Thanks again to everyone who has been reviewing and following my story! It means a lot 3

Just a heads up, there is some swearing here. Nothing too bad but I know some people don't like it too much.

Chapter 6

April 1979

Being a genius, there were very few things William Birkin wasn't very good at. Interacting with human beings who were actually living was one thing. Organization was another thing he couldn't seem to master no matter how hard he tried. The last thing, and what he was currently attempting to do, was driving.

"How was that?"

Albert let out the deep breath he was holding out through his nostrils and slowly pealed open one eye, then the other. His heart was still racing and every single muscle in his body was tense as a bowstring. For the millionth time since they set out on this little adventure, he cursed his past self. What in God's name made him think that teaching Will to drive was a good idea?

"Well?" William asked, sitting beside him in the driver's seat. Albert stiffly turned his head to William and the boy gave him a large smile. "How was that?"

"T-That," Albert paused so that he could steady his voice. "That was..." Horrible? Disastrous? He really couldn't think of a proper adjective.

"Well, it wasn't my fault the guy didn't see my turn signal indicator," William said, looking hurt. "And you don't have to grip the seats like that, I'm not going to kill us."

Albert's gaze dropped down to his hands, realizing that he couldn't feel them. His arms were straight down his sides, knuckles white from how tightly he was holding onto the seat. Abruptly he released his grip on the chair and winced as blood rushed back into his fingertips. His fingers were still very stiff and he cracked them to relieve the tension.

"It is your fault," Albert corrected him. "You turned left into oncoming traffic."

"You said I could do that!" William insisted. "You said I could turn left even though I didn't have a green arrow!"

"Yes, but you have to yield to the oncoming traffic," Albert snapped, pushing his sunglasses higher up his nose. "And right after that you ran a red light."

"I thought it was going to stay yellow for longer," William whined, slouching in his seat. "Why is driving so difficult?"

"It isn't," Albert said slowly and deliberately. "You are making it difficult by getting so wound up about every little detail."

"At least I got us to the parking lot safely."

Suddenly a police car pulled up beside them and an officer stepped out of the car. He kicked the door closed behind him and slowly started approaching the car.

"Oh god," William gasped, sinking low into the seat. "What do I do?"

"Just stay calm," Albert snapped. "You don't know what he wants yet."

"Right."

The officer rapped on the window and William rolled it down. "H-hello, officer."

"Hello boys," the officer leaned on William's window and looked at William closely. He was young with a thick crop of brown hair and sharp features. He had a heavy build and looked more like a refrigerator then a person. "What are you up to?"

"N-n-nothing," William stammered.

"Really?"

"Is there a problem officer?" Albert asked, not liking the tone the officer used.

"Well," the officer said, looking somewhat irritated that Albert questioned him. "This vehicle has an Umbrella parking permit, meaning it clearly belongs to an Umbrella employee. Why would two young boys such as yourself be in possession of this car?"

Albert eyed the officer. "We are Umbrella employees."

The officer blinked and then burst out laughing. "Umbrella employees? That is possibly the worst lie I've ever heard."

Albert sighed. Despite the fact that they got this type of reaction often, it still irritated him that people never took them seriously. "And what is your name?"

"Officer Irons," the young man said, still choking back his laughter.

"Well, Officer Irons," Albert said, glaring at the cop over the top of his glasses. "You yourself don't look old enough to be a full on police officer. So what are you? A trainee trying to bring in a duo of car thieves to impress your superior?"

Irons stopped laughing and forced a smile. "If you really are Umbrella staff, show me your Umbrella Identifications."

Albert and William reached in their pockets and produced their cards. Officer Irons snatched both of them and inspected the cards closely. "William Birkin and Albert Wesker…I'll remember that." He flicked their identification cards at them and spun on his heel before walking away.

"Jackass," Albert muttered, picking his card off the floor of the car and placing it back into his wallet.

"I'm really glad he didn't check to see if I had a license or not," William said, also slipping his back into his wallet side pocket.

"Yeah," Albert said, unbuckling his seat belt and stepping out of the car. "That was stupid on his part. Now let me drive home so we don't have to deal with any more idiots."

"How did the driving lesson go?" Victoria asked Albert and William as they walked back into their lab. She was sitting at William's desk, sorting though his ever-present mound of paper.

"It was something that should never occur a second time," Albert told her.

"It wasn't that bad!" William insisted, making a face. "I made a lot of improvements today."

Albert looked at him over the top of his sunglasses. "Yes, you actually managed to stay on the proper side of the road. Now if only you could stay in your own lane and not get distracted by every little thing outside of the car."

Victoria giggled and Albert glanced over in her direction. Her head was tilted downward, so he couldn't see her eyes but he could see how the corners of her mouth were gracefully curved upward in a smile.

"I just need more time!" William snapped, stomping over to his workstation.

"I value my life too much to have a next time," Albert retorted, dropping down in his own chair.

William looked back at him and stuck his tongue out.

"If you value your life so much," Victoria said softly, standing up so that William could take his seat. "Why do you work here?"

Albert blinked and stared at her. When he didn't respond, Victoria looked up, pine green eyes meeting his dark blue ones dead on.

Before Albert could respond, there was a knock at the door and Johnson walked into their room. "Good afternoon everyone. Did the driving lesson go well?"

William scowled and glared at Albert. Johnson did not miss his reaction and chuckled a bit. "That well?"

"It went wonderfully," Albert answered dryly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Is my car still intact?" Johnson asked, casually folding his arms across his chest. Albert raised an eyebrow, amazed that the man was so calm in regards to his car. Were it his car, William would not be allowed anywhere near it.

"Yes," William responded quickly, before Albert could mention the gigantic dent in the back bumper where William had backed into a tree earlier at the beginning of his lesson. The older boy shook his head but Johnson didn't notice.

"Well then, everything is fine," Johnson said lightly, obviously aware of William's driving troubles and trying to make light of them. "Anyway, Spencer needs to see you. He phoned while the two of you were out."

"For what?" William asked, swiveling around in his chair. "He hasn't asked to see us in months!"

Johnson shook his head. "He didn't say anything except that he expects the two of you in his office as soon as you returned."

"He didn't call for you as well?" Albert inquired. Generally when Spencer called for him and William, he also called for Johnson. It seemed strange that he wouldn't want the former Chief Researcher to attend the meeting as well.

"Spencer asked specifically for you and William," Johnson replied, leaving the room. "I'm sure he has enough confidence that the two of you can handle whatever he wants by yourselves."

Albert nodded as he rummaged through the top drawer of his desk, looking for his tie. He easily found it and began to tie it around his neck. Spencer always demanded the best of his employees, including their dress. All the men in the facility kept a spare tie hidden in their desk somewhere in case he dropped in unexpectedly. The few females who worked at Arklay always wore heels and makeup whenever Spencer came around.

Once his tie was perfectly in place, he waited for William to produce his tie from the mess of his desk. After over a minute of him searching, Victoria signed heavily and quickly pointed it out to him, next to his coffee cup.

"Oh," William said sheepishly, grabbing the purple and yellow-stripped tie. He quickly slipped it over his head and started fumbling with it. "Can you help me?"

"Sure," Victoria said, reaching out to him.

William took a large step towards her so that there was less than half a foot of space between them. Victoria's hands slithered up the tie and began adjusting it into the perfect position. Albert narrowed his eyes behind his lenses and felt a strange urge to tell the other boy that it wasn't necessary to be that close together to fix a tie. However before he could actually say it, Victoria finished and the two stepped apart.

Albert exhaled deeply through his nose, turned on his heel, and marched out of the lab, making sure to slam the door behind him.

"Albert?" William's voice called after him.

Albert ignored him and doubled his pace.

"Albert, wait!" William's footsteps echoed on the hallway as he ran to catch up with him. "Al!"

Albert didn't slow down but William eventually caught up to him. "What's going on?"

Again, Albert didn't say anything. Why was this bugging him? All William had her do was fix a stupid tie. That was around his neck. Albert breathed out through his nose again. This was really stupid but it wasn't his fault, he reasoned. He was a young man; it was the stupid hormones that were doing this.

They walked in silence the rest of the way up to Spencer's office. Albert kept looking straight ahead, trying really hard not to look at William. Would the younger boy realize what was eating at him? He really hoped not.

By now, it was fairly well known that William was crushing hard on their assistant even though he thought he was being sneaky. Albert heard the other employees gossiping amongst themselves about William's ability to head this research facility if he was too busy focusing on girls. Albert did not want that gossip and attention on himself. For her part, Victoria didn't show any interest in William and kept their work very professional. It was only when William did things like he did this afternoon that made things awkward.

They finally reached Spencer's office. Spencer's door was bare except for a gold plaque with his name inscribed on it. Albert reached out and knocked three times.

"Come in."

Albert grabbed the handle and pushed the door open. William slipped in and Albert shut the door carefully behind him.

Spencer's office was on the backside of the building, facing away from the sun, giving it a dull lighting through the curtain-framed windows. Spencer's desk was in the middle of the room and three portraits hung behind him. On the left was Dr. Marcus, looking as he did while a young ambitious man. The one on the right held a man with pale blond hair and icy blue eyes who Albert assumed has to be the late Edward Ashford. The middle was of Spencer himself, arrogantly staring down at anyone observing the painting.

Behind the wooden desk was Spencer. He was dressed in a bright gold jacket with a crisp cream shirt underneath, dressing outlandishly as always. He was hunched over the desk, closely analyzing some papers in front of him.

"Hello boys," Spencer said, looking up from his paperwork. "Sit."

William and Albert dropped into the two chairs opposite Spencer's desk.

"Now, I have something very important to discuss with you," Spencer said, leaning forward. "Word has reached me that Marcus has created some new virus. He is calling it Tyrant or 'T-Virus' for short."

Albert and William exchanged glances. While at Arklay Training Facility, they knew Marcus had been secretly working on some private project while he had them working on Progenitor. Despite their questions, Marcus never shared anything with him on what he was working on. But what did that have to do with them?

"Now, you're both probably wondering what that means for you," Spencer continued, caressing the papers in front of him. Albert pressed his lips together. He hated how much Spencer was able to read people and desperately wanted to put his sunglasses back on. "I want this new virus."

"Marcus works for Umbrella," Albert said slowly. "Wouldn't it make sense that he would share the report on this virus?"

"No," Spencer snapped, slamming his hand on the table.

Albert pursed his lips together.

Spencer stood up and looked out the window, clasping his hands behind him. "Why do you think I shut down the training facility?"

Albert glanced at William. The younger boy drew an identical blank look that Albert wore. "No."

"Marcus has lost sight of the well being of this company," Spencer explained, still looking out the window. "Instead of looking out for Umbrella's best interests, he only cares for his own advancement and glory."

Neither boy said anything. Marcus rarely showed any interest in the trainees he was supposed to look after unless they were exceptional prodigies. Even with them, he saw them two hours a day and was in his lab for the rest of it.

"His insistence that the new T-Virus he created could not be shared is only further proof that he plans to publish the results as his own private work rather then as a product of this company." Spencer turned toward them now. He leaned on his desk, beady eyes peering at them. "I had one of my most loyal men pick up Marcus's notes on the T-Virus but the formula for the virus itself is missing. I believe he may have destroyed them or hidden them somewhere."

Spencer took the papers that were on his desk and pushed the papers toward the boys. "Here are the notes that I do have. They list how this virus affects various organisms. I want you to work backwards, using these to create our own T-Virus before Marcus can perfect his. We can't let Marcus get away with his betrayal."

"What do we know about the T-Virus," Albert said, grabbing chalk and standing next to the chalkboard in Victoria's side office.

It had been almost a week since Spencer gave them the assignment to recreate the T-Virus. Since they didn't want anyone else knowing what they were up to, Albert and William worked on it after hours and only in Victoria's side office. William had talked Victoria into staying with them, claiming he needed help organizing, and Albert realized that he didn't really mind having the extra time with her.

"Heightened aggression is the most obvious factor," William said. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, notes fanned out around him.

"Heightened aggression," Albert repeated, writing it on the chalkboard.

"Didn't one of you say something along the lines of paralysis of pain sensations?" Victoria asked, adjusting in her chair.

"Right," Albert said and added loss of pain on the board under heightened aggression.

"Loss of intelligence," William continued flipping through the notes. "Increased need for food."

"Yeah," Albert continued writing as William listed them off.

"Increased in size for subjects that aren't mammals," William tossed a paper aside and grabbed another. "

"Skin deterioration," Victoria added.

Albert finished the list and took a step back. "Okay, we know that he used Progenitor as a base, but he had to have mixed something else into it."

"Do you have an idea of where to start?" Victoria asked, standing up and straightening out her skirt.

"No," William sighed, sounding defeated. "It could be anything."

Victoria nodded. "I'll put together a file of all the work of Marcus's former students for you as a start."

"Why his former students?" Albert asked, looking confused. "I highly doubt Marcus would have shared any information that sensitive with any students. He rarely shared anything with us and everyone said we were the closest who ever got to him."

"No, but its probably something that they or even you came up with," Victoria explained, crossing her arms over her chest. "Marcus is famous for stealing the work of his students and passing it off as his own. To be perfectly honest, I'd start with William's Ebola work."

"Son of a bitch," William whispered as he looked at the new test virus he created. He shoved the petri dish toward Albert. "Look!"

Albert grabbed the dish and slipped it under the microscope. The virus William just created looked almost identical to Marcus's T-Virus. "Son of a bitch indeed."

Instead of try to gather all of Marcus's former students' work, Albert and William took Victoria's advice and went straight to combining the Progenitor Virus and the Ebola samples William worked on while at Arklay. It barely took them an hour to create the T-Virus exactly as Marcus had.

"Did you get it?" Victoria asked, looking up from the notes she was taking.

"He stole my Ebola work!" William yelled, slamming his hand down on the lab table. "That was all my research!"

"Do you know if Marcus has published any of this?" Albert asked.

"He hasn't yet," Victoria put down her pencil and closed her notebook. "Rumor has it, he is trying to create some kind of weapon first."

"We have to take it in to Spencer then," Albert said. "Spence can make a public announcement tomorrow so if Marcus does end up publishing it, he'll look like a fool."

"I'll type up the report right now," Victoria offered, going to her computer. "I'll have it polished and on Spencer's desk by tomorrow morning."

"Perfect," Albert said. "Marcus needs to learn that he can't use our talents anymore."

Albert looked around the conference hall table at the rich, well dressed men seated in attendance. Marcus was sitting at one end while Spencer sat at the other. William and Albert were on either side of Spencer. The rest of the men at the table were some of Umbrella's investors and clients.

"I want to thank you all for coming on such short notice," Spencer began the meeting. "However, I can assure you gentlemen, that your rush to get here will not be in vain."

Spencer cleared his throat and passed William the stack of papers he had in front of him. William took one then passed the stack to the man next to him. The cycle repeated until Albert finally got the final paper.

"I present to you, the future of Umbrella. Gentlemen, the Tyrant Virus."

Albert glanced over at Marcus. His former teacher didn't try to hide the shock that he must have felt as he looked at the announcement in his hand. He stared across the table at Spencer and Albert could almost imagine the daggers he was throwing at the other man.

The rest of the room filled with murmurs as the investors and clients began to talk amongst themselves.

"Thanks to Dr. Birkin and Dr. Wesker," Spencer continued over the noise. "Umbrella will be a leading manufacturer in not only household and medical supplies, but in the manufacture of biological warfare."

Everyone fell silent for a moment and then there were scattered claps along the table. Spencer smiled, looking proud as if he had discovered the virus rather then had two of his employees steal it from a colleague.

"Once Dr. Birkin and Dr. Wesker are able to produce enough samples, they will begin working on a fighting, living biological weapon that will be on the market within the next few years."

Albert met William's eyes and raised an eyebrow. A fully capable and working biological weapon? In the next few years? Albert glanced at Marcus. The man's face was close to purple and it looked like he hadn't taken a breath in a while.

"Are there any questions?"

Spencer spent the next few minutes answering the questions of the investors. With each answer, he exaggerated the T-Virus, claiming it had abilities that Albert and William didn't even know were possible yet. Finally, the questions died out and Spencer invited everyone to accompany him to lunch.

"Ozwell," Marcus ground out as the hall started to empty. "May I have a word?"

Spencer smiled broadly. "Certainly. Wesker, Birkin, would you stay as well."

Albert let out a slow breath. He knew this probably wasn't going to go well and almost wished that Spencer had let him and William leave with the rest of the clients and investors.

"How could you do this to me?" Marcus demanded, shaking from the anger he was feeling. "That was my virus Spencer, my livelihood!"

"Really, James," Spencer rolled his eyes. "Calm yourself. This is no way to be behaving in front of our clients."

"You stole my research!"

"No, James," Spencer said, shaking his head slowly. "I am merely presenting Umbrella's research to Umbrella's clientele."

"But—"

"You may not realize this," Spencer hissed dangerously. "But you still are under contract. Anything you create is my property."

Spencer paused for a moment and looked around at each of them, Albert and William as well. "I run this company, not you. You better learn your place or you will sorely regret it."

Albert pursed his lips together, realizing that not only was that threat directed at Marcus, but at him and William as well.

Hope everyone enjoyed this update! It's a little short but I hope it was still a good read. Please review, favorite, follow, etc. :)