Chapter 46
The sun was just beginning to set when Holdstein returned to his hideout outside of Paris.
He made sure his security system was working well before getting into the room where he left Steve.
When the lights turned on inside the room, blinding Steve who spent the whole day in the darkness, he glared up at Holdstein as hard as he could.
His head was leaned back on the back of the chair, too weak to even keep lifting it anymore.
“Oh great, you are still alive.” Steve snarked with a frown.
Holdstein ignored what he said and just walked towards him slowly.
“Do you know where I was just a few hours ago?” Holdstein wondered grabbing Steve’s chin to force him to look at his face. “Standing over your future boyfriend’s grave.”
Steve’s face paled as he felt the blood in his veins turned to ice.
No. Tony couldn’t have been gone. He refused to believe that. Refused to believe that his future was gone.
“Do you know what that means?” Holdstein continued, ignoring Steve’s pain. He leaned down while trailing his hand from Steve’s cheek to his chest. Steve recoiled from the unwanted touch. “It means you are useless to me now. Though it is a shame to see that beautiful face ruined by a bullet hole in the forehead but what can we do.”
“Go to hell you fucking, insane bastard.” Steve spat out with every ounce of anger and hatred he felt towards Holdstein.
“I will drag you with me there, sweetheart.” Holdstein said while pulling out his gun and pointed it at Steve’s head. Steve just stared defiantly up at him, not scared of his fate. He no longer have a future anyway so if he died right now he wouldn’t mind much. “Goodbye, Captain America.”
“Don’t even think about it, John Wick.” A firm voice sounded suddenly behind Holdstein.
They both jumped and the general turned to find himself face to face with a gun and Dean’s smirking, firm face behind it. “Surprise.”
Sydney appeared behind Dean then Tony who immediately rushed towards Steve who was staring at him with wide disbelieving eyes.
“Steve! Steve, are you okay?” Tony exclaimed as he cupped Steve’s face gently and trailed his eyes over his body, checking for injuries then started to untie him.
“You-you are here.” Steve murmured, an overwhelming wave of relief and affection hitting him as he stared at Tony’s face.
“Of course I am here. Where else am I supposed to be?” Tony looked at him like he was an idiot which made Steve smile dazedly at him.
“Surprised to see us, Holdstein?” Sydney asked with a smirk.
“Not much.” Holdstein just shrugged coldly.
“We found the device you placed in Tony’s hair.” Dean started with a grin. “So we made that comedy act with the resistance’s men, knowing that you will hear every word and will be convinced that we are dead. I tell you, Barnes laughed for a whole thirty minutes after we were done. Then we burned three bodies from your fallen soldiers after we placed the device in one of them.”
Steve was now free, Tony and Sydney immediately placed his arms on both of their shoulders since he couldn’t stand upright on his feet, however he leaned closer towards Tony, seeking his warmth.
“We knew our death will drive you crazy.” Dean continued, gun still raised towards Holdstein’s face. “And you will try to find our bodies, which will get you out of your hideout and will lead us to it when you return.” Dean’s smirk widened. “And that’s exactly what happened.”
Holdstein was silent for a few seconds before saying slowly. “That didn’t surprise me much.” Then he straightened up firmly. “You could say that I expected it.”
Worry itched itself on Sydney’s face while Tony pulled Steve closer to him, worry eating him from the inside as Steve stared at Holdstein nervously.
“Expected it?” Dean frowned in anger. “You just hate to admit that you lost. It is over, dude! Just admit it already.”
“You think so?” Holdstein smirked mockingly before raising his hand and snapped his fingers.
Suddenly, an energy cylinder surrounded the four of them, trapping them inside it.
“You son of a bitch.” Dean shouted and shot at Holdstein.
The bullets hit the wall of the cylinder and disappeared without a trace.
“I told you.” Holdstein let out a loud laugh. “I was waiting for you actually.”
***
Dr. Queen was checking the results again of everyone working in SHIELD with deep attention until finally he looked up at Fury who was staring at him in expectation.
“They’re clean.” He announced while shaking his head.
“Try again.” Fury said in frustration.
“I tried two times. I think that’s enough.”
“But this is impossible.” Fury muttered as he rested back in his seat miserably. “The time traveler is real no doubt. He hacked the highly classified information about the Avengers.”
“Really?! He must be a real genius since we all know how complicated it is to hack so deeply into SHIELD’s system.”
“But he did so I guess it is not that complicated anymore.”
Queen was silent for a few seconds as he watched Fury carefully.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I have to ask.” He started hesitantly. “Why do you assume that the second traveler is a spy? If Sydney is an Avenger in the future, won’t that make her partner an Avenger too? So I guess he is not up to any harm.”
“I don’t trust Hunter. She could have lied about her identity just so the current Avengers symphysis with her and get them on her side. Until it was proven otherwise, she and her partner are spies.”
Queen didn’t comment on that, he just shook his head and rested back in his seat tiredly.
“Can’t you try again?” Fury repeated his earlier question yet again.
“It’s hopeless.” Robert shook his head.
“There must be another way.”
Robert thought about that for a few seconds. “Maybe there is.”
“What is it?” Fury asked hopefully.
“The genetic code.”
“What?”
“You know, the biological reactions won’t change in time, but the genetic code will definitely do, with the changes in the hereditary and environmental conditions.”
“But those changes will be very minor and till we can find it, it may take us months.”
“Not if we studied the sample we got from Sydney! Her and her partner must have grown up in the same atmosphere and conditions. So, they will have the same changes in them.”
“Complicated idea but it might actually work! I will tell Bradbury and Dr. Banner about it! Thank you!”
With that he got out of his seat and rushed to the door.
“Good luck!” Robert called out after him as a slow smile took place on his face and let out a small, amused chuckle. “Everything is going just fine.”
***
Carl paced with frustration in front of a small military airport outside of Paris, his eyes glued to the sky that was a little red from the sunset. His men stood silently close by next to two jeeps.
Carl’s body tensed while pointing at the sky. “He is here!”
Everyone straightened in a military stance as their eyes glued to the small plane that was heading towards the airport. No one said anything until the plane landed then they darted towards it and their voices ranged as they all did the military greeting when a familiar man appeared from inside the plane.
Carl rushed towards the man. “Welcome in Paris, Herr Himmler.”
Himmler, the director of the Gestapo, gave him a stern look, before leaving the plane and walked closer to him.
“I hope you have enough proofs of the dangerous accusation you claimed, Carl.” Himmler stated firmly.
“When I tell you everything, sir, you will realize how dangerous the whole thing is.”
Himmler pierced his lips as he walked towards the car waiting for him between the jeeps and motorbikes. “The message you sent me was very dangerous. It worried the Führer himself. He ordered me to come here and take the case myself.”
They got inside the car and Carl started to talk.
“It all started when we captured three spies after the appearance of a strange aircraft in Paris’ sky.”
“Spies? Strange aircraft? When did this happen?”
“Two whole days ago, sir. At 12 o’clock at noon tomorrow it will be whole three days.”
“Two and a half days?!” Himmler’s face was flushed in anger. “And no one told us? Are you out of your mind? This is very dangerous. What if that aircraft was a new invention by the allies?”
“This is indeed a probability, sir.”
“A probability? This should be the first guess!”
“Of course, sir. But-“
“And where is that aircraft now? Did you bring it down? Did you keep it? What does it look like?”
Carl swallowed the lump in his throat before answering. “Actually sir we never managed to find it.”
“You never what?!” Himmler screamed in pure rage before calming down and leveled Carl with a firm glare. “Tell me everything that happened in the past two days and a half. Don’t leave a single detail.”