Dead Memories

5

Chapter Five

'The girl's name is Zora Đjurović,' Natasha told them when she returned. 'She went missing over a year ago, was assumed dead.'

'So what did Hydra want with her?' asked Sam.

'She's the daughter of a Serbian general, but so far we've got nothing from him. He'll have to answer some questions later. He's staying with his daughter in the hospital for now.'

'So was she a prisoner or did they want her for anything else?' Clint asked.

'She's still being examined,' Natasha said. 'They'll call me if they notice anything unusual about her. She's traumatized, she doesn't speak, but she is relatively healthy, and uninjured.'

'This is so messed-up,' Sam sighed. Sick bastards, who would keep a little girl like that, locked up in some glass cage in a basement. They could only guess at the moment. Maybe she was used to control her father, if he even knew she was alive, or there could be something even more sinister about her abduction and imprisonment. Hydra was known for getting their hands on people with unusual potential.

'They have paid for this dreadful crime,' Thor said with a hard voice. 'We have killed or captured all that have not been defeated by our Captain's friend and his companion.'

Steve remained silent, even when almost all of them glanced his way. He's been very tight-lipped about what happened after he ran into Barnes. What he said sounded like a very clinical report, very unlike Steve. He was still processing what happened, deep in thought, eyes far away.

'My question is,' Clint started. 'Why did they lure us here, if that guy could make a friggin' door to nowhere? I mean, I would get it if they suspected that the building would be locked down, and they needed someone to get in from the outside.'

'I believe the building might have been sealed off in more ways than our eyes could see,' Thor said.

'You mean the occult shit?' Clint asked.

'I do not know all the symbols they have etched on the walls, but we mustn't underestimate the knowledge Hydra has gathered through the years.'

'We did find those freaky things on walls all over the place,' Sam nodded. For a moment his world felt very surreal, discussing this sort of thing, but he marched onwards. Eyes on the ball, they needed to think, not freak out about weird Hydra magic defences.

'So, we can assume that they did need us to get in from the outside. Does that mean there really is just the two of them?' theorized Natasha. 'Did the two of them attack every single one of the Hydra facilities?'

Under normal circumstances, it would have been impossible for two guys to raid that many bases all around the world in under twenty-four hours. Now they had to look at all of this differently. Sam did not see this door himself, but even just hearing Steve describe it made him uneasy. It sounded like something out of a nightmare.

'We really need more information about this hooded guy,' Clint said.

'He had red eyes,' Steve spoke finally. 'I don't think it was just the light from that... door. He had blood-red eyes.'

'Well, that oughta narrow the search down,' Sam said.

'You'd think,' Clint snorted, then signed something to Natasha. Sam only recognized the three-fingered claw he made out of his hand and moved it in front of his face. That was "weird". The rest of it escaped him, but he was sure it was just some smart-ass comment. He really enjoyed signing those when Natasha was around. Like a kid who kept whispering jokes in their friend's ear.