Lagos, Nigeria
Spring 2016
Nadine did think about Steve's offer. About stepping up her role as a consultant with the Avengers to something more hands on than just as an instructor. To give herself something more to occupy her time and her thoughts beyond her mission to find Barnes. Something more to give her purpose with Nina off at school and her mission slowing to a crawl as her algorithms slogged through the sheer volume of data to narrow down avenues to investigate in her search.
Because she had needed it. Even the release of tension that came from the conversation Steve had drawn her into before they'd even reached the training room had made it painfully clear in retrospect that she'd been on the road to burning herself out. And she'd been far closer to it than she cared to admit.
The next morning Nat had found Nadine pouring over her and Steve's work on tracking Rumlow. The morning after, she took over their training session.
And she took up Steve on his offer.
Though, she still wasn't entirely sure how she'd managed to find herself in this particular situation...
...holed up in a hotel room in Lagos, Nigeria as the team prepared to take out Crossbones.
She blamed her sister.
Blame aside, they had finally done it. Together, once Steve had almost literally dragged Nadine out of her self-imposed seclusion, she and Natasha—with contributions from Steve thanks to his history working with Rumlow—had finally managed to pinpoint a pattern to Crossbones' movements, located communication traces of his business dealings and had narrowed down his next move. If his pattern held true? He was preparing to hit a police station in Lagos.
The very police station the Avengers currently had staked out.
This was their chance. The Team had been chasing after his shadow for long enough—nearly six months, now, since Nadine had put him on their radar—and they had no intention of letting him slip away again. They were going to make sure of that.
It was part of how Natasha had convinced Nadine to come along on this OP. So that, if it came right down to it? If it became clear that he was on the verge of slipping away again?
Nadine would take him out.
But until then—if it was even necessary—she was their back-up strategist and their situations analyst. Another set of eyes. Thanks to Stark's tech up in orbit by way of satellites and telemetry sent back to the pair of laptops she sat before from Sam's goggles, she was keeping tabs on the team's position and the lay of the land as she usually did from back at the Compound when she provided back up, ready to call warnings or options as she saw them in real time.
A coordinator, even, helping keep everyone apprised of positions and developments as they happened.
So naturally, she was positioned in an upper floor hotel room with a clear line of sight to the police station across the street; the Team's makeshift base of operations. Close but not quite in the heart of the action and safely tucked out of sight as befitted her role as analyst and last resort measure.
Across the room, Steve was looking discreetly out the window down to the street, careful to keep out of sight as he peered between the pale curtains. In their ears, they were listening with half an ear as Wanda received her tea from the waitress of the café where she sat down in front of the hotel, keeping her own inconspicuous eye on Crossbones' anticipated target. Not far away, Nadine knew Natasha was positioned between Wanda and the street at her own table, likely carefully maintaining the appearance of a relaxed patron sipping her own coffee as Nadine knew she would be doing in her sister's shoes.
As Wanda thanked the waitress, Nadine was absently pleased with how collected Wanda sounded. She knew the youngest of their group was nervous about the mission though she was doing a commendable job of hiding it. Though how much of that came from nerves and how much from feeling guilty that Pietro had been left behind back at the Compound, Nadine wasn't entirely sure.
For a time after the Sudan mission and the mission in Turkey that had followed, it had looked like Pietro was improving. Enough that after being benched through the next mission, he'd been brought out again when the Team had been put on the trail of a rogue group of Serbian gun smugglers a couple weeks before.
It had gone...better, but still not as well as they had hoped. And Steve had made the tough call to bench Pietro for the Lagos mission as a result. Something Nadine and Natasha had gravely agreed with after a great deal of discussion between them. As much of an asset as Pietro and his abilities would undoubtedly be, the liability his rash attitude posed at the same time was too high to balance it out. For all that he had made a marked improvement in the near year it had been since Sokovia, Pietro was still far too headstrong and impulsive on the whole. Not to mention that, in the heat of the moment, he still didn't quite seem to feel he really answered to anyone save Wanda if he didn't want to. And even that was hit or miss, sometimes.
Case in point was his apparent tendency to step out and visit Nina in Cambridge right under their noses. Not that that really should've been so surprising. But it had been the last straw for Steve. Almost as soon as Natasha and Nadine had made their breakthrough and settled on Lagos as Rumlow's next target, Steve had called to Team together.
And Pietro had been nowhere to be found.
When he'd finally reappeared back at the Compound, Steve had told him he was grounded. It had not gone over well, to say the least.
But Wanda was handling the whole situation admirably, and for that Nadine was quite proud of the younger girl. Just as she was pleased with her performance on this mission thus far.
"You settled, Wanda?" Nadine asked softly as the waitress moved off. A faint hum of confirmation was her answer, but Nadine didn't need anything more. "Sam? You're in position?"
"Check, Command," the former paratrooper answered cheekily, earning a fond quirk of the lip from the blonde assassin and a barely stifled huff from Natasha. "You're covered from above."
"Nat?" Steve asked, bringing them back on task.
"We're good down here," the redhead confirmed, "though he'd better show up soon; I get too many more refills and I'm going to start drawing unwanted attention."
"We'll deal with that if it happens," Steve acknowledged. "Until then stay sharp. If you and Nadine are right, he should be starting to move."
"If we're right?" Nadine cut in with a raised brow, "I think I should be hurt that you doubt us." The sardonic quip earned her a brief and faintly exasperated look from the Captain. She smiled at the trace of amusement in his eyes that he wasn't quite able to hide. But not one to be distracted for long given the task at hand, Steve turned back to glance down toward the café where Nat and Wanda sat before resuming his observation of the street.
"Alright, what do you see?" It was clear the Captain's question was aimed at their youngest member. Nadine's lip quirked. Trust him to take advantage of the opportunity for a teachable moment even if it wasn't necessarily an overt one. Nadine eyed Steve as he turned back to the window. She very much approved. For all that he claimed he was just a soldier, Steve was a pretty good instructor. And it showed in the almost off-handed yet methodical way he lead Wanda into the environment assessment.
"Standard beat cops," Wanda's voice replied through their earpieces as she ran through the assessment as she'd been taught. "Small station. Quiet street. It's a good target." Over by the window Steve nodded even as he prompted Wanda further about cameras and escape routes.
The station was a good target for all the reasons Wanda had observed and more; the biggest being that, for all that it was a small station, it was also the closest one to the Institute for Infectious Diseases. That fact meant that it was likely well stocked with arsenal for a quick defence of the Institute if the occasion arose and quite possibly an off-site base for the Institute's undoubted extra security. It was why the Team had zeroed in on this particular precinct as Crossbones' most likely target rather than the other dozen potential stations scattered around the city.
Lots of quality weapons for Crossbones to snatch up, just as had been the case in every other police station robbery he'd been a part of in the last few months.
Not that Nadine didn't have the two others they'd pegged as the next most likely targets under surveillance just in case.
Didn't hurt to be prepared. Even if they were pretty certain they were right. She highlighted the street next to the hotel on the laptop on her right, her practiced eye zeroing in on the 'cute' red Range Rover Steve was directing Wanda's attention to.
Yeah, they were definitely in the right place.
Even as the thought ran through her head, Natasha was pointing out to Wanda what had drawn Steve's attention to the vehicle as though she was reciting Nadine's own thoughts...with a dash of her own commentary to go with the assessment, of course: "It's also bulletproof, which means private security, which means more guns, which means more headaches for somebody. Probably us." Nadine exchanged a wry look with Steve at Natasha's dry response.
Judging by her tone as she countered Natasha's comments, Wanda was less amused. "You guys know I can move things with my mind, right?"
"Looking over your shoulder needs to become second nature," Natasha said back almost dismissively without missing a beat.
"Anybody ever tell you you're a little paranoid?" Nadine was hard-pressed not to snigger as Sam made his own contribution to the banter. Especially when she noted the way Steve's jaw tensed in a way that made her think he was withholding the urge to roll his eyes at his team's off-topic teasing.
"Not to my face." Nat countered, "Why? Did you hear something?" Nadine nearly groaned at her little sister's ironic quip.
"There's always something, lisichka," Nadine couldn't help but bait, "question is, do you want to hear it?" She smiled at the piqued expression she spied on her sister's face as Natasha spared a glance at the CCTV camera in the corner of the café she knew Nadine had tapped into.
"Eyes on target, folks," Steve broke in then, pulling their focus back on task, sparing Nadine an exasperated look of her own. She just grinned, sparing him a light shrug. "This is the best lead we've had on Rumlow in six months," he reminded them, "I don't want to lose him." Not that any one of them needed reminding.
"If he sees us coming that won't be a problem. He kind of hates us," Falcon piped up. Nadine managed to stifle her chuckle at Sam's dry comment, but she wasn't quite able to keep her lip from curling. Something Steve didn't miss if the wry tug at the corner of his own lip as his ocean-blue gaze met hers was any indication. But it was gone in a flash, his focused 'Captain' persona once again firmly in command. Setting aside her own wry grin, she turned her attention back to her surveillance. Only to notice something odd in the very camera Natasha had glanced toward a moment before.
"Steve?" The Captain turned at her soft call, retreating from the window to glance over her shoulder. She only had to point to the screen and he saw exactly what had stood out to her. At once he was peering out the windows lining the adjacent wall of the room as the ones looking over the police station, zeroing in what they had both seen on the screen out on the street immediately. His already stoic features grew guarded and contemplative as his hand inadvertently rose to his earpiece. Absently Nadine mused that she and Nat really needed to work on breaking him of that habit.
"Sam, see that garbage truck? Tag it." And once again, they were all back in business mode, Sam immediately deploying his little 'Redwing' drone, as he had dubbed the thing, and Nadine was initializing the link between her own tech and the device. Her heart sunk as Sam's readings came back to her even as Sam was relaying them back to the Team. Nadine was already pulling up more cameras and the street layout, factoring in the truck's heading. It felt like a lead weight had dropped into her stomach as she realized the direction the truck was heading.
"That truck's loaded for max weight," the former paratrooper was saying even as Nadine leapt to her feet, laptop in hand as she crossed the room to Steve's side. Realization flashed grim and hard in his eyes as he looked up from the screen to Nadine as Sam finished: "and the driver's armed." Nadine's own expression was equally grave.
"It's a battering ram," they both heard Natasha murmur, echoing both Nadine's thoughts and Steve's if what she believed she saw in his eyes was right.
They were wrong about the target.
And Steve was moving even before Natasha had finished speaking, absently brushing a hand against Nadine's shoulder in silent thanks as he pushed past her.
"Go now," he ordered, breaking into a light run as he crossed the room and barrelled out the door.
"What?" Wanda blurted in confusion, a trace of panic threading her voice at the urgency clear in Steve's tone. Over the feed, Nadine could see Natasha urging Wanda to move as she too jumped to her feet.
"He's not hitting the police," Steve clarified grimly, his voice echoing faintly, indicating he'd already reached the stairwell. Nadine's fingers flew over her keyboard.
"He's going after the Institute," Nadine added, "and I've got two yellow box trucks converging on the dump truck." Only to nearly swear as she pulled her eye in the sky back, catching sight of two AFVs slipping around the back of the compound. "And their back-up's pulling in; three blocks and closing on the rear of the Institute; two heavily armored trucks. That's gotta to be their getaway," she relayed, her voice clipped. It took a great deal of self-control to keep her seat, the urge to jump into action herself suddenly itching beneath her skin.
"Copy," came Natasha's voice, "On my way."
"We're almost there," Steve replied, "Ryker? Sit rep." Forcing herself to refocus, she turned her attention back to the front of the institute.
Just in time to see the garbage truck barrelling into on the barrier with a spectacular crash.
In moments all hell had broken loose at the Institute for Infectious Diseases, Rumlow and his men smashing through the gates to breach and secure the institute like a well-oiled machine even as Nadine apprised the Team of what she was seeing. Not moments later, Steve, Sam and Wanda had reached the building themselves.
There was no room for hesitation and no time for it. Everything was moving too quickly. No sooner was Steve dropping into the courtyard or Sam descending on the rooftop than Rumlow's men were engaging them. Assessments and counts rang through the earpieces, Sam and Steve's observations from the ground on Rumlow's crew trading off with Nadine's from what she was seeing thanks to Stark's orbital tech.
Mercifully, they made short work of each mercenary they encountered—especially once Wanda propelled herself into the fray—Crossbones' men proving little challenge to their own team as they put their training the last few months to good use. Not that a few men with guns—level of training nonwithstanding—would have been much of a match for Captain America on his own, much less when Falcon and Scarlet Witch were backing him up with Black Widow not far behind getting into position to cut off their escape.
Even the gas Rumlow's men had used to neutralize the personnel within the building proved to be little more than an inconvenience; it didn't have much of an effect on Steve thanks to his Enhanced physiology and Wanda was quickly using her own powers to clear it out once she'd catapulted the Captain up to the floor where Rumlow had been directing his attack.
His successful attack.
"Rumlow has a biological weapon." Nadine's jaw clenched as Steve relayed that particular update. "Nadine, eyes on Rumlow?" Nadine grit her teeth to prevent the less than savoury curse on her tongue from escaping, instead channelling her aggravation to quickly pulling up what surveillance she could of the building's exteriors. It wasn't much given the nature of the institute, but there was enough.
"Got'im," she passed on as soon as she caught sight of their target and his flanking men descending toward the armoured vehicles that had pulled up to the back of the building. "He's coming out the back, heading for the AFVs. Natasha? What's your position?"
"I'm on it." And as soon as Nat's voice sounded through Nadine's earpiece, Natasha was flying into action, the motorcycle she had roared in on skidding across the pavement and into the frame of the camera Nadine was watching to take out the first of Rumlow's men.
The itch returned as Nadine watched her sister take out one mercenary after another. There was no doubting Natasha was handling the situation just fine on her own—no question the redhead was one of the best hand-to-hand combat specialists in the world—but that didn't stop Nadine from feeling all but compelled to back her up.
Especially when Crossbones himself pitched her headfirst into one of the AFVs followed in short order by a live grenade. Nadine's heart was suddenly in her throat, strangling her. She couldn't move, couldn't react. She couldn't even call for one of the others, knowing that not one of them was close enough to help, not even Steve who had just called out that he had reached the back of the building as he surged out onto the landing.
And then her sister was bursting from the back of the AFV just as the grenade detonated, shielding herself with one of Crossbones' men. Nadine choked in a breath, forcing back the well of terror that had been swelling in her chest as her sister took a moment to regain her breath to refocus on the mission.
Just in time to see Rumlow taking aim at Steve with the grenade launcher fixed to the top of the second AFV. Just as with Natasha, she couldn't even call out a warning in time. Even as her mouth opened, Rumlow was firing, the blast propelling Steve back into the building.
"Sam, Wanda," she snapped, even as Rumlow fired again and again, herding Steve back. But even as she called for the other two members of their Team, a final shot from Rumlow had all but blasted Steve out of the building and down to the pavement below. Nadine choked in pained sympathy as he crashed first on the roof then the edge of the truck below on the way down.
"Steve, are you okay," she bit out, not caring how suddenly desperate she suspected she sounded. A faint groan sounded in her ear as he pulled himself up.
"I'm in one piece," he answered, winded. "Rumlow?" Her eyes snapped back to her screens, physically shaking her head with irritation that she'd allowed herself to get so distracted so easily.
"North," was all she said, fingers already flying as she set to determining where he might be headed. "They're heading back my way, toward the edge of the city." She barely even heard Steve directing Sam after them.
"Already on it," the former paratrooper replied even as Nadine's fingers stilled. Not only were they driving straight into a crowded market, but there was an airstrip in the general direction the AFV was headed. In a flash, Nadine was pulling up precisely what she feared she would find.
"There's a plane ready at the airstrip ten minutes out," she informed them all grimly. "And it looks like they're planning on going straight through the market to get to it."
"Get to the roof, Nadine," Steve said then, grim and breathless. He didn't need to say another word. Nadine was already on her feet, her rifle in hand.
It was time for The Ghost to come out to play.
A/N: Thanks for Reading!
Don't forget to Vote and Comment