A/N:...One day...one big ass chapter later, and a new installment it ready to be added to the already massive collection that is this series. This really is one of my biggest chapters to date, and many of them after this will be close to if not just as big in word count. I've got a lot of material to work with, and I intend to use it to the fullest.
That being said and out of the way, let's get to it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Resident Evil.
Chapter 39:
"We do not fear the unknown. We fear what we think we know about the unknown." - Teal Swan.
Jay Reston was pleased. In fact, he was as happy as he'd been in a long time, and if he'd known it would feel so good to be back in the field, he would have done it years ago.
Managing employees, the kind who actually get their hands dirty. Making things happen and seeing the results unfold, being a part of the process. Being more than just a shadow, more than some nameless darkness to be feared...
Thinking these things made him feel strong and vital again; he was barely fifty, he hadn't yet come to see himself as even middle-aged, but working in the trenches again made him realize how much he'd lost over the years.
Reston sat in the control room, the heart of the Planet, his hands behind his head and his attention fixed on the wall of screens in front of him.
On one screen, a man in coveralls was working on a series of trees in Phase One, adding another coat of green to a row of faux evergreens. The man was Tom Something-or-other, from construction, but the name wasn't important. What was important was that Tom was painting the trees because Reston had told him to, face-to-face at the morning briefing.
On another screen, Kelly McMalus was recalibrating the desert temp control, also at Reston's request. McMalus was the Scorps lead handler, at least until the permanent staff came in; everyone in the Planet was temporary, one of White Umbrella's newer policies to avoid sabotage. Once everything was up and running, the nine technical people and half-dozen 'preliminary' researchers, actually glorified specimen handlers, although he'd never call them that directly, would be relocated.
The Planet. The facility was actually 'B.O.W. Envirotest A', but Reston thought that Planet was a much better name. He wasn't sure who had come up with it, just that it had cropped up at one of the morning briefings and stuck. Referring to the test site as the Planet in his updates to the home team made him feel even more a part of the process.
"The video feeds were connected today, although there's some problem with the Mikes, so the audio hasn't been hooked up yet; I'll have that taken care of ASAP. The last of the Ma3Ks came in, no damage to any of the specimens. In all, things are going very well, we expect to have the Planet ready days ahead of schedule..."
Reston smiled, thinking of his last conversation with Sidney; had he heard just a touch of jealousy in Sidney's voice, a thread of wistfulness?
He was part of a 'we' now, a we that called Envirotest A by a nickname. After thirty years of delegation, having to oversee the finishing touches on their most innovative and expensive facility to date had been a blessing in disguise. And to think that he'd been irritated when he'd first heard about Lewis's car going off a cliff; the man's accident was probably the best work he'd ever done for Umbrella, because it meant that he would be overseeing the Planet's birth.
Another tech was walking across one of the screens, carrying a tool box and a coil of rope. Cole, Henry Cole, the electrician who'd been working on the intercom and video systems; he was in the main corridor that ran between the faculty quarters and the testing area, leading toward the elevator. Reston had noticed the day before that several of the surface cameras were malfunctioning; none of the cameras in the Planet had been wired for sound as of yet, but the screens for the upper compound would intermittently spew static for minutes at a time, and he had asked Cole to see to it...
'But after he'd finished with the comm system, not before.' he thought to himself in slight agitation 'How am I supposed to stay in contact with these people if I don't have a working intercom system?'
Even the flush of irritation he felt for the tech was exhilarating; instead of pushing a button, telling some yes-man to fix it, he would have to attend to it himself.
Reston pushed away from the console, stretching as he stood up, taking a last look at the row of monitors to remind him of anything else he needed to see to as long as he was out.
'Intercom, video feeds...the bridge in Three will need reinforcement, that's not a priority, but we really should do something about the city colors, they're still much too flat...' he mulled over.
He walked through the sleekly designed control room, past the line of plush leather chairs so new that their rich scent still lingered in the cool filtered air. The chairs faced a wall of high-resolution screens; in less than a month they would be seating the top researchers, scientists, and administrators that were the heart of White Umbrella, as well as the two biggest financiers of the program. Even Sidney and Jackson would be there, to see the initial run of the test program.
'And Trent,' Reston thought hopefully. 'Surely he wouldn't turn down an invitation to the first test run.'
Reston stepped on the pressure plate in front of the door, the thick metal hatch sliding up with only a whisper of sound, and walked out into the wide corridor that ran the length of the Planet. Control wasn't far from the industrial elevator, almost straight across in fact, but the electrician had already started for the surface. There would be four lifts operating within the week out of one of the other surface buildings, but for now, there was only the one industrial elevator. He'd have to wait until Cole had exited.
He pushed the recall and straightened the cuffs of his suit jacket, thinking about how he would lead the tour. It had been quite a while since Jay Reston had indulged in daydreaming, but in his short time at the Planet, imagining the day when he would welcome the others and guide them through the facility he had managed and transformed into a smoothly running machine had become a favored pastime.
Of the handful of people who ran White Umbrella, who made the big decisions, he was the youngest to be accepted into the inner circle, and while Jackson had often assured him that he was as valued as anyone else, he'd noted on more than one occasion that he was the last to be consulted. To be considered.
'Not after this.' he thought, grinning mentally, 'Not after they see that even without a dozen assistants waiting on my every word, I've managed to get the Planet up and running without a hitch, and before schedule. I'd like to see Sidney do half as well.'
They'd come in at night, of course, and probably in several groups. He'd have the specimen caretakers at the entrance to greet them and lead them to the elevators. The new ones, not the dirty monstrosity he was about to ride.
On the way down, the visitors would hear all about the efficient, elegant living quarters, the self-contained air-filtering system, the surgical theater, everything that made the Planet their most brilliant innovation yet. From the elevators, he'd take them around to the control room and explain the environments and the current series of specimens, eight of each. Then, back out and north, toward the beginning of the testing site.
'We walk straight through, all four phases, then view autopsy and the chemical lab. We'll have to stop in for a look at Fossil, of course, and then through the living area, where there will be coffee and rolls, sandwiches maybe, and then circle back to control to observe the first tests. Specimen against specimen only, of course, human experimentation would put such a damper on things...'
A soft tone brought his attention back to the errand, alerting him to the elevator's return. The door opened, the gate slid aside, and Reston stepped into the large car, the reinforced steel platform clanking beneath his feet. Dust puffed up from the metal, settling over the polished sheen of his shoes.
Reston sighed, tapping the controls that would take him to the surface, thinking of all he'd had to put up with since arriving at the Planet only ten days before. Things were coming along, but he'd never realized just how many inconveniences one had to suffer to get one of these places operational, the lukewarm meals, the constant need to pay attention to every niggling detail, and the dirt: everywhere, thin layers of workman's dust clung to hair and clothes, clogging the filters...even in the control room, he'd had to take all kinds of extra precautions to keep it from getting into the central terminal. He'd had to work with three different programmers to get the mainframe running, yet another of Umbrella's precautions to keep any one of them from knowing too much; but if the system were to go down...
Reston sighed again, patting the small, flat square in his inner pocket as the lift hummed smoothly upwards. He had the codes; if the system went down, he'd just have to call in new programmers. A setback, but hardly a disaster. Raccoon City, now that was a disaster, and all the more reason that he wanted things to go well with the Planet.
'We need this.' he thought reflecting on the company's recent failures, 'After the summer we've had, the spill and those meddling STARS and losing Birkin...I need this.'
Although it had been a unanimous decision, it had been Reston's people who'd gone into Raccoon to take Birkin's G-Virus, an action that had resulted in the loss of their lead scientist and just over a billion dollars worth of equipment, space, and manpower.
It wasn't his fault, of course, no one blamed him, but it had been a bad summer for all of them, and having Envirotest A up and running would ease things considerably.
He thought about what Trent had said, just before Reston had left for the Planet, that as long as they didn't lose their heads, there was no need for concern. Generic placating advice, but hearing it from Trent made it sound like the truth. It was funny; they'd brought Trent in to act as trouble shooter, and in less than six months he'd become one of the most respected members of their circle.
Nothing rattled Trent, the man was ice; they were lucky to have him, particularly considering their recent run of misfortune.
The elevator came to a stop and Reston squared his shoulders, preparing himself to redirect Mr. Cole's efforts, and just the thought of making the man jump made him smile again, all other worries put aside for the moment.
'Just a working-class Joe,' he thought happily, and stepped out to take care of business.
X
It had been just after three in the morning when they arrived at a hotel not far from the Salt Flats. David helping to assign rooms for each of them before he and John went out to collect a vehicle that would help them get to the facility Trent informed them about.
In the mean time, the rest of the team was told to get as much sleep as possible. They would be hitting the facility that night and would need to be alert and ready when they infiltrated it.
Ethan sat in the room he shared with Rebecca, cross-legged on one of the two beds with all of his and the medic's weapons spread out before him. Systematically disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling each one.
Meanwhile, his lover was over at the small table on the other side of the room. Catagorizing and rechecking all of the medical supplies she had and selecting only what she believed she would need for when they started the operation. Separating cans of first aid spray and vials of herbal mixtures she had collected and saved along with various other things Ethan had stored at the safe house.
Leon and Claire were in the room across from them, asleep already having taken David's advice to heart. The last two members of their group had the room next to them. But the two youngest members couldn't sleep, not yet. Too much weighed on their thoughts at the moment before they could, and they decided to spend that time preparing.
The traveler had finished cleaning his Samurai Edge, slapping a fresh clip into it and flipping the safety on before setting it aside and grabbing one of the new additions to his arsenal.
Many of the weapons he had managed to acquire when he set up the safe house they had all stayed at took time, patience, and a good amount of money. But it had all been worth the effort to make sure that they were well armed and ready for the coming war with Umbrella.
Leon had questioned a lot of the hardware he had stocked up on, even asking if some of them were even legal to own. For which Ethan responded saying that they were fugitives on the run from a multi-billion dollar corporation with access to deadly viral agents, their own private army and frankenstein-like creations capable of death and destruction.
The term 'legal' lost all merrit months ago...
Turning his attention to the weapon in his hands, an H&K G36 assault rifle. A difficult find, and it cost him a bit more than several of the other guns he collected, but the perks of it were worth it. And with the possibility of BOWs waiting for them in the new lab they were going to be breaking into, a little extra firepower couldn't hurt.
He'd just finished striping it and cleaning a couple of the smaller parts when Rebecca spoke up. "How bad do you think it could get on this mission?" she asked, turning her full attention at him.
"Hard to say. But with the last few incidents involving Umbrella's facilities and their 'pet projects', anything could happen." Ethan replied, starting to clean the barrel of his new AR. "Though, I think we've gotten pretty good at breaking into Umbrella's labs and messing up their work."
Rebecca smiled, "How do you do that? Have so much confidence even though we have no idea what we could face?"
Ethan stopped what he was doing and looked up at her, "Because I have faith, in us, in our mission to stop Umbrella. As long as we're all together, watching each other's backs, there's nothing those bastards can do to stop us."
He smirked, "All that, and I known how much you'd be mad at me if I was wrong."
The medic laughed lightly, standing from her chair and crossing the room to sit in his lap. "Flatterer." she said kissing him on the cheek. She bit her lip a moment later as she looked down at the bed.
"What's wrong, Becs?" Ethan asked, wondering what she was thinking about.
Rebecca was silent for a few seconds before she looked back up at him, her green eyes locking with his blue ones. "I've been thinking off and on about something for a little while now. It's happened more often since David, John and I managed to get away from Caliban Cove. Watching two more of our people die...and then almost drowning..."
She paused when she felt Ethan's grip on her waist tighten, knowing that the thought of something bad happening to her unsettled him greatly. "I've been thinking about the future." she finally said.
"The future?" the traveler asked.
Nodding, Rebecca started explaining. "About what happens after this. When we take down Umbrella, then what? A lot of us don't have homes to go back to. And there's no guarantee that things will settle down enough for us to rebuild our lives. But more than that..." she trailed off trying to find the right words.
"But more than that, I think about...us."
Ethan raised both eyebrows, "What about us?"
"If we manage to get through all of this, and Umbrella has been dealt with, what our future could be." said the medic.
The traveler smiled at her, "I don't know...marriage, old age, and a lot of beautifully smart children?" he offered causing Rebecca's face to go bright red.
"I'm trying to be serious, Ethan." she said, though a large part of her really liked that idea.
"So am I," Ethan said, his face now serious. "The future may not be set in stone, but I can't see one where the two of us aren't together. And I don't ever want to think of one where we are not." he reached up and held her face in his palm, "I love you, Rebecca."
Rebecca smiled, face tinted pink with her eyes moistening at the declaration. She leaned forward and they shared a emotional kiss, "I love you too, Ethan." They sat in comfortable silence for a while before the medic slipped off Ethan's lap. "I'm going to grab a shower, then I think we should really get some sleep. Big night ahead of us."
Nodding, the traveler went back to cleaning his rifle as she headed to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Finishing up and putting the weapon back together before standing up and stretching his legs, his ears perking when he heard the water running.
Glancing at the closed bathroom door, a small grin appeared on Ethan's face.
X
Rebecca stood under the spray of warm water, the temperature easing her tense muscles while she gently scrubbed shampoo into her short, brown/red locks. Despite her talk with Ethan, she still felt a small amount of anxiety bubble up in the pit of her stomach at the thought of storming yet another Umbrella lab.
Logically and strategically it made perfect sense, given that they could use all the help they could get when they went after Umbrella's headquarters. However, ever since her first mission into the Arklay mountains she still felt afraid of what they would encounter.
The deaths of so many of their friends over the last couple of months hit them all hard, and the last thing the young medic wanted was to watch more of them fall. Especially Ethan.
After everything he had told them about what happened in Raccoon City after they separated filled her with dread, knowing that he had to face so much of it alone. She'd been thankful when he came across Claire and Leon, and they managed to make it out alive by working together
Crossing her arms over her stomach, Rebecca slipped deeply into her own thoughts. Unaware of the bathroom door quietly opening and closing, followed quickly by the shower curtain. Jumping slightly when a pair of warm, familiar arms wrapped around her from behind.
Easing back slowly into the bare chest behind her, the young medic sighed in content as Ethan leaned down to rest his chin on her right shoulder. Not saying a word and just holding her under the warm spray.
He understood what was going through her head, the fear and anxiety of another unknown waiting for them after all that they had faced thus far. And he also knew that despite him trying to ease her mind it wouldn't be enough until everything was said and done, and all of them were safely out of Umbrella's reach again.
Running his hands along her arms and sides, Ethan placed a few kisses along her shoulder. "Everything will be okay." he said lowly, making her smile knowing he was doing all of this to bring her a bit of comfort.
Rebecca turned her head and kissed his cheek, the traveler turning his own head to capture her lips with his. The medic's hand coming up to hold his face, the kiss becoming deeper and more intimate while his own hands rubbed up her side and along her tone belly.
(Lemon Warning!)
A moan purred from the back of Rebecca's throat when she felt Ethan's tongue run along her bottom lip. Opening her mouth to allow entry so that her own could play along while hands started to roam.
The traveler continued to gently rub along her stomach and up her ribcage, her own hands coming up to hold the back of his head, fingers running through his wet hair. A gasp escaping into his mouth when his hands trailed upward and started massaging her breasts.
Pulling away from her mouth, Ethan began trailing kisses down the side of her neck, finding her pulse point and sucking lightly on it and causing the young woman to arch back into him. "E-Ethan..." she sighed, grip tightening on his hair and her heart beating louder.
"You seem tense, Ms. Chambers." he whispered huskily, left hand kneading her left breast while his right trailed back down her body toward the apex of her legs. "Perhaps we should help you relax."
Rebecca smiled, breath coming out in pants, "What...What would you...suggest?" she managed to stutter out, playing along. A sharp inhale escaping her lips, eyes rolling a bit when his fingers started running along the outside of her lower lips.
"I suggest we releave you of said tension." replied the traveler, slipping a finger inside of her as he rolled his thumb over her bundle of nerves.
It had been too long since they were intimate, with so many people with them at the safe house they never had a chance to be. There had been some groping when they were in bed at night, but nothing more given the number of people within earshot.
But now that they had time to themselves for the moment, they had a lot of built up sexual tension that needed to be dealt with.
Gasping sighs quickly turned into deep moans as Rebecca felt her lower stomach tighten like a spring, Ethan's ministrations moving a more quickly along with his thrusts making the feeling stronger until it finally snapped. Her hips bucking sporadically into his hand, eyes rolled back and her mouth open in a silent scream.
Ethan wrapped his other arm around her waist when her knees buckled mid-orgasm, making sure she didn't collapse. Feeling his lovers essense coating his hand as he helped her down from her high.
The medic heaved in deep breaths when everything finally settled, her whole body quivering from pleasure as she tried to stand upright again. A grin spreading across her face when she felt her lover's arousal pressing into her lower back.
"Seems like I'm not the only one who's tense." she said, turning around in Ethan's arms and wrapping a hand around his member. The traveler groaning when she started slowly stroking up and down. "However, my own tension is still present..."
"What's your solution...doc?" he asked, hands clenching on the medic's hips feeling her soft hand working him over.
Rebecca's grin widened, "I believe the solution to both our problems is quite obvious, Mr. Mercer." she replied in a sinful tone before gently biting along his throat and collar bone. It was all that was needed to break what little restraint Ethan had left.
The medic 'eeped' when he suddenly reached down and grabbed her ass, hoisting her into the air and pressing her into the wall of the shower. "Careful what you ask for." he growled playfully before slipping into her, burrowing his face into her shoulder while she mewled at being filled.
"Fuck, darlin' yer tight." Ethan drawled, giving them both a moment to adjust before slowly pulling out and pushing back in again. Rebecca wrapped her legs around his back, drawing him deeper with arms around his neck, moaning louder every time his hips bumped into hers.
Their lips met in a frenzied kiss, tongues rolling together, the water of the shower long since going cold but it was ignored as they lost themselves in each other. Cherishing the moment while they had it.
Moving his mouth down the side of her neck, he bit down and sucked on her soft, pale skin. Leaving behind a red/purple mark before leaving a trail of bites down to her full breasts and wrapping his lips around one of the pink nipples while rolling the other with his thumb.
The medic's hands dug into his hair, nails scraping along his scalp as all of her senses went wild. She missed this, the intimacy and pleasure that came with being with the man she had fallen for. Never wanting the feeling complete to end.
"Oh, god...Ethan!" Rebecca screamed, throwing her head back, her inner muscles clamping down on him as she reached her peak once again. The traveler managing a couple more thrusts before also falling over the edge and spilling into her.
(Lemon End)
For a while, they remained motionless, trying to get their breathing back under control. "I missed this..." Ethan said into his lovers neck, still holding her up against the shower wall.
"I did...too..." Rebecca said inbetween breaths. She twisted her hips to get comfortable, pausing when she felt him still hard inside of her.
"Oh, I'm not done with you yet Becs." the traveler said giving her an impish grin. A cherry-red blush spreading across her face and chest as he reached over and switched the shower off before carrying her out of the bathroom and toward one of the beds.
They had several hours before the operation, and the young couple was going to make the most of what time they had.
X
There was a half-moon in the clear night sky, casting a pallid blue light across the vast, open stretch of plain and making it seem even colder than it was. Which didn't seem to far off with a couple of them shivering in spite of the rental's blasting heater.
It was another minivan, and even with the four of them moving around in the back, checking weapons and loading clips, they didn't seem to be generating nearly enough heat to ward off the icy air that seeped in through the thin metal shell.
"Do you have the 380s?" John asked Leon, who handed over the box of rounds before going back to loading up their hip packs. David was driving, Ethan checking their position on a GPS. If Trent's coordinates were correct, they'd be getting close.
Claire looked out at the pale landscape passing by the dirt track, the seemingly endless miles of nothing beneath the wide open sky, and shivered again. It was a barren, forsaken place, the road they were on scarcely more that a dirt track leading in from nowhere; a perfect setting for Umbrella.
The plan was simple. Park the van a half mile or so from Trent's coordinates, load up with every weapon they had, and slip into the compound as quietly as they could manage...
"We'll find this entry keypad of Trent's, run the codes through, and go in strong," David had said, "Well after dark. With any luck, the majority of the workers will be asleep; just a matter of finding the staff quarters and rounding them up. We'll confine them and have a check around for this book of Mr. Reston's; John, you and Claire will keep watch over our captives, while the rest of us search. It would probably be in their operations room, or in Reston's private quarters. If we haven't found it within, say, twenty minutes, we'll have to ask Mr. Reston directly, a last resort, to avoid implicating Trent. Book in hand, we go back out the way we came in. Questions?"
Their planning session at the hotel had made it sound easy enough, and with as little information as they had, the questions had been few. Now, though, driving through an endless, freezing waste and trying to get psyched up for a confrontation, now it didn't seem so simple. It was a scary prospect, going into a place none of them had ever been before and trying to find an item no bigger than a paperback novel.
And Ethan made sure to mention that this was Umbrella, Nothing was ever as easy as first believed.
At least they were going in well armed; it seemed that they had learned something about dealing with Umbrella, after all—that taking in a shitload of firepower was a very good idea. In addition to the nine-millimeter handguns and multiple clips that each of them would carry, they had two M-16 A1, automatic rifles, one for John, one for David, Ethan had his H&K G36 rifle, and a half-dozen fragmentation hand grenades. Just in case.
In truth, it was only about half of their armaments. The rest was hidden safely back at the hotel where no one other than their group could find them.
"Cold?" Leon asked.
Claire turned away from the window, looking at him. He'd finished the packs with Rebecca and was holding one out to her. She took it, nodding in response to his question. "Aren't you?"
He shook his head, grinning. "Thermal underwear. Could have used these in Raccoon..."
Claire smiled. "You could have used them? I was running around in a pair of shorts, you at least had your uniform."
"Which was covered with lizard guts before I was halfway through the sewers," he said, and she was glad to hear him at least try to joke about it.
"Now, children," John said sternly after loading the last of his clips into his belt. "If you don't stop, we're turning this car around-"
"Slow down," Ethan's voice cut in, stilling them. David let up on the gas, the van slowing to a crawl. "If the coordinates are right, the facility is about a half-mile southeast from our current position."
Claire took a deep breath, John pick up one of the rifles, Rebecca clipped her belt into place and saw Leon's mouth press into a thin line as David brought the van to a stop. It was time. John opened the side door and the air was ice, dry and bitterly cold.
"Hope they got the coffee on," John breathed, and hopped out into the darkness, reaching back in to grab his pack. Rebecca loaded up a few medical supplies and got out along with Ethan and David, Leon put his hand on Claire's shoulder.
"You up for this?" he asked softly, and Claire smiled inwardly, thinking of how sweet he was; she'd been thinking of asking him the same thing. In the days since Raccoon, they'd gotten pretty close, and although she wasn't positive, she'd picked up on a few signals that suggested he wouldn't mind getting closer. She still wasn't sure if that was a good idea, however.
"As up as I'm gonna be," she finally said. Leon nodded, and they climbed out into the freezing night to join the others.
David put John at the rear and took the lead himself, forcing all negative thoughts out of his mind as they struck out for where Trent said the test site would be.
It wasn't easy; they were going in cold with less than a day's planning, no layout, no idea what Reston looked like or what kind of security they'd be facing.
'The list is endless, isn't it?' he thought to himself, 'And I'm still taking them in. Because if we're successful, I can step down. Umbrella will be as good as dead and no one will have to look to me for anything, ever again.'
That was a thought he could hold on to; a peaceful retirement. Once the monsters behind White Umbrella had been brought to justice, vigilante or otherwise, he'd have no greater responsibility than keeping himself fed and bathed. Perhaps he'd work up to a house-plant, or something.
"20 degrees, on the left" Ethan said from behind him, startling him, bringing his focus back around. He'd barely spoken above a whisper, but the night was so cold and crisp, the air so perfectly still that every step taken, every breath exhaled seemed to fill the world.
David led them through the darkness, wishing they could use their lights; they should be getting quite close. But even dressed all in black, he was worried they'd be spotted before they could get inside, whatever that meant exactly.
Trent had given them no idea of what the facility would look like. In any case, with barely a half moon they wouldn't see it until they were right on top...
There.
A thickening of shadow, straight ahead. David held up his hand, slowing the others as they moved closer, as he saw a dented metal roof reflecting moonlight. And then a fence, and then a handful of buildings, all of them dark and silent.
David dropped into a walking crouch, motioning for the rest to follow suit, holding the automatic rifle tight against his chest. They crept closer, close enough to see the lonely group of tall one-story structures behind a low fence.
'Five, six buildings, no lights, no movement, a front, surely'
"Underground." Ethan whispered behind him. Probably; they'd discussed several possibilities, and it seemed the most likely. Even in the low light he could see that the buildings were old, dusty and worn. There was a smallish structure in the front, five long, low buildings in a row behind it, all with sloping metal roofs. It was certainly big enough to be some kind of a testing ground, the larger buildings as big as aircraft hangars, but between the site's placement alone, out in the open in the middle of a desert, and the wear and tear, he'd guess underground too.
Good and bad. Good, because they should be able to get into the compound without much trouble; bad because God only knew what kind of surveillance system had been set up. They would have to go in fast.
David turned, still in a crouch, and faced the team. "We'll need to double-time," he said softly, "And stay low. We scale the fence, head for the structure closest to the front gate, same order. I'm on point, John's in back. We have to find the entry ASAP. Watch for cameras, and everyone's armed as soon as we're in the compound."
Nods all around, faces grim and set. David turned and started for the fence, head down, his muscles tight and jumping. Twenty meters, the air biting into his lungs, freezing the light sweat on his skin. Ten meters. Five, and he could see the 'No Trespassing' signs posted on the fence, and as they reached the gate, David saw the sign telling them that they were at the privately owned 'Weather Monitoring and Survey #7'. He looked up and saw the rounded silhouettes of what had to be satellite dishes on two of the buildings, plus the multiple thin lines of antennae stretching up from one of them.
David touched the fence with the barrel of the M-16, then with his hand. Nothing, and there was no barbed wire either, no sensor lines that he could see, no alarm trips.
Obviously, no weather station would have those; trust Umbrella to be as concise in their fronts as with anything else.
He slung the rifle over his shoulder, grabbed the thick wire and pulled himself up. It was only seven feet; he was at the top in five seconds, flipping himself over and jumping to the dusty ground inside the compound.
Ethan was next, followed by Rebecca, climbing quickly and easily, a pair of shadows in the dark. David kept watch as both teens leapt nimbly to the ground next to him with hardly a stumble. Ethan unslung his G36 while the medic drew her weapon, an H&K VP70, both covering the darkness ahead as David looked back to the fence.
Leon almost tripped off the top, but David managed to steady him, grabbing the younger man's hand; once he was down, he nodded his thanks at David and turned to help Claire over.
So far, so good.
David scanned the shadows around them as John scaled the outside, his heart pounding, all of his senses on high alert. There was no sound but the gentle clank of the fence, no movement in the blackness.
He glanced back as John thumped to the cold and dusty ground, then nodded toward the front structure, the smaller one. If he were to design a false cover, he'd hide the real entrance somewhere no one would look, in a broom closet at the back of the last building, through a trap door in the dirt, but Umbrella was cocky, too smug to worry about such simple precautions.
David started for the building, the others following close behind, praying that if there were cameras watching them, there was no one watching the cameras.
X
It was late, but Reston wasn't tired. He sat in the control room, sipping brandy from a ceramic mug and idly thinking about the next day's agenda.
He'd make his report, of course; Cole still hadn't managed to fix the intercom system, although the video cameras all seemed to be in working order; the Ca6 handler, Les Duvall, wanted one of the mechanics to see about a sticking lock on the release cage, and there was still the city. The Ma3Ks couldn't exactly shine if the only colors were tan and brick.
'Have to get the construction people into Four tomorrow. And see how the Avis do with the perches-' A red light flashed on the panel in front of him, breaking his thoughts and accompanied by a soft mechanical bleat.
It was the sixth or seventh time in the last week; he'd have to get Cole to fix that, too. The winds sweeping off the plain could be vicious; on a bad day, they rattled the doors to the surface structures hard enough to set off all of the sensors.
Still, good thing he was there, once the Planet was fully staffed, there'd always be someone in control to reset the sensors, but for the time being, he was the only one with access to the control room. If he'd been in bed, the soft but insistent alarm currently going off in his private room would have forced him to get up.
Reston reached for the switch, glancing at the row of monitors to his left more for the sake of it than because he expected to see anything-
-and froze. Staring at a screen that showed him the entry room nearly a quarter mile above where he sat, in a view from the ceiling cam in the southeast corner. Six people, turning on flashlights, all of them dressed in black. The thin beams of light roamed over the dusty consoles, the walls of meteorological equipment, and illuminated the weapons they were holding in flashes of metal. Guns and rifles.
'Oh, no.'
Reston felt almost a full second of fear and despair before he remembered who he was. Jay Reston had not become one of the most powerful men in the country, perhaps in the world, by panicking.
He reached beneath the console, reached for the slender handset tucked into the slot next to the chair that would connect him directly to White Umbrella's private offices. As soon as he picked it up, the line went through.
"This is Reston," he said, hearing the steel in his own voice, "We have a problem. I want a call put in to Trent, I want Jackson to call me immediately, and send out a team, now, I want them here twenty minutes ago."
He stared at the screen as he spoke, at the intruders, and clenched his jaw, his initial fear turning to anger. The fugitive STARS surely...
It didn't matter. Even if they found the entrance, they didn't have the codes, and whoever they were, they would pay for causing him even a second of distress.
Reston slid the phone back into its slot, folded his arms, and watched the strangers move silently across the screen, wondering if they had any idea that they'd be dead within half an hour.
X
The building was cold and dark, but there was the soft hum of working machinery to break the silence, to listen to over the pounding of her heart. It wasn't too big, maybe thirty feet by twenty, but it was a single room, big enough to feel unsafe, vulnerable. Small lights blinked randomly all around it, like dozens of eyes watching them from the shadows.
Rebecca trailed the tight beam from her flashlight over the west wall of the building, looking for anything out of the ordinary and trying not to feel sick at the same time. She knew they were in the right, that they were the good guys, but still her palms were damp, her heart hammering, and she wished desperately there were a bathroom she could get to. Her bladder had apparently shrunk to the size of a walnut.
She leaned in to take a closer look at the machine in front of her, a stand-up device the size of a refrigerator and covered with buttons; the label on the front read, 'OGO Relay', whatever that was. As far as she could tell, the room was full of big, clunky machines awash in switches; if all of the other buildings were similarly equipped, finding Trent's hidden code panel was going to be an all-night operation.
Each of them had taken a wall, John was going over the tables in the middle of the room while Ethan looked at a couple of the machines more closely. Running his hands gently over them trying to find hidden switches or panels.
There was probably a surveillance camera set up somewhere in the building, which made the need to hurry even greater, although they were all hoping that the minimal staff meant no one would be watching. If they were very lucky, the security system wouldn't even be hooked up yet.
'No, that would be a miracle. Lucky will be if we get in and out of this alive and unhurt, with or without that book.' shaking her head to rid herself of those lines of thoughts as she continued her own search.
Since they'd walked away from the van, Rebecca's internal alarms had been ticking down to a full-blown case of the nerves. From her short time with the STARS she'd learned that trusting her gut feelings was important, maybe even more important than having a weapon; instinct told people to duck bullets, to hide when the enemy was near, to know when to wait and when to act.
It was something she had been able to use when she was surviving the Arklay facilities beside Ethan.
The problem is, however, how do you know if it's instinct or if you're just scared shitless? She didn't know. What she knew was that she wasn't feeling good about their late-night raid; she was cold and jumpy, her stomach hurt, and she couldn't shake the belief that something bad was going to happen.
Pausing to take a deep, calming breath, she tried to take her mind off the stress. Thinking about what Ethan had told her before they came out here, the words echoing clearly in her thoughts making her anxiety dip more and more.
One of the many things she loved about him was his cool head in a stressful situation. Ethan often said he has a tendancy to go 'robotic' when in a tough spot, shutting down emotions and letting his logic take full control. It was this level-headedness that had saved both them, and the others more times than she could count.
David had called it a unique trait that even veteran soldiers had on the battlefield, but to see it in someone so young startled him. Rebecca couldn't blame him there, she often worried about her lover when he reached that point.
Scanning her eyes along a few other pieces of machinery, she paused when she saw something that actually looked out of place;
'Hello...what's this?' she wondered while approaching a machine just to the right of the OGO that looked like a water heater, a tall, rounded device with a window in the front. Behind the small square of glass was a spool of graph paper, covered with thready black lines, nothing she recognized.
But what had caught her eye was the dust on the glass. It was the same finely powdered dirt that seemed to be on everything in the room...except it wasn't. There was a smudge across the dirt, a damp streak that may have been caused by someone's finger.
A smudge on dirt?
If someone had run their hand over the dusty glass, they would have cleared a path. Rebecca touched it, frowning and felt the pebbled surface of the dust, the tiny ridges and whorls like sandpaper beneath her fingers. It was painted or sprayed on...it was fake!
"Might have something," she whispered, and touched the window where the smudge was. The window popped open, swinging out to reveal a sparkling metal square behind it, a ten-key set into an extremely undusty-looking panel; the graph paper was also fake, just a part of the glass.
"Bingo," John whispered from behind her, and Rebecca stepped back, feeling a flush of excitement as the others gathered around, feeling the tension coming from all of them. The mist of their combined breath made a small cloud in the freezing room, reminding her of how cold she was.
'Too cold...We should go back to the van, back to the hotel for a hot bath...back in bed with Ethan...' She could hear the desperation in her inner voice. It wasn't the cold, it was this place.
She felt a hand grasp hers and squeeze, looking back to see Ethan smiling at her reassuringly. The black skullcap covering the top of his head stopping just above his eyebrows which made his eyes standout more in the low-lit room.
"Brilliant," David said softly, and stepped forward, holding his flashlight up. He'd memorized Trent's codes, eleven in all, each eight digits long.
"It'll be the last one, watch," John whispered. Rebecca might have laughed if she wasn't so scared.
John fell silent as they watched the Captain plug in the first numbers, Rebecca gripping Ethan's hand as they all waited, thinking that if they didn't work she wouldn't be all that disappointed.
X
Jackson had called, informing Reston in his cool, cultured tones that two four-man teams were on their way by helicopter from Salt Lake City. "It so happens that our branch office was entertaining a few of the troops," he'd said. "We have Trent to thank for that; he suggested that we start relocating some of our security in advance of the grand opening, so to speak."
Reston had been glad to hear it, but wasn't so happy about the fact that they were there, four armed men and two women poking around the Planet's entrance in the middle of the night...
"They can't get in, Jay," he'd interrupted, gently, soothingly. "They don't have access."
Reston had swallowed his knee-jerk response to that, thanking him instead. Jackson Cortlandt was probably the most patronizing and arrogant son of a bitch Reston had ever known, but he was also extremely competent, and extremely savage if need be; the last man who'd crossed Jackson had been mailed to his family in pieces. Saying 'No shit' to the senior member was akin to walking off a tall building.
Jackson had then made it quite clear that while he appreciated the call, it would be best for Jay to handle such matters himself in the future, that if he'd bothered to keep himself apprised of internal shiftings, he would have known about the teams in SLC.
There was no explicit wrist-slapping, but Reston got the message all the same; he hung up feeling as though he'd been severely chastised; watching the six interlopers search the entry building only added to his mounting tension.
No codes, no access, even if they find the controls.
Twenty minutes. All he had to do was wait for twenty minutes, half an hour at the outside. Reston took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly...
And forgot to inhale again as he saw one of them, a girl, push on the window to the keypad.
They'd found it, and he still didn't know who they were or how they knew about the Planet, but the way one of the men stepped forward and started punching keys suggested that twenty minutes could be too long to wait for help.
'He's guessing, random numbers, it's not possible...' he thought, hoping beyond all hope.
Reston watched the tall, dark-haired man continue to tap in numbers and thought about what Trent had said at their last gathering. That White Umbrella might have a leak.
An information leak, from someone high up. Someone who might know the entry codes.
He reached for the phone again and then stopped, Jackson's subtle warning making him break out in a light sweat. He had to handle it, he had to keep them from getting in, but everyone was asleep and there wasn't an intercom, there was a gun in his room but if they had the code, he didn't have time to...
...Override!
Reston turned away from the screen and started for the door, kicking himself as he hurried out of control. There was a manual override switch in a hidden panel next to the elevator, he could keep the lift down even if they had the entrance numbers, and the teams will come and collect the little pack of invaders, and he will have handled it.
He smiled, a smile entirely without humor, and broke into a run.
X
Ethan watched as David typed in another string of numbers, hoping their presence hadn't been detected yet.
He hadn't seen a camera, but that didn't mean there wasn't one; if Umbrella could build massive underground laboratories and create monsters, they could hide a video camera or two in a building of this size.
David hit a final key, and there was sound and movement at once, the low hiss of hidden hydraulics, the distant hum of an engine. A giant piece of the wall to the right of the keypad slid upward.
As one, all six of them raised weapons, and lowered them again when they saw the thick mesh gate and the black and empty elevator shaft behind it.
"Damn," John said, a tone of awe in his voice, and the traveler had to agree. The panel was ten feet across, thick and heavy with machinery, and had completely disappeared into the ceiling in two seconds. Whatever mechanism was operating it was exceptionally powerful.
"What's that?" Rebecca whispered, they heard it a second later. A distant hum.
"The code must have summoned the elevator." said Ethan as they waited in the freezing shadows.
"We may have triggered a warning device or alarm," David said quietly. "It might not be empty. Be ready."
Everyone took up positions, all silent and tense as they waited while pointing weapons at the mesh gate.
X
Reston found the flat, seamless panel, and pried it open without any trouble.
But there was a lock on the switch, a thin metal rod hooked through the top, keeping it from being pushed down. It wasn't until he saw the lock that he recalled it; yet another of Umbrella's precautions, one that suddenly seemed monumentally stupid.
'The keys, the workers all have them, I got a set before I came!' he shouted mentally. Running his hands through his hair, wracking his brain, feeling desperate and harried. 'Where'd I put the goddamn security keys?'
When he heard the lift being recalled to the surface only seconds later, it was all he could do to keep from screaming. They had the code. They had guns and there were six of them and they had the code.
'Takes two minutes to get to the top, I've still got time and the keys are!'
Blank. His mind was blank, and the seconds were ticking past. He'd already hit the recall button, but it wouldn't bring the elevator back down if someone opened the gate on the surface. For all he knew, the assassins or saboteurs or whatever the hell they were had already pried opened the gate, were now watching the lift on its way up, waiting...
Or maybe throwing a few pounds of plastic explosives into the shaft...or...
'Control, they're in control!'
Reston turned and ran, across the wide corridor and ten feet to the right, down the small offshoot outside of control. His first day at the Planet, one of the construction people had shown him all of the internal locks, backup generator, drug cabinet in surgical...manual override for the lift.
He'd yawned his way through that particular tour, then tossed the keys into a drawer in the control room, knowing that he wouldn't be needing them.
He hurried through the door, deciding that he could berate himself for forgetting the keys later, wondering how things had gone so out of control in such a short period of time. Only ten minutes ago he'd been sipping brandy, relaxing...
...and ten minutes from now, he could be dead. Reston hurried.
X
The elevator was big, at least ten feet across and twelve deep. They all squinted as it rose into view, the harsh light from a naked bulb in the ceiling nearly blinding after their long stint in darkness.
The elevator came to a smooth stop. The latch on the mesh gate unlocked and the gate slid into the wall. John and Ethan were closest. The larger man glanced at David, who nodded a go-ahead.
"First floor, shoes, menswear, Umbrella assholes," John said, not particularly bothered that he didn't get a laugh. Everyone had their own preferred method for dealing with tension. Besides, his sense of humor was more fully developed.
Ethan shook his head, cracking a smile at the attempt as they entered the lift. Scanning the walls for anything unusual.
The elevator looked okay, dusty but solid. The two men lowered their weapons, Leon entering right behind them-
-A red light started to blink on the lift's control panel, grabbing their attention instantly.
"Be still," John hissed, holding his hand up, not wanting anyone else to get on until he saw what the light was for-
-The mesh gate slammed close behind them, the latch snapping shut a second later. Spinning around, they saw Claire and Rebecca lunging for the gate from the other side and David running for the keypad.
There was a rasping click from overhead and Leon, closer to the front, shouted at Claire and Rebecca. "Get back!"
The wall panel came slamming down, and the girls were stumbling back. Ethan just barely caught a final glimpse of the shocked and pale faces of their friends in the darkness, the complete terror on Rebecca's as the door closed. The elevator going down.
John crouched by the controls, punching at the buttons, and saw what the flashing red light was for.
"Manual override," he said, and stood up, looking at the younger men with him, not sure what to say. Their simple plan had just been totally screwed.
"Shit," Leon said, John and Ethan both could only nod in agreement, thinking he'd summed it up perfectly.
A/N: When it comes to Umbrella, nothing's ever easy. Now that the teams separated, and they've got USS teams heading their way, how will they manage to make it out of Umbrella's clutches once again?
Reviews=Update, an annoying credo, but knowing you guys think this story is kickass is like crack to me...lol. See ya next time!