What If...? Rumlow Turned Against Hydra: Book One

13

Rain was beating against the windows of the short, nondescript row house in the Cherry Hill neighborhood of Baltimore as thunder rolled almost nonstop. It was midday but the clouds were so thick and dark it may as well have been evening. Natasha and Rumlow sat at a table near the large window facing the street, sipping coffee and trying not to be tense but they could not relax. Natasha glanced often toward the back of the row house where Barnes or the Winter Soldier, she wasn't sure which he was at that moment, was sitting, multiple laptops open on a desk which also had PC screens and hard drives. He was constantly on the phone, or sending messages, but he at least did not seem tense or anxious. There was an air of cold, focused intelligence about him, a decisiveness that made it seem as if he was completely in control. Natasha couldn't decide if he was truly in control or not, but even if he wasn't she appreciated the appearance of it.

"I've never heard of this organization in Madripoor," Rumlow commented as lightning flashed directly across the street. The answering clap of thunder shook the walls of the row house.

"I haven't either, and I don't know if SHIELD ever knew about it, but it isn't surprising," she answered. "Not if it's seen as a criminal group. No one cares about organized crime in Madripoor, in fact it's expected."

"I know SHIELD sent people there occasionally," Rumlow said, shrugging.

"Only because it was seen as outside of any law, even international law. It's the perfect place for government agents to meet with one another, or spy on each other without consequences. The CIA and KGB made of use of it often."

"It's a small island nation, mostly just one large city of the same name," Rumlow said, reciting from a Google search. "I'd heard of it when I was a kid too, rumors that Madripoor was where people went as a last resort, where no one could arrest them."

"You associated with criminals as a kid?" Natasha raised her eyebrows at him, curious but not judgmental. She had no desire to be judgmental with her background.

"All the time. Mean streets and all, but it was low-level stuff, drugs, gangs, the everyday kind of crime that only makes local papers or neighborhood rumors. Madripoor was sort of seen as the place to go to try and be someone in the criminal world." He laughed slightly. "It sounded really fun to a kid, go where you can be respected, and no one would tell you what to do. It turns out, someone was running the place."

"The whole idea of Madripoor is that no one really runs the place," Natasha reminded him, but both of them looked toward Barnes. Neither was quite sure how to help him as he was doing whatever he was trying to do, but they both understood he would let them know when they were needed. "But it looks like there is unofficial leadership. It makes sense, otherwise how would the city even function?"

"I'd heard of the Winter Soldier, only saw him once, with his face half covered, before that day when I betrayed Steve. Most in Hydra referred to the Winter Soldier as Asset 1. Rumors, whispered stories, occasional threats were all there was about him. I wasn't sure what to believe and mostly just tried to do my job. Then I finally saw his face, and later heard who he really was, from Steve himself after he'd been captured. An assassin, intelligence asset, soldier or whatever makes perfect sense, but what he's built in Madripoor is beyond anything I would have suspected. Hydra may have handed him the exact way to take them all down."

"I knew of the Winter Soldier," Natasha said thoughtfully. "All of us knew of him in the KGB, and later when I was with SHIELD, there were rumors. I came face to face with him in Odessa, where he shot through me to kill an Iranian nuclear scientist. I tried to track him after that, but everything was a dead end."