Hearing Natasha press him again, Sitwell shouted:
"I don't know what you mean by the Zola Algorithm."
"And my trip to the Lemurian Star was an order from Director Fury's time. Agent Hand was the one who informed me."
At that point, Sitwell glanced at Steve, then said:
"I wasn't the only one who knew about it. Agent Coulson knew too. He was there at the time."
Sitwell had originally been supposed to take part in the mission to capture The Clairvoyant, but he had happened to receive orders from Triskelion headquarters, which was why he had gone there instead.
When he heard that, Steve visibly froze, then said uncertainly:
"Wait. You said Coulson?"
"Agent Phil Coulson?"
"Didn't he die in the Battle of New York?"
Natasha quickly cut in:
"Steve, I'll explain that to you later."
Seeing that Steve knew absolutely nothing about Coulson, Sitwell said:
"You think Nick Fury would tell you the truth?"
"Coulson never died. He was just injured."
"A large number of Agents, Natasha included, knew about it. They just didn't tell you."
Hearing Sitwell's words, Steve thought back to the Battle of New York, when Nick Fury had come to him holding the bloodstained cards. Thinking of that, and of the agents he had dealt with over these past days, he could not help wondering whether an agent would really carry something like that around on him.
And why had Nick Fury not dared to tell him Coulson was still alive?
Had more things been hidden from him back then? At that thought, Steve's expression turned ugly as well.
Seeing this, Sitwell began his verbal offensive, also buying time for himself.
"I don't know what conflict happened between you and director Pierce, and I don't know why you're unwilling to reveal the reason director