He couldn't answer that question. He'd been, as the boy put it, but the Winter Soldier was nothing more than a ghost, a myth, a whisper before death. The length of service didn't matter. The length of the kill list didn't matter. He was deployed when needed, cleaned and stored when not. Another weapon, no different from the rifles HYDRA provided him.

When the questions continued he crowded the boy against the side of the corridor, trapped between his body and the wall, metal hand over his mouth. "You will not speak like that. It leads to punishment." And with Pierce's directive of no damage coming to the boy, chances were good for any such punishment to fall on the shoulders of the Asset.