Chapter 96: The Absolutely Safe House

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Nick Fury and Captain Rogers were holding a small conference.

The table was crowded with all sorts of intelligence—everything about Bucky, and, or so it seemed, everything our sources had gathered about HYDRA for Nick Fury.

“From this latest HYDRA operation, they could seize a mothership in a short period. With Hill’s help, yes, but she could not have done it alone. Barton’s identity is confirmed now, and Natasha’s at last. Now I want to shift the focus to Bucky,” Rogers said, setting the tactical card in his hand on the table.

“This came off Bucky. When I asked if he was Bucky, he hesitated. So I think we can find a breakthrough through him.”

“Then how do you intend to proceed?”

“Fury knows what state you’d be in if you meet Bucky,” he said, “so I only hope you don’t lose your judgment, Rogers. What if this is an enemy trap?”

“Then we pull Bucky out of the trap first. We need manpower, and we need more intelligence, Fury.”

“So how do you plan to do that?”

Fury stood, bracing his hand on the table edge.

Coulson, balancing a cup of coffee, watched his idol and his superior quarrel.

“We don’t have enough people, Rogers. I don’t have enough people now. We can’t do much unless we get our hands on an actual HYDRA operative. Bucky has always been your friend, Captain, but now he belongs to HYDRA.”

“But, Director, if the Captain can win Bucky over, why not use Captain Bucky and, through him as a HYDRA asset, push our next plan forward?”

Coulson said it with cool logic.

“What?”

“Hmm?”

Both Fury and Rogers turned to Coulson at once.

“Explain your plan in detail, Coulson.”

Fury seemed to have thought of something, and Rogers sat down, looking at Coulson.

“Actually, we don’t need to search for another HYDRA inside source. If Captain Bucky is HYDRA and the Captain is confident he can recruit him, the plan becomes much simpler.”

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“Hold on—what exactly do you mean?”

Rogers stood up and paced back and forth, then his eyes suddenly brightened as if something had clicked.

“Yes. Go on!”

Fury spoke too.

“If Captain Bucky can have his memory restored, then he can become an informant, even join our team. As long as we keep this under strict secrecy—no one knows except us that Captain Bucky has regained his memory and freedom, and no one in HYDRA or any other power has caught wind of it—this is our best opportunity.”

Coulson set his coffee down and quickly sketched a tangled diagram: Fury, HYDRA, Hill, and Bucky.

“Captain, though you may not accept it, he is HYDRA’s hard-earned super soldier. If you capture him, whether or not he has vital information is less important than this: HYDRA needs his strength. They will never let Captain Bucky go easily. We need him as an inside man, and the Captain needs this friend.”

“To go further: if this is their idea as well—and if they, too, planned this, making Captain Bucky their embedded eye and then letting him join us, knowing full well that you, Captain, can awaken his awareness—would a awakened Bucky still be the same cold, ruthless Winter Soldier? Even if we wake him, even if we can’t—if we assume he is HYDRA bait or spy, why not outplay them?”

“No matter what, we can still take the upper hand. The final decision remains with the Captain.”

Coulson’s reasoning was knotty, but Rogers and Fury understood him.

Yes, Bucky was the Winter Soldier, HYDRA’s flagship super soldier. Naturally they would not abandon him lightly, even at the risk he might be awakened.

And the Captain would not abandon Bucky either, even if he were known to be a spy.

Both sides knew this.

In Pierce’s office, Hill offered her own plan.

“So you military people intend to use Bucky as bait?” Pierce set down his coffee cup. “He is our super soldier, the Winter Soldier. HYDRA has only one like him—on your word?”

“Of course, there is this as well.”

Hill placed five vials of spectral rot fluid in a neat row.

“You won’t be unfamiliar with Gormash, Ross’s adviser. He is a military research product; if you doubt it, speak with Ross yourself.”

“Five vials are not enough. Add more. You must know he is the Winter Soldier, and the Captain America’s friend. That changes everything.”

Pierce knew Gormash well, the one who could knock out the Hulk with a single axe swing, a man from the ancient Apocalypse order. They had tried to recruit him too, though unsuccessfully.

“At most one more vial—that is the limit of what I can do. Otherwise we move on and find another division.”

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Pierce drew the matter to a close.

“Correct, Ms. Hill. I came to the same conclusion. Bucky is the best bait right now. With him in place, Rogers’s problem can be solved quickly. He will soon be back in your military’s arms again.”

Bucky had been born a soldier, and so had Rogers. Alexander Pierce could hardly think of another argument for Hill’s operation.

“Yes. The Captain left the military, and naturally must return to it. So will Bucky. The country needs them. That is an unchangeable premise. And SHIELD is our common enemy.”

“Excellent. Then here is Bucky’s awakening code. Our cooperation should run very smoothly.”

Pierce handed over a file to Bucky. Even the tone pattern in it had been altered. Hill could only keep Bucky under temporary control for a while, and in that window she wanted to settle both Hill and Nick Fury together, then channel everything to military intelligence.

“Pleasant collaboration,” Hill said, smiling in the same way Pierce did.

Naturally, she knew Pierce could never give him the real wake-up code; but the Legion of Catastrophe has many methods to control Bucky—whether there is a code or not makes little difference. Pierce’s present attitude matters little, too.

In the end, she would eliminate both HYDRA and Nick Fury.

“Then let us lay out the plan. How do we convince the Captain that his dear friend has regained consciousness?”

Pierce asked curiously.

“At the right moment, give Rogers this wake-up code.”

“Or we can turn Captain Bucky at the right moment.”

Coulson’s voice arrived at the same instant.

Nick Fury’s one remaining eye flashed with tactical intent as he looked toward Rogers.

Rogers nodded at him.

“Then let’s do it. Coulson, make this safe house just exposed enough to lure Bucky in. Don’t worry about me. I have another safe house, and that one is absolutely secure.”