Natasha Romanova, the retired Black Widow, and Grigor
Ivanovich Pchelintsov, professor of psychotechnics, arrive at the site of a
science lab near the Urals after their long drive in a stolen car. Natasha gets
the drop on the sniper stationed there and orders him to jump from the tower;
he does, breaking his legs. He refuses to talk so Nat just reminds him of the
pack of wild dogs roaming the area and waits. Eventually, he cracks (as the
dogs are on him) and tells Natasha everything she wants to know….
Near Ian McMasters’ yacht in the Bahamas, hired gun Vassily
Ilyich Ulyanov kills the ninja-like agent hired by McMasters to kill him….
That night, Natasha enters the secret underground lab and
confronts Lyudmila Kudrin, the elderly scientist who must bathe in icky
chemicals to stay alive. She recognizes Natasha as a Black Widow (“one of the
strongest, one of the angriest”). Nat asks her what Medusagen is for, telling
her that the pregnant Stefanya Melnikova was taking it. Kudrin is surprised,
telling Nat that the chemical treatment used to create the Black Widows slows
their aging, speeds up their healing—and also causes them to spontaneously
abort if pregnant so a Black Widow can never bear a child. Nat also learns that
Kudrin does not know the Black Widows are being systematically murdered. This
lab no longer makes drugs like Medusagen, they specialize in anti-depressants
and euphorics which Kudrin justifies by claiming that it is their payback for
America’s destruction of Russia….
At the safe house in Albuquerque, Phil Dexter and Sally Anne
Carter are relaxing when the North Institute agents, Max Hunter and Kestrel
enter; there is a gun battle and both Sally and Phil are shot….