I
Dr. Marcus was not imposing. He paced the stage like a sergeant, raising his voice at intervals and not bothering to check whether the students were listening to him. A couple of students took advantage of the principal's indifference to get in the way by talking in hushed tones. He was about to order them to shut up, but he didn't want to draw attention to himself. Not for now; not when his livelihood depended on the scholarship Umbrella Pharmaceuticals had given him for nothing more than graduating from college at seventeen. When he read the terms of the contract, he didn't believe the requirements were so affordable, or low; or rather, so low, because that class was full of nondescript, presumably stupid preppies. They were all older than him, but he detected no one who stood out except the fifteen-year-old nerd with whom he had been lumped together against his will. This nerd, William, feared him; he could see it in his distance, in the way he avoided eye contact, in the way he pretended to ignore him.
He was amused. He was very amused by his acne-grained face, the languor of his lanky frame and the haggard bags under his eyelids. He looked like a youthful parody of Albert Einstein, straight out of the Manhattan Project to try his luck in the pharmaceutical industry. Being two years younger, he figured he would be smarter or more competent than he was, though he couldn't be sure he was much clever. If there was to be only one of him left at the end of the course, William had better be as clever as he was smart. Until then, he would have a good time and work as hard as it took to secure a position of importance at Umbrella and never return to New York.
II
They were gathered around a rectangular metal table in a corner of the main laboratory. James Marcus had left, and from now on his training would be handled by the company's scientific and technical staff. He had sat in a corner, between two petulant students, and in the same row as Wesker so as not to face him. They had been summoned by one of the facility's senior researchers for a class on research team building and management. He had brought his notebook with him and was writing down in shorthand everything the researcher said. At one point, as the professor questioned the rest of his classmates, he turned to his left and met Wesker's inquisitive gaze. He instantly withdrew his eyes to alternate his attention between the professor and his notebook.
He thought of his roommate as a threat. He had seen first-hand that the rest of the students were not the smartest in their class and, from what they said, had been put there because of cronyism. They, who were already rich, had come for the certificate. Therefore, the only one left as a rival was Albert Wesker. He would not allow him or anyone else to take the job away from him. He had endured and fought long enough to go back to Baltimore with his tail between his legs. He had staked his best cards on that chance and would do anything he could think of not to lose the hand. He would show no mercy.