Sherry rested in a hospital bed, Jake sitting in a chair next to her. Jake's phone rang, and he pulled it from his jacket pocket and checked to see who was calling. It was a blocked number. Jake pressed answer, then placed it to his ear.
"Who is this?" Jake asked.
"My name is Ingrid Hunnigan, how's my agent?" Hunnigan asked, Jake looking over at Sherry.
"How do you have this number?" Jake asked.
"Just answer the question Jake," Hunnigan said, Jake just shrugging, not really surprised by anything at this point.
"She's recovering," Jake answered, stepping out of the room so the conversation didn't wake her up, "It's Sherry, she'll be right as rain in a few hours."
"Her healing factor consumes calories, she'll be hungry when she wakes up," Hunnigan said, Jake making a mental note, "Do you know anything yet about how that happened."
"BSAA took over that investigation so I don't know much. I watched a blond woman drop off a glass of water, it was probably contaminated. I don't think Sherry was the target, I think whoever is behind this is doing damage control. She was just in the wrong room. Hate to say it, I'm kind of glad it was her and not someone else in there."
"Why?"
"Anyone but Sherry would have been killed," Jake said, Hunnigan agreeing.
"Have her call me when she wakes up," Hunnigan said, Jake saying he would then hanging up.
Jake slid the phone back into his pocket, then looked down both sides of the hallway, seeing a vending machine behind him. Walking over, he pulled out some money, buying a bag of chips that got stuck, dangling off the spiral. Groaning, he placed his foot against the machine, pushing the front legs off the ground, then dropped it, the bag of chips falling along with several other items. Collecting the food, he walked back to Sherry's room where she was sitting upright rubbing her head.
"How long have I been out?" Sherry asked, Jake informing her, then tossing her the chips then sitting in the chair, opening a snack for himself, "Thanks, I'm starving."
"Your boss called. How does she have this number?" Jake said, holding up his phone.
"Your identity is a state secret, but you're still an asset. She likes keeping track of her assets," Sherry said, snapping a chip with her teeth and chewing.
"That's comforting," Jake said, Sherry rotating her feet off the bed and placing them on the ground, "You good to get up?"
"I'm super girl, remember," Sherry said with a grin, and grabbed the bag with her clothes in it to change in the bathroom.
Leon woke up with the phone on his nightstand chiming. Pulling his head from his pillow, he pulled the phone off his charger, seeing it was Hunnigan calling. Sitting upright with his feet on the floor, he pressed answer.
"Hunnigan?" Leon asked.
"Nine of the TerraSave employees arrested were killed in custody overnight," Hunnigan said, moving straight to business with the conversation.
"Holy shit," Leon said, looking around the floor for his pants. Holding the phone with his shoulder he pulled them to his waist, the picked his shirt up off the ground, "How?"
"Bombs, bullets, and BOWs," Hunnigan replied as Leon pulled his shirt over his head and pulled it down to his body.
"Sherry okay?" Leon asked, remember she was with one of them.
"She's alive," Hunnigan said.
"What the hell does that mean?" Leon asked.
"The man she was interrogating was infected in the room with a C-Virus denoting variant. She couldn't get out of the room. A few cuts and bruises that lasted a few seconds, but she's fine," Hunnigan explained.
"Any of them still alive?" Leon asked, sitting on the bed and pulling his boots on.
"One survived an assassination attempt. The treasurer for TerraSave in Lima, Peru," Hunnigan answered.
"That was the last stop for the ship," Leon said.
"The director wants to send a second agent, and I recommended Helena. BSAA is providing security right now," Hunnigan said, Leon standing up and grabbing his jacket.
"I'm on my way, see you in a few," Leon said, closing his phone and sliding it in his pocket. Feeling his waist was light, he felt for where his side arm would be, then remembered it was on the nightstand next to his phone.
"Forgetting something?" A voice said from the bed, Leon seeing her body rise up from the other side of the bed, "Not talking about the gun either."
"I have to go in," Leon said, picking up his weapon strapping it to his waist.
"It's a big case, gotta go save the world again. I liked you better when you saved damsels," she said, her tilting her head making her blond hair fall across her face.
"You like me less right now?" Leon asked with a smile, her scrunching her face and showing her thumb and finger nearly touching, to show 'just a little bit'.
"You can make it up to me when you wrap up the investigation," she said, throwing the blanket off herself to start getting dressed, "For the record, we still keeping this quiet?"
"A former first daughter sleeping with a federal agent?" Leon asked as she pulled her panties up her legs.
"Take that as a yes," Ashley said, finding her bra and reaching behind her back to hook it, the pulled the straps to her shoulders, "You're not on my detail, and my father isn't the president or a federal employee anymore. They would have nothing to hit you with even if they found out."
"I would still have to explain it," Leon said.
"Then explain it," Ashley said in irritation, pulling her jeans up and walking around the bed to him where her shirt was hanging off the side of the bed, "Besides, we've been coming in and out of each other's places for months now and I'm under protective detail. I guarantee someone at your office knows."
"Haven't heard about it yet," Leon said, kissing her again, then starting to walk to the door, "I'll let you know if I have to leave the country."
"You better," Ashley said playfully.
The BSAA provided Sherry and Jake the information regarding the assassination of Michael Carrington the next day, and in the time they had control had not achieved much. Prior to entering the interrogation room, the woman had disabled the security footage. They had poor quality surveillance footage from neighboring buildings, so facial recognition had very little data to use. The woman also appeared to be aware of the locations of the cameras, tilting her head or blocking the line of sight. Five cameras outside of the police station caught her, but none of them had a clear image.
"This is the so frustrating," Sherry said, sitting cross legged on her hotel room bed with her laptop on her lap
"She's clearly a pro," Jake from the window, leaning out of it on his elbows, having watched the footage already, "Can't you do some government shit, increase the resolution?"
"Not how that works," Sherry said, rolling the footage back again and groaning, "Any ideas?"
Jake stepped away from the window as Sherry shifted to one side of the bed, Jake sitting down with his feet still on the ground.
The woman exits the police station, and fifteen seconds later a convenience store's security camera catches her from a downward angle on top of her head with her tilting her chin lower to avoid it. Thirty seconds later an ATM catches her, but she's looking across the street. Three seconds later the main camera of the bank catches her at high angle, her still looking away. Nine seconds after that, a bakery's camera catches her, but the camera is inside of the building and the sign of the store blocks her face. The last camera to catch her is the camera on a stop light as she's crossing the street, but she's looking down.
"There," Jake says, seeing something this time.
"What? Where?" Sherry asks, rolling it back a few seconds, "How?" There wasn't a clear a shot.
"Not this camera, this one," Jake said, pointing at a car stopped for the light. All Sherry saw was a taxi.
"That's a taxi," Sherry said.
"Chisinau Taxi is a company," Jake said, pointing at the advertisement on the vehicle, "More likely than not, that car has a dashcam for insurance reasons."
"When she turns down and away from the traffic cam, she's probably looking straight at the dashcam" Sherry said, zooming in on the car, seeing a number written on the side of it. Writing that down she called the police station and requested they assist in acquiring the footage.
The authorities kept Claire detained for forty eight hours after a lawyer spoke on her behalf, continuously reiterating they had no evidence to hold her longer than forty eight hours. Laying on the bed in the empty cell, the bars slid open, a police officer telling her she was free to go, but not to leave the city. Rushing out of holding, she walked into the main office of the police station where Wesley Smithson was waiting for her, his coat draped over his arm.
"Wesley?" Claire asked as she approached him, "Did you get me out."
"Just kindly reminded them of what the law states about detention on suspicion without evidence," Wesley said, turning to walk with her out of the building.
"How bad is the damage?" Claire asked, Wesley handing her the newspaper with the front-page headline 'The Terrarist Savings Bank'. "That didn't take long."
"Pretty bad, which is why we need to get in front of this thing," Wesley said, opening the door for her, "You and I need to start doing some interviews, distancing the rest of TerraSave from these people."
"How many were arrested?" Claire asked.
"One hundred and three," Wesley replied, "Twenty seven of those, the allegation was provable."
"Twenty seven TerraSave employees, were embezzling to fund bioterrorism?" Claire asked, Wesley nodding, "Is there anything to salvage? What difference would an interview make?"
"You're Claire Redfield. You're the most publically known Raccoon City survivor besides maybe Alyssa Ashcroft , helped destroy the Umbrella Corporation, and have even ousted previous bad players in TerraSave. People like you are the heart of the organization. You need to keep the heart beating," Wesley said, Claire relenting and agreeing to help.
"Okay, I'll do a press conference, but you're right there with me," Claire said, Wesley agreeing, then opening a car door for her to take her home.
The taxi company came through, and the dashcam caught the woman's face perfectly. Sherry ran it through facial recognition, and got a match a few minutes later.
"Jessica Sherawat," Sherry read to herself aloud, "Fugitive, known affiliation with bioterrorism through TriCell, former FBC and BSAA operative."
Sherry opened her service record with the BSAA, and read who her team leader was.
Chris Redfield.
"Small world," Jake said from over her shoulder.
Pulling out her phone, Sherry called Chris, the phone ringing twice before he answered.
"Redfield."
"Jessica Sherawat just killed my prisoner in Moldova," Sherry said, Chris silent for several seconds.
"Where is she now?" Chris asked.
"No idea, she's pretty good at dodging cameras. What can she do?" Sherry asked.
"Infiltration and escape, close quarter combat armed and unarmed, sniping, demolitions," Chris answered.
"TriCell is defunct, who does she work for now?" Sherry asked.
"She hasn't resurfaced since the Queen Zenobia. She's probably just a mercenary now," Chris said, Sherry writing that down, "Contact the BSAA team there, and add her to a BOLO."
"On it," Sherry said, hanging up and informing them.
"I severely doubt her passport has her real name on it," Jake said.
"I'll run her picture through international flight manifests, departing since the attack."
"Don't bother, someone at her level is using a passport with a slightly altered picture. A slightly raised eye brow ridge, a minimally adjusted chin shape, it confuses facial recognition. Do it the old-fashioned way," Jake said, Sherry pulling up the complete list, a series of pictures populating on the screen.
"There's a few thousand," Sherry said.
"It's old-fashioned for a reason. Send it to your boss, I'm sure she has a legion of analysts."
Four hours later they discovered Jessica was using the alias Monica Tersiev with a Ukrainian passport. Five hours after the attack she boarded a plane to Lima, Peru.
"Her passport is frozen," Hunnigan said, getting off the phone with the Peruvian embassy, "She tries to leave Peru with that thing, she'll be arrested."
"She'll have more than one passport and hair dye," Leon said, picking up her file and scanning it over again, "Trained by Chris, that's a dangerous woman."
"Helena landed in Peru, she made contact with the BSAA who have secured the TerraSave employee. Sherry is asking for a flight, director is not for it," Hunnigan said.
"Why?"
"Maybe because she was just blown up," Hunnigan suggested.
"It's Sherry, she could walk away from a plane crash without a scratch," Leon said, Hunnigan shrugging. Leon sat down next to her, pulling out his knife and spinning it on his finger. "I need to be there."
"You wanted the supervisor job, means less field, more delegating," Hunnigan said.
"I feel useless," Leon explain.
"They both need the experience a case like this provides. Sherry already broke the case, the BSAA could probably finish it on their own," Hunnigan said, Leon tossing his knife up and catching it.
"Let me know the moment something local needs to be investigated," Leon said, sheathing his knife, standing up right, and starting to walk away.
"Tell Ashley hi for me," Hunnigan said, Leon waving over his shoulder, then freezing, turning his head slowly. Hunnigan faced her computer screen and started typing again, "Everybody knows," she said without looking.
"This is my case sir, I need to see it through," Sherry said, pacing in her hotel room while trying to have him approve her travel to Peru and not back to the United States. Jake sat at the desk, leaning back on the chair with the front legs on the floor and his feet propped up on the desktop, listening to her plead.
"Sir I'm fine, it was just a little explosion," Sherry said, Jake chuckling.
"I know agent White is qualified for this assignment…" Sherry said, looking at Jake and mouthing, 'No he is not.' "…I'm still fully mission capable, and I work very well will agent Harper…I'll be on the first flight tomorrow."
Sherry hung up the phone, exhaling deeply then tossing it onto the bed that she fell backward on a moment later.
"We going to Peru?" Jake asked.
"We are going to Peru," Sherry confirmed, Jake clapping once to celebrate, Sherry laughing, "I'm getting some sleep, I feel like I've been up for a week."
"Toss me a pillow, I got the floor again," Jake said.
"The bed is big enough," Sherry said, tossing a pillow at him.
"You're too old for me," Jake said, dropping the pillow on the floor, then laying on the floor with it under his head. Sherry threw the other pillow at him before going to sleep.
In the middle of night, Sherry adjusted in her sleep, unable to sleep, looking at the ceiling. Blinking slowly, she sat up and leaned forward to see if Jake was asleep.
"Can't sleep either?" Jake asked.
"No," Sherry said, leaning all of the way forward, resting on her stomach, looking passed the edge the bed to look at him, "Why were you in Morocco when I called?"
"Looking for information on my father," Jake said, then turned his head, "Did you know our dads were lab partners?" He asked, and Sherry nodded.
"I had to learn a lot when I became an agent. Learned the science on what happened to me, but much of that is still theory at this point. I had to study on the political fallout of Raccoon City, on different events I didn't even know that had happened."
"Sounds like a lot of research," Jake said, Sherry answering with a nod.
"I'm been thinking about something for a while," Sherry started, Jake shifting his eyes to her, "Why did you point a gun at Chris when you found out he killed Wesker? Trying to avenge someone you never met and clearly had no love or loyalty to doesn't add up."
"He took away my ability to ask the bastard some questions. Don't you have some questions for your old man you can't ask anymore?" Jake asked.
"No, because I know who my father was. I didn't shed a single tear when Leon and Claire had to kill him to protect me," Sherry said, Jake chuckling, "What?"
"Our old men, spent their entire lives inventing monsters to help the human race evolve. Turns out the most dangerous things they create were us," Jake said.
"We're not our parents. We only have two choices, blame them, or be better," Sherry said, rolling back to rest on her pillow and try to sleep. Jake stretched his body out, his hands reaching, then did the same.
The BSAA picked Sherry and Jake up at the airport in Lima, Peru, and escorted them to the United States embassy where they had moved the TerraSave employee Catherine Gonzalez after a failed assassination attempt for her protection. Helena was already there, sitting with Catherine, who she was treating more like a victim than a criminal.
"My mother is sick," Catherine said, sitting next to Sherry on a couch, and across from Helena who was in a chair. Jake was leaning against the door of the vacant office on the third floor of the embassy. The room only had an empty desk, the desk chair, and the couch.
"What does she have?" Helena asked.
"Cancer, cervical cancer," Catherine answered, "All of the doctors we saw, said she was beyond treatment. Then a woman introduces herself, says she knows a doctor who can help."
"So they paid you to get the treatment?" Helena asked.
"Not exactly, they said they'd donate anonymously to the hospital directly, and my mother would receive treatment, if I would write a monthly check, to a local charity in Peru, and be sure the check didn't exceed ten thousand dollars."
"That's probably how the whole thing works," Jake said, everyone looking at him, "They set up fake charities, and donate to them with TerraSave funds. They probably also donate huge sums of money to TerraSave directly, turning the entire organization into a money laundering scheme."
"I had the same feeling when the whole thing was blown open," Catherine said.
"Do you know any other TerraSave employee involved?" Helena asked.
"I've been to a few meetings with other TerraSave regional treasures, and it was a suspicion, but we never talked about it. How would you? Kenny Reinland, the Columbian treasurer, his son was nearly infirm, suddenly a miracle happens and he was walking. Franky Phillips, treasurer from Brazil, is suddenly driving a new Mercedes when all the time I knew her she was driving ten year old pieces of garbage."
"They find the members of TerraSave in duress, if that isn't possible, they just bribe them," Sherry said, Catherine nodding and looking down.
"What happens now? I'm an accessory to terrorism, I know that."
"Through duress," Helena said, "That matters."
Jake listened to the conversation, while looking out the window, at buildings near the embassy passed the fence. There were two and three story buildings on one side of the embassy, all on the side of the building they were in. Jake walked over to the window, then tapped on the glass. It wasn't reinforced.
"Guys, we need to change offices," Jake said, looking back behind him, "This room is a sniper's paradise, and there is a sniper in the city."
Sherry looked over to the window as well, as Jake looked back outside, and saw the reflection of light on a rooftop.
"Sniper!" Jake shouted, as the glass shattered, Sherry leaping across the couch and covering Catherine, taking a bullet in the back shoulder, and another center back. Sherry rolled with her to the ground, blocking line of sight with the desk. Helena went to the ground as well, landing next to her them.
"Sherry!" Jake shouted, seeing her wounds already sealing, and the two bullets being pushed out her body, landing on the floor.
"I'm fine, get Jessica!" Sherry shouted, Jake nodding, then looking out the window, seeing the flag pole. Opened the door to the hallway and ran out, placed his back to the wall and ran through the room and leaped from the third floor to the flag pole.
"What the hell is he doing?" Helena asked, Jake colliding into the pole hard, but managing to grab it and slide down.
Jake reached the bottom and ran for the gate that was opening, BSAA agents driving out in vehicles to pursue her. The moment they entered the street, two cars exploded, throwing the trucks like into the air like toys, and blowing Jake back to the ground.
With his ears ringing, Jake staggered to his feet and ran through the smoke toward the building Jessica fired from, seeing a figure quickly escaping down the fire escape to the street. Jake entered the alley as Jessica started running with her bag slung over her shoulder, Jake aiming up with his side arm.
"Don't move!" Jake shouted, Jessica raising her hands, and slowly turning around. Jessica looked at his gun and mumbled 'fifteen' to herself, "Move to me!"
"You going to arrest me?" Jessica asked sarcastically, "You couldn't if you wanted to."
"Drop the bag, and move to me!" Jake shouted, Jessica slowly lowering the bag off her shoulder, her thumb discretely hooking a pin on the strap. When it hit the ground, she quickly kicked it toward him, detonating in a flash Jake tried to shoot through, missing as Jessica took off the opposite direction.
"God dammit!" Jake shouted, partially blinded, then running after her, his eyes trying to recover.
"Fourteen," Jessica said under her breath, pivoting around the corner and into the building she just climbed off of. Jake caught her hair trailing her in, cutting into the building seconds later, seeing her at the end of the hall and fired, the round impacting the wall ahead of her. "Thirteen."
Jake chased her down the hall and when he rounded the corner, jumped back into the hall, a bullet nearly hitting him. Jessica fled up a flight of stairs, Jake shooting up after her, blowing wood off the bannister and another hitting the wall above her.
"Eleven," Jessica said, cutting through a door on the second floor, dashing down the hall and breaking through the door at the end of the hall as Jake entered the hallway, two more rounds impacting the door frame. "Nine."
Shooting straight ahead, Jessica shattered the window in front of her and leaped across the alley to the fire escape on the opposite side. Jake reached the window Jessica shooting back across, hitting Jake in the arm then missing when he placed his back against the wall.
"Fuck!" Jake shouted, holding his arm, seeing it was more of a graze. Leaning into the window he fired back, sparks flying off the metal bars of the stairs, four rounds missing, one hitting Jessica in the same arm she hit Jake.
Jessica recoiled, hitting the brick wall of the buildings, before she kept climbing, holding her arm. "Fuck," Jessica said, climbing to the roof with her one good arm and holstering her gun, "Four."
Jake reached the roof as she reached the other side, him firing after her, missing as she leaped to the next fire escape. Jessica miscalculated her jump, ramming her body against the side of the escape instead of landing directly on it. As she climbed up, Jake landed on it.
Jessica punched with her good arm, Jake parrying and sliding around her into a headlock. Placing her foot on the bar, she pushed back, slamming Jake into the wall, then elbowing him in the head, breaking his grip. Jake swung, Jessica dodging then punching him on his gun shot wound. Jake rose to fire, her catching the gun, one round being squeezed off.
"Three," Jessica said, letting go with one hand and chopping his throat, making him shoot again, "two."
"Why are you counting?" Jake said, Jessica kneeing him the stomach twice before Jake charged forward and rammed her back into the bar. Jessica stripped his gun away and aimed at up, Jake slapping it away, the gunshot making his ears ring again. He grabbed her hand and hammered it against the rail, another round firing into the wall before she dropped it to the ground below them.
Jessica punched his arm again, then grabbed him by his neck and placed her back on the rail and pushed off the ground to roll off of it. She grabbed the back of his shirt, throwing him off the escape where he crashed to the ground on his back. Jessica rolled back, catching the escape, then dropped down to the ground.
Jake grunted, seeing his gun next to him, grabbed it, aimed and pulled the trigger, the gun clicking.
"Zero," Jessica said, pulling her out gun and aiming down, "Nice try."
Jake threw his gun, missing Jessica entirely, her following the gun with a laugh, only to watch it hit the escape ladder, that dislodged, slide down, and struck her in the head.