Red Winter

Chapter 2 - Caught in the Web of Past

Iceland - Six months ago

Natasha has been on her own these past months and she doesn't mind especially seeing the progress they're having with their operation. The Black Widow used to work alone, anyway. 

Used to. The words echo in her head with a flash of Clint, Maria, and Steve's faces.

It distracts her for a second that she is startled by a harmless leaf falling a few inches from her face. She leans back a little too much that she ends up falling on her back. Layers of fallen and old leaves crunch underneath her. Natasha scrambles back up and quickly hides behind a tree, rolling her eyes at her own clumsiness.

It's autumn, idiot. Leaves can't help but fall, Natasha scolds herself silently. 

She stands still for a few more seconds before she's convinced that no one heard her. She slowly squats down, still behind the tree and focuses back her attention to the scene a little more than 600 yards in front of her.

The Big Boss Company base in Iceland is strategically situated in a clearing deep in the forest where no one can bother them and they won't bother anyone. The base is a three-storey mansion the Company legally bought from a rich family. But it now stands hollow after Fury sent an infantry of agents a week ago. 

Natasha remembers when she watched from a distance as the agents stormed inside, fired several rounds, and triumphantly captured several members of the Company. Hill's trainees are about to get some serious interrogation exercises, Natasha thought and smirked for a second. After combing the mansion for additional intel, they left as swiftly as they came. Mission accomplished.

Natasha surveys the mansion and counts six armed men, standing guard around the perimeter. What are they doing coming back here? Natasha asks silently. Also, what AM I doing back here? Fury confirmed to her that the scene was scrubbed clear of intel but since yesterday she couldn't shake off a weird knot in her stomach and this morning all she could hear in her head was 'go back'. So, despite a few risks, she hopped on her bike and sped back not sure what to expect.

"What are you up to now?" Natasha whispers to herself as she surveys the armed men through her binoculars. "Are you waiting for something?"

As if to answer her question, Natasha hears chopper blades from the distance that grow louder by the second. The chopper lands to her right, near the treeline where she's hiding. She directs her binoculars at the chopper and sees three more armed men step out followed by a woman. The woman has long brown hair, sharp nose and cheekbones. Natasha pegs her to be in her late 20s, wearing a long red coat, black tight pants underneath it, capped by black wedge heels at her feet. Still with the binoculars, Natasha follows as the woman walks towards the mansion and disappears inside followed by her posse.

Natasha knows she cannot engage but she can't just do nothing either especially now that there seems to be a new face in the Company that they're just learning of right now. Natasha quickly makes her way to the chopper, using the trees as her cover. She reaches the tail end of the chopper from the side that's hidden from the mansion and in less than 10 seconds manages to attach a tracking device on the underside of the its tail boom. Natasha smiles satisfactorily as the nano-technology in the device camouflage itself as just another rivet and the signal goes live on her phone screen. Then she disappears back behind the treeline just in time as the woman and her guards exit the mansion. Natasha watches as the woman continues walking back to the chopper but confusion spreads across her face as she notices the guards hastily abandon their posts, jump into their SUVs parked nearby and speed away.

That's not a good sign, Natasha tells herself. But she holds her ground and watches as the chopper finally takes off and then --- BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!