Chapter 4

Moscow's Laboratory No. 2's underground facility was large and cold. Lights hung from the pipes in the ceiling, many of them shining down on steel worktables. The small team of Carter, Stark, Dugan, and Reed surveyed the area from a suspended catwalk, giving them a bird's-eye view of the facility. The soldiers they'd taken out were drugged and securely bound to the metal railing beside them.

Just like on Belenko's map, most of the lab was devoted to engineering and weapons development, but one partitioned-off corner held medical equipment. Massive filing cabinets and dark grey metal capsules lined the walls. Each capsule stood seven feet high with a rectangular window towards the top. They appeared to be the right size to store a human body.

Peggy tried not to think of Steve being in one of those containers, no matter how much they reminded her of the machine he had been placed in for Erskine's experiment so many years ago. She pushed the macabre thought from her mind to focus on their mission. A light hand on her arm brought her back to Agent Reed, who crouched next to her with a pair of binoculars in hand. Reed silently pointed to the far corner of the room and passed the binoculars.

Peggy held up the binoculars and spied a man tied to a chair. His face was bruised and swollen, but she recognized the lanky brunet man as Agent Pearson. She swept the rest of the medical room for Volkov, but none of the men in lab coats looked like him.

Two of the scientists stood on either side of a table with clipboards in hand while a third monitored the massive computer that formed part of the room partition. Whatever was on the table was covered by a white sheet. She assumed it was a man, but she couldn't see his head from this angle-one of the scientists was in the way.

Agents Parker and Osborn had made it to the floor of the engineering section without drawing attention. They split apart, placing charge packs on predetermined structural supports throughout the lab. Each pack had one of Stark's tiny radio receivers. Once they were clear of the building, Stark would send the detonation signal to collapse the lab without detonating any nuclear material, or so they hoped.

Peggy turned her attention back to the medical area. The men with the clipboards had left, leaving only one scientist monitoring the computer. She could now see the man lying on the table, his broad shoulders and head uncovered by the sheet. Peggy stifled a gasp and nearly dropped her binoculars. His dark blond hair was shorn close to his head and his face was thinner and paler than she remembered, cheekbones standing out in sharp relief, but she knew that face. She'd seen it in dreams and nightmares hundreds of times in the last four years.

"Steve," she whispered, saying his name aloud for the first time in years.

Stark, on her other side, must have heard and swung his binoculars around. "He's alive," he exclaimed softly in disbelief.

Peggy cursed herself for being too distracted to think straight. She looked again and this time noticed wires trailing from Steve's head to the computer terminal. She had known from the moment Volkov mentioned recovering Erskine's "research" that the Soviets had Steve's body, but she had refused to entertain any fleeting notion that he might still be alive.

"Charges are in place, ma'am," Reed whispered. "Osborn and Parker are clear."

Peggy signaled to Dugan to take care of the lone scientist at the computer. Dugan raised the rifle and hit the man squarely in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. The man slumped in his chair just as he started to reach for the dart. Slinging the rifle over his back, Dugan released a rope from the catwalk and began to silently rappel down. Peggy followed on a second rope. The computer banks partitioning off the medical room would cover them unless someone was watching the ceiling. Stark and Reed followed closely behind them.

As soon as her feet hit the floor, Reed ran to Pearson. Pulling a knife from her satchel, she began to cut the ropes binding his wrists and ankles to the chair.

Peggy, Stark, and Dugan surrounded the table, all of them momentarily taken aback by the sight of their long-dead friend.

"Steve, can you hear me? It's Peggy," she said softly, clenching her hands to keep her voice steady. "Howard, get these wires off him."

"I don't know what these wires are or how deep they go. Who knows what these psychos have done to him."

Peggy looked at Dugan, who sliced through the leads with a knife. "We can fix whatever they've done to him once we're safely out of here," she replied. She started to gently lift Steve's head and shoulders from the table to help Dugan pick him up when Steve's arm lashed out, catching her in the midsection. Peggy stumbled backwards from the blow, barely staying on her feet and fighting to fill her lungs with air again. By the time she'd recovered, Steve was on his feet and grappling with Dugan. Howard scrambled behind Dugan to maneuver the tranquilizer rifle. The first dart missed, but the second caught Steve's shin through thin drawstring pants. He stumbled slightly but continued to drive Dugan backwards. The noise was going to bring people running any second.

Peggy pulled her sidearm and leveled it at Steve. "Captain Rogers," she said sternly. Pounding adrenaline allowed her to hold the weapon steady despite the sharp pain in her ribs. He paused for a second to take in the pistol pointed at his bare chest, but his blue eyes showed no recognition. A grunt came from behind them as a long metal pipe crashed into the side of Steve's skull. He fell heavily to the ground to reveal Agent Pearson standing behind him. Pearson dropped the pipe when he saw Carter's pistol still pointed at him.

"He's breathing, just unconscious," Stark announced. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Dugan hoisted his former captain over his shoulder in a fireman's carry as the first gunshot rang out. "Move out," Peggy called as she scanned the exits and the catwalk above. "Take this." She tossed another gun to Pearson. "And try not to shoot any of us." She fired at a soldier who appeared on the catwalk above them.

"Ma'am," Reed called as she ran behind Stark and Dugan with a pistol in hand to cover their retreat. "There are people trapped in here-being experimented on."

A bullet whizzed by far too close for comfort as Peggy broke into a run. "There's no time, Reed. Howard, now!"

"But we're not clear!"

"Now!"

The gunfire stopped as a series of explosions started on the other side of the laboratory. It was sheer chaos as soldiers and scientists ran for cover. The retreating agents were soon forgotten as the Soviets feared for their own lives.

It was an excellent diversion, but something was wrong. The ceiling should have started raining down on them during their escape, but it didn't. Most of the noise was coming from the opposite end of the lab.

Outside in the dark, cool night, they met up with Agent Parker, dishevelled with weapon drawn.

"Osborn?" Reed asked quietly. Parker just shook his head.

A truck pulled up beside them and suddenly at least four weapons were trained on the cab. Two raised hands appeared in the driver's window followed by Belenko's face. Weapons were lowered, and Pearson and Parker opened the tailgate so Dugan could set down Rogers.

"My god," Belenko said, eying the unconscious man. "Is that-?"

"In the flesh. Though I'm not so sure about the mind," Stark said bitterly as he climbed into the truck bed. "Let's get somewhere safe before he wakes up."

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Author's Note: Laboratory No. 2, also known as the Kurchatov Institute, was the site of the U.S.S.R.'s nuclear development program in the 1940s and '50s. The Soviet Union's first nuclear weapons test was held in August 1949.