Winter's Wings (Book 1 of the Winter's Series)

Chapter Ten: SHIELD

The helicopter touches down and both agents grab my arms pulling me from the aircraft. I keep my head down until we are far enough from the blades to lift it back up. The lead me through the door on the roof and down several flights of stairs. We burst through a door on the tenth floor where workers bustle around the room carrying papers across the carpeted floor. They lead me down the hall to another room with two chairs and a table. A classic interrogation room. It seems I've traded one interrogation room for another. 

"Take a seat." Natasha says to me watching me carefully. I sit down and expect for my ankles to be instantly cuffed to the chair, but it never comes. Natasha and Steve exit the room, leaving me to drown in my thoughts.

Not long after they leave another agent enters the room staring hard at me. He has a pill in his hand and he stalks toward me. He grasps my jaw roughly, squeezing it hard until my mouth is forced open. I lift my hands up and try to shove him away from me. He thrusts the pill in my mouth and covers my nose and mouth leaving my no choice but to swallow.

"Hail HYDRA." He says before cracking my temple against the table with such force that I'm rendered unconscious. It all happens so fast I don't have time to stop it. I don't know what was in the pill he force fed me but it alters my state of mind.

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I don't know how long I lie unconscious on the table. I lift my eyelids open and look around the room. Where am I? How did I get here? Why am I cuffed? Why does my head hurt so much? What happened? I touch my head with my cuffed hands. Why am I wearing a dress? I ponder shifting in my chair and hitting the wound on my back. What did they do to me? Why am I in so much pain? Why can't I remember anything?

The door opens and an unfamiliar agent walks through the door. He's wearing a navy suit with a striped tie. He's on the shorter side of average height but he's well built. He has kind eyes and a large nose. His hair is combed to the side and his hairline is starting to recede. He closes the door and takes a seat in front of me.

"Good evening. I'm Agent Coulson and you're in a SHIELD interrogation room. Would you like to say anything before we start?" He asks, clasping his hands in front of him and staring at my confused face. What is SHIELD?

"What is SHIELD? How did I get here? What did you do to me?" I ask getting louder with each question. He looks blankly at me and then his eyes dart around the room.

"We are a counter intelligence agency. You were brought here in a helicopter after we infiltrated your HYDRA base. We haven't done anything to you except handcuff you." He got a helicopter all the way to Damascus and back? The base is destroyed?

"You flew all the way over there?

"With our advanced technology a trip to Chicago isn't very far."

"Chicago? I was in Chicago?"

"How about you tell me what you remember?" he asks, and I nod slowly.

"I was at the HYDRA base and I just got done with a training mission. I was called into the laboratory for another session with the doctor there. Dr. Chaos. I don't remember going to Chicago. I don't remember the infiltration." I confess, still dazed and confused.

"Where were you based if you we're in Chicago?"

"I-I don't remember. It's sandy and dry. A desert maybe? Wait... I shouldn't be telling you this. You're not a HYDRA agent."

"You aren't a HYDRA agent either, not anymore." I'm not? Wh-

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you left. You ran away, we found you on a street heading away from the base."

"Why would I leave? It was my home."

"It might have something to do with your injuries. It looked like you had been tortured when we picked you up."

"Tortured? No, I don't think- I mean I'm used to debriefings being rough, but I don't remember what happened."

"Maybe this will jog your memory." He says sliding a folder on the table and opening it before me. There are photos in there, of me. I'm in a desert with my field suit on, surrounded by soldiers. Two agents stand before me, a male and female. I don't remember that at all. It has to be real, so it must have happened. Why am I so willing to help him? I must have a reason. I don't know why I don't feel itching to leave here and go back to HYDRA. There must be truth so what he's saying.

"I'm sorry, I wish I could help you. I think something happened to me because I can't help you. I don't remember anything." His lips lie in a straight line, skeptical of me.

"We'll try again tomorrow. I'm sure you've had a long day. I'll have an agent escort you to your holding room. Do try to remember something by tomorrow." He says snatching up his folder and leaving the room, the door slamming behind him. As he said another agent enters. A female with red hair and blue eyes. She looks me up and down before coming over to lift me up to stand.

I follow her out of the door and down the hall to a door on the left. She opens it and I walk into the pitch black room. There's a vent in the upper corner, a long bench against the wall, and the door I came in through. I lie down on the cold, long, steel bench sticking out from the wall. My hands are still cuffed but I feel free. I don't know why.