Victoria remained silent.
She felt like something was off.
Locke simply smiled at her. "What? You want me to join you, but you won't even tell me your name or what kind of benefits I'd get?"
Since when did HYDRA recruitment become so crude and simple? They weren't even giving a name?
Hearing Locke's words, Victoria's vigilance reached a new peak. "If you are willing to join, you will know our name."
"Ha."
Locke chuckled.
Originally, he had planned to settle this quickly so he could head over to Gwen's place and swap back with his clone.
But now?
Since HYDRA had shown up here, it meant that S.H.I.E.L.D. had temporarily lost control of the area.
You want to play? I'll play with you.
Thinking this, Locke nodded and looked at Victoria. "Sure, I'm in."
However...
Victoria only grew more suspicious, narrowing her eyes. "What kind of trick are you playing?"
Locke laughed. "I said I'm joining. Now, you can tell me the name of your organization, right?"
Good grief. You're the one who wants me to join, yet when I say I will, you get paranoid?
Pick a side!
The next second, Victoria suddenly flashed a smile. "In that case, let's go."
Locke raised an eyebrow, his gaze falling on Victoria's ear, which looked quite beautiful. "Go where? You still haven't said the name."
"You'll know once we reach our base."
"Wait."
"..."
Victoria gestured with her suppressed pistol. "Don't try anything."
Locke ignored the threat. "I just have one more question. If you answer it, we can get on our way."
'You on the road to the yellow springs, me to Gwen's house.
Both of us hitting the road—no problem.'
Victoria was silent for a moment. "Ask."
Locke asked curiously, "If this organization of yours is truly more powerful than S.H.I.E.L.D., then why didn't they come out to protect you when you were captured?"
Victoria heard the question and let out a short laugh. "It's simple. Because I went back voluntarily."
"Oh?"
"I left the S.H.I.E.L.D. training base when I was twelve. Then, my current organization found me, nurtured me, and showed me that I could have a different choice. If I wanted to hide, S.H.I.E.L.D. would never have found me. Don't forget, in over a decade, they never even managed to get a single photo of me. The reason they caught me wasn't because I was careless, but because I wanted to go back."
"Back for what?"
"Naturally, to..."
Victoria stopped herself there, a brilliant smile spreading across her face. She looked at Locke. "I've answered your question, haven't I?"
Locke chuckled. "Thank you."
Victoria frowned.
Locke said, "I've already guessed why you went back."
"...Is that so?"
"Yes."
Locke nodded quite seriously. "It seems your organization is a bit short-handed. You don't have enough people."
"What?"
"Otherwise, they wouldn't have you working around the clock like this."
"..."
Getting caught on purpose just so she could covertly flip a new batch of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and before that job was even finished, she was called away to deal with the Locke situation.
Tsk, tsk.
Victoria was practically a model worker.
Locke thought to himself, then looked at Victoria, whose expression was full of suspicion, as if she were trying to figure out exactly what he had guessed. "One last question. Regarding the relationship between me and Locke Broughton—besides the Brotherhood, who else did you tell?"
Victoria snapped back to reality and looked at him. "Locke, other than Callum Lynch, I can swear on my mother's life that I haven't told anyone."
"Is that so?"
"I swear it before God."
"I'm sorry."
"What?"
A smile played on Locke's lips as he looked at Victoria. "I find it hard to believe the oath of a woman who is wearing a communication earpiece while swearing that I have no connection to Locke."
As the words fell, Victoria's expression changed instantly.
She fired!
*Puff!*
*Puff!*
"What?"
Victoria stared in shock as her two bullets slammed into Locke's chest, only to pass straight through his body and thud into the wall behind him.
The next second, she watched in horror as the Locke standing before her dissolved into a red mist and vanished.
Then!
Victoria's body stiffened. She felt a cold gun barrel pressed against the back of her head.
Behind her.
A boundless killing intent, as frigid as an Arctic iceberg, pierced her to the bone.
"Victoria!"
Locke, appearing behind her, leaned in close to her shoulder. He reached out and plucked an in-ear monitor from her ear with a smile. "I gave you a chance to live, didn't I?"
With that, Locke put the earpiece into his own ear.
The next second, a series of displeased, urgent voices demanding Victoria speak came through the device.
"HYDRA!"
"..."
Victoria's body stiffened once more.
Similarly, the HYDRA superior speaking on the other end of the line also went dead silent.
Locke leaned against Victoria's shoulder, greedily inhaling the scent of her perfume. In a few moments, there wouldn't be any left to smell.
After all... he wasn't a necrophiliac.
"Baron Strucker?"
"Baron Zemo?"
"Crossbones?"
"Viper?"
"Daniel Whitehall?"
"Sunil Bakshi?"
As Locke's voice drifted out, not only did Victoria's body grow stiffer, but even the breathing of the HYDRA agent on the other end of the line became increasingly rapid.
Locke's tone was ghostly. "Tell me, are you among these people? If not, I can keep going. After all, once I knew you existed, I specifically made a list and wrote down all the names I knew. If you're not there, tell me your name, and I can add you to it."
The breathing on the other end grew even more frantic before a raspy voice finally came through: "We only wish to recruit you, sir!"
Locke's lips curled up. "And if I refuse, you kill me?"
The person on the other end said, "No—"
*Puff!*
*Thud!*
Locke holstered the Silver Dancer. He watched Victoria as she slammed into the floor face-first, a single bullet hole in the back of her skull, her life completely extinguished. His voice was long and haunting:
"What I love most is the sight of life being snatched away by my bullets. Such a scene is truly beautiful. Tell me... don't you agree?"
Sunil Bakshi: "..."
***
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