To those who think I own Resident Evil: No, I don't xD

-IV-

Verses and other encounters

Wednesday, 2:00 p.m.

As soon as the doors slid open, the two women stepped out of the elevator onto the bright, shiny marble tiles that covered the floor of TerraSave's whole headquarter. Every employee they met on their way to the office greeted Claire nicely. Jill wasn't surprised how much they admired and respected the redhead. Her new friend was a warm-hearted, open-minded and strong young woman, always ready for jokes and laughters, but serious and responsible when it came to save lives. Claire headed to the reception desk, where a young, blond woman in a beige suit typed eagerly on a computer.

"Good morning, Lindsay. Anything new?"

"Nothing, Miss Redfield. The communication is still shut and I haven't been able to reach Mister Fisher either," the young woman said fearfully.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of Colombia. If you don't mind, I'll have a look at Neil's office later. Maybe he left a note."

"I've been there this morning and haven't seen anything unusual. But, of course, go ahead." Lindsay smiled relived. Lucky Claire was there to take action.

The operations office was empty. The colleagues Claire shared her workplace with had left to attend a conference, so Claire could work without any interruptions.

"Have a seat, please. It won't take long. I'm sure it's just just a technical problem. It's always a technical problem." Claire smiled. "They build survivor camps in the middle of nowhere and wonder why we lose contact every two weeks. Not even US technology is able to build up a stable connection on an abandoned island."

"Oh! What a great idea!" Jill laughed sarcastically.

"Governmental stuff," Claire smiled at her while dialing a number. "Sí, habitación dos, cero, tres, por favor. Señor Chavez. Señorita Redfield. Gracias." She waited to be connected. "Gabe, it's Claire, everything okay down there? We can't reach you... Yes, of course we are worried. There is still a risk of… If you knew it why didn't you report? Hmm, I see... Yeah, I'll send you help...Yes, I'm still on vacation… Because he's missing… Don't worry. I'm sure he's just gone to an important meeting and has left his cell phone home… Yes, sure. I'll keep you updated… It's okay, don't worry. Shit happens… Take care… Bye."

"Seems like everything's fine," Jill guessed.

"Almost, I have to organize some reinforcement to help them fix their technical problem. Seems to be a huge one this time. It has been caused by an accident," Claire said. "But it's actually nothing. Since the last time communication broke down because some scoundrel stole material, we always leave one of our men in a hotel in the nearest town. In this case it's Gabriel Chavez. He'd been checking things in the camp when the accident took place and it took him a while to get back to town and report from there."

"Chavez, Fisher…" Jill whispered. "Oh, now I know why Neil's name sounded so familiar. They were part of the rescue team TerraSave sent to Kijuju after Chris' last mission there, weren't they?"

"Yes," Claire nodded. "They got back just a couple of months ago. The camp is working fine, and as long as there's no other outbreak, they can take care of themselves. Of course we still send material help, though."

"And what happened in Colombia?" Jill asked.

"Nothing actually. They found samples of the T-Virus in a container on a leaking ship before the coast. "

"Has the BSAA been informed about that?" Jill asked alarmed.

"Yes, of course the BSAA has been informed," Claire smiled nervously. She recognized the usual BSAA fear of any type of outbreak in Jill's voice, which also characterized Chris' way of speaking. Claire was deliciously amused about it. "Their conclusion was that the container got on board by accident and nothing contradicts this theory. The ship had been abandoned and declared disappeared years ago."

"I see. So there isn't any real risk, is there? I guess TerraSave is building the camp to prevent."

"Yes. It would be more helpful if it was placed on mainland though, but the local authorities don't want to cause any panic, so the camp is actually a secret." Claire shook her head. "It's difficult when they don't cooperate with our work."

"Claire! You're here!" A young woman with short, dark hair, bright eyes and very casual clothes entered the office and dragged herself to Claire. "I've been told you were on vacation."

"Moira, what a surprise." Claire hugged the young lady . "I'm actually just here because of an emergency. Are they running your tests today?"

"Yes, I've already done the psychological part." She handed Claire the envelope. "I was just heading to the gym to do the physical tests when I've seen you in here."

Claire had a quick look at the report. It's content made her lift her eyebrows in surprise.

"Moira, your results are incredible. Even better than mine when I got here. You'll make a great TerraSave member." She slid the papers back into the envelope and smiled at her friend. "I'll leave your report on Neils' desk if you want."

Moira blushed and nodded. Coming from Claire, those words meant even more to the young woman. She finally turned her head to Jill, not having noticed her presence before.

"Oh, Moira, I haven't introduced you to…"

"Jill Valentine!" Moira jumped towards the blonde and shook her hand violently. "It's such an honor to meet you."

Jill smiled nervously.

"You must be Moira Burton. You know, we actually met already. That was many years ago when I worked with your father at S.T.A.R.S.. One day you came with him to the Police Department. You were like… this," she said as she held her hand about four feet over the floor.

"Yeah, I see Barry was already quite irresponsible back then. A little girl isn't supposed to just visit a police station" Moira forced a smile.

Jill, surprised by Moira's reaction, gave Claire a questioning gaze. The activist just shook her head, eye rolling. She'd explain later.

"Well," Moira had a look at her watch. "I need to go now. But it has been a pleasure. See you Claire, I'll call you later." She left the office. Claire turned around and looked at Jill.

"Any parental problems?" Jill asked.

Claire grinned.

"It would actually be a funny story if it hadn't had such tragic consequences for their relationship," Claire said. "Moira once shot her little sister with Barry's gun. Don't you remember that?"

Jill shook her head in surprise. She did remember that one of Barry's daughter's had been hospitalized once because of an accident, but she'd never known it had been that kind of accident.

"Oh my God, poor Moira. But, her sister survived, right?" Jill would have definitely remembered if Barry had lost one of his girls.

"Yes, Polly's fine." Claire said. "But Barry got so nervous when it happened that he couldn't handle the situation and shouted at Moira, blaming her. It's something he's never forgiven himself, and neither has she."

"How sad." The heartbreaking story about Barry and his daughters made Jill think. She couldn't imagine hurting someone she loved. Even under Wesker's control she had been able to stop herself from shooting Chris back in Kijuju.

"Come on." Claire headed out of the office. "Let's see if we find anything on Neil's desk."

The curtains were half closed. The few small rays that shone into the office bathed the room in an almost romantic light. A slight smell of male perfume filled the air, being identified by Claire as Neil's favorite fragrance. She stepped to the mahogany desk and had a quick look over the clean surface. No note. She started moving some stacked papers aside and even opened the drawer of his desk without finding anything useful. She bit her lip.

"Nothing here," she said finally throwing the envelope with Moira's results onto the surface.

"Claire!" Jill had been looking around the floor for some clues. "Take a look at this!"

She had found a small, yellowish paper. Claire got close and looked at the message on it.

"'Meet me where heaven's judge finds peace'," she read. "What the fuck does that mean?"

Jill looked at her seriously.

"I think I know." She got so excited her heart beat shot close to tachycardia. Searching for clues and solving riddles reminded her of the first adventure back at the Spencer Mansion. What been probably the creepiest night of her life, had turned into an almost lovely memory over the years. Claire requested an explanation.

"It's actually a coincidence." Jill laughed. "Tell me Claire. Where do people find peace?"

The nerves made Claire's blood boil. She definitely wasn't in the mood for riddles.

"In the church? At home in their bed? In a library?" The words lost all of their sense due to the anxiety her voice reflected.

"On the graveyard!" Jill exclaimed. "I think this message points to someone's grave. And the best is that I know whose tomb it refers to."

"Are you sure?" Claire feared they were losing precious time in their search for Neil. The freaking ideas Jill had come up with were far too imaginative to be actually a real hint to follow.

"I am. Heaven's judge refers to Skye Richter."

"Was that the guy in the grave next to yours?" Claire frowned. That actually made sense."Yes, Richter is German for judge." Claire put a finger on her chin, as if it allowed her to think better.

"And sky could be another word for heaven," Jill said completing her thought.

"This is crazy." Claire shook her head in disbelief. "Do you think Neil left this message?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you. He's your boss, not mine."

"It's definitely not his handwriting." Claire checked the piece of paper again to make sure she wasn't missing anything.

"That mneans he's the one who has been summoned. Claire, Neil might be in serious trouble."

"Then, what are we waiting for? Let's hurry to the graveyard."

"Wait a minute. Can you help me look up a certain verse in the bible?" Jill asked.

Claire frowned.

"TerraSave sends psychologists to help the survivors deal with their experiences, not priests. I'm sure we don't even have bibles here." Her jittery laughter echoed through the room. "We better check it on the Internet. Let's get back to Operations."

Jill quickly connected to the web to google the sentence she'd read on Richter's tombstone earlier that day.

"This is amazing," she said. "I know I shouldn't be that surprised, since they experimented on me with high-tech equipment, but it's nothing compared to how fast the search engines evolve."

Claire smiled at the comparison.

"Do you find what you need?" She asked concerned, wondering if Jill wasn't aware of the time they were wasting. The blonde had a concentrated look on her face.

"Not yet… I can't remember the exact sentence… It was something like…" She started typing again. "'Behold, We don't sleep, we change' and I'll add the word 'bible'." Several thousands of results appeared in the search engine. "There it is! Yes, that was it: 'Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.'," She read." It's from Corinthians 15:51."

"Corinthians?" Claire's ponytail flung over her shoulder as she turned around. "This is a clue."

"I was expecting it was, but what does it mean?" Jill asked in concern.

Claire got up and walked over to a heavily loaded shelf. She took a folder out of it and slid it over the desk.

When Jill opened it, the first thing she found was an extract from a local newspaper. The piece of news talked about an old coal mine which the mayor wanted to reopen. Plans which had been frustrated by the pressure activists had been making. The paper was from 2005 and the name of the mine was…

"Corinthians!" That was definitely not just a coincidence.

"I gathered a lot of information about this case because my paranoid mind thought someone wanted the mine as headquarters for experiments."

"So, you think Neil is there?"

Claire nodded as she picked up the phone and dialed a short extension number. "Lindsay, Redfield here. I need you to send me an emergency team, and maybe the police, to the Corinthians mine as soon as possible."

"And inform the BSAA!" Jill whispered to her. Claire took the headphone off her ear and covered the microphone with one hand.

"Jill, we don't have any evidence of an bio organic attack. I can't have your people come just to have a look at the situation." She spoke into the phone again. "Yes, thank you Lindsay. Oh, and, send some reinforcement to Colombia as well…" She hung up quickly before running to her personal closet to grab her weapon.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jill asked in a rather angry tone. Before Claire could react, the blonde had already put a hand on her friend's arm.

"I'm gonna find him." The redhead pulled back. She looked at her watch. "It's almost three now. I need about one hour to get to the mine. If 15:51 refers to a meeting time, I'm already late." She gave Jill a concerned look. "I'm sorry, do you mind staying here? You see it's kind of an emergency."

Jill shook her head.

"I'm coming with you," she said.

"No way! I took you to the graveyard, I brought you to TerraSave, but I'm not gonna pull you into this with me." She raised her voice. "Chris would kill me!"

"He wouldn't forgive me either if I let anything happen to you." The blonde was completely convinced. "I'm not leaving you alone."

Claire stared at her, trying to organize the thoughts running through her mind, as Jill held her gaze. It was true. Chris would be as destroyed about Jill's death as about her own. But was risking their both lives really the solution? What would Chris do? Nothing. He wouldn't give a damn about Neil's life. But what if it was about someone he cared about? He would definitely tie Jill and herself up and go himself. Claire smiled at the idea. Jill noticed the sudden change in her expression.

"What's so funny?"

"I was imagining Chris seeing us here," she said. "I'm sure he'd know what to do."

"He'd tie us up and leave on his own," Jill said laughing.

"That's just what I was thinking." Claire nodded slightly, giving in to her friend's wish. "You win. I'll take you with me, on one condition." She handed her another belt with a Beretta 92F. "Even if you don't shoot. Even if you do shoot and fail. I don't want you to be without this."

Jill didn't know what to say. She looked at the gun before slowly putting her hand on the cold metal surface. She felt weak before the powerful weapon, able to take lives. She swallowed heavily, but nodded.

"Thank you Claire." She nodded and put the holster around her waist. Claire smiled at her.

"Now, we should really get going."

Hello everybody!

Let me once more thank you for reading and reviewing. Special thanks to Ultimolu for the honest review; to my friend Thebigticket21 who always inspires me with her own stories; and to Sofistinha, who, I hope, liked Claire in chapter three and four as well.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas. I 'll be back next week :D