Chapter 25
Adelaide stood alone on a pier overlooking the bay. It was dark, and cold, and there was no moon tonight, and she was in a bad part of town. Anyone else in their right minds would have been anywhere but here, but she had no choice. If she wanted everyone she loved to live, this was how she had to do it. Did she particularly like this course of action? Absolutely not. But she was going to do it anyway. Everyone in her family had, at some point or another, done something that they didn’t want to do but had to do it anyway. She figured it was high time to add herself onto that list anyway. A rough hand grabbed her shoulder, and she grabbed it tightly, spinning around and driving her knee into the person’s chest with frightening speed. Before whoever it was had time to react more than a pained gasp, she hauled them up and punched them in the face, sending them flying into the water. A bright light shone in her eyes, and two masked men came up to her, guns at the ready. A black car drove up, and one of the doors opened. Adelaide threw her hair back over her shoulder and walked over to it, climbing in smoothly and staring at the man seated across from her. She didn’t want to be here; there was no reason to try to prove the contrary. The man gave her a cruel smile as the door slammed shut and the car drove off. “Welcome back, pet.”
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It was a terrible drive, one Adelaide hoped to never have to relive again. She had to change vehicles so many times, it was ridiculous. They had driven in circles all across town and driven through neighborhoods and parking lots and gone every which way so much that she felt like she was getting her own personal tour of the city. Of course, that wasn’t what this was, but she had to find joy somewhere, right? The car abruptly halted, and she was led out to a helicopter and motioned at to sit down. She obeyed, glaring at the man who climbed in in front of her. “You read lips very well, correct?” he said. She stared at his mouth, reading his words, and nodded. “Good. Then you and I will be able to reach an agreement. You understand the consequences, should you disobey?” Again, she nodded. “Then, let me be the first to congratulate you on your successful return to Hydra, pet. I hope we shall work well together. I am Heirr Gunter, the new head of Hydra. It was such a momentous occasion, I had to greet you myself. We are going to your new base of operations. I hope you will find your new home suitable. If not, too bad.” He was quiet after that, and she looked out the windows at the darkened world around her. She couldn’t even make out the lights of the city anymore. They must be out over the sea. She sighed, thinking of home and her father. Bucky must be worried sick by now. While he had known that she was planning on leaving, she hadn’t said goodbye. It would have hurt too much, and she might have changed her mind, or worse, he would have followed her. She wouldn’t have him going back to Hydra; it would never happen as long as she was alive. It was the real reason she was doing this. Yes, protecting her other family and friends was important to her, but she knew that Hydra would never kill their greatest success. Her father would be dragged back, no matter how hard he fought, into their clutches, and they would reestablish everything that she and T’Challa and the others had worked so hard to get rid of. The Winter Soldier would rise again, and Hydra would be sure to never let him go this time. She had to keep him safe, as he had done to her all these years. He may not need protecting, but someone had to look out for him. She was so deep into her thoughts that she didn’t realize they were landing until the helicopter touched down. She looked to Heirr Gunter, and he motioned for her to get out. She obeyed and stood silently next to the landing area for instructions. “Good, you know to obey orders first,” Gunter said. “That will save us some time. Come.” He led her into a brick building and down several flights of stairs. Then, they went through a few hallways before he stopped in front of a door. “This is your room,” he said. “Wait here. Someone will come for you later.” Adelaide entered quietly. Not to her surprise, it only held the bare minimum of things to meet her needs. A bed, table, one chair, a lamp, a door less closet for clothes and weapons storage, and (this did surprise her) a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink. Barely more than her old room at Hydra had held. She sighed again and stood in the middle of the room, waiting patiently. The door opened, and a guard walked in with a bundle in his arms.
“Put these on,” he grunted as he threw them at her. She caught them and nodded. He stood, waiting. She looked at him before realizing that he wasn’t going anywhere. Stepping towards the bathroom, she saw him tighten his grip on his gun. She shook her head, going to get changed, but leaving the door open. Apparently, they thought she was going to make a run for it. She supposed that it was smart of them, but she was smarter than that. She hated the outfit they had given her, but there was no choice for her in the matter.
Daddy would have a heart attack if he saw me in this, she thought to herself as she stepped out of the bathroom. The guard looked her up and down appreciatively, and Adelaide forced herself to not shiver under his gaze. She’d knock him unconscious if she’d thought it’d do her any good.
“Come on,” the guard grunted after a moment. She followed after him, her heels clicking softly against the tile floor. He led her through another hallway before stopping at another door and sliding a key card next to it. It opened with a click, and he motioned her through. She stepped through the door and looked at the monitors in front of her.
“You look marvelous, pet,” Gunter said as he looked her over. Remained looking at the monitors. He wasn’t in her line of sight. She couldn’t acknowledge him yet. “So, you really can’t hear anything,” he muttered. “I was told the contrary, that you could hear perfectly fine.” Suddenly, a bang went off nearby, but she didn’t react to that either. “Wonderful.” He stepped into her line of vision and handed her a folder. “Here is your mission. This man has important plans for a very important project we are going to undertake, but he is unable to reach the delivery point without being followed. He is hosting a party tomorrow night. You are to infiltrate the party and retrieve the drive with the plans from his office without being caught. Casualties will most likely be inevitable. Do as you must. You leave immediately.” With a nod, Adelaide took the file and turned to follow the guard who was showing her where to go. She entered the plane and looked over the files with a sharp eye as it took off and headed out over the sea.
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Was it okay for Adelaide to say that she hated Hydra? It was probably a logical step, since they had sort of ruined her life thus far. Besides letting her meet her dad, nothing good had ever come from their existence, really. Take right now, for instance. She was wearing a dress that made her feel practically naked, even if it was just nude-colored fabric (one can only live with Steve Rogers for so long before they started to dress to his standards. She was sending up an apology every five minutes for this one. Somewhere, Steve Rogers’s dress-code violation senses were tingling, and the poor guy didn’t know that his beloved niece was wearing something that would surely send both himself and her father into cardiac arrest). The heels she was forced to wear weren’t comfortable at all (though the tiny knife in the heel of each shoe were a bonus), and the knife strapped to her inner thigh was uncomfortable. Oh, and the five security guards surrounding her at the current moment. That was bad too. All around, this just wasn’t a good night for her. I don’t suppose this is going to be written off as a misunderstanding, she thought. Yeah, probably not, considering the USB drive tucked safely in her clutch. Oh, this wasn’t good at all. She didn’t want to kill anybody, if she could help it, but Gunter was right when he said casualties were inevitable. These men weren’t going to hold back, so she couldn’t either. In a whirl of sparkles and dark hair, she attacked first. The poor guys didn’t even know what hit them. She checked all of them for heartbeats, and one man had a broken neck, but he was still alive. She breathed a silent sigh of relief and hurried out the side door of the building. When she reached the van, she climbed in and shut the door, nodding to the men inside.
“Give us the drive,” the one on her left said. She reached into her purse and handed it to him. He nodded. “Good job, Pet.” She was allowed to rest on the way back, but she chose not to. There would be time for that later.
Wanda? Wanda, are you there?
Addie? Is that you?
Who else would it be? The President?
Yep. It’s definitely you. Are you okay? Is everything alright? You left in the middle of the night. Barnes is beside himself.
I’m as okay as I can be in this situation. Listen, I just went on a mission into a building in western Germany, the home of Fredrick Benton. I stole some plans on a drive that Hydra wants. I don’t know what’s on it, but you might want to have Uncle Tony check into it.
I will. Do you need anything? Is there anything we can do?
Look after Daddy for me. That’s all I ask. Keep yourselves safe, and look after him. I can handle everything here.
Okay, Addie. Be careful, please.
I will, Wanda. I promise. Goodbye. By this time, she had boarded the helicopter to take her back to the Hydra base, and they were halfway back to their destination. Once they landed, she was sent back to her room to change and clean up. She had blood on her hands from punching people a few times during her mission. Look, if she wouldn’t let Killian look at her that way when they first met, she certainly wasn’t going to let strangers look at her like she was a piece of meat to be devoured. She blamed the dress, she really did. She wanted to get out of it right freakin’ now! She quickly showered and dressed into the sweatpants and black tank top. She sat on the chair in her room and waited. For all she knew, it could be a night of late-night training. The door opened, and Gunter walked in, a proud smile on his face.
“Good job, Pet. You did well for your first mission back, and so soon after returning. You have earned yourself a good rest. That is all for tonight.” With that, he left the room, and Adelaide climbed into bed, staring up at the ceiling above her. She sighed heavily. This might be harder than she’d originally thought. With another sigh, she rolled onto her side and curled up atop the blankets. They were too rough to sleep in.
Goodnight, Daddy. I love you.
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Two months. She’d been in Hydra for two months. It’d been terrible. She’d barely had any rest between missions. Maybe Hydra was making up for lost time or something. She’d gone on extraction missions, espionage missions, escorting missions, and pretty much everything in between. She was tired. She missed her family, though she talked to Wanda quite regularly to let her know what she’d done on missions in case it worked against them in some way, but so far it’d been nothing major. She hadn’t spoken to her dad any, though. It was too hard. She missed him far too much to torture both of them like that. To have so much contact and yet be unable to see each other. She hated Hydra so much. For what they did to her father, to her, to her family, what they threatened to do to her friends. She hated them with all of her being, but she had to act the part of the obedient weapon for just a bit longer. Just a little longer, and she could carry out her plan. Just a bit longer. Then she could act.