Steve was a super solider, but he didn’t know how to track a man who didn’t exist. It was as though Bucky was a dream, still a mere memory, now again returned to Steve’s head – and sometimes Steve wondered if he’d ever really left it? Could this be another futuristic trick, dragging your nightmares out of your mind and making them flesh and cold metal?

He was used to the enemy being front and centre. Steve planned strategies based on facts and the tattered folder in his possession provided few. As he’d said to Natasha, he liked to know who he was fighting, but this wasn’t a battle. It was a rescue mission.

It was through the goodwill of friends and colleagues, combined with Sam’s instincts and a measure of luck, that they found any traces of the Winter Solider to follow. It seemed the assassin was exceptionally trained; some days Steve doubted they were heading in the right direction. They trudged on, always further north, and Steve kept reminding himself that he knew Bucky better than the man knew himself right now. And Steve would find Bucky, because he'd always won when they played hide and seek.