Infiltration and Escape
Upon arriving in a less populated area of Munich not far from where FRIDAY found Karkaroff, Steve doubled over, his face pale and a hand to his mouth in an attempt to keep whatever he hadn’t thrown up inside. It took several minutes of forcing his nausea down as Kahlen awkwardly patted his back before he could stand again, still dizzy but otherwise okay.
Leaving the alleyway they’d apparated to, the three of them walked through the streets in search of anything suspicious while FRIDAY scanned the area again. They forced themselves to keep a casual pace, hoping to avoid detection. After an hour of no luck, Kahlen began to lose hope.
“Maybe he apparated away,” Kahlen suggested, frustrated.
“But why was he in Munich in the first place?” Steve countered.
“Um, guys?” Hermione said, but neither heard her.
“I don’t know Steve, aren’t you supposed to be the expert on Hydra?” Kahlen wasn’t angry at the man but she needed some way to vent her frustrations. Unfortunately, the two of them were more similar than they thought because Steve responded in kind.
“You’re the magical one, can’t you just cast some spell and find him?”
“It doesn’t work like that,” she groaned.
“Guys,” Hermione tried again.
“Besides,” Kahlen continued, “Friday should be able to find him, so why hasn’t she?”
“Don’t blame Friday, she–”
Suddenly he couldn’t speak anymore, and judging by the look on Kahlen’s face she was similarly obstructed.
“Will you two stop it?” Hermione was exasperated, rubbing her eyes as she searched for patience. She removed the silencing charm, pleased when they stayed quiet with their attention on her. “Look behind you.” She pointed at a shady looking building across the street where none other than Crabbe and Goyle were entering, their heavy footsteps contrasting with their attempt at stealth.
“Right, well… I suppose we should follow them, yeah?” Kahlen tried to move quickly past their childish argument, and by Steve’s frantic nod she assumed he wanted to do the same.
Walking up to the door they found some protective wards that Hermione took down in seconds, and embedded in the stones next to the door was a barely visible Hydra, very easy to miss if you weren’t looking for it. Steve went to open the door but Kahlen stopped him, silently shaking her head.
“The wizarding world is strange,” she explained quietly. “They don’t like to make things easy, everything has to be ridiculously complicated.” Following a hunch, Kahlen reached out and pushed the Hydra symbol further into the wall. The clicks and whirring from behind the door followed by its swinging open told her she’d done the right thing. She moved to enter the eerily quiet building when Steve caught her arm.
“I think we should wait for the team,” he said, voice low to avoid detection. “We don’t know who or what’s down there, it could be dangerous.”
“Of course it’s dangerous,” Kahlen replied, rolling her eyes. “That doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to get to the bottom of these attacks, with or without your help.” Steve looked incredulously to Hermione but the witch just shrugged.
“I’m used to following her into danger,” she told him. “Occupational hazard as one of the Golden Trio.” Ignoring his confused expression she turned to her best friend. “I’m in.”
Kahlen grinned. She meant what she’d said but the idea of going into a Hydra base alone and severely outnumbered was not something she wished to happen. Looking back at Steve she could see his resolve wavering. Finally, he sighed.
“Fine. But only because I know you’d never back down and I’d rather you not get hurt on my watch. Tony would kill me,” he added under his breath, but Kahlen heard and glared at him.
“I’m not a child,” she scoffed. “I don’t need supervision.”
“No, but you’re getting it.” Steve laughed at her annoyance. “Come on,” he said, leading them into the building. Kahlen rolled her eyes and followed, Hermione shaking her head as she brought up the rear.
The base was nearly silent, their steps echoing until Hermione cast a charm to quiet their movements. The further they walked the less well lit the halls became but they didn’t dare to attempt using lumos. Footsteps walked briskly their way, forcing the three of them to hug the wall as the witches layered every glamouring charm they could think of. They breathed a collective sigh of relief as the Hydra agents walked right past them completely unaware.
They continued to explore the base, avoiding anywhere voices echoed from. A few times they were forced to immobilize agents and leave them concealed in closets and empty rooms. Impatient, Kahlen directed them to a room with mechanical sounds and quiet conversation. Safely out of sight in the doorway, they peeked into the room to find a control centre with monitors of well-populated cities; Kahlen recognized London, Paris, and Rome, among others.
Steve’s attention was elsewhere on the screens displaying what looked to be plans for an ambush. The plans showed a plane leaving from Africa that Hydra planned to hijack. Using his super soldier eyesight he read that they planned to retrieve “precious cargo” from a plane flying out of Wakanda in three days.
Satisfied with that intel he resolved to escape unnoticed, disrupt their plans, and return to raid the base with the whole team.
Meanwhile, Kahlen's focus was on the agents close to the door, laughing about the people they’d attacked. She listened to them mock the muggle children they’d put in the hospital and she seethed as they made fun of them for calling for their parents. Steve tried to pull her away but one of the agents caught her attention.
“I hope they decide to attack more werewolves,” the man with a crooked nose grinned. “I really enjoyed making the ugly beast bleed.” Kahlen wanted nothing more than to break his nose clean off. No one spoke badly of her friends. The only thing stopping her from attacking him was Steve and Hermione’s hands on her arms literally holding her back.
“Did you see the freak with the pink hair?” Another one laughed, his mustache taking far too much space on his face. “She tried to protect the bloody beast, the silly chit.” That almost made Kahlen angry enough to fight off her friends, but she stopped when she felt Steve’s lips at her ear.
“We’ve got the information,” he whispered quickly, his warm breath blowing against her ear. “We’ll come back and make them pay, but right now we need to leave before we’re caught.” He was practically pleading with her. She thought about his argument and gave one curt nod, not trusting herself enough to speak for fear of the anger taking over. Breathing a sigh of relief, Hermione and Steve started to lead her away when she heard it.
“You’re both wrong,” a third voice joined in, his words oozing acid. “The best part of that attack was hearing their monstrous little offspring cry.”
Kahlen saw red.
In her peripheral vision she could see Hermione’s eyes widen and the two of them tried to drag her from the control room but she brushed them aside like swatting flies and burst into the room, throwing spells in every direction. Despite their surprise, the agents recovered quickly and returned her fire but she had no time for their weak defence. She placed a protective charm over herself, vaguely aware of Steve and Hermione trying to disarm and counter the other agents, but she didn’t care. She turned her attention to the three men who’d been laughing about hurting her friends, her godson, their eyes wide with fear as they were faced with her rage . Disarming them quickly, she set to using every harmful spell short of the cruciatus curse on the despicable men who relished in the pain of others.
Before she could finish them off she heard the first round of bullets entering the fray. The sound disoriented her, allowing the men to scurry off and escape their punishment. She moved to follow them but was pulled in the other direction by Steve as they made a break for it while alarms began to sound. One of the bullets nearly hit her but Steve got his shield up in time, having brought the nanotech shield Tony had made for him for undercover work. Finally snapped out of her bloodlust, Kahlen followed him to the exit, sending stunning spells at anyone in their way while Hermione protected their backs.
They were unable to regroup for apparation close to the base so the three of them sprinted down the streets of Munich until the agents were lost behind them.
“The plans,” Steve said, less out of breath than the others thanks to his super soldier stamina. “We didn’t get the plans.”
“I’ve got them,” Hermione wheezed, holding up a flashdrive. She’d sent the flash drive in while the others were distracted and downloaded everything they needed.
Kahlen stayed silent, catching her breath while ignoring Steve's glare. The sound of angry men reached their ears, signalling their window of escape was closing, so the three of them linked arms and returned to Tothill Place.