Assigned • s.r

Interrogation

Natasha, Steve and I got clothes that normal people would wear, and went to the mall.
"First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk."
"If I run in these shoes they're gonna fall off." Steve says, I laugh.
We walk into an Apple store and head straight for the laptops.
"The drive has a level 6 homing program so as soon as we boot up, SHIELD will know exactly where we are." Natasha says.
"How much time do we have?" Steve says looking around. Natasha is in front of the computer, I'm on her left and Steve's next to me, on my left.
"Um about 9 minutes from, now." She says, plugging the hard drive in.
"Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI it keeps rewriting itself the counter it commands."
"Can you override it?" Steve asks.
"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me," she said. "Slightly." I smile. "I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD used to track hostile malware so, if we can't read the file maybe we can find out where it came from."
"Can I help you guys with anything?" A employee came up to us. I looked at Steve and put my arm around his waist and hugged him.
"Oh no! My fiancée was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations." I say and look up at Steve while smiling.
"Right, we're getting married." Steve says.
"Congratulations! Where you guys thinking about going?" He says. Steve looks back at the screen.
"New Jersey."
"Ah," the employee says, he looks carefully at Steve and makes a face. Steve and I tense. "I have the exact same glasses."
"Wow you two are practically twins." Natasha says and I giggle behind Steve.
"Yeah I wish," He says and backs up. "Specimen." He puts his hands up, mentioning Steve's body.
"Sexy right?" I say to the employee and smack Steve's ass. He gets startled and looks back at me.
"If you guys need anything, ask for Aaron."
"Thank you." Steve smiles. Aaron walks away.
"What the hell was that?!" He whisper shouts to me. I giggle.
"I needed to make it realistic." I laugh.
"Realistic, alright." Natasha mocks me.
"You said 9 minutes come on." Steve says.
"Shh relax. Got it," the destination shows up on the screen and Steve looks at it closely. "You know it?"
"I used to, let's go." Steve says and pulls out the hard drive. We walk out with Natasha in my left and Steve on my right. "Standard tag team, 2 behind, 2 across, and 2 coming straight at us. If they see us and engage you head for the south escalator."
"Shut up, put your arm over me and laugh at something I said." I say as they get closer to us.
"Why?"
"Do it."
He does as said and looks back. We rush to the escalator and I see Rumlow. I turn around and face Steve. Natasha pretends to see something the opposite direction.
"Kiss me." I say.
"What?"
"Public Displays of affection make people very uncomfortable."
"Yes they do." Steve says.
I pull his face down to mine and our lips meet. He puts his hands on my waist.
"You can stop now." Natasha says. Steve pulls me closer and deepens the kiss. "Hey! Let's go!" She pulls us apart. I look at Steve and turn around.
"You still uncomfortable?"
"Not exactly the word I would use."
••
I sat in the front seat while Steve was driving. Natasha was in the back and had her elbows on each of our seats.
"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?"
"Yeah." Natasha looks at Steve.
"Nazi Germany. And we're borrowing, take your feet off the dash." He says to me. I smile and take my feet off.
"Alright I have a question for you. Of which you do not have to answer, I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it-"
"What?"
"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" I smirk.
"That bad huh?"
"I didn't say that." I smiled.
"Well it sounds like that's what you're saying."
"No. I didn't, I just wondered how much practice you had." I say. Nat was laughing her ass off in the back.
"I don't need practice."
"Everybody needs practice!"
"It was not my first kiss since 1945, I'm 95 not dead."
"Nobody special though?"
"Believe it or not it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience. Except for you."
"How do you know my life experience?"
Nat fell silent.
"Natasha!" I yell.
"I'm sorry! I can't not talk about you with Steve!" She says. "But that's alright, just make something up." She says to Steve.
"What, like you?"
"I don't know, the truth is a matter of circumstance, it's not all things to all people, all the time. Neither am I."
"That's a tough way to live."
"It's a good way not to die though."
"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who someone really is."
"Yeah. Who do you want me to be?" She asks.
"How bout a friend?"
"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers."
We pull up to a military camp base.
"This is it."
"The file came from these coordinates."
"So did I." Steve says.
••
We stayed till night fall and Nat held the Phone In the air.
"This is where you trained." I said to Steve, amazed.
"Yeah." He said, he put an arm around my waist and walked with me.
"Must have been hard."
"Back then it was, but thinking about it now, probably the easiest thing I could do."
"I wish I was there with you."
"You would've loved it," he said smiling. "You would've loved Bucky, Peggy, Abraham. Although I would've been a lot smaller and skinnier. " He said.
"That's alright," I said. "I would like you either way." I smile.
"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."
"What is it?" I ask Steve.
"Army regulations for it storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This buildings in the wrong place."
Steve smashes the lock with his shield. We walk down stairs to an area with desks.
"This is SHIELD." Nat says.
"Maybe where it started." Steve says.
We walk into a room and it has boxes in it.
"There's Stark's father." Nat says.
"Howard." Steve says.
"Who's the girl?" She asks, from Steve's stare I know that's Peggy.
He walks towards the bookshelf.
"If you're already working in a secret office," Steve says and pushes back the shelf. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?" We walked into the elevator and it took us down to a low floor. The elevator doors opened and we were presented with a dark room. We walked in and it lit up, it looked like a really really old electronic room.
"This can't be the data point, this technology's ancient."
"Like Steve." I giggle.
"Haha very funny." He squints his eyes. Nat laughs. She walks over to the computers, she sticks the hard drive in where it fits, everything lights up and comes to life.
"Initiate system?" The computer types and says at the same time.
"Yes." Nat types back.
"Shall we play a game?" Natasha smirks. "It's from a movie-"
"Yeah I know, I saw it."
"Rogers, Steven born 1918. Brody, Charlotte, Anne born 1985. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born 1984." The computer said.
"Some kind of recording." Natasha said, we looked at it strangely.
"I am not a recording, I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am."
"You know this thing?" Nat asks.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years."
"First correction, I am Swiss. 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 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain." Zola says.
"How did you get here?" Steve asks.
"Invited."
"It was operation Paperclip after World War II. SHEILD recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha mentioned.
"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."
"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve said.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."
"Prove it."
"Accessing archive. HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded, and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
"That's impossible. SHIELD would have stopped you." Natasha said.
"Accidents will happen. HYDRA created a world so chaotic, that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once a purification process is clean, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won Captain, your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero sum," Steve got angry and punched the screen hardly. I jumped at the impact. "As I was saying." Zola said, moving to the next screen.
"What's on this drive?" Steve pondered.
"Project insight requires insight. So, I wrote and algorithm."
"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" I asked and stepped forward.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Zola said. The elevator behind us began to close and Steve threw his shield to stop it but was too late.
"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic, 30 seconds tops."
"Who fired it?" Steve asks.
"SHIELD."
"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it. It's better this way. We are, both of us, out of time." Zola says. Nat pulls the hard drive out and we run to Steve. He picks up the metal piece that was attached to the floor and we jump in the square ground. Steve pulls me in his chest and I pull Natasha close to mine. Steve guards us with his shield and starts grunting from the debris falling on the shield. When it settles, Steve pushes the huge piece of debris away from us. I start coughing and go dizzy.
"I hate SHIELD!" I yell loudly. I look over and see Natasha blacked out.
"Nat." I shook her but no response. Steve picks her up and we make our way out of the hole. We see that SHIELD and its planes are on its way to our area, we start running.
••
Pierce is walking down the hallway, making his way to his refrigerator. He opens the door and grabs a carton of milk. He has a double take at who's sitting at his table. He is sitting at his table. The Winter Soldier.
"I'm going to go, Mr. Pierce. You need anything before I leave?" Pierce's maid, Renata says.
"No.. uh, it's fine, Renata, you can go home."
"Okay. Night-night."
"Good night," he says, keeping his stare on the soldier. "Want some milk?" he asks the soldier, but he stays silent. "The timetable has moved. Our window is limited. 3 targets, level 6. They already cost me Zola. I want confirmed death in 10 hours."
"Sorry, Mr. Pierce, I.. I forgot my.. phone." She looks at the soldier terrified, but turns her gaze to Pierce.
"Oh, Renata, I wish you would've knocked." He said as he picked up the gun sitting on the table. He turned around and shot her multiple times.
••
Natasha had woken up a few minutes after we ran from the base. It was dusk right now, we were walking to Sam's place, As Steve had said. I had asked who Sam was, Steve just said he's a running buddy. We knocked on his door and a few seconds later he opened up, Sweaty and panting.
"Hey man." Sam said, staring at us, considering that we were all dirty.
"I'm sorry about this, we need a place to lay low."
"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." I said.
"Not everyone." He said, letting us in and looking to make sure no one saw.
Natasha and I had wet our hair to get the dirt out. Nat is scrunching her hair up with it to dry it. I wet half of my towel to get the dirt off my face, and the other half to dry my hair. Steve was washing his hands and grabbed a towel to dry his hands and He was wearing a wife beater. He looked over at us and walked out of the bathroom.
"You girls okay?" He asks.
"Yeah." We reply in unison. He still had dirt stains on his arms and back.
"What's going on?" He asks Natasha, and sits next to me.
"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for HYDRA. I thought I knew those lies I was telling but, I guess I can't tell the difference anymore." She shrugged.
"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Steve said, she slightly smiled, Steve and I did also.
"I owe you."
"It's okay."
"If it was the other way around, and if was down to me to save your life, and you be honest with me.. Would you trust me to do it?"
"I would now. And I'm always honest." He smiled.
"You seem pretty chipped for someone who just found out they died for nothin'." I bumped into him and smiled.
"Well," he said and leaned back. "I guess I just like to know who I'm fighting."
"I made breakfast. If you guys eat that sort of thing." Sam said behind us. We walked out and went to his kitchen.
"So, the question is, who at SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?"
"Pierce." Steve says
"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world." I said, chewing my food.
"He's not working alone. Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star." Steve said.
"So was Jasper Sitwell."
"So, the real question is, how did the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?"
"The answer is, you don't." Sam said, walking over with a file and throwing it on the table.
"What's this?" I said, stopped eating and stood up, walked over to Steve and the file.
"Call it a resume." Nat picked up a picture.
"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you?" She asked Sam. "You didn't say he was a Pararescue."
"Is this Riley?"
"Yeah."
"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs," I said. "What did you use? A stealth chute?"
"No. These." He picked up the file and handed it to Steve.
"I thought you said you were a pilot." Steve said.
"I never said pilot." He said, I chuckled.
"I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason."
"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in." Steve nods.
"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" Steve asks.
"The last one is at Fort Meade. Behind three guarded gates and a 12-inch steel wall."
"Running buddy huh?" I say, staring at the picture and chew a piece of bacon.
Steve looked at Natasha and I and we shrugged.
"Shouldn't be a problem."
••
"Listen I gotta fly home tonight because I got a constituency problem and I got to press the flesh."
"Any constituent in particular, Mr. Senator?" Sitwell asks.
"Oh no, not really. 23, kind of hot. Real hot, you know? Wants to be a reporter, I think. I don't know. Who listens at that point?"
"Doesn't sound like much of a problem to me."
"Really? Because she's killing my back. But this isn't the place to talk about it. This is a nice pin." He says and touches Sitwell's SHIELD pin.
"Thank you."
"Come here," the senator says and they hug. "Heil HYDRA." The senator whispers in his ear.
The senator walks down the stairs and holds his knee.
"See, it's right there.."
"Yeah, I just saw that."
"Should I get it checked?"
"I think you should." The senator walks down the stairs into his car. Sitwell's phone rings and he grabs it out of his pocket to look at it.
Alexander Pierce
"I need a minute. Bring the car around," He tells the men in suits. "Yes sir?" He says into the phone.
"Agent Sitwell," Sam says into the phone. "How was lunch? I hear the crab cakes here are delicious."
"Who is this?" Sitwell says confused.
"The good-looking guy in the sunglasses, your 10 o' clock," Sitwell looks to his right, to find him. "Your other 10 o' clock. There you go." He turns to his left and sees him sitting there. Sam holds up his drink to show Sitwell who he's talking to.
"What do you want?"
"You're gonna go around the corner to your right. There's a gray car two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride."
"And why would I do that?" Sitwell asks.
"Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up." Sam says. Sitwell looks down and sees a red dot on his chest and panics. He looks around to see the shooter but can't find them.
••
Steve, Natasha and I walk out to the top of a building. Sitwell drags across the concrete.
"Tell me about Zola's algorithm." Steve demands and walks towards Sitwell. He puts his glasses back on.
"Never heard of it." He backs up.
"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?"
"I was throwing up, I get seasick." He backs up to the end of the building and nearly falls. Steve catches him and grabs a two fistfuls of his suit.
"Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Cause it's really not your style, Rogers."
"You're right. It's not." Steve let's go of him and smooths out his suit.
"It's hers." I say, and mention towards Natasha. She kicks him in the chest and he falls off the roof. Natasha continues to talk about getting Steve a date. I chuckle and roll my eyes.
"Oh, wait. What about that girl from Accounting, Laura.. Lisa.."
"Lillian," I say, Steve looks at me confused, wondering why I'm onto this. "Lip piercing, right?"
"Yeah, she's cute." Nat says.
"Yeah. I'm not ready for that." Steve says.
Sitwell gets thrown back to the top to the building by Sam. Sam flys back around and his wings settle back in the closure on his back. We walk to Sitwell on the floor. He holds his hand up, in a scared manner.
"Zola's algorithm is a program.. For choosing, insights targets."
"What targets?"
"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Under Secretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City.. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA. Now, or in the future." He pants.
"In the future? How could it know?"
Sitwell laughs. "How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it," We looked at him confused. "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, emails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores! Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past.. to predict their future."
"And what then?" Steve asks.
"Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me."
"What then?" Steve steps towards Sitwell and Sam grabs the back of his suit.
"Then the insight helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time."
•••
YAY ANOTHER CHAPER YAY
This one is more of an informational chapter, lots of words, kind of boring but very informing. But I hoped you guys liked it. :)
Posting another soon!
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Much love xx :)