Unless you didn't realize by now, I'm just going to let my Muse chase this hare until it goes to ground, so that I can get some room in my brain for finishing my other fics. Who knows how much more I'll get out of her, but when I run out of juice for this one, don't expect it to update for a while.
"William."
William remained hunched over the lab bench, shuffling through slides taken from an electron microscope. Though the room was utterly silent except for the faint hum of the overhead lights and the computer consoles, the lanky researcher was absorbed in his own world and blind to his surroundings.
That only lasted until Albert grabbed his shoulder and gave it a strong shake. "William!"
"Yah! What? Jesus, Albert, what?" William squawked in alarm and nearly jumped off the stool, clutching a hand to his chest as if to still his heart's frantic palpitations.
Albert folded his arms, suppressing the desire to scowl. "I'm leaving. I won't be back for a few days, so don't wait up. I suggest that you take a break while I'm gone – you look awful. When was the last time you went home?"
William scratched his head. "Uh…"
Wrinkling his nose, Albert took a step back, preparing to leave. "Go take a shower and get some rest. We can get back to work when I return."
"Where are you going?" William called, standing up from the stool, still looking perplexed.
"To pay a long-overdue visit, since we can't very well host guests here," Albert replied, sarcasm dripping from his voice. After all, they only had a fully-functioning mansion sitting over their heads. William had the grace to avert his face and look chagrinned until his partner was out the door. Then, naturally, he went right back to the slides.
Albert left William's lab and set off through the facility until he reached the Express' Arklay terminal. Since the Training Facility was still in operation, and the Arklay lab doing booming business, the Express ran in an underground triangle to bring people between the two facilities and Raccoon proper.
The train soon pulled into the terminal and Albert stood aside to let the arriving passengers disembark. To his surprise, he saw James Marcus step off the train; before Marcus noticed him, Albert stepped up, snatching his attention.
"Ah, Albert. Just the man I was looking for." Marcus' expression folded into something that was almost a smile.
"What brings you to Arklay, Doctor? I thought you were busy working with T," Albert responded, and the surprise in his voice was not contrived. It was quite rare for the old man to ever leave the little world he had carved for himself.
Marcus' eyes twinkled slyly. "I just thought I'd come see how you and William were doing. I know Ozwell has you working with T, and I'm curious to see your results."
Ah, that explained it. The possessive old man wanted to be sure they weren't messing up his brainchild. Albert bowed his head slightly. "I think you will be pleased. William is in his lab right now, so he should be able to show you our progress. I regret that I cannot be here to be a proper host, but I have a business trip to attend."
"Oh?" Marcus asked, raised eyebrows carving deep wrinkles on his forehead.
"I have been tendered an invitation to see what the Ashford lab at Rockfort has been developing. Alexia would like to compare notes with me on the strains of T she's been provided with."
As expected, being reminded that yet another lab had been given access to his precious virus brought a scowl to Marcus' face, which he quickly schooled. "Well then, I hope you can keep that little girl from repeating her father's mistakes," he growled.
Albert nodded, and Marcus strode off, fire in his step now that he felt that his precious discovery was in jeopardy. Albert didn't envy William the time he would have allaying Marcus' fears that no, they were not butchering the tyrant virus. With that thought tugging one side of his mouth up in a smirk, Albert stepped onto the Express.
The island on which the Rockfort base sat was just beyond the hooked tip of South America, meaning that while it was late spring back at the Arklay lab, winter had clutched the island in its frigid claws when Albert stepped onto the tarmac of the base's airstrip. The breath from his lips billowed into a cloud of fog that floated leisurely on the cold, still air until it dispersed.
"Welcome to Rockfort, Dr. Wesker!" Alexia called as she trotted up to him, Alfred in her wake. "I'm so glad you could make it. Let's get inside where it's warm before we get caught up talking."
He trailed gratefully after them across the tarmac. They cut through the base quickly and entered the palatial Ashford home. The inside was decorated lavishly, but like the mansion above the Arklay lab, to Albert it was empty grandeur. Great wealth did not impress him. He made all the properly appreciative comments as he was taken on an abbreviated tour of the palace – or at least, the parts of it he was meant to see.
Throughout the tour, Albert was mildly surprised to note that, on their home turf, Alfred stepped out of his silent shell and led most of the tour while Alexia slipped off to attend to something. The boy was initially unsure of this stranger, but when Albert proved himself to be a courteous guest, Alfred gained confidence and by the end of it they were even conversing casually.
"We've got a bunch more like it in a private collection. Grandfather brought back a lot of art from all his travels," Alfred commented as they passed a handsome carved-wood statuette that was clearly of African make. He seemed to take pride in that fact, and in the architecture of the place, which he pointed out several times.
"This place has been in the Ashford family for generations, hasn't it?" Albert asked, figuring that Alfred could wax eloquent for hours.
Alfred smiled proudly and nodded as they came to a halt at the door to what Albert had been informed was the dining room. "Oh, yeah. We were the first ones to come here and build on this island, and every generation added something new. Grandfather was the one who brought it most of the art. We didn't get the formal Umbrella base until after he died, though."
"Dr. Alexander did that, didn't he?" Albert asked, and watched Alfred's face closely.
As he'd suspected, Alfred's lips turned down at the corners, and his mood dove at the mention of his father. "Yes, he did." That was the end of the boy's verbosity, until Albert pointed out a particularly impressive landscape painting and inquired about it.
Soon after that, Alexia returned. She eyed them for a moment, seeming pleased that the two of them were chatting companionably, and then approached them. "Dinner is almost ready, Dr. Wesker, if you want to freshen up a bit. Come, Alfred, I need your opinion on something." She beckoned to her brother, who obediently trotted after her, leaving Albert to make his way back to the room he'd been given for his stay.
After splashing some water over his face and giving his hair a quick comb, he casually descended the staircase and sauntered in the direction of the dining room. When he arrived, three places were set on the dining table (which he took a moment to admire; he wasn't exactly the type to go out antiquing, but he could certainly appreciate fine craftsmanship), which gave him a moment of pause. Just three? One of the Ashfords wouldn't be joining them for dinner, and he doubted it would be either of the twins. That just begged the question of where in the world Alexander was – he hadn't seen anything of the man since his arrival, which seemed odd even if he had already bequeathed his position in Umbrella to his children.
He couldn't take that train of thought much further, as soon Alexia and Alfred returned, both having changed clothing. Alexia bid him sit and he took the seat at her left, while Alfred sat at her right. The meal wasn't a particularly grandiose thing the likes of a formal event, but it was still well-prepared: a light salad dressed with vinegarette, herb-crusted lamb, and rice pilaf.
As they ate, the conversation remained light and inconsequential. However, as Albert drained the last wine out of his glass (merlot, his favorite) and Alfred pushed the last scraps of salad around on his plate, the question that had been lurking in his thoughts since the beginning came to Albert's lips. "Where is Dr. Alexander, by the way? I haven't seen him at all, and I was hoping to have a glance at some of his notes."
Immediately, Albert got two very mixed signals. Alfred tensed, frowning, and speared a cherry tomato with unnecessary force, so that the juice oozed out onto the tines of his fork. On the other hand, Alexia paused for a beat, as if hesitant, and her face fell. She looked down at her plate morosely. "Father is… ill. Very ill. He's spent the past few weeks in a hospital in Buenos Aires. It came on very suddenly, and we didn't have time to do much more than rush him to the nearest hospital in Argentina – they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him there, so he was transferred to a bigger hospital in the capitol." She sniffed very convincingly and brought up a hand to scrub her eyes.
If not for Alfred's reaction, Albert might have believed her. But since her brother, who Albert had established had no more acting skill than any other ten-year-old, showed no sign of the distress that she did, he knew it to be an act. A well-rehearsed one, for it was more convincing than the last time she'd tried to put on an act to win his sympathy.
"I'm very sorry to hear that," Albert responded somberly, giving no hint that he'd seen through her façade.
Alexia smiled wanly. "It's all right. He's in the care of some of the best doctors in the world, so I have hope he'll recover." Behind her, Alfred pulled a face.
Their plates were then whisked away, and he was offered coffee or dessert, but he declined both politely. All three stood, and while Alfred immediately slipped away, Alexia turned to him with the smile back on her face. "If you're tired from the trip here feel free to retire, but if you still have a bit of energy, would you be interested in seeing some of my work?"
She certainly got to the point fast. "Since I'm used to working long nights, I'm not tired at all. Lead on," he said graciously, gesturing for her to precede him. She led him back to the staircase, and to a door that appeared to lead into a closet. Instead, when she opened it, before him was a plain cement-walled corridor that terminated with a ninety-degree turn, blocking the rest of the passage from view.
The corridor was a short one, leading only to an elevator equipped with a dialpad and the option to descent several stories underground. Alexia tapped in a long passkey and punched the button for the deepest level.
When they stepped out, his eyes were met with whitewashed walls and sterilized steel that was typical for every Umbrella lab. He could have been back in his own Arklay lab. Alexia led him deeper into the labyrinthine complex, until they got to a lab that was nearly the mirror of the place he'd left William earlier that day.
"Ever since I got those samples, I've been analyzing the crap out of them. I've gotten interesting results, to say the least. Were you working with Marcus when he first made it?" Alexia said, hopping onto a tall stool and gesturing for him to take a seat.
"Yes," he agreed, leaning against a lab bench across from her stool. "Marcus has been toying further with it since then, and William and I have been working with the strains he sends us along with a few variants of our own. Which strains did you receive?"
Alexia snatched up a sheet of paper on the bench behind her and handed it over. He scanned it and smirked. "To whom did you send the request, Marcus?"
"Yes. I figured since he was the creator he would have access to the best strands. Why?"
Albert chuckled and handed the sheet back. "He gave you his scraps. Marcus is a jealous old man, and he considers himself, me, and William to be the only ones 'worthy' to work with it. If you want better samples, I will assemble a few of the strains William and I have been working with and send them over."
Alexia frowned at the paper and slapped it back on the bench. "No wonder. Still, if what I have now are the inferior variants, I can only imagine what the good ones are like." A look of anticipation flashed through her eyes.
Albert regarded her thoughtfully for a moment. Previously, he hadn't been sure whether Alexia was actually the one running the lab here, as he had been informed, or if she was the leader in name only and her father or someone else was the one doing the real work. However, now, he realized it was true. "Have you only run analytic tests, or have you been tinkering with them?"
"Oh, I've been tinkering. I couldn't resist. Would you like to see?" She flashed her teeth in an eager grin, and for once Albert was reminded that she was a child, and not an adult in miniature.
"Certainly." Now to see if she was truly the prodigy she had said to be.
Albert pulled the sheets back and relaxed onto the mattress, eyes heavy. Even though he was used to working into the early hours of the morning thanks to William's insomnia-fueled breakthroughs, he had been down in Alexia's private lab, going over her results and exchanging notes until they both were exhausted.
One thing he could be sure of: Alexia was every bit the prodigy. He couldn't be sure that, once she got some experience working in the lab, that she wouldn't be even William's better, or Marcus'. Naturally, her youth and inexperience held her back, but in a few years' time, he predicted that she would come into her own and the Rockfort lab would become the premier research facility. How the rest would fall out remained to be seen; he was too tired to think of possible scenarios. For now, he would continue being a cordial guest, and once he got back to Raccoon, he would have much to contemplate.
It seemed like his eyes had just closed when his alarm clock went off. Groaning mentally, he got up to get ready, and took solace in the fact that Alexia would be equally sleep-deprived that morning. He knew he had dark circles under his eyes as he descended the staircase, trying not to let weariness drag his feet.
"Good morning. I didn't expect you to get up so early after our late night," Alexia greeted wryly when he appeared.
"I've done more on less sleep," he remarked by way of explanation, and sat in the seat she indicated. They were in a smaller dining area adjacent to the kitchens; a more casual setting for taking breakfast. "I take it your brother is still asleep?"
"He should be down soon."
They broke their fast quietly, no one energetic enough to be chatty. Once the plates were cleared away and Albert was nursing his second cup of coffee, everyone looked a bit more alive, Alexia turned to Albert.
"So, are you tired of the lab yet, or shall we pick up where we left off? I thought of something as I was drifting off and I'd like you to hear it."
He stood, coffee in hand, and gestured gallantly. "By all means."
They descended back into the research sector, and the room they had left just a few hours previous looked as they had left it: ordered chaos, with sheets of computer printouts and sheaves of electron microscope slides on all safe horizontal surfaces.
"So, answer a question for me. Since you were still working with Marcus when he first developed T, you know exactly what he did to derive it from Progenitor. Right?" Alexia plunked down on a stool, eying him with avid curiosity.
"William and I weren't in the room when he first made the breakthrough, but we know better than most. He had been tinkering with Progenitor for years and developed several widely variant strains. He had a habit of taking random animal test subjects and infecting them to see what the result was; one time he had a colony of leeches that he exposed to infected water. Some of them died, most lived, and none mutated noticeably. Progenitor had been known to be mutagenic to everything it affected, so William and I presumed that leeches were host-species and moved on.
"Marcus didn't. He observed an odd response from what passes as immune systems in the leeches. He kept sending us samples of dead leeches, but we discarded most of them, since there were no extracellular virions in those leeches that we could analyze. Eventually, he isolated the viral DNA from the leeches and cultivated it until he got a workable sample of virions – officially, tyrant rather than Progenitor. The DNA had mutated significantly as it worked its way through the leech colony."
By the time he was finished with his brief synopsis – really it hadn't been anywhere near that easy – Alexia's eyes were glued to his face, bright with fascination and eagerness. He raised an eyebrow wryly at her expression. "I hope that satisfies your curiosity."
"Oh, it does most definitely," she said, visibly calming herself down. "Thank you. I had requested copies of his notes when I asked Marcus for samples, but you can guess how well that turned out."
"Indeed. You have gotten yourself on his list of enemies faster than anyone else I know," he responded with a smirk.
Alexia frowned at the nearest stack of printouts. "I'm sure that will come back to bite me later."
Albert snorted. "Don't worry too much about Marcus. He's a recluse, and William and I are the only ones who listen to him on the off chance he'll come out with something remarkable again. We're doing most of the work and taking most of the credit for his discoveries; it's really rather surprising you found out that Marcus was the one to develop T, and not William."
"So who should I look out for?" Alexia asked, her voice now wary.
"Lord Spencer, first and foremost. He is insufferably arrogant to speak to, but if you tread carefully around only one person in this company, you will guard your tongue jealously around him. He is even more paranoid than Marcus, and if he has the slightest suspicion that you are up to something he doesn't like, the consequences will be severe."
Alexia nodded.
"After him, be wary of his pet Russian, Sergei Vladimir. You probably won't have much business with him yet, but if your research takes you where you're trying to go, you will encounter him more as time goes on. Treat Col. Vladimir with the same delicacy and he won't harass you."
"Okay…" Alexia's brow furrowed. "Let me guess: I should be just as wary of all the other head researchers?"
"Yes. Especially Bernard Chevalier and Adèle Lebeau, who lead the main lab in Paris. They, like William and I, lead one of the two main tyrant virus projects; they have influence, and more importantly, they have Spencer's ear. Marcus and Spencer have a rivalry of sorts, and where the North American labs are under Marcus' jurisdiction, the European labs are Spencer's. Make enemies of them and you can count on Spencer taking a dislike to you."
Once more, Alexia's head bobbed obediently. "Thank you for this advice, Dr. Wesker. If my father had been more involved he would have been able to tell me these things, but he spent most of his time closed up at home. He gave up hope of redeeming the Ashford name and hid away in the hope that if he stayed out of sight he wouldn't offend anyone further." A scowl threatened to pinch her features, but she schooled it.
Ah, how nice. She breached the subject herself and saved him the effort. "Speaking of him; what is he ill with? You didn't specify last night and I didn't want to press. I'm sure if he got to the Umbrella installation in Buenos Aires they would be able to help him much more than a normal hospital."
She tensed perceptibly and Albert mentally smirked. Caught her in the lie. "Oh… I'm not sure. The hospital he was in before he was transferred couldn't figure out what was wrong, and we haven't gotten much explanation from the hospital in Buenos Aires other than a general update on his condition. I… Alfred and I have been so upset that we have barely had the courage to read the hospital's messages."
He had to hand it to her: Alexia was good at weaving lies on the spot. A little polishing and she'd be nearly good enough to fool him. And now that he'd put her on the spot and proved to himself that she was lying, what to do? Should he call her out, or just let the fib slide? He was quite curious to know what had happened to the man.
Alexia, who had been looking at the benchtop to her left, raised her eyes, meeting his gaze as if checking to see if he believed her. She didn't outright ask, which was an improvement on the first encounter they had had weeks previous, but she wasn't quite there. For now, he decided to let her go on thinking she was getting away with it and see where things went.
He nodded solemnly. "I see. I apologize for bringing up a tender subject, but I am rather concerned. It would be awful for anything worse to happen that would leave you and your brother entirely on your own."
Alexia sniffed heartbrokenly and nodded. "It's all right." Had Albert not been looking, he wouldn't have seen the flash of relief pass briefly through her eyes.
As Albert relaxed into the seat of the jet as it took off from Rockfort's airstrip, he smirked privately. He knew he had given Alexia plenty of food for thought, and she in turn had given him quite a bit to consider as well, through her reactions. She had told him more with what she didn't say than with what she did.
She had been lying through her teeth both times she told him that Alexander was languishing in a hospital the capitol of Argentina. Of that, there was no doubt in his mind. He still didn't know whether that was her doing, or the machinations of another party that operated out of the shadows. On the surface, she seemed to be running her lab with all the efficiency anyone could hope, and there was no denying the fact that she was an extraordinarily gifted child.
The Umbrella base operated mostly independently of the Ashford holding, and the two entities on that island coexisted under an agreement of mutual tolerance, so there wasn't much there for the twins to meddle with. Alexia had probably warned her brother to keep aloof from the USS and UBCS soldiers going there to train; they seemed to be following Alexander's footsteps by not getting too involved with the aspects of Umbrella outside of their own sphere, and that was wise. Alexia was a bright child, but it would take time for her to learn how to successfully maneuver within the more complex politics of the company.
To that end, he had taken to dropping little bits of advice outside of the longer warning he had given. It wasn't entirely out of altruism; he was quite curious to see where Alexia was going to take her research, and if she did something to offend someone and attracted Spencer's ire, then he wouldn't be able to observe anything other than the USS storming the Ashford property and slaughtering them. And that was just no fun.
For now, he would very subtly take Alexia under his wing. She seemed responsive to his advice and urgings; wisely, she had realized that without someone who was used to Umbrella's inner workings to guide her, she wouldn't get far. And certainly, he was one of the few who had the foresight to see what she was capable of, and take her seriously in the early stages when her opinions and outlook were at their most malleable. For all that the research department was a nest of vipers, half of them hadn't the vision to look past their own research and see what could be gained by studying their peers.
That was their loss, and that was why Albert was where he was. There were many whose minds were eminently more suitable to the intensive research: the ones like William and Alexia. He knew and readily admitted that in that aspect, he was merely average. But he was where he was because he played to his strengths, and his strengths were uncommon things in the circle he prowled. That was his main advantage. Albert Wesker was a man who manipulated people like the other researchers manipulated their projects.
Behind the sunglasses perched on his nose, his eyes narrowed to slits in a smirk of self-satisfaction. He'd see where Alexia went with all her novel ideas, and if she lived up to the predictions he made, then he was in a position to become an even more influential figure in Umbrella. William had always been more or less under his thumb, and with Alexia looking to him as a mentor, as she grew into her abilities, he could easily work himself onto her team. There was no doubt that with her drive and cleverness, she would produce a breakthrough on par with Marcus' development of tyrant, and whose name would be next to hers on the formal report? His, of course.
He had every intention of earning that particular honor, though. For all Alexia's enthusiasm, she was still inexperienced, and she needed an experienced hand to keep her on the path to success. It would be like a repeat of his own rise to influence, under Marcus' guidance; that was not lost to him, and he smirked. He would have to be careful as time went on to be sure that Alexia did not pick up on too many of her mentor's more underhanded tricks and plot to betray him.
Not that Albert would ever betray anyone in Umbrella. While they were still useful to him, of course.
I love getting reviews, guys! I love it even more when the reviews are signed so that I can respond to them! I try to give each one a response, because you guys have a habit of giving me awesome suggestions. If any of the reviews I get aren't signed, and if I feel the need to respond, I'll put them in the ending AN. Like these!
Dokidoki: this is mostly focused on Wesker and Alexia, but I see no reason why I can't work Sergei in somehow.
And man, I'm married to the RE wiki, especially for this fic since I'm less familiar with the Code: Veronica people and places than I am with STARS.
Skip: aha, that may or may not have been the original idea behind this fic. Nothing will happen in that direction yet, for obvious reasons. But later on, who knows? -wink-
So in this chapter we saw more of everyone's favorite people. I hope you all like or at least tolerate my interpretations of their personalities. It's more difficult than one might think at first blush to properly portray someone who is physically, emotionally and chronologically ten years old, but cognitively twenty-five. I hope I did a decent job at encompassing those behaviors, understated they might be. Remember that, in the interactions, Alexia is well aware that she's interacting with someone older and smarter than she is, and so alters her own behavior to be more suitable to the situation. Maybe sometime I can work in some interactions just between Alexia and Alfred to see how that turns out.
