Chapter 6: Volgograd (Formerly Stalingrad), Russia
"Over fifty guards on my compound," the old man chuckled weakly, "and I cannot raise any of them now."
Morris smiled innocently and stepped out of the shadows, "If it helps, they were almost a challenge."
"Bullshit," the man spoke with the wheeze of an old smoker. His vitals- monitored by several machines arrayed around his bed- showed no change. He was neither afraid of Morris nor surprised by him. It was exactly what the younger man was hoping for.
"General Ryker, if I may?" the old man nodded and Morris approached. He stopped at the foot of the bed and gestured to the machines surrounding him, "Is this how you wish to die? Or how you wish to live, for that matter?"
"I've lived too long as it is- the lament of many of my age. I lost my wife over twenty years ago, one son ate a bullet not long after and the other- well. I have it on good authority that particular disappointment has been removed from the mortal coil as well. I've been hooked up to these machines for so long I don't remember what fresh air even feels like, and I hope only for a quick death. So the answer to your questions is that this is precisely how I wish to die."
"Hardly fitting for one of your reputation."
"I am not a dreamer, stranger. I am a realist. I will not be standing up and dying in a blaze of glory, I will rot away here in this room. My legacy and my reputation die with me."
Morris smiled, "That is where I believe we may help one another. A lot has changed in this world since you were sent into exile. Doctor Bruce Banner is not the only one with peculiar abilities."
General Ryker sighed, "Doctor Banner. You know, you aren't he first to come to me about him. Not even the tenth. Selling my research is what bought me this house and my second kidney transplant."
"I'm not here to offer you money. You are aware your son Anton fathered a child twenty-one years ago?"
"Twenty-two, actually. How is Nadya? Still playing in the dark? Dimitri, buffoon though he is, sent me school photographs up until she was in the seventh grade," he pointed as best he could to a school-house frame on the wall with a space for pictures from kindergarten through twelfth grade. "He said he was thinking of sending her back to Hydra for training as an Asset."
Morris laughed softly, "They did what they could to encourage her obedience, but cutting that morally superior streak from her was work for a surgeon, they sent in the Winter Soldier with a butcher as his guide."
"I'm proud to know Hydra thought the Winter Soldier was necessary."
"Necessary, but in the end a failure. Little Nadya is quite the stubborn one. Hydra lost control of him a year ago and he took her to a whole team of wannabe-heroes."
General Ryker shook his head, disappointed, "Anton would have been ashamed. Such wasted potential."
"That is where I would like your help. Hydra is minor leagues now- an underground infestation being systematically eliminated by SHIELD. My master leads an empire across far more than just this world. He is more than capable of turning your granddaughter into a fitting tribute to your family name. In fact, she would likely surpass even you."
"So, you've come to ask my blessing then? Take her. Let her do something with her life to be proud of."
"That is not the sort of help I need," Morris pulled a metal vial from his pocket and held it up for the old General to see. "This is an experimental compound, but I assure you it works very well indeed. Within four hours of injection it causes rapid cellular regeneration on an unprecedented scale. Subjects not only appear younger, but gain incredible strength and healing abilities. It is beyond merely the super soldier serum you hunted Doctor Banner for- it's the fountain of youth. My proposition is this, General Ryker- I give you this now, and by the end of the day you are outside in the sunlight and completely independent of these machines until someone manages to put a few bullets in your head, all in exchange for your help distracting Doctor Banner while I retrieve your granddaughter."
General Ryker was intrigued, "Strike him alone?"
"Of course not. You would work with a host of allies, all with significant abilities. I am gathering one enemy for each of these Avengers to fight. While they are divided and distracted, I retrieve Nadya."
"It would be misguided to agree blindly. I will require a full briefing of your plan and the team you are assembling. Only then will I give you my answer." In his old age and frail condition, the Genera's poker face had faded away. Morris could see clearly how interested he was in joining.
Morris walked over to his bedside table and retrieved from it a large needle secured in a plastic sleeve. He unwrapped the needle and filled it with the contents of the vial, "Here is a sign of how confident I am in your response," he injected the dark liquid into one of the IVs running into the General's arm. When the needle was empty he set it down and pulled up a chair, "Now, General, here is what I have been planning..."
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