XIX

Whisper

Without further prompting, Steve leaned forward and shut the radio off.

Alfred didn't say anything about the news report, just continued muttering incoherently underneath his breath as he held the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip. Steve had volunteered to drive when Alfred picked him up—the personification seemed distracted, still did now—yet somehow, Alfred managed the maneuvers of a tried-and-true New Yorker who had braved the streets time and time again. Leaning back in his seat, Steve glanced at Alfred and said, "What's going on? The report was a little vague."

"Not entirely sure, I just know that Jess has been hospitalized along with a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents She called me less than a few minutes ago," Alfred replied absently, brow furrowing as he cut a few taxis off. Shaking his head, he said, "It's hard for me to get a good sense of the situation right now."

"Too much interference from another source?" Steve asked quietly.

Alfred nodded. "It is a hospital, I can feel everyone who is in pain there," he replied, glancing in a mirror before entering the hospital driveway.

Steve grimaced. "I can only imagine how you handled the war," he said as Alfred pulled dup to the hospital main entrance. "If there are S.H.I.E.L.D. agents here, then Fury will already be here unless he's on the way," he said, glancing at Alfred, who nodded nervously. "I'll check on Ms. Norwood after I locate Fury and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel. Park the car, and the meet me inside" he said, undoing his seatbelt before pushing the passenger door open and stepping out.

"You don't think this is one of Fury's games, do you?" Alfred asked, stopping Steve in his motion.

"He wouldn't mess around with something like this, especially if one of his own was injured. I think especially since Ms. Norwood is a federal agent, and Fury's butted heads with the government enough over the New York debacle," Steve said reassuringly. "I'll go find her and text you the room number."

Alfred nodded nervously before allowing Steve to shut the door so he could leave the driveway and find a parking spot.

Steve, meanwhile, turned and head into the hospital, fumbling with his wallet so that he could reach for his S.H.I.E.L.D. ID card, aware that he was about to pull a Fury-style maneuver. As he crossed the hospital lobby, he saw the receptionist begin to stand up as she gestured towards the sign that clearly marked hospital visiting hours. He lifted the ID card and said, "S.H.I.E.L.D. business. Where are Agent Jessica Norwood and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel who arrived earlier this evening?"

The receptionist stiffened. "Sir, you could be the president and I wouldn't tell you where they are without the proper authorization and permissions from Director Fury," she said in a stiff tone.

"Did Director Fury not put me on the authorization list?" Steve asked, careful to keep his tone even to avoid a potential confrontation as he handed over his ID card for her inspection.

"Let me check," she said, glancing warily at him for a moment before she sat down again to access the computer records.

Steve waited patiently as she worked, pulling his phone to make sure that Fury hadn't already texted him with the proper room number and putting it away when he saw the usual screen. He tried to figure out how Hydra could have slipped into Fury's ranks without Fury noticing, aside from the fact that the organization had somehow managed to survive despite the loss of their leader at the end of the war. Hopefully Fury still had the security tapes of the actual attack, giving him something to study and perhaps identify some of those involved.

First things first. He had to find Agent Norwood and then identify the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents involved so he could work backwards in order to ascertain if anyone had been killed or captured earlier that night.

"Ah, here we go, Steven Rogers. I'm assuming that your companion will be along soon?" the receptionist asked as she printed out a visitor's pass, a list of room numbers visible on the pass. "There's a second name on the authorization list that doesn't look like one of your agents."

"Yes, he's coming, he's just parking the car," Steve said, accepting both his ID card and the visitor's pass. He glanced at the pass for a moment before he asked, "What does the list of numbers refer to?

"Oh, the room numbers that you are permitted to visit as determined by Director Fury. Meant to prevent you from wandering around and going where you're not permitted. You're required to wear it at all times within the hospital," she replied coolly and Steve understood in that moment that she had not forgiven him for the earlier transgression.

"Duly noted. Thank you, ma'am," he said before glancing at the pass for the first room number and then pinned it to his shirt. As he had yet to find Fury, he decided that checking the S.H.I. . personnel was critical, especially if one was still consciously and felt up to answering the few questions Steve had about the attack.

The first room held a male officer that Steve didn't recognize, but whose rank on the chart at the foot of the bed marked him as a lieutenant. His eyes fluttered briefly when Steve paused in the doorway, but soon fell still and didn't move again as Steve briefly scanned his chart. The heart rate monitor continued at its steady pace as he then left the room for the second number on the visitor's pass, mindful of the hospital security guards that passed him several times.

The next occupant, however, was awake.

And Steve recognized her right away.

Agent 56 was propped up in her bed despite the visible bandages down her arm and shoulder. A bulge around her middle underneath the hospital gown revealed the further damage she'd sustained during the attack. She glanced up when he entered, visibly tensing for a moment until she recognized him. "Captain, um, hi?" she said, sounding more bewildered than anything. Steve frowned—she'd been more formal the first time they met—but then he noticed the machine on her right, the embedded IV line, and the relaxed expression on her face.

"They've got you on the good stuff, then?" he asked, quickly glancing at her chart.

"Mm, I told them that I had better not feel an ounce of pain or I'd kill them later, once I got out," 56 remarked, gesturing vaguely towards the morphine bag. She set her book down before leaning against the pillow. "Any particular reason why you are here, Captain? I'm not really going to sleep anytime soon, so I wouldn't mind a quick chitchat."

"It's only been several hours since the attack, past morning even. I'm surprised you're not falling asleep already," he said lightly, pulling up a chair to the side of the bed.

56 shrugged. "Can't sleep, to be honest," she said quietly, shrugging one shoulder in dismissal. "Every time I close my eyes, all I see is that crazy, red-haired bitch and that pet muscle of hers charging straight for me, and I really don't want that to be the last thing I see before I die," she said in a small voice, seeming to shrink down on herself. "And I'm scared that something will happen to me if I do sleep."

Steve reached out and gently squeezed her hand. "Don't worry, I'll be going out after them so you can rest easy," he whispered reassuringly.

56 quietly regarded him before she asked, "And you'll bring my friend home?"

"Of course. Who is your friend?" Steve asked gently with a soft smile.

She smiled weakly, the heart rate monitor at her bedside starting to beep more rapidly in warning. "Agent Thirteen, sir. She's my best friend and sister, sir," she replied, her voice sliding into a murmur.

Steve nodded even as he glanced at the door to see Fury standing there. "I'll find her, don't worry," he said, squeezing her wrist gently before standing up. 56's eyes slid close into sleep as Steve crossed the room and slipped out after Fury. "What's the current situation?" he asked, careful to keep his voice down.

"Absolute disarray. We're still trying to figure out how the hell Hydra got into headquarters in the first place, and I seem to be the only one who is worried about where Hydra is hiding out there since despite my best efforts, they're still alive and holed up somewhere," Fury said in a low voice as he led Steve down the hall towards another room door, where not only it was partially open, but Steve could also see that the room lights were on. "Found Jones when I went looking for you, directed him to Jess's room. Luckily, the agent survived, but she won't be going anywhere soon. Evidently, she and Agent Thirteen were present for Hydra's opening assault, and the two were quickly separated," Fury said, pushing the door open without bothering to knock.

Jess looked unusually awake for someone who, only hours ago had been on the receiving end of a Hydra attack. Unlike Agent 56, she was fully aware of her surroundings and was in the middle of a heated discussion with Alfred until Fury walked in. She nodded once to Steve as Fury closed the door behind them and then he reached for a computer bag nearby. "Captain," she greeted.

"Agent Norwood," Steve said before taking a seat in the other plastic chair in the room. "I take it that you're feeling all right?" he asked as Fury pulled out and opened a laptop.

"Just feeling a little woozy from the pain meds, but other than that, I feel relatively fine," Jess replied. She glanced at Alfred, who still looked unusually nervous. "He won't calm down though, even after I told him that everything is going to be all right."

Steve raised an eyebrow before glancing at Alfred, who tried and failed to arrange his expression into something more normal. It took Steve a few seconds, however, to first recall and then realize where he'd seen that face before sans relief. "Humor him," he said, turning to Jess for a moment before turning to Fury. "Do we have any data on Hydra's location?" he asked.

"No, I've been waiting for data that my London team was supposed to collect a while ago on suspected Hydra activity in their old stomping grounds," Fury said, pulling up what looked like security footage from a street camera. Steve leaned forward and recognized the steps of Buckingham Palace, where a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents milled about while trying to manage crowd control.

"Yeah, Arthur gave me a flashdrive to give you that went along similar lines to that," Alfred said, casually leaning back in his seat next to Jess's bed. After a moment of silence, he looked up to find everyone staring at him. "What?"

"How long have you been holding onto that flashdrive?" Fury asked, his eye twitching slightly.

"Ummm…a couple hours? I really hadn't had much of a chance to see Arthur until tonight, we were all over the place for a couple days, remember?" Alfred said, completely oblivious to Fury's glare as he fished around in his pockets for the flashdrive. Fury's scowl deepened but smoothed back over right as Alfred turned back to give him the device. "How long have you known about Hydra activity in Europe?" Alfred asked as Fury turned around to stick the flashdrive into the computer.

"Two seconds, I've had suspicions for much longer, but no firm confirmation," Fury replied as a map appeared on the computer screen, green lines against a black background. "Although clearly, I haven't been vigilant enough if they managed to blatantly slip through the cracks and into my ranks like the way they did."

Steve merely raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Instead, he leaned forward for a better look while Fury lifted the laptop and placed it on a table so they could all see. A map of Central Europe lay before them, yellow dots scattered about Germany and several parts of France. "Are the dots the locations of suspected Hydra activity?" he asked after a moment.

"Correct. The map itself is based off borrowed data from several regional energy plants. I had several pilots based in England perform flyovers under the pretense of surveys for those plants, using the geographical coordinates taken from where the energy is either the strongest or the lines intersect to try and find any visible landmarks," Fury explained as he pressed a few commands to zoom the image closer. "What first tipped me off was the disappearance of a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission in that particular area a few months ago. A recon scout sent to investigate the disappearance reported that he'd skirted close to danger in the form of a Hydra advanced recon security team."

"Seems like you're on top of things," Jess remarked.

"Up to a certain point, as last night proved. Now, I suspect that our Hydra friends from within the ranks may have gone to southeastern Germany, to an old Cold War operating facility that S.H.I.E.L.D. utilized after the Soviet Union collapsed. We stopped using it six years ago, so we didn't have it very long. Locals are convinced the facility is haunted, since apparently the Soviets did human experimentation in that facility. We saw nothing out of the ordinary," Fury said, tapping a few commands to pull up a layout of the facility in question.

"Let me guess: the facility has the biggest energy draw after years of nothing?" Steve asked, glancing up at Fury.

"And whatever Hydra is cooking there, it can't be good. What worries me the most is that the Hydra agents took four personifications," Fury said, leaning forward to minimize the map and pull up what Steve suspected to be S.H.I.E.L.D. rosters before leaving the computer to check that the hospital room door was closed.

"What? Which personifications were taken?" Jess demanded.

"The two Germans, the Swiss, and the lady from Liechtenstein. Apparently, they tried to grab the darker-haired Italian twin as well, but he screamed bloody murder and they let him go out of fear of getting caught too soon," Fury said, leaning against the table.

"Which means that Ludwig would have home field advantage, correct?" Jess asked, gingerly sitting up in bed to better see Fury.

"No," Steve said, startling both her and himself. "Not quite. They were both alive when the Third Reich was around, I remember because the Commandos arrested them both at one point. Then I read online that Germany split in half after the war, into East and West Germany. Which means they would have taken a half, each, correct?" he said, glancing up at Alfred, who nodded.

"Ludwig took the western half, Gilbert took the east. When the halves reunited in 1990, there was a distinct enough identity in the population that they could share dual roles in the government. Now, on paper, they still share it, but everyone knows that Gilbert is the one causing ninety percent of the paperwork for Ludwig," Alfred explained. "Part of it has to do with the fact that Gilbert reclaimed his title of 'Prussia' about five years ago, it's a little tricky to explain. Even I'm not entirely sure since Arthur never really explained it to me…stuff happened before he could."

Steve nodded as Fury raised an eyebrow. "So then Gilbert has home field advantage. Lovely,' he said, sighing. To Steve, he said, "Your primary objective, when you go after them, will be to retrieve all and any S.H.I.E.L.D. agents out there. Then retrieve the personifications. Unlike you and me, they most likely have more experience at this and can hold out longer. My agents, on the other hand, cannot hold out as long."

"But the personifications-"

"Priorities, Agent Norwood. I'm not leaving anyone behind, but my agents are humans with one shot at life," Fury said, turning back to the computer. "Cap, I was hoping you could lead this effort, maybe clean up a little Hydra while you're at it. Also figure out whose banner they're rallying under so we can put a name and face to the assailant."

"Will do, sir," Steve said, getting an idea. "Would this count as an Avengers mission?"

"Not quite, I want to keep it low profile. Maybe five people at most, I trust your judgment in selecting team members," Fury said, pulling up a program and typing a few commands in. "Jones, if you're up for it, perhaps you should head out as well, I can't imagine that Beilschmidt and Rogers parted on good terms during the forties."

"Actually, he's got a good point. If you're up for the trip, that is," Steve said, twisting around to face Alfred. "The last time I spoke to either Beilschmidt sibling, we were arranging for his release back to the Axis troops, about a month before I crashed the plane in the North Atlantic."

"That, and someone needs to make sure you don't have another flight mishap," Alfred said, grinning as he nudged Steve with an elbow.

"Wait…" Jess said, catching their attention. "I can't let you out of my sight, President's orders. You know that, Alfred," she said, frowning as she made eye contact with Alfred. "Especially on a mission like that," she said, straightening in her bed even as Alfred reached for his jacket.

"Jess, I'll clear it with the President when I get back, I-" he began, but Fury stepped forward.

"Norwood, I was hoping you would stay closer to home, I need a liaison between my officers and communications team and the personifications," Fury interrupted, discreetly nudging Alfred towards the door. "And you're not exactly in a position to pursue Jones, the doctors haven't cleared you yet for active duty again."

Neither man heard Jess's reply; Alfred nudged Steve out into the hall, where he closed the door again before walking down the hall. Steve had to jog slightly to keep up with Alfred, but could see that the other man was agitated. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Alfred finally stopped, leaning on a wall for support. "I can't let her come. I've lost four handlers, all soldiers, to a warzone. I don't want her to die too," he said quietly, glancing up at Steve. "Fury's right. They're only humans, with one shot at this, and war, even a mission like this, counts as unnecessary danger when I can't die." Standing up he glanced down the hall before he said, "Do you have any idea how many times I've been shredded throughout World War Two alone? Mike never approved of the risks I took, but I always took the risky assignments because I knew we needed the men elsewhere. I can resurrect myself. They can't."

"No one is blaming you, Alfred. Speak to Jess before you go, and tell her so she sees where you're coming from. I'll get a team assembled, and we meet in six hours," Steve offered, nodding back to the hospital room. He paused when he saw that Alfred still stared down the hall, as though unseeing anything around him. "Alfred?"

"Just thinking. We never found the sniper that killed Mike," Alfred said finally, turning back to Steve. "I would have liked to have had that, for closure. I talked about it with Mattie, Francis and Arthur, and we think the sniper may have been a mercenary hired to kill me. I couldn't get an idea of the sniper's nationality that day because my senses were still fucked up at the time. I couldn't even get their location." He shrugged, and then added, "But even if they were young then, they'll be old now, if not dead. So not in a position to hunt anyone anymore."

"No longer holding a grudge, then?"

"There's no point, really, not when I'm used to not getting my way on those terms," Alfred said, shrugging a shoulder. Shaking his head, he asked, "So, this strike team. Aside from you and me, who were you thinking of asking to help?"

"Probably Natasha or Clint, they're low-profile enough that no one would noticed their disappearance, but not question it if they were to disappear," Steve said, nudging Alfred back towards the room. "Go talk to her, and we'll rendezvous in six hours."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n!"

Steve laughed, aiming a fake smack in Alfred's direction before heading towards the doors. "I'm taking the car, just for that."

"Hey!"

"You haven't had a chance to ask Fury to drive his car yet, that one flies," Steve said, grinning as he turned back in time to see Alfred perk up in interest before bolting back down the hall. Twirling the car keys in his hand, he headed towards the parking lot, already thinking of where to find the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents he had in mind for this venture.

A/N: Hi. Not dead, I promise, but after January (last update date, oops), things got a little difficult in real life over here for several months. I apologize about the delay. This story is not dead! :)