Chapter One
Claire's Decision
Rebecca was the last to stumble into the living room, wearing black silk pajamas with red roses on them, her shoulder holster on backwards, sporting a pair of M911 handguns. Carlos sat in a large armchair wearing only a pair of jeans, his hair un-brushed. His girlfriend, Jill, was nestled beside him, resting her sleepy head on his bare shoulder, shivering in her thin pajama shorts and top. Claire seemed wide-awake, her arms folded over the chest of an old Detroit Lions jersey, her features set in an unreadable mask. Leon had gone to the kitchen and gotten leftover pizza, which he was currently eating cold, reminding the others of nothing so much as a teen spy in a pathetic movie. Barry stood off by himself, staring out the window, rubbing at his scruffy reddish beard, no doubt missing his family terribly.
Chris finally came back out of the bedroom. He had a few papers in his hands: freshly-printed articles on assaults in the Raccoon City area. "What's this all about, Chris?" Jill mumbled, her eyes half-lidded.
"I'll give you three guesses," muttered Claire.
Rebecca groaned. "Umbrella, eh?"
"No," Leon joked, "it's about a recipe for chop suey. Yes, Umbrella."
"They're after our friends and family," Chris said flatly.
"What!?" Barry bellowed, jumping to his feet. Claire's eyes widened. Rebecca sat up straight.
"Sherry's old teacher was attacked," Chris continued wearily. "Rebecca's parents—"
"Are they okay?" she interrupted, looking mortified.
"Yes," Leon assured her. "I just… borrowed a few police files. They filed something about a suspicious character. Talked to both of your parents and your kid brother about you. They said they hadn't heard from you since June, but the person seemed pretty interested in what you were up to. Didn't give a name. Or a purpose. The day after he called your father at work and visited your mother at home and got nothing, he showed up at your brother's playground during recess, asking about you."
"Holy shit," she whispered.
"It's circumstantial evidence, but—"
Claire interrupted Chris dismally. "That's all you can get on Umbrella, unfortunately."
"So what are you going to do about it?" Carlos asked.
"What do you mean, 'what are you going to do about it?'" Claire demanded sharply. "It affects you, too."
"Hey, no offense, girl. You know I'm in this to the end," Carlos said indignantly. "I'll help with whatever you decide to do. But I don't have anyone to look out for, and even if I did, Umbrella probably thinks I'm a pancake, if they even remember me."
"What about your family?" Rebecca asked softly.
"Dead," Carlos replied, his tone flat. "All of 'em. And my friends all joined U.B.C.S. with me; we all know how that turned out."
Jill swallowed, sensing that Carlos wanted to change the subject. "Wait, back up," she cut in. "Why go after anyone who knew Sherry?"
"Our best theory is the Rockfort Island incident," Chris said, swallowing. He looked away.
Leon continued. "The only thing we can think of is that Umbrella knew Sherry, Claire and I made it out of Raccoon City together. Highly possible, considering we went roughly two dozen very public places before hiding. The families of people in Raccoon City were constantly putting up "Missing" posters; I'm sure someone thought they saw Sherry and wanted a reward. The fact that they're taking the pursuit to a higher level—"
"They want all of us, don't they." Claire's voice was emotionless. "They want to kill us all and they think she might know where to find Chris and me."
Chris gripped her shoulder. She stiffened. "But then, she does know, doesn't she? She knows I was heading to Europe to find Chris… but isn't it all just stuff they already know? They know we're in Europe; why bother with Sherry?"
"They have no idea what she really knows, Claire, that's why," Chris said softly. "They probably think we keep in touch, and tell her a few choice things. They don't know what we tell her, and they're hoping it's a lot."
"So what do we do?" Jill said, getting straight to the point. "Relocate Sherry?"
"I don't think so," Leon said with a frown. "It's too risky. More people would be able to identify her. And it's not like Umbrella's close, anyway. They're looking in the Raccoon area, and they're not gonna find any answers there. We're the only ones who know she's in Canada." Leon brightened suddenly. "I'm going to see if I can get into Umbrella's files with our 'borrowed' codes. I have an idea." Leon hurried to the computer, beginning to pound on the keyboard, using the access codes they'd obtained from previous visits to Umbrella's facilities.
"Shouldn't we at least warn Kathy?" Barry said. "Tell her to be on her guard?"
"It would just make her worry, Barry," Claire said. "We covered our tracks pretty well in Sherry's case, right?"
"Shit!" Leon yelled once again. The others leaped to their feet and clustered around the computer monitor, pushing each other to get a good view. "I hacked into their computer. Apparently they're still clueless on our new whereabouts—"
"We knew that already," Claire said impatiently. They'd discovered a means of hacking into constantly-updated files about them. It was useful, though all it contained was files on their names, background, medical history, breaches to Umbrella's compound, and guesses as to their location.
"Well, I found a new link on that page we never bother with, the one with our biographical information. No idea how long it's been there. Took a few killer passwords, so I figured it was important, and this is what I found."
A list of over a half-dozen people popped up on the screen. Several gasps sounded. It was a list of close friends, marked "interrogate." Morgan Watkins was the second on the list.
The group all began talking at once. Chris could only make out snippets of conversation, "No, not Damien," and "Fuck, they're after Theresa!?" He searched the list carefully. There. Kyle Malcolm. His old Air Force buddy, the one who had gone behind enemy lines with him to save their mutual friends. He'd been court-marshaled, too, and now owned a helicopter and airplane mechanic/pilot business. And now Umbrella had plans to torture him for Chris's whereabouts. Great.
"Why aren't any of our family members on this list?" Rebecca cut in through the noise. "You said my family—"
"Our family members are on a separate list," Leon said, scrolling up with the mouse. "I don't know why."
"Because you don't tell your family everything," Carlos said softly. "You tell your best pals everything. They'll be the ones who will know where you are."
"Very perceptive of them," Barry spat, his face clouded with rage. "They know we'll assume our families are liabilities, and not give them information."
"But they came to talk to my parents," Rebecca pointed out. "They just didn't attack them, like they did Sherry's teacher."
"They were hoping, I guess, that they'd spill," Chris said thoughtfully.
"It's too risky for them to bust up our parents, though," Jill interrupted. "They can't go around tearing into the parents and second-cousins of the people who used to allege they were criminals, right?"
"Bingo," Chris agreed. "That's it, that's the reason."
"So what's the plan of action?" Jill said, exchanging a grin with him. It had been a long time since the two of them had the opportunity to try to solve something together; they worked well with each other, though.
"Which ones have, um, already been dealt with, Leon?" Rebecca asked softly.
"These three," Leon said, pointing out several names. "Watkins, Jason Bordeaux, and Theresa Jeffries."
"Shit," murmured Jill.
"Oh, God," Barry groaned at the same time. "Jason was a pal from the SWAT team."
"Who's Theresa?" Carlos asked Jill.
"My next-door neighbor. I told her to get out of town just before Raccoon went to hell. She did, thankfully… guess it doesn't matter now." Jill swallowed painfully.
"There's a few news articles attached," Leon said, looking uncomfortable. "Theresa, um, was thought to have committed suicide, which was only mentioned in a small section, because her parents were thinking of hiring a private detective, said there was no way she'd killed herself. Umbrella filed her obituary, too… and there's a note in here on Watkins, says she's 'no longer a threat' and 'disposal would be counter-productive,' something about it coming back on Umbrella…"
"And Jason?"
"He and his wife were murdered. News article says it may have been gang-related."
"Ha, that's a good one," Barry muttered, closing his eyes briefly.
"So what now?" Carlos wanted to know.
"We save the people on the list, naturally," Claire said.
"We do?" Rebecca looked startled. "Just like that?"
"We have to," she said firmly. "They're in danger because of us."
"They're in danger because of Umbrella, Claire, not us," Carlos told her. "It's not our fault. And even if we get these people out of harm's way, they'll turn to others."
"It would buy us some time, though," said Jill, staring down at the list mournfully. "We've all agreed we can't storm Umbrella's base with that last run-through in Paris, and we could keep them pretty busy if we messed up this plan, right? Then we could strike the base." She smiled. "With a few new recruits."
"A few new recruits…" Chris let the word roll off his tongue, savoring it. "Recruits." They could have more people, could grow in size, could kick twice the amount of ass…
"Hmm. That's not too bad of an idea," Leon said, starting to sound excited. "There's two old friends of mine on this list, both went to the academy…"
"Damien, I went to college with him, he's working towards becoming a biochemist for the FBI," Rebecca added eagerly. "He's in his mid-twenties, completed the field-agent training."
"Jenna… um… is an old, er, friend," Jill said, shifting her weight nervously. "We, uh …"
"Yeah?" prompted Carlos.
"We used to burglarize homes together, alright?" Jill muttered. "She was almost as good a lock-picker as I was, a bit better at cracking safes. Decent shot. Took judo."
Chris told the others who Kyle Malcolm was, and that only left—
"Amy Schmalzried," Claire said. "My old college roommate."
Claire swallowed. Amy was more than just her roommate; she was probably Claire's closest friend. Even worse, she'd called Amy a week ago… from the city they were currently in. If they got that information out of Amy, they could trace her phone records. It had been stupid of her, but they only had one car, and that day Chris and Barry had taken it to go see an arms dealer. She'd been upset, and had just wanted to talk to an old familiar face, someone she could trust, someone from before the mess with Umbrella…
Claire's heart ached at the sight of Amy's name. They were going to kill her, no question about it… and maybe even find the rest of them in the process.
She knew she should tell the others about the call to Amy, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she blurted out, "Amy may be next."
"What makes you think that?" Carlos asked with a frown.
"That does make sense, sort of," Jill said, before Claire could think up a good answer. "Sherry's teacher was the most recent target, right?" Leon nodded. "Then it makes sense for them to go after someone who knew Claire. Leon or Chris's friends would probably be next. I'm guessing Jenna's safe for a while, since nothing turned up when they 'talked' to Theresa." Jill's voice turned bitter.
Claire had to hold back a sigh of relief that Jill had thought up a good excuse for her. She had just blurted it out, hoping the others would somehow be willing to help Amy before Amy died or gave up the information.
Claire dug her nails into her palms, annoyed that she was thinking about the fact that Amy was a liability in the same breath as the fact that Amy was in danger. "We have to do something," Claire said softly, trying not to clench her teeth, angry with herself and her situation. "Amy might be an asset, too. She's a great shot; we used to go to the shooting range together. And she helps her uncle with his security business; she knows a few things about alarms, cameras, stuff like that."
Chris stared at her. He knew his sister well, and he could tell she was angry and hiding something. He just had no idea what.
Trust her, Chris, an inner voice whispered. She'd never endanger the team.
"All right, then," he said finally. "We'll get Amy out of harm's way first. Any objections?"
The group was silent. A few of them shook their heads. "Okay. Let's get to work."