"You sure this is gonna work?" Steve asked as they stood on top of one of the nearby buildings to where Sitwell was meeting with Senator Stern.
"Calm down," she said calmly as she looked through the scope that she had popped out of her staff, kneeling to the ground and focusing in on Sitwell.
"Aim for the tie."
"I know."
"And wait for the sig-"
"I know, Steve." Suddenly, the phone Sam had given Steve went off and Annabelle turned on the laser on her staff, landing the small red dot onto Sitwell's tie.
"Don't shoot him."
"Steve, it just looks like a sniper laser," she said without looking at him. "It's just a laser you would use to play with a cat. It's completely harmless." She paused. "Unless you're playing with a big cat."
"Just pay attention," he told her, making her laugh under her breath, trailing Sitwell until he got in the car with Sam. "Come on," he told her and they started walking to the rendezvous building. "How did you know about Zola?" he asked as they walked. "That he was stalling."
"I read all his files in the forties. He likes to talk and explain things, but... Not in the way he was talking to us. It just felt wrong. Then I found a tracking beacon turned on."
"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you," he told her truthfully.
"Thank you."
***
Steve kicked Sitwell through the door to the roof, making him fall to the ground before scrambling to stand.
"Tell me about Zola's algorithm," he demanded.
"Never heard of it," he tried as he put his glasses back on.
"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?"
"I was throwing up. I get seasick," he explained as the three pushed him to walk backwards as they kept coming at him. He eventually stopped walking as he hit the edge of the roof, nearly falling off until Steve caught his jacket, pulling him up and staring at him. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof?" he asked after a moment. "'Cause it's really not your style, Rogers."
"You're right," Steve told him, letting go and smoothing his jacket down. "It's not. It's hers." He stepped aside and Natasha stepped forwards, kicking him in the chest and knocking him off the building. They listened to his screaming, watching him as he fell.
"Oh, wait. What about that girl from accounting?" Natasha asked him. "La- Laura?"
"Lillian," Steve remembered. "Lip piercing, right?"
"Yeah, she's cute."
"Yeah, I'm not ready for that."
"Incoming," Annabelle alerted them just before Sam flew up, his wings spread as he held Sitwell by his jacket collar before dropping him back on the roof. Sam landed next, the wings retracting into the suit on his back. "So I've heard that when you're about to die, your life flashes through your eyes," Annabelle said as she walked over to Sitwell before squatting next to him. "Jog any memories?"
"Zola's algorithm is a program," he said in panic, holding his hand out to stop Steve and Natasha from touching him again, "for choosing Insight's targets."
"What targets?"
"You!" he pointed at Steve. "A TV anchor in Cairo, the Under Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to Hydra. Now or in the future."
YOU ARE READING
For Better or For Worse - Book 3 (The Winter Soldier)
Hayran Kurgu"I need to see what I think of the world first. It may be a new world, but in some ways it's still the same." Annabelle woke up in the twenty first century after spending almost seventy years in ice. Not only is she thrust into a new world, she also...
