It's time for the final reveal of the mole. I didn't have the patience to wait a week to write this and yet, I'm also not ready to do this but we're doing this anyways. Do you have your snacks? Did you make sure to drink water today? Take care of that, then let's get right into it.
Song Suggestion: Fictional by Rachel Leycroft and Chow boò
Disclaimer: I own nothing
It had been about two and a half weeks since Pier's First birthday and the destruction of the Redfield family home. November came to a close as usual festive holidays of food and plenty were replaced with concerted efforts to provide shelter for their young ones. It took some time, but Emma's parents stayed long enough to make sure that the 4 would have a place to stay for the foreseeable future. Once they were sure that their daughter and her family would be okay, they, reluctantly, went home.
By Monday, December 4th, things had more or less returned to some semblance of normalcy. Emma would take Piers with her and drive to work each day, since her car had been graciously spared since her parents borrowed it. Meanwhile, Chris would go to the BSAA headquarters with Rose each day and continue to hunt for any further information on the mole before training with hound wolf squad.
"Some would say Freedom is free," Chris says while working at one of the machines.
"Some would say Freedom is free," the other 5 repeat in unison.
"But I tend to disagree," Chris says in a similar tone, and once more the other 5 repeat the cadence. He was about to continue with another line for the hell of it, but before he could, the group was interrupted. The sound of the gym's heavy solid wood door creaking open then slamming shut was enough to get everyone's attention as the director's secretary walked. Seeing the woman caused the group to pause and the room grew silent as the metallic clanking of machines slowed to a rest.
The woman made her way over to the group and gave a courteous nod before speaking. "Captain Redfield, the director would like a word with you before you leave for the day." the woman announced while keeping a safe distance from the group. While this could have been an email that only really worked half of the time since they were, more often than not, away from their computers leaving her as the messenger.
"Understood," Chris replies with a nod as he shifts to look at the others once more. "We'll call that a wrap for today. Good work as always. Get some rest," He says.
"Yes sir!" the group responds before leaving to collect their gear.
With that taken care of, Chris heads back to the locker room and if he was being honest, he took his time. He showered up, got changed, and tried to stall as much as possible to avoid having to talk to the infuriating superior. That didn't work forever, though, as he found he ran out of excuses to put off the requested visit. Frankly, even if he could put it off that long he'd have to make the same choice and suck it up so he can go home and focus on more pleasent company.
Chris made his way through the halls of the BSAA to the dreaded door thanks to that motivation but he hesitated infront of the door all the same. He could always just, walk away and pretend that he forgot? After a decent pause to consider the idea, a tired sigh crossed his lips before he raised a fist to knock on the sturdy wooden entryway.
"The door's open," the director replies from the other side.
Chris walks in and closed the door behind him to find that, as usual, the director was busy reviewing files, though at the moment the ones on his desk held pictures of the unusual bioweapon that tried taking Rose. Pictures of the remains of Chris's home along with the beast were strewn about alongside various witness statements.
"Take a seat," the director says with and uncharacteristically reverent voice. The director waits until Chris did as he was told before speaking again. "You've had an eventful few weeks... How is your family taking to the on-site housing?"
"Well enough," Chris answers in return.
"Good to hear," The director replies with a slight nod. "Now I'm sure you're already aware that, given the nature of the attack and their apparent target, you'll be expected to stay on campus with Rose until this is resolved."
"Yes sir," Chris replies. Short, sweet answers to just get this over with.
The short answer was somewhat jarring in it's own way. He'd expected something with a bit more bite to it "Right, well," The director say before sliding a thin file forward for Chris to take. "Once this issue is resolved, we'll be more than happy to release you and your family from protective custody. To assure that will happen as swiftly as possible, we'll need a decision on your part," He explains before lacing his fingers together and resting his hands on the desk. "You can either wait for your home to be rebuilt or we can begin the process of finding a new, more secure replacement." The older man says, though his tone made it clear that the latter was preferred by the BSAA leadership. "The repairs could take anywhere from six to eight months. Given that your residency location has been compromised, the general BSAA board has requested that I express our recommendation that you and your family move elsewhere."
Chris leans forward just enough to reach the file, so he can open it and look it over. Inside were several different home listings in a similar enough price range where the BSAA would be willing to cover the difference. A bright orange sticky note was stick to the back of the folder. Rich black ink penned in the Director's handwriting read, 'Have you found the mole? We'll need to alert the board.'
Chris shook his head to signal his response to the note. "While the concern is appreciated," Chris answers as he closes the file and puts it back on the desk. "We just want our home back."
"It's a pity..." The director replies with a contemplative expression. "Very well. Do understand that even if the house is finished, we won't be able to let you leave until we figure out whose responsible."
"That was understood the first time you said it," Chris replies with a forced smile as he tried to fight back his irritation.
The director nods a few times before picking up the file. "Keep working," The director says. "You're dismissed."
"Yes sir," Chris replies and gets up to leave. He'd managed to avoid living on the BSAA premise since its inception yet, here he was walking down corridors to the base level and out to the courtyard where concrete sidewalks lead to various buildings. Signs directed attention and announced where to go for various locations. The agent made his way through the biting early winter cold, passed one such sign that read 'Campus Housing'.
The agent made his way past a few three-story buildings where open walkways showed various doors that lead to different apartments. He approached the 3rd building and went up one flight of stairs, past two doors and stopped in front of one labeled 23 H. Chris opened the door, to find his family in a rather compact apartment. Walking in, he found himself in a small dining room area that was directly adjacent to a couch and TV that qualified as the 'living room. Behind the dining room, a very cramped kitchen was visible through a cut-out in the wall where a counter was built. It was likely bragged about as a design choice that made the space feel more open and provided more storage when a closed wall with cabinets would have been more useful. Opposite to the kitchen there was a door that lead to an equally cramped bathroom and two other doors lead too modest undecorated bedrooms.
Chris closed the door behind him and shifted to take his coat off as he looked over to find Rose and Duke on the couch watching TV. "Figured I'd find you here. You walked home on your own again?"
"Yep," Rose replies with a nod while completely entranced with the show she was watching where mighty warriors piloted giant robots to protect the earth.
The tiny tot of the family had been holding on to the TV Stand and trying to reach for the ornaments on the small, cheap looking fake tree that was set up next to it. While their new home was less than spacious, Emma had been doing her best to make it still feel as homely and comfortable as possible. "ah-dah!" Piers says upon noticing Chris enter the home, and with an ever determined expression, the baby let go of the TV stand. Piers managed to take two and a half steps before starting to fall forward.
Luckily for the infant, Chris hurried forward and managed to catch him before he busted his nose on the hard wood floor. "Not bad, needs a bit of work, but you're getting there." He says with an amused smiled at the child shocked and confused expression.
Piers moved to curl up and grab at his feet as he was hoisted into the air. How did he get up here? This was new.
"I can't see," Rose whined with a pout as she attempted to bob and weave to look around Chris who was blocking her view of the TV.
"Try again," Chris says as he gives Rose a hard stare.
"Please move, so I can see the TV," Rose says this time, and only then did Chris move out of the way.
He was about to check on Emma, but she beat him to the punch. "You're home late today. Usually, you get here before me," Emma says as she peaks out of the kitchen thanks to the useless aesthetic hole in the wall.
"I had a meeting with the director," Chris admits in return as he adjusts his hold on the infant to carry him a bit more comfortably.
"Oh," Emma quietly replies as a frown forms. "How'd that go?" She asks after a slight pause.
"Well we didn't end up in a screaming match so, better than most," Chris replies, though he still sounded about as tired as if he had argued with a superior. The fact that not arguing was a pleasant change of pace was probably not the best thing to admit to, but the guy was completely infuriating on so many levels that he was practically asking Chris for a fight each time he was called into the office.
As he spoke, she made her way out of the tiny kitchen and over to stand by Chris, so they could talk a bit quieter. "Huh, hopefully that means good news then?" Emma asks with a slight wince in her smile attempted return.
"Sort of..." He replies as he pressed his lips together before shifting to put Piers down in his high chair for now.
"I'll take sort of. What did he say?" Emma asks with mildly hopeful curiosity.
"Well, They gave us a few options," Chris starts off. "They were recommending finding an entirely different house."
"Naturally," Emma says with a nod while continuing to listen.
"The other option was to stay here and wait until they can rebuild the one that was destroyed," The agent adds. "It will take a little over half a year but, I told them, we'd prefer to wait..."
Again Emma nods. "Agreed," She replies. "It's not like we haven't had to live in an apartment before. It's a little, small, but we can find a way to make due for a few months."
Hearing that she agreed was a relief. He moved forward to give her a peck on the forehead, received a quick kiss in return.
"Dinner should be ready in fifteen minutes," Emma says before going to tend to the actively cooking meal that she left unattended.
"Alright," Chris says and follows after to work on collecting plates, glasses and silverware for the table along with a small plastic spoon and a glass jar of mushy orange squash. The agent puts the glass jar down on the high chair's tray, and Piers is rather quickly interested in the container. Chris worked on setting the table while keeping a careful eye on the child.
Piers was more than happy to amuse himself by batting around the container with one hand and using the other to pick up his spoon and hit the container with that. Hehe, funny sounds. Gurgling giggles could be heard as he tried to continue to play the new game of whack-a-cap he invented for himself. He'd almost managed to win the game by knocking the container off the tray. However, his fun was interrupted by Dad taking the container away from him, which was beyond RUDE. Tiny eyebrows knit together in frustration as he made a grabbing motion at the container to convey his discontent with the situation.
Chris picked up the container of baby food from the tray before it could end up shattering on the floor, while Emma carried over a pie dish to the four-person table. Just like everything else in the apartment, it was cramped.
"Rose, time for dinner. Turn off the TV, please," Emma says as she places the glass dish down on a hot pad. It wasn't much but making a single dish that was the protein, carb and vegetable serving for the meal would mean they'd have an easier time eating and fewer dishes to wash, so it was worth the extra effort to make it.
Rose grumbles but complies with the request and turns off the TV to go and join her family at the dinner table. She watches as Chris opens a jar of baby food for her little brother and starts feeding the infant, while Emma cut out portions of the dinner and puts some on each plate. Rose poked at the food before noticing some weird chunks in the filling.
"What is it?" Rose asks while making a face.
"It's like chicken pot pie with bacon in it," Emma offers as an explanation, instead of directly answering the question.
Rose continued to glare at the plate of food with contempt. she knew well enough what those tiny cubes were, no amount of dicing would make them unnoticeable. "Does this have mushrooms in it?" she asks while staring down the food.
"Try it first," Emma answers.
Yeah, no. That mean there were mushrooms in it. Rose puffed up her cheeks while trying to will the mushroom chunks out of existence.
"Rose eat your dinner," Chris says while trying to switch between eating a bite of his own food and giving piers a spoon full of baby food which almost resulted in Chris accidentally eating the baby food instead.
Rose very carefully picked the pie apart and moved each chunk of mushroom she could find to the side of her plate while she ate the rest.
While Chris had half a mind to tell Rose to eat 'all' of her dinner, his mind went to his memories of the child eating food he couldn't stand without a complaint. She had foods she didn't like just as much as he did. With that, the more lenient side won out, and the fatherly figure remained silent on the matter as he ate.
However, thanks to her very methodical picking, Rose was taking much longer to eat than everyone else. By the time she finished her plate, Piers was set free to roam, Emma was washing the dishes and Chris was sitting on the couch reading one of the books that were left on the shelves by the last tenant.
Rose picked up her plate and carried it over to the kitchen. "I finished my food," she announced while showing Emma her plate.
Emma looked over and found the pile of Mushrooms still very much so present but, she likely had the same line of thoughts as Chris since she accepted the plate anyways. "Alright, thank you for bringing me your plate. you can have something from the pantry for dessert if you want."
"Kay thanks," rose replies and hurries over to grab a package of cookies and took a few out to munch on. As she walked back out of the kitchen, she once more noticed that Chris was rather completely absorbed in his reading. A smile crossed her face as she popped one of the cookies in her mouth before using her free hand to get her phone from her back pocket.
Rose quietly tip toed over to the table to put the remainder of her treat down to avoid any unfortunate casualties of her plan. Once they were safely set in the middle of the table, she unlocked her phone and poked around at the screen.
3. 2. 1. GO!
Rose quickly hoped on to the couch to sit next to Chris while holding out the phone, which caused him to jolt and turn to look at her.
Snap!
Rose happily giggled at this while smiling from ear to ear. "I got you!" she announced.
"What?" Chris asks while still trying to figure out what just happened.
"I got you. See?" Rose says before showing her phone to Chris. The screen displayed a picture of a very surprised Chris and a smiling Rosemary, who was making a peace sign with her free hand. For some reason, glowing, glittery pink lines gave the illusion that cat ears, a small triangular nose and whiskers were drawn on their faces.
What in the actual shit was that... Chris still didn't completely understand, but he knew the photo looked ridiculous. "Get over here," He says as he moves to grab the child, who nimbly rolls off the couch and gets up to scurry away. Chris got up just as quickly, causing Rose to yelp and giggle as she ran away.
the thundering steps didn't last long, as rose used her powers to open the door to her room, which slammed shut behind her.
"Hey!" Chris says with a frown. "First off, No slamming the doors." He irritatedly instructs. After a slight pause, the door opened ever so slightly before gently closing. "Better," Chris says while giving a slight nod of approval. "And second off, you know the rules about your abilities. You're not supposed to use them."
"The rule says I can't use them outside of the headquarters. We're on BSAA property, so yes I can." Rose argues back from behind the door.
Chris grumbled as he held his face, god-damn pre-teen sass. He leaned to the side to look into the kitchen so he could talk to Emma. "Em, help me out here."
Emma bobs her head. "I mean, she has a point."
"Thanks," He replies with deadpan sarcasm.
a quiet chuckle could be heard as Emma put away the last of the now clean dishes before walking over to give him a quick peck. "Hey, you flagged in the referee, I'm just making the call." She replies before shifting to lean against the doorway. "She almost got kidnapped for the 3rd time now and just lost her room and all of her toys because an undead dragon crushed them. The only thing she got to keep was her father's jacket because it happened to be in the dryer in the basement." Emma shifts to get back up and gives Chris's chest a quick pat as she walked past. "Let her have this one."
"Fine..." He reluctantly replies, though his frown remained as he moves to head back to the couch and practically collapses onto it, as if the weight of the stress he was under had only just gotten to him at that very moment. He picked his book back up and got through another page or so while Emma picked up piers and put him to bed in the crib in their room. Once the infant was safely tucked in, for all of 5 seconds before getting up to scream because the door was shut and he couldn't see his parents, Emma made her way over to the couch and plopped down in the space next to Chris.
"I'm just going to fall asleep here," Emma says as she shifts to snuggle a bit closer to Chris. "Good night."
"Honestly, sleep doesn't sound like such a bad idea," He admits as a slight smile starts to form. " Or, we could put on a movie, Wait for the kids to fall asleep,"
"And the walls are paper thin," Emma points out, which causes Chris to wince.
"... Is it too late to say we'll take one of the replacement houses?" He asks with a raised eyebrow, which causes Emma to chuckle.
"It won't be forever," She says in return, before reaching for the remote to try and find something for the two of them to watch.
"Yeah..." Chris replies, though his less than convinced tone was not subtle, since Emma quickly turned to look at him with horrified concern.
"It's not going to be forever. Right?" Emma asks, though she wasn't sure she wanted the answer.
"It might be a little while... just until we figure out, who attacked the house and make sure that it won't happen again," Chris answers all the same.
"Okay," Emma replies while nodding, She wasn't thrilled, but she couldn't say it didn't make sense either. "If it takes more than 8 months, can we maybe try and find an apartment off headquarters campus?"
"I'll see what I can do," He agrees in return as they settle in to relax again and end up falling asleep on the couch.
'*'*'*'*'
The next morning arrived, and with it came the modified routine. Thanks to the fact he was a 10-minute walk from his office, he didn't have to rush as much to get to work. Emma didn't have to worry as much about making lunches since he could just stop by during lunch and throw something together, and he even got to sleep in a bit because of it. If anything, the fact that Rose had somewhere to go to if she was getting overwhelmed was a blessing in and of itself.
It was annoying to admit, but for all its downsides and inconveniences, the tiny apartment had its perks. Because of this, Chris allowed himself to take a more leisurely walk to work with Rose to enjoy the crisp morning air.
"0.125 times 10," Chris asks as they walked.
"Twelve and a half," Rose answers.
"40 divided by 8," He follows up to continue their impromptu quiz.
"Five," Rose quickly chirps back.
Chris smiles at her quick response. She was doing well for someone who was struggling with addition earlier in the year. " 240 times 738," He asks with a teasing smile, only for Rose to give him a shove, which causes him to laugh.
"That's to many," Rose says with a frown.
"Alright, alright. How about 70 times 20," the fatherly figure says, offering a different equation.
Rose hummed quietly as a smile started to form. She ignored the question and walked over to an area of Grass by the sidewalk that was covered in a good 3 to 4 inches of snow and picked up enough to make a quick, haphazard snowball. "How about. This!" she says instead as she throws the snowball at Chris. While he attempted to dodge it, the poorly constructed snowball exploded midair, spraying him with a mist of flaky ice instead.
Chris sputters as he got a bit in his mouth, which causes the young girl to openly laugh. "Gotcha again!" She says with a smug grin.
two could play that game. Chris walked over to a different patch of snow. "Three," he announces, which causes Rose to yelp. "Two," he warns after, and Rose quickly hurries to start making her own snowball. "One!" he says and gently pitches the compact snow at Rose, which hit her square in the shoulder.
The impact caused the girl to shout from surprise before laughing more, as she quickly tried throwing a snowball again, which missed this time. Compact snow flew back and forth as the two would move around to find fresh patches of snow. Rose hurried to make another snow ball to continue to retaliate, but she was so focused, she didn't notice Chris briskly walking over.
He might not have started the playful fight, but he certainly knew how to end one. He scooped up Rose which earned another surprised shout before turning on his heel, so he could fall backwards into the snow, taking the brunt of the impact but more or less causing the child to still get a face full of powered ice. While he had expected that would be the end of it, what he hadn't expected was further retaliation. Instead of simply bowing out, Rose reached and grabbed for as much snow as possible which she started to pile down the back of Chris' coat and shirt.
"Oh shi-" He quickly got up to try and shake the snow free. "cold cold cold." He repeats as he managed to get a good chunk out, but the rest was still slowly melting.
Rose happily accepted her victory in the form of Chris' little jig to get the snow out of his coat, as she openly laughed at the sight.
Chris was about to go and make another snowball and continue the tiny game of war when his phone started going off. The sound of his ringtone brought him back to reality. Right... He had work to do. "... I need to take this. Are you okay to head to the lab?"
"Yeah, I can walk myself," Rose confirms with a slight pout. She still wanted to play...
"Thanks. I'll check in during lunch," he says as he takes out his phone which read 'Jill'.
Hearing that offer caused her to perk back up again. "Hamburgers?" Rose asks hopefully as she watches Chris answer his phone.
Chris made a shooing motion to try and get the child to go. "Hey Jill,"
"Hamburgers," Rose repeated with a more irritated pout, since she didn't appreciate being ignored.
Chris moves the phone away from his face and tries to cover the mic. "Not with that attitude," Chris says returning the sour expression. "Go to the lab and I'll think about it."
Rose grumbles and dramatically stomps away to do what she was told.
"Sorry about that," Chris says after putting the phone back to his ear.
"Is now a bad time?" Jill asks with a hint of amusement.
"No, I mean, just had half a mountain's worth of snow dumped down my coat but, It's fine. It's good to hear from you." Chris replies as he slowly starts walking towards the main headquarters building once more.
"Yeah... you might not be saying that in a few minutes. this is a work call." Jill replies with a sense of conflict in her tone. "Are you near a computer?"
"I can be in a few minutes," Chris replies as he starts moving more quickly. "Is this a new threat or."
"It's a problem," Jill confirmed. "Let me know when you get to a computer."
"Hold on," Chris says as he mutes the call and openly rushes back to his office. Once he was there, he unlocked his desk to get his laptop out and booted that up before undoing the mute and putting the phone back to his ear. "Alright, I'm logging in now."
"Good, um," Jill pauses for a moment. "It's about that report you asked for. It looks like your hunch was right."
"Damn it..." Chris says, as he tried to force a neutral expression. "How bad?"
"Pretty bad," Jill replies with a sympathetic tone as Chris opens his email and pulls up the report. "Initially, it looked like she was going to come back clean and the document pulls were a coincidence, but I had one of my guys do a quick scrub of her personal purchase history to be safe. We found a burner phone."
"Oh shit..." He says while looking through the report. It was pretty much exactly what he asked for. tabs with pages and pages of information where anything potentially concerning was highlighted in yellow and anything definitely off was highlighted in red. Naturally, the report for the burner phone more closely resembled a wildfire, as there was more yellow and red cells than there were white ones.
"It gets worse," Jill says, and he could hear her wincing.
"How?" He asks with an incredulous, irritated tone. "Just rip the band-aid off, the attempt at a gentle conversation is appreciated, but it's not helping."
"We did some background checks on the contacts she was talking to. They led back to other burner phones, which we ran checks on as well. There's at least seven other BSAA operatives helping her. We're still digging, but, it's a bigger problem than we though." She explains while taking Chris's request to heart. "And based on crosschecking, all of them are reporting back to the same person. Who we can't find..." Jill explains with a frustrated edge to her words. "It's safe to say they're not in the BSAA though since they're relying on agents for internal information."
"Do you think it's Umbrella?" Chris asks while raising an eyebrow.
"I'm not certain," Jill hesitantly admits. "From what you were saying, Umbrella already has an in for the system thanks to the director taking bribes from and partnering with the blue division. It doesn't really make sense for it to be them," She explains while clicking around at her own computer. "The information they're gathering is completely erratic. Most of it is old and seems to be related to resolved cases. I can hardly make sense of it. If they're trying to hide their trail so we don't figure out what they're looking for, it's working." Jill says with notable irritation. After a slight pause she spoke once more. "There's one more thing."
"Great, what else," Chris asks with frustrated sarcasm.
"It looks like one of the reports that leaked was your file. So, All of your mission data, Medical records. Emma, Rose, the baby. All of that." Jill lists off. "You're compromised... and there's not really going to be a way to undo that."
"Yeah, I already know," Chris confirms as he moves to lean forward, so he can rest his elbows on his desk and hold his forehead with his free hand.
"You know?" Jill asks in a tone of concern and confusion.
"They sent a house call a few weeks ago," He answers with a tired sigh as the memory played through his mind for the hundredth time. There were so many ways that could have gone horribly wrong. "From what we can tell, they were trying to get to Rose. We're all safe but the house is gone." Chris explains. "We're staying in one of the BSAA onsite apartments in the meantime."
"I'm sorry," Jill says once more as her sympathetic tone returned. "I should have said something sooner..."
"Don't be. We're fine," Chris replies.
"That's good," She says with a sigh of relief. "If you weren't, I'd have to figure out flights again; and I think I've already hit my miles limit for the year," Jill says in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Chris nods, even though Jill couldn't see it. What a mess... He knew what he had to do. He didn't want to though. Tundra had been a friend and ally to him for so long. She saved his neck countless times, which made the truth sting that much more.
"Alright boys I'm going to call it, I still have stuff to do today,"
"Alright, well, package secured then. See you at work,"
"Look, if you need help just let me know but try not to put it off, or you'll forget,"
"Nice Shootin' boss,"
"Yeah no, as emotional as this reunion is, We need to talk,"
"I tried sending in a report for a tip I got and that report just. Disappeared."
"Something the matter captain?"
"You think you know a guy after spending a year in a desert with him,"
"Will you shut up and let the man speak?"
"Cut the guy some slack, he has his reasons,"
"So you're suggesting we still have a mole?"
"What, the natural choice would be either Me or Night Howl, we both have clearance for the evidence lockers,"
The memories played through his mind as he sat there in silence. Every memory of the time everyone would spend together, every conversation they had as friends. Was all of that just... fake? "... About my report..." Chris asks quietly. "Was it her?"
"...Yeah," Jill hesitantly admits. "I know you're just going to tell me not to say it but. I'm sorry."
"Yeah," Chris confirmed, even though he wasn't sure what he was agreeing with. "But thank you. It looks like we have some work to do," He says while fixing his posture and forcing himself to sit up right. Now was not the time to mope and lament. "I'm not going to be taking risks on this one. Things might get shaken up pretty badly, so prepare for a bumpy ride."
"When you're involved, I Always do," She says in return. "It always works out in the end though. So give them hell. I'll support you from here."
"I appreciate that," He says as a slight smile forms. "I should make a few calls. I'll keep you posted."
"Good luck," Jill says in return and with that, the call ended.
Chris was left in the comfortable silence of his office for the time being as he stared at the ceiling... What a mess. If he tried to go through internal review and protocol, this would all get swept under the rug, just like everything else. It was hard to be the red flag bearer on an organization he helped build from the ground up, but, it was time to report the BSAA to the UN. He had been watching this go on for years, and he finally had enough evidence.
'*'*'*'*'
The red flag had been raised, the bell tolled and signals sent. A little over a week passed since then. Each day, he would continue to go on and act as if nothing was wrong. He'd go to work, fill out paperwork, have lunch with his team before leading drills. And with that, each day would result in more calls from various offices within the UN. They were pretty well convinced that there was, in fact, an issue thanks to the small mountain of evidence that Chris provided and as a result, the process moved forward at breakneck speeds.
While it could take upwards of six months to activate a militant mission, they had little issue reacting to an internal affair with a swift hand. He wasn't really sure how long it would take, but that unspoken question was answered as he led the drills for Hound Wolf squad in the BSAA gym. Each member had been assigned to a different machine, and they were well under way when the doors flew open. A dozen or so armed individuals in olive drab uniforms and bright blue helmets entered the room, following the usual securing protocol.
"No one move," the team lead shouts as everyone immediately stops what they were doing.
"Whoa, what the hell?" Lobo asks while looking around. "Hey assholes we already scheduled the gym, check the time sheet."
"What's going on here?" Umber eye asks as his eyes dart around to keep track of the multitude of armed soldiers.
"Emily Berkoff, you're under arrest for suspected treason, espionage, conspiracy, and aiding unknown entities in illegal activities," the team lead lists off as Tundra's eyes widen in panic. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you."
"Treason? You've got to be kidding me, this is a joke, right?" Lobo asks with a wavering, forced smile.
Tundra's eyes darted around the room before she broke into a sprint to try and get to a side door, only to get tackled by Chris.
"Seriously, what the actual hell?!" Canine asks with in utter shock and disbelief.
"Get off me, let go," Tundra says while fighting back. With a swift punch to the jaw and kick to the shin she was able to get out of the pin. As she tried to get up Chris was able to grab her leg and pull her back down, which gave the UN soldiers enough time to hurry over and hold her arms behind her back.
the sharp metallic click of cuffs rang in the otherwise silent, echoing gym.
While the soldiers restrained the mole, Chris pushed himself to get up and stare down at the restrained woman who was once an ally."Do you want to tell them or do I have to do that?" Chris asks with open irritation.
"Tell us what?" Night howl asks as he slowly lowers his hands now that he felt sure enough that they weren't going to get shot.
"Tundra," Umber eye says with broken-hearted disappointment as the realization set in for him first. "You didn't..."
"Wait, No," Canine says as he and the others started to fill in the blanks. "Why?" He asks.
"Seriously?" Tundra asks in return through a laugh in return with growing annoyance. "We'd risk our neck day, after day, after day; for people who wouldn't do the same for us." She barks back. "What was our thanks for stopping a potential global catastrophe? We got leashed and threatened for doing what was right. Just because some asshole in an office, didn't want to be wrong." She venomously accused. "And it kept happening. You knew there was a problem. We ALL knew there was a problem." She says with a scowl. "Because no matter what, it kept happening. The only kindness we'd get is a few days of sleep before being thrown right back into hell." She says with fiery anger. "It's STILL happening, I was trying to fix it and look at what I get for it."
"You sold my record. You could have gotten me killed," Chris shouts back at her.
Hearing that caused her spiteful rage to crack as guilt replaced her sneering anger. "... They promised me no one would get hurt..." she says as the quiet meekness of her words felt that much softer after her earlier unbridled shouting. "They promised they could help. I just wanted this place to be what it was supposed to be. to be better..." Her voice cracked as her eyes began to water.
"Who," Lobo asks. His usual joking happy nature was gone. He watched as she hung her head and gently shook it, refusing to speak. Seeing this caused him to snap as he aggressively walked forward. "I said who did you sell us out to, you goddamn lying sack of sh-," with each step his words became more annunciated and a few soldiers stepped forward to hold him back.
"Stand down," They order, and with that Lobo backs off, even though the anger remained clear in his posture and expression.
Umber eye moved to take a seat on a nearby piece of equipment and held his face while trying to process this.
"If you tell us, then maybe we can fix this?" Night howl offers as he cycles through the stages of grief like the others. "We just need to get it back, right? Stop the bad guy like we always do?"
"I don't know who," She quietly admits. "They've been a contact of mine for a while. They just showed up out of nowhere one day. They'd always ask for me to work with them and get intel from the BSAA. I'd say no, and I never questioned it because they never pushed back and were always good for it when I needed help. I never got a bad lead from them even then." Tundra explains. "All I know is they passed on the tip about the village. I don't know how they got it, but they did, and after that. they asked again, they said they had others inside that were already helping and that we could work together to fix the BSAA... and I said yes..." She explains before looking to Chris. "You would have done the same thing."
Hearing that was beyond infuriating, but he kept his emotions in check. "No. I wouldn't have," Chris says in return with a calm, even tone, which causes the guilt in her expression to increase as she looked away.
Lobo kicks some gear out of his way as he storms out of the gym which the UN soldiers allow since he wasn't the target.
"Get her out of my sight," Chris adds, and the UN Soldiers nod. Before they could move, the soft sound of a slow applause could be heard.
"So you managed to smoke them out," The director says as he walks into the gym with a smug smile. "I'll admit I was a bit pissed off to hear that there were unauthorized arrests going on without my knowledge, but I think I can let this one slide... Good work soldier."
The UN soldiers look at each other before looking back at the director. "Um. Well. I guess this makes things a bit easier?" Chris overhears one of them mutter as three others lead Tundra out of the room.
The Team lead from before seemed about as confused as the rest, but he eventually spoke up. "Director Anthony Romanov. By the authority granted to me by the United Nations, you are hereby under arrests for charges of accepting bribes from multiple entities in an effort to hide illicit activities that aid in acts of war," the team lead says with open disbelief that the man just waltzed right into the room. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you."
"What?" the director asks in return as a few of the remaining soldiers move to surround him and work together to get the director's arms behind his back, so they can cuff him as well. "You," The director says as he looks at Chris.
Chris shrugs and forces a smile, though it wasn't that difficult.
"Do you have any idea what you've just done," the director hisses as his once smug expression was replaced with defiance.
"Pretty sure I just did what you told me to do," Chris replies, while he wanted to be happy, it was a hollow victory. The BSAA would be scrubbed from top to bottom because of this, but his team was broken as a result.
"Do you think this is a game? People will suffer because of you," the director accuses. "I did what I had to for the people. to keep the peace. those 'bribes' kept us funded with the best goddamn equipment money could buy. Do you think funding an army and saving lives is free? Do you really think we get enough funding to do what we have to and keep the survival rates where they're at without me?"
Chris sneers as he listens. "That's bullshit and you know it. Working with the people that, cause the suffering of innocent people doesn't prevent them from suffering."
"Death happens. Fighting, happens. WAR happens. Nothing can prevent that, we can only control the scale, and that doesn't happen from being a goodie two shoe, wide-eyed optimist," The director says. "You've just opened Pandora's box, and things will only get worse from here."
"Will you please just shut up," Night Howl says with hollow monotony as the director is led out of the gym by the UN officers.
The director's shouts and threats could be heard until the door to the gym slammed shut and echoed, leaving the gym in utter silence.
"Well... Happy holidays to us," Canine says with irritated sarcasm. "I'm going to go check on Lobo," Canine adds as he moves to leave.
"You'd think you'd know a person well enough after spend a year in a desert with them," Umber eye says with a sorrowful expression. "We've worked together for what... 7, 8 years? God I'm such an idiot for not noticing sooner," He adds as me moves to lean back against the closest wall and think over what he'd just heard.
"For what it's worth... It sounded like it was kind of a more recent choice... and if she cooperates, she might get away with a lighter sentence," Night howl offers, though he didn't exactly sound any more hopeful.
"You heard as well as I did," Umber eye says in return. "She sold Chris's information? What if she sold yours, or Mine?" Umber eye asks as panic became more evident. "What about my wife and kids? Are they going to be safe?" Umber eye asks, as his normal calm demeanor had been worn away by the stress and fear. "Just look what happened. Chris's place just attacked! My kids don't have superpowers. We won't be so lucky."
"I get it, really I do," Night howl replies while motioning for Umber eye to try and calm down. "Maybe talk to the dir-" there was no director. "Shit..." Night howl paused for a bit before looking at Chris. "...Well boss. What are your orders?"
After thinking it over for some time, Chris speaks. "Go home," He instructs. "Rest. Take the time you need to get things in order to a point where you feel safe coming back." The squad leader says in a quiet voice that still commands respect. "And when you do, we'll have work to do. We're going to find the son of a bitch that caused all of this. It's going to be difficult, but things will get better from here."
Welp, I need cake to fill the void in my heart. I freaking LOVE tundra's character. She's been one of my favorites from the beginning when HW squad was introduced in chapter four, along with the idea that there could be future trouble because one of the squad members were willing to cheat to get ahead in something as simple as a group poker night. When looking back at the story to find a potential 'Mole' character, I wanted it to be the director, so he got arrested anyways lmao. It kind of broke me that Tundra's character made the most sense to be the traitor, even despite everything I wrote for the director.
She had a canonical, pre-existing connection to the village, since she was the one who personally got the tip about Miranda's activities. Her role as a recon specialist means she gets the information first and would be able to hide meddling easier since it would be normal for her prints to be all over any record. On top of that, she has a physical divide from the rest of the team since she wouldn't share a lock room or tent with the guys, making it easier to hide anything she didn't want them to find. Further more for my personification of her character, I showed she was okay with the idea of cheating since she'd usually joke about wanting Emma to help her cheat at cards. She was quick to volunteer to be the one to look for the mole since she could just say she didn't find anything and As an extra nudge that it was her, I added a few clues to the last few chapters. The most glaring one being that she tried to go into the basement where Chris's study was after he got up from the table, and that she was typically the first to leave the group.
I felt like the least I could do is give her a motive that isn't as cliché as 'money'. She genuinely wanted to fix a problem but got lost along the way with her method of doing so.
