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A month after meeting his soulmate, Brock Rumlow stood in Nick Fury's office and exposed HYDRA. The inevitable “Why are you doing this?” was easy enough to answer.
“My soulmate's a mutant, HYDRA experiments on the Enhanced.”
Rumlow went to Hill first because Fury would have shot him out of hand the second he said the word HYDRA. Instead, he was told to keep an eye on things for the Director “You'll report directly to Hill from now on after each STRIKE mission. Dismissed.” This could work.
When he got home, he found Creed waiting for him. With a sigh, Brock sat down on his couch and told his soulmate everything, assured by Hill that his apartment would be safe to do this. The mutant listened, snarling when his mate mentioned being afraid for the both of them. They bonded that night after Victor returned the favor of sharing his secrets. A soulbond was the strongest known force in the universe, if anyone tried to brainwash him then they’d be in for a shock when the barest of touch from a supposedly soulless sadist freed him from the conditioning.
New Dawn went to Hell pretty much the second the Brotherhood showed up. A little known fact about Magneto, his nemesis was also his soulmate. Most assumed he had lost his mate in the Holocaust. However when his enforcer told him about HYDRA, the Nazi hunter got to work. Now the Brotherhood, HYDRA and SHIELD agents under Captain America were duking it out on top of the Project Insight launch site.
STRIKE Commander Rumlow and his second-in-command Rollins were both under the influence of brainwashing they’d been subjected to after being enhanced. Creed brushed his hand against the back of Rumlow’s neck as he bolted passed. With a gasp, the Commander came out of his trance, not sparing a second before shooting those he knew were HYDRA outside his team. Agent Carter saw the shift out of the corner of her eye and skillfully ducked out of her current battle to charge Rollins, grabbing his wrist where his sleeve had ridden up. An order went out over the HYDRA frequency: kill the traitor . Immediately STRIKE Team Alpha and a few others turned to Rumlow “Commander.”
He gasped in a breath, “Orders are orders.” Nodding, the agents shot their comrades. Straightening up, Rumlow barked “Bellamy, triage. Rollins, Rogers, guard. Carter, Kelley, supply.” Another order came over the coms Secure the Asset. “Orders are orders.” Agent Chong, tossed him two guns- a specialized tranq gun and a fully loaded semi-automatic machine gun- which Rumlow ditched his own empty guns in favor of as he ran at the partially opened launch bay, jumping with a shout of “Hail HYDRA.” The entire STRIKE Team glared at Rogers, daring him to speak, for a moment before breaking off to carry out their orders. While under the influence, Rumlow had ordered the launch aborted while Magneto was on site, citing the fact that Helicarriers are made of metal. Failure to close the doors was likely caused by the metal bender’s interference.
Sidling up to Rollins, Steve asked “What just happened?”
The Australian laughed, “You should know, it’s the difference between respect and loyalty.” That really didn’t explain anything. Without waiting for Rumlow to finish his order, Tim Bellamy had run to an injured mutant. Seeing him do such, putting the mutant above his fellow agents, the Brotherhood helped the remaining agents move all of their wounded to the medic.
Ten minutes after his jump, Rumlow reported “Asset is secure.”
Rollins told Rogers “Let’s get yer mate.” The Brotherhood seemed to have taken over guard duty anyway as the two super soldiers followed the Commander’s lead and jumped through the partially opened bay doors.
Rollins seemed to know exactly where to go, which surprised Rogers. The HYDRA enhanced soldier followed the trail of destruction without drawing his companion’s attention to said destruction. When they reached Barnes, Rumlow stood from his position crouched over the unconscious assassin. Handing Rollins the tranq pistol, he told Rogers “Skin on skin contact should do the trick.” He hefted his semi-auto and ran off to shoot up the other two carriers’ computers.
The four super-soldiers climbed out of the launch bay together. Rumlow bypassed everyone, mentally noting that there were more people outside than before he jumped, to speak with Hill. “Commander.”
“Commander,” she repeated the address with a smile. Holding out a headset, she said “Here, this is hooked up to all SHIELD coms, we need you to speak to the other agents.”
Raising his hand in a stop gesture, he pointed to the tablet tucked under her arm “I need to check something first.” She gave him the tablet. Looking up what he needed, he told her, “We need some doctors out here, I doubt Magneto will let us take his people inside and Bellamy’s only a medic. We should also clear out some rooms of fallen agents, give ourselves some space to operate out of.” Finding whatever he was looking for, he said, “Alright, I’ll go first then you take over and talk to the SHIELD agents.” Accepting the headset, he looked past her at the tech, Cameron Klein and nodded to begin. “This is Commander Rumlow, STRIKE Team Alpha. At 9:40 this morning, the Incentive Program was shut down. Your families are safe. Anyone who wants to continue to fight must be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. To be truly free, you must escape the bond of your soul.” The words would work on those operating under the effects of most brainwashing techniques, they’d hunt down their soulmate and the skin on skin contact would free them.
Taking the headset off, he nodded to Klein and Hill before turning back to the agents. Through his earpiece, he heard Hill open with “This is Commander Hill, Acting Director of SHIELD.”
Approaching Barnes, he waited for Hill’s speech to end before offering his headset “Just like they taught you in the Army.” He recited the information on his dog tags once before Rumlow put the headset back on briefly “The Asset is out of commission.” Yanking it off with more force than necessary, Rumlow tossed it to Rollins who handed it to Hill. Focusing on the super soldiers in front of him, he barked “Barnes, Rogers, secure the road, nobody in or out.”
They responded simultaneously with “Yes, sir“ before jogging in the direction of said road.
Rumlow and Rollins made their way to the field hospital, Agent Sharon Carter intercepted the latter on her way to stop the former. She held out a case, “Stabilizing agent for the super soldier serum in your system. Both of you sit down so the doctor can properly administer it.”
The Commander grabbed his right hand man’s arm and steered him over to the edge of the open bay. They were away from most of the people but not too far out of the way. Magneto came over, “Thank you for prioritizing my people over your own.”
Rumlow looked at Rollins then back at the mutant “I didn’t, I ordered Bellamy to do triage. That means he prioritized severe survivable injuries over fatal or minor injuries. He probably ran to a mutant first so you wouldn’t exacerbate your people’s injuries by fleeing.”
Magneto nodded, “Still, you are the reason all of this was even possible.”
“Right, I’m guessing Victor told you what I told him about HYDRA.”
Rollins lightly punched his arm, “You’re the reason this wasn’t a total bloodbath.”
Rumlow tilted his head “What?”
Both Rollins and Magneto were shocked by his apparent ignorance. “You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?” Rumlow asked Magneto.
Rollins groaned “And here I thought the Captain was just being naive.” He looked at Rumlow “Didn’t you notice how halfa HYDRA followed your lead over orders?”
“Yeah,” he must’ve missed something. “Oh, that!” His friend and the mutant leader looked at him hopefully. “I thought that was just because I went against orders to have everyone’s family moved in case we got burned.”
Rollins laughed, “Yeah.” He looked at Magneto “Like I told Rogers, the difference between respect and loyalty.”
Now Magneto was confused but only momentarily as he realized HYDRA had one or the other from its agents while Rumlow earned both through his actions. “Indeed.”
A doctor came over, blood covering the front of her uniform “You two need a shot?”
Rumlow said “Yeah to stabilize the serum. This is permanent, right?” He picked up the case Carter gave him.
“Should be but then again, Rogers was said to be the only successful subject. Take off your armor, I need some clean skin.”
Another agent, possibly a tech who volunteered for triage or something, stood behind the doctor with a box bearing the SHIELD logo and the medical symbol. Rollins and Rumlow shed the upper half of their armor, relatively sure the doctor could not poison them if they kept an eye on the needles. In Rumlow’s case, such a thing would be easily remedied by his soulmate so he held an arm out over Rollins chest “Wait five minutes after I get injected just to be safe.” The Australian soldier nodded, holding his armor against his chest. The doctor sighed, annoyed by the precaution, as the Commander tore his sleeve off to expose his skin. The agent with the box swiftly tied a tourniquet and cleaned his elbow before the doctor carefully injected the super soldier. Rumlow groaned as the stabilizer took effect, clenching his teeth against the painful feeling of his veins on fire. Gasping as it passed, he told Rollins “Your turn.” The STRIKE point man followed his Commander’s lead to the letter, ripping his sleeve off so the agent could apply the tourniquet and the doctor could inject him.
After they were cleared, Rumlow carried his discarded armor just inside the building. Rollins followed his lead all the way to the field hospital which Rumlow could swear had more patients than there were survivors of the outdoor fight. After sanitizing their hands, they were dispatched to hold agents down while doctors stitched them up. Aside from a few techs who were monitoring the situation at other bases, everyone was either working in or receiving care in the field hospital. Those working triage were cleared by either a doctor or medic before being dispatched where they were needed. Minor injuries were treated by medics then, depending on the location of the injury, the patients were either seen by a doctor or sent straight to sanitize their hands and assist the medical personnel.
A few fighters were sent inside after about an hour to get some sleep so they could work the night watch. Hill pulled Rumlow aside for a moment so she could borrow Creed to cover Rogers. After the disaster of HYDRA’s Uprising, they needed the living legend to do damage control. His soulmate overheard her request and came over. He dispatched the mutant before returning to work. Once the worst of the injured were stabilized, Rumlow and Hill met with Magneto “We need you to get your people inside so we can run scans to check for internal injuries. If it makes you feel better, you can take the scans as soon as the doctors are done with them but we can’t turn off the cameras because pretty soon, we’re gonna be under investigation for HYDRA’s infiltration and turning off the cameras will be misinterpreted as destroying evidence. The scans could be covered under doctor-patient confidentiality and if that doesn’t work, we’ll say you stole them. Deal?”
The mutant leader took a moment to consider the offer before agreeing. “We could also use a few of your people to help hold the base until we have everything under control.”
“Creed is already yours, Commander.”
Rumlow said, “If you don’t have anywhere you absolutely need to be, why not stay here? I mean, you’re free to go anytime yet you’ve stayed.” Magneto leveled him with a look. “I’m just saying, make camp here for a few nights while we get everything sorted, lend us your mutants in the meantime and leave whenever you like. I’d like to think our people have earned some level of trust since you’re open to our doctors running tests.”
“I would control the tests.”
“Naturally.” He glanced over at Mystique. “The blue scales are her natural form, right?”
Turning his chin up, Magneto responded with, “Why do you ask?”
“What if I can get you someone who can read her soulmark? I’m assuming you haven’t figured out where it is.”
Magneto smirked. “Who would you call on?”
Hill pulled up a file on her tablet, looking between it and Mystique. “How about an expert on aliens?” Magneto turned to her and she showed him the file. “These are the markings created by the Bifrost. From what we can tell, these runes are similar to, if not actually, Asgardian letters. We also have a way to scan for soulmarks, if it’s just really well hidden.”
“The intended purpose of such a scan is to prevent misidentification, like the tattoo scam.” A trick in which someone gets ahold of another’s soulmark words, says them then tattoos the first words the second person said to them onto the trickster's body. When done right, the trick was a fan favorite in spy movies. Anyone born before their soulmate was born was a Blank, which made the trick more plausible if the one performing it was a Blank.
Magneto agreed to their terms, medical care and the words of Mystique’s soulmate in exchange for the use of his followers to keep the base running. The field hospital moved into the infirmary, which had been a priority to clear. The halls connecting the cleared rooms, all on the bottom two floors for the time being, would be cleared before the night watch took over. Rollins and Creed were scheduled for night watch in the days to come with Rumlow supervising all night shifts. Barnes and Rogers would stand guard during daylight hours under Hill’s command. They’d figure everything out in the week to come. A call to Coulson led them to his Asgardian friend, who agreed to come read the runes in exchange for protection. With that done, they had paid half of their debt up front.
Almost as soon as they had proper facilities, the doctors became much more territorial, only allowing trained nurses and field medics to assist them, though the STRIKE super soldiers still acted as orderlies until everyone was stabilized and suitably sedated. As most of the able-bodied agents were no longer allowed to work triage, they turned to Hill for orders. She and Rumlow were the de facto leaders, the former was acting Director and the latter had earned their personal respect. Carter pulled a nearly overwhelmed Hill into an office that was decidedly not yet clear. She told her commanding officer, “Rumlow got all the HYDRA agents to side with us by having their families moved out of harm’s way. Maybe we should set up a place for children and spouses, food wouldn’t be a bad idea either.”
Hill nodded. “Thank you for the advice.”
She moved to leave but Carter blocked the door. “Use your tablet, get their names and specialties. Rumlow knew his team, he knew who the medic was and who was the best at stealth. Figure out what jobs need to be done, prioritize them and assign agents by name. For now, follow Rumlow’s lead until you get their loyalty yourself.” Hill stopped and took the agent’s advice. “By the way, Rollins and I are-”
“I saw you break the brainwashing.”
They were like a dynamic duo. Rumlow had the bond of partners with each member of his team, Hill had noted. They didn’t need to speak to share a plan. Small wonder his STRIKE Team had such an impressive record. Hill froze in her scans of the agents’ files.
Guessing what she saw, Carter said, “Small wonder they chose him over HYDRA.”
With a jerky nod, Hill continued reading. Handing Carter the tablet, she said, “Consider yourself Deputy Director for the time being.”
Carter smiled. “I know most of their names already, just tell me how you want tasks prioritized.”
She opened the door as Hill began issuing orders. “All medical supplies need to be transported to the infirmary we’re using. Barracks and food come next, clear the hallways between the rooms we’re using. We’re pretty much downsizing because we don’t have the personnel to use the whole Triskelion. Two or three floors should do it. We also need to open lines of communication between agents and their families. Identifying the dead can wait, let’s not make anyone’s mate worry unnecessarily. Tomorrow we’ll need to start clearing the rest of base, identifying the fallen and moving all resources to where they’re needed. The last priority will be preparing transport but I want that launch bay closed before someone does a fly-by and sees what we got down there. The Helicarriers can’t launch but if anyone catches sight of the visible one inside, that won’t matter.”
The agents had begun breaking off with each task, Carter said “Looks like they’re on it. You might want to ask Magneto to close that bay, he kinda busted the mechanism.”
Hill looked at her. “Thank you, Carter.”
“There’s not a lot of us left, agents I mean, and the guys have always outnumbered us. Gotta stick together, right?”
“Right.”
“Besides, Jack’s one of the only people allowed in the infirmary because he can hold anybody down while they’re administering treatment. We might want to contact one of our consultants to vet the Uprising survivors, an independent investigation we can provide whoever the government sends to investigate the massive mutant battle.”
“Right. I’ll call Stark, we might need his pull too.”
“About that.” Hill gave her a weary look. “we need to work on the psych eval system, no telling how much HYDRA infiltrated that.” Holding her hands out in a calming gesture, she quickly added, “But that can all wait. You’ve already laid out our top priorities. Let’s get our bases running before we worry about the rest of the world.”
“Right.”
Carter herded the Director into one of the prepared barracks, locking the door so the woman could sit down and take a few minutes to collect herself. Sitting beside her on the cot, Sharon said, “Okay, I’m new to this whole right hand woman thing so sorry in advance if I overwhelm you.”
“Alright.” Hill took a few deep breaths. “We need to make that list, an actual agenda will show there is an end in sight.”
She showed Sharon all the tricks she used as Deputy Director under Fury and they formulated an actual plan, which would have to be approved by Rumlow as he was the unofficial co-director. Carter volunteered, “I’ll take Jack and show Brock the plan, he won’t be too annoyed if his right hand is there. I mean, we still run the risk of interrupting him and Victor but with the barracks system, it’s not like they’re going to be doing much.”
“Good, go.”
“You realize this is one of the barracks, right? Are you ready to face the masses? Rumlow is probably not gonna be swarmed when he gets out of triage, you don’t have that luxury when you get out of here.”
Maria took a few more moments to collect herself before leading the way out. As expected she had agents turning to her left and right for guidance, often in the form of new orders. Those who came seeking orders while looking dead on their feet were asked if they’d called their family yet before being sent to bed. Nobody would be left wondering and worrying all night about their relative if said agent was alive.
Agent Klein pulled Hill into the communications room once she made it that far and she began coordinating with other bases. Each one had a senior agent who took charge with a well-trusted second-in-command. Hill had to deal with more than a few overly suspicious acting base commanders when she confirmed Rumlow and his people were working with her loyal SHIELD agents. Luckily Phil Coulson at the Hub was one of her first calls so she had someone to back up that decision. No one dared call her judgement clouded, rumor had it that she had stayed faithful to SHIELD despite losing her soulmate. To say Rumlow was clouding her judgement was disrespecting the dead and the current Director.
After making calls to each and every base, including a few she’d never heard of and had Klein run a translation program on the call, Hill conference called the base commanders she deemed close allies and discussed the situation. Rumlow came in at some point during the last check ins and Klein gave him a headset to join the call. Most of the communications room was just tables covered with phones, albeit they were all secure lines. Director Hill’s calls were done through a computer console and headsets, as Klein managed the calls on a tablet. The system wasn’t SHIELD’s normal level of high tech but it wasn’t Carter-era old school either. Rumlow remained silently sitting beside Hill during the last check-ins and the start of the conference call. Agent Hand, who was supposed to be in the infirmary but insisted on joining the call with the Director, asked, “May we speak to Agent Rumlow?”
“Speaking,” said the man himself.
Agent Hand said, “You saved over half my base, I wanna thank you for that.”
Director Hill said, “To be clear, everyone is in agreement that aside from loyalists, we’re open to allowing former HYDRA agents to continue working as agents.”
“Under certain restrictions until they prove they are, in fact, not loyalists,” agreed some commander that sounded middle eastern.
“Of course.” Rumlow glanced at Hill before saying, “We plan on asking our consultants to perform an independent investigation to properly classify the fallen as either SHIELD or HYDRA. Their findings would immediately be turned over to whatever government body is assigned to the situation. If we don’t take responsibility for this epic screw up then everywhere else HYDRA has a foothold will become overrun by their corruption. The next agency might not have a handy-dandy turncoat to turn the tide, incentive program to shut down, or brainwashing to break. Let’s not let SHIELD be a learning experience, let’s make it the beginning of the end.” They agreed.
Hill said, “Thank you. I will be sending you all a list of bases along with a list of names to watch out for. I am not accusing the agents on the second list of terrorist ties, I simply believe we need to err on the side of caution and not allow them to hoard too much power. We’re gonna have to rebuild, let’s do it right. We all know how close we came to losing everything.”
“How did you come to create this list of names?”
Rumlow answered, “With Fury dead and HYDRA exposed, the opportunity for a power play may be too great to pass up for some. Better to be safe than sorry. Let’s learn from this, not be the lesson.”
“Alright.” The smile was evident in Agent Hand’s voice. To be fair, the last part of his statement would be fitting coming from Rogers.
Hill wrapped up the call and Rumlow cleared the room. “You and Carter have got to stop doing that.”
“Who’s your third?”
“What?”
“If Carter and I are first and second, who’s your third? We need to stagger sleep schedules, a day shift and a night shift ain’t gonna work in the long run. You, me and Carter can each cover a shift but we all need to sleep tonight before we can start working on a schedule.”
“I don’t know.”
Rumlow stood and pulled Klein back in. “Think you can hold down the fort for a few hours?”
The tech froze in shock. Hill asked Rumlow, “Why him?”
“He managed the calls, I don’t think a lot of people are gonna be awake tonight.”
Klein stuttered out. “I can manage if you need me to.”
Rumlow told Hill, “Find an empty bunk and get some sleep, I’m gonna check on the guards then do the same.” To Klein, he said, “Make sure everybody who can call their family does, that’s your job tonight. I also need you to run facial rec on the infirmary, send out some kind of message to the families of the agents in there. I’ll lock the door when I come back in from checking the perimeter. You literally only have to monitor calls and stay awake, got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
Hill followed Rumlow out. “Do you not have a second setting?”
“You are not the first person to ask me that.” Rumlow rolled his shoulder. “Klein will be fine. I just scared him into fight-or-flight mode which will keep him awake.”
“So you planned that?”
“Sort of.” He opened the door to one of the improvised barracks. “Looks like there’s an empty one.” As soon as Hill sat down, he turned off the light because her cot was the last one and it was always easier to sleep under the cover of darkness. Making the trip to the night watch guards outside, he checked in and informed them that the door to the base would be locked for a few hours. While he was with Hill then the guards, his team and soulmate were making rounds through the Triskelion before locking down the upper levels. Locking up the lower levels, all the rooms that they weren’t using as well as the primary points of entry, he retired to the Brotherhood barracks. As Sabretooth’s soulmate, he was the only non-mutant allowed to stay in the room Magneto had claimed for his people.
The next morning, Brock and Sharon sat with Maria to talk strategy over breakfast while Jack ran interference with the rest of the agents. Using the same tough love approach he had on Cameron Klein the night before, Commander Rumlow helped Director Hill wake up on her first coffee. Once they had a plan, the STRIKE Team gathered all of the agents except for Klein and those in the infirmary. Director Hill laid out the agenda before issuing orders to agents by name. She spent the next four hours coordinating with other bases to ensure no foul play occurred. Her watchlist was expanded upon, explaining her credible reasons to be worried about the agents on it. She ordered the smaller bases to evacuate to their nearest primary base, as the primary bases were more defensible.
After hours spent making calls and getting everyone on the same page, half of her shift was up. Carter was due to get some shut eye in another two hours so that she wouldn't be lagging, they were staggering sleep schedules to slowly get everyone used to the three shift system. Klein was the de facto head of communications since he set up the central hub; he'd need to pick two subordinates as would every de facto department head for the three shift system to work. They weren't calling it a chain of command while SHIELD was essentially splintered into base factions. STRIKE was escorting agents to the upper floors one at a time, snapping pictures of the deceased to run through the database. Between Steve and Stark, who was called to help Rogers do damage control, they had a week before they would have to face the music. Hill had a week to get everything running smoothly, she called Coulson directly to have a voice of reason. While most base commanders were like Hand, suspicious and demanding, he was helpful and ready to compromise as needed. “We have a week, Phil. A week to repair an agency that would rather stay shattered than risk being broken again. In one week, ready or not, here they come. I can't even fall back on Rumlow like I planned because apparently he's the highest ranking HYDRA agent to survive this.”
“Did you call for advice?”
“Yes. The watchlist are those who would rather be independent, compartmentalize like that's not what got us into this mess, and I can't even be sure if they'll give me their list of survivors,”
Phil said, “Randolph.”
“Your Asgardian friend?”
“Keep him from Thor and he can be your rock.”
“Thank you, Phil.”
“Was Rumlow really your first choice?”
“He stopped a war in under five minutes.”
“Eh, he's a good choice, I'm not judging. Have your tech send Agent Skye the communication logs. We'll find some more HYDRA agents outside SHIELD. Maybe we can save Rumlow from taking the fall.”
“Lord knows he would.”
“That's what I don't get. Why'd he do it? No offense, Maria.”
“His soulmate is a mutant and that's all I'm allowed to say.”
“HYDRA would've experimented on his mate, I get it.”
“Let's keep that between us. My tech is sleeping off a stressful day followed by leading the night shift. He was just making sure everyone who survived contacted their families. I'm worried Rodriguez and the others won't allow HYDRA agents that privilege. Rumlow won them over by saving their families. If he told them to jump off a cliff then we'd have a serious staffing problem, they trust him that much.”
“Keep them away from cliffs, got it. Anything else?”
“Can you keep an eye on those names I sent on the latest watchlist and have your tech check our systems for in house taps?”
“Will do. You're not alone, I'm sure you feel that way but you're not.”
“Who are your two? I have Rumlow and Carter, who do you have for the other shifts?”
“May and Hand.”
“Let's start keeping track of each other, it might help unify us.”
“Will do. Bye, Maria.”
“Bye, Phil.” Leaving the com center, Maria made her way to the morgue to check Fury's pockets. “You're down here too.”
Natasha spun to face her. “Director.”
“Alright, hand it over.” When she looked ready to deny any wrongdoing, Maria said, “Whatever you took, hand it over before I get Sabretooth to search you.”
She handed over a pager. “What's it for?”
An old friend, a last resort, an ace in the hole, Fury's own many answers flitted through her head as Maria pocketed the device. “Let's load him back in and lock this place down. You heard me this morning.” Romanoff huffed but complied. “Now follow me.” Maria took her to Magneto. “Black Widow, you're going to liaise with the Brotherhood for now. No more disappearing to do your own thing. Since I can't trust you to stay with other agents and follow orders, you'll have to monitor the mutants' situation.” To Magneto, she said, “I'm putting her under your watch. Please record any issues. I haven't decided if New SHIELD can afford to keep an assassin of her reputation.” Hill left them to get acquainted while she got lunch. The previous day was crazy but they found a way to meld and get through it together. Now, the agents were learning to lean on each other instead of relying solely on their leaders.
Halfway through the week they were supposed to have, Agent Klein woke Rumlow up. “CIA’s here.”
“Week’s not up yet.”
“I know, Hill wants you and Agent Carter outside with her.”
“Got it.” Reaching for his pants was the only signal Klein needed to get out. Brock told Victor, “If you wanna come, remember to stay inside out of sight.”
Quickly getting dressed, he and Carter exited the building together. The first thing Rumlow noticed was that the CIA agent was standing with two of their guards flanking him, meaning he was escorted on foot from the gate after the guards called for back-up to escort him. The man immediately focused on Brock. “Agent Rumlow, I’m Agent Ross-”
“Ross?”
“No relation.”
“I’m pretty sure Culver constitutes domestic terrorism yet there was no trial.”
“That’s a good point. I’m actually here to get your terrorist contacts. In exchange, I’ve been authorized to offer your people immunity.”
Carter said, “Your visit was unscheduled, we’re still sifting through files to get the names of as many HYDRA contacts as possible.”
Ross turned his focus from Rumlow to the trio at large. “Can you give me anything so I can get started on the paperwork?”
Rumlow said, “Senator Stern and Secretary Pierce, though I think the latter is dead near the top floor. We’ll send you our security footage of the battle before we move the bodies, decomposition is probably not conducive to preserving the crime scene.”
“Not really.”
“You don’t have the wherewithal to offer immunity to any foreign agents.”
“Actually I do.” Ross turned slightly before remembering. “I forgot the papers in my car, damnit.”
“Tell us where and one of your escorts will go get it.”
“Paranoid much?” Rumlow only leveled him with a look. “Right. All relevant papers are inside the glove box and console, there’s also a binder.” One of his escorts left to retrieve the papers while the other took a step back, knowing that being close was not the tactical advantage it was cracked up to be. “Now you trust me.”
“Just the opposite, easier to shoot you if you can’t steal the gun.” Rumlow said, “Assuming these papers are real, I’d like to read over them all before giving you anything more than Sterns and the video. You’ll still have to come back at the end of the week we were given.”
“Alright.”
The escort returned with all of the promised papers and handed them to Rumlow before the two guards moved back into flanking position. Commander Rumlow handed the files to Rollins who was waiting just inside. “Get these to the Director’s office.” One of the cleared rooms was an office that Hill, Carter and Rumlow led their shifts from. Returning to his post flanking Hill, he heard her dismiss Agent Ross. She emphasized the word Commander when speaking to Ross like the STRIKE leader cared about his title. Once they were inside after Agent Ross left, Rumlow said, “I’m going back to bed.” Creed fell into step with him on the way back.
After surrendering their intel, STRIKE, Deputy Director Carter and probationary Agent Creed checked in on the other bases to ensure they were secure and in compliance with Director Hill’s orders. Rodriguez was indeed defying orders to try to create his own SHIELD and was swiftly replaced by Rollins as interim Base Commander until the personnel assigned to the base could be properly vetted for a better choice. When everything was said and done, the task force set up to hunt down active HYDRA agents was practically swimming in so much actionable intelligence that pardons for turncoats who had given their loyalty to SHIELD were a piece of cake to obtain. The strongest foothold had become the source of the Neo-Nazi bastards' ultimate downfall.
Returning to the Triskelion, Director Hill took one look at Rumlow’s team and authorized time off. Unfortunately for Rollins, Carter did not get the same breaks as Deputy Director that he did as Lt. Commander of STRIKE. Hill held Victor back to make his appointment to SHIELD official, he was now Level One Agent Victor Creed.
While some called Rumlow "Captain HYDRA", the fact remained that his status was similar to, if surpassing, the legend of Captain America. He was known as the man who turned HYDRA on itself, who saved thousands of lives, who stopped a war with words, who was willing to sacrifice everything and smart enough to make the right sacrifices. Nothing was going to take away from that, not even the revelation that he was involved with the mutant known as Sabretooth. Were that fact to become public knowledge, it would only serve to explain why mutants were involved in the Battle for the Triskelion. Commander Brock Rumlow, SHIELD STRIKE Team Alpha, ex-Navy SEAL, HYDRA Enhanced. He wore every title like a badge of honor, no matter its true value.