The Curse of Dr. Zola
Chapter 33
Mary fixed dinner with a heavy heart. They had to wait until morning to leave. Steve and Sam, kept in constant contact with what was left of SHIELD while they formulated a plan and got the necessary equipment and crew together.
The crew consisted of Fury, Stark, Nat, and Hawkeye. Most of the SHIELD members were down, especially after the fiasco in DC. Fury and Nat almost got Pierce, but the slippery demon got away.
Maria Hill went to work at Stark Industries, in a double capacity, and was keeping in touch, giving them advice about the most probable places HYDRA may have taken Bucky.
But for the time being, they'd spend the night and leave in the morning.
Mary woke in the middle of the night with her heart beating fast. She felt scared, but didn't know why. Suddenly, there was this loud bang from outside and Mary jumped off the bed, and ran for the door. She almost ran Sam over as he opened his door.
Steve had run up the steps from his room and ushered them both downstairs.
"I'm going to grab our gear, get her out through the escape tunnel, and Sam, don't look back."
Sam and Mary ducked into the tunnel and Steve secured the door. Grabbing his shield, Steve crept to the gear they had piled up. He got what he could and flung it down the stairs, and went back for the rest.
He heard the front door being smashed in as he adjusted his earpiece and called in a mayday. He ducked out of sight, but not before he saw who it was; a flash of red hair from the nightlights they kept on told him all he needed to know. He locked the secret door behind him and bolted down the stairs. He opened the tunnel, tossed the gear in, and locked the door behind him.
He almost had a heart attack when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Sam. He'd come to help with the gear. "I told you to stay with Mary!" Steve hissed.
"Huh?"
"Snap out of it."
"Oh damn, she voodooed me." Sam grabbed stuff and they ran for it.
Steve led the way through the maze of escape tunnels and secret doorways. Only he, Mary, and Bucky knew the layout. Several false doors were constructed as well to throw off anyone lucky enough to find their way down.
At the end of the tunnels, Mary was waiting with their escape vehicles; three motorcycles were ready to go.
"I hope you can ride." Mary said to Sam.
"My cousin had one of these, but it's been a long time. Maybe I should fly."
"Gear, we need the gear!"
Mary strapped her stuff on with amazing speed, put on her helmet, and jumped on.
"Her bike is the smallest, so we gotta be careful that we don't outrun her."
Sam pulled on a spare helmet, while Steve opted for his Captain America headgear.
"Keep Mary in the middle, and here, you might need this." Steve handed Sam his two pistols.
Sam stuffed one into his pajama bottoms, and sent up a silent prayer. This was going to be one helluva ride.
They started the bikes and Steve went first, and Sam in the sweep position.
Mary was not the best rider, but she had to make a run for her life, and Bucky was depending on her. Swallowing her fear, she raced into the night behind Steve.
Back at the house, Shawn showed up to assist Dottie, but they discovered no one there. Dottie screamed with rage while Shawn remained silent. They had gotten out somehow!
"The alarm has been triggered, we must go." Shawn finally acknowledged. "They cannot be far; we might still get the mark."
They ran to the waiting transport vehicles, and split up to cover more ground.
Shawn called in air support and they radioed back that there was a possible sighting. Unfortunately, it was in Dottie's direction. He instructed the vehicle's driver to turn around. He grabbed on as the car swung in a gut-wrenching U-turn, and sped forward.
Dot smiled as she planned in her head how she was finally going to celebrate completing the mission she'd been sent on in 1974.
She'd been punished severely for failing to retrieve the necklace, but it was so close now, she could almost feel victory.
Speeding along, Mary was concentrating all her efforts on keeping upright and between the ditches.
Steve was leading them to a pick-up point where a quin jet was waiting for them, and Mary was doing her best to keep up with Steve.
She did a double take as she saw a faint orange glow reflect off her bike, and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest!
She twisted the throttle just a little more and edged up to Steve. "Steve!"
He did a double take as well. With the necklace glowing, he knew something wasn't far behind.
Dottie received the coordinates from the air support and caught up with them; driving her souped up 1958 Plymouth Fury. She thought it was appropriate.
As Dot caught up, Steve had little choice but to send Mary on alone, while he and Sam took on the unenviable job of detaining the assassin trailing them.
Mary didn't even have a chance to look back, as Steve dropped back behind her; she just prayed that everything would be okay.
Mary pulled into the LZ, but there was no sign of Steve or Sam yet. She kept going and sped across the field towards what she hoped was the quin jet. It was just a sparkle of light until the back opened.
Clint ran down the ramp and waved her in. She waited until the last possible moment before slowing down. She ran right up the ramp into the jet.
"Where are the boys?" Nat asked.
Mary pointed out the back of the jet. "They had to take care of a little trouble."
Nat made Mary sit down and get herself buckled in, and then went to the back to peer out into the darkness.
Steve heard a clink against the Vibranium shield he had strapped to his back as a bullet struck him. "Sam, brake hard."
Dottie flew past them as both bikes braked hard. They were now behind her.
Sam pulled his sidearm out and shot at the tires, hit both on his side. As soon as they blew Dottie lost control of the car and swerved all over the road. She nearly took out Sam in the process.
Sam was barely able to keep it together to avoid her, and they raced away amidst her shooting at them.
"Damn." Sam muttered to himself as he followed Steve to the field.
They raced to the jet, but Shawn had caught up and was trailing them now.
Steve risked a glance behind them, and shook his head slightly. Shawn was too close. They were going to have to ride in hot. This was not going to be pretty; they needed a distraction.
Before Steve could think of one, he heard an explosion behind him. Another risky glance and he saw the vehicle hurtle off the ground and drop with a tremendous crash on its side. He was stunned by what he saw, but more stunned when his gaze returned towards the jet.
Mary was standing there just behind Clint and Nat; her arms outstretched. She had used her gift to lift the car off the ground and sent it crashing.
The threesome welcomed Steve and Sam as they rode right in. The back door ramp was still closing as Clint lifted the jet off the ground.
A scream came from Mary as she saw Shawn clambering over the ramp. He fired a shot at Steve and it glanced off his shoulder. As the shot went wild, Clint jerked on the controls sending the jet tipping precariously to the side. All the occupants went flying.
Shawn managed to get his legs in before the door clanged shut. But now, he became an even more dangerous problem, and the limited space of movement curtailed what Steve could do.
Shawn rushed forward, and Steve met him hand to hand. Both men struggled and fought; each one trying to overcome the other. Sam tried to slip past them to the door controls. If he could open the door, maybe Steve could push him out.
In his mind, Shawn didn't care about casualties, he didn't even care whether he lived or died and by now he certainly didn't care if he brought Mary in alive or not. Shawn jerked backwards, hurtling Steve overhead and sending him rolling towards the door.
Shawn turned with lightning speed to face Mary.
He glared at her as she retreated on her knees. She and Nat had taken hard hits when the jet tilted and she was hurting and bruised and scared.
Her eyes showed terror at first, but then Bucky came to her mind and without thinking she shoved him backwards with all her might.
Sam had pushed the button to open the door and Shawn got sucked out the narrow opening at the top.
Clint had managed to get them over the Hudson River by now, and Shawn took a dive into the dark waters.
Sam closed up the door, but now they had to contend with the other jet. They tried to get buckled in before a hail of bullets assaulted them. Clint had to tilt wildly to avoid as many as possible.
The girls got buckled in, but Sam and Steve got tossed. Mary managed to grab them before they hit the steel wall of the jet and suspended them in mid-air as the jet swung around the other way.
Sam felt himself drop a couple feet as Mary's back slammed against the hull. He felt like a rag doll being carried by a 5 year old.
Nat got herself sorted and fired back from the co-pilot's seat.
"Hang on back there."
"What do you think we're doing?" Sam yelled forward. "Baking cookies?"
Mary managed to get Sam over to the seats, and he promptly buckled in. The jet took a hard hit as she pulled Steve over and she lost her concentration. Steve dropped to the floor and rolled back and forth until Clint got the jet under control.
"Fire back, so I can get Steve in the seat." She used her gift to press down on him and keep him from becoming a human pinball.
"I'm firing!" Nat yelled back.
Clint kept up some pretty damn fancy flying, but it was making Mary airsick. "Oh Clint, you're making me nauseous."
"Sorry, I'm trying not to get us dead."
Mary focused on the back door button. "I'll take care of them, just get in front of them. I'm going to open the door."
She punched on the button and the door began opening. She pulled Steve across the floor and he grabbed on to a seat. She unbuckled herself and stumbled her way to see out. She pushed out with both hands as the jet took a hit. She disabled an engine on the other jet and it tumbled downward, but she lost her balance and slid towards the open door.
Screaming, she grabbed onto whatever she could, her legs dangling out over the door. "I can't hold on!"
Steve and Sam formed a human chain and pulled Mary in a second before she lost her grip.
Sam leaned back, gasping for his breath. He looked at Steve and shook his head. "And you told me she was a nice girl!"
Free from pursuit now, they all broke out in a relieved laugh.
Steve untangled himself and closed the back door. "She is; she makes chocolate chip cookies."
"Uh guys, I got good news and bad news."
"What's the good news?'
"We're still in one piece."
"And the bad news?"
"We aren't going to be able to get too far in this rig, we've got damage."
"Alright, find a safe landing zone, and we'll call for a lift."
Clint managed to get them to his house and land without incident, but now they were without a ride. Fury was supposedly dead as far as the world was concerned, and there wasn't too much left of SHIELD. Maria Hill managed to send them another jet, but it meant another delay, and Mary was feeling a lot of anxiety waiting for it to arrive.
Steve was too, except he didn't show it quite as much outwardly. Inside, he was turning into mush just thinking about what HYDRA was doing to Bucky.