Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter Fifty-Seven: The Winter Soldier - Double Bluff

The Winter Soldier - Double Bluff

In a quiet, undisturbed part of Spain stands a huge villa. It is over two hundred years old and immense where it has been added to over the centuries. It stands in its own grounds, surrounded by a huge high wall and has its own compliment of guards with dogs on patrol. This is just one of many properties owned by Reuben Kendrick, a Scottish millionaire several times over.

He believes money can buy him everything – even a way out of the wheelchair he is confined to.

He is eating a quiet leisurely breakfast at one of his estates in Scotland when a report of an intruder at the Villa is given to him. He tells his men to interrogate the man, to discover what it is he is after. It is unfortunate they have not given him all the details; it will be another four hours before he learns who it is his men have captured. And another hour and a half before his helicopter can get him there.

By then, it is almost too late.

*

The Winter Soldier is running through the Villa garden. It is huge and circles the property. He has tripped the Villa's defences. Up ahead he can see guards running towards him, can hear the dogs barking. They are shouting at him, weapons drawn, yelling at him to stop, to cease and desist, to surrender.

He looks behind him. Just as many guards are coming up to him from that direction and from the side. He is totally outnumbered. Even so this would not normally stop him but it does this time and he comes to a halt. He stands waiting for them to get closer and sensing a trap they do so cautiously.

Two of the men use their rifle butts to hit the back of his legs so that he goes down on to his knees. They yell at him to put his hands up and he does. They remove his gun, it is the only one he has, that and a knife in his belt which they also take.

He has completed the first part of his mission. He has allowed them to capture him.

*

"You cannot fight back. You will do nothing to defend yourself."

That command is utmost in the Winter Soldier's mind as the man once again punches him across the jaw, sending blood splattering the floor in a fine spray. They have him tied to a chair. They do not realise yet what they have. The man striking him is trying to find out why this man invaded the grounds, why he had a gun, what has he come here for?

The interrogator is out of his depths. He is not even trained; he is just one of many mercenary's hired to protect the property, he is only interested in money. Mean, cruel. He likes to interrogate and has no finesse about him. He has made up his own mind that this is a simple burglary and he will make the would-be thief pay. They are underneath the Villa, in part of what was once an underground wine cellar but is beginning to become so much more.

"Strip him," he tells the other two. They undo the ropes tying the man and pull him to his feet. Blood dribbles from his broken nose. He also has a fractured eye socket. The men first strip the gloves from his hands and then roughly take off his jacket, and that is when they see it.

One of the intruder's arms is metal, emblazoned on the bicep with a red star. They have never seen anything like it before.

"Well, what have we here?" The man in charge of the interrogation does not know, does not realise how valuable a prize they have captured. He has never been told about the 'famous' soldier with the metal arm. He has no idea that his employer would want him to stop right now.

They remove his tee-shirt and push him backwards onto the chair again. He has not said a word, not once looked at them. Once again they tie his arms to the back of the chair. His face and stomach are bruised from the previous battering, and now the man in charge is feeling around at the top of the metal arm, at the plates.