The parking garage Steve was in wasn't a vital enough facility for the cameras to be linked to the internet and Jarvis had pinpointed out the camera locations, so Steve was crouching up against a support column, waiting for the rendezvous.

A number of cars pulled into the floor and parked, Steve ducking his head out periodically to see if they carried General Hale. Finally, a nice, sturdy sedan pulled in and parked. It was a new enough model to be electric but it wasn't brand new, it was black, sedate, quiet. A middle-aged woman in button down shirt and dark grey skirt stepped out of the car, her hair done up in a bun.

"General Hale," Steve said, trying to stay as confident as possible as he began to approach. This was a risky move.

"I thought they'd send someone less vital," Hale said, looking at him with a moment of hesitation and fear.

"We figured you might need assurances of our promises," Steve said, looking at her. He didn't honestly think he was as vital as they all thought. "We're optimistic we can remove the bomb in your daughter." Ward had heard about a U.S. general's daughter with a bomb from the graduates of Hydra's indoctrination school, but it wasn't until they'd gotten Jarvis that they'd been able to figure out who had an appropriate aged daughter who had attended a school.

"Mr. Rhodes said as much," Hale said. "But why would I side with you? If you know about the bomb, you know who I am, who I work for. I know the penalties for a high officer of the United States committing treason and my daughter's safety is assured by my loyalty."

This was just haggling, she wouldn't be here without Fireflies. That was why they had sent Steve. "We're working with Ward, aren't we? We'll get you a pardon or, failing that, safe extradition." Steve didn't like letting someone off for treason, but if he could abandon Bucky, he could extend some unwarranted mercy. That was so much less a sin than he had already committed.

"So I can live penniless but free, that's your offer?"

Steve paused, "I haven't been licensed to offer money," he said slowly. Mrs. Stark-Potts was not going to like it if he did this willy-nill, "but I'll support the restoration of your military pension in the public sphere after this is over and I'll see to it that, at least, you receive enough to live securely."

"And you can make that promise? How?"

"We have lots of rich supporters," Steve said. But the specific hope here was Mrs. Stark-Potts would provide the money. "But I can provide thirty thousand of my own incomes if I get back to my pre-coup income levels." It would be tight, to say the least, but he could do it. He wasn't as used to comfortable living as many members of the government.

Hale extended her hand, "My daughter free, your best effort to restore my military pension, or, failing that, an income of thirty thousand a year. Give me Captain America's word of honor on it and I'll turncoat."

"You have my word," Steve said, shaking Hale's hand.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

----

I sat next to the frozen super soldier in my bunker, the Serpent's Crown upon my head. I had been trying to come up with a justification for killing him since Tony died, but none of them made any sense. The marginal risk that it would escape that I had kept him alive was not even close to the marginal risk that I would need a bargaining chip. Steve had proven he wouldn't sacrifice his revolution for Bucky, but I was willing to bet I'd be able to get some concessions for him.

I looked over the Project Insight notes with the Serpent's Crown aiding my comprehension, wheeling through it as quickly as I was able. The problem with a straight adaptation of Project Insight at this point was that it was a false-flag plan from the beginning – Frame the World Security Council for the attack, emerge as the liberators of a benighted populace. But I could probably use it to firm up stability to some degree, there were just limits.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead when the landline phone rang, "General Hale has betrayed us," the other end of the line said.

"Kill Ruby," I ordered immediately. There was no point making threats if you didn't follow through on them. "Then give me a damage report."

"We've tried sir," my aid said, "but the bomb seems to have been deactivated. We're still getting the signal, but it isn't responding to us."

Ah for fuck's sake! How'd they pull that off? "Unfortunate. Now give me the damage report."

"She sent a notification through the Air Force, calling for all 'oath bearing' officers to defect and for you to be arrested as a traitor to the Republic, admitted to her Hydra affiliation, and then vanished to ground."

"And the Jarvis AI prevented us from intercepting this comminque, I take it," I said, sighing heavily.

"Yes sir."

I checked my mind for the economics effect of that and they were absolutely atrocious. I wasn't optimistic about our control of the military either – We had plenty of high ranking officers, but Hale might have outed a few of them on her way out. Well, most pressingly, this destroyed any hope of controlling the inflation situation and so I should get as many loans as I could before the markets reacted. I thanked the subordinate and picked up the phone to Stern, "Push through a bailout of our friends in Russia, India, and Pakistan."

"Hale hit us that bad huh?" Stern said, his voice haggard.

"I'd rather we kept the nuclear states than South America or the Middle East," I said bluntly.

"I understand that," Stern agreed. "It'll give us needed leverage and help us retain the helicarriers. They'll never be willing to fight us if we can shoot them dead en masse."

I wished I was as confident that we could pound the opposition into the dust like that, but if the U.S. hadn't managed it in Vietnam, I felt it was still an open question. I just had to hope that dissent hadn't gotten so bad that I was chased out of office.