The Man Of Trails and Tales.

Chapter 3 - Good News, and Bad News

10:45am Sunday, 6/3/2001

Location: Glasgow, Scotland.

Far across the other side of the world, within a small cottage, Barry Burton was typing away on his computer. The middle aged red head had been watching last nights soccer, when he had received a phone call. Back in the United States, Barry loved watching the NFL, but since moving to his current location, he had to find a new sport to enjoy, which was the great British football. Although it was much different to the sports he was used to, he was beginning to thoroughly enjoy it.

The phone call had been from his more than good friends, Chris and Jill. They talked for quite a while, and for a good few minutes it seemed as if their lives were normal, discussing where they were now living and how they were getting on. But then came the favour that Chris wanted to ask for, which Barry had expected. After they had explained about Spencer and his diary, Barry agreed to get information on Spencer. So he did, by conducting a web search, which seemed to only bring up news on the finding of Umbrella by Spencer, and an Ashford.

After a lot of unsuccessful attempts of finding any useful information, Barry had decided to call in for some of his own backup. Being an ex-S.T.A.R.S and S.W.A.T member, he had made some important friends over the years, one of those being a still active CIA Agent. So after haggling with him for a while, he finally gave in to Barry's demands of finding anything useful on Oswell Spencer, whether it was his location, family, or credit card information etc. The agent had fulfilled his promise, by sending Barry an e-mail the next day.

"Come on you piece of crap, give it to me already…" Barry muttered to himself as he gazed at a small message on the screen that indicated his download was 90.

Barry had received the e-mail fifteen minutes ago, but attached to it was a big file, so uploading it was taking its time. He just hoped he would be able to sort and send it to Chris in time, since his family was flying in to visit him for the first time in two months.

11:13am Sunday, 6/3/2001

Location: New Hayes, USA.

Opening one of the kitchen cupboards, Jill reached in and pulled out a coffee mug. She was in the kitchen, which was way too small for her liking. Jill wasn't exactly a great cook herself, but there was hardly anything in the counter drawers, and she could have sworn she saw a cockroach peeking out from under the refrigerator. It was like being back at college again, she thought, grinning to herself.

Fresh out of the shower, Jill was wearing a white cotton gown that she had brought with her, with one of Chris's towels wrapped around her hair in a turban. She was tapping on the side of the mug with her fingernails, waiting for the coffee machine that was on the counter to finish pouring its hot contents into the round glass jug beneath it.

She had felt slightly guilty in taking Chris's bed and making him sleep on the couch, so she thought she would surprise him with a good cup of coffee. He was in the living room next door, and she could hear him moaning about something he was downloading on the laptop.

"Damn Hotmail…" She could hear him whining, which brought a smile to her face. It reminded her of their time in S.T.A.R.S together. Chris never got along with Computers, and it was usually Jill's job to do anything remotely technical.

Meanwhile, Chris was sat at his desk in the dark with the curtains drawn, the only light being emitted from the laptop screen. He was still dressed in last nights clothes, not bothering to change. Chris had not been awake long, and was still half asleep as he stared at the screen, a dim light glowing across his face. As soon as he had awoken, he heard the shower running, naturally assuming Jill was in the bathroom. Wasting no time, he had hopped onto his desk chair, checking for an e-mail that he had been expecting. As usual, his good friend had not let him down, not unless you included the big ass file that came with it.

When the download had finally completed, Chris opened the e-mail, and began reading its contents.

--

Hey Chris, I did that favour you asked me. I've got good news, and some bad news.

I had one of my contacts do a search on Spencer, and I'm sorry to say that nothing came up. But I guess we should have figured that he would be well hidden. Well that's the bad news, but the good news is, my contact found a strong link, who could provide us with information on Spencer, or even the locations of valuable Umbrella Bio-Labs. From what I read, he was Spencer' right hand man. But there is some more good and bad news. The good news is, this guy is situated only twenty three miles from where you are, the bad news is, and get a load of this.

He is in a Mental asylum.

But don't worry about that, I've had someone nearby arrange a way for you to get in there, you'll find out later. I would have searched through all this information myself, but my family is coming over. Sorry, but my family comes first, you should know that…

Anyway, within the file is a crap load of information on this guy which you can check out. Good luck Chris, and please don't leave it too long before we talk again.

Regards, B.B.

PS: Look after Jill.

--

Chris sighed to himself. Barry did the best he could, and although he felt that they took a step backwards, he also felt they took half a step forward. He had mixed feelings on the idea of this new lead which he would have to discuss with Jill.

"Good morning." a familiar voice said.

Looking over his shoulder, Chris could see that Jill had somehow managed to walk into the room and sit down on the chair without him noticing her. But then again, she was a former cat burglar, and a pro at stealth.

"Hey Jill. Did you make me one?" He asked her, staring at the coffee she had placed on the table in front of her.

"Yes, this one." She said, pointing at the one he was eyeing up. She crossed her legs, and gave him a warm smile. He couldn't help but notice she had became a lot nicer since their plan became official the previous night.

Chris thanked her before standing up and heading over to the chair opposite her. He sat down in it, before reaching over the table and sliding the coffee towards him, whilst his eyes secretly trailed along Jill's bare legs.

"I got an e-mail back from Barry. Do you want the good news first, or the bad news?" Chris asked her, taking a sip of coffee whilst she replied.

"Its too early for bad news. What's the good?" She asked

"Well…" He said, putting the coffee mug back down on the table before continuing. "The good news is, Barry sent us a lot of information. In fact, there is so much information that my laptop can barely handle it all.".

He watched as Jill's face lit up with joy. But sadly, he had to break the bad news to her.

"But the bad news is, its not about Spencer. Instead, its about Spencer's right hand man. Read the e-mail Barry sent me." Chris said, as he pointed at the laptop monitor.

It hardly been two minutes before Jill had finished reading the e-mail Barry had sent. She was sitting in Chris's computer chair, with him standing behind and leaning over her, still drinking his coffee.

"I think we give this guy a shot." She said, finally break the silence.

"I'm very sceptic on this Jill. I mean, the guys a nut. How are we supposed to extract anything useful from him?" Chris asked her. Jill could tell that Chris wasn't up for the idea, but she also knew they were desperate for a lead.

"We have to give it a chance. This file that Barry has given us, it's a Winzip file. That means within this one file, is crap load of other files, probably full of information on this patient. I'll tell you now Chris, that I am going to do this, with or without your help.". She had a look of determination on her face. Jill knew she had a purpose, and that purpose was to expose Umbrella, or bring them down with force. She was going to take every chance she got.

There was a small silence, before Chris spoke.

"I'll help you on one condition."

Jill raised an eyebrow, awaiting his proposition.

"We go out for breakfast, because I'm starving, and if you have been in the kitchen then you will know that there is nothing edible." he said, rubbing his stomach.

Although Jill wanted to stay serious, she couldn't help but break into a smile, and she even let out a small laugh. "Okay, lets go out for breakfast. I haven't eaten a thing since yesterdays flight."

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Note: Okay, so now I promise that the storyline will now start moving along to the actual point of the story. I must apologise if there has been bad grammar, spelling or confusion in sentences as my human wordcheck is too tired to work. Thumps the fiance

Anyway, thank you for reading, and please review.