The Dark Assassin | Thor: The Dark World [2]

Chapter 23

"Cap! He's up," I had been watching Barnes for the past hour, waiting for him to wake up so we could talk to him.

"Steve," Barnes said quietly, getting his bearings. There was a large clamp on his metal arm to prevent him from using it against us.

"Which Bucky am I talking to?" Steve asked.

"Your mom's name was Sarah. You used to wear newspapers in your shoes," he said, smiling at the last part.

"Can't read that in a museum," Steve observed.

"Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?" Sam asked, suspicious.

"What did I do?"

"Enough," Steve admitted, making him sigh.

"I knew this would happen. Everything HYDRA put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the goddamn words,"

"Who was he?" I asked.

"I don't know,"

"People are dead. The bombing, the setup. The doctor did all that just to get ten minutes with you. I need you to do better than just 'I don't know,'" Steve said.

"He--He wanted to know about Siberia. Where I was kept. He wanted to know exactly where,"

"Why would he need to know that?" I asked.

"Because I'm not the only Winter Soldier,"

-

"Who were they?"

"Their most elite death squad. More kills than anyone in HYDRA history and that was before the serum," Barnes admitted.

"They all turn out like you?" Sam asked.

"Worse," he admitted.

"The doctor--could he control them?" Steve asked. 

"Enough," he confessed.

"Said he wanted to see an empire fall," Steve said.

"With these guys, he could do it. They speak thirty languages, can hide in plain sight, infiltrate, assassinate, destabilize. They could take a whole country down in one night and you'd never see them coming," he said.

"This would've been a lot easier a week ago," Sam said to us.

"If we call Tony--" Steve started.

"He wouldn't believe us," I said.

"Even if he did--" Steve said.

"Who knows if the accords would let him help," Sam said.

"We're on our own," Steve summarized.

"Maybe not. I know a guy,"

"You two, go. Get who you need. I'll stay with Barnes?"

"Think you can handle him if he goes psycho?"

"No. But I can distract him," I said.

"You know, you should get that looked at," Steve said, nodding to the claw marks in my cheek, that had scabbed over.

"Where? We're wanted. It's not like I can just walk into the nearest Urgent Care and ask for a doctor," I countered.

"Just go,"