Chapter 23

The entire flight to Chicago Sam and Bucky discussed the mysterious USB drive. Their main question was who was responsible for it as well as why and how was Fury in on it? What was so important that the director of SHIELD was involved?

Sam pointed out that it obviously had something to do with their mission. That it was probably an information collection strategy that SHIELD was trying out.

Bucky on the other hand was not so sure. Why would SHIELD be testing new or experimental tech in the field on an assignment like this? Without telling them about it. Why had he been the only one designated to get one?

By the way the other agents had been talking about it, SHIELD was taking this particular mission as seriously as they would a major threat.

So far, their dealings with the remnants of HYDRA had been minimum when it came to security risks. As well as the severity of the threats. They were still very much active but easily controlled. Sam and Bucky had been tracking down those who had escaped the fallout of Project Insight, as well as any new recruits or activity pertaining to HYDRA since their enlistment.

They had foiled plans for training facilities and recruitment attempts. Nothing to worry about. Once they found the head, and what was left of HYDRA, and destroyed everything, their mission would be complete. HYDRA would be officially eliminated. For good this time.

All in all, HYDRA was almost nothing but a blip on their radar that came up every now and again. One which they blotted out every single time. Nothing significant, just an annoyance.

This, however, seemed a lot more serious than Bucky was letting on to Sam. He had his suspicions, which he had made known. But Bucky just had this gut feeling like something wasn't quite right, or that something significant was about to go down.

Or maybe it already was going down. He wasn't sure. He was keeping his thoughts to himself until he was given reason to bring them up. It wasn't always best to speak your mind. Particularly when your mind tended to lean more towards the 'everyone is somehow suspicious and everything is somehow sinister' category.

Ella had been proof of that.

When they arrived in the Chicago area, they did a preliminary sweep as they flew at a high altitude over the target. Their scans showed that there were no civilians anywhere near the complex that they had targeted.

That was a good thing. The bad thing was that there was no sign of life anywhere within a half-mile radius of the supposed medical facility that they were assigned to target.

Bucky did another sweep at a lower altitude and Sam deployed Red Wing.

The results were the same.

When they landed and approached the complex both Sam and Bucky's worst fears were confirmed. The facility was completely deserted. Exactly how they had found the complex in Washington.

Bucky had a sinking feeling as they performed their immediate sweep on the area to clear it of any possible hostiles. There was no one. Not a soul around. It was abandoned.

Everything seemed to have been packed up and moved or completely destroyed.

What bothered Sam and Bucky the most was the fact that the satellite images and infrared scans they had seen earlier that morning showing signs of activity at this location were taken sometime in the last 24 hours.

Over the following night and most of the next day, Sam and Bucky scoured every inch of the intricate complex looking for evidence. Anything that might lead them to something of value other than a desolate medical facility. They found more this time than they had in Washington.

It seems whoever it was that had been there had less time to gather their things and run this time around. This only pissed Bucky off more. How long before they had arrived had this place been inhabited? How much time would have made the difference between finding everything in its current state, and actually catching whoever had been there?

If they had only gotten there earlier everything may have been different.

They did confirm that it was used for medical purposes. The block that the infrared had shown captives in were actually rooms where it was obvious that medical equipment had been set up and quickly taken away. Remnants of some of the equipment had been left behind. Including a vital sign monitor and some connecting wires.

There were even several padded isolation rooms that were more likely to be found in a turn of the century mental institution. They were not in very good shape. One of which seemed to have taken a lot of abuse from the occupant that had previously resided there. What looked like blood and feces spattered the walls and there were several large tears in the padded lining.

As they moved further into the maze of hallways and deserted rooms, they came across multiple rooms that had been used as operating suites. Some of the operating tables had been left. Other rooms that were most likely used as observation areas were connected to these crude operating rooms.

Storerooms used for equipment had been hurriedly cleared, with a few traces of medical and surgical paraphernalia left behind. Whoever had been here had left in such a hurry that they failed to wipe as much trace of their presence as they had the first time.

What was glaringly obvious to both Sam and Bucky was that this was definitely a makeshift medical laboratory of some kind. What had been going on here before they had arrived was still somewhat of a mystery. Bucky knew, but he wouldn't even try to think of what it most likely was. Just having the thought on the periphery of his mindset his heart racing and sweat to form on his brow.

Then Bucky stumbled across something that sent him over the edge.

In a dark, windowless room Bucky found the only piece of machinery or equipment that had been left behind in the race and panic to leave. It was as familiar as it was terrifying. Memories came flooding back. Sights, sounds, smells. The taste of electricity. The smell of burning hair. The feel of the guard between his teeth and the taste of the hard rubber. Everything came rushing back. His head felt like it was going to explode.

Bucky froze. Unable to process what he was seeing. Then everything went black.

Sam found him sitting in a corner of the room sometime later. It had taken a while to find Bucky in the labyrinth of hallways. When he found him, Bucky was just staring at the wall. Eyes glazed over and almost unresponsive.

It took more than a few shakes of his arm and a few calls of his name, but Sam was able to bring Bucky around, managed to get him to his feet, and drag him out of that room.

Sam was worried. He had never seen Bucky react that way. To anything. Not even old memories suddenly coming back. Not even any of the bad ones. Sam had never seen Bucky suffer from a full-on PTSD episode.

He asked Bucky what happened. The answer sent chills down Sam's spine. A new understanding of what they were dealing with solidified.

That machine was the same one that HYDRA had used on Bucky to wipe him, to reset him, when he was The Winter Soldier.

They were dealing with HYDRA. And they were most likely dealing with new Super Soldier experiments.

Sam helped Bucky out of that room and down the hall to an empty room. They sat in silence until the sun went down and it grew too dark for either of them to see without the assistance of a flashlight.

Sam suggested calling it in. They had gathered enough information for SHIELD, they had seen enough for more than a full report on this place. Bucky had had more than his fill of it for another lifetime. He also had enough information for them from his previous experiences with this area of HYDRAs experimentations.

And they finally knew what HYDRA was up to.

Bucky sat there contemplating Sam's proposition. He hadn't said a word since the incident with the machine earlier. He looked at Sam with a contemplative look on his face. That same blank stare that Sam had grown so accustomed to, and had only now realized had been absent for some time now.

Bucky slowly reached into one of the pockets of his tactical gear and pulled out the black USB drive. He held it up for Sam to see. Sam understood exactly what Bucky was saying without him having to utter a syllable.

Both Sam and Bucky searched the premises for a computer. Every single one they found had been completely destroyed in some way, shape, or form.

Bucky was beginning to lose hope of being able to gather even more information with the USB drive.

Then he heard Sam shout from somewhere close by.

Bucky followed the sound of Sam's voice, holding his flashlight up high, to a room that had been used as some kind of observation room to another on the other side of what Bucky guessed was a two-way mirror.

Sam was crouched on the floor next to a computer console that had been knocked over. The mouse was crushed to plastic bits, and the CPU was in pieces, but the screen was lit. If there was any hope of connecting to a mainframe this would be it.

Bucky carefully searched the remains of the CPU carefully. Looking for a USB drive plug-in somewhere in the tangled mess of wires. He found one.

Bucky looked at Sam after he pulled out the drive before he inserted it in. Part of him was afraid that he was about to start a chain reaction that he wouldn't be able to stop.

Sam nodded to him and Bucky inserted the USB drive.

It took a moment, but then the screen flashed. A message was being displayed.

Sam turned the monitor the right way up.

INITIATE GENEVIEVE PROTOCOLS? Y/N?

"Genevieve Protocols? Sounds like Stark tech to me." Sam said quietly.

Bucky ignored him and found the Y button on the partially broken keyboard and pressed it. The screen went blank.

Then it lit up again. Coding started to scroll across the screen faster than either man could read it, let alone comprehend it. Like either of them could understand any of it anyway.

Bucky watched for roughly a minute. Then the screen went blank again before displaying another message.

GENEVIEVE PROTOCOLS COMPLETE

Bucky assumed that this meant whatever the drive was meant to do had been done. He was relieved that something regarding this mission had been successful.

The screen went blank again, then quickly showed another message.

REMOVE DRIVE IMMEDIATELY.

Bucky promptly removed the USB drive and safely stored it back into the pocket in his gear where he had been keeping it.

It felt like a lead weight. He knew that whatever was on it was going to make or break this mission.

Bucky hoped to any god that would listen that this wasn't all for nothing. Then he spoke for the first time since his… incident.

"Let's go, Sam. I think you're right when you said we have everything we can possibly gather from this place. It's time to call for backup."

Sam made the call to SHIELD requesting an investigative and forensic team to meet them at their location for further analysis of the premises.

They had been expecting their backup teams to be sent from the Chicago branch. Apparently, the director was insistent to keep this mission and investigation in-house. They had to wait a few hours for the teams to arrive from D.C.

Sam and Bucky constantly swept the perimeter of the complex. Making sure nothing got in, or out. Both of them making sure to keep moving, waiting on their backup to show. Sam took it upon himself and Red Wing to search the inside of the facility every half hour.

Sam wanted to keep Bucky out of the buildings as long as he could. He knew that once the teams arrived, they would be questioned. Which also went with a detailed report of every movement and observation they made within the area of the investigation.

It was well after midnight when the teams from D.C. arrived on the scene. True to Sam's intuitions, they were both questioned extensively, and separately, on their movements inside and outside of the complex. As well as anything they had found or anything that would be meaningful to either of the investigation teams.

Dawn was quickly approaching when both Bucky and Sam were cleared to leave to head back to D.C. for their official debriefings at SHIELD HQ.

The plane ride back was quiet. Too quiet. Sam had to break the heavy silence.

"Did you tell them about the USB drive?"

"No."

Sam looked at Bucky who was at the helm of the jet studying the complicated controls with a look of utter boredom on his face.

"Why not?"

Bucky's eyebrows furrowed and his mouth morphed into a frown. He didn't really feel like getting into it with Sam right now. He had too much on his mind. From this pretty much failed mission, to the fact that HYDRA was advancing another super-soldier program, to the mysterious USB drive. To his run-in with the electroshock machine that he was already too acquainted and intimate with, as well as his subsequent episode immediately following.

"I didn't think they needed to know. The note said to give it to Fury and Fury alone. I highly doubt those guys would have let me keep it had they known I had it. And if they had known that I had had it they would have asked me for it."

"I really think you should have a least told them about it."

Bucky sighed heavily.

"Something told me not to, Sam. Call it my gut instinct. I don't know. If they could access the same information that's on that thing as we did, they will. Without our help."

Sam recognized that Bucky had a point. If this was SHIELD tech, these guys would have access to it and find the same computer that they had and do the same thing they had done. There would be no need to tell them about the USB drive. They were just middlemen.

Upon their descent into D.C., Bucky said something that really got Sam thinking.

"I honestly think that Fury is onto something and we're in on it and don't even know it. And that USB drive has everything to do with it."

Sam and Bucky returned to SHIELD HQ early Friday morning. They both hit the showers and redressed in their normal civilian clothes.

Bucky hid the USB drive in his boot.

When they were escorted to the interrogation rooms to debrief by Agent Cooper, they were met with a wholly unexpected sight sitting across from them.

Nick Fury was sitting across from them at the metal table. In all his eye-patched, bald-headed, leather-coated glory.

Sam and Bucky were both floored to not only be seeing the director as he was notoriously reclusive but sitting across from him in a debriefing.

Both of them didn't think that he was there to conduct their debriefing, but he was. This was about to be the most intensive debriefing Sam or Bucky had ever had.

For hours Fury grilled them on every last detail they could remember about their mission as well as the one in Washington. Going through stacks of files, paperwork, and their previous reports along the way.

He asked them questions about parallels and differences between the two sites. He asked about their time spent at both locations. He had them recount every last second of time of both of the assignments from the time that they had left to their return.

He asked about every solitary little thing anyone could ask about. Every minute detail that would seem mundane to anyone else. What things looked like, smelled like, sounded like, Sam was surprised he didn't ask what the walls tasted like.

This went on for countless hours. Neither Sam nor Bucky knew exactly what time it was. The pile of documents and notes Fury was accumulating in the pile of information that had been gone through, thoroughly, was growing taller and taller, threatening to tip over and spill onto the floor.

After asking another round of questions, this time all questions he had already been asked. Probably to check for accuracy, Fury stopped.

He looked at both men with his one eye and sat there silently. Just observing them. Then he looked at Bucky and held out his hand.

Sam and Bucky looked at each other, confused.

"The USB drive you were given. Where is it?"

Bucky reached down into his boot and retrieved it. He handed it to the director without a word.

"I assume you were successful, Sergeant Barnes?"

"Yes, Sir."

Fury nodded his head and went to stand up while depositing the drive into a pocket inside his long coat.

"You have new orders: This mission has been upgraded to Top Security clearance. You two will not speak of this mission to anyone. Excluding each other and myself. I will personally be doing your debriefings on any other missions in connection to this one from now on."

Sam and Bucky looked at each other. It seemed that Bucky was right. Fury was onto something and they were now part of it.

"And gentlemen? You never saw this drive and it never existed." Fury patted the pocket of his coat. "Am I understood?"

"Yes, sir." Sam and Bucky responded in unison.