Chapter 12 (For real this time): Hydra Remote Research Facility- Location Unknown
"Verify Location, Agent Ogden."
"Sector 7G, all quiet," she yawned loudly over comms to illustrate just what she thought of these patrols.
Her C.O. was impatient, "You think I like running this B.S. every night? Grab a coffee from Mess and drink fast- you're due in 7H in twenty."
"Sir yes sir," she turned to the security camera and saluted sarcastically. Between SHIELD raids and break-ins world over by agents of just about every intelligence agency, Hydra was stepping up security big time. That meant everyone pulled 12-hour duty. Even when they came out of the shadows, Hydra wasn't this on-edge. Agent Dennisson had really fucked them over in New York. Ogden was there- though she thankfully never saw combat. Whatever the Avengers unleashed, it was enough to scare the pants off the upper echelon. They were on full lockdown lately- even she didn't know what precisely had gone wrong nearly two months before.
Agent Ogden walked the dark halls, filling in a mental map of the base as she explored. The only good thing about all this- she hated only having a partial knowledge of the layout, but now the patrols were providing her with valuable intelligence. If she could visualize where she was going, she didn't have to rely so much on faded (and often misleading) signs painted on corners.
Project Echo. That was all she knew. Whatever the hell went wrong in New York, that's where the answers were to be found. Some failed experiment to make a second Asset, just like the Winter Soldier (who, incidentally, is what turned it into a threat against Hydra in New York). Ogden would kill to get her hands on that file.
Three lefts and a flight of stairs later, she was in Mess. Half the base was there working their way through the coffee supplies. Commander Burke kept threatening to ration it- not that supplies ever got that low. He just liked to bitch. "Your biggest cup of your strongest stuff," Agent Ogden flashed her security card to silence the grumbling of scientists waiting in line, "I know you've been waiting, but I've got to keep your asses safe, so quit bitching."
"Always the charmer," Ogden smiled and accepted her cup from the cook.
"Agent Calvin, I thought you were the day shift?" it was nearly two in the morning, his lot wouldn't be making their appearance until around five.
The young man returned her smile, "And miss seeing my favorite Agent? I was thinking we could patrol together. It's tough, very lonely work."
"And I've always preferred it for just that reason," Ogden walked over to a condiment station to hunt down some cream. Calvin followed.
"You've been off since New York," he pouted, "it can't have been that bad. You didn't even see action, right?"
She headed out of Mess back towards section 7. Calvin followed, "I was with the clean-up crew, and we didn't exactly have anything left to clean up once the Avengers came in."
"The Avengers we could have handled. Have you seen the footage?"
"No," Ogden stopped, interested, "you have?"
"Sure, I was acting as Burke's errand-monkey a couple days ago and got a view of it. They've been playing it non stop in the briefing room. There are three new Avengers- all big threats."
"Three? Seriously?" There was sudden feedback in her comm and she jumped. After a second, it cleared.
Calvin winced, "Sounds like Supervisory Agent Hayes is getting started on the sauce a bit early- or is it late for you guys?"
"He sounded sober enough when we cleared 7G," she grumbled.
"Where were we?"
"Three Avengers."
"Oh, yeah, well, how much do you know about the fall of the Triskellion?"
"I was at the Academy then," she shrugged, "I know about the helicarriers, Captain America and Black Widow working with some new face. Oh, and we lost the Asset then too."
Calvin nodded, "So they are two of the new Avengers- the Winter Soldier and Falcon, as they're calling the second guy. We'd have been OK in New York if that was it- Dennisson probably would still be dead, but we had armies all over. The third was this shadow-chick. Some failed experiment run loose. The kid literally made an army of shadow-monsters to cut through our men in the streets. Really freaky sci-fi stuff. They thing the Avengers got the kid out of the Asylum after it exploded. How weird is that?"
A chill crept down Ogden's spine, "Shadow-monsters?"
"I guess that was the ability they were trying to harness. She could, like, summon shadows and apparently teleport with them- analysis of the footage has the top-brass crediting her with gathering the lot of them in one place before the massacre began." Calvin abruptly noticed the color draining from Agent Ogden's face. "Hey, you alright?"
She ignored him and pressed the 'talk' button on her radio, "Agent Hayes? Do you read me?" there was nothing on the line. She switched to a general channel, "Anyone read?"
Again. Nothing. Calvin cursed, "How many times do we have to send engineering to fix that shitty transmitter before they finally just get a new one?" She turned back towards Mess and walked quickly. The air was almost growing colder- or was that her imagination? "Yo! Ogden! Where are you go-" his voice cut out suddenly. Ogden didn't break stride, but she glanced behind her.
Half of him was under the hall light. The other half had ended up on the far side of the hallway. Agent Ogden picked up her pace- running now. She activated her imbedded comm- the one Hydra knew nothing about, "Agent May, do you read?"
A moment later there was a reply, "Agent Ivanou, we weren't expecting you to check in for another three hours."
"Was SHIELD tracking what happened in New York?"
May's tone was hard, professional, "That is not part of your mission parameters. You are to observe and report only. You don't concern yourself with our end of New York, just Hydra's."
"Agent May, just tell me one thing because it's important, I have to know- Project Echo, was it a person? A girl?"
"Yes, why? Do you have intel on her?"
"What was her name? Who was she?" Agent Ivanou rounded the corner into Mess- and walked in on a massacre.
What was a moment ago a room full of soldiers, scientists, and personnel was now a room of corpses. Several lights had been damaged, throwing shadows across the room. In the darker shadows, creatures moved. Bodies would occasionally vanish, leaving no trace they were ever there. It wouldn't take too long to empty the entire room. That was what she'd been sent on patrol against- attacks that left no evidence anyone had ever been to Hydra's bases. It was worse than the attacks by Captain America or the Winter Soldier. An enemy they couldn't track.
"You aren't cleared to know that, Agent."
"Please, I'm not asking as a SHIELD agent, I need to know who she was!"
Ivanou felt a shiver and turned abruptly. Behind her was a girl- older than she remembered, but younger than she should have been. Evidence of torture- now healed- showed clearly on the rippled skin of her arms- burns, cuts, the shining skin that grew back when the original was peeled away. The girl hesitantly looked up, met her eyes. "Nadi?" Ivanou whispered.
Inessa couldn't tell at first who the Agent was, not until she spoke. She'd changed so much. Without realizing what she was doing, she spoke, "Mallory?"
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