Calculations -for doom-

[Victor Von Doom]

Doom studied the Black Widow, her posture was that of someone who was completely comfortable, she didn't even seem to be on edge because of his presence. He had assumed that her sadness and terror were fake, in a way of showing respect, but the Widow was not the kind of woman to show fear, not unless it suited her. He would ponder on that more later, but for now, he had someone to converse with.

He listend to her question, a good one indeed, how does one go about addressing the Lord of Latveria? Doom had but a simple answer. [green]"You are neither a soldier in my army or a citizen of my country, you are a guest in my castle and as such you may address me as Doom."[/green] Doom really only expected people to address him in great titles when he ruled over them, but since Black Widow was not one of thouse people, she had the privilage of addressing him as his name.

[Black Widow]

"Doom it is then, this time last week I would have never expected to be on familiar terms with the leader of Latveria." She smiled, throwing out a bit of good humor, and pressed three fingers to her cheek, resting her face lightly in her thin fingers. She was watching him very intensely, taking in every element of his armor and weapons, making mental notes on behavioral patterns and anything else that it occured to her to make issue of. With all of this going on in her head she maintained that look of deep gratitude and faint humor, she wasn't stupid after all, and gazing at him with her usual piercing stare would have elicited at least a little uneasiness.

She brushed back floating auburn hairs, "Then you can call me Natasha, if you like. I must say, as well, that your airport has vastly improved since my last visit, all of the construction you did last March really paid off." She bought it up, such a paltry bit of information, to demonstrate how much she, and SHIELD in general, already knew of the country. There was no point in her spying, she seemed to be saying, they already knew enough. It was a simple enough gambit, one she had used a hundred times and one that proved useful each time.

"Well, what would you talk about, Doom?" She used the name, trying it out for the first time, it felt very strange. "I have little on my mind and all the time in the world, it would seem, unless someone should call tomorrow and tell me that I have been wrongly accused." She laughed, a hollow, cold laugh. The Tribunals were well known to be harsh judges, and rarely let up. It was a witch-hunt, and had Natalia truly been before it she might have actually considered this escape route.

[Victor Von Doom]

Doom smirked under his mask as the Widow joked about how she never expected to be on familiar terms with the Lord of Latveria. He did not have a problem with his guests referring to him as Doom, all guests in the past have had such privilege, although most of them chose to say Lord Doom over anything else. He had not had many guests in the past, very rarely did people look to find solace in Doomstadt. [green]"I suppose theres a first time for everything."[/green]

He listened as she gave him permission to call her Natasha, of course Doom knew what the Black Widow's name was. He made a note to remember that he could refer to her as Natasha, incase he ever needed to address her, for he had not done so as of yet. [green]"I adapt my country as its needs grow, and the airport seemed like something that was required, most of my people had never even traveled away from there home."[/green]

Doom leaned back in his chair, studying how the Black Widow was acting. She had still kept that look of gratitude, like Doom had saved her life, and if her story was true, then he had done just that. He doubted that anyone would call her and tell her that she was free of the charges brought againts her, but he wouldn't doubt that it may be her escape plan if Shield decided that she had been here long enough, assuming that she was infact a double agent and that she had been lying to Doom this entire time, but he would wait, and see if the facts added up againts her.

[green]"First, we can discuss what you know about Shield, anything that could prove to be useful."[/green] Doom was a straight to the point kind of man, and he didn't want to waste time unless it suited him to do so.

[Black Widow]

Natalia leaned back in the chair when he asked her about SHIELD, pressing the heels of her hands just above closed eyes. “You understand if this is hard for me.” She began slowly, thinking very hard about things, considering what she could tell him. She finally settled on something, but delayed a little longer, agonizing over it. “Thirty years… thirty years of my damned life…” She hissed bitterly, shaking her head, when she finally returned her gaze to Doom she looked angry enough to tell him anything. “You’ve been using our Agent Hamer, yes? He’s one of yours? We’ve been feeding him false information for the last three months, he’s been aware for the last month, he joined SHIELD once more.”

She switched between referring to herself with SHIELD and outside of the group, as if she couldn’t quite come to terms with being outside of the group she had been a member of for so long. As if she kept catching herself. “Agent Azorsky, as well, another of your agents, we, they, have known about her for some time. There are ten agents within your country right now, black ops, I don’t know their names, but I know that they’re scattered around the country, one of them is a ranking member of your military, another a member of your government, how high I do not know.” She stopped now, breaking eye contact, looking down. The very picture of a woman ashamed of her task, ashamed of letting go of the people she had once worked so closely with. In truth, Agents Hamer and Azorsky were no longer of much use, and those they had scattered in Latveria numbered at least twenty, the information vague enough to result in a possible purge of both government and military, to make things very difficult for a while.

“It’s been three days since I ran, they likely have worked to make a good deal of my information useless and out-dated.”

[Victor Von Doom]

Doom said nothing as she said that this may be difficult for her, but he that was mostly for show, just to play the part so she wouldn't look to eager to feed him information. He knew that if it kept her alive, that the Black Widow would give this information away, no one wanted to face death, and even after all that had happend to Natasha, she still strived on, she was a surrvivor, and acted as such.

He listend as she gave him information, and he knew it was true. There was a high possibility that she wasn't giving him all the numbers, but the people she was telling him about were real, and Doom knew that he would have to evualte who is the spy, and elimate them as such, he could not have them feeding information to SHIELD, especially now when his plans were so close to taking action. He watched as she showed shame, which was understandable, betraying your country even after they betrayed you is a difficult task.

[green]"I believe the information you have given will will be sufficent. Perhaps if you still feel up to the task, you may consider working for me? I can use experienced people such as yourself. Do not feel obligated to accept my offer, and take as much time as you need to consider it."[/green]

[Black Widow]

Natalia looked up and a smile worked its way across her face, “Give me until tomorrow to give you a definite answer, but I appreciate the offer.” It would have been the rational thing for her to accept it, she hadn’t gone more than a few weeks without working in years, it was natural to accept such a position. Of course, if it also required her to work against her adopted country, even had it betrayed her, there might be some scruples. All of this stopped Natalia from simply jumping on the opportunity, which would have been altogether too suspicious. A magnificent opportunity it would be, to see inside the inside of the Latverian Intelligence systems. Still, one couldn’t look too eager, it would only serve to injure her cause.

Natalia crossed her legs, swinging one bare foot loosely, the slightly chipped red polish contrasting with the broken nails on her hands and the altogether rough look of her clothing. There were a good many things she wanted to ask him about, economic, social, political. She wanted to grill him on the military potential of the nation, to try to delve into the possible economic turmoil, what might happen should he die. She wanted to know about plans of succession, about past love interests, about how the nation could be so beautiful and clean even if it was in the most miserable spit of land in all of Eastern Europe. She kept all of these back, however, she would find them out one way or another. She settled for a somewhat simpler question, “Do you mind if I smoke in here?”

[Victor Von Doom]

Doom had a few reasons for asking Black Widow if she wished to join him, the obvious one being that she could actually prove useful, if she was telling the truth. The other reason was to test her in a way, if she had been to eager to accept his offer, then that would have almost guranteed to him that she had been lieing to him this whole time, but even if she had been, it was quite obvious that this was not a woman who would fall for simple tricks such as that.

He leaned back into his chair, continuing to study the Widow as she asked her question. [green]"You may."[/green] Doom would never smoke, it was an unhealthy habit, and the Lord of Latveria could not put his health in danger, not more then he did already. He however, did not care what others did to their bodies, that was their choice. [green]"I suppose that there are questions that you wish to ask me?"[/green] Not many had a chance to converse with the Lord of Latveria, let alone gain permission to ask him questions.

[Black Widow]

Natalia smiled brightly and drew her unwrapped cigarettes and lighter from her pocket, drawing the neatly wrapped little cancer stick from the pack and lighting it with a flare from the lighter, tucking the accoutrements away and resting her elbow on the arm of the chair while she studied him. Hard to determine the facial movements of a man in a massive steel mask. There was a good question to ask him, though it definitely did not border on impolite, it had long ago shown its passport and was now enjoying a pleasant dinner in the land of bad manners. She didn’t want to risk a sudden shift in personality based on such a personal question. Her thumb batted against the end of the cigarette and she took another drag on it.

“I suppose I do.” She gave an almost comical grimace, of all the questions running through her head, she couldn’t quite come up with one that wouldn’t seem impolite. Another drag on the cigarette, a bad habit she needed to break, one of these days she would. And then she hit on something, something she might be able to get away with. “A lot of them in fact, it’s just that all of them seem very personal…” She tried to think of how best to phrase her question, “Your family… you lost your parents when you were younger? You haven’t any other family do you?” Alright, so it wasn’t entirely for SHIELD, she was honestly curious. If what she had heard was true it was something of a spark of humanity beneath all of the metal armor, a curious and humanizing fact.

[Victor Von Doom]

Doom watched as she took out a cigarette and lit it up, moving it to her lips and sucking it in, before blowing it out. He listend as she said that she had more then a few questions, but that they seemed to personal, and he supposed he could understand that, not many wanted to risk his fury by asking something that he may consider impolite or even insulting, but he was certain that Widow would resist asking anything that she knew was not acceptable.

He remained silently for a moment as she finally asked her question. He decided that it would be acceptable for now, she had nothing to gain by knowing of his family, his answer would be more then enough to tell her that. [green]"I have none, I am the last of the Von Doom line."[/green] Doom had no qualms with being the last of his line, infact he prefered it being that way, he would not have to deal with anyone kidnapping his family in petty attempts to control him.

[Black Widow]

Natalia nodded, feeling it was the polite response to such an answer. She had lost her own family in a fire when she had been very young, whenever members of it had popped up, people claiming to be siblings, her thrice deceased husband, it hadn’t ever ended well. In fact, it usually ended with someone dead, in prison, or brainwashed. Even step-siblings didn’t go over well, she very much wished her family would stop showing up and stay back home or dead, wherever it was more convenient to belong.

She dragged on the cigarette, an almost languid movement, and blew the smoke from her nose like some sort of bizarre, auburn haired dragon. “No children then either? I would think you would be keen to marry, to ensure a stable line of succession.” She made it an almost offhanded comment, curious as to why this would be.

[Victor Von Doom]

Doom simply watched as she continued to smoke her cigarette, blowing it out of her nose and giving her a strange appearance. He drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair he was sitting in. Perhaps one in his situation may have begun to wonder what she was thinking or something else along thouse lines, but Doom did not need to know, he would find out eventually, whether Widow was willing or not.

He contained a small chuckle at the Widow's next question, concerned about how he would keep his blood line alive now was she? [green]"Just because I have yet to wed means that I do not plan on continuing my name, but you must understand that a Lord like myself has to be quite selective, not anyone commoner will do."[/green] Of course, it may be better if he simply had his child secretly, for its well-being.

[Black Widow]

She gave him a curious, almost sideways look, “Then what sort of a woman are you hunting for, anyway?” Not protocol at all, but while she had him she was almost sordidly curious, this was gossip of the highest degree and like all old women she thrived on discussions of marriage and the like. Blame genetics, age, gender, what have you, but if she hadn’t had supreme control over her movements she might have been on the edge of her seat consumed in such pure inquisitiveness.

“Obviously someone of royal heritage, but someone that no one would suspect or look for, it would have to be quiet, and she would have to be very intelligent, cunning, and probably strong.” She was speculating now, had anyone told her that she would be sitting in Castle Doom proposing the prerequisites for marriage with the Monarch of the country a week ago she would have had them committed. But, that was work, going to new places, conversing with strange people, it was very exciting.

[Victor Von Doom]

If Doom's facial expressions were obvious to people other then himself, the Widow would be seeing him raise an eyebrow about now, why was she so interested in what kind of woman he was looking for? In all honesty, Doom searched for no woman, he did not have the time, nor did he feel like searching around, it simply didn't seem important enough to put energy and attention into at this point in time. He continued to lean back in his chair, wondering if he'd find out why Widow was so curious.

[green]"Any woman that I deem worthy would be all of that, except the royal heritage isn't prefered, infact, it would be impossible to keep it quiet if I were to wed anyone married, who would want to keep something like that secret?"[/green] Like Doom had thought only a moment ago, he was not searching for a woman, she would have to appear to him of her own accord to gain his attention at this point, that would be the only way, and even then the chances were slim.

[Black Widow]

Natalia nodded, held up her hands in defeat, her cigarette hanging between two fingers of her right hand, “Okay, so not royal… hmm…” She returned the cigarette to her mouth, thinking about it, and, coming up with nothing, dragged in a breath of smoke and sent it out once more. It was about time to close off this line of questioning, one way or another. Anyway, there were more important things that she was here for.

“I suppose you could tell me about your intelligence agency, since you’re offering a job, ought to know what I’m getting if I decide to accept.” Now this could be unquestionably valuable information, the lack of intelligence on this particular government agency was almost appalling. Any little additions that could be made to the files would be magnificent, any major additions would make her job, and the jobs of so many other agents much easier.