Head of the Household

"This is the file we found in the Gloucestershire local government's records. Tourist attraction renovation, no owner listed, construction began a year ago. Yet the ink on this paper is still wet." Melinda May flipped open the dossier, her face full of disdain. Unlike this file, the others were coated in a fine layer of gray dust. It was obvious how lax the local government was, and that the local economy barely relied on real estate. Coulson and Melinda had slipped in with fake IDs. No matter how incompetent MI5 was, the local government could not refuse them, but the bureaucracy was painfully inefficient. It had taken them two full days to find the file S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted.

They had already visited the castle Professor Randolph had identified, but it was now surrounded by construction crews working around the clock. That night, Agent Coulson and Agent Melinda could only sleep in the Quinjet, then search the construction crew's scrap piles for clues the next day. Other than old stone bricks and steel, they found nothing—this was real agent life. The kind where you came and went in style, wore sunglasses and suits, and solved most problems by flashing an ID only existed in Daisy Johnson's dreams before she became an agent.

Left with no choice, Melinda May had gone ahead to search the local government archives for answers. She complained, "We're not here to investigate local politicians for corruption, but this forgery is just too sloppy. Even the ways S.H.I.E.L.D.'s administrative clerks cut corners are more professional than those politicians."

"You mean someone anticipated our move and erased the evidence ahead of us?" A bad feeling rose in Agent Coulson's heart. "Can we find out where the politician's money came from?"

"Nothing more than political contributions and campaign donations. It's all