Traceur

•03•

Steve's POV.
"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" I ask rhetorically, stalking into Fury's office.

"I didn't lie," Fury retorts. "Agents Romanoff and Lundrinov had a different mission than yours."

"Which you didn't feel obliged to share," I return, and he glares at me.

"I'm not obliged to do anything," he quips, leaning into his chair.

"Those hostages could've died, Nick," I point out, frustration building up inside me. How can he not understand this? And why did he refer to Levi as 'Agent Lundrinov'? She hasn't even been trained yet!

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen," Nick replies, and I grind my teeth.

"Soldiers trust each other, that's what makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns."

"The last time I trusted someone," Nick starts, getting irritated, "I lost an eye. Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agents Romanoff and Lundrinov are comfortable with everything."

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own," I point out, then furrow my brows. "And why do you keep calling Levi an agent? She's never said anything about getting trained to be one."

"It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all." He only answered one of my questions.

"Except you."

"You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that."

I realize that he isn't sitting anymore, and we're now heading towards the elevators. I guess I was too caught up in the argument to realize we're heading somewhere.

We step inside the elevator, and Nick says, "Insight bay."  I guess he's talking to an AI, because a woman's voice replies from the speakers, "Captain Rogers does not have clearance for Project Insight."

"Director override, Fury, Nicholas J.," he commands, and the computer replies, "Confirmed."

We start moving down, and the awkward silence fills the elevator. I shift uncomfortably.

"You know, they used to play music," I fill in, wondering if nowadays, elevators are just doused in silence. At least we had something to fill in the blank spaces.

"Yeah," Nick replies. "My grandfather operated one of these things for forty years. My grandad worked in a nice building, he got good tips. He'd walk home every night, roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say 'hi', people would say 'hi' back. Time went on," Nick pauses, "neighborhood got tougher. He'd say 'hi', they'd say 'keep on steppin'.' Grandad got to grippin' that lunch bag a little tighter."

"Did he ever get mugged?" I ask, half out of interest and mostly because Nick obviously hasn't finished his story yet.

"Every week," he begins again, "some punk would say, 'what's in the bag?'"

"What did he do?"

"He'd show 'em. Bunch of crumpled ones and a loaded .22 Magnum."

Nick smiles, and I realize that with that smile, he doesn't look like 'Director Fury' anymore. He just looks like another man you'd find at the grocery store, smiling wistfully and thinking about the future. Instead, he's built up his walls and has become the man changing the future, and 'Project Insight's probably got something to do with it.

"Granddad loved people," Nick finishes as the elevator stops, "but he didn't trust them very much." 

I ponder his tale. Maybe Fury's like that, I guess. Just a little. He certainly doesn't trust many, but maybe on the inside, he just needs someone to get close to.

Levi would say that I'm having a 'teddy bear moment', I think to myself, remembering how she teases me every single time I do anything. We have what I've come to think of as a father-daughter relationship. I don't know if she sees it that way, but I certainly do.

The doors open, and I gape at the huge Helicarriers, quickly hiding my awe before Nick sees it. I don't want to poked at more than I need to be, especially when it comes to my fascination with this futuristic world. Everything's completely different...

"Yeah, I know. They're a little bit bigger than a .22," Nick smiles, and I realize o didn't hide my awe well enough.

As he shows me around, he says, "This is Project Insight. Three next-generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites."

"Launched from the Lemurian Star," I figure, and he continues.

"Once we get them in the air, they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight, courtesy of our new repulsor engines."

"Stark?" I guess, and he sighs.

"Well, he had a few suggestions once he got an up-close look at our old turbines. These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole." Nick looks proud, which is something I feel sick about. "We goanna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen."

"I thought the punishment usually came after the crime," I retort, and Nick turns to me.

"We can't afford to wait that long."

"Who's 'we'?"

"After New York," he begins again, "I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once, we're way ahead of the curve."

"By holding a gun at everyone on earth and calling it protection," I reply, the sickness taking over my words. I'd normally be more discreet about my disagreement, but whenever I don't agree with what someone's doing...well, I can't really keep it to myself.

"You know," Nick starts, aggravated, "I read those SSR files. Greatest generation? You guys did some nasty stuff."

"Yeah," I growl, "we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so the people could be free. This isn't freedom," I finish, "this is fear."

"SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we'd like it or be. It's getting damn near past time for you to get with that program Cap. And by the way, Lundrinov didn't need training. We tested her, and she was already in tip-top shape, with the mentality only the best agents have and willingness to do anything we require. She's not just your tag-along- she's your superior. And she's one of my best agents, so you're going to have to accept that sometimes, even the people we care for have to keep things away from us."

"Don't hold your breath," I reply coldly, turning away and storming off.

Maybe Levi and I should have a little conversation soon.