Chasing Ghosts | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 30: Speeches And Unexpected Questions

''They must have gone into one of the buildings,'' Natasha said. Her knee didn't bounce up and down yet, but it was close.

Nothing happened for a long time. And all that time, Katya prayed it would be Sam and Bucky getting out alive. Preferably with a knocked-out Karli. It would have been so much better to watch this with a direct line to their comms.

Three minutes passed until the camera snapped to a dark part of one of the buildings. An exit hidden by an overpass. From this aerial view, they could see how three Flag Smashers walked out the side door and jogged North. But before they could get to safety, they were surrounded by a whole squad of heavily armed policemen, with in front, Bucky and Walker.

''Well, there's one,'' Katya muttered. She didn't care about Walker, really, but liked seeing Bucky alive and well. And she was also proud of him. For all the good he had done today. This was exactly what he wanted to do. Save hostages, arrest the criminals. Today was the first day of his new status as hero instead of criminal.

After that, it didn't take long for Sam to appear as well. But Katya's smile fell entirely when a ground camera picked him up.

He flew in from the sky, with a large figure in his arms. It could have been anyone, but Katya knew it was Karli before the lights fell on her hair.

Despite hating her guts because she threatened her family and even visited her at her home, Katya couldn't help but feel sad. Karli didn't deserve to die. She was young and her intentions were good. She just landed on the path of violence and death because of the mess this world was.

Natasha saw her drop her head and reached out to intertwine their hands. ''I'm sorry,'' she whispered. Honestly, she was glad to see Karli stopped, but like her and like Katya, she deserved a second chance. And maybe, with Sam's help, they could have gotten through to her. Now she was just gone, killed in some stupid war.

Medics rushed in with a stretcher, but everyone could see she was gone. Nobody knew who killed her, but it wasn't Sam. He wanted nothing more than to help her.

Reporters, like eagles, dove on top of him, asking all sorts of questions he didn't even want to think about now. With the cameras so close, Katya could see the sadness in his face.

''What happened to the Flag Smashers? When did the government make you Captain America? What do we call you now? Is it still Falcon?''

''Or is it Captain Falcon?''

He marched past all those ridiculous questions that far from mattered right now, towards the group of politicians he and Bucky had rescued. Of course, they were immensely grateful. Who knew what Karli would have done if they left her plan to succeed.

''Sam, thank you so much, from all of us.''

''Sincerely. You did your part in dealing with those terrorists, now we'll do ours.''

Sam contained his anger well. Never one to burst out and start yelling. ''Are you still going forward with resetting the borders?''

Another politician nodded. A woman with grey hair. ''Our peacekeeping troops will begin relocating people soon. The terrorists only set us back a bit.''

''That's also what President Snow called his army. Peacekeepers,'' Maya added without taking her eyes from the screen. Yeah, she also read a lot. And for some reason, she loved that book series more than others.

Katya shared a look with Natasha. Maya had probably found the best way to explain how those 'relocations' were going to go, without having to explain it. They watched those movies with her. They knew it would take an army and not 'peacekeeping troops' to get those refugees back to someplace they didn't want to go.