The continuing memoir of Gail Barnes, wife of Avenger James (Bucky) Barnes, aka White Wolf, formerly known as The Winter Soldier. As parents of the first known super soldier child Gail and James face challenges in allowing their son Steve the free...
James explained how the secure call he had routed to his office included officials from the ATF, CIA, FBI, and Secretary of Defense. Chavez, with the attack on the ATF warehouse had become the number one fugitive for all agencies. All sorts of spy satellite data were being made available to all agencies try and track the stealth warship he was using as a base. After finding out about his previous use of drone technology it was suggested as a fitting way to fight back. It had already been discounted that Chavez had acquired a surplus US ship to convert so they had started looking over satellite data to check the known ship graveyards of the world to see if any ship was "liberated." The ship graveyard in Alang, India was described as the world's largest and the theft of a ship left anchored for disposal could easily be arranged through bribing the right official.
It took days of coordinated effort to identify ships that left the graveyard over the previous three years. Then those ships were tracked to various destinations; some to other smaller ship graveyards, some to become artificial reefs, some to become floating hotels (confirmed via onsite visits), and some to become targets for naval live fire exercises. After several more days of coordinated effort the list had been narrowed down to eight potential targets. Zoe, the Avengers resident IT expert in the investigations office was given one target to track, the other agencies divided up the rest. After several more days Zoe confirmed her target had stopped at an African port known for dispersing illegal weapons around the world, and had then met up with a much smaller boat in the northern Caribbean before going around the Caribbean stopping at other ports. Deciding to track the other ship she confirmed it was the one that had been intercepted. She resumed the surveillance on the first ship and found it meeting with another ship of similar size and configuration. When she reported her findings the CIA confirmed the other ship was one they were tracking. Chavez had two ships.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
This whole process took over a week. During that time James was like a caged animal. He had trained and practiced everything he could over and over again. He helped with the kids but even Steve noticed how tense he was. Something had to happen soon. James needed to be taking the fight to someone, anyone. Finally word came down that the Navy would provide several ships to intercept and board the two ships under surveillance. The Avengers were sending a task force; James, Sam, Torres, Clint, and Maria Hill to act as liaison between the military and the Avengers. They were to meet at HQ first then would be transported to one of three ships being sent. As James got ready the kids sat on the bed with me watching their dad put his gear. Steve was full of questions. Why do you wear that? How come you use knives? What exactly do you do? James answered them all truthfully, if not in detail but Steve was happy. It was further proof that his dad was a good guy. When it was almost time for him to go James sat on the bed with the kids, giving each one of them alone time. Then he asked for time with me and Steve helped the other two off the bed and took them into the living room.
"I know this has been tough being here for both of us," he said. "We're finally doing something, anything. I just hope Theo isn't on either ship. If they don't agree to be boarded the order will be to sink the ships. I'll be back when it's done, then we'll go home."
