"Captain!"
Steve looked up at the sound of his title. He and his men were celebrating another successful mission when Jim Morita, the communication officer of the group, spoke up.
"Urgent message from the S.S.R." Morita continued.
Steve felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand upright. He knew something had been off the past few days. "What did they say?" he choked.
Jim's face was grim as he silently handed over a scrap of paper he had written the message on.
Hydra took Lucy. –Peg
-permafrost-
The plane rattled in the stormy night, rousing Lucy from her chemically induced slumber. She blinked trying to establish her surroundings. Her back was cold, she was lying half on her side with her face turned toward the floor. Her wrists were bound behind her back, restricting her movement. She recognized the aircraft. It was one of the ones from the S.S.R. She blinked again. Her head was fiercely pounding inside her skull as she tried to regain control over her senses. The airplane shook again and a box rammed into her side causing her to let out a slight hiss.
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever wake up." Belittled a lyrical voice from the pilot's seat.
Lucy slowly pushed herself into a seated position. There was no point in trying to feign sleep now.
The voice continued, "I thought I might have killed you back there. Supposed I might have given you too much of that sleeping draught."
Squinting through the dim lighting Lucy tried to make out the face of her captor. The voice was feminine and it sounded so very familiar, but she couldn't remember where she heard it. "I'm tougher than I look." She croaked, in attempt to keep her abductor talking.
"Yes, you are. Good thing too, I was supposed to bring you back alive." The woman turned her face slightly. The lighting chose that exact moment to illuminate her face.
Lucy gasped and a horrible memory flashed before her eyes.
The women of America, they owe you their thanks. And uh… seeing, as they're not here…
"You." She hissed out.
Lorraine chortled turning back to the controls, "Who else would it be, darling?"
Lucy grit her teeth in anger, "Where are you taking me?"
"Don't ask questions you already know the answers to, dear." Lorraine criticized, "Its unbecoming of clever women like us. Come now, try again."
"Fine then." Lucy countered, "Why do they need me alive."
"I'm sure you can work that out on your own, sweetie."
Lucy fumed from her position still partially slumped across the floor. "What did you do after you drugged me, and how did you accomplish that."
"There's a good girl." The former private praised, "I dosed your sugar. You have a special container of sugar cubes in your office that you put in your afternoon coffee. The medication is bitter, so when you tasted it you added more 'sugar'. Worked like a charm. Brilliant. Don t you agree, angel?"
"And how did you manage to get me out of the building?" Lucy argued, she couldn't help but admit the German spy was cunning.
"Easy." Lorraine boasted, "I set fire to the lab. Told a few assistants you slipped and knocked yourself out. They helped me carry you through the doors." She paused and regarded Lucy's stationary form, "I'm offended at the lack of security in your military. It was too simple."
Lucy sighed, "You and me both." She settled back against the wall. She might as well get as much sleep as she could. Goodness knows Hydra might want her alive, but that didn't mean she would be comfortable from this point on. Just before she drifted off back to the land of dreams, the drugs were still working their magic; she lamented the contamination of her favorite brand of sweetener.
-permafrost-
Meanwhile in London…
"Twice." Colonel Phillips roared as he stomped through the hallways. "Twice this has happened. As in, this is the second time a Nazi spy has infiltrated our ranks and taken out our lead scientist on the serum project. We're back to square one people, look alive." Then turning to Peggy who was following him, he commanded her in a softer tone, "Get a message to Rogers. I'm sure he'd want to be notified."
Peggy nodded and raced to find Howard.
She found him in the partially ruined lab, going over what the fire had destroyed.
"Agent Carter," he greeted, "Look." Howard pointed to the blackened walls where chemicals had blown up and glass had shattered. "Notice how the only places the fire touched were Lucy's? Also a few notebooks of Erskine's are missing. Someone, somewhere, doesn't want us to finish the super soldier serum."
Peggy's eyes widened as she observed the damage. "She might be alive then, if they're using her for her knowledge."
"Looks like it." Howard concurred.
Remembering why she came in Peggy announced, "We need to tell the Captain."
Howard gestured toward the corner, "Machine is right over there. Help yourself."
-permafrost-
"What is it?" Bucky questioned, standing to read over his friend's shoulder.
The rest of the men went silent as they watched their leader and his second. Their expressions drained of color going stark white. The flickering firelight danced across their faces causing their appearances to resemble incandescent skulls.
"I…I don't understand." Muttered Bucky.
Steve couldn't say anything, his throat had swollen shut and his eyes blinked rapidly. His mind couldn't comprehend what the message was saying. The neurons were firing but his brain refused to believe what they were telling him.
Bucky started to pace back and forth, "We're here, in the field, fighting to protect our side. Yet, right in our headquarters, under our very noses, the place that's supposed to be the safest in the world my sister gets abducted?!" he ran his fingers roughly through his hair.
Steve sat down. His knees gave out from under him. He stared unseeingly into the fire as Bucky continued to rant.
"What are we going to do now?" Bucky rounded on him.
"Nothing." Steve replied in a dead voice.
Bucky looked about ready to punch him.
Steve continued, "There's nothing we can do. We sit, and we wait, and we try and find out where they took her." He reached into his pocked and pulled out his trusty compass. Flipping it open he stared down longingly at her picture.