep on talking. And he continued belittling her without pause.

The more Gerald talked, the angrier Isabella became. She knew she was supposed to be playing the good cop, but she she pissed now and wasn’t going to continue to let him talk to her like he was. She suddenly stepped up to him and punched him with a right hook...hard...a lot harder than Gerald would have been expecting. She then reached down and grabbed him by the balls and began to squeeze.

“You think your balls give you power, but in the end they are a weakness women can exploit. You’re far more vulnerable than you think,” she said as she squeezed even harder. “If you plan on having children you better answer my question...NOW!”

Gerald grunted as she stuck him and then he began to grunt and growl as she grabbed hold of him. He tried to bit her arm but she managed to shift just out of his reach. Tears came to his eyes with how hard of a hold she had on him. He jerked and tried to wiggle out of his restraints. He spat at her.

"Fuck you bitch! Fuck you! Fuck you!" He growled in between his howls of pain. Gerald was a trained Navy Seal. He had been trained to withstand torture to a degree but her grip was not weak and he felt her nails dig into his soft flesh. It made him feel sick to his stomach but he was so outraged at what she was doing that he just wanted to get at her. He couldn't though.

From behind the glass Frank watched. He hadn't expected her to go after the man but she had proved him wrong. The man shook in a rage as her squeeze intensified. But he only just cursed at her and threatened to kill her.

Isabella didn’t care what Gerald did. He could curse or spit at her, but she barely even blinked. She kept out of reach of him to be able to bite her, but he refused still to answer her question. She finally let go after giving him one more very hard squeeze. She straightened and then punched him again.

Alright, you had your chance to do this the easy way.”

She glanced over to the two way glass and motioned with her head for Frank to come into the room.

Frank whistled as he stepped past Isabella. He had a small canteen of water, a car battery, battery cables, yellow sponges and other things. He set the car battery down and began hooking up the cables to Gerald. One led to his chest, another led to his leg and a third he attached to his genitals. he then splashed water on the floor around the chair. She noticed he wore rubber galoshes and rubber gloves.

"Ok asshole, I'm not going to ask you any questions. This is what happens when you refuse to answer hers," Frank said and then he began. He only touched the man with the sponges attached to the cables and Gerald's entire body convulsed. Every muscle tightened and veins popped out on his neck. Frank stopped after just a few seconds. And then he began again. He did it over and over and over until Gerald appeared to pass out. Frank mopped up the water and then pushed the whole battery torture setup back against the wall. he set another chair near Gerald's and then waived smelling salts under Gerald's nose. He came to and Frank nodded once more at Isabella to come in and continue.

Isabella stayed back and watched Frank as he attached the car battery and wires to Gerald and then tossed water on the floor around him. Isabella barely flinched as Frank touched Gerald with a wet sponge. She watched as Gerald convulsed and then passed out. She waited until Frank had cleaned everything up and then used some smelling salts to wake him up before coming back into the room. She took a seat and crossed her legs. She leaned forward a little to look at Gerald.

“Who ordered you to follow me?”

All in all it had taken hours for Frank and Isabella to break him. It was when Frank took one of his eyes that he had finally broken. He gave up 2 names. Jered Filmore and Michael Dresdon. Jered was not apart of the command structure as far as Isabella knew. He was a consultant. But Michael was. He was number 3 in the New York office. He had interviewed Isabella and had helped her in her first promotion. He had a kind way about him and she knew he had had a 'thing' for her. Michael was older but he had aged well and was one of those men that age only made more attractive.

In any case, Gerald had given up those names and no others. As she stood up when Frank had come into the room. "So you're satisfied that he was telling the truth?" Frank asked. when she told him that she was though he knew she was horrified by what she had been apart of. "Alright then," Frank said then pulled out his pistol and shot Gerald in the head. Gerald's brains were splattered against the wall behind him and his upper body slumped forward dead. Before Isabella could run though Frank grabbed hold of her.

Isabella had remained outwardly calm through the whole interrogation, but inside she was not at all happy that she was apart of this. She knew if someone somehow found out what she had done that it would ruin her and Tony as well. She felt sick to her stomach, but they got the names. Knowing that Michael Dresdon was one of the men who had ordered Gerald and Nathan to follow her only made her feel more sick. This was turning into a nightmare. However, it wasn’t until she saw Frank put a bullet through Gerald’s head that she truly became overwhelmed. She turned to flee, but Frank grabbed ahold of her. She was trembling. She knew Frank needed to kill him, but having to witness it and knowing what she had done to him was almost too much.

“Please let me go,” she said in barely more than a whisper.

Frank held onto Isabella as she struggled against him to get out of the room. "Isabella...Isabella," Frank whispered in return. "No, no, No...Own this, you have to own this," Frank said quickly. "They were going to take your life and those men he named will try yet," he said. "Own what we did, it was either you or him," Frank said as he held her.