Part 4 – Fortress Sevastopol…
"Here's the deal," Captain America said as the team he chose gathered in the Quinjet was on his way to Ukraine, "We have a line on the man that sold the Kree batteries, and possibly the Nazi weapons to Miss Rochelle," the screen at the head of the jet showed them an image of Henry Bilyk, "This is Henry Bilyk, he's an arms trafficker with thirty plus years in the business. He has residences in Ukraine, the U.S., and Australia," the screen then moved to show an image of Sevastopol, "After he made the deal with Miss Rochelle, he returned to his residence in Sevastopol."
"Assuming the intel's good," Wolverine said.
"If it isn't it'll narrow the search area down," Barrett said.
"Exactly," Steve said as the screen zoomed in on a small neighborhood on the western side of Pivdenna Bay, "He owns an apartment in this neighborhood of town. That's where we go after him."
"What are we going to do," Wolverine asked as he sat back, "Knock, and ask for him to come out?"
"He's not in Sevastopol," Steve said, "Right now he's on his yacht off the coast of Australia. Not only did he come here straight after he was in Dest'eria, but he was also staying here when Miss Rochelle called him. So regardless if he's here or not, we should find something here. Financial records, personal correspondence, maybe even evidence of what she's planning to do with the batteries."
"Complications," Barrett asked.
"Bilyk keeps a guard sitting outside in his car at night," Captain America said, "Plus three inside when he's not there."
"How do we play this," Carol asked.
"Tunis," Steve said.
"Who's going to be the one carrying the flowers," Carol asked.
Steve pulled out a 1911 magazine filled with specially-made tranquilizer bullets, "Who do you think," he asked as he tossed the magazine towards Barrett who simple reached up, and grabbed it as it flew by him.
"Who do you think," Steve said.
"Well I'm not playing the lost girl," Wolverine said.
"We're not risking what happened in Dest'eria again," Steve said, "You're on standby. If they need help, you'll be first up."
"Them being me and him," Carol asked as she pointed at Barrett.
"Yes," Steve said as he walked up to Barrett, "You saved Carol without being caught until the exfil. Let's see what you can do when you're part of a two-man unit."
"I'll do my best," Barrett said.
"Good," Steve said as he held out a black wig and a contact case, "Now, let's see what we can do about making you forgettable."
Sevastopol…
It was a quiet night in the city as the guard standing outside of Bilyk's apartment complex, boring as usual.
The people walking the street that night were either drunk or people going about their business.
But one of them caught his attention the most, a man and a woman, the woman was very beautiful, had brown hair, and was carrying her phone which was obviously not on. The man tall, had black hair and was carrying a take-out bag from a local restaurant.
The woman walked up to him, and said, "Excuse me. My brother and I are lost. We're trying to get back to our car near the harbor."
The man, understanding English, replied in Ukrainian as he pointed down the street, "What you want to do is go up the next street…" he began, not noticing that the lady's friend was pointing the suppressor from a 1911 at the back of his head.
The next sound was a suppressed pistol shot that hit him behind the right ear, and as he reached around, he started to slip into unconsciousness before the woman held him back against the seat with a gentle hand.
"Nice shot," Carol said as she grabbed the man's key, and walked over to the door with Barrett next to her.
"Thanks," Barrett said as slid the gun back into the roses, and walked up to the door with Carol.
As she keyed them in, Barrett walked over to the mailboxes, as Carol pressed on her earpiece "Housekeeping is inside," she said.
"Roger that," Steve said.
"Got it," Barrett said as he pointed toward one of the upper mailboxes, "Apartment 624."
"We have the room number," Carol said into her earpiece, "Will clean on arrival."
As the two of them approached the elevator which was a cage-style elevator with an Otis-style control lever.
"Going up, my dear," Barrett asked as he gently bowed, ushering her into the elevator.
"Why thank you," Carol said.
After stepping inside, Barrett guided the elevator up to the sixth floor where the two of them looked down towards Bilyk's apartment and saw no one standing outside.
Carol pointed down the hallway, "I'll cover you," Barrett said as he looked down the hallway.
The lock did not fit into the hole, "It's the wrong key," she said, "He must have kept this one on him in case he needed to get in the building."
"I think I can take care of this," Barrett said as he held out the roses and the gun to Carol, "Hold onto this?"
"Sure," Carol said as she took the roses and the 1911.
"Thanks," Barrett said as knelt to the lock, "Can you pull the wire out of one of those roses?"
Carol took one of the roses out of the bouquet and removed the outer-covering as Barrett reached up, and removed the lightbulb from above the entrance to the room.
"What are you doing," Carol asked.
"Trust me," Barrett said as he pulled out his knife, and made a shallow cut along the base of the bulb, and with a small twist, popped the glass off before scratching the filament down to a fine tip.
He then inserted both items into the lock, and after a little tweaking, there was a click, and the door opened slightly.
The two of them walked inside, and two guards were sitting there, watching the nightly soccer (football) match.
"Is that you, Dimitri," one of them asked.
The next thing they both heard was the sound of two suppressed gunshots before they felt what felt like a mosquito hit them.
They turned around and saw two individuals that they didn't know standing at the entrance.
As they went to get their guns, they suddenly felt uncontrollable fatigue, and before they could pull out their pistols, they fell unconscious on the floor.
"Now the fun part," Carol said as Barrett put the roses down, tucking his 1911 into the back of his pants.
"Nice place," Barrett said as he slid on a pair of forensic gloves, and walked over to the guards he just knocked unconscious.
As Carol walked over to the entrance to the bedroom, Barrett picked up the guards' guns, and emptied the clips, "Bedroom's clear," she said.
"I'll check over here," Barrett said as he walked over to the entrance to the other room.
He entered the room to find a moderately-sized office with a jacuzzi tub inside, "How many ways can you say to rich," Carol asked.
"Not enough," Barrett said as he walked over to the desk.
"I got this," Carol said as she turned on the laptop.
"Can't hurt," Barrett said as he started pulling open the desk drawers before finding Bilyk's secret weapon, "Hello."
"What," Carol asked.
"He's prepared," Barrett said, pulling a micro-Uzi from underneath the desk.
"He is an arms dealer," Carol said as she pulled a small device that looked like a phone from her pocket, and plugged it into the side of the computer, and after a few lines of code ran, the computer began sending the information from the laptop to SHIELD, Carol pressed her earpiece, "This is Housekeeping, we're vacuuming the rug."
"Roger, housekeeping," Commander Hill said over the other line, "We're receiving."
"Think they'll be records that lead us to Miss Rochelle," Carol asked.
"Perhaps," Barrett said.
"Perhaps you two should think twice before entering the house of an arms-dealer," a voice said from the entrance.
Standing there was a man holding an HK UMP on them, "Knew this was too easy," Carol said.
"Yea, it was," the man said, "Put the Uzi down," Barrett complied, "There's a good man. I don't know who you two are, but right about now the boss knows you're here. Luckily for me, I don't have to stand around and watch what's about to happen," he pulled out a detonator, and pressed the button, "Thirty seconds, you better find another way out."
He then ran out the doorway where upon exiting the door slammed shut, and locked, "He must have this entire place rigged to keep intruders in," Carol said.
"I have an idea," Barrett said before grabbing Carol's hand, "Come on!"
Carol followed Barrett back into the study and jumped into the hot tub behind him right as the explosives went off.
The two of them looked up through the water to see flames and debris flying overhead, some landing directly into the water with them.
As the flames cleared, the two of them surfaced, "You saved our asses," she said as Barrett stepped out, his clothes drenched as he turned around to help her out.
"Housekeeping, come in," Carol heard Steve screaming over the earpiece as she took Barrett's hands.
"Housekeeping," Carol said as she stepped onto the floor, and pressed two fingers to her earpiece.
"Thank god," Steve said, "What's your status?"
"We got as much as we could upload to the server," Carol said as she picked up the device, and Barrett picked up the Micro-Uzi that was slightly warm from the explosion, and covered in debris, "We've been compromised, move to secondary extraction, and wait fifteen. If we're not there, exfil without us."
"Roger," Steve said.
Barrett stuffed the Uzi into his pants before he and Carol walked out of the apartment, making sure to get to the stairs first.
As the fire sprinklers finally kicked in, Barret got an idea, "Wait a second," Barrett said before pulling the fire alarm, and following Carol down the stairs, "No shortage of soaking wet people wandering around."
As the two of them walked outside, he saw several police cars pulling up, "Shit," Carol said, "We can't be caught."
"Give me a second," Barrett said as he walked over to a corner of the lobby, and after a small bit of engineering, he walked back over to Carol, stuffing the gloves into his jacket.
"What'd you do," Carol asked.
"Trust me on this," Barrett said as put his arm around Carol, "Lean into my shoulder and pretend," his other arm went down to her legs, and he lifted her into a bridal-carry.
Carol instantly knew what he was doing, and leaned into his shoulder and began crying as the residents began filing down the stairs.
As Sevastopol police stopped them, and Barrett, in Ukrainian replied, "Please, she's afraid."
The police looked down at the girl crying in his arms and was about to frisk him before the rig Barrett set up caused the Uzi to start firing at full-auto and caused the residents to flee in terror.
Barrett ducked as the police ran into the building, and ran along with the crowd toward the secondary LZ.
After running for about five blocks, he looked around the corner to see if they were being followed, and allowed Carol to stand.
"That was genius," Carol said, "And nice Ukrainian."
"It's all I had," Barrett said, "Let's get out of here before more cops show up."
The two of them continued their jog toward the secondary LZ which was directly in front of the harbor.
The two of them saw Steve flash the lights of the van they had and ran over as Wolverine opened the door.
"Surprised you made it out," Steve said after the two of them climbed inside, and he started up the engine.
"Barrett saved our asses," Carol said as Barrett removed his jacket, "Guy had a hot tub in his office, and Barrett made us both jump inside.
"That explains the wet boy scout smell," Wolverine said.
"Do you know how much was uploaded to SHIELD's servers," Barrett asked.
"Not yet," Captain America said as he drove towards the edge of the city, "What just happened will probably be considered an act of terrorism. Let's get out of the city before they shut down the roads."
To be continued…