It's only been a short time since Lacey Williams grandfather died, leaving her his ramshackle home in a remote rural area. The last thing she expected to find was an injured fugitive hiding in the garage. His soft spoken manner conflicts with ever...
He heard the giggling before he opened his eyes. It was bad enough they didn't respect the privacy of his home but to wake him up early as well on his rest day was irritating at best. He opened his eyes and they scattered, running out of his hut while calling him White Wolf. He sat up and heard Shuri's voice outside gently chastising the three boys. Quietly he rose from the bed and smoothed the red robe he was wearing before bending his head to exit the hut. He looked around and felt the peacefulness of the village before he approached Shuri. She greeted him cheerfully, calling him Sergeant Barnes. He insisted she call him Bucky and she bowed her head in acknowledgement. When she asked him how he was feeling he replied that he felt good, then he fixed his gaze intently on her.
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"Thank you for everything you've done for me," he said quietly.
She smiled then told him they still had much to learn. He gazed at the serenity of the lake near his hut for a moment then turned away from it and followed her. In the five and a half months he had been there he had worked as a goat farmer, learned to make goat cheese, had helped with the harvesting of crops, all while still having sessions with Shuri on modern history and technology. In many ways it had been a surreal existence, balancing the old ways of living with the realities of modern society. But it had been peaceful and calm. The villagers accepted him and every once in a while he would play with the children, especially when they brought a soccer ball out, as he didn't need both of his arms for that. They went to a modern structure in the heart of the village where a computer terminal was set up. Bucky sat before it, with Shuri at his side.
"Before we start I have a question," he said calmly. "How exactly did you undo the HYDRA programming? Unlike the other treatments I have no memories of you trying anything. Which means either you took a big chance and did it in one try or you tried it on someone else first. Which was it?"
"Neither, really, Sergeant Barnes," replied the young woman. "If you must know I recreated your brain in a digital format. I copied every aspect of it and created a holographic version of it. Then I created an algorithm to feed into your recreated brain that would remove the trigger words and render them incapable of affecting you. I would enter the calculations and then enter the trigger words and see what the digital copy of your brain did in response. I wanted to remove the effect of the words but not remove the core of your own personality, the good man that was still in you, the protector."
"How many times did you have to adjust the algorithm to achieve success?" he asked. "As brilliant as you are I can't believe it worked the first time."
"It didn't," she admitted. "It took many tries." She hesitated for a moment wondering if she should tell him then remembered her promise to be truthful to him. "There were 387 attempts over the 4 months, 2 weeks and 6 days you stayed in full cryostasis. We were close several times and almost decided to apply the algorithm to your brain but not all problems were evident at first. Some problems took days to become known and we had to start from the beginning again."
