"Shall we proceed?"
Light leaked through tiny holes in Marcus' portrait. Tanis turned her ear slightly towards the sound of Albert's echoing footsteps. She was relieved he'd turned his back when he did. Thankful he didn't note the look of surprise that had snuck onto her face. She couldn't help the minor breach in her mask. She hadn't expected to spot the tiny stream of light coming from a hole in the painting situated in the knot of James Marcus' ugly yellow tie. Her eyes remained glued to the oblong white circle the light cast on the dusty marble floor.
Albert didn't notice. It was the explanation Tanis settled on. It didn't matter if he intentionally ignored the painting because he knew what was beyond it or not. Conceivably the dull white glow leaking in from a little hole in the canvas was evidence of emergency lights on the other side. The alternative was someone was careless enough to leave a light on in the facility. Whichever applied, the building retained working power. Was the painting concealing Aprico's entrance to the underground laboratory?
"Keep close," Albert's voice echoed in the hall like someone speaking in a planetarium. "We need the light to continue."
The beam of Tanis' flashlight stretched across the hall until it spilled across Albert standing halfway between the staircase and a white door on the wall behind him.
"Will we be able to use the security cameras without any-" As soon as Tanis' boot touched down on the dusty foyer floor, the distinct sound of a door closing made her freeze in place. Her eyes met the reflection of her flashlight beam in Albert's shades. The slight lift of his chin sufficiently indicated he'd undoubtedly heard it too.
The sound had come from behind and above her. Tanis looked over her shoulder and aimed her light. Two doors loomed on the balcony above. Tanis wet her lips with her tongue as she listened to the scrape of dust beneath the soles of Albert's shoes as he approached.
The strap of Tanis' sleeve gun dig into her wrist. "Did you bring protection?"
Upwards, a golden brow quirked from behind the rim of Albert's shades. He cocked his head a little after and smirked slightly. "A switchblade. In the right hands it'll be as effective as anything else."
As refreshing as Albert's humor proved to be, the timing polluted her mind with doubt. This was premeditated. Albert had arranged for her termination, and their conversation in the parlor was all an act. Tanis quirked a brow at him and rolled back her left sleeve. If it wasn't, then they were both genuinely in the dark about their third.
Taking a step back, Tanis activated the mechanism on the inside of her wrist. The tiny pistol slid along its rail that spanned the length of her forearm, delivering the pistol into her hand. Tanis looked from the pair of doors on the second floor to Albert, using each step he took up the dusty marble steps to steady her counting.
"Stay behind me," Tanis said, looking up at Albert.
"Who's employed who again?" Albert's lowered voice echoed in the foyer as he asked. "We could use some information. Don't go with your usual kill everything first instinct."
Tanis managed a distracted smirk and ascended the following set of stairs of the platform. She took the steps two at a time and walked lightly along the bare marble floors of the second floor. Tanis reached the first of the two doors and stopped when she heard another slam. Ostentatiously decorated but soundproof the walls of this center were not.
Without another word, Tanis clicked off her flashlight and grabbed the large brass door handle of the closer door. As soon as she pivoted the handle, she heard footsteps. Tanis flexed her hand around the handle, prepared. Had their intruder detected them?
The breeze off of the ornate door swept across Tanis' face as she yanked it open. Her active mind caught a glimpse of a beige coat fast approaching before something hard cracked across the bridge of her nose. Unprepared for the decisive whack, Tanis unintentionally pulled the trigger. The pop of a bullet echoed loudly in the foyer as Tanis' back struck the hard ground. Just before she landed, her scalp scraped against the iron railing behind her.
The visible world briefly disconnected from Tanis' perception and her vision clouded with an infestation of discolored blotches, effectively making her lose track of both Albert and her attacker. Tanis felt thick trails of blood ooze freely from her nostrils to her chin as she groped the cylinder of her pistol.
In her disorientation, Tanis again spotted the beige coat just before a dainty pair of gloved hands clapped around her wrist. Tanis instantly swept her tongue across her bloodied lips and spit in her attacker's face.
A voice, a feminine voice, cried out in disgust as they drew back.
Tanis tried following up with a head butt but she, along with her attacker, were both pulled up from the floor.
"Before you do anything foolish in retaliation, I see a light switch."
The room tilted back and forth as Tanis listened to Albert's voice echo in the room. Or was it her skull? She discerned nothing from her attacker, so she assumed he'd either managed to subdue them or anticipated witnessing a slit throat in the near future.
Tanis could register that Albert stood with his back to her, effectively separating her from their third. His right arm was raised slightly so his hand was level to their throat.
"There is only one way to read this situation, regardless of who you are," Albert said, "So let us make this as efficient as possible."
An aggressive pounding ravaged Tanis' skull as she grabbed the railing behind her and hauled herself to her feet. On her way to the door, her boot struck something that rolled, possibly the weapon that had connected with her face. She stumbled to the door and groped the wall until she blinded herself by flicking a switch.
A flurry of blinks properly dismissed the spots from Tanis' vision and but did stop everything from tilting. She made out Albert standing before her with his switchblade pressed to the neck of someone she immediately recognized.
A perplexing shine emanated from Ada Wong's obsidian, silken hair. The angular, jagged cut of her bobbed hair hung just above a bunched up, wine-colored scarf that haloed her pale neck. Her knee-length khaki trench coat offered her a far more conservative façade than Tanis had seen prior. What captured Tanis' attention were the pair of reflective black pumps Ada wore. Not a scratch, nor any evident sign of grass plastered to either shoe. Additionally, her trench coat was free of condensation.
On the floor between her and Ada, Tanis frowned at a polished and lacquered cane christened with a bloodied Spencer family crest. Admittedly Tanis felt the considerable relief that came from Ada failing to whack her harder. Death by a gaudy walking stick from a woman several pounds lighter than her would have been humiliating.
Ada's thin, perfectly picked brows were pinched into a defiant glare. Albert's switchblade tugged a little at the ring of her scarf, exposing a little window to her neck while his other handheld fast to her forearm.
A comprehensive glance between Ada's defiant glare looking back at the incredulous look on Albert's face told Tanis enough. She sniffed and tentatively approached them, pushing the gaudy cane further away from Ada with her boot.
"Oh, so you've met." Tanis frowned down at several droplets of blood that bounced from her mouth as soon as her lips met. She took off her glove and winced when her bandage peeled with it.
"I'd say that's about as obvious as the trail of blood from your nose, though it's just as bothersome as this one being here," Albert remarked irritably as he pulled the switchblade away from Ada's throat.
Tanis glowered at him as she pulled her sleeve over her fist and held it to her flowing nostrils. She could see through the younger spy's attempts to posture herself. Her trench coat scarcely hid the slight rise of her shoulders as Albert released her.
"First grown man I've met who's upset at the sight of blood," Tanis muttered behind her sleeve.
"Mumble on your own time." Albert turned to face Ada head on but cocked his ear towards her.
Tanis sniffed again and winced from the jolt of pain it caused, intentionally ignoring the amused smirk on Ada's face.
"While she may only have four letter words for you right now, I want to know why you are here. A the quicker the better."
Tanis shot another glare at the back of Albert's head.
The dark-haired woman glared back at Albert, her eyes attempting to communicate something only they seemed to know.
Albert's expression communicated nothing, but Tanis tabled her suspicion. She thumbed her pistol with anticipation. Ada was here on Alexandrine's Spencer's behalf and she almost put a bullet in her head.
"My job." Ada cocked her head defiantly, "What's strange is that the head of Umbrella's Security is breaking into a shut down research center. Not to mention the tagalong, you brought with him."
Tanis rolled her eyes at the triumphant little smirk that formed on Ada's face, especially when it shrank back down a fraction at the site of her gun. "I could say the same about a 'scientist' bludgeoning a person in this aforementioned shut down research center."
"Didn't break your nose, did I? I'd hate to be responsible for ruining your only feature."
The petty attempt at an insult would have made Tanis laugh if her head didn't hurt so much. She reasoned the constant pulsating in her head was an indication of a minor concussion and reminded herself the pain didn't compare to a previous experience of shrapnel burning her skull. Albert held up a hand without looking at her, indicating he intended to reclaim control of the conversation.
"Perhaps I was looking to impress the 'fancy writer' with a scary adventure." Sarcasm dripped from word that came from Albert's mouth.
Tanis caught Ada making the same face she did. Admittedly she could hardly blame the woman. Albert was the only one who knew where he was going with his bluff.
"Get the adrenaline flowing as well as some other…"
Tanis shifted her gaze to Albert again when she realized he stopped talking. His gaze was fastened to her hand—or more specifically the gun she'd just cocked. Tanis' mind must have been more fogged than she thought because within the blink of an eye, Albert somehow traversed the space between them and slapped her armed hand away.
"That seems unnecessary. We're all adults here are we not?" His lack of patience was evident in his voice.
"Strange place for your employer to be sending you in search of a leak, isn't it?"
Ada rolled her eyes as she tilted her head and began to walk towards the stairs. "If you have a problem, you know who to complain to."
Tanis stared, watching Ada continue to stroll towards the staircase. Any other time she would have simply opened fire on one of Ada's kneecaps, but she couldn't help noticing Albert's inaction.
Alexandrine Spencer's spy had caught her and Albert Wesker breaking into a shutdown Umbrella building and he was letting her walk away.
Albert standing with his back to her made seeing his expression impossible, but his body language compensated. Since Tanis could put aside the possibility that she and Albert were actually here to bug the location, she could focus on their immediate problem.
"Hey," Tanis called, hearing her own voice echo painfully in her head, "We're not finished."
Ada hung her head backwards as she glided past the stairs and towards a statue holding a pair of scales.
"Shouldn't you get your head looked at?" Ada stopped in line with a pair of doors that loomed behind the statue. She pivoted on the tips of her heels and glared. "Not to brag but that's a lot of blood I-"
Once more they heard a slam but this time from beyond the double doors that loomed behind the younger spy. Tanis slowed as she watched confusion spread across Ada's face. Her pain receptors pounded in tandem with the sound of Albert's footsteps approaching from behind.
As soon as Tanis reached the head of the staircase, the doors behind Ada burst open. One of the doors hit Ada's shoulder, making her stumble. A figure came through the doorway, reaching towards her with outstretched hands.
"Behind me, now." Albert commanded, drowning out what Tanis perceived to sound like a moan.
Before Albert could step in her way, Tanis lifted her pistol and fired two rounds. The figure stumbled on their own before either of her shots connected. The first bullet splintered through one of the wood doors and the other sank squarely into their head.
"Oh shit," Tanis gasped, watching the person's body slump forward onto the marble floor.
The reverb of the figure's body smacking the marble floor deafened Tanis to everything around her. She jumped a little when Albert grabbed her forearm and hastily worked at pull back her sleeve. Tanis watched his mouth formulate words, but she couldn't hear what he was saying. Her eyes moved to his gloved hands unstrapping her pistol from her wrist. She deafly nodded in response when he paused, waiting for her to respond.
Without hesitation, Albert marched towards Ada, Tanis' pistol in hand. He aimed her pistol, stopping to stand parallel with the statue.
The younger spy was already on her feet but raised her hands, anyway, scowling as she did.
A stench flooded Tanis' nostrils as she silently stepped forward, eyes glued to the oozing skull of their fourth. At first, Tanis thought she was staring at an old man. She took a couple of steps closer and stared at their severely discolored skin. Their scalp was littered with uneven patches of hair, parted by scabs the size of her palms. Tanis saw rows of teeth along the man's cheek and realized the corner of his mouth had been torn open. Skin barely clung to his face and his eyelids were swollen. The man's clothes were tattered, the button-up shirt he wore was filthy and his trousers barely held together. He didn't wear shoes and was missing some of his toes.
The stench became unbearable enough for Tanis to cup her hand over her throbbing nose. Who was this person? Why was he so mutilated?
Despite the man's grotesque appearance, he looked peaceful lying on his side with his eyes closed and his horribly mutilated mouth hung open.
A memory played out in Tanis' mind, of a time when she perceived the bodies of naked women floating in filthy water. Of Malcolm almost dropping a drowned woman upon the discovery of what dangled from her umbilical cord. She recalled the deflated folds of the mother's swollen stomach, of the repulsive gray creature that hung from her like a swollen balloon. The way the gashes on the women's bodies folded back like wet tissue. The stench of rotted flesh that had been submerged in sewage forever catalogued in her memory bank. This was the handy work of a serial killer.
"Given that Tanis just solved your problem, I would say you've lost whatever small ground you thought you had in our previous conversation. Talk. Now."
Snapped from her reverie, Tanis lowered her hand from her face and peered into the room beyond the double doors. She could see rows of long wood tables on diamond-checkered floors.
"Where did he come from?"
Both Ada and Albert stared back at her. Neither answered. Tanis' eyes locked onto to her pistol in Albert's hand. She licked blood from her lips as her heart began to pound hard in her ears.
"Where did he come from?"
