Village: Resident Evil VIII

Chapter One: Surprise Audit

If the message had come from anyone else, Chris Redfield would have probably ignored it. After all, the Captain was in the middle of a very delicate, long term operation that required his almost undivided attention, but after receiving a message that Barry Burton himself needed to speak with him urgently, Chris couldn't refuse. This was why instead of being at his command post like on most nights, the Captain was on his way into a rather seedy looking bar in Satu Mare, Romania… God, Barry always did love a good dive bar. Even way back in Raccoon City, the big man had loved to play pool at Bar Jack, while Chris preferred the atmosphere, and better food, of the Grill 13… okay, so where was he?

No one reacted to the entrance of a stranger to the dimly lit establishment, which was good because it meant that the local patrons were used to seeing out of towners… far easier to go unnoticed that way. Even though it was much hotter in this place than out there on the snow covered streets, the Captain kept his hat and scarf on, not that he was a wanted criminal or anything… not like back in 2013 when he had completely lost his mind thanks to Alexia. Damn it, still no sign of Barry, and now Chris was starting to get worried as he slowly made his way around the room to one of the back tables.

The message from his friend had been sent using an old method the two of them had created back during the fight against Umbrella, so it had to be genuine, and… and God, it was hard to believe that the corporation had been taken down over twenty years ago, and yet there he was, still fighting bioterrorism. Okay, Chris, stay calm, he told himself as he sat down on a hard wooden chair at the farthest table, Barry was getting old, past the big six-zero now, and he was probably just in the can, so the Captain could wait. Huh… strange that no one had reacted to him as of yet… a pretty girl with black hair tied up in a bun was serving drinks at the bar, but no one came over and offered him anything yet.

As a few more minutes passed by, he began to get a little nervous, but usually if something bad was about to happen, either the place would get real quiet or a lot of them would suddenly clear out, but none of this was going on. All right, well, even if something was about to happen, Chris had a 9mm pistol in his shoulder holster, keeping one hand on the grip while sitting so that it looked like he was just trying to keep his hands warm from the cold outside. Part of him wished that he had been able to tell either Alexia or his team where he had gone, but that was against how this kind of meeting was set up.

Suddenly there was movement out of the corner of his eye, a figure who seemed to appear right out of the shadows, lightly brushing his own jacket against the table before setting down two bottles of Stejar beer before he sat down. Reflexively taking one of the bottles and twisting the cap off, the Captain sighed with relief and was just starting to greet his friend, when he realized that something was very wrong. It wasn't a subtle thing like he had first suspected, like the people acting strangely or anything like that, but instead it was real obvious that the person now sitting across from him at the small table was definitely not Barry Burton.

"Don't move, and keep your hands where I can see them." Chris quietly ordered, letting go of the bottle and drawing his pistol so that it was hidden under his free arm. "Now, what the fuck are you doing here, and where the hell is Barry?"

"I don't know, probably in Canada with his family." Tobias Liquid replied, not afraid to open his own beer and take a drink. "I heard Natalia's starting college this year, and… oh, loosen up, Redfield. Put that away and have a drink with me."

No, the Captain was absolutely not going to put his weapon away, in fact, it was going to remain exactly where it was, with the barrel aimed right between the former detective's, well… eyes. All right, so according to Tobias, Barry hadn't been killed or kidnapped or anything like that, so then… all he could do was repeat his first question, and the answer had better be a good one, too. With the track record this man had of committing acts of bioterrorism, on top of being classified as a BOW, himself, Chris would have no problem putting him down for good. But instead of answering once he was finished with his drink, Tobias reached into his pocket and took out his identification, which read:

TOBIAS A. LIQUID, SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR

EUROPEAN BRANCH

BIOTERRORISM SECURITY ASSESSMENT ALLIANCE

"You have got to be fucking kidding me." The Captain said after reading it and checking for signs of forgery. "The BSAA knows who you are, there's a file on you the size of the Chicago phonebook… how could you even get close to them to pull this shit?"

"They came to me, actually." The former detective replied. "Good thing, too, since me and Gillette weren't doing so good for a while there after your wife cut ties… anyway, as to your original question, I'm here for you, Redfield."

According to him, an official probe into the activities of Captain Christopher Redfield over the past few years had been opened by the European Branch, as well as several others. There were allegations of him diverting resources and manpower for unknown personal reasons without authorization, including weapons, aircraft, currency from a few different countries, and a group of operatives known as Wolf Hound. After attempting unsuccessfully to trace his activities electronically, and getting zero cooperation from the people who had worked closely with him in the past, the BSAA decided to take a different approach.

"You've really stepped up your game as far as remaining undetected, Redfield." Tobias continued, waving to the bartender to bring another beer. "I'm kinda proud of you for that… anyway, let's get down to business; I'm gonna need a brief summary of all your activities for the past three years… during and since an operation known as The Dulvey Incident."

"Tobias, you're… retarded if you think I'm gonna tell you a damn thing about… anything." Chris snapped with growing anger in his voice. "So instead, how about I empty my clip into your twisted little brain, and then walk out of here a much happier man?"

Before the former detective could make any kind of reply, the bartender interrupted them when she got there with another two beers to set on the table. Normally, the Captain wouldn't have even noticed her while in this kind of situation, but then she addressed him by name… greeting him excitedly with a happy, almost bubbly tone in a perfect American accent. A knot started to form in his stomach even before he slowly turned his head to look up at her, and then Chris's mouth ran dry when he saw her smiling face… blowing a kiss to both of them before heading back over to the bar.

"Gillette's always so excited to see old friends." Tobias continued, opening his second beer. "Now, if you want to gun me down, that's fine… as long as you don't mind Satu Mare becoming the next Raccoon City. Or, you can be a good little boy, and start answering my questions, starting with an overview of The Dulvey Incident."

Taking another look at the attractive brunette who was back to serving drinks, the Captain had to force himself to put his pistol away, knowing full well what that woman was capable of. The official story about what happened in Dulvey three years ago was well known; local news reported that a buildup of volatile underground gasses caused an explosion that killed more than a dozen people at a large estate owned by the Baker family. As the estate was a local tourist attraction, because it was supposed to be haunted or something, there were many tragic deaths as a result, including all the Bakers and some tourists.

Once reported by local news, larger media outlets spread the story around the world, with conspiracy theories popping up all over Facebook and Twitter, which was fine because no one ever took the comment section of a Facebook post seriously. Ignoring the fact that a geological survey just a few years before declared that there were no such gas deposits, the story flared up across the internet for a few weeks, and then people just kind of forgot about it. Just like with Raccoon City, Sheena Island, the Starlight, Tall Oaks, etc., everyone just forgot about it in lieu of the next interesting thing to pop up.

The truth was that all of the deaths; the family, tourists, police, and even those ridiculous Sewer Gators people, were all caused by the improper transport of a BOW. This BOW, E-001 codename Eveline, escaped from her handlers when a hurricane ran their cargo ship aground in the Louisiana Bayou, and was discovered by the Bakers some point later. Using her infectious mold, Eveline carried out her programming to locate and build a family around her, she infected the Bakers first with a secretion known only as Mold, allowing her to subvert their will, and then did the same for anyone unlucky enough to wander onto the estate… for almost 3 years.

Once viable intelligence on the incident reached the BSAA, Chris took Wolf Hound Squad and attempted to neutralize the target, but without receiving proper authorization to do so. This personal usage of resources and manpower was where the red flags began to pop up back at the home office, especially with the conflicting reports that there were no survivors found after the destruction of Eveline. The Captain knew that he had to be careful at this point, since he did report that there were no survivors, when there were two actually. Ethan Winters, an idiot who went there on some half-baked mission to find his missing wife, and Zoe Baker, who managed to stay alive for the duration of Eveline's attack.

He couldn't let anyone outside of Wolf Hound Squad know that there were survivors, not with how deep the conspiracy just kept going, no matter how deep he dug, and that poor fool Ethan would never have been allowed to go free if anyone knew that his missing wife, the one he had tried so desperately, and failed, to save… was actually Eveline's handler. But how could he hope to hide these things from someone like him… someone who once tracked the President's daughter halfway around the world for Leon Kennedy with nothing but a tire track to go on?

"God damn it, Tobias, I don't have time for this!" Chris snapped loudly, standing up. "I'm in the middle of something here, and I'll… I'll send my report when I'm finished, now kindly stay the fuck away from me."

"Whatever you say, Redfield." The former detective casually replied. "Don't worry, I'll be in touch."

Struggling to keep himself from throwing a punch, the Captain turned around and left. The most infuriating part about this was that the BSAA's alligations against him were true; Chris had been diverting resources and manpower to his own personal needs for the last three years, and he always knew that it couldn't go unnoticed forever. He wanted to tell them… wanted to tell them what he had learned about the Mold, and explain why he had paid for Ethan and Zoe to start a new life in Romania… and about the one name that kept coming up… Miranda.

No, there wasn't enough evidence yet. It wasn't enough simply to know things, they had to be proven, a lesson that he had learned well after the Spencer Estate in 1998. Chris was so close to discovering the source, but interference from the BSAA now could tip off the people he was chasing, if not ruin the whole operation. He would eventually explain himself to the BSAA, that had been the truth, but there just wasn't time. A possible complication had come up, requiring the Captain to get back to his command post immediately… damn it, he shouldn't have stepped away… he should have somehow known that the message from Barry was a fake.

No, no more self-doubts, not tonight when a single pending report from one of his men would mean the difference between normal operations, and a sudden violent assault that could have dire consequences.