Chapter 210: Eviscerate the Body
13th March 2012, New York City
(Bucky Barnes POV)
Here it is, the sales pitch, “I assume that you have a proposition.”
The woman nodded, “Yeah, you could leave and join Steve’s team, although you wouldn’t be very welcome when they realized that you shot one of his teammates and killed another teammate’s parents. You could go join Howlett, although he goes by Logan now. He wouldn’t remember you, but if you explained yourself he would be understanding, or you could go your own way and do whatever you want.”
“Just get to your offer already.”
The woman snorted, “Fine. Hydra happens to have angered me slightly. I don’t appreciate the attacks and the assassinations, which is why I’m going to bring the fight to them. Do you want to join me?”
It didn’t take Bucky too much time to choose. It was an easy decision after all.
(Jasmine Sayre POV)
It’s been a few days since I recruited Bucky Barnes in my mission to completely annihilate Hydra, and I’ve spent my days ever since by planning for their perfect downfall. For now, I was in my office ironing out that last few details of the plans that I made with Selene. The woman could be very devious when it comes to destroying organizations. It’s a bit of a disturbing pattern, but at least it was helpful now.
To be honest, the most beneficial thing to this plan was actually my Death sense. Like I mentioned before, I was now able to sense how to destroy anything, be it physical or conceptual. An organization like Hydra was entrenched deep in every government in the world. They seemed invincible, in a way. They made themselves indispensable for the functionality of pretty much any important organization on the planet.
But, with my senses, I knew exactly where to prod, where to poke to be able to destroy them without them even realizing it. With that done, I deemed myself ready. As agonizing as my new ability currently is, it was perfect for dealing with Hydra. Considering that I had a plan to deal with it during the next full moon, which happens to be in a week, I have a deadline to start implementing my plan.
I summoned Bucky to my office and waited for his arrival. The World War Two veteran was surprisingly accepting of the whole magic thing. He was still a mess and started to get nightmares about his actions as the Winter Soldier. Honestly, I think that the man would have broken down a day after me restoring him. I think that the promise of revenge against Hydra and the idea of meeting Steve Rogers again was what kept him going. I have to admit that the man was disturbingly bloodthirsty when it came to destroying Hydra and he was getting restless staying at the mansion doing nothing. At least now, I had something for him to do.
I heard a knock to my door. That must be Barnes. I tell him to come in and I take a look at him. The man had cut his hair, but was starting to slowly grow a beard. It’s curious how a little haircut and facial hair could make someone look entirely different.
Still, Bucky looked sleep deprived, and was visibly fidgeting at my presence. He didn’t speak, probably seeing me as a superior and his army reflexes took over.
I smiled at him, “Hello, Bucky. You must be wondering why I asked you to come to my office.”
The man nodded but didn’t speak. I continued, “Well, I have some good news. The plan against Hydra has been finalized. Your first mission is tonight.”
Barnes immediately looked up in surprise, “What’s the plan?”
“Tonight, I want you to go to New Jersey, more specifically, to Camp Lehigh. I want you to sneak in, without anyone being able to trace it. I want you to put these two stones in one of the bunkers and then get out of there. I want there to be no signs of intrusion, escape, or even malicious intent.”
The man gave me an outrageous face, “And what is this supposed to accomplish? I thought that you wanted to destroy Hydra, not ask me to trespass in an old, abandoned army camp in New Jersey, and put stones of all things in a bunker.”
I snorted at him, “Trust me, this will have a bigger impact than you could possibly imagine. The camp is not as abandoned as it appears. It has one of Hydra’s biggest assets, one of their strongest minds, the person who actually rebuilt Hydra within SHIELD, the man that experimented on you, Arnim Zola.”
“What?”
“Zola uploaded a version of his mind to a computer. It’s archaic, but it’s enough to revitalize the movement even if we destroyed Hydra. This is their backup, and we’re going to have to destroy it first.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Bucky visibly relaxed, “And what are the stones supposed to do?”
“One of them fries any electronics, destroys every hard drive, any form of Data really, not unlike an EMP. It should be enough to kill any version of Zola that exists in the camp. And the second one will start a believable enough fire the moment an intruder arrives at the base, meaning that if Hydra agents choose to check on Zola for any reason, it will look like an accidental fire occurred and destroyed him. This way, we’re taking a major asset from Hydra without them realizing it.”
“But, what about going for Hydra directly?”
I snorted, “Eager, aren’t you?”
At his passive face, I sighed and continued, “Here’s the thing, Hydra is an organization like any other. The main reason that people join, is either because they’re directly getting more power, which is a minority, they’re brainwashed or threatened somehow, which is another minority of enhanced soldiers that they need under their command, or simply because they’re getting paid which is the main motivation of anyone joining an illegal organization. You take out the money, and most of their soldiers disappear. The average Hydra soldier is barely better than a mercenary, which is why we’re going straight to the source.”
“So, we’re stealing their money?”
I shook my head, “No, I’m stealing their money, what you’re doing is something far better. You’re going to help me get rid of Hydra’s head. You know their favorite saying, cut off one head and another shall take its place?”
He nodded, and I continued, “well, this time we’re killing the main head, the new Red Skull so to speak, and while they keep infighting, we’re going to attack when they least expect it, and take their assets. We’ll release some of the dirt we have on their weakest links, and Hydra will start collapsing into itself. While they’re scrambling away, we’re going to kill every single leader one by one, and then capture the people that they brainwashed. With that done, Hydra can barely be considered a mercenary group that is inside SHIELD, and with that organization probably getting dismantled under the current UN investigations, without even including a couple of plans and operations that I’m planning to leak to the public, to put the final nail in the coffin, Hydra will officially be destroyed.”
Barnes looked thoughtful for a second, “It’s a good plan, but not a foolproof one. Although, I will gladly kill this new Red Skull, it’s not going to be easy.”
I chuckled at that, “Actually it’s going to be extremely easy. You see, what the Red Skull never had was a civilian identity. This is the current leader of Hydra.”
I wave my hand and make an illusion with Alexander Pierce’s face on it. Barnes looked at the man dismissively, “He doesn’t look like much.”
I snorted, “No, he doesn’t. But he happens to be the Secretary of the World Security Council. Nowadays, people don’t pick brawn over brain, they choose to scheme and stab people in the back instead, and believe me, Alexander Pierce is a very good schemer.”
“So, how do I kill him? I believe that someone of his station will probably always be protected by a small army.”
I nodded at that, “Yeah, which is why you’re not going to shoot him. I will give you a serum which will temporarily shape shift you into another person, a general bodyguard. I will give you a needle, with a numbing charm applied to it, and an untraceable poison that will disappear after two days of being administered. It will start causing small damage to the heart, and the man will suffer a heart attack five days later. There will be no suspicions, no evidence of problems during the autopsy. As far as anyone outside this mansion knows, it will be completely natural. If we’re too obvious, the remaining Hydra leadership will choose a temporary leader to deal with the attack. It has to be untraceable.”
“And when are we supposed to get close enough to hit him?”
“During the hostile takeover of my company, of course.”
I stifled a chuckle at the look on the soldier’s face, “Wait, what?”
“You’ve killed me, remember? As far as the world is concerned, Morgan Evanshade was found dead in a freak car explosion in a parking lot. Apparently, the engine overheated. It’s what the police report says anyway. Now, I left all my possessions to my niece, ‘Jasmine Sayre’, another identity of mine. But, from what I know, Pierce is trying to take over the company by claiming to have bought the shares. He faked documents and everything, even bribed ‘Morgan Evanshade’s’ law firm, and he will claim to have bought a controlling share of the company that should have gone through before ‘Morgan’s’ untimely death. He will attempt to blackmail me into compliance during a coming meeting and will probably bribe a judge if it goes to court. He’ll try to do it quietly and entice me with the billions I would make from the sale. To do that, he’ll have to get a meeting. You’ll be posing as a security guard that day and will prick Pierce with the needle when you check him. Afterwards, we’ll just have to destroy the documents he faked, and erase the memories of everyone involved. With that move, we will have taken out Hydra’s leader and their backup.”
“What about the metal arm?”
I chuckled and waved my hand in front of him. His arm started to slowly be covered by a small layer of skin, “Don’t worry, nothing and no one will ever be able to notice the fact that your arms are different. And don’t worry, I’ll alter the arm enough so that it’ll fit your new look during the mission.”
“When’s that mission going to be?”
“Tomorrow morning. So, are you ready to deal the biggest blow to Hydra that anyone has dealt in decades, without them even realizing it?”
The bloodthirst grin on his face would have terrified anyone else, but for me it was encouraging, “Fuck yes.”
I smirked back at him, “Alright, before you go, here’s something you’re going to need during your mission.”
I open a drawer and give him a necklace. It wasn’t just a necklace though, it was a dog tag, specifically, Bucky’s own. He looked at me gaping, “Where did you find this?”
I chuckled, “Believe it or not, I stole it from Captain America’s exhibit in a museum here in New York. I snuck in last night and left a replica there. But I didn’t give you that just for nostalgia’s sake, I added a spell to it. I want you to put it on and pinch the tag.”
Bucky followed my orders, and gasped as he turned invisible. He pinched the tag again and returned to view, “This is awesome.”
I snorted, “This is what you’re going to be using to bypass the security cameras. You’re going to pick the locks, sneak in and just leave the rocks in the bunker. The moment you leave, call me, so that I activate them properly. With this, we will have made our first step in destroying Hydra permanently.”