Chapter Three: Playing the Part
That's right, I'm back and as you all can tell, I've changed a few things. I'm sorry about the wait but I literally had no idea what to do and it wasn't headed in a good direction but now I'm back and I'm going to go slower than I used to on this series but after Panic's series this will be my main focus, but I plan to update from now on. Be sure to follow, favorite, and comment on this story.
Brazil isn't quite as amazing as one might assume, it could perhaps be due to the case of us being here on a mission while everyone else is able to enjoy themselves on a vacation. My hands are literally shaking at my side as we pass by the large crowds of people and while I see their mouth's move, no words come out, I can't seem to hear anything over the loud feeling of familiarity.
How could that be? I haven't even been an assassin long enough to come to this place and even if I had, I would remember walking through the streets of the city and all the flashing lights. This is not a place one would forget, especially not if I was here to kill somebody.
"Olhe vivo Rayza, estamos aqui em uma missão. Mantenha-se focado (Look alive Rayza, we're here on a mission. Stay focused)" I hear Bucky whisper to me as we stalk through the city, weaving through alleys and around buildings.
The sun overhead sets the world on fire, well, not literally. Sweat drips down my forehead as we press on. Vasilisia told us which house she'd 'rented' for us to stay in during the duration of this mission and when we complete it she says we may go free but I don't believe her. She's a trained spy and lying is second nature, you do what you have to for the mission to be completed.
Whether that includes lying to those who will be behind the mission or even using torture as a method to get what is needed then so be it. All that matters to a spy, or an assassin, is to complete or get the mission completed by the pawns who will be used like chess pieces. If we're caught, she won't be the one to take the fall, no, Bucky and I will be.
She knows we won't let them take us so we'll take out those that are trying to capture us so then, if we do, we'll be fugitives in Brazil which is bad and we cannot tell them as they know nothing about HYDRA. Finally when I look up from the dust I see we've found out 'home base' of sorts until we can figure out a way to escape from the KGB's clutches.
The house is painted an ugly, pale yellow shade with one window on the left wall where I can only assume the living room is located. The paint is peeling off the walls and all the plants in the yard are long since dead and wilted. Bucky pulls the key out of his baggy black hoodie and unlocks the door, holding it open for me and closes it behind him.
I reach for the light switch and flip the tab up, after flickering a few times finally an ugly glow of yellow lighting comes alive, painting the room in it's ugly coloration. Shaking my head I step away from the door and pass through the doorway. The house smells of dust bunnies, cigarette smoke, alcohol, and like what an old school library.
As predicted the only window is in the teeny-tiny living room only large enough to fit a small rocking chair, a side table in the rooms center, and a love seat pressed close to the wall where the window resides. With a sigh, I step through the doorway and collapse on the love seat as if I just got back from a funeral but instead all I can think about is the mission looming over us.
Footsteps near and I already know it's Bucky so I don't bother with looking up from the floor, I can sense him leaning against the doorway, eyes just watching me as if I'm glass and will break at any minute. We made it here just in time for nightfall to come across the city, I can see the shadow of light on the hardwood floor slowly fade away each minute as the sun sinks below the horizon.
"Are you alright?" he finally says, stepping all the way into the room, sitting down on the rocking chair across from me. Taking a deep breath I shake my head, run my hand through my hair and look up at him.
"Yeah, I'm just... Things are just so..." I trail off, unable to complete a single thought, everything's to complicated right now, too difficult to comprehend and explain into words but Bucky seems to understand what I'm trying to say as he nods.
"I know."
We just sit in silence, neither of us saying anything. It's not an uncomfortable silence just a silence where there's nothing more we can say, nothing we can say the will change anything so it's easier to say nothing at all. Just when all is silent something, some type of recognition flickers in my mind. Something, something like a dream that haunts away at you.
"95.78 NW, be there. Hail HYDRA..."
I blink a few times, coordinates, that's what those are, coordinates to what?
"Hey..."
Where did I hear that?
"Hey!"
It has to mean something, a HYDRA base obviously but there are thousands of HYDRA bases.
"Vanya!"
I look up at Bucky whose moved from the rocking chair to the seat on the love seat beside me. Blinking a few times I feel a headache coming on, the pounding, pulsing type. "Portuguese..." I suddenly say, straightening up, eyes wide.
"What? Vanya, what are you talking about?" he asks again.
"They said it in Portuguese, 95.78 NW, be there. Hail HYDRA. The base location, the base location for HYDRA here in this part of Brazil is wherever that is, that's where we'll find the HYDRA base."
"Are you sure?" he asks, suddenly.
Silence passes between us, then the answer comes burning the the tip of my tongue. "I am."
Getting up off the couch I push past the doorway of the living room and search the two bedrooms, looking for my stuff that was give to me for this mission by Vasilisia and pull out a black cloak with dark red on the inside as well as carefully sculpted black spiral designs on the inside. Even if Bucky doesn't want to come with me I have to go.
It's all I can think about, I have to know whether or not I was right. This is the make or break moment for me, if I'm right then I have no idea what that means. The world will then be carrying more information about me than I even know about myself, I could not have made that information up because I can hear the man's voice as he said it, so intensely.
He said it, not just to someone else, no, to me. Whoever or whatever said that to me but I-I can't...
"Vanya, where are you going?" Bucky asks from the doorway as I finish the knot on the cloak and pull the hood up. Grabbing my weapons I strap them to me in an easy but reasonable to reach place. I cannot be wrong, if I am then who knows what I'm walking into.
"I'm investigating, I have to know if I'm right," I reply, brushing past him as I pass by the other bedroom and the kitchen.
"Wait a minute," he sighs. "I'm coming with you."
"I do not need a babysitter, I'll be fine on my own."
He pauses a minute before replying. "I don't care if you think you'll be fine, if you're wrong, or right, it could be dangerous and who knows what information we might find so I am coming whether you like it or not, understood."
"You're not the boss of me," I say, pulling the front door open and stepping out into the night.