Chapter 7
5 Years Later
Anne was on one of her standard missions. This time, she was tied to a chair on the third floor of an abandoned warehouse while wearing a simple black dress and stockings. Her black heels had been taken off and set on a table.
She was being interrogated by George Luchkov, a fat Russian General, along with his two goons.
One of them walks over and punches her square across the face. Anne's hair falls into her face but flips it out of her eyes and looks directly at the General.
He smirks and starts speaking in Russian.
"This is not how I wanted this evening to go."
"I know how you wanted this evening to go,"
Anne retorts in Russian,
"Believe me, this is better."
Still smirking, the general gets right to the point,
"Who are you working for?"
He continues speaking as the goon walks back over,
"Lermentov, yes?"
The man grabs her chair and tilts it menacing over the stories deep hole that is directly behind Anne.
"Does he think we have to go through him,"
the General threateningly states as Anne desperately tries to touch the floor again with her feet,
"To move our cargo?"
Anne puts a scared look on her face.
"I thought General Solohob was in charge of the export
business."
Anne states with a shaky voice as the man slowly lowers her chair back down to the ground.
"Solohob?", the General chuckles as he paces,
"A bagman, a front."
He stops in front of Anne.
"Your outdated information betrays you."
He walks confidently towards her.
"The famous Red Angel,"
the General says harshly,
"And she turns out to be simply another pretty face."
Anne cocks her eyebrow.
"You really think I'm pretty?"
The man pauses for a few seconds and then walks over to a table with various tools on it.
"Tell Lermentov we don't need him to move the tanks."
The General changes the subject as his goon moves over to Anne and squeezes her cheeks, forcing her mouth open.
"Tell him he is out. Well..."
The Russian picks up a pair of pliers and states in English,
"You may have to write it down."
Anne grunts and starts breathing rapidly as she begins to understand what the General is implying.
Suddenly, one of the goons' phone rings. He is surprised for a minute then sheepishly turns around as he answers it.
He is quiet then turns to the General.
"It's for her."
The Russian slams down the pliers and grabs the phone.
"You listen carefully-"
The General states forcefully and is cut off by Phil Coulson's voice.
"You're at 113 Salinsky Plaza, 3rd floor. We have an F-22 exactly 8 miles out. Put the woman on the phone or we'll blow up the block before you make the lobby."
The Russian stands there in shock at the sudden change of power then slowly walks over to Anne with and puts the phone on her shoulder so she could hold it up to her ear.
"We need you to come in."
Coulson's voice slightly relieves her but she feels frustrated.
"Are you kidding? I'm working."
"This takes precedence."
"I'm in the middle of an interrogation and this moron is giving me everything," she states in a bored tone.
The General looks surprised and embarrassed.
"I don't... give everything."
Anne gave him a look that read, you sure about that?
"Listen, you can't pull me out of this one."
"Annabelle,"
His serious tone and use of her full name caught her attention.
"Barton's been compromised."
Now she realized why Phil was pulling out all the dramatic stops. She then made a quick decision.
"Let me put you on hold."
She nodded at the General to take the phone.
As he bent down to grab it, she kicked his thigh, sending him to his knees and head-butted him to make fall all the way to the ground.
She stood up while still tied by her arms to the chair and fought both of the goons. As she did this, Coulson could hear the grunts of her captures through the receiver and calmly waits for her to finish.
She is eventually able to send her self flying back first onto one of the goons, breaking her chair into pieces.
She fought them until they were both unconscious in under 30 seconds. She then tied a chain hanging from the ceiling around the General's leg and sends him hanging over the hole by it.
She calmly picks up the phone and her heels and starts walking away as she continues her conversation with Phil.
"Where's Barton now?"
"We don't know."
"But he's alive?"
"We think so. I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy."
Anne scoffs at this.
"Let me talk to Stark instead. We get along really well so he will most likely get on board of I'm the one who asks."
"I thought he drove you crazy?"
Her laugh bounces off the hollow walls of the building.
"Are you kidding? How could two mental cases who use humor as a defense mechanism not get along?"
"Ok, if you're sure. But I should warn you, ever since he and Pepper got together they've been a lot more touchy."
Anne cringed at the mere thought of Tony being touchy with anyone.
Anne looks around the room and sighs.
"Bozhe moi."