The Asset: The Beginning and End of the Winter Soldier

Chapter Thirteen

It felt like the memory ambushed him as he was training with the Dora Milaje. Bucky was concentrating on the weapons drills and tracking techniques Okoye was teaching him, moving in sync with the others present for that day's exercises. He was not thinking of the Winter Soldier or any of the memories for the first time in days or even weeks. He froze in mid movement, feeling unfocused, losing his place in the movement drills until he was simply standing, staring at images only he could see. The wide-open grasslands near the forest were gone, and he was standing in the brightly lit lobby of a tech company in Seattle ten years before the fall of Hydra.

"Daniel Lloyd?" A voice called to him from the security desk, and he crossed the gleaming glass and marble lobby to the desk, greeting the man who stood there wearing an employee's badge, one from another building on the vast campus.

"You must be Mark Kim, it's nice to finally meet you in person," the Winter Soldier said, shaking the hand of the man who smiled back at him. "Come up to my office."

They exchanged basic pleasantries on the elevator, nothing more in depth since the building was very busy, no privacy anywhere except the individual offices and conference rooms and even in those places there was no real guarantee of not being overheard. The Winter Soldier was one of those who had access to various ways of keeping track of everyone and everything at the company, in his guise as the Facilities Security Officer. He had been in that position for a long time, according to the personnel records, but he was usually traveling and rarely in the office. He would be placed in the office as needed by Hydra, to augment the members they already had in the upper levels of the company. Hydra had coveted the technology created at the company for many years and had been secretly moving many different components to their projects in SHIELD and other countries. Other Hydra members would maintain the persona of Daniel Lloyd remotely when the Winter Soldier was in cryogenic stasis or on other missions.

"Mr. Kim," the Winter Soldier said in a serious tone as he closed the door to his office. Kim was nervous, but he seemed to be upset by something else, rather than the man he sat across from. "I read all of the emails you forwarded to me. I have to ask why you came to me specifically as opposed to HR or even someone higher up the ladder."

"I can't go to anyone else," Kim replied, voice tight. "You're the only one with the reputation here of being a completely open book and straightforward."

"I'm glad that I can be seen as someone to trust," the Winter Soldier gave a reassuring smile to Kim, "but I'm also loyal to the company. I always have been, so whatever you have to tell me needs to fall under my purview or I don't know that I can be of any help."

"Trust me, it does. This is a massive security breach, and it involves all of our intellectual property." Kim pulled out a large stack of papers. "I printed this off before someone could delete it."

"There are very few people who can delete anything on our servers," the Winter Soldier took the papers from Kim, glancing at a few of the pages, confirming that he was already aware of all of the information. "And deleting anything is not done often. You're making accusations against some of the highest-level people."

"Exactly. I found proof of an outside influence here, information disappearing, prototypes gone one day and back the next, and I followed the trail, until I realized that everyone I reported to was involved. Then I kept digging and found out that this goes all the way to the top."

"Industrial espionage?" The Winter Soldier said sharply. "Who is the buyer? Where is the information going?"

"I'm not sure, but it's going everywhere. None of it is listed as involving any money, either going in or out." Kim paused. "The one thing that's mentioned again and again is Project Insight. What's Project Insight? I've never heard of it."