Outlaws

Chapter Nine

            We burst through the doors to outside as the sound of the Quinjet rips through the air. The jet barely has its landing gear on the ground before the back of it opens up and Tony exits still in his iron suit, helmet off, carrying Sam Wilson's unconscious body. Bucky has been trying to quash the rising anger at himself since Steve gave us the news. Seeing his friend now as he watches the wound on Sams head seep through the makeshift bandage he can't hide it, everything about him right now seethes anger. Steve had told us that Sam had been hit by a rogue defence system and knocked out, Tony was able to catch him before he hit the ground and an initial scan told them that Sam was unconscious but stable. It doesn't stop anybody from being any less worried for Sam, or Bucky from blaming himself for this. Hydra was after him and everybody else around him was getting hurt trying to protect him. It made Bucky feel furious and helpless all at the same time. He doesn't need to say it for me to know what he is feeling, feeling the same myself.

The look plastered on Tony's face as he walks past me and James says that what happened to Sam wasn't the worst part of the mission. James follows Stark and Wilson inside but I stay behind to wait for Steve. As Steve shuts down the Quinjet and exits I notice that his expression is much the same as Tony's. He walks towards me expression distant now, lost in his own thoughts. I watch him closely as though something in the way he walks or an expression on his face might make everything suddenly make sense to me. 

It doesn't.

"What did you find?" I ask as Steve comes into earshot. He stops and looks up at me, coming out of his thoughtful daze.

"Nothing." His voice softer than usual as he looks at me with confusion, "There was nothing there."

"Well obviously not nothing Cap, if there was something or somebody ready to take out Sam with a missile."

"It was totally abandoned Winters, the building was empty, no electrical signals, no heat signatures other than our own; not a darn thing."

"Live defence systems were there though-"

"Maybe it wasn't originally abandoned, maybe they had something there worth protecting and when they moved on maybe this stray system was missed."

"I don't know much about this Hydra organisation but from how hard Mackenzie has been working to get even shreds of information on them they don't strike me as the forgetful kind."

Steve continues to walk towards the main building with a look of thoughtful contemplation returning to his face. He signals for me to follow, as I try to scan the barrage of images in the back of her mind from the stories and clues of Hydra's operations from Mackenzies intel. Searching for a clue, for anything that would make the purchase and abandonment of the warehouse make sense. Hydra probably knew that a purchase like that would catch the eyes of some people, they surely would assume they are always being tracked one way or another. So why did they do it?

Bucky stands over Sam before instructing Friday to do a full scan as I enter the room. I can see the stress writhing through his body and face. I try to meet his gaze, get his attention somehow to let him know I am here for him now like he was for me. I can see the guilt ridden concern he tries to shield behind his eyes as he stares at his injured friend. He is going to blame himself for this and I know there is no way anybody will be able to convince him otherwise. It breaks my heart to see this in him, after spending such a soft moment with him earlier where it seemed like for a minute, he actually let himself be happy for the first time in a long time.

"What are y'all standing around me for?" Wilson whispers softly as he opens one eye and looks around.

"Oh he's fine." Stark says as he gets onto his feet and rolls his eyes.

"Course I'm fine," Sam tries to sit up but feels dizzy promptly laying himself back down again, "what happened?"

"You flew into a missile." Stark responds as he deactivates the nano suit.

"Oh is that all?"

"I need to make a call, excuse me," Steve excuses himself seeing that his friend is seemingly alright and walks into another room while pulling his phone from his pocket, "Glad you're still alive Sam."

"Yeah me too." Sam says to himself softly knowing that Steve is out of earshot anyway.

"Sam, what happened out there?" Bucky finally speaks up as Stark and Steve leave the room.

"I'm sorry Buck, we didn't find anything there. The whole place was a ghost town. We got nothing, the intel must have been wrong or something. Well we didn't get nothing I guess because I got a missile apparently."

I finally decide to speak before Bucky can reply to Sam.

"Exactly so they were there, they had to be, it wouldn't make sense to have missile systems in place if they weren't there."

"I don't think you understand Winters, there were absolutely zero signs of any sort of activity there."

"No I understand that," I huffs at my inability to gather my own thoughts into articulate sentences, "either they were there and moved on or they are setting up-"

Bucky interrupts me, his voice low and distant as the words leaving him feel as though they are surrounded by an ominous air.

"They are there, Hydra was able to master an energy cloaking device that acts like a roof over their underground bases. They developed it a long time ago... who knows how big that base could be underneath, some stretch for miles from memory but this one is new, I don't have any information on it."

Silence fills the room as the information gets pieced together, I look at Sams expression, turning around to find Tony and Steve stand still in the doorway; nobody saying a single thing. I look at Bucky who is now staring through the floor into the back of his mind, memories flooding the forefront of his thoughts. I can't speak for the thoughts of others but it occurs to me that if they have created a new base that Bucky has no information on it almost confirms that they intend to come after Bucky and not for anything good.