"The armory? Where is it?"
Bucky was a bit impatient because Howard Stark didn't immediately take him to some secret underground base. Instead, Howard made a phone call, and soon after, a helicopter was summoned. A refined, British-butler-like old man escorted his wife, Maria, away.
"Follow me."
Bucky eagerly followed Howard to the villa's underground room.
"Look, what do you think?"
"...What do you mean, what do I think? Where's the secret door mechanism?"
Bucky looked around. This was a room similar to a collection room, displaying some calligraphy, paintings, vases, and other collectibles. Of course, a display cabinet on one wall held rows of hunting rifles. But shouldn't this be a disguise or something? Shouldn't Howard pull out a book from the bookshelf, or press a button under the desk, to open a secret door leading to a high-tech secret room filled with advanced gadgets?
"Secret door mechanism? No, there are only these hunting rifles here, but they are all meticulously maintained, so they definitely work."
Bucky looked at Howard speechlessly. Old Howard, you don't follow the script.
The old man grinned, a look that probably meant, "You little rascal, you fooled this old man so many times, almost breaking my old back. Of course, I have to find a chance to get revenge."
"I do have an underground room here, filled with top-secret items I've sealed away, but there's nothing you can use. I was originally going to seal the serum here, but I don't need to now. As for weapons, there are indeed only these. Stark Industries does make guns, but I wouldn't keep all the products in my own home, would I? We have facilities called warehouses."
"Ha, ha."
Facing Howard's old complaint, which he had probably been holding in the whole way and finally let out, Bucky turned and walked away. He knew that compared to his nephew Tony in the future, Howard was more inclined towards weapon research. He had developed many highly destructive weapons, some of which were only concepts that even he himself feared. Therefore, to prevent anyone from using them, he sealed these dangerous items away.
He had only fantasized earlier that Howard might consider the situation urgent and take out something to deal with the emergency, but Howard was unwilling, and Bucky didn't force him.
"Aren't you going to look? These guns are all collector's items."
You're still hounding me, aren't you? Bucky's eyes darted around, and he turned back. He went straight to the display cabinet, twisted off the lock, grabbed all five hunting rifles inside, tucked them under his arm, and left.
"...Hey, you're not thinking of that, are you? These guns are very expensive, Remington 1882 Royal Edition..."
Indeed, these five hunting rifles had extremely high collection value. If they were Kalashnikovs, they could fill the entire villa. But Howard guessed what Bucky was going to do and didn't chase him hard.
"What a miraculous ability, what's the principle behind this?"
Watching Bucky touch a wire with one hand and disassemble his precious hunting rifle with the other, Howard showed no sign of distress. Instead, he stared intently at Bucky's disassembly process, marveling at it.
"Who knows."
"Once the storm passes, you must let me examine you."
"Judging by your gaze, I think what you want to say isn't examination, but dissection."
"How could I bear to so quickly... *cough*, I mean, how could I have such a thought? You're overthinking it."
"Let's get to the point. You're a genius, do you have any ideas?"
Bucky changed the subject, looking at Howard with a serious expression.
"Hmm…"
Howard also became serious, but shook his head and said in a deep voice:
"The information I know is still too little."
"But this is all I can tell you." Bucky pointed to his head, shrugging helplessly.
"...In that case, it's better to know nothing at all."
...He didn't seem to be sarcastic? Bucky's eyes darted around, and an idea flashed:
"Are you saying I should just pretend to have amnesia?"
"Exactly. You just don't remember anything, which is why you don't want to kill me, and I escaped a calamity."
It wasn't that I found an excuse to have amnesia myself, but that after crossing over, a local person actively told me to pretend to have amnesia... Bucky felt a bit strange.
"The current situation is even more serious than when we previously knew HYDRA was our enemy! We cannot act rashly. Acting impulsively will only make things uncontrollable. It's better to continue what you've been doing, and do it more decisively."
"Can we keep it hidden?"
"Just as you said, hide it for as long as possible. What we need most now is time. With buffer time, we can gain the initiative, and then…"
As Howard spoke, he seemed to gradually clarify his thoughts.
Just then, Bucky stood up silently. Howard felt as if his eyes blurred, and Bucky was already by the window, looking sideways at the pitch black outside.
"Something's happening?"
Howard was puzzled.
"Yes, you have new guests. Don't you have a secret room? Can it hide people? If not, find a room, lock the door, oh, and turn off the power."
"Alright, you be careful."
Howard didn't try to be brave. Although he was adventurous and dared to fly through enemy anti-aircraft blockade in his youth, he knew very well that he was not a soldier. Since there were enemies, it was better to leave it to professionals like Sergeant Barnes.
Oh, right, he now had a nickname: Winter Soldier.
Howard didn't hesitate, turned and left. Soon, he returned to the collection room. Bucky had indeed guessed correctly. Howard pulled out a book from the bookshelf and pressed the button behind it, and the bookshelf opened like a door.
Inside was indeed a very high-tech room, with bright lights, computer clusters, several CRT monitors, and an unfinished instrument on the workbench. Howard went to the computer and fiddled with it for a while, and the lights in the villa extinguished. Then, on the surveillance screens made up of several monitors next to him, infrared camera footage appeared: inside the villa, outside the villa, and the roads outside the estate.
Sure enough, three black SUVs had already driven into the estate.
But how did Bucky discover them?
Naturally, as soon as Bucky arrived, he used his bionic eye to search and found the cameras here. His bionic eye had been connected to one of them. Then, using the view connected to the camera, he continuously switched to other cameras, constantly monitoring the surrounding situation.
Bucky was not surprised that HYDRA found this place so quickly. Not to mention the failed assassination of Howard Stark, which was a huge matter, the sudden loss of contact with HYDRA's secret weapon, the Winter Soldier, was enough to make HYDRA explode on the spot.
Speaking of which, this was entirely HYDRA's carelessness.
The emotionless killing machine had perfectly executed too many missions, without a single deviation, without any accidents. No matter how careful they were, they would gradually get used to it, making it a routine to "leave things to the Winter Soldier, just wait for him to complete the mission, and they'll get a free ride."
Until a real problem occurred.
That is, the GPS positioning system in Bucky's Kirin Arm suddenly disappeared, and HYDRA lost Bucky's location. They then rushed to send personnel to investigate. But it was too late. They only found the burnt car and the matching corpse inside.
They checked the surveillance footage near the car and saw the Winter Soldier completing the mission. Some even held a glimmer of hope because of this. But no contact from Bucky came.
That's when they truly realized the seriousness of the problem and mobilized urgently. They then retrieved all surveillance footage from the area around the incident. They discovered Howard Stark driving Bucky.
HYDRA exploded!