Fire and Ice

•18•

"This could be where SHIELD started," Steve says as he, Kate, and Nat walk down a row of desks into what seems to be the filing room, hidden with frosted windows.

There are three pictures on the wall, glass broken in the frames, one hanging crooked. Nat points at one. "There's Stark's father."

"Howard," Steve says.

But Kate's wide eyes turn to another picture. "Peggy Carter..."

"It's not like you haven't seen a picture of her before," Nat says.

"Yeah, but... I mean, this is different. This is a place she probably actually worked at at one point. A lot of SHIELD's buildings now are new, renovated. This place looks untouched."

Steve moves on, so Nat follows. Kate glances at them, then back at Peggy once more before going with them. By the time she gets there, Steve is pulling back a set of shelves, revealing a passage behind it. "If you're already working in a secret office, why do you need to hide the elevator?"

"This place has it all, doesn't it?" Kate marvels. Nat uses her device to figure out the passcode, allowing them to access the elevator. They go down to the only other floor, and Kate sighs when the doors open and the lights come on. "I stand corrected."

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient," Nat adds.

But Kate notices something that isn't — a device to plug the flash drive into. She points at it. "Nat."

Nat walks over, plugs in the drive. The computer comes to life, everything in the room starting up, spinning, working. The camera over the main monitor lifts, and a voice asks, "Initiate system?" as the words pop up on the screen.

They all pause, glancing at each other, seeing if any of one of them wants to open that can of worms. Kate can only wait a few seconds before she steps up to the keyboard, typing. "Y-E-S, spells yes."

"'Shall we play a game?'" Nat jokes, walking up next to Kate as the computer whirrs. She says to Steve, "It's from a movie that was really-"

"Yeah, I saw it," he says.

Kate turns back to him, fighting off laughter. "You Saw it?"

Nat's brows furrow. "That's from WarGames, not Saw."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Jigsaw says, 'I want to play to game,' not, 'Shall we play a game?' That line is insanely famous — even Steve knew it. How could you-?"

"I've never seen War Games or Saw, okay? I just-"

"Wait you've never seen-?!"

A face loads up on the computer, the voice now more human, accented, cutting them off as the camera faces each of them in turn. "Rogers, Steven Grant, born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born, 1984. Carson, Kate Mary, born, 1982."

"It's some kind of a recording," Nat says.

Kate bristles. "It forgot the doctor."

"I am not a recording, Fräulein," the computer replies. "I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am-" A picture pops up on the screen.

"Arnim Zola," Steve says. "He was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years."

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body — my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."