Chapter Two

Revelation

"Earth to Chris." Jill snapped her fingers in front of his face. "You wanna pay a little bit of attention, please? Before something comes along and bites your fingers off?"

"Something what?" Chris shook his head in disgust. He balled his hands into fists and rested them on the metal railing, leaning over to stare into the dark space stretching far below. "There's nothing here, Jill. This base has been abandoned for years."

"Haven't they all?"

"Yeah, but this one is really abandoned -- not infested with flesh eating freaks."

"My, you do have a way with words." Barry Burton drew up behind them, making them jump. For a big man, he could move with incredible speed and stealth. "But I tend to agree. There's nothing here."

"That makes sense, though," Jill protested angrily. Chris could tell she was anxious to find something, anything at all. He thought she would even be happier if the place was crawling with zombies. "If Wesker's after a virus, this would be the perfect place. Leftover... research or something, right?" Both men stared at her pityingly, which only fueled her anger. "Damn it, Chris, if there's nothing here, why did we come? Why'd Lazarus send us that email? Why?"

Barry bit his bottom lip thoughtfully. "How sure are we that Lazarus sent the email at all?"

A shocked silence followed. "You mean..." Chris stared at him, brow furling as he worked through the significance of Barry's words. "You mean someone lured us here? Why?"

"To get us out of the way, presumably."

"Wekser?" Jill asked softly.

"Likely. He'd certainly know our email addresses. And he knows about Lazarus. Remember, he's one of our old STARS contacts."

Jill blanched, grabbing onto Chris' arm for support. "We have to get in touch with Lazarus as soon as possible."

"Calm down, Jill. Just because Wesker used his tag doesn't mean he..."

"This is Lazarus we're talking about, Barry! Our resident computer genius! If Wesker used his tag, Lazarus knows."

"Which means Lazarus could be in trouble," Chris finished grimly. "She's right. We have to find him."

Barry raised his magnum in acquiescence. "At any rate, we're not accomplishing much here. Let's get back to the jet and get moving." His brow darkened as he tucked the gun into its holster. "We've been duped, children. And I don't like it one bit."

They strode through the echoing base, each of them taut and nervous, long habit preparing them for some hideous thing to jump out of the shadows. Chris' fingers twitched. He felt strange wandering an Umbrella base without a weapon drawn, but there was no way he was going to carry his gun around in front of Jill when she hadn't touched hers. "How sure are we that Wesker's behind this?" he asked just to fill the silence.

"Who else?" Barry replied grimly, hoisting himself into an air shaft. He turned and reached down for Jill.

"Lots of people." Chris leaned against the railing, enjoying the view as Jill scrambled up the wall, Barry's hand firmly around her wrist. "Anyone from Umbrella, for one."

"They don't care about us." Jill grunted as she clambered into the shaft, moving behind Barry so he could give Chris a hand. "Not unless we're actively irritating them. Wesker, on the other hand, has a personal grudge. You know how it is. We dared to let him betray us and all, and then we had the nerve to survive his little freak show."

Chris muttered something indecipherable as he scrambled into the shaft behind them. Jill twisted awkwardly in the cramped space and led them back the way they'd come, crawling as fast as she could. The metal shaft squeaked and groaned with her every movement -- or rather, with every movement of the men behind her. She kept straining to see into the darkness ahead, half-expecting to stumble over a dead body -- or one that had come back to life. She longed for the comforting weight of her gun, but there was no way in hell she was going to draw a weapon when Chris hadn't. "The thing is," she called over her shoulder, just to distract herself, "assuming it is Wesker, why'd he do it? If he wanted to lure us up here, mission accomplished. Why isn't he waiting to blast us into space or something?"

"Maybe that's not what he had in mind." Barry cursed softly as his head struck a piece of exposed metal. "Maybe he wanted us out of the way."

"Why? I mean, but it's really Chris he's after, isn't it? The rest of us he just hates on principal."

"Thanks, Jill." Chris drew a deep breath. As much as he hated to admit it, a few lingering traces of claustrophobia still struck him at inopportune moments -- such as this one.

"No offense. It's actually kind of a compliment."

He was forced to laugh. "What? I said thank you." His amusement faded as quickly as it had risen. "You're right, though. Why'd he send us on this wild goose chase? There has to be something we're not seeing."

Jill put on a burst of speed as she caught a glimmer of light ahead. "Well, think it through. What's Wesker after?"

"He's after Chris," Barry replied. He caught up to Jill and took her arm, lowering her through the other end of the shaft.

"Not exactly." Jill's flailing feet caught the rung of a ladder, and she nodded up at Barry. "Or he'd be here. And he wouldn't have bothered with the rest of us."

The two men landed heavily beside her. Jill rubbed her hands through her hair as they started back to the jet. Catching up with her, Chris offered her a wry smile. "He doesn't just want me dead, Jill. He wants to hurt me as much as..." All at once, he stopped. Jill and Barry turned to look at him. Standing frozen in the middle of the hall, the blood drained from his face, his eyes wide and mean, Chris stared back. "He wants to hurt me as much as possible," he rasped.

"So what does that mean?" Barry demanded.

Jill met Chris' eyes and felt her own heart skip a beat. "Claire."