Chapter One
Washington D.C.
An Undead woman rushed toward Alice across the White House grounds, hands outstretched, eyes feral yellow. Her mouth yawned wide and tentacular mandibles emerged with nauseating sticky-wet sounds that anyone could hear even over the din of the battle raging all around. The woman managed to get within five feet before Alice raised one of her two TDI Vector submachine guns and blew her head apart with a short burst. Bullets grazed my face leaving a scratch. The woman dropped to the ground in a spray of blood and lay still, truly dead at last. Alice looked at me and smiled with pride at having hit me while I was off guard. She tried to kill me. I couldn't mess with her now. I had to keep killing the undead.
It was dawn, and I stood in a circle with my panws, all of us facing outward, our backs to each other. Ada was on her right, Jill on her left. Leon was next to Ada, and I stood on the opposite side of the circle from Alice, which suited me fine. I might be forced to make common cause with the bitch, but that hardly made us friends. We were all armed to the teeth: submachine guns, handguns, grenades, knives... In addition, Alice carried a katana strapped to her back. Your clones wielded the blade so effectively, I thought you might like one, I had said.
I had handed out weapons, and there were plenty more in the makeshift armory within the White House if and when they needed to rearm. I wasn't going to let her die before she accomplished my mission. Steady streams of Undead, giant Lickers, zombie dogs, those damn flying things, and creatures flowed over the barricade walls, but so far, the walls themselves were holding. I didn't know how much longer the humans could withstand the massed weight of the Undead pushing against them, I thought. Sooner or later, the walls would be breached and when that happened... I would stand alone with Alice, so I kept firing at the monsters racing toward them at superhuman speeds, bringing them down one after the other with deadly accurate shots. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to be in control of the awareness the T-virus granted me. It was as if my attackers moved in slow motion, giving me more than enough time to aim carefully before I fired. It was almost too easy. Not so for my companions, though—with the exception of Alice, who possessed the same lightning-fast reflexes as me. Jill was now free from the scarab device that Umbrella had used to control her, and while that meant her mind was her own again, it also meant that her body was no longer enhanced by technology. For all purposes Jill was once more human. With the scarab, Jill had been stronger and faster than an ordinary human. Without it, she was still a highly trained soldier with attitude to spare, but she was no stronger or faster than an ordinary person. Leon was a trained US agent. Ada was a top-level Umbrella operative, although she no longer served her corporate masters. But despite all their skills, like Jill, they were only human. So far, Jill, Ada, and Leon were mowing down Undead with ease, but eventually they would tire and begin to slow down. It was inevitable.
And once that happened...
She would just have to do everything she could to keep them alive then, wouldn't she? Alice would always do her best to protect her friends even if it meant taking a bullet for them. Too bad they always end up dying. What a curse. We weren't the only ones battling monsters. Soldiers armed with assault rifles, submachine guns, and flamethrowers fired at anything that wasn't human, whether it was on the ground or in the air. Helicopters flew over the battlefield, strafing the mass of Undead, and tanks fired on them, the artillery explosions sending dozens of them flying in all directions. But the efforts of the White House defenders weren't enough. There were simply too many of the enemy to even make a dent in their numbers, and more were coming over the walls every second.
Surely she was going to have a long talk with me after all of this was over. Something more was going on here than what I'd told her and she knew it. That wasn't a surprise. I specialized in lying and manipulation. It's what made me so good at my job.
A giant Licker came thundering toward Alice then, the massive creature moving swiftly on all four of its legs, sharp talons taking large divots out of the ground as it came. The fifty-foot-long monster collided with Undead, knocking them aside or trampling them. It was completely skinless, leaving its raw muscles exposed to the open air. It had a fang-filled mouth and an elongated tongue that lashed the air like a whip as it ran. But its most revolting feature was the swollen exposed brain tissue that covered the majority of its head, including where its eyes should've been. Alice dropped her Vectors to the ground and drew her katana. But before she could start running to meet the Licker's charge, Jill yelled, "Alice! There's another one!" Alice glanced to her left and saw a second beast, even larger and more massive than the first, barreling toward us, sending Undead flying right and left as it plowed through them. "Well, shit," Alice said. Even with her powers restored, I wasn't certain she could take on one of the giant Lickers by herself. But two of them? "Wesker!" she called out to me. "Get your mutated ass over here!" As a rush of wind, suddenly I was standing next to her. "Since you asked so nicely," I said. "I'll take the one on the right, you take the one on the left." She gripped the handle of her katana with both hands and took a step forward, but I took hold of her arm and stopped her. "I don't think that will be necessary just yet." I raised my arm and pointed skyward. Alice looked up and saw an Umbrella V-22 Osprey flying toward the White House from the north. The VTOL aircraft came swiftly, its dual rotors eerily silent. "Please tell me that's the cavalry," Alice said. "Not quite," I answered.
"Whoever it is, we don't have time to worry about them. The Lickers..." She trailed off. The giant creatures were no longer moving toward us. The creatures had stopped less than a dozen yards apart, their heads angled toward the sky, as if they were dogs awaiting a master's command. The Lickers weren't the only ones who reacted to the V-22's appearance. Normal-size Lickers, the zombie dogs, and even the Undead all stopped in their tracks and looked toward the sky. Now that the monsters had stopped fighting, the humans did too, and the sound of gunfire died away, leaving the battlefield in silence. The flying creatures, like their land-bound brethren, no longer seemed interested in attacking. They circled above the now-still battlefield, as if waiting.
"Is it the Red Queen?" she asked me. As an AI, the Red Queen had no physical body and could "appear" wherever she chose—assuming she had an electronic connection to transmit her awareness. The aircraft doubtless possessed the necessary technology to make that happen. I continued watching the V-22 approach without answering Alice's question. I usually maintained a facade of icy control. Part of this was just who I was, but the truth was - I was always fighting the influence of the T-virus that raged inside me.
As the Umbrella aircraft passed over the northern wall, my lips tightened and my jaw clenched. Helicopters moved in to confront the aircraft, but the V-22 fired a missile at one, turning it into a mass of fire and twisted metal. The wreckage fell to the ground where it took out a swath of Undead and mutants, and then continued burning. The other copters—their crews calculating the odds of success against the Umbrella aircraft—wisely decided to disengage and pulled back. The V-22 slowed as it moved into position above the battlefield, its rotors moving into vertical position so it could hover. Alice sheathed her katana and bent down to retrieve her submachine guns. The last time an Umbrella aircraft showed up unexpectedly, she was standing on the deck of the Arcadia with hundreds of people who'd been captured by the corporation for experimentation under the guise of rescue. True, there had been dozens of V-22s then, filled with Umbrella operatives determined to regain their test subjects or kill them before they could escape. But even one Umbrella aircraft was too many for a mere human as far as I was concerned.
I saw Alice close her eyes and stretched her face toward the aircraft. The last time I'd seen anything like this had been through the Umbrella Satellites over the Nevada desert, when she'd used her telekinetic power to save Claire Redfield and her caravan of survivors from a gigantic flock of mutated crows. Maybe she could do something similar to the aircraft, if she just concentrated... hard... enough... She furrowed her brow and gritted her teeth, and she began shaking all over, as if an electric current shot through every muscle in her body. Another few seconds, and she'd be able to yank the V-22 out of the sky and bring it crashing to the ground. And then, beside her, so softly she almost didn't hear me, I whispered, "Yes, that's it." Alice's eyes snapped open, her concentration broken. I'd celebrated my victory too soon, a mistake I wasn't going to repeat. She turned to me. "What the hell is going on here?" she demanded. "You want me to bring that ship down. I can feel it!"
"Do it!" I shouted, my emotional control lapsing. "Do it or you'll ruin everything!"
Before Alice could ask me what I was talking about, a voice boomed from speakers attached to the aircraft. "Hello, Albert. Long time, no see." It was a woman's voice, one not one but me would recognize. I explained without waiting to be asked. "Dania Cardoza. She's an employee in Umbrella's Research and Development department, and to put it simply, she's after my job."
"That's the real reason you brought us here, isn't it?" Jill said. "This isn't the last stand for humanity. You wanted us to help you take out a rival."
"It's exactly the sort of thing he'd do," Ada said. "I should know. I've worked for him long enough." Alice realized then why I had returned her powers to her. I'd wanted to use her as a weapon—the ultimate weapon—against Cardoza. Cardoza's voice echoed above them once more. "1 know you, Albert. Right now you're thinking furiously, trying to come up with a way to stop me. But it's far too late for that now, and you know it. You've undoubtedly noticed the avatar implants on the Undead and the mutations by now." I didn't reply. Alice turned her attention to the lifeless bodies of the Undead that she and her companions had killed. At first she didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but then she saw what Cardoza was talking about. Behind the right ears of the Undead—at least the ones she could see—were metallic devices the size of a quarter with a glowing red light in the center, miniature versions of the scarab device that had mind-controlled Jill.
"It's prototype technology," I said. "Not very effective. The signal range is unreliable, and it tends to burn out the nervous system of the wearer in a few hours."
"Yeah?" Leon said. "Well, it looks pretty goddamn effective to me." The thought of Umbrella being able to control and command its creations instead of merely unleashing them on the world to wreak havoc chilled anyone to the core. If they were ever able to perfect the technology... Cardoza continued. "And you know what those delightfully hideous darlings flying in holding patterns above you are, too."
"Infectors." I practically spat the word.
"What are those?" Alice asked. "What do they do?"
I ignored her. My gaze was focused on the aircraft, jaw clenched tight, hands balled into fists. I could feel the small patches of rough, deformed flesh erupted on my skin, I was so filled with fury that I was about to forfeit control over the virus inside me. Kill everyone here and be done with it.
"Hold it together," she snapped. Then I slowly twisted my head from side to side, and all thoughts returned to normal. I'd fought back the virus's influence—for now. "You have no way out of this, Albert," Cardoza said. "Surrender and I might let you live. It would be a risk, I know, but the idea of keeping you around after you've been thoroughly defeated and humiliated is so tempting. If you don't surrender, I'll kill you along with everyone who's foolish enough to be helping you. You've got sixty seconds to decide." Cardona fell silent.
"We need to get out of here," Leon said. "We've only got a minute before she sends her army of monsters on us." His voice was steady, but I saw the beads of nervous sweat on his forehead.
"She won't do that," I said. Leon seemed calm once more, completely unconcerned that he was surrounded by hundreds of Undead and mutants that were waiting for Cardoza's command to resume their attack.
"Why not?" Alice demanded.
"She's used the avatar implants to get her army into position. She doesn't know about your unique talents, but even so, she's not one to take chances, any more than I am. So while she believes her army alone could probably destroy us, she brought them along for insurance." I pointed skyward, indicating the winged monstrosities circling overhead.
"You called them Infectors," Alice said. "Exactly what do they infect?" I gave her a hint of a grim smile. "You'll see."
"Come on!" Leon said. "Are you guys seriously just going to stand there and wait to be killed?"
Alice looked up to the V-22, she must have figured the minute was just about up. "Guess so," she said.
"Shit!" Leon shouted, but he continued to stand his ground.
Alice glanced at Jill and then Ada. Both women looked nervous, but they nodded, indicating they were with her. And then time was up. "Very well, Albert," Cardoza said. "I'd say I was sorry about this, but we both know I'd be lying." There was no outward sign that anything changed, but inside the V-22, Cardona must have reactivated the avatar implants, because the Undead and the mutations began to move again. Alice turned and raised her Vectors, expecting the monsters—especially the two giant Lickers—to resume their attack. But they didn't. Instead, all the creatures that were assembled on what was once the White House lawn merely shuffled about, moving from foot to foot, as if they were excited. And then, moving in an eerie display of almost perfect unison, they looked up. The winged monsters—the Infectors—broke out of their holding patterns, let out ear-splitting screeches, banked, and began descending. Alice must have expected the creatures to come flying toward us, but instead they flew low over the fiendish army, quadruple wings spread wide. And then their wings stiffened, ejecting a shower of flechette-like spines that flew through the air and sank deep into the flesh of their fellow monstrosities. And those that had been struck began to change. Their bodies began flailing wildly, as if they'd lost all control of themselves, and their flesh began to swell and break out in huge oozing pustules. Alice turned to me.
"What the hell is this?" I watched the nightmarish transformations taking place around us with cool detachment. "As I said earlier, the avatar implants are of limited use. But they do allow whoever wields control over them to move their recipients into position, and then do this." The Infectors continued spraying the army of monsters with their spines, flying back and forth over their heads, seemingly determined not to miss a single one. The Infectors did not, however, shoot at them, nor did they attack any of the military personnel in the area.
The creatures' bodies began to distort, limbs lengthening, bones cracking as they broke and then fused in sickening angles, only to break once more. Undulating tentacles emerged from their flesh, so many that it became almost impossible to see the creatures they were attached to. "The corporation has experienced a certain amount of... internal strife over the years since the first outbreak," I said, still sounding psychotically calm. I glanced at Alice. "You're not the only adversary I've had to deal with, you know. But I defeated everyone who was foolish enough to challenge me. Now Dania is the only one who remains—and you're going to stop her for me." Alice didn't take her eyes off the rapidly mutating creatures as she answered. "And what makes you think that?"
"Simple. You and your friends are in as much danger as I am. As are the military personnel I was able to manipulate into helping me. If you don't stop this, they will all die."
"Maybe so, but you'll die, too," Alice said. "It might be worth our lives to see you finally get what you deserve."
"I don't blame you for feeling that way, Alice, but what about your friends? Are they willing to make the same sacrifice just so you can have your revenge on me?"