Red Thorn

Chapter 8

May 2014

"This is it," Steve said as they pulled up to an abandoned military base.

Natasha looked down to her phone, then back up again. "This is where the file came from."

"So did I," he replied as they walked around, following the signal on the redhead's phone. "This camp is where I was trained."

"Changed much?" Nat asked.

"A little..."

She sighed in despair. "This is a dead end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."

Red, who hadn't breathed a word to Steve since their earlier conversation in the car, only ever meeting his gaze to glare at him, elbowed Natasha in the side when she noticed that a building had piqued the super soldier's interest.

"What is it?" she asked, both herself and Red following him over to it.

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks." Using his shield, Steve broke the lock. "This building is in the wrong place."

The three of them carefully made their way inside, surprised by what it was when they turned on the lights. "This is SHIELD," Nat observed.

"Maybe where it started," he replied.

"There's Stark's father," she said, pointing to one of the three portraits hanging on a wall; those of Howard Stark, Colonel Chester Phillips, and Agent Peggy Carter.

"Howard..."

Noticing the sad look in Steve's eyes, she asked, "Who's the girl?"

"Natasha!" Red scolded as he walked away without a word, towards one of the bookcases.

"If you're already working in a secret office..." he said, sliding the bookshelf to reveal large steal doors. "Why do you need to hide the elevators?"

The lift led to an old underground room filled with outdated computers. "This can't be the data point, this technology is positively ancient."

Red once again elbowed her in the side, showing her a small flash drive point. Natasha inserted the device, activating the computer system. A message popped up on the screen, 'Initiate system?'

"Y-E-S, spells yes," Natasha said, typing on the keyboard. "Shall we play a game? It's from a movie that—" she told Steve but he cut her off.

"Yeah, I saw it."

Suddenly, a male voice filled the air, his voice pixilated and with a distinct accent. "Rogers, Steven, born 1918. Natalia Alianovna, born 1984." They watched as an old camera moved from one side to another, almost as if it was analysing them. Then it stopped on Red. "The Red Thorn, a ghost, no records, not even a name, only known sighting during the battle of New York."

"It's some sort of recording," the Black Widow deducted.

"I am not a recording Fräulein," the voice snapped. "I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am."

A picture appeared on the screen and Natasha asked, "Do you know this thing?"

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull," Steve explained. "He's been dead for years."

"First correction, I am Swiss," Zola said. "Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are now standing in my brain."