THUD.
And then, to no one’s surprise, Ivan landed flat on his backside.
Rebecca rushed over and crouched down, hands moving over him as she checked him for injuries.
“Ivan, are you all right?” Ivan caught her hand and flashed two rows of white teeth at the girl whose face was full of worry and concern.
“Relax, Rebecca.
I’m fine.” Rebecca nodded.
“Then let me pull you up.” There was still a thread of doubt in her voice.
It lasted until she’d hauled him upright and he hopped twice in place, then spun a full circle for her benefit.
Only then did the knot in Rebecca’s chest loosen.
And thinking back on the sight of him dropping straight onto the floor, she found she wanted to laugh.
When Ivan finally took stock of the room around him, he was left speechless.
An iron maiden.
A tiger bench.
Instruments of torture of every description crowded the corners of the room.
This was an interrogation chamber.
Ivan snapped a few photographs of the devices.
That was when Rebecca called out to him.
“Ivan, look at this…” Lowering the camera, he followed where she was pointing.
There was a large pit in the floor.
Ivan walked to its edge, squatted down, and spotted a scattering of spent shell casings on the ground.
“Looks like there was a fight here.” Rebecca picked up one of the casings and looked at him.
“Could Bravo Team have done this?” Ivan studied the brass in her palm and nodded.
“Yeah.
This should be their work.” He straightened up and swept his eyes over the room again, until he noticed a generator unit near one corner.
A green light glowed on its panel.
Someone had come through and started it up before them.
And afterward, most likely, they’d been ambushed by some kind of biological weapon and gone tumbling into the pit.
In the underground monitoring room of the Umbrella Executive Training School, the screens displayed Ivan and Rebecca.
The white-robed man sat sideways in his office chair, head bowed toward the leeches gathered around his feet, muttering to himself.
“So even you…!” “…” “I told them long ago.
This is my domain!” “And yet you break into my territory just like those ignorant fools, selling your lives for that damned Umbrella!” “In that case…” The white-robed man pressed a green button on the console.
A cage rose, and a biological weapon evolved from a baboon – designated the Eliminator – was set loose.
As the “advanced” product of the Umbrella Executive Training School ten years ago, it stood far above the zombie dogs and giant scorpions Ivan’s group had run into so far.
The Eliminator’s intelligence was markedly higher, and its ability to carry out an assigned task was excellent.
Inside the interrogation chamber, Ivan and Rebecca were about to leave and rendezvous with Billy.
But a wrong sound reached Ivan’s ears, and every alarm bell in him went off at once.
Under the influence of that unnamed power, his physical abilities had been raised across the board – and his hearing was no exception.
So he didn’t hesitate.
He yanked Rebecca into his arms.
A white shape dropped out of the ceiling.
Ivan answered it with a right roundhouse kick.
BAM!
The sole of his boot met flesh, and in that instant the white shape flew like a cannonball into the wall.
CRASH!
Dust exploded off the masonry.
The thing’s head had punched straight into the wall and stuck there.
Blood ran down the plaster in slow lines.
Rebecca stared at the “monkey root” planted head-first in the wall and pressed a hand over her mouth.
She turned to look at Ivan, and her beautiful green eyes were suddenly bright with light.
“Ivan, what was that?” He glanced down at the girl in his arms and answered softly, his voice carrying that particular warmth and depth.
“It was going to hurt you.
So I kicked it across the room.” The answer made Rebecca’s heart skip, and two spots of color crept quietly onto her pale cheeks.
“Wh-who asked about that…
I meant…
how did you get so strong all of a sudden?” The question she’d actually been carrying had turned, under the force of his directness, into a way to change the subject.
Hearing what she wanted to know, Ivan rubbed the back of his head and gave her a sheepish grin.
“I’m not really sure myself.
Maybe it’s because you’ve been beside me this whole time, Rebecca.” At those words, the beat beneath her ribs came faster, hotter.
She slipped out of his arms, remembering everything they’d carried each other through, remembering the rear deck and the softness of that moment.
For a second she had no idea what to do with the surge in her chest, so she gave the floor a small stamp and pouted.
“Ivan~” That petulant little lilt sent something like a current through him from head to toe, and he shivered.
Seeing it, Rebecca laughed behind her hand, then stepped forward and took his hand of her own accord.
“You protected me again.” Her voice was quiet, weighted with a girl’s private thoughts, and the heat of it traveled into his palm.
Even through the gloves, nothing could block that warmth.
Ivan closed his fingers around hers.
They smiled at each other, then one after the other pulled open the door and walked out of the interrogation chamber.
The white-robed man, force-fed an entire bowl of that sickening sweetness, stared at the very conspicuous monkey backside on his screen.
His upper teeth ground against his lower ones, producing a sound that set the nerves on edge.
And yet – whatever it was that occurred to him – a strange, thoughtful smile spread across the white-robed man’s face.
At the heart of the Umbrella Executive Training School lay a secret oversight room, one the white-robed man had never known about since its construction, built for the sole purpose of monitoring James Marcus’s every move.
Wesker and William walked out of the monitoring room side by side.
William leafed through the records in his hands.
“It doesn’t add up.
How could James Marcus still be alive?” “We checked, over and over, to make absolutely certain he was dead.” Wesker adjusted his sunglasses.
“Nothing is impossible.
As the founder of the t-Virus, it’s perfectly normal for Professor James Marcus to have kept a few secrets from us.” “The one who should be worried right now is Mr.
Spencer.
The moment the conspiracy against James Marcus comes to light, he’s finished.” At that, a mocking curl appeared at the corner of Wesker’s mouth.
“And, of course, so are the two of us.” William looked at him.
First the chain of viral leaks in the Arklay Mountains, and now James Marcus issuing a declaration of war.
Thinking of his research, he tried to keep his composure, but an edge of urgency crept into his words.
“What do you intend to do?” Wesker’s brow arched, his gaze sharpening.
“The biological weapon created with the t-Virus is nearly complete.” “All that’s left is to obtain combat data.” William understood.
Wesker meant the organization he had newly pledged his “loyalty” to – H.C.F.
The t-Virus and its field data were the gift he would present to his new masters, the price of securing a certain standing within it.
And the remark was also a hint aimed at him…
“Don’t joke with me.
I can’t abandon the research!” “I’ve already finished my work on the t-Virus, but the G-Virus still needs time.” William stopped walking there and clawed at his hair in frustration.
“Shit!
Just three more months – no, two at the outside – and the G-Virus would be done!” “Why?
Why did everything have to fall apart at this exact moment?”