Chapter 9
(Please take it easy on my English skills, it is my second language.)
After one hour of conversation in the car, Carlos dropped Leon and Ada off at in front of one of the best restaurants close to Madrid International Hotel as they requested. Both Ada and Leon were starving, since they had not eaten since almost 18 hours ago. It was a very fancy restaurant for the rich. It opens until midnight. Three of them had walked in and sat down around a table. After made their orders, they wait at the table patiently. Although Carlos had eaten before went to the three-way, he could use a snack. It was already after 9pm, not too many new customers were coming in.
As they were talking, a black van stopped outside. A pretty teenage girl got out and walked into the restaurant with 3 men in black behind her. The cutie was talking English in American accent with her bodyguards.
"I am starving!" She said "I hate stupid parties now." She passed their table and walked further into the restaurant.
"Another American, eh?" Carlos said to Leon and Ada
"Must be a rich man's daughter." Leon replied
"How was the party? Miss Wesker?" One guard asked "You haven't told us."
"I said I don't want to mention it! And you don't want to know. Trust me on it." The teen girl replied as they disappeared into another room of the restaurant
"Miss Wesker? Does Wesker have a daughter?" Leon asked Ada
"Not I know of. He is single as far as I know." Ada replied "I never met her. Unless he was hiding an illegitimate child of his all these years."
"Haha! Good one!" Carlos laughed
"That girl reminds me of…Sherry. She should be her age by now…" Leon sighed
"Oh, you mean the little girl we met in Raccoon City?" Ada asked "William and Annette Birkin's 12-year-old daughter?"
"Yes. She was with Claire first, but Claire ran off to look for her brother Chris and left Sherry to me."
"Where is she now?" Ada asked
"Some government agents found us and blackmailed me by using Sherry. They said that she knew too much which was totally bullshit! She was only 12! To exchange for her freedom, I have to work for them." Leon replied
"I did not know you were unwillingly working as a government agent." Ada just learned it
"You are right. It was not my own choice." Leon continued "So they left Sherry alone and she was adopted by a regular family, but she went missing just a week later. We still don't know what happened, nor where she is now. The case was never solved."
"Umm, wouldn't this girl be her? Maybe Wesker kidnapped Sherry, and changed her name to his?" Ada said
"What for? She was just a 12-year-old little girl! She had no value to him after she dropped the G-virus sample." Leon did not believe that Wesker would be interested in Sherry
"You will never know what that bastard is thinking…." Ada said
"Maybe you are right. Let us ask her when she walks out." Leon replied "I still doubt it though. Sherry would have recognized me."
"Now you mention it. Aren't those bodyguards wearing the same outfit as the bodyguards of the dude my men ambushed 2 days ago? I wasn't there, but my men described everything to me afterwards." Carlos said
"Yes. They are…along with half the bodyguards in the world" Ada replied
"Haha, you are right." Carlos laughed. He thought about one of his mercenaries did mention it was a girl who picked up the package from the bank, but then he thought it was mentioned that girl was in a fancy dress and she had that Lincoln Limousine. Now this girl wasn't wearing dress, and she had a black van. Besides, whoever was in that Lincoln Limousine had been killed near the 3-way road to the old castle. So he did not bring it up.
"What dude are you talking about?" Leon asked
"Wesker's first operator. I had requested the hit on him, so he wouldn't be bringing back the Las Plagas sample to Wesker." Ada said
"There are lots of things you haven't told me, Ada."
"Of course, because you did not ask!" Ada replied "I let you ask questions of your own choices."
Leon knew Ada was right, "So Wesker does not have the sample?"
"No. I switched it and put a fake one in the bank for his men to pick up."
"Where is the real one?" Leon asked
"It's gone to the hands of my second employer." Ada replied
"I thought you said you would take good care of it." Leon was not very happy
"You don't understand. The Las Plagas would be a lot more dangerous in the hands of Wesker. My second employer can't compare with him in this matter. Besides, you don't need to worry about anything. They will be both taken cared of soon enough. I had to turn in that sample to earn their trust to gain more information on them." Ada replied
"Excuse me. But I think I am hearing too much which I should not. Maybe I should leave." Carlos said and he was about to stand up
"Hey wait, I thought we just started to understand each other. You are a good man, and an old friend of Jill. We could use a friend like you. Maybe you should consider to join Jill and Chris' organization to taking down Wesker and other bastards who are just like him!" Leon stopped him from leaving
"I have to think about it. It was very dangerous. I was scared shit out of myself by that T-Rex sized insect." Carlos replied
"Ok, no problem. Here is my phone number, so you can contact me when you made your mind." Leon handed Carlos a card.
"Here is mine." Carlos gave a card of his to Leon after took Leon's "Who is Chris?"
"Jill's colleague from S.T.A.R.S. back in R.P.D. and they are quite…close. Afterwards they both joined that underground anti-Umbrella organization."
About 30 minutes later, the teen girl from earlier walked out with her bodyguards.
"Excuse me, Miss!" Leon stood up "You look familiar, may I ask your name?" Leon lied about the looking familiar part. Sherry was just a little girl. The teen girl in front of him looked very different.
"The name is Lauren Wesker." Sherry answered "Do I know you, Sir?" On the other hand, she did feel something familiar about this man. It has been six years. She couldn't not exactly remember how everyone looked back then. She was just a 12-year-old. Even as Leon still look almost the same as before.
"I am Leon Scott Kennedy." Leon replied
"Oh my god!" Sherry thought as she was almost shocked but she had controlled herself and did not show any sign of it. This is Leon, the man who escaped Raccoon City with Claire and herself. Wesker had warned her that Leon was in Spain too, and he told her to avoid him if she ran into him by any chance. Not that he was afraid of she couldn't handle Leon, but simply worry Leon might reorganize her.
Sherry suddenly wanted to cry. She wanted to hug this man in front of her and kiss him on the cheek, who she was depended on for some time. She wanted to say "Thank you! Leon!"
But instead she said
"Sorry, Sir. I do not know you." Sherry lied "I have to go, if you excuse me." And she walked out of the door with 3 bodyguards behind her.
"Bye!" Leon said as Sherry was already stepping outside
"Farewell, Leon!" Sherry cried in her heart
"She didn't even bother to say bye." Carlos said
"She was hiding something." Ada said "I can read people fairly well. It is not certain if she lied about not knowing you, but I am positive she was hiding something important."
"Really? I couldn't see it." Carlos was surprised
"Because you are not a spy" Leon said "I think I need to check with my agency on this girl's background."
After dinner, 3 of them stepped out of the restaurant and it was already after 10pm.
"It is nice to meet you Carlos! Hope to hear from you soon!" Leon gave a hand shake to Carlos before Carlos headed back in his car.
"I have to get back to embassy. So I can check some files really quick." Leon said to Ada "I will call you tomorrow, honey!" And he kissed Ada before he stopped a taxi. He would have asked Ada to come along, but she couldn't show up in the U.S. embassy.
"See you tomorrow, handsome!" Ada waved her arm at Leon
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The next morning, Leon called Ada on the phone really early
"Hey honey! We were wrong. That girl was just a daughter of a rich businessman who owns a medicine company. I requested for her file by narrow it down from all the American passengers who arrived in Spain in the past a few days. It says she legally changed her last name to her dead mother's maiden name." Leon said on the phone "Now honey, shall we plan for another trip somewhere? Our last one was cut too short."
Leon did not know Wesker had his way to plant the files. It was fairly easy.
"Leon. I just received an emergency call from my agency last night after you left. I have to get back to China for a few weeks." Ada said on the other end "Do you want to come with me?"
"Now?"
"Well we will take the plane today." Ada said
"Ah! To meet your parents?" Leon was excited
"Yeah, right." Ada laughed "But I guess we could."
"That's just wonderful! I will go wherever you go from now on, honey!" Leon joked
"You know you can't, handsome! As for this time, yes!" Ada replied and she knew Leon was joking
"I always wanted to go China for traveling. This is going to be fun."
"Yeah well, I have some business to take care of first. Nothing dangerous though. It's just a few very important meetings of the agency, because something important had happened. I don't exactly know what was going on yet. But there is nothing to be worried about. It is in our domain. The two of us could have lots of time for relaxation and fun in peace after the meetings." Ada replied
"And to meet your parents! So they can approve me as their gorgeous daughter's fiancé!" Leon said
"What if they don't approve?" Ada laughed
"Then you will have to run away with me" Leon joked
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Sometimes during the next day,
The door to Wesker's control room was opened, Sherry walked in.
"I am back. Uncle Wesker." Sherry said with a cute smile on her pretty face
"Good work! Sit down, please!" Wesker said as he turned around his chair and removed one of his legs from the top of the other.
Sherry looked around. The only chair in this room full of monitors was the one Wesker sitting on.
"Here!" Wesker slapped his own laps.
"Oh, haha" Sherry laughed as she walked forward and sat down on Wesker's laps "I haven't sat on here for a while"
"I have read your mission report that you sent me while you were on the plane, my dear. You have grown up. Even it was your first real assignment. You handled the nasty situations really well. I am pleased you brought me 34 samples instead of just the one you intended to retrieve. How may I thank you?" Wesker usually was not grateful to anyone who has done work for him, but Sherry was different. He raised her. She was like an adopted daughter to him.
"I want to go to college" Sherry made her first demand
"Why? College is overrated! Are there problems with the private professors I hired for you? I paid high prices for them." Wesker asked
"No, they are fine. But I just want to experience being in the college, hang out with friends."
"Ok, that can be arranged easily." Wesker agreed Sherry's demand like he always did "Anything else?"
"I want to go to Cuba!" Sherry made her second demand
"Why Cuba?"
"Uh well, I just want to have some fun there for a couple of weeks. I have never been there, but I heard good things about traveling there." Sherry replied and asked "Is it ok with you?"
"Well unfortunately, there was something unexpected just coming up. I need you to take care of it first. You could have all the time you need in Cuba afterwards." Wesker said
"Oh? What is it?"
"One of our secret bases located on an island in southwest edge of South China Sea had just lost contact with us." Wesker said as he pressed a button
One of the screens was turned on and it replayed a part of a transmission,
"Sir! We have detected two ships coming our way just 45 miles from here. They left the international water way 20 minutes ago. Judged from their sizes and shapes, I'd say one of them is a Destroyer, the other one is a landing ship. The nationality of theirs is unknown. And they are not responding to our hails. What should we do? Ah, they are firing on us! Incoming missiles! Raise the alarm! Raise the alarm!"
"How many missiles?" Wesker's voice
"Two of them! Judged from the altitude and the speed, they are cruise missiles. And they are coming right at us!"
"Evacuate the base immediately! Set off the self destruct after take the data with you! Take the submarine!"
"Yes, Sir! But what about the specimens? They are…"
And then the transmission was suddenly cut off
"What happened?" Sherry asked
"We don't know for sure. But it seems the base was attacked. The transmission was jammed at that moment." Wesker replied
"What about the satellite images?"
"That is the problem." Wesker pushed another button "Look!"
Another monitor was switched on, and it was showing a living image from a satellite. On the screen, the most part was a black piece of matter blocking the rest of the image.
"What's this?"
"It looks like a black hole, but it is clearly not. I doubt it is even really there, it must be some kind of technology designed to interrupt satellites' image systems. And it is blocking the view of our satellites. It expands 90 miles long, 55 miles wide, just at the right place to completely blocking the entire area from the sky around the island of our secret base."
"Why would you have a secret base there?" Sherry asked
"There are many small islands in that area which are unmanned. And it is near a neutral zone of Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and China. Each claims to have the rightful ownership of this area. In the other word, none of them had moved in. So we did. We moved in under the name as a peaceful science research organization. We did get proved from all of them. Since we turn in lots of data of local natural resources, weather pattern, and other scientific data for free, they had no problem with it." Wesker replied
"So who could have attacked the island?"
"It could be anyone, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, and China, or even Taiwan. And there is always the U.S. military base from Guam. That is why I want you to go there and find out." Wesker said "More importantly! We have to recover the research data from a secret underground chamber 150 feet below the base. There is a protected computer designed to backup the files from the research center, and since it is cut off from the rest of the base and it is so deep. Nobody but the base commander knows about it."
"What kind of researches are they really doing?"
"T-Veronica Virus and G-Virus experiments. This is one of the only two multi-viruses labs we have, which is why we need the data." Wesker said desperately. He would have called Ada for the mission who was a lot more experienced, but he knew this girl's attitude. Ada had always requested "no contract period" from time to time right after certain missions, and during those periods she always turned off the phone and never answer any call. Wesker knew it was futile to call Ada now, since she was on another vacation.
"Aren't those two the most unstable viruses?" Sherry asked
"Yes! That is also one of the reasons we set up a lab there. The mission is a lot more unpredictable than the last one. Could you handle it?"
"There is nothing I can't handle!"
"Good! Then you will be on your way tomorrow morning. I will prepare the necessary things you need." Wesker smiled "Now give me some sugar before you leave, my dear"
Sherry laughed and kissed Wesker on the left cheek before she stood up and left the room. They were like father and daughter, at least from the look of it.
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About six hours ago inside the Wesker's secret base at South China Sea,
The base commander was on the communication with Wesker,
"Yes, Sir! But what about the specimens? They are highly valuable too. Shall we take them with us?"
Before he was able to finish, all powers to the base were suddenly down. The room was all dark.
"What is happening?" The base commander asked
"It looks like the two cruise missiles we detected earlier were carrying Electro Magnetic Pulse warheads. They just knocked out all our power with EMP, and fried most of our electronics." One of the men in the room replied "Sir! We will lose the containment fields around the specimens if we can't put the power to that room back on soon!"
"Screw with the specimens! Get all the data and set off the self destruct sequence! Let's go take the submarine and get out of here!" The base commander ordered
"Can't do, sir! All systems were fried by the EMP pulse, include the self destruct system!" The man said in depress "The backup power is damaged too. We can't download any data at all either. If we are lucky, the sub in the underground water cave might still be functional."
"I can't even make orders to the personnel all over the base. DAMN IT! Those two ships will arrive soon. That landing ship must have troops on it." The base commander shouted "You go to the sub first. And wait for me there. I will be there in less than 15 minutes."
"But, Sir. We have to go now!" The man replied
"That was a direct order!" The base commander said as he finally found a flashlight and a pistol from his desk in the dark, and he walked out of a door on the other end of the room. He was going to retrieve the data from the backup system in the secret bunker below the base.
Inside the dark hall of the base, confused base personnel were everywhere. It was a pure chaos, since they heard the alarm before the black out.
"Go for the submarine." The base commander told everyone who he came across
After passed a few halls, he entered a huge specimens room. Inside the room, there were two lines of huge tubes along both sides of the room next to the walls.
"Almost there." The base commander thought. The secret passage to the bunker down below was hiding inside this room, right below a counter.
As he walked toward the counter with his flashlight waving, there was a sound of a crack behind him. The base commander turned around with his flashlight and pistol pointing, he saw one of the tubes was slowly breaking from inside…
"Oh, crap!" The base commander said in terror…
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On an airplane to China, Ada and Leon were sitting side by side. It had already been over 10 hours since they stepped onto the plane. It was a long trip. Everyone on the plane was tired and sleepy. Ada's pretty head was against the left shoulder of Leon, and she was taking a nap on it. Leon's phone rang…
Leon picked up his satellite phone.
"Leon! Where have you been? Had fun?" It was Agent Smith on the phone
"Not really. Why are you calling me now?" Leon asked. Agent Smith was not the type who would call him for a normal talk. He always had something to say about the work.
"I am sorry to cut your vacation short. We have a situation. We need you go report to Guam right way." Agent Smith said
"Why? Is Ashley being kidnapped again by Anti-U.S. Muslim terrorists group based off Asian this time?" Leon satirized
"No. It has nothing to do with the President's family" Agent Smith replied
"Then why are you calling me for?" Leon replied. He was assigned to protect the presidential family, not anything else.
"You had proved that you are one heck of an agent. That is why the president had decided to put you on other important missions." Agent Smith tried to sound like complimenting Leon
"We had an agreement that I have 3 weeks off. It has only been less than 3 days." Leon was not happy
"Yes. But this is an emergency situation, well kind of emergency." Agent Smith tried to make Leon listen "About 5 hours ago, the neutral zone in the middle of Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, China, was breached. Someone had made a move. We do not know what really happened there, but since the satellites are being blocked by a piece of huge black…something… from viewing it. We expected it is China." Agent Smith added "People's Republic of China of mainland, not Republic China of Taiwan."
"Why is that? I thought you said you haven't seen anything yet." Leon questioned him
"Because, a couple of years ago, when the Chinese were trying to relocate some of their nuclear warheads. The similar thing had happened, a huge piece of black matter appeared on our satellites image system right before the transfer took place. By the time the satellites image was clear, the nuclear warheads were already gone." Agent Smith said "The black thing we saw on the screen was not something really there. It must be some kind of technology designed to disrupt satellite image systems"
"Not my problem." Leon replied and he was about to cut the phone
"As an individual of course not, but as the world's leader we have responsibility to keep eyes on all the things around the world. Now all the countries around the neutral zone are on high alert. We need to find out what happened in the neutral zone before it is too late!" Agent Smith said
"Play the World Police again?" Leon always hated how the politicians always use the excuses of world peace to point fingers at someone else' businesses "What do you want me to do?"
"We have assigned a task force to go there to check things out. You are one of them." Agent Smith said
"Not interested." Leon replied
"You can't! It is an order! I guarantee your safety. Things like last mission will never happen again. You will be going there on an Aircraft Carrier from Guam!" Agent Smith was almost shouting on the other side
"Order? What about Sherry who was 'missing' 6 years age? Have you found her yet?" Leon asked
"Oh, you mean that little girl who you escaped from Raccoon City with? No, we haven't heard anything about her yet." Smith replied
"Yes, the little girl who you used to blackmail me to work for your agency. And you broke your promise and let her being 'missing'. You couldn't solve the case to find her in six freaking years? Now I quit!" Leon said angrily and his voice was getting quite loud, some of the passengers were looking at his direction
"No, you can't quit! You have a job to do! Direct order from one of the highest United States government agencies!" Agent Smith sounded really mad
"I just quit! Bye! No more calling me!" Leon cut the phone.
"Who was that, honey?" Ada was woken up. She raised her head from Leon's shoulder and asked.
"Oh, it was nothing, sweetie. I just fired my boss. There is nothing to be worried about." Leon replied like it was nothing
"You mean you just lost your job?" Ada asked with surprise
"Well I am unemployed now if you really want to call me that. But I am sure you can feed me for the rest of my life." Leon joked
Ada laughed out and asked "So what happened?"
"My boss tried to cut my vacation short and make me go onto another mission that is truly none of my business. So I fired him. I quit." Leon smiled. "Now I really can go anywhere you go. It makes me feel good!"
"You still can't. Sure you can spend more time with me now, but…what happens when my parents ask what job do you have?" Ada smiled at him
"I will just say I am retired! " Leon joked again "No big deal. I am sure I can find another job quickly if I want to, but I prefer you to feed me, sweetie!"
Leon's joke made Ada laughed again. And she put her head onto Leon's warm nice shoulder again and closed her eyes to continue her nap. Leon looked down at the beautiful face of the sleeping angel and thought to himself "Hey, she didn't say she agree to feed me when I mentioned it twice! I guess I have to find a job soon if I don't want her to dominate me!"
He picked up the phone and made another phone call…
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Back in the mansion of the mercenaries,
Carlos had taken care of the dead comrades. He still had not decided yet if he should once again involve into the biohazard crap.
His phone rang,
"Carlos? Is that you?" A woman's voice on the other end
"Yes? I am Carlos Oliveira. Who might you be?" Carlos felt the woman's voice sounded familiar.
"I am Jill! Jill Valentine!" The woman's voice was getting excited "Don't you remember me?"
"Ah, Jill!" Carlos was surprised at what he was hearing "You haven't called me in years, before I changed my phone number due to the need of my new work. Why are you suddenly calling me now? How did you get my new number?"
"Leon just gave me this number. He told me that you are in Spain right now, and he said you might willing to join us. We could use more help on taking down Wesker and other freaks!" Jill replied "Leon said you have a combat ready mercenary team. We could really use them."
"But, they are all in for the profit! I am not sure if they will still listen to me if there is no more profit." Carlos said "I, myself is more than willing to fight along side of you once again." Carlos really missed Jill, and Jill's call immediately made his mind.
"It is good enough to have you back. As for your men, it can be arranged even if they are really so into the profit. Things have changed, now we have our sources of support. You will be surprised! In other word, your men will be paid well if they need salaries." Jill replied
To be continued…
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