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Pulling James Barnes out of Russia had been the easy part of the operation, and that was saying something, because it had been in no way easy or even remotely legal, but it had been the only way. They'd bought him from a broker who wanted them to think he didn't know who he had on his hands, or what he could do. They still had operatives working their way up that chain, trying to trace this back to what he hoped wouldn't be another Red Room operation, but in the meantime the deal had gone through all too smoothly, and Coulson thought he might actually like it even less than Fury did.

He'd grown up on stories about Captain America. He and his friends had taken turns pretending to be Captain Rogers and his Howling Commandos. He'd never imagined that they'd find the Captain's best friend nearly seventy years later, brainwashed almost beyond hope. The assassin known as Winter Soldier had been little more than a ghost until they started putting the pieces together, and now he was going back to the grave. Officially, they needed to be sure Barnes wasn't a sleeper, and that he was relatively sane besides. Unofficially - well, that was irrelevant.

The transfer to the New York facility had been quick and quiet and restricted under Level 7 security protocols. They'd kept Barnes under even after they brought him out of cryostasis and locked him down besides. No one got near unaccompanied, and only a handful of Agents even knew he existed at the moment. Specialist Brandon Young was one of them.

Coulson had some limited experience with people who had superhuman abilities, but it was enough that he didn't think this idea was entirely insane. It was certainly the best shot they had.

A scan of his prints let him into the room where Young waited to be briefed. The man was almost startlingly, well, young, which was always one thing to see on a file, and almost another thing entirely in person. Coulson had a reputation among the junior agents: most of them thought he was a hardass, if they thought anything of him at all.

"Specialist Young," He held out his hand as he approached, smiling politely. "I'm Agent Coulson. I'm here to brief you on the details of your assignment. You'll be reporting directly to myself or Director Fury for the duration. As you've no doubt gathered, we'd like this to be kept as quiet as possible."