Disclaimer: I own nothing Captain America-related, not even Bucky Barnes…though I might consider asking Marvel to loan them and the rest of the Avengers to me for a while. Until then, only original characters and plots/ideas are mine.
AN: I am so sorry for not updating earlier! End-of-the-year holidays and New Year's Eve plans have had me so busy that I couldn't get around to posting this. Anyway, here it is, though I should let everyone know that this story will be over within the next few weeks. Also, there will be no sequel, since I intend to wrap this storyline up as much as possible.
However, I will most likely post another Steve/Adena story, after the release of Age of Ultron, so keep an eye out for that in a few months. I'm not sure what I'll write in the meantime, but there might be something, so keep a sharp eye open. Enjoy, and please don't forget to review. Thanks!
Chapter 19: Strategies (Both Good and Bad):
He hated this. Even though the plan was relatively sound, Bucky knew that there were a thousand ways that this could go wrong for everyone, especially Anna.
Yet here they were, getting ready to board a plane bound for the U.S. border with Canada.
As they'd prepped for a fight they knew was coming, a message had arrived from the house that Bucky had shared with Anna. The agent there had found a message slipped under the door, and after reading it, had passed it on to Director Coulson, who had informed the group of the note's contents.
"Apparently they want Barnes to surrender himself at a remote area near the Canadian border," Coulson said, gazing at them from the large wall screen. "I've sent the coordinates to each of you."
After working for HYDRA for seventy years, Bucky knew many things that he probably shouldn't. One of those little facts was that HYDRA had numerous hidden bases scattered along both the Canadian and Mexican borders. Getting a message with this set of coordinates was no real surprise to him, though the others had been somewhat surprised and curious.
"I'm counting on each and every one of you to come back," Coulson flatly told them before ending the transmission. "Don't let me down by dying on me."
After that, it had been a whirlwind of activity as they got ready to head out on their mission. It took half an hour to get everyone their weaponry and gear, and another hour to get together a plan that would (hopefully) come out with minimal losses.
Bucky hadn't liked how quickly the plan had come together, especially when it seemed like a really rough one. 'But if Adena isn't that worried, I shouldn't be, either,' he tried to reason with himself.
Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Steve say goodbye to his wife, though he'd tried to make it look like he hadn't been looking at them.
Still, it was hard to ignore them, even in the immense aircraft area where they were prepping.
Clad in a black uniform with his Captain America symbols stitched in silver, Steve looked sharp and ready for business. He towered quite a few inches over his wife, who stood and talked softly to him, probably passing on words of encouragement as she looked lovingly up at him. Steve nodded as she spoke, and occasionally said a few things back. Eventually, the two of them ended their conversation with a soft, lingering kiss as the rest of the group looked away, giving them the illusion of privacy.
Their moment over, Steve escorted Adena back to the group, who were fully armed and ready to head into a fight. "Good luck," she said, looking at them all. "Be safe, and try not to do too many stupid things on the mission. I want everyone to come back in one piece."
She then gave quick hugs to Agents Romanoff and Barton, and nodded respectfully at Agent May, who reciprocated with a brisk one of her own. Skye got a smile and a friendly handshake, as well as a smile.
When it was Bucky's turn, Adena reached out and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. "When you see her, tell Anna that I owe her a trip out for her favorite milkshake."
That actually got a small smile out of him. "I'll do that, but only if you tell me what her favorite flavor is. We may have lived together for a while, but there's still a lot I don't know about her."
Adena grinned back at him. "That's against the Cousin Code. You'll just have to wait and find out when you rescue her."
For the first time since the whole mess started, Bucky was actually amused enough to manage a smile before Steve motioned for everyone to get going. Bucky then gave Adena a friendly nod, before following Agent Romanoff onto the plane, ready to get started.
Watching the jet fly out of the hangar, I felt my heart begin to race as my face started to chill in the wind gusts churned up by the departed jet's engines.
A lump began to form in my throat as nervousness began to get the better of me. Right then, I began to vehemently wish that Steve or Natasha stayed behind, so that they could pull me into a hug and assure me that everything would turn out okay.
Inside my brain, I began to imagine all the things that could go horribly wrong with this rescue mission. Steve had always come back to me from his SHIELD missions in one piece, no matter what. He might have been hurt while completing them, but to keep me from worrying, he never let me know it until long after the wounds had healed. Even after the Battle of New York and the whole catastrophe with the Helicarriers, Steve had returned. True, he'd been beaten up badly, or even shot, but he had come back.
'They'll be fine,' I assured myself. 'Natasha, Barton and Steve can hold their own just fine. Agent May looks like she could take down half a dozen HYDRA guys all on her own, and I'm sure that Skye is perfectly capable, or else she wouldn't have been made a SHIELD agent.'
That didn't stop my stomach from tying in knots, though. Images of Anna being interrogated flashed inside my head again, as they had been, off-and-on, since Phil had called us.
'Time for a distraction,' I told myself. 'Who is a great distraction from bad things?'
Pepper and Tony, of course. Between the two of them, I'd have my mind taken off of this in no time.
Without a second thought, I hid myself away in a quiet conference room and pulled out JT, ordering him to dial Tony's Malibu house line.
Of course, the moment I had them on video chat and explained the whole situation, it would figure the first thing Tony asked was, "Why didn't they call me in to help with your cousin?"
Not that I told him the whole story, of course. Even though Tony had been kind enough to finance and support our search for him, I didn't think Bucky would want me to let people know where he was, or what he was doing. Besides, Tony tended to spill all sorts of random or odd things while drunk, or when he thought nobody was paying attention to him.
I rolled my eyes while struggling to hold back a smile. "Because they want to rescue her, Tony; not blow her into pieces with a poorly aimed tank missile."
"Hey, I don't design bad tank missiles!" he said, offended. "That's Justin Hammer. My stuff, you don't have to worry about."
"Still, we don't need stuff blown up, Tony," I sarcastically told him. "This is mostly spy agency vs. spy agency stuff, not Avengers versus bad guys. They want to get in, rescue Anna, and get out without too many problems."
Pepper tried pushing Tony out of the camera's view, but he wasn't moving. "I could be backup. I might be in California, but I can still be there in record time. They might still need me to take care of cover fire while they make a break for it."
Finally, after grabbing Tony by the ear and hauling him off-camera, Pepper came back, rolling her eyes with a sigh. "Sorry, Adena. Now, with all the stuff that's happening, I'm guessing you need a distraction of some kind? I know I would."
"I can do that, too!" Tony insisted from off-screen. A second later, he was poking his head back into view. "Seriously, Adena, give me a few minutes, and I can be on my way-"
Pepper firmly planted her right hand into the middle of his face and pushed him away, glaring at him the whole time. "Why don't I bore you with some of the new steps we've taken with Stark Industries overseas? It'll prep you for the next trip we send you out on with Steve."
Boring as it sounded, it just might do the trick. I let Pepper get started on the conversation, but not five minutes later, I heard what sounded like rockets in the background. Rockets that sounded very familiar…
"Shit!" Pepper growled, turning to look out the large bay windows behind her. "Uh, Adena, if there's a way for you to call Steve, I suggest you do it."
Sighing, I rubbed my hand over my eyes. "I can't. They told me no contact." I looked up at my friend's frustrated and slightly amused face. "But if you've got Tony's Iron Man helmet on speed dial, I'd love to have a talk with him."
After half an hour in the air, the silence was broken by what Bucky considered to be a random question.
"Why Canada?" Agent May asked as she checked one of the many weapons she had hidden on her person. "If they gave you twenty-four hours, why not take her to the other side of the country, or even the world?"
"There are fifteen or twenty HYDRA hidden bases along the northern border," Bucky explained, causing everyone to look at him. "There are even more along the border with Mexico, since the officials down there have much looser morals. Bribes and corruption are the stuff that HYDRA thrives off of, after all."
"But again: why Canada?" May asked. "Why not Mexico, if they've got more influence down there?"
Bucky clenched and relaxed his metal hand. "The short answer is distance. It's a longer flight to Mexico, and since they will undoubtedly want to interrogate her, they'll need more time in order to get the answers they want."
He thought about it a little more. "If they're feeling merciful, which is rare, they'll wait for her to wake up, rather than force her awake. If they're smart, they'll know that Anna isn't the type who can hold up under intense questioning, and not want to push things too hard, at least a first."
"Hopefully they aren't questioning her at all," Steve said, clearly concerned for his wife's cousin.
Bucky felt his metal hand tense. "Oh, they will," he said, his voice quiet as the others (with the exception of Agent May) started donning worried looks. "She's too valuable for them not to question."
Licking her dry lips, Anna did her best to stay aware of her surroundings. She'd been held here for god-knows-how-long, so she was thirsty, hungry, exhausted, and in pain.
Actually, compared to how she could have been, the pain shouldn't be considered too bad. Her wrists hurt from where they were tied down to the armrests of the metal chair she was in, and her ankles ached from being tied to the legs of the chair, but all things considered, she was in pretty good shape.
'I just wish I could use a bathroom when I want it,' she thought, eyes drifting towards the wooden side door. They only let her go on a very strict schedule, whether she needed it or not –and since they weren't giving her food or water, that made it a difficult situation for her.
Hanging her head a little to relax the muscles in her neck, Anna tried not to cry. Bucky had been right about HYDRA watching them, and she'd been wrong –now they were both paying the price, because she hadn't had the guts to mention it to Phil.
Luckily, her jailers hadn't started questioning her yet. She had woken up to an empty room, and had been sitting for what had to have been an hour before someone came in to check on her.
The figure that had walked in through the metal entry had been a woman, dressed plainly in a grey suit and pants, her blonde hair hanging straight down her back in a simple ponytail. Even though she looked like an ordinary office assistant, it was clear that she was much more than that.
When the woman had seen that she was awake, she'd untied Anna's hands and hauled her to her feet before dragging her forcefully towards the wooden door. "Use it quick, and don't even think about trying to escape," the female HYDRA agent had said, her voice cold and emotionless. "There's no way out of that room, and you're in no way trained to escape the likes of us."
Anna had used the bathroom as ordered, and returned to the agent, staying quiet and obedient. She had thought about escape, but there were only tiny air vents in the bathroom, so there was no going out that way.
After that, the agent had returned twice more in order to let her use the toilet, but not to help replenish what Anna had lost during her bathroom breaks. By now, her stomach was beginning to grumble, and her mouth was beginning to feel dry.
'They're probably trying to break me by starving me,' she realized as she tried to swallow.
She wanted to cry, but knew that would be a bad idea –she needed to hold onto as much liquid as possible until they gave her something to drink. But should she even drink whatever they gave her? It could have some sort of truth drug in it, or even some type of poison that they would only give the antidote to if she gave them information.
'No eating or drinking anything they give me,' Anna told herself. 'Wait until you're rescued for that.'
She wanted to take a nap or close her eyes, but based on previous experience, that was a bad idea. Her head had nodded forward once, making it ache and pull at various muscles running up and down her spine. Another time, her head had rolled backwards, making it hard to breathe. Either way, she'd barely gotten a few minutes of rest before something forced her to stay awake.
Holding her head steady, Anna closed her eyes and tried relaxing her body while holding her head in one spot, like when she'd seen people meditating in the park or on television. The pain in her arms was just beginning to ease when she heard the door open.
Opening her eyes, she watched two men approach. Both were dressed stylishly in business suits, with color coordinated ties around their necks. It was clear which one was in charge –he walked in front of the other, and the air around him screamed of authority. He was a man used to having others follow his commands without question.
"Miss Wallace," the one in charge said. "I'm John Lennox, and this is Quinn Stone. I'm sure you can guess why we are here."
She swallowed, trying to moisten her throat. "You want information," Anna replied, her voice hoarse as she croaked out an answer.
The leader, Lennox, looked displeased as he glared at the man behind his left shoulder. "Has she been given any food or fluids since she's been awake?"
The other man, Stone, shook his head. "Negative, sir. Only bathroom breaks, with those few and far between."
Lennox was obviously not happy with that answer. "How can she be expected to answer questions if she lacks the ability to do so? Give her some water, now, before I set Amber on you."
Stone's face went pale as he rushed out of the room, returning a few seconds later with a water bottle that was beginning to fog from its cool temperature. Lennox took the bottle and twisted it open, the sound of air entering the vacuum-sealed container like music to her ears. She smelled the fresh, clean aroma of the water as he offered it to her, the open top hovering right under her nose. It was so tempting to tilt her head and accept the cool liquid, letting it run down her parched throat and into her growling stomach…
The temptation nearly made her forget her promise to herself –almost.
Anna closed her eyes to gather her determination, and turned her head away in refusal.
"Come, you must be thirsty," Lennox said, his voice calm. "Go on; you can drink it. It's perfectly safe."
She shook her head, but didn't answer. She did, however, dare to open one eye wide enough to sneak a peek at her captors. Stone very much resembled his name, but Lennox looked somewhere between surprised and angry.
"Apparently someone has been around SHIELD agents too long," Lennox quietly commented. "You suspect we drugged the water, to better interrogate you?"
He paused and reached out, grabbing her by the chin and forcing her to look at his pale blue-gray eyes. "In any other instance, I would call you a clever girl. I had considered drugging you, but thought that by showing kindness, you would be more willing to cooperate."
Lennox smirked a little. "But you're smarter than I thought you would be. So, it won't be kindness that we show." He saw the worry creep into her face. "Oh, no; it won't be torture, either."
Reaching up, he gently stroked her cheek. "Fragile flower that you are, you won't hold up too well under our kind of…strenuous questioning. No, we have other methods of interrogation, ones which you and your friends at SHIELD have probably never heard of."
He looked over at his second. "Tell Amber that it's time to begin –and that she needs to be gentle." The smile that pulled at his mouth had Anna's stomach quivering. "We very much need her to be willing to comply."
Thanks to Steve's quick tactical brain, each member had a job to do.
Skye's duties were purely technological: she would stay aboard the aircraft and try to hack into the base's systems, so that she could keep an eye not only on their team, but also on any moves that HYDRA might make towards fighting them. She had also given each team member several pieces of technology, which would allow everyone to stay in contact and locate one another as they headed through the base, looking for Anna.
Several small computer chips had been distributed as well, along with Skye's standing order: "If you somehow manage to get into a room filled with computer tech, attach one of the bugs I gave you to a terminal. It'll let me get in faster."
The others had nodded their agreement as they checked their gear one last time.
Glancing over at the rest of his team, Bucky somehow managed to suppress the urge to run charging head-first into the mission. The only thing that held him back was knowing that Anna would never forgive him if he got killed or hurt trying to save her.
"Remember: two teams," Steve said, looking everyone in the eye. "Me and Bucky, Natasha and May. Barton will stay outside near the perimeter to give us a way out and watch our backs, so that there's less of a chance that we'll get caught."
Bucky looked over at Skye. "Any luck getting a readout of the base so far?"
She nodded as her fingers flew across her keyboard. "Using some ground-penetrating satellites belonging to Stark Industries, I've been able to get a scan of the top five levels. Apparently it looks like an abandoned private airport up top, but below, there's a whole other thing going on."
"But you can't get anything below that?" Bucky pressed, desperately wanting to know more.
Skye shook her head. "Nope. Forgive my wording, but it's really heavily shielded and fortified. If I had a bit more time, I might be able to get a better readout. But if you're in the market for a complete blueprint of the place via a quick download, I'd need to hack into a part of their main server. You'd have to find one of the computer rooms and put a bug in it."
"Then that's what we'll do," Steve declared.
Bucky looked at him. "Only if it's on our way. The first thing is that we get past the guards and find Anna. Anything else comes second."
Steve looked ready to protest, but was stopped by Agent May, who gave him a pointed look. "Since we'll be splitting up, whoever finds the computers first will take care of them for Skye. The same goes for whichever group finds Miss Wallace. But either way, we try to get in and out as fast as possible –no wasting time."
Steve nodded his agreement. "If things start going south, get out ASAP and meet back here. If you aren't here within fifteen minutes of our final contact, we go without you."
Everybody voiced their understanding and slipped their earpieces into place. It was time to get down to business.
AN: Happy New Year to everyone around the world! Let's hope that 2015 is a better, brighter one than 2014.
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