Skye quickly began operating the facial recognition system on her desk.
Meanwhile, Coulson called Ward and May aside and said, "May, this enemy is formidable; they're all Centipede soldiers."
"While we're unsure of their limits, based on Michael's past performance, they're no pushovers."
"For these field operations, we'll need your assistance."
May nodded, "I'll go on the field with you."
Coulson added, "With no Killer Bee around, we'll need to handle this on our own carefully."
Both May and Ward nodded in agreement.
Back in the command room, Coulson asked, "Any leads on the Centipede soldiers?"
Skye replied, "We've matched one face in the system."
Pulling up the individual's file, she continued, "Brian Hayward, served three years in Afghanistan, then disappeared after returning. His only known relative is his sister Laura, a sophomore at Ohio University."
Coulson looked at the screen displaying their information, "She's our best chance of locating Hayward."
Turning to Ward, he said, "You'll come with me to talk to her."
Ward agreed with a nod.
Coulson then looked at May and instructed, "Set our destination for Cleveland."
Afterward, he went to his office to gather some tools he might need.
…
Ohio University-
Coulson, driving a car, was on the way to the school with Ward in the passenger seat.
"'Women's Psychology: Revealing the Female Mind.'"
Coulson glanced at Ward, "Is that a book?"
Ward, looking at his tablet, replied, "It's a course Hayward's sister is taking."
Coulson nodded, "We should reach campus in ten minutes, just in time to catch her after class."
He then mused, "A whole course on women—back in the day, you'd have to figure it out on your own."
"The challenge of solving problems is half the fun."
Ward looked at Coulson, "Did you solve a lot of problems back then?"
Coulson smiled, "A few."
"Some were worth it more than others. One… especially so."
Ward, curious, asked, "What happened?"
Coulson responded, "I 'died'."
"I guess she didn't have level seven clearance, huh, sir?"
Coulson glanced at Ward and replied while driving, "She's a cellist. Second chair."
"She plays with the Portland Symphony, and every time I'm there, I'd go to see her perform."
"Ever seen a beautiful woman play the cello?"
Ward shook his head.
Coulson sighed, "It's mesmerizing."
"She'd even laugh at my jokes, which made it all the better."
Ward asked, "Do you know where she is now?"
"Of course I do."
Ward responded apologetically, "I'm sorry to hear that, sir."
Coulson continued, "I was gone for months; even the Avengers thought I was dead. So, I have to keep it under wraps."
"SHIELD's protocols… maybe it's for the best."
Ward offered his thoughts, "Maybe she could join the organization…"
Coulson shook his head, "In my experience, that's just asking for trouble."
Ward nodded in agreement.
…
Elsewhere-
On the plane-
Skye was using her current clearance to look up information on Katherine Shane.
Katherine Shane was the SHIELD agent who left Skye at the orphanage door. Based on the data Skye accessed, she suspected Agent Shane might be her mother.
Skye was also scanning records of every female agent active around her birth to find any possible clues, though this process required combing through a vast number of files, a task that would take considerable time.
She wished she had higher clearance and could remove the monitoring on her internet activity.
She is also worried that the Charles Agency had not replied to her yet, fearing her request might have been declined.
At that moment, May approached.
Skye quickly pulled out her USB drive and closed her laptop.
"May, can you help me find my long-lost parents?"
"I would really appreciate it; it means a lot to me."
"I've narrowed down some possibilities and even made a list…"
May, stone-faced, paused for a few seconds before saying, "We're on a mission, Skye."
"Is this the reason you called me over?"
Skye quickly clarified, "No, I only looked this up once I knew you were coming."
"I actually called you here because there's a new discovery about Poe."
May's expression remained impassive, "Go on. What did you find?"
In the command room, Skye opened a video and explained, "Po only had one visitor while in custody: her."
"Notice her clothes?"
"Miles mentioned a woman in a floral dress who asked him to hack SHIELD."
"It might be her."
May studied the video, "Can we hear what they're saying?"
Skye responded, "Unfortunately, there's no audio."
"But I tried something else—I used SHIELD's lip-reading program."
"It didn't work on the woman since she never looked at the camera, but it did pick up one phrase from Po."
Skye pressed play, and an audio clip played.
"Clairvoyant doesn't like to be contacted."
Skye said, "I wrote it down, so we don't have to listen to it again."
May looked intrigued, "Clairvoyant?"
"Yeah. Does that mean anything to you?"
May shook her head, "No, but it seems important to them."
"To Po and the mystery woman."