Disclaimer: I own nothing Captain America-related, not even Bucky Barnes…though I might consider asking Marvel to loan them and the rest of the Avengers to me for a while. Until then, only original characters and plots/ideas are mine.

AN: More excitement in this chapter, with more to follow. Please enjoy, and please be kind and review. Thank you.

Chapter 14: HYDRA:

Their leader was not happy –and when he wasn't happy, no one was.

"Where is he?" was the question being constantly asked. "Why have you not found him yet?"

It was a good question, and one that many others throughout HYDRA were asking themselves:

Where was their Winter Soldier?

Several agents who had been close to Alexander Pierce during his time as head of SHIELD had some theories. They had seen that several cracks had been made to the Soldier's fragile mind, and that despite their efforts to wipe his mind, some memories were starting to seep through. He had begun to question his purpose, and to question the ways of HYDRA.

It was all thanks to that infuriating Steve Rogers, the constant thorn in HYDRA's side. He had brought them to the brink of collapse by eliminating their illustrious leader, Red Skull, and even though they had recovered remarkably well, it had taken decades of hard work to do so. But the growth of their organization had been due to Arnim Zola's hard work, and because everyone had assumed that their enemy, Captain America, had perished shortly before the end of WWII.

To their disappointment and worry, the Captain was discovered in the Arctic, and brought back from the brink of death, just in time to save the world from an alien invasion.

Even though honesty was tolerated (and sometimes brutally necessary) in HYDRA's ranks, none of them wanted to admit one particular fact: in only that one instance, the good Captain, as well as the misfit group of heroes known as The Avengers, had done HYDRA a favor. After all, they could hardly take control of the world if it had already been conquered by a much more powerful force.

However, once the world was safe again, Steve Rogers had returned to fighting against everything that HYDRA had secretly built. He brought down many of their assets, killed or captured their agents, and broke apart many rings that had taken years to establish.

And he hadn't done it alone. SHIELD had been part of their problem as well.

Although they had controlled many aspects of the agency, it was the parts of SHIELD they hadn't been able to infiltrate that had been the constant frustration. Nick Fury, those loyal to him, and those dedicated to the founding principles of the organization had frozen HYDRA in its tracks for years. For ages, they had struggled to gain power in Fury's trusted circle, but failed. HYDRA's great leaders had not been happy with that failure.

But now finally, they had been brought to light –however, it had been at a significant cost. A number of useful HYDRA members had been lost in the fight at the Triskelion; from minor agents to great and powerful officers like Alexander Pierce. Although HYDRA's ranks were large, losing so many in such useful places was a hard blow to their pride.

But the worst loss was the Winter Soldier. Since his retrieval from a frozen river, many resources had been used over the decades in order to submit him to their will. To have him wander off after a major battle without a word meant every effort to make him one of them had been a waste.

And if there was one thing Baron Von Strucker hated, it was waste.

One of the great leaders of HYDRA, the Baron had a particular fondness for the Winter Soldier. Perhaps it was because the Soldier was a relic from the days of Red Skull, a man the Baron admired and respected, even now. The Soldier had been retrieved and worked on by Zola himself, the Red Skull's most brilliant scientist. Zola had spent a great deal of time and effort crafting the Soldier to be HYDRA's perfect assassin, all in the hopes that he would be something the Red Skull could have been proud of.

Because of this, Von Strucker wanted him back –badly.

Unfortunately, HYDRA was still unable to reveal its full force to the world, which they had planned to do after the launch of the Helicarriers. Now, they had to remain primarily in the shadows, fuming over the loss of SHIELD, an agency that had provided the perfect cover for them to operate both in and under. While working within SHIELD, HYDRA's operatives had allowed to perform their true task of subjecting the world while pretending to do otherwise.

Now their existence was known, and the weapon that would have made it possible to conquer the world had been destroyed. Without the Helicarriers to subdue any opposition against their efforts, it would take some time before they could boldly head out into the world to act however they wished.

Even worse, with the world's governments now searching for HYDRA's bases and agents, obtaining the Winter Soldier had become even more difficult. And this made the Baron very impatient.

So far, their efforts were a tremendous disappointment. They had searched each and every hideout the Soldier had ever used during his assignments, and combed through every city, town, and tiny village he had managed to set foot in. There was no sign of him anywhere.

A search of Washington DC had proved fruitless as well. It was the last place he had been, and starting a few days after the destruction of the Carriers and Triskelion, no one had been able to have eyes on him.

One final play would have to be made, and if this failed, there were few straws left to draw on.

The agents standing before the view screen tried not to let their nervousness show. One of the great heads of HYDRA gazed down at them, a serious look on his face as he reclined in his large black leather chair.

"Report, quickly," he ordered.

Although his tone was soft and gentle, it was deceptively so. Behind the glasses, cold eyes stared down at his subordinates, a slightly expectant expression on a face that remained blank, with only a tiny hint of false kindness. It was the face that most HYDRA agents presented, before they struck their opponents dead.

Everyone swallowed, hard and silently. One of the more senior members of those gathered tried to nudge a less important underling forward to take the fall, but if there was one thing Daniel Whitehall hated, it was getting information from someone he deemed insignificant.

He pointed to the head of the spy network assigned to the task Whitehall had set them to. "You! What has your team gathered so far?"

The man, Adam Lennox, tried to remain calm as he began delivering a report he'd hoped to push onto another, to save his own skin.

"We've been able to establish that, due to his exposure to Captain America, the Winter Solder has begun to unlock his memories about his past," Lennox managed to calmly inform his superior officer. "We have obtained footage of him visiting the Smithsonian numerous times, always making his way to the Bucky Barnes monument."

Whitehall scowled, freezing Lennox in his report. After a tense moment, Whitehall nodded, signaling him to continue.

"From what we have determined, he has gathered as much information as he possibly can through public records. This includes the monument, and any possible SHIELD records that were leaked during the fall of the Triskelion and the Carriers."

Again, Whitehall did not look pleased. "Did the SHIELD records have anything significant?"

Lennox shook his head. "It primarily consisted of information from his time in the Army, as well as his supposed demise." He swallowed hard. "It appears that there was some document digging in Russia, in regards to what records were kept there on the Soldier by Russian HYDRA agents. A few key files were pulled and delivered to Washington DC, namely to Agent Romanoff."

Everyone watched as Whitehall's lips turned down in a definite scowl. "No doubt she put those files directly into Steve Rogers' hands," he stated.

Lennox nodded. "We believe that to be the case."

"Have you eyes on the Captain?" Whitehall asked, placing his hands together so that his fingertips rested underneath his chin.

There was another nod from Lennox. "Yes, sir; we have eyes on him. Currently, he's traveling around the globe with his wife." He paused to take a calming breath. "But I'm afraid we cannot get very close to them."

A silvery grey eyebrow rose on Whitehall's face. "Explain."

Lennox turned towards his head of surveillance and jerked his head. He clearly didn't intend to go down alone, not if he could put someone else on the chopping block, both literally and figuratively.

Everett Stone grudgingly stepped forward. "Captain America has been hired as an employee by Tony Stark," he said, praying that he wouldn't break into a nervous sweat. "It is a very high position having to do with security. As such, he is always accompanied by at least one guard who is completely trustworthy and loyal to Stark Industries."

That was another thing that annoyed the HYDRA leaders. They had tried for many years to infiltrate Stark Industries, but so far, had only managed to plant a few people in low-level positions, as those were the ones who required the least thorough background checks. Those they had working within Stark Industries had no access to important documents or computer systems, which meant nothing was being gained for having their people employed there.

Even worse, anyone in the more important roles was being check on constantly, their actions monitored every moment they were inside a Stark building. Someone always knew where they were, what they were doing, and who they were meeting with. It was almost enough to make HYDRA envious, if they hadn't already been angry.

And since Stark Industries was known for its technology, they had some of the best computer software protection in the world, making it nearly impossible for a HYDRA agent to break into the company's computer systems from within the building. Breaking in from the outside was even more impossible.

Regrettably, for all the effort and training that had been put into training those agents, there was nothing coming back to HYDRA in return for all their wasted resources.

Now Captain America was working for Tony Stark, and that left him under that same protective umbrella –or should they say 'shield?' Well, it didn't matter. Steve Rogers was constantly just out of reach, which meant they couldn't abduct and interrogate him for information.

"We can't get close to his wife, either," Stone informed his superior. "Adena Rogers is under even more protection than her husband. She never goes out alone, and her schedule, if she has one, is known by only a select few."

Whitehall regarded the entire group with his calm, even gaze. "Is that all you have on this? Can anyone tell me for certain if the Soldier has contacted the good Captain?"

Stone shook his head. "We know that he has not. If he had done so, he would be with Captain Rogers, not missing."

Lennox took a step forward. "It is well-known that, before we turned him, the Soldier was like a brother to Steve Rogers. If the two men had managed to get in contact with one another, Steve Rogers would never leave his friend alone, no matter what. Considering the delicate state of mind the Soldier must be in, Steve Rogers would be helping his friend with his blocked or forgotten memories, not traveling the world."

Whitehall didn't look angry, but he wasn't impressed, either. "So the Winter Soldier has not reunited with his old friend," he said, leaning back in his chair. "Interesting. But if they are not together, then where is the Fist of HYDRA? The Baron is growing impatient."

The entire room tried to remain calm as Stone quietly replied, "I'm afraid we aren't sure."

"We have theories, sir," Lennox rushed to say. "We simply need time to follow them, to see if they pan out."

Their leader's gaze hardened. "Theories are of no use to us," he snapped.

"But we might have a way of finding the Soldier!" Lennox hurried on, his tone slightly panicked.

Now Whitehall looked interested. "You had better not be stalling to save your own skin, Lennox. I don't like being made a fool of, especially not when I have to report failures directly to Baron Von Strucker."

Stone somehow managed to gather his courage. "Sir, several of us believe that, even though it seems that the Soldier has not contacted Steve Rogers, it is possible that this could be a sort of diversion."

The room went silent as their leader appeared to think about that for a moment. Finally, he drawled, "Go on."

Stone was more than happy to babble out his team's idea. "There is the possibility that Steve Rogers could be diverting our attention away from the Soldier by traveling the world, causing us to track him instead of the Soldier's whereabouts. With our eyes on him, we would always be looking in the wrong places."

He watched Whitehall nod. "That is quite plausible. How do you intend to find out whether or not this is, in fact, the case?"

Lennox stepped forward. "We intend to abduct one of Adena Rogers' family members, in order to force Mrs. Rogers to provide key information. Her family is large, and close-knit –she will comply with our wishes, to get her family member back."

Now Whitehall looked slightly impressed. "Very well. Proceed with the abduction, but make sure you thoroughly look into her family tree, if only to find the best target. I want no mistakes when it comes to this endeavor. There are many government agencies still searching for us, including several annoying pockets of SHIELD that still dare to exist."

Everyone in the room saluted him as he signed off, leaving them to their mission.

Researching Adena Rogers' family was more difficult than most of them had imagined. The sheer number of immediate family was impressive, and combing through all of their information was frustrating and time-consuming.

Then there was the hard task of choosing who to take.

The older adults of retirement age were a possibility, but if torture became a necessary means of extracting information from them, there was the risk of them dying prematurely. It was always hard to deal with older people.

Children were also something HYDRA disliked when it came to hostages or kidnap victims. They were noisy, messy, rude, and always caused a maddening amount of frustration and anger amongst the agents. This was especially the case when the child managed to slip free and run around, breaking things and kicking or punching the agents holding them.

There were many young adults in Mrs. Rogers' family, but unfortunately, not all of them would make ideal targets –not when their resources in regards to that sort of mission were going to be minimal. Taking young adults tended to involve them making a scene of some kind, and that was not what they wanted –not if they needed a person alive and in good health.

"We might not be the 'good guys' that SHIELD was, but we can't go in with guns blazing," Lennox instructed them. "Tempting as it is, we need people alive and not terrified of us. If we kill everyone, or harm too many, we'll get nothing. We treat this carefully, and we treat the prisoner delicately…at least until they are of no use to us."

After much digging, a few of the information gatherers began to notice something odd with one of Mrs. Rogers' cousins.

"Sir, a Miss Anita Wallace has mysteriously left her home town," one of female members, Tina, reported, eyes fixed on the screen before her.

Lennox didn't know whether to be excited or skeptical about it. "Explain."

Tina nodded. "Apparently her parents posted online that their daughter went to start a new government job in New York City. However, after digging into many government databases in regards to recently hired employees, Anita Wallace's name is nowhere to be found."

Another tech shrugged. "She might have lied and run off to join a circus or something. You know how young people are –they rebel by lying to their parents about where they're going and what their doing, and disappear."

Tina ignored her coworker, instead keeping her attention focused on her superior officer. "Sir, she apparently moved out all of her furniture and carefully packed belongings. She then headed off with it all in a large U-haul truck in a travel group. People don't do that if they're going to run off randomly."

Lennox went to take a closer look at Tina's computer screen. "So the question is: where did she move herself to?"

A small smirk pulled at the edges of Tina's thin mouth. "We've been looking, sir, but she left no forwarding address, not even with her parents. She had no employment listings with any government agency, and if her parents' online postings are any indication, Miss Wallace mostly communicates with her loved ones via e-mail and phone calls."

"Which she would do only if she didn't want someone to visit her and find out what she's really doing," Lennox finished for her, a smile how growing on his face.

Stone nodded. "Whatever is left of SHIELD must have her. And if they have her, it must be for one very special reason. It can't be a coincidence that she vanishes not long after the Soldier did."

"Get a team to keep an eye on Miss Wallace's parents," Lennox ordered, his people rushing to obey. "I want their calls and e-mails monitored. Track their daughter's messages as close as you can to their source."

By now, everyone in the room was beginning to feel more confident. They had finally found a way to track down the Winter Soldier.

Even better, they might have some leverage to use against him and SHIELD.

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