SHADOW [BOOK 2]

CHAPTER 6

THE NEXT DAY

I entered the Triskelion with Rogers. "Fun night last night?" He asked. "Killed an assassin that wanted my head for $50 million dollars and the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was assassinated. So, no, not really." I answered. "Why would someone put a bounty on your head?" He asked. "Because I walked away from the Assassins Guild." I answered. "Assassins Guild?" He inquired. "More like the man in charge. Wilson Fisk. Kingpin. I was the top man. His personal bodyguard and I walked." I explained. "And now he wants you dead." Cap stated. "Because if he can't have me--" I started. "Nobody can." Cap finished as we walked down a hall.

There was a woman at the end of the hall talking to someone. "Captain Rogers." She said passing us. "Neighbor." Cap told her coldly. I looked over my shoulder at the woman before looking back at Cap. "What the hell was that about?" I asked. "Fury hired her to be my neighbor so she could keep an eye on me." He explained. "Lucky. All Fury did was hire a legion of men to try and kill me." I said slightly disappointed. Cap shook his head with a scoff.

"Oh. Captain. I'm Alexander Pierce." The man said. "Sir, it's an honor." Cap said shaking his hand. The man looked at me before smiling at Rogers. Well, hello to you, asshat. "The honor's mine, Captain. My father served in the 101st. Come on in." He told Cap. Cap entered the room before Pierce blocked my path. "I need to talk to Captain Rogers...alone. Mr. Reeds." He stated. "Whatever you can say to Cap, you can say to me." I told him. "True, but the thing is...I don't like you nor do I trust you. So...I don't want you around me." He said.

"What? You don't like my upbringings? Is that it? Or maybe it has to do with the fact that I'm on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Most Wanted list. Yeah, I know about it. I'm not a dumb-ass. Fury didn't trust me either." I snarled. "So...either you're going to let me through. Or we're gonna have a problem on our hands. And when I say we....I mean you." I spat towering over the man.

"I'd let my friend in, Mr. Pierce. It would make things a lot easier for everyone if you did." Cap pointed out. Pierce looked back at Rogers before looking back at me. "All right. All right." He said moving aside. "You're too kind." I said sarcastically.

"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met, when I was at State Department in Bogota. E.L.N. rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was Deputy Chief of the S.H.I.E.L.D. station there, and he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, "No, we'll negotiate." Turned out the E.L.N. didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They storm the basement and what do they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil, and saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter." Pierce explained. "So you gave him a promotion." Cap stated. "I've never had any cause to regret it. Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?" Pierce asked him. "I don't know." Cap answered. I glanced over at him hearing his heart jump a beat. "Did you know it was bugged?" Pierce questioned. "I did, because Nick told me." Cap replied. "Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Pierce inquired. Rogers shared a look with me. "I want you two to see something." Pierce stated.

I looked to my left to see a screen come on, with Batroc in an interrogation room. "Who hired you, Batroc?" A man asked him. "Is that live?" I asked. "Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers." Pierce answered. "Are you saying he's a suspect?" Cap asked. "Assassination isn't Batroc's line." I pointed out. "No, no. It's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star. And he was contacted by email and paid by wire transfer, and then the money was run through 17 fictitious accounts." Pierce explained. "17?" I asked. "The last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech." He added before handing a file over to Cap. "Am I supposed to know who that is?" Cap asked him. "Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 1435 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick, his mother lived in 1437." Pierce said. "Are you saying that Fury hired the pirates?" Cap asked him. "Why?" I added. "The prevailing theory was that the hijacking was a cover for the acquisition and sale of classified intelligence. The sale went sour and that led to Nick's death." Pierce stated.

"If you really knew Nick Fury, you'd know that's not true." Cap told him. "Why do you think we're talking?" Pierce asked getting to his feet. "See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to, because we were both realists. We knew that, despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies." Pierce explained standing next to the window. I stood beside Cap with crossed arms. "Those people that call you dirty because you got the guts to stick your hands in the mud and try to build something better. And the idea that those people could be happy today makes me really, really angry." Pierce rambled.

"Captain, you were the last one to see Nick alive. I don't think that's an accident. And I don't think you do, either. So, I'm gonna ask again. Why was he there?" Pierce questioned. I looked over at Cap, curious. "He told me not to trust anyone." Cap replied. "I wonder if that included him." Pierce voiced. "I'm sorry. Those were his last words. Excuse us." Cap said before walking away putting his shield on his back. I walked alongside him. "Captain, somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're gonna regret it. Anyone." Pierce announced. "Understood." Cap said before the two of us left the office. "Did you get anything from him?" Cap asked. "The man's heart-rate was all over the place." I answered in a low voice. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" He asked me. "Bad. Very...very...bad." I answered looking at him before we entered the elevator. "Great." Cap said sarcastically.