To call the Darkhold the definitive compendium of black magic in this world wouldn't be the least bit of an exaggeration.
Daisy rubbed her head. By rights this book should be in the Ancient One's hands. Set aside the Black Queen's pack of perverts, and all of Earth's openly known powers bound together still couldn't beat the Ancient One. Viper's judgment wasn't wrong.
But if she remembered correctly, the Darkhold had by now already been stolen away by Kaecilius. In the film it was tossed carelessly on the floor—but in truth, this ungrateful wretch had made off with a fair number of books, and the Darkhold should have been among them. Otherwise there wouldn't have been that whole business in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season four about tracking down the Darkhold.
The question now was whether the book was in Kaecilius's hands. If it was, stealing it back would be no great difficulty. Even if Kaecilius was a cut above those clowns at the New York Sanctum, she could handle him.
If it was still with the Ancient One, that would be a headache.
The Ancient One's thinking was beyond her guessing. She seemed easy enough to deal with, but in truth the Ancient One harbored boundless darkness within, held in check only by her iron will. Let those defenses down for an instant, and she'd turn to the dark side in a heartbeat, no discussion.
As for the Ancient One's principles—how death gives meaning to life, the light at the moment of dying—Daisy had no desire whatsoever to understand all that abstruse, mystical stuff.
Whether the Ancient One had used Kaecilius's hand to complete some transformation at the very level of her existence was anyone's guess.
Her best bet, she figured, was not to kill Kaecilius. Leave him for the Ancient One to play with.
It would be best if they only stole the book and kept their hands off everything else—disturbed nothing.
"We'll discuss the book outside. This woman—do you recognize her?" Daisy had her suspicions about the woman in the image, but she still wanted Viper to confirm.
Viper wasn't as taken with the woman as she was. She studied her carefully for a moment. "I think I've seen her. I have a guess, but I'll need to go out and confirm."
With a whoosh, the wooden door behind them swung open of its own accord. The host, by the look of it, had no plans to keep them for dinner.
"You go find the book?"
"You go find the person?"
The two of them said it at the same time as they stepped out the front door.
A nod between them, and the targets were settled. Each left with her own subordinates.
Daisy's task of finding the book wasn't hard. She was on good terms with Wong, and she'd built Kamar-Taj's entire network herself. A single email would do the trick.
That said, even once the address was found, making a move on it wasn't exactly convenient—at least not for her. Better to send someone like Viper, who was karmically tied to the book, to do the stealing, while she cheered her on from the sidelines.
The next day, meeting at Viper's villa, Daisy found Viper wearing an awkward expression of her own—like a woman whose period was overdue.
"What is it?"
Viper hemmed and hawed, and at last, after much sputtering, managed a single sentence. "I know this isn't fair. You've been running back and forth all for my sake. But this woman—I don't have any good way to get close to her…"
As if afraid Daisy would be displeased, she hurried to explain. "This woman is at Baron Strucker's, an important test subject. If I went and demanded her, or tried to seize her by force, the odds of touching off an all-out war are very high."
Daisy let out a snort. "And me going wouldn't touch off a war? To outsiders, we're on the same side."
Viper waved her hands frantically. "No, no, it's not the same. A leader confronting them directly amounts to a declaration of war. You don't hold that high a position inside HYDRA yet, so there's still plenty of room to maneuver. And your ability wouldn't be detected by the Baron, would it? I seem to recall you can turn invisible?"
"That's not invisibility. It just keeps electronic devices from picking me up."
Viper produced a smile that could fairly be called fawning. "Right, right—so this task has nobody's name on it but yours. If I went, I'd only get in the way. Oh, here's the woman's file. Take a look. My people stole it from the Baron."
Daisy skimmed it quickly. Sure enough—Wanda Maximoff, the future Scarlet Witch, disciple of that three-hundred-year-old crone Agatha Harkness, and the very woman who would one day end the old crone's life.
Viper was thinking more from a political angle. The remaining HYDRA heavyweights bound together still didn't match Baron Strucker, who'd inherited Red Skull's legacy. That was the chief reason for Viper's wariness.
By comparison, Daisy had next to nothing to lose as far as HYDRA's hierarchy went. The HYDRA cell embedded inside S.H.I.E.L.D. enjoyed a high degree of independence; the Baron could rage all he liked, but it wouldn't matter—he could hardly march a whole army into S.H.I.E.L.D. after her.
"Truly, you're the only one who can do this. Or—how about I keep you company a few nights? I know quite a few positions…" Viper had stooped to deploying her body as a bargaining chip.
Daisy ran a hand along Viper's chin, then traced down the line of her jaw, along her neck, to her chest, and gave a handful a squeeze. Viper gave her a sultry, half-lidded look and even arched her chest forward a touch.
"Forget it. You're just like Black Widow—both of you love tempting an honest woman like me. Let's stay friends." Daisy withdrew her hand a little awkwardly, and Viper let out a quiet sigh of relief. Things were just fine as they were; she had no wish to let the relationship turn into something else.
As it happened, Daisy had no desire to wreck the Ancient One's arrangement either, so she went along with it and handed her own file over to Viper. "This guy stole the Darkhold out of Kamar-Taj. Figure out a way to steal the book back."
Eyeing a Kaecilius who hadn't yet developed his trademark eye shadow, Viper was far more confident this time. "A man? There's no man I can't handle."
Worried she'd poison Kaecilius to death, Daisy added a word of caution. "They're all spellcasters. If you don't want trouble, best not to go for the kill."
The two of them traded their target assignments and split up to make their preparations.
A day later, Daisy turned up alone in Eastern Europe, wearing a hoodie with the hood up and a backpack, for all the world an ordinary tourist.
The Daisy of today didn't need to lay much groundwork. Find the Scarlet Witch, teleport out, and the job was done. As for Quicksilver—if she happened across him, she'd give him a hand; if not, so be it.
The advantage of having a mole was that she didn't need to bull her way through the base's shields the way Stark would. She brought along S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newest tech, the Photostatic Veil, swapped on a nondescript face, picked a moment right after a base sentry had finished his patrol, and—with her inside contact's help—strolled leisurely up a side path into the military base codenamed "Gemini."
The inside man handled the guiding and nothing else. He led Daisy into the castle, then vanished from sight in a flash.
From her fight with Magneto, she'd learned to bend the visible light around her to become invisible to the naked eye. With the mole gone, a couple of light vibrations put her into that state, and she walked deeper in without being overly careful.
Along the way she passed many well-trained soldiers. Viper had said there were three thousand troops here, plus an equal number of staff and research personnel.
Unlike HYDRA's other bases, which kept themselves hidden away, terrified of discovery, this one stood out in plain sight among the mountains. The locals had no means of dealing with it, and seeing that the occupiers merely garrisoned the place, they'd chosen, over time, to simply ignore it.
As one of HYDRA's major research bases, Daisy passed plenty of familiar-looking tech products along her route.