courtings | open post (steve rogers)

So what was it about computers and his research that had caught the man's attention. It left Lawrence on guard again, no matter how casually he sat. Some connection with the CIA like Jackson? Mossad like Pippa? Or something else?

"I can't go into huge detail," Lawrence said with a shrug. "I think some of the research was for the government so I had to sign confidentiality agreements and stuff, just to get onto the project." If he hadn't gone digging, if he hadn't had Soleil's prompting, he probably would never have known the full scope of what they'd been doing.

"It's like... code that changes itself as it learns, I guess is the easiest way to describe it. I mean generally, if you speak to a computer, you can tell. It has stock responses it can choose from, but that's it. This kind of algorithm would be able to learn and develop and respond to pretty much any interaction."

Everything Lawrence had to say about his work only made Steve more convinced that this research project was somehow tied into Zola's algorithm, or possibly was some kind of precursor to it. HYDRA's involvement seemed undeniable.

That didn't necessarily mean that Lawrence had any idea what he'd been a part of, especially if he'd been a graduate student and doing more of the busy work. Steve needed to push this, but he had to figure out the best way to do that without setting off red flags.

"And you said you were working under a professor? What was his name?" If anyone was going to turn out to be some kind of HYDRA sleeper agent, it would probably be the person heading this project. Steve just needed to find out that much, and then he could be on his way.

Some interest in the project then. Everyone who wasn't really into AIs and programming tended to have glazed over by now when he got into the details of the Porject. And this guy just wanted to know about the people developing it? Chasing down Emmanuel and Foster would lead him on a bit of a wile goose chase at least. It was quite possible that Lawrence was the only person from the Project still alive. Soleil had been... thorough.

"Robert Emmanuel, up at Inverness? And Aisling Foster. She's American, dunno if you've heard of her. If the field is as bafflingly obscure as it is over here, no reason you should have. It was a big deal though when she moved over a fair few years ago. Before I started of course, but I remember hearing there were possibilities in... oh, what was it... uh... security codes impervious to US and Chinese hacking."

None of which was even close to what they'd been researching, and all of it was information which was easy to verify with a few net searches. If they had any internet.

It was the sort of thing that would have made Steve's eyes glaze over back in 2012 when he first woke up, but now he could at least follow the basic gist of this kind of thing. He would say that Stark would be proud, but he probably would still find a way to be condescending.

Lawrence gave him the names he wanted, though, and Steve put them to memory so that he could research this more when he got back to the temporary apartment he was staying in. "I haven't heard of either of them, but I'd like to find out more now. Thank you for the information."

And he'd probably already overstayed his welcome, so Steve stood up and moved over to where his phone had been left charging. It would at least have enough of a charge to last for a few more hours, which was more than he could have hoped for otherwise. "And thanks for this too," he said, turning to wag the phone in Lawrence's direction.

"Anything I can do to help. I'm civic minded like that." And yeah, he was getting out of here early tomorrow. Hit up Bright Star for all it was worth and then get out before people collected themselves enough to start looking for him.

He didn't moved when Steve did, just regarded him curiously. "Odd thing to be interested in. pretty obscure research and most of it was pretty dull honestly. Thought you were looking for your metal armed guy. Can't say I ever saw anyone like that at the lab." He smiled slightly. "It's a long way up to Inverness. Where the first EMP hit."

Civic-minded? Steve couldn't quite shake the feeling that Lawrence was just humoring him until he got out of here, but seeing how he'd more or less barged in on him, that wasn't really what Steve would call bizarre behavior.

"Well, the two things might be connected," he said after a pause. The only connections the Winter Soldier had to anything was through HYDRA, so Steve had to hunt down what was left of the severed heads before they disappeared entirely.

"It's pretty far north, I know. It's all right, I don't mind traveling." It was going to be difficult with half of the country shut down, but Steve had never let that kind of thing stop him. He pocketed his phone and then moved back over to Lawrence, putting his hand out. "Thanks again."

Guy with a metal arm and... Soleil? Nope, no connection there, he would have known about it. He'd been running The Burn after all, and you couldn't hide stuff like that from Soleil.

"Seems a pretty tenuous connection. We weren't working on prosthetics." Probably. He was pretty sure they hadn't been working on those.

He took the offered hand and gave it a firm shake. "Be careful. I know some places were... well, kind of a mess on the way down. Looting, rioting, all that fun stuff." Of course not he places Soleil had been watching over although who knew what was going on there now. "No problem. Say hello to the professor for me if you see him."

It wasn't about the prosthetic, but rather about what the Winter Soldier was used for, but Steve wasn't going to get into that now. Most would still consider him a myth, though Bucky had definitely attracted a lot of attention back in DC. It wasn't going to be nearly as easy for him to hide now, which meant he was going to go deep underground. Steve had to catch him before it was too late. It couldn't be another seventy years before they saw each other again.

Steve took the warning about the rioting seriously, nodding in response. "I'll definitely keep it in mind." Bucky would be able to blend into that kind of chaos, so if anything, Steve would have to look more closely in those areas.

"If I find him, I'll mention how helpful you were," he said with a quick smile as he pulled back and turned toward the door.

He was going to have to check up on this guy. He wondered if he could still get access to Soleil's files. Should be able to at the lab, even if it'll just be him. God that hurts, a slow ache in his chest, a life without Soleil.

If he'd just been faster, if Walker hadn't been so bloody stubborn...

Lawrence followed him back towards the door, his hands shoved in his pockets. "Thanks. Getting messages up there isn't exactly easy now, and at some point I should get back to work, right?"

"Maybe once this all dies down, yeah," Steve agreed, though in reality he didn't know if Lawrence should go anywhere near this research if it was really tied up in HYDRA.

"For now, though, just stay safe," he encouraged Lawrence with a quick smile and a pat on the shoulder. "Good luck."

And with that he headed out the door and down the street, hands shoved in his pockets. This hadn't been the biggest lead, but it was something, and that was good enough for him right now.

"Yeah. Assuming it's still going. Hard to do technology research when the tech got fried, right?"

He smiled back, and wow, this guy was actually, genuinely a nice guy wasn't he? It was a little disconcerting. "You too. Enjoy Edinburgh."

He waited until the man was gone out of the door before he locked up and went back to the computer. Bright Star. That was where he was headed.

He packed up and left London the next day, heading south towards the coast. It was easy enough to break into the facility when you had all of the access codes after all. And Easy enough to ingratiate himself with a few people in the nearby village, doing odd jobs in return for supplies while he tried to salvage as much as he could of what Soleil had been working for. Trying to see if there was any way she was still alive somehow.

Steve didn't end up enjoying Edinburgh so much as he found a lot of dead ends. Literally, as it turned out that Lawrence's professor was dead. Stranger than that, he'd died right before the EMP that had knocked out a good chunk of the power here for days. Could just be a coincidence, sure, but that didn't seem likely.

More digging turned up information about a group called The Burn, which had been tied up in the research into AIs. The most worrying thing about it all was the hinting that coercion had been used on some of their employees, and seeing how Steve was tracking someone who'd been brainwashed, it set off alarm bells.

A lot of the bases tied to the group were completely destroyed, most likely because they were covering their tracks, but there was one that still looked to be intact. It was called Bright Star, apparently, and it was located south of London.

After checking in with Sam (who also hadn't found any good leads on Bucky), Steve crossed the country yet again. He spent a night in the village nearest to the base, and thne headed up for the facility early the next morning, once again incognito.

It was as he circled the perimeter that he spotted someone approaching one of the doors. Steve was prepared to take cover, but then he realized he recognized the person.

"... Lawrence?" he called out from where he'd been standing a few yards back. What was a research student doing here? This was all starting to feel more and more suspicious. Maybe Steve had been wrong to take off without looking into Lawrence further, but here was his second chance.

Oh for... Really, this was things were going to go? Send someone off on a wild goose chase to Edinburgh and they ended up at the one base Lawrence was at? Was this karma? Did that actually exist?

At least he hadn't surprised him/ Maybe it could be salvaged. or he could just shoot him. One tourist. It'd take a while before he was missed in the confusion.

He turned around, leaning casually against the door and gave a cheery wave. "Well, wasn't expecting to see you around here. What brings you to Bright Star?"

Maybe it would take a while before he was missed, if Steve was actually nothing more than a tourist. But he was a lot more than that, and people were bound to notice.

He wasn't expecting this to break out into any kind of physical encounter, but he did remain on edge just in case. Nothing about this situation was predictable.

As far as Steve was concerned, Lawrence should look a little more surprised to see him. That cheery act is starting to wear thin. "That lead you gave me, actually. Did you know your professor is dead?" Possibly even murdered?

His eyes widened, shock clear on his face at the news. A positively text book reaction to hearing such terrible news. "Oh my god. Really? The Professor is... oh god, what happened? He was fine when I left Inverness."

Wow, Deja vu much. he was half expecting Stanton to pop out from behind Steve.

Maybe Steve should have taken more care with delivering that news. For a split second he felt guilty, but there was still too much about this that was off for him to hold onto that for very long.

Instead he crossed his arms and regarded Lawrence carefully. "Yeah, it looks like it happened on the morning of the EMP. Have any clue what the significance might be there?" He was going to be patient, but only to a point.

Lawrence looked back at Steve. Why was he surrounded by people who were too clever by half and who had to push at things they'd be better off leaving well alone? It wasn't like Steve even had anything to do with this. He chewed pensively on his lip for a long moment. "I- I don't know. Um.. Wait... New Tomorrow set off the EMP. Maybe they found out about his research. Some of it was military technology and they hate technology."

There was that group again, New Tomorrow. Steve would have looked into them further if he hadn't found so much more damning information about The Burn. He narrowed his eyes, teetering between trusting Lawrence and shoving him up against the nearest wall to threaten him and get some more answers.

"Kill some professor, then cut all the power?" He could see how that might be some plot from an "eco-terrorism" group, but that still didn't explain everything going on here.

"All right, and how about you? What are you doing here? I thought this base was abandoned." There was something very fishy about a research student showing up at a place like this.

"I don't know," Lawrence said helplessly. "I'm not with New Tomorrow." Because they were pathetic and had long since outlived their usefulness. He should have made sure they'd been wiped out altogether.

His shoulders slumped a little and he turned to glance at the doorway to the lab. "It is. I wouldn't be here if it was still active. Don't fancy getting shot if I can avoid it."

So what, the people who ran these bases just shot at anyone who walked up to the front doors? Steve suddenly wished that he had his shield with him, but he'd get by without it. He couldn't afford to bring it along when it essentially painted a big target on him and he was trying to be subtle.

"Same here, but that still doesn't answer my question," he pointed out. He wasn't going to let Lawrence change the subject or deflect, he needed a straight answer. If he didn't get a good one, then he was going to have to start demanding answers. All of this stunk too bad.

Now, had Soleil changed the codes when he'd left? That was the question. Internal power had been preserved but this wasn't a base that he'd visited personally. Well, he supposed she hadn't told any of the worshipful masses to kill anyone claiming to be him on sight so...

"There might be backups of the servers in there. Work from the project. I don't want it to go to waste. And also this place probably still has power and I really want a hot shower."

Steve wasn't buying it, not completely. Not with the things that he'd found out while researching. Though it also occurred to him that conditioning had been used on employees of this group. What if Lawrence was a victim of that too?

With that in mind, he shifted his weight and threw out a few more questions. "Seems like you could have had a hot shower back in London," he said with a shrug. "Why are you so interested in the project now? These bases have been shutting down for a while."

"Yeah, but if you're given a choice between a shower in a rubbish house in London, and a shower in an honest to god secret base, which one are you going to choose?"

He wasn't going to be placated was he? Typical. People always had to choose the most difficult route. "Well, you put a couple of years of your life into something, it's never fun to see it all go up in smoke."

Having all of your work undone was a hard pill to swallow, Steve had been there, but he still didn't think it justified this kind of behavior.

He was going to have to push a little harder and see how Lawrence reacted. This didn't have to get violent yet, but Steve was keeping an eye out for any sign that Lawrence was carrying.

"Think I'd choose the house. Way less of a hassle," he responded. "I'm going to have to follow you inside." Seeing how that was his plan from the start, this was only a minor change. It was more Lawrence's reaction that he was interested in.

He wasn't about to start waving a gun around here. It was too open and he lacked the element of surprise. Inside though... well, he had the plans of the base. Steve didn't. "Your loss," he said with a shrug and a smirk.

He leaned over to input the codes that would let him in, and mercifully they still worked. She hadn't changed them or set it to explode as soon as anyone gained access. He supposed she hadn't expected to not be there.

"If you want to. You did come all the way down here. I can't imagine why you'd find computer banks that fascinating though."

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