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62. Helena
She should have expected something to happen because it was a rule that holidays were never quiet. However, the last thing Helena had anticipated on New Year's Eve was a call from Leon, telling her that they would meet in the parking lot and that she should be ready for a fight.
Ready to fight what? That was the question. When Helena reached the parking lot, Claire and Leon were already there with an expression Helena could only describe as concerned.
The pair updated Helena about the situation, and the woman couldn't deny that Claire's explanation sounded a bit far-fetched, but who was her to judge? Claire was far more knowledgeable about the subject than Helena could ever be.
When the monster hit the car's roof, Helena felt the car wobble with the creature's weight. The agent looked up as long as sharp claws pierced the steel roof of the vehicle.
"Shit," she growled. Helena pulled out her handgun and aimed. However, the bullets did little but scratch the BOW.
"Fuck!" Helena cursed.
Leon was driving through a bumpy road, but the creature seemed unfazed. It kept clinging to the car stubbornly, and the woman wished she had something a little more powerful than a handgun.
Then Leon hit the brakes, and she saw the monster fly off the roof with some satisfaction. Physics wasn't always her favorite subject. However, right now, Helena was happy that inertia existed.
Unfortunately, the inertia didn't seem to be enough to stop that monster. Both Helena and Leon were ready to confront the BOW. However, neither of them counted on Claire acting as a decoy and distracting it away from them.
"Shit! Claire! What the hell is she...?"
It was the first time that Helena heard Leon as close as panicked as that. His attachment to Claire was way deeper than Helena had thought at first. Not that it was a bad thing. Claire seemed like the perfect match for Leon, but it wasn't the time to psychoanalyze Leon's relationship. There were more important things to consider.
"That thing went after Claire," Helena muttered. "Why did it ignore us?"
"What?"
"So far, all monsters have attacked us indiscriminately, right?" Helena said, "but this one just went after her."
"She said she was luring it," Leon replied.
"Yeah, but it passed right by us," Helena said. "And we were shooting at it. It just ignored that and went right after her..."
Leon seemed to catch on to her thought, and he fell silent. Helena expected the BOW to destroy everything in its path before turning to Claire, who was its initial target, but instead, the monster had acted as if Leon and Helena didn't even exist.
Claire, too. She would never let the BOW kill them to save herself, so it was unlikely that she would run away and leave them. Yet her first reaction had been to run, almost as if she knew the BOW would go after her.
"She knew it would go after her," Leon realized. "We need to find her, and fast. Claire is in great danger."
Leon's reaction would have been an exaggeration if Helena didn't know the gravity of the situation. The pair ran through the snowy forest blindly.
Helena had trained to track people, but even if she had exceeded it, finding Claire in the darkness and the snow wasn't an easy task. She knew that Leon was thinking the same, but the dire expression on his face showed that he didn't plan to let that stop him.
"Leon, look," Helena said, pointing in front of them with the flashlight.
There was a trail of chaos and destruction that disappeared into the darkness. The broken branches and scratched trunks seemed to increase in number as they moved behind the tracks. At least the BOW was helpful. Helena surveyed the scene. The magnitude of the disaster was a reflection of the state of the BOW. The more excited he was, the more marked was the destruction of the surroundings. The signs were clear. The BOW was enjoying the chase.
"Shit, I hope Claire is fine..." Helena said with concern. "I don't know if I like how this looks."
"Me either," Leon mumbled. "Let's hurry."
The minutes that passed felt like hours. Helena and Leon followed the trail until they heard a grunt and a struggle.
The BOW was over Claire. It had her pinned against the ground with one of her sharp claws. From her position, neither Leon nor Helena could see if the woman was hurt, but at least they knew that she was alive. That made both officers breathe in relief.
Both agents shot the creature several rounds of ammo. The monster ignored them at first, leaving his full attention on Claire, but after some well-aimed hits, the BOW finally turned to them. That gave an opening for Claire, and Helena hoped it was enough.
Helena didn't know what Claire had done, but suddenly, the BOW was screaming and groaning in pain while Claire snuck away from its grasp. Leon was instantly by her side, helping her up.
Helena couldn't help but smirk to her insides, seeing how much like a doting husband her partner was acting, but she jumped back into agent mode and focused her attention on the BOW. It had dropped to the ground, and it was twitching helplessly in a pile of snow.
"Is it...dead?" Helena asked, looking at the creature hesitantly.
"No, not yet," Claire replied. "It isn't fully transformed; I injected it with a sample of my blood. My virus is taking apart the one in his bloodstream. There's a dim chance he might survive."
"Your...blood?" Leon asked, turning to her.
Helena turned to look at her with shock as well. What did she mean? Did she really inject that BOW with her blood? Why? Helena pondered the endless questions that popped into her mind, but the answer would have to wait.
It wasn't too long before Chris and the BSAA showed up. In Helena's opinion, they were late, but who was she to judge the BSAA?
"I know him, and he kind of recognized me..."
"Friend of yours?" Helena asked, and Claire scoffed with irony.
"More like a depraved, stalker admirer..." Claire sighed. "His name is Jacob McMillan, a Scottish criminal committed for sexual offenses and manslaughter. He was a patient of Blackwell..."
Helena didn't need to think too deeply to know what Claire had implied. He was a rapist and a murderer. Helena glared at the BOW with disgust. What kind of people was Mobius using in their experiments?
At that moment, the sound of an explosion and bright, colorful lights lit up the sky. The group looked up and saw the fireworks burn high, bringing an odd festive feeling to the scene.
"Happy New Year..." Helena mumbled. Helena didn't want to sound bitter, but with all that had happened. It was hard not to feel like that.
Once the firework display was over, their attention returned to their tasks. The BSAA soldiers picked the BOW's body and moved it. Helena saw the older Redfield talking to his sister as Leon walked to her.
"Not saving your wife from the brother's sermon?"
"I'll be lying if I say I don't want to give her one myself," Leon sighed.
"She told him what she did?"
"Yeah, why else would Chris be giving her a piece of his mind?"
"I don't know. Big siblings always find an excuse to sermon the young," Helena answered. "I know I did with Deborah."
Leon sighed. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the car.
"So...what do you think about that guy?" Helena whispered.
"Jacob McMillan?" Leon asked. "I already asked Hunnigan to look into him. Even if he's dead tomorrow, I want to know what that bastard did."
"Uh? Hoping to defend Claire's dignity?"
"I am sure she did that herself, but I still want to know," Leon sighed.
"You're just feeding your hatred against Mobius with that."
"Call it a motivational push," Leon answered.
There was a pause, and Helena looked up to the sky.
"They will keep coming, won't they? Those BOWs..."
"It seems like it," Leon nodded. "It won't stop until Mobius is gone."
"Hopefully, that island will be the end of it," Helena sighed.
"Let's hope it is."
"Hey," Helena said with a smile. "I didn't expect to find you alone today. "
Helena had arrived at the lab a little later than usual. The place was actually empty, and the agent chuckled. Of course, it would be empty, it was a holiday, and people would be spending it with their families.
She headed to the genetics lab, where she was sure she would find someone. Leon was nowhere in sight, which was a rare scene lately. Helena snorted to herself.
Claire was sitting at her desk with her laptop and several folders. The woman lifted her eyes, fixed her glasses, and smiled at the agent.
Despite the travails from the day before, Helena noted that Claire seemed particularly radiant and cheerful that morning.
"Hey, good morning," Claire smiled. "It's the first day of the year. You should be home resting."
"Right," Helena snorted, crossing her arms. "I don't see you following your suggestion. Where's Leon?"
"DSO. He got a call this morning and went to report to Hopkins. He left 20 minutes ago. "
That was right. The DSO would want a full report, even if it were a verbal one, of the incident.
"Oh," Helena answered, entering the office and sitting down. "Right, so how are you?"
"Me?" Claire asked. "Everyone keeps asking me that."
"Well, you can't blame us, considering what happened yesterday."
"Yeah, sorry. I admit that I was a little reckless," Claire sighed. "I already had Chris's lecture yesterday, and Leon gave me a piece of his mind, too."
"He did? I thought he'd spare you after your brothers," Helena chuckled. "Did he lecture you?"
"Well, not exactly, but he made his point," Claire shrugged. "I promise I will behave from now on."
"I wonder what he did to persuade you..." Helena chuckled, shaking her head.
"Oh, let's say he resorted to some carnal persuasion for that," an amused voice said behind them.
Hiwamura stood at the door, holding a cup of coffee and a set of folders. The Japanese woman greeted Helena as she stepped inside the office and sat in the remaining free seat.
"Carnal persuasion?" Helena asked.
"Oh, you know. Let us say that they have finally consummated the marriage."
Claire choked with the water she'd been drinking as Hiwamura laughed mischievously.
"Saya!" Claire groaned, trying to clean the mess she'd caused on her desk. Her face had turned bright red.
"Come on, what are you ashamed about? We are all adults here, right agent Harper?"
Helena looked at them in confusion. Actually, she had some idea of what Hiwamura implied, and Helena scoffed, amused.
"A-adults or not, you can't just go around telling people that."
"Telling what?" Hiwamura said, mixing her coffee with the spoon. "Girl, there are tons of ladies that would die to start the year getting it on with someone like Kennedy, and let's be honest, it was about damn time."
"Oh my God," Claire said, covering her face. "What are you saying?"
"Wait," Helena said. "So you two...?"
Claire hid her face behind her hands, but it was clear that she was blushing furiously under them. Hiwamura, on the other hand, was visibly amused. The doctor looked at Helena meaningfully, and Helena couldn't help but laugh.
To be honest, Helena was surprised it hadn't happened earlier, especially considering how both seemed serious about the relationship. Perhaps Hiwamura was right. It was about damn time.
Claire and Leon had way more self-control than she gave them credit.
" Can we not make it a big deal? It's embarrassing enough that you found out, Saya. You don't need to announce it to the world."
"Hey, it isn't my fault that you're bad at hiding it." Hiwamura laughed, "like you literally came in glowing, with swag and smiling like a teenager in love."
"I did not..."
"Did you know agent Harper? It's called sexual afterglow. There's scientific evidence that there are some physiological changes after..."
"Don't finish that sentence," Claire groaned, rolling her eyes. "Do you have my tests, or you came to taunt me?"
Hiwamura smiled. The woman sipped her coffee before answering.
"What kind of friend would I be if I didn't celebrate my bestie's jackpot?" Claire glared at the doctor, and she laughed again. " I got your results. You were right. The Bow is a Jacob McMillan. It is chimeric DNA, but it was still good enough to identify it with the criminal database."
"I knew it was him," Claire sighed, picking the folder. "But that should give the DSO some base. What about the other two samples?"
"One of the sets isn't in the genomic database, and the other is too degraded to be reliable. We just got lucky that McMillan seemed to be in the early stages of mutation."
"He still retained some cognitive capabilities, so his transformation wasn't too long before he came after me. Maybe 4 or 5 hours, depending on the strain," Claire said, tapping the table with a finger.
"What happened to him, by the way?"
"He's still alive, if that's what you mean," Claire replied. "He had more healthy cells than I estimated."
"He would be dead if not for that," Hiwamura nodded. "Look at the bright side, we now know that Claire isn't infectious, at least not to healthy people."
"Healthy people?" Helena asked.
"It seems I can't create Beta forms, unlike other Alpha forms," Claire explained.
"So you can't turn people into BOWs," Helena asked.
Claire nodded.
"I guess that's where the experiment went wrong with me," Claire said, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Well, good thing it did. We still aren't sure how the infection is transmitted; so, Kennedy would have been in trouble..."
"Can you stop with that?" Claire groaned.
"I guess someone is happy you had a night going with Leon," Helena laughed. "It isn't a bad thing, I mean...you are married, and even if you weren't, I don't see the issue."
"It's not about an issue," Claire said, turning red again.
"Nope, it's about Claire being shy about her intimate life."
"It's called intimate for a reason!"
Shyness was probably it. Then again, people weren't usually very open about their bedroom activities. If not for Hiwamura's comments, Helena would have dismissed the subject. It seemed that the Asian was enjoying the chance of teasing Claire, and Helena couldn't deny that it was amusing. Perhaps, she should do the same with Leon when they have the opportunity later.
Claire looked at her phone and then turned to Hiwamura with a warning look.
"Leon's heading back," Claire said. "Don't you dare..."
"What do you take me for?" Hiwamura laughed. "No, this is friendly teasing among women. I just did it because agent Harper is part of the gang, right?"
"Well, no one told me I was part of the gang, but I suppose," Helena snorted. "Don't be embarrassed, Claire. Honestly, I am not going to judge you for sleeping with Leon. I mean, he can sleep with whoever he wants, and well, he obviously likes you, so..."
"Oh my god," Claire sighed in defeat. "I can't believe you joined her!"
Hiwamura gave Helena a friendly pat, and the two women laughed.
The teasing continued for a while before they decided that they had tantalized Claire enough, and the conversation turned back to more serious subjects.
Leon arrived soon after, and Hiwamura gave her a playful look that Claire returned with a glare. Helena wasn't so actively teasing Claire, but that didn't mean she would be the same with Leon. She couldn't help but notice that Leon had automatically moved next to Claire and had rested his hand on her back as he told her something. Claire listened to him and nodded.
"Ok, I got it. I'll go check on that then," Claire said. "I left the test running earlier, so they should be ready soon enough. Did Rebecca need anything else?"
"No, at least not that she told me," Leon answered. "She just wanted to see how those essays go, but she didn't say anything else."
"Yeah, of course. It's nothing you should worry about," Claire nodded. "I will handle it. Saya..."
"I am behind you," Hiwamura replied. "Why would you be without me?"
"Oh, don't push it..." Claire said, rolling her eyes. "We'll be back soon. You two get comfortable. It will take some time."
Leon nodded as Claire and Hiwamura walked out of the lab, leaving the two agents alone. Helena looked at Leon and smirked.
"What?" Leon asked.
Helena shrugged as her smile widened.
"Rumors said you had an interesting night while giving Claire a piece of your mind," Helena said, leaning back and crossing her arms. "Anything you want to say in your defense? I don't suppose her brother will be too excited to know that."
Leon coughed. To her credit, unlike Claire, the man managed to keep his composure and remain as stoic as he usually was.
"Did Claire...?"
"No, it seems Hiwamura knows her well and found out just by her mood and the signs, as she called it."
"Is that even possible?"
"Don't ask me," Helena replied, putting up her hands. "But I would say yes. I did something different from her when I met her at first. I just didn't correlate it."
"I doubt anyone would make that relation," Leon replied.
"Hiwamura did," Helena shrugged. "So, how did you end up sleeping with her?"
"Technically, I have almost a month sleeping with her."
"You know what I mean, Leon. Don't play the fool..."
"It just happened," Leon shrugged. "And honestly, I don't regret it."
"I'm not saying you do," Helena laughed. "I think you took too long to make a move..."
Leon shook his head and chuckled.
"What made you change your mind?" Helena asked.
"I don't know." Leon sighed. "We were talking, and one thing took to the other."
"Hiwamura says she isn't infectious."
"Yeah, Claire mentioned that- Maybe that's why Mobius wants her."
"Because she can't pass the infection? Why? I thought they were terrorists. Usually, they want the most infectious things."
"I don't know," Leon sighed. "I don't think I understand Mobius MO."
"Well, if you took the next step with her, it means this goes serious, huh?"
"It was serious from the beginning."
"Yeah, but now there's pretty much no way back."
"Yeah, I know," Leon sighed. "I told you, I don't regret it, and I am ok with whatever comes next, but before that, I need to make sure she is safe. The only way to do that is stopping Mobius."
"So, do we have a date for the trip?"
"Four days," Leon answered. "Hopkins gave us the green light. All that's left is discussing the details with the BSAA, but it is safe to say that it won't be easy."
"Has it ever been easy? Are you sure she should come?"
"It would be a lie if I said yes," Leon admitted. "But maybe she's right, and we need her as a guide. Who knows..."
"Those monsters came for her," Helena said. "How will it be on an island crawling with them?"
It would be disastrous. Claire had said she would behave, but if the situation came to a critical point, it was more than sure that the woman would sacrifice herself to let them escape. As far as Helena knew, it had been light when she'd gone missing all those months before.
She would do what she did the night before: lure the BOWs away, trying to keep them safe. By Leon's bitter expression, Helena knew that he was thinking the same.
"It doesn't matter how many there are," Leon replied. "We won't lose her this time."
Helena nodded, knowing the implicit "I" in that sentence.
"This is it, huh?" Helena said. "No looking back, just pushing forward."
There was a short pause. Neither Leon nor Helena spoke as they stared at the wall.
"When we come back from this one," Helena said. "You better marry her for good, Leon."
Leon snorted but didn't answer. Helena didn't need to hear it, though, as she could tell that Leon had already thought of that option.