"Baron Strucker makes a good point!" The base leader, who came from a research background and knew nothing about Hydra's secrets, was easily convinced by Baron Strucker and put aside his worries about Schmidt's potential threat.
"The Führer's situation is not looking good right now. The Eastern Front in Europe is at a disadvantage, with the Soviet Red Army continuously counterattacking and pushing back the front lines."
"The Western Front is also in a stalemate with the Allied forces. We urgently need an opportunity to change the situation, so we must accelerate our plans."
"The construction of the Valkyrie is nearing completion, and your bomb supply must keep up. The current progress is too slow. From now on, increase production by sixty percent."
Without the energy conversion technology of the Tesseract, even with Hydra's latest high-power bombs, they needed a considerable number to destroy a city. Their target was dozens of large cities, requiring an enormous number of bombs.
"But these workers are all prisoners. I don't think they have the strength to do it," the base leader said worriedly.
"Then use up their remaining strength! There will never be a shortage of workers. We always have more prisoners," Baron Strucker said coldly, looking at the leader.
…
"Hi!"
Seeing that it was Agent Carter greeting him, Steve quickly responded.
"What are you doing here?" Steve was surprised to see his secret crush here.
"Technically, I shouldn't be here," Carter said, putting away her raincoat and sitting on a nearby prop box.
Carter and Colonel Phillips led the Strategic Scientific Reserve here to secretly deal with Hydra. To avoid alerting the enemy, their movements were strictly confidential.
"Great performance."
"Uh… yeah, I had to improvise a bit." Thinking about the earlier scene that Carter had witnessed, Steve explained somewhat embarrassedly.
"My usual audience is mostly…" Steve sighed helplessly.
"Kids."
Senator Brandt had taken Steve from Colonel Phillips to create a war idol and boost war bond sales. His performances were mainly aimed at middle-class families, and the audience was mostly parents with children.
As long as the performance was good, they wouldn't hesitate to applaud. But soldiers were different. They truly respected and admired battlefield heroes, not the so-called "Captain America" who only performed in movies and on stage and had never been to the battlefield.
"I heard you're 'America's New Hope,'" Carter said with a slight smile.
"Every state I visit sees a ten percent increase in bond sales," Steve said flatly, without much pride in his voice.
"Sounds like Senator Brandt's idea." Carter had no fondness for politicians.
"At least he lets me do this. Colonel Phillips wanted to lock me in a lab."
When Dr. Erskine faked his death, the normal procedure was to send Steve to a new lab for research. But like in the movie, Senator Brandt discovered Steve's value and used his power to draft him, making him famous to promote bonds. Clearly, his goal was achieved.
"Are those your only two options?" Carter glanced at Steve's sketch of a monkey in a star-spangled suit riding a unicycle and asked, somewhat disappointed.
"Lab rat or dancing monkey?"
"You know you can do much more than that."
Previously, to cover up the secret mission, they followed Chen Mo's suggestion and didn't tell Steve the truth. They created the illusion that Dr. Erskine had died and the super-soldier program had failed, successfully deceiving everyone without arousing suspicion.
Now, more than half a year had passed, and the turmoil had subsided. It was time to tell him the truth and bring this "super-soldier" back into the fold.
Steve, unaware of this, looked at Carter with a complicated expression and remained silent for a long time.
"What's wrong?" Carter asked curiously.
"You know, my lifelong dream has been to go to the front lines and serve my country."
"When I finally got my wish, it was in a tight suit…"
Steve felt incredibly disappointed. He wanted to fight on the front lines like other soldiers, not perform on stage, lifting motorcycles and beating up Hitler to sell bonds.
At that moment, a commotion broke out. Steve and Carter turned to see a battlefield ambulance with a red cross stopping in front of the field hospital tent. A stretcher was carried out, with a severely injured soldier lying on it.
"They must have just fought a tough battle," Steve guessed.
"These soldiers have it the worst," Carter said, knowing the situation.
Steve looked at Carter, wanting to know what was going on.
She had come to recruit Steve into S.H.I.E.L.D., so there was no need to keep secrets.
"Hydra sent a unit of two hundred soldiers to fight. Less than fifty returned."
"Among your audience are survivors from the 107th Infantry Regiment. The others were either killed or captured."
Hearing this, Steve was shocked and quickly asked, "The 107th Infantry Regiment?"
"What's wrong?" Carter asked, puzzled.
Steve didn't have time to explain. He stood up and ran to the command tent in the rain. The 107th Infantry Regiment was his friend Bucky's unit!
Steve burst into the command tent, where Colonel Phillips, who wanted to send him to the lab, was sitting. Too anxious to be surprised, Steve got straight to the point.
"Colonel Phillips, I need the casualty list from the Battle of Bolzano!"
"You have no right to order me, kid," the colonel said, glaring at Steve.
"I just want to know the status of Sergeant James Barnes from the 107th Infantry Regiment," Steve explained, worried about Bucky.
The colonel realized that Carter must have told Steve about Hydra's movements. He was angry that she had revealed classified information without consulting him. Although Steve would eventually join S.H.I.E.L.D., the colonel didn't think now was the right time, as it would cause trouble with Senator Brandt.
The colonel had planned to bring Steve back after a few months, once he finished his tour and completed his bond promotion duties, making him less important to Senator Brandt.
Glaring at Carter, who was pretending to adjust her raincoat behind Steve, the colonel pointed his pen at her and said sternly, "I'll deal with you later!"