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.

38. Chapter 38

Thirty Eight

May 2nd, 1988, Umbrella Europe HQ, Paris.

Inside the west wing conference room of Christina Henri's estate, the entire Umbrella Executive Board were gathered around the large table in the center, sitting silently on the leather armchairs placed around the table, each of them staring anxiously at Lord Spencer, awaiting his next statement on the subject under discussion. Spencer himself was seated at the head of the table, with Sergei, McVarian and his secretary Laura standing behind him, his cane leaning against the chair's side and an ashtray placed on the table in front of him, a lit cigar held in his left hand that gave off faint trails of smoke as he silently read through the paper held in his right hand, his eyes skimming over the paper from behind his thin glasses. The meeting that was being held between the Executive Board was intended to discuss what they were to do about the problems facing the Tyrant Project, to evaluate how well Umbrella's public business enterprises were performing in embedding themselves into the average civilian lifestyles, legal systems and local governments across the globe, and to analyze and review any new projects that had been put forward for their inspection. One such project happened to be the one he was reading in his hand; it was a detailed summary of a new project that was to be conducted at the Arklay laboratories to produce a new type of BOW.

The research staff at the Arklay facility wanted to see if they could create a new series of BOW using the same method as they did to create the Hunters, except by using insect DNA instead of reptilian DNA. As the Hunter series was a combination of reptilian and human DNA to form a hybrid mutant from a fertilized ovum infected with the T-Virus, they believed that they could develop another hybrid mutant model from the same method for Umbrella to use, whilst the Tyrant Project was being delayed by all the problems of finding suitable hosts to become Tyrants. Hence why Wesker had put forward the Chimera Project suggestion for Spencer to analyze and offer his expert opinion on the subject on whether they should develop it or not.

According to the report he held in his hands, the Arklay staff had all the necessary specimen samples, technology and equipment they need to start the experiment, and they were ready to begin development when Spencer gave the word to do so, since most of them were eager to abandon the Tyrant Project for the moment until they came up with something useful to resolve all the delays that had appeared. After all, the Tyrant Project had reached a massive obstacle that was going to be quite challenging for them to cross as they still had no real way to produce effective Tyrants due to a lack of hosts that possessed the all-important chemical that Birkin had discovered or the ability to produce it in large quantities. Thus, most of the employees in Umbrella's scientific staff were hoping to move onto far more profitable projects, like the Chimera project, since they wouldn't be able to advance with the Tyrants until they found suitable hosts to use.

But that all depends on whether they are able to produce effective BOWs from this 'Chimera' project. There's no point in starting something if all we get is nothing. Although I have no qualms about this project being undertaken; we need something else we can use in our BOW research whilst the Tyrants are being sorted through.

Spencer took a whiff of his cigar and passed the paper onto Christina. "What do you all think of this new project?" he questioned, blowing the smoke out to the ceiling. Even though Spencer saw no problems with the suggested Chimera project and was more than willing to allow it to be started, he still had to get the rest of the board's opinion because, although they all worked for him loyally and followed every command he gave them, they all still needed to work together on every aspect of the corporation's activities and that meant that they had to be agreed on every little detail on anything new that was presented to them, otherwise there would be conflicts of interest between all of them which could bring down the efficiency of their research and development in the T-Virus Project.

Christina took the report and briefly read through it, her eyes darting across the page with great speed, before she handed it on to Takashi beside her. "I see nothing wrong with this project. We are currently lacking with the Tyrant Project and have still found no way of preserving the hosts' intellect more effectively, so that they can withstand the T-Virus' necrotic effects and have enough brainpower to understand our orders. Thus, we have hit a rather major obstacle in our research and the scientists at our disposal have not yet found a suitable resolution to this problem, so if we are to get our research back on track, we need to have the research employees focus on something else. Besides, if the staff say they can do it, then I have no worries about them starting it," she answered in her usual cold and abrupt manner.

After he skimmed through the report, Takashi passed the report onto Bienn and spoke up, "We could certainly use some new research material and specimens in the T-Virus project. What with the Tyrant Project failures and the lack of suitable hosts for us to use in resolving all these problems, all of our research has, near enough, come to a stop and we have received hardly any new results throughout these past two years. And we only managed to obtain any worthwhile results two years ago from the Arklay laboratories, thanks to Dr Birkin," he explained, his left hand gently caressing his signet ring as he spoke.

Spencer nodded his head and glanced up at Sergei. "Have your Monitor agents picked up any new hosts for us to use?" he asked.

Sergei shook his head. "No, sir. As you know, sir, our agents are also stationed in key federal organizations across the globe in addition to our own facilities, so we do have access to the criminal and civilian databases, and we can check their DNA profiles to see if any of them are suitable enough to become potential Tyrant hosts. I had all of them discreetly run DNA checks on all of the databases to find any who matched the criteria for the Tyrant Project and where they were currently located, but we have barely found any hosts at all in any of the continents. There are just too little hosts for the project and those that are seen to be suitable hosts barely even match the DNA criteria," he explained.

Spencer took another whiff of his cigar and turned back to the other members around the table. "Then, I see no objections in allowing the Chimera Project to be started. As Takashi has stated before, we have no new results or BOWs for us to use in the T-Virus research and have not even began to solve any of the problems revolving around the Tyrant series, thus we have to get our research moving forward again and our staff back on track with the T-Virus project. Therefore, I'll allow the Chimera Project to be started and to have all results uploaded to the Red Queen's data archives for further use and speculation by the other divisions; in the meantime, I would like at least a small measure of our science personnel to continue working on the Tyrant Project and see if they will be able to come up with any new suggestions that could help to solve these problems we are no facing. Any questions?" he asked, leaving the topic out on the table for discussion.

No one so much as made a movement or said anything to oppose Lord Spencer's decision for a few minutes, the report on the Chimera Project still being passed around the table, the other members briefly reading through it until it settled in front of Spencer, who held it outwards to Laura for her to put away in the folder she was carrying, which she did sharply. McVarian and Sergei took no glance at the report because they were in charge of supporting Umbrella's military activities, such as troop recruitment, security details and anti-BOW weapons development, thus they never bothered to concern themselves with scientific details unless there had been an outbreak in one of their facilities and they needed to research on what BOWs were stationed there in order to brief their troops on the dangers. However, Bienn soon cleared his throat to catch everyone's attention.

"But what about funding? Will we actually be able to fund this new project when we are spending quite a considerable amount of money on the Tyrant series alone? I mean, we all know that this entire research and development budget on the T-Virus, not to mention its two predecessors (the Progenitor and Mother Virus), is quite taxing, what with construction costs, employee fees, bribes for officials, technology purchasing, disposal operations and sample acquisition. And that's just with the science operations, Mister Spencer; I have no idea how much money we are spending to have your two colonels recruit troops, train them adequately and develop new weapons for T-outbreaks," he said, indicating Sergei and McVarian standing to attention with one ringed hand.

Claxton sighed. "Money is not the issue under debate here, Bienn," she stated in her quiet tone, her voice travelling faintly through the room like leaves on a spring breeze, her dark eyes staring at the large man behind her headscarf. "Since our research has hit a standstill with the Tyrants, we must find some way to get the T-Virus project moving again and letting them start new projects is certainly a good enough way for this to happen. Even if the projects themselves turn out to be failures, we can still be able to use them in future endeavors as research material to analyze in later projects. Besides, with the way our public as a pharmaceutical enterprise is progressing, we needn't worry about our funding."

Spencer nodded in agreement, pulling out another cigar from his silver cigar case and lighting it up. Even though some of these new projects may turn out to be tremendous and worthwhile successes, whilst others may become complete and utter failures, that doesn't mean they can't still be useful in the long run as research material or test subjects for further examination in later projects. All that mattered now was that they acquired new results, new specimens, new BOWs for them to use and get the research back on track once again, whether or not they were able to produce effective BOWs from these new projects. In fact, most of their newest discoveries in their T-Virus projects had been made from re-examining and performing new experiments on previous failures in the past; the hormone that Birkin had uncovered in those 10 immunity was a good example, since they had only been able to find it after constantly examining the entire physiological data of any hosts that fell into the 10 category.

Another example would be the new Tyrant model that the Arklay staff had stored in stasis on floor B4 in their laboratories, the T-002. Although some may call it a tremendous success, in that it had unmatchable strength and speed in battle, and it was resistant to all small-arms fire, especially during it's berserk stage when the T-Virus inside it would mutate further after it sustained a sufficient amount of damage and the virus would regenerated its wounds, making it stronger, faster and more violent than before. However, it was also seen as a catastrophic failure due to the severe necrotic malformations it was afflicted with, such as the way its heart was exposed from inside its chest, leaving it vulnerable to attack by firearms, and that all of these malformations would make it hard for the Tyrant itself to pass off as a human, since its lips had rotted away and its left hand had mutated into a large set of claws, a formidable weapon but too conspicuous to hide, in addition to the obvious fact that it's intelligence was too far degraded for it to understand complex orders, meaning it only understood simple orders like 'Halt' or 'Attack', but even those orders would be rendered obsolete to the Tyrant if it entered its enraged state. But, the Arklay still had it safely in storage, constantly monitored by life-support machinery and regularly sedated to keep it from drowning in its tank, and were using it as a basis to find out how to create a suitable method of protecting the intellect of potential Tyrant hosts.

Takashi clicked his fingers and pointed at Claxton. "That's another topic I wish to discuss in this meeting; our current state of affairs in our medicinal and pharmaceutical marketing. If I may beckon you all to watch the screen, I would like you to see how our public image is doing in both regards to popularity and finances. Miss Henri, if you please," he requested politely.

Christina gave him a slight nod of her head and pulled out the small remote from her pocket, pointing at the projector screen and pushing the button on top, causing the screen to light up with many charts, numbers, graphs and bank account sums, whilst Takashi picked up the briefcase seated besides his chair, opening it up and handing out several folders to the other members of the board, each of them stamped with the red-and-white octagon logo of the Umbrella corporation. Spencer opened up the file he had been given and pulled out the first sheet of paper, reading over the printed words and pictures displayed on its surface, before moving onto the next one; from what he could gather, the entire folder was filled with reams of information about one of the latest pharmaceutical products that Umbrella had been selling over the years, everything from productivity to purchase rate was listed inside the folder, along with a global map that had small dots placed across the many countries it displayed, showing where all of the product was being sold and how fast it was selling.

Takashi pushed back his chair, causing everyone to look up at him, stood up, walked towards the screen and turned back to face the other board members, standing off to the side of the screen so everyone could see what was on the screen without trouble.

He cleared his throat loudly before he began to speak, "As we are all, no doubt, aware of, our research on the T-Virus, as Bienn has stated, costs us quite a lot of money in regards to hiring staff, purchasing specimens and technology for us to work with, in addition to the other operations of soldier recruitment and training, disposal procedures, facility constructions and weapons development, so we needed to come up with a public image that would help us earn more money and technology without drawing too much suspicion. Hence why Lords Spencer and Ashford had came up with the idea of establishing a pharmaceutical company for us to use as the public image that would hide our more 'unpleasant' work endeavors, since we would be able to devote some of our staff to the production of treatments in the medicinal trade and have all the required technology we need for both of our activities handed to us by the government. Thus, over the years, several of our facilities have been focused on producing medications and treatments to sell to the public in order for us to acquire back some of the money that we have spent on our work, both legal and illegal. And, we have so far created dozens of products that are selling like wildfire amongst the general masses, at fairly reasonable prices, in all areas of the world, earning at least over hundred thousands in sums a year. And that's only with US currency, we still have yet to find out how much we are earning back in other countries' currencies."

Behind her head scarf that covered her face, Claxton's lips formed a small smile. "Excellent. There you are, Bienn. Are you satisfied with this answer to your money worries? Or would you prefer if he said it more slowly?" she asked patronizingly.

Bienn glared at Claxton angrily, a low growl escaping his throat, before he turned to face Takashi. "Well, even if we are earning large amounts of money back from selling our medicinal products, it still doesn't mean we can just relax about how we spend our funds. What with everything that has to be done in our corporation to make our research run smoothly and without any outside interference, I suspect that we are spending more than we are earning. How can we be sure that our pharmaceutical enterprise is actually gaining us back the same amount of money we are spending on the T-Virus project," he retorted sternly.

"Actually, we are," Takashi replied. "Our pharmaceutical marketing and medicinal trading is actually earning us the same amount of money that we spend on the T-Virus Project, so there really is no need for concern about our finances."

Christina's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Really? How so?"

Takashi pulled out a small black rod from his jacket pocket and turned back towards the screen, the rod held in his right hand pointing at one of the charts displayed on-screen. "As you can see from these charts on the screen, we are producing more of our medicinal remedies and treatments at an alarming rate, due to the fact that they are actually quite easy to make in the long run and that most of the ingredients to make them are naturally-grown common plant-life, which helps to smooth over all those people who claim that using manufactured pills and drugs can be deadly to human health. Thus, we are able to keep up with the great demands that the public is throwing at us continuously over the years, which had started ever since we had introduced and successfully sold our first product back in the 1970s. And as we have sold more and more of our products, our popularity has soared amongst the general public over all of the other pharmaceutical companies and enterprises, in that literally nine out of every ten homes now contain our products, in both developing and developed towns or cities. In fact, due to their fast selling rate in all the major cities and our continually growing production rate, we are even considering to raise prices of our products in the more larger cities, such as New York or Paris. But, even if we would keep prices as the way they are from now on, our financial sums would be evenly matched in both regards to the money we earn from selling our medical products and the money we spend in payment towards our...lesser known activities," he explained, pointing at each of the charts individually to emphasis all of his points.

Spencer took another whiff of his cigar and blew out the smoke, placing his elbows on the table and lacing his hands together in front of his face, the cigar still smoking in his left hand. "Well Bienn, I would say that we have little worries in regards to our financial 'dilemmas' that you have been so concerned of," he stated dryly, a small patronizing smile perching on his lips.

Bienn opened his mouth abruptly to deliver a remark or rebuttal of some sorts, but immediately closed his mouth and kept whatever he wanted to say quiet, since he didn't want to insult the man who controlled all of Umbrella and could have him removed with just a snap of his fingers. He instead cleared his throat and turned back to Takashi. "Earlier, you had said that we had become quite popular amongst the general public. Exactly how far has our popularity gone up over the years?" he asked.

Takashi crossed his arms across his chest and regarded Bienn with a cool stare. "Since we have started selling our products from the 1970s onwards, our popularity had begun substantially growing in America, which was where we had commenced our trade businesses first. And, as our corporation has grown in power and expanded to all corners of the globe, we then started establishing trade markets in other cities in all the other continents, thus increasing our popularity immensely with the public. And, since all our products are made from natural ingredients and that we have performed countless tests on them to ensure their safety, we have received no complaints about our products in any way whatsoever. Also, due to the success of our medicinal and pharmaceutical trade, there has been some talk about expanding our production range into cosmetics and health foods, since that is quite an open market for distribution and we could earn a rather surmountable bonus in regards to finances, as a lot of people can be quite concerned about their exterior appearance and the health of their children. In addition, the provincial governments in all of the major cities have actually made an announcement to the public in proclaiming that we are one of the most reliable suppliers in the pharmaceutical industry, although whether or not it's down to either some politicians using our products and complimenting them on how successful they are, or just our down-payments on influential officials being repaid by having votes of confidence be placed on the public in our favor. Nevertheless, since the provincial governments have issued that remark about our reliability and the fact that we have bought out a lot of the other medicinal enterprises over the past couple of years, near enough all of the world's hospitals and medical treatment facilities have been requesting us to provide them with a continuous supply of our products; even the military hospitals have also made requests on our part to provide them with a supply of our medications," he explained.

He paused for a few seconds to allow everything he had said to sink, before he walked back towards the table and made a small gesture with his hand for her to pass the remote to him, which she did hesitantly, sliding it across the polished oak surface until it came to rest in front of Takashi. He nodded at her, picked the remote up in his hand and walked back towards the screen, pressing the button to change as he walked. When he returned to his place at the side of the screen, the screen went pitch black for a few minutes until the Umbrella corporation logo span wildly onto the screen, whirling and twirling around the screen for several seconds then slowing to a stop in the top left corner, a small red and white octagon in the corner. Soon, a picture began to gradually fade into the screen and a soft melody began to play in over the projector's speakers that were connected to the screen via a series of wires that ran from behind the screen to their position on the walls on either side of the screen. As the picture came slowly into focus, it displayed a small purple box standing against a plush woodland background with a bright sun in the top right, the individual rays of sunlight glinting in between the branches and leaves of the trees, making the screen look like a natural portrait; the box itself had the word 'Safsprin' written across it's front in bold white letters, a pair of black and yellow lines running underneath it with the Umbrella logo stamped as the dot on the I, in addition to the small plastic packet of pills that were laid in front of it. Briskly, a beautiful young woman with short blond hair, wearing a bright red dress stepped onto the screen from the right hand side, turned to face the camera and smiled with perfect white, her lips glinting with a slight tint of pink gloss, a small hand held out towards the box and pills.

"The Common Cure. Safsprin," she announced alluringly, her voice sounding sweet and delicate.

The small Umbrella logo suddenly started to spin again and grew larger in size until it filled up the whole screen, twirling wildly in place for a few seconds, the melody fading away into silence, before it began to shrink and spin back into the top left corner again, slowing to a stop as another picture slowly came into focus, a different melody oozing from the speakers, one what sounded like those cheery tunes one could hear in hotel or office elevators. This picture was slightly different from the previous one, in that it displayed a large forest in a beautiful spring day, the sun shining brightly through the trees, except that it was set against a mountainous region, covered in vast acres that were diverse with meadows, forests and hills. Placed in front of the picture was a small, bright blue, plastic tube with the word 'Adravil' written across it in bold golden letters, Umbrella's logo once again playing the role as the dot over the I. Again, a beautiful young woman appeared from the right hand side of the screen, stood in front of the picture and turned towards the camera wearing a duplicate of the previous girl's smile, perfect teeth with a hint of lip gloss, her hand extended towards the item on display, mimicking the previous woman's behavior perfectly, except this woman had shoulder length brown hair and was wearing a glimmering turquoise dress.

"Quick & Fast Relief. Adravil," she announced, in the same delicate yet alluring tone as before.

The Umbrella logo again began to twirl wildly and grew in size until it once again filled the entire screen, spinning in its pace for several seconds, the second melody following the previous into silence, before it slowed down in speed and drifted back to its perch in the top left hand corner, another picture beginning to appear, another melody playing again, this one sounded more like a piece played on a classical piano, soft and gentle notes sliding together like links on a chain. This picture was completely different from the others that had been displayed before it because, whilst the other pictures had been on a woodland scenery or at least partially displayed some forest scenery, this third picture was displaying a view of a vast ocean, waves rising and falling across the water's surface, another bright yellow sun casting rays of sunlight down onto the scene, causing small glints of rainbow-colored lights to flash on the water. Standing in front of the picture was a small brown bottle and a small brown tub, both with white labels stamped on the front and the words 'Aqua Cure' written across the front in bold green letters, the lid of the tub popped open to reveal a large sample of a clear liquid inside that looked something like antiseptic cream. And like the other films, another beautiful woman, with curly red hair and wearing a long white dress, stepped out from the right hand side of the screen and held out her hand towards the product, her perfect smile turned towards the camera.

"Escape to Ecstasy. Aqua Cure," she announced with the same delicate yet alluring tone as the others.

Again the Umbrella logo started to spin again, twirling slowly in its perch at the top left corner of the screen, but instead of flying to the front of the screen and growing in size until it filled the whole screen, it fell down to rest in the middle of the screen nearest to the left hand side and slowed to a stop as the picture of the woman, medical product and ocean faded away, leaving nothing but darkness. Suddenly, the word 'Umbrella', printed in bold metallic red letters, shot into the screen from the right hand side and stopped in the middle of the screen, the word 'Corporation' following inside afterwards and coming to rest underneath the previous word, both words giving a brief flash of light on the corner of the last letter, the sound of a small bell tingled loudly from the speakers as the flash filled the whole screen and vanished, leaving behind the symbol and two words that gave a bright metallic sheen from where they sat on screen.

"Umbrella. Preserving the health of the people," a calm female voice stated assuringly. In a way, to Spencer, the voice sounded slightly similar to the Red Queen supercomputer that was in charge of monitoring Umbrella's digital archives and computer networks.

Spencer couldn't help but smile at the irony behind that statement, like he did several years ago when he and Edward had first came up with idea to establish Umbrella, as the screen blinked off when Takashi pressed the remote and the screen raised up to its slot in the roof with a sot hum, then a sharp click when the hinges set inside the wall locked it in place. To the general public, the law enforcement and provincial governments, Umbrella was a saint, a trustworthy and reliable corporation that sold pharmaceuticals and medicine to all areas of the world, to offer aid towards the hospitals global wide in their continuous struggle against disease and infection, to provide the public with effective and non-hazardous medical treatments that could help them cope with all of the various bacteria and viruses that crossed the world. And thanks to the large amount of Umbrella members inside the law and governments, and all of the officials who were now on payroll from Umbrella's deep sums of money, that shroud of devotion, faith and adoration would remain there in order for their other activities to go by unaffected.

For, behind the shadows and the shroud of supposed 'truth' they had placed over the public eye, what Umbrella was really doing was the exact contradictory opposite to their statement of preserving health, since they were really intending to expand into the more profitable business of biological warfare. What they were doing was not curing diseases, but controlling them, creating viruses as weapons instead of antidotes to illnesses, training their own armies of both human and inhuman, to create living demons of Hell and sell them to the highest bidder as a method to wage war throughout the third world. But the public, oblivious to the entire fact due to Umbrella's formidable security measures and its highly-trained special agents that were placed in every key opposition, would not even suspect Umbrella of being remotely capable of doing anything like that and would simply mill about their little lives as usual, harboring no doubts or suspicions towards Umbrella.

Spencer's grin widened as a rather relishing thought came to his head. It was really quite surprising how gullible and naive the public could be about anything that was slapped in front of their faces; they blindly took whatever piece of information that the government or law passed on to them and simply accepted it as the 'truth', never once questioning why it was there in the first place and simply went back to carrying on their own individual lives, not once paying much attention to what they had just been told. As for the world government, the United Nations, and the provincial and legal authorities, they claimed to be protecting the public from crime, fighting for the safety of their people and doing everything in their power to make their lives much more comfortable, but all Spencer had to do to change that was either take out a small payment from Umbrella's deep pockets and hand it to them on a silver platter with a little favor to ask for it, or just use their influential power to intimidate them and shatter their confidence until all they could was meekly obey their every wishes. He only wished that he could be able to see each and every one of their faces when Spencer unveiled his grand plan, when Umbrella's true nature became exposed, when he revealed the awesome might of his BOW programs and used this might to raise his own power, to elevate himself from a simple noble man and businessman to the grand ruler of the planet, to rule over every little thing with a terrifying and powerful army of perfected BOWs behind him all the way. THAT alone would be enough for him to consider it as the perfect monument to him on his death bed, to be announced as humanity's overall governor and own the immense pillar of power that was Umbrella.

Still though, we must tread cautiously for now, what with things the way they are. Despite the BOWs we already have, as powerful and effective as they are, they are still not yet ready to be used in our plans, since they possess too many flaws that could be exploited. And if the public find out about us before we even begin to accumulate enough powerful BOWs for us to use, then 'it'll come down on us like a tonne of bricks', to quote such a common phrase.

Spencer's smile vanished and was replaced by a stern, cold expression as his mind regarded all of the consequences that would most inevitably cascade upon Umbrella should their BOW and T-Virus be exposed too soon, before he was ready to unleash the final phase of his plan. If so much as a fragment of Umbrella's true activities were exposed to the world, there would be a massive uproar from the public and mass riots would spark radically across the globe, thousands upon thousands of people flocking to streets, marching towards all the legal agencies and government with an outcry of fury towards Umbrella, demanding the entire corporation to be punished and suffer justice for all of their crimes. Thus, despite the large amount of government officials and law enforcement agents they had on their payroll from their deep pockets or the large influence they had over the UN and world governments due to each of the board members having large positions in the global political stage, there would be nothing they could do to stop the UN and world political powers from having them quite literally crucified in response to the vast outcry for Umbrella's crimes to be held accountable because, no matter what methods or procedures Umbrella would use to protect itself, the governments would immediately break away from Umbrella's control and side with the enraged global population in order to prevent the dangerous situation from escalating into global chaos and mass protesting in all the major cities, since they knew that such a thing would be extremely crippling to their own power bases if that were to happen and they would definitely attempt to have Umbrella taken down so that they will be left unscathed from the ensuring violence and radical activities. After all, what Umbrella's real intentions were from the very beginning and the methods they were using to accomplish these goals could never been forgiven by anyone, not by a long shot for over several millennia, since what they did not only fell into a similar criteria that resembled closely to genocide, it literally defied all the laws of physic in the known universe and would irrevocably scar any who saw it, what with the T-Virus itself, the effects it had on humans who suffered from a normal infection and the hellish creatures they had created from experiments they had controlled, and if any of this was revealed to the world...well, although Spencer had never had a similar experience himself, he was pretty sure that he'd be having a somewhat similar experience that McVarian and Sergei had when they were POWs waiting to be executed if the government caught him and charged him with this magnitude of monstrous crimes.

However, they would never find out, that he was definitely assured off with all his confidence. They had the best ever laid out security system for trapping spies sent by their competitors to steal their work or sealing any potentially hazardous outbreaks that could spread to any human civilization, including an optimum-efficient failsafe that would wipe away all evidence of their involvement with just a push of a button and a countdown of simple seconds. They had most of the world's governments and law upholders under their thumb, due to either bribery, blackmail or intimidation, who would ensure that any investigations what ran against them shall end up straight into the toilet where they belong and ridicule the perpetrators to such a degree that the entire world would fall deaf to whatever they had to say, turning a blind eye to their very existence. Besides, if all else failed, they had their own private army and special forces waiting in the wings, highly-trained and ready to be deployed at a moment's notice to wipe out any BOWs that would escape from their facilities into the nearby environment to prevent them from reaching any source of human civilization, including their own organization of deadly assassins that would eliminate any person who so much as posed a single threat to their corporation's integrity, either . Thus, Spencer, the board and the entire corporation had never harbored any worries whatsoever about their work ever being exposed because they were constantly reassured that if so much as a hint of danger towards them was revealed, their security measures would act upon it quickly to ensure that no harm would come to them or their work.

Deciding to ignore those thoughts, Spencer took another whiff of his cigar and regarded Takashi with a stern, flat gaze. "Quite an interesting display, Takashi. I have to admit that it was certainly eye-catching, to say the least. Very well made," he complimented, blowing out the smoke towards the ceiling.

"Thank you, Lord Spencer. We aim to please," Takashi replied gratefully as he walked back towards his seat and sat down, sliding the remote across the table towards Christina, who picked it up and put it back in her pocket. "What I showed just then were our top three most popular products currently on the market to the public; Safsprin, Adravil and Aqua Cure. Safsprin is, as it's name goes, the common cure for all of the common illnesses, such as stomach pains, headaches, migraines, flu and the cold. Adravil is highly-effective and quick-reacting analgesic, or painkiller if you will, that can find and cure any sense of pain on the body, including ulcers, cold sores and blisters, depending whether it is in pill or ointment form. But Aqua Cure, my dear friends, is Umbrella's crowning achievement in the public and is our fastest selling product on the market; it is a harmless, non-irritating and soothing ointment that can be applied to open wounds and burns, enclosing them within a protective film so that no outside infection or bacteria can get into the wounds whilst it also helps to stop the flow of blood or soothe any sensation of pain during the process of healing. This is when the formula helps the platelets to rebuild and repair the skin cells by providing them with extra energy to boost their reproduction speed, so that the wound can heal completely without causing a scab or scar. And due to this trait, it has earned quite a high admiration in the public eye since it is quick-reacting, harmless, non-irritating and all-naturally produced medicinal treatment." A grin soon formed on Takashi's lips and he made a small gesture with his hand towards Spencer. "Although, we should really extend our gratitude and thanks to Lord Spencer for finding those herbs for us to use in producing our pharmaceuticals. Those four colored herbs you found growing around this region are said to have some rather interesting medical properties and our Pharmaceutical Development Division is truly grateful to you for providing them with a regular supply of these herbs from your own estate, and the surrounding mountain range. Not to mention, I heard that Raccoon City itself has some of these herbs growing in their public areas, thanks to your own acknowledgment at how effective they are as a medicine."

Spencer simply smirked at the grateful remark and crushed out his finished cigar in the ashtray seated in front of him, leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes for a few seconds of rest as the rest of the board members began to engage in conversations with each other, giving him a few moments of peace to himself. He felt that it was alright for him to take a few minutes of sleep since there was really nothing that immediately demanded his attention or anything to cause him a great deal of concern; their BOW projects and T-Virus research was, although currently at a standstill, would soon be back to running at decent efficiency and was safe from any outside interference, and their pharmaceutical enterprise was a booming success in the business world and was acquiring them enough funds from the public to keep both their activities running, thanks to the rare herbs that were growing in the Arklay mountain range.

Actually, I shouldn't be the on receiving the credit for uncovering the herbs. I merely knew of their existence from the man who had found them before; I simply adopted the entire for Umbrella's medical industries.

If one were to barter in technical terms, it would be classed as true that Spencer wasn't the real person to discover the herbs in question, but the credit for finding them could be placed on his family since it was in fact his father who made the discovery in the 1930s, back when he and his parents had been residing at their holiday home in Raccoon City, back when the small suburban town was nothing more than a speck on the American road map. When his father had been alive, he had first uncovered the herbs due to an incident in which he had come down with a severe case of flu during the winter and needed treatment; however, the problem was that Walter Oliver Spencer had been allergic to penicillin, the miracle cure at the time, and his wife, Patricia, had demanded their household servants to search for an alternative method of treatment. Then, one day, a housemaid had suggested that they try administering him a herbal mixture in with his morning tea, to see if would help improve his condition until they found a suitable method; the mixture had been made from three herbs found in the Arklay region, each of them corresponding a different color (green, red and blue), ground finely into a powder and mixed in with his cup of morning tea. Soon after, taking this mixture, his father had made a full recovery and immediately went back to working on his company to offer his assistance in finding a way to keep their industries alive whilst America's economy began to decline after the Wall Street Collapse. Since then, his father had ordered the herbs be brought into his estates across the planet and have a segment of his properties donated to grow the herbs, so that he needn't worry about having to search for any medication or pharmaceutical treatments if he again came down with an illness or infection.

Thus, Spencer saw no harm in procuring some of these herbs and donating them for study to the Pharmaceutical Development Division in order for them to determine their effectiveness as a marketable product, in addition to having all of the herbs grown in the courtyards of his own estate in the Arklay Mountains. The Pharmaceutical Development staff all had agreed that the herbs were indeed fully-capable to be produced as marketable medication and had urgently began mass-production of the herbs into Umbrella's pharmaceutical businesses, creating all of their current products on sale to the public, including their top three most popular products. There had even been some mention from the research staff about being able to develop a vaccine for the T-Virus from the herbs because, after some extensive experimentation on the herbs reaction to T-activity in human blood cells, they were able to determine that, by somehow unknown factor of the herbs' doing, the herbs themselves actually had the ability to suppress the activity of the T-Virus cell in the host's body, causing the T-Infection in the hosts to gradually slow down in producing its own version of mitochondria and its spreading from one cell to another, meaning that if the herbs could be studied further, the research staff were under the impression that they could create a T-Virus suppression antibody for the USF and UBCS to use when on missions.

To think, my father's own discovery still lives on in both my pharmaceutical enterprise and my biological weaponry production. I wonder-

"Mr Spencer, are you well, sir?" Laura asked in concern, placing a hand on his shoulder, causing the rest of the room to fall silent and focus their attention on him.

Spencer nodded slightly, rubbing his tired eyes a bit. "Yes, yes. Of course. Just tired in my old age." He shook his head to clear away his thoughts and focused his attention on the rest of the board. "Now, what were we discussing?"

Christina cleared her throat and tapped her fingers across the polished table surface in a small rhythm. "We wished to ask you how your progress in embedding our power and control into Raccoon City's political structures were going. Since Raccoon City is the main base of our BOW research, we wish to be reassured that there is no troubles going on in that area which could harm or endanger our work, and whether or not we can resolve it," she explained.

Spencer merely held out his hand towards his secretary, beckoning for her to hand her something and Laura hastily passed him the thin manila folder she was carrying in her arms, stepping back to her place beside his chair afterwards whilst Spencer handed the folder on to Christina to read, since he had already read over it many times before to analyze every detail and keep on top of everything that was going on in the still-developing city. "I trust that everything in that folder is satisfactory in regards to our progress on integration in Raccoon City?" he asked with a hint sarcasm in his tone.

Christina narrowed her eyes slightly at the sarcasm in Spencer's tone but decided to ignore it for the best and passed the folder on to Takashi, folding her hands together on the table as she regarded Spencer stoically. "Well, if what the file suggests is true, then we have no need to worry about the provincial authorities in Raccoon City turning against since most of them are either our own employees or under our payroll, and that gives the power to manipulate all of the town's new policies and political moves to be made in our favor, in addition to having some of our own agents placed amongst the press to ensure that no information about our activities is brought to light and all witnesses are removed. And with all of the city's health and economy having to be supplied to them by us, what with the fact that we offer most of the civilians new job opportunities and career advances in the many new pharmaceutical distribution centers that are being built, the public will no doubt feel even more indebted to us since there would be a major in unemployment in the town without us."

After reading through the file, Takashi scoffed slightly as he passed it on to Bienn. "That goes without saying, Miss Henri. Apparently, the provincial government in Raccoon City are relying on us to supply them with more and much larger donations to their growing city in order to fund all the new developments they are currently being discussed by the council. I'd say that the people of Raccoon are becoming a bit too...needy," he stated.

Spencer nodded, an amused grin fluttering on his lips. "Naturally. They have already relied on our generous donations to fund their previous development efforts and the ones that are still being put under renovation from when the town had first been built. The Kite Brothers' railway line can be considered as a good example since we have been providing them donations to build the line back before it had been opened in 1969, and the Raccoon government are now requesting for more funding from us as they have apparently decided to expand the line through the Arklay mountain range to connect with the main line that runs through Latham; they have even promised to build us our own luxury express train for our own VIP guests and highest-ranking employees to travel on through the region, the 'Ecliptic Express' as it has been christened. Quite generous of them. In fact, we are also responsible for the continual growth of their ever-expanding police force and helping the police force to resolve their problems of having to move the Raccoon Police Department to different buildings in the city three times in a row. The first place that the RPD were located was inside the Raccoon City Hall, working out through the main municipal building back in the 60s, since the building was suitable enough to hold the thirty officers who were assigned to work in the town and support the minuscule amount of police cars they had at their disposal by renting out the gas station just outside on the opposite street. However, due to the Mayor's demand to redecorate and renovate the old municipal building, which he has asked our corporation to generously provide funding for, the police station had been moved to an old warehouse located in the Healty District for a couple of years and, because of the need to demolish all of the old lots and buildings scattered around the city to expand the main railway line and the tram transit system, the RPD is now moving to the old art museum uptown and the police force is requesting additional sums of money to fund their renovation of the museum to support all the requirements that they need for their new Police Station. If this keeps up, I estimate that we will actually be in total control of the city's actions and own 100 of their economic values by the next few years at the most," he explained, chuckling slightly at some points in his explanation as if he found something amusing in them.

"Although, there is a point that I would like to clarify, Mr Spencer. In this file, it claims that you are having problems in manipulating the people currently occupying the positions of Chief of Police and the Mayor of Raccoon City, since you can't bribe them over to us or remove them by force without causing suspicion. Have you managed to find out a way to rectify these problems?" Bienn asked, having read through the file already and passed it on to Claxton next to him.

Spencer sighed exasperatedly and sank back in his chair, rubbing his tired eyes again as he felt fatigue and stress begin to creep up on him once again. "Well, in regards to the topic under discussion, we have managed to place a man whom we can control into the position of Mayor in the last re-election, thanks to a few bribes to some influential people here and there, and the fact that most of the residing members of council work for us were instrumental in getting this man recruited. The man in question is named Micheal Warren, a former expert railroad engineer who had been one of the best workers in constructing the Kites Brothers' Railway Line and the main person in charge in manufacturing the fully-functional cable car system that is being used in Raccoon City today. And, since he was one of our most firmest supporters in allowing us to fund the development of the Kites Brothers' Railway Line, we should be able to control him well enough to keep our base of power and respect safe in Raccoon City, although we shall have to tread to carefully about giving him orders to fulfill, especially when they conflict with his own personal motivations as his most primary motive behind his mayoral campaign was to help the people, not to expand his own base of power and wealth, but I believe we'll have no trouble from him. The man who is currently the Chief of the RPD however is not someone we can work with at all because, as his train of thinking is...incompatible with our own desires, we can't hope to offer him any down-payments to work for us since he is one of those 'red, white and blue American' types and he would never except a bribe, but we can't control him indirectly either, as he was never a supporting figure towards our establishment of business in the city and he is not susceptible to any threats against him, preferring to go down fighting even though we can't touch him without arousing suspicion. Hence, we are waiting for the arrival of a suitable candidate for us to have run for the position and we can 'arrange' the election to suit his favor," he explained, pulling out another cigar from his case, placing it between his lips and lighting it up.

Claxton silently read through the file, her eyes darting from line behind her thin headscarf, whilst listening to Spencer and Bienn's conversation with half an ear, nodding her head at certain points to show she was still listening, and she passed the file back to Spencer when she was finished, who held out it to Laura to take. "Have you found a suitable candidate to take on the role as the RPD Chief?" she asked, her dark eyes staring at Spencer from behind her headscarf.

Spencer shook his head. "Not yet," he replied, taking a whiff of his cigar and blowing out the smoke.

Claxton merely waved her hand as if to dismiss the topic, a sigh escaping from behind her scarf. "Good help is difficult to find these days. When we need someone to work on our pharmaceutical products, we simply find a person with the necessary qualifications and hire them immediately. But when it concerns our private research on the Tyrant-Virus, there are only a very few people whom you can find that match our incredibly high standards for employment in those fields and you end up hitting a huge obstacle that you are unable to scale. It's amazing how similar how our current dilemmas in both our biological research and political activities can be when you come up with a huge problem like this," she remarked irritatedly.

Sergei cleared his throat and stepped up to the table, catching everyone's attention. "Actually, I have managed to locate a certain individual residing in Raccoon City who might be considered a worthy person to be the RPD Chief," he explained. He then pulled out a manila folder from his trench coat and handed it to Spencer, who opened it up, put on his glasses and began to read.

The file he was reading contained the personnel information about a middle-aged man in his early 30s who was currently living in a house on Fox Street in Raccoon City; the man's name was Brian Irons, 32 years old, blood type B, graduated from Cambridge University and working in the occupation of an art museum security guard, the same art museum that the RPD was planning to relocate to. The picture in the top right corner showed that he had slicked-back brown hair, cold brown eyes and a slight mustache beginning to grow under his nose, which certainly gave him the appearance of a security guard, although judging by what the file stated on him, he would probably fit in more as the fat, worthless lump of man who acted like a guard yet couldn't even without breaking out in a heart attack, the type who acted like they could handle anything thrown at them but lacked the skills to eat a dough-nut without making a mess, since he had put on a considerable amount from after he graduated where as in university he had been complimented on being quite sporting and in perfect physical shape, participating as an athlete for the university sport teams.

Yet, the most interesting part of Iron's history lay down near the bottom of the file where it began to talk about his criminal record and the offenses he had been charged with in his life; apparently, whilst in university, Irons had been indicted in an investigation into the brutal beating and rape of two women, both of whom had been attending the same university and lived in the girls' dormitories, and it seemed that there had been some evidence which all pointed towards Irons as the perpetrator, thus he had been arrested, charged and put on trial. However, Irons' defense attorney had managed to have the charges dropped from his client by proving that all the evidence was circumstantial at best and that the police couldn't provide anything concrete to prove Irons was guilty, in addition to the point in that Irons' defense had made in regards to Irons' phenomenal academic standings and appraisal from his teachers proving that he lacked a substantial motive or reason to commit the crimes. Yet, the judge had ruled that the charges be placed on Irons' record and that he underwent psychiatric evaluation as a consequence to determine whether he was fit to return to society, and naturally he had passed, immediately returning to graduate and move to Raccoon City for work, but Spencer believed it was more to do with escaping his crimes so that no one would be able to ask him about them.

Oh, Mr Irons. You have been quite a charming individual for your university colleagues, as those two girls could tell. And these rape charges on your shoulders may actually harm your future life if you aren't careful, but I believe you and I can reach a beneficial solution for both of us.

Spencer placed his glasses back inside his pocket, closed the file and handed it back to Sergei, taking another whiff of his cigar in the process. "Have you had a chance to meet with Mr Irons?" he asked, exhaling the smoke.

Sergei sneered in response, an expression of disgust evident on his face. "Yes, I have, though the man is a repulsive individual to be sure. He is a worthless, incompetent, arrogant, self-serving, petty-minded little man with whose thoughts reside only around that which concern his own ambitious dreams of having power in the city. If he believes that we can help him get the position of Police Chief and that we will ensure that he stays in occupation of that position in the RPD, then I am certain he will do whatever we ask of him and he will offer us any kind of assistance that his position allows, in order to keep himself in power over the city, yet I am still questioning his loyalties about whether or not he would continue serving us faithfully when he has the position, since his only concerns are for himself and his own power, and he may feel obligated to ignore or disobey our orders if he assumes it undermines his own power base," he explained, clenching his blade tightly enough in his hands to draw blood, causing Laura to immediately pull out a handkerchief from her pocket and step closer to Sergei to wipe away the blood, but he simply pulled his hand away and shook his head at her, telling her he didn't need any help.

Spencer merely smirked coldly and waved his hand dismissively, showing that he had very little concern over the subject. "Oh, I am certain he will obey our every whim without hesitation or complaints, unless he wants this information about these rape charges being revealed to the press. If words of his crimes made it to the press, they would butcher his entire reputation and tear him down from the career we gave him, thus costing him his own position of power in Raccoon City and ruining his life, or what is left of his life to begin with, whilst we'll just have him removed if he causes any further trouble for us by threatening to expose us and we can just appoint one of our own men onto the position," he answered with his smirk turning into a vicious grin which made the other board members cringe slightly in fear at the sight of it, a grim reminder of how powerful their employer really was and how ruthless he can be when it came to using the might he possessed, some of them having already witnessed his ruthlessness and cruelty in using his power from Umbrella's hierarchy from firsthand experience.

Spencer pushed back his chair and stood up, wiping the smile from his face to replace it with his usual stern cold expression, his piercing eyes regarding each and every one of the board members in turn. "If there is nothing else for us to discuss, I suggest that we adjourn this meeting and get back to more pressing matters," he announced stoically.

Everyone in the room sat still in silence, no one making a motion or saying a word to continue the meeting, all of them simply gazing back at Spencer as his gaze shifted from one to the other, looking for any sign that someone had something they wanted to say, but no one spoke up or raised their hand, so he decided that there was nothing left to discuss and the meeting should be adjourned. However, before the meeting could be called to adjourn, Christina cleared her throat and stood up, drawing everyone's attention to her, her narrowed eyes gazing at everyone sternly without faltering, even when met with Spencer's penetrating stare, her posture absolutely straight and perfect with nothing whatsoever out of place, giving her the cool and regal aura that she was known to possess.

"Begging the board's pardon for my outburst, but there is a matter I would like to discuss with you all. I have required some information that one of the main laboratories under my division's research department has begun the creation of a new method to produce more effective Tyrants by preserving their intelligence even further than the hormone can," she explained, slowly sitting herself down.

Spencer merely stared back at her, trying to discern what her real motives behind her outburst were by reading any hint of emotion on her face, but he couldn't uncover anything beyond the cool icy demeanor she had and decided that there was no point in bantering about it since all that did was waste valuable time, so he instead sat back down in his chair and waited for Christina to begin. Besides, a few months ago, Christina did actually contact him directly to inform him that her division had discovered a new method of preserving the Tyrant's intellect further and that she would like to discuss it in the next board meeting, to which he had agreed fully, so since the meeting yet to be adjourned, she was free to discuss the project in length as she saw fit.

"Very well. You may proceed," he stated.

Christina nodded and rummaged her hands through her pockets for a few brief seconds until she pulled out a small microfilm, holding it out towards Laura for her take, which she did and took it over to the machine, replacing it for the one Takashi had put in earlier. In the meantime, Christina lifted up her suitcase onto the table, opened it up and passed out several pieces of paper to each of the board members around the table, although seemed to look slightly annoyed that they were being kept in the meeting longer than necessary. The pieces of paper that had been handed out were all copies of a large detailed report on a new experimental third-stage BOW that the Umbrella main French laboratories had developed to protect the intelligence of Tyrant hosts from the necrotic effects of the T-Virus, which was called the Nemesis Project. As all of the board members silently read through the report, Laura inserted the microfilm into the projector, giving Christina a slight nod to say she had done her task and handed the other microfilm back to Takashi when she returned to the table. Christina simply pushed the button on the remote and the screen lit up with a full-color picture of one of the NE-Alpha parasites swimming around inside its stasis tank at the lab facility a few miles away from the estate.

"This is the NE-Alpha parasite, or at least one of them, that my research staff have developed a few months back. As the reports you are reading can tell you, we began this project in order to uncover a more productive method of producing Tyrants so that we could get the Tyrant Project moving forward again, since we are all aware of the fact that our T-Virus has reached a massive standstill due to the fact that we are unable to find any human hosts that match the genetic criteria to become effective Tyrants, as they need to possess the gene that allows them to produce sufficient quantities of this hormone to protect their brain cells from the damage caused by the T-Virus' necrotic properties," she explained.

Takashi nodded in understanding. "Well, of course. Our research with the T-Virus has reached a quite difficult obstacle to bypass, what with the problems facing the Tyrant Project, in which we have yet to find any useful method that can help us to create more Tyrants or to find any more suitable hosts to become Tyrants, so I stand by my previous statement on the matter in that we need to acquire new research projects and endeavors to get our biological weaponry development moving again, whether it is focused on the Tyrants or not. Although I can't quite understand why you would choose parasites as your method of prevention."

"Oh, but these parasites aren't any normal parasitic organisms, as you should really know from reading the report," Christina retorted dryly, a small sardonic grin perched on her lips, which caused Takashi to glare daggers back at her. "The purpose of parasites, my fellow colleagues, is that they are meant to take over a specific function in the body of a suitable host by taking over the nerves in a specified part of the body and manipulating to suit their own needs. However, the NE-Alpha has the ability to totally control the host's entire body by attaching itself forcefully to the spinal column and invading the entire brain through by manipulating all of the central nerves; once that is accomplished, we can completely every action of the host by issuing orders to the parasite itself through a small computer chip that is planted in its nucleus, the chip itself harboring a direct link to the White Queen." However, her smile soon vanished and her expression began to grow more fatigued. "But, there are still some problems with the parasites that we are having trouble changing," she stated exasperatedly.

"Are you referring to the problems of the host/parasite compatibility?" Claxton asked, jabbing the paper softly with her finger at the point in question.

Christina nodded solemnly. "It's because the parasites themselves are highly unstable and have an extremely fragile form that can immediately break down if they cannot find a suitable host to maintain their own physical form whilst the inhabit the host to protect its brain from the T-Virus' necrotic properties. You see, whilst the parasites protect the host's brain from further cellular breakdown and manipulate to form an effective BOW, the T-Virus infection and mutations running through the host begins to affect the T-Virus cells inside the parasite itself, causing the parasite's own body to grow larger and further mutate the host. But, if the parasite cannot form a bond between itself and the host's physiological forms, the sudden mutations that affect it from the T-Infection will not stop and the parasite will eventually die out from extreme mitosis in its DNA, with the host following after the brain deteriorates from lack of protection by the parasite. This in turn creates a far more stricter criteria demand for any hosts we use since nearly 75-90 of them will probably be rejected by the parasites," she explained.

Spencer took a final whiff of his cigar, crushed it in the ashtray and was about to reach for another when he noticed his secretary scowl in disgust out of the corner of his eye, her obvious distaste for his smoking habit evident on her face so he decided to leave it for the moment. "These were all discovered from the results of those failed experiments that your science staff had performed with at least four of the parasites on varying BOWs. But it says here that there had been a fifth experiment in which the parasite had been implanted into a Hunter and it has been placed under observation for further testing. May I ask why?" he inclined.

Christina merely pushed the button on the remote again in response, causing the picture of the parasite to slide off-screen and be replaced by another picture, one that made even Spencer's eyes widen in horror. The picture showed a normal Hunter BOW floating in a stasis tank, its eyes closed, wires placed over every part of its body to monitor its life-signs, its body suspended in the green liquid as it slept peacefully in its sedated slumber, but what was most horrific about it was that it had tentacles flowing out of various parts of its body, the purple appendages floating in the liquid alongside it, the areas around the small holes where the tentacles punched through beginning to turn dark brown from scarring and what could be seen as a large swollen lump expanding inside its stomach, causing it to bloat out like a balloon.

"This is the Hunter that had been implanted with one of the parasites as part of the fifth experiment to test the parasites capabilities and on whether the science staff had been able to develop the parasites without any flaws successfully. The experiment went exactly the same as the previous ones, in that the parasite merged with the Hunter successfully and without trouble, but the T-Virus already present inside the Hunter began to affect it and cause it to mutate again, meaning that there was a risk that we would lose the host and parasite like before, so they managed to find a way to prolong the subject for enough time to get it into stasis. But, it seems that the research staff have discovered that, in both the Hunter and the previously failed experiments, when the parasite attaches itself to the brain of a host, it releases a chemical into the brain to prevent the T-Virus from breaking down the host's brain cells and it continues to produce this chemical for the entire time it remains in the body, at least until it begins to break down and die from rapid mutations. Right now, my staff have been able to combine this certain chemical substance found in the parasite hosts with the hormone that Dr Birkin had found in the Tyrant hosts to produce a more enhanced formula that can be used in the Tyrant project and it seems to provide a much more potent defense and resistance against the T-Virus' necrotic effects, even if the subject is still in stasis at sub-arctic temperatures, which preserves enough of the Tyrant's intelligence that it passes the criterion's standards, but they are still conducting further experiments on the hormone to see if they can perfect it and weed out any flaws that might exist in the formula, hence why I allowed the Hunter to be kept in stasis as a base for their experiments." She then sighed exasperatedly and turned to face Spencer. "Which is why I wished to have you inspect, to get your permission to continue this project. I know that it currently hasn't yielded that much results for the corporation to use in our biological research or to provide any help in resolving the Tyrant Project, but if you would allow us as little more time, I'm certain we can acquire something useful for the T-Virus research," she stated grimly, her hands clenched tightly together as she awaited for Spencer's final decision.

Spencer stared back at her for a few minutes before he turned back to the report and began to read through it once again, making sure that he took in every detail and that he understood all of the meanings behind each of the details printed out on the report, so that he was on top of everything and had knowledge of whatever was happening in this new project brought forward to his attention, as his position in Umbrella's hierarchy demanded of him. In his personal opinion, the Nemesis project had certainly yielded some worthwhile results that were invaluable to their research, namely in providing a new method for them to use in resolving the problems with the Tyrant Project, mainly about how they could create more effective Tyrants by using the new solution to preserve more of its intelligence so that it can understand orders issued from the White Queen, unlike the already previous T-001 and T-002, and the NE-Alpha parasites themselves could be seen as a powerful entity in itself if combined with a suitable host to create a more advanced and extremely powerful BOW, one that would obey every order it was given and have the intellect to use whatever methods it chose to get it done, whilst the host would have no free will or independent thought of its own, meaning that that wouldn't be no chance of the BOW running wild and going against their command.

However, there were some rather crippling flaws that could be seen in the project that could actually bring down its effectiveness in productivity and further research value because, although the parasites helped to solve the problem in protecting the intelligence of any Tyrant hosts by using this enhanced chemical to protect the host's brain cells from the degradation caused by the T-Virus, they didn't provide them with a method for them to find more hosts that match the genetic criteria needed to become Tyrants, which was part of the problem to begin that was slowing down production on the Tyrant Project, and the parasites were even more selective than the Tyrant Project criteria as the parasite's extremely fragile form needed a host that could help it maintain its form from any further T-Virus mutations whilst it protected the hosts' brain from the necrotic effects of the virus in the cells. Furthermore, since they had already used five of the parasites to conduct experiments on their effectiveness, they had only seven other parasites left in storage for them and had so far not yet created any more, for reasons that had not been mentioned in this report, either a mistake or that they didn't have a reason to give him.

Plus, there was something about this project that seemed odd to him, making it seem vaguely familiar, causing a part of his brain to tingle in abstract thought as his memory began to stir and attempt to recall something from his mind that he knew about, something that was related to the report held in his hands. He knew that somewhere, somehow, he had heard mention of this project in a conversation he had had with someone else at another time when there were discussions about what to do with their research on the Tyrant Project and a suggestion had been made to use the parasite for an experiment to see if anything could be done with it.

Suddenly, his mind revealed to him what it was searching for, what it was that put him off about the project and the reasons why it did spark a sense of familiarity within him, and with it, he felt his suspicions and anger begin to grow again, directed towards a certain individual back at the Arklay labs in the Raccoon Forest.

"How many people know of this project?" he asked abruptly, trying to keep his anger and suspicions out of his voice as best as he could.

Christina arched an eyebrow at him, seeming perplexed by the question. "Why do you ask, sir?" she questioned in confusion.

"Answer!" he responded sharply, causing everyone in the room to jump slightly in fright at the angered tone.

"Only myself, my bodyguard, you, the rest of us here and the scientists assigned to the project, Mr Spencer. No one else knows about it because I only had a summary of the project uploaded into the Red Queen's archives, since I didn't allow any authorization towards my staff to record the rest of the data in the Red Queen until you yourself had passed your judgment on the project and deemed how useful the data could be to our research. And these reports are the only current records that have all the data acquired from the project ever since the start of it, from the parasites development to the experiments already being conducted on the Hunter in terms of mass-producing this new brain hormone formula; I should know since I was the one who typed all these reports myself privately in my study as a security measure to prevent any spies from stealing anydata on any aspect of our work, so no one else will have read them already," she answered warily, phrasing her words as best as she could so that she wouldn't make Spencer any more angry than he was, staring at the expression on his face cautiously.

But it wasn't Christina or anyone else in the room that Spencer was angry with. It wasn't one of those people inside the room with him that made his face grow bright red in fury, made him take short raspy breaths through his teeth, made his hands clenched tightly around the top of his cane as his suspicions began to run wild and his anger began to rise up him like a black tide. The only other time that Spencer had felt like this was when he had found out that Marcus was planning to betray him and was endangering the corporation, when he thought that he could do whatever he felt like outside of Spencer's orders without any trouble and that he could just simply sever all connections to Umbrella as if it were nothing more than a passing option for him; this was exactly the same type of situation, in regards to the fact that he was acting outside of Spencer's power and was performing rather unwarranted actions that he believed he could do without any trouble since he was employed in a high position in the corporation. However, like his mentor before him, he was quite, quite wrong.

Wesker! What have you been up to!?

It had been Albert Wesker who had first gave Spencer a mention of the project a few months ago, back when he had came to see him during one of his visits to the Arklay facility to discuss over everything that was happening in the labs, primarily on the subject of whether or not that he had managed to uncover anything that might help them to get the Tyrant Project back on track, before Christina had made the direct phone call to him in regards to permitting her to talk about the Nemesis Project at the next board meeting. However, during the brief period of time that Wesker and Spencer had spent in his office discussing the Tyrant Project, after Spencer had read through all the data that had been presented to him and Wesker had answered all of his questions on the Tyrant Project as thoroughly as possible, Wesker had mentioned his new plans to embark on an entirely new experiment with Birkin and that they wanted to ask for his help in allowing them to use certain new specimens in their experiment, both of them having apparently decided to leave the Tyrant Project momentarily due to the research on that project having come to a standstill, because they had not yet been able to find any new methods that could help them either protect the intelligence of potential Tyrant hosts from the T-Virus or reduce the incredibly strict genetic criteria that was reducing the range of hosts for them to even work with in solving these problems, and judging from the piece of data which listed the results of the genetic analysis simulation that Wesker himself had uncovered, it seemed that the number of potential Tyrant hosts in the world for the corporation to use was remarkably short.

When Spencer had asked for Wesker's reasons behind this suggestion, he simply replied that they needed to focus on something a bit more productive than their current research on the Tyrant Project, that they had to come up with something more promising to work in order for them to acquire new research material and BOWs to use in their T-Virus projects, that they had to focus that showed a little more promising than what they were already doing since they were getting nowhere fast in solving the problems of how to create more effective and obedient Tyrants. So, Wesker had suggested that he be allowed to perform one of his own experiments with the Nemesis project that had just been recently developed, claiming that he wished to perfect any flaws that might reside in the project by using a specimen of his choosing to see how the parasite merged with its host and what would happen to the host after the parasite is introduced into its body, mainly how it joined with host's brain and coped with the T-Virus infection running through the body,since he believed that there might be a solution to the problem of preserving the intelligence of Tyrant hosts if they could analyze how the brain adapted to the parasite's presence.

However, when Spencer questioned about the product itself and how he came by the knowledge of its existence, and despite how well Wesker had tried to explain it away as a simple rumor about it being floated around the labs and that he had asked questions about it under interest, Spencer could tell that he knew more than he was letting on and was trying his best to keep Spencer from finding out how he knew about it in the first place because he knew that it would have dire ramifications towards him should he be caught trying to find out any confidential information that his position was not privy to. Thus, when the meeting had ended, Spencer had told Wesker that he would take heed of his suggestion and consider it over for some time before he gave his answer, stating that he had to review over the project in general and determine its usefulness in the experiment, but in actuality he was checking over all the personnel data he possessed on Wesker and attempting to discern what his growing suspicions were telling him about the man.

And it appeared he had gotten his answer now; Wesker was indeed abusing his position of power to conduct his own research and experiments for his own ends. Spencer had already caught him once before, trying to uncover personnel information about Spencer himself and the entire corporation in general via his access to the data archives, although he had only narrowly caught Wesker sneaking around the archives and accessing sensitive information as he was a rather calculating and methodical man, taking great care not to leave behind any trace on what he had been up to, but the Red Queen was a far better person at using the computer system since she herself owned the computer systems, detecting a small segment of a data file that was being downloaded by Wesker to his own personnel computer back at the Arklay laboratories. Nevertheless, Spencer gave Wesker a fair warning not to do it again or he would be severely reprimanded should he be caught again, but Spencer knew that he wouldn't listen, that he would attempt it again whilst taking more measures to keep his activities secret, so Spencer had the Red Queen observe his activities on the network and all of his personnel data brought to him for inspection.

Yet Spencer had already thought of the idea that Wesker would probably do something like that since he was the kind of man that only served himself and himself alone, no loyalties to anything else and thinking about his own ambitions, just Spencer thought of him after meeting him face-to-face or the first time. Despite the fact that Wesker was intelligent, fore-thinking, practical, cool, professional and efficient in his work on the T-Virus, as well as on how he managed the entire Arklay laboratories and the staff assigned to it, Spencer knew that the man was only doing all these actions to advance his own status, to follow his own rules and act according to his own ideas, being able to read people and manipulate to use their knowledge, expertise or skills to fulfill his own goals. However, after that incident with Marcus and what had to be done with him, Spencer believed that he could trust Wesker temporarily and handed him the position of Head Researcher as a reward for his services, in exchange that Wesker remember who was in charge of the corporation and that he continue to produce results on the T-Virus research for the corporation to use.

But he has now begun to act out of his own accord and is trying to access sensitive information about Umbrella, for reasons yet to be known. Whatever his reasons are, I guess I shall have to watch him more closely now, so I can find out what he is really up to and what he is hoping to achieve. I hope for his sake that he isn't planning anything along the lines of what Marcus had been up to, otherwise he and his mentor shall have a very abrupt reunion.

As he did before Christina had requested her permission to discuss the Nemesis Project, Spencer pushed back his chair and stood up, keeping his expression as impassive as possible despite the anger that was surging through him. "Well, since Christina has said her piece on the Nemesis and that everyone here has said what already needs to be said, I suggest that we should adjourn this meeting and return to our work. However, I would like to ask for Sergei to remain behind for a few minutes and for Christina to supply one of the NE-Alpha parasites to the research staff at the Arklay laboratories for one of their experiments," he stated coolly.

Christina arched an eyebrow at his requests. "Why would you want one of our parasites for the Arklay laboratories? If you wish for the project to be continued, might I suggest that my own staff continue working on the project since the parasites were originally created at my facility nearby and all of the staff have all the prior knowledge to conduct any experiments with the parasites without any risks of failures or dangerous consequences?" she asked curiously.

Spencer merely regarded her with a flat stare. "My reasons are my own, but I must ask that you supply one of the NE-Alphas, along with all of the research data about the parasites and all of the failed experiments, to be delivered to the Arklay laboratories as soon as possible. In the meantime, I would like for your division's science team to continue your experimentation on this new brain chemical you had created, so we can determine whether or not it is suitable to help us resolve the problems in preventing the degradation of brain cells in Tyrant hosts and preserving enough of their intelligence to help them understand our orders, and to uncover the possibility of mass-producing it. As for the problem of mass-producing the Beta Hetero Nonsertonin hormone and acquiring additional Tyrant hosts for our experiments on the Tyrant Project, I shall reassign that to a different area altogether whilst the rest of our scientists work on some of the new projects that they have put forward, such as the Chimera Project," he explained. He then turned to Sergei. "Do we have a suitable location that can support all of the research into the hormone and the Tyrant Project?"

Sergei nodded. "Yes, Comrade Spencer. We can use the facilities that we have built on Sheena Island, a small island just off the equator in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the perfect place for the Tyrant Project since it's isolated from the rest of the world, only accessible by helicopter, houses a fully-equipped lab complex for the experiments and a prison to detain the hosts we gather, and that we need pay no concern to any public interference because every single person who resides on that island is an employee of Umbrella, each of them having been involved in any aspect of the T-Virus project since it had been discovered and the research on it had started," he answered, running a finger tentatively across his blade, causing a small cut to open up at the tip.

Spencer smiled at his old friend in a moment of gratitude for his services, then he turned back to the other board members with a straight face, clearing his throat and straightening out his tie a little. "Then, I hereby adjourn this meeting and dismiss you all."

All of the board members nodded their heads slightly at his words and got to their feet, each of them leaving the room one by one after they had gathered all the paperwork and pieces of information that they had brought to the meeting, shutting the door behind them gently with a click, the room empty except for Sergei and Spencer, who remained sat in his chair, his cane resting between his hands and his eyes peering over at the blank projector screen in deep thought.

Sergei stepped around to face the front of the seat and the man still sitting in it. "What do you want to speak to me about, Mr Spencer?" he asked, twirling his blade calmly in his hand.

Spencer's eyes immediately shot up to the Russian man with an allusive, cold stare, which Sergei met with his own gaze and showing no signs of intimidation by it. "What is your opinion on Albert Wesker?" he asked bluntly.

Sergei's lips formed into a slight frown at the name. "In my professional opinion, I would have to say that he is competent, hard-working, focused, intelligent, calm and a capable man to run all of the experiments being conducted at the Arklay laboratories, to maintain order and discipline amongst his staff in case of trouble or delay, and to cope with the hefty demands of keeping the entire facility running efficiently as the Head Researcher. But, I personally find the man ambitious, disobedient, self-serving, arrogant, disloyal to this corporation and to you, Comrade; he is only in this to serve his own reasons and goals, nothing more," Sergei answered, his voice edged with disdain.

Spencer nodded. "Well, it appears your opinion is right. He has currently been attempting to access classified information about myself and the corporation in general by using his high-security clearance as Head Researcher. The Red Queen had managed to find evidence of tampering in some of our files already stored in the archives and has traced back to him at the Arklay labs; he is also attempting to access more recent files and download them through a complex network to his personal computer so that he can analyze them without detection, although I have yet to find out why."

A low growl escaped Sergei's lips and his hands clenched around his blade tightly to draw blood out from his palms, the crimson liquid flowing between his fingers to fall from his hands in small droplets onto the cream colored carpet. "Impudent dog! How dare he even think that he can act as willingly as he pleases! The only reason he has the power and his current position in this corporation is because you gave it to him out of your own command, Comrade Spencer, and now he believes that he doesn't have to heed to your orders, that he can simply betray you and use all of our research to support his own goals, despite all that we have given him and how much of his current success can be attributed to us! He is becoming a menace to our corporation and our work!" he snarled angrily.

Spencer simply stared back at his friend in silence, watching Sergei's teeth bite tightly against his lower lip that he could taste the coppery flavor of blood on his tongue and his eyes boil with rage towards Wesker, but his eyes soon shifted to the blood that dripped from his hands onto the large stain that had formed on the carpet. "I'd advise you to not bleed onto Miss Henri's property and furniture. You know how awful dark liquids such as blood soak into the carpet and become too hard to remove," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

In a flash, the fury and rage glowing in Sergei's functioning eye flickered out like a candle that had been blown out, his hands coming to rest inside his pockets, the blood still flowing freely between his fingers into his trench coat, the blade tucked back into its holster and clipped in place, the scowl on his face vanishing as he faced his friend again. "I apologize for my outburst, Mr Spencer. It was uncalled for," he said, taking a deep breath to quell what was left of his fury. "What do you wish for me to do?"

Spencer was silent for the moment and gave him no answer or reply, instead simply stood up from his chair, picked up his can and made his way to leave the room, Sergei following behind after a gesture of Spencer's hand and shutting the door when they left the room, both of them making their way through the hallways at a brisk pace to where their helicopters awaited for them outside in the front courtyard, paying no heed to neither the small, timid greetings from the scientists and estate staff nor the curt salutes from the guards that they passed along the way. As they stepped outside the front doors, they watched as Christina's limousine left the estate through the large front gate, her cold and ruthless expression visible through the glass windows, turning in the direction to head towards the laboratories through the forests in order to get the parasites and data ready for delivery, whilst each of the other board members embarked on their individual helicopters, the hatches being slammed behind them by the pilots, the engines slowly whirring to life and the rotor blades gradually picking up speed as they spun until the small metal aircraft rose into the air, turned in the direction to which led to their destinations and flew off into the sky, the crafts slowly turning into tiny black specks on the horizon, leaving only two more helicopters behind, McVarian and Laura patiently standing by one of them.

"I would like for you to keep a close eye on Wesker. Have some of your agents monitor his activities inside and outside of the labs. Listen to any conversation he has, check over everything he does, everywhere he goes, everyone he talks to and report all of your findings to me," he ordered as they both crossed the courtyard to their waiting transports.

Sergei nodded. "Of course, Comrade. I'll have my agents in the city and the labs keep watch over him. We'll find out what he's up to and make sure that nothing he does is unknown to us."

Suddenly, Spencer came to a sharp stop and raised his cane in front of Sergei's path, causing him to slow to a stop and gaze at his employer, who glared back at him coldly. "But be sure to use the utmost discretion. Wesker is no idiot and he will certainly not make the same mistakes Marcus did. Although I have already caught him up to something once and gave him my warning, to which I am sure he hasn't obeyed, he will use more caution and cunning to keep himself out of our suspicions since he certainly isn't ignorant of the consequences of such actions. So I warn not to raise Wesker's own suspicions, otherwise we'll lose our chance to find out what he's up to," he ordered with a sharp and forceful edge to his tone.

Sergei simply stared back, unaffected by Spencer's penetrating gaze as he had nothing to hide from him and would never even think of betraying the man he owed his life to, and nodded slowly in response. "Don't worry, sir. We'll be careful," he replied assuringly.

Spencer knew that Sergei was telling the truth, that he would be careful and wary of Wesker's cautious approach whilst he monitored all of his activities, and he trusted Sergei's talent and word immensely, since the man had proved his loyalty time and time again in all of his endeavors for Umbrella; if anything, Sergei and McVarian were the only two people he actually trusted in the entire corporation, both of them the only ones he would place his absolute faith and trust in, and they had never failed his trust at all when he gave it to them. After a few seconds, he lowered his cane and walked over to the helicopter, Sergei heading off towards his where several of his Monitor agents stood waiting at attention, snapping a salute when he got close and he returned it before climbing inside. When Spencer walked over to his transport, he exchanged a curt nod with Laura and McVarian before they all embarked the craft and took a seat, the pilot coming around to check that his passengers were safely seated inside, nodding his head to the cockpit when he was done and slamming the door shut as the rotors began to spin to life, the dull hum of the engine echoing inside the small chamber, the pilots up front speaking onto their headphones to each other as they gently guided the helicopter up off the courtyard, turning it in the direction of the Umbrella HQ in America and flying off into the horizon, Sergei's helicopter flying off in the opposite direction towards the Russian HQ.

On his trip back to the American HQ on the helicopter, Spencer simply gazed out the windows at the passing clouds outside, drowning out all the sounds around him, his hands working automatically to remove another cigar from his lips, place it between his lips and light it up. After all the stress and work that he had to put up with throughout their entire work on the T-Virus and in running the corporation in general, he really needed to relax and forget about everything around him for the moment, since he would need to get back to all of that when the helicopter reached its destination in America.

So he intended to use this small period of peace to relax and relieve himself of some of the stress that he had been carrying around on his shoulders for some time now. And if his secretary complained about him smoking in the small cabin with her nearby, he wouldn't give a shit...

Hey, everyone!! Here it is!! The next chapter of my fic!!

First of all, I have to say how sorry I am that this chapter took me so long to write; I had been job seeking for some part-time work and everything has been rather hectic for me, so I wasn't good time-wise in writing.

Also, I should first explain that this chapter was part of the original idea I had for the format of this chapter, but it was too long to put all of it up (REALLY long, it took up 97 pages for me to write the whole thing), and I decided to cut it into segments to make it easier for everyone.

Finally, I have to explain that the reason this took so long was because I had planned to use this chapter to help explain away most of the details involved in RE, some of which you will see in this part, and to lay down the groundwork for the rest of the games in preparation for when I write them; this part delves deeper into Umbrella and Spencer, thus I am hoping everyone is still in character here.

Anyway, I am REALLY, REALLY sorry everyone for making you wait so long. Hope you enjoy this chapter and I'll put the rest up after a bit of tweaking.

(P.S. If any of you can find anything that would improve this, please post me a review with your opinion and I'll get it done. Thanks!)