Project: Inheritance

Chapter 3

It was hard to not grab the nearest thing that could be made into a weapon and jump into combat to go grab the kids, but there were too many people. He had to settle for forcing himself to not walk around with his hands balled into fists.

Bucky couldn't fight the entire compound. Or, well…nah, he couldn't. Not without something happening to the kids, and if Walker was here—speaking of, he was going to beat the ever-loving hell out of that blond idiot next time he saw him. Also fighting everyone would also be bloody, and…yeah. He was trying to put that behind him.

But this was testing his resolve.

Part of the plan would have to stay as it was. Get the boy first, then find the girl. But taking the girl was going to take longer since there was presumably a guard in there, along with the medical worker person. There was going to have to be some improvisation. Maybe more punching. He wasn't sure yet.

Green's desk was neat and tidy, which made it easy to find his tablet. It was sitting in a charging station, and Bucky's fake thumb print instantly opened it. While he covertly studied the room and pieced together a few new ideas, he flipped through the apps, looking for information. Green had been tight-lipped about the project, apparently more afraid of his higher-ups than he was of Bucky. And Bucky might've been a little more aggressive than he needed to be and knocked him out earlier than planned.

He still couldn't find the kids' actual names. Just project names. Frowning, he glanced around the room. Instead of the locker, he set the laptop bag he had been carrying around under the desk, shoving it farther under with his foot. It didn't really matter where it went as long as it was in this room, and he didn't want to bother with the locker now.

Sending off a text to Dani, he told her to give him thirty minutes before she set the EMP off. On his watch, he set one five minute warning alarm and then an official thirty minute countdown. He hoped this worked.

Getting up, Bucky grabbed Green's lab coat from the back of his chair and put it on. It became quickly apparent when he started to put it on that he was more muscular than Green. The lab coat was tighter across his shoulders and upper arms. There was no give at all for his vibranium arm, and if he moved wrong, he was sure he was going to tear the coat. Apparently nothing was going to go right today. He tucked his cell phone into his pocket and grabbed the tablet, resisting the urge to check the veil to make sure it was still working. No one was freaking out, so he had to assume it was good to go. At least for now.

Bucky headed for the door, stopping by Arnaud's desk on his way. She was one of the leads on the project, so it made sense for Green to give her a heads-up on what he was doing. "I'm going to go check on the boy," he said, unwilling to call him by the project name they had given him. "I might need to take him by the lab for a blood draw." There. That was actually a decent excuse—

Arnaud's forehead wrinkled. "You know you can't do that while the girl's in there. And he hasn't had breakfast yet."

"It's important," Bucky said, leaning against her desk, trying to look nonchalant instead of irritated. Breakfast. Right. What was he going to feed them, did they like sugary cereal or donuts or would they like fried eggs like he used to make for his sisters—all right, time to worry about that later.

"They're not supposed to have any visual or verbal contact with each other yet," Arnaud said. Grabbing her coffee cup, she sighed deeply and took a sip. "It's cruel, but if David's theory works out and they become more compliant…maybe it's for the best."

"I'll make sure they're in two different rooms," Bucky said. Now he was set on making this work. Overall, it would be the easiest way. Honestly, maybe it would work better than the original plan. "She's asleep, right? He won't even know she's there."

Arnaud sighed. "David won't like it."

Bucky shrugged. "What he doesn't know…"

Her eyebrows lifted, a quizzical expression on her face. "You really must've had an interesting night last night, Freddie. What happened to rules are there for a reason?"

Damn… He forced a laugh. "Well, they are, uh, good. For things. I'm not breaking them, just…bending."

"If you say so," Arnaud said, still looking at him with a hint of confusion. Hopefully not suspicion. "Do you need an escort? He can be a handful."

"I think I can handle it."

"Okay. But I'll let the team know, just in case."

Great. Bucky headed out the door with an air of confidence that he didn't necessarily feel. He wished he had more time to plan and adjust, but he also knew that the longer he stayed here, the more likely it would be that he got caught. That little interaction right there showed him how true that was.

The corridor wasn't busy, and he avoided eye contact with the few people who passed him, moving with purpose along the memorized route. While he hadn't found out the kids' real names in the files, the location of the kids had been on one of the maps, supposedly for the ease of finding them if you were on the team. Which mean they probably had trackers on them. One more thing to deal with before he left.

The boy's room wasn't far from the main control room. He paused, hand hovering over the keypad. Get it together. Maybe this was all…a misunderstanding. Yeah. Sitting down and really processing what it would mean if these were his kids, his own flesh and blood, hadn't been possible so far, not with all the planning and preparing he had done over the past few days. And he still didn't have time for it. Like so many things in his life, this was happening whether he was ready for it or not.

Pressing his hand to the keypad, he sucked in a breath as the door unlocked.

The room lit up at his entrance, and the kid on the metal bed stirred and sat straight up. Tousled bronze-brown hair, lighter than Bucky's but not by much, stuck up in places like cowlicks, and dark blue eyes locked on him, quickly going from sleepy to furious. He had a chin like Bucky's and a scowl that Bucky had seen in the mirror more than once.

His chest suddenly hurt with the reality of it all.

"Leave me alone," the boy snapped, tossing the thin blanket away and grabbing his pillow. He hurled it at Bucky's head, and instinctively, Bucky snatched it out of the air with his left hand at what probably was an unnatural speed.

"Good morning to you, too." He lobbed it back at the kid, who caught it.

"Out," the boy said. He scooted on the bed until his back was against the wall then scrambled to his feet. "I'm not doing nothing you want."

"All right."

"I'm not."

"Yeah, I heard you," Bucky said. His gaze darted to the cameras in the corner, and he walked calmly over to a spot right underneath one. This was going marginally better than he thought it would. He had sort of thought that the kid would attack him when he stepped in, like he had gone after the people in the video. But maybe he had learned that didn't work. Or catching him just waking up had been useful.

The boy eyed him warily and crossed his arms tightly over his chest. Bucky noticed that there was a metal band around one of his wrists. Probably the tracker. "Go away."

Bucky glanced at the camera that was angle toward his part of the room and then lifted a hand to his head as if he suddenly had a headache. The position of his hand allowed him to shield his face from the screen, and in that moment, he flicked the switch on the veil off for a moment.

The kid's eyes grew wide, and he dropped his arms. "Who—"

Bucky quickly turned it back on and lowered his hand, shaking his head. "We've got a lot to do today," he said, trying to indicate with his eyebrows that it would be in the kid's best interest for him to go along with it.

"How'd your face—"

"Let's go," Bucky cut him off, desperate to not raise too many more suspicions. The cameras in here had microphones. He had thought that the kid would realize that he wasn't one of the scientists, but he hadn't accounted for the kid's instant curiosity.

"Wait, I didn't know your face could do that." Jumping off the bed, the kid hurried over and stood beside him, staring up at him. "Which one's the real face?"

"Shh." Bucky used the keypad to open the door, one hand on the kid's shoulder in case he took off. When they were out in the hall, he held up two fingers.

"You got two faces?" the kid asked, eyebrows knitting together.

Actually, the veil could hold three faces, and then this one had an upgrade that he hoped would come in handy later. But that wasn't what he had meant. He had been trying to say that the second face was the real one. "Look, kid, do you want to get out of here?" he whispered. There were still cameras in the hallway, but they were farther apart and they didn't have microphones like the rooms did. He was willing to risk a whisper out here if he could get the kid on his side.

"All the way out?" the kid whispered back.

"All the way. If you do, then you have to be quiet. Act normal."

"Are you not Dr. Green for real?" the kid asked.

Bucky nodded once, thinking that was the right way to answer that one, and the boy skipped forward, spinning around to walk backwards. His smile was bright and quick, a complete 180 from his previous attitude. It was just a guess, but he seriously doubted the kids were ever this excited when they were being held prisoner.

"We gotta get June, then we can go," the boy said. He turned around on his heel and walked forward again, but he looked back over his shoulder at Bucky. June. So that was the girl's real name.

"Slow down. You don't know where we're going," Bucky said.

"Did you bring a truck? I'm going to get a truck one day. Mine's going to be red." This chatterbox was entirely different than the kid on the video. Then again, he knew he was escaping. Also, he was extremely trusting, apparently. All Bucky had to do was show him a different face and tell him he was going to escape, and he was all in.

"Act normal," Bucky repeated sternly under his breath.

The boy scrunched up his nose. "I am."

Huh. Wait. "No. Act like you would here. With these people, like you were earlier."

"With the bad guys? Okay…" There was a quiet fifteen seconds, then the kid hauled back and kicked him in the shin before taking off like a rabbit down the hallway.

"Dammit!" The kid kicked harder than someone that age should've been able to, but it didn't actually hurt Bucky. It did take him off guard. Bucky took off after him, thundering down the hall and swiping the kid up under one arm just as a couple guards came jogging around the corner.

"Dr. Green? Do you need assistance?" one of them said, shooting the kid a frown.

"I think—" He was going to tell them to essentially get lost, but he had to think more like Dr. Green, at least for now. A grunt escaped him as the boy wriggled around and punched him in the right shoulder. At least this was convincing. He could lose the guards when he got there if he played this the right way. "Hey. Bad choices," he warned, knowing the kid would probably break his hand if he tried punching his other shoulder. "Yeah. Actually. If you could walk with us to the med lab, I would appreciate it, just in case he gets away again."

"Yes, sir."

Bucky set the boy down. "If you could behave…"

The kid made a face. "But you said—"

Bucky gently grabbed his shoulder and pushed him forward, rolling his eyes at the guards as if commiserating with them about rebellious kids. "Walk."

If they made it out of here without getting discovered, it was going to be a miracle.