Insanity

Chapter 8

Song: Lovely by Billie Eilish and Khalid

☆☆☆

"Isn't it lovely? All alone.
Heart made of glass, my
mind of stone."

☆☆☆

The following day, Barnes watched Natalia rise from the last of her warm up stretches, shaking out her arms. He nodded in approval. "Right, so today we're going to work on your espionage work. We'll act out a few different scenarios, and you'll demonstrate to me how you would think best to get through them. We'll also tackle weapon training and maybe a little combat too," he instructed, pacing back and forth in front of her.

Natalia nodded, wicking away the sheen of sweat on her forehead with her wrist. "Okay, what's first?" she asked, bobbing back and forth on her feet.

"Espionage," Barnes said, stopping in front of her. "Want to start easy, medium, or hard?"

Natalia chewed on her bottom lip, crossing her arms across her black tank top. "Let's start easy, a nice warm up."

Barnes raised his eyebrows, amused. "Okay then. I'm an American army general and you need to get information out of me about the location of a nuclear bomb core that my men stole from Hydra," he said, taking to the pacing once more. "The keys to the facility are in my back left pocket. Go." He turned, beginning to walk away from Natalia when he heard a shuffle from behind him. Natalia lightly tapped his shoulder and he turned, surprised to see a stoic, straight expression on her face.

"General, er, Williams?" she asked, flattening her hands at her sides in the same way an American army recruit would when standing at attention. Barnes raised an eyebrow, saying nothing. "Lieutenant Johnson requires your assistance, something about smoking a platoon," Natalia continued.

"Where at?" Barnes asked, crossing his arms.

"With the core, sir," Natalia said.

"And why can't he smoke them himself?" Barnes asked, challenging her lie. "He's a lieutenant, he should know how."

Natalia's stare was unwavering. "He gave no reason, sir. Just sent me here to get you."

"He doesn't have access to the core. How did he get there?" Barnes pressed, stepping closer to Natalia.

Natalia paused a moment. "I believe one of his men snuck in the facility with it, sir."

"Fine, then I'll go to him. You're dismissed," he said, turning around and heading for the door once more. Though he half expected it, as he turned he felt a sharp shock to his side and as any human aside from himself would do, dropped to the ground. Or at least, he was fairly sure he was the only tazer-resistant human, though he knew he could one day find himself surprised.

Natalia wasted no time in pouncing on top of him, rolling him onto his back. She kept him pinned down with her legs, sitting directly on top of him to keep him from moving. She leaned forward, holding a small dagger to his throat. Normally, he would have fought back. But if this situation was real and and actually happening, the general would have been temporarily paralyzed and unable to move, so Barnes stayed limp beneath Natalia's weight, succumbing to her methods. And honestly, he didn't really mind.

"Where's the nuclear core?" she demanded, snaking her hand around to his back pocket to grab the nonexistent keys.

"I won't tell you," Barnes said.

Natalia pressed the dagger deeper into his throat, stopping just at the tipping point of drawing blood. "Actually, I think you will. Because if you don't, the entire squadron of people here with me will blow up your entire base, target the families of all of your soldiers and kill them. We've got eyes on you right now, General," she hissed, her voice deep and low.