Resident Evil Recall: Operation Arklay

Episode One: Raccoon City Sunrise

Part Four

S.T.A.R.S. Office, RPD, 8:30 AM…

"So, you want to be a S.T.A.R.S. member, do you?" Captain Marini asked intently. "Well, so does half the RPD, so why, oh why, should we choose one of you instead of the others, hmm?"

What started out as an interview now felt more like an interrogation as Ashwood and Chambers sat on chairs in the center of the office. The S.T.A.R.S. members had surrounded them immediately once Marini began to talk, and several more people had showed up as the first few minutes went by, leaving the two of them up against what looked like an angry mob. She knew that this was probably just a scare tactic to see how well the people being interviewed could compose themselves in tense situations, which was completely expected with what these people did, but the scare tactic itself was pretty effective. Not that she was going to admit that.

"I think I have a lot to offer this team." Ashwood replied while trying to appear confident. "I'm a Tech Specialist, so I can handle mission data and navigation, and I'm very well organized."

"And I'd be great in the field." Chambers added. "I stay calm and think before I act, so you wouldn't have to worry about me being reckless. I'm also a really good shot, and always get a perfect score at the range."

"Well, isn't that just special?" Marini replied once they were finished. "Out of the dozens and dozens of Officers that applied for the position, our two best candidates are a skinny computer dweeb and a guy so fresh out of the academy that he thinks scores on paper mean a damn thing out in the field. Now you two jackasses have one last chance… and I mean one last chance to impress me before you're both out on your ears. Ready… go."

This was certainly not the kind of interview that Ashwood had expected when she filled out the application a few weeks prior, but she was there and Captain Marini was waiting for an answer. She had one that she could give, and it was sure to impress him, but at the same time it could cost her everything if he reacted badly. Not just the S.T.A.R.S. position, but her career in the RPD all together, and possibly even her freedom.

"I hacked the RPD's closed network." She admitted out of desperation. "Everything; classified files, personnel records, even Chief Irons' account, and, um… that guy has some pretty weird tastes."

"I commit Police Brutality every single day." Chambers also answered. "At the Academy they told us to be civil and diplomatic, and I really try, but most of the scumbags in this city will only respect you when your boot is pressing down on their neck. No one gets away from me and my partner, and that's the kind of dedication you need in a department like S.T.A.R.S."

Well, that was it. Both of them had decided to put their cards on the table regardless of the consequences, and now all they could do was wait to see how the people of S.T.A.R.S. would react. Maybe it would have been better for Ashwood to have just walked out the door and given up, but it was too late now. Would they see her potential? Would they turn her in to Internal Affairs? The silence that followed was unnerving to say the least, but thankfully it only lasted a few seconds before someone spoke.

"The Chief has a account?" The big man known as Barry Burton asked while walking over to one of the desks. "I'm gonna create a fake female profile and start trolling him."

"Yeah, me too." Forest replied as he went to another computer. "I'll be a librarian who is really a seventy-five year old dominatrix, and you can be the sweet innocent type who turns out to be a man."

They did a quick high-five before getting to the computers, and Ashwood was dumbstruck by the way that they were carrying on about it. She had just confessed to stealing the personnel files of everyone in the RPD, including theirs, but no one seemed to care, just like no one seemed to care about Chambers and his brutal string of vigilante justice. On the plus side, though, Captain Marini didn't appear to be so hateful toward them anymore.

"Now, that's more like it." He said. "The Special Tactics and Rescue Service is not the Boy Scouts, nor are we a bunch of pencil pushing bureaucrats who let criminals get away just because we don't have trivial things like conclusive evidence or search warrants that are signed by a Judge instead of me. Well, that's all the time we got, so get out of my office, and we'll let you know our decision in about a week."

Employee Exercise Room, RPD, 9:00…

The stereo in the corner was blasting the local rock station as Lopez slammed his fist into the heavy bag so hard that it shook. He knew that there was no way he would ever be able to knock it off of the bolts that hung it from the ceiling, but that didn't mean he couldn't try. So try he did, smashing his fists into it over and over again in order to work out his frustration over what had happened earlier in the office.

"That scumbag!" He yelled while punching. "That damn criminal scumbag!"

When that purse-snatching freak had tried to escape, that had been the first time that anyone ever caught him off guard. Normally, some creep getting in a lucky shot wouldn't have been such a big deal, but why did it have to happen in front of the head of Homicide? And why while the guy was cuffed and restrained by two cops? One nice thing about working for the police department was that he had twenty-four hour access to the gym for free, so he could come in and work out his anger issues whenever he needed to… which was a lot.

"You wanna cheap shot me, huh?!" He continued to yell. "You wanna embarrass me in front of the brass, huh?! I had to have a burnt-out old Lieutenant cover my ass, and you will pay!"

His arms were starting to sting a bit from the punching, but then everything came to a halt as the music suddenly stopped. Dropping his arms and spinning around, Lopez wasn't sure who he expected to see standing near the stereo, but it certainly wasn't that old Sergeant from Homicide. If he remembered right, this was the one who had tried to shoot the guy when he was running away, so he couldn't be all bad.

"What's wrong, old dog, don't like the music?" Lopez asked while catching his breath. "I don't think we got any Sex Pistols on there these days."

"Kid, you don't know nothin about the Sex Pistols." McGee replied while walking toward him. "And if I know my stuff, that was Metallica playing when I came in, so you couldn't have been more than about five or six when that song came out, am I right?"

Lopez laughed a little while looking down, his breathing finally returning to normal as the old Detective reached him. Now that the stinging was fading from his arms, the half-blond man noticed that his hands felt like they were on fire. This turned out to be because his knuckles were bleeding, and he had seen the small splatters on the heavy bag, but it just hadn't clicked that it was coming from his own hands.

"In my day we also had gloves for this." McGee continued. "Still do in fact, so why don't you use them? And your music choice is all wrong for working out a damaged ego; Metallica is for getting charged up for a big arrest, but you need some Godsmack to calm down and get you back into focus."

There was a stack of cassette tapes near the stereo, so the old man put on in, and the song that started playing instantly reached him. It was slow and chill, but at the same time heavy and awesome.

"That's Voodoo, right there, kid." McGee continued. "Now put on some gloves and work the bag again, but this time don't think about that guy sucker-punching you. Instead, think about how you get to do whatever you want after work, while that crook gets to spend the rest of his life in a 6x8 prison cell with a three hundred pound fiancé named Duke."

The half-blond man couldn't help but laugh at the visual that popped into his head, and between that and this killer music, he was actually starting to feel better. Maybe the old dog was onto something after all.

"Voodoo, huh?" Lopez asked. "I like that… yeah… I like that a lot."

Administration Hallway, RPD, 9:30 AM…

Well, it was time. Time to have a long meeting with RPD Chief of Police Brian Irons, and begin a new day for the people of Raccoon City. Tobias Liquid was back on the job, and armed with his new plan of action, he was going to bring it to the Chief for approval, and not take no for an answer. The brief scuffle with that criminal downstairs had given him an extra boost to his confidence, and now he was ready.

The quickest way to get from the Homicide Division to the Chief's Office was to actually go outside of the building and up the maintenance staircase. Hardly anyone except for workers used this route, but it sure beat going the long way around and past the S.T.A.R.S. Office, so this was the route that Liquid chose. It only required him to be outside for a minute or two, and actually put him past the waiting room, which was nice since he didn't want to have to be buzzed in. So he opened the door into the junction hallway and walked in, only to stop in his tracks as he nearly walked into Jill Valentine.

"Oh, God damn it." She growled as they both took a quick step back. "I knew this day was going too well."

"Hello, Valentine." Liquid replied. "Look, I know that we…

His word were interrupted as she held up her hand for him to be quiet, and something about the look in her eyes made him feel like she might actually shoot him if he didn't listen. That, and the fact that her other hand was now resting on the Beretta in her holster, so in this case it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Do not speak to me, Tobias Liquid." She warned. "Do not call me, do not write to me, do not leave me messages in the office, and do not sing outside my window in the middle of the night. Because if you do any of these things, I will literally bounce your head off of every single step of every single staircase in the RPD, do you understand?"

He started to say yes, but then her grip tightened on her weapon, so he decided just to nod his head instead. Valentine just stood there for several seconds as if trying to decide what to do, eventually settling on letting out a frustrated sigh before walking away.

"I missed you too, Jill." Liquid said quietly once she was gone.

He couldn't blame her for how she felt, but he had already apologized to her over the phone, so all that was left for her to do was get over it. That's what he had done, and now he was going to continue that process by moving forward with his day. This required him to enter the Chief's Office which was through the door up ahead and to the right, so he adjusted his grip on the large folder that he was carrying, and opened the door.