A glowing screen displayed a series of photographs before a man hidden in shadow. His eyes glaze over the various images, several of the same people but with slight differences in hair and clothing. He taps at the armrest of his immaculate chair, studying them. He would get his chance to kill them yet, but he had to wait for the opportune moment.
Two images come to the forefront of the vast sea of digitized scans: a woman and a man in their early 20s. The woman has short, reddish brown hair with piercing blue eyes. The man has a darker shade of red hair with a pair of blue eyes that seemed to emit a quiet intensity even through the monitor. The shadowed man hits a button on his chair and the background images fade to black and the foreground displays shrink and set off the side of the impressive monitor.
A split-screen video feed pops up. The woman is shown in a fetching outfit consisting of a tube top and miniskirt, being chased by a creature carrying a massive weapon. The other video feed depicts the man dressed in a police uniform, shooting at a creature with a bulging eye coming out its chest. The images are dated the day before the Raccoon City explosion.
"So, they survived," the man mutters to himself. "Where are they?"
A green-lit map pops up and a red dot appears out in the Midwest of the United States. The man steeples his hands and drums his fingers against each other.
"Mr. Kennedy, Ms. Valentine…it's almost too perfect. Soon, one of you will come for me, and I shall break you."
The man cocks his head to the left. As if on cue, a door opens, flooding the room with a white light. A mountain of man enters, dressed in a dark blue coat and heavy boots. He's bald save for the thick beard around his chin. An eerie light emanates from one of his eyes.
"Forgive the intrusion, milord," the bearded man says. "Everything is on schedule, however there is a complication."
"Sera," the shadow man replies, much to the surprise of the bearded man. "I know these things, my dear chief. Soon, Mr. Sera will play into our hands, but not just yet. Have you located the girl?"
"Yes, milord."
"Good. Any other news you wish to report?"
"The creature of the deep grows hungry."
"And he shall be fed soon enough, but don't feed him the converts, only those who can't be turned."
The bearded man bows and leaves the room, closing the door behind him. A shadowed figure in a red robe with black trim sets down besides the shadowed man. The robed figure looks to the man, as if speaking to him without words.
"Don't worry about him," the man in shadow says. "His usefulness will end soon enough. After all, whoever comes has to go through him before they can get to me." The robed figure vanishes in silence. "And will have to go through you and your dwarf of a master before confronting me," he adds with disdain.