Chapter Text
Time was a weird thing. It rarely felt like it just pasted normally. Time was either running or slowing down to an unbearable glacial pace. James had experienced both recently.
Whenever he was with the Zemo family, time was just flying by. This was best seen in Carl, Heike’s and Helmut’s son who would start school next year. It sometimes felt like yesterday to James, that he had first held the small baby boy in his arms.
But now, as he was waiting for Vidak, time just kept crawling slower than it should be possible. That James spent his time waiting with imagining what could have gone wrong did not make the situation more bearable.
EKO Scorpion was a thing of the past. Officially they had been disbanded because their service was no longer needed, so everyone got an honourable discharge. Unofficially, their Hydra investigations got too close to a bunch of Sokovian politicians and other officials that liked to look the other way as long as they were paid well.
Though this set back had stopped neither Zemo nor some of his men. James had never been officially part of the Sokovian military so not much changed for him.
Vidak and Mirko were working undercover for Hydra. A guy named von Strucker was establishing a new base in Sokovia right under everyone’s nose. Though all information Zemo and James had gotten so far, had let them to belief that they would need help. While Zemo’s family was quite rich, they now lacked the men and the equipment for a full-on raid.
Additionally, in his last message Vidak had said that they were working on something very dangerous. He hadn’t specified, which was why James was standing around their secret meeting spot doing nothing but staring at his watch.
Vidak finally arrived about twenty minutes late.
“Sorry for making you wait, I had the feeling that someone followed me, so I made sure to not lead anyone here.”
“Are they suspecting you?” James asked.
“No, but Strucker seems to be a bit paranoid. He is recruiting more and more men. But the big thing I need you to know is the sceptre and the experiments they are doing on humans.”
James held back a curse. Of course, Hydra was experimenting on humans again, they just couldn’t stop.
“What sceptre?” he asked.
“I’m sure you’ve seen some footage of what happened in New York recently.”
James huffed. “It was hard to miss. Every news outlet was talking about the almost alien invasion.”
“True. Depending on what footage you saw, the guy leading the whole thing, Loki, had a big magical or whatever sceptre with him. It got confiscated by SHIELD and now it is here, together with a doctor called List. He wants to harness the power in the sceptre to create people with superhuman abilities.”
“Do you think he can do that?”
“I don’t know, but he also only started a few days ago. The ‘volunteers’ they have for their experiments a mostly young people that had been part of the recent protests. Most of them hardly more than kids.”
Vidak took a USB-stick out of his pocket and handed it to James. “I saved as much of their data, as I could.”
“I’ll hand this over to Zemo, thanks.”
“Tell him, that we need to do something soon.”
“He knows that. He has done little else for the past days than starring at the base’s floorplans.”
“Good. I’ll try to stay in touch.”
“Be careful.”
“You too.”
After saying their good-byes James went back to the Zemo estate outside of Novi Grad.
Ever since EKO Scorpion had been disbanded, Zemo had put their new headquarters there. It had been a very logical choice, since the house was big and it had only two permanent residents. Zemo’s farther Heinrich and the butler Oeznik. Both had been quite sceptical of James in the beginning but by now they at least did not stare at him any longer with open distrust.
James found Zemo in their strategy room. The big table in the centre and most wall space was plastered with documents, maps and pictures.
James handed him the USB-stick and gave him a summary of what Vidak had reported.
“Since they keep hiring more and more men, we will not stand a chance with our current numbers”, Zemo said while he opened the new data on his laptop.
They look through it briefly.
“I think it is time to acquire new allies”, Zemo said, still staring at a picture of the sceptre Vidak had mentioned.
James nodded. He did not need to ask who Zemo meant. They had talked about it ever since they heard the news that Captain America had been found. And now, that Steve had some powerful new allies himself, they would be the perfect back up against Hydra. But they were working with SHIELD and James and Zemo knew that some of their people belonged to Hydra. This had been the one thing that had stopped James from jumping on a plane to the US to see Steve.
“I’ll talk to my farther and Oeznik. If we can take the jet, we will have to worry less about getting your arm through the airport security.”
“I think Heike should come with us. I bet Heinrich would be delighted to host Carl for a longer sleepover.”
Zemo raised an eyebrow. “Why should we take her? She has no training regarding fighting or espionage.”
“That’s exactly why we should take her. If we want to approach a group like the Avengers, someone who will not be perceived as a threat is invaluable.”
“I can see your point James, but I still do not like the idea.”
“I know. I don’t want her in this mess either, but we do not have that many options right now.”
Zemo nodded. “I will talk to her.”
He left the room while James stayed behind to stare at the pictures of the Avengers they had put on one wall.
The prospect of seeing Steve again filled James equally with excitement and anxiety.