The Compound

Chapter 19

"Any more developments?" Steve asked Bucky and Sam. The three had begun letting you, Rachel, and Lyla all sit in on their meetings about Operation Compound. AKA their plan to take down the entire organization and attempt to disband any government control of the nature of Alphas and Omegas.

"Nothing," Sam said, "Other than what we got out of Rumlow and his computer."

"Dumbass doesn't know how to keep his shit a secret." After the arrest of Rumlow, he admitted in an extremely harsh interrogation lead by both Sam and Bucky that he had made deals with leaders in the Compound. He would get some of the profits from the bidding and more Omegas for his personal wrong-doings. It was almost a mafia the entire complex, but the corruption within it was hidden right under the government's noses and they couldn't figure it out.

"So how do we weed out who's innocent and who's not?" Steve asked next.

"See that's the issue." Bucky leaned on one of the bookshelves in the office, "Quite a bit of the organization is anonymous, at least the dirty part of it. So most of the people who are labeled and public within The Compound most likely have no clue about these shady deals they make on the side."

"So people like Fury, they don't know. They work for the government and the government early."

"I could've told you that before," Steve admitted, "Nick Fury is a loyal and honest man with integrity. Maria Hill the same. Neither of those two would ever go against the government."

"Right," Bucky said, "But it's the anonymous people who we have to hunt down."

"Well we already have one," Sam spoke up. Steve perked up at him, and so did the three Omegas in the room, not knowing of this information. "Baron Zemo," Sam continued, "He's from Germany, isn't even a U.S. citizen, but has managed to sneak his way up in the ranks of this organization."

"How do we know it's him?" Steve asked firmly.

"Here," Sam sifted through a few stacks of paper before finding a section binder clipped together, "Texts from what was supposed to be a self-erasing app."

"But everything is stored in the cloud and-"

"Under Article 16 section 9 of the Reestablishment Act, any not double guarded information not through a third party can be released to the government and the citizens via a FOIA."

"Exactly," Sam said, "I'm so glad we included that when we wrote it."

"I think we all are," Steve responded still skimming the pages. "But how could they be this stupid, I mean, doesn't everyone know that law?"

"Well, yeah," Sam started, "But first, he's from Germany so I don't know how familiar he is with specifications of U.S. law and B. Half these people are complete idiots."

"So these are texts between Rumlow, Zemo, and an unknown person who are laundering money into and out of the Compound plus investing in it as if it were a public stock?" They nodded. Steve groaned, leaning back against the wall with eyes closed and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "This is human trafficking at this point."

"Well, technically no," Bucky spoke up, "The Compound is technically run by the government. They're jointly apart of the FDA and CDC because they control the repopulation of the country with Omegas since they're so scarce nowadays. So what they're doing is theoretically completely legal. But it's morally wrong."

"But money laundering is completely illegal," Steve responded.

"Right, which is what we can get them on."

"Exactly," Sam said, "We've already gotten Rumlow to crack some. If we can get Zemo to even crack a bit, then maybe we can fit some of the pieces together. Like where he meets people, who he meets if he knows, we can get a warrant to search his cell phone and find more shit on this whole situation."

"Well," Steve looked at the two men, "Let's go get this son of a bitch."

It only took a day for Zemo to be arrested with Sam and Bucky once again sent out to interrogate him. Steve was actively working on it at home, making calls to various people to find out more information if any. You had only come to check on him very times to bring him some food and water to his office to make sure he stays alive. "How're you doing, Stevie." You asked. He looked up from his work and to you, smiling lightly.

"Alright," He admitted. He turned his chair to where you were standing next to him, placing his hands on your hips. "Thanks, sweetheart."

"No problem," You took a small strand of his hair in between your fingers and lightly smiled as you played with it, "You're saving a lot more Omegas from what I went through, taking care of you is the least I could do."

"You know, you've never really told me what happened in there." He brought up. You immediately frowned looking at him and then down.

"I um- I-"

"You don't have to tell me." He said, sounding somewhat apologetic.

"I will one day," You said, "I mean, it's been over a year since you got me out of there. But I still don't know if I'm ready. Especially after Rumlow-"

"I get it, I get it." He lightly smiled, "Don't worry."

"I love you, Stevie," You smiled back, "A lot."

"I love you too." He responded. The rest of the day you went about your regular duties like cooking dinner.

You had chosen steak considering neither Steve nor you had it in a while. You began seasoning the pieces, as they would take the longest to cook despite the professional oven you two had. You became absolutely absorbed in the action of cooking as you always had, and despite how Steve wasn't there to help you or engage in conversation, the sounds of chopping and sizzling was enough to keep you occupied.

"Darlin'," You heard Steve come in finally. You lightly smiled.

"Hey," You leaned into him as he kissed your cheek. "You seem in a good mood today." You decided to acknowledge what you had previously noticed.

"Yeah, well," He lightly chuckled, "We know who's behind all of this. Who's the boss of The Compound."

"Oh?" You inquired and looked at him, "Who?" He sighed, leaning against the counter behind you.

"Alexander Pierce." You stopped in your tracks.

"T-the president?" You asked and he nodded. "Well shit." You muttered, "That explains why nothing has happened to improve that place."

"Yeah, well, we have a meeting with him tomorrow, and I don't think he's going to be too happy." You nodded. "I just can't wait for this whole thing to be over with."

"Me either," You lightly sighed nearly inaudibly, "It'll be good for it to finally be gone, and ya know, move on completely." He lightly nodded at you too. "Steve?" You asked next and he hummed in response. "Are you scared of anything going wrong?" He stopped for a moment before looking at you.

"I'm not scared of anything going wrong," He began, "More prepared." You lightly nodded, "You gotta remember sweetheart, I was an Avengers. Shit went wrong all the time. What matters is how you fix the things that go wrong, not what actually goes wrong."