He brought me back to life; A Captain America romance; Book one.

Chapter 24; HYDRA

The small, remote building is dark and damp. Dim lights flash overhead as two men walk down a scarcely lit corridor.

"Are we ready? One man asks in an American accent. He's holding a small, metal object and has an excited expression on his face.

"We're ready, sir, the computer is set up just in here," the young man answers, his voice a little shaky.

They step into a dark room, the only light coming from a large computer screen in the corner.

Malik inserts the hard drive, laughing, darkly. "Okay, download all files," he commands and the young man fumbles, eventually placing the hard drive into the server. "It should only take a minute," he stutters, staring up at Malik, in fear.

Nothing happens.

The young man taps the monitor and types frantically on the keyboard.

Nothing.

"Sir, there seems to be some sort of problem," he whispers, his voice trembling now.

Malik shoots him a furious look. The young man gulps.

It seems that this hard drive is empty. Malik pauses, his face is red and alive with anger.

"What do you mean, empty? That woman wiped out system and downloaded all the date and files for the formula onto that hard drive," he screams, spitting slightly.

The young man freezes. He's petrified. "It looks as though she replaced the hard drive with the files with this one."

Malik takes a breath before smiling, wildly. He pulls a gun from his inside pocket and shoots the young man in the head.

"That clever bitch."

He sighs and takes his phone from his pocket, dialling, calmly.

"Sir?" a voice answers.

"The formula is gone. The Avengers have it." Malik spits. "Is there anything left at HQ?"

"We have some files left sir, the hard copies of original drafts of the serum. But the test runs for that killed all subjects, instantly," the voice on the phone replies, quickly.

Malik curls his lips into a sadistic smile. Even better, he thinks to himself.

"I want everyone that's left to drop what they're doing and create a sample of that serum as soon as possible."

"But sir, we don't have all components and it was defective. All test subjects died. The serum didn't enhance them. Besides, we would need at least six, maybe eight weeks to develop a new inject-able substance. The lab at HQ is destroyed."

Malik laughs, once. Darkly.

"No rush. The woman who is to be our next guinea pig isn't going anywhere. I want to let the avengers think they've won, before we strike. We will wait."

"But sir," the voice interjects.

"Do it." Malik snaps, ending the call abruptly before whispering to himself; "I'm coming for you, Ellie Hart."