《The Compound》Chapter 19
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"Any more developments?" Steve asked Bucky and Sam. The three had begun letting you, Rachel, and Lyla all sit in on their meetings about Operation Compound. AKA their plan to take down the entire organization and attempt to disband any government control of the nature of Alphas and Omegas.
"Nothing," Sam said, "Other than what we got out of Rumlow and his computer."
"Dumbass doesn't know how to keep his shit a secret." After the arrest of Rumlow, he admitted in an extremely harsh interrogation lead by both Sam and Bucky that he had made deals with leaders in the Compound. He would get some of the profits from the bidding and more Omegas for his personal wrong-doings. It was almost a mafia the entire complex, but the corruption within it was hidden right under the government's noses and they couldn't figure it out.
"So how do we weed out who's innocent and who's not?" Steve asked next.
"See that's the issue." Bucky leaned on one of the bookshelves in the office, "Quite a bit of the organization is anonymous, at least the dirty part of it. So most of the people who are labeled and public within The Compound most likely have no clue about these shady deals they make on the side."
"So people like Fury, they don't know. They work for the government and the government early."
"I could've told you that before," Steve admitted, "Nick Fury is a loyal and honest man with integrity. Maria Hill the same. Neither of those two would ever go against the government."
"Right," Bucky said, "But it's the anonymous people who we have to hunt down."
"Well we already have one," Sam spoke up. Steve perked up at him, and so did the three Omegas in the room, not knowing of this information. "Baron Zemo," Sam continued, "He's from Germany, isn't even a U.S. citizen, but has managed to sneak his way up in the ranks of this organization."
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"How do we know it's him?" Steve asked firmly.
"Here," Sam sifted through a few stacks of paper before finding a section binder clipped together, "Texts from what was supposed to be a self-erasing app."
"But everything is stored in the cloud and-"
"Under Article 16 section 9 of the Reestablishment Act, any not double guarded information not through a third party can be released to the government and the citizens via a FOIA."
"Exactly," Sam said, "I'm so glad we included that when we wrote it."
"I think we all are," Steve responded still skimming the pages. "But how could they be this stupid, I mean, doesn't everyone know that law?"
"Well, yeah," Sam started, "But first, he's from Germany so I don't know how familiar he is with specifications of U.S. law and B. Half these people are complete idiots."
"So these are texts between Rumlow, Zemo, and an unknown person who are laundering money into and out of the Compound plus investing in it as if it were a public stock?" They nodded. Steve groaned, leaning back against the wall with eyes closed and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "This is human trafficking at this point."
"Well, technically no," Bucky spoke up, "The Compound is technically run by the government. They're jointly apart of the FDA and CDC because they control the repopulation of the country with Omegas since they're so scarce nowadays. So what they're doing is theoretically completely legal. But it's morally wrong."
"But money laundering is completely illegal," Steve responded.
"Right, which is what we can get them on."
"Exactly," Sam said, "We've already gotten Rumlow to crack some. If we can get Zemo to even crack a bit, then maybe we can fit some of the pieces together. Like where he meets people, who he meets if he knows, we can get a warrant to search his cell phone and find more shit on this whole situation."
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"Well," Steve looked at the two men, "Let's go get this son of a bitch."
It only took a day for Zemo to be arrested with Sam and Bucky once again sent out to interrogate him. Steve was actively working on it at home, making calls to various people to find out more information if any. You had only come to check on him very times to bring him some food and water to his office to make sure he stays alive. "How're you doing, Stevie." You asked. He looked up from his work and to you, smiling lightly.
"Alright," He admitted. He turned his chair to where you were standing next to him, placing his hands on your hips. "Thanks, sweetheart."
"No problem," You took a small strand of his hair in between your fingers and lightly smiled as you played with it, "You're saving a lot more Omegas from what I went through, taking care of you is the least I could do."
"You know, you've never really told me what happened in there." He brought up. You immediately frowned looking at him and then down.
"I um- I-"
"You don't have to tell me." He said, sounding somewhat apologetic.
"I will one day," You said, "I mean, it's been over a year since you got me out of there. But I still don't know if I'm ready. Especially after Rumlow-"
"I get it, I get it." He lightly smiled, "Don't worry."
"I love you, Stevie," You smiled back, "A lot."
"I love you too." He responded. The rest of the day you went about your regular duties like cooking dinner.
You had chosen steak considering neither Steve nor you had it in a while. You began seasoning the pieces, as they would take the longest to cook despite the professional oven you two had. You became absolutely absorbed in the action of cooking as you always had, and despite how Steve wasn't there to help you or engage in conversation, the sounds of chopping and sizzling was enough to keep you occupied.
"Darlin'," You heard Steve come in finally. You lightly smiled.
"Hey," You leaned into him as he kissed your cheek. "You seem in a good mood today." You decided to acknowledge what you had previously noticed.
"Yeah, well," He lightly chuckled, "We know who's behind all of this. Who's the boss of The Compound."
"Oh?" You inquired and looked at him, "Who?" He sighed, leaning against the counter behind you.
"Alexander Pierce." You stopped in your tracks.
"T-the president?" You asked and he nodded. "Well shit." You muttered, "That explains why nothing has happened to improve that place."
"Yeah, well, we have a meeting with him tomorrow, and I don't think he's going to be too happy." You nodded. "I just can't wait for this whole thing to be over with."
"Me either," You lightly sighed nearly inaudibly, "It'll be good for it to finally be gone, and ya know, move on completely." He lightly nodded at you too. "Steve?" You asked next and he hummed in response. "Are you scared of anything going wrong?" He stopped for a moment before looking at you.
"I'm not scared of anything going wrong," He began, "More prepared." You lightly nodded, "You gotta remember sweetheart, I was an Avengers. Shit went wrong all the time. What matters is how you fix the things that go wrong, not what actually goes wrong."
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Fracture: Tales of the Broken Lands [Re]
Eternity's march wears down even those destined to see its end. He was one of them, one of the first and last. But... nothing went as it should have. The enemy came and its legions consumed the worlds and all those who rose to defend the cosmos. Everyone except him. Despite all, he survived, fighting until he had nothing left, yet even as he welcomed it, the end never came. Jack was given another chance. His fate brought him to a plane called Fracture, a nexus of the cosmos, where broken things go to find new purpose. Will he find his purpose? Or will the machinations of those who rule the Broken Lands lead him to ruin? *** This is a rewrite of my first story. It is a litrpg with elements of cultivation in a setting filled with fantasy and scifi trappings. For old readers returning, the story will be significantly different, but core components of the characters will remain the same. I hope you enjoy it.
8 136NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: The Adventures of The Creeping Bam (BOOK ONE: The Job)
TAO is a broken world held together with nothing but magic and the will of the gods who protect it and its people. Then thousand years ago THE SUNDERING struck and Tao was almost torn apart by a terrible magical cataclysm which resulted in the planet almost being halted in its journey through the cosmos. It took all the power the gods of Tao could muster to restore its orbit and set it turning again, but in their efforts it was forever changed – its axis was drastically altered, and it now spins in such a way that one face of the world is forever turned from the sun it orbits, leaving half the planet in perpetual darkness. The various humanoid races that survived and now thrive within the habitable parts of THE DAY LANDS have come to live in perpetual fear of what lives beyond THE BORDERLANDS that separate them from whatever dwells within THE NIGHT LANDS, but for ten millennia it has kept its secrets. The land of RUNDAO languishes under the rule of their warlike Northern neighbours, the TEKTEHRAN EMPIRE, while a small, ragtag band of motley adventurers ply their mercenary trade fighting monsters and protecting the common man from the various dangers that haunt the night and prowl the hinterlands on the edges of civilization. THE CREEPING BAM have amassed a modest reputation in their years together, but they’re still just a small-time party of sellswords, thieves, outcasts and mages. They’re also exactly the kind of underdogs the people of Tao doesn’t yet realise are needed to save the world from the encroaching darkness they doesn’t even know is coming … This is a love letter and homage to the high-fantasy worlds of the tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder and Warhammer and the sword & sorcery cinema and literature I fell in love with as a kid growing up in the 80s, from Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian (and the awesome Schwarzenegger movie, STILL my favourite fantasy film EVER), The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and Ron Howard and George Lucas’ Willow, to the more grown-up and edgy worlds of grimdark masters George RR Martin and (my all-time favourite) Joe Abercrombie, as well as a BIG DOLLOP of Terry Pratchett’s immortal Discworld series. IMPORTANT: This story contains material which some readers may consider to be mature, such as battle violence, some strong language and occasional mild sexual scenes. If this is not your kind of thing, this story is not for you. I am also serializing this story on Tumblr, Wattpad, Quotev and Sweek.
8 297I don't say strange things
Хосок всегда утверждает, что он женат на работе и ему никто не нужен, но друзья считают иначе. Хосок - гениальный кардиохирург и вполне доволен жизнью, но это пока он не знает о масштабах пиздеца в лице Кан Сыльги.История о том, как Юнги продолжает писать педагогическую поэму под руководством чутких друзей-педагогов, Чонын учится новым методам пикапа, друзья-сводники охуевают в геометрической прогрессии, а Хосок заебался.
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Kai was once a fearsome assassin. One day, everything changed and he refused to kill ever again. Before long, he was dead... or was he? Given a new life, he was able to live once more. He was determined to become strong in his new life as well but this time he was going to do it right. He would never kill anyone ever again... but is that possible?---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is my first time writing a story, much less a novel, so please forgive my poor storytelling. I appreciate criticism and hope you enjoy reading it almost as much as I love creating it.
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8 166