The Woman Who Wasn't There
Chapter III
Leon had been trying to think of the best way to explain Ada's plan to the others since Ada dropped him off at the grocery store parking lot. Less than three blocks away from the townhouse, he still hadn't decided on anything. He was leaning towards just telling them everything from the beginning even though he knew Chris would want to hear about Wesker first. The magic words "Umbrella" and "Wesker" inserted next to the phrase "take down" would have Chris on board with the plan without having to say anything else. Claire would be a tougher sell. Claire's opinion of Ada came from Leon's own doubts and anger of the last six months, and he had had a lot of both. But if he had changed his mind, maybe Claire could be persuaded. As for Jill, she could go either way. She usually went the way that had the most logical and well-thought out course though, and Ada's plan was still in the general idea stage. If both Claire and Jill were reluctant to go through with it, it might not happen at all. If he wanted to help Ada, he would have to be very convincing.
Hard to do when you're not convinced yourself a small, inner voice that sounded suspiciously like Claire chided him. Leon dismissed the thought. Ada had explained everything; her story made sense. It wasn't like Raccoon City. She had told him up front that she was here on a mission for the same Company that employed Wesker. And she had a point. If Ada really was out to get Leon and the others, she would have done far more than drive him to the park for a nice chat. But at the core of it all was the fact that she needed his help. That was the reason he became a cop to begin with - to help people. And that was the same reason he had walked away from the force to fight Umbrella. So he would protect Ada. He had to. But who are you really going to be serving? the Claire-voice chimed in. He ignored it this time. He had enough problems without arguing with a nagging little voice in his head.
Suddenly, the voice wasn't inside his head anymore. "Where the hell have you been?" Claire stood on the small stoop that served as a front porch for the townhouse. She had her arms crossed and was tapping her right foot. She was frowning too, but relief could be seen in her blue eyes.
"Uh..." Leon started quietly. He sensed Claire wasn't really angry, but he knew that could change if he didn't handle this right. "I met someone - an old friend."
"How nice for you. Meanwhile the rest of us are starving back here. And what do you mean by old friend? Did somebody find out where we are?"
"Uh, yeah. You could say that." An annoyed glance from Claire told him he should just cut to the chase. Leon looked down at his shoes to avoid it, and continued on softly, "It was the woman I met in Raccoon City; it was Ada Wong."
Leon looked up after Claire had gone several seconds without answering. Her expression had changed. She had disbelief on her face - disbelief mixed with worry and something else underneath them both. Something that Leon couldn't quite put his finger on. When Claire finally spoke, her words came out haltingly. "But, you said...you said she died...that she was dead...you left her in a building that blew up..."
And then a memory came to Claire. Fighting the Tyrant creature, trying desperately to get power to the train that would take her, Leon and Sherry to safety, she had heard a voice. With the noise of the factory's self-destruct countdown and the monster, she barely made it out. She never saw the speaker. But after the voice, came a rocket launcher, so she was certain she hadn't imagined it. Claire focused on the voice. Was it feminine? Was it Ada Wong? She never actually met the woman and only knew what Leon told her. Was that something Ada would do? How had she even done it?
"I know you're confused, Claire. God knows I was too when I first saw her." He moved a little closer to Claire and put his hand on her shoulder. He felt the need to be reassuring. "It's a long story, but Ada told me all about it and I have every intention of sharing it with you all. So let's just go inside with Chris and Jill and I can get started. There's a lot more to it than just Ada being alive. She needs my help and she has this mission coming up...Look, I'll tell you in a bit."
Claire seemed assuaged; she nodded her head and turned to go into the house. Whatever questions she had, they were about to be answered.
***
Ada Wong threw her cell phone on the bed with a sigh. The Company demanded daily check ups from its agents and she had just finished with hers. Her contact had been especially inquisitive today. Ada chalked it up to the fact that she had yet to get to the abandoned Umbrella storehouse and nothing more. She informed her contact of her plans to go there tonight and he hung up satisfied.
She only had a few hours to get ready. She had been able to convince Leon to come with her, both as a symbol of her new openness with him and to give them a chance to talk beyond the topics of Umbrella and Wesker. She was surprised how much effort it took on her part to get him to join her. After all, he had believed her so readily in Raccoon City. Ada admonished herself. She shouldn't be proud of that and she knew it. He was one of the few genuinely "nice guys" she had ever met and she had used him. It was no small wonder that he was leery of trusting her again. But she thought there was something more to it than "once bitten, twice shy." She suspected it had more to do with Claire Redfield than even Leon knew.
She shrugged and thought no more of it. Whatever was between Leon and the Redfield girl was nothing she would ever be bothered by.
***
"And that's the gist of it." Leon finished his account of his meeting with Ada. Everyone had gathered in the living room to hear what he had to say. Claire and Jill were quiet, contemplative. Chris was pacing back and forth, predictably excited by this chance to end everything once and for all.
"She knows for a fact Umbrella has a virus sample there? And she knows where Wesker is?" Chris said, not so much to ask Leon but to hear the statements aloud again. This is what he had been waiting for. This is what he had been sacrificing for. And now it was within a few weeks reach.
Jill shook her head. She saw the hunger in Chris' eyes and it was scaring her. Rushing into a plan presented by an admitted spy wasn't her idea of good strategy. There were lives at stake here, not just theirs but the lives of future Umbrella victims should they fail to stop that corporation. And something just did not seem right to her. "Don't you think this is awfully convenient?" Chris glared at her but she continued, "I mean, we've been trying to dig up info on Umbrella and Wesker for the past three months with nothing to show for it. And now, out of the blue, Leon's - um, friend - shows up back from the dead, telling us we can get two birds with one stone. It's a little too good to be true."
"Maybe we just finally caught a break," Chris countered, anger starting to creep into his tone. "Is it so unbelievable to think that things could go our way for a change?"
"Chris, look at me." Jill held his gaze, hoping to calm him down and have him listen to reason. "I know this sounds like a great opportunity and it may very well be just that, but we cannot just risk everything on one gambit without thinking it through. First of all, I need to know how much we can trust this woman." Jill turned towards Leon then. He was the one who knew Ada Wong best.
"I think we can" was Leon's meek reply.
Jill stood up from her chair and walked over to the front window. "We're going to need more than that," she said, "A whole hell of lot more than that. Especially considering that when you walked out the door a few hours ago, you thought the woman was a giant liar that used you. What did she say at that park anyway that changed your mind so completely?"
"I know." Leon responded. "And you're right, but I think I was wrong about her. It wasn't what she said but more like how she said it. She looked a little scared to me and this is a person I saw shoot down a pack of zombies without flinching. And she hates Wesker. That much is obvious."
"Don't you think this 'Company' would train its agents how to act? She could have been putting on a little show for you, Leon." Chris, Leon and Jill looked at Claire. It was the first thing she had said since coming back into the townhouse.
Surprisingly, Chris agreed. "We do need to know more about this woman. If she really is offering what she says she's offering, we need to get rolling with this ASAP. If she's not, we need to know now. If this is a set-up, we just find a find a way to turn it around on her and still get what we want. Either way, I need to meet this Ada Wong."
"We all need to meet her," Jill added. She was still worried about Chris. He may have decided to proceed with more caution, but he was still taking things faster than she wanted to go. He was determined to make this pay off, one way or the other.
"Okay, yeah, that's fair." Leon said. "I'll set something up with Ada when I meet her tonight. She's checking out that warehouse I told you about and I said I'd go with her."
"Great, I'll join you. Gives me a chance to question the woman and maybe find something on Umbrella."
"Uh, I don't think that's such a good idea, Chris," Leon said carefully. "Ada set this up with me. She trusts me. I don't think she'd appreciate being ambushed by you."
"No fucking way, Kennedy." Chris was adamant. "I'm not gonna let that woman sweet talk you into believing every word she says." Chris paused as Claire made a slight coughing sound. "I'm going to see this Ada chick for myself. And if I ask her questions she doesn't like, that's too damn bad for her. She's supposed to be desperate for our help, right?"
"Yeah, she needs our help," Leon said, his voice getting louder. "But bullying her around isn't going to get us anything."
"Excuse me," Jill interrupted, "But I think you both might be right. Chris, we shouldn't be pushing her hard. If she's telling the truth, we need to get along with her. If she's lying, we can't let her know we're suspicious." Chris said a profanity under his breath, but nodded his head towards Jill in assent. "And Leon," Jill continued, "Someone should go with you. You have a history with Ada that may cloud your judgement."
Claire spoke before Leon could answer. "I'm with Jill. And I volunteer to be the one that comes along." Leon and Chris started to protest, but she cut them off. "Leon, you need a third party there. Chris, you're too wound up to be objective either. And Jill, apparently you're the brains of this outfit and we can't afford to risk you. So unless Barry can haul ass back from Canada in record time, that leaves me."
Chris and Leon mumbled in complaint. Both finally agreed. Chris insisted that he at least make preparations for the mission and went down to the basement they had converted to a small but impressive armory. Leon excused himself and went upstairs to his bedroom, leaving Claire and Jill alone in the room.
Jill watched Claire watch Leon go up the stairs. Aside from her speech at the end of the discussion, Claire hadn't been acting like herself since she found out about the return of Ada. Jill had to question just how objective Claire would be able to be herself.
***
Ada Wong hated to be kept waiting. It meant someone else was in control of her time. She checked her watch again and then went back to pacing in front of the tree that marked the entrance to the underground storehouse. She and Leon were supposed to have met fifteen minutes ago. He couldn't have gotten the directions wrong, she thought. His dumb, little friends are probably wasting my time asking him stupid questions.
She took a bottle of water from the backpack she had thrown down beside the tree. It was unseasonably hot tonight and the Kevlar-lined bodysuit she had on wasn't exactly helping. She doubted she would need the extra protection the suit afforded but had decided to play it safe. Now she wished she had just kept on the Versace ensemble she had on earlier.
She had drunk the entire contents of the bottle by the time Leon's jeep drove up through the deserted field. He had his headlights off to avoid drawing attention to the vehicle so Ada was unable to see his passenger until he pulled up beside her. Ada's mood did not improve when she saw Claire Redfield.
"Oh, look, you brought a friend."
"And some toys to play with," Claire responded, holding up a gun the size of her forearm.
Ada was impressed. Claire had managed to threaten her in less than five seconds. She was still annoyed though and flashed Leon an expression that told him so. Claire she regarded with a haughty grin.
Claire smiled right back. "We thought things would go quicker with another person. These Umbrella places can be pretty big, you know. Well, of course you would know." Claire emphasized the "you" just enough to convey her meaning.
Ada's eyes narrowed. "If you insist on standing out here and tossing insipid barbs at someone, may I suggest this tree? I'm sure it'll be an opponent appropriate to your skill level."
Leon let out a soft "ahem" and stepped between the two women. "I think we should just get started. Right, Claire. Right, Ada?"
"Fine by me," Claire said. "Now if Ms. Wong would be so kind as to show us the entrance."
"You're standing on it." Ada moved closer to the tree and pointed at the ground. "There's an entrance hatch underneath this section of sod. You should be able to pick the whole layer up." Her tone indicated she would not be doing the manual labor.
Leon and Claire crouched down and felt out the ground. Claire found a seam in the grass. When she tugged at it, a four-foot by four-foot section of the earth moved. Rolling up the sod, a dull steel door built into the ground was soon revealed. Leon tried to open it with no effect. Ada was about to offer her assistance when Claire produced a long, silver lockpick and set to work. With a metallic click, the locking mechanism was soon released.
"Jill's been showing me a few things," she said to Leon as she pulled back the door. A long ladder led down into the facility. Ada shined a flashlight down the opening but they couldn't see the floor from where they stood.
After gathering up their things, the three descended one by one down the ladder and into the darkness.
***
The facility was fairly large as it turned out. According to Ada, It was split into four sections - two medium-sized storage sections to the left and right and two small office areas in the back. The trio decided to cover the ground more quickly by splitting up. Ada volunteered to take one of the storage areas. She took the one on the right, leaving the left to Leon and the offices to Claire.
They went their separate directions three minutes ago and Claire still couldn't see the doors to the offices. Ada had explained the hallway to the back was as long as it was so Umbrella could put several seals between the biohazardous materials in storage and the place where the more important staffers of the facility actually worked.
Walking down the hall, Claire could see the recesses in the wall where the containment doors were housed. Unfortunately, they were the only things to look at during her mini-hike. The hall was a plain cement color and the pale light of Claire's flashlight only made it look blander. With nothing to do besides walk, Claire began to think. Mostly, she thought it how odd it was that Ada would want one of the storage areas instead of the offices. It was much more likely that someone would accidentally forget to take a document with them than a lab specimen. Claire knew from experience the bizarre tendency Umbrella scientists had for leaving behind their paperwork. Maybe she doesn't actually care about finding anything Claire mused, or maybe she just didn't feel like walking down this Moebius strip of a hallway.
Finally, the light from the flashlight reflected off a glass door. Claire looked through the glass, but could only make out the dark shapes of desks and chairs. Trying the door handle, Claire discovered it was unlocked and went inside. The office had been cleaned out. The room was big, but easily searched in a matter a minutes. Aside from the furniture, nothing remained - no books, no computers, no sign that anybody had been here recently. Claire sat on a desk and shone her flashlight around one more time for good measure. The light rested on the door to the second office for a while. Claire debated whether to go ahead and check it out or to just turn around and take the long trek back up the hallway. She didn't think she'd find anything, but thought she ought to do it anyway. She didn't feel like walking back here if Ada suddenly revealed the rear office was where the extra-careless Umbrella employees stored all the really important stuff. With a sigh, Claire hopped off the desk and walked over to the door.
She only had the door open a few inches when the smell hit her. She put her left hand up to cover her nose and mouth. The smell was familiar, but not anything a sane human being would ever get used to. Then she heard the noise.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
Claire brought her gun up while backing away from the door. From the sound of it, there was more than one of the things in there. She continued to back up slowly, carefully avoiding desks and chairs. They didn't seem to be aware of her presence yet and that's how she wanted to keep it. Claire was smart enough to wait for backup before dealing with the creatures in a dark, obstacle-laden room.
Ten feet from the outer door, Claire turned and broke into a run. Behind her, the shattering of glass and wood marked the entrance of the creatures into the room. She heard the distinct sound of their jumping and instinctively dodged to right. Even so, one of them managed to hit her in the side with a powerful sweep of its arm.
Somehow, she was able to scream out the word "Hunter" in warning to Leon and Ada before falling to the floor.
***
Author's Notes - Sorry, no cat fight between Claire and Ada. Hope the general bitchiness was enough. Next up: hungry, hungry Hunters!!!
Chapter III
Leon had been trying to think of the best way to explain Ada's plan to the others since Ada dropped him off at the grocery store parking lot. Less than three blocks away from the townhouse, he still hadn't decided on anything. He was leaning towards just telling them everything from the beginning even though he knew Chris would want to hear about Wesker first. The magic words "Umbrella" and "Wesker" inserted next to the phrase "take down" would have Chris on board with the plan without having to say anything else. Claire would be a tougher sell. Claire's opinion of Ada came from Leon's own doubts and anger of the last six months, and he had had a lot of both. But if he had changed his mind, maybe Claire could be persuaded. As for Jill, she could go either way. She usually went the way that had the most logical and well-thought out course though, and Ada's plan was still in the general idea stage. If both Claire and Jill were reluctant to go through with it, it might not happen at all. If he wanted to help Ada, he would have to be very convincing.
Hard to do when you're not convinced yourself a small, inner voice that sounded suspiciously like Claire chided him. Leon dismissed the thought. Ada had explained everything; her story made sense. It wasn't like Raccoon City. She had told him up front that she was here on a mission for the same Company that employed Wesker. And she had a point. If Ada really was out to get Leon and the others, she would have done far more than drive him to the park for a nice chat. But at the core of it all was the fact that she needed his help. That was the reason he became a cop to begin with - to help people. And that was the same reason he had walked away from the force to fight Umbrella. So he would protect Ada. He had to. But who are you really going to be serving? the Claire-voice chimed in. He ignored it this time. He had enough problems without arguing with a nagging little voice in his head.
Suddenly, the voice wasn't inside his head anymore. "Where the hell have you been?" Claire stood on the small stoop that served as a front porch for the townhouse. She had her arms crossed and was tapping her right foot. She was frowning too, but relief could be seen in her blue eyes.
"Uh..." Leon started quietly. He sensed Claire wasn't really angry, but he knew that could change if he didn't handle this right. "I met someone - an old friend."
"How nice for you. Meanwhile the rest of us are starving back here. And what do you mean by old friend? Did somebody find out where we are?"
"Uh, yeah. You could say that." An annoyed glance from Claire told him he should just cut to the chase. Leon looked down at his shoes to avoid it, and continued on softly, "It was the woman I met in Raccoon City; it was Ada Wong."
Leon looked up after Claire had gone several seconds without answering. Her expression had changed. She had disbelief on her face - disbelief mixed with worry and something else underneath them both. Something that Leon couldn't quite put his finger on. When Claire finally spoke, her words came out haltingly. "But, you said...you said she died...that she was dead...you left her in a building that blew up..."
And then a memory came to Claire. Fighting the Tyrant creature, trying desperately to get power to the train that would take her, Leon and Sherry to safety, she had heard a voice. With the noise of the factory's self-destruct countdown and the monster, she barely made it out. She never saw the speaker. But after the voice, came a rocket launcher, so she was certain she hadn't imagined it. Claire focused on the voice. Was it feminine? Was it Ada Wong? She never actually met the woman and only knew what Leon told her. Was that something Ada would do? How had she even done it?
"I know you're confused, Claire. God knows I was too when I first saw her." He moved a little closer to Claire and put his hand on her shoulder. He felt the need to be reassuring. "It's a long story, but Ada told me all about it and I have every intention of sharing it with you all. So let's just go inside with Chris and Jill and I can get started. There's a lot more to it than just Ada being alive. She needs my help and she has this mission coming up...Look, I'll tell you in a bit."
Claire seemed assuaged; she nodded her head and turned to go into the house. Whatever questions she had, they were about to be answered.
***
Ada Wong threw her cell phone on the bed with a sigh. The Company demanded daily check ups from its agents and she had just finished with hers. Her contact had been especially inquisitive today. Ada chalked it up to the fact that she had yet to get to the abandoned Umbrella storehouse and nothing more. She informed her contact of her plans to go there tonight and he hung up satisfied.
She only had a few hours to get ready. She had been able to convince Leon to come with her, both as a symbol of her new openness with him and to give them a chance to talk beyond the topics of Umbrella and Wesker. She was surprised how much effort it took on her part to get him to join her. After all, he had believed her so readily in Raccoon City. Ada admonished herself. She shouldn't be proud of that and she knew it. He was one of the few genuinely "nice guys" she had ever met and she had used him. It was no small wonder that he was leery of trusting her again. But she thought there was something more to it than "once bitten, twice shy." She suspected it had more to do with Claire Redfield than even Leon knew.
She shrugged and thought no more of it. Whatever was between Leon and the Redfield girl was nothing she would ever be bothered by.
***
"And that's the gist of it." Leon finished his account of his meeting with Ada. Everyone had gathered in the living room to hear what he had to say. Claire and Jill were quiet, contemplative. Chris was pacing back and forth, predictably excited by this chance to end everything once and for all.
"She knows for a fact Umbrella has a virus sample there? And she knows where Wesker is?" Chris said, not so much to ask Leon but to hear the statements aloud again. This is what he had been waiting for. This is what he had been sacrificing for. And now it was within a few weeks reach.
Jill shook her head. She saw the hunger in Chris' eyes and it was scaring her. Rushing into a plan presented by an admitted spy wasn't her idea of good strategy. There were lives at stake here, not just theirs but the lives of future Umbrella victims should they fail to stop that corporation. And something just did not seem right to her. "Don't you think this is awfully convenient?" Chris glared at her but she continued, "I mean, we've been trying to dig up info on Umbrella and Wesker for the past three months with nothing to show for it. And now, out of the blue, Leon's - um, friend - shows up back from the dead, telling us we can get two birds with one stone. It's a little too good to be true."
"Maybe we just finally caught a break," Chris countered, anger starting to creep into his tone. "Is it so unbelievable to think that things could go our way for a change?"
"Chris, look at me." Jill held his gaze, hoping to calm him down and have him listen to reason. "I know this sounds like a great opportunity and it may very well be just that, but we cannot just risk everything on one gambit without thinking it through. First of all, I need to know how much we can trust this woman." Jill turned towards Leon then. He was the one who knew Ada Wong best.
"I think we can" was Leon's meek reply.
Jill stood up from her chair and walked over to the front window. "We're going to need more than that," she said, "A whole hell of lot more than that. Especially considering that when you walked out the door a few hours ago, you thought the woman was a giant liar that used you. What did she say at that park anyway that changed your mind so completely?"
"I know." Leon responded. "And you're right, but I think I was wrong about her. It wasn't what she said but more like how she said it. She looked a little scared to me and this is a person I saw shoot down a pack of zombies without flinching. And she hates Wesker. That much is obvious."
"Don't you think this 'Company' would train its agents how to act? She could have been putting on a little show for you, Leon." Chris, Leon and Jill looked at Claire. It was the first thing she had said since coming back into the townhouse.
Surprisingly, Chris agreed. "We do need to know more about this woman. If she really is offering what she says she's offering, we need to get rolling with this ASAP. If she's not, we need to know now. If this is a set-up, we just find a find a way to turn it around on her and still get what we want. Either way, I need to meet this Ada Wong."
"We all need to meet her," Jill added. She was still worried about Chris. He may have decided to proceed with more caution, but he was still taking things faster than she wanted to go. He was determined to make this pay off, one way or the other.
"Okay, yeah, that's fair." Leon said. "I'll set something up with Ada when I meet her tonight. She's checking out that warehouse I told you about and I said I'd go with her."
"Great, I'll join you. Gives me a chance to question the woman and maybe find something on Umbrella."
"Uh, I don't think that's such a good idea, Chris," Leon said carefully. "Ada set this up with me. She trusts me. I don't think she'd appreciate being ambushed by you."
"No fucking way, Kennedy." Chris was adamant. "I'm not gonna let that woman sweet talk you into believing every word she says." Chris paused as Claire made a slight coughing sound. "I'm going to see this Ada chick for myself. And if I ask her questions she doesn't like, that's too damn bad for her. She's supposed to be desperate for our help, right?"
"Yeah, she needs our help," Leon said, his voice getting louder. "But bullying her around isn't going to get us anything."
"Excuse me," Jill interrupted, "But I think you both might be right. Chris, we shouldn't be pushing her hard. If she's telling the truth, we need to get along with her. If she's lying, we can't let her know we're suspicious." Chris said a profanity under his breath, but nodded his head towards Jill in assent. "And Leon," Jill continued, "Someone should go with you. You have a history with Ada that may cloud your judgement."
Claire spoke before Leon could answer. "I'm with Jill. And I volunteer to be the one that comes along." Leon and Chris started to protest, but she cut them off. "Leon, you need a third party there. Chris, you're too wound up to be objective either. And Jill, apparently you're the brains of this outfit and we can't afford to risk you. So unless Barry can haul ass back from Canada in record time, that leaves me."
Chris and Leon mumbled in complaint. Both finally agreed. Chris insisted that he at least make preparations for the mission and went down to the basement they had converted to a small but impressive armory. Leon excused himself and went upstairs to his bedroom, leaving Claire and Jill alone in the room.
Jill watched Claire watch Leon go up the stairs. Aside from her speech at the end of the discussion, Claire hadn't been acting like herself since she found out about the return of Ada. Jill had to question just how objective Claire would be able to be herself.
***
Ada Wong hated to be kept waiting. It meant someone else was in control of her time. She checked her watch again and then went back to pacing in front of the tree that marked the entrance to the underground storehouse. She and Leon were supposed to have met fifteen minutes ago. He couldn't have gotten the directions wrong, she thought. His dumb, little friends are probably wasting my time asking him stupid questions.
She took a bottle of water from the backpack she had thrown down beside the tree. It was unseasonably hot tonight and the Kevlar-lined bodysuit she had on wasn't exactly helping. She doubted she would need the extra protection the suit afforded but had decided to play it safe. Now she wished she had just kept on the Versace ensemble she had on earlier.
She had drunk the entire contents of the bottle by the time Leon's jeep drove up through the deserted field. He had his headlights off to avoid drawing attention to the vehicle so Ada was unable to see his passenger until he pulled up beside her. Ada's mood did not improve when she saw Claire Redfield.
"Oh, look, you brought a friend."
"And some toys to play with," Claire responded, holding up a gun the size of her forearm.
Ada was impressed. Claire had managed to threaten her in less than five seconds. She was still annoyed though and flashed Leon an expression that told him so. Claire she regarded with a haughty grin.
Claire smiled right back. "We thought things would go quicker with another person. These Umbrella places can be pretty big, you know. Well, of course you would know." Claire emphasized the "you" just enough to convey her meaning.
Ada's eyes narrowed. "If you insist on standing out here and tossing insipid barbs at someone, may I suggest this tree? I'm sure it'll be an opponent appropriate to your skill level."
Leon let out a soft "ahem" and stepped between the two women. "I think we should just get started. Right, Claire. Right, Ada?"
"Fine by me," Claire said. "Now if Ms. Wong would be so kind as to show us the entrance."
"You're standing on it." Ada moved closer to the tree and pointed at the ground. "There's an entrance hatch underneath this section of sod. You should be able to pick the whole layer up." Her tone indicated she would not be doing the manual labor.
Leon and Claire crouched down and felt out the ground. Claire found a seam in the grass. When she tugged at it, a four-foot by four-foot section of the earth moved. Rolling up the sod, a dull steel door built into the ground was soon revealed. Leon tried to open it with no effect. Ada was about to offer her assistance when Claire produced a long, silver lockpick and set to work. With a metallic click, the locking mechanism was soon released.
"Jill's been showing me a few things," she said to Leon as she pulled back the door. A long ladder led down into the facility. Ada shined a flashlight down the opening but they couldn't see the floor from where they stood.
After gathering up their things, the three descended one by one down the ladder and into the darkness.
***
The facility was fairly large as it turned out. According to Ada, It was split into four sections - two medium-sized storage sections to the left and right and two small office areas in the back. The trio decided to cover the ground more quickly by splitting up. Ada volunteered to take one of the storage areas. She took the one on the right, leaving the left to Leon and the offices to Claire.
They went their separate directions three minutes ago and Claire still couldn't see the doors to the offices. Ada had explained the hallway to the back was as long as it was so Umbrella could put several seals between the biohazardous materials in storage and the place where the more important staffers of the facility actually worked.
Walking down the hall, Claire could see the recesses in the wall where the containment doors were housed. Unfortunately, they were the only things to look at during her mini-hike. The hall was a plain cement color and the pale light of Claire's flashlight only made it look blander. With nothing to do besides walk, Claire began to think. Mostly, she thought it how odd it was that Ada would want one of the storage areas instead of the offices. It was much more likely that someone would accidentally forget to take a document with them than a lab specimen. Claire knew from experience the bizarre tendency Umbrella scientists had for leaving behind their paperwork. Maybe she doesn't actually care about finding anything Claire mused, or maybe she just didn't feel like walking down this Moebius strip of a hallway.
Finally, the light from the flashlight reflected off a glass door. Claire looked through the glass, but could only make out the dark shapes of desks and chairs. Trying the door handle, Claire discovered it was unlocked and went inside. The office had been cleaned out. The room was big, but easily searched in a matter a minutes. Aside from the furniture, nothing remained - no books, no computers, no sign that anybody had been here recently. Claire sat on a desk and shone her flashlight around one more time for good measure. The light rested on the door to the second office for a while. Claire debated whether to go ahead and check it out or to just turn around and take the long trek back up the hallway. She didn't think she'd find anything, but thought she ought to do it anyway. She didn't feel like walking back here if Ada suddenly revealed the rear office was where the extra-careless Umbrella employees stored all the really important stuff. With a sigh, Claire hopped off the desk and walked over to the door.
She only had the door open a few inches when the smell hit her. She put her left hand up to cover her nose and mouth. The smell was familiar, but not anything a sane human being would ever get used to. Then she heard the noise.
Thump, thump. Thump, thump.
Claire brought her gun up while backing away from the door. From the sound of it, there was more than one of the things in there. She continued to back up slowly, carefully avoiding desks and chairs. They didn't seem to be aware of her presence yet and that's how she wanted to keep it. Claire was smart enough to wait for backup before dealing with the creatures in a dark, obstacle-laden room.
Ten feet from the outer door, Claire turned and broke into a run. Behind her, the shattering of glass and wood marked the entrance of the creatures into the room. She heard the distinct sound of their jumping and instinctively dodged to right. Even so, one of them managed to hit her in the side with a powerful sweep of its arm.
Somehow, she was able to scream out the word "Hunter" in warning to Leon and Ada before falling to the floor.
***
Author's Notes - Sorry, no cat fight between Claire and Ada. Hope the general bitchiness was enough. Next up: hungry, hungry Hunters!!!
