Fire and Ice

•17•

In order to look at the drive, they need a computer. In order to get a computer that's not currently in their own apartments — because SHIELD is conducting a manhunt for Steve over Fury's death — they need to go to the Apple store in the mall.

They're all wearing hoodies, Nat and Kate finding it best to hide their hair — Kate especially. She braided it, tucking it into the hood. Steve's hood is down, but he's wearing a baseball cap and glasses. The problem is, he keeps looking over his shoulder and walking too fast.

"First rule of going on the run: don't run, walk," Nat mutters.

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off," Steve replies.

"Maybe keep your eyes forward," Kate adds. "Trust me, I'm struggling with it, too."

They go up the escalator, then find and enter the Apple store. Nat heads to a computer right across from two teenage boys looking at their own computer. Kate stands in front of Nat's hand as she pulls out the flash drive. "This thing has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are."

"How much time will we have?" Steve asks.

"Uh, about nine minutes from-" she plugs in the drive "-now." Kate caves and glances over her shoulder, sees nothing. "Fury was right about that ship; somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI; it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands."

"Can you override it?" Kate asks, turning back around.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me — slightly. I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."

Unfortunately, an employee walks up to them. "Can I help you guys with anything?"

Nat immediately switches into a lie, her tone almost sickeningly sweet as she puts her hands on Steve's shoulders. "Oh, no, my fiancé was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations."

"Right," Steve jumps in, putting on a smile. "We're getting married."

The employee glances at Kate, who panics, not knowing what to say.

Nat nudges her. "This is my sister. Helping out with wedding shopping and all."

"Hi," Kate says, lifting her hand awkwardly.

The employee smiles and nods, turning more to Steve and Nat, the latter of which is typing again. "Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" He looks at the computer screen.

So does Steve. "New Jersey."

"Oh," the employee replies. He then looks at Steve's face, studying him, sending a shot of panic through Kate before he says, "I have the exact same glasses."

"Wow, you two are practically twins," Nat says, not looking up.

The employee laughs. "Yeah, I wish." He gestures to Steve. "Specimen... Uh, if you guys need anything-" he holds up the name tag around his neck "-I've been Aaron."

"Thank you," Steve replies, and Aaron thankfully leaves. Steve turns back to Nat. "You said nine minutes, come on."

"Shh, relax," Nat replies. Then, a second later, "Got it."

Kate looks over, sees the screen displays Wheaton, New Jersey. She recognizes it as soon as Steve does. "You trained there during the war."

"Yeah," Steve replies, nodding. He grabs the flash drive. "Let's go."