Saving the Assassin

Chapter 1

August 13, 2018

A warm sunny afternoon with clear blue skies and a light breeze swept across Washington D.C. Citizens of the state's capital were swarming by the dozens in the historical Smithsonian gazing upon the several exhibits that were housed in the museum.

The youth of young and older generations were all amongst the Captain America exhibit exploring and learning about the brave soldier and all that he did for his country all those years ago. If you were to take a good long look in the crowd, you would find a young woman moving around one certain section of the Cap exhibit. The young woman looked to be in her early twenties with long brown hair that cut off at the hips, sparkling ocean blue eyes, and clear fair skin. Her name is Alex White, a recent college graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in History.

Alex always had this fascination with Captain America's era, and she never knew why but it was mainly because of her history professor. During her college days, you could ask any peer in her class who their favorite WWII veteran was, with the answer being Cap, but Alex has her eyes set on another war veteran, Sergeant James "Bucky" Barnes. Her conscience was captured by Barnes story of being in the Howling Commandos and being Caps best friend, but there was something more to him that she had a connection with, and that was his life in Hydra's captivity.

Professor Hurst, the History teacher, gave an assignment during their study of WWII that consisted of a presentation on a war hero. Almost everyone in that class did Cap, but Alex went with Bucky because she wanted to step away from the "easy route". Once that presentation on War Heros was over they did another presentation on Hydra and Red Skull. Professor Hurts pre-chose Alex's person because he believed she could come up with a better presentation than most of the peers in the class. Her person from Hydra was none other than the Winter Soldier. Alex had done a lot of research on him, which took her about four weeks to do because he isn't someone you could easily look up or read about, but Alex is very intelligent when it comes to someone unheard of in today's world.

Alex was stalking Bucky's section of the exhibit because she had nothing better to do with her day. While she was reading over the same wall plaque that summed up Bucky's life, a man walked up next to her and stared at the plaque with a confused expression on his face.

The man was a couple of feet taller than Alex. The man looked to be muscular fit by the size of his arms. He was dressed in dark jeans, a dark maroon shirt, a green jacket, and a black ball cap. His face was emotionless but was shaped with strong cheekbones, sharp jawline, stubbly black beard, dull blue eyes, and soft lips. Alex took in the man features and expression before speaking up.

"Are you interested in Bucky too," Alex asked.

The man snapped out of his trance and looked at you, "Who was he?"

Before Alex could even word a reply, a group of men all dressed in black and accompanied by guns engulfed the room. All the citizens were escorted by a few men away from the circle before a tall man dressed in red, white, and blue uniform walked into the circle. He put his round shield behind him before addressing the two people in the middle.

Alex was utterly confused about the whole situation, she was about to step forward to ask what was happening, but that changed in a blink of an eye. She was pulled back with a strong force and felt a cold sensation on her neck. Her scared eyes glanced to her right and saw the man she was talking to just moments ago with a knife to her neck. She understood immediately that she was a hostage. Alex wanted to squirm and shout for the man to save her, but one wrong move and she's on the floor with blood gushing out of her neck.

The American hero takes a few steps forward carefully making sure he doesn't frighten the dangerous man with a knife to Alex's throat.

"Bucky, don't do this. It doesn't have to end in a fight," the American hero said.