Synopsis / Summary / Plot
The issue begins with a video frame of Hawkeye (Clint Barton) killing someone with arrows to the eyes.
Then we're at 1 of Clint's apartment building's regular rooftop barbecues, and Kate Bishop is asking him if he's ever killed anyone. He doesn't actually deny it. He's also trying not to let his neighbours know he's Hawkeye and an Avenger, but a SHIELD helicarrier ruins that when Agents descend and whisk him up and away. (But the neighbours really already knew anyway.)
Barton is brought before Captain America and Maria Hill. They tell him that the videotape of Operation: Eucritta is in the hands of bad guys and will be auctioned in Madripoor in 72 hours. This is bad news for Hawkeye, the Avengers, SHIELD, the US military and the President. SHIELD will give Barton an AmEx Black card to use to win the auction.
That night he sneaks into his own apartment via the fire escape and finds Kate waiting for him. She was worried when he was 'kidnapped' earlier. He can't tell her what's going on but advises her to stay clear of the place for a week or so, and don't go out Hawkeye-ing. He takes the case with his bow and arrows in and exits the way he came.
30 hours later he's in Madripoor airport where he's hustled away by 3 armed guards. But he's the 1 who walks out of the interrogation room, and then out of the airport. He grabs a cab and asks to be taken where the action is. Then he falls asleep in the back seat and the driver tries to steal his wallet. Clint foils that attempt but 2 opportunistic thieves lean in to take the prize and 1 of them gets away with it. He bemoans the loss of his cash, credit cards and Avengers ID, but his passport and the AmEx Black are still safe. So he takes the cab and picks up some cash as a cabbie despite having no idea where anywhere is. Then he has lunch (I think at a cabbie haunt) and finds out how to get to where he's really supposed to be ...
... the Madripoor Pearl hotel where he's severely underdressed and is immediately grabbed by more goons and taken to another interrogation room which he's not going to waltz out of. They've got his passport and his weapons from the cab (but not the AmEx Black). They're about to kill him when Madame Masque walks in and takes the passport and tells them to knock him out and take him up to her room.
When he wakes up he's still tied to a chair and MM has his bow. He strangely tells them that he's here for the same reason she is, to bid for the tape which shows an Avenger assassinating the world's most wanted terrorist, and he's got a SHIELD AmEx Black to do it with. Masque asks him where he's hidden it and he grins. But he loses the grin when she performs a rectal examination and retrieves the object. She's going to take it to the auction and meanwhile Barton is taken to 'his' room and left tied to the chair but lying on a bed. He falls asleep and 5 ninjas creep in.
In the auction room MM's goons have checked that the AmEx card is legit. Kingpin demands to know why the auction is late. The auctioneer says they're missing a bidder (ie Barton) but Wilson Fisk overrules him. The auctioneer tells the room the Hawkeye is the assassin on the tape. He starts the bidding at 100 million Euros which an Agence Byzantine agent takes on. Then the Maggia, Kingpin for the Hand, the Mandarin, Crimson Cowl raise the bidding until Madame Hydra reaches 350 mill. But then Madame Masque silences the room with 1 billion Euros and wins the auction.
She asks Hotel security to guard her room and then enters it. She takes off her mask and we see it's Kate-Hawk. And the real Madame Masque is bound and gagged in her underwear (but conveniently with another of her golden masks on to hide her terribly scarred face). And Kate prepares to watch the tape.