The Price We Pay for Family - 22

Cont...

 Sam dreamed of falling and woke up screaming and wondered if that was what Bucky felt the first time he had died. The feeling of being dead weight. The way your gut sloshed nervously and then dropped out. The panic.

 But that wasn't true, was it? He hadn't died falling; he'd died drowning in a trap Sam had let him walk into. 

As much as he hated to say it, John was right. There was nothing he could have done. That answer didn't satisfy the guilt that ate at him like it had with Riley. Like he was there just to watch. 

The thoughts and guilt followed. Why didn't I stop him? Why him? What if-? No matter how hard Sam worked. No matter what he did. 

The government had tried putting a new partner with him, but he'd wiggled out of that. Torres was trying to keep up with him and ensure he was alright, but it wasn't the same. Sam hadn't realized how used to it he'd gotten, having a partner to watch his back. Having someone who would drag him to meals because they knew he hadn't eaten. Someone who would tell it like it was and not what he wanted to hear. Torres was trying, but it wasn't quite right. 

To Sam's surprise, the person who it felt right with, was John Walker. The man had taken to calling him at random nights when he wasn't working and just talking shop. Terrorists, drug dealers, and traffickers were common topics. John's gray way of seeing the world and accomplishing goals reminded Sam of Bucky in a way. Also, the way John would facetime him, look at him for two long seconds before greeting him in the way of, "You look like you got ran over. When's the last time you slept?" Oddly enough, the two found themselves in a strange companionship and understanding. 

There hadn't been any new reports of super soldiers, but there were rumors of human experiments happening in the jungles of Vietnam. John reported an uptick in trafficking for that region. Sam pulled up some old maps from the Vietnam War and talked Isaiah into looking over them before meeting up with John in Cambodia and flying in. 

They rescued 106 people and burned 3 square miles of underground laboratories by the time they were done. They were also stuck with miles of paperwork and fathomless boxes of evidence from the bunkers to go through. The unglamorous part of superhero work. It is also the most crucial. 

"Sam!" John hissed voice hushed. 

"What?" Sam grumbled, looking up from the grave of paper he was in. 

"Look at this." John shoved a box of vials into Sam's face.

 "Why are you whispering?" Sam mumbled, grabbing the box. 

"Cause I think we might have a big problem," John said as he watched Sam read the label on the box, eyes widening. 

"How much is there of this?" Sam asked, voice dropping to match John's whisper. 

"A lot more. More than should be physically possible." John jerked his head over at some of the untouched crates, "Come look." 

Sam gripped the box with neat tiny vials of blood labeled WS Project. Date drawn: redacted. Then scribbled on the edge of the label, two months old. The package was brand new. Nothing in it was even remotely seventy years old. Not even ten years old. All the equipment and crates pulled from the labs was brand spanking new. And they had crates and crates of those neat little boxes with these neat little vials. 

"Where did they get this?" Sam whispered horrified as he ran his hand over the boxes. 

"We might have a bigger problem." John whispered, holding out a piece of paper and tapped the logo. It was an inventory list that was mostly blacked out but at the top was a heart with vines coming out of it. Under it was a phrase: the Heart Remains.

 "What am I looking at?" Sam asked, handing the paper back and checking to make sure the evidence techs were still a ways off. 

"Okay hear me out. In Greek mythology the only way to kill a Hydra was to cut out the heart of the main head otherwise it would keep growing and multiplying. Look at the logo. A heart with tentacles regrowing. Regrouping." John explained, "We didn't see how deep this went last time. When Steve had to implode SHIELD. Hydra was in the very highest levels of the government. Who's to say we got them all?" 

Sam looked at the logo carefully. John was right. It did resemble the old Hydra logo. He looked around at the equipment and suddenly felt an odd sense of deja vu. He'd done this before. Stood in a room like this with captured equipment like this with a blond haired blue eyed shield wielding man like they had. "I gotta make a call." 

One call to Rhodey later and the whole operation ground to a halt. With new eyes Sam Torres and John tore into the equipment and crates with new zeal. Insignificant things earlier became more important. Until a clear picture began to appear.

 "Okay, wait, run that by me again?" Rhodey asked, squinting at Sam like he'd lost his mind. 

"We were never able to confirm we pulled Hydra out by the root in 2014. Fury even said that a lot of rats didn't go down when we crashed the Triskelion." Sam explained. 

"Fury's a secretive idiot." Rhodey deadpanned. 

"Fair, but he made a good point. We don't know if we got all the Hydra branches. I mean, we found Wanda and Pietro two years after the Triskelion!" Sam exclaimed. 

"Your point?" Even through his hologram form, Rhodey looked tired and confused.

 "I don't think we got it all. I think they went underground. I think they hid. I think they decided it was too risky and went into hibernation. And I think they're coming back out now." 

"Sam, I think you're grasping at straws here, man. Just because someone had it out before Bucky-" 

"No! This has nothing to do with that! This has to do with the operation I just ran in Vietnam! Rhodes, I just found crate upon crate upon crate of blood, tissue samples, and pure drug enhancers that no one in their right mind would take undiluted unless they wanted to OD. And all of them were stamped with this seal," Sam held up a piece of a crate with the logo on it, "Look familiar?" 

Rhodes stared at the logo a moment, "They're not the same." 

"No, but they're too close to be a coincidence." Sam insisted.

 "Yeah, they're probably a copycat group. Stranger things have happened." Rhodey shook his head, "Sam-" 

"Rhodey, please. I'm the only one left that dealt with this mess. The only one well versed in Hydra. Trust me, it's them. Let me look into this." 

Rhodey sighed, "I do trust you, and if you say it's them, it's them, but I just want to make sure that you're not letting your grief cloud your judgment here. This isn't something you can take back."

 "I'm not. Nothing I do. No fights. No Vengeance, no death, or justice can bring him back. But this? I know this." 

"Okay. I'll let you look into it. But you need to keep me updated weekly. If this doesn't end up going anywhere on pulling the plug." Rhodey relented. 

"Thank you." Sam exhaled like a whisper had been lifted from him, not added. 

"Good luck Sam. For your sake, I hope you're right. For everyone else's," Rhodes smirked, "I hope you're wrong."

Tell me what you think in the comments!

Follow if you like it!