A/N: hey everyone, sorry for the really long hiatus on this book, I've been busy with school and work and my other stories. I felt that this one wasn't as popular as my other 2 stories (that's why I focused on their chapters and not this one), but it seems like this story is picking up traction, and I finally had time to get 1 chapter done today! woooo! but I do plan on getting another one done soon...ish. I was going to wait until I was done writing chapter 8 before posting this one, but I thought, what the heck! so, enjoy! and don't forget to comment!
"...Nivans."
The feminine voice roused Piers from his dead sleep, sending an electric pulse through the side of his face and down his arm. He groaned.
"...Nivans?" She called again, but he couldn't pinpoint where.
His eyes snapped open. Wincing as the white light blinded him he tried to figure out where he was. Shaking off the sleepy haze, the blurry form of a black-haired woman lingered over his face. "...Catherine?" His mouth felt like a sandbox, and no amount of swallowing helped alleviate it.
"...Nivans?" The voice said again.
The ringing and beeping grew louder and steadier. The smell of antiseptic wafted under his nose, jolting him like smelling salts—
—The sudden movement sent an electric pulse of pain down his face and shoulder. With a hiss, he plopped back down on the warm pillow, wincing, but even that hurt.
A twist of panic gripped him as he realized half his vision was blocked out. Reaching up, Piers probed the bandages.
"Don't touch your dressings, lieutenant." The gentle voice chastised him, and a hand reached over and yanked his hand down.
Through his panic, he nearly forgot what had woken him up. Twisting his head, he ignored the pain it brought and focused on the mystery woman beside him. Confusion splashed over him like a bucket of icy water. "Catherine?"
The woman's blue eyes shifted from her clipboard and onto him.
Not Catherine, he thought.
"Good morning, lieutenant. I'm your morning nurse, Mara. How are you feeling?" Her voice was soft and calm, and the longer he looked at her, the more differences he noticed between her and Catherine. It was at that moment he took in her scrubs and name tag and the hospital room.
"Confused," he said without thought.
A smile touched Mara's lips as she gave a slight nod and returned to her clipboard. "That's to be expected after what happened. How's the pain?"
Working his mouth, it took a few tries before his words slipped past his cracked lips. "My….shoulder and face hurt. W-Where am I?"
"You've been admitted to the intensive care unit at the North American B.S.A.A hospital three days ago. You sustained minor burns to the side of your face, shoulder and arm, and tore a ligament and broke your leg."
His eyes flickered from the cast wrapped around his leg and up to the bandages on his arm. He probed the bandages on his face again, feeling the dampness poking through.
"Your eye will be fine," she said and started injecting something into his IV, and almost immediately, the pain subsided. "No permanent trauma was sustained. You'll be able to get those bandages off in about a week or so."
Slowly, things started to piece back together: China, the attack, the underground lab—
"Where's captain Redfield and the woman—Catherine?" He wanted water badly, but he wanted to know what happened even more.
"I'm sorry," Mara gave a sad shake of her head. "I don't know about Catherine. You were the only one admitted. however, captain Redfield is fine; he just stepped out of the room—oh!" Both their heads turned towards the door as the man in question appeared.
The strain on his face was evident, and the fluorescent lights only made the bags under his eyes appear darker. He paused mid-step, his coffee raised to his lips and his eyes rounded as he spotted Piers. Shock and happiness flashed across his face in seconds before sitting on his crooked smile. "Piers, you're awake. How' you feeling?"
Wiping his tongue across his cracked lips, Piers managed a half-shrug. "Been better, Captain."
"At ease, Piers." He paused by Piers' side, his eyes flicking over to Mara. "Will he live?"
She chuckled and put the clipboard down. "Looks like it. His vitals are great, his wounds are clean, and the scarring should be minimal."
"I'm sure the ladies won't mind."
Piers' smile dropped, and his head snapped up to his captain. "Chris…"
With a shake of her head and another chuckle, Mara started towards the door. "If the pain increases. Let me know. I added some pain medication into your IV, so you'll be fine for a few hours, at least. Nice seeing you again, captain, and don't strain him for too long. He needs rest." She fixed him with a pointed look.
"I won't be too long. Thanks."
With a final warning in her stare, she nodded and shut the door behind her, leaving only the rhythmic beeping in the air.
A heavy sigh escaped Chris' mouth as he lowered himself into the lumpy hospital chair and took a sip of his steaming coffee. He perked up as if just remembering, produced a water bottle from the side table and handed it to Piers. "Thought you might need this once you woke up."
Grateful, Piers plucked it up and brought the bottle to his lips and lavished at the feeling of the cold liquid drenching his throat. He drank half the bottle before lowering it with a sigh. "Thanks." He said, clearer now.
"No problem. Doing OK?"
Piers had a hundred questions rattling inside his head, but he settled on just one. "What the hell happened after we escaped the lab?"
Chris' usually straight shoulders sagged as he sat there meeting Piers' stare. "A lot," his gruff voice filled the room. "The B.S.A.A picked us up and transferred you and the woman to one of the base's hospitals for treatment. But the facility wasn't equipped with the proper equipment to house the wo...Catherine."
Piers drew back, shocked to hear she was able to survive in such a condition. "So, she's alive?"
"Well...sort of." Chris took another sip of his coffee before placing it on the end table. "She was infected with a strain of the C-Virus. According to Rebecca, the other strains in her reacted and got overpowered and overworked, causing her cells to die and the C-virus to take hold. Her body started to get overwhelmed and break down, but thanks to her regenerative abilities, it slowed the process."
"So, what's going to happen to her?" Piers tried to keep up.
Chris' face scrunched as if he tasted something sour. "Well, the B.S.A.A wants to study her to see if they can learn anything about the viruses inside her and gather data for future use and research. They put her in some kind of cryosleep for now until they can figure out their next move." He waved his hand as if dismissing the idea as lucrative.
Piers would agree with his captain's response; the idea of keeping a person in that state just to make them a lab rat was...unethical. His image of the B.S.A.A tainted ever so slightly as he mulled over Chris' words. Everything he knew of Catherine has been muddled ever since the lab incident. She didn't have to save them—she didn't have to do anything, but she did, even as her "dying" breath.
Flashes of the underwater facility and its final moments bombarded Piers, making his head hurt. The images of Catherine bleeding out in his lap, her face a deathly grey colour and her last words echoed in his memories. "Ah!" He cried and grabbed the side of his head.
"Piers?"
Her hand nudged his chest, offering him a USB stick. She looked so fragile, as if she would fall apart in his lap if he breathed too hard. Then, images of Marhawa flashed across his mind as well. Images of Mirja laying in his lap, bloodied by the bullet Catherine shot. Nothing made sense to him.
"I'm fine just...a slight headache—probably from everything going on." The underwater facility melted away, once again revealing the white hospital room. Piers lowered his hand and gave a small smile waned with the remnants of pain still flowing through him.
Chris eyeballed Piers, deciding to remain silent on the matter, for now. He was fully aware of how stubborn his lieutenant—and good friend can be—not like he, himself, was a walk in the park. His mouth twitched, and he settled back into his chair.
"How is everything with Lanshiang?" Piers asked as the pain subsided.
It was Chris' turn to feel the onsets of a pounding headache. "It's...going. We're still busy cleaning up the rest of Ada's men and the mutated B. , but it's going to take a while. But thanks to that USB stick Catherine handed you, it had a lot of files and research on it that can be used to manufacture a cure for the C-Virus."
"Where did she get the info from?"
Chris shrugged. "Beats me, but either way, it'll help a lot of people."
"And she pays for it by being our lab rat. Good trade-off." Piers didn't understand why it made him angry. She's only a criminal, and they haven't cleared her of any of the bio-attacks yet. For all they knew, she could be playing a dangerous game with them.
"I don't like it any more than you do, Piers," Chris said, his tone taut. "But that's not my decision to make. We just gotta go along with what the bigwigs want. Speaking of which," he levelled with Piers, "I brought up my proposal to them already, about me stepping down and you taking over. I think it's time for me to retire as a field agent and let the youngbloods take over. I don't know if I can do all this again," He tried to laugh it off, the strain evident in the corner of his tired eyes.
Piers was already shaking his head before his captain could finish. "But—I'm not ready for that. There must be someone better suited for the job."
"Can't think of anyone better," Chris smiled. "You're the sharpest sniper and one of the best field agents I've ever worked with. It would be an honour to pass this on to you. You don't need to answer right now, but I would like it if you seriously thought it over—"
Both men paused when a gentle knock came from the door, and a small redheaded woman poked her head inside.
"Rebecca?" Chris turned to get a better view.
At the sight of Chris, her demeanour changed. With urgency, she slid inside the room, closing the door behind her and stopped beside Piers' bedside. She spared Piers a small smile. "Hi, Lieutenant. It's nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you from Chris."
Chris met Piers' questioning stare with a toothy smile and a nod of his head. "Any leads?"
Rebecca produced a small tablet from under her arm and placed it in Chris' hands. "Yes, actually. I just discovered this and immediately ran down here."
She pressed play and the two men focused on the clear video. The camera focused on a sample of blood under a microscope. All seemed normal until the blood began to break apart and crumble away before their very eyes.
Shocked, Chris flicked his gaze up to Rebecca. "What just happened?"
"I took a sample of that woman's blood—"
"—Catherine?" Piers inquired.
"Yes," Rebecca nodded and pulled up some data charts on the tablet. "I wanted to see what exactly I was dealing with, but what troubled me the most was just how fast her blood broke down and deteriorated. It was too fast for me to get an accurate data sample. It's amazing. I've never seen a mutation like that, well, not that fast anyway."
"So, what does it mean?" Chris chimed in, trying to make sense of the data in front of him.
"It means that I can't help her unless I can stabilize her blood long enough to acquire a sample to test. Once that is accomplished, then I can begin separating her blood and see how to reverse the mutation, or at least stop it from doing any more damage to her body. I'll need to find something to bond with her already infected blood to help repair the damages done."
"Can the process be reversed?"
"If it's the C-virus, then at least we could narrow down what virus is doing this to her, but I can't do anything until I can get a sample of her blood to hold up long enough to check and be sure."
She paused and pulled out the USB stick Chris had given her soon after she arrived. "The USB you gave me had a lot of interesting data on it. It looks like Jake Muller's blood is resistant to the first strain of the virus, but the enhanced one is stronger." Her eyes lingered on Jake's face, a shiver running down her spine as she tried to discard the old memories from surfacing.
"Let's hope it's not the enhanced strain in her then," Piers stared at the video and watched as it replayed on a loop. All that was going on inside her body through the duration of China. He knew it was bad, but not that bad. A small form of respect bloomed inside him for Catherine.
"Correct," Rebecca agreed. "The good news is that we have enough data here to manufacture a cure. However, I need a sample of Jake's blood to begin the process."
"Leon would know how to acquire a sample since it was up to agent Sherry Birkin to take Jake in." Shifting, Chris pulled out his phone and dialled Leon's number and put the phone on speaker. It rang three times before the man's gruff voice piped up over the speaker.
"Chris?"
"Leon, how are you? You got a minute to speak?"
A few muffled angry voices flitted through the speaker, piquing everyone's concerns. When all was quiet on the other end, Leon piped back up. "We have an emergency right now. What's wrong?"
"I'm at the B.S.A.A research facility with Rebecca and Piers. What happened?"
Curses fell into the air as Leon yelled at a distant voice. "I said, one sec—Chris, I can't talk for long. Someone broke into our facilities and stole our samples of Jake's blood. I was actually just about to call you, but you beat me to it. Fuck! This is a mess."
All three sets of eyes fixed on the others'. The unspoken words filled the air between them. How?
Rebecca shook her head and leaned over the bedside, so her voice was louder. "Leon? What happened? How did someone break inside the system?"
"Inside job. The bastards," the anger in Leon's voice bled through the phone. "We're fucked if those assholes take his blood and sell it to god-knows-who. The black market would have a field day if they found out."
"Do you know who did it?" Chris asked. His blood boiling at the thought of young Wesker's blood in the markets. "Where's Jake now? Is he safe?"
"I don't know where he is. Fuck, I can't believe this happened."
"Hold tight, Leon. I'm going to get over there right now."
"Good. I could use your help. Meet me on the stairs."
The dial tone cut through the tension.
"Who would have known about Jake's blood?" Rebecca wrapped a finger gently over her chin and stalked the room.
"No clue. That was top secret information. But Ada knew about it; maybe she sold that information to someone else?" Chris shoved his phone into his pocket and straightened up. "I'm going to head out; I'll be in touch soon." He patted Piers' shoulder and smiled. "Get some rest. I'll keep you guys informed."
"Stay safe." She waved him out of the room, watching as his back disappeared through the door. The feeling of nostalgia washed over her. Here we go again.
"Leon."
Leon's head snapped up at the mention of his name and paused halfway down the stairs as he spotted Chris jogging over to him. "Chris, glad to see you again. Too bad it's under these circumstances."
"I know," Chris fell into step beside Leon as they headed towards a blacked-out vehicle.
Though the China outbreak happened over a week ago, both men still looked worn past their limits. Their feet dragged across the concrete towards the black vehicle. When the doors clicked behind them and finally settled in the sets, they let out a collective sigh. They each gave the other a look, a look both knew all too well. It's happening again. Throwing it into drive, Leon left the building behind them.
"What happened?" Chris asked the moment they hit the highway.
"As you already know, Jake Muller is Wesker's son, and his blood contained antibodies for the C-virus. Agent Sherry Birkin was tasked with tracking him down and acquiring a sample to find a vaccine. Well, we had the sample and were awaiting further instructions, but someone smuggled it out of the labs." Leon wished he had a drink at that moment. His knuckles tightened around the steering wheel as he cursed his folly.
"Do you know who?"
"We have a suspect—and he did go missing during the investigation—damn it! If they get away with that blood sample, Chris—"
"They won't," Chris cut him off. "We'll make sure of it. And what about Jake? Is he still safe?" The hotheaded boy wasn't his favourite person. Still, Chris knew he had to put aside past differences and connections and work on keeping him safe and out of harm's way.
Leon shifted in his seat. "We have a possible lead on his last known whereabouts—nothing concrete, though."
Chris fixed his eyes on the side of Leon's face, "Can you get someone to pinpoint a location for him?"
"Ingrid is working on it as we speak. If anyone can find him, it's her."
The car swerved through the traffic like a fish in water. The city passed by them in a blur. Chris stared out at the vast area. The culprits could be anywhere out there, or already out of the city.
"And what about any leads for the culprits?"
"We got a hit on a location not far from here. Looks like a home address close to the docks. Just hope we aren't too late." Leon pressed the gas pedal and turned off the highway.
Chris wrinkled his nose. "Why would they take his blood sample to a home address?"
"Could be a stash house, or maybe just a hideout. Who would suspect a simple house in the suburbs?" Leon shrugged.
With that thought tumbling around in his head, they turned down the side streets, growing closer to the final location—
Leon's eyes snapped up to his mirror and spotted the fast-approaching lights coming up behind him. A bad feeling twisted his stomach. He had only a moment to pull to the side of the road when the firetruck sped past him, blasting its sirens and took a sharp turn up ahead, the same turnoff he needed to take. The ball of anxiety dropped in Leon's stomach as he took the final corner and found the fire truck parked next to another outside the house...or what was left of it.
Black smoke billowed in the air, leaving a haze over the small area. Police officers and medics filled the space, and tape cut off the scene.
"What the hell?!" Chris shot out of the car before Leon had a chance to stop and grabbed the nearest person. "What's going on here?"
The poor young officer's eyes widened as they met with Chris' face. He shook Chris off and cleared his throat. "Sir, this is an active crime scene. I'm going to have to ask you—"
Leon jumped out of the car and flashed his badge to the rookie officer. "I'm agent Leon Kennedy. I'm here with the D.S.O to investigate this house. What's the status?"
The rookie blinked. "O-oh? D.S.O…? What are you doing—"
"We have reasons to believe the people that own this house were directly involved with a crime committed in the D.S.O. We need to see the officer in charge, now."
Before the rookie could say another word, a balding man with grey hair and a three-piece suit came up. His eyebrows were scrunched tight to his eyes as he laid eyes on Leon and Chris. "Officer Langman. What's the meaning of this. Get these people out of here."
"Are you in charge around here?" Chris' voice teetered on edge. He was fed up with the back and forth.
"Yes, I am. I'm detective Jordon Grey. Who are you two?"
Leon flashed his badge again. The detective's eyes widened slightly, but he showed no other emotions. "I'm agent Leon Kennedy with the D.S.O. This is Captain Chris Redfield of the B.S.A.A. We have reasons to believe this crime scene is connected to an ongoing investigation with the D.S.O. We need to inspect the scene."
"I wasn't given any notifications on this!" Detective Grey snapped. "You two cannot just waltz in here without a warrant and proper paperwork."
"I understand that, detective," Leon said through clenched teeth. "However, the ongoing investigation I'm looking into only happened over an hour ago. And its top priority we track down the perpetrators and bring them in. Now," he pulled his shoulders back. "Show us the scene, or I'll have you detained for interfering with a government case."
That got the detective's attention as well as the rookie's. They both perked up and stepped to the side, allowing both Leon and Chris passage inside the tapped-off area.
"Now, give me a rundown of what happened here," Leon said as he passed the detective.
The detective scrambled to catch up to the two men. They made it down the walkway and through what was left of the doorway. The charred ash crunched underneath their boots as they waded through the debris and the firefighters and police officers.
"There isn't much to go on right now." Detective Grey fixed his uniform. "So far, it just looks like an average house fire. No bodies."
Chris examined the charred carpet, searching for anything that could be used as a clue. He poked his head into what he assumed was the kitchen but found nothing. It seemed like an average house, nothing out of the ordinary that would pique his interest that this place belonged to criminals.
Leon made his way to the burned-down living room; the sunroom's windows were still intact—the only thing to be unchanged in the area. Outside the windows, he could just make out the port. Boats sat in the calm water, and he could even see people milling about between the warehouse and the ships. His hands rested on his hips, and he nudged a support beam with his boot. "Nothing over here."
"Same over here," Chris replied and strolled over to Leon. "It's like you said; just a stash house or a cover."
"I'll inform Ingrid—"
An old firefighter no older than Chris stepped out from a nearby room. His face was grim. "Detective, we found a body in the bedroom." He pointed to the room he had just come from.
Everyone stilled, then the questions started dropping. "Sex?"
"Male, by the looks of it. Adult."
"Any signs of a struggle?" Leon brushed his way into the room, Chris hot on his heels.
The firefighter knelt down by the head of the body and nodded his head. "Struggle? No. But, there is this," he pointed to the body's head where a single large hole sat between his eye sockets.
"Bullet entrance."
"Murdered—"
"Or silenced," Chris added in. "Anyway to get a positive I.D?"
"It'll take time for forensics to examine the body and get a match with his teeth." The detective answered.
Leon pressed his mouth closed. "We don't have the time. We need answers right now. We can't take the chance of them getting away with those samples."
"Samples?" Detective Grey chimed in. "You guys never said what you were looking for. What exactly are you guys looking for? Enough of this shit. I'm calling this in. Protocols need to be followed."
Leon swopped back to his full height and locked eyes with the detective. "That's not something I'm at liberty to discuss with you. Call your superiors, but stop wasting my time. Now, we need this body transported to the D.S.O forensic ward immediately for a biopsy."
The detective's face reddened. The crunch of his teeth grinding filled the air. "Now, listen here!" He barked. "I don't care who the hell you guys are. This is my active crime scene, and you'll show some respect—"
Chris stepped forward, his eyes hooded as he met the detective's glare. Seeing he was outmatched, the detective backed down, and Chris' calm voice took hold. "I know how this looks right now. But believe me when I say; if we don't catch the people responsible for this, then we'll be looking at another China incident in the coming months, or worse."
The emergency response team caught on to the situation. Panic flooded their faces. There wasn't a person alive that hadn't heard about what happened in China. Millions dead in a matter of hours, and still more are being killed. The possibility of another attack on that scale happening again so soon had everyone's mouths slammed shut.
"What do you want us to do?" The detective's voice mumbled out.
"We need a blockade on the highways," Chris grunted. "Setup guards at every port, dock and airport. We can not allow them to leave this city with those samples." Chris started back towards the door, his mood dampening even more than before.
They were at a loss. And those men were running free with Jake's blood. Who knows what they are going to do with it. Chris shuddered at the possibility of another bio attack so soon. No, he won't allow it—
—A click sounded in the air, and a gasp emanated behind the two men. They spun around and honed in on one officer frozen mid-step, his eyes wide and his arms raised. "Hold it! Everyone! I activated something!"
The air stilled in the house, and a chill dragged down Leon and Chris' spines. They shared a look. Chris took a step towards the man, but Leon snatched his shoulder and dragged him back. "Look out!" He yelled just as a flash of light and a thundering shatter ripped through the house, tossing Leon and Chris through the living room windows and across the grass.
People screamed in agony, silencing within a second as the explosion consumed their bodies and the house's skeleton collapsed in on them.
Chris and Leon hit the ground hard, the impact of the explosion knocked the wind out of them momentarily, and the ringing in their ears wouldn't stop. Hands grabbed at them, brushing off the debris and asking them questions. Chris shook them off and got back to his feet. The ringing started to subside, and his vision cleared enough for him to see the pillar of smoke consuming what was left of the crime scene. His heart dropped.
Leon jumped to his feet, a stream of blood trickling down the side of his face. But other than that, the man looked fine. His eyes narrowed, and his lip curled. "Damn it!"
Medics raced to the scene, and the surrounding officers pushed curious civilians away to clear the area. The threat of another bomb was on everyone's tongue as they yelled for backup and a bomb squad.
Chris rushed into action, pulling bodies from the debris. Some were still alive but badly burned. They screamed as Chris pulled them away, waving their burned arms around and grabbing at their charred faces. Their yells bombarded Chris' memory. Flashes of Finn and his team in Edonia filled his memory to the rim. He shook them away and grabbed another body; this one didn't move.
"God damn it!" He fell to his knees and pounded the grass.
Leon opened his mouth to say something, but then his phone vibrated against his chest. With an annoyed huff, he ripped it out and put it to his ear. "Ingrid?"
"Leon! I got an update. It looks like our guys got on a plane back at the Waterfront airport. The address was a dummy location."
Leon squeezed his eyes closed. A wild goose chase! This is all it ever was. "I got more bad news. All the evidence we found at this location is blown away. The men placed a bomb under the floors in case any evidence was left behind."
"Are you alright?" The woman asked right away, worry lacing her voice.
"Yeah...but it looks like some officers and firefighters didn't make it. Are you sure the men got away? Maybe it is just another distraction?"
"We can't be sure. But there is a high chance they did."
"We still need blockades on every highway and port. I want every boat, dock and warehouse turned upside down."
Chris stalked beside him, shaking his head and talking on his own phone with Rebecca. From the sounds of it, she wasn't happy either.
"Leon," Ingrid's voice brought him back. "We just received some information about Jake Muller's last known whereabouts. It looks like he's in a small village in Rajipur."
"Rajipur?" Leon's eyebrows shot up.
"The middle east," Hannigan confirmed. "Looks like the area has been hit hard with rebels and recent bioactivity. It might be a good lead. I'll send word about the blockades. You need to find Jake Muller. These attacks in the village can't be random. They know he's there."
"Alright. Thanks." Leon pocketed his phone and turned to Chris, who awaited news. "Looks like we're heading to the Middle East."