Chapter 32: Investigation
Brooklyn Hospital.
Agent Carter waited anxiously outside the operating room, pacing back and forth in the corridor, her fingers intertwined, knuckles white from the pressure.
A brunette nurse quickly approached Carter and hesitantly asked, "Excuse me, are you Miss Peggy Carter?"
"Yes, I am."
"You have a phone call."
Carter looked surprised but quickly followed the nurse to the reception desk.
"Hello."
"This is Colonel Phillips. Drop everything and return to the Strategic Scientific Reserve immediately. Something terrible has happened—I need your assistance!" Colonel Phillips spoke rapidly, his order leaving no room for argument.
"Colonel..." Carter hesitated, glancing quickly toward the operating room.
"I'm sorry, I have something urgent here. Could you..." Before she could finish, Colonel Phillips interrupted her. "You're at the hospital with Rogers, aren't you? Hodge told me everything that happened, but that's not important right now. You have to come back immediately!"
At the mention of Hodge, Carter's expression changed drastically. "Hodge told you everything? Did he mention that he beat Steve half to death, collapsed his sternum, and left him in critical condition requiring emergency surgery?"
"His life is hanging by a thread!"
"I know all that." Colonel Phillips' voice on the phone was terrifyingly calm. "I said it's not important—you have to come back immediately!"
Carter laughed bitterly. As a Strategic Scientific Reserve agent, she'd encountered the dark side of operations and believed she could calmly face any emergency. But thinking of Steve's pale, frail face, she couldn't help the anger rising within her.
"Hodge is a thug—he's a murderer! Choosing him was the biggest mistake anyone ever made!" Carter hissed.
There was a long silence on the other end before Colonel Phillips' chillingly cold voice finally broke through: "The professor is dead. Mason killed him. The entire Strategic Scientific Reserve is in complete chaos. I need your help!"
Discussing such classified matters on a public phone line was a major breach of protocol, but faced with the furious Carter, Phillips could only patiently explain.
"That's impossible! Mason would never do such a thing!" Carter exclaimed.
"I also find it hard to believe, but Hodge and two other agents witnessed it firsthand, so I need you to come back and investigate."
"So what Hodge did to Steve—that's just going to slide?" Carter asked through gritted teeth.
"I'm sorry, Carter, but at least for now, I can't punish him. The professor is dead. He was the only remaining carrier of the super-soldier serum in the world. The committee will not allow anything to happen to Hodge, so..."
"Damn politics!" Carter spat.
"I'll send someone to take over Steve's care. Once he's out of danger, I'll arrange for him to be admitted to the best hospital in New York, with all expenses covered by the military. I guarantee I'll use every resource available to help him recover!"
"Now I need you to investigate something..."
Carter hung up the phone, lost in thought. Just then, the operating room indicator light went out, and a middle-aged doctor wearing a surgical mask, looking exhausted, walked out.
"Doctor, how is he?" Carter asked urgently.
The doctor slowly shook his head. "The prognosis isn't good. Although the surgery is over, he could die at any time from complications. His body is too weak to withstand such trauma. We'll transfer him to the ICU for monitoring."
"Whether he survives depends on the next 48 hours." The doctor said goodbye and turned to leave.
Steve, wheeled out of the operating room on a gurney, was horribly pale, like a corpse. Carter placed her hand on Steve's cheek and gently pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"Hold on, Steve—you can't give up!" She gritted her teeth and turned to leave.
After Steve was admitted to the ICU, Carter couldn't offer much help at the hospital. All she could do now was pray—pray that God would hear her and spare this honest, kind young man.
Carter changed her clothes in the parking garage, then slammed on the gas pedal in fury and sped off.
Her heart was consumed by deep regret. Thinking of Steve's near-death state, she felt that stopping Mason had been a mistake—she should have let Mason kill that bastard!
Because of Steve, she knew Mason's network intimately. He didn't have many friends in Brooklyn—besides Steve, only his girlfriend, Kardashian.
Carter figured Mason would likely contact Kardashian immediately after escaping. She drove at breakneck speed, heading straight for Kardashian's address.
It was completely dark when Carter parked and silently slipped into position near Kardashian's house.
It was dinnertime, and the Kardashian family of three sat at the table eating, a picture of domestic tranquility. Carter observed Kardashian carefully but found nothing unusual in her demeanor. A typical businesswoman like Kardashian couldn't possibly hide anything from Carter's trained eye.
"Could it be that Mason didn't come here?" Having surveyed every angle without finding any trace of Mason, Carter hesitated.
"Should I continue waiting here, or check Steve's place?" She hesitated for a moment, then waited another fifteen minutes until the Kardashians finished dinner. Having made up her mind, Carter started the car and drove straight to Steve's apartment.
Night had fallen.
This time, Carter parked a little farther away and discreetly approached Steve's place.
The apartment wasn't large, and she quickly searched it thoroughly, but found no one.
"Where did he go?"
Having searched two locations without finding Mason, Carter was starting to feel uneasy. She hid in a dark corner and waited quietly for half an hour, but nothing happened.
Finally, Carter's patience exhausted, she got up and left. She decided to return to Kardashian's house, hoping that Mason might have gone there while she was away.
Turning the key, starting the car, her foot barely touching the accelerator, she felt a tightness around her neck—a rough, powerful hand gripped her throat, cutting off any sound. Then she felt something cold and hard pressed against her temple.
"Don't move!" Mason's cold voice came from behind.
"Turn off the car, take your hands off the wheel, and move slowly. Don't make me pull this trigger!" Mason was on high alert now. Even if the person was Captain America's future lover, if they stood in his way, he wouldn't hesitate to take them out!
"Mason, don't be rash!"
Sensing the intense killing intent in Mason's tone, Carter complied. "You don't need to be on edge—it's just me."
"You should be grateful you came alone, otherwise..." Before Mason could finish, Carter's next words completely stunned him.
"Mason, Steve is dying!"
[Goal Tracker]
PS 500 → 2 Bonus Chapters
Reviews 10 → 1 Bonus Chapter
If you enjoyed it, consider a review.
P2treon DarkFoxx has 20+ advance chapters