Disclaimer: I do not own the Resident Evil series or the characters, I am just a Resident Evil fan who likes to write the kind of stories I like to read. I know it's a bit derivative, but any constructive comments appreciated!!!

Chapter 2 Confrontation

She sat on a simple plastic chair in a plain room with clean white tiles and a white linoleum floor. It was purposefully disorientating, she wanted to close her eyes but she couldn't show any signs of weakness, not yet. In front of her was a white plastic table. She reached out her manacled hands and picked up the plastic cup filled with water. She took a sip, the sound of her gulping was almost deafening. A large mirror dominated one of the walls. She stared at the mirror, knowing there were people behind there, recording and analysing every gesture. She grinned at the cliché. She suddenly felt like she was the star of a movie, although this moment of amusement was quickly brushed aside as she became conscious of the urgency of her situation.

''Why are you here?'' he asked firmly, annoyed with the smirk that had materialised momentarily on her face.

''I told you, I can help you.'' She said icily.

''Why are you here?''

''I know names, places...''

''Why. Are. You. Here?'' his tone of voice was changing, he was becoming agitated, and he wanted her to know it.

''I can help you!!!'' she was almost pleading now; the originally icy veneer was breaking with frustration.

He walked across the room, silently and ominously. He grabbed her by the shoulders and effortlessly lifted her from the chair, roughly pushing her against the cold white tiles of the wall. ''Why are you here?'' he shouted this time. His face was no more than an inch from hers. She could see every line, every pore; she could even see her reflection in his eyes.

''How many times do you want me to say the same thing?'' She was shouting now, although she didn't realise it. ''I want to help you, I want to use what I know to…'' she was cut off before she could finish pleading.

He shook his head, his dark, handsome features breaking into an incredulous smile; he couldn't believe what he was hearing. An ex Umbrella employee offering herself, all her knowledge, contacts, it was too good to be true. It was exactly that though, too good to be true. But he had to play this out, find out what her true intentions were. He had to find out who she was working for and the reasons behind her attempts to manipulate him. The first part of her plan had obviously worked; she had infiltrated the new S.T.A.R.S facility with virtually no effort. She had strolled up to the front door and walked right in. She had got further into the complex than the countless teams of attempted infiltrators who had tried to gain access to the new S.T.A.R.S facility over the last 12 months. The question now was why.

''No more. Time's up.'' He said as he shook his head.

''Please, I need….''

''What do you need?''

''I need…'' she paused; the words that she had been practicing were not ready to come out.

''What? What do you need? Why are you really here? If there's one thing I can be sure of with you people, it's that nothing you say is the truth.'' He let her go, slightly surprised at how firm his grip on her shoulders had become. He had become conditioned to automatically hate anything connected to Umbrella, almost to the extent that his involuntary hatred scared him sometimes. She gasped as his vice-like grip relaxed, suddenly aware of the pain he had inflicted and the bruises that were already starting to form. Things were not going according to plan.

He looked straight ahead at the large mirror on the wall. ''She has nothing to offer us.'' He turned to look at her. ''It was very gracious of you giving yourself up, I'm sure you're aware that we would have caught up with you sooner or later.''

''They were going to kill me!!!!'' she screamed.

He raised his eyebrows, the tension in his shoulders loosening a little. He was intrigued to know what one of Umbrella's star geneticists had done to deserve termination. ''Why?'' he asked, his voice was almost soothing.

She was taken aback by the sudden change in the tone of his voice. She sat back down on the chair by the table, averting her eyes from his. She had another sip of water, not because she was thirsty, but because she needed the precious seconds to collect her thoughts and get back on top of this situation. He sat down on another plastic chair on the other side of the table. He fixed her with his gaze, analysing every subtle gesture, every intake of breath, trying to read through the performance.

''They were going to kill me because I wanted to leave. You could say I finally woke up to what I, they were doing.'' The calm, icy composure that she had initially displayed had returned.

''Okay,'' he said, slapping his hands down hard on the table, making her flinch. ''You want all to be forgiven because you had a bad night's sleep and a sudden fit of conscience?''

''I will do anything you ask, anything, to prove to you that I am genuine. All I ask for is your protection. If I go back out there, or to prison, I'm dead. We all lose.''

He looked at his watch, his own face now devoid of emotion. ''Okay. You have 10 minutes.''

She took a deep breath. ''I was recruited straight from college. You could say I was precocious; I had the dubious distinction of coming top in my class in genetics and it brought me to the attention of the scientific world. After my PhD, I was employed by the military to work on Project Abyss. I'll save you the effort - it was classified, you won't find any records or a paper trail. The project's objective was to devise ways to make operatives less susceptible to injury or infection in the field, and give them the ability to recover quicker. You know the threats - viral warfare, gun shot wounds, burns…..we even considered stimulating the growth of new limbs.''

''How is that possible?''

''We synthesised a small piece of DNA….''

''You mean a virus?''

''Sort of, yes. A virus is essentially a small piece of genetic material that….''

''Thank you for the science lesson doctor, get to the point''

''A virus specifically targets cells and DNA. If we can control the virus, get it to do what we want it to do, we can control the cell DNA and amazing things are possible. Anyway, our virus would bind with the host DNA and instruct the cell to divide, creating new cells and expunging the old, damaged ones at an enhanced rate. Initially the results were amazing, truly amazing - we managed to stimulate immunity to diseases that are becoming resistant to antibiotics. This was serious work - beyond anything I could have hoped for. This kind of research normally takes decades, lifetimes. I was even beginning to practice my speech for when I picked up my Nobel Prize.'' She spoke excitedly.

Chris couldn't believe what he was hearing. ''You were allowed to test this on people?''

''No, no, that would have been illegal! Just rabbits, rats, dogs. Unfortunately, after 24 hours the replicated DNA became unstable. In the worse cases, it caused uncontrolled mutation. The results could be….disturbing, but we just needed time to get it right.''

''If things were going so well, why did you leave the military labs?''

''You're a military man Chris, you know things change as governments change. The powers that be decided to redirect all the money for the Metamorphosis Abyss to something else…some missile defence system, I don't know…and suddenly I was out of work. I had an idea, I really had something that was genuinely going to make a difference, that was going to save lives. That's when I met Albert Wesker.''

Just the mention of his name made Chris flinch. Every life that this man had touched was tainted. Albert Wesker's name was synonymous with evil.

''He told me he had kept an eye on me when I was at college, he thought I was the most promising student he had ever seen. He knew I was destined for great things.''

''So you fell for simple flattery?'' he spat, amazed at the vanity of the woman sat in front of him.

''Look, I was young, it was the first time someone had reached out to me in that way. He offered me a job with Umbrella, unlimited resources to re-establish the project and see it through to the end. He even managed to get hold of all the classified military research files. I never asked how…''

''And did you see it through to the end? The last time I took a look around, we hadn't conquered death and disease.'' The sarcastic way with which Chris answered irritated Elisabeth.

''They didn't want me to see it through, not in the way I intended anyway. We had different objectives. They took my work and turned it into something….different. Instead of wanting to heal, they wanted to create monsters, mindless fighting machines. Creatures that were once men, but were now changed. They were stronger and faster with unprecedented healing abilities. They would form an unstoppable army.''

''And whoever controlled that army would control the world, right? My God, how could you be so naïve? Don't you have ethical responsibilities?''

''Maybe I let my love for my work blind me…maybe if I walked away I would lose control and it would be used for something even worse…I don't know, I'm not trying to make excuses…but I really thought the work I was doing was for the greater good.''

''So you turned a blind eye.''

''Yes.'' She stared down at her manacled hands; she seemed like a pathetic wizened figure now. ''And when I see what has happened, I know that myself, and others like me, have to bear the responsibility. I can't make things right, I'm not stupid. But I can help you; I can help you try to prevent any more wrongs. Please, let me help you.''

''Umbrella doesn't exist anymore. You can't help us bring down an organisation that's already been dissolved.''

''Look Chris, you know the Ancient Greek fairy tales. You cut off the head of the monster and another grows back in its place. Umbrella doesn't exist as a single unified entity anymore, but there are other organisations, even more sinister and even more dedicated to bringing everything you know and love to an end. They have contacts in every level of society, from the teachers in your schools to the White House. They have unlimited resources. What makes them more dangerous than Umbrella could ever be is that fact that they work in the shadows; you don't know who they are, or where they are. I was trusted. I can access this information. This is a war, whether you realise it yet or not. ''

This woman was confirming everything he already knew. Umbrella was finished, their financial power was destroyed and people were in prison, but the deaths didn't stop. For the last 5 years, Chris and his team had travelled all around the world investigating grisly incidents, mass murders, kidnappings….and they all had the mark of Umbrella. They had failed time and time again, and there seemed no end to their task. They were getting tired. They were tired of always being one step behind or 10 minutes too late. Tired of watching their colleagues, friends and family suffer and die. Could this woman, Elisabeth Badley, be the answer? Certainly she couldn't be trusted, but maybe she could help without even realising.

''Why did you ask for me? When you walked into the building, why did you ask for me? We have never met. We have no connection. There is no reason why I should help you.''

''I knew you would believe me.'' Her piercing green eyes focussed on Chris. He studied her, but she gave away nothing in her body language to demonstrate that she was lying. Or telling the truth.

Chris stared at the large mirror on the wall for what seemed like an age, trying to digest everything that he had just heard. He stood up, refusing to meet her gaze as he walked to the door in the corner of the room. As he reached the door it opened, and he walked out into the corridor to a small group of expectant faces.