Chapter VI

Betsy staggered forwards, before dropping to her knees, blood seeping through her jacket. Logan was so surprised that it took him several seconds before he could look at the man who had betrayed them. Ray's pistol was levelled at Logan's chest, and Logan knew that if he made any sudden moves, Ray wouldn't hesitate to fire at him as well.

"Why did you shoot her?" he asked evenly. "She had been getting on my nerves for sometime now," Ray said matter-of-factly. "Although I must say that her constant suspicion of you as the traitor did make my job much easier."

"So you're a Hydra agent?" Logan asked, his eyes scanning the compartment to see if there was anything that could give him the upper hand in this situation.

"Correct. And the director will be very pleased when I inform her of your death. She is most annoyed that you killed Omega Red."

"What makes you think that you can kill me, when Omega Red failed?" Logan asked, trying to buy himself some time.

"I have you held at gunpoint - Betsy is hardly going to be able to save you and Warren has no idea of what's going on. It's a shame really," Ray said thoughtfully, "you were all doing so well, it would have been interesting to see how far you would have got before dying. As it is, you almost got to Hydra's base - it's only eight miles south of Murmansk. But now it is your time to die." Without warning Ray pointed his gun at Logan's leg and fired.

Logan let out a groan of pain and dropped to the floor, clutching his left kneecap whilst Ray smirked. "I hope you're not too fond of walking," Ray said as he levelled his gun at Logan's right kneecap. His finger was hovering over the trigger when Betsy suddenly lashed out with a sudden burst of strength and unbalanced Ray.

Instantly Logan forced himself to lunge forwards and disarm Ray with a swift hand movement. Unarmed and outnumbered, Ray began to back away but upon realising that his opponent's were both badly injured he grinned and pulled a long, wide-bladed knife from his boot. Logan ducked under his first, wild swipe and hit him in the chest with a powerful straight kick, which winded Ray and made him drop the knife and stagger backwards. Logan quickly scooped the knife off the floor and threw it without pausing to aim. The knife embedded itself in Ray's throat and Ray stared at the knife for several seconds - his face a mask of almost comic surprise - before he collapsed to the floor and lay still.

Logan helped Betsy to stand and she leaned against the wall for support. Neither of them spoke for a while, but it was Betsy who broke the silence first. "Why did you kill him?" she demanded, a steely note audible even in her weak voice.

Logan sighed. "Where do I start? He tried to kill you. He was trying to kill me. He was going to kill…"

"I meant that he would have been useful to interrogate!" Betsy interrupted, shaking her head in an exasperated manner.

"That bastard just kneecapped me. I really wasn't in the mood to do anymore talking." Logan suddenly grimaced in pain as he accidentally leant some of his weight on his left leg. "Besides, he told us what we need to know. Hydra's base is eight miles south of Murmansk."

Warren had his gun in his hand when Betsy and Logan returned to the compartment - Logan supporting almost all of Betsy's weight. Logan laid her gently down across several seats and turned to Warren, who had begun to ask a question.

"Do you have a first aid kit or something, 'cause she's lost a lot of blood." Warren opened his mouth to speak, though better of it and rummaged around in his bag until he found a first aid kit.
Looking through it Logan was impressed, it had a lot more than a normal first aid kit would have. He pulled out a syringe and put a measure of painkillers into it, before injecting it into Betsy's shoulder. He also wrapped a tight bandage around Betsy's side. "That's all I can do until we get to Murmansk. She'll need to go to a hospital when we arrive."

"What about you?" Warren asked, indicating his numerous bruises and injuries.

"I'll be fine," Logan waved away the inquiry, injecting himself with a dose of painkillers before leaning back in his seat and seemingly falling asleep instantly. Warren didn't want to wake him, although he had a lot of questions that needed answering.

The train pulled into Murmansk half an hour later and Logan was awake as soon as the train stopped. Together, Warren and Logan half-carried, half-dragged Betsy off the train and then directly to the hospital, the location of which Logan found out from a station guard. Warren checked Betsy into the hospital while Logan bought a map of the surrounding area and they met up outside the hospital.

"Betsy's going to be taken care of. I've left her a message and told her that we'll meet her back here," Warren explained.

"I've checked out all the maps I could find. The only thing I've seen of interest is that there is an old weather monitoring station about eight miles south of here. Chances are that could be where Hydra is." Logan showed Warren his discovery. "You ready to go?" Warren nodded and the two set off southwards.

The door to room 101 of the Murmansk hospital was opened by a young, smartly dressed doctor, who had short silver blonde hair that was brushed into a neat side parting. He took a long look at his patient before closing the door and moving over to her bed. Her name was Elisabeth Braddock and she had been shot just below her ribcage. The bullet hadn't done any real damage, but she had suffered quite bad blood loss.

The doctor nodded his head, apparently having come to some conclusion, put down his clipboard and reached into his coat. He drew out a silenced Beretta pistol and proceeded to fire at the patient's comatose body. As the first bullet tore through her spine, Betsy let out a small groan but after that she was silent. The man only stopped firing when the magazine had finally been exhausted. The empty magazine dropped to the floor with a clatter and the doctor slapped a new one into its place.

The door suddenly opened and a young nurse walked in, reading a chart on a clipboard. She looked up and upon seeing the doctor with a gun in his hand and the dead patient; she dropped the clipboard and opened her mouth to scream. Unfortunately, by this time she had been hit four times by bullets that tore through her body and she was thrown against the door, staining the white paint a dark red.

The doctor slipped his Beretta inside his coat and left the room, stepping over the nurse's corpse so not to stain his shoes. He walked purposefully through the hospital and out the front door, then into a dark alley next to the hospital. He pulled off his doctor's coat and put it in a small bag, then straightened up and walked out the alley dressed as a smart businessman. As he walked down the street, Pietro smiled to himself. Another one down meant that there were only two left to go - the Wolverine and Worthington.

Warren and Logan arrived at the old weather station just as dusk was setting in. Warren leant against one of the walls, checking their position on the map whilst Logan took a look around. If there had been any activity here recently, it had been covered up extremely well.

Logan limped over to Warren shaking his head. The walk had taken its toll on Logan's injury, but he had banished the pain to the back of his mind and over time he had just got so used to it that he now ignored it. "I can't see any sign of use. This place is abandoned."

"Not quite abandoned," a voice said from behind them. Inwardly cursing himself for allowing someone to sneak up behind him, Logan turned around slowly. A dozen men in black jumpsuits were aiming machine guns at Logan and Warren, and in the middle of them was a figure that Logan recognised instantly. "It's been a long time since Finland, hasn't it Wolverine?" the woman asked casually, as though she was inquiring after the health of an old acquaintance. "And a lot has changed in that time." A sly smile spread across her face. "Do you want to see exactly what you delivered in Finland?"

"I know what I gave you." Logan ground out his words between clenched teeth.

"You gave us our newest and ultimate weapon." From behind the woman a man stepped forwards, his silver blonde hair defined by the moonlight.

"Hey Wolverine. Remember me?"

Author's Note: I am so, so, so sorry that it has taken me so long to update this story, I've just been swamped with work and my computer has been breaking down again. Thank you so much for your reviews last chapter karakin and daemonrogue 13, if you're still reading this I promise, barring my untimely death, that the next chapter will be up in the next couple of days.