"That was too close dammit!" Karpov cursed in Russian to some of his Soviet henchmen. "I don't know what the heck RedSkull is playing at letting that cursed woman stay alive this long. We could have lost the Asset, does no one have any idea how much the Asset is worth, how much he knows?"
Karpov sank down into his seat and drank a stiff shot of vodka, good strong stuff.
HYDRA may be working for a similar goal, but Karpov knew that RedSkull wasn't a Soviet, if push came to shove, Karpov knew he, and the Winter Soldier, would be thrown under the bus. They had a similar goal of course, but Karpov had more to lose, Red Skull was calling the shots, not him. If he didn't obey, Hydra would make his life hell, so he'd have to acquiesce until he could make a contingency plan and seize power of his own. There would be no more room for errors now, Karpov had to protect himself, he had to protect the Winter Soldier, to an extent. The Soldier seen and heard things, Soviet secrets, Karpov could never allow them to fall into the wrong hands. The Winter Soldier had to be kept on his tight leash, or exterminated and Karpov intended to keep him alive for the time being but he wouldn't forget that the Winter Soldier was expendable.
Finally, the agents, a handful of hand-picked Soviets and some of RedSkull's own Hydra operatives, returned with the Winter Soldier. Another psych evaluation took place, Karpov remained present. The Asset was still under control.
"Quite the standoff huh!" One of the operative joked to the other in a separate debriefing room.
"The Soviets are convinced there's no one stronger than their Winter Soldier, but they don't make them like a good ol' American soldiers. Even if she's a chick, Captain America is a tough bitch. I thought we might have been in trouble there."
The other operative shook his head, "American or not, shes a girl with a special frisbee, Hydra has an assassin with 70 years under his belt and an indestructible arm, I wasn't scared"
A third agent chimed in, "Don't trust the Soviets ... they're working with us now, but they have their own agenda, don't trust the Asset to watch your back all the time, we might find ourselves in a situation where we need to shoot him in the back"
"Don't let Karpov hear you say that. Whatever he's doing, he's working with Red Skull now and Red Skull told us we're working with him. We can't mess with Karpov's toys, let him play with his toy soldier and keep your head down."
Karpov's two personal guards left Karpov with the Winter Soldier and entered the room with the America Hydra agents, they quickly shut up when the Russian soldiers cold steely gaze fell on them. They spoke quietly and briefly in Russian amongst themselves and the room was filled with a tense aura.
<<"Soldat. You failed to eliminate a target">>
The Winter Soldier remained silent during his interrogation at the hands of Karpov.
<<"Worse still, you attracted the attention of St- ... Of The American">> Karpov was careful not to accidentally trigger some of Bucky's memories and untangle the Winter Soldier's rewired thoughts.
<<"You give me no choice Soldat.">>
Karpov was ruthless, but the Winter Soldier silently endured punishment after punishment. The shocks, the punches and beatings. His elevated healing factor would ensure that wounds healed quickly enough, but he was black and blue and bloodied beneath his combat armour next time he was in the field.
The Hydra agents kept quiet but eyed the Winter Soldier with a mixture of scorn, terror and what could almost be described as pity. The Russian agents that usually flanked Karpov dragged him, half-naked and beaten black and blue. As scary as Red Skull was, Karpov was ruthless in his own ways. Karpov emerged moments later and let his steely eyes linger on the Hydra goons for a moment.
"Learn from the Assets mistake." he warned.
Despite the agony of taking a ruthless beating without resisting, even though he could easily have snapped Karpov's neck ... The Winter Soldier knew their was worse to come. Cryo was horrible ... but the memory wipe that succeeded it was pain beyond pain. Even when he didn't have memories to rip away, they pulled his brain to pieces and shoved a gun in his hand. The headaches were unbearable but he couldn't complain, he couldn't resist. He had orders.
Right now, his order was to wait. To be a toy locked away in Karpov's toybox until he wanted to play with his broken puppet again.
