Retrograde▸bucky barnes

15. A Soldier, Darlin'

It was 4am when Lena's phone rang, pulling her from fitful sleep.

"Hello?" she said groggily.

"Hey it's Joaquín, sorry if I woke you-"

"No it's fine," Lena mumbled, pushing herself up and rubbing her eyes.

"Sorry I know it's pretty late- or rather early there."

"No Joaquín, it's totally fine. What do you need?"

"Remember the thing with the Flag Smashers?"

"How could I forget? I still have bruises."

"Ah yeah. Okay well, it's sort of turned into a whole thing now and there's pretty much confirmation that they're supersoldiers and we're in the business of finding out who made the serum. And doing so it requiring a trip to Madripoor-"

"You're going to Madripoor?" Lena said in shock.

"No not me personally but-"

"You want me to contact my old contacts-"

"Yeah. And Sam, who you met on the phone the other day, would love it if you would come with them. As an extra set of eyes."

Lena was quiet, thinking. Returning to Madripoor was not on her list of things she wanted to be doing, let alone doing so on an active mission.

"You don't have to, but given the... let's just say "volatile" people Sam has scrounged up, he wanted another person on hand."

"I see."

"I'm not going to convince you toward coming or not," Joaquín said, "if you want to stay disengaged from whatever this is, I totally respect that."

"No, I just have had a rough couple of days. So yes, I'll come. It will get my mind off things."

"Okay you're sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Sam will be very grateful. Pack for real combat. I'll send you the details but Sam will have to fill you in on everything else when you get there."
"Okay. I'll see you sometime soon?"

"When you get back from Madripoor probably. I'll send you everything I still have access to on your files from S.H.I.E.L.D for you to pull info from."

"See ya," Lena said as she hung up her phone. A few minutes later the details of a location to meet Sam arrived on her phone, a nondescript warehouse that looked like it probably housed property owned by a foregin mafia. Or something. Getting there on time was going to be a stretch, but after a few favors called in, she had a flight booked out of the country in the next hour.

As Lena hurriedly collected her things she wished she had a better combat suit to wear. It had been so long since she had considered intentionally being in active combat that she had next to nothing that would offer her real protection against anyone, or anything. As she readied herself, she mentally ran through her list of Madripoor contacts.

The early morning atmosphere of the airport made for a prime space to read through the other information she had been sent on the existing state of Madripoor and what they were looking for. From even this vague understanding it was clear that the surveillance and work she had done in the early 2000's had all but dissolved, leaving her with a list of names she hoped still held enough power to grant her good standing on the island. She decided to wait until she arrived at Sam's location and had more information before making any calls, but still felt oddly well prepared to jump back into a field mission.

---

Upon arrival at the warehouse, Lena found that her instincts had been correct, there were cars, weapons and other suspicious objects shadowing the building's dark interior. She had announced her arrival by calling Sam ahead of time and he had simply told her to come in, which had not helped to settle her nerves as she wandered the dimly lit warehouse.