The upturned semi still smoldered from where it had crashed. Sunk halfway into the muck and mud beside this lonely road going out into the country. The one good light flickered off and on, casting illumination over a now headless body floating in the stagnant water. While on the road from where it had crashed, out of the shadows where the midday sun shined down over that grisly scene one lone figure stood.
"That could have gone better," Leon said, shifting through his pockets and pulling out his cellphone. Grimacing at the no signal notice the moment he saw it. He'd need to find a landline to contact Hannigan and explain how his plan to tail the BlackQuill guys had gone. "Poorly. Lost another company car when they tried to run me off the road."
Though he'd managed to exit from his vehicle and onto theirs before it went into that ravine. Which should have been where it ended as most rent-a-mercs were shy about getting shot in the face. Not this one though.
The fact that they could survive it, cussing out a storm as their wounds stitched over and blades of bone and meat sprung out of the injury at him was probably part of that. He'd managed to get the driver out of commission despite the close quarters fight in the cab. Still it had confirmed what he'd suspected from the start. The frame going on over Ashley had to be more complicated to have gone down like Hannigan had reported. The lack of a dominant strain in her body evidence enough no matter what excuses they were using about 'novel mutations which we were unprepared for.'
If however there were others around with a dominant Plagas capable of ordering the others to act out whatever scenario they wanted… that changed things and explained the whole sordid affair. At least the how of it anyway.
Assuming he was right of course about what he'd seen.
"But is that what you guys have?" Leon looked at the odd vial he'd fished off the dead man, an auto-injector with murky red fluid and single, if unsettling bit of text printed along the side.
Inhibitor-β .
He didn't want to risk falling to wild speculation yet, but he wouldn't be surprised if all the special Anti-BOW squad that had shown up had similar vials on them to keep their little mutagenically parasitic friends happy. Instead he slid it into his jacket pocket next to the other item he'd found on the man's body. A digital keycard which had been stuffed into the cupholder and almost got lost during the crash before he'd found it on his path out of the gully. For what it was used for he could only guess, but that wasn't his main concern.
For now he needed a working phone.
"Guess I'm hitchhiking," Leon said, walking down the road and glad that he'd come out of that fight without being covered in blood and looking like a maniac.
"Could you repeat that?"
"That PMC they have doing cleanup here? They've got BOWs on their payroll… or SBOWs?" Leon turned towards the road as he switched the payphone receiver to the other ear. A cheap energy drink and stale nutri-bar sitting on the side of the phone as he talked. "Some variant of the Plagas strain too. Though they had this weird vial that I'd like to get delivered to the DSO as soon as possible."
"I'll have a whole team out there within an hour Leon."
He grimaced at that, thinking over the current problem, the reason he'd come up here personally instead of letting someone else handle this case.
"I'm not sure about that."
"I'm not sure I heard that clearly." Hannigan said, sharp annoyance coming through crystal clear despite the poor connection. "You don't want me sending in the Marines?"
"Not till I find Ashley. Whoever is setting this up already went pretty far to kill her and make it look like something that needed to happen. The Bio-Terror alert is still standing and I don't want them to escalate any further until I find her…"
"And possibly her father," Leon added in his thoughts. Fairly certain by now that Ashley had ran off by herself out for more than just revenge. She must have been convinced by whatever went down in that failed effort to eliminate her that her father was still alive somewhere.
And Leon had a pretty good idea.
Taking another sip of that foul tasting drink he unfolded the map he'd picked up, seeing the small town that had been further up the road from where his vehicular incident had occurred. Ravenscroft was tiny, isolated, and by the looks of it where that truck had been headed. Filled with the cadavers taken from the deaths the day before. Supposedly going to a special disposal site though now he had his suspicions that something else was going down.
"So what exactly do you expect me to do Leon? This situation was complicated enough before you ran off without any kind of support."
"Not my first time on a case like this," Leon said, thinking to himself, "And hopefully this one turns out better."
"That's great for you, but how can I help then?"
"Contact… Simmons. Through a secure line so only he'll know what's going on. He can keep a lid on this from his side while I keep pushing forward. Hopefully whatever contacts these guys have in local authorities won't get anxious and do anything rash until I can find Ashley."
There was a lengthy pause on the line as Hannigan thought over what Leon had just said. Finally replying, "That could work. We could even put out a false alert that your actions aren't supported by the DSO for the moment. Leon S. Kennedy, mad with grief and trying to save a dangerous BOW."
"And you said you couldn't act Ingrid."
"I said I wasn't going to see Shakespeare in the park with you Leon because I didn't like acting, not because I couldn't." She let out a short sigh on her end, hopefully finding some levity in their banter now. "So what else do you want me to do while I wait for you to find Ashley and get out of there?"
"Look into the BlackQuill Contractors. I doubt there will be clear connections in the BOW elimination contract they have with this state, but maybe there's something connecting them to a possible motive or at least a source of funding for all this."
"Are you sure you don't want to call in assistance? The BSAA is clamoring to be involved in this."
Leon frowned at that. Chris or Claire would obviously like to help, but he had no idea what his investigation might uncover at the moment and couldn't risk a conflict of interest getting in the way of the real objective as far as he was concerned. Though if it came down to it, getting Ashley into their care might be a possible solution to canceling the termination order without revealing how much he knew yet. "If only I knew who planned this… and why?"
"No, not till I have her secured. It's too dangerous if this gets out."
"About that…"
"What, has there been another press release?" Leon rolled his eyes at that. He couldn't keep track of these cover stories sometimes.
"No, nothing like that. Just that there were some rumors released online and pictures."
He blinked. Thinking back to the memory card and that note he'd found.
"Pictures of Ashley?"
"Yes. As well as her name being attributed to them. At the moment it's not verified and given the publicity of this incident most reputable news outlets are treating it as a lie but it's still the first time her name has been brought up in years."
"And it's because she's being framed for her father's murder." Life just had it out for that girl sometimes. "That's the last thing we need right now… hey, Hannigan, how likely is the DSO to reimburse me for expenses this time?"
He could hear the shock in her voice as she bluntly asked, "What does that matter?"
Leon looked across the gas station where a couple of men had pulled up, dirt bikes sitting in the back of a pickup truck and being taken out one by one to put gas in their tanks.
"No reason, I think I just found a ride is all."
"Don't worry Ashley. I'm coming for you."
By the time Leon gotten past where the truck had crashed it was already midafternoon. He took a slight detour around there, only stopping to inspect from the crest of a hill to confirm his suspicion that someone would have cleaned up that mess. A couple of state patrol cars… and more unmarked trucks. The combination highlighted the possibility of further cooperation. Or just that BlackQuill had a legal contract to handle BOW disposal for the state of Massachusetts. And Vermont apparently from what Hannigan had told him before the end of their call.
None of that mattered right now. He now knew how Ashley had gotten so far, the insane luck of finding someone openly fascinated by BOWs/ Irregular Mutations to spend most of their time trying to find pictures of them unable to pass up the opportunity to follow along when one that could talk literally dropped out of the sky on them. Though as much as it was letting Ashley leap from the frying pan into the fire, he did have to admit it was probably the best of all possible worlds. Most others would have shot her as soon as they saw her or reported her to this Carrion Eaters squad from BlackQuill which he now had the increasing suspicion might be made up entirely of Plagas infected mercenaries.
At least this way she was alive enough for him to track down.
The sun was starting to go down, already slipping behind the low lying hills and mountains of this area when he pulled down the last road leading up into the isolated valley where Ravenscroft could be found. Seeing a covered bridge ahead Leon smiled because he knew he had to be getting close at last. Even if he had no idea what might be ahead of him, he'd just have to trust in his skills.
"Besides, Ashley's probably still hiding around somewhere trying to stay out of trouble." He'd just have to check the closets…
His thoughts took an abrupt turn as he heard the roar of a motor coming down the river. Thinking to be as cautious as possible, he pulled off the road and hid the bike behind a tree, glancing up to see a helicopter, some militarized upgrades marking its purpose, flying low above the treetops. A spotlight shining down around the road and ground, banishing the growing darkness of dusk. Gun barrels poking out the open doors as it hovered above the road for a good length of time. Before taking off again back the way it had come.
"Quite the welcome party they have planned." Despite his words, Leon didn't feel the bravado as strongly as he had hoped. He'd only just arrived and instead of guarding the entrance or staying near this bridge the helicopter had already retreated far along the valley. Clearly looking for something or someone and he felt a grim realization that it might not be him for once. Which meant that Ashley had been doing the opposite of what he wanted and likely not staying quiet and out of danger.
He should have known she'd get into some kind of trouble.
"I just have to hope I can get her out of it."
