Sokovia - Helmut Zemo's House (December 2011)

[Kristi Lynne]

Helmut Zemo's House

One of the few rich houses in the wealthy district of Novi Grad in Sokovia. Residence of Baron Helmut Zemo, his wife, and their son, Carl.

Events taking place in December 2011.

[Kristi Lynne]

Sophie stood sipping cherry blossom tea from a delicate, ornately-painted tea cup and saucer. Everything in Zemo's house was of the highest standard, including the china, and it had taken a long time for her to feel comfortable there. But this place, and more specifically the hidden war room in which she now stood, had become like a second home. She had her own desk and computer, but the other table surfaces and walls were a controlled chaotic display of their combined HYDRA research.

Zemo had been outside taking a call from Helen, who had taken their son on a visit to see her family back in the States. Her absence meant there was little need for secrecy, but it was their habit now. Zemo was still deeply committed to keeping any of this work away from his family for their protection.

When he came back into the room, her posture reflexively straightened as if at military inspection. "How are the in-laws?" Sophie asked. "I'm sure they're thrilled to be spoiling Carl. He'll come back with so many toys and clothes, you won't know what to do with them."

[DarkSideCookie]

Zemo noticed her posture straightening without a comment or any reaction to it. Instead, he remained rather casual. Sophie and he might be business partners, but, no matter how hard it always had been for him to admit such a thing, she also had become a friend to him. And he was sure Sophie was feeling the same way.

"How are the in-laws?""I'm sure they're thrilled to be spoiling Carl. He'll come back with so many toys and clothes, you won't know what to do with them."

"Well, we have a lot of room to store things away," Zemo shrugged before he walked closer towards Sophie to check the monitor in front of her, not to control her work but to see how far they were with gathering all the information they would need for their next mission. "Additionally: he's only two years old. I appreciate being gifted with clothes for him instead of driving to the mall every month." Carl was especially at an age where he would grow out of his clothes faster than they could buy them. Money was no problem, of course, but time and energy, at least for him, was. Although it was mostly Helen who took care of these things, he could read in her eyes and between the lines that she wanted him to become a more present part of their child's life. Still, Zemo had a job that was of importance for more than only one life.

Before Sophie could say anything to his words, he was back to business. "What do we have?"

[Kristi Lynne]

"Well, we have a lot of room to store things away. Additionally: he's only two years old. I appreciate being gifted with clothes for him instead of driving to the mall every month. … What do we have?"

Fair enough, he didn't want to talk about family matters. This wasn't the time and place for it, anyway. Though the thought of the Baron wandering a children's clothing store at the mall, being completely perplexed and out of place, did cause her to stifle a smile. Sophie set down her cup and saucer on the desk and resumed her seat at the computer. "You remember our German friend, Professor Vogt, from the op in Spain?" she asked. "I took the liberty of cloning his laptop while we had him detained, so that I could keep an eye on his correspondence."

She pulled up a screen that appeared to be an email inbox for the prestigious biology professor. "Whatever you threatened him with, must have worked. He’s been behaving himself, mostly," she explained. "No overt or even covert messages from known HYDRA operatives. But he recently received an invitation to the very exclusive New Year’s Eve Silvester Ball in Vienna."

With a few key clicks, she opened the email with the attached event information. "The invitation came from a biotech firm headquartered in Zurich, Belloq Labs," she informed him. "Belloq Labs turned down three of Vogt's grant requests over the past two years. Now suddenly he's their guest of honor?" 

[DarkSideCookie]

"You remember our German friend, Professor Vogt, from the op in Spain?""I took the liberty of cloning his laptop while we had him detained, so that I could keep an eye on his correspondence."

Zemo eyed her with a slightly impressed look before wordlessly lowering his gaze toward the screen and the email inbox.

"Whatever you threatened him with, must have worked. He’s been behaving himself, mostly,""No overt or even covert messages from known HYDRA operatives."

He was not too surprised, though. They might not be able to guess that they've gotten hacked, but surely used to take extra precautions for the very secret messages and calls. The next news Sophie had for him, however, caused Zemo to look up at her again, pondering.

"But he recently received an invitation to the very exclusive New Year’s Eve Silvester Ball in Vienna.""The invitation came from a biotech firm headquartered in Zurich, Belloq Labs,""Belloq Labs turned down three of Vogt's grant requests over the past two years. Now suddenly he's their guest of honor?"

"Vogt must have something that is of importance to them, and vice versa," Zemo concluded. Working with a biotech firm was a two-way street. But maybe it was not too late yet, and meetings with offers hadn't taken place at this point. He looked up at Sophie again, a look in his eyes that silently said 'we have to go there'.

[Kristi Lynne]

"Vogt must have something that is of importance to them, and vice versa."

"Pretty good reason to put him on the guest list, yes," Sophie agreed. "But it gets even more interesting." A few more key clicks took her to the Belloq Labs website, and then a page with several smiling headshots alongside brief paragraphs of text. "The lab's Board of Directors, including one Daniel Whitehall, who specifically offered to fund Vogt's research," she explained, pointing to a photo of a well-dressed, pale and fair-haired man with small round glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. Decidedly not smiling for the corporate camera.

"I know that you don't like to be reminded of what happened in Madripoor," Sophie sighed, choosing her words carefully. Zemo hated to lose in a battle of wits or weapons but a few weeks prior, on that lawless Indonesian island, he had lost. They both had. "The Power Broker's black-market auction that Selby was so kind to get us into. This is the man who claimed our prize," she stated. A feat which must have taken great planning and resources. "Daniel Whitehall is the one who walked away with that lot of journals that was confiscated from HYDRA's Siberian facility.

"Of course, he used a third party to do the bidding, and then encrypted the wire transfers, but eventually I tracked the purchase to him," Sophie explained. "What is some tweedy college professor doing throwing that type of money around, to the Power Broker and to our biologist friend?"

[DarkSideCookie]

"Pretty good reason to put him on the guest list, yes,""But it gets even more interesting.""The lab's Board of Directors, including one Daniel Whitehall, who specifically offered to fund Vogt's research,"

Zemo was following her action of clicking her way through pages and windows on the screen in front of them, gazing at the smiling headshots with a serious expression.

"I know that you don't like to be reminded of what happened in Madripoor,"

And Zemo remembered their little trip to Madripoor like it had been yesterday indeed. Winning that auction and getting their hands on the HYDRA artifacts probably would have been too easy. They should have known in the first place.

"The Power Broker's black-market auction that Selby was so kind to get us into," Sophie reminded him anyway. "This is the man who claimed our prize,""Daniel Whitehall is the one who walked away with that lot of journals that was confiscated from HYDRA's Siberian facility," she explained to him. "Of course, he used a third party to do the bidding, and then encrypted the wire transfers, but eventually I tracked the purchase to him,""What is some tweedy college professor doing throwing that type of money around, to the Power Broker and to our biologist friend?"

Zemo had spent hours pitying their failing for it wasn't acceptable to him. Not the accepting failure in general part, but when it comes to HYDRA artifacts still being in the wrong hands, or existing in the first place. But now there was a chance to remeet this Daniel Whitehall guy and somehow make up for the lost auction back in Madripoor.

He remained silent for some more moments before he finally looked back up at her with a decision. "I say we ask him personally. I get an invitation to this event every year, but Helen never wants to go." She still couldn't completely accept the fact that they were coming from different worlds, although the Vienna ball wasn't exactly his world either. But now it was good to always be on the event's guest list. "And don't forget to pack your waltzing shoes," he added with a slight smirk, after all.

[Kristi Lynne]

"I say we ask him personally. I get an invitation to this event every year, but Helen never wants to go. And don't forget to pack your waltzing shoes."

"Oh, of course, I never leave home without them," Sophie joked. But the silence and the smirk on his face told her that he was not joking. Apparently, he was still stung by that loss in Madripoor. And if he was committed to retrieving those HYDRA diaries, then Mr. Whitehall had no idea what kind of trouble he had just bought himself at that that auction.

"You're not serious? Zemo, we have no idea who this man is," Sophie cautioned. "He's obviously wealthy, well-connected. What if he knows we're onto Vogt? What if this is some sort of ... of ambush? We have pissed off a lot of very important people in the past year."

But Sophie realized that she was arguing with a brick wall in the form of a handsome Sokovian aristocrat. Zemo had been playing this game a lot longer than she had, and was likely already five steps ahead of her. He would bring her up to speed when he felt the time was right.

"Fine," she sighed in defeat. "But I'll need a new dress. And waltzing lessons." 

*** Zemo and Sophie exit to Vienna - Silvester New Year's Eve Ball ***