To the end of the line - stucky

Frozen Waters And Game Show Hosts

"Let's see how many we've got", said Tony, bringing up the lists of people they'd all made.

It had three headings with hundreds of people in each list.

"So we have over a thousand in, 'definitely not a terrorist'. I feel like a game show host", he suddenly said as he turned around and pretended to grab either side of a nonexistent suit.

"Tony", Sam reminded him.

"Right", he turned back around and carried on. "We have three hundred in possibly a terrorist and over a hundred people who we think definitely match this description".

Even though they'd been working on it all night, it still hadn't sunk in that they may have just found over a hundred people they were looking for, when only last week they didn't even know the name of the one they had downstairs.

"I say we all go through the maybe list together and see how many for sure we need to look into", suggested Wanda.

Everyone agreed, so they got a single person at a time and read through their file to determine if they should be brought in or not.

By the time they were finished, it was lunchtime, but none of them thought of food. They were so close they could feel it. Buzzing with anticipation. Like at the end of a race and you're so close to winning, you suddenly feel the ache in your legs and hear the shouting of the crowd. But until that point, you'd blocked it all out to focus on what's ahead. Well, now they could feel the pressure more than ever. How little time they had left and how much was at stake.

"We have one hundred and fifty-six people here who we think are terrorists", spoke Tony.

"What do they all have in common?"

"All have degrees or have something to prove they could be smart. And all of them spent a minimum of a year in Canada at one time. And.... All of them went to Saskatchewan!"

Tony spread his arms open and looked to the ceiling like he'd just finished a play and was absorbing the applause from the crowd. He then held his arm out and did a fake mic drop before actually bowing.

"Thank you, thank you", he said.

Everyone rolled their eyes, but because of how exciting this all was, some of them even laughed, or fake clapped along.

"Can we see exactly where in Saskatchewan they went?" Asked Nat.

With a single button, like he'd already thought about it, Tony got up a big virtualised map with countless little red dots.

"Each dot represents a person".

It was clear what they do next. The dots surrounded one area. It was a fairly big area, but now they had around three-quarters less to look through.

"I'm going to do another search, but this time I'll set the parameters to this area".

"It actually looks like a circle surrounding that one area", Bruce pointed out. "Maybe they train there?"

"We'll find out soon", smiled Tony. "We'll get more matches, and we'll find the place they're meeting at".

"Could Steve and Bucky be at their base?" Asked Wanda out loud into the quietness of the room.

"I don't know", replied Sam. "I think if they managed to find them first, then it's possible".

"Then we need to work as fast as we can".

*

Bucky's exhausted when he wakes up again that morning. Or is it the afternoon? He isn't entirely sure. They've been sleeping whenever they want for the last few days since Steve got ill, and that turned out to be a lot. It's the best thing to do around here, and with him worrying so much, it helped for the moments he does manage to actually sleep.