Strings - A Winter Story

-10-

"A woman must not depend on the protection of a man but be taught to protect herself"

NEW YORK

"How did she know? I don't understand?" Bucky questions, annoyance at his own performance is evident as he enterS the rear entrance to the quin jet, his best friend in tow.

"We all thought she would fall for it Buck, seems she's a step ahead. Don't blame yourself" Captain Steve Rodgers reassures as he places his hand on Bucky's shoulder and squeezes it slightly. The men exchange a look and a smile. Since Bucky defected from HYDRA, him and Steve have been building on their renewed friendship, he is settling in pretty well all considered. Building trust is an ongoing and long term mission.

"Steve we all good? We need to go before we are spotted" the female voice of Natasha Romanoff calls out from the pilot sit of the SHIELD jet, her red hair the most vibrant colour in sight.

"Yeah, take us home" Steve replies to his friend and co-worker, seconds later the engine hum to life and the jet rises from the ground. The engines cause some light debris and dusk to spin around on the ground. However, they are soon  flying away from the crumbling building before any authorities have seen them.

"Buck, we can discuss the mission with the rest of the team when we land" Steve tries to give his friend some peace of mind. Buck forces a slight smile and nods in agreement. The pair busy themselves with rearranging some of the boxes in the storage compartment.

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NEW YORK

An hour after Autumn hitched a ride on the train, she has arrived at the outskirts of a city she easily identifies t9 be New York. As the train slows she hovers near the edge of the carriage. Moments later she leaps and lands steadily on both her feet. She has no gear with her but that is not a problem. She has prepared herself for any situation, this very one included. Autumn isn't in some random area looking for a spot to sleep, she knows exactly where she is and where she is going. Autumn continues walking for another twenty minutes until she reaches a stone wall at the corner of a field in rural New York. She loweres herself to her knees and starts clawing at the soft dirt that was on the ground. Her fingers complain but she doesn't care. After a short period of digging, she pulls out a clear plastic bag that has been buried one foot underground. She smiles, content that no one has found one of her many secret stashes.

"Hey sexy" she whispers to herself as she pulls out an identical matte black 9mm handgun to her last one. It is fully loaded and perfectly clean. She also pulls out a falsified credit card, a pocket knife, some cash and a disposable phone. Satisfied that she has enough to keep her going she departs, leaving nothing behind except a hole in the ground. Dogs would be to blame if anyone even spots it at all.

She has a while to walk until she got to the next motel so she busies herself with this Bucky guy and SHIELD. Obviously she knows who he is, ex-master assassin who has taken out more people than even Autumn has. He was HYDRA for around sixty or seventy years until Captain America arrived to rescue his long lost best friend. This slightly annoys her, she is jealous that someone would be willing to wait to save their best friend. What that must be like she ponders.

So from what she has gathered, Bucky is with SHIELD along with Captain Stars and Stripes and a whole load of other people known collectively as The Avengers, and they want her because why?

Do they see her as a threat? Hopefully.

An ally? Hopefully not.

Then a more worrying question puzzles her brain. How did Bucky know she would be there, at that exact spot when she killed Sitwell. She then has a thought about the sender, how they almost instructed her to be there in that exact spot. Bucky had said her employer was HYDRA so what if SHIELD had hacked her employers phone and seen the message they sent to Autumn, they basically gave away where she would be at that exact moment in time. This is supported by the fact that Bucky had managed to track Autumns last phone, what's stopping them from hacking the senders too?