Red Notice

Chapter 3

Bucky didn't believe in fate, but he did believe in karma, and boy did he start laughing when FBI Agent Wilson was dropped in his cell. He laughed so hard there were tears in his eyes and he only stopped when he needed to breathe.

"Real mature, man," Wilson grumbled. He hadn't moved from his spot by the door, but he had folded his arms over his chest in―what Bucky assumed was―an attempt to look less pathetic.

"God, this makes up for it all, you know?" Bucky gestured to him. "All is forgiven because this―" He waved again at Wilson― "is one hundred percent worth the extra hassle."

"How did you do it?" Wilson asked, still looking as happy as a raccoon with rabies.

"How did I do what?" Bucky laughed. "Get you as a roommate?"

"No," Wilson snapped. "Switch the egg. Tell Interpol I wasn't with the FBI. All of it."

Bucky just whistled lowly and shook his head. "You did it yourself as soon as you asked the Bishop for help. She always loved a good double-cross."

"She?" Wilson echoed.

Bucky raised a brow. "What? You thought the Bishop was a guy?"

Wilson had the decency not to respond. While Bucky was quick to forgive anyone who mistook him for a girl―the long hair tended to do that to a guy―he was even quicker to defend the Bishop. At the very least he had respect for his greatest enemy, the only one to ever best him and the only one to ever earn his genuine love and respect.

"So, what?" Wilson asked. "You and the Bishop are just fighting over some egg that's thousands of years old and I got in the way? Is that what this is? Some messed up game of capture the flag?"

"If capture the flag ended in Egypt and with the winner six million dollars richer."

Wilson's eyes bulged and his arms dropped from his chest.

"What?"

"You haven't heard?" Bucky teased. Wilson's eyes narrowed. "Some American diplomat is celebrating his engagement and wants to give his fiancée all three of Cleopatra's lost eggs. Anyone who brings him all three gets a reward of six million dollars."

Wilson stared at him.

"The Bishop and I have been after them for a while now," Bucky admitted. What harm could it do at this point? "Now that she's got us both out of the way, she can make her move on the other two."

"You're lying," Wilson grumbled. Bucky raised an eyebrow. "No one knows where the third egg is. No one has found it."

"They aren't looking in the right places."

"Oh, and I imagine you are?" Wilson retorted.

"You think I would risk crossing Interpol if I wasn't already sure I had all three eggs in my basket?" Bucky asked. Wilson didn't look half as amused at his joke as Bucky felt like he should, but he was willing to cut him a break just this once. The poor federal agent had just been dropped in the middle of a Siberian prison.

"Whatever, man," Wilson muttered. "You're stuck here now."

"Am I?"

Leaving Wilson on that note, Bucky knocked on the cell door and happily left ex-Agent Wilson on his own.

* * * * *

The best part about being in Siberia was that Bucky knew exactly what was expected from him. The inmates were easy; they all held grudges and were just as quick to pick a fight as in any other prison. The guards expected trouble; where there wasn't any, they would make some. If Bucky stirred it up first, though, they wouldn't have time to plan for it, and when it came to stirring up trouble, Bucky was perfectly in his element.