The Same, Just Deadlier (Book 3)

1.6

June 17, 2014

I looked at Steve, my eyes wide as the device catches heat signatures coming in hot on our location. "Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." I tell him as I move closer to him.

"Who fired it?" He asks me. I look back at the device and internally groan.

"SHIELD." I look back at the computer, hearing a laugh come from Zola.

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us... out of time." Steve notices a small opening on the ground. He throws the metal door aside and just as the place explodes he throws us into the hole and protects us with his shield. Before the STRIKE agents are able to find us, Steve digs us out of the rubble and we make a run for it.

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There were only two people we believed we could trust: Natasha, who we had no idea where she was, and Sam Wilson, the guy that had no affiliation with SHIELD, at least to our knowledge. The only logical choice for help at the moment was Sam. So we went to his house and knocked on his door, ready to practically beg him to let us hide out. When Sam opened the door, it was easy to tell that he had just finished some sort of run or exercise. "Hey man." He said, looking at the two of us.

"I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." Steve tells him in a whispered tone. I look up at Sam and shrug.

"Yeah, because everyone we know is trying to kill us." I smile at him and Sam looks at the two of us before replying.

"Not everyone." He says, opening the door up more to let us in. I give Sam a small smile as he closed the door behind us, making sure no one saw. Then he locked the door and turned back to us. Seeing how messy we were, he pointed us in the direction of his guest room, where there was a shower.

I had finished showering and grabbed the change of clothes that I had stolen from a store in the mall while we were there. When I was done changing, Steve walked in the room, a towel around his waist as he grabbed clothes to change into. I tossed him a shirt I had taken for him and he smiled to thank me. It was moments later when he stepped back into the room. I was sitting on the bed, braiding my hair so that it wasn't loose and wet. Steve sat next to me on the bed and let me rest my head on his shoulder when I was down with my hair. "How are you holding up?" I almost laughed when he asked.

"I've worked with these people for years and now most of them are turning out to be HYDRA. It's making it very difficult to trust people." Steve was about to say something when I cut him off. "I just want to find this so called 'Winter Soldier.' And I want him to pay. For what he did to Fury. To Maria and Howard. To me and Tony. I want him to pay Steve. He took Tony's parents. He took away my best friend." By now, I was crying into Steve's shirt. He rubbed my back, trying to soothe me. He knew how much Maria meant to me. She was my best friend. Steve knew that. If I wasn't with Steve and Bucky, I was always with Maria. We were the female Bucky and Steve. Steve didn't say anything. He knew there was nothing he could say to make me feel better in this moment. I just couldn't wait to find this assassin. My thoughts were interrupted when Sam knocked on the bedroom door, peeping in to see us both fully dressed before he walked in. I made breakfast. If you guys... eat that sort of thing." I chuckled as I got up and grabbed a tissue, wiping my tears away.

Steve and I followed Sam into the dining room, where he had prepared eggs and sausage. We all sat down at the table, eating quietly. When we were finished, I helped Sam put all the dishes away, before returning to the table to discuss... well everything I guess. "So, the question is: who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" I asked Steve. Though as soon as I asked, I knew the answer. Pierce.

"Pierce." Steve answered. "Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world." Both of us sigh.

"But he's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star. So was Jasper Sitwell." I tell him.

"So, the real question is: how do the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?" Steve asks. Just then Sam walks into the room, intervening.

"The answer is: you don't." Sam drops a file on the table for us to look at.

"What's this?" I ask him, as Steve opens the file.

"Call it a resume." I pick up at picture of Sam with his para-rescue team. I look back up at Sam.

"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you." I then look at another picture of Sam with a colleague. "Is this Riley?" I ask him, remembering him telling Steve and I about his friend that died. Sam just nodded. "I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs. What did you use, a stealth chute?" Sam smiled, shaking his head.

"No. These." He hands Steve another file, which Steve opens and starts to read.

"I thought you said you were a pilot." Steve says, a smirk resting on Sam's face.

"I never said pilot." Steve and I look at each other and then back to Sam.

"We can't ask you to do this Sam. You got out for a good reason." I tell him but Sam just smiled.

"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in." I smiled at him, nodding.

"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" Steve asks him.

"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall." Steve looks at me and I shrug.

"That isn't going to be a problem." I tell both of them, smirking. Steve throws the file back on the table as we all leave.

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I stood on a rooftop with a sniper rifle in hand. The red dot was aimed precisely for Sitwell's tie. It was merely a couple of minutes before Sitwell was thrown across the rooftop by Steve. The sniper rifle was now laid down and I stood in front of Sitwell, arms crossed in front of my chest. "Tell me about Zola's algorithm." Steve ordered. But Sitwell didn't comply.

"Never heard of it."

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" I asked him. At this point, any answer would be a good answer.

"I was throwing up, I get seasick." Steve and I forced Sitwell closer to the edge, but Sitwell just smiled. "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's really not your style, Rogers." Steve just chuckled.

"You're right. It's not. It's hers." Steve steps aside and looks at me as I grab the collar of Sitwell's shirt and his arm, throwing him off the roof. I could hear his screams as he plummeted down. I smiled at Steve as Sam, in his Falcon gear, flew back up towards us, Sitwell in his arms. Sam threw him down on the roof and his wings went back into his suit as Sam landed on the rooftop. Steve and I turn around and walk towards Sitwell, who holds his hands up in front of his face in fear.

"Zola's algorithm is a program... for choosing Insight's targets!" I looked at Steve, who's focus remained on Sitwell.

"What targets?" Steve inquires, aggressively.

"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa city. Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future." I looked down at Sitwell, confused.

"The Future? How could it know?" I ask him. But Sitwell just laughs.

"How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it." Both Steve and I continue to look at Sitwell in confusion. "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores. Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future." I could hear the small mumbles from Sitwell, saying how Pierce was going to kill him.

"And what then?" Steve asked. Sitwell didn't reply. Steve stepped closer to Sitwell, who looked up at Steve in fear. "What then?!"

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time." I looked at Sam and Steve. We needed to stop this from happening.