[WS!AU] the century weapon

[from_the_outside]

As promised, she updates Bucky throughout the evening, letting him know that no one's come for her... yet. Several hours after they left, she hears Steve return. She doesn't try to contact him; it would be strange for Kate to do so. Instead, she texts Bucky that he's back and that everything is quiet, then goes to bed and sleeps the sleep of an agent who has just spent the last week trying to put down a rising cartel.

Fury's not expecting her until mid-morning. She texts Bucky when she leaves for work, and is relieved to get a response. Seems Steve's contact is trustworthy after all.

She also sends a text to Nat, telling her she's cashing in on that offer of drinks, then dresses in a crisp blue button-down and neat pencil skirt and heads to the Triskelion to face her fate.

Comments

[marvel_npc]

It's been a frustrating morning.

Really, everything had started going wrong the night before when the asset didn't show up to his expected check-in. Pierce remains annoyed at the inefficiency of the technical staff who dithered about notifying him until several hours past the missed window. They'd lost opportunity with the lost time.

The destruction of their former allies in Colombia means that he doesn't have anyone really qualified on the ground there at present to investigate. Tracking the asset's contact device hasn't worked, not that he'd expect it to, not if the man's truly on the run. If that's the case, they have bigger problems, but if they act quickly enough they should be able to recover him. The nature of the programming's such that he should be confused and aimless without a target. Probably. Unless he's been overcome or defeated, and wouldn't that be an interesting, if problematic, can of worms?

Agent 13 had sent a message that she had been in pursuit but hadn't been successful. She'd been a thorn in the side of the Colombian operation, but Pierce can't deny that she'd performed to an exceptionally high standard. Her report makes her the last known contact of the Winter Soldier, so there's a possibility she has information. Information that he needs. He considers his angle of approach, then sends a note to Nick to let him know that he'd like to personally congratulate the agent who'd been so successful in Colombia.

It'll be interesting to see what she has to say.

[from_the_outside]

The message comes in shortly after she arrives at her office: Pierce would like to see her. She wonders if he’ll bother with any subtlety at all, then slips on her suit jacket and makes her way to the elevator. She leaves the burner behind, stashed away safely. Just in case.

She spends the elevator ride going over her story, then walks briskly down the hall to his office and knocks before folding her hands in front of herself to wait.

[marvel_npc]

He's in the middle of reviewing a finance report on the Insight spend when the knock interrupts him. Pierce closes the folder and leaves it on the desk in front of him as he calls out, "Come in."

[from_the_outside]

Sharon opens the door and does so, smiling slightly, the way she always has in her interactions with him.

It helps to imagine all the things she'll do to him down the line. Her smile turns a little warmer. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

[marvel_npc]

"Agent Thirteen." Pierce gets up from his desk and comes around to meet her, hand outstretched. "I understand congratulations are in order."

[from_the_outside]

"Thank you, sir." She takes his hand and shakes it, her grip firm. "I'm only sorry I couldn't extract all our allies. The situation down there was much more volatile than our reports suggested."

[marvel_npc]

"So I gather." He gestures to invite her to choose a seat and goes back to his desk. Instead of sitting behind it in the position of power, he makes the deliberate choice to perch on the desk, one foot braced flat against the floor, in a calculatedly casual pose.

"I'd be interested in hearing more about that. Do you think it's representative of a bigger problem with the cartels?"

[from_the_outside]

"To be honest, sir, I hope it's only a problem with the cartels."

She takes a seat in front of the desk, noting with internal amusement how his pose forces her to look up at him. "I did enough background on Felipe to know he shouldn't have been a problem. It was whoever he hired that was the issue."

[marvel_npc]

Pierce raises his eyebrows. "How so?"

He doesn't need to hide his interest, but he's careful to keep it contained in both tone and manner.

[from_the_outside]

"Whoever it was was good enough to go head to head with me," she tells him. "SHIELD-level strategy. And I've never seen a more accurate sniper. Honestly, sir, I think it may have been a whole team... but I can't explain how Felipe could afford them."

[marvel_npc]

"That's disconcerting." Pierce drums his fingers against his leg, considering. "If Felipe's able to command those kinds of resources, things could get very messy. Or, well. Would have been," he acknowledges, with a nod to her. "We've got you to thank for that."

[from_the_outside]

"Sometimes it's easiest to just cut the head off the snake," she says.

Whatever HYDRA might say, she'll burn out any two more that try to grow. "But the situation is too volatile down there, sir. Who are we sending in to replace Juan Carlo?"

[marvel_npc]

"Assuming Felipe's the actual head," he cautions her, careful not to react to her choice of metaphor. "And not getting those resources from somewhere else. If we're lucky, he'll have gone into personal debt to cover the cost of a team. If not..."

He gets to his feet and crosses to look out the window over the Potomac. Insight's right below the water, just out of sight, and he can see the city beyond and imagine what's to come.

"I've never been one to count overmuch on luck. It doesn't end well."

[from_the_outside]

Well, Insight was horrible.

She'd asked as many questions as she thought was safe, and she'd managed to slip a thumb drive of data from a laptop no one was watching while getting a tour of one of the helicarriers, and she'd shaken hands and smiled and somehow managed to get out of there without blowing her cover or losing it on the HYDRA operatives all around her.

It's closer to eight when she finally gets back to her apartment. She turns on a light in the living room and messages Bucky on the burner as she heads into the kitchen in search of a beer.

Back. Safe. Have some intel. S&R gone to Jersey.

[nerves_of_ice]

It had been easy to spot her return from here, even three rooftops away, with that bright blonde hair of hers, and he’d breathed easier as he’d seen her light go on.

The phone shivers silently in his pocket, and he gives the area a quick scan before he answers it, keeping the screen dim.

Good. All of it. You OK?

[from_the_outside]

"Good question, Sergeant," she murmurs, glancing at her phone as she opens the fridge and takes out a bottle of beer.

Even more determined to take these assholes out, she types back, and brings both phone and beer into the living room.

[nerves_of_ice]

He sees the shadow of a figure moving across her living room and is glad. Hopefully she can get some downtime before the next meet. The thought reminds him, and he types,

meet still on tonight?
or delayed until S&R report?

[from_the_outside]

delayed
F&H doing some set up tonight

She takes a sip of her beer and heads into her bedroom to change into a pair of jeans.

[nerves_of_ice]

Light flashes on in another room in her apartment - her bedroom or a home office, he figures, although he doesn't know which. As he considers whether or not he should offer to come by, a shadow on the street flickers, and ice chills his blood as he realizes what's happening.

get to the roof NOW
STRIKE outside
you're compromised

He doesn't wait for a reply; there's no time. The Winter Soldier shoves the phone in a pocket and breaks into a silent run for the edge of his own roof.

[from_the_outside]

The burner buzzes on her comforter, three times in a row, as she slips on a pair of comfy, broken-in slim black jeans. She picks up the phone to check what Bucky has to say, and the bottle of beer she'd been lifting pauses on its way to her mouth.

Compromised. As she reads the word, her nerves thrill with adrenaline. They'll try to take her quietly, if they can, she thinks. They won't want a shoot-out in the middle of an apartment building.

She has no idea how much time she has. She spends ten seconds slipping her feet into a pair of boots, then grabs her Kahr from the bedside drawer and tucks it into her back waistband. Booby-trapping the apartment will take too long, she decides. They'll be at her door any second.

The burner goes into a pocket, and she heads to the window and slides it quietly open before slipping onto the ledge outside.

[marvel_npc]

Everything is going his way, and Brock Rumlow can't stop grinning about it. Too bad they're not here to take out Rogers, that sanctimonious prick, but this is one hell of a step in the right direction.

Half of the team goes up the stairs on the inside, while the rest covers the outside just in case. As Agent 13's window opens and she climbs out, Rumlow gestures sharply for two STRIKE agents to scale the wall. She'll find a nice surprise when she gets to the roof.

[from_the_outside]

She climbs from ledge to ledge, pulls herself up onto a balcony, and slowly makes her way up the building, wishing she had Bucky's built-in zip line, or one of Nat's gauntlets. As it is, she has to rely on her own damn self, and by the time she clambers up to the roof, she's tired and her arms and shoulders and core ache like hell.

Which, of course, means that it's only natural for her to be greeted by two STRIKE agents, their rifle sights trained on her. "Agent Thirteen," one of them says through his mask. "Stand down."

She lifts her hands, her mind spinning. All she needs is a distraction, a quarter-second opening, and she's reasonably sure she can take them both out.

[nerves_of_ice]

He swings down from the utility pole next to the building and lands on the STRIKE agents like a falling mountain.

The Winter Soldier plants a boot in the gut of the further one, knocking him over the edge of the roof into freefall with a startled cry. The nearer agent receives a bone-shattering punch to the chest from his left arm that sends him flying backward to collapse in a crumpled heap. His eyes meet Sharon's.

"Run," he orders.

[from_the_outside]

Sharon runs.

There really isn't any other choice. She breaks across the roof, heading towards the wide gap between her building and the next one over. It's a hell of a leap, but she has more chance of being able to make that jump than she does of fighting her way through to the ground floor of her building. As her boot hits the edge of the roof, she launches herself into the air with all the force she can muster, flinging herself out across the open space.

[nerves_of_ice]

As she flings herself into the air, his right hand closes around her upper left arm. He augments the force of her jump with all the strength of his own, leaping beside her to the next roof.

He helps stabilize her as they land and drags her forward into a wild sprint towards the building beyond. "Keep going after this one," he orders, low and sharp and urgent. He can hear outbursts of astonishment and dismay behind them. "I'll drop some things on them to keep them busy. Meet you at the rendezvous point. Don't look back. I need you to keep running as fast as you can."