Forgotten Ghost | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 35: Down To Earth

The doors to the elevator opened with a surprisingly soft rattle. You would think that after who knows how many years, it was at least a little rusty. But no, everything seemed to work like it was supposed to. At least, Katya hoped so. She had no desire to plummet down in an elevator again. She had her fair share of elevator crashes.

All three agents stared at the empty elevator as if expecting something to happen, none of them moving and all sort of confused about all of this. The secret bunker, seventy-year-old SHIELD and now the hidden elevator. It was a lot to comprehend in one day. As if they didn't have enough to deal with at the moment. 

Katya was the first one to snap out of it, scoffing at their stupidity and walking in a little overconfident to show the other two that she wasn't scared of whatever they would find below their feet. ''Well, are you coming? We're kind of on a clock here,'' she asked impatiently when the other two didn't follow her at first.

They finally unfroze, and Steve, being the gentleman he was, gestured for Natasha to walk in first. She rolled her eyes at him but stepped in anyway, looking around the elevator for any sorts of clues as to where they were going. But there was nothing.

The elevator only had two buttons: up and down. And since they were already at the top, the only option was to go down. So when Steve was in, Natasha pressed the button and the doors closed just as quietly as they had opened. 

The small light on the ceiling did nothing to lighten up the small room and Katya couldn't help but feel claustrophobic. It brought back a lot of memories she didn't want to relive and had to focus on her breathing to keep herself calm. She was never one to panic quickly, that wasn't helpful as a spy, but certain situations or environments triggered something in her. 

It didn't happen often, luckily, and she had learned how to deal with it. But that feeling of her throat closing up and the lack of air in her lungs got to her every time. 

So Katya was happy the doors opened again, almost stumbling out before looking at her surroundings. It was stupid, she knew that. Always check your surroundings 24/7 on possible threats before doing anything and be careful. If this was a real mission, she could have been dead. 

Natasha and Steve were smarter. They carefully looked around the room before slowly stepping out. Not that that was necessary anymore. Katya had kind of ruined the surprise. 

She looked around, regaining her posture. The lights flickered on when Natasha and Steve passed her, walking further into the dark room. They must have triggered a motion sensor.

What Katya saw confused her even more. Rows and rows of ancient looking electronical equipment filled the room. And after turning on her heels, she concluded it covered the whole space. 

She honestly had no idea what this must be. Technology wasn't really her strong suit. She could operate the tech SHIELD gave her and admittedly, she could also hack into some things, yes. But that was only because she was taught how it worked. This technology was almost a century old and it had changed a lot over the years. So whatever stood here in this room, it made zero sense to her. 

What did make sense, was that a large setup in the middle of the room, right in front of them, was somehow the most important thing in the room. It had one big screen, with multiple smaller screens around it and a lot of buttons and switches on a panel below. It even had a chair in front of it.

Natasha had walked up to it, looking around in confusion and concluding what they were all thinking. ''This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient.'' 

Katya furrowed her brows when she saw Natasha focusing her attention on something she saw near the large screen. Realizing she still stood in the middle of the room like an idiot, Katya joined her side and saw her standing with the flash drive in her hand, debating whether to stick it into the surprisingly modern flash drive port on the desk.