Secrets | Steve Rogers

8

They finally meet their destination.

Camp Lehigh. New Jersey, USA.

"This is it?" Steve asks as he gets out of the truck with his shield in hand.

"The file came from these coordinates," Lauren says.

"So did I," He says as he looks at the sign.

Steve uses his shield to bust the lock on the gate. He opens in, and they walk on the base.

"This camp is where I was trained," Steve says.

"Change much?" Lauren asks.

"A little."

As Steve stares off into space, Lauren uses a S.H.I.E.L.D. phone to try and get a read of... something. Anything.

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off," Lauren says as she puts the phone back in her pocket.

Steve looks around, and then guides her to another part of the base.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place," Steve says.

Before he can pick the lock, Lauren waves her hand and the lock falls to the ground.

"Show off."

The door leads to a set of stairs. They walk down and Steve finds a light switch. The lights go on, and Lauren's eyes instantly go to the eagle at the end of the room.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D," She says.

"Maybe where it started."

They walk to the other side of the room. Steve opens an office door, desks and papers and cobwebs surrounding the place.

They walk towards a wall of photos. People who help start the agency.

Howard Stark.

And even Peggy Carter.

When Steve sees her picture, he sighs and walks away. He notices a slight breeze flowing through the spider-webs. Odd, seeing as they're underground. He walks to the bookshelf where the breeze is coming from. He looks for an opening. He stands on one side of the bookshelf and pushes it to the side, to reveal yet another door.

"If you're already working in a secret office... why do you need to hide the elevator?" Steve asks.

Lauren uses the S.H.I.EL.D. phone to scan the key pad, then enters the password. The elevator doors open, and they walk inside. They push the button for the lower level, and they go down. The elevator doors open, and they exit. They see a room filled with computers from the 80's.

"This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient," Lauren says.

She enters the drive into a USB port hole, causing the rest of the lights to turn on and the machine to that whirring.

INITIATE SYSTEM?

"Y-E-S spells yes," Lauren says as she types on the old computer, " Shall we play a game? It's from a movie that was really...".

"I know, I saw it with you," Steve says.

A green face then appears on the screen in front of them.

"Rogers, Steven, born 1918. Kamenev, Lauryna Victora, born 1986."

"It's some kind of recording," Lauren says.

"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 shows a picture of Arnim Zola.

"You know this thing?" Steve asks.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," Steve says as he walks around the computer.

"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 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain."

"How did you get here?" Steve asks.

"Invited."

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value," Lauren says.

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

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull,"  Steve says.

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

"Prove it."

"Accessing archive. 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 take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

"That's impossible. S.H.I.E.L.D. would have stopped you," Lauren says.

"Accidents will happen. HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once a 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 gets so fed up to the point that he punches the computer screen.

"As I was saying..."

Zola appears on a smaller screen.

"What's on this drive?" Steve asks.

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

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Lauren asks.

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

The doors then close. Steve throws his shield at it, but it just ricochets back to him. Lauren's phone starts to beep.

"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops".

"Who fired it?"

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

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

 Steve opens up a grate in the floor, grabs Lauren and jumps down. He holds his shield above his head, trying his best to protect them both. The bogey hits, and they get buried. Steve uses all of his strength to keep his shield above them. A rock falls on his head and knocks him out. Lauren goes to check on him, but more debris start to fall.

She uses her powers to hold the debris back as she checks on Steve. She checks his pulse, still pumping. She checks his breath, still breathing.

Lauren manages to pick up the super soldier and walk out amongst the chaos. She even surprised herself by that ability.