Barcelona - FNCM Laboratories (October 2009)

[Hollywood Heidi]

FNCM Laboratories

Located in Barcelona, FNCM Laboratories is a high-tech facility in which hundreds of scientists from all over Europe conduct research in molecular biology and molecular medicine. The Barcelona site is dedicated to the study of epigenetics and neurobiology, exploring how tissues and organs function and develop in health and in disease.

Events taking place in October 2009.

[Kristi Lynne]

*** Sophie and Zemo enter from Barcelona - Monument Hotel ***

It was easy enough to find the two cleaners headed for their shift at the lab. Zemo secured their cooperation, along with the use of their uniforms and their van, with a generous donation and the promise of a few days off. Once the duo had departed, Zemo slipped the cheery yellow smock of the cleaners' uniform over his suit, and Sophie did the same before climbing into the passenger seat. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail under a baseball cap to obscure her appearance from the security cameras.

There was a moment of tension once they arrived at the lab's gated entrance. The guard on duty asked about Rafael’s absence, and Zemo casually answered that their usual cleaner was on vacation in Ibiza and how the rest of them should be so lucky. Trying to avoid the guard's gaze would have been suspicious, so Sophie merely smiled pleasantly as the two men conversed. Just reporting to work for another day, she told herself, totally authorized to be on the premises. After what seemed like an agonizing stretch of time, they were waved in and proceeded to the loading dock.

Sophie and Zemo entered the building in uniform, while wheeling a large cleaning trolley. It was stocked not only with the cleaning supplies but also the equipment they would need for their mission. Eventually, they found a supply closet off the main building entrance and ducked into it. Zemo shrugged off the cleaners' uniform to reveal the suit underneath and tried to smooth out the creases in the shirt and jacket. 

Sophie helped straighten his tie and placed the Professor's glasses onto the Baron's face. “Looking very smart, Doctor Vogt,” she declared with an encouraging smile. And though he looked enough like the German biologist to convince the casual observer, he would still have to talk and act like the HYDRA henchman he was pretending to be. Sophie knew that this is where things would get difficult.

“So you'll join up with the tour group," she began, "I’ll head to the server room and find the surveillance feed we need." She handed him a small plastic bottle of a clear liquid. "This is ethane. Once you're inside the lab, place it on a counter and open the top. A small amount of the gas should be enough to trip the sensors and prompt them to clear the room. I'll loop the video footage and make sure you don't have any company while you destroy the samples. And then, we meet back up at the van and be home in time for tea," Sophie concluded, an exaggerated confidence in her tone.

[DarkSideCookie]

“Looking very smart, Doctor Vogt,”

Zemo didn't say anything to her compliment nor let appreciation about that shown on his features. At this point, he was completely in mission mode. He was familiar with taking on a fake personality for missions, yet never on dimensions like this. This time, it was more important than ever to make sure nobody would get the smallest idea that there was something not right about him, or maybe he thought so because, this time, he wasn't alone in it. And not only that. He had left a lot of the planning part to Sophie even. She was just too much of an expert with the technology part not to.

“So you'll join up with the tour group,""I’ll head to the server room and find the surveillance feed we need.""This is ethane. Once you're inside the lab, place it on a counter and open the top. A small amount of the gas should be enough to trip the sensors and prompt them to clear the room. I'll loop the video footage and make sure you don't have any company while you destroy the samples. And then, we meet back up at the van and be home in time for tea,"

Sophie made it sound like an easy task, but he knew just like her that she was as nervous about it as he was himself. Zemo nodded slightly in understanding, about to leave already, but then he turned to her one last time. "Be careful," he uttered with a stern expression on his face, yet there was a hint of honest concern in his voice. Zemo, however, didn't wait for an answer to that, as there was none needed, before leaving for the first part of this mission.


*** Zemo exits to the lab ***

[Kristi Lynne]

"Be careful."

“You, too,” Sophie offered, but Zemo was already out the door, leaving her alone in the supply closet. She took a deep breath and took hold of the cleaning cart and wheeled it out into the hallway. Going through the motions of emptying a few trash cans here and there, she finally made her way to the surveillance control room. All eyes of the security personnel were on the black and white images playing on the wall, so they didn’t see her snag a key card from someone’s jacket hanging on the back of their chair.

Sophie hurried, but not too much, to her next stop at the server room. She held her breath for a moment as she placed the key card up to the pad on the wall, and then exhaled when it glowed green. Pushing the door open, she glanced up and down the hallway before moving herself and the cart inside.

Sophie retrieved her laptop from underneath the trash and placed it on a shelf. She then set about testing cables until she found the right video feed. With the help of some borrowed MI-6 technology, she spliced the cable and fed it into her computer. Pulling up images from different parts of the building on her screen, she eventually located Zemo among a group of men and women in a conference room. They appeared to be happily chatting over coffee and donuts.

“Baron, this is Osprey,” Sophie advised, using the concealed earpiece that would connect them to one another. “I’m in the nest, and I’ve got eyes on you. I should be able to follow your path to the lab from here." So far, so good. Her partner appeared relaxed and sociable, seemingly adept at hiding his contempt for all of the other people in that room. "How’s the coffee?" she inquired. "Did HYDRA spring for the good stuff?”

[DarkSideCookie]

While relaxed and pleased on the outside, Zemo might be relaxed - for his experience had him self-assured enough to keep his cool on any mission as long as things went according to plan -, but surely not pleased on the inside. All these people around him, happily chatting about a substance they saw potential and everything but no danger in whilst drinking a lot of coffee and eating a lot of donuts, were grossing him out. None of them took an interest in the effects the serum would have on the whole society, on the people it would cause harm to, one way or another. Still, Zemo was a professional who knew to act outside of his inner stance, becoming part of said people for a while when suddenly the piece in his ear came to life. Finally.

“Baron, this is Osprey,”“I’m in the nest, and I’ve got eyes on you. I should be able to follow your path to the lab from here."

Zemo was well aware of the importance of not showing too much of a reaction to that but also knew of the need to give her confirmation about the technique working. He rose one hand to his fake glasses to shove them closer onto his nose to show any reaction. Sophie was smart. It would be sufficient.

"How’s the coffee?""Did HYDRA spring for the good stuff?”

At that question, Zemo had to slightly smirk, after all, pretending to smirk at somebody's remark instead. He took another sip of his coffee before adding more sugar to it. That was probably enough to answer her question. The coffee might not be awful, but also far from good. His good, at least.

Only a little while later, they were instructed to follow the man who was giving them the tour towards the lab. On the way, they were told about the serum, how great it was and that it was absolutely secure. Zemo really had to pull himself together to awe at just the information along with everyone else around him. Close to a counter, he pretended to have a special interest in the nearby station the other men and women had only passed while waiting to be out of sight, at least enough to have no one notice the small plastic bottle he drew out of his pocket to place it there. As casual as he could, Zemo opened the top of it before catching up on the group, yet only to make a halt in front of another station soon, far enough from everyone else to not get noticed but close enough to not get considered suspicious.

It didn't take much longer that enough of the gas had emitted to trip the sensors and set off an alarm. Unlike everyone else, Zemo didn't follow the given instruction of leaving the lab to evacuate, but, instead, hid behind another counter until it would be only him left in there, waiting for Sophie to confirm that the coast was clear for him to walk around more freely.

[Kristi Lynne]

Secure in the knowledge that Zemo could hear her, she followed his progress with the group deeper into the building and ultimately to the lab itself. A huge room filled with people and equipment and one wall lined with refrigerated units. All of them full of samples of the super soldier serum. The power to change people, to change whole countries even or the course of history. To play god and damn the consequences.

The gravity of the situation had barely settled when she was jarred by the sights and sounds of the alarm. As she'd hoped, the fumes from the ethane bottle had tripped the highly sensitive air filters in the lab. She watched as everyone, employees and guests alike, were hurried out of the room while Zemo stayed behind.

"Alright, the lab is clear. Recording loop in 3, 2, 1," Sophie advised him, as she recorded enough footage of the empty lab to avert suspicion. "Recording complete. Switching video feed in 3, 2, 1," she continued as she fed the looped footage to the live monitors back in the security room. 

"You're all clear, Baron. I'll keep an eye out for unwanted company," she said finally. "Good luck and Godspeed."

[DarkSideCookie]

"Alright, the lab is clear. Recording loop in 3, 2, 1,"

While Sophie was taking care of the lab recordings to avert suspicion, Zemo let his eyes wander around from where he currently hid. Qucikly he realized that he happened to sit right next to the main power supply connected to most of the computers and, especially, the refrigeration units. With a plan in mind, Zemo remained on pause until Sophie gave him an update on the live monitors.

"Recording complete. Switching video feed in 3, 2, 1,""You're all clear, Baron. I'll keep an eye out for unwanted company,""Good luck and Godspeed."

He confirmed her message with no more than a short nod, although the monitors had switched to an empty lab recording. Especially in active mission mode, Zemo preferred to keep interactions to an absolute minimum. He quickly reached for the small EMP in his pocket then. It was a device used as a weapon by Eko Scorpion soldiers and, in their situation, to put out a short electromagnetic burst that would not only fry the main computers but also cut the power to said units, even more importantly. The serum had to get destroyed. And even if they had more samples, this would be a start and the sending of a first signal from them. Zemo hurries to plug the EMP into the power outlet under the table right next to him. Soon it will overload the electronics.

[Kristi Lynne]

Sophie tried to pay equal attention to Zemo’s actions in the lab as well as the hallway outside, feeling her heart beat faster in her chest. The plan was going smoothly so far, and Zemo seemed completely assured in his actions. At his own request, she’d left this part of the operation to him, so she was taken by surprise when a shower of sparks emitted from the wall before plunging the room into darkness. The computers sat lifeless on the counters, and the glow from inside the storage refrigerators was gone. Dim emergency lighting in the ceiling was the only source of illumination now.

“Clever boy,” Sophie muttered to herself. She assumed he’d set off some sort of localized EMP, just large enough to cut off the power and fry the computers. The serum samples would soon overheat, rendering them useless. And even though HYDRA likely had backups of their research stored securely off-site, this little hiccup would put Project Centipede months or hopefully years behind schedule.

As Zemo was busy in the lab, presumably searching for any other intel to destroy, she noticed movement in one of the other video screens. Someone was in the hallway, heading back in the direction of the lab. The man didn’t look like security, or lab personnel, then Sophie realized she knew the face. Mitchell Carson, SHIELD's Head of Defense and a HYDRA operative, only a few steps away from meeting up with Zemo.

“Baron, there’s company coming. You need to clear the lab,” Sophie urged. To her dismay, her partner showed no sign of getting her message. She slightly raised her voice to continue, “Mitchell is on his way to you. You need to get out now. Zemo? Zemo?!” Still he carried on with no reaction to her warning. With a sinking feeling, she realized the EMP, small but effective, had also wiped out their comms.

“Dammit!” she hissed, pulling the device from her ear and tossing it in the trash can. What was she supposed to do now? Sophie paced the small room as a thousand thoughts ran through her head. She hadn’t been made yet; she could still walk out the front door and back to the van. That would mean leaving the baron behind. Which he could have done to her when their roles were reversed, but he didn’t. So that thought was quickly dismissed. If he were captured, there was no telling what HYDRA would do to him, or to the wife and child waiting back in Sokovia. 

Time to improvise then. Sophie hurriedly unplugged all the connections from the laptop, including the video feed which would alert security to something amiss. She just had to hope that she got to Zemo before they did. She slammed the laptop shut, and tucked it under her arm while she flung herself out of the room and into the hallway. The cleaning cart was rolled away as she summoned her adrenaline to push aside the panic and pain in her still-healing leg to get to the lab as fast as she could.

[DarkSideCookie]

While Zemo saw their plan as a success already, although he was, of course, prepared for whatever obstacle might be getting in their way still after he'd left the lab and reunited with Sophie to get out, he had no idea that he would need to improvise all too soon.

He was just on his way to cause more damage to the computers to make sure they'll end up with more problems than just the destroyed samples when suddenly steps were nearing the lab. Zemo paused for a moment yet thought it might be Sophie, about to bear him company. On the other hand, why would she leave the server room without telling him? It took him only another second to realize that this couldn't be his partner, not only because the steps didn't match hers but, especially, because he guessed what must have happened. The EMP must have destroyed the comms.

With an inner curse, knowing that it was too late already to make an escape, Zemo hurried to the door to get into a position that would, at least, give him the element of surprise. Hidden on the wall, right next to the door, he was waiting for the person to enter.

[Kristi Lynne]

Sophie skidded to a halt outside the lab, hearing a commotion coming from inside. She glanced around the doorframe to see evidence of a struggle as computers and other equipment were strewn about and chairs were overturned. She finally located Zemo still locked in battle with Carson, who had gained the upper hand and now had a firm stranglehold on her partner. Desperate to help but having no weapon at the ready, Sophie clasped tightly to the laptop in her hands. Sneaking up behind them, she brought the computer down onto the base of Carson’s skull as hard as she could.

The man proceeded to go limp and fell to the ground, releasing his hands from around Zemo’s throat. She pushed the HYDRA henchman aside in order to gently but urgently help Zemo to his feet. “Are you alright?” she asked, giving him a cursory glance for any sign of injuries or wounds. “Are you hurt?” Sophie tried to keep the fear and concern out of her voice as the mission was still very much in progress, and emotions could be dealt with later.

[DarkSideCookie]

For once, Zemo was actually glad to now have a partner working with him on missions. Not that he would have found fault with it before, or her at that, but it just took him some time to appreciate company in general. However, this was the time to do just that.

“Are you alright?”“Are you hurt?”

Zemo had still difficulties getting air into his lungs but would not show that. He could somewhat breathe, so it was enough to keep going. The mission was not only priority number one but also still very much in progress. "We've got to keep going," Zemo stressed with a rather weak voice yet focused back on their surroundings. The way, at least to outside the lab, seemed to be clear. It was their chance to retreat and make it back to the car.

Of course, Sophie had no objections, so they rushed outside, closing the lab door behind them so that it might take at least a bit for anyone to detect the unconscious HYDRA henchman inside, then got back to the cleaning van and on the road.

They had been lucky enough to leave with anymore surprises. Or that was until Zemo noticed cars following them in the interior mirror. "Damn," he almost whispered.

[Kristi Lynne]

Feeling a surge of relief that Zemo was unhurt. she was happy to turn the reins over to him. He had quickly regained his composure after the confrontation and now led the way out of the lab. Down the corridors of the building, through the garage to the van, and then back through the security gates and onto the Barcelona streets again. She told herself that it might be okay to breathe now. Not far away. the jet was waiting at the hangar, presumably fueled and ready for a quick exit.

"Damn."

“What?” Sophie asked reflexively. She noticed he was looking intently between the rearview mirror and the driver’s side mirror. Which meant they weren’t free and clear just yet. She observed at least two black SUVs weaving through the traffic and trying to gain on them.

“Time to introduce them to Winona,” she proclaimed, getting up out of her seat and going to the back of the van. She retrieved the rectangular black bag, the one that she'd been so protective of, and unzipped it to pull out the rifle inside. “German-made Karabiner 98K bolt-action rifle,” she boasted, answering Zemo's unvoiced question as she prepped it. “Offset-mounted Zeiss telescopic sight and a claw extractor that never jams. It’s my very favorite gun.” She let out a sigh of admiration as she fed several rounds of ammo into the chamber.

“Keep it steady as you can,” Sophie instructed Zemo as she walked to the back double doors of the van and swung open the left-hand one. It was hardly the ideal setup for a rifle shot, but she'd had worse. She did her best to brace her stance against the floor and the side of the van. She turned her cap around and placed it back on her head in order to have an unimpeded view.

Raising the gun to her shoulder,  she aligned the sight on the first vehicle that was following them, aiming for the engine in order to disable it. But as she squeezed the trigger, the van lurched to the side as Zemo must have had to swerve to avoid something. Her shot went high and to the right, piercing the windshield.

Sophie wasted no time, pulling back the bolt to eject the spent cartridge and pushing it forward to load the next round. She went through the routine again, exhaling slowly and deliberately before pulling the trigger.

The bullet had the desired effect of piercing the engine block through the hood, and the lead car came to a screeching halt. Momentum carried it into a streetlight, crushing the front end and effectively blocking the street. The car following didn’t have enough time to react and slammed broadside into the first car. Sophie granted herself a satisfied smile as she reached out for the door handle to pull it closed again. "All clear!" she announced.

[DarkSideCookie]

Zemo was only half listening to her introduction of Winona, although he had guessed she was talking about a weapon, or he had hoped so at least. Not reacting to her words but at least to her instruction with a slight nod, he focused fully back on the street ahead. It wasn't exactly easy to keep it steady while Sophie was firing bullets from the back of the van, especially since he couldn't help checking the situation in the interior mirror every now and then, but Zemo did well enough to keep them on the road and in the right direction.

After a while, the gunfight seemed to have ended, with his coworker not long after confirming as she returned.

"All clear!"

Zemo allowed himself to let out one deep breath, although rather inaudible. Then he turned his head a little in her direction before stating with a slight smirk: "First mission complete. With bonus points for causing even more damage as scheduled. Well done, soldier."

[Kristi Lynne]

"First mission complete. With bonus points for causing even more damage as scheduled. Well done, soldier."

“Well, they can send HYDRA the tab,” Sophie retorted. Once she was back in her seat and buckled in, she took the time to fully absorb Zemo’s compliment and the smirk on his face. One of admiration or appreciation, maybe, this time. He was still so bloody hard to read.

“We did it,” she beamed. “We really did it.” Two strangers who had not known each other a fortnight earlier had combined their knowledge and skills to deal a devastating blow to a well-financed, well-connected evil entity that had devastated so many people for so many years. She sank back against the chair with a sigh and enjoyed the Spanish scenery flying by the window.

*** Zemo and Sophie exit to Mobile - Zemo's Private Jet ***