Chapter 7
"Nicholas! Long time no see even though we work in the same godforsaken building.” Fury glowered at him. “Shut down you piece of shit,” he said, roughly pulling out a chair. Piercer narrowed his eyes while keeping his easy-going demeanor. Almost trying too hard to keep it at that. “I don’t think so Nick. You ought to be careful with how you talk to your superiors. Could get you into some hot water now.”
A hand slammed down on the table. “Good thing your superiors like me a lot more than they like you, Alex,” he growled, but made no move to stop him as he tried to leave. “Buddy Howell,” he called after the man, who paused at the doorway, silent. “So you did know him. That’s funny, because we have him on tape becoming visibly distressed at the sight of you. Now Pierce, we can do things the hard way and let you walk out that door, or you can make it easier on all of us and sit down and talk. I’m good with either option.”
Pierce smirked, looking inappropriately reptilian. “Hail HYDRA,” he whispered, turning once again to leave. “I’d stop this witch hunt right now Nick, or things could get ugly. You’ll regret it if you don’t. This is big, much bigger than you could possibly even dream of. Too big for the simple detectives’ office. Why don’t you get back to your robberies and your murders and rapes and drug busts like good little worker bees.”
Fury swore under his breath as the door closed.
~
“So Pierce is a fucking traitor, where’s the surprise there?” Natasha rolled her eyes, with Clint shooting her daggers with his eyes. “Nat be careful what you say. If this is legitimate information - “ “Which it is.” “then watch your mouth. There could be eyes and ears everywhere.” “Good thing I found this in your vic’s personal effects,” Tony said, entering with a small evidence bag in his hands. Clint took it, frowning. A small card was inside, with an address scribbled on it.
Sam grabbed it. “I know this place,” he muttered. “It’s a bar - real nasty one at that. Perfect place for dealers and people looking to score. And that’s only the surface of it. Prostitution, gambling, if its illegal by any law, it happens there. We should send in an undercover. Not me though, they know my face. Someone with enough experience to not get themselves killed. As you can imagine, they kinda hate cops. Wouldn’t be wise to send a woman - sorry Nat - but these guys aren’t the softies you can flirt with to avoid suspicion.”
Steve frowned, and glanced over at Bucky, who stood up immediately. “I’ll do it,” he said determinedly, taking the card from Sam. “Just tell me what I need to do. Aside from Natasha, I’m the only one of us with experience. Plus, no one has ever seen my face, so I set off any radars when I go.” Steve grabbed his arm, “Hey Buck, slow down. Can we talk about this please?” “What is there to talk about Steve? Come on this is the first lead on HYDRA we’ve had since Buddy, we can’t let this go to waste! I promise I won’t do anything risky. Just a little recon is all. Besides, even Pierce doesn’t know me all that well; I’ll bet he’s never seen my face. Don’t you worry about me, I can take care of myself.”
Steve wanted to protest with everything in him; something bad was gonna happen, he could feel it. But nonetheless, he relented, and that was all Fury needed to approve the mission: stake out the bar, see what was happening, who was there, and if there could be anything that would reveal more about HYDRA.