I Have To Protect The One Thing I Can't Live Without, You

I

Silence.

For James Barnes there was only that and nothing else. It was one of the many peculiar characteristics of him, one of the traits of him that no one escaped, it was something that he had in himself and that constituted him as a person, since he was only twelve years old an evident calm reigned inside him. He was phlegmatic, he did not let himself down by anything or anyone, but only because the greatest battle he had lived, he had defeated him when he had no weapons to fight it. He had been part of the CIA for six years now, when he was only twenty, certainly learning to use a gun only at that age had frightened him at the beginning but if that was the one, and only, weapon available to take out the one who killed his family then so be it.

In all this training he had not let himself be disheartened by his failures, by all the failed tests and he had achieved the many, infinite, objectives that he had to achieve. He had learned, from that famous battle that he had not defeated, to rise more stronger than his enemy, to be more ruthless than him. That very quiet character of him, apparently, but full of chaos inside him, had served him to get so many promotions in his work. At only twenty-two he had reached the highest level of driving sports cars, at twenty-four the practice of heavy weapons and finally at only twenty-six he was able to achieve the practice of driving an aircraft, an agent with a capital A, always ready, always efficient, with his head on his shoulders and with his feet firmly planted on the ground.

With the silence that he carried inside and that surrounded him he left no room for any emotion, no smile that opened on his lips, no laughter that filled the silence and not even a tear that fell from his blue eyes, but maybe they were the ones who they fooled him, which made him fragile, vulnerable, weak and exposed. He had inherited them from his mother, Winnifred C. Barnes, a woman of a thousand resources and a thousand talents, she would have done anything to see her son happy, if in the world there had been a list with all the sacrifices to make she would have them all ended up just to see her son smile. The same had been taken from him long ago and he could find no reason why he could be happy again.

He was a ghost, that was the right adjective. A ghost who carried with him so many memories that he preferred not to bring back to the surface, which he preferred not to think about, because if he did, he wouldn't be strong. And he had sworn it on himself, on his family, on his mother, nothing and no one would ever see him tired, sad and weak again.

None, except maybe one.

Even in that shed there was silence, except for the voices in the distance that were perhaps a few meters from him. He was hidden behind a pillar, dressed completely in black and with a single gesture, without attracting too much attention, he loaded his Beretta 98 ​​and was alone, he preferred it to be like this. In his missions he was not accompanied, the only one who guided him was perhaps Sam, who preferred to be the one sitting in the chair in front of a computer ready to hack any site or security system. He could openly say that if it weren't for him, many of the times he wouldn't come back alive from his missions, he could thank him but we know why Barnes didn't.

"How many are there?" He asked in a low voice

"Five, arranged in a circle ... I can't trace the load of weapons"

"This place will be over 500,000 square meters, find that cargo before they find me"

"I understand your arrogance towards me Barnes but I didn't think you underestimated me so much ... there should be an underpass, the one in front of you, I detect some signal but it is encrypted"

"You say it's the load?"

"No, something else ... you have to get there and find out what it is"

"I need a diversion"

"Watch out, they are about to leave ... and they come right towards you"

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, he knew what was about to happen. He knew what he was going to do and even if he didn't have to do it, for a purely moral question, he had sworn to himself, even before remaining cold and unfriendly as he had become, to kill one by one anyone who had taken his family away from him and get to him, Zemo. The road was not over yet, he still had a long way to go and he would have continued despite his hands would be stained with even more blood, blood of people who, after all, were innocent. But he was merciless, he did not want justice, justice served only those who knew how to wait and he, to sit idle, did not want to. His was revenge, and even if cold, he did not wait to serve it.

He opened his eyes and in front of him he saw how the five came out, it was time to attack and with a soft but fast step he approached the last one, placed a hand on his mouth and in just thirty seconds the man was already on the ground, suffocated and this only served to attract the attention of the other four who immediately pulled out their guns, he only managed to take out three, the remaining two escaped, but deep down he knew they would be here, they had to protect the cargo, or whatever it might be.

"They re-entered, from the east door ... they are much closer to the load than I thought"

"Wait, what? The cargo? Didn't you tell me it was in the underpass where I was?"

"I never specified that it was the load, there was a signal ... you better go to them"

As fast as he could run, James arrived at the east door when the load with the two remaining thugs had already been loaded into their car and at that moment he knew that it was useless to chase them and Sam, without asking him, started looking for the two and the important load they kept in constant motion. Stew returned to the huge warehouse, wasting time looking for clues that, in one way or another, would have served for the mission he was following, the rest of the team would arrive later and with slight caution went to the part where it should have been that underpass that his companion had told him via earphone.

He removed the torn sheet, placed in front of the door that once opened, with slight difficulty, led to the stairs and the only thing to be seen was the darkness, in addition to the deafening silence that surrounded him but he did not care at all about this. The light from above the stairs gave him a chance to see a huge map with numerous signs and symbols, pinned to what must have been a wooden blackboard. There were many things underlined, including many places and next to them many photos, people with their respective personal data, many missing and still more dead, except for one. He touched the sheet, then detached it from that blackboard and saw how the image, despite being in black and white, reflected the figure of a girl.

"Who are you?"