Chapter Ninety-Three: Nick Fury Gradually Comes to Understand Everything

Washington, D.C.

In a hidden facility elsewhere, Alexander Pierce stood outside an interrogation room.

At his side were his most trusted aide, Sitwell, and a military colonel. Through the one-way glass, the three of them watched the man confined inside.

Taking the file in his hand, Alexander Pierce read aloud:

"desire, rust, seventeen, dawn, furnace, nine, kindness, home, one, truck, soldier."

As the awakening words were spoken, the long-haired man seated in the metal chair slowly stirred back to consciousness. With a series of metallic clicks, the exposed mechanical arm at his side began to move as well.

He was Bucky.

An emotionless assassin.

He was also Hydra's secret weapon, the Winter Soldier of this generation, and Captain America's closest friend.

"How is he now?" Pierce asked.

"He's in normal condition and ready for use. He may not be doing anything at the moment, but we can certainly trust his abilities," said the colonel from the military.

"What is the situation with Nick Fury?" Pierce then asked Sitwell.

"He is recruiting his own people, Director. All the intelligence is under our control. With the Captain's memories, I believe he will be very glad to see his partner."

"Don't let your guard down. This mission cannot afford a single mistake. Seeing Bucky, Nick Fury will definitely dig into what happened. Given his personality, if a man who should have died seventy years ago suddenly appears again, and is now one of Hydra's super-soldiers, he will certainly be interested in my bait."

"Yes, Director. I'll arrange it immediately. It won't take long."

After speaking, Sitwell turned and left.

Aside from Nick Fury sensing that something was wrong aboard the carrier, Hydra itself knew nothing of Hill's plan. Many of the factions waiting for their daily intelligence reports from the ship were still receiving information, but it was all planted disinformation.

At another base, once Hill had revealed her plan, Nick Fury gradually pieced everything together.

The few members of the Defenders were completely bewildered.

Who, exactly, was Hydra?

They were not professional elite agents. Aside from Matt, whose reasoning was fairly sharp, the others had been left dazed by this bewildering, nested web of events.

Nick Fury and Hill walked into the room and saw Thor sitting sprawled on a lounge chair, his belly out, looking as though he had long since renounced all worldly concerns.

Thor looked utterly despondent. If a girlfriend he had been with for years suddenly told him she wanted to break up, he could hardly have looked more devastated. He had fallen into a deep crisis of self-doubt.

"What's wrong with him?"

"I think he's going through the growth and transformation every man needs."

Rogers shrugged as he answered.

"Why does he look like he got dumped?" Jessica asked.

"Yes, Jessica, he's been like this all day."

"Looks like a non-combat casualty."

Hill delivered the final blow.

"I think so too, Miss Hill."

Rogers spread his hands. "That's only part of it. The most important thing is, I think this guy may be flying to London any minute now."

Fury's smile froze. "Why?"

"Director, surely you don't understand matters of the heart?" Matt said with a smile.

Everyone looked at him. Even Rogers and Hill nodded unconsciously. At that, Fury could only respond with an awkward, polished smile, trying to look as though he did not care.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen, I think our priority should be the plan ahead. We are in a very urgent situation, so..."

Some people were getting impatient.

But he did not say who.

Aside from Thor, who was still trapped in self-doubt, the others all wore knowing smiles.

"This time, we didn't come away empty-handed. I think we have figured out a few things," Fury continued.

"As you expected, I already knew Hawkeye was Hydra, which is why I sent the Captain to pose as Hydra. What I did not expect was that everyone aboard the ship was a Hydra operative."

"But that also confirms my suspicion. Hill, though you have repeatedly denied being Hydra, I already have conclusive proof."

Fury folded his arms with great confidence.

"What?"

The Defenders looked at him, not understanding where this was going now.

"What are you still arguing about? As for today's little drama, it was something I had Rogers do deliberately in order to draw out the Hydra agents. Clearly, they took the bait. They threw everything they had at us, even hurled you off the mother ship. On the surface, it seems none of this had anything to do with you, but your shadow is in every one of these events."

"My target was never Hydra Hawkeye. His identity was already clear to me long ago. What matters most is that even if we had succeeded in rescuing Hawkeye, at the very last moment we would have discovered that the man we saved was not Hawkeye at all. You went to such lengths for one purpose only: to slip in among us."

"Only you had the authority to get close to Barton. Natasha's clearance wasn't enough. Only you could mobilize so much power in such a short time."

Under Fury's explanation, everyone except Rogers and Matt immediately looked grim.

They felt cheated.

If Fury had already known that Hawkeye was Hydra, why had he still sent the Captain and the others to perform this act?

Everyone had been played by Nick Fury.

What had they nearly died aboard the ship for?

The Defenders were now profoundly miserable.

Fury, however, kept talking.

"If Rogers had come back injured, or if the mission had failed, perhaps I still would not have suspected anything. But they all returned intact, and that made me suspicious. It also confirmed my intuition."

"Hill, all of this was your plan. Your goal was to infiltrate our ranks. So you set everything in motion. In order to join us and carry out the next stage of your plan, you had to make sure the Captain and the others returned in perfect condition. Only then could you naturally and seamlessly slip in among us. Am I right, Hydra's Hill? Or should I say, Miss Hill of the military?"

The people in the room froze.

The nesting dolls were beginning again.

"Yes, Fury. You make me happy. Your deduction satisfies me."

Maria Hill smiled.

"Has no one ever told you that you don't understand feelings? You treat your subordinates like chess pieces. Look, at the very least, I'm a little more honest than you. A little better, too."

When Hill finished, she gave a small gesture.

The smiles on the faces of the Defenders around her looked somewhat stiff.

Their survival had simply been the result of two agents outmaneuvering each other.

In a sense, they really did owe Hill thanks.

After that, Hill turned to the Defenders.

"I'm sorry, but I had no choice. I apologize for how I treated you before, but you still need to thank my mercy. At least I did not knowingly send you to your deaths in a trap like this, even though even this director did so while fully aware you would come through unscathed."

She put extra emphasis on the word "director."

As helpless as they felt, without Matt keeping pace with them throughout the whole affair, the remaining members of the Defenders were indeed no match for these agents. They had still underestimated Nick Fury's bottom line.

This had cost their entire group, all so that Fury could confirm one suspect and one baseless hunch.

It was beyond infuriating.

"Director, I think you owe me a proper explanation now. What was all this for?" Matt asked, splitting apart the blind man's cane in his hands.

Though Hill was despicable enough, Nick Fury looked even more so.

Fury turned toward him, feigning confusion.

"That's classified, Mr. Matt. Before the incident, it was all classified. There are reasons I did not tell you."

"Shit. Bullshit. Sending us out to die was classified too?"

"Jane!!!"

At last, Thor seemed to understand something. He whirled his hammer and blasted through the ceiling.

"Boom..."

Almost at the same moment, an RPG slammed into the room.