Chapter 45: Blood for Blood, a Tooth for a Tooth
Even with both hands crippled and a gun to his head...
...the sniper showed absolutely no fear. Instead, he struggled to turn his head, a cold sneer on his lips. "You want to know who sent me? Dream on."
As he spoke, the sniper curled his tongue, dislodging the cyanide capsule hidden behind his teeth, and bit down. Hard.
In the span of two breaths, his pupils dilated, and his breathing stopped.
Seeing this, Lynn knew, without a shadow of a doubt, exactly who had sent these bastards.
Hydra.
Only those fanatics would treat their own lives so casually.
Only those fanatics would go into a mission with cyanide in their teeth.
Lynn stood, taking a deep, ragged breath.
Fresh from a life-or-death battle, he felt a white-hot rage building in his chest.
'Fine. That's how it is.'
'I didn't want any part of your bullshit war, but you brought it to my goddamn doorstep.'
'If that's how you want to play, then then deal with the fallout.'
***
In the car, not far down the street.
Seeing the firefight go silent, Jennifer's eyes dimmed.
She got out of the car, standing and staring at Lynn's apartment for a long time.
In her mind, if Hydra made a move, there was no way Lynn could have survived.
'Such a shame. She'd finally met someone she actually liked... and just like that, he was dead.'
She sighed, got back in the car, and was just about to start the engine...
...when the ice-cold muzzle of a pistol pressed against the back of her head.
The sudden threat made Jennifer freeze. But when she looked in the rearview mirror and saw Lynn sitting in the back seat...
...a flash of pure joy crossed her face, only to be immediately replaced by a complex storm of emotions.
"Lynn... you really aren't a normal person. A full, elite strike team and a top-tier sniper... and they still couldn't kill you."
She took a deep breath. "You were right to turn me down. My orders... I was supposed to put cyanide in your dinner tonight."
"But you refused. And my superiors couldn't wait. That's why they sent the team."
Hearing this, Lynn spoke, his voice cold. "I never figured you for Hydra. Where is your superior? Where's your base? Is it SHIELD?"
"SHIELD?"
At his question, Jennifer actually looked confused. She turned to look at him. "We're not with the Hydra inside SHIELD."
"Drink this."
Lynn held out the Truth Potion.
Without a moment's hesitation, Jennifer took the vial and drank it all. "One last request, Lynn. For old time's sake... because I really did like you... scatter my ashes in the Hudson."
She thought it was poison. She gave a bitter smile. "They say if your ashes go into the Hudson, you get to come back as a clean person in the next life."
"Who is your superior? What's your contact method? Where is your base? Give me the names of every Hydra agent you know."
Under the potion's influence, Jennifer answered every question, holding nothing back.
It was only then that Lynn understood. The faction that wanted him dead wasn't the one led by Alexander Pierce inside SHIELD.
It was the Hydra 'Council.' They knew he'd helped Natasha and the others wipe out the vampires, and they knew he'd seen their collaboration files.
To prevent that intel from leaking, they had decided to eliminate him and, eventually, all the Avengers.
In other words, the attack on him was just the beginning.
After she had told him everything, Jennifer gave a hollow laugh. "Now that I've said all this... there's no way out for me. The Council put implants in all of us. The second we betray them, they know."
"If I stay alive, my parents and my sister... they'll be killed."
She looked at Lynn, her gaze intense, as if trying to memorize his face before she died.
"Don't feel bad for me, darling. I was part of the team trying to kill you. And besides... this is a release. I'm so, so tired…"
Then, she bit down on the cyanide capsule hidden in the collar of her shirt. She slowly went limp.
Lynn watched her die, a faint smile on her lips.
He reached into the passenger seat, grabbed her jacket, and draped it over her body.
He got out of the car and walked quickly back to his apartment.
A firefight that big... it wouldn't stay quiet for long.
The NYPD would be here any minute.
Sure enough, he'd barely been back for a minute when George Stacy arrived, leading a heavily armed NYPD response team.
When he saw Lynn, sitting on the sofa, drinking a glass of whiskey, completely unharmed, George let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.
As for the officers behind him, their jaws dropped.
They stared at the wrecked, bullet-riddled apartment, and at the dozen heavily armed bodies littering the floor.
They all looked at Lynn with a new, profound respect.
People always respect power, especially power that so far exceeds their own.
'To take out this many hostiles, alone... any one of them would have been turned into Swiss cheese.'
George holstered his weapon, walked over, and sat down next to Lynn.
He grabbed the bottle, poured himself a glass, and downed it in one gulp. "We heard the call... a firefight at your address. I was... worried sick."
"But you're okay. That's all that matters. You're okay."
He repeated it, then looked at the bodies, his own eyes filling with rage. "Do you know who these bastards are?"
"I do."
Lynn glanced at the bullet-pocked coffee table.
He threw his glass to the floor, where it shattered. "George, I need you to clean this mess up. And put in a request for a month's leave for me. I have to go to Europe."
His voice was flat, but laced with a cold killing intent that George had never heard before. The lazy, laid-back Lynn was gone.
George Stacy just nodded. "Done. You sure you don't need backup?"
"Don't forget, I've seen my share of firefights."
"Thanks. But this... this is something I have to do myself."
Lynn stood up and walked to his ruined closet, pulling out his one undamaged black trench coat and putting it on. "A tooth for a tooth. Blood for blood."
"It's time these bastards learned... they fucked with the wrong person."
Seeing the raw killing intent radiating from Lynn, George stood up. "Alright. Just... don't get yourself killed."
"Don't worry."
Lynn's voice was cold steel.
"They could die a hundred times over, and I still wouldn't die."
He nodded, and walked out the door.
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