Santana (B.B)

Zola

At the military base. 

I got out of the car and froze. 

It's been a while. 

Cap "This is it."

I nodded "The file came from these coordinates. Like me"

Cao nodded "So did I."

I looked at him. 

Night. 

I looked around "This is a dead end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."

Steve nodded to the building ahead of us. 

Me "What is it? "

We walked over to it.

Cap "Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place."

Then he opened he lock with his shield and we walked inside. I turned on the lights. 

Me "This is SHIELD."

Cap "Maybe where it started."

There were  old framed portraits of dad, Peggy and Col. Chester Phillips.

I looked at dad, sadly "Hey dad"

Cap looked at me before looking around "If you're already working in a secret office... "

He pushed the books shelf and slid open to reveal an elevator behind it" Why do you need to hide the elevator? "

We got down the elevator and walked into a room with old looking computers. 

I walked over to the computer and put the flash drive into the port. 

Computer " Initiate system? "

I typed in "yes"

Suddenly we heard a voice.

It was Zola's voice "Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Stark, Hayley. Born, 1942. "

A camera moved above us. 

Me "i hope this better be a recording"

Zola snapped "I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am. "

the computer screen showed an old photo of Dr. Arnim Zola.

Me "Cap"

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

Zola " 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."

Cap " How did you get here?"

Zola "Invited."

Me "It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."

Zola " They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."

Cap "HYDRA died with the Red Skull."

I looked down. 

Zola "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."

Cap "Prove it "

Zola " Accessing archive. "

The computer screen showed us old footage of Johann Schmidt/Red Skull, of the how the original SHIELD founders.

Zola "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

Me "SHIELD would have stopped you."

Zola " Accidents will happen."

The computer screen showed us HYDRA had killed my mom and dad. 

Zola "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum. "

Steve growled and broke the screen with his shield. 

Zola showed up on another screen " As I was saying..."

Cap "What's on this drive?"

Zola "Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm."

Me "What kind of algorithm? What does it do?"

Zola "The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

 Suddenly the doors started to close, Steve tried stop it by throwing his shield in between it but he's too late.

I looked at my phone " Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."

Cap " Who fired it?"

Me " S.H.I.E.L.D."

Zola "I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time."

Steve noticed a small opening on the ground, he threw the metal door aside and just as the place exploded he threw me and himself into the hole and covered us
with the shield. 

I coughed out. 
--

I coughed up "Steve"

He picked me up and carried me away.