Chapter 206: Security Over Freedom. 2014 CE

[Present time]

Isaiah and the others stood in front of a normal looking house. It was a decent yet stale looking house in DC, in fact, it looked quite similar to the other houses nearby. Isaiah walked up to the handle of the door, and he pressed his thumb on the keyhole.

The keyhole changed to a scanner, and it accepted Isaiah's fingerprint. After that though, he didn't open the door, he let go of the handle, and waited outside. Not a second later, the door was opened from the inside, a french woman welcomed them, looking quite casual.

"Took longer than I expected." said the french woman to Isaiah.

"Someone's not cooperating." Isaiah answered flatly. He turned around to the other two behind him and gestured for them to enter. "Come in."

The group entered the place, and again, it looked like a typical American home, with no abnormality whatsoever.

"This is your Headquarters?" Fury questioned, looking around the place.

Isaiah and the french woman didn't answer, instead, they kept walking towards the kitchen, and finally, they stood in front of the fridge. Once again, Isaiah grabbed the handle, and a fingerprint scanner appeared. Isaiah scanned his fingerprint, and a robotic voice echoed throughout the kitchen.

"Welcome, Agent 007: Isaiah Bradley."

The fridge door opened, revealing a rather futuristic looking entrance to another room. Isaiah just entered the room, and the french woman followed.

Once the french woman entered the fridge, another voice echoed.

"Welcome, Agent 004: Jeanne of Arc."

The French woman, or rather, Jeanne, groaned. "You forgot to remove the 'of arc' part again, I don't live in Arc anymore, yes I was born there, but come on, that was centuries ago."

"Then find a last name." Isaiah countered.

"Cleo doesn't have one." Jeanne scoffed.

"She has a full name." continued Isaiah. "Cleopatra Thea Philopator."

"Do you even know what that means?" said Jeanne with a strange look.

"No, what does it mean?" Isaiah asked curiously.

"Thea Philopator means 'The Beloved of her father'. Common for Pharaohs."

"Hm… typical…" Isaiah chuckled at the information, but continued onwards.

Meanwhile, Steve and Fury on the back looked at each other, seemingly confused. Their thoughts were cut short when they arrived at a rather open room. It was empty, but it was full of technology, computers on the side, screens attached to the walls, another door in the corner leading to another room, and in the middle of the room, a table with a holo projector in the middle.

"Alright, we will debrief you two with what we have found." said Isaiah, leaning against the holo. He pushed a button from the table, and the holo appeared. "About yesterday, Jeanne here has been attacked by an assassin, soviet made. We've confirmed that the assassin was sent by Secretary Pierce, he used Zola's algorithm to track down Jeanne, who was using an alias."

"Zola's algorithm?" Steve frowned. "As in Arnim Zola?"

"Oh, Fury hasn't told you yet, captain?"

"He never told me anything." Rogers answered.

Jeanne just sighed. "Operation paperclip. The US recruited German scientists, engineers, and technicians after World War 2, including Arnim Zola, who was transferred to SHIELD."

"And what is this 'Zola's Algorithm'?" asked Steve.

"An algorithm that will scour data on the internet for potential threats to HYDRA." said Isaiah. "Sound familiar, director?"

"Project insight." Steve frowned. "But the project is for finding the ones who are a threat to humanity."

"What do you think the framework of the project is, captain?" Jeanne questioned. "The framework is Zola's algorithm."

Steve then turned to Fury. "Do you know this? When you started the project, did you know this?"

"I didn't know it at first. But now I know." Fury said, taking out a flashdrive from his pocket. "The lists of names are in there, and the names are expanding, more than you showed me yesterday."

"Well, we need to stop it." said Jeanne. "In about two months, Pierce will invite all the security members to DC for the launching of the helicarriers, and I'm willing to bet he will kill all of the members right there and there."

Isaiah then taps the holo, revealing the schematics of the earth. There, many dots could be seen, no country has none, but, there was one peculiarity, Zimera has a big dot. "This is the scale of Alexander's insight. As you can see, director, captain, and Zimera seem to be treated specially here, mostly because the algorithm doesn't work on Simians because they really don't have a connection to the net. But, we know that Pierce will still attack them. So I'm willing to bet that one of the helicarriers will go there manually, and kill every single simian in that jungle."

"What is the goal of HYDRA then if they're willing to go as far as genocide?" Steve asked again.

"Security over Freedom, captain." Jeanne answered. "HYDRA had worked so well on instilling the fear of conflict over these years, many wars were started by them, half of them are civil wars. They want to make the world fear for their security, and because of recent events, those fears have been spiked."

"You've been played, director." said Isaiah. "Your paranoia was used by Pierce, along with the paranoia of the members of the council that agreed to this project, to this mission. They want to take your freedom, for an illusion of security."

Fury went silent for a second, before speaking up. "So what will you do?"

"Like we said before, we want to cooperate. To rid the world from HYDRA."

"I don't know if you noticed, but my own SHIELD is hunting me right now."

"That's why we need to put you on the director's seat once more." Jeanne answered, crossing her arms, smiling. "We have a plan, but we need to wait for a bit."

"I'm all ears," said Fury.

Jeanne then stopped leaning against the table, and walked towards the door on the corner of the room. "Great, Isaiah will stay here to brief you on the plan, in the meantime, captain, please follow me."

Once again, Fury and Steve looked at each other, and Steve followed Jeanne towards the other room.

As he entered the room, he noticed that the temperature was a lot colder, and there was a tube filled with liquid in the middle of the room, and in that tube, there was a man, seemingly floating on the liquid.

"Recognize this man, captain?" Jeanne asked softly.

Steve could only walk towards the tube, seemingly flabbergasted on what he saw in there. "Is that… Bucky?"

"Your friend." Jeanne nodded. "And the ones who attacked me in New Orleans."

"So you mean—"

"He's not from HYDRA." answered Jeanne. "Not willingly at least. Brainwashed."

Steve just stared at the floating man in front of him. "Is there anything you can do to him?"

"We're working on it." Jeanne hummed. "We jacked through his brain and scoured his memories, his mind is practically shattered, but it's why we know Pierce sent him."

"Well just… help him, please."

"Already working on it."