Thallium | Captain America: The Winter Soldier [7]

The Ghost Story

I saw the large, familiar form of Steve walking down the hallway, towards the vending machine. Romanoff and I approached him, Romanoff blowing bubble gum that she had to buy to get the stick. He grabbed her, dragging her into a room and I rolled in after them. "Where is it?" He demanded, shoving her against the wall. I was exempt from Steve's rage due to being in a wheelchair.

"Safe," She said. "Do better," He growled. "Where did you get it?" She asked. "Why would I tell you?" He deflected. "Fury gave it to you. Why?" She asked.

"What's on it?" He asked. "I don't know," She said. "Stop lying," He demanded. "I only act like I know everything, Rogers," She confessed. "But you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" He confronted.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in, so you--" He cut her off by tightening his grip, which was not painless. Trust me, I know, he's dragged me through a maze before. "I'm not gonna ask you again," He snapped. "I know who killed Fury," She blurted. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him--" I realized who she was talking about.

"The Winter Soldier," I said suddenly. She glanced at me before continuing. "He's credited with over 2 dozen assassinations over the last 50 years," She finished. "So he's a ghost story," He summarized. "5 years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, some shot at my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer so he shot him straight through me. Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis," She lifted up her shirt to reveal a gnarly scar left from the bullet wound.

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Ever so smooth, Rogers. Ever so smooth. "Going after him is a dead end. I know, I tried. Like you said, he's a ghost story," She held up the drive. "Let's find out what the ghost wants," He said. "Us dead. Listen, if we run into him, we're goners most likely. Only one person has ever survived an encounter with him, and she's blind in one eye," I said.

"Who?" He asked. "A Russian counterintelligence agent by the name of Lauren Bailey. I've even met the soldier. Back when I was living with a roommate, the Soldier came. I tried covering her, but he shot her straight through me as well. I've got the scar on my thigh to prove it. Soviet slug, no rifling. Couldn't trace it if you tried,"

a/n Since today is Tom Hiddleston's birthday, I decided to treat y'all to an extra update. The upload schedule will remain the same.