22. Chris

BSAA, Cardigan Bay, Wales.

November 27th, 15:25 hours.

Chris had listened to the exchange between Claire and Rebecca silently; he could grasp a couple of the things that both women were discussing, but most of it was just too complicated for him to care at all. All he needed to know was what he was fighting and how he could beat it. The rest of scientific blabbering was all Rebecca and Claire's thing; both seemed to understand each other without issues. When had his sister become such a virus nerd? He sure must have been too busy dealing with B.O.W.s the last few years to be so ignorant about her sister's academic interests.

Claire seemed convinced that she could figure out the virus and Chris, naturally, believed her. He was concerned about his sister's health and her tendency, or rather the Redfield habit, of overworking to death; he could only trust that Leon would stand for his word and keep an eye over her, but perhaps he needed to have a chat with Leon later.

"She's a brilliant woman. I can't believe you never introduced her to me before. I mean, academically speaking since I knew her before," Rebecca said happily, "If she can really put this up, she'd have saved our necks considerably…"

"Honestly, I had no idea she was that smart," Chris admitted.

"She's given us valuable information through the years. It's not a lie that we hold her in high esteem, and we are all happy to have her back," Hopkins said, "I regret that I didn't convince her to join the DSO earlier. She would have been more protected…"

"Well...she does honor her name when it comes to being stubborn." Adams laughed, "Her original position made her happy, didn't it?"

"She likes working with people…." Chris said, "She's always been good at that. In fact, I always thought she would head for a medical career, but instead, she took on sciences. It was very unexpected, I admit."

"Oh, but she does it really well…" Rebecca smiled, "I would have never gone for random PCR to identify a new virus. Well, she's a geneticist, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised…"

"Let's hope she can figure this out soon." Hopkins sighed.

"So Redfield, tell me. Did you find anything with that lead you got…"

Chris let out a frustrated sigh.

"No. The only suspicious thing we found with that ship was the fact that it was floating randomly in the middle of the ocean. There were no hidden laboratories, no suspicious shipments, no bodies. Nothing. "

"Well, that's disappointing."Adam sighed.

"We haven't had that much luck either…" Hopkins said, "I've got my best research agents trying to catch a trail of Mobius, but so far, it's been futile. They sure know how to hide…"

"We will catch them. I'm not giving up on that. I'll have my payback for what they did to my sister, Chris groaned.

"Of course, we understand your anger, Chris," Adams said, "but we must move carefully. .."

"I know that…"

"Without a lead...it seems quite difficult to catch their trail." Rebecca said sadly, "Wish I could help more…"

"You focus on that virus, Rebecca. The rest, we can handle…" Chris said, shaking his head, "I don't know, but I am afraid that the only plausible lead we might get is ...Cla..ra, but I'm afraid that pushing her for answers...will have a bad result."

"I am not an expert in the area, but if forcing the memories out of someone sounds like it'd backfire somehow," Rebecca said.

"I agree.." Chris nodded, "I don't want to do that…"

"Then don't. We want to find these terrorists as soon as possible, but we won't compromise her wellbeing for it.." Adams said sternly.

"They will attack again. We can be sure of that..."

Chris leaned his back against the back of the chair and crossed his arms with his eyes fixed on the computer screen. The lack of information - and presence - of Mobius had him intrigued. Terrorist groups usually tended to have megalomaniacal tendencies, and it was not uncommon for them to uphold their name and attract the attention of the media. Mobius's modus operandi was different. The group preferred to remain in the shadows, and since the attack at the Terra Save Medical Center in Wales, they had not made an appearance again, and it was as if the group had never existed.

In Chris's personal opinion, that behavior was much more dangerous than a group that carried out pompous propaganda every 72h. The situation itself gave him many doubts.

Mobius had made it clear that the attack in Wales had been merely motivated by Claire's presence. That left him thinking that future attacks could follow the same line.

But why would they be so determined to get Claire back? Not knowing the answer to that question only made him more uneasy.

"All we can do is wait, then…" Adams sighed.

"Sadly, yes…" Hopkins agreed.

"I heard the attack in Wales involved a new type of B.O.W," Rebecca said.

"Yeah, there were three subjects actually, from the same type. We couldn't retrieve any tissue samples since it got ruined with the sunlight…"

"Sunlight?" Rebecca asked, confused, "What do you mean?"

"The creatures seemed to have high resistance to firepower and physical attacks, but they have a high level of Photosensitivity. In order to defeat them, Claire lured them out to the sunlight, or at least that was Claire's original plan. However, we didn't expect that the reaction was so violent, the deterioration was too heavy to recover any sample…"

"Claire knew that would happen?"

"I presume she did. Otherwise, she wouldn't have suggested that plan, to begin with."

"But how did she know?"

Chris frowned. Truth be told, that same question had been circulating in his mind from the moment he read the message Claire had sent from Leon's phone. When he had questioned Claire, the woman seemed upset. Claire was not sure how she knew it, but it looked like she had already faced those creatures before.

"Claire had faced them before, but she couldn't remember the details. She acted on pure instinct back there. She told us that she'd just known…" Chris answered.

"Cognitive memory, perhaps?" Rebecca suggested.

"That's what Hiwamura said. She believes Claire has a case of selective amnesia associated with traumatic experiences."

"You mean she forgot or blocked out some memories because they were too traumatic?" Rebecca said with wide eyes, "That's terrible. I can't imagine how bad they must have been to cause that effect…"

"Yeah, that's why I'd rather let it be forgotten," Chris said sadly, "I know her memories could be helpful, but what if that causes Claire to suffer too much?"

"We understand, Redfield…" Adams said comprehensively, "We won't force Claire to remember…"

"Of course. We will figure a way to deal with those things."

Chris nodded and was grateful that the two leaders were sympathetic about his sister.

"Well, I think this is all we have to discuss for today. I'll be waiting for the full report asap, Redfield."

"Yes, sir. I'll have it ready for when I return to the USA."

"Alright. Until then, Redfield. Take care…"

Chris remained still, staring at the screen even though the video call had ended several minutes ago. The man impatiently tapped the table with his fingers, and suddenly the computer screen lit up with a new incoming call.

Chris hurriedly clicked the screen, and, automatically, Dr. Hiwamura's face appeared before him.

"That was quick…" Dr. Hiwamura said, tilting her head.

"I just had a call with Adams and Hopkins. I was already in front of the computer."

"Well, that makes sense." Hiwamura nodded, "Anyway, as I promised, I am calling to report about the results of Claire's tests."

"And?"

"Well, the good news is that this is our Claire, not a clone or anything alike. It's the perfectly imperfect Claire Redfield we all love…"

"I already knew that, but the reassurance is appreciated. What else? What about the virus?"

"The T-Phobos mutation is still there. No evident changes are visible, so everything seems to be fine on that side. However, I found a viral agent in her blood. The concentration is really low, but it is there. It is confirmed that she has an active infection."

Chris groaned; he was hoping that Claire would have been wrong, and there was no virus in her body.

"I can't identify the agent, but we managed to isolate the virion and amplify it, so we might be able to identify it. "

"Any idea of what the virion effects on her?"

"I am afraid that I'd be speculating if I tried to give you an answer. The test won't give us that much information; but if I have to guess based on the protocolary results of blood tests, there's a high chance it's effects are associated with a blood dysfunction…"

"Blood dysfunction?"

"Have you ever heard of the Evans Syndrome, Mr. Redfield?"

"No...why?"

"Oh, well, I am not surprised, but I had to ask. The Evans syndrome is a very rare autoimmune disorder in which the immune system destroys the red blood cells, white blood cells, and/or platelets. Affected people often experience thrombocytopenia and hemolytic anemia." Hiwamura explained, "The symptoms are more or less the symptoms that she's showing right now. Her white cell blood count is lower than normal, but it isn't that bad. However, her platelet and red cells count dropped significantly since the last time."

"So…?"

"The cause of ES is unknown, and I wouldn't discard the virus causing it. It is not necessarily the virion's exact pathology, but its specific reaction in Claire's body. I'm taking a marrow puncture for Claire when she comes today, and I'll array some other special tests."

"Is it grave?"

"Like any other disease, it has its risks, but it is treatable, so the prognosis isn't that bad. Claire does need to be careful, though. The low platelet count means that even a small cut would cause her to lose blood fast, and with her current state of anemia, that could be mortal. I need to look more into her symptomatology before I can think of treatment, but by now, what I consider the most fit is a blood transfusion to replenish her blood cell loss."

"And you think this is related to the new virus?"

"I do….."

"And the T-Phobos…?"

"What about it?"

"Would it have something to do with her condition, too?"

"That's unlikely. The T-Phobos has been incorporated into Claire's genome for a while. Nothing similar happened, and it wouldn't suddenly start to cause her these symptoms, at least not without a trigger. No, I strongly believe this is caused by the new virus, but we will have to study the case carefully. Claire was right when she said the virus wasn't causing her mutations, but it seems that her body is fighting the new virus the best way it can."

"She has antibodies then?"

"Immune response is usually Antibody-mediated, after all, but no, I don't think she has antibodies for it. The white cell count is low, so I wouldn't think the immunological response is that high. I think it is more like her body rejecting the virus in some way, but like I said. I can only speculate right now. We need more data. It's too soon to make absolute statements."

Chris ran his hand over his head, wearily. His face reflected the concern he could not express in words, but being a psychiatrist, the man knew that Dr. Hiwamura probably knew the maelstrom of feelings that were hitting him at the time.

"Do whatever you need to do. Make sure to inform Leon about it. He needs to keep Claire safe from injuries now..."

Hiwamura nodded.

"Nothing is clear at the moment, Mr. Redfield. There's nothing in life that can't be solved…"

With those last words, Hiwamura ended the call. Chris let out a sigh of agony and rubbed his exhausted face.

Why did it have to be his sister? Chris would have given anything to take his sister's place right now. He couldn't help but think that he had been more or less the cause of Claire's fatalities; the only reason that the girl had been dragged into the biowarfare was that she'd been there when everything had begun. If he had warned her, gave her a call, or left her a message at the time, she wouldn't have gone to Racoon City searching for him, nor would she have invaded Umbrella in Paris or fallen prisoner in Rockfort. At the time, he had thought that keeping her in the dark was the right way to keep her safe, but he should have known he was wrong.

Claire was, in many ways, too much like him, and if it had been the other way around, he would have done the same thing. But Claire wasn't a soldier, she was a woman with a future; a woman who he wanted to see living happily in a safe home with family; a woman whose only battle should be what clothes to wear that day or how to make her children eat the vegetables at dinner and not a battle against an unknown virus that was trying to destroy her body.

There was nothing that Chris could do now but mourn the mistakes he had made even when he knew it was meaningless. He would do whatever it took to help Claire now, and that was all that mattered.