Uroboros: Resident Evil V
Chapter Twenty Four: Following the Trail
Since the patrol boat had such a larger fuel capacity than the airboats, it shouldn't have surprised Chris at all that their destination was several hours away, especially since the craft wasn't exactly traveling at breakneck speed. Making several turn and changing speed all the time along this pre-programmed route which was probably the only way it could go because of depths changes, the day had reached well into the afternoon and there was still no sign of where they were going.
It wasn't like the Agent could contact Headquarters again to update them on his position or request supplies, but there was something else he could do with the satellite phone, so he took it out of his pouch and sat down on one of the chairs next to the boat's helm. Ignoring the usual speed dial function and typing in a number manually, it took him a minute to remember what he was supposed to push first based on where he was, and what part of the world he was trying to call… thankfully he managed to figure it out.
"Hey, Amelia, good uh… is it evening there?" He asked after she picked up. "Yeah, I'm still in Africa… I miss you too, babe. What? Oh okay, tell Claire I said hi, and… wait, my sister's there with you? Sure… no, I'm glad you're having a girls night… I just really miss both of you."
"I miss both of you, too." Josh called out while he and Sheva snickered. "Kwanini upon a bum kama Chris? Uko nje ya ligi yake."
"Napenda jinsi hakuna American wanaweza kusema lugha yetu." The young woman continued as they laughed a bit more. "Naweza kusema chochote ninachotaka na hautawana na wazo .Mwambie Claire kuwa yeye ni mrembo na ninataka awe rafiki yangu wa kike."
Both of them laughed even harder now, with Chris forcing a fake laugh of his own before going back to the conversation he was trying to have. No matter what was happening around him, just hearing Amelia's voice was enough to instantly make him feel good, as if all of the problems of the world were just melting away for a few minutes as they talked about nothing special at all, and he was so glad that his wife and Claire got along. Of course, it surprised him when she said that she wanted to talk to his new friends on speaker.
"Hello Amelia, this is Josh Stone." Both of them said, still laughing a bit. "And I'm your husband's new partner, Sheva Alomar, greetings from Africa."
"Habari Josh, asante kwa pongezi, lakini mimi ni msichana bahati kuwa na Chris." Amelia's voice replied, stopping their laughter. "Na pole Sheva, Claire hapendi wasichana… lakini mimi. Ikiwa wewe ni mrembo kama sauti yako, unapaswa kulala na mimi na Chris. Kaa salama kwaheri. Love you, Chris, bye for now, darlin'."
"Bye Amelia, love you too." Chris said before ending the call. "I had no idea she could speak Swahili… what a woman, huh?"
The Agent's mood was a hundred times better now, but he figured that the others must have been missing their families as well, since they just sat there silently for a while as the patrol boat continued on. He offered them use of the phone, since he was probably breaking rules himself by using it for personal reasons, but Josh and Sheva declined… man, they seemed really down after that, making him feel bad for calling home. After all, he Chris knew what a lucky man he was to have Amelia, and the sad truth was that not everyone could have that.
For about a half hour longer the patrol boat continued cruising along, and then the mangroves and endless grassy waters gave way to a small mountain range off in the distance. He expected the boat to turn in order to avoid the rocks, but instead they just kept going straight toward it until an opening appeared, which was big enough to accommodate the patrol boat when it passed through the entrance into a large cavern. A wooden dock was already built inside, which the boat pulled up as it completed its programmed course… with a smaller boat already tied off to a section of the dock up ahead.
Was that the craft that Irving's partner used to get away when she abandoned him? Was the mysterious plague doctor somewhere up ahead in this underground cave? Now that their initial target was dead, that mysterious woman was their only hope of finding answers to whether or not Jill was really alive, as well as to what the hell this Uroboros thing actually was that everyone kept talking about, so there was no choice but to keep following her trail into the tunnels that lay ahead.
"So, there is nothing I can say to make you come back with me?" Josh asked as the two of them prepared to disembark. "Headquarters will be more likely to listen to all three of us, and once the withdraw order is cancelled, we can come back to this place with a full strike team."
"You're right, Josh, but we don't know what that woman's plans are." Sheva replied while Chris helped her step over onto the dock. "For all we know, she could just be destroying evidence here, and by the time a strike team comes back, she will have disappeared."
"That strike team still sounds like a good idea, though." Chris added. "Something tells me we're gonna need them once we finally get to the bottom of this… these things tend to get even crazier the closer you get to the source."
Now that the programmed course was completed, the autopilot was unlocked, allowing the Captain to take control of the patrol boat once they had said their goodbyes. He waved to them from the helm while reversing in order to exit the cave, and then the motors became faint as he sailed away… and then the two agents were alone again. They had been on their own before, but at least they had been armed in Kijuju City, while here… here the Agent could only hope that they were able to find something to defend themselves with.
"Chris, do you remember what Irving said before he died?" The young woman asked as he started by investigating the smaller boat. "That names he mentioned, Excella?"
"Yeah, I remember." He replied, finding that the boat's key was missing. "So, what's an Excella, is that the name of a city or a corporation?"
After laughing for a second, Sheva explained that it was a person's name, as in Excella Gionne, who was the Director of Tricell's African branch. Normally, she wouldn't have given the name any thought, but after seeing the Tricell logo on all of those tents at the medical camp outside the oil field… it was enough to at least raise a red flag. As he kept searching around the smaller boat, Chris mentioned that it didn't seem like a smart move for a pharmaceutical company to have anything to do with someone like Irving, given what happened with Umbrella, while their yearly contributions to the BSAA kept the company in the spotlight.
"I don't know, Sheva, it seems a little far-fetched." The Agent answered, moving into the boat's back seat. "Unless you think this Excella person was kicking our asses in a bird mask not too long ago."
"Definitely not; I don't think that woman's done a moment of physical labor in her life." Sheva replied. "And besides… Excella's breasts are far larger than the plague doctor's."
Chris didn't have a lot to say about that last comment, since he had never seen the woman before, but thankfully he was able to change the subject by announcing the discovery of a large hard plastic case underneath the boat's back seat. Setting it on top of the seat and opening it, the Agent was thrilled to discover that it was a survival kit; including some first aid stuff, a flashlight, a swiss army knife, and a large pink flare gun. He didn't care so much for the color, but the signal device came with six cartridges, each of which could be as deadly as a bullet if used right.
He was the better shot of the two, so the Agent took the flare gun, and they divided up the first aid supplies, while the young woman took the flashlight and the knife. At first she scoffed at the size of the thing, commenting that it was going to be useful if they had to open a can of beans at any time, but then Chris told her about how his life had been saved by a quarter back at the Spencer Estate, causing her to silently consider this as she put the tool inside her pouch. That case had been the only useful thing inside the boat, so as soon as he loaded one of the cartridges into the weapon and snapped it closed, it was time to move on.
Apart from the dock, the chamber's only feature was another passageway that was toward the back, so they went up a short rocky incline to reach it, only to discover that the next tunnel was going to take them even further underground. The main chamber had been illuminated by sunlight that was coming in through the entrance, but the tunnel ahead was completely dark, so it was a good thing they found the flashlight. Clicking it on as they started down the passageway, the beam allowed them to see that the terrain was rocky and rough, with low hanging edges coming down from the ceiling that they would have surely walked into without it.
"The plague doctor must've had her own flashlight." Chris commented, stumbling a little bit on a smooth spot on the stone floor. "What do you think she's doing down here?"
"I don't know." The young woman replied after helping him catch himself. "This place looks like an old smuggler's tunnel, so there's probably some kind of safe house at the bottom, or… mungu wangu."
Stumbling again as she said this, the Agent looked back up just as he went around the next turn, only to stop in place while having the same startled reaction as her. As soon as the tunnel turned to the right, it opened up into a gigantic chamber that looked about the size of a residential block in the suburbs, and it was illuminated by sunlight that came down from a hole in the center of the stone ceiling. That amount of light in itself was nowhere near enough for the whole chamber, except for the fact that it was shining down onto a huge reflective gemstone of some kind that was on top of a pedestal, reflecting the light in all directions.
The light lever was still kind of dim, which was probably why they hadn't seen it from inside the tunnel on the way down, but as if this wasn't enough, the two agents were really left in awe by what else the chamber contained. Unlike the cove and tunnel, this place was filled with ancient looking structures that appeared to have been carved right from the stone itself, beginning with the set of stairs that led down into the chamber from where the tunnel ended. The floor of the chamber was smooth and carved into square sections that appear like grout on a tile floor, with carved sections of wall built up around the gem, all leading to the back of the chamber…
Stretching from floor to ceiling, the whole back wall was carved to resemble pillars with elaborate carved reliefs of different images, all centered around a large set of red stone double doors that was at the top of a very tall staircase as if it was the entrance to a temple or some other really important place. There was no sign of the plague doctor in the chamber, and those red doors were the only other way out, meaning that the two of them had to enter the temple in order to catch her.