Red Room

RR48 White Raven

"My vote is to check out Luka's last known location. We may need Dove for that, he could know where he used to live," Bobbi said as they dug through some more research the next day.

Natasha agreed with her though she had her doubts. "It's a long shot, if he retired I doubt he would have stuck around, but as of this moment we have no other options."

"Unless we infiltrate HYDRA..." Darcy muttered under her breath, clearly in a bad mood. She had thrown out that same suggestion earlier, but it was shot down in an instant. Everyone knew who the Black Widow was, and Bobbi had done it once before so she was bound to be recognized because of that, and also because of her SHIELD status as being active. Darcy had been the one to volunteer to go in but the two senior agents were uneasy with the thought. She was just too untrained and it was too dangerous.

"You know we can't do that Darcy, Natasha said as she closed the laptop for the second time in frustration. Let's go see Dove and figure out where to go from there.

The road to the old Red Room compound was icy and cold. Natasha tried to get Bobbi to stay behind but of course she wasn't having it. When the familiar gray building came into view, they skirted around it and entered through the hole in the fence. They wanted to keep the main gate looking like the compound was completely abandoned, and Dove had thought the same way.

"Shouldn't you be resting?" they heard as they entered Dove's room. It was directed to Bobbi who just rolled her eyes at him in response. He was currently sitting on the couch that was still in front of the fireplace, going over some files he had found in the compound. It had become one of his hobbies lately; with nothing else to do, he was left to explore the halls. Though he found very little, what he did find helped pass the time.

"Anything interesting?" Natasha asked as she stationed herself in front of the fireplace to try and chase some of the chill away.

"Nothing at all," Dove said before casting the papers to the side. "They left all the boring stuff. Anyways, what brings you all here to my humble abode today?"

Darcy had joined Dove on the couch and Bobbi stood beside Natasha. Darcy answered his question though she was still in a sour mood.

"We need to find out more about Luka, your old mentor. We think that Project Lazarus could give us some more clues about our next step."

"I don't know how much help I can be," he said looking a little crestfallen, "he was always so secretive."

"Aren't all HYDRA agents?" Bobbi chimed in sarcastically.

It made Dove upset for a moment until he looked up and saw that she was only joking. Maybe they had moved past their hatred for one another? Anyways it was a step forward.

Cutting to the chase, Natasha encouraged him to share what he knew.

"Well," he started, "he was always in his lab, but the times I did get to train with him, he struck me as a genuine man. He was always true to his word, at least to me. Luka would always help me out when I was in a bind, he knew I was against HYDRA and when I started to sabotage things, he pretended like he didn't know it was me. I know that he knew."

"How did you know?" Darcy asked intrigued.

"He would always 'accidently' leave a restricted door open for me after putting in his code, or when I was in the middle of downloading files, he would strike up a conversation with anyone about to enter the room to keep me from getting caught. He never said a word though, or asked any questions about what exactly it was that I was doing. And I honestly never asked because I was so paranoid."