Black Widow (2016 series) #9

On her way to visit Iosef, her weapons trainer in his cabin near the Dark Room installation, Black Widow hears a gunshot and rushes to the cabin to find Iosef mortally wounded and aware of it. She blames herself but he only tells her to end the Dark Room once and for all before he dies. She hears a sound in the woods and demands the interloper show themselves. A voice from the cabin shouts “Natasha, Run!” so she whirls and crashes through the door to find the Winter Soldier a captive of Anya, the Recluse. Natasha tells Bucky to come away with her but Anya hits him with a rifle butt to silence him. Anya reveals that Bucky had been keeping watch over the Black Widow from a distance, which surprisingly Natasha did not know. Anya announces that of the three of them, she will be the only one to leave alive. But the villainess miscalculated: being Iosef’s pupil, Natasha knows the cabin’s secrets and fires a Widow’s Bite at a Maltese Falcon statue which opens a trap door in the floor. Nat grabs Bucky and carries him to the cellar where she helps him remove the electro-magnet that immobilizes his cyborg left arm. Then Anya drops into the cellar and there is a three-way fight in the dark which is soon carried outside when Nat smashes Anya through a wall. Eventually, Bucky gets a hold on Anya and calls to Nat to sting her—but Anya breaks the hold and it’s Bucky to takes the shock as the baddie gets away, diving off a cliff and away. Nat thanks Bucky for the assist but wants to know if he really thought she needed protection or there is something more going on. There is, Bucky tells her Nick Fury would like to speak with her….

At the Weeping Lion’s lair, Ilija informs his cousin that he now has the Black Widow’s full confidence, meaning they can proceed to the final stage without interference. And it involves the child assassins held prisoner there….