Chapter Eight
John

I found a spot on the sidewalk outside of the prison to sit on, and it's where I have been sitting silently for the past fifteen minutes. Guards have been passing me by and giving me weird looks, but they leave me alone once they see my expression. No one wants to talk to an angry man, tears in his eyes, with the Captain America shield strapped to his back.

Wilson walks towards me at around the twenty minute mark. He doesn't say anything, he just silently sits down next to me, resting his arms on his bent knees.

It's about three minutes later that he speaks. "I was out of line. I shouldn't have said that about your brother."

I look down at the asphalt, nodding my head once. "Is it really that obvious?"

"I guess since I'm chasing a shadow, I recognize that so are you." Wilson murmurs.

I shake my head, bringing my eyes up to look at him. "I was out of line, too. I didn't mean what I said, I guess...I guess I'm jealous."

"Of what?"

"Of you."

"Me? Why? You're the one who has the shield, you're the one that's beloved by the governments of the world, you have the public's trust."

"Because despite all of those things, I'm still in the shadow of my brother," I admit. "No matter how hard I try to be a hero like him, I will never be. And if I thought trying to be my brother was impossible, now I'm trying to be him and Rogers."

"You shouldn't put that pressure on yourself."

"And neither should you. I'm never going to be Rogers and neither are you."

Wilson lets out a sigh, his voice low as he replies: "Yeah I know. I've been so angry, so jealous...I think both of us need to stop trying to be something we're not."

"What the hell have you been jealous about?" I ask.

"Of you, isn't that obvious."

"Sam," I say with a shake of my head. "I'm the last person you should be jealous of. That shield might have been given to me, but you're the one who's earned it. You have nothing to prove."

"It doesn't feel that way."

"You may not be Captain America, but you're a hero, an Avenger. You don't need the shield for that, but me, I'm nothing without it."

"You're not nothing, John."

There's a long moment of silence that lingers between us, and thankfully Sam is the one to break the silence. "What are we going to do about McAllister?"

"We're going to get on a plane and go to Louisiana, then we'll capture her, and then we will never tell Soroya about this. If she found out that I talked about my feelings, she would get all supportive and proud and I can't handle that right now."

Sam chuckles, "She is oddly emotionally available for someone with her kind of life."

"So is Barnes. He acts nothing like how I thought the Winter Soldier would."

"That's because of Soroya," Sam says, standing up off the sidewalk. "I knew him before they met, he used to be far different then he is now. She really changed him."

I guess that's a common thing with her. I stand up as well and gesture to the car parked a couple yards away. "You ready to go catch a hacker?"

Sam nods firmly, a half smile on his face. "Let's do it."

-

Four and a half hours later...

McAllister's house is much nicer than I expected. Soroya described her time as a wanted HYDRA agent as staying in crappy hotels and never staying in one place too long. This house is far from a crappy hotel.

The house is beige with a brown door and window shutters, and as we approach the door, I see that there is a bronze knocker in the shape of a lion. The welcome mat says 'leave' in black bold letters, and I look around the front porch to see if there are any cameras watching us. There doesn't appear to be any. It just looks like a regular house.

"You go find a back door, I'll go through here." I tell Sam, unhooking the shield from my back.

"She probably knows we're here already. There's no way she doesn't have a security system of some kind."

"Of course she does, but I don't think a hacker will be much of a fighter. She's going to try to run."

Sam nods, running towards the other side of the house without another word. I step back a little before swinging my leg up and kicking at the door, watching it swing open, setting off a loud alarm. Cursing, I run inside the house and aim the shield up, looking around to see if McAllister is anywhere to be seen.

I run towards the living room and find no one there, but as I search the kitchen that connects to a hallway, I hear footsteps above me. I try to find a staircase that will lead me up there, and I end up finding one next to a small bathroom on the other side of the kitchen. The staircase is vacant once I reach it, but as I look behind me, I see a woman sprinting out of the house, a black backpack strapped to her back.

I run after her, pulling the shield back and throwing it at her to try and slow her down. I miss though, and the shield hits a tree between her house and the neighbor's. As the shield comes back over towards me, Sam runs up and catches it, doing as I just did and throwing it, this time hitting her in the ankle. The impact sends her crashing down to the ground with a yelp, the shield lying down next to her.

"You need to teach me how to do that." I mumble to him as we walk towards her.

"Let's deal with her first." Sam says, leaning down to pick the shield back up, handing it over to me.

As I'm hooking the shield back onto my back, Sam kneels down to McAllister, trying to help her onto her feet. She struggles in his grip, but Sam is too strong for her to slip away from him. She looks to be in her late forties, long brown hair that's falling out of a pony tale, pale skin that's just beginning to wrinkle, and the fury of hell in her dark brown eyes.

"Elizabeth McAllister?" Sam asks.

She glances between the two of us, her face twisting in disgust. "You wouldn't be capturing me if I weren't."

I hand Sam a pair of handcuffs and he attaches them onto McAllister's wrists, prompting her to inform us: "You're arresting the wrong person. I haven't done anything wrong."

"Really? Because hacking into government databases for the past couple decades sounds pretty illegal to me." I comment.

"Corrupt governments that only serve to take away our freedom and oppress us."

Sam brings her over towards the front porch sitting her down gently, keeping his voice calm as he says: "After all that HYDRA's done, I can't blame you for thinking the way you do. But not all governments do the horrible things HYDRA did."

McAllister lets out a laugh, giving us a look like we're two children who just said something stupid. "So you think the Infinity Accords are fair? That's something the entire United Nations signed. That's a hundred and ninety three countries who want to oppress people with enhanced abilities and use them for their own agendas. Sounds an awful lot like HYDRA to me."

"Not everything in the government is fair, and I don't agree with the accords, but I don't agree that every government is corrupt." Sam responds.

"Then you're just naive," McAllister says with a shake of her head. "You two are part of the problem, it makes me sad that Soroya Roberts and James Barnes are roped in with the two of you."

"Why do you care about them? According to them, they hardly know you." I ask her, crossing my arms over my chest.

"We are all victims of HYDRA," she explains, surprisingly genuine as she says: "They are perhaps the two who have been harmed by HYDRA most. I've seen what they're doing on TV, I know they're hunting former agents and I know you're helping them. Those two have been oppressed by government officials and agents like the two of you their entire lives. You work for the very government that forces them into a life of serving people who wish them dead."

"They work for the government too."

"Not by choice."

"The accords may not be perfect," I argue. "But the people we all work for aren't like HYDRA. We don't capture children and turn them into weapons, we don't experiment and torture like HYDRA does."

McAllister gives me another superior look. "Next time you talk to your superiors, ask them about PROJECT ENHANCED. If only you knew what your precious government was capable of doing, it's beyond even what I could have imagined."

"What's PROJECT ENHANCED?"

McAllister shrugs. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Ask whatever jackass that's in charge of you and then maybe you'll see things differently."

I turn my head towards Sam, trying to disregard the things she just said as nonsense. "We should call Soroya, tell her we have McAllister."

Sam nods, taking his phone out. "Think you can play nice for five minutes?"

I turn back to McAllister and sigh. "I'll try my best."

McAllister's expression continues to be amused, prideful and superior. She acts like the bratty girl who got better grades than everyone in school and liked to brag about it.

"Even Steve Rogers knew of the corruption in the government he served, that's why he rebelled against them. It's no wonder they gave you that shield now that he's dead. You're the perfect poster boy for the UN's agenda."

"Don't pretend you know a damn thing about me."

"I know more than you think," She pushes. "I've read files on you, different databanks with you in them. Major John Fredrick Walker of the United States Army, known for your many victories in battle overseas and for your skills in combat and marksmanship. After the capture of Dr. Bauer you were named the US Agent, America's new symbol of hope and justice. Wilson may be working for the enemy, but despite giving them the benefit of the doubt, I can tell he doesn't believe in what the government is doing, but you do. I pity you really, the tyranny of the government has it's clutches in you so deep, you will never be free of it."

Thankfully Sam returns right after McAllister says this, and I'm grateful for it. I don't think I can handle anymore of her ranting, it's making me to angry and frustrated. This woman is crazy, and I want to disregard everything she's saying, but I can't help but wonder if she's right. I'm still hung up on what she said earlier, about a UN effort called PROJECT ENHANCED. It could be nonsense she's using to get under our skin, but what if it isn't? If it's real, then what exactly is it, and what does it mean for us and the rest of the world?