Chapter III
Root of Nightmares
As soon as the name escaped his lips Chris ran over to the beautiful agent; the two wrapped each other in a desperate hug.
Jill had recognized the woman as immediately as Chris had. The ruby haired beauty was the same woman that Jill and the others had saved only three years ago, during their hopeless search for Chris. Though she wasn't in the same ragged clothing, nor dirt washed body, the woman's brilliant emerald eyes would be recognized in any attire.
Leaning back in her chair Jill tried to look indifferent as she listened to Chris and Jamie converse.
"My god what are you doing here?!" Chris exclaimed, he was beyond bewilderment. "I...I heard that you guys were rescued, but..." Chris' words faded into a disorientated sigh.
"It's been a long journey," Jamie told him, though a little befuddled herself, the woman managed to keep her poignant cool. "But one that has led me here to the F.B.I." Jill was amazed at how professional the woman's tone was. She continued to sit there entranced as Jamie stared into Chris' icy blue eyes. Immediately Jamie's expression softened. "But I suppose here you are too."
"Here I am," Chris replied with a weak smile.
"Here we all are," said the agent who first entered the room. Jill couldn't have agreed more. "I think we all have a common bond in this room."
"Umbrella," Jamie spoke softly, returning back to her professional manner, her brief soft disposition immediately vanishing. "Yes, well, now that were all here I suppose introductions are in order."
"Agent McKenzie," the Assistant Director broke into the conversation. "Formalities are for those who have the time. You can introduce yourselves as we go." Williams threw a folder in the middle of the table; Jill assumed it was a copy of the file her group had already been presented to. "If you would please go over the mission."
"Of course," Jamie nodded and turned to the whole of the room. "I believe you've all been given outlines of the mission. What the Assistant Director and I have recently discussed is how we should infiltrate the building," she looked around the table with all the confidences on her position, Jill caught Jamie throwing Chris a fleeting glance before continuing.
"We've come up with two options; one through an underground pipeline and the other through the building's garage, with visiting permission which we should be able to obtain through the F.B.I. We have all gone over it and we think we should strike through both options, but we want your opinions."
Finishing her briefing Jamie looked at each of them, eventually all eyes fell on Chris.
"Obviously you guys would go through the garage," Chris began slowly, his eyes set on the Assistant Director. "That means we would go through the pipeline. What kind of security would we be seeing?"
"Not very much," Jamie answered. "That's why we made that an option in the first place. You shouldn't hit any security until the pipeline comes to an end. In which case, I believe you guys are fully capable of handling."
"So what happens when we leave the pipeline?" Jill asked speaking up for the first time. Jamie turned to her, a recognition over took her expression; there was a glint in the red hair's eyes that quickly vanished as she began to speak.
"The labs are in the basement of the building, which will be closet to your group. Unsurprisingly the doors are locked, fortunately enough the lock is mechanical. They're operating in a control room on one of the top floors in the building, me and agent Kennel;" Jamie indicated towards a spiked hair fellow. "will open the doors for you. From there we want you to grab what evidence you can and get out of there as quickly as possible. Go the way you came, the rest of my team will have a van waiting for you when you come through the pipes. From there you'll high-tail it to the rendezvous point." Pausing to look around the room Jamie asked the group "Does any have any objections to this plan?"
"How are you guys getting out?" Chris asked quietly.
"Don't worry about me or Kennel," Jamie said, a mischievous smile spread across her lips. "We've escaped from our share of bad situations."
Kennel let out a hollow laugh "Yeah, but only by the skins every time."
With everything explained Jill stared up at Chris, she caught his eyes and traced the uneasiness that ran through them. Chris turned to the rest of the group to see what they thought, Carlos with a laugh pretty much summed up all their unspoken thoughts.
"Well it sounds pretty organized," the Hispanic man chuckled "sure beats are usual tactic of running and gunning."
"There's a place for you to go running with your guns ablaze," said Williams. "But I think this is a time when stealth is the best option. To be honest the F.B.I doesn't even know were partaking in this mission, so we all have something on the line here. The only thing that now has to be is said is...are you guys with us?"
Watching Chris glance at the group for any objections he turned back to Williams and Jamie, slowly he nodded.
"Good," Williams said at the confirmation. "Shall we go over the mission again then?"
So while Chris, Williams and Jamie ran over all the particulars of the operation, Jill and the others became acquainted with the other F.B.I agents in the room.
There was Davis Kennel of course, who eldest of the group was also most light hearted. Jokes would pop out of his mouth left and right. The two other agents were Ronald Beckett and Kyle Winter. The first of the two preferred to be called Beck; he was in his early thirties with dark brown hair that you could see was already graying along the edges. Kyle, the quietest of the agents, was about Jill's own age. He had a blond crew cut hair and sharp hazel eyes. Even from a distance you could always tell that there was something on Kyle's mind.
The three agents were conversing with her friends, and the conversation was friendly enough. It was obvious that both parties were trying to stay clear of the subject of Umbrella, each person not willing to share how they were hurt by the evil corporation. Instead the conversation gravitated towards guns and Carlos' accent. And though the chat seemed to be enjoyable enough, Jill just couldn't keep her focus on it. Her attention had instinctively been driven elsewhere.
Chris, Williams, and Jamie were all wrapped in their own discussion, occasionally one would point over to the blue print on the table. Jill could feel her heart jealously clench every time Jamie made a comment and Chris would nod at her in agreement.
She knew she was being ridiculous; they were working on a mission, not discussing bedroom plans. Even still there did seem to be a lot of agreeing...Cursing herself Jill looked away from the trio only to find Leon staring at her, a small, sympathetic smile was spread across his lips.
Scooting his chair closer to Jill he said to her. "No, need to be feeling jealous Jill."
Jill in return shot Leon a dangerous look "If Claire was in that position how would you feel?" She snapped at him.
Leon quickly held his hands in the air "Hey, I didn't say I be any better. I just said there's no need for you to worry." To this Jill could only sigh.
There was a brief pause "Those Redfields are really something aren't they?" Leon said breaking the silence. "There's just a charisma about them that's just, just..."
"Irresistible," Jill finished his sentence.
Chuckling silently Leon nodded. "God help us."
Smiling at each other Leon got up from his chair. "Speaking of the devil, I think I'm going to give Claire a call. Let her know we got in okay." This time with a weaker smile Leon exited to the room and Jill regrettably turned back to her earlier show.
Chris had just said something to cause Jamie to adamantly agree, the two in turn then turned to Williams, together trying to convince him of something.
They worked well together and for whatever reason that scared the hell out of Jill.
Parting from Jill, Leon had every attention on calling Claire, but when he left the room and pulled out his cell phone Leon suddenly found himself frozen.
What the hell was he planning on saying to her? 'Hey, we made it okay. Now you sit tight while we shut down Umbrella.' Leon thought not.
The truth was there was something that Leon had been dying to tell Claire, but could never find the heart to.
Everything that Adam had told him that night the group went to rescue Grace haunted not only Leon's nightmares, but his daydreams too. The echo of Adam's voice saying that Grace was a reincarnation of Alexia Ashford kept repeating over and over in Leon's mind. And though Leon held no belief that what Adam said was true, the echo would never fade away.
Staring at his cell phone Leon hesitated for only a second longer before shoving it back into his pocket.
There would be a day that Leon would share his nightmares with Claire, but today was not that day. Today was the day that they began the end of the root of all their nightmares.
With only that conviction in mind Leon re-entered the room.
AUTHORS NOTE:
Well another chapter completed. Thanks to all that took the time to read this. I've just started college and with all the new environment adapting I have been doing, it's nice to go back to the familiar with my Resident Evil stories. Nothing brings more security then a nice story about the living dead, right? Anyways, back to that school stuff.
Take Care,
Leah
