Chapter 9

July 7th, 1997

Raccoon City

9:44pm

Rock music sounded from the corner speakers in J's Bar. It played at a sensible volume, not overpowering conversation and breaking ear drums. It was a typical Friday night, and the entire bar was lively with human activity. Two bartenders served up drinks, and a pretty blond waitress with a brilliant smile distributed several to the customers. The small kitchen in the back worked tirelessly, cooking whatever late night dishes people wanted.

Ada carefully watched him from her booth. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary about him, just a man enjoying a late drink at the bar. He wasn't much different from other targets over the years; after a while, they all kind of started to look the same. This one was one of the kinds she couldn't kill though.

His name was John Howe, and he was the head researcher at the hidden Arklay lab in Raccoon City. The organization was kind enough to supply a few files on him. Top of his classes in college, with a degree in virology. He was 6'1'', dark brown hair with brown eyes, average build, and wasn't all that bad looking. Most importantly he was single. He was her way into Umbrella.

Seducing a man was tricky business, but as long as she stayed smart about it, she was confident in the results. John was a guy who worked late nights, often secluded with nothing else but paperwork and numbers. He rarely came into the city, and when he did, it was usually business related. Ada was counting on the fact that he was probably very lonely. This wouldn't be one of those cases where all she needed was entry; she needed to stick with it. So that eliminated the use of chemical substances. It was going to be all her to win him over.

Piece of cake.

Already having downed one drink, she nursed a second, keeping up the appearance of an equally lonesome woman. If she was to coax anything out of John eventually, she would first need to have a plausible background. So Ada Wong, the now secret operative of HCF, was Ada Wong the ex-girlfriend of a biochemist. She moved to Raccoon City from She was still getting over the break-up.

The spot next to him opened up and Ada moved in, taking her drink with her to the bar. She returned the blond waitress's smile as she passed her on the way. The name tag on her gray vest read Cindy.

Cute girl.

"Hey there," she said as she slid onto the stool next to John, a hint of shyness in her voice glazed with the confidence of alcohol.

He jerked his head at her presence, and Ada already saw that flicker of interest she'd grown used to over the years. Feeding that look was one of her particularly short red numbers. What man could resist high skirts and low tops?

"Hi," he replied casually. "What's up?"

"Not much," Ada said, tracing her finger around the wide rim of her martini glass as she leaned on the bar. "Mind if I join you?"

John shrugged. "Sure."

Just like that, she was already inside his personal space. The rest was just autopilot. It was a fascinating thing, the human mating process. Ada would have loved to read a book about it.

"Come here often?" Ada asked, keeping her tone casual, yet with a hint of something more important on her mind. Namely, the 'break up'.

"J's?" John asked. "Not as much as I could or would like to. Work keeps me pretty busy. I'm just here finishing up the holiday, then it's back to the grind."

"And what do you do?" Ada pressed.

"I'm with Umbrella," John replied. He wasn't lying and Umbrella had plenty of perfectly legal positions. "I work in the plant outside of town."

"Oh, so you're with pharmaceutics then?" Ada asked, acting more interested.

John nodded. "Yeah. R&D out of Chicago."

"Interesting." She offered her hand. "I'm Ada."

"Ada. I'm John." He took her hand and shook it.

"My pleasure." Ada crossed her legs, then sipped her drink. Outwardly, she was relaxing, letting her guard down. Anything to get him to open up more. "What's Umbrella working on to make our lives better this time?"

"Oh, a little bit of everything," he replied offhand, drinking from his own glass. Ada noted that it was some kind of mixed drink. "Some new treatments and experimental drugs. The corporation really doesn't like us talking about it. They claim it's 'bad for marketing'."

His description sounded authentic, but Ada had heard enough rehearsed speeches to know it was a cover. Still, she had to give him credit. He wasn't shifty or outwardly paranoid, features that tended to go with the researchers in the deep end. He just sounded like the typical overworked American.

"I guess it is," Ada admitted. "Kind of spoils the surprise if someone let the cure for cancer slip. You said Chicago? What are you doing in Raccoon?"

"A new position opened up in the plant here. They transferred half of the research staff. Umbrella helped found this town, so they decide to keep most of their main projects here." He took a drink from his glass. "You seem pretty interested in this kind of stuff."

Ada shrugged. "It just fascinates me. I wish I had the brains to get into Umbrella, but I never had the grades for it. My boyfriend was a biochemistry major back in college, and he and me would stay up all night looking at the stuff. Well, at least we used to..."

She cast her eyes down, then brushed a strand of hair off of her forehead, miming the fact that she brought up a bad memory in the middle of a happy conversation.

"Did something happen?" John asked, sounding almost cautious, yet too curious not to ask.

Ada managed a false smile. "We...broke up not too long ago. It was, complicated, to say the least. I wanted something more, but...he didn't." She broke eye contact and stared at her drink. The hook was dangled, now all he had to do was bite. Too much drama, and she would scare him away. "Sorry, I shouldn't be talking about this with you..."

"Hey, it's okay," John said. To her surprise, he patted her comfortingly on the wrist. "Those can be tough."

She smiled shyly at him. "Thanks sweetheart. Sorry, I didn't mean to start any drama suddenly."

"Don't mention it. So what do you do?"

Ada shrugged sheepishly. "I'm kind of in between jobs right now. I moved to Raccoon hoping I could find something to keep me on my feet. The last few small jobs I had really didn't interest me at all, but it's hard to find stuff when you only have half an education. To be honest, I kind of freeloaded off my boyfriend when we were still together. I didn't have all that much..."

She kept the conversation going for the next hour, finishing her second drink in the process. She ordered a third, but barely touched it. All of the edges in her head were already soft, and there was no way she was going to get drunk. Too much rode on her adaptability.

She got John to spill more than she thought he would; his earlier life, his education, his beginnings in Umbrella (all legitimate, of course), how he liked Chicago, damn near everything that filled the gaps in his files. During that time, Ada had shifted subtly closer, one of her thighs brushing against his. He didn't protest or say anything about the casual brushing, which probably meant that he had swallowed the hook entirely. Her posture was less than a foot away from his.

"So I'm assuming that since you're here, there's not someone waiting for you back home?" she asked, no hint in the question.

John shook his head. "No, 'fraid not. Umbrella can be pretty...demanding, so it's tough to settle."

"You don't get lonely?" Ada asked, cocking her head thoughtfully.

John gave her another shrug. "I like to think not, but work does keep me pretty busy, so it's hard to notice..."

The brief silence Ada gave him was enough to show him that she was lonely, hell, maybe even scared of a dark room at night. All this woman was searching for was company, and maybe a little something more long term.

"You...want to continue this conversation back at your place?" she asked. "Just you and me?"

John smiled. "Sure."


1:55am

It was dark, but the streetlights and moon shone in a sliver through the window across Ada's eyes. She lay nestled in the sheets of John's bed, his arm gently tucked around her nude waist, his slow breaths on the back of her neck. He was close, his body's contours matching her own, not that sprawled, exhausted slumber after a one night stand. It was deeper than that for him.

She was physically drained, but something about sleeping in hostile territory didn't sit well with her. That, and her mind was buzzing, carefully formulating the next steps of her assignment. So for the moment, she was wide awake, pretending to be asleep. John nodded off some time ago, and appeared to be a heavy sleeper.

The sex had been good, and they had exchanged a few deeper words. He hadn't drank much at the bar, so she new it wasn't just rambling. John was interested. Very interested. It seemed she had pegged him right about being lonely and desperate. Getting into bed with him was the tough part. The rest was now simply a matter of staying close and acting interested. Eventually, she would tap his phone and computer, and with a little luck, she could get into the lab with his help.

Ada wished she could sneak out and get back to her rented apartment, maybe leave him a sexy note to assure him that what they had was real, but that wasn't how it worked. She needed to spend the night with him, which probably meant that she wasn't going to get much sleep. Contrary to what she told him, Ada just preferred to be alone, and having someone's arm around her, his body close, was an obvious violation of that.

This was an area where Ada had to tread carefully. She wasn't past using her body to accomplish her objective, but this was the equivalent of stepping through a minefield. If she wasn't careful, she might end up doing herself more harm than good. There had been times where it was close, dangerously close, but attachment was something she could not afford. Emotions meant mistakes, and the resulting wounds were always deep.

So she hardened herself. Little by little, it was getting easier and easier, but there was always that uncomfortable little gnawing in her gut that felt just like guilt. Everything else was lost during the passion of love, but it was always waiting for her afterwards. It usually didn't stay long, gone after the morning.

Ada moved her head softly to the side, peering at John's sleeping face. A butterfly flapping its wings could cause a hurricane on the other side of the world. So what was going to result at her involvement with his life? No matter what path they took, it was inevitably going to end in heartbreak for him when she left him.

The gnawing chewed a little harder after that thought. Was she playing to much into his vulnerability, in essence exposing her own?

It's part of the job. There's not a whole lot I can do about it. I'll feel bad for a while, so I'll get over it. Just like Mom, just like Dad.

It wasn't like she was assigned to kill him, so why torture herself? If it got worse, she was confident she could let him down easy in the end. Maybe make up some story about going back to school or something, make it seem like her fault...that might be best. She shifted her head on the pillow, moving her eyes out of the light from outside. It was hard enough to focus on sleeping with a glaze of light bothering her.

Getting a physical sample of the T-Virus was going to be hard. The organization knew of two labs; one was beneath Raccoon itself, the other tucked under the old Spencer estate in the Arklay Forest. But knowing where something was and actually getting there were two different things. That's why she needed John. He had access, and that would make getting in a whole lot easier.

John shifted in his sleep, causing Ada to tense. His arm left her waist, then cinched higher and snugger around her midsection. He nuzzled the back of her neck briefly, then was still. Just a shift in the night, Ada decided as she relaxed. She would have to fix some of her reactions.

A woman didn't tense up when her lover moved against her skin.