The file lay open on the table with Adam's photo in one corner and an enlarged image of the Omnitrix beside it, frozen from the security footage at the moment Tony Stark had touched it and the watch had fought back.
Brock Rumlow stood with both hands on the table. Jasper Sitwell stood beside him with a tablet in his hand. Two more men were in the room, but they kept quiet while Rumlow read the new label.
[Recoverable Asset]
[Priority: Omnitrix]
[Secondary Value: Subject Biology]
Rumlow looked at Sitwell. "You are sure the release order is real?"
"It came from Fury's office," Sitwell said. "Rogers is being attached to him."
Rumlow's mouth tightened. "That makes it harder."
"It also makes it urgent," Sitwell said. "Once he is with Rogers, we lose access."
One of the men near the wall shifted. "The team is already in place."
Rumlow looked back at Adam's photo.
"Then they succeed," he said. "We need the watch if it can be taken. If it cannot, we need the subject."
Sitwell's thumb moved over the tablet.
"And if he resists?"
Rumlow did not look away from the image.
"He is an asset. Not a guest."
The second file showed the medical report from the cell. There was no blood sample, but the notes were enough to make the room quiet. Adam could become dense crystal, his watch had defended itself against Stark's armor, and his second form had phased through walls in New York.
"Tell the team not to touch the device unless they have to," Sitwell said.
Rumlow gave him a hard look. "They already know that."
"Then remind them," Sitwell said. "Stark touched it once and his suit locked up."
Rumlow's eyes went back to the watch photo.
"Fine," he said. "The subject comes first, then the watch."
Outside the holding cell, the plan had already failed.
Adam floated out of the floor in Big Chill form and looked at the frozen soldiers behind him. A thin white layer covered their bodies. Their guns were still in their hands, but their fingers could not move.
He could have killed them, but he pushed that thought away.
'No.' Adam thought. 'I am not doing that unless I have no choice.'
He did not want S.H.I.E.L.D. as an enemy. He did not want Steve looking at him like a threat. He also did not want Fury deciding the cell had been too soft.
So he had frozen them, not shattered them.
The corridor was not clean. Two real guards were down near the wall. One had been shot in the shoulder, and another was clutching his side while trying to keep pressure on the wound. They must have been the ones who came to release him before the attackers behind them opened fire.
Adam's face tightened.
"So they shot their own people too," he muttered.
He looked at the frozen attackers again.
'This is why I did not want to give them blood.' Adam thought.
One report had already been enough to make someone move.
More boots thundered from the far end of the corridor.
Adam turned.
A full S.H.I.E.L.D. response team came around the corner with weapons up. Fury was behind them, and Steve came in a second later from another hall.
Fury's eye locked on the frozen bodies first.
Then it moved to Adam.
"What did you do?"
Adam pointed at him with one long, cold hand. "Your people tried to shoot me."
Fury's face became harder. "My people were ordered to release you."
"Then your people are not listening to you," Adam said. "Because those guys opened my door and started firing."
The response team shifted uneasily.
One agent looked toward the wounded guards and then back at the frozen men, but nobody moved until Fury lifted two fingers.
"Medics," Fury said.
Two medical agents rushed past the response team. They went to the injured guards first, and Adam moved out of their way without being told.
"I am not stopping you," he said.
Fury noticed that too.
Steve came closer, his shield already on his arm. "Adam, are you hurt?"
"No," Adam said. "Big Chill is very useful when bullets decide to be rude."
Steve looked at the frozen soldiers. "Are they alive?"
Fury asked the same question at almost the same time, but his voice was colder. "Did you kill them?"
Adam turned toward the frozen men.
"No, I froze them. When the ice comes off, they should still be alive. Probably very angry, but alive."
Fury looked at one of the medics. "Check them."
The medic moved carefully, staying away from Adam while checking the closest frozen soldier.
"Pulse is weak but present," the medic said after a moment.
Adam let out a breath he had not noticed he was holding.
"See? I am being extremely reasonable for someone who got shot at during release."
Fury did not smile.
He looked at the frozen rifles, the wounded guards, and the open cell door. The order had been simple, but someone had turned it into an extraction attempt.
Steve looked at Fury. "What is going on?"
Fury did not answer at once.
Adam watched him and saw something change behind that one eye. Fury had been angry when he came in, but now the anger had shifted into suspicion.
Adam knew that look.
Fury had been suspecting something inside S.H.I.E.L.D. for a while. Now someone had tried to take Adam right after a release order. That was too direct to ignore.
Still, Fury did not explain it in front of everyone.
"Rogers," Fury said.
Steve straightened slightly.
Fury looked at Adam again. "He stays under your watch. For now, he is still connected to S.H.I.E.L.D., but he works with you."
Adam floated a little lower. "So I am released?"
"You are out of the cell," Fury said. "Do not make me regret that difference."
Adam raised both hands. "I am very motivated not to go back in the glass box."
Steve's eyes stayed on Fury. "You are sending him with me because of this."
"I am sending him with you because you wanted responsibility," Fury said. "Now you have it."
That was not the whole truth, and everyone close enough could feel it.
Steve clearly wanted more answers, but this corridor was not the place.
Steve took a slow breath, then looked at Adam.
"Come on," he said. "We have a mission."