Wesker made little effort to communicate with her. With a slight smile, he turned around, and beckoned her to follow him. Claire kept her gun trained on him. As much as doing so gave the façade of power, she knew full well that were he to turn on her, she would once again be powerless. While it went against every instinct she had, she decided to follow him. The man had just killed several capable operatives, one more probably wouldn't make much of a difference. That was assuming he didn't have plans for her.
The thought of which made Claire shudder as Wesker made his way over to the far end of the room. Wordlessly, he began to feel along the wall for something. After a minute or so of looking, his hand found its way to some sort of a mechanism. A loud click filled the room. A split appeared near the wall, well hidden enough that even if she knew what to look for, Claire wasn't sure she would have found it. Wesker turned to face her again, and nodded towards the newly discovered opening. Without a word, he dashed through it, leaving Claire's sight.
Claire cursed at herself for letting him out of her sight. She weighed her options. It seemed unwise to follow him, and the last thing she wanted was this already dangerous confrontation to turn violent. On the other hand, he had kept her alive for a reason, and gone through the effort of showing her something within this base she wouldn't have found otherwise. Biting her lip, Claire crossed to the other side of the room, stopping for a second to pick up an SMG from one of her fallen allies. She figured the automatic fire would do her a lot better if a fight did break out, although the degree of which said fight would be winnable was still questionable.
SMG in hand, Claire followed Wesker through the opening in the wall. The doorway quickly transitioned into a walkway, leading even further into the base. A second doorway lay in front of her. Getting ready for the worst, Claire placed her hand on the door's switch, and raised her SMG when it opened.
Before her stood Wesker, dwarfed by a massive complex of machinery. Glowing lights cast an eerie blue light over the room, and the continual flow of liquids through various transparent forms of tubing gave Claire flashbacks to some of her lesser-desirable encounters with Umbrella's engineering. Wesker's voice finally echoed through the room. "While the efficiency of this particular lab leaves a bit to be desired, I can assure you that it's within your interests to be concerned about it." He chided.
Claire raised her SMG. "What is this place?" She shouted at him. She instantly wished she hadn't. He would answer what he felt like answering, and she was in a position where provoking him would be unwise.
"This is a grave of sorts, a place where some of Umbrella's secrets lay buried. Frankly, I'm surprised that nobody's had the decency to dig them up." Wesker explained, beginning to pace towards her. Claire tensed up as he began to circle her, not unlike an animal surveying its prey. "Umbrella tried for a little while to focus their effects on creating enhanced soldiers. I'm led to believe that their efforts here were ultimately successful." Wesker took off his sunglasses, and Claire felt his animalistic eyes surveying her. "Of course, as your present company shows, weapons you can't control don't do you very much good, do they?" He laughed.
"Why did you bring me here?" Claire asked, trailing her SMG to follow him. Something about this whole situation didn't feel right. Or more so, it felt more suspicious that dealing with Wesker usually did.
"To make you a deal, little Redfield." Wesker mocked, finally circling all the way around her. He leaned against one of the rails overlooking the machinery. "I'm prepared to hand this facility over to you, provided you give me a certain something in return."
Claire didn't trust him. "What is that something?" She inquired. His behavior was making the situation uncomfortable. It was one thing to deal with a focused enemy; it was another to deal with one that didn't seem to consider you a threat. Wesker fell firmly into the second category. "Just a tiny bit of information, Redfield. A good trade, if you ask me." Wesker explained, beginning to walk toward her again. "All I want is a little detail on your brother, something to show that we're all friends here."
"My brother?" Claire asked. She wasn't anticipating Wesker dragging Chris into this. "This is between you and me. He's got nothing to do with this."
Wesker let out a light chuckle. "This is a big facility. Imagine if the contents found their way into the nearby community. This area is nice and isolated, so it's unlikely someone would notice at first. Of course, Arklay was isolated too, and that did little good." He mocked. Claire bit her lip. "What do you want to know?" She finally said.
"What is the man involved with these days?" Wesker inquired, his pacing brining him uncomfortably close to Claire. Claire a second to weigh her options. The prospect of talking about Chris disgusted her, but Wesker had a point. Chris wouldn't want her to die here, and he especially wouldn't want another potential outbreak happening. Finally, she made her choice. "Chris is working for the BSAA. I believe he's partnered with Jill Valentine." She reluctantly said. Wesker chuckled, before tossing her a key. "This will unlock the vault, and get the machinery operational again." He explained.
The second that Claire caught the key, Wesker took the opportunity to lunge. Claire was left wide open, catching the key and holding her SMG left her without any free hands, and in a precarious state of balance. She braced herself, ready for another blow, but much to her surprise, it never came. Wesker's hand stopped millimeters from her ribcage before he darted off, leaving her sight range. Claire let out a scream in frustration. She had acquired an important asset in understanding Umbrella's secrets, but lost Wesker in the process. In some ways, she wasn't any closer to where she wanted to be than she was that fateful day months ago. Defeated, she made her way along the walkway further into the facility to investigate the machinery at hand.