The Email

(November 1998)

Jill was trying to juggle her cup of coffee in one hand and a roll of building plans in the other along with stacks of files wedged underneath the same arm. However despite her prowess and amazing reflexes, Jill stumbled on her untied boot laces. Although she somehow managed not to get any her coffee on her crisp white blouse, she unwittingly released her grip on the files, causing the files- and all the loose paperwork in them- to slide and fall on the floor.

"Aw, shit" Jill said to her as she knelt down to pick up the files.

It had been ten days since Claire's capture and disappearance. She, along with the others in the operative had been working frantically to search for her whereabouts. What they were beginning to learn about Umbrella and what made it so difficult, was that they had more than a dozen secret research and training facilities all over the world…and Claire could be in any one of them.

But what was worse, and what was on everyone's mind, including Jill's was if they did find her location, how did they know if she's was still alive?

Jill shook her thoughts away for now, and focused on making it to her desk without having to spill another cup of coffee which she had already done once this morning.

As Jill picked up the papers from the floor, she could hear talking coming from the operative's main conference room. Less than minute a later, the door opened and a calm but rather upset-looking Leon emerged out. He glanced at Jill briefly as he walked away.

Jill was aware that Leon had called Barry and Chris in for an urgent meeting and to be truthful, she was a little hurt that she wasn't invited. However, a formal invitation never stopped Jill Valentine from finding out information. Not wanting to intrude, she walked quietly to the door and cracked it open just wide enough for her to listen.

"The kid's right," said Barry's voice. "Going in alone is a bad idea, especially if there has been another viral outbreak."

"Absolutely not, this operation needs to be covert as possible" Chris's voice sounded stern.

"Look, I could at least fly you over to the mainland and help you rent a boat to get you to the island. You should be there by night fall." reasoned Barry.

Jill could picture Chris agreeing to that.

"I could deal with that… " replied Chris

"But you should at least consider bringing the kid with you. Look, I know it's been hard on you. But think about Claire," Barry cautioned. "What if something happens to you? I mean God forbid but what if you get killed? You're going to need back-up….."

Both men started arguing back and forth. Jill quietly shut the door and went to check on Leon.

She found him at his desk, his hand resting on his chin as he stared at his computer screen in deep thought. Since learning of Claire's disappearance, Leon had withdrawn from the rest of the group and had spent most of his time at his computer trying to track Umbrella's movements.

Before she could even ask, Leon motioned to the email on his computer screen, "I was able to hack into Umbrella's servers. I found this in their outgoing mail system. She's still alive."

Thank god Jill thought to herself. "I shouldn't be surprised. She is a Redfield after all. They're hard to get rid of."

Leon couldn't help but smile at the comment, "You should have seen her In Raccoon City. She would have put some of the agents I've been training with to shame." Leon was trying to convince himself that she would be fine. But the reality of the situation began gnawing at him. His smile quickly faded away. "She's on Rockford Island just off the shore of Brazil. Umbrella uses it as a prison and as a military training camp. But there's been an outbreak."

"Do we know how long?"

"Claire couldn't say. So far she's the only survivor and some other kid named Steve." replied Leon.

"Did Chris turn down your help?"

Leon nodded.

Jill knew that Claire and Leon experienced a lot in Raccoon City. She could tell that the two of had obviously gotten pretty close.

"Don't take it to heart. It's probably because Chris feels guilty." said Jill.

Leon was confused, "Guilty of what?"

"For involving Claire in all this. He feels responsible for what happened. It had already been bad enough that she had to go through that experience in Raccoon City all because she was looking for him and now this." Jill shook her head. "She should be in college right now."

"I know, it's too bad…I don't think you can count espionage, illegal infiltration and then imprisonment in Umbrella Corp as an internship." Leon quipped.

Jill chuckled at his lame attempt to lighten the mood.

"Anyways," Leon continued, "He shouldn't blame himself. If there is someone to blame, it should be Umbrella. I know my life will never be the same after Raccoon City."

"Speaking of Raccoon City…" Jill started. "I've been meaning to ask you…"

"Shoot"

"Well…on your first day here, you said I saved your lives back in Raccoon."

"Yeah, you did" said Leon.

"Well if I remember correctly, I think I was unconscious while you two were In Raccoon City."

"It happened back when we were trying to access the gun safe in Kendo's store. I found the key card and was going to head back downstairs when I got re-routed by the lickers that stormed out of Chris's apartment. With nowhere else to go, I ran back into Kendo's apartment and I locked myself in a room to escape and that's when I realized …"

Leon paused for a second, "I'm not keeping you from anything am I?"

Jill thought for a moment and suddenly remembered tower of paperwork in her in-box.

"Nope, its' kind of slow." Jill replied. "Go on, continue."