Silence in the Backseat
Prologue
The bus was filled with passengers, families and couples alike, all crammed into their seats with their luggage overhead. Laura was alone, seated near a window in the back, with a small backpack and a letter in her hand. Her right hand brushed fingertips along the words written in pen, the clean copy of the letter Sara wrote. Laura's eyes teared up for a moment as she read it for the first time, the emotional roller coaster of the interrogation surprising her with the amount of compassion she still held despite being raised a weapon.
Her head leaned against the window as she watched the bus station pass from her view, and the highway that was lined with power poles and dirt shoulders faded into a huge metrosystem that was linked with bridges, tall buildings and the occasional coffee house chain. She stayed awake the whole time, eyes open and taking in the view of places she was told to avoid. Captain America had released her, but to what? Holding tight to the letter, she finally folded the parchment and placed it into the backpack along with funds and one more change of clothes. Her aliases were inside as well, for when she needed to work for money, when the funds were gone. Everything seemed set.
But she had no idea where to go, or even what she would do when she got there. Would she attend school, like Megan had? Would there be suspicion when she had no parents to attend meetings? All Laura had learned was how to kill, and how to blend in, to disappear from view and be forgotten even though one had stared straight at her face. What she had wanted she could not have, not with Kimura after her. The bloodthirsty handler proved to her that no one could be safe near her, she could not protect them against someone she could never harm.
When the passengers all exited at their destination, Laura followed, but stopped for a moment at the platform. She stared at the buses and the roads, then moved along and disappeared into the crowd.