7

Unable to answer

(22:14)

William started the engine of the van and drove down the street. Joanne was in the seat next to him and Albert, as William expected, was in the rear part, sitting on the floor with the laptop on his legs. Concentrated, he tried finding another way to unlock RBI's files, but they were completely locked and encrypted. He couldn't avoid smirking. Nice way to protect the files. I'll have to wait, he thought turning his gaze to Joanne. She'd have to explain herself and, with that, he'd find out more about his past and if she was somehow related to him.

After a ten minute ride, the van stopped in front of a small house, but big enough for a least four people. Joanne followed them inside, more nervous than ever before. After everything that had happened, she was devastated but now she was held hostage! She soon corrected herself: William had saved her from a certain death, but appearances were always deceptive. I guess I should wait, she told herself, a knot in her stomach.

"Joanne, do you have your wallet?" Albert asked her. Joanne shivered at the sound of his low, cold and impassive voice. She nodded slowly and handed it to him. He had a quick gander at it and, after handing it back, he looked at William, "I'll be back in five minutes." And he left, closing the door swiftly but calmly. Joanne and William were left alone. He didn't seem to mind, as he walked up to the couch and examined his ankle: there was the BOW's mark, a bit swollen and read. I have the feeling that I'll throw up soon enough, William teased himself.

"Will you need help with that?" Joanne asked. William lifted his head.

"No… thanks anyway," he replied, looking away. Joanne too looked away and sat on a nearby chair with a sigh. William held back a gasp in shock. Joanne's neck was barely visible, but as far as he could tell, it had a burn mark. Then it means…, he thought, She's got a lot of explaining to do.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(22:35)

"What were you doing with the Agency?"

"The Agency?" she echoed, oblivious to the name.

"The company you worked for. What were you up to?" Albert asked coldly.

"How do you know about that?" asked Joanne, evading his question. Albert didn't do anything, not a gesture and not a sound expressing anything, but kept at it.

"Just-"

"I won't answer anything unless you tell me what you were up to." Joanne interrupted categorically. William and Albert exchanged a look; William's questioning, Albert's annoyed.

-I think we should tell her.

-If it's the only way she'll talk, we have to. This goes for me too: we'd better not let it slip, replied Albert leaning back in his seat.

William was the one who told Joanne about everything, Albert only intervening when necessary. Joanne listened carefully yet shocked: they'd gone through so much and done so many things it was unbelievable. And what she couldn't accept: that Albert had changed so much. I'll have my answers; for now, mouth shut, she thought. He indeed had changed so much…

Albert was the one who finished talking, "It's your turn to talk now," he said as coldly as before. Joanne sighed, getting ready.

"I inherited RBI at the age of twenty-eight. That year, I discovered the T-virus had been used for weapons by Umbrella, the company we had been in good terms with."

"We?"

Joanne nodded, "Yeah. My parents told me everything my grandfather had told them." And then, she started explaining,

"RBI was part of 'The Group', a company triangle formed by three companies, one of them RBI. They became interested about each other when their first projects saw the light and, after a series of meetings, they agreed on forming the 'team'. Umbrella was founded a few years later and seeing where Spencer was heading, they also became interested in it, though they stayed put for a while as Umbrella was still unstable. The T-virus research was the signal they needed and Umbrella joined. Things seemed to go well, as I remember seeing some records my father showed me, until by some reason, their partnership dissolved in 1988. Some… tragic accident, as I was told.

"When I inherited RBI, I quickly got used to the company business and such. Then, I soon found out about the path RBI had taken and I decided to turn the tables on my own. I discovered T-virus supplies in an underground warehouse and, altering the virus' structure, we managed to create new substances. We started focusing on 'beneficial biology', as you might call it, and our products soon hit the market. At the beginning, we didn't receive much benefits and the company kept going thanks to the funds on my grandfather's bank account. Until, fortunately, we began receiving more and more benefits, until our brand, 'Ribbon', was a popular demand. Circa 1998, that's when things got bad.

"Because of my father, RBI kept in touch with Umbrella and, after the Raccoon city outbreak, Umbrella's failure on stocking delivered a blow to our funds. My father helped them recover with a good amount of money, leaving us with a fairly small quantity. Still, thanks to our successful sales, we made it out of that situation. We kept on until they started putting pressure on me."

"The Agency?" asked William. Joanne nodded again.

"Yeah. One day, I noticed a big change in our work pace. Customers, like pharmacists that bought our products, and our suppliers started to complain. The money was due in three days and they hadn't received it yet. The Agency had frozen the company's private bank account so no money could be withdrawn or put in. We were blackmailed, obliged to work with them; if we didn't comply, we would be left with nothing. They even hinted at somebody put in danger and I couldn't risk it… so we did it. It was the year 2003."

-The same year I left the Agency!, Albert told William, hiding his surprise under his impassive face, I don't consider it a coincidence. The year that followed they sent Ada to monitor my activities. Also, threatening doesn't surprise me either; they'd do whatever they had to reach their goals. They must have wanted me eliminated badly.

-I'll say. It's clear they've been using RBI to create an 'army' against you, said William.

-Well, they also wanted to rise as the richest company in the world, so it wouldn't be odd of them to have partners around, even if they were successful by themselves.

"We need to know what kind of bio-weapons you designed for them. How to unlock the files?" Albert asked.

"The password is 34273T/C." She told him. Albert stood up immediately and he brought up the little window on the laptop's screen. He typed the password in and it was instant: a list with all of the files appeared as well as a process bar, "The encryption conversion will take its time." Joanne said as she felt Albert's inquiring eyes upon her. He straightened himself and Joanne talked again, "You were interested in what kind of B. we designed, weren't you?" She knew Albert was a man that could be trusted… and she had known that for a long time.

Albert nodded, frowning. William suddenly remembered something.

"Was that one of your bio-weapons the ones we fought at the facility?" he asked, looking intensely at Joanne.

"The 'Vine 812'. You know which name it's based on. It has the ability to stand like a human, though you'll recognise it because of its swaying. It has medium intelligence and will attack its designated target with, as you found out, its long and extensible arms. If they are wrapped around its target for more than six seconds, they either poison it or suck their blood, depending on which zone they are holding. They are not very dangerous, but they know how to camouflage themselves in places where plants are abundant," she explained.

"Medium intelligence… would they be able to reason by themselves?"

"Depends which matters they reason on. They would think about combat techniques and such, but I don't think they'd reach a higher intelligence level."

"How did you breed them?" asked William.

"The Agency's research team in RBI," started Dawson. Those words brought another nasty memory to William's mind: James and the others murdered. Joanne talking made him come back to reality, "combined… God, it gives me the shivers just thinking about it: they combined human foetuses with a newly-sowed vines' cells so that the plant's cells developed within the new individual. Don't ask me where they got them; they just told me."

William tried to fool Joanne expressing a tad of grief, but Albert did not change a single thing about his countenance. He couldn't fake or feel anything: he had messed with humans his whole life and not a single bit of regret lived within him.

"Joanne, do you know if the Agency was part of 'The Group'?" he asked.

"No, I don't," she replied, "Though I could go to my place and have a look at my grandfather's diary. Maybe there are clues about them written down and also about Umbrella."

"Alright. We should get some rest for now," replied Albert, already making plans for the next day, "Tomorrow, we'll get that diary."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

(23:05)

Once Joanne had left upstairs, Albert and William could have a more private conversation. So many questions around and few answers. They hoped that Joanne's grandfather's diary would help them find more about the Agency.

"William, you don't think that tragic accident Joanne mentioned was Marcus' assassination by our hands, don't you?"

"That's bugged me too. This makes me wonder if Marcus had a relationship of some kind with somebody in one of the companies or all of them. For the Agency to know…"

"Why would Spencer make them know, if that was the case? Looks like he didn't consider the matter important enough, and that could've enraged them," replied Albert, "Though it might not be only that." William raised his brow, questioning. Albert proceeded to explain himself.

"We could consider a good number of reasons that could've influenced on their dissolving. That 'tragic accident' could've been a mess-up, leading to funding problems; it could've been a research gone wrong or, if our presumptions are correct, it might have been Marcus' death. And now, we could look at the two sides of that matter: or the companies knew it was us or Spencer managed to lie to them and the companies were really disappointed."

"If the companies actually knew, that can only mean they had somebody infiltrated. He or she might have gotten in with the trainees that came in that year," said William. Then, he saw the hint of a short smile on Albert's face.

"You still remember, don't you?" he asked, crossing his arms.

William smiled too, "Yeah, I guess everything's coming back little by little." Then, his expression suddenly changed and Albert knew very well why. There was only one word to bring a torrent of memories back: Raccoon. And that word reminded William of something.

"Albert, I've been meaning to ask you this, but I've waited till we had finished with RBI and everything concerning it."

"Which is?" Albert asked flatly.

"I've finally remembered that she's still alive and if you tell me about her, I'll finally know. Where's my daughter?"