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

18

Alexander Pierce shut the door to his office once the last person in the meeting had left. He had less than hour before he would be in another meeting, in front of the World Security Council in his role as Secretary. Eventually, there would no longer be a World Security Council, only Hydra, once Hydra was in its proper place. At that point in the very near future, meetings would be different, better, without the infighting so common to the World Security Council. The world would eventually realize how much better Hydra would run everything, with all talents finding a place to contribute to a safe, secure and modern society. There wouldn't be threats any longer, not from anyone on Earth, simply because all such people would be eliminated long before they could become a threat. The people on that particular list would obviously include anyone against Hydra, as well as criminals, terrorists, anyone that could threaten the safety and security of the new world Hydra would create. Threats from beyond Earth would be far easier to deal with once Hydra was in a position to dictate all defenses, use technology as they saw fit, then act with overwhelming force whenever needed. It would be a beautiful world; Pierce looked forward to that day.

He was not impatient, no matter how much he wanted Hydra's goals to be achieved. The fruition of their plans was so close it would be natural to become impatient, even reckless, but he knew the value of continuing to play the part he'd played so well to ensure Hydra was able to take their rightful place. Giving in to a childish lack of control by moving too fast would destroy them. He was confident but knew from long experience things could always go wrong. The destruction of the deep cover site not far from Washington D.C. was a prime example.

It wasn't a surprise that Rumlow remembered that site, or that he'd been able to get inside, especially with the help of Black Widow and the Winter Soldier. What was surprising was the scope of the destruction, which could only have been because of the Winter Soldier, no one else. Pierce would have been convinced of that even if he hadn't viewed footage from the security cameras, retrieved by Zola specifically to show evidence of what had happened there.

In spite of the loss of the site - which was significant - Pierce enjoyed watching the Winter Soldier in action. In less than ten minutes, over forty people in the warehouse portion of the site had been killed, in spite of their ability to offer heavy resistance. The Winter Soldier had no trouble dealing with them, using all of the skills he'd been given by Hydra, proving just how important he would be to Hydra in the future when he was finally recaptured. He was an asset that had to be returned to Hydra, it was a fact that was almost enough to keep Pierce up at night when he thought about it. The Winter Soldier and Rogers together, loyal to Hydra, two super soldiers that would complement each other's skills until they were unstoppable. It made the loss of the site, and the subsequent damage control that had to be done with such a high-profile explosion, somewhat easier to stomach.

"We have our own people retrieving the bodies, and removing anything that the press or anyone poking around would find suspicious," a voice with a German accent said from his computer screen, interrupting his thoughts. Pierce had been expecting to be contacted once his other meeting was over, giving the screen his full attention. The image on the screen was disturbing to some, but he thought it was apt, considering it had originally been created in the 1970's, long before computers would be capable of reproducing a human face with more accuracy. Pierce could see Zola's original features, distorted, but visible impressing him anew with the technology of the time that had been able to keep Hydra's mastermind alive in the form of an artificial intelligence that had no equal.

"The news is blaring information about this 'accident' from every platform they can," Pierce said with a shake of his head. "It's unfortunate, but so far, no one has released information that people were killed by gunfire, which would cause far too much chaos for us."