In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

8

"Lacerated spinal column, cracked sternum, shattered collar bone, perforated liver, and one hell of a headache," began Fury. 

"Don't forget your collapsed lung," the Doctor chimed.

"Let's not forget that," he said sarcastically, "Otherwise, I'm good."

My confusion continued to remain. "The surgeons, they cut you open."

"Your heart stopped," added Natasha. 

"Textrodetoxin B. Slows the pulse to one beat a minute," continued Fury, "Banner developed it for stress. Didn't work for him, but we found a way to use it."

Deciding to speak up, in an understandably annoyed tone, Steve spoke: "Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?"

"Any attempt on the Director's life had to look successful," explained Maria. 

"Can't kill ya if you're already dead," continued Fury. His eyes rolled between Steve and I. "Besides, I wasn't sure who to trust."

I suppressed a sigh. "Whatever the plan is, we need to be briefed on it. Insight's supposed to launch in less than sixteen hours."

With help from Maria and Steve, Fury transitioned from the bed and into a chair at a table. Maria and Natasha sat. Steve, Sam, and I stood. We waited silently for Maria's tablet to power on. The briefcase she drew it out of accidentally flung a photo of Alexander Pierce across the table. Fury stared at it in remembrance.

Sam leaned into my ear. "Who's this guy?" he whispered. 

"Head of S.H.I.E.L.D.," I said.

"Thought to be dead," added Steve under his breath.

"But clearly isn't," said Sam. He nodded, to himself, and stood straight again, not entirely phased by the false news.

"This man declined the Nobel Peace Prize. He said, 'Peace is not an achievement. It's a responsibility,'" quoted Fury. His eyes turned droopy with aggravation. "It's stuff like this that gives me trust issues."

Natasha fell straight to the point: "We have to stop the launch."

"I don't think the Council is accepting my calls anymore," said Fury blandly. However, the attack on Project Insight had been more than a mere thought to him. From the chair beside him, he pulled a briefcase of his own and wiggled it open. Three chips sat within the case. 

"What's that?" asked Sam.

"Once the Helicarrier's reach three-thousand feet, they'll triangulate with Insight satellites, becoming fully weaponized," said Maria.

Fury continued. "We need to breach the carriers and replace their targeting chips with our own."

For a visual explanation, Maria turned the tablet to face us, showing a 3-D model of a Helicarrier. It zoomed in on the spot the chips needed to be placed, on the underbelly of the ship. 

"One or two won't cut it," she said, "All three need to be linked for this to work. If even one of those carriers remains operational, a whole lot of people are going to die."

"We have to assume everyone aboard those carriers are HYDRA. We have to get past them, insert the server blades, and maybe, just maybe, we can salvage--"

"We aren't salvaging anything," said Steve. He raised his eyes from the table. "We're not just taking down the carriers. We're taking down S.H.I.E.L.D." 

"SH.I.E.L.D. had nothing to do with--" defended Fury.

In the particular situation, Steve wasn't one to argue with. He had been acting tense, grim, for a good reason. It was only a matter of time before he snapped. "You gave me this mission. This is how it ends. S.H.I.E.L.D has been compromised, you said it yourself. HYDRA grew right under your nose and nobody noticed."