Steve's Point of View
"How could you just let her leave?" I try my hardest not to yell at Maria…but my emotions were proving hard to keep in check. We were able to trace Charlotte to Central Park but then lost her. She was in the wind.
"I didn't just let her leave, Rogers," she says, also clearly shaken up. "When she told me she was leaving, I traced the call first and it led straight back to your phone. I even put a tracer in her pocket, just in case."
"That's down too, just like her phone," Bruce says, his eyes trained on the computer screen in front of him. "I'm not getting any traces of her…anywhere."
"JARVIS?" Tony says to his AI. "You got anything?"
"I was able to get a recording of the phone call Dr. Litz received before she left here," the voice rings out above us. "I don't know how much help it will be though."
"Maybe they threatened her or something," Natasha says, scrolling through security footage from Stark's building.
A second later, my heart gives a lurch as I hear Charlotte's voice overhead. "And here I thought I was going to get a nice vacation from Tony," her voice says, a small giggle ending the thought. "Well, at any rate, I'm glad you're coming home."
"Would you like to meet for lunch?" Everyone stills as the other voice sounds above us, there was no denying that it sounded like me.
"That sounds so amazing," Charlotte responds to the other person. Out of the corner of my eye I see Bruce and Tony start messing with their computers, no doubt running some sort of analysis.
"Great, how about we meet in Central Park? Like we used to?" My nostrils flare. Of course they would know that would get Charlotte outside. Central Park was her favorite place in the world, after her archives or a library.
"I can't find any underlying voices on the recording," Tony says.
"Who's Lana?" I suddenly ask. The name barely registered in my memory. I had barely heard Charlotte say it as I was yelling at the rest of the team what was happening to her.
"Who?" a few of the people in the lab say.
"When I was on the phone with Charlotte, she said 'Lana', like someone was there with her," I say. "Whoever Lana is, she had something to do with it."
"There's a receptionist that works here named Lana," Maria says. All heads turn to look at her, except Natasha who is focused on a tablet screen. "I think Dr. Litz was friendly with her."
"This her?" Natasha says as she presses a button on the tablet. A large, blown up picture of a pretty blonde appears in the middle of the room so that everyone can see it. Maria nods her head.
"I recognize her," I say, nodding my head. "Charlotte did mention her a few times."
"JARVIS?" Tony says again, a little more annoyance in his voice.
"Extensive background checks are run on all employees, sir," JARVIS replies.
"Besides Litz…I don't think I've ever seen a background this clean," Natasha says, looking at the tablet again. "There's nothing- what the hell?" As we all turn to look at her, the large picture of Lana disappears from middle of the room in a flash of static. "It's gone…everything on her is gone."
Everyone, except myself and Thor, move in a flurry of motion, yelling out stuff at each other as they try to figure out what was going on. From what I could figure, someone had briefly hacked into Stark files and deleted all traces of Lana. Whoever it was though, was in and out so quickly, it was proving a challenge to trace it. "What I wonder is this," Thor says. I turn my head slightly to look at him. A thoughtful look was on his face, as if he were deep in thought. "How did they get her out of the park?" I ask him to clarify. He turns to face me directly. "You said she was in the park when she called you, yes?" I nod my head. "Well, carrying an unconscious girl out of a park would draw unwanted attention…she must have walked out of the park on her own accord…"
"Charlotte wouldn't walk out on her own," I say. "Natasha and Sam both taught her how to fight, she wouldn't just leave with them."
"I'm pulling up cameras around the entrances of the park," Clint says. All the cameras appear in the middle of the room in front of us. They rewind at a quick speed, timing back to when we figure Charlotte first entered the park. "There she is," Clint says, highlighting one screen. Sure enough, there was Charlotte, wearing her favorite green sundress, walking into the park. Clint slides the timer on the bottom of the screen to an hour later.
"No way," Someone murmurs. On the screen is Charlotte walking beside Lana out of the park. They stand on the sidewalk for a moment until a black suv pulls up in front of them. When the car pulls away, Charlotte is gone, Lana walking down the sidewalk away from the park.
"They had to have her drugged or something," Natasha says.
"It doesn't matter," I say, my shoulders tensing up with even more anger. "We find her. Now."
oOoOo
Charlotte's Point of View
"Guten Morgen, meine Freundin Charlotte," a voice says above me. I try to open my eyes, but they still feel too heavy. "Sind Sie immer noch müde, mein Haustier?"
"Wo bin ich?" I ask, in a dream-like stupor. I wasn't even sure if I was really awake or not. "Steve?" I say instinctively.
"Nein, Haustier. Ihr Super-Soldat ist nicht hier," the voice says. "Maybe if I speak in English, it will help you wake more." Suddenly, adrenaline courses through me and my eyes shoot open. Not immediately recognizing where I am, I try to sit up but am unsuccessful. I look down at my arms and legs to see them strapped down to the table I was lying on. The sundress I had been wearing had been replaced by a white hospital gown. I look at my right arm and see a set of hands withdrawing a syringe, no doubt containing the adrenaline that had woken me up, from the IV that was in my arm. I start to panic, struggling against the restraints. "Now, now, pet, calm yourself," the voice says again. I finally find the source of the voice. It was Konig. He was rubbing at my forehead, as if trying to calm down a child.
"Where am I?" I start to struggle even more. "Let me go! Where am I? Stop touching me!"
"Maybe a little something to calm her?" Konig says to a woman that was in the room with us. The woman nods her head as she grabs a vial of medicine and draws some out with a syringe. I try to struggle against it as she injects the medicine into my IV once again. Despite my best efforts, the medicine calms me down. It acts almost as a paralytic and all I can really do is talk. "There, that is more better." The table tilts, lifting my head up so that it's as if I'm standing. Konig moves in front of me, smiling at me. He looked exactly the same as he did in Tennessee. His eyes, an unnatural flat black, jet black hair streaked with silver slicked back on his head. Pearly-white teeth smiled back at me from behind thin, pink lips. "My pet…at last you are back with me."
"Don't…call…me…that," I say. The medicine they had given me almost had me asleep again.
"Oh," he says, as if talking to a small child. "You don't mean that. Now, tell me. How are you feeling?"
"I'm…not…telling…you…anything," I say. I didn't care what he wanted to know, I wasn't telling him anything. "Let…me…go."
"I knew you were a stubborn one," he tucks his hands behind his back, still smiling at me as if I was a cute child. "You will eventually work with me though. I know you will."
"You'll…regret…taking…me," I say. The medicine was working in full force now and I could feel myself being pulled back to sleep.
"Oh? And why is that?"
"Avengers…will…come," I manage to slur out. The last I hear before falling back into oblivion is Konig laughing a sadistic, evil laugh.
oOoOo
Steve's Point of View – Two weeks later
Looking around the lab, I could see the stress of the last two weeks etched on everyone's faces. Even Thor was looking a little more tired than usual. There hadn't even been a whisper of a hint of Charlotte, Konig, or Lana. We had nothing. Every place Konig or Charlotte had ever visited was searched thoroughly, but with no luck. We even tried to reach out to Fury, to try to figure out where he sent Charlotte after D.C., but we couldn't even reach him.
"If you're not going to sleep," Natasha says, appearing next to me. "You should at least ingest some caffeine." I stare at the paper coffee cup she sits down in front of me. It wouldn't help. Nothing artificial like that had any effect on me. I sip it with a nod though, barely even registering the burn of it on my tongue. I had detached myself from any sort of emotion when we realized Charlotte wasn't going to be easy to find. I was moving on auto-pilot, in full super-soldier mode. "We'll find her, Steve," Natasha says, trying to comfort me. "None of us will stop until we do."
"The guy has to have HYDRA behind him," Tony says from across the lab. I turn my head to look at him, waiting for further explanation. "No one guy can hide like he has been, without their backing."
"She thought he might be," I say. I hadn't said her name either. "After she received the package, she thought Konig might be working with HYDRA again."
"So we start searching HYDRA bases?" Hill offers.
"We'd have to find them first," Clint mumbles. It takes everything in me not to pounce on him.
"Sir?" JARVIS says overheard. "A package has just arrived."
Tony lets out an annoyed groan. "Not now JARVIS-"
"Sir, it's addressed to Captain Rogers," everyone in the lab stops moving. "And the return address says it's from Dr. Litz."
"Get it up here," Tony says. "Now."
A few minutes later the downstairs receptionist brings the package into the lab. Bruce takes it from her and sets it down on a table. The package looks exactly like the one Charlotte had received, except it was my name in the recipient line. Everyone gathers around as Bruce waves the miniature x-ray wand over it. "JARVIS, reading?" Bruce asks to the air.
"It appears to be a USB drive, Dr. Banner," JARVIS responds.
Bruce rips open the package to reveal the small, thumb size drive. He also produces an envelope, addressed to me. I take it from him and read the note inside out loud after opening it. "'Fear not Captain Rogers, Charlotte is in good health. Why would I hurt my pet? If you do not believe me, see for yourself." I lower the card and look at everyone else, who in turn was looking at me. "What does he mean by that? 'See for myself'?"
"No way…" Tony says, looking at the USB drive in Bruce's hand. "That sick son of a bitch."
Bruce seems to catch onto whatever Tony was thinking. I watch, in confusion, as he turns and sticks the drive into a dock near the computer. A screen appears in the middle of the room. As the image clears, all the blood drains from my face. "Charlotte…"
oOoOo
Charlotte's Point of View
I stare at the window, the sun light pouring in from towards the bottom of it. It must be late evening then; exactly two weeks since I was taken. I turn my attention from the window, my eyes dragging around the room. They land on something new this time though. The camera that was directly across the room from my bed that had been there since I was locked in here, now had a red blinking light. They must have had it off this whole time and just now finally turned it on. The heavy metal door of my room opens with a groan. Konig and Lana stand in the doorway, looking at me. "My pet, how are we doing today?" Konig says with a smile as he steps into my room. It was almost comical to refer to the small room as a room…it was more of cell: concrete walls, one barred window too high for me to even reach, one rickety bed with a thin mattress, and the thing that bothered me the most, a bucket for me to use as a toilet.
I suppress a shiver at the name Konig called me. "Well…room service could be better," I say, giving him a sarcastic smile. "And I know I requested 1000 thread count sheets, but the silly servant only brought me 500 count."
Konig just smiles at me. "I love your sense of humor," he says. He turns briefly to gauge Lana's reaction to my sarcasm, but she just stares at me blankly. "It's good…very good."
"Well, glad one of us is having a good time," I say, pulling my feet up onto the bed and crossing my legs.
"But, I do have a problem, my pet," he says, suddenly looking serious. He had given me this look before, but there was something about it this time that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. "Every day, every day I come here and I politely ask you questions. Yet, you never answer me. Why is this, my pet?"
"Well, it couldn't possibly be due to the fact that you're an evil guy who kidnapped me," I say. "Other than that fact…I just really don't want to answer whatever you have to ask me. It's a stubborn streak I picked up when you experimented on my brain as a child, you know?"
Yet again, Konig just smiles at me. "Oh, that sense of humor, I just love it," he says, wagging a finger at me. "But, my pet, I'm afraid I really need to you answer my questions. It's not me, trust me, I'd be happy just letting you live your life and seeing what my work produces. It's really my bosses-"
"Your bosses?" I cut him off. "Who's your bosses?"
"I think you know, pet," he says. "Now, my bosses want some answers. They told me that they are tired of waiting and they will get their answers…today."
My blood runs cold. I see Lana flex her hand, as if readying it. "How?"