Chapter Eight: Enemy From Within
The elevator required a password to operate it. Since it was an older model Peggy thought she was going to have to pry off the keypad and bypass the controls, but Natasha just pulled out her cellphone, pressed the screen a few times, and then a blue light emitted from it and seemed to analyze the keypad. She put in first try the correct combination and the elevator unlocked and activated.
As Natasha stood back up she had a frown on her face.
"Those finger prints were only a few days old."
Peggy nodded in acknowledgment.
The elevator ride down only reminded Peggy of the experience she had faced that morning, which meant that even though she was nearly alone in this elevator, her guard was still up. They got to the bottom unharmed however. When the doors opened the two women emerged into a pitch black room, but after just taking a few steps inside the lights began to turn on.
"Were motion activated lights a thing in the 70s?" asked Peggy cautiously.
"Yes, but just barely," answered Natasha, now having one of her pistols drawn.
They were standing in an enormous room filled almost completely with old fashioned computing units. And what was odd was that Peggy was fairly certain she heard them running even before the lights turned themselves on.
They approached the centre of the room which had one large monitor and six smaller ones as well as an interface and for some reason what looked like an ancient security camera. When they reached it Natasha let out a frustrated sigh.
"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient. AI didn't exist back then let alone the kind we're looking for…" started Natasha, but her last few words she said very slowly. Peggy traced her gaze and she too spotted the odd thing out. On the interface was a USB data hub and it appeared to have a custom made adapter connecting the device to the ancient computer.
Cautiously Peggy plugged the USB into the hub. That clearly did something as even more of the outdated computers began not only to hum, but increase in audible volume. Finally the largest monitor in the center ceased to just be blank, but instead now showed the brief sentence, 'Initiate system?'
Natasha approached the keyboard and then both typed and spoke, "Y-E-S", and hit enter.
As the computer began booting up Natasha shown her first genuine smile since arriving at the camp.
"Shall we play a game?" She said cheekily, then when she turned her head to look at Peggy her smile faulted slightly, "It's from a movie that..."
But Peggy wanted to put her at ease, "It's alright Nat, I've seen WarGames."
They were both suddenly startled into attention however, as the security camera above the main monitor started to move, a green pixel image began to form on the monitor, and from an unseen speaker an audio message began to play.
"Dr Carter, Margaret Elizabeth. Born, 1921 to Harrison and Amanda Carter," the somewhat distorted European voice sounded quite familiar to Peggy, but she couldn't yet place it. The camera then turned to Natasha. "Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984 to Ivan and Yulia Romanoff."
Hearing what Peggy must assume was Natasha's birth parent's names seemed to trigger something deep within Natasha, as when she spoke next Peggy had never heard her voice this genuinely shaky.
"I-it's some k-kind of a recording."
"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in the war, but I am alive."
The image on the central computer monitor finally finished loading and now depicted a pixelated Dr Arnim Zola.
Natasha had regained her composure, "Do you know this thing?"
"Dr Arnim Zola was the main Nazi scientist of the Red Skull, I captured him shortly after I became a super soldier. He's been dead since the mid 70s."
"First correction, my allegiance was always to HYDRA, not Hitler. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving, on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."
"Fine, you're a bloody computer now," said Peggy, "but how are you here, this is a S.H.I.E.L.D. base of operations."
The digitized doctor answered in just one word, "Invited."
"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II," explained Natasha. "S.H.I.E.L.D. and other American government agencies recruited German scientists with, er, strategic value."
"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."
"HYDRA was defeated when the Cosmic Squid Monster killed the Red Skull," exclaimed Peggy.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place," explained Zola, temporarily duplicating his image on the monitor screen.
"I think we'd be able to tell if HYDRA had survived all this time," said Peggy in disbelief.
"If it is proof you want, it is proof you shall get. Accessing archive," stated Zola.
The computer monitor began showing the two Avengers old footage of the Red Skull, and then images of the original S.H.I.E.L.D. founders.
"HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
The monitor was continuing to show images and clips of some of the most violent moments Peggy had learned had happened over the last seventy years, she felt her anger rising.
"That's impossible," exclaimed Natasha, "S.H.I.E.L.D. would have stopped you."
"Accidents will happen," stated Zola, and then showed the dreaded 1991 newspaper Peggy had to read soon after stepping through the Tesseract's portal, that her best friend Howard and his wife hadn't died of old age but a tragic car accident, only this newspaper clipping was followed with what appeared to be a HYDRA file of Howard with his face crossed out in a red line, a blurry image of the assassin Peggy had to face that Natasha called the Winter Soldier, then finally an image near identical to Howard's but with Fury's face crossed out. Peggy felt as though she were about to explode. HYDRA killed one of the only people she had trusted in her entire life, and yet Zola had the gull to keep speaking. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum."
Unable to hold back any longer, Peggy ripped the central monitor that housed Zola's face and threw it behind her. A new face however just appeared on one of the many other smaller monitors.
"As I was saying..." exclamation Zola, almost sarcastically.
Peggy took a quick breath. They weren't going to succeed in why they came here if he managed to get under both of their skin.
"What are the contents of the flash drive?" Peggy managed to ask.
"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm."
"What kind of algorithm?" asked Natasha. "What does it do?"
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."
Suddenly the elevator doors started to close, realizing this Peggy quickly threw her shield towards the elevator in an attempt to keep it wedged open, but her efforts were fruitless as the doors succeeded in closing and her shield simply rebounded back to her off of the closed outer doors.
In a slightly panicking voice Natasha then spoke up while staring at her voice.
"Peg, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. From S.H.I.E.L.D."
"How long?" was all Peggy could manage to ask while processing this information.
"30 seconds. Tops."
Immediately Peggy started scanning this room for anywhere they could take further cover. They were not only in a bunker but buried several metres deeper underground and normally that would probably be enough to survive a missile, however thanks to Zola S.H.I.E.L.D. knew exactly where they were and were likely sending something with an extra kick to it.
"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time."
Peggy then spotted a large grate in the floor, likely meant to give access to all the wires and cables that would be powering and connecting all these computer units. As fast as she could she ran to it with Natasha right behind her. She put her shield on her back and ripped the grate out of the floor revealing a crawl space just barely big enough for the two of them.
Out of time Peggy shoved Natasha into the hole and then jumped on top of her while simultaneously pulling the grate back overtop of them. As the bunker above them exploded and the ceiling of the computer room began violently collapsing on top of them Peggy shielded Natasha with her body and held her tightly in her arms. Not because she was simply a person who deserved saving, but because Peggy realized she cared too much for Natasha to lose her now.
As the world seemed to end around them and it was unclear if they'd survive or not, Peggy could only think that she was at the very least glad they were together.