Ivan was completely lost.
He had no idea who this Wesker was supposed to be.
But the name reminded him of the two commanders on the transfer order whose names both started with a W.
Just as Ivan was about to ask, Billy, both arms braced on the desktop, spoke first.
“Wesker?
Rebecca, you mean the captain of Alpha Team, Raccoon City Police Department?” Rebecca nodded, slowly, as though the motion cost her every scrap of strength she had left.
“Yes.” Ivan rested the back of his right hand against his chin.
There were a few things he needed straight.
“Captain of Alpha Team?
So he’s part of the S.T.A.R.S.
elite unit too?” Rebecca explained patiently.
“Mm.
S.T.A.R.S.
has two teams in total.
I belong to Bravo Team, B Team for short.” “Captain Wesker belongs to Alpha Team.
A Team.” Billy scratched his head and held out a hand toward her.
“Rebecca, I want to look at those notes.” Rebecca crossed to the desk and placed the notes in his hand.
A while later, having read all of them, Billy handed the notes back.
Now he understood the look that had crossed her face earlier.
Because as the research on the t-Virus kept breaking new ground, James Marcus had discovered that someone was trying to get into his laboratory and steal his results.
James Marcus believed the culprits were almost certainly spies planted by Spencer, so he intended to send his own trusted men, William and Wesker, to find these “thorns in his eye” and eliminate them.
Beyond that, the doting affection James Marcus showed toward the leeches in those notes left Billy with a crawling chill along his spine.
Billy thought it over, then offered what comfort he could.
“Hey, Rebecca, maybe we’re both reading too much into it.
The Wesker in James Marcus’s notes doesn’t have to be the one we know.” “What I’m saying is, plenty of people in this world go through life sharing the same name.” As he spoke, a note of self-mockery crept into his voice.
“Take me, for instance.
I used to be a soldier.
Now I’m a murderer.
The one thing we’ve got in common is that we’re both called Billy.” Ivan stepped forward, his face perfectly serious.
“Billy, to Rebecca and me, you’ve always been that upright second lieutenant.
That never changed.” “We’ve thought so since the moment we started working together.” Rebecca was drawn in by his words.
She clasped her hands behind her back, met Billy’s eyes, and nodded with a smile.
“Just like Ivan said.
Hello, Second Lieutenant Billy.” With that, her right hand came up to the side of her head, and she saluted him.
Billy pushed off the desk in a hurry, straightened his spine, and returned the salute.
When it was done he turned his head away.
His nose stung and there was sand in his eyes, and he didn’t want Rebecca and Ivan getting the wrong idea.
They couldn’t see his expression, but the tremor in his shoulders and the unevenness in his voice told them plenty about what was going on inside him.
“Rebecca.
Ivan.
Thank you.” Ivan and Rebecca exchanged a smile while Billy, back turned, dragged an arm across his eyes.
When he faced them again, the eyes behind the night-vision goggles were still a little red.
“Ah, I don’t know what it is.
My eyes have been drying out on me lately.” Neither Rebecca nor Ivan called him on it.
Beep, beep, beep!
The radio crackled to life.
Rebecca lifted it and pressed the receive key.
“This is Rebecca.” Richard: “Rebecca, this is Richard.
Did you find Billy?” Her eyes flicked to Billy without her meaning them to.
On the other end, the silence stretched, and Richard, afraid something had happened to her, pressed again.
“Answer me, Rebecca.” She pulled her gaze back.
Her voice came out firm.
“No.
I haven’t found him yet.
I’ll keep searching.” Richard: “All right.
Be careful, Rebecca.
Anything new, contact me right away.” Rebecca: “You too, Richard.
Stay safe.” Richard laughed.
“Ha, don’t worry about me, Rebecca.
The two barrels on my favorite gun aren’t there for decoration.” That drew a soft laugh out of her as well.
Then she thought of everything they’d been through to get this far, and of how hard-won this signal was.
She had to lay it all out for Richard.
“Richard, while I was investigating, I found some things…” Richard listened to every word, and by the end his eyes were blazing.
“What?
Those Umbrella bastards, do they have any idea what they’re doing?
TOM!” “Rebecca, you be careful in that Umbrella Executive Training School.
And thank Ivan for me.” “Thank him for seeing Edward off on his last journey.” Rebecca tilted her head toward Ivan and parted her red lips.
No sound came out, but Ivan, who read her as easily as breathing, understood.
“Thank you~” After a few more words with Richard, both sides cut the transmission.
Rebecca looked at Billy.
“Billy, what happened back then?” “I know you’re not that kind of man.
That’s why I want the truth about those twenty-three victims.” Billy let out a breath, and his eyes turned distant with memory.
“It was summer.
Just like now.” “My unit and I got orders to deploy to Africa, to intervene in a civil war.” “The mission was a raid on a guerrilla hideout deep in the jungle.” “But it was a long way from our drop point.
Some men died of heatstroke.
Others were killed by the enemy…” “In the end there were only four of us left alive…” At some point Billy had come to lean against the desk again, both hands planted on the surface.
His face had gone heavy, and his voice carried a thick, baffled anger held under pressure.
“Except it wasn’t a guerrilla hideout at all.” Rebecca’s and Ivan’s eyes went wide.
Ivan’s straight-man reflex fired off on cue.
“Bad intel?” Billy glanced at him and nodded, helplessness written all over it.
“That’s right.
And I’ve got every reason to believe our idiot superior left his brain at home the day he issued those orders.” “There’s no other way you mistake innocent civilians for guerrillas!” His voice climbed without him noticing.
“But we couldn’t come back empty-handed.
So the captain gave the order.
He told us to open fire on the civilians.” “I tried everything to stop him.
He’d already gone blood-mad, and he knocked me out cold with the rifle butt.” Rebecca’s hand went to her mouth.
“God…” she breathed.
Billy’s head hung low now, and something rare had entered his voice: confusion.
“To bury the truth, command pinned it on me.
Named me the ringleader.” “Maybe heaven was watching, because the unit escorting me ran into dogs infected with the t-Virus.
Leeches, too.” “I used the chaos to escape, and I got aboard the train…” “And what came after that was the two of you.” Remembering the moment he’d met Ivan and Rebecca, Billy’s face cleared like a sky after rain, light returning to it.
The faint upward curve at the corner of his mouth arrived uninvited, and for the life of him he couldn’t put it away again.
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