Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter Thirty-Three: The First & Second Missions

Your birthday.

But not just yours.

You look at Jakobs. "I'm sorry Freya, I didn't think you would find out, I should have guessed Lehmann would make sure you did."

"What year?" you ask, and you see his hesitation.

"What year?" you repeat.

"1948."

You swallow.

Lehmann has deliberately chosen James Barnes' birthday for the Winter Soldier's first official mission. He is their property, their puppet.

James Barnes is 32 years old today.

*

He crosses the grounds of Cernin Palace and doesn't notice anything about the gardens, just pads softly up to the ground window that should be open. It is. The cleaner they bribed to leave the window ajar will be dead by this time tomorrow; it will be ruled as a suicide. There is going to be a lot of it about.

He climbs in through the window and pulls it to but does not shut it; he will need to exit this way.

They showed him the layout of the palace and the rooms he would be entering, and there is enough dawn light to show the way to the door. He eases it open and sees an empty hall. He needs to cross this without being seen, and then proceed up the staircase.

The building is quiet. He climbs the stairs to the place where he knows his victim will be. There are people around; the palace is waking up, servants and cleaners getting it ready for another day of work.

He gets to the room and slips in but sees immediately the bed is empty. It has been slept in and the sheets are thrown back.

And then he hears a noise in the adjoining bathroom. He looks at his watch. It is 4.45am.

They did warn him that the man was an early riser.

He walks slowly over to the open door of the bathroom and peers in but all he can see is a bath being filled with water. But he can hear someone is inside the bathroom.

He reaches into his jacket and takes out his gun. He moves quietly into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

The man is looking into the mirror and, catching sight of movement, swings around. He is about to say something but the sight of the figure looking at him takes any thoughts or words out of his mind.

The figure is well over 6 foot tall, dressed completely in black. There is a mask obscuring the bottom half of his face and black glasses covering the top half. He is one of the most terrifying things the man has ever seen, and he is glad he cannot see his eyes.

In his gloved hand is a gun.

All that can be heard is the water pouring into the tub.

The Winter Soldier looks at the man in front of him. He recognises him from the programming. This man has to die, but it must be made to look like suicide. He cannot use the gun, cannot shoot him, but his target does not know that.

"As soon as you fire my guards will hear. You'll be caught!" The man says to him and the Winter Soldier can hear the trembling in the man's voice.

He indicates the large window. "Open it," he says in Czech.

The man glances at it but he doesn't move.

"I won't ask you again," says the Winter Soldier.

The man swallows and moves towards the window. He opens the shutters, and then the windows themselves. Cold air immediately whips around the room.