Work This Out

Chapter 10 ~ Algorism?

We walk up to the elevator. Natasha scans the keypad with her phone. She types in the password and the elevator opens. We get in it and it starts to descend, taking us to a room with very old computers.

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient," Natasha says.

I notice a flash drive port. "Natasha," I say, directing her attention to the port.

She puts the flash drive in, which activates the ancient thing.

"Initiate system?" The computer says.

"Y-E-S spells yes," Nat says as she types on the computer. Natasha smiles as the computer starts up. "Shall we play a game?" She turns to explain to Steve. "It's from a movie that—"

"Yeah, I know. I saw it." He says, cutting her off.

"I sure hope this doesn't turn out like WarGames," I mutter.

A face starts to appear on the computer screen.

"Rogers, Steven. Born 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984. (L/n), (Y/n). Born 1998." The computer speaks with an accent as the old camera on top of it analyzes us.

"It's actually Rogers now." I sass the computer.

"It's some kind of recording." Natasha eyes the computer suspiciously.

"A recording wouldn't know this information years ahead of time though," I say.

"The little one is right. I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." The computer screen next to the face talking to us shows an old picture of someone.

"You know this thing?" Nat asks Steve.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve circles the computer.

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain." Zola says.

"How did you get here?" Steve asks as he comes back around from behind the computer.

"Invited." Zola answers.

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha says.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola says.

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull," Steve says.

"Actually..." I start, my voice rising a few pitches.

Steve whips his head in my direction. "You knew?" He asks, anger filling his voice as he looks at me a little hurt too.

"Yeah..." I say as I shrink back. He opens his mouth to respond, but I cut him off. "Strucker is apparently a part of HYDRA and my dad was a part of it too. HYDRA were the people who experimented on me and I learned all of this a few months ago when he told me." I say quickly.

"And you didn't think to tell us this sooner?" Nat asks.

"I forgot, okay," I say.

"You forgot?" Steve asks, unbelievingly. "Why didn't you just tell me when you first found out?" He raises his voice.

"I didn't know how you would react!" I yell back. "I didn't know how to bring it up. What was I supposed to say, 'Oh hey by the way HYDRA is still alive so you died for nothing'?!"

"No, but you don't forget something as important as that!"

"I don't have the greatest memory!"

Zola, who's now annoyed by the bickering, finally cuts in. "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." He says, getting us back to the topic at hand.

"Prove it." Steve dares.

"Accessing archive," Zola says as he shows us old footage of the Red Skull. "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed." The computer shows us different pictures and films from different moments in history.

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you," Nat says.

"Accidents will happen." The computer screen shows us how HYDRA killed Stark's parents, making it look like a car accident. Along with the recent death of Nick Fury. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life: a zero-sum."

Steve punches the computer screen in anger, making me flinch.

Zola appears on the smaller screen to our right. "As I was saying..."

"What's on this drive?" Steve asks, wanting to get answers. I could tell he's a little irritated.

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." Zola says.

"Algorism? What's an algorism?" I mishear the computer because of his accent.

"I clearly said algorithm." Zola sasses.

"No. I hear algorism."

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha gets back to the point.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Zola says.

The door behind us starts to close. I quickly grab Steve's shield and zoom at the door to lodge the shield between it. Unfortunately I am too late and I end up ramming into the door. I fall back on my butt, the shield drops by my side.

"Steve, we got a bogey. Short-range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." Natasha says, checking her phone. I grab Steve's shield and make my way back over to them. I hand him his shield back.

"Who fired it?" He asks.

"SHIELD."

"I can phase us through the door and we can run," I say.

"There's no time," Steve says as he looks around for an escape.

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We are, both of us...out of time." Zola says as Nat grabs the flash drive from the port.

Steve notices a small opening in the ground and throws the metal door aside. Just as the place explodes Steve throws himself, me, and Natasha into the hole, protecting us with his shield. I cling to Steve as the place collapses, but it gets hard to breathe and my vision goes dark.

QOTC: Am I the only one that hears Zola say algorism in the movie?

—ASE715