Chapter 3- Mission
Harlow barely slept last night, which caused her to wake up late for training.
Walking into the training room was daunting, a class of new recruits stood around listening to their instructor.
"Fresh meat got lost on the way by the looks of it" a girl in the front row whispered loudly, causing the class to laugh.
Harlow made eye contact with the trainer, Eric Meyer had trained Harlow since she was a child which earned Harlow a small amount of favoritism.
"Right, let's jump right into this, shall we. Harlow and Riley, a demonstration would you please" Meyer called out,
Harlow and the girl who made the comment made their way up to the front of the class. Harlow knew exactly where this was going, she smirked at the thought.
"Harlow... demonstrate," Meyer said,
Harlow took her fighting stance and leaped forward in her assault, punching Riley right in the nose and then in the stomach, causing her to double over and try to protect her body,
"Never be caught off guard, always be ready for a fight" Harlow called out,
"Are you fucking crazy?!" Riley screamed,
Riley went to turn and run but Harlow wrapped her arm around her neck, holding her in a choke hold,
"Never turn your back on your attacker, they now have the advantage," she said, kicking the back of Riley's knee out causing her to fall to the ground,
"If you end up on the ground, you're basically dead," Harlow said pinning her to the ground with one foot on her back as Riley struggled,
"And one last thing," Harlow grabbed Riley's arm and held it out into the air before bringing her other foot down on the back of her elbow, the sound of the crack and scream turned stomachs.
"Don't talk shit about someone you don't know to their face, they may kill you for it" Harlow said, dropping the limp and very broken arm before walking back to stand next to Meyer.
"Thank you, Harlow, for that demonstration, do you want to address the class?" asked Meyer,
Harlow nodded as she caught her breath.
"The people that raised me were some of Hydra's most loyal agents until they betrayed Hydra and died traitors, I am no traitor. I lay no claim to them as their daughter. We are Hydra and we show no mercy when it comes to the enemy, friends, family, and people who don't know their place," she glanced back to Riley weeping on the floor. "When you train you will get hurt and you will learn to endure that pain because if you don't you have no right to become an agent of Hydra. My name is Harlow Zakhaev, I was ranked in the top three most promising agents in training five years ago, the only thing that stopped me from becoming number one was when half of humanity disappeared and I along with them but now, nothing is going to stop me" she declared, earning small applause from Meyer.
Harlow left the training room with haste, she had hoped that little display was a nice act for Mr. Fastner who was surely watching the live security footage. She had to show she wasn't weak and was willing to do anything to keep her status in Hydra, including breaking a bitch's arm.
3 Months Later
3 months ago Harlow came back from the Blip, 3 months since she found out that Hydra killed her parents for deserting, and for the past 3 months she had thrown herself into her training, anything to keep her mind busy.
She had been pummelling the boxing bag for over an hour in the training room, it was empty as most of the people on the base were at lunch. She wasn't hungry, she wanted to keep going until her hands were bruised. She had learned to accept the pain and soldier through it.
"Miss Zakhaev?" a voice called out from the door of the training room,
"Yes?" she called back breathless, as she turned to see a guard,
"Mr. Fastner wants to see you" he informed her,
Harlow nodded as he left, she grabbed the boxing bag with both gloved hands and rested her head against it, leveling her breathing.
After a quick shower, she arrived at Mr. Fastner's office within 15 minutes, Harlow knew that to keep a man like him waiting too long would have consequences. She knocked and entered,
"You wanted to see me, Sir?" she asked, standing with her arms behind her back as she watched him fill out forms on his desk.
"We have an assignment for you" he replied,
Harlow nodded.
"I'm sure you remember the Winter Soldier program? Your parents worked very closely on the project" he asked,
"Yes Sir, I know it well," she replied.
"9 years ago we lost our only asset to have come out of the program successfully and after many attempts to recapture him, our lesser batch of soldiers have come up empty-handed. Unfortunately when half of the world disappeared so did he, we have reason to believe that James Buchanan Barnes along with another man by the name of Sam Wilson have been working closely with Nick Fury since their return. Now that Captain America is retired we believe now is the safest time to strike" he stated,
"What is my mission, Sir?" Harlow asked,
"You are one of the best agents we have left and I told you, you would have to prove your loyalty to Hydra in order to stay useful, so here is your chance to do just that," he said,
"You want me to recover the Winter.."
"No. We want you to kill the Winter Soldier" he said quickly, cutting Harlow off.
Harlow swallowed hard, "The Winter Soldier has the most assassinations than anyone in Hydra's history, he was created to kill, I'll never be able to get close enough to him" her breath hitched.
"You might not have been a science experiment, but you have trained to kill as well," Mr. Fastner said, moving from his chair to stand in front of Harlow. "Might I remind you that if you fail this assignment you better hope that he kills you, Hydra doesn't take kindly to failures especially not the daughter of traitors" he said through a sinister smile. Mr. Fastner placed a hand on her shoulder to lead Harlow out the door, "There is a difference between you and the other Hydra agents, they were men and you are a woman. They treated the Winter Soldier as a soldier, they didn't treat him as a man. I'm sure you can facilitate that" he said,
Mr. Fastner took his hand off of her shoulder as Harlow turned to face him just outside the door,
"You leave for America in the morning," he said, taking one last look at Harlow before he shut the door.
Harlow couldn't help but shiver, she could still feel his hand on her.
She was finally going home, her parents and she had been undercover as a German family for five years before she disappeared, she only wished her parents were coming with her.
She made her way back to her room and went to the bathroom. Harlow couldn't help but stare at her reflection as she allowed herself to think of her parents for the first time in months. She turned on the faucet to splash the cold water onto her face, she had to kill one of Hydra's greatest killers all by herself or she was as good as dead.
Harlow needed to go digging into the Hydra armory, she needed all the help she could get if she was going to kill the Winter Soldier or die trying.
Bucky burst through Sam's door early one morning giving Sam a shock awakening,
"What have I told you about coming in here unannounced? It's called knocking man and I'm pretty sure it was around during your time" Sam said,
"Get up" Bucky demanded, throwing Sam's jacket from the chair to him,
"Why? What's going on?" he asked,
"Fury has some work for us to do in DC, we leave in an hour," Bucky said,
"Well there goes my sleep in," Sam said jumping out of bed.