ＳＬＡＴＥ ◼ STEVE ROGERS◼

ＦＯＲＴＹ－ＳＩＸ

They stalked toward Alexander Pierce, the man above Nick Fury, doning their suits as they walked. He was speaking to Kate, otherwise known as Agent 13 now, and she quickly walked past the two and nodded her head at them.

"Captain Rogers, Agent Watson,"

"Neighbor," the pair both answered, void of emotion as they finally joined Pierce's side.

"Ah, Captain. I'm Alexander Pierce. It's an honor, my father served in the 101st," Pierce and Steve shook hands, before the man looked to Lottie with a respectful nod of his head. "Agent Watson, it's been awhile since I've seen you."

"I think that means good things,"

The pair followed Pierce into the room, standing together as he passed them a picture frame on his desk. Lottie took it in her hands, staring down at the photo of Pierce and Fury.

"That photo was taken five years after Nick and I met. When I was at State Department in Bogota. ELN rebels took the embassy, and security got me out, but the rebels took hostages. Nick was deputy chief for the SHIELD station there. And he comes to me with a plan. He wants to storm the building through the sewers. I said, "No, we'll negotiate." Turned out the ELN didn't negotiate, so they put out a kill order. They stormed the basement, and what did they find? They find it empty. Nick had ignored my direct order and carried out an unauthorized military operation on foreign soil. He saved the lives of a dozen political officers, including my daughter."

"So you promoted him," Lottie answered.

"I've never had any cause to regret it," Pierce looked at Lottie for just a second too long, before finally looking to Steve. "Captain, why was Nick in your apartment last night?"

"I don't know,"

Lottie watched Pierce quietly, letting Steve take the lead on the conversation. Alarms were going off in her head as she watched Piece and Steve interact. Every few seconds Pierce would look at Lottie, but his gaze seemed wary. There was also the way he spoke to just Steve, the way he purposefully left Lottie out of the conversations. Her eyes widened slightly, but she quickly let it fade to keep her composure.

It was just a hunch, she didn't have proof, but Pierce knew. He knew about Lottie being in the car with Fury, the entire attack on Fury: Pierce was compromised.

"Did he tell you he was the one who bugged it?" Lottie tuned back into the conversation, keeping a careful eye on Pierce as he spoke, telling the pair that Fury was the one who had bugged the ship. "I want you to see something."

The screen beside them came to life, revealing Batroc in an interrogation room.

"Is this live?" Lottie questioned, looking to Pierce and noting how quickly he looked away. "How could he be a suspect, assassination isn't really in Batroc's line."

"Yeah, they picked him up last night in a not-so-safe house in Algiers. And no, it's more complicated than that. Batroc was hired anonymously to attack the Lemurian Star and he was contacted by e-mail and paid by wire transfer. And then the money was run through seventeen fictitious accounts, the last one going to a holding company that was registered to a Jacob Veech."

"Are we supposed to know who that is?" Steve questioned as Pierce handed them a file on Veech, letting them quickly flick through it.

"Not likely. Veech died six years ago. His last address was 14-35 Elmhurst Drive. When I first met Nick his mother lived at 14-37,"

"Are you saying Fury hired the pirates? Why?"

Lottie ran the idea over in her head. It didn't make sense for Fury to hire the pirates, he wasn't that kind of man. Unless Fury had really been suspicious all along, and he staged the entire thing to gain information on Project Insight and find out what was really going on under his nose.