The Winter Soldier sat at the end of the bar with a shot of vodka. He kept up a good pretence of being an ordinary guy having a drink after a long day, but in reality, his day's work was nowhere near over. There was nothing coincidental about where he'd chosen to sit. It was a position that gave him clear view of his target – one Governor Byron Moore, who'd inadvertently gotten himself far on the wrong side of the Winter Soldier's people. However, the Winter Soldier had currently suspended his observation of Moore and was glaring with narrowed eyes at the new bartender.
Lydia Holden – or Nancy West, as she was currently calling herself – smiled at the Winter Soldier despite his obvious hostility. "Can I get you anything?" she asked sweetly in a carefully practised New England accent, making sure not to let slip any trace of the sarcasm she felt.
"You're new here," stated the Winter Soldier.
Lydia nodded. "It's my first day."
Another customer waved her over. The Winter Soldier motioned that it was okay to go ahead and serve him first. After waiting for Lydia to pour the other man a finger of whiskey, the Winter Soldier resumed his questioning. "What's your name?"
"Nancy. What's yours?"
"Colin. Where are you from?"
Lydia Holden was from Hobart, Australia. Nancy West wasn't. "Small town in Maine."
"What brings you to Chicago?"
Lydia shrugged casually. Internally, her heart was racing. The Winter Soldier was so notorious that most people didn't believe he was real. And yet, she had found him. She could not mess this up. She was drawing on every ounce of her training to fool him. "You know how it goes – small town kids growing up and wanting to see the big city. I've been here for a few years now, picking up whatever jobs I can find."
"You don't go to college?"
"Nope. I was never school material."
Lydia returned to work as a wave of customers came in. The bar grew busier quickly, and the Winter Soldier left her alone. He continued to watch her for a while, seemingly waiting for the slightest mistake, anything at all out of the ordinary. But Lydia was top of the class when it came to controlling her body language. She could keep up this perfect cover for as long as she needed to. She never slipped. Eventually, the Winter Soldier turned his attention back to his target. Lydia smiled internally. She had successfully convinced him that she was not a threat – that she had nothing to do with him.
Of course, the opposite was true. The Winter Soldier was her mission, just like Governor Moore was his. Her team had been tracking the Winter Soldier for the last year, and finally found him in Chicago two days ago. They wasted no time in sending Lydia, their best undercover agent, in to keep tabs on him and building her a detailed, flawless cover. Their team was the best in the whole organisation – they needed to be, because the Winter Soldier was the best in his business. As Lydia poured drinks, she had no doubt that her colleagues were monitoring the area very closely.
The Winter Soldier had appeared in the bar the night before, after stalking Moore for two days – possibly more, if he'd manage to stay out of sight of every camera in the city. Lydia wouldn't put it past the infamous assassin. Governor Moore had heavy security, and Lydia had instantly recognised the movement patterns of the Winter Soldier when the team arrived in Chicago – he was trying to find a weakness in the Governor's security. He was having difficulty, as far as Lydia could tell. By rule of thumb in most of the cases her team had studied, the assassin would have finished his mission by now, or at least be close to wrapping it up. The fact that he had shown no sign of making an offensive move yet only put Lydia on guard. She was watching him just as closely as he had watched her, albeit much more subtly, prepared to act the moment he went for the Governor. Her team's mission wasn't to save the Governor, exactly – Australia couldn't care less about some old American politician, especially one nearing the end of his political career like Moore was. No, the mission was to detain the Winter Soldier, but that would likely involve foiling his plans anyway.
The hours dragged on, and eventually Moore left, his security entourage of four forming a solid guard. A few minutes later, the Winter Soldier followed. As Lydia bent under the counter, with the guise of getting a clean cloth, she pulled her necklace pendant out from under her shirt, pressed down the gemstone on it and muttered, "This is Agent Holden. Target has left the bar. Over."
She tucked her necklace away again, hearing a voice inside her ear. "This is Agent Leigh. Copy that. The target is moving south."
Lydia stood up, a faint frown etched upon her face. Leigh hadn't needed to specify anything more – the tone of his voice had been enough. The Winter Soldier always moved north after leaving the bar – the same direction as Moore.
"Agent Leigh, follow the target," commanded the team's leader, Agent Claudia Torres. With a slightly teasing tone, she added, "And do it discreetly."
Lydia hid a smile at Leigh's embarrassed reply as he complied. He had once, while tailing another agent in training, done what he'd seen in movies and began kissing his partner to avoid being noticed. As well as getting punched for it by Lydia – his victim – a senior agent, had amusedly caught them. While Leigh had learnt his lesson, his team and anyone else who'd heard had never let him live it down.
Leigh gave them regular updates as he tailed the Winter Soldier. "I think this is the motel he's staying in. He's gone in. I'm going to wait in the pizza place across the street."
Lydia waited through half an hour of silence from Leigh – well, silence about the Winter Soldier. He had no problem telling them all about the delicious deep dish he was eating; a fact that did not amuse Lydia, who hadn't eaten for hours. After half an hour, Leigh reported that the Winter Soldier was on the move again. Soon, he deducted where the target was headed. "I think he's going to Nancy West's apartment."
Lydia nodded slightly to herself. They'd been prepared for as much. Lydia had spent a few hours making sure the apartment looked thoroughly lived in and had left no evidence of her true identity or career there. They had bribed the landlord to tell anyone who asked that Nancy had lived there for about a year, but they couldn't guarantee how convincing the man would be. All they could hope was that the Winter Soldier didn't go that far.
Forty minutes later, Leigh reported that the Winter Soldier had left the apartment. Confirming that he was headed in the direction of Governor Moore's home, the rest of the team moved out to various positions around the mansion. Lydia was stuck at her cover job, which annoyed her to no end, but she did have a feeling that the Winter Soldier still would not strike tonight. If he was planning to, he wouldn't have wasted time doing a background check on Lydia – Nancy. He only did because he was planning to stay in Chicago longer.
Her prediction came true when her shift ended at three in the morning and her team had reported no activity from the Winter Soldier. He only circled Moore's house, slowly, calculatingly, clearly planning his attack. Eventually, the Winter Soldier left. Agent Torres confirmed that he returned to his motel and she stayed behind to make sure he wouldn't sneak out again. The rest of the team returned to their hotel – except Lydia, who went to the apartment for appearance's sake.
When she entered, she was very impressed. The Winter Soldier left hardly any sign that he had been there at all, much less searching through the place. She doubted that anyone who wasn't specifically looking for signs of entry would have noticed at all. She stowed her bag under her bed, not taking out her equipment in case the Winter Soldier decided to return. She quickly brushed her teeth and changed into pyjamas, getting straight into bed. It was almost four in the morning, and she needed to be well rested in case she ended up needing to fight.
Lydia slept until eight a.m. It wasn't much, but she could get by. She woke when she heard in her ear that the Winter Soldier was out and about again. She prepared herself for the day in record time, grabbing an apple and a cereal bar to eat as she walked to the hotel her team was based at, making sure that she was not being tailed. The Winter Soldier was nowhere near her location, but Lydia was a spy through and through, and it was a natural habit to move with care.
When she got to her team's hotel room, there were two members inside – Daisy Fry, the scientist, and Claudia, who was asleep. That meant Marvin Leigh and Kyle Wiggins were out tailing the Winter Soldier. Lydia gestured towards Claudia and quietly asked Daisy, "How long was she out for last night?"
"She only got back about an hour ago," replied Daisy, walking into the next room with Lydia and shaking her head in disapproval, her wild mop of blonde curls bouncing with her. "She's so focused on the Winter Soldier. It's not healthy."
"You're telling me," sighed Lydia. "Where are Kyle and Leigh? I might as well go-"
"No!" exclaimed Daisy. "We can't risk the Winter Soldier seeing you at all. You're our inside eyes and ears, and that's how we need you to be."
"I just feel so useless sitting here all day," groaned Lydia.
"Well, you make up for it at night, don't you?"
"I guess."
"There lots you can do here."
"Please don't say I have to monitor the surveillance cameras around Moore's house again. It sucks."
Daisy pouted. "You're good at it."
"You're just saying that because you don't want to do it."
Daisy grinned. "Maybe."
"All right," conceded Lydia. "I'll monitor the security cameras. But you have to pay for lunch."
"Absolutely," agreed Daisy.
Lydia poured herself a cup of coffee and sat herself down in front of the two laptops that had access to the cameras on and around Governor Moore's property. Everything had been fine so far, and the laptops had an alert set up in case there was any sudden movement detected, but they tried to have someone watching or at least nearby at all times. Over the next couple of hours, the two men followed the Winter Soldier while he tailed Moore and various members of Moore's personnel; with Daisy providing tech support, while Claudia got some rest. Lydia had gone through three cups of coffee and dozed off twice while monitoring Moore's property when Kyle was suddenly yelling in her ear frantically.
"I have been compromised! I've been seen! Does anybody copy?"
Lydia sat up straighter as Claudia and Daisy rushed over to her. Quickly, Daisy began fiddling with one of the laptops, while Lydia set up the hands-free for their communication system. "Copy, we're tracking your location and accessing CCTV right now."
"Agent Wiggins, what happened?" demanded Claudia. She had gone from fast asleep to on high alert so quickly, Lydia wondered if she'd actually been asleep.
"I – I don't know," said Kyle. Lydia could hear him panting as he ran. "One second everything seemed fine and the next, he was looking right at me and he started prowling towards me."
"Leigh? Are you getting any of this?" demanded Claudia.
"Yes, ma'am. I can confirm this. The Winter Soldier very suddenly went after Agent Wiggins. He is armed and looks prepared to attack. One handgun, it looks like. I couldn't get a closer look before he moved off. I'm following the target now."
"I've found Agent Wiggins and the Winter Soldier," said Daisy, typing away frantically, keeping up a range of camera views as the two moved.
"Do you need back-up?" asked Lydia.
"Not yet," wheezed Kyle, despite being in top physical state. Lydia winced at how hard he had to be running for that. "I think I can get away."
"I've got an escape route for you," Daisy said, relief flooding her voice. "Take the next left. Okay, good, into that alleyway there."
Lydia tapped her foot nervously, keeping an eye on the Winter Soldier as he chased after Kyle. "Kyle!" she cried. "Stop! Turn around! He's changed path, he's trying to cut you off."
"I'm getting into that cab," said Kyle, quickly jumping into the vehicle that had stopped on the road a little way in front of him.
"Take a long way, make sure you've lost him for sure," instructed Claudia. "Leigh, can you keep going?"
"Of course," said the other agent. "Making my way towards the target right now."
"Be extra careful. Kyle, you just get back here safely." Claudia sighed and collapsed onto an armchair, running a hand through her thick, dark brown hair.
"You okay?" asked Lydia.
"Why did I sign up for this stuff?" mumbled Claudia rhetorically. "It's so damn stressful. I think my life just got shorter by a couple of years."
Lydia gave a wry smile. "I know what you mean. I'll get you a cup of coffee."
"Thanks," said Claudia gratefully.
Kyle returned an hour later, having switched cabs numerous times and taking a train for a leg of the journey as well. Perhaps overkill, but too many people in the past had made the mistake of underestimating the Winter Soldier. "Damn it, that was close," he sighed as he walked in, heading straight for a bottle of water.
"I wonder what happened," murmured Daisy.
"I've been looking back at the footage of before things went bad," said Lydia. "I've found one conclusion. There were three moments when the Winter Soldier could possibly have seen Kyle through the reflection of various surfaces. Not much to go by, normally – but then again, we know the Winter Soldier is something else. He may have realised he was being followed when that happened, but hid it until he reached a spot that was ideal for confronting his tail. That's one thing I've noticed – the moment he started chasing Kyle, they were in a spot where Kyle had very limited escape options."
"So we underestimated him," muttered Kyle. "Great."
"At least he didn't see Leigh."
"Or maybe he did and he's waiting for his perfect moment again," grumbled Kyle.
Lydia shook her head firmly. "He's had a few opportunities for that and hasn't done anything. I'm sure Leigh hasn't been spotted."
"Don't worry, man," said Leigh. "I was in the better position for staying hidden."
"I'm not worried," said Kyle, but he looked a little happier. "At least now I get to stay inside this nice hotel room instead of trudging around Chicago."
"Shut up," sighed Leigh.
"Are you tired?" said Claudia. "I can take over."
"No, no. You can't have gotten much rest before this happened."
"I'm good."
"No, you've slept for like five hours in the last two days. Get some rest," said Leigh firmly.
"Fine," said Claudia reluctantly. She wandered into the bedroom, and Lydia heard the rustle of sheets.
At five o'clock, Lydia reluctantly began preparing for her shift at the bar. Thankfully she just had the early shift tonight, although early was a relative term. She finished at eleven. "Time for fake work."
"Be careful," said Daisy anxiously. "If the Winter Soldier is capable of knowing more than we realise, he might know about you."
"I doubt it," said Lydia, trying to give herself confidence. If she were being honest, she was a little bit worried. The Winter Soldier would be highly suspicious of a new bartender the day after he'd started going there. Lydia hoped his check of her apartment had quelled any suspicions. She tied her long, jet black waves into a loose braid, put on a little bit of makeup and changed into some clothes that were slightly more revealing. The male customers liked that, her boss had said from day one, and her job was to make the customers happy. Although the drunken idiots who tried to hit on her got annoying sometimes, Lydia dealt with it. She would play her role to perfection as the young woman with a crappy job relying on tips to feed herself. She was pretty enough, and she had a nice body from her training, so being objectified by men was something she was used to. Besides, her line of work had put her into far more uncomfortable situations before.
"I'm off, see you later," she said to her teammates. She walked out onto the Chicago streets, waiting for a taxi to come by. "Leigh, am I clear?"
"You're clear. The Winter Soldier is currently waiting outside Moore's office."
"Copy," said Lydia, knowing that that could have been the last chance to talk to her teammates for a while. Getting into a cab, Lydia gave the driver directions to the bar. They arrived soon, and she walked into the joint, leaving the driver a generous tip and making sure she had her bag with everything inside. The place had just been opened, and there were exactly two customers sitting at the bar. Irene, the owner's sister and another bartender, was there, already serving drinks. Of course. It was Friday.
Lydia was thankful for the weekend and the heightened business it brought. It meant that for the next two nights, both she and Irene would be working. If the Winter Soldier acted, Lydia would actually be able to leave her post and go help her team without leaving the bar bartender-less – she didn't want to lose money for the owner, who as far as she could tell was a decent person. And it was likely that the Winter Soldier would make his move either tonight or the next night. This was already his third day here, minimum. He wouldn't stick around much longer, Lydia was sure.
Hi everyone, thanks for reading this chapter! I feel pretty good about it, which doesn't always happen, trust me – but the real opinion I'm after is yours! Please let me know what you thought :) You don't need to read this next part by the way, it's just some background info – I started writing this very soon after Captain America TWS came out, and life got in the way and I kind of left it, however with Civil War coming out very soon, I thought if I didn't get into this story again now, I never would because the new movie might not necessarily line up. I have a few chapters written already, so anyone reading this post-Civil War release may or may not find things that don't match. Idk, I haven't seen the movie yet either. After those chapters, though, I will try to blend as much from Cap 3 as I can. That's all, if you've read this far – kudos. Hope to see you next chapter!