Date: March 22nd, 2014
"We got her, Bruce."
"How is she?"
"Out cold. But in better shape than Rogers. Medics are with him now."
"What...?"
"She hurt him pretty bad. Brutal, really. I cut the power to her weapons, but not fast enough."
"What happened, Tony?"
"It looks like she lapsed back to before she defected."
"Coulson said it looked like they were experimenting on her. What did they do? Expose her to a nerve agent?"
"Dunno. It's like they hit control-alt-delete and rebooted her. She thought she was Red Room again."
"Was that intentional or a side effect? What were they trying to do to her?"
"Don't know. She was being held by some low-level local thugs—they're all dead so they don't know who was holding the leash."
"Did she kill them?"
"No, they sent in the STRIKE team, which for reasons unclear, included Rumlow."
"Son of a..."
"Right. STRIKE found her, barely conscious. After that, they put her on a SHIELD transport train. Some problem with no-fly-zones. She attacked Rumlow and one or more of his agents and she escaped. Reports differ and they haven't released the complete footage yet."
"How long before you start hacking for it?"
"Already in progress, but I've had a busy day."
"What happened when you found her?"
"She and Rogers locked horns inside Milano Centrale Station. He chased her inside and was down before I got in. All that glass and all those people, there was no way for me to get through. I don't think he really expected her to use such force."
"Has anyone gotten in touch with Barton yet?"
"Wakanda is a blackout zone. He's not due to check in for a few more hours, but Hill promised to send someone if he misses check in."
"He needs to get back to the tower."
"It's probably a good thing he wasn't here to go after her."
"He took her down once before, Tony."
"Didn't care if he brought her back alive that time—She wasn't pulling any punches today, but he would have. And not to brag, she wasn't armed with Stark-tech last time. After what she did to Rogers, she'd have taken Clint apart. I can't believe Rumlow is still alive, but maybe she was in a hurry."
"Not that I care, but how is Rumlow?"
"Alive, stable even."
"That's... not what I was hoping for."
"It's for the best. She didn't kill anyone, actually. Drugged or not, flipping back to her Russkie days after that data leak... It can't be good for her standing at SHIELD."
"What are they going to do with her?"
"One of the escape-proof cells is being prepped."
"They are going to lock her in a cell? Is that Fury's solution?"
"Yes, but it's an improvement to the first plan. At first, they were ordering she be strapped down as well. Bruce, she almost took out Captain America, tried to gut him like a fish. She's not Natasha right now. She's a danger to others and to herself. Until we know what the drug did and how to reverse it, it's our only option."
"And what will they do once they have her? I heard about what happened at SHIELD with Rumlow; and they did nothing to them! We should have her here. I know you have a redundancy cell somewhere. Could we keep her here? Anything that holds the other guy, should hold her. "
"Ok, big guy. I think I can arrange something."
"Once she's here, what would they do about?"
"SHIELD won't like it."
"Which is why you'll do it."
"Stay calm. I'll see what I can do."
"Don't tell me to stay calm. "
"Roger that…. On a less angry note, how's your friend?"
"Jones? He's adjusting really well. Is kind of excited about it actually - hasn't thought it all through yet, maybe. It's really fascinating what the gamma did to him, the transformation is permanent, constant and likely to keep improving. We're seeing potential for intangibility, phase shifting and some very strange transformations."
"So, he's big and blue forever and always now?"
"Maybe. But we haven't detected any cognitive loss. So, um, it could be worse. His personality seems unaffected. He's still Rick, at least. He wanted to talk to Natasha to apologize for the leak... Guess that's not happening."
"Not in the short term...we'll get her back, buddy. I don't know what we'll do with Barton if we don't."
"Mr. Secretary, the reboot worked perfectly."
"You had to wipe her completely? She has no memories of her life once she left the… what did you call it, the Red Room?"
"Yes. We never truly needed her services within SHIELD, obviously, but the information she can provide within the Avengers would be invaluable. We still need to implant the memories we created for her. It would have been preferable to have more time with her. Your STRIKE team broke her out far too soon."
"I did not order that, but it is just as well. We have a timetable to keep, General. Project Insight is go and we need to have an agent inside the Avengers. Romanoff was perfectly placed. All you had to do is reactivate her programming."
"Pierce, we have never had a sleeper agent out in the cold for this long."
"Was she out in the cold or did she truly defect? Do you even know?"
"That is the beauty of the defection protocol. Not even the defector knows. She believed that she had defected; that she chose to leave. As if we would have allowed her to live after such a betrayal. She was living so completely as one of them, she never knew that we could recall her at any moment."
"You couldn't, apparently."
"Yes, well, that was unfortunate."
"Unfortunate? You assured me that she could be turned at anytime. I do not have the level of confidence in your work after this. You may have to bring your other soldier from the other cold storage to convince me."
"We will deploy that asset when the time is right. Until then, you must allow us to implant the new memories into Natalia or she will be of no value to us within the Avengers."
"You know how important this is, General. The Avengers must not be able to interfere with Project Insight. I don't expect them to be standing after the launch, but they must be controlled until we get those carriers in the air. Have you finished creating the new memories for her?"
"Yes, they are incomplete, but that is not a bad thing. The Avengers will be eager to help her 'remember' things and that will help us get fresh information. Also, if they believe she is recuperating, they may assign her tasks that will allow us even greater access to their data. As soon as she is in SHIELD custody, we must implant those new memories."
"I'm awaiting confirmation of her arrival now."
"Is it true that she attacked the STRIKE force after they rescued her?"
"Yes. That was another terrible command decision; to send those particular men after her. Things are really going to hell. They were the same ones who tried to provoke her to activate her fail-safe. They used all the phrases you provided."
"You attempted to activate the Valkyrie-contingency? Are you mad? Were your men informed? They could all have been killed."
"All are loyal to Hydra. They knew the risks. Commander Rumlow even volunteered. He was very confident that the contingency would not work. And, turns out, he was right. And, ah, let's not overestimate your gal's skill, shall we?"
"You have never seen the Widow truly in action."
"Well, I guess it's a good thing our boy was right then. Might've made a mess in the offices. It was a good thing Jessica Drew disarmed her. She had only two small firearms; not much stopping power, but she still would have hurt our boys badly even if they were able to subdue her."
"Was this Drew woman in on it? Is she one of ours? I have not heard of her."
"No. Far from it, actually. She would be another one I would want out of the way before it begins. I believe she will be quite high on Project Insight's lists. It was all a matter of chance, but very fortunate for our men; they may not have activated her protocol but they were objectively still pretty threatening. They probably don't realize it but had Agent Barton not interrupted, things might have gone very differently and we might be having a very different conversation. You need to see the video."
"There is video? I specifically ordered that no Hydra agents were to ever be recorded acting in anyway counter to SHIELD until…"
"Take it easy, General. All the networked cameras were disabled… Agent Braithwaite, however, is of the old school. I have analog footage that exists nowhere else. I have it just in case."
"How was it your men were not incarcerated for an attempted assault? You are a powerful man, Secretary, but…"
"Relax, general, this is America, the land of due process. I insisted on a full investigation with paid administrative leave. There was no proof. Romanoff never filed a report so it's like it never happened. It's all been swept under the rug and those men are already back on duty. Hydra rules here."
"Pierce, you play a dangerous game!"
"You wanted me to separate Agents Barton and Romanoff. Commander Rumlow took some, shall we say, unconventional measures to insure she was sent on this particular mission alone. Those same measures may also have served to damage her credibility with her American comrades."
"And how did he achieve that? I thought that Nick Fury personally oversaw those agents."
"He doe, but Fury has been out attending to some sensitive matters and has left Deputy Director Hill to oversee day-to-day operations. We know that Fury gives those two agent's special treatment. Hill, on the other hand, follows the rules.."
"I don't see how this pertains to…"
"SHIELD has a strict policy of non-fraternization between partnered agents. It seems that there was some compromising video of Agent Barton and Agent Romanoff engaged in sexual activity while off-duty. Fury tolerates it, but when Rumlow circulated the video within SHIELD, Maria Hill had no choice but to at least create the appearance of enforcing regulations by separating them until Fury returned. Jasper Sitwell made sure that both were assigned to locations we chose. Romanoff to you and Barton to Wakanda."
"As soon as you have her confined, we can complete the memory implantation. How will you deal with the fact that she attacked…."
"Excuse me, General… I'm getting a priority call….. "
"Pierce, I don't have time…."
"General, there's….. another problem. She's not in SHIELD custody."
"Where is she?"
"The Avengers have her."
"That complicates things."
"Indeed. We will need to get to her to implant those memories. But if she is housed at their tower now, she should at least be well placed once you managed to do your job and reindoctrinate her."
"This Barton, what about him? When we have our Natalia back, if he is her lover, do we have a chance of bringing him over? He could be quite useful."
"No, I don't think so. Not long term. She might convince him to follow her at first but we do not believe he will come over to our side. And if they have been together as long as reports suggest, he will notice the change in her. We may have to eliminate him."
"She may do that for you. If they attempt to confine her and we are not able to implant the new memories, eventually the Black Widow programming will take over. She'll seduce one to escape and then cut his throat. "
"Well, one Avenger dead. Another Avenger—a murderer. That could work to destabilize them at least."
"Hail Hydra, Secretary Pierce."
"Hail Hydra."
