Corrupted - The Tigris Series Book 1

Chapter Thirty

May 24th, 2009

"Are you sure we are safe?" a man questioned, nervously.

He and a red-headed female that he did not recognize had been driving down the road for hours now, seeming to be running from something. They were driving through the roads of Iran, nearing Odessa with only an hour left to get there. He hugged his arms close to his chest, looking at the woman through the rear-view mirror with wide, fearful eyes. He knew what he was running from, though he didn't even want to think about who was coming after them.

The red-headed woman gave him a reassuring smile without turning to look at him, knowing that he was likely not able to see it. "Yes. As long as you stay close to me, you'll be fine."

He nodded anxiously, glancing back towards the window. He spotted something out in the distance, and squinted his eyes to try and make out what it was. Two dark figures sat idly on top of one of the large hills nearby. The sun's bright light reflected off of one of them, temporarily blinding him.

"What's that?" he asked in his thick accent.

The two assassins on the tall hill watched them drive by, readying their weapons. The female assassin held one of her guns up, aiming for the windshield of the car. Her plan was to shoot the driver as soon as they had rounded the corner. If the nuclear engineer in the backseat lived through the crash, then they would finish the job. She didn't quite understand why the general had sent both of them on this mission, since either one of them could get the job done with ease on their own. The Winter Soldier, on the other hand, did. The Tigris was showing too many signs of resilience to Hydra's desperate attempts to keep a hold on her mind. They didn't trust her to do anything on her own anymore. At least, not until their new doctors and scientists could come up with a way to fix it. Though deep down, he didn't want them to.

The car rounded the corner, leaving the Tigris a clear shot on the driver. She aimed her gun carefully, feeling the familiar feeling of the trigger on her index finger. The sun glared on the glass for only a moment, then, right before she pulled the trigger, it was gone. Tigris's eyes widened the second she saw who it was that was driving the car; she recognized that deep red hair anywhere.

She froze, locking her eyes on the Black Widow that she had known. She was a beautiful young woman now, as opposed to the teenager that she had been the last time that the Tigris had seen her. Her hair fell past her shoulders in loose curls, no longer possessing any trace of the blue that had been in it before. Her blue eyes were sharper, though the female assassin could tell that a hint of her compassion still resided within her, somewhere. She had heard of her accomplishments as a Black Widow, and thought that it had gone. She wondered what had happened to bring it back.

The Winter Soldier saw her sudden hesitation, and turned his head to look at her with confusion. He saw who had been driving the car, though he couldn't quite pin point where he had seen her before just yet. To him, it didn't matter. If Tigris didn't pull the trigger within the next few seconds, their window would be lost. He studied the look of shock on her face, then turned back to the car with a sigh.

She wasn't going to do it.

The car had sped past them now, leaving only one last thing for them to shoot to stop it. He quickly pointed his gun at the back tires, shooting them with expert precision. The car swerved to the right, and dove over the side of the cliff. The two assassins watched as it fell, rolling over many stones and bushes before it landed on the ground below.

The way that the car had fallen, it was likely that the engineer and the Black Widow were both still alive, so he slid down the hill to go after it. The Tigris watched him go for only a moment, still in shock from seeing Natasha Romanoff again. Once the Winter Soldier had made it to the bottom of the hill, she snapped herself out of her trance and jumped off of the hill to follow him.