Resident Evil: Chronicles of the Saga

by UN-4-Seen Scholar

The novilization of the entire Resident Evil timeline. From the discovery of the Progenitor to beyond the fall of Umbrella. Read and review please my first fan fic.

37. Chapter 37

Thirty Seven

March 21st 1988, Umbrella Europe HQ, Paris.

Christina Henri, Director of Umbrella's Europe Division and member of the French Senate, sat on a plush leather chair inside her bedroom located at the front end of her estate, silently reading through the novel she had in her hands, a small cup of tea placed on the glass coffee table in front of her, the curtains at the large windows partly opened to allow in the bright rays of the spring sunshine, a gentle breeze sweeping in through the small open window at the top to make the curtain flap slightly, enjoying the little break she was having from her duties as Director. She had spent much of the morning supervising the experiments down in the labs a few miles from her estate, namely on the research staff's new approach to the Tyrant Project, ensuring that everything ran as smoothly and as quickly as possible, since Lord Spencer was expecting great results from this new project.

Ever since Dr William Birkin, Head Researcher for the Arklay facilities, and his assistant had made the discovery on the Beta Hetero Nonserotonin Hormone that was responsible for the T-immunity in hosts and how it could be used to produce newer, more efficient BOWs, Spencer had been ecstatic about the prospects that it would bring and immediately ordered that all of Umbrella's facilities commence a new project to study the hormone and all the hosts who had it in order to determine how to produce a more effective BOW from it, specifically one with the intelligence to understand, obey and follow orders issued to it by the White Queen from the higher-ups such as herself. Since then, every facility working on the T-Virus was focused on studying the hormone and how to utilize its potential for their BOW research, but due to further research, William Birkin had managed to produce a suitable method to use the hormone-evident hosts to produce effective BOWs. The procedure Birikin suggested to the board was to locate a suitable host with the hormone, inject them with the T-Virus and place them in cryogenic stasis in order to slow down the hormone's actions so that the T-Virus could mutate the host into a stronger being whilst the hormone kept most of its brain intact. And several weeks later, the board had been presented with the Arklay laboratories finished product when they had arrived at the Spencer Estate last month for the inspection. A 3rd stage BOW, the next generation of soldiers in war, a true testament to the T-Virus' potential. The T-001 BOW, the first ever Prototype Tyrant.

The creature itself was a marvel to behold, in that they had managed to produce such a being of immense power and strength using the T-Virus, but after they had witnessed it battle with the other BOWs in the testing room, Christina herself had to admit that she was very impressed with how the Tyrant had performed. The Tyrant had gone up against at least three Hunters altogether, along with a dozen giant spiders and a pack of T-infected dogs, and had practically slaughtered them all with amazing speed and the use of its foot long claws on its hands, showing no sign of pain when it was attacked and overcoming all opposition with relative ease. Although, there were most definitely flaws involved with the Proto-Tyrant due to its exposed spinal cord and heart which could make it susceptible to small-arms fire, and that its nervous system was severely damaged to the extent that it couldn't understand orders and would constantly twitch. In the end, the researcher's had to use an extremely powerful sedative and a direct Spark Shot attack to its spine to subdue the Tyrant for storage. Spencer, in conclusion of the demonstration, had ordered that all of Umbrella's attention was to be focused on establishing a way to preserve most of the Tyrant's intelligence so that it could follow orders whilst maintaining the Tyrant itself to be powerful enough to withstand gunfire. Thus each of Umbrella's Divisions slaved away for the past two years to create the perfect Tyrant, one that could fight without risk of death and yet obey all of their orders without a hint of running wild in a primal, enraged state, but no such creature had been produced so far and all of Umbrella's researchers continued to search frivolously for a new idea to use in order to make such a BOW.

However, that will all soon change with the development of this new creation. America's Tyrant shall pale in comparison to my division's expertise once we have mass-produced these BOWs. Lets us see how McVarian's America Division surpasses this.

A triumphant smirk appeared on her face as she thought of McVarian's stern face breaking out into a scowl in recognition that he had been bested by her superior knowledge and control.. The other divisional leaders would naturally be aghast at having been outpaced by her and the European Division's success, but she mainly desired to see McVarian look defeated from her successful projects in her research on the T-Virus; after all, the American Division was currently the one mostly in favor with Spencer because of all the advances for the corporation that they had produced, such as the T-Virus itself, the Tyrants, the hormone and the USF. However, her smirk vanished to return to her usual cold and spiteful expression, and her thoughts drifted away from that pleasant dream when a knock sounded at her door.

"What is it?" she asked, making no attempt to hide how irritated she felt at being disturbed.

The door opened to reveal her Butler, Alfonse, standing in the doorway with a set of business clothes folded over his left arm and a silver tray in his left arm, wearing his usual uniform of a white shirt, black trousers, white gloves, black loafers and a gray waistcoat, her expression stern yet obedient as always. Behind him, Christina could see one of the scientists from the laboratories standing a few feet away from the door, wringing his hands together nervously, his black wild and unkempt, his clothes baggy and terribly creased, and his whiter lab coat stained with several brown patches around his top from coffee spillage.

Alfonse bowed courteously at her and stepped inside with a light step and haste that graced that of a large cat. "My apologies, Madame, but I have your requested outfit. Freshly cleaned, ironed and pressed, as per your orders. Also, Dr Dubois wishes an audience, Madame," he stated in his usual regal tone, indicating the scientist with a small incline of his head.

Christina sighed and stood up, took the clothes from Alfonse and went behind a large folding screen to change, pulling lightly on the knot of her dressing gown to shed it silently onto the carpet. "Come in, Doctor," she called sternly.

The doctor jumped slightly at her stern tone and timidly stepped inside, standing near the door for a quick escape if the Director were to get mad. "Director Henri, I have great news on the project," he claimed.

Christina slid on her undergarments and reached out her hand to grab hold of the clothes that the Butler held in his arms, Alfonse kindly looking out of the window at the beautiful day outside in order to give her the privacy she needed.

"Really? Do speak," Christina ordered, sliding on her skirt and buttoning up her shirt.

The doctor cleared his throat and folded his hands behind his back. "Well, we have acquired all the specimens that we requested from the African Division and the sample of the hormone from the Arklay laboratories for the experiment."

"Have you began the experiment?" she asked, taking her blazer and sliding it over her shoulders.

The doctor nodded. "Yes ma'am. And we have some suitable results I'll think that would please you."

Christina opened up the wardrobe and pulled out a matching pair of high heels, sliding them onto her feet one by one. "What are these results?"

A triumphant smile formed on the doctor's face. "The project is a success. We have created a dozen healthy and fully developed organisms," he proclaimed.

Christina Henri looked up sharply in surprise and stepped out from behind the screen, dressed in her business clothes. "You mean...the 'Nemesis' Project has been completed.

The doctor nodded vigorously. "Yes ma'am. Twelve parasites have been successfully created and are currently stored in the lab. We intend to finalize the paperwork and record all of the research data for the rest of the board to look over during your next meeting with Lord Spencer."

Christina stared impassively at the scientist for a few moments then shifted her gaze towards the Butler who stood rigidly beside her. "Call my car. We shall head for the laboratory complex," she ordered.

Alfonse bowed his head and strode from the room at a measured pace, his muffled footsteps on the carpet disappearing as he continued down the hall towards the garage.

Christina turned her gaze back to Doctor Alfonse. "I wish to inspect these parasites and to read through the important details of your results myself before we send it off to Spencer and the board. This project has no room for failures and we cannot have so much as a single flaw to occur in these new BOWs, due to the stiff competition we have with the America Division's Tyrant Program," she explained, straightening out the front of her blazer and her skirt.

The doctor nodded curtly. "Of course Director," he replied.

A few minutes later, Alfonse returned to the her bedroom door and bowed respectfully at her. "Your car is awaiting out front. Madame," he stated.

Christina Henri smiled gratefully at her butler, the sheer gesture a complete contradiction to her normal persona, and strolled out of the room at a measured, regal pace, the doctor and Alfonse following behind. Out of everyone in her employment at Umbrella's European Division, the only person she felt friendly and appreciative towards was Alfonse, for his years of loyalty, servitude and protection in her entire lifetime and career as a member of the French Senate, in addition to her employment with Umbrella's Executive Board. When Christina Henri had entered the French Senate as one of the low ranking senators, she had almost immediately rose up to one of the highest ranking members in the Senate, due to her ruthless cunning, her vicious persona and her ferocious determination, in the process of making quite a few enemies. In fact, she had experienced three assassination attempts, two targeted bomb plots, four attacks against her in the Senate itself and one attack during a convoy journey.

Thus, she had recruited Alfonse as her butler and bodyguard, one of the youngest agents to be working at the DPSD (Directorate for Defense Protection and Security) when he was 17; he was an expert in bomb disposal, marksmanship, CQC, weapons maintenance, tactics and strategy, and firearms naturally, along with his degrees from the International Institute of Modern Butlers. Alfonse was one of the very few people she trusted and relied upon, for more than just one task, due to his skills and loyalty, and he was forever obedient and respectful towards her, always following her orders and willing to lay his life on the line for her.

I shall have to reward him for his services in due time. But now, the project awaits us.

"Something on your mind, Madame?" Alfonse questioned stoically, tilting his head slightly at her in question.

Christina Henri shook her head at his query, more to clear her thoughts and focus again rather than to answer his question. "It's nothing. Let us go," she replied sternly, strolling on ahead of both the butler and the doctor, the other two increasing their pace to keep up.

As they proceeded towards the front entrance to meet with their transport, the servants of the household immediately greeted Director Henri as she went past them, doing their best to hide their fear from her by masking it with respect and courtesy, then hastily returning to their tasks before their employer could snap at them for laziness, and the security guards on watch inside the many halls of the mansion instantly saluted her when they saw her, years of military training and routines teaching them how to hide their emotions best when greeting their CO. The car waiting outside was a black Mercedes-Benz S-Class Limousine with the red and white octagon symbol of Umbrella embroidered on its doors and license plates, the paint and entire body car polished to a mirrored sheen that the sunlight glinted off the frame like spots of rainbow color. The driver, having spotted the Director, her butler and the doctor leave the house from where he stood next to the car's bonnet, immediately stomped out the cigarette he had been smoking and quickly opened the car door for the Director to get inside.

As soon as Director Henri, Alfonse and Dr Dubois climbed inside the car, the driver closed the door and climbed inside his seat, pulled out the keys wrapped along a golden key-ring with the Umbrella corporation symbol dangling on it by a chain and placed them in the ignition lock, starting the engine with one clockwise twist, the engine rumbling to life and emanating a soft hum, and he pulled out onto the paved road of the courtyard, driving slowly towards the gates as they swung open and allowed it to enter the small mountain road towards the wilderness beyond where the lab was held. The laboratory complex itself was a large concrete bunker built underneath a barren area of the woods a few miles away from Henri's Estate, surrounded by no animal or plant life due to it having been formally used as a weapons testing zone for the French Armed Forces, fenced off from the public by Umbrella controlled-militia and the government having been bought off from inspecting the site due to a supposed 'clean-up operation' that was being conducted to clear away all of the excess ammunition, explosives and weapons still in the immediate area. The complex itself was built at least a few feet below sea-level, accessed only by a small elevator in a small outpost at the area, installed with five levels of varying purpose and functions; the first level was the cafeteria and dormitory levels, the second was the security stations and secondary laboratories, the third level was the main laboratories, the fourth levels was BOW and chemical storage, and the fifth level housed the generators and the SDS. The staff inside the facility included some of the finest minds in all fields of science from across Europe, over a hundred security guards and soldiers, some of them having been served in the ALAT Detachment for Special Operations, and the basic commodity of technicians and mechanics to oversee the repairs for the facility's equipment.

And I hope, for their sake, that there will be no flaws or mistakes with this project.

"Dr Dubois, tell me about the project," she ordered sharply.

The doctor cringed slightly at her tone before he cleared his throat and began to explain, "As you know, Director, we had began this project as an attempt to find a way of enhancing the current Tyrant program. Due to the T-Virus' mutational properties and the damage it can cause to brain cells, even with the hormone present, a Tyrant has a very limited intellectual capacity. It is effective in terms of combat prowess and target eradication, but it fails to understand complex orders and can only obey simple orders, such as 'Attack' or 'Halt'. Thus we began this project to interpret a method of preserving the Tyrant's intelligence so that it can obey all orders we assign to it."

Director Henri nodded slowly, her eyes cast outside the window to gaze at the trees blurring past the car as it drove towards the lab complex. "I see."

"We went through several numbers of choices in attempting to establish a method, but all came up short or failed dismally because the T-Virus' necrotic abilities still continued to degrade the host's brain and reduce the Tyrant's intelligence. In conclusion, we decided that since we couldn't change the host's DNA to adapt with the virus itself, we believed that we could create an organism infected with the T-Virus, or at least a strain of it, to infect the host's brain and maintain the host's intellect by itself whilst we control the host through the organism by installing a computer chip into the organism that has a direct link to the White Queen," Dubois continued, his tone filling with pride at what he had accomplished.

Christina looked away from the window and stared at the doctor impassively, her cold eyes empty and devoid of emotion. "And that's where Abigail's African Division comes in?"

The doctor nodded. "Yes. We had decided to use parasites as the method of intellect degrading prevention. You see, parasites have the ability to control certain functions in a host by overtaking the nerve cells in the body and controlling a specific task that they are known to manipulate, such as the digestive or circulatory systems. However, none of them have the potential to fully infect a host's brain and every aspect of the host's bodily functions without intervention or resistance from the host itself. So, we believed that if we could develop a parasitic organism infected with the T-Virus and insert it into a Tyrant for it to fully control the host's nervous system via the brain, it could also prevent the virus' necrotic effects from degrading its brain too badly for it to understand orders. In conclusion, we created a new strain of the T-Virus by splicing a sample of the virus with the genetic codings from several variations of parasitic organisms and the hormone that Dr Birkin had discovered," he explained.

"And that was the NE-T-Virus strain?" she asked rhetorically.

"Yes. This particular strain combines the entire genetic make-up of parasitic organisms, each of the induced DNA strands having been spliced to remove all of the genetic flaws evident in their structures, and combined with the T-Virus to encourage rapid development for the organism and the common mutational properties to benefit the host, so that it can become an effective BOW in battle. However, we had to insert the hormone into the strain as well, as a way of maintaining our own control and direction over how the organism could develop," the doctor explained.

Christina's lips fluttered slightly as a triumphant smirk threatened to break out across her face. "And you have managed to create something from this strain, something we can use to enhance the Tyrants' intelligence."

"Oh yes, Director. What we have created is an ulterior mind for the Tyrants to have, one that the White Queen can control remotely in any location on the world and assign any of our orders to it that we specify, and the parasite itself will interpret these orders, follow them fully and control the host itself to utilize its full potential to complete them. In addition, we can upload designed programs into its mind so that it can utilize weapons that we can produce for them. In short, we can create the most powerful BOW ever conceived in Umbrella's history," he proclaimed ecstatically, his face lighting up with a wide beaming smile as he thought of how wonderful these new hosts will turn out, like a child who was excited about getting a new toy.

Christina nodded curtly. "Well, we shall see after the board and I inspect them ourselves for any flaws or problems that may occur. But we should first see your finished product and have an assessment of all the research data at the lab," she stated stoically, her eyes cast outside the window again.

The three passengers were silent for the rest of the trip, each lost in their own thoughts as the car continued on its course along the mountain road, soon coming to a large metal gate surrounded by a barbed-wire, electrified fence that spanned for miles, each side disappearing into the woods at each side of the car. Beyond the fence lay a large barren landscape, barely any signs of life at all in the dirt and sand, craters dotting the land every few metres, and away in the distance sat a large building, the sunlight glinting off its windows to flash at the car, imitating the Morse Code communication system used by the military. The gate in the fence ran along a small rail set in the dirt, with a small guard-box seated on the left and two guards standing watch over the gate, both carrying machine guns and wearing bio-chem equipment.

One of the guards approached the car and tapped on the driver side window to indicate the driver to lower the window and he began to talk with the driver for a few minutes, then he approached the passengers compartment and tapped on Christina's window to ask her to lower it. When the guard realized who he was speaking to, he immediately snapped a salute and stood to attention.

"Apologies, ma'am. We have to check everyone. Security protocols," he stated nervously, his hand trembling against his brow.

Christina nodded slowly. "Of course. Please let us through. I intend to inspect the facility. That is all," she ordered before she rolled up the window.

The guard nodded and made a gesture towards his friend in the guard-box to open the gate so they could pass before he hurried back to his post. The gate slid open on its rail and the car drove on slowly through, following a small paved road, that was made to allow vehicles to travel safely through the fenced area, towards the large outpost ahead. The outpost itself was a large metal tower built in the center of the barren area, an array of antennas and radar dishes placed on its roof, it entire walls made of large glass windows, with another small square building sat next to it and several tents pitched up around its base, where several soldiers could be seen passing in between the tents, either on patrol or carrying large boxes over to the trucks that were parked on the road. The car turned around the tower, being careful in avoiding the trucks coming down from the other direction, and drove towards the front of the small building nearby, stopping briefly at its entrance as a large metal shutter rose up from the floor and clanked against the top of the frame, and passed through into the large parking lot area. The car turned into a small lined area in the lot, a sign at its front saying 'Reserved for Director', and the driver turned off the engine with a twist of the key, stepped out of the car and walked over to Christina's door, holding it open for the passengers to step outside.

"Stay here and mind the car," Christina ordered sharply as she and the other two passengers got out. "I shall be back shortly."

The driver nodded and slammed the car door shut, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up as Christina, Alfonse and Dubois crossed the tarmac lot towards a small elevator set into the far wall.

"I want to read through the summary of this project in order to understand every aspect of these new organisms and I want you to answer every question I give you fully, nothing left out whatsoever. In the meantime, have the rest of the research staff record all of the data into the Red Queen's archives and ensure that all of the paperwork is sent off at once to the board for inspection at the next meeting. Is that clear, Dubois?" she asked coldly.

The doctor nodded. "Of course, Director. I'll prepare the data once we get to the labs," he replied.

Christina's eyes narrowed slightly as she watched the doctor out of the corner her left eye, observing his expression become apprehensive and worried at her orders, his hands clenched together in front of him and his eyes downcast to the floor. Obviously he was bothered by something in the project and he was trying to find the courage to tell her about it instead of waiting for her to find out herself when she would check through the research data, but couldn't find it in him to tell her himself, due to the sheer authority and fear that he felt towards his employer's harsh tongue and grueling temper. However, she soon dismissed that train of thought as they approached the elevator; if there was a problem with the project, it didn't matter to her how she found out about it, but whether or not that the problem could be resolved, otherwise she would have to find someone else who could resolve it. This project would be a huge step in Umbrella's BOW projects and if this was a success, then Lord Spencer's favor would be taken away from Umbrella's American Division to her own European Division, where it should belong.

Alfonse pushed the 'UP' button and the elevator soon came down to their floor, the hum of its motor growing louder in its descent until it came to a shuddering stop and the doors slid open with a hiss to reveal the small square box. The lift itself was designed to take any employee to any floor of the tower that they wanted, but it was also programmed to take its passengers to the laboratory complex below if they knew the specific to unlock that route; the code itself was comprised of pushing the floor numbers on the lift panel in a certain order then to pass a retinal scan to verify if they were a registered employee of Umbrella. Christina and her companions stepped inside the lift, the doors sliding shut behind them with a muffled clamp, and she pushed the buttons for floors 7,1,2,5,8,3 on the panel next to the doors, each of the individual buttons lighting up when her finger pressed them down and, one by one, they went out again when she had finished entering the code the panel beeping in response. A small section of the panel opened up above the floor buttons revealing a pair of goggle lenses fitted into the wall and a miniature screen set next to it, currently black and empty, but the screen flickered briefly, the power and electricity coursing through its wiring behind the glass, the image blinking profusely until it sprang to life with the background of the Red Queen and a small Umbrella logo span wildly across the screen until it came to a stop in the upper-left corner.

"Please present retinal data," the Red Queen requested in her flat metallic tone, the goggles stretching outwards in response, complying one of the passengers on board to provide their retinal data for clearance.

Christina stepped up to the panel and leaned into the goggles, her eyes looking directly into the small dim bulbs inside, the rims of the goggles pressed against her brow and nose, her breath held in her lungs to prevent her eyelids from blinking. Soon the bulbs sparked to life with a bright blue light and shone directly into Christina's eyes, making her cringe at the slight burning sensation they caused as they passed back and forth across her eyes, scanning her retinas into the Red Queen's data processing system whilst the screen next to her was alight with a picture of Christina's bright green eyes, several small cursors dashing back and forth across the picture as the Red Queen matched her retinal structure with the data she possessed in her Personnel List. After a few minutes, the bulbs went dim again and a large green box appeared on the screen, the words 'Access Granted' written in bold white letters on the box.

"Director Henri, Christina. Umbrella Europe Division," the Red Queen stated.

Another small panel in the elevator's wall slid aside and revealed an additional set of floor numbers to choose, a small Umbrella symbol etched at the bottom of the new panel. "Please specify floor."

Christina pushed the button labeled '4' and the elevator began to descend, the motor whirring to life once again and the small box gradually headed downwards beneath the outpost, sinking deeper into the ground towards the large underground bunker that housed one of Umbrella's menacing facilities. As the lift continued silently on it course, Christina Henri couldn't help but let a small triumphant and arrogant smirk appear on her face at the prospect of what this new organism could bring to Umbrella's BOW project and to herself in Spencer's favor. This new organism would certainly enhance the potential of a Tyrant's effectiveness a hundred-fold, bestowing upon it the gift of intelligence and reason to understand any orders it was given whilst ensuring that it exercised no hint of free will or disobedience towards Umbrella's command, paving the way for even greater and more powerful BOWs than those Tyrants that McVarian's American Division had created. And once these new organisms were excepted by the board, Spencer would finally recognize who was the better person to have at his side, who was the rightful person to assist in her power over Umbrella's machinations and she would be granted the favor to be a partner towards Lord Spencer, not just a playing piece like the rest of those unimaginative wastrels on the board or those lowly employees in their facilities.

When Christina had joined Umbrella back in 1968, when Spencer had passed the offer to her and she had readily accepted it, she knew that this was her best chance, her only to finally be able to obtain the power of a key player in the world instead of a piece to just be used and thrown away like everything else. Even though she was still a high-ranking member of the Senate, the National Assembly and the French Cabinet, she had known that she had no real base of power in the entire world at all, no real control, no real force of her own will upon the world because, as she was required to know in her place in politics, there was always another person who held a position higher above you and that to get higher, you had to aim higher. But none of that had ever amounted to anything since she still had no real force or power in the world and could voice her own opinion across the diplomatic stage for speculation, and it would only be followed if others agreed with it, despite the positions she may hold.

However, when Spencer had arrived at her estate and informed her of what he was planning to do with Umbrella, of what he was aspiring to achieve in the world and how he thought of her as a suitable person to join him, she had immediately accepted and held no regrets at all for joining them. Umbrella was currently the largest pharmaceutical corporation in the world, with medical and drugs facilities worldwide, and an almost unshakeable global respect from every city and government across the Earth, which in itself was impressive but power in the business community was far too diminutive for her aims. Yet when Spencer had revealed to her the truth behind Umbrella, when she had found out about the existence of the Progenitor and the potential that it held, she had come to the realization that this was her greatest chance to finally obtain the place in power she had sought after in her entire career. With Umbrella's BOWs behind her and the power bestowed upon her by Spencer, she could finally establish herself as one of the most powerful people on the face of the planet, to finally be able to become a player and discard her degrading role as a mere pawn.

At least, I will soon be once I have surpassed the American Division and gained Spencer's favor. And this project shall be the key towards that goal. With this project, both the Tyrant project and my own my power status shall finally move forward.

She snapped out of her triumphant thoughts when the elevator came to a stop on the fourth floor with a high-pitched ping and the doors slid open to reveal a vast square chamber ahead, illuminated by bright flourescent lights hung on the ceiling above them, pipes and wiring ran underneath the grated floor of the room like snakes in the long grass of the Amazon Jungle, all of them headed towards the several stasis tanks placed around the walls of the room and the large tank held in the center or to the life-support systems placed in front of them. Several scientists hurried about the room, each with either several stacks of paper in their hands or some bottles of chemicals that were to be filed away in the refrigeration units placed throughout in the room, none of them glancing up at the elevator when it arrived as they ran around to perform their work. In front of the tank in the center sat a small metal desk with a swivel chair behind it, stacks of papers piled on top and a computer stood silently beside them, its hard-drive tucked beneath the desk which in turn was connected to the large computer console connected to the tank.

Dubois stepped out of the elevator, nodded in greeting towards one of his colleagues as she passed by, and he turned back to Christina. "This way please, Director," he said, waving his hand forward for them to follow.

Christina followed the doctor at a brisk pace, Alfonse following behind, his hand brushing against the pistol he had concealed within his jacket in case of any danger from the stored BOWs, towards the large stasis tank positioned in the center of the lab, the lights inside the tank's roof flickering on as they came close, looking up into the glass to see inside. Inside the large stasis tank, immersed in the clear green liquid, seven small round objects swam around in the tank, their bodies being propelled forward by the small lines that wafted behind them in the water; they almost had the appearance of malformed jellyfish, except everyone in the facility's staff knew that they were not just mere jellyfish, that they were the key to unveiling the true potential of the Tyrant project. But, despite her knowledge on these organisms and what they were for Umbrella's BOW projects, Christina couldn't suppress the gasp that escaped from her lips as one of the organisms swam close enough to the glass for her to see what it really looked like, staring at it in surprise with wide eyes whilst Alfonse sneered in disgust at the sight and Dubois smiled at the creature; the organism itself was composed of a round ball of flesh about 30cm in diameter, speckled with bright orange spots that grew into giant lumps on its skin, forming what was to be its head, a yellow eye with a slitted-crimson pupil perched at the top staring at her with some unknown emotion, if it even had any emotions to feel, and a multitude of bright purple tentacles swayed from side-to-side underneath it as it continued to stare at the people on the other side of the glass. As the three of them stared at the creature, the parasite reached out one of its tentacles and jabbed at the glass, poking its tentacle towards Christina as if it wanted to get her attention and get close to her, but after a few minutes, it gave up in tapping the glass and swam away to join its siblings.

"Those were the organisms?" Christina asked, her voice small and quiet in the lab, barely audible over the hustle and bustle of the scientists around her.

Dubois nodded. "Yes. These, Director, are the organisms that we have created from scratch, that we have grown from the simple strand of T-infected parasite cells into a fully grown mature creature and the key to creating the greatest BOW ever. They are the NE-Alphas," he stated, his voice filled with pride and affection.

Christina immediately snapped her head towards the doctor, glaring at the man's back as he stared at his creations in the tank, watching their every move with some twisted form of joy. Since she was very good at reading people from their voices and actions, a technique she had learned during her days as a simple Senator, she could easily discern that Dr Dubois was very much proud of the accomplishments he had made in this project, which she couldn't blame him for, but the way his voice carried out and the way his eyes stared at his creations swimming in the tank, it was obvious he had formed some sort of attachment with them. And she knew full well that if any of the research staff begin to get attached to their work, they may soon get it into their heads that they can withheld their work from the corporation and leave whenever they want to.

I hope that Dubois is smart enough to remember who is really in command here and that he doesn't think about showing any signs of treachery to Umbrella. Otherwise, I'll have Alfonse give a fond 'retirement'.

Christina continued to glare at the doctor for a few more minutes but then averted her gaze over to the large stasis tank and at the parasites that swam around inside it. Although he may be getting attached to his work, Christina had to agree with his pride for what he had created since these parasites would be instrumental in not just enhancing the Tyrant's intelligence and obedience, but would be a step forward in her ever-growing advancement towards her rightful position as Lord Spencer's right-hand in Umbrella's heirarchy. Once the board were presented with these parasites and all the data that accompanied the project, this would most assuredly promote Umbrella Europe Division's prestige in Spencer' favor and elevate her position in power to rise above McVarian's American Division. In addition, with these parasites, they could finally absolve all the flaws in the Tyrant project and create the greatest BOW in the world; a genetically-enhanced human being, immune to disease and gunfire, with unbelievable strenght and dexterity, along with total obedience towards Umbrella's demands without any hint of doubt or disapproval.

Suddenly, her memory recalled something important, something that could be quite disruptive or dangerous towards the project's credibility in Spencer's eyes and may harm her own plans as well. When they were coming to the laboratories to inspect the parasites, Dubois had claimed that there were twelve parasites currently in storage for the corporation to use, all of them healthy, but in the tank, there only seven.

"What happened to the other five parasites?" she asked.

The doctor snapped out of his stupor and glanced at the director, his expression turning pensive and frightened. "Excuse me?" he stalled, pretending he didn't hear.

"You said that there were twelve parasites made from this project. However, there are only seven inside that tank, from what I can see." She glared at the doctor coldly, her eyes narrowed into slits and her lips formed a tight scowl. "Where are the other five parasites?" she asked sternly.

Dubois recoiled in shock, stumbling backwards into the tank, his mouth opening and shutting with the motion to speak but no words escaped his lips, his eyes wide in fright and his hands trembling wildly.

"Answer!" Christina exclaimed angrily, causing all the other scientists to jump in fright and glance up from their work to look at the three people in the center of the lab to see what was happening that would cause their boss' temper to begin to crack.

Dubois cringed visibly and swallowed down the hard lump in his throat, wiping the sweat of his forehead with his lab coat's sleeve, and took a deep breath to calm his nerves so he could speak, his mind silently praying that he could find the courage to tell her what had happened. "We...we...we had done some-" he began in a quiet timid voice.

"Speak louder, Dr. Madame can't possibly hear you mutter, "Alfonse stated grimly, his hands clenched at his side.

The doctor whimpered slightly and looked over at Christina, his eyelids rapidly blinking so that he didn't stare into the Director's ruthless and penetrating gaze for too long. "We...we had done some experiments on these parasites beforehand, in order to ascertain whether or not we had perfected the growth of the parasite. I...I...I gave the order to use five of them with a different BOW each, so we could see how well the parasite could bond to a host," he answered, his voice beginning to shake with fear.

Christina folded her arms across her chest and stepped closer to him, her high-heels clicking menacingly with each step, her eyes never leaving his face. "What happened to the other five parasites?" she asked again, making no effort to hide the anger and annoyance in her tone.

Dubois panted in wheezy gasps as he stared back into her eyes, his hands beginning to shake uncontrollably and his head becoming drenched with sweat, several droplets running down his neck into the collar of his shirt. Everyone in Umbrella's Europe Division knew that whoever made the Director angry wouldn't last so long in Umbrella's employment and had better make themselves useful again before she decided to dispense with their services in a very unpleasant way; some of Umbrella's staff remarked that she was an even more ruthless and vicious tyrant than Spencer, but only a select few knew that Spencer was the real monster behind Umbrella's hierarchy due to a few shadow actions he had performed over his years as the Head Chairman. He slid away from Christina slowly, his eyes locked with hers, and hurried over to the desk in front of the tank, frivolously searching amongst the vast amount of papers on the desk for something important, most of the other scraps of paper fluttered to the floor as he shoved them aside hastily in his search. Soon he picked up a single sheet paper and held it out to Christina, who snapped it from his hand and immediately started to read through it. As each of the words began to sink in and her mind registered the meaning behind them, she felt her sense of triumph and victory take a nose-dive through the ground, her temper beginning to flare up once again.

"What is this meaning of this?" she asked through clenched teeth.

Dubois took several deep breaths to quench the fear that enveloped his mind and slow down his rapidly beating heart enough for him to speak calmly, loosened up his collar and cleared his throat. "Well, director, we had wanted to ensure that the development of the parasites had succeeded, so I ordered for a few experiments to be conducted with the parasites on different BOWs to test how well they could merge with the host's brain and, whether or not, they could be able to preserve its intelligence," he explained, wiping his forehead again, his sleeve becoming stained with sweat.

Christina held the paper up to his face, her fingers crunching the paper beneath her vice-like grip. "But these results all claim that these experiments have failed! What do you have to say to that!?" she asked, her voice beginning to grow louder, her tone becoming more angry and spiteful.

Dubois jumped and let out a small yelp at her tone, one hand clutched tightly over the spot in his chest where his heart was. "Well, the reason that most of our experiments had ended in failure is due to the parasites' rather narrow selection range for suitable hosts. The subjects we had used in these experiments had been a human, dog, lion and spider who had all been infected with the T-Virus whilst still alive, and had the parasite inserted directly into their bodies via surgery. The parasites were successful in attaching to the subjects' brain and manipulating their intelligence to counter the necrotic effects of the T-Virus, but the parasites themselves failed to bond with the hosts' bodies and had died in twenty minutes, the host itself dying in five," he answered. He turned back to the desk and picked up a small of papers, taking a few minutes to sort through them before he held them out for Christina to take.

Christina took the small pile from him and placed them back on the desk, sitting herself down on the chair in front of it, taking the file from the top of the pile and began to read through it. She spent the next few minutes silently reading through the pile of papers next to her, analyzing every piece of research data that was printed out on the paper and interpreted how well it could help with either Umbrella's BOW project or her own plans to climb Umbrella's ranks to the position of Spencer's right-hand confidante. It seems that, although the parasites were fully able to attach themselves to the brains of their hosts and manipulate their intelligence to protect them from the necrotic effects of the T-Virus, they were actually highly unstable and their bodies were incredibly fragile, thus they would immediately break down if they couldn't find a suitable host. In turn, they needed to form a perfect adaption with the hosts' body and genetic structure in order to keep themselves alive inside the hosts, whilst they continued to protect and manipulate the hosts' intelligence as the T-Virus caused the parasites own body to grow larger and further mutate the host.

These bodily mutations were the key problem in the parasites' capabilities as effective BOWs because, when the parasites merge with the brain to protect the host's intellect, the T-Virus continues to mutate the host and eventually re-activates the mutational properties inside the parasite itself by causing the T-Virus' cells in the parasite's body to mutate further, in turn the parasite develops to a larger form; however, if the parasite hasn't managed to adapt fully with the host's body and DNA structure, it would be unable to control the mutations in itself and the host, so the parasite eventually dies out from a cellular breakdown in its DNA due to extreme mitosis, and the host soon follows as the brain deteriorates beyond repair without the parasite protecting it.

And this was what had happened in all of the subjects; each of the experiments had ended in failure due to the parasite having broken down inside the hosts and the T-Virus having destroyed all the brain cells beyond repair. In conclusion, it seemed that in order for the parasite to maintain the intelligence of their hosts, they needed to be able to bond with a suitable host that could maintain its own form as the T-Virus mutates its body, whilst the parasite protects the host's intelligence from the necrotic effects the T-Virus causes to brain cells. However, the chances of finding such a host to bond with the parasites was even slimmer than being able to track more suitable candidates for the Tyrant project, namely those people who had the genetic trait to produce the Beta Hetero Nonserotonin Hormone.

Christina sighed and slammed the paper back on the desk, the loud thwack sound causing everybody, except for Alfonse who stood quietly at his employer's side, in the room to cringe in fright before they hastily returned to their work so they wouldn't have to face their boss' currently hostile demeanor. So much for being able to create the greatest BOW ever. Even though the parasite itself was a success and would certainly be beneficial towards Umbrella's endeavors in their BOW research, the fact that the possibility of finding a suitable host for them to adapt with was so low, and that they wouldn't be able to survive for long without a suitable host, made their capabilities as effective BOWs very questionable and the project itself would probably be terminated, even though they had managed to find a way to stabilize the Tyrant's intellect for it to obey orders. Despite the fact that Spencer did at least have a scientific background from his university years and knew enough about science to understand everything that was happening with the T-Virus research, he was a bereaucrat and a businessman first and foremost, just like Christina and the others on the board, so he was more focused on how profitable the projects would be towards Umbrella and how fast they would be able to produce results, so he would have no qualms on having the Nemesis Project terminated when he and the board reviewed over the results, meaning that the European Division would still be lacking far behind the American Division, and Christina's own plans would be delayed even further.

Dammit! Sometimes I wonder if we will ever actually be able to accomplish anything with our research. All we do is come into one problem after another after another after another.

She held her head in her hands and gazed down at the table in exhaustion, her fingers gently massaging her temples to relieve her stress and frustration that had begun to set in, forming a migraine that was definitely going to be painful. Suddenly, she noticed something on the piece of paper she was leaning on, something that sparked her curiosity. She sat back up straight, picked up the piece of paper and began to read it; as she skimmed through it, Dubois walked up to her side and read the file over her shoulder, leaning in slightly to get a better look.

A smile perched on his lips, but it quickly vanished; last thing he wanted was to antagonize his boss again. "That was where we had used the fifth parasite," he stated as calmly as he could.

Christina spun around in the chair to face him, her eyes cold and stern. "Really. Well then, please explain this," she ordered, her finger tapping the bottom of the file which read in big, bold red letters 'Placed under observation'.

"Well, that was because we had actually got somewhere with the project. After the other experiments failed, we had attempted to use a Hunter for the next subject for the parasite and we believed that maybe another BOW could be suitable to hold the parasite. The experiment was a success and the parasite merged without trouble, but the T-Virus' mutational properties began to affect it again and we were afraid it would die like the others had. However, although the body was unable to support the parasite, we had managed to succeed in prolonging the subject's life long enough for us to store it in stasis so we could examine it," he explained.

Christina nodded, her eyes betraying no glimpse of emotion as she placed the paper back down on the desk behind her then folded her arms across her chest and one leg over the other. "What did you discover?"

Dubois pursed his lips and ran a hand through his ruffled hair. "We had conducted several tests and had discovered something worthwhile, at least in our opinions. Apparently, when the parasite attaches to a host's brain, it release a chemical into the brain to stop the T-Virus' necrotic effects as it begins to manipulate the host's intelligence. It turns out that, in every subject that we had inflicted the parasite upon had developed this chemical in their brains, which kept their intellectual capacities stable and protected their brain cells from the T-Virus' necrotic capabilities, until the parasite itself begins to break down and die," he answered.

Christina made no response to his answer and simply stared back at him, an eyebrow arched in curiosity. "How will this aid our research?"

Dubois' face soon broke out in a triumphant smirk that Christina felt incredibly irritated by yet she made no motion to stop him. "Well, this chemical can actually be combined with the Beta Hetero Nonserotonin Hormone to form a more potent and stable chemical for us to use in the Tyrant project. Apparently, it is able to provide much better protection against the T-Virus, even at sub-artic temperatures in cryo-stasis, so it can preserve more of a Tyrant's brain and intelligence for it to obey orders," he explained proudly.

Christina glanced around the BOW storage area for any sign of the Nemesis-Hunter in stasis, but it didn't seem to be in any of the stasis tanks in the room. "Where is the Hunter in question?" she asked.

Dubois held out a finger and pointed upwards with it. "Upstairs in the main laboratories. They are conducting tests with this new chemical in order to find out how we are to produce this chemical faster, how well this chemical can really perform under different conditions and how much of the chemical should we use in the Tyrant project to produce effective BOWs that can understand orders without independent thought, and they are using the Hunter as the subject for these experiments," he explained.

Christina nodded, feeing her frustration subside a bit at this news, but she could still feel lingering in her mind, making a head feel slightly sore. At least they had something to work with that could help the Tyrant project move along, something that may help to keep the Nemesis project from being disbanded by Spencer. Once the board read through all the data on this new chemical and the Nemesis-Hunter, they might be lenient enough to allow the project to continue in order for them to produce more of this chemical to be used in the Tyrant project; hopefully, once the research staff had found out how well the chemical works and how it should be used in the Tyrant project, they may be able to create a more powerful and obedient generation of Tyrants, and could finally be able to overcome that large obstacle that was causing the project to fail. However, she would have to be quite persuasive and prepared to defend the project in the meeting with the board, since the parasites, even though were a success themselves, were even more selective about their hosts, were highly unstable and could die without a suitable host, and that they had only half a dozen left to use, Spencer may consider the project a failure and decide to abandon the entire endeavor to focus on something else.

Christina sighed in exasperation and got to her feet, straightening out. There was nothing more she could do now, except to have the scientists collect all the computer and written data, then have it all sent off to the board for their next meeting to discuss it. Besides, she had other duties that demanded her attention as the Director of Umbrella's European Division and she had to get back to them as soon as possible.

"I would like you and your staff to gather up all the written data and have it sent off to the board as quickly as possible, to upload all the computer data to the Red Queen's archives and to keep me updated on whatever happens in this project. If we can find another breakthrough for the Tyrant project or a more suitable hosts for the parasites, then we can hopefully get the research moving forward again," she ordered.

Dubois nodded vigorously. "Of course, director. Anything else?"

She shook her head and walked towards the elevator, Alfonse following behind her, stepped inside and pushed the button for the parking garage. As the lift went on its way, she glanced at Alfonse's reflection in the metal sternly, her butler staring back at her impassively. "When we return, contact Lord Spencer immediately and inform him that we have discovered a method to improve the intellects of the Tyrants," she ordered.

Alfonse nodded curtly. "Yes, ma'am."

The lift soon came to a stop and Christina marched out towards her car, the driver again hastily putting out his cigarette before he opened the car door for her. There was no time now to dwell on the Nemesis project or the T-Virus research; there were other important businesses at hand that she needed to do for Umbrella and she had no time to waste in getting the job done right. The scientists would be able to handle the experiments and get all of the data sent off in time, but she couldn't be sure whether or not Dubois would leave anything out of it since he was growing attached to his work. He had better remember who the rea powers in Umbrella were and who it was he answered to do in regards to how he had gotten involved with the T-Virus in the first place, otherwise they would have to dispense with his services and find a better replacement.

She climbed inside the car, Alfonse climbing in the other side, and the door slammed shut behind her before the driver got inside behind the wheel and started the car. The car reversed out of its parking space and drove out through the entrance when the shutters slid open, traveling along the road back to Christina's estate, leaving the large outpost them, a dark monolith to what Umbrella was responsible for and the horrors that they had created through their lust for power and greed...

"It's magnificent! Isn't it, Dr Wesker?" Sarton asked in a small voice, his eyes wide in awe and his arms stretched out as if to hug it.

Wesker nodded slightly at that question as he gazed up at the large stasis tank in front of him inside the B4 level of the Arklay labs, observing the giant figure nestled inside it, sleeping peacefully in its sedative-induced slumber. Finally, after ten years of long arduous research, of having to work through Spencer's impossible demands and enduring the downfall of the laboratories caused by Birkin's irrational jealousy when Alexia had arrived, after ten long years slaving away underneath the Spencer Estate in futile attempts to remove the 'flaws' in the T-Virus, the Arklay research staff had now reached the third stage of their research; a fully developed and healthy Tyrant, the T-002 model.

Wesker stepped up closer to the tank to see it better, his eyes staring at it behind his black sunglasses as he moved forward calmly; there was no danger of it waking up since they were pumping full of sedatives hourly to ensure that it stayed asleep. The Tyrant itself looked vaguely humanoid in appearance since it had a large muscular build and that some parts of its body, such as the head, right arm, legs and torso, still resembled that of a normal male human. However, despite these human traits, it was still obviously clear to see the effects that the T-Virus had caused on it during its suspension in cryo-stasis. Its body had grown to a height of around eight feet, its entire figure nearly reaching to touch the roof of the tank, had lost all of its hair on every area of its body, its skin having become deadly-white from its loss of skin pigmentation and its sexual organs had introverted into its body from the extreme mutations brought on by the virus, making it seem like a giant albino-behemoth.

Its left arm had sprouted foot-long claws that seemed to glow darkly inside the pale-green fluid of the tank, its fingertips having healed and formed dark-brown scabs around the area where the claws had developed. Several necrotic malformations had grown on its right thigh, the skin looking like the effects of the smallpox virus or a severe case of Bubonic plague with the bright orange lumps forming a large circle on its thigh. Its lips had rotted away to reveal its bright-red gums and the veins that flowed through its mouth, all its teeth revealed and glinting in the fluid, its expression looking like some kind of twisted grin of humor. And its heart protruded from behind its rib-cage, its pale transparent flesh rippling as the large bulbous mass continued to pump blood around its body, the chest rising and falling as the organ pounded away.

Wesker, despite his usual calm and collected persona, found that he shared the same mixture of pride and triumph that Dr Sarton felt as he gazed at the sleeping monster, watching it sleep quietly inside the tank. After many years of failures, drawbacks, problems and delays, they had managed to accomplish the tasks that had been handed to them, to create a true BOW, a super-soldier (for lack of a better term) that was impervious to gunfire, possessed incredible strength and speed, and could follow any orders it was given to by Umbrella, along with the intelligence to understand it. This was what Umbrella and Spencer had wanted along, what they had constantly desired to own from the T-Virus research, what they had persistently sought for through their stubborn demands and what they had hoped to be able to control. Now, they had a fully-functional, highly effective and incredibly powerful BOW to use in combat that would strictly obey all commands it was given, that could conquer any obstacle and succeed in any mission it was given without any danger or trouble. It was a true monster of warfare and would certainly be instrumental in future research on the T-Virus. But, there were definitely some flaws to be seen in this new Tyrant model that might affect its credibility and potential in combat, especially when concerning the heart, because, as it was partially exposed from behind its chest and rib cage, it presented a very vulnerable point that might endanger the Tyrant itself, even from small-arms fire.

Although, when compared to the original Proto-Tyrant, it was much a more suitable and superior BOW for Umbrella to use in either research or combat, since the Proto-Tyrant was too far degraded to be of any use, due to its exposed heart, spine and its damaged nerve system, leaving it rather uncoordinated and susceptible to primitive behavior, or more technically, it slaughtered anything that got in its way, deeming it useless for any purpose whatsoever. Thus, Spencer had ordered that the Proto-Tyrant be sent to the Treatment Plant to be disposed off, since it had no further use in their work, and that all of Umbrella's intentions be focused on the production of more Tyrants, and to find out a way to preserve the Tyrant's intelligence during the T-Virus infection.

However, that is easier said than done. As always, there is another problem just around the corner after we conquer the first one.

Wesker sighed in exasperation, rubbing his eyes for a moment before he turned away from the Tyrant and sat down in the chair in front of the life-support console connected to the tank, gazing at the Tyrant's physiological readouts playing out on the screen blankly as his mind went through all the problems that they were now going to have to deal with in the Tyrant Project. As they had discovered years ago, back when Wesker and Birkin had started their careers in Umbrella's inner-machinations, the T-Virus, despite its ability to infect and mutate all living species on the planet, could only infect 90 of a human population and bring them back as the traditional 'zombie' form which they had seen many times, whilst the other 10 were unaffected by the virus' mutational properties, even if they were directly bitten by a BOW. At first, Wesker had ignored this problem and had went to Spencer with his findings to explain how well the T-Virus would be as a marketable biological weapon, but Spencer thought differently and demanded that they find a way to improve the T-Virus so that it achieved a 100 death rate in humans.

From the years onwards, Umbrella's entire research staff had slaved away frivolously on trying to force the T-Virus to infect and mutate the remaining ten percent, either by changing the genetic structure of the T-Virus or by using different methods of infecting the hosts. However, all those experiments had yielded was the same results over and over again, in that the T-Virus infected all the cells in the body, killed off the mitochondria, replaced it with its own mitochondria and it would power the entire brain with enough energy to keep the host alive before it went inert, then the immune system in the host would fight back and kill the infection. And no matter what they attempted to do, they just couldn't make the T-Virus kill off the host like it usually did and so their research had come to a stand-still; but Spencer continued to enforce his demands on them and all of Umbrella's facilities were to continue on this fruitless endeavor, despite the problems it caused and the amount of money it cost to fund them.

But, two years ago, Birkin had discovered what it was that was causing the remaining ten percent's immunity to the T-Virus and how they could use it to produce a more effective BOW. It turned out that, whilst the T-Virus was infecting a host that belonged in the 10 category, a certain hormone inside the host's brain was released into the bloodstream and brain chemistry of the host whilst they were being infected, thus provoking extreme stress on the host and causing the hormone to be produced in the brain, which would then act as an energy provider to allow the T-Virus to infect the host fully and power the entire brain without trouble, but it would also take on the role as a 'buffer' to inhibit the virus' necrotic effects and mutational properties on the host's body. This caused the virus to go inert after it had infected every cell in the body and produced its own mitochondria to provide the energy necessary for the host's bodily functions, which made the host become 'immune' to the T-Virus and allowed the immune system to kill off the infection, leaving the host undamaged. From these new findings, Birkin had been able to provide a way of producing a new series of BOWs by placing the host in cryo-stasis and infecting it with the T-Virus, thus slowing the activities of the hormone and allowing the virus to mutate the host in its usual method, whilst the hormone preserved enough of its brain so it could understand orders. This was the start of the Tyrant Project.

However, there was a fatal flaw in the project that was evident from the very beginning when the board had approved the project and ordered for mass production of the Tyrant series; there just weren't enough hosts to become suitable Tyrants and this was due to the extremely volatile nature of the T-Virus. The simple mutations that the T-Virus used to create zombies or the Hunters could be used on just about any human being, but the infection would cause a rapid decline in the host's brain capacity as the T-Virus' necrotic effects killed of the host's brain cells and would only be able to provide enough energy for the lower brain functions, which would in turn significantly destroy their intelligence so that they wouldn't be able to understand orders given to them, thus reducing their potential as BOWs. Tyrants, on the other hand, were a much more formidable BOW to use in combat, but the process used to create a Tyrant could only be used on a specific type of human since the host would need to have a certain amount of intelligence to become a Tyrant.

And, although Birkin had managed to find a way to produce effective Tyrants using the Beta Hetero Nonserotonin hormone as a method to preserve the Tyrant's intellect during the T-Virus mutations, the problem of finding suitable Tyrant hosts was still there because the hormone in question was a rare genetic trait found only in certain people, hence why only 10 of humans were 'immune' to the T-Virus. When Birkin had announced his findings and the Tyrant project had started, Wesker had performed a genetic analysis simulation in one of the secondary laboratories in order to find out how many people would possess the necessary genetic make-up to be able to produce this hormone and become Tyrants. And when the results came in, Wesker couldn't help but harbor a feeling of dread at the thought of having to present his new findings to Spencer and endure whatever harsh reaction would occur once the Head of Umbrella realized the new problems that this project would bring. It turned out that, even if one were to possess the genetic trait to produce the hormone, they still had to be able to produce a sufficient enough quantity of the hormone to counter the T-Virus infection and preserve enough of their intellect to become Tyrants, which greatly reduced the amount of people who could become Tyrants at all, with or without the hormone. From the simulation results, it turned out that if the T-Virus were to infect a population of 10,000 people, only one of them would have the necessary genetic structure and quantity of the hormone to become a Tyrant., the rest becoming zombies.

Originally, Wesker had thought that if they were to continue researching the Tyrants, they would be able to find another way of producing them faster and in greater numbers, but that meant they would have to find a large number of suitable hosts to use in the experiments and there just weren't that many who could be used with the new mutation; in fact, from the results, Wesker concluded that only 10 suitable Tyrant hosts could be found in the United States alone. Thus, all they could do was abduct any person who fit the genetic profile, or at least were close enough to match it, and take back to the facilities to mutate them into Tyrants as best as they could. And, although no one would or even wanted to admit it, the T-Virus had hit a standstill.

It seems we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as it goes. We have no suitable way of producing more Tyrants and there aren't even enough hosts for us to use. Our research has hit a wall before it even started. I'll have to tell Spencer, but he won't like it.

Spencer. God only knows what he would think of Wesker's new findings and the additional problems they now had to deal with. At first, Wesker would have found it relatively easy to speak to Spencer at any time since he knew how the mind of a man like him worked and how he was to act around them so that he wouldn't feel threatened or become agitated, and he would have confidently passed along any new information or results to him to get his opinion and advise him on what would be best to do next. As Spencer was a bureaucrat and a businessman, Wesker knew that all such men cared about was money and being able to accumulate more and more of it for themselves by producing more marketable products to sell to potential buyers. But, after that incident back when he had informed Spencer of the T-Virus' kill rate, Wesker didn't really know how Spencer's mind worked anymore, what kind of thoughts ran through his head, what went on behind his cold, piercing glares or what was actually urging him to keep acting the way he did. One of Wesker's main talents had been his ability to read people, to interpret the way they think and act accordingly towards his impressions of them so that he could use them to help him and his work. It was a talent that had served him well and it never failed him. But with Spencer, he just couldn't figure out why the man acted the way he did or what he could possibly be thinking about to make him act that way.

Spencer was in no way an idiot. He was completely aware of everything that happened in the corporation and in the T-Virus project, he was always on top of everything that occurred and he was never oblivious to anything that his employees did, which is why he was where he was now. And he knew how to control each and every aspect of both of his powers bases in order to keep himself in his position of power as the Head of Umbrella. Thus, he knew how much such delicate research would cost to keep it going and how disastrous it could be, for both himself and the corporation, if the virus were to escape, since he knew how the virus worked due to his background in science, and what would happen to him if the public found out about their work. But still, even though he was well aware of the costs, dangers and inevitable consequences of the T-Virus research, he acted irresponsibly in demanding all of the researchers to follow whatever orders he gave them no matter what delays or problems would occur, and despite how much money he could earn by selling their current BOW stock, he still continued to make these impossible demands, even though he was well aware of how expensive it was to fund all of the research. Yet, Wesker had never been able to find out the reason why, why Spencer acted so irresponsibly, why he continued to make such impossible demands, why he refused to sell their current BOWs and why he continued to blatantly ignore all the problems that were evident in their work.

Hence why Wesker had done his own snooping around into Spencer's background and position. During his breaks or whenever he had free time on his hands that his work didn't require his attention on, Wesker would spend much of his time conducting his own private research into finding out what were Spencer's true motives behind his behavior and his reasons why he continually supported the T-Virus research, despite the problems and delays that kept popping all the time. With his access clearance as Head Researcher for the Arklay laboratories, he had been able to gain permission to access some interesting pieces of information and data about what had happened to Umbrella over the years it had been established, such as the many T-Virus outbreaks that had occurred and all the new projects that the corporation would soon be embarking on, namely the Plague Crawlers, Lurkers and Eliminators, but he had yet to find out anything about Spencer's motives. So, in conclusion, Wesker had decided that he would soon have to find a new position to take in Umbrella's inner-machinations that would allow him access to the information he desired and ensure to the corporation that he was still of use to them, since he had begun to notice that he was reaching the end of his limits as a researcher. But, somehow, Spencer had found out what Wesker had been up to and, luckily enough, didn't take any actions against him, instead warning him of where his place was and that he would be punished if he was caught snooping around again, thus letting him off the hook since he was still a high-ranking researcher and of some importance to Umbrella. Hence, Wesker had decided to take more precautions during his searches and inquiries into Spencer's motives, and was spending more of his time with his work on the T-Virus in order to placate with Spencer's demands and remove any suspicions from him so that he didn't antagonize the man too much; Wesker knew all too well how Spencer would act if he showed any sign of treachery and he had first-hand experience of what would happen to him when Spencer deemed him expendable.

Wesker sighed and stood up from the seat by the console, straightening his sunglasses on the bridge of his nose. He could worry about Spencer's motives and reasons for his actions when he had a bit more spare time to go investigating, but right now, he had the Tyrant project demanded his attention and he had to focus on trying to resolve the problems it had.

"Have you seen Dr Birkin?" he asked Sarton, not bothering to look at him as he gazed at the readouts for a little longer.

Sarton snapped out of his stupor to glance in Wesker's direction, his expression showing his confusion at what he had been asked since he hadn't been paying attention, but he soon realized what the question was and he nodded his head. "Yes, sir. He's upstairs in B3 with his wife working on trying to find a way of producing more of the hormone," he answered.

Wesker turned away from the console and walked over to his desk, picking up one of the many files on top and reading through it once again. "Tell him I want to speak with him," he ordered, not glancing up from the paper in his hands.

Sarton nodded and hurried out of the room, the automatic door sliding open with a hiss as the doctor approached and shutting itself close with a thud as he stepped past, his footsteps clanging down the corridor towards the lift and then the soft whir of its motor began to fade as the lift went to the upper floors, leaving Wesker alone in the room with the Tyrant nestled inside its tank, still sedated and asleep, its heart continuing its steady pulse and the monitors resonating a small beep with each beat. He spent the next few minutes silently reading through the file and listening to the small sounds of the lab equipment hissing or clicking around him as they continued to keep the Tyrant breathing comfortably inside its tank, occasionally reaching up to straighten his sunglasses on his nose. Soon enough, he heard the elevator in the hallway outside whir to a stop on this floor, a few footsteps clanging on the metal floor and the door sliding open with a hiss to reveal William Birkin outside, who stepped through and went over to sit by his desk, placing his cup of coffee and the folder under his arm on the top, the brown liquid slushing around inside, threatening to spill over the edge of the cup.

Birkin opened up his folder and took out the pieces of paper inside, placing them on the table briefly before he turned back at Wesker. "You wanted to see me, Wesker?" he asked.

Wesker placed the file back on his desk and looked up Birkin, nodding his head slightly. "Yes. I was wondering how your work on the hormone is progressing," he stated, stepping up to the side of Birkin's desk.

Birkin picked up one of the sheets of paper and held it out to Wesker. "So far, it's going slowly. We haven't been able to produce significant quantities of the hormone and we have yet to find more people with this genetic trait in the area. Right now, I am attempting to find another, more quicker way of mass-producing this hormone without the need of having to acquire more people with the necessary genetic trait," he explained.

Wesker took the file from Birkin's outstretched hand and skimmed through it, taking in every detail printed out on the paper before he looked back up at his colleague. "Have any of these methods worked so far?" he questioned, handing the paper back to him.

Birkin took the paper and placed it back on the desk, turning back around to face his desk. "None at the moment. We just can't seem to create more quantities of the hormone effectively without possessing a suitable person that has the necessary DNA sequence to produce large quantities of the hormone for us to use. And besides, even if we found a suitable host that could do this, we have yet to find a suitable way to extract them from the hosts for us to use," he explained, picking up his coffee and taking a sip.

Wesker remained silent at that and simply paced around behind Birkin's chair, arms folded together and his fingers tapped out a rhythm against his biceps. "How's Annette?" he asked out of the blue.

Birkin placed the cup back down abruptly and glanced at Wesker over his shoulder, eyebrow arched in curiosity. "Why do you ask?"

Wesker stopped his pacing and shrugged. "Friendly gesture."

Birkin stared at Wesker for a few seconds but soon turned back to his desk, picked up a pen on top and started to scribble down notes on the pieces of paper in front of him. "She's fine. She is currently testing one of our methods to see whether it is suitable for us to use. She is attempting to replicate the DNA sequence of the genetic trait that allows people to produce the hormone so that we can create clone strains of this trait and implant it into another person, thus allowing them to become suitable Tyrant hosts," he answered, taking another sip from his coffee.

Wesker nodded slightly in understanding. Ever since scientists had started the Human Genome Project many years ago and had begun mapping the entire genetic structure of human beings, right down to the last base in the smallest DNA sequence, it was now possible to conduct new methods of treatment and surgery using DNA itself. Cloning was one of the newest methods announced to the scientific community and was currently under speculation on its reliability in experiments and research; so far, they had yet to reach a full conclusion on whether or not it should be used, although there were some that claimed to have used this method in some of their experiments and that it was a reliable method to be used in R&D projects. Umbrella, being one of the largest medical and pharmaceutical enterprises in the world, had heard of this method and had decided to adopt some of the new methods brought on by the scientific community in their own research with the T-Virus, in hopes that it would help the research move forward.

"And how's Sherry?" Wesker asked bluntly.

Birkin immediately snapped up sharply from what he was doing, his eyes widened in surprise and directed to the wall in front of him, the pen dropping from his stunned hands. "She's...she's..." he mumbled under his breath, his eyes cast down to his desk.

Wesker inclined his head at Birkin and stepped closer. "Something wrong?"

Birkin shook his head and cleared his throat. "No, it's just...You can be very blunt sometimes with your questions, Wesker. She's fine by the way," he answered.

Before Wesker could say anything else, Birkin looked up at the wall and chuckled softly, a small smile perched on his lips. "You know, she took her first steps last week. When me and Annette got back home from work, we went upstairs to check on Sherry and...she walked across the room towards us. From her cot to her bedroom door. It's funny. You wouldn't normally even care that someone is walking since it's such a basic motion of the body and mind, just an order passed down from the brain, through the nervous system towards the muscles in your legs and your muscles just move forward with your bones, expanding and contracting with each step. You'd just ignore it and carry on with your life because it's so normal. Yet, when Sherry did it, I couldn't help but feel proud that she had actually managed to get up and walk towards us from her cot," he explained in a soft, affectionate voice, his face alight with the pride and love he felt for his daughter.

Wesker stared at Birkin's back for some time, his eyes peering at him from behind his sunglasses impassively as he listened carefully to Birkin's small speech of praise to his daughter, noticing as Birkin continued to stare at the wall in front of him blankly, gazing away as if he could see his daughter smiling happily and taking her first steps back at home from where he was.

Yet another twist in the road of our lives and careers. William Birkin has actually started to raise a family. Quite an achievement, especially when he has to spend time working with our T-Virus research in Umbrella.

Wesker remembered those days vividly, since it was quite a shocking turn of events, even after everything they had seen. Two years ago, around the same time that Birkin had discovered the hormone that could be used as a method of creating Tyrants and had proved it was responsible for the 10 immunity in T-Virus victims, he had announced abruptly and out of the blue that he was marrying his assistant Annette Jenkins, and that he would be elevating her to the position of Head Researcher along with him. Wesker, like everyone else in the entire laboratories, was rather surprised at his outburst since everyone had a rather fixed opinion of Birkin, namely that he was a shrewd perfectionist with a potentially volatile temper and an arrogant demeanor that he was above everyone else in the lab in terms of intellect. This was especially most evident when Alexia Ashford had arrived and the entire Arklay facility fell into disarray due to Birkin's intolerably jealous behavior, when he had begun to work at such a fast work-pace that no one could keep up with him and his constant demands for whatever he believed necessary for him to beat his 'rival', which resulted in the death of several specimens, either by Birkin's hectic and irrational experiments or from lack of resources to keep them alive in stasis. In fact, several staff members in the Arklay facility had complained to Spencer about Birkin's behavior and requested immediate transfer to another facility to continue their work, away from Birkin's scolding tongue, although the staff had brought in on themselves due to their continued appraisal of Miss Ashford. Thus, Birkin was hated and feared by everyone who worked for him in the labs, since a lot of the staff were in fact in their senior years and had worked in the labs for so long that they felt that they shouldn't need to take orders from a man barely out of his teens.

Hence, when Birkin had made his marital announcement, everyone was pretty much stunned that William Birkin, the man who was hated and feared by every person in the Arklay laboratories, who showed nothing but contempt to those around him and believed himself to be above everyone else, could actually notice, let alone fall in love, with a woman near him, and that he would make a proposal of matrimony to her. Wesker, however, didn't really found it as surprising as the others had, since he had already noticed the signs beforehand a few years back when Birkin had hired Annette as his assistant. Every time he saw them together, it was easy to tell that there was something forming between them. Whenever they were working together in the laboratories with the T-Virus research, they worked as a perfect team, never once complaining or arguing with each other about anything in their work and had always agreed with whatever the other suggested about their work, which had led to the many new discoveries that the corporation was now using to further its research. After work hours, he would often find them sitting together in the cafeteria, talking to each other about anything besides their work and laughing at whatever joke was passed between them, both listening intently to whatever each other had to say. And besides that, there were the times when they would stare at each other in admiration and a sense of longing, of desire to be able to be together with each other, and each time their stares met, they simply continued to stare into each other's eyes, as if to sink deeply into the strong emotions they found there, transmitting a secret telepathic message between themselves, before they blushed bright red and immediately shifted their attention back to their work.

He supposed it was only a matter of time before Birkin popped the question to her after everything that had happened between him and Annette; after all, it wasn't really that surprising that two people who worked with each other everyday, who shared the same interests, ideals and hobbies, and were both as talented as each other, could be able to marry each other, or have a child.

That was another surprise about Birkin that Umbrella's higher-ups hadn't expected. Even though Spencer and the board were quite surprised about Birkin's marriage to his assistant, since he was one of their best scientists and they couldn't afford to lose him after everything he had done, they had paid for the entire procession using the money drawn out from their deep pockets and had even offered them a house to live in the city, along with easy access to the laboratories by the mountain trails; they had even tracked down their parents and relatives to inform them of the wedding and have them attend it. The honeymoon was also paid for by Umbrella, allowing the newlyweds to spend some time together in Florida, to celebrate their union, but Spencer had ordered that they were to report back to their work at the Arklay facility immediately after their return to Raccoon City and naturally, they followed his orders and the Birkin couple went back to work as before. However, a few weeks before Birkin proposed to her, Annette had to spend many of her days of her work to visit the local hospital in the mountains, due to complaints of stomach aches and nausea. As Umbrella couldn't afford to have one of their scientists becoming ill and losing concentration in their work, especially when concerning something as delicate as the T-Virus, Spencer and the board allowed to leave the facility to get a proper medical diagnostic; at first, they had found it strange that she had stubbornly refused to be treated at the mansion's infirmary, but Wesker knew that it was mainly down to the point that she didn't particularly consider being treated at a place where they create the deadliest biological weapon in the world by a member of the research team developing the virus to be a neither good nor sensible idea. So, she had left the facility for some time and went to get her diagnostic from the Arklay hospital at the other end of the mountain range, returning shortly afterwards to continue her work. But, a few weeks after their honeymoon, Annette had been rushed to the hospital's maternity ward and had given birth to a healthy baby girl; Sherry Alicia Birkin, the newest addition to the Birkin family.

That had been a bit of a surprise for everyone at the Arklay laboratories, but what Wesker found more surprising was that Spencer was actually being a bit lenient towards Birkin's situation and giving him a bit more freedom to cope with these new changes. At first, Wesker thought that Spencer would have ignored the child and Birkin's marriage altogether, stating that his work for Umbrella's BOW projects were more important and he should forget about his family to devote more time to his work, but instead, he told Birkin that he could adjust his work hours to support both his research endeavors and family life at home, allowing him to leave the mansion whenever he wished and return home to his family, so long as he continued to work for the corporation and produce some more suitable results for them to use in the Tyrant Project. Wesker himself heard about Spencer's decisions on the matter when he had been called to his office and he had been given express orders to make sure that Birkin stays on track with his work, that they have no more mistakes and will be able to find a way of producing more effective Tyrants. Birkin agreed completely with Spencer's demands and had leaped back into his work, becoming engrossed once again in the world of equations and numbers as he slaved away to find the solution to the Tyrant's intelligence problem, his wife working by his side as usual. And so, William and Annette Birkin spent the entire afternoon working down in the Arklay laboratories on the T-Virus project, whilst the mornings and evenings were spent at home raising their daughter. Naturally, everyone around them failed to understand how Birkin could even consider marriage, let alone raising a child, whilst he held such an important position in Umbrella's research staff and was involved some rather demanding work, and sometimes Wesker would often agree with them; it had often been said that no 'normal' person would ever consider continuing their work on the T-Virus when they had a family to raise and should leave as soon as possible, leave it all behind and let it fade away in the shadows of time. Only the crazy ones could ever be able to continue working on the T-Virus after so long, after everything that they had done and after witnessing the horrors they created. Such as Spencer. Such as Marcus. Such as Birkin. Or perhaps, Wesker believed, even himself.

"Do you have any suggestions on how we can retrieve more of this hormone?" he asked, deciding it was best to leave that topic behind him and focus on more pressing matters.

Birkin sighed and shook his head. "No. So far, we have yet any good method of either producing or extracting the substance, as I said before. Although, there are still some more theories I have to analyze, to see if they can be used for our work, but I can't promise anything," he answered.

Wesker nodded. "I'll have to tell Spencer about this in the next meeting. But he won't be particularly happy with our results."

Birkin scoffed. "Spencer's an idiot," he stated scornfully.

"Now, now William. Remember who you're talking about," Wesker warned.

"I know, I know. You don't have to tell me. But seriously, how can we hope to achieve any worthwhile results with him breathing down our necks? What's he expect us to do, make the results appear by magic?" He groaned and placed his head in his hands, his fingers clutching onto pieces of his hair tightly. "To be honest with you, Wesker, I think our research has come to hole that is too deep for us to get out off."

Wesker nodded and looked away from Birkin, staring up at the Tyrant still sleeping in stasis, straightening his sunglasses occasionally. "True. And I have no doubt that it's the same for the other research facilities as well."

Birkin slammed his hands on his desk and sighed. "It's the hosts themselves that are the problem. Even if we could turn them into Tyrants, their intelligence will be too badly damaged for them to be able to understand and obey orders. The host's brain is just to susceptible to the necrotic effects of the T-Virus and it will become too badly damaged for them to become effective Tyrants, since they will lack the necessary brainpower to understand orders that we give to them," he explained.

Wesker's eye widened sharply and he snapped his head in Birkin's direction, his explanation having caused his mind to jog back to a recent memory of something rather important, something that could be useful to help move their experiments forward. Apparently, during one of his small investigations in trying to uncover Spencer's true motives, he had discovered some data files that gave mention to another project that was being conducted by the European Division of Umbrella to create an ulterior method of producing suitable Tyrants; it was called the Nemesis Project. So far, Wesker hadn't found any relevant data that could shed light on what the 'Nemesis' was, but it seemed to be something of a method that hadn't been used before in Umbrella's BOW research and Spencer probably had not yet reviewed it himself.

But maybe, if there's a chance, Nemesis could be the key to helping us move our research forward. We have yet to find a suitable method of producing more Tyrants and our current research route is at a standstill, so we don't have much of a choice.

Wesker cleared his throat to attract Birkin's attention and he straightened his sunglasses with his right hand, his mind thinking over how he was to explain his idea to Birkin.. Although Wesker never liked to leave things to chance, he knew that there was nothing else they could do and, as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. "In think I have a suggestion that could help move our research along," he said calmly.

Birkin arched an eyebrow at him in curiosity. "What is it then?"

"I think that we should focus our efforts on something different now, on something a bit more promising than the Tyrant Project," he stated, walking up to Birkin's desk and leaning against, his arms crossed over his chest.

Birkin picked up his coffee and took a sip. "What do you mean?"

Wesker looked at Birkin full in the face, his expression cool and collected as always. "I am saying that we should embark an entirely new project. Since the Tyrant project has come to a standstill, we should focus our efforts and minds on something entirely new as our current actions with the Tyrant Project and the hormone have yet to yield suitable results for us to use. I suggest that we embark on performing our own version of the Nemesis Project."

Birkin's expression changed to one of confusion, his brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed slightly as he stared blankly at Birkin. It was obvious that Birkin wouldn't know what Nemesis was since Wesker had only recently discovered during one of his searches and he hadn't ever told anyone about what he found in his investigations, to ensure that Spencer wouldn't find out about what he was up to. And besides, Birkin was so wrapped in his work and family life, he wouldn't even pay attention to what Wesker would say on the matter.

"In answer to your confusion, William, the Nemesis Project was a method used by Umbrella's Europe Division to create a third-level BOW without resorting to using the hormone as the primary base. It involved using a method that has not been used at all in the T-Virus project and Spencer has yet to review it, although it has been filed in the data archives, so it should be usable in our work," he explained.

Birkin's eyes narrowed sharply and his lips formed a sneer of disgust. "You're not seriously suggesting that we use something from another division's research, are you?" he asked sceptically.

Wesker nodded. "Of course. Why else would I mention it?"

Birkin stood up sharply, his cheeks flushed with anger. "Don't be stupid!! We don't need anything from them! We are doing fine on our own because we have found far more useful discoveries than any of their scientists have!" he exclaimed, his tone filled with pride.

Wesker sighed. Like with the higher-ups on the board, Birkin shared in the bitter rivalry between the divisions over who was the better one, who had the better results and who was in more of Spencer's favor, but Birkin did more out of scientific pride of his own arrogance than the board members' lust for power over their small empires in Umbrella's hierarchy. Do you have a better suggestion?" he asked stoically.

Birkin nodded vigorously. "Of course I do!! We continue on where we are at the moment and try to find a way of mass-producing this hormone gene, so we can implant it into other hosts in order to make them suitable Tyrant hosts. We'll find a method of producing this hormone gene and the hormone itself to sufficient quantities to match the Tyrant Project's criteria, you and Spencer can be sure of that! We don't need the help of the other divisions; we have made far better results and worthwhile discoveries than any of those idiots!" he declared stubbornly.

"Then what do we do? Hmm? Waste another few years away by frivolously slaving away on something we know will bare nothing? Feebly stumble around looking for hosts that match such a strict criteria which excludes most of the human race? Tell me then. How WILL you accomplish this, William?" Wesker questioned, his eyes narrowing sharply behind his sunglasses and his voice taking an irritated tone

Birkin was stunned and couldn't think of anything to say back to that because he knew that Wesker was right. Right now, their research on the Tyrant Project was at a rather impassable obstacle at the moment since they couldn't find any suitable hosts that matched the genetic boundaries to become Tyrants, and whether or not they possessed the hormone that could inhibit the T-Virus' necrotic effects, they still had to be able to preserve enough of their brain structure to have the ability to understand orders by producing sufficient quantities to prevent most of the necrotic damage in the hosts' brain cells. And Birkin knew that they had yet to find any suitable Tyrant hosts or productive methods to create effective Tyrants since the current hosts they had so far lacked the necessary genetic structure to produce the hormone in sufficient quantities, and until they found a suitable Tyrant host, their research wouldn't go anywhere at all.

He sighed and bowed his head in defeat. "Yeah, I guess you're right, Wesker. We'll go with your suggestion."

Wesker nodded and walked up towards the door, stopping in front of it as the door automatically slid to the roof. "I'll pay Spencer a visit and explain our situation to him. Despite what he might think of our current lack of results and what suspicions he may have at our new project choice, he has to realize that our current experiments on the Tyrant Project are not going to get any worthwhile results until he find some suitable hosts to use."

"But what are we to use?" Birkin asked, his face adopting into the serious, focused expression he always wore during his work. "If you wish to use something for us to test the Nemesis project on, you will have to find a suitable host. And as the Nemesis was created to originally become a third-level BOW, as you have stated, we will need a person who has the genetic characteristics to become a Tyrant if we want to make the Nemesis match with the host for our experiment."

Wesker's mouth twitched as he felt a triumphant smile come along, but he suppressed and kept his expression as calm as ever. "Don't worry. I have selected a suitable host for the experiment," he replied bluntly.

Birkin's eyes widened in surprise. "Really!? Who!?"

Wesker chuckled. "You'll find out soon enough. But, right now, I had best go and organize this meeting with Spencer so we can discuss about setting up this new experiment." And after that, Wesker stepped through the door and walked towards the elevator at a brisk pace, his footsteps clanging against the metal floor and the door closing behind him with a hiss as he approached the elevator.

Although Birkin was right about the fact that, since the Nemesis Project was originally meant to be a different method of producing a third-level BOW, it would only be compatible with another third-level BOW like the Tyrants, but all of the research data on the project hadn't yet been uploaded into the data archives, which meant they would be using an untested and potentially dangerous subject for their new endeavors. In addition, they couldn't waste any more time frivolously searching across the globe for any such hosts to use as Spencer would want all of the compatible Tyrant hosts to be used in the Tyrant Project and there were already a rather limited number of hosts to use in the United States alone, so they would have to use an expendable host from one of their stocks, one that they still had stored inside the Arklay labs for them to use. And Wesker knew which host would be best suited for the new experiments with Nemesis.

After all, even if she dies in this experiment, what have we got to lose? Miss Lisa has not yielded any new results thus far in our T-Virus project and is just rotting away in the prison cells on level B3.

Ever since she had been 'brought' to the laboratories beneath the Spencer Estate, Lisa had so far not provided Umbrella with any new results for them to use, despite the fact that she had survived her hellish existence as a test subject in the T-Virus Project for near enough thirty years, and had been pumped with every newest strain of the Progenitor and T-Virus up to the present. Although her overall immunity to all the viruses she had been administered with and the fact that she was still technically alive from all of the torture she had suffered was quite astounding in itself, the corporation had labeled her as an overall failure and wouldn't cast so much as a second glance over her death. Thus, she would be the perfect test subject for them to test the Nemesis on in the near future; whether she lived and gave them some new discoveries to be investigated, or died from exposure to the Nemesis, it would be of no concern to anyone on what would happen in the experiment.

As he stepped up to the elevator and pushed the call button for it, the sound of the motor whirring towards him from the floor above, Wesker briefly wondered how Spencer would react to his suggestion on pursuing a different experimental project than his current research on the Tyrants'. He would most definitely be angered and irritated at the fact that Wesker was disobeying his direct commands on focusing to mass-produce the Tyrant-BOW series with the Beta Hetero Nonserotonin hormone, and was even considering of following through on a different project that another division in Umbrella's biological weaponry development that had yet to be fully uploaded to the data archives. But, Spencer was not in any way ignorant of the work they were doing and would be able to understand Wesker's reasonings for the change in work focus due to his own scientific background, which meant that he might allow the project to be put forward, although he would be suspicious as to how Wesker had come up with the information on Nemesis in the first place. Spencer had already caught him once trying to snoop around and ask questions about him, and had given him fair warning that if he was caught again, he would be punished; and although Wesker had told him that he wouldn't do so, he had the the brief thought that Spencer probably knew he would do it again and would have him watched.

I will have to tread lightly and be careful of what I say. Spencer already begins to suspect me and my investigations have not gone unnoticed. So I have to be extremely cautious to not antagonize him further.

When the lift arrived and the gates slid open, Wesker stepped inside and pushed the button to head up to B3, the gates sliding shut and the elevator beginning its ascent back up to its previous stop, the motor whirring comfortably as the box slowly raised itself through the dark metal shaft. Although he had to plan what he was to say to Spencer, organize the new experiments and ensure that Lisa's health was stable enough for her to be put through her experiment with the Nemesis, Wesker knew that he had better get back to focusing on his research in trying to ascertain a suitable method for producing effective Tyrants and being able to preserve their intellect to a satisfactory degree, despite the massive amount of problems and delays that were blocking them every step of the way.

He sighed exasperatedly, feeling his frustration and stress at his demanding research build up inside him; it seemed that his idea of making a career change in Umbrella's businesses was growing more appealing to him by the minute, but he knew that he couldn't make any foolish moves with Spencer's attention focused on him and his actions, not unless he wanted to join Dr Marcus wherever he had been sent to.

All he had to was be patient, like he had been throughout most of his career; as the saying goes 'patience is a virtue' and it had come true for him most of the time. So all he had to do was wait until the right moment came for him to change positions.

When the lift stopped and its gates slipped open, Wesker walked out at a brisk pace and entered one of the many labs in the vast underground complex, seated himself down at one of the desks inside and picked up one of the many pieces of paper scattered on top, reading through it quickly before he pulled on his lab coat and joined the other scientists in the surgical room to observe one of their experiments with a Tyrant host...

Hey everyone!! Another chapter for you all!!

Sorry it took so long to update again. This was a very complicated chapter, since I had to write about how Nemesis was created when there is barely anything for me to use to describe it. I do hope I have done with this chapter and that everyone you know is still in character as usual.

In answer to one of my reviewers questions, yes; I intend to write about the STARS before RE1, and then I intend to write out all the games in the exact order; hopefully they'll be much easier since I can simply replay the games to remind myself of how the games went along.

Again, apologies for this late update and I hope you enjoy it. Read and review if you want, and thanks to those who have reviewed and favourited it! Thanks bery much for your encouragement, greatly appreciated!!

And stay tuned for chapter 38!!