EIGHT DAYS AGO:

Hydra Agent Marcus Bailey rose from the metal chair with a sigh as his subordinates hauled their unconscious prisoner up between them and dragged him from the room.

As he exited the room himself an aid ran up to him, eyes wide.

"Agent Bailey, you have a visitor."

Bailey frowned. "Since when?"

The aid fidgeted a little. "She says it is urgent."

"She?"

The aid nodded.

Bailey made his way up to ground level at a pace faster than his usual, coming through the double doors into the lobby of their facility to find a familiar woman standing there.

He stopped, and they looked at each other a long moment.

"What are you doing here?" He asked finally.

Her icy expression did not waver. "We need to speak. Alone."

With a glance to the guards at the front doors Bailey nodded. He walked back through the double doors and held one open for her.

He led her down the hall and into the guard break room, which for the moment was vacant.

Door falling closed behind them, Bailey turned to her. "What's going on?"

She raised a single eyebrow. "Show a little patience, Marcus."

Bailey shook his head. "You only show up places with things are about to go south. What's happened?"

The woman sighed, folding her arms to tap her fingers against her elbow. "I wish I could say you were incorrect, Marcus, but alas something has gone very wrong."

"Define something."

The woman narrowed her eyes. "Shield has begun to suspect… things." She said. "We don't know how, and just between you and me I believe they have someone on the inside."

Bailey's eyes widened. "What do they know?"

She shook her head. "We are still unsure. But it is suspected that this location has been compromised… along with some knowledge of what is done here."

Bailey was frozen. "H...how could that happen? After all this time?"

"Like I said," the woman frowned. "I believe they have a spy somewhere within our ranks."

"Where? Who?"

"I don't know." She grumbled. "I'm trying to dig them up, but they are hidden well."

Bailey shook his head. "If… if this base is discovered… we are not built to withstand an outward attack."

"You don't stand a chance." The woman agreed. "And that's even if they don't send the Avengers in."

"Are…" Bailey swallowed. "Are we evacuating?"

The woman scowled. "No."

Bailey stared. "...No?"

She nodded. "You and I both know how the superiors feel about this operation of yours. They do not deem you worthy of saving."

Bailey looked down to his shoes. He stared at them a long time - the scuffs on the toes, the worn soles and the cracking elastic.

"You have to unlock it."

Bailey's head snapped up. "What?"

The woman was deadly serious, too. "You don't have long, Marcus. You have to unlock the weapon. Now."

Bailey felt his mouth open and close several times, sound fighting to come out. "H-how? Do you know how long I've been trying to unlock that cursed thing? Seventeen years! I can't suddenly have it in my hands in a week!"

"You don't have a week." The woman said. "You have hours. Days at most."

"It cannot be done!"

"Not the way you've been doing it." The woman concurred. "You need to think bigger."

"I cannot do anything more than what we have been doing!" Bailey cried. "Anything else and I risk killing us all!"

"Because you're not all going to die when Shield gets ahold of you." She said.

Bailey blinked at her. "What would you have me do then?"

The smile he was answered with almost made him wish he hadn't asked.