As seven-thirty rolled by, Governor Moore entered, once again with four security personnel. About twenty minutes later, the Winter Soldier strolled in, although the voices in her ear told Lydia that he'd been waiting outside the whole time. Moore's guards noticed the Winter Soldier enter, of course, but did not show any sign of concern. Clearly, they hadn't noticed him following their boss around all day.
"Nancy, is it?" Lydia reacted just as if Nancy was her real name, smiling warmly at the Winter Soldier. "Can I get some vodka?"
"Absolutely," she chirped. Vodka was a favourite of the Winter Soldier's. It made sense. Early records of him were unclear, but they seemed to point towards him working for the Soviet Union. Of course, it couldn't be the same guy – this Winter Soldier looked maybe thirty years-old, maximum; whereas legends of him had been springing up since the 1950s. But Lydia thought that perhaps there was an organisation in Russia – that had by all accounts seemed to have moved elsewhere in recent times – which had been training different Winter Soldiers for generations. It did surprise her at first that he sounded like he was from New York City, but accents could be learned – she herself was very good at them. Unless, as Claudia suspected, his employers were now based in America, in which case the Winter Soldier could easily be American-born.
Moore stayed at the bar for a long time tonight, until past the end of Lydia's shift. Irene begged her to stay a little longer because it was so busy, and Lydia obliged, as that would work out better for keeping an eye on Moore and the Winter Soldier anyway. About ten minutes before Moore left, the Winter Soldier did. That was new. Lydia looked over at the Governor, who seemed perfectly oblivious to the potential danger he was in. Daisy gave the automatic update that he was on the move. Lydia started focusing less on her work and more on listening.
"Agents," said Daisy with sudden urgency about a minute later, "there are men assembling at various points around the bar. We have ten who have just gotten out of three cars and have blocked the road about five hundred metres north of the bar. Three hundred metres south, there are five guys. They haven't blocked the road, but they're waiting by two cars. Then we have three patrolling, currently two blocks away. They are all armed and are all dressed the same. They do not identify as Chicago P.D, F.B.I, C.I.A or any other known organisation from the area. The Winter Soldier is making his way northwards towards the ten."
"Daisy, Kyle, we need you over here. We'll need a getaway vehicle whether things go good or bad," said Claudia sharply.
Lydia finished serving the customer she was at, as Daisy and Kyle confirmed they were already heading out, and hurried over to Irene. "I really need to knock off now, go home and get some rest."
Irene looked slightly disappointed, but nodded. "You were here 'til closing last night, weren't you? Okay, you go. Thanks for staying behind that little bit."
"No problem. Goodnight!" Lydia grabbed her bag and got out of the bar as quickly as she could without drawing attention to herself. When she saw the coast was clear, she grabbed her necklace pendant. "This is Agent Holden, I'm out of the bar and available."
"Holden, stick around until Moore leaves," came Claudia's instructions. "Myself and Leigh are closing in. Kyle, Daisy, are you here yet?"
"Two minutes away," said Daisy. "Approaching from the south."
"Good. Take out the five men to the south when you reach them."
"Shouldn't be a problem," said Kyle gravely.
Lydia pulled out her gun, putting her bag behind a set of crates in an alleyway next to the bar for safekeeping, and so it wouldn't get in the way in a fight. She didn't have anything outrageously valuable in there – some makeup supplies, her wallet and a cheaply bought phone to use undercover, that was it – but even making a comfortable living as a government agent, the hundred dollars in there was still a lot. She climbed up a ladder onto the roof of the next building, waiting for Moore to come out. He did a few minutes later, and she swore under her breath when she realised he was more than a little tipsy. That would complicate things if he needed to move quickly.
She tucked her gun behind her shirt, pressed her necklace pendant to allow her to continuously communicate and moved north along the road as Moore and his entourage got into their car, jumping easily across the rooftops of the tightly packed buildings, staying hidden from the view of the street. Daisy confirmed that there did not seem to be any people on the rooftops apart from Lydia, but she still kept low.
"The five from the south are about to move," exclaimed Daisy.
"Stop them, in any way necessary!" commanded Claudia.
Lydia hoped that Kyle and Daisy would be able to stop the five apparent backup men. From her high position, she had caught sight of the Winter Soldier and his ten men. A few moments later, Moore's car drove up and caught sight of them too. Lydia saw the brake lights glow, and suddenly the Winter Soldier was throwing a device towards Moore's car.
Lydia jumped down from the rooftop just as a small explosion blasted the car backwards. Moore's men got out of the wreckage quickly, Lydia had to admit, but the Winter Soldier was already walking towards them, a high-tech machine gun in his hands. In her peripheral vision, Lydia saw a flash of brown hair and blond hair as Claudia and Leigh appeared to deal with the Winter Soldier's lot. The Winter Soldier turned around for a moment then returned his attention to Moore – his priority.
Lydia pulled out her gun, aiming at the Winter Soldier's upper arm. She needed to bring him in alive. Those sorts of missions were the hardest, she thought grimly as she fired.
Her shot was dead on target, but all she heard was a metallic clang as the bullet glanced off him. Her eyes widened as he turned to face his attacker. Underneath the tear on his jacket where the bullet had hit, Lydia saw a gleam of silver. It was then that she realised his left arm was completely metal.
"You," he said in recognition, and although his voice was muffled through the mask that was covering his lower face, she did not miss the dangerous note to it. "Nancy."
Lydia jumped over the hood of the nearest car, dropping down behind it just as the Winter Soldier opened fire. She crawled to the rear end of the car and shot at him from there, but was forced back down again very soon. His bullets whizzed over her head, narrowly missing. "Kyle, Daisy, where are you?" she screamed as she got in another two shots.
"We've dealt with the backup, we're coming up right now," said Daisy.
"Get out of here!" Lydia cried to Moore's group. "That way! We have a car coming to get you out of here!"
The Winter Soldier turned to quickly loose fire on Moore's men. Lydia jumped out as he did, moving fast to take her opportunity. Two of Moore's guards fell, and the other two moved in front of him to guard him. Lydia shot at the Winter Soldier's exposed hand, the metal one, with two perfectly aimed shots. They didn't even dent whatever metal was there, but the impact of the bullets was enough the force him to loosen his grip. She followed up immediately with a forceful kick to the wrist, and he dropped the gun. She kicked it behind her, hoping one of the guards had the sense to take it.
Now she had him unarmed. With a sense of pride, Lydia pointed her gun at him. She took two steps back, knowing full well not to let him anywhere near her in case he managed to grab her gun and disarm her. "Hands behind your head," she said sharply. He obliged, with such an intense glare that Lydia had to force down a shiver.
There was a screech of tyres behind her. "Get in!" she heard Kyle shout at Moore. There was a scuffle of feet as they complied. Up ahead, Claudia and Leigh had wiped the floor with their opponents and were making their way over. Lydia nodded her head towards the van as they passed. "Walk," she said. "Slowly."
He obliged so easily, Lydia began to second-guess him. Claudia and Leigh went into the back of the van, and the Winter Soldier stopped parallel to the backseat, where Moore was sitting, and looked at him before looking over his shoulder at Lydia. She made a very obvious point of placing her finger on the trigger. "Keep moving," she barked. In a split second, she realised her mistake. As he had stopped walking, she had gotten too close to him.
Faster than she could register, the Winter Soldier snatched the gun out of her hands. He grabbed a fistful of her shirt and moved to throw her backwards. Lydia braced herself to fall, certainly, but she was not prepared for the speed and force with which she slammed into the door of a car that had been five metres behind her. She collapsed to the ground, gasping for the air that had been knocked out of her lungs. The Winter Soldier was still by the van. Somehow, he had thrown her that hard and that far. He picked up Lydia's gun and aimed at the window. There was faint smashing as the bullet hit, but it simply lodged into the bulletproof glass. Lydia knew that it wouldn't hold for long though. With what little air she had, she cried, "Go!"
"What about you?" came Daisy's frantic voice. The Winter Soldier shot again, and again. The glass cracked further.
Lydia tried to get up, but collapsed right back down. She wasn't sure if anything was badly damaged through the shock and pain of the impact. That was the problem. She was in too much pain to move. "Go without me," she gasped.
"Do it," ordered Claudia.
The Winter Soldier finally managed to shatter the glass, but the van reversed away, did a sharp U-turn and sped off. He continued to shoot at it, but within seconds they were gone.
"We'll come back for you," said Claudia. "Are you wearing one of the shirts with a tracker button?"
"Yes," gasped Lydia, and thanked the heavens for it. The Winter Soldier was walking towards her now. He had taken off his mask and was now holding it in his metal hand. He stopped in front of her and studied her for a few moments. She met his gaze challengingly. He reached down, grabbing her necklace.
"I should have known," he muttered angrily. He yanked it off with seemingly no effort and crushed it underfoot.
Lydia thought back to the nights in the bar. She would have noticed a metal hand. He'd been wearing gloves the whole time, she realised. She had thought little of it, and now cursed her complacency. She recalled some reports of him; indicating a bionic arm and super strength. At the time her team had mostly dismissed them. The reports were too confused and hysterical to be taken very seriously. Plus most of them had been from a long time ago, and the technology seemed too advanced to be possible. Now, Lydia wasn't so sure. "What the hell are you?"
He grabbed her arm and hoisted her up. "I'm usually called a super soldier. Don't try to run," he said. "I think you know I'll catch you."
Lydia silently acknowledged that. That didn't mean she wouldn't be looking out for every opportunity. He pulled her over to his squad of men, and bent down to examine a few of them. Lydia could've told him they were all dead. Their plan had been to take him and kill anyone else.
"Who the hell are you?" he asked, mimicking the tone of her earlier question.
"Would you believe me if I said Nancy West?" said Lydia icily.
"You won't tell me? Not even after I answered your question?"
"What the hell is 'super soldier' meant to mean?" she retorted.
"What does it sound like?" he said. "Well, it doesn't matter. We'll get answers out of you eventually."
Lydia didn't like the sound of that. "Do your best," she taunted, trying to bluff her confidence.
"We will," he said. He had his metal arm raised in the blink of an eye. Lydia had just enough time to realise he was bringing it around to her head.
Hi again! This chapter couldn't be posted without some mention of the Civil War movie, am I right? I'm super excited to see it, I had midsems last week so I didn't really have time, but I will soon! So no spoilers in your reviews (but please still review haha)! Thanks for reading :)