Sharp Edges

Chapter Sixteen

As they reached their destination hours later, Steve was roused awake as Sam shook his shoulder. He was instantly alert and standing before pulling a parachute on his shoulders.

Yelena got up and did the same, pulling on the parachute and picking up a communication device to slide into her ear. "Can you hear me?" she asked Steve as she walked towards the back of the jet. "Natasha, once Stark and Parker take down the security system, land the jet so that we'll be able to get back to it quickly."

Steve nodded as he adjusted his comm link. "Let's go."

Nat nodded and gave her a thumbs up. "You're good to jump."

Yelena gave a thumbs in reply and waited as Sam opened up the back hatch of the jet. "See you guys down there," she said, stepping to the edge of the hatch only to jump backwards out of the plane.

"She's got style," Sam said with an approving smirk before he fist bumped Cap. "What she said," he said, jumping out of the jet.

Steve chuckled before looking back at Nat, giving her a reassuring smile. Then he turned and jumped.

Their free fall lasted a good long time but each of them expertly landed on the ground. Once there, Yelena worked to discard her parachute and waited for Rogers and Wilson before she began towards the small compound.

"Can you guys hear us?" a young voice said from over the comm.

"Yes," she replied.

"Great. Security system is down," Peter's voice said to them.

She turned back to Steve. "Can you get the door open with your shield?" she asked.

Steve removed his shield from his back and looped it through his arm. "I can try." He walked up to the bunker door and looked at the lock. He smirked. Hydra was getting careless.

With one sharp movement, Steve had the lock busted and on the ground. "If this is it, I don't know what waits downstairs."

"The Winter Soldier," Yelena replied surely, walking up to the door. She pulled her batons off of her back and used her shoulder to push the heavy metal door open. She peered in around the edge of the door and saw no one, so she nodded for Steve and Sam to follow her inside.

The hall was dark, only emergency lights lit their way as they moved forward. "Normally there's guards," Sam murmured.

"They knew we were coming..." Yelena said quietly as they crept through the cold, dark hallway. "As soon as they realize we're in the building, they'll send the Soldier." As they reached the end of the hall, they got to a stairwell that went lower into the complex. She took a slow, deep breath as she began to descend.

Going down the stairs was eerily quiet. Nothing and no one came for them, and no alarm sounded. "This is creeping me out," Sam admitted.

Steve sighed, holding his shield at the ready. "Me too."

Yelena rolled her eyes. This was the type of environment she was used to. Typical Hydra. "Listen for anything. They're keeping the Soldier somewhere..." As they walked into the hall, it split into three hallways and she turned and looked at Sam and Steve. "We each take one and call out if we find him," she said, choosing the middle hall for herself.

Steve nodded and turned to the left, while Sam turned right. As Steve reached a room at the end of the hall, he noticed the door was ajar and the handle was torn apart. Creeping inside, he found four guards, dead.

He sighed and pressed his comm link. "Four guards are all dead here. No one else around. The handle to the door was torn apart."

"That's him," Yelena said, keeping her voice low. But why would he kill the guards? Was he programmed to do that? Or was James fighting back from inside? "I think that might be a good sign..." In a twisted way, it was. In spite of the pain he was in, he was fighting. That could make it easier to reach him.