DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters or organizations that may appear or be mentioned in this story, including but not limited to: Winter Soldier/Bucky Barns, Captain America/Steve Rogers, Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff, Nick Fury, Falcon/Sam Wilson, HYDRA, or S.H.I.E.L.D.
All other characters however are mine.
This is my first published fanfiction...you've been warned.
Takes place after CA:TWS
Warning: Rating is M for safety.
Enjoy!
After the failed takeover mission, Kadence Jestings sees the perfect opportunity to wash her hands of the very organization she's worked for since she was a kid. However, HYDRA doesn't like loose ends, which leaves Kadence in the hands of the last person she wanted to be alone with.
Chapter One: As Good As Dead
She massaged the peak of her nose with her thumb and forefinger for a moment, her elbows resting on the surface of her desk. An annoyed sigh passed her lips as she released her nose and gazed back up at the monitors before her, all six of them decorated with multiple applications running various encryption codes; save for the monitor on the far left which was occupied running logistics on a small server blade mounted to a dock on the top of the desk.
"What a nightmare" she grumbled.
An alert tone brought her attention to the far right screen, where a window popped up, prompting an incoming call from a restricted number.
"Incoming call…do you accept parameters?" a female voice chimed over the speakers.
"I accept" she snipped.
The window enlarged, syncing a video call with two males. She recognized the one on the left immediately. He looked in his forties, brown eyes and short gray hair with a thin mustache, dressed in a black business suit and pin stripped tie. The I.D stamped on the top right of his feed listed him as Anthony Jestings…her father.
The man on the right however, she had never seen before. He too looking in his forties, his brown hair, cursed with grey above his ears, seemed to gather at the top of his head. Steel colored eyes bore down on her and the thin crease of his lips suggested he was not in the best of moods. He donned a dark grey dress suit, with a lighter grey collared shirt and a cream and chocolate stripped tie. Between the two of them, she felt severely under dressed, wearing nothing but a pair of loose fitting bed pants, and a tank top.
"Report" The man on the right barked.
She opened her mouth to snap back, but quickly held her tongue upon realizing that the man's I.D stamp only read encrypted, which meant she didn't have access to his real name, which also meant he was a higher up. Swallowing her attitude with the slightest hint of resentment, she took a breath and finally spoke.
"I've analyzed the targeting blade that we recovered from the wreckage and its coding does not match the originals that were installed and verified before launch. System logs indicate that the targeting blades on all three carriers had been swapped out within minutes of each other. Once the last blade was installed, the system was over-ridden remotely from an IP address within S.H.I.E.L.D's head office"
"So that indicates that the resistance force was prepared?" Anthony asked.
"Yes. This technology is an exact proprietary match, meaning it was specifically designed to over-ride the targeting system" she replied.
"And what of the data leak, have you managed to contain it?" the man on the right quipped, allowing her to catch his Russian accent.
"Every attempt to hijack and encrypt the data has failed. It's on a redundancy repeat that uploads on so many different IP sources, it's impossible to-"
"Can you stop it or not?" he barked.
She narrowed her eyes and swallowed hard, reigning in her temptation to give him what for. She didn't like being bossed around by men she didn't know, especially given that since the failure of the NWO mission only a week ago, she's barely had any sleep in that time; stuck in front of her computer during all hours of day and night trying to put a lid on the data leak that exposed HYDRA.
"No…I can't" she replied sternly.
"Very well. Mr. Jestings, you are to reassign all surviving agents to any division that could use their particular skill set. In the meantime, we will begin rebuilding the U.S division as soon as possib-"
"Are you nuts!?" she spat, finally losing her temper.
Her father went rigid, while the Russian just seemed taken aback.
"I beg your pardon!?" he hissed.
"HYDRA has been exposed for christ's sake! FBI, CIA…even military forces are hunting down any and all agents they can get their hands on and charging them with international treason, and you wanna send another team in!? Security here is on lockdown, and last I checked, the president had already been in conference with the U.N and allied nations, warning them about our little operation. We don't need to rebuild, we need disappear until things calm down"
The silence that followed was enough to make a cold chill dance across her veins, but the Russian suddenly seemed amused.
"Ms. Jestings, you are merely a senior computer analyst of a now, discontinued division. I, with the death of Alexander Pierce, am now the head commander of HYDRA…which means, I decide where we go from here…not you. Mr. Jestings you are to follow my order without question, do you understand?" the Russian spoke coldly.
"Yes sir" Anthony stated.
"Good…and in the meantime, I suggest you re-educate your daughter on how HYDRA's hierarchy works"
With that, the Russian disconnected his feed, leaving her alone with her father, who sighed as if a weight had been removed from his lungs.
"I suggest you re-educate your daughter on how HYDRA's hierarchy works" she mocked snidely.
"Kade"
"You know I'm right! We send another team in now and the mission will fail before it even gets underway!"
"Kade!" he hissed sternly.
She sighed heavily, and leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest.
"We will do, what is expected of us….and we will do it without question…do you understand?"
"I knew them" Kade stated, staring at her father's image on the screen.
"What?"
"The agents on the helicarriers, the ones they're arresting…I knew them"
"I know Kade, but they were aware of the risks"
"Did they!?...did you!?"
Anthony said nothing, averting his eyes as he took a deep breath.
"I'm reassigning you to New Zealand, I want you to lay low for a while and wait until I-"
"You know, when I first joined HYDRA, all they talked about was world peace. Yea they killed people, and did things that didn't really make sense at the time, but they kept saying it was all for the greater good. Looking at it now, it makes me wonder how I could have been so naïve. Look at what they're doing…this isn't peace…its chaos!"
"In order to build a new world, you have to destroy the old one"
"Listen to yourself! That's exactly what they're doing, they're destroying everything without remorse! This isn't global peace, this is global domination for the power hungry…and I don't want to be a part of it anymore"
"Enough!...Just…take the reassignment, give yourself time to clear your head and think strait"
"I am thinking strait dad…for the first time in years, I have never been more sure…I'm done…I'm done working for the industry of death"
She could almost see the vein pop out on his forehead. The muscles in his neck strained momentarily and it looked as if he was shaking.
"Are you aware of the gravity of what you're suggesting…do you have any idea what they'll do to you when they catch you!?"
"They'll charge me as an international traitor, throw me in a maximum security prison or just issue me the death penalty due to my rank within HYDRA" she replied casually.
"I'm not talking about the government, I'm talking about HYDRA..."
She heard the strain in his voice, no doubt this was a difficult conversation for him.
"…you've seen first-hand what they do to agents that go rogue"
Kade laughed inwardly, playing at her bottom lip with her teeth for a moment before she spoke.
"I think I can take care of myself dad…I've been doing it for the past six years…I'm sorry"
"Kade"
"I love you"
"Kade don't you-"
She didn't give him a chance to finish before she terminated the call and proceeded to exit from the windows on her screens before creating a new one; her fingers flying across the keyboard with expert precision…the focus carved in her eyes was unrelenting.
Nightfall had just reached D.C, but that meant nothing for the FBI, who seemed to take double shifts on a regular basis since the S.H.I.E.L.D incident that happened just a week prior. For agent Martin Rivera, it just meant another late night he'd have to make up to his wife; with the hope that he still had a wife by the time this was all over.
They had already apprehended several covert HYDRA agents, from Senators to cab drivers to athletes, if they weren't working for the organization directly, they were funding it. Had it not been for the cyber leak that happened at the same time as the incident, nobody would have ever known HYDRA even existed, let alone their plan to wipe out half the population of the U.S.
"Rivera, coffee?" another agent chimed, offering a steaming cup of black roast.
"Oh god yes" Rivera groaned, accepting the mug and carefully taking a sip.
He closed his eyes in delight as he swallowed the contents of what he took, letting loose a throaty groan.
"Liquid consciousness" the agent remarked.
"Damn strait" Rivera stated.
"So how's Sophie handling your all-nighters?"
"Dude, by the time this is over, I'll be spending a year just in I owe you dates…providing I'm not divorced by then"
"I feel ya…I've been sentenced to the couch three nights in a row now"
"Ouch"
"Yea"
"Agent Rivera!" a female voice called, breaking the two from their conversation.
Martin leaned back, allowing himself to be seen by the approaching agent.
"You have a call on line three, you'll want to take this one"
"Please don't tell me it's my wife…"
"It's not" she replied, setting up the tracer that had been placed and ready next to the phone.
"What's that for?" he asked.
"Like I said…you'll want to take this call" she advised, nodding her head in notion for him to pick up the phone.
The two men exchanged quick glances before Rivera shrugged his shoulders, setting his mug down and grabbing the receiver.
"FBI, agent Rivera speaking" he stated.
"Agent Rivera, I hope I'm not interrupting anything" the female inquired from the other line.
"Not at all, what can I help you with?"
"Oh? It seemed you and agent Daniels were having a bit of a "man moment"…for lack of a better term"
Rivera's face paled slightly as he looked over at his male counterpart, then scanned the room and locked sights on the security camera trained at them.
"Yes…as a matter of fact, I can see you" she cooed.
"How the fu-"
"I should probably introduce myself agent, my name is Kadence Jestings…but you probably know me better as Jester"
"Jester? THE Jester? The same Jester that hacked into the national defense database!?"
"The one and only"
Rivera could do nothing but stare blankly at the female agent who seemed rather amused by his reactions.
"Told you you wanted to take the call" she mused.
"I won't bore you with my history agent Rivera, I'm sure my rap sheet is long enough without including all the other hacks I am responsible for" the caller stated.
"Well then, I guess this is an honor…what uh…what can I do for you?" he asked, casually glancing at the tracer working madly to pinpoint the signal.
"Well you can stop wasting your time waiting on the tracer to finish, honestly with my reputation you should know better than to think I'm stupid enough to allow a trace-line into my network…but if you insist, I'm sure by now it's reading that I'm somewhere in Tolpeka Kansas"
No sooner had she said the words, did the tracer complete the line, reading that the call was coming from Kansas. Rivera groaned, and lowered his head; surely she wouldn't make it that easy.
"You live up to your reputation Ms. Jester…can I be honest and admit that I never would have took you for a girl" he laughed, albeit awkwardly given the sour looks he got from his co-workers.
"Don't feel bad, everyone thinks I'm a guy…in fact some people get really offended when they find out I'm a female"
"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you didn't call me to make small talk"
"You're right agent Rivera, I didn't. I actually called you to inform you that I just finished running decryption software on all my server drives, so in the event you retrieve them, all the information stored will be easily accessible, even for someone who's less than computer savvy…like you"
He snorted at the underlying insult.
"And why would I want your information?" he asked.
"Well aside from being one of the most wanted hackers in the nation, there's something else very…VERY…few people know about me"
"What would that be?"
"I am, or at least I was, the senior computer analyst for the US division of HYDRA"
Rivera went rigid, and swallowed down the lump that formed in his throat.
"What did you say?"
"You heard me. Everything I've hacked, everything I've stolen, has been for HYDRA's benefit, and now, you will have access to every bit of it. Granted most of that information is readily available on the internet, but the few missing pieces will be yours"
"I think this is a conversation best for a face to face, don't you think?"
"Not just yet Rivera, I have a few things I need to do before I go sentencing myself to life in prison"
"I can put in a good word for you if you let me pick you up tonight"
"I appreciate it…but not even a grace from God can save me at this point. I'm going to give you an address that will have everything I'm surrendering, no point in busting down the door, I'll leave it unlocked for you"
"Why are you doing all this?"
"Excuse me?"
"As talented as you are, you could just make yourself a new identity and disappear…why turn everything in?"
She was silent for a few moments, and Rivera panicked at the thought she just hung up.
"Consider it my way of trying to make amends for the things I've done…for the things they've done"
The response seemed heartfelt, and Rivera almost felt a pang of sympathy for her.
"You ready for that address?"
Kadence kept her eyes on the road in front of her, nearly in a daze as the amber glow of the street lights drifted by her making her way through downtown, heading for the freeway. Beastie Boys could barely be heard playing on the radio of her Civic, but music was the last thing on her mind.
She came to a stop light, tapping her thumb rhythmically on the steering wheel as her thoughts raced. There was enough cash in her purse to last her for at least a week, and she'd probably be able to use the fake credit cards for a month providing there won't be security camera's at the point of transaction. The duffle bag of clothes in the backseat was enough for about four days, plus the jeans and t-shirt she was currently wearing.
A part of her wondered if she had any idea what she was really doing. Her eyes darted to the clock, seeing the bright white digital reading on the dash read 10:45. No doubt agents would be swarming the location she provided, only to find the actual address written down on a piece of paper taped to the fridge. It would take them another twenty minutes to get across town to her flat, which was more than enough time for her to power up the laptop in the passenger seat and remotely wipe everything before they even got a peek.
It would be a necessary action if she needed it, but the clock was ticking…her window was limited; she had twenty minutes to decide on whether or not to go back to HYDRA. Eyes then drifted down to her hip, where a nine millimeter was holstered to her thigh, chambered and ready. She knew very well she'd be forced to use it if the answer was no.
The light turned green and she cautiously hit the gas, trying not to let her driving display how uneasy she was getting. She was a hacker, not a fighter. Hell the only time that gun got fired was at the shooting range once or twice over the last six months; she had decent aim…but was by no means a sharp shooter.
Headlights reflected off the overhead signs that warned her of the freeway exits she would need as soon as she crossed the bridge. Kadence took in a deep breath, and slowly exhaled as the bridge came into sight….this was it. It was her phone that essentially scared her out of her daze, the high pitched ringtone echoing out around the car. She grumbled some choice words to herself and reached for the phone clipped to her side.
Bringing the screen up, it displayed a number she was all too familiar with. Kade rolled her eyes, nearly tempted to ignore the call, but not really seeing harm in answering it either. She slid her finger across with the answer key and put it up to her ear.
"I thought I told you not to call me on this line" she warned.
"And under normal circumstances I wouldn't…" the female voice on the other end had an English accent, but it was the panic in her voice that had a lump forming in Kade's throat.
"…and truthfully I'd be shot on sight if they found out I had contacted you"
"What is it?"
"Your father reported you rogue…"
Kade felt her blood turn to ice.
"…he gave them the communication recordings, he gave them everything…they also know you've contacted the FBI…there is a kill order on your head Kadence, you have to get out of the city…you have to go underground!"
"I'm already on it" Kade choked out, disconnecting the call and throwing the phone into the passenger seat.
She increased the pressure on the gas pedal to the point the engine had to switch gears, racing down the street like it was going to fall out from under her. Kade let loose a flurry of choice words, slamming her hand down against the steering wheel. As much as her mind was racing before, there was only one thing on it now…run.
Kadence didn't even remember how long she had been on the bridge, or even how fast she had been going, none of it mattered the moment the car was suddenly thrust forward; the jarring impact from the rear throwing her head into the steering wheel. She didn't have time to react before a second impact from the side forced her car into the side guardrail, slamming into a bracer beam.
Smoke began to billow out from the engine as Kade tried desperately to maintain consciousness. Her head was swimming and throbbing with pain at the same time, yet still she had only one goal, and that was to get the hell out of the car. She fumbled with the seatbelt for a second and grabbed for the door handle, haphazardly stumbling out of the wrecked vehicle. Kade heard indistinct shouting, and silhouettes appearing in front of obnoxiously bright headlights.
She stumbled back, trying to gain her footing, and reached for the gun at her side. No sooner had the weapon gotten un-holstered did a searing pain shoot through her right shoulder, seeming to echo out through her entire body. Her gun clattered to the ground and she reached for her shoulder, feeling a hot pool of liquid at the point of impact.
Suddenly her feet where no longer on the ground, and she watched in part horror as the bridge appeared above her, the distance between them growing so rapid, she barely registered that she was falling until her body went freezing cold…then everything went black.
Two men peered over the side, gazing down at the white after-splash where she landed; the younger of the two raising his gun over the side, aiming down at the water below.
"Don't bother…that impact would have knocked her unconscious, and with the water as cold as it is…she's as good as dead" the older one sneered.
The younger man exchanged quick glances between his counterpart and the water before he finally holstered his weapon and began walking back to the truck. The older man took one last look down and shook his head.
"Tsk, what a waste"
Kadence couldn't tell if she was dead or just dreaming. There was nothing she could use to determine either, simply because that's all she saw…nothing but sheer darkness. How long had it been since everything went black? She felt cold, that much she knew. Her body felt unbelievably heavy, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't breathe. Her lungs began to ache painfully and she could hear her heartbeat in her ears, but something was off…it was slowing down.
The burning in her lungs was dulled only by rhythmic holds of pressure on her chest. A warm feeling would close over her mouth, then disappear. The pressure would come back, then it was gone. Kade was convinced her lungs were going to explode if she didn't get air in them soon. That warm feeling came over her mouth again, and suddenly Kade felt something deep within her chest…it was cold…it was liquid…it was preventing her from breathing.
Pressure came down on her chest again, as if it was willing her to breathe, and with one final thrust, Kade felt the barrier in her lungs snap. Water came gushing up from her throat and out of her mouth as the world seemed to slam down around her; the pain followed with it. She nearly sat up, choking up water and desperately trying to clear her lungs as she sucked in air like a dying fish.
Her shoulder sung out in pain, and her head started swimming, reminding her that she had come in violent contact with a steering wheel some short time ago. A hand reached out for something, anything to ground her before she went careening off to space, and that hand finally came in contact with something metallic in nature. It had definition, some type of structure, and it moved, or rather recoiled when she grabbed it. She tried to focus enough to bring her gaze to whatever it was she had a hold of, but all she managed to distinguish was the figure of what she thought was a man…a man with dark hair.
Her body grew heavy again, much like her head as she fought for consciousness. Kade's efforts were in vain as she all but crash-landed right back into darkness.