023

"You're finally awake" was the first thing Norman mentioned once he had released the man from his freeze, of course he wasn't stupid enough to release him completely, just enough to have a chat.

The man with the metal arm didn't mention anything and just took his eyes all over the area, clearly he was looking for clues about what happened.

"They are all dead, well, some of your friends are still alive, but it won't be for too long" mentioned Osborn again while the restrained man only looked around because he couldn't find anything that could give him a clue as to what happened except for the words of the man in the black suit.

Norman knew he would not receive an answer from the man, so he simply moved a little closer to him until he was facing the man, "Do you know who you are?" asked Osborn suddenly.

However, he still didn't receive an answer, "I don't mean what they told that you were" Norman continued, "I mean what you were before they found you and turned you into a killing machine" for the first time Norman saw an answer from the man, which no doubt told him that he was on the right track.

"Oh, that's if you're interested" commented Osborn superficially, "That's funny, you know the story talks about you, Captain America's best friend, a man who gave his life for his country" Norman began to say as the man began to move in his restraints erratically, almost as if he was going through a great deal of pain.

"James Buchanan Barnes" he finished by saying and at that moment Barnes opened his eyes in surprise.

…

Norman was currently in the cryogenic capsules of the others Winter Soldiers, at first he thought about thawing them like Bucky in order to have more allies, but after reading the reports about the behaviors they were showing he decided not to do it.

Instead, he was just taking a considerable amount of blood samples, later they would be useful to see what went wrong in the recreation of the Super Soldier Serum and with luck and perseverance he could fix that flaw.

Once he was satisfied with the amount of samples he had he simply ended the subjects' lives with a shot to their hearts before cleanly severing their heads.

The only survivor of the entire facility simply watched the scene with a bit of disinterest and a thoughtful countenance, it seemed that the deaths of these men did not matter even a little to him.

Finally Norman began to make his way to another room being followed in the distance by James, who although showing no hostility against the other person, did show a guard up against him.

James was soon able to deduce where the man was going, the command center, however he had been there before, so he did not understand what he was going to do there again.

Norman paid no mind to the man following him, for his part once he reached the command center he simply started typing rapidly, a few minutes later the lights in the facility changed to red as a countdown was displayed on all the screens.

"Self Destruct System" stated Barnes, the first time he had spoken since Norman woke him up and released him.

"When the time passes they will find it strange that the people in the facility have not made any contact and the suspicions will only grow because you did not accomplish your mission, which means they will come and investigate the entire facility looking to find out what the hell happened here" commented Norman as he began to move to another side, he still had some time before the process was complete.

"I prefer to keep everything that happened here within anonymity as much as possible" he finished by saying, at the same time he entered some kind of armory and started looking for something.

James mentioned absolutely nothing and just watched as the man in the black suit began to search like crazy, he just watched as he seemed to find what he assumed were some sort of blueprints before stopping his search.

Norman just walked over to Barnes "A tip, try to keep your eye on the ground" he mentioned to him before he touched the man's shoulder with the metal arm and simply disappeared.

A few minutes later the facility was completely destroyed by an explosion, the fire consumed everything and left nothing that could be used.

…

Walter Hardy was in a very stressful situation, first his boss made him infiltrate a facility that was practically better kept than Fort Knox and that was a lot to say because he had once robbed it without anyone noticing that fact.

But this time the security simply stumped him, she was almost nothing away from being caught twice, that was a huge hit to his pride, how is that even possible, he had always believed that there was no place in the world secure enough for him to not be able to get into it.

But with this new experience he realized that he was not as infallible as he thought he was and what bothered him most was not that fact, it was the fact that he felt excited at the prospect, excited to have to go further than he thought to be able to infiltrate a facility.

The feeling of adrenaline and excitement was too much however that was the reason for his stress, he should not be having these thoughts, he had a wife and daughter who cared about him, and it was the main reason he left this business in the first place.

Walter only gave a sigh at the contradictory feelings he had in his mind, however, he soon became alert as his ears began to hear footsteps outside the house he was in.

As a precaution, Hardy grabbed the gun he had in his waistband, he simply felt safer doing it.

The door was soon opened and Walter looked at his boss still wearing his black suit that covered most of his body, behind him stood a person he didn't know, but seeing how calm Norman was Walter relaxed a little.

"It's time to go home" mentioned Norman, he couldn't find any reason why he needed to stay in this place any longer, besides the fact that it is obvious that the explosion would be something that would certainly attract attention very fast, so it was better to leave the place as soon as possible.

…

The trip passed in relative silence and a somewhat tense atmosphere in general, it is not as if Norman had expected anything else, so he did not take importance of that fact however Walter was the most uncomfortable of all and simply did not know what to do.

Once the plane landed several hours later, Norman and his companions exited the plane and again unlike all the previous times there was practically no one waiting for them.

The only thing on the runway were two vehicles with no drivers.

Norman started walking to one of them being followed by Walter, as for Bucky he simply seemed to be looking around, probably a side effect of his assassin training.

"James" called Osborn: "Catch" he mentioned to him while throwing some kind of memory and that without any problem was caught by the mentioned: "That memory contains all the information you need, plus the names and current addresses of various of the scientists who kept you prisoner" he commented calmly.

"With your knowledge and skills it will take you about a week to put together all the pieces you need to believe what I have told you up to this point" continued the Osborn as he had the attention of the two remaining men.

"Go and look for them during that time, after that if you are interested in having a chat then come to the first address the memory marks" finished saying Osborn and just watched as Bucky tightened his grip on the memory he just gave him before starting to walk down the runway.

Once his silhouette disappeared Norman heard Walter's voice, "Wasn't your purpose to recruit him Sir?" he asked with a bit of confusion.

"That's right" answered the Osborn and anticipating a new question from the Hardy he continued speaking, "However if I make the proposal to him at this moment it would serve no purpose, instead if I give him the opportunity and a tool to discover who he is, then it will be easier to convince him."

"And aren't you worried that he will decide not to contact you once it's all over?" finished the Hardy questioning once again.

"The feeling of gratitude is a truly curious thing, if it is used effectively then many things can be achieved, you yourself are an example of that" pointed out the Osborn to Walter who did not dare to refute Norman's words.

"Now let's go home" commented Norman after a bit of silence, "I made a promise to my family that I would be back soon" he mentioned with a soft smile as he walked back in the direction of the nearby cars.

Walter just shook his head at the attitude of his boss, many times he could give the impression of someone intimidating and most of the times he behaved as if he was a predator waiting for his prey to get careless to give a lethal attack.

But when it came to his family it seemed that this facet of him disappeared, he didn't know for sure if both were his true attitudes or which one was the real one, but he knew that Osborn appreciated his family a lot and he only felt pity for the idiot who dared to touch them, as he was sure that he wouldn't have a good end.

Forcing himself to stop thinking about it Walter began to walk behind his boss, he too had a family waiting for him.