Washington ⇻ The Winter Soldier [2]

chapter five

Winter mentally apologized to whoever owned the apartment that she was currently breaking into, though picking the lock was ridiculously easy for how expensive the place looked. She listened for signs of people in the apartment before shrugging the sniper's rifle off of her shoulder and starting to piece it together. The assassin's hands swiftly went through the motions until the gun was pointed out the window and she was on her knees waiting for Sitwell to exit the building across the road.

When he came out, he was with a Senator (Winter didn't really know (or care) who as Alison was generally the one who paid attention to politics), only to say goodbye and answer a phone call. When he started to look around, she recognized her cue and turned on the laser scope, centering in on Sitwell's tie. When he turned around looking for her, she gave a little salute, the dot on his chest not even wavering.

Winter kept the gun trained on him until he got in the van that Natasha was driving, only then disassembling the gun, putting it back in its case, and leaving the apartment. She shifted on her feet as she pressed the button on the elevator to take her to the roof. It was a full two minutes and seventeen seconds of silence before she burst through the elevator onto the rooftop.

From there, the assassin took a running start before leaping off the edge of the building... rolling when she hit the hard concrete of the next. Six more bounds to the next, eight to the one after that, then a flight of fire escape stairs to where the rest of her team was waiting.

"Don't tell me you already threw him off the roof," Winter pouted, "I wanted to do-"

A short scream and a thud later, Sitwell landed hard while Sam practically floated down in comparison, ready to confess all of HYDRA's secrets, "Zola's algorithm is a program... for choosing Insight's targets!"

"What targets?" Steve asked, looking quite menacing even to Winter who could still faintly remember him back when he was tiny.

"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City," Sitwell's frantic words didn't seem to be stopping any time soon, "Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future."

"The future?" Steve shot a look at Winter, who shrugged in reply, "How could it know?"

Sitwell's replying laugh was mocking, "How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it," Steve and Natasha glanced at each other, probably as confused as Winter was, "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future."

"And what then?" Steve's eyes narrowed.

Sitwell looked like he finally realized what he was doing, "Oh, my God. Pierce is gonna kill me."

"What then?!" Winter repeated, an iron grip on his shoulder keeping him from getting up.

The HYDRA agent flinched, "Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time."

"And the Winter Soldier?" Winter's grip tightened rather than loosened, "Are we part of his mission?"

An audible crack coming from the man's shoulder soon produced the answer, "Yes! Yes! He's been sent to kill you!"

Winter let go, letting Sitwell fall forward back to the ground, clutching his shoulder, "Good."

So this is very late.... and now I'm out of pre-written chapters. Plus inspiration has mostly left me. It might be a while before I update again but I'm holding out hope! I'm also trying to transfer my works to AO3 (which is going to take a while so I'm procrastinating). Btw, I absolutely have the entirety of the MCU Soulmate Verse meticulously planned out (all the way up to the newest ep of FatWS), it's just a matter of writing it all? So uh... yeah. Anyway, have a fantastic day and I'll see you next time.
~ Aria :D