Chapter Six
Bucky

Soroya wasn't kidding when she said Caden Harvey's resources and connections are considerable. This morning, after eating a very nice breakfast prepared by a personal chef, Harvey informed us that Wilfred Nagel is hiding out at a dock near High Town. He also said that he has a client of his named Elizabeth McAllister tracking the Flagsmashers. I recognized the name as soon as he said it, she used to work for HYDRA as a hacker. Apparently she didn't quite the craft after HYDRA fell, luckily for us, unluckily for everybody else.

While she finds out where the Flagsmashers are, we go to confront Nagel. Harvey gave us a car to use and we went straight to the dock. We asked Jade if she wanted to come along, confront Nagel and get some closure, but she refused. I can't blame her. It's hard facing the people who held you captive and treated you like a tool for their use, it's hard facing such a tragic past. When we're done with Nagel I plan on putting a couple bullets in his chest, maybe then Jade can have some semblance of peace. But as I know all too well, peace for HYDRA's weapons aren't easily achieved.

"Harvey couldn't tell us exactly where Nagel was could he? That would be too easy." Walker complains as we exit the car. The dock Harvey has sent us to is filled with shipping crates, so many I can't even see where they end.

Lena glares at him. "Caden has done a lot for us, maybe you should be grateful."

"Maybe you should quit relying on criminals to achieve your goals. But maybe that's too difficult for you given that you used to be a criminal yourself."

Now Lena turns to him fully. "Do you have a problem with me, Walker? If so just say it."

Walker's voice and attitude is so arrogant and so holier-than-thou that I actually have to physically restrain myself from punching him. "I just don't get why you're so worshipped. Everywhere I go, from everyone I meet, all I hear is how great you are," Walker scoffs, looking to be on the verge of spitting on the ground in disgust. "Not only are you an ex-HYDRA agent, but you made a reputation for yourself mauling people and ripping their hearts out and presenting them as trophies."

"It was an act," Lena's voice is simmering with rage. "An act I created to save my family's lives and the lives of the victims I helped save, an act that saved us last night from dozens of people who want us dead."

Walker continues as if she hadn't spoken, his tone of disgust growing. "You're not even really human. You're just an animal wearing human skin."

I'm about to beat this bastard into the ground, but Lena steps forward, looking straight up at him, an inhuman snarl rumbling from the back of her throat, making me pause.

"You'll do well to remember that, Walker." Lena replies, causing a flash of fear to form in his eyes. It's more satisfying to watch than punching him in the face, though I swear one day I'll beat him so badly he won't be able to ever move properly again, and it will feel damn good.

Lena walks away from him, heading towards the crates. I follow after her, falling into step beside her and slipping my hand into hers, squeezing it tightly. She squeezes back.

"I love you." I whisper into her ear.

Her expression is still clouded with anger and sorrow, but she manages a smile and whispers: "I love you."

Lena uses her tracking abilities to find the crate Nagel is using as a hideout, not only can she smell him but she can smell a ton of chemicals that are most definitely being used to experiment with serums. The scents are coming from a red shipping crate, and upon entering it, we find it empty. Walker is about two seconds away from insulting Lena's tracking when she presses against the wall opposite the entrance to reveal a secret door. She shoots me a smile and says: "Like Alex said, there's always a secret door."

The lab Nagel has been using is much larger than I would have imagined, it goes pretty deep underground and covers about the size of four shipping crates out together. As I look around I think that's exactly what this room is made out of. Cabinets and shelves filled with chemicals and a giant work table fill a vast majority of the room, with a sectioned off area in the far northeast corner filled up with cages, one of which is big enough for a human. I can't get the image of Jade trapped in there for who knows how long. I glance at Lena and find her eyes on the cages as well, her anger resurfacing. The same anger is in Sam, who's jaw and fists clench as he stares at Jade's former jail cell. Hoskins as well looks incredibly distressed. Walker couldn't care less.

Wilfred Nagel was searching through some documents on top of his work table when we arrived, and now he's staring at us in at first confusion, then fear, and now anger. Before he can even say a word Walked grabs onto him and throws him up against one of the cabinets, shattering dozens of bottles and vials, causing large cuts to litter Nagel's face. Walker is about to throw him around again, but Hoskins stops him, using a calming voice as he suggests: "We need to get information out of him first, why don't we sit him down?"

Walker stares at his partner for a second before nodding, grabbing onto the scientist and forcing him down onto his own office chair. Nagel, despite having just been thrown like a rag doll by him, doesn't seem at all afraid of Walker. But when his eyes fall onto Lena and I, he looks genuinely terrified.

Good.

Sam notices this too. "We have some questions for you, and if you don't want to get on their bad side," He gestures to Lena and me. "Then I suggest you answer them truthfully."

Nagel doesn't say anything, he just nods.

"Tell us about your work in HYDRA."

"I was brought into the Winter Soldier program after the five failed test subjects in Siberia. They didn't like how unstable those subjects turned out to be, they wanted something more easily controlled and get just as powerful. They wanted more of you," Nagel looks at me and I feel my stomach churn. "After HYDRA fell I was recruited by the CIA, for a secret project called PROJECT ENHANCED."

"What is that?"

"A project meant to create subjects with various enhanced abilities to be used as weapons. I never completed my work though, I was blipped, and when I came back the scientists working on the project already cracked the super soldier serum using my formulas," There's a bitterness in Nagel's voice as he says this. "They succeeded because they had access to an American test subject who had stable traces of serum in him. I stole the rest of his blood samples, my formulas, and the existing super soldier serum and came here to Madripoor to finish my work."

"How did Jade Rosales factor into any of this?" Sam now asks.

Nagel shrugs. "I wanted to recreate the serum that made her, and in order to do that I needed samples of her blood. Lots of them. Thankfully I had her here to provide them, unlike the American subject. The rest of his samples are gone."

"What do you mean gone?" Walker asks.

"I used them to create a new batch of serum, one that I perfected after those bastards stole my formulas. But now those too have been stolen from me."

"Karli Morgenthau." Lena finishes for him, her brows creased in thought.

"It really was a perfect batch of serum," Nagel says regretfully. "No clunky machines, no jacked up bodies, no screwed up minds. My serum was subtle, effective, offering the right amount of enhanced abilities and intelligence..."

"Do you know where she and the other Flagsmashers are?" I ask him, trying my best to suppress the urge to vomit. The way he talks about the serums, about test subjects, about his work...he's just like the other scientists in HYDRA. They all had a god complex, thinking that people were there's too play around with and recreate into new creatures they could use for their own personal gain. That's what they did to Lena. That's what they did to Alex, to Jade, to me...

"No, if I did I would have my serum back by now, though she most likely used all the vials."

"How many were there?"

"Twenty."

"And she stole them all?"

"Yes, unfortunately."

"And this CIA project you were apart of, is it still active?" Lena asks, deep seeded worry filling her tone.

"It's-" Nagel is cut off when a bullet hits him right between his eyes. All of us look to Walker, who has a pistol aimed right at him, an expression as cold as stone.

Just as Wilfred Nagel's body crumples to the ground, Lena marches up to Walker and demands to know: "What the hell did you just do? He was about to-"

"I was ordered to kill Nagel, find the serum, and bring in the Flagsmashers, so I am only following the orders I was given. He gave us the information we needed, anything else he has to tell was secondary to that."

I narrow my eyes his way, then share a glance with my fiancé. I can tell she's thinking the same thing I am. Walker wasn't just following orders, he was trying to shut Nagel up. But why? What does he know about this secret CIA project, and why would he want to protect it?

"Who was the American test subject he kept mentioning?" Sam asks no one in particular, probably not expecting an answer given that the man who knew it is now dead.

But I have an answer for him. "He meant Isaiah Bradley."

All four of them turn to me, with Lena inquiring: "Who?"

"After Steve 'died', the US government wanted to recreate his serum, but they weren't having any luck. They then tried it on this unit of African American soldiers, one of which was Isaiah Bradley. He was the only one the serum worked on, he was deployed in the field during the Korean War. We had a run in with each other during that time, he was sent to take me out, but he obviously didn't succeed. He was imprisoned after that, for a long time. Somehow he escaped though. Last I heard he's living in New York."

Sam stares at me for a long moment before saying in a shaking tone: "I want to meet him."

"Wilson, we don't have time for this-" Walker begins.

"I want to meet him." Sam repeats in the same tone.

Lena places her hand on Sam's shoulder and gives him a nod. "Caden hasn't gotten the Flagsmashers location yet, and until then we're at a dead end. We can spare a few hours to visit New York."

Sam gives her a smile and a nod, ignoring Walker's objections, which are growing louder and more authoritative by the second. I step towards him and say: "You can do whatever you want, Walker, but we're going to New York. Come if you want, or don't. I would actually prefer it if you don't."

Walker rolls his eyes. "If you want to track down some old man, be my guest. I'll go brief Ross and let him know that you're deliberately ignoring the mission in favor of taking a walk down memory lane of your HYDRA days."

"He was the test subject Nagel used for his experiments," Lena points out. "He could have information."

"Yeah, okay, sure. Just don't waste too much time and contact me the second Harvey gives you the location of the Flagsmashers," Walker makes his way towards the door, Hoskins in tow, and says to us over his shoulder: "I'm going to be taking the plane to DC, I suggest you go back to your criminal buddies to find some other form of transportation. And don't worry, I won't be taking the walking bomb along with me, she's your problem."

Once he and Hoskins are gone, Lena pulls out her phone, which makes Sam ask: "Harvey?"

She shakes her head. "We're already using Caden for a lot, I don't want to take advantage of his free favor. I have someone else in mind."

I can't help but laugh. "He'll be pissed that he's been left out of the action so far."

Lena rolls her eyes, bringing her phone up to her ear. She smiles when the other line picks up. "You up for joining us on our current mission?"

I can hear the smile in Alex's voice through the speakers of the phone. "About damn time."