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Monday 20th June 2016
Steve frowned. "The Red Book?"
Tony cursed.
He hadn't wanted Rogers to have known just yet, not until they'd succeeded in bringing Barnes into the Avengers.
His long-term plan was to unite the two friends again but not until after the Accords situation had been sorted.
The Red Book being taken complicated matters and could just throw the Accords off.
Shaking his head again as the drowsiness wore off from the sleeping agent, Tony gingerly got to his feet, steadying himself by his desk.
Whoever had stolen the Red Book had, had no qualms in throwing Tony from his chair to the floor so they could access the secret compartment.
No one save from Natasha had known where it was or what it was for.
'Unless…' His mind was ticking over, working furiously, to figure out who was behind this.
He could make a guess but he doubted Ross would have done the job himself. "FRIDAY?"
There was no answer.
"She was disabled," answered Steve. "When I woke up she was the first thing I tried. Whoever did this disabled her without any of us knowing."
Tony groaned. "I'll have to reboot her." She might still be able to give them some answers but it depended on whether she had been hacked into by someone on site or an outsider.
His vision blurred slightly again. "Yesterday Nat and I apprehended a man in Cleveland. He killed a former Hydra agent and had a Red Book with him which he recovered at the scene. The Red Book contains instructions on how to activate the Winter Soldier."
Steve's eyebrows rose.
"Only Nat knew I had it in here. We were keeping it safe so no one could use it against Barnes. I thought it was safe here." Tony dropped his chin down to his chest.
"Are you saying someone could control Bucky?" asked Steve, his voice tight. "I've been searching for him for two years. I've had no luck."
Tony winced. "It's possible. If they know where he is."
"Tony… Do you know where he is?" Steve leaned forward, hands pressed down on Tony's desk.
Exchanging a glance with Natasha who nodded slightly, Tony sighed. "Bucharest. Romania. He's been there a few months, living a quiet life."
"And you didn't tell me?" Steve's fists clenched. "I thought we were supposed to trust one another!"
"Steve," Natasha raised her hands, "we both decided not to tell you."
"Why? You know I've been searching for him! I can't believe you would keep this from me!"
"You can talk, keeping my parent's deaths from me for years," interjected Tony. "We only found the Red Book yesterday. At what point did we have a chance to tell you about it? We knew it existed, yes, but had no idea where it was until we got our hands on it."
"We've been searching for it for months. We figured telling you about the Red Book would be a mistake, lead the wrong people to his location until we had it ourselves," explained Natasha easily.
"We were going to bring you in once the Accords were signed so we could bring Barnes back into the fold if he wanted to. Without the Accords to protect us we could have potentially led anyone to Barnes, any potential Hydra operative who could then use him. Better to leave him where he is whilst we worked to ensure the Red Book was found." said Natasha.
"We were thinking of his safety and ours," added Tony. "If someone else had found this Red Book and used it to control Barnes? Chaos."
"But that is exactly what is going to happen," said Steve. "What if they know where he is? What if they track him down?"
"FRIDAY is monitoring him," reassured Natasha. "He's been under surveillance with us for a while now."
Which was true but not as long as they were leading Steve to believe.
"FRIDAY is currently down."
"Here, only," noted Tony.
"Her servers are only down here. She should be fine in the other places she is installed. The only way they can take her down across her entire network is to attack her central computer system which only I have access to on the mainframe. She should have full footage of Barnes' hideout from the moment we began monitoring until whenever we stop. I'll make a check as soon as I've rebooted her here." He was already getting his phone out, logging onto his network.
Steve clenched his fists. "I can't be dealing with this right now."
"Steve…?" Natasha asked.
"Oh no…" Tony realised.
He remembered what had happened at this point originally. Steve had hurriedly left to fly to London. "Peggy."
"How do you know?"
"I knew her, Steve." Tony had been too busy with the Accords last time to attend Peggy's funeral even though he had wanted to.
The time hadn't been there for him. Same as it was now. "She was a constant figure in my life growing up. I knew her better then you did."
"Her funeral is on the 22nd June, the same day as the Accords signing," said Steve. "I have to be there for her."
"We need you at the signing, Cap," answered Tony. "I want to go to Peggy's funeral too but it is our duty to show unity on the Accords."
Steve shook his head. "No. I can't. I'll sign it when I get back."
"Steve…" Natasha stepped forward. "There are bigger things in play here. Ross has threatened Tony."
Tony's sharp gaze towards her proved he hadn't been expecting her to reveal that little nugget of information.
"Ross? The guy Tony replaced on the Accords Committee?" Steve moved back, surprise running across his features.
"Yes." Natasha folded her arms across her chest.
"You think he did this?" Steve gestured around the room at the mess in Tony's office.
"I do. Just paid someone to do it for him," replied Natasha.
Tony leaned back on his desk. "Ross has the contacts in place where he could learn the location of the Winter Soldier. If he gets his hands on the Red Book…" He had a feeling he knew what was going to happen.
"You believe he will use Bucky?" whispered Steve.
****
POWER STONES!!!
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