"Plan B," Steve whispered in their ears. Natasha excused herself, saying she needed some fresh air. After a few minutes, Steve saw her step out into the courtyard wearing a distinctive bright blue dress, the veil disguising her face. She pretended to light up a cigarette. "You see his car?" Steve asked, directing his question at Sam
"Eyes on it," Sam answered back. The small drone flew over the line of cars, barely perceptible in the glow of the streetlights. At that moment, darkness fell on the building and adjoining streets. A loud gasp rose from the guests outside in the courtyard. Emergency lighting activated itself, then off, then on again. The dim yellow glow was just enough light for the patrons inside to make their way out without stumbling. Cursing and complaints drifted over the street because these were important people and that's how important people reacted when they were inconvenienced. All the various entourages sprang into action. Armed bodyguards had their firearms drawn and drivers stood beside the cars with doors open, waiting for their passengers to get in and to be on their way.
Steve crawled through the window onto the small ledge and dropped to the street, landing in the darkness. The mild chaos continued as one by one, the cars drove away. Natasha made her way from the courtyard to the main street, keeping close to the building, blending in with the departing guests. Sam positioned Redwing just above the target's car. One by one, Steve watched as each party left the building. It was as he suspected, the most important and the richest were getting in each other's way in the rush to leave the club. Zemo was none of those things so he was taking his time.
Removing his shield, Steve positioned it and with one calculated throw, knocked over Zemo's waiting driver. He had no other bodyguard. Before the man recovered, Natasha was there, disarming him and knocking him out. She flattened herself back against the wall and they waited. Red Wing took flight. By now the street was empty. Still no Zemo.
"He didn't go out the back," Sam announced after a minute.
"Should I go back in?" Natasha asked. Steve's mind kicked into Plan C when Zemo appeared, on the top of the steps leading down to the street. Everyone was in place. Steve was to nab Zemo and knock him out via injection. Natasha and Sam's job was to take out anyone who might come to his aid. Then he and Natasha would load Zemo into the last car in the lineup, and Sam would fly away from the scene, meeting them back at the plane.
A loud crack broke the silence, coming from somewhere above and to the right, shattering the illusion of peace and safety. Just as they took their positions, Zemo was falling down the steps, leaving a trail of blood splatter behind him. Even from this distance, Steve could tell he was dead. A perfect shot to the head.
"DAMN!" Sam said. Red Wing was up and out of the way. Natasha ran for their car, started it and took off, stopping long enough to pick up Steve. He stopped long enough to grab his shield and then threw himself into the passenger seat.
"Go to the rendezvous!" He yelled at Sam, knowing he would fly to the designated spot and arrive before them. "Tell our friends what happened!"
"What the hell?" Natasha said as she sped along the streets. "Who…"
A single suspicion flashed through his mind. There was no way around it. "I know of one person capable of making a shot like that, in the dark."
"You can't think- we left him in Wakanda. There's no way he'd make it here by now… although…" She shifted the gears in the car while removing the weave from her face. The sounds of sirens were blaring somewhere, and at intervals, emergency vehicles racing down parallel streets racing in the opposite direction. They were still undetected.
"What?"
"I thought he gave up a little too easily… and if he left before we did, in T'Challa's plane… it's possible he could have gotten here before us."
"Where's that other car…" Steve and Natasha and Sam had spent the last few hours at the compound going over the details of this mission. He thought he had left Bucky behind in the village while he met with the rest of the team to go over the final details. It would have been easy enough for him to slip out of there right away in a place where he had complete freedom of movement, meaning he could have had a couple of hours' head start…
"Here!" Natasha pulled into a small side street where a smaller less flashy car was waiting. They left their getaway car behind and she proceeded on at a slower speed. It took twenty minutes to get to the plane, wandering through side streets and residential areas until they arrived at an abandoned warehouse. An exasperated Sam was waiting, the plane was ready to go and within minutes they were in the air. When they reached cruising speed, he turned around to face them.
"Bucky," was all he said. "It had to be him. Nobody else could do that, nobody else knew."
"You told him?" Natasha asked, her voice had an accusatory ring to it.
"Yes, why not? He wasn't going anywhere and Zemo was a thing with him," Sam replied. "I can hear him now. Hey, T'Challa, can I borrow one of your super-duper Vibranium powered jets just for the night? I'll have it back by morning, pretty please, remember when I saved your life?" Sam's voice forced his voice to go high pitch as if he was mimicking a little girl. "I swear he's got that man wrapped around his finger."
"It's not his style," Steve said. "He doesn't take advantage of T'Challa."
Sam waited a moment as if thinking about what he said, shook his head. "This could be one of the few times he called in his debt. So help me…" he said again.
"Might be for the best. We were just going to nab him and hand him over to the resistance…" Natasha interjected.
"Who would have killed him anyway," Sam said. "They weren't happy because they wanted their own form of justice on him but weren't all that upset he's gone either."
"We don't know that!" Steve said. It irritated him. He was torn between being angry at Bucky and relief it was over. He needed to cool off, so he retreated to the back of the plane. Sam returned to the controls and after a minute, Natasha joined him.
"Give the guy a break. I don't know what his beef is with this Zemo guy, but it's done. We've poked a hole in the organization and opened a leak they won't be able to fill. No one to take over."
"I suppose you're right." He sat down, allowing himself to take a breath.
"While I have your attention, there's something I think I should tell you. The other day I was going through our medical files. I wasn't just being nosey, had a reason, I promise, and I found out something about Bucky and the other Steve…" She sat down beside him and took his hand. Steve pushed down the small alarm that going off inside his head.
"He's not sick or anything, but It's something you both should know. He'd take it better, coming from you, after you've yelled at him for this. It's also possible he might know about this, and not care."
Steve let her continue, her voice rising and fading with the sounds of the plane. It seemed like he was someone else listening to a stranger. Her revelations were completely unexpected but he had to admit to himself, what she was telling him made perfect sense. Everything clicked into place.