Uroboros: Resident Evil V

Chapter Fourteen: Ricardo Irving

Staying crouched down as they made their way up to the shack at the edge of the mine, Chris got down even lower so that he could stay hidden while peeking through one of the small building's windows. The glass was dirty and cracked in places, but in the light of the single hanging bulb fixture in the center of the shack's only room, the Agent could see a man in a light colored sports jacket moving around quickly back and forth. There wasn't a lot of furniture around inside, but this guy looked like he was in a panic as he rummaged through every cabinet and cupboard like a criminal who was trying to clean house right before a SWAT raid.

Chris could hear him muttering to himself while shoving everything he could find inside of a small gym bag, and since he was alone, the Agent had to assume that this was the target. Motioning for Sheva to move around the corner and get on the other side of the door, they both stood up and he did a silent three count with his fingers before turning around and causing the man inside to let out a startled squeaking noise when he kicked open the door. The wood was so rotted that it was broken right off the rusted hinges, adding to Chris's intimidation factor in a way that made him smirk… until the panicked man picked up a pistol that was on the counter next to him.

"No, no, no, no." The Agent warned, already with his own pistol aimed at the target's head. "Put the gun down, Irving, there's nowhere left to run."

"Run? I ain't runnin' nowhere." He replied in a shaky voice that was cracking. "Now both of youse drop your guns, and you get on the floor, big guy… I'm takin' the girl here as my hostage."

If someone was to look up the word desperate in the dictionary, they probably would have found a picture of Ricardo Irving; a scrawny little man who was so sweaty with fear that his hair was all matted down, and it looked like he had been wearing the same cheap suit for a week. It was actually a little hard for Chris to believe that this guy was the one who had done all the damage to Kijuju City, yet there he was, looking like he was about to piss himself while repeatedly motioning for them to lower their weapons, even as the two BSAA agents surrounded him.

"Are you… are you serious right now?" Sheva asked as the man kept moving his weapon back and forth between them. "Irving, there's two of us… that means that even if you shoot one of us, the other will kill you, now… just drop it."

"Don't waste your breath, Sheva." Chris added, waiting for the right moment. "He's just another scumbag terrorist, like all the others."

Suddenly the target's mood too an aggressive turn as if those words offended him, saying loudly that he was a business man with standards, and then repeating that he was going to take the young woman hostage. This also gave the Agent the opening he needed, so as soon as Irving was starting to aim at her again, Chris stepped forward and grabbed the weapon with one hand while striking the target with his own pistol. Whack! One blow across the side of the head and Irving went down like a ton of bricks, bouncing off the nearby counter on his way down to the floor, and then gasping as something fell out of his pocket.

"All right, get up, scumbag." The Agent ordered, grabbing him by the jacket and pulling him to his feet. "So you got standards, huh? You look like a fucking used car salesman, now turn around."

Roughly spinning Irving away from him, and then forcing the target to bend forward over the counter, Chris twisted his wrist behind his back with one hand while using the other to reach for the handcuffs that were in one of his back pouches. Now the target was begging for them to let him go, saying that he would give them more money than they could make in five years, and that no one would ever know. Of course, this just made the Agent angrier, given that Reynard and all of Alpha Team had been killed trying to get this guy off the streets… and now he thought he could bribe them?

"I got a better idea." Chris replied, pulling him back up once he was cuffed. "My partner here is gonna call for transport, but if you're a good boy and tell me everything I need to know before the truck gets here, maybe I won't shoot you in the foot just for fun."

"Geez, lighten up, will'ya?" Irving replied while Sheva used her radio to contact Delta Team. "I'll talk, I'll talk, just uh… gimme a sec to catch my breath, okay?"

Delta Team was still working on the Kijuju City investigation, but said that they could send one man with a truck to get the prisoner, although he had to take the long way around. This was fine since Irving wasn't going anywhere, and after waiting about a minute after the radio conversation was over, it was time for the little weasel to start talking. There was so much that the BSAA needed to know; confirmation of the outbreak in Kijuju City, information about the BOW that wiped out Alpha Team, as well as who Irving's supplier…

Boom! Something landed at the Agent's feet just as he was about to start asking these questions, and his mind was just starting to register that it was a flashbang grenade, before everyone in the shack screamed in agony from the incredible light that followed. With ears ringing and vision blurred, Chris drew his pistol in an attempt to fight off the ambush that he knew was coming, but all he saw was a single figure rush into the shack, disarming him before maybe… kicking him?

It was hard to tell without being able to see properly, but whatever the attack was, it sent him reeling backwards, while the white figure did the same thing to Sheva. The young woman cried out as she was struck several times, before being hip-slung right onto a table that completely collapsed under her weight, and Chris must have been seeing things, because as his vision started to clear, he caught of the figure's face. It was silver, with a beak like those old medieval plague doctor masks, but the eyes were glowing red. As for the figure's body, it was slender and toned, clearly belonging to a woman based on the shape, but that was all he could get before she kicked him in the face.

"We've got to go." She said in a soft, feminine voice that sounded synthesized. "Hurry."

"Wait, my PDA!" Irving exclaimed as she was pulling him along after effortlessly removing his handcuffs. "Wait, damn it, stop pulling!"

The figure ignored the target's words, stopping only long enough to kick Sheva in the face when the young woman tried to stop her by grabbing her leg, and then she dragged Irving out of the shack. By this time the ringing in the Agent's ears was almost gone, and his vision was a lot clearer, so he stumbled after them, falling to his hands and knees outside the shack's broken door just in time to have gravel kicked up into his face as the white SUV sped away. Damn it, he knew he should have slashed the tires or something, but for now all he could do was try to stop them.

Bang! Bang! Firing two shots, neither of which likely got anywhere near their mark, Chris screamed in rage, punching the gravel road while the vehicle vanished around a turn off in the distance. Sheva was recovering by this time as well, stumbling out of the shack and rubbing her bruised lip as she knelt down next to him to see if he was all right. Unfortunately, there was nothing either of them could do until the man from Delta Team got there, but… there was that thing Irving dropped during the attempt to arrest him.

Just like the target had yelled during his rescue, it was a Personal Data Assistant, and since it was gonna be some time before transport arrived, there was no harm in going through whatever was on there, especially since Irving was willing to delay his escape in order to get it back. This PDA was one of the higher end models with a ton of storage space, so there were dozens of documents and pictures, many of which were a bunch of science things that he didn't understand. But the next thing he scrolled to was a picture that made the Agent freeze in place for several seconds to the point where Sheva asked him if he was all right.

He tried to respond to her question, but all he could do was form the start of a couple words while staring at the image on the screen. It was a close up shot of a woman's face who looked like she was asleep in some kind of medical pod like the ones they used to transport quarantines disease victims, dated just a couple weeks ago. Her skin was a bit pale and her hair was blonde for some reason, but there was no doubt at all… he was looking at a picture of Jill Valentine.

Suddenly a dozen horrible memories flashed through the Agent's mind, forcing him to see a flashes of the last time he had seen his old partner; a cliffside mansion, a fight, a broken window… no, those thoughts needed to get out of his head. Everything on Irving's PDA needed to be transmitted to Headquarters, because if there was the chance… just the slightest chance that this picture was real, then it had to be investigated. But where was it taken? There had to be something about a location in one of the other files, so the Agent scrolled through everything he could find, but all that came up was an operation map.

A large area was circled on the document in a dotted line with the labels OIL FIELD, and TEST CASE, but since it was just a local map he had no way of knowing where that was. Finally broken out of his trance from the picture, Chris was able to ask her, but according to the young woman the only oil field around was in the marshlands, and they were not exactly close by. If that was where Irving had fled to with his mysterious partner, then they wound need Delta Team's truck to take them to the water's edge, and then either a seaplane or an airboat to get across the marshes.

Right now this was the only lead that they had, and even if it turned out to not be where the target ran off to, then at least they would get to find out why the whole area around the oil field was labeled as a test case. Whatever the reason was for that, the only thing Chris knew for certain was that it couldn't be good.