Chapter Ten

Crossroads

Claire's knees went fluid beneath her. She sagged into Wesker's arms. He half-carried, half-led her to a nearby chair and desposited her.

Both of their gazes were fixed on the row of oversized tubes lining one wall. Claire had destroyed enough Umbrella facilities in her time to know that usually, these held monstrous and twisted creations waiting to be unleashed on the outside world. In this lab, however, the first nine stood empty, not even containing the sickly clear gel Umbrella used to suspend their experiments until granting them life.

The tenth one was full of the gel.

It was also full of Leon.

He drifted in the tank, eyes closed, head tipped forward. His pants were plastered to his legs, the hems drifting slightly in the sticky liquid. Rows of scrapes and cuts lined his bare chest, and the right side of his face revealed a long gash mark. No blood -- that had drifted away in the gel and hung in a slowly expanding line beside him.

"Is he dead?" she whispered once she found her voice. Her fingers shook on the table. Don't faint, she told herself firmly.

"Would I bother to store him if he was?" Wesker crossed to the tube and ran one finger almost lovingly across it. "Fascinating inventions, these -- all sorts of potential benefits in the right hands. Suspended animation, store people until a cure was discovered for cancer, for AIDS..."

Claire pictured a room packed with long tubes, each enclosing a sickly human, eyes closed, awaiting the far off day -- if it ever arrived --- when they could be cured and awoken. She shuddered. "I think I'd prefer death."

"Shall we find out?" But he didn't make a move toward her, and she got the feeling he made the threat only because it was expected. Right now, Leon held all of his attention.

She swallowed hard. "What happened?"

At last Wesker turned to her. "Hmm?" he asked, perching on the edge of the table. Claire scooted her chair back as far as she could. "Oh, Mr. Kennedy here. Foolish boy. He was trying to rescue you, you know. Figured he could just walk in here with a shotgun and that would be it." He chuckled, fingers playing absently on his knife hilt.

"He knew where I was?" Hope surged. That meant Chris knew, and she had no doubt he would...

Wesker's smile crushed her half-formed idea. "A solo mission I'm afraid, dear heart. Pity -- I would have loved to see your brother again."

"Don't worry. You will."

"I think not. Mr. Kennedy found me through a leak in my little family -- a leak I've already plugged."

"Ada Wong?"

"Ah, so you've met."

Claire closed her eyes briefly. She wasn't fond of Ada, but that didn't mean she wanted her dead. Besides, Ada had saved her life back in Raccoon City. There was no denying that. "You killed her."

"Of course not. Such a valuable, beautiful woman. No, I merely offered her the opportunity to prove her loyalty. She won't betray me again."

Claire didn't even want to know. "So what now? I do what you say or you'll kill Leon?"

"Kill him? Oh, eventually," Wesker agreed, returning his gaze to the suspended body. His eyes took on a hungry, predatory gleam. "You have no idea the uses a pure scientist can make of a living human speciman. Why, this one man could advance the field of genetic research five years all on his own. It's really almost noble when you think about it."

She closed her eyes against a throbbing headache, biting back tears. "You're a monster, you know that? An absolute demon. Even those creatures Umbrella cooks up are more human than you. At least they're only following their instincts. You -- you have a choice."

"Yes, I do." He caught her chin in a gloved hand and forced her head back so their eyes met. "And I chose power, Miss Redfield. You, on the other hand, chose sentiment, boredom, and playing the hero. Look where it's gotten you. If that's meant to be an argument against my plan, it's rather ineffective." He released her with a shove. "I'm tired of this game. You're beginning to try my patience, and that's a dangerous hobby. Where is the sample you stole from me?"

Her mind raced, searching for any lie he might swallow, something to get him out of the base, give her a chance to rescue Leon and escape. Something along the lines of "I locked it in an unbreakable box and sealed it in the seventh circle of hell." But he would only lock her up again, and God knew what he'd do to her, to Leon, when he returned.

She was going to die, she realized with a constriction of her chest. But if she didn't speak, she would die anyway. And Leon would die first. At least this way she had a chance to save his life. "I destroyed it," she whispered.

For a moment she thought he hadn't heard her. He didn't move, didn't even seem to breathe. "You what?"

"I destroyed it. I threw it in a fire and watched it burn."

Silence stretched between them for another long, agonizing minute. Then his hand cracked across her face, sending her flying out of the chair. "You ignorant child," he snarled, towering above her. Claire crawled to the wall and huddled there, lacking even the spirit to fight back. She only hoped that if she didn't resist him, he would kill her quickly. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

She met his gaze. "I stopped you from doing anything else to Steve, that's what."

"Oh, you did that indeed. But you also destroyed the last remaining sample of Alexia's virus!"

"So what?" she cried, reacting in spite of herself. He glared down at her, hands clenched into fists, but so far he hadn't hit her again. "Isn't the T-virus awful enough? Why do you need a more powerful strain?"

"It wasn't for Umbrella, you stupid girl. It was for me!" He spun, driving his fist against -- no, through -- the wall. "You saw the power she had, power she acquired without losing her mind, her free will! Alexia was brilliant but impatient. A few more years and I'd have perfected the virus, eliminating the need for the incubation period." He spun on her, chest heaving. "And now, thanks to you, I have to start again from the beginning. Trying to recreate the virus from memory -- a virus I never fully studied!"

Claire gaped. Was she meant to apologize? Feel sorry for him? "This is all about getting a little more power? Haven't you gone far enough?"

He laughed coldly. "I can be destroyed, dear heart. A nuclear missile would do it. So would a number of far less powerful explosives. No, you can never have too much power." His eyes narrowed behind his glasses, his face going cold and thoughtful. "But perhaps there is a way you can make it up to me after all."

Warning bells sounded in her head. "What do you mean?"

In the blink of an eye he closed the distance between them, lifting her to her feet and trapping her between him and the wall. His body pressed tightly against hers, her wrists imprisoned in his hands, he offered her a perfect, chilling smile. "You've destroyed my test subject, Miss Redfield. It's only fitting you take his place."