Heartless

Chapter 51

"I... I missed?" I whispered.

"Monica, let's go!" Kate said, grabbing my hand. She pulled me out the window and we ran to the jet.

"What about Steve?"

"He'll make it out. Just run."

We ran to the jet and climbed on, closing the doors. We collapsed on the floor, panting.

"So, you got the file?"

Kate slid a brown, dust covered file out from under her shirt. She slid it across the floor to me. "Yes I did."

I picked up the file and began reading. It was nothing we didn't already know. It explained how Barnes was found after he fell from the train and brought to HYDRA. I tossed it on the floor. "Useless. We came all this way for that?"

"I take it there's nothing we can use?"

"Not a thing. Like I said, useless."

There was a series of knocks on the door: three rapid ones followed by two slower ones.

"That's Steve," Kate said. She opened the door and pulled him in. "So? How'd it go?"

He handed me my knife. "Pretty well. You need glasses."

"What? No I don't!"

"Wait, that makes sense," Katherine said. "The headaches would be from straining your eyes."

"I'm not getting glasses," I said, putting my knife away. "Not doing it."

Steve fired up the jet and sat in the pilot's seat. "I'm making an eye appointment for you when we get back."

"I won't go."

"You need glasses, Monica," Kate said. "We can see about contacts if you want."

"Hmm, yes, touching my eye, no thanks."

The two of them argued with me the whole ride back. They somehow managed to convince me to go to an eye doctor. Kate even called to set up the appointment while we were still in the air.

When we landed, I decided to get back to work. I poured over all the data we had on Barnes. I looked over the words that turned Barnes into the Winter Soldier and froze. I grabbed my phone and called Kate.

"What, Monica?" She said when she picked up.

"Come to my office asap. I think I'm onto something."

"On my way."

Five minutes later, Kate was at my office door with two iced coffees and a bag of muffins. "What'd you find?" She pulled my extra swivel chair up to my desk.

I pulled a chocolate chip muffin out of the bag and said, "Well, the words are always said in a specific order, right?"

"Yeah."

I took a bite of my muffin. "Well, why is that? What is it about the order that triggers the Winter Soldier?"

"Maybe if we translate the words, we can start to decipher what the significance is."

"You're right. Wait, Natasha knows Russian, right?"

"I think so, yeah."

I grabbed my phone and texted Nat.

Nat, we need to FaceTime. It's urgent.

I got a reply almost immediately.

Give me one minute.

A minute later, she called us.

"Hey Nat!" I said. "So, uh, we need your help translating Russian."

"Monica, that's not that urgent."

"Yes, it is. It's to help Barnes."

She sighed. "Alright, show me the notebook."

I dug the little red notebook out from under the piles of papers about Barnes. I opened to the page with the words and help it up to my phone's screen. Kate grabbed a Post-It and a pen.

"Okay, the words are longing, rusted, daybreak, furnace, nine, benign, homecoming, one, and freight car."

"Okay, thanks Nat. That was all we needed. We'll talk later."

"Okay, bye," she said, hanging up.

I looked at Katherine. "We have work to do."