The 3rd Experiment

Chapter 11

|Thursday, June 25, 1942|

I decide to go home and change into something more presentable so I can see exactly where Steve turned into super Steve.

I make my way to the bookstore, looking around at all of the damage to the street. Several stores have shattered windows, there are tire tracks up onto the sidewalks. Eventually, I get to the bookstore and see a man at the register. I glance down at the note Steve left me and look back up at the man confused

I walk up to the counter and he says something to me.

"Nice weather today, huh?"

"Oh, um, yeah, but I always bring an umbrella," I say, feeling a little weird about this whole interaction.

"Follow me," He says, leading me down a hallway behind the desk.

He presses a button and the wall splits in two and opens into a much larger, much more metallic hallway.

"Thank you," I say to him as the doors turn back into one wall.

I spin back around and look into the metal hallway. There are double doors at the very end and I can see several doorways throughout but the first thing I notice is just how many people are walking in and out of each room.

I look to my left to find another man seated at a desk that would've blended into the walls if he wasn't sitting there in his army green uniform.

"I need to see Steve Rogers," I demand and he doesn't even look up at me. He stares at the paper in front of him and points to a room at the end of the hallway.

I walk through, waiting for someone to stop me and ask who I am but everyone is too busy doing whatever had been asked of them to even notice someone out of place.

I get to the double doors and look down at a large pod of some sort. It has about 10 holes the size of vials and multiple buttons and levers connected to it. I cringe, realizing that's the exact thing Steve explained to me last night. I turn to my right and notice him sitting on a table as if he's at the doctor's office.

There are two women in the room with him. One standing in front of him, almost blocking him from my view. The other, standing in the corner holding a folder and watching Steve.

I knock on the door three times and see Steve gesture to the women that I can come in.

I walk right up to Steve and swallow him up in a hug.

"Thanks for the note," I mumble into his ear. He grins at me and then turns back to the ladies

"Think you got enough?" He asks, rolling his sleeve back down to his wrist and I realize they were taking his blood. To his left is a container filled with vials of blood that used to reside in Steve's veins.

Another woman comes into the room and takes the blood out, and the blonde follows her out.

"Any hope of reproducing the program is locked in your genetic code. But without Dr. Erskine, it would take years." The brunette tells him as he walks to the window by the door.

"He deserved more than this," Steve says, not looking away from the window.

"If it could work only once, he'd be proud it was you." This time I notice her accent and realize this is the Agent Carter he had told me about. She says this, staring at the notes in her folder. They both turn to look at each other and she smiles at him before turning to leave.

She opens the door and walks out, Steve grabs my hand and walks me out behind her. She walks fast but has a distinct step so she's hard to lose.

"Who is this?" She asks. Not turning around or straying from her set path, but Steve and I both knew shes referring to me.

"She's a friend."

"Okay, we'll have to start a file for her."

"Why? She hasn't done anything."

"No, but we have to keep track of who comes back here and more importantly, who speaks to the one and only super-soldier. Especially after the events of yesterday."

She walks us to a filing cabinet where she sets her folder away in a drawer that has been stuffed full. In that drawer, I see a newspaper clipping of a man behind a car door, and a picture of Steve before the procedure. There are layers and layers of information on Steve, things that I didn't even know about my best friend.

"Sit," Agent Carter tells me, pointing to the table and chair just next to the filing cabinet.

"I'm sorry for barging in, I just wanted to see Steve before he had to go again."

"And you can visit as much as you want. But we're keeping tabs on anyone and everyone," She says, opening a new drawer in the filing cabinet.

"Name?"

"Rebecca."

"Rebecca..." She says, staring at me. Normally a stare like that would unnerve me but there's something about her eye contact that still comforts me.

"Lynn Barnes," I say, finishing the answer to her question, finally understanding how serious this new file is.

"Age and Birthdate."

"24, December 2nd, 1918."

"Any family. Living or deceased."

"Buckle up." I joke, and only Steve laughs. Agent Carter looks up from her paper and waits impatiently.

"My father is George Barnes, he is deceased as of 1938, and he served in the 105th infantry. My oldest brother is James Barnes who is currently serving in the 107th, along with my younger brother, William Barnes. My mother is Winifred Barnes and I have two younger sisters, Evelyn and Lily Barnes."

"Okay, now I understand your joke." She says, smiling at Steve and me, "And I'm sorry for your loss. One last question, we need to know about any education you've had."

This one, I'm a little proud to talk about.

"Highschool Diploma from Brooklyn Village Highschool, and a bachelor's degree in political science from New York University."

"Very nice." She grins at me, glancing up from the paperwork, "That should be all... for now."

She sets this piece of paper into the empty drawer below Steve's and starts to walk us back to the double doors at the end of the hallway.