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...
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Over Europe
The memories were returning, wave after wave, like home movies of Lacey's life. They weren't in any particular order but as soon as they appeared she knew where they belonged. Some made her laugh and some cry but she accepted all of them, hungering for the information they gave her. She was Lacey Williams, mother of Tommy, in love with Bucky Barnes, sister of Terry, Tom, and Nancy Williams, daughter of Frank and Linda Williams. Even though she knew that all the memories of those people were incomplete she was still happy. The brunette woman and the man had tied her up and gagged her to keep her vocalizations down as more of her life flooded into her brain but that didn't bother Lacey. These were her memories, they belonged to her and the attempt to strip them from her had failed. No matter what happened, even if they killed her, she knew who she was.
"What do we do?" asked the brunette woman in Russian. "She was to be sold as a blank slate, able to be programmed or moulded to the client's specifications. Now that her memories are returning no one will buy a woman of her age, except as a domestic. That won't cover Dendrov's costs and he will take it out on us."
"We don't have to worry about that anymore," said the man. "I just checked my emails. Dendrov was arrested in New York. The Avengers raided the hotel, freed all the women there and those in the shipping container for the next shipment. Dendrov won't even get a trial. He's being put into the Raft as an enemy of humanity."
The woman thought for a moment. "We could let her go," she suggested. "Drop her off at a private airfield then take off back to Russia. She doesn't know our names."
"No, but she does know our faces," he answered. "I also found out who she is. Dendrov was a fool to buy her. She's an author, with an avid following. L.C. Chapman. There's talk of her last book being turned into a movie."
"So you want to kill her?" asked the woman. "What about Barnes? If it's true that they're lovers he won't let up until he finds us. Do you want the Winter Soldier searching for you?"
"He will whether we kill her or not," replied the man. "We're fucked either way. Not just from him either. The Pakhan knows about the raid. He's ordered everyone in New York to burn their bridges and get out of there. They're meeting at a rendezvous and determining their next move. He wants to know who we're carrying."
"Fuck," said the woman and they both turned to look at Lacey who watched them defiantly from where she was sitting.
If the Pakhan, the boss of their syndicate, was ordering their New York brotherhood to pack up shop then it meant everything was lost. He might be inclined to make an example of the blonde and it could end up being quite gruesome.
"Does he know of her connection to Barnes?" she asked.
"No, but I will tell him," said the man. "I'm not sure even he wants the Winter Soldier after him. Do you remember when he got to Samsonov? I do. He took out the man's full security detail within minutes. Killed that poor bastard by asphyxiation, probably with that prosthetic hand of his."
