7. Leon

Leon had been slightly reluctant to leave and take his scheduled check-in call with Hunnigan, but he knew he had to. They had exchanged a few words, and she had delivered him some updates from his last mission -the one he had suddenly gotten out from- and he was glad to hear that Helena had managed to handle it without him. The sample was safely in the DSO hands.

"So no terrorist attacks then?" Leon asked.

"No, it was...unsettlingly calm," Hunningan replied through the line, "Agent Harper didn't encounter any hostiles on her way back, and the sample got delivered successfully to Dr. Chambers."

"That's good news. Let's hope Dr. Chambers can make out some data from it…"

A few weeks ago, the DSO had received a tip from an anonymous source about a supposedly extremist group in Mexico having possession of a potential pandemic bioweapon. BSAA had, naturally, dispatched a full team to catch and retrieve the sample in small and modest operative. After the group's capture, BSAA requested the DSO's assistance to transport a viral sample to the Alexander Institute of Biotechnology in Chicago, where the pathogen was supposed to get identified and studied. Helena and himself got assigned to the job until he got called back four days ago.

"Any news from what it is?"

"Dr. Chambers has begun the analysis of the sample, but from what I heard, she hasn't been able to reproduce it, and that seems to be difficult to identify."

"BSAA doesn't usually take so long to identify those things…" Leon said while frowning.

"Yes, I thought that, too. Dr. Chambers told agent Harper that the task wasn't originally her team's duty. It seems that the original group in charge of pathogen identification has been out of duty for a while…"

"The original team?"

"Well, I don't even know if we can call it that," Hunnigan sighed, "The group was our main tipsters when it came to all the viral data. I never dealt with them, but I heard that it was thanks to them that our research teams have developed vaccines for many of the viral strains out there."

"Wow, this is the first time I hear about this."

" The group seems to prefer anonymity, and it seems that dealing with them was more a thing between the higher-ups. I've just heard rumors, but it seems the organization had some anonymous informers that provided data from the bioweapons. The data is later passed to us operators so that we can tell the field agents. No one knows who they are, but it seems like they've been out of service for a while now. Many of us speculate they're undercover allies in enemy lines or something like that."

"Huh," Leon said thoughtfully, "and they had been out of service?"

"So it seems, or I assume so since recently all the samples have been rerouted to Dr. Chambers."

"Well, that's weird."

"Dr. Chambers is doing what she can, but so far, it seems that none of the things she's tried are working with this strain. The only safe data we have is that it is a viral agent."

"Nothing new there," Leon sighed, "Alright, Hunnigan. Keep me updated."

"I will, Leon. I hope she recovers soon…"

By her, Leon knew Hunnigan meant Claire.

"Yeah. So do I."

"How is she?"

"She's been asleep for the past three days," Leon replied, "Sedation. She has violent panic attacks whenever she wakes up. I only witnessed one of them, but it was..."

It was horrible. Leon knew Claire, and he knew how brave and strong she was. Seeing her so terrified and vulnerable was not something he was used to seeing.

"I can imagine," Hunnigan sighed, "Let me know if anything happens."

"I will. Bye, Hunnigan."

He pressed the call button and pushed the phone back into his pocket. AS he turned around, he found himself face to face with Dr. Hiwamura.

"That sounded like an interesting conversation. Was it about your last mission, agent Kennedy?"

"..."

"Don't worry. I was informed about it before that. Has Dr. Chambers been able to identify the agent?"

"No...something about not being able to reproduce it…"

"Oh, yeah...that should be it. Dr. Chambers is a bright woman, but there are things she can't do…"

"Oh? You mean you could do better?"

"Me? Nah, I'm only a psychiatrist and an internist. I don't do well when it comes to virus identification or anything alike. I was talking about someone else…"

"And who might that someone be?" he asked, interested. Perhaps they could get in touch with that person and have him help Rebecca.

"Well...we both know her. She's inside that room, no?"

Hiwamura walked past him and stopped in front of Claire's door.

"Are you coming, agent Kennedy?"

Leon frowned, but he walked to the door as the Asian pushed the door open. They found Chris standing restlessly, a few steps from the door, and on the bed, currently preoccupied with writing was…

"Claire…?" Leon said, surprised.

The name escaped his lips immediately, making the red-haired woman raise her to look from her current work. Her cerulean eyes locked with his, and then she smiled lightly.

"So Leon was around, too…" she said, looking at him surprised, "It's been a while, Kennedy."

Leon was dumbfounded and speechless. He hadn't expected Claire to be awake and even less to be sitting and talking as if nothing had happened.

"You are looking peachy, Claire…" Hiwamura smiled, crossing her arms and tilting her head slightly, "It's good to have you back…"

"I've certainly been better, but yeah. The injuries have been taken care of, so I suppose I should be thanking you and the viral genes in my genome, huh?"

"I just switched the meds they were originally giving you. The credit goes to your genes…"

"Right…"

"I just checked the last tests, though, and there are still some red marks in there…"

"I bet there are. Don't mind those. It's just the new addition to my immunological library messing around with my physiology, but believe me, it could be worse…"

Leon frowned at her remark.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he said.

"Oh...you finally talk. For a second there, I thought you were giving me the cold shoulder for being away from this long," Claire said teasingly, " Guess you'll figure out sooner than later…"

"Claire is infected with a new virus…" Chris growled, "Those fucking assholes who kidnapped her did it…"

Leon's eyes widened. No, that couldn't be.

"Are you sure?" Leon asked, concerned.

"It's my body….I think I can tell that better than anyone," Claire sighed. "Don't worry. I don't think I am turning into a cannibal zombified mutant anytime soon, though."

"Claire, that's no fun…" Chris groaned.

"Sorry," she shrugged, "Either way, I am glad that you are here, Saya. I need a favor from you…."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"Oh, it's easy, don't worry, "Claire sighed, "Get me out of this hospital."

The Asian and Claire exchanged looks, and Leo was sure that they were talking silently.

"Claire, I don't think…" Chris had begun, but his sister shook her head.

"I know you are worried, Chris, but I'm doing no good laying here. I need to get back home and start working asap…"

"You must be kidding," Leon blurted out, "You're not jumping straight into the fire when you have just returned…"

"And I agree with Kennedy there…" Chris said, crossing his arms.

Claire rubbed her temple and sighed.

"I know both of you are worried, but the situation makes it urgent for me to get back…"

"No, Claire. I am not letting you out until I'm completely sure that you are cured of that virus..." Chris said with an absolute tone.

Claire let out a mortified sigh.

"I am not jumping back into work if that's what you're worried about, but I need to go back …"

"Well, I am all ears to your explanation because I'm not letting you out unless that explanation is reasonable," the older Redfield said firmly, and Leon agreed.

Claire uttered as she exchanged a significant look with her Japanese friend.

"You're the boss…." Hiwamura smiled, raising her hands in defeat.

"Am I even still the boss...?"

"Technically, yes...you haven't' exactly been replaced…"

"What? Ah, forget it, there's no time for this." she mumbled impatiently, "since, I assume, the cat is already out of the bag. You probably already know about my situation with T virion, strain Phobos…"

"Yeah, not because of your exceptional communicative tendencies, of course…" Chris said.

"Yeah...sorry about that…" she said, rubbing her temple again. Leon noticed that it seemed to be an unconscious action, "well, I need to check if anything has changed in my status, and I can only do it in a certain laboratory back at home…"

"That's true. I already mentioned that a while ago…" Hiwamura corroborated her.

"And...there's a new virus in my system. A potentially dangerous virus that could be released at any time, causing thousands of deaths. I might be a viable sample of it, and if we can get to study it beforehand, we might be able to find a way to minimize the consequences of an outbreak taking place…"

Leon didn't know if he should snort or complain. Claire's words made sense, and, he had to admit it, were reasonable. They had never gotten a sample of a virus before an outbreak, after all. Most of the information retrieved they had about the viral strains always came after the outbreak had already taken place. However, he had to admit that he was slightly shocked about the calmness she showed despite being infected.

"I don't think I like where that's heading, Claire…" Chris said, " You're asking me to let some crazy white coats start to fidget with your body? You know what they did to Jill and that Birkin girl…"

Leon knew that too. He, better than no one, knew all the crap Sherry had been through during the years after the Raccoon City incident, as the researchers studied the latent form of the G-virus in her body. The girl hadn't been treated like an object, but she hadn't been treated humanely, either. The last thing he wanted was for Claire to be put through that, especially considering she had been in something similar the past eight months.

"I wouldn't have to go through that. We…"

"Ehem…" Hiwamura coughed loudly, "I'm afraid Mr. grumpy brother and agent Kennedy are not...informed about that, yet…"

"Informed about what?" Chris demanded, "What else am I missing?"

"Adams didn't tell them?" Claire asked, "Considering the circumstances. I assumed he would have spilled the beans right away."

"Adams considered that it was better to let things calm down before we considered revealing this information. We were hoping to find someone to replace you, but you kind of set up a high standard. In the meantime, all new samples were passed to a new group at the Alexander Institute."

Leon frowned as he processed that information. He began to join the threads in his mind: the recent conversation with Hunnigan about the BSAA need to reassign the viral analysis to Dr. Chambers after to the circumstances of the original team and the anonymity of the group; the changes had taken place, according to Hunnigan, recently, coincidentally, around the same time of Claire's death. Then there was Hiwamura's comment before they entered the room.

Claire had specialized in virology. She'd told him that in their last conversation eight months ago, and she had also noted that she was usually stuck indoors more than doing fieldwork those days; he'd just assume that it was due to her new position as chief.

"You're the tipster…" he said out loud, and Chris had turned to him, shocked, " you are the one who was passing that research data from the viruses to both BSAA and the DSO…"

"You mean the anonymous info we kept receiving about the viruses?" Chris said with wide eyes, "Claire?"

"Busted…" Claire sighed, "It wasn't only me, though. It was my research team, and before you say something more, Adams and Hopkins knew it. They were our main sponsors and pretty much the only people that knew about our identities. They kept the source anonymous to keep us safe…"

"And care to explain why was I left in the dark about this project of yours?"

"It was a consensual agreement with both Adams and Hopkins…" Hiwamura explained, "We would help out with the research, but our names would remain unknown, so we were supposed to keep it secret even to close friends."

"You guys have enough troubles yourselves...letting you know about us would have put another stone on your shoulders," Claire explained.

Leon crossed his arms and sighed. He saw Chris let a frustrated sigh and began pacing restlessly around the room. Claire looked apologetically at them. He couldn't deny that he was annoyed about the number of secrets that they had been figuring lately, but at the same time, it was just like her to keep things from them just to keep them safe.

Chris was taking his time to absorb the news. He still looked angry, but he seemed to be calming down a bit. Leon smirked, remembering something that Claire had said some time ago.

Chris is pissed most of the time. You were so right, Claire.

"Okay, fine," Chris finally said.

Claire smiled.

"I knew you could be reasonable, Chris…"

"Don't think you are out of this… there are still a lot of things you still need to explain."

"Yeah...I do…" Claire sighed, "Unfortunately I do, but I wish I remembered half of it."

Chris stopped his pacing. The older Redfield looked at his sister with an unreadable expression.

"Never mind," he said, "the important thing is that you are here with us, and we should make sure that you're safe."

"But is Claire well enough to take the trip? It's a long way back to the United States…" Leon asked. He understood that she needed to return, if not for the impending danger of a new virus, at least because of her own disease.

"The life-threatening injuries have healed. The rest are superficial wounds; the infection seems to be under control, and I guess we should thank that up to Claire's speed up healing for taking care of it," Hiwamura answered, " I will take care of the paperwork…"

"Thanks, Saya…"

"I guess I should talk to Barry and Jill…" Chris said, " Do you think I can leave her in your care, Leon?"

"Of course…"

"Okay. I'll be back soon, Claire. Don't do anything rash while I am out."

"I won't ...it's not like I can move around freely, and Leon wouldn't let me anyway."

"Alright…" Chris said; he rested his hand over his sister's head and messed up her auburn, short locks.

"Seriously, Chris?" she glared at him trying to fix the messy locks back into place.

Chris snorted and walked out of the room, followed by Hiwamura. Leon frowned as he watched Claire trying to fix her messed up hair, courtesy of her brother, but for some odd reason, the hair strands kept popping up in all directions, and without even realizing it, Leon's hand was moving to her head, helping her put the strands back into place.

Claire flinched at his touch, and for a second, he saw panic reflected in her face, but once she realized it was only him, the expression softened.

"Sorry...instinct…"

"It's my bad. I kind of did it on impulse…" Leon replied, shaking his head, "Do you need something?"

"Not for now. I think I am as good as could be…"

Suddenly the light of the room flickered. Leon looked up, but he didn't miss the sudden look of horror on Claire's face. Her body was visibly tense. Her face had paled, and her expression looked like none he'd seen before.

"That's weird…" Leon said, "It…"

Before he said anything else, the lights went off, leaving them under the dim emergency red lights; almost instantly, he felt a tug in his arm. Claire had grabbed his arm and was holding on to it with a terrified look.

"Are you okay?"

"I don't…" she mumbled, "I don't like it when it is dark."

Leon was surprised. He didn't remember Claire as someone afraid of the dark. They had gone through pretty bad dark places before, and she had never shown fear of them.

"Don't worry. It is probably a small blackout," Leon said casually, "The energy will come back soon…"

Claire had turned pale. She held onto Leon's arm stronger, and out of sudden, she let out a groan of pain as she covered her ear.

"Claire? What's wrong…?"

"Oh no, no..." she cried out, " they are here…."

"They? Who?"

"The demons…"