Monday came, the same as it always had to, but for once Leon was not excited, or even mildly pleased at the thought of having to go back to his top secret job in the top secret building that looked like every other government building in a city crowded with them. Just their name badges were fancier and you had to be really important to get in. Normally Leon didn't mind going back to work after the weekend, since he spent a lot of his weekend doing things ultimately related in some way to his work instead of enjoying the time off. But this time, he had spent the entire weekend with Claire Redfield doing absolutely nothing that could in any way be remotely considered work related. An he'd loved it.
They'd actually gone shopping on Saturday so Claire could buy some clothes for her interviews, and Leon had been surprised that it had been relatively easy. They'd gone to a mall he knew about, and Leon's job had basically consisted of following Claire around as she went through the different department stores. They spent a lot of time in Macy's, and Claire came out with two pairs of pants, a couple of skirts and tops, a black blazer and most surpising of all, a pair of black four inch heels. Leon had never really pictured Claire as a high heels type of person, so when she had picked them out he'd been intrigued by the idea. They'd made her much taller and Leon had been forced to aggree with the sales associate, they really did show off her legs. All in all, probably the least traumatic shopping trip he'd ever gone on with a girl. Essentially all he had do was tell the truth, that Claire looked amazing in what she'd picked out and carry a couple of bags. After the shopping, the rest of the weekend had consisted of doing tourist things, visiting the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and Leon's favorite bar which was about three blocks from his apartment. A good grubby feeling Irish pub that reminded him of the one's back home in Chicago where his father and other assorted family members would hang out after they got off a shift.
Leon shook his head, and pushed Claire to the back of his mind as he walked in the doors and swiped his badge. It was work time, and over the years Leon had gotten better at remembering to check his personal shit at the door and leave it there. He'd seen plenty of other agents get killed or injured because they had let their personal lives follow them to work. Leon had no intention of becoming a statistic just yet. So he sipped his coffee and forced himself to dismiss Claire and their enjoyable weekend from his mind.
He made his way to his desk, sitting down and turning on his computer. It was time to go back to figuring out who had killed Senator Davis and why. He'd been looking over the Senator's various connections, both in politics and business, and quite honestly the list of people who might want him dead wasn't exactly short. However the list of people with the means to hire someone to kill him, and Leon had no doubt this was a professional hit, was much shorter. Still, there wasn't enough motivation for most of the people on the list to try and take out Davis,.Then there was the added factor of the erased computer files. Davis obviously had information on something, and given his connection to WilPharma, he had a feeling it might just be related to whatever other viral pots WilPharma had their fingers in, beyond just the T-Vaccine.
Of course since this involved bio-weapons and the Umbrella legacy, there was one name that jumped to the top of the list, Albert Wesker. As much as Leon would like to pin this one on Wesker, adding to the list of atrocities the man had committed, something about it just didn't sit right with Leon. Maybe it was his old, barely developed cop instincts, or just all the stories he'd heard of the man from Chris and others, but this just didn't seem to be his style. The part with the computer files certainly seemed like something Wesker would do, but killing Senator Davis just didn't sit right. From the impressions Leon had gotten from others, Wesker didn't seem like the sort of person who would have someone assasinated unless it served him in some way, the only really personal grudge he seemed to have was with Chris. There wasn't any benefit that Wesker gained by having Senator Davis killed. If he had wanted Davis' computer files, he probably would have just had someone sneak in and steal them, or steal them himself. No fuss, no muss, no one the wiser for it. Simply put, there was no motive to kill Davis just for the contents of his computer.
While Leon would never rule Wesker out as a candidate for this, he wasn't ready to put the blonde egomaniac at the top of his list. Wesker had just ended up being at the top because there wasn't anything, or anyone, better to fill the space. Leon felt there was something he was missing, and he wished to god the geeks down at tech would hurry up and figure out if they'd be able to retrieve any of the lost data on Davis' computer. Until then, Leon figured it would be prudent to take a much closer look at WilPharma and just what the company had been doing with itself.
Several hours later, Leon was ready to give up on this for the day. He'd been doing everything he could to look into just what exactly WilPharma had been involved in, but he'd been coming up with a lot of nothing. Well not nothing per se, just nothing that gave any indication as to why Davis was killed or what information the senator might have had. Leon knew he didn't have all of the information on WilPharma, more was constantly coming in and who knew how much more was being destroyed as Leon sat there, glaring at his computer monitor.
Leon was finally saved by the beeping of his phone, giving him something else to focus on. He grabbed it, almost elated when he saw it was Hunnigan. If Hunnigan was calling, hopefully that would mean she had found something he'd missed, or had some other lead he could follow up on. "Hi Hunnigan." He said, managing to keep his emotions from bleeding into his voice, but he was sure Hunnigan could see his relief to hear from her.
"I have some information for you Leon. It might not pan out to anything but it's the best I've been able to come up involving the Senator's murder."
Leon looked at his stack of crumpled notes, doodles and lists. "Well if you got anything Hunnigan, you're a step ahead of me. I haven't had any luck locating anything that might even give a hint as to why someone would bother to kill Senator Davis. Or who that someone might be." He watched Hunnigan purse her lips at him, giving him that look of annoyance he was fairly sure she reserved only for him, and was somewhat fake.
"Have you been keeping up with the business news Leon?" At his slight shake of the head she nodded, obviously expecting as much. "I'm sending a feed to your computer, with ther information I found. Ever since the incident in Harvardville, WilPharma's stock prices have been dropping. Not only that, but the company's reputation has been greatly tarnished and they don't have the funds to repair their research facility. Simply put, the company is on the verge of bankruptcy. There's been an offer put forward by Tricell Pharmecuticals to buy WilPharma entirely. It's still being considered and nothing has been signed yet."
Leon let out a breath, staring at Hunnigan's face on his phone. "Alright I get all of that that Hunnigan, but what does it have to do with Senator Davis?" He asked, his mind trying to follow whatever path it was that Hunnigan's brain was on. It wasn't quite working, but then Leon didn't have a lot of business acumen. He was more of an action man.
"I'm getting there Leon." Hunnigan said, a slight note of exasperation entering her voice. Honestly, for someone as talented, skilled and attractive as Leon was, he could be incredibly dense sometimes. "Senator Davis was a major stockholder in WilPharma. With his passing all of his property, including his WilPharma stock was willed to his next of kin. Since Senator Davis wasn't married and didn't have any kids," Leon remembered what the senator had said about children at the airport, and the slap it had gotten him from Claire, "it went to his nephew, Donald Crewe. Since WilPharma's stock has been loosing value, it seems one of the first things Donald did was sell all of it."
Leon still wasn't following this, but he nodded, trusting Hunnigan had a good place to take this. So he asked the next logical question. "Who did he sell them to?"
"He sold them to the Kiju Trading Company, and they paid well over the asking price for them. I did some research into it and the Kiju Trading Company is a sham. It's a shell company that looks to have been set up specifically to purchase stocks. The sole owner and shareholder of the company is a woman by the name of Excella Gionne. She's the president of TriCell Pharmecuticals' African branch, and one of the company's top researchers." Hunnigan pause to let that sink in for Leon, absently pushing her glasses up.
Leon's mind was working now, in fact it had kicked itself into over drive going along the information Hunnigan had found. Leon wasn't familiar with how the business world worked, but he had a set of red flags that were rather easy to trigger, and Hunnigan had just sent them all into motion. "What else have you found Hunnigan?"
"I found several other shell companies that were being used to purchase WilPharma stocks, all of which come back to Excella Gionne in some way. At the rate it's been going, she's fast becoming one of the largest stockholders in WilPharma. She could push through the sale of Wilpharma, and if she couldn't..."
"As a major stockholder she'd still have a lot of say in how things were done. In essence making WilPharma a branch of TriCell." Leon finished, his mind still doing cartwheels. "But do you really think that they would have Senator Davis killed for his stocks and what information he had on WilPharma Hunnigan?"
"That's what you're supposed to find out Leon. The tech guys are still working on Senator Davis' computer, if we're lucky they'll be able to give us some kind of lead from what they recover." She gave him the same look she always did when she thought he was being just a little too obtuse.
Leon nodded, giving Hunnigan a smile. "Thanks for the lead Hunnigan. I'm gonna start researching TriCell and see what skeletons I can dig out of their biohazard closet." He said, waiting for Hunnigan to disconnet the call. Then he sighed, leaning back in his chair and wondered what deities he had pissed off in another life that they had decided to make his life insanely complicated. He glanced at his computer, noting that he had received the download from Hunnigan with more details and references for what they'd both just talked about. Leon let out a sigh, looking at the screen then down at his desk. This definitely was going to require more coffee.
Claire studied herself in the mirror of Leon's bathroom, smoothing out her skirt one last time before she turned and walked down the hall. She had an hour and a half before her interview, and since she wasn't familiar with D.C. or it's notorious subway system, she figured she might need every minute of it. Ther nerves wouldn't hit her until right before they showed her in, even if she knew there wasn't really any reason to be nervous. It wasn't like she had to find a job immediately, Terra-Save paid her well and she'd managed to amass a small emergency nest egg she could live on for a few months, even longer if she really buckled down and got stringent with her spending. Still, it would ease her mind to know she had employment because two things Claire hated most were feeling helpless and being dependent on someone else.
If nothing else, she knew she could awlays get into the B.S.A.A. They'd tried to recruit her once, and she knew several people who would vouch for her abilities and give her reccomendations. She just didn't necessarily want to turn back into a warrior woman. Sure she still had a couple of hand guns in her apartment which she took to the shooting range when she could, and of course there were the lovely knives she kept around, for purely decorative purposes mind you. She just wanted to do more than fight and react to the terrors Umbrella had unleashed.
Claire shifted as she stood on the subway, not want to sit down for fear of messing up her skirt. She kept getting the feeling she weas being watched, but everytime she looked around she just saw ordinary people, lots of men in business suits busily looking at their papers, their upside down papers. Claire turned away again, shaking her head slowly. Part of her didn't really believe they were checking her out, it just didn't seem possible. She honestly didn't think a skirt and a pair of heels could make that much of a difference in how men looked at her. Chris would probably say that they were always looking at her, she was just too oblivious to notice. But Chris was her older brother, so it was his job to believe that every man who looked at her had secret fantasies about her, she was pretty sure it was in the handbook somewhere.
When her stop came, at least the stop she thought was her's, Claire got off carefully worming her way through the crowds of people. Halfway across the platform, she heard her phone start to ring, without pausing she reached into her bag, pulling it out and glancing at the number before flipping it open. "Speak of the devil." She said, bringing it to her ear. "Hi Chris, how's it going?" She asked, making her way through the station.
"Well I hadn't heard from you in awhile Sis, and I was getting worried. Afterall you're my baby sister and I have to make sure nothing eaten's you or that you haven't gotten into some new kind of trouble I need to bail you out of." She rolled her eyes at that, barely holding in the snort of disbelief she wanted to give at Chris's words.
"Funny, I always thought I was the one bailing you out of trouble."
She listened to Chris's dry chuckle, feeling a smile of her own move across her face. "So are you back in the country yet, or did the peacenicks send you off to some other new exotic locale that doesn't get decent phone service."
Claire blinked as she walked out into the bright sun, letting her eyes adjust to this new change. "Yes I'm back in the country, Chris. I got back in on Friday, I'm actually in D.C. Remember how I said I was going to resign from Terra-Save? Well I sent out some resumes before I left on my last trip and now I have some interviews at a couple of agencies."
"That's great Claire, gonna become a g-woman then huh? I hope you won't let your new found power go to your pretty head." There was a pause and she could heard someone talking in the background for a second before Chris came back. "But since you're in the D.C. area, why don't you stay wirh me instead of in another hotel. You gotta be itching for a more homey setting by this point."
"Thanks for the offer Chris but it's fine, I'm not staying in a hotel." She started walking trying to think of how to put her next words, since Chris' reaction had the potential to be rather... volatile, to put it mildly. "I'm actually staying with Leon, he offered to let me stay at his place while I was in town."
"What? You shacking up with that Rookie, Claire! He better not try anything on you or so help me, I'll make him wish he'd died in Raccoon City! Why you staying with him anyway? You know you could have called and stayed with me, it would have been perfectly fine and then we wouldn't have this problem." Claire could practically see her brother pacing, waving his free arm wildly.
"No I am not shacking up with him Chris, I'm sleeping on his rather nice sleeper sofa. In his very nice and spacious apartment that beats out your dingy little apartment in Arlington. Besides, it's more convient for my interviews to actually be in DC and not outside of the city."
Claire paused to inspect a map by a street post, not really listening to her brother valiantly try to defend the apartment he barely spent any time in. She didn't really pay attention to him, instead looking for her destination and the best way to get to it, until she heard, "Leon said he wanted to talk to me anyway so it'll be perfect."
"Wait, what? What did you say about Leon, Chris?" She asked, straightening up and turning her attention back to the conversation and began walking again.
"I said that Kennedy had mentioned something the other day about wanting to talk to me, well us but he told me, so it'll be the perfect excuse to come up and make sure he's not doing anything you don't want. Didn't he mention his big news to you?"
"No, he hasn't mentioned anything about needing to speak to us about something. However he does have your bad habit of leaving top secret reports on his coffee table. Even with that though, I don't know what he would want to talk to you about." Claire didn't know, but she could imagine several things, none of which were very good. "So why exactly were you two talking anyway? Neither of you are the chatting type."
She listened to Chris give another dry chuckle as she hurried across a street and turned the corner. "We're not, but he asked me to give some friend of his a trial run to see if I thought they could make it in B.S.A.A. and I was calling to tell him to bring her down to the Arlington grounds on Thursday for it. That's when he mentioned he wanted a big sit down."
Claire was a little confused, since none of this had been mentioned to her yet. "Coming down to Arlington for a trial run? A friend of his in ti B.S... oh, you must mean Angela." She said, the light going off suddenly. "Well how about instead of you coming up, I come down? You can pick me up the night before and I can spend Wednesday night with you and be there for the evaluation. I don't have anything planned for that day anyway."
"That'll work, if the Rookie can let you go. You certain he didn't mention anything about whatever this big secret is? Nothing at all? I know the two of you are close, he must have hinted at something..."
She started walking again rolling her eyes as she went. "No Chris I'm serious, he hasn't said anything at all about whatever it is. I guess we'll just have to be surprised then." She said, shaking her head.
She listened to Chris snort and could hear something creak in the background, probably a chair or his sofa. "You know how I feel about surprises by this point Claire. They're never anything but more trouble.
"Yes I know how you feel about surprises, but Leon would have a good reason for not mentioning anything more. Look Chris, I'll talk to you later ok? I kind of need to focus on where I'm going, I really don't want to be late for this interview. Bye."
She flipped her phone closed, shaking her head a bit. That had been a stranger than average conversation for the two of them, and they were never one's to have normal conversations anyway. Still, her mind kept going back to what Chris had said, something about Leon wanting to talk to them about something after Angela did her run. It worried her now, and was going to pick at her constantly until it was resolved. The number of things that Leon might need to talk to both her and Chris about was small and generally was dominated by things like viruses, pharmecutical companies and meglomaniacs, none of which was exactly appealing to consider. Especially not when she had a big interview in front of her.
Muttering a small curse at insensitive brothers, and another one at secretive government agents, Claire walked as fast as her heels would let her. She needed to forget about Leon, and her brother and whatever might be going on and focus. Focus on getting through the interview and impressing them with her knowledge and personality. Her problems weren't going to run off so she shouldn't bother worrying about it now. Now if only doing it were as easy as saying it. Shaking her head, being careful not to undo the careful hairstyle she'd worked her red hair into, she quickly walked up the steps leading to the building housing the B.T.R.R.O.