Code Veronica: Resident Evil IIIS
Chapter Twelve: The Hidden Portrait
Although Claire had never seen the lobby of the administration building, she could tell that it had once been beautifully decorated… only to be heavily damaged when the HCF attacked the island… whoever they were. These rows of hardwood desks must have been where the young woman had heard all the typing coming from when she and Elza had been brought through for the teleconference, but now most of those desks lay in pieces, their desktop computers smashed, and the expensive tile floor underneath cracked beyond repair.
Parts of the roof had been damaged, allowing the wind to make a kind of whistling sound as it rushed down into the lobby where the heaters were no longer functioning, but at least the lights were still on… the ones that weren't broken, that is. Large pieces of the walls' plaster was broken, exposing the stonework underneath, and at the front of the room, centered on the wall above the stairway that Claire had been forced to blindly stumble upward the other day, was a gigantic portrait of Sir Alfred Ashford.
So far there were no Umbrella guards in sight, nor were any invaders searching around the rubble for survivors, so for now the group was free to move around as they pleased. They already knew that the surveillance equipment was in the Commander's office, but there was also a chance that there were weapons or other needed supplies that the HCF men had missed, and honestly this was probably going to be the only chance for them to check around this place, leaving their only option being to split up once again.
"I'll look around down here." The young woman suggested. "Maybe I can find another weapon for us or something, while you two look at the camera feeds."
"I'll go with Claire." Steve quickly added, stepping away from Elza. "I mean… she shouldn't be wandering around by herself… it could be dangerous."
Instead of arguing, the blonde woman simply nodded before giving Claire a quick wink while the young man wasn't looking, a gesture that reminded her of what the two of them had discussed earlier. As much as the young woman was starting to like Steve, Elza was right about the things which didn't add up about him, and the plan was for her to get him talking as much as possible about himself as soon as they could be alone sometime. Now, Claire didn't believe that she would have to be overly flirtatious to get him to open up like her cellmate suggested, but… she just hoped that he didn't turn out to be an Umbrella spy or anything.
That being said, they parted ways with Elza heading up the stairs while the young woman looked around to decide which door she and Steve should try. There wasn't really that much of a decision to make, given that all of the side doors in the lobby had been destroyed except for one, and it opened up into what looked like some kind of museum. Remarkably untouched by the attack, this long rectangular chamber was filled with showcases that included a replica of an old tank, a whole bunch of valuable looking trinkets, and a whole quarter of the room that was filled with old painted portraits of people.
Veronica Ashford was the name on the gold plaque at the bottom of the frame of the first one, which depicted a beautiful brunette in a purple dress from what looked like at least a century ago, and it was then that Claire noticed that the family name of Ashford was shared by all of them, spanning several generations of stuffy looking men and women that gradually got more modern up through the generations… all the way up to Alexander Ashford… and then the Sir Alfred that she already knew.
"These are all the heads of the Ashford family." Steve explained while she looked at them. "Apparently they were a pretty big deal in social circles around the world, at least until the last few generations when one of them turned out to be a major screw up."
"You seem to know an awful lot about this family, Steve." Claire commented, looking at the last portrait. "So how… wait a second, do you see that right there? That almost looks like a… hinge?"
Yeah, there was a really small brass door hinge in the lower corner of the portrait's frame, and the young woman was moving up to get a closer look, when she gasped after knocking over the old vase that was displayed on a pedestal in front of it. She cringed, expecting a loud crash to echo through the chamber as the old pottery was broken into a hundred pieces, but instead the vase didn't even fall. It started to, tilting to the side at first, but then stopping when the metal tether attached to the bottom pulled tight with a hard click.
Quickly retracting so that the decorative vase was returned to its original position, Claire's suspicions about the hinges were confirmed as the whole portrait swung inward as if revealing a secret door… no, wait a second, it wasn't opening, it was simply spinning around to reveal… another portrait that was hidden behind it. Now that the Commander's portrait was hidden, this one was of a beautiful young woman with blonde hair, wearing a dress that looked like it was trying to be the modern equivalent of the one Veronica wore.
"Alexia Ashford." The young woman read aloud once the changeover had finished. "Now what on Earth were you doing hidden away back there?"
"Put it back!" Steve snapped, nearly pushing Claire out of the way so that he could pull the vase again. "Put it back right now!"
She wasn't sure what to make of this outburst, especially when he turned around and put his hands on top of his head once the portrait was returned to its original state, and the young woman felt it was best to just be quiet for a minute while the young man caught his breath. It was all so strange, like the portrait of that young woman genuinely frightened him, but that was ridiculous. After several seconds of remaining in that position and pacing around nervously, the young man started to calm down, but his attitude didn't improve at all.
"Damn it, Claire, we shouldn't be here." He said sternly. "All we've been doing is running around wasting time, when we could've been flying out of here by now, if your sister wasn't such an asshole. I say we get to the airfield and steal a plane, and if Commandant Elza wants to stay here and fuck around… then let's just leave her."
"We aren't leaving anyone behind, Steve." Claire replied, putting a hand on his shoulder to try and calm him down. "And Elza's right, we need weapons and information before we can stand a chance against the se HCF people, and… wait, did you just say sister?"
She and Elza weren't sisters, the young woman explained; their last names were different, while the blonde woman was taller and in better shape, to which the young man simply replied that Claire was crazy. According to him, she and Elza looked so much alike that he almost thought they were twins… but if they weren't sisters, then he wanted to know why the young woman did whatever her cellmate told her.
"You know what, whatever, I don't care." Steve interrupted before she could say anything else. "But if it's gonna take weapons to get you to leave with me, then you wait right there, beautiful, cause' I got something over here that's gonna knock your socks off."
Without another word or waiting for a reply, the young man took off running toward the far end of the museum, where he passed through an open archway that seemed to lead into another showroom. Claire followed as quickly as she could, calling for him to wait, but of course he didn't listen, and by the time she reached the archway, the young man was turning a metal trashcan upside down so that he could climb up on it in order to reach… oh wow, look at those.
From where she was standing in front of the archway, the young woman looked upward to see a large golden plaque mounted high up on the wall… and at the center of which were two pistols that almost looked like they were made of gold as well. Unless this was an old James Bond movie then those couldn't be real, Claire thought as Steve stood on his tiptoes in order to reach where they were mounted… no, probably just an insanely expensive replica, but that didn't stop the young man from trying for them regardless.
"Just you wait, Claire." Steve said, his voice straining as he dared to jump a little on the overturned trashcan. "These guns are gonna put that old clunker you're carrying around to shame, and then we'll see just how tough Elza is when…
Suddenly the young man's words turned into an outcry of surprise when he finally managed to grab onto the pistols after one more jump, only to have the trash can fall out from under him… just as an alarm started going off. It happened so quickly that Claire was unable to do anything to help him; a hidden metal slab coming down to seal the entrance even before the young man's back hit the floor, and even though there was a release button in the center of this new barrier, the indicator light above the panel was blinking red.
"Steve, what happened?!" She called, pounding on the barrier. "Steve, are you all right?!"
"Claire, help!" His muffled voice screamed a moment later, along with pounding from his side. "You gotta get me outa here, there's… oh shit, Claire, there's some kind of gas coming through the vents! Help!"
The young woman's first thought was that the security system had been triggered when he took the golden guns from their plaque, so she yelled for him to put the pistols back, hoping that doing so would cancel the alert. Unfortunately, Steve was so panicked that he either didn't understand, or couldn't hear her words over the sound of his own screaming. Okay, Claire, gotta think, the young woman told herself… if he won't put them back, and the lock can't be released from the door directly… then the alert needs to be cancelled somewhere else… somewhere that security was monitored… the Commander's office!
"Hold on, Steve!" She yelled, turning and running back toward the lobby as his screams got more desperate. "I'll get you out of there, just hold on!"