Captain America: Civil War (Charlotte Stark)

Epilogue

This passed year, Steve, Nat, and I have whipped the team into shape. With our new recruits, Wanda and Sam, we find ourselves in Lagos, Nigeria.

Steve and I were in a nearby building, overlooking everything. Sam was on a roof, keeping his eyes on everything that seemed out of the ordinary. Nat and Wanda were below in a coffee shop, sitting at separate tables.

They were dressed in street clothes, sipping coffee on the patio of a restaurant in downtown Lagos. They acted casual as they listened to Steve and I's voices through a hidden earpiece.

"All right, what do you see?" Steve asks Wanda.

She looked around. The restaurant was across from the police station they were staking out. A pair of uniformed officers stood near the door. "Standard beat cops. Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target."

"There's an ATM in the south corner, which means—" I start to say.

She knew exactly what it meant. "Cameras."

"Both cross streets are one-way?" Steve asks.

This didn't bother her. "So compromise the escape routes."

"Means our guy doesn't care about being seen," Cap said. "He isn't afraid to make a mess on the way out. You see that SUV halfway up the block?"

She did. "You mean the red one? It's cute."

"It's also bulletproof," said Natasha Romanoff, who was sitting at a nearby table. Like Wanda, she was in a civilian disguise. "Which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody, probably us."

Wanda thought they were maybe worrying a little too much. "You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?"

"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature," I answered. Nat and I both have a good reason to feel that way, and Wanda knew it.

From the top of a nearby office building, Sam Wilson, code-named Falcon, chimed in. "Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?"

"Not to my face. Why? Did you hear something?" I ask, grinning a little.

"Eyes on target, folks," Cap said, keeping us on mission. "It's the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months. I don't want to lose him."

"If he sees us coming, there won't be a problem," Sam answered. "He kind of hates us."

We had been looking for Brock Rumlow since he'd been unmasked as a Hydra mole inside S.H.I.E.L.D., and we'd finally tracked him down here in Lagos. We suspected he was about to attack the police station, but we weren't certain yet.

Cap scanned the area and saw a loaded garbage truck forcing its way down a narrow side street, close to their stakeout location. As he watched, it crashed into a parked car, pushing it out of the way. Angry onlookers shouted at the driver, who ignored them. "Sam, see that garbage truck?" Cap said. "Tag it."

Falcon touched a button on his armored forearm, and a bird-shaped robot took off from his back—he affectionately called it Redwing. It soared over the adjacent buildings and swooped down to street level, hovering under the truck. "Give me X-ray," Falcon said. Redwing returned a visual scan of the truck's interior directly to Falcon's goggles, along with images of the driver and data about the truck's cargo. "The truck's loaded for max weight, and the driver's armed," he reported.

"It's a battering ram," Natasha said.

Cap realized she was right. "Go now," he barked.
"Why?" Wanda asked.

Cap and I were already moving. "He's not hitting the police." I tell her.

We all swung into action as the garbage truck accelerated out of the narrow street and across an open square in front of a research facility. A sign near the fortified gate read, INSTITUTE FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES. The driver dove out and rolled along the pavement as the truck smashed into the gate, destroying it and crashing to a halt on the other side.