“I made a decision based on the situation. I’m sorry that you’re unhappy with it, but I stand by it. Without that proof, the agents Ex Umbra have in place would have been able to stop any investigation before it started, or could have made me disappear. But once I got the recording into the right hands, all this became too big to cover up—even for them.”
Steve and Maria glared at each other. Katherine stepped between them, raising her hands in a calming gesture.
“Let’s all calm down, okay? Aunt Maria, that was definitely not cool, you know that? Steve, she was just trying to keep us safe.”
“I’m still not very happy about it, but I guess I can’t do much about it now,” Steve said. “But don’t you ever do anything like that to me again. Do you understand?”
Maria nodded, but before she could say anything else, he cut her off.
“You’ve spent all this time teaching yourself not to trust anyone, Maria,” Steve said. “But, no one can do everything on their own, not even you. Sometimes you have to take a chance and rely on someone else—I’ve learned that the hard way. If you’d just asked me to wear a bug, don’t you think I would have said yes? How can I trust you now?”
Maria opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the sight of Jonah being dragged over to her. He stumbled, supported by the S.H.I.E.L.D. guards on either side of him, but there was no fear in his eyes as he met Maria’s gaze.
“What’s the meaning of this, Hill? How dare you?” he spat. “I’ll have your head for this. In fact, I’ll have S.H.I.E.L.D. shut down.”
“I think not,” Maria said coldly. “It’s Ex Umbra that is finished.”
Jonah went pale. “How do you know that name?”
She nodded at Steve. “You can thank the captain for that.”
Steve didn’t reply, and simply glared at her.
“We’ve suspected the existence of Ex Umbra for years now, but I’ll give you credit, you lived up to your name. However, if you’d been content to stay in the shadows, we might never have crossed paths.” Maria continued, ignoring Steve’s look, “But you crossed a line when you suborned some of my operatives and used them against us. We’d cleaned house, gotten rid of people who were corruptible, but we didn’t count on another agency of our own government appealing to people’s patriotism. Jonah, you were one of us. How could you use your history with S.H.I.E.L.D. against us?”
“I was serving my country the best I could,” Jonah said. “S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t go far enough.”
“And Ex Umbra goes too far,” Maria said. “It’s over. We have more than enough evidence of you going beyond the law. I have a recording of you engaging in the torture of US citizens and admitting to attempted murder. Your problem is, you talk too much.”
She pulled out a piece of paper embossed with an extravagant seal. Unfolding it, she held it in front of Jonah’s face, and he blanched.
“I take it you recognize the signature?” she asked, and he nodded. “There is no higher authority you can appeal to than the president. You and your men are under arrest.” She gestured to two of her agents. “Take him away.”
As Jonah was marched off, she turned to Steve.
“See, that’s why I did what I did,” she said. “And as a result, Ex Umbra are finished. Don’t you see that it was worth it?”
“Careful, Maria,” Steve said coldly. “Thinking that the end justifies the means is what made Ex Umbra what they were.”
She flushed. “It’s not the same.”
“You can tell yourself that, Maria,” he said. “But, I think we should be leaving. We’ve got some decisions to make. Maria, I’ll be in touch. Now that you have Jonah, you’ll be able to make sure there are no remnants of Ex Umbra left anywhere, and when you’ve confirmed S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer compromised, we can talk about what happens next.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that,” Maria said softly.
“What?” Steve asked.
Katherine and Karl stared at her.
“I can’t let you leave,” she repeated.
“Aunt Maria, is this some sort of joke?” Katherine asked. “If it is, it isn’t funny.”
“It’s no joke,” Karl said. “We should have seen this coming.”
“Maria, I don’t know what this is about, but we are leaving,” Steve said carefully. “It’s not up for debate.”
“I’m sorry, Steve, I can’t let you do that.”
“And how are you planning on stopping me?”
Maria gave a small sigh of resignation and signaled her troops with a slight hand gesture. Suddenly, a dozen guns were trained on Steve and his companions.
“That’s how.”
“You wouldn’t seriously shoot us,” Katherine said. “You’re bluffing. You must be.”
“We’d only shoot if we had no other choice,” Maria replied. “Most of those guns are carrying nonlethal rounds.”
“Most?” Karl asked.
“I have orders that on no account am I allowed to let you go,” Maria said. “I would much rather you just come along with us peacefully, or in the worst case, incapacitated. But, the orders were clear, I am to take any measures necessary.”
Katherine looked like a kid who had just been told that Santa wasn’t real, an expression of complete and utter disillusionment on her face.
“How could you do this, Aunt Maria? You promised you would protect me.”
“And I have. I provided you with the best bodyguard on the planet, someone who would never even dream of abandoning you, or selling you out, or breaking his word that he would keep you safe. Even with the evidence from the bug getting this raid sanctioned, I still had to call in more favors than you can imagine to make it happen so fast. And now I’m going to take you someplace safe.”
“You mean you’re going to force me to go with you.”
“If I have to.” There was no hint of uncertainty in Maria’s voice whatsoever, no wavering, just an air of implacability.
“Don’t do this, Maria,” Steve said. “How can you guarantee Jonah doesn’t have any sleepers planted just waiting for something like this? You don’t know what he’s capable of the way I do. He’s a fanatic who has surrounded himself with zealots, and they aren’t simply going to turn themselves in. You can’t keep her safe out there. I can.”
“I don’t have a choice. You of all people should understand that, Steve. I took an oath, and I take it very seriously. I have to put my obligations and responsibilities above my own personal desires, above friendships, above family,” Maria said. “I simply can’t see any other choice here. Unless they violate certain moral or ethical standards, I can’t just pick and choose what orders I obey—and I don’t think this one violates anything.”
“What?” Karl said. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What would you know?” Maria demanded, rounding on him. For the first time, Steve could see how much strain this was putting on her, and how tightly she was keeping her emotions on a leash. “Are you across all the contracts Katherine signed when she started working for S.H.I.E.L.D.? She agreed that her research belonged to us. She signed NDAs. You know what? S.H.I.E.L.D. could quite legally make the case she’s stolen from the organization, and charge her under a number of Acts.”
Karl didn’t have anything to say in return.
“You have to understand, all of you, that this is not what I want, but I don’t see any other choice.”
“You don’t see any moral imperative here, Maria?” Steve asked. “You don’t think it’s important enough to justify disobeying orders—that this goes beyond governments?”
“I don’t think I’m qualified to decide that, Steve,” she said. “I don’t think any of us are.”
“Then who is?” Karl asked.
“I don’t know,” Maria replied. “All I know is that I’m going to obey my orders. If I were to do othe
rwise, I wouldn’t be fit for command. In fact, I would deserve to have my command taken away from me and given to someone else who would do their job properly.”
She looked directly at Steve.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“I think I do,” Steve said slowly. “You’ve made it very clear.”
He turned to the other two.
“Look, Maria is just doing her job; how about we make easy on her and go along with them?”
“What?!” Karl and Katherine said at the same time, sounding like a cut-rate Greek chorus.
“Cap, you can’t be serious,” Karl said, sounding shocked at Steve’s change of heart. “We can find another way out of this. Just say the word.”
“I am serious. I think our best bet is to go with them—let S.H.I.E.L.D. sort this out.”
“I can’t believe this. I thought we had talked through this, come to an understanding about this. It’s not even about me—you know that this is bigger than S.H.I.E.L.D., that they don’t have the right to decide what happens to it. It belongs to the world!” Katherine said. She sounded like she was trying not to cry. “How could you do this to me? Either of you?”
Steve took Katherine’s hand. She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her.
“Katherine, I know you don’t understand, but I’m asking you to trust me one more time. Please.”
He squeezed her hand, and then let her go.
“Will you do that, please?”
She nodded grudgingly.
“Okay, Steve—one last time.”
Karl looked he was going to say something, but at a look from Steve, he subsided. Steve turned back to Maria.
“Okay, I guess we’re going with you.”
“Thank you, Steve. Katherine, I hope you’ll realize it was the only option.”
A pair of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives bracketed each of the companions and led them after Maria as she headed toward the stairway. When they tried the elevator, it had stopped working. The control panel wouldn’t even light up, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives covering them gestured for them to take the stairs. Katherine was the only one who seemed unfazed by the flights stretching out in front of them. Both men had taken too many beatings in too short a time to enjoy the physical exertion. As they climbed, they could see through the glass windows on the doors of each landing, and they took in the evidence of heavy fighting. The hallways were deserted, but more often than not there were unconscious—or dead—bodies littering the floor. After what seemed like hours, they came to the final floor.
“This is it,” Maria said.
“It had to be the last one, didn’t it?” Karl puffed. “If I find out who killed the elevators, I’m going to shoot him in the kneecaps.”
“Karl!” Katherine said, sounding shocked. “That’s awful!”
“I’m kidding!” he said, then muttered, “Mostly.”
The bustling control room that Steve had been escorted past only a few hours before was gone, and what was left was unrecognizable. There was a gaping hole in the roof with a number of drop lines hanging down, and all around the room tables and chairs were scattered as if a tornado had swept through. Maria gave the order, and soon the three companions had been fitted with harnesses and clipped to the lines hanging from the roof. She spoke into a transceiver, and the lines rose, taking the companions with them, and in a matter of minutes, they stood on the roof of the building. They were in the middle of a forested canyon, the building built into the slope of the mountain. The roof had its own helipad, and a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter rested there, waiting. The helicopter was at the cutting edge of technology, all stealth material and graceful curves. It looked like nothing more than a huge wasp, all the way down to its tapered tail.
At a gesture from Maria, the three companions were bundled on board and strapped into their seats. Only after they were safely restrained did Maria slide in and sit across from them.
“Don’t worry, you won’t be stuck there for long. It’s only a thirty-minute flight in one of these things. I hope none of you get airsick—we’re going to be flying low and fast, and that means that we’ll be dodging everything from tall buildings to large trees. It’s like threading the needle at about three hundred miles an hour.”
No one said anything, and Maria sighed.
“Okay, I get that you’re mad at me. How about I leave you all to it?”
She clambered over the seats and into the front of the cockpit, sitting next to the pilot. She put on her headset, and then flashed him a thumbs-up. The pilot flicked some switches, and the engines revved with a low whine. It was surprisingly quiet, nothing like the choppers Steve was used to. It was nice being able to hear himself think.
“So, are you sure about this, Cap?” Karl asked. “You’ve got a plan, right?”
“Not really,” Steve replied, “But we don’t really have a choice. It’s a bit late now, anyway.”
He was right—the chopper was already lifting off, so smoothly that it felt more like being in a hot air balloon than in a helicopter. As the Ex Umbra base fell away behind them, Steve could not help but wonder whether they had merely exchanged one kind of danger for another. He looked at Karl and Katherine. They had been through so much together, and even now, despite this setback, he could feel the faith they had in him. He watched the scenery outside whip by, the chopper traveling too fast for him to make out any details of what they were passing. As they hurtled toward S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, he promised himself that he would be worthy of their faith, and that he would do whatever he could to ensure that they all came out the other side of this—together.
Chapter 19
S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, New York City: 2200 hours
Another day, another interrogation room; this was becoming just a normal part of Steve’s routine. At least this one has more comfortable chairs, Steve thought as he regarded the woman sitting across from him. She met his gaze without flinching.
“So, should I call my lawyer, Maria?” Steve asked. “When do I get my phone call?”
“Oh, you aren’t under arrest, Steve. Nothing so serious. You’re just being detained.”
“Detained?”
“That’s right. We have all sorts of wide-ranging powers now, you know. In cases affecting national security, we can detain people without arresting them.”
“And how does detaining someone differ from arresting them? Can they just leave whenever they want?”
“Of course not.”
“Then . . . ?”
Maria smiled, but there was no humor in it whatsoever.
“We don’t have to worry about things like phone calls or lawyers,” she paused, “Or trials.”
“What a brave new world,” Steve muttered. “And how long can you hold them for? Hold me for?”
“As long as we want, really.”
“And you think that this is okay? That that’s how it should work?”
“Steve, what I think has nothing to do with it,” Maria said. “I might find the whole thing repugnant, but I can’t change it.”
“If everyone thought like that, nothing would ever change, Maria.”
“I’ve always admired your principles, Steve.”
She was dodging the conversation, and Steve could see it, but he decided to let it slide for now.
“So, what happens now?” he asked instead. “How long will you ‘detain’ us for?”
“You? About another hour. The paperwork is being processed as we speak, and as soon as it arrives, you’ll be free to go.”
Steve narrowed his eyes.
“That seemed very specific. What about Katherine and Karl? Are they being released with me?”
“Karl is a member of an organization listed as a terrorist threat. He isn’t going anywhere for a while.”
“He’s also a decorated Marine, without
whom you never would have put an end to Ex Umbra. He was just as big a part of this as I was.”
“And that will be taken into account. I’m sure that once it’s all sorted out, he’ll be free to go, too.”
“And what about Katherine?” Steve asked. “I notice you’ve avoided mentioning her.”
Maria flushed. “You know the answer to that. She isn’t going anywhere, especially not until we understand how her discovery works so we can re-create her work for ourselves. It’s too important just to let it walk out the door.”
“It? What’s this ‘it’ business?” Steve asked, his voice harsh with anger. “You mean her, Maria, you won’t let her walk out the door. So much for how much she matters to you.”
“Steve, I—”
“Maria, we go back a long way, so I’m going give you one warning. I’m not leaving Katherine, or Karl, behind,” Steve said. “That’s not how it works. One way or another, I won’t be walking out of here alone.”
“Steve, what exactly do you think I should do, then?” At the expression on his face, she hurriedly continued. “No, no, that’s not a rhetorical question, or me trying to be smart. I honestly want to know. I don’t know what I should do. Or what I can do.”
“Aren’t you the boss?” Steve asked. “Don’t you get to decide?”
“One of the sad truths of life is that sometimes the more authority you have, the less freedom you have make your own decisions. I have so many guidelines I have to follow, and there are people I report to—yeah, I’m a boss, but I have one of my own, too.” Maria suddenly looked very tired. “You know how this works better than anyone, Steve—I don’t just give orders, I have to take them, too. Like the order to arrest you. If I’d refused, someone else would have done it. That was made very clear to me.”
Steve nodded—he’d been right, Maria had been warning him in the bunker that it was either surrender to her, or surrender to someone else.
“So, what if you got to choose, though? No orders from anyone else, just your own call. What would you do?”
“I don’t know, Steve, I really don’t. The more I learn about this research, the more powerful it seems to me. It’s a dangerous thing to have out there—maybe it’s better to have it in our hands.” She sighed. “Like I said, I admire your principles . . . and Katherine’s. Part of me agrees with them. But, I have to weigh what this research means to national security, and I can’t take that lightly.”
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