Chapter 19

"Clint, open the hanger door!"

"No."

"CLINT!"

"Kiss my ass!"

"CLINT! I AM YOUR LEADER AND I AM ORDERING YOU TO OPEN THIS DOOR!"

"Clearly you've never read his SHIELD file," Natasha came in from the elevators and tossed her jacket over the back of a chair, "that rarely works with him."

Steve abandoned the glass door and went to her instead, "How did it go?"

"Great! Bucky and Sam are securing our prisoner now."

Steve had been focused on planning Hydra raids all afternoon, so he was out of the loop on what happened in Maine, "Prisoner? Did you get Samantha's sister?"

"The Hydra psychologist? Yeah, like I said, we're securing her in the basement." Natasha crossed her arms, "Why are you fighting with Clint?"

"Hydra- WHAT?!"

"Don't change the subject."

"You changed it first!"

Clint still had the intercom open (and he actually checked his inbox), so he answered for himself, "Captain Braniac here thinks raiding random Hydra bases for prisoners will shake out intel on where Samantha is."

"How American." Natasha rolled her eyes, "Gunvald is Hydra, high-level contacts. If we get anything useful, you'll be the first to know."

"How do you know she's Hydra?" Samantha was so loving, so kind- Steve wasn't willing to believe her 'big sister', her role model, could be evil.

Of course, Thor and Loki exist…

"She used a Hydra shutdown code on Bucky, then woke him up again and tried to pass them off as something she just happened to know. When we told her Hydra had Samantha she faked a panic attack and called someone named 'Charles', I'm assuming he's high-up. She seemed to think he could protect Samantha."

Steve's mind raced, "I want JARVIS to run a DNA sample against everything, figure out if that's really Kristen Gunvald and-" he froze, then immediately rushed past Natasha to the elevators, "if she knew Bucky's shutdown she may know a trigger or control code! We've got to-" the elevator door opened and Steve braced for a fight. Bucky was the first thing he saw, and he looked pissed.

"I still say you should have let me get answers now. A little bit of potassium chloride- or a few lights punches- and she'd talk."

Sam appeared next as the doors opened, "We don't torture people, and Steve is the one who makes the call on use of truth serum."

"Hydra aren't people." Bucky stepped out.

Steve was still apprehensive, "You good, Bucky?"

"No, there's a Hydra shrink taking up space in my old apartment." As much as he hated Bucky calling the holding cell that, Steve was relieved. His anger was present- focused. When he fell into 'Asset Mode' his gaze was more passive and labored.

"I'll handle her, why don't you three get some rest?"

"We slept in the car," Sam lied, "what's the scoop here?"

"JARVIS had some pretty nasty security footage that tells us nothing new. Loki came in at street level and swapped faces until he got up here. Samantha-" Steve swallowed hard, "she told him she wasn't talking so we would have time to find her, but he doesn't plan on letting her go alive. JARVIS is trying to clean up the audio- we got most of it from the hallway cameras."

"Well, Gunvald may have done us a favor then. If Loki accepts Hydra's request then he'll start with the psychological torture. It'll leave scars but trust me, it takes longer." Bucky shrugged. They all knew what psychological torture could end in- he was the living embodiment, "Gives us more time to find her than if Loki started pulling fingernails, at least."

Steve growled softly and Bucky stepped out of his way, "Get Clint out of the hanger. I'm going to talk to our new friend."

"I'll make the popcorn," Clint was already halfway across the lounge.

"Hey- don't kill her," Natasha headed off to find Tony. Steve needed Stark there to ring him in if he lost control. Tony could override any commands Cap might give JARVIS, things like sucking the oxygen from the room or flooding it with nerve gas.

"I won't… Yet."

Kristen was dazed as Bucky pulled her from the trunk of the car and dragged her through the various secret basements of Avengers Tower. Now though, she was awake, calm, and collected. She'd have to be when they interrogated her. Calling Charles had been a calculated risk- she'd make the same call in a do-over, and she wasn't even mad at Natasha for the tazer to the throat (okay, maybe a little peeved).

The cell had a fake wall- some sort of energy barrier Bucky and Sam activated then turned opaque when they left. There was a bunk and retractable toilet built into the wall, but otherwise it was barren. When Bucky was still in the worst of his violent episodes the cell had been fitted with a rug, pictures, a bookcase, a writing desk, and even a radio- but all of that was gone now.

She waited roughly ten minutes (San and Bucky took her watch) before calling out, "If you're as worried about her as I am then you're on the other side of this wall, Steve."

The gray barrier flashed and turned transparent. Sure enough, Steve was standing there with a scowl, "Where is Hydra holding Samantha?"

"I have no idea."

"Liar!"

"I don't know because I'm not Hydra."

Steve actually laughed, "Natasha says you are, and I trust her with my life."

"Natasha misunderstood what she heard. Look, I get why she did what she did, but there's a good explanation."

"Oh, please, try me. I could really use something to laugh at today."

Kristen knew from Samantha's stories that Steve was a reasonable man. She could only hope he was willing to be understanding too, "When I was a grad student I showed promise. I know how people think and I can help them. I chose this specialty because of how difficult it is. My supervisory professor partnered me with a friend of his- Doctor Andrew Garner."

"The SHIELD psychologist?" Steve's scowl broke slightly, now he was really listening. Doctor Garner had evaluated him when he came out of the ice.

"He let me lead some group therapy sessions starting my second year of grad school- to see if I could handle treating the extreme stuff. I eventually took over and handled two different groups all the way through my master's and PHd studies. I didn't know he was SHIELD then. After I got my license, he gave me my first patients- most of them from those group sessions."

"He recruited you for SHIELD?"

"No." Kristen could tell she finally had his full attention, "Of my thirty patients, ten came from SHIELD. I've known and helped these people for years. He got me SHIELD clearance so I could take over their solo sessions- that's when I found out SHIELD existed. A few months after Hydra was outed I found out four of my SHIELD patients were otherwise affiliated. I'm damn good at what I do, and none of my patients are active on the roster or can ever be active again. I figured it didn't do any harm to keep treating them, so I brokered a deal through both SHIELD and Hydra. They don't interfere with me or the treatment of my patients, and I keep treating them. No one knows how many of either side I have but me. I don't push agendas, I don't take sides, I just help."

"Like a doctor patching up the good guys and the bad ones in a war zone?" Tony ambled in from the hallway.

"Exactly."

"Except you play in people's heads. You knocked Bucky down, what else can you make him do?"

Kristen rolled her eyes, "The person Natasha heard me talking to- he was a powerful figure in SHIELD's Somali office. He made enemies, scary ones. His wife was taken from their home, tortured, and programmed by an enhanced psychic. It took SHIELD six months to locate and recover her, by then she was almost completely gone. Before the psychic was terminated, Charles had a shutdown trigger added in case she was set off while Doctor Garner- then myself- treated and deprogrammed her. It hasn't worked in two years, but knowing his affiliations, I figured it must have been a common code. I don't know any others, I swear."

"You said you made a deal- who was the SHIELD end with?" Steve hoped only for someone familiar.

"Director Phil Coulson oversaw it personally."

"Phil-" Tony looked to Steve. Both men were visibly stunned, "Fury…"

"His number in my cell under 'Tax Accountant'. He'll verify everything. The Hydra contact I called is one of the major heads. He arranged our deal so I could keep up the work with his wife. I've treated her for so long she knows Samantha from the reception area. Her and her husband love Samantha. He swore to me he would use his pull to stop Loki from hurting her. If that jackass is using Hydra resources then he will have to listen."

"But he's not returning her?"

Kristen shook her head, "I'm not Hydra. I'm someone who's treating a few relatives of Hydra agents- Charles' wife, someone's husband, and two teenagers. It was overstepping to ask as much as I did. They're doing me a favor. Loki will still torture her-" a tear slipped down Kristen's cheek, "but psychological torture I can handle, and it buys us time to find her."

"Us?" Tony laughed, "That's optimistic. How about this- we leave you in here until Samantha is home safe and sound and then we determine just how ethical your practices are?"

Kristen nodded, "That might work, but can I offer an alternative? You verify my story as quickly as possible and then let me out of this cell."

"And why would we do that?" Steve was a fan of Tony's plan.

"Thursday afternoon at two-fifty three I got a call from Samantha. I told Sam, Natasha, and Bucky it was nothing, but I lied. You say Loki's after whatever she hid? I know where to start digging."

"How?"

"Let me out of here and I'll show you." Kristen crossed her arms and leaned back against the cement wall, "I suggest you hurry. I wasn't blessed with infinite patience, especially when my sister's life is in danger."