The Winter Wraith

Chapter 12

Avengers Compound

The next time Adina came to, the tranq had fully worn off and left her with a pounding headache and a dull ache in her injured leg.

Adina took a quick inventory of her surroundings. She was in a small white room. There was a single metal door, and a large pane of one-way glass occupied one wall. A security camera was in the upper right corner of the room. The only furniture in the secure room was the metallic gray table in front of her, with two chairs on opposite sides of it.

Adina was fixed to one of these uncomfortable chairs. The power dampener was still on her wrist, along with the high tech handcuffs. The cuffs were attached to the arms of the chair, not allowing her to move her arms up or down or side to side. She didn't like this arrangement, as she couldn't protect herself in it and it made her midsection feel vulnerable.

It was a good interrogation position, she had to give them that. This way, she couldn't fight back or put her arms up to block any punches. She was completely susceptible to any torture they had in mind.

Once she finished evaluating the setup of the small room, she turned her attention to herself. Before getting knocked out, her condition hadn't been very good, yet she did not feel the amount of pain she should be feeling right now.

Adina tested the mobility of her left leg by swinging it in front of herself. It was a bit stiff, but she could run if she needed to. Adina noticed that she was still in her old clothes, and her leg had been bandaged. That made sense to her because they wouldn't be able to interrogate her or experiment on her if she died of blood loss.

In this uncomfortable position, she remained for what she estimated to be an hour. Her unfocused eyes blankly stared at the same spot on the wall near the door for the whole time.

Finally, the door creaked open and a figure entered into the small room. Adina ignored him for the time being, still blankly staring at the wall. The bulky man sat down on the other chair, and then, she snapped her eyes to him with an intense look.

"We can still help you. It's your choice to decide how this ends. You can cooperate," he said.

Adina stayed silent, and the man paused a moment before continuing.

"What's your name?"

Silence. Another beat passed.

"I'm Steve Rogers, though I think you know that."

Adina didn't confirm or deny that, so he went on.

"Your bag was searched. Interesting choice in comics," Steve said, referring to the Captain America comic, which Adina had gotten from Mr. Lee, that was all about him.

Adina flushed a bright red and lowered her gaze a bit, out of embarrassment. Her captor knew she had been reading a comic about his life in the 1940s.

Steve went through a few more questions, to which he received an answer of silence, before getting frustrated.

"C'mon, kid, you've got to work with me," he pleaded.

He didn't want to have to lock up a teenager who may have been forced to work for Hydra, but she was leaving him no choice. If she didn't cooperate, he would have to turn her over to Ross.

"Alright, I'll make a deal with you. Answer one question, and you'll get to eat a nice, warm meal. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?"

Steve knew that the girl was not eating enough. Although the doctors didn't run any serious tests when they checked her out, they had been able to tell the teen girl was underweight. Steve had also seen the only food she had in her bag was gummy worms and some empty granola bar wrappers. She was lacking nourishment.