Chapter 15

Dr. James Marcus, or at least, a man that believed himself to be the reincarnated founder of The Umbrella Corporation, stood several feet away from the long limousine, his eyes closed, listening intently to the song coming from his leech children, far away from where he stood, as he and his companions were keeping their distance from the now destroyed Umbrella facility of Caliban Cove, Maine.

All around him, Marcus could hear the sound of waves crashing against the rocky shores, and the noise of the doors from the vehicle opening didn't escape him either as his associates were getting out, probably bored from waiting around for answers.

'Some things never change,' Marcus thought to himself. 'Always too impatient for their own good.'

Hearing their footsteps on the gravel crunching underneath their feet, Marcus opened his eyes and turned, seeing Lord Ozwell E. Spencer, using a cane for support on one arm while Dr. Edward Ashford helped him with his other arm, to move over.

"Were you getting antsy?" Marcus asked.

"When am I not?" Spencer asked. "That facility down there was supposed to be producing us results."

Marcus nodded. "We were the only people privy to what Nicholas was doing: the affliction of the T-Virus on living hosts and our need to regain at least some form of control."

"The Tri-Squads were the closest achievement so far," Ashford stated. "We had high hopes, James."

With a sigh, Marcus finally turned fully to face them, crossing his arms, slight disappointment coming over his features. "The children, they believe that Nicholas betrayed us all."

"How so?" Spencer asked.

"It's hard to know for certain with all of the damage down there," Marcus replied. "But if I combine what they've learned on top of what Security Chief Coleman is currently explaining to Albert and Sergei, we may have avoided a devastating event."

"He was your friend, James," Ashford pointed out. "Surely you would have suspected something."

Marcus shook his head. "We had a falling out a long time ago. Hell, we stopped speaking before he was even hired to Umbrella."

"Under your recommendation, James," Spencer pointed out.

"Yes, that's true," Marcus said. "But I suggested him under the knowledge of his capabilities. It had nothing to do with our history."

"Was he going to release the Tri-Squad serum on all of Maine then?" Ashford asked.

"It's likely he was going for something more global," Marcus revealed. "I can only go off of fragmentary information though. The leeches are quite observant, but even they are only capable of so much with such destruction present." He sighed, looking back down toward what remained of the facility. "We'll need to eliminate any remaining Leviathan BOWs. Nicholas released them into the cove, but most have been destroyed. If any stragglers choose to leave this area, they'll devastate all marine life on the planet."

"Agreed," Spencer said. "We'll make contact with Security Chief Coleman, and I'm sure he'll find the right team for the job. We have plenty of submarines on standby to take care of that type of situation." He then raised an eyebrow, seeing the expression on Marcus' face as he continued to look outward toward the Caliban Cove Facility. "What is it, James? I can tell something else is concerning you."

Marcus closed his eyes and sighed deeply. Finally, he opened his eyes again and turned back toward Spencer and Ashford. "The Management Training Facility, The Mansion Estate Laboratories, and now The Caliban Cove Facility are all gone. Three facilities in such a short amount of time are no longer available to us, and I fear that Racoon City's NEST Facilities are going to be compromised as well. We cannot trust that William Birkin is going to hand over the G-Virus and himself willingly. You both know that he's too far gone."

"What do you suggest we do?" Ashford asked.

"There are already holes in covering things up," Marcus replied. "The surviving S.T.A.R.S. from the mansion are going to be a problem long term."

Spencer laughed. "Those five are going to be dealt with."

"Really?" Marcus asked, clearly amused. "Security Chief Coleman will disagree with you, and I'm certain Albert and Sergei will concur. Rebecca Ann Chambers was amongst the S.T.A.R.S. unit that attacked Caliban Cove."

Spencer's eyes widened. "How the hell did she get involved here?"

"That's not known," Marcus replied. "But the other S.T.A.R.S. that were with her weren't from Raccoon City. The Board of Executives are moving quickly to take over the S.T.A.R.S., but I think Tom Kurtz isn't going to be able to complete his mission cleanly. There are other S.T.A.R.S. that are choosing to believe the ones in Raccoon City, and it's only a matter of time before members of the press start questioning it as well. We can't cover every single news source from all sides. We'll stretch The Umbrella Corporation thin, and enemies will start coming for us. My children can handle some, but they aren't going to be able to take care of them all. It's time we got some back up."

Spencer raised an eyebrow. "Who would you suggest, James?"

Marcus smirked. "Biosyn Bioengineering is just waiting to continue our covert plans."

Spencer and Ashford both looked at each other, clearly shocked to have heard this idea.

It was Ashford to turn back first. "Don't you think that's risky? We still don't have concrete evidence of what InGen did back in the eighties."

"Umbrella has taken larger risks with much greater success before," Marcus said.

"The disappearance of Lewis Dodgson three years ago gives me pause, James," Spencer finally said. "We don't truly know what InGen's creations are capable of, or what their reaction to any of the viruses would be."

"We have to go back to being scientists sometime, Oz," Marcus told him.

Their driver rolled his window down and stuck his head out. "Sorry to interrupt, but the car phone. It's Jay Reston."

Ashford sighed. "I'll handle it. I'm sure it's an update on the G-Virus." He moved toward the limo.

Spencer kept his focus on Marcus. "How does getting back in bed with Rossiter and Steingarten help our current situation?"

"They have their eyes on Costa Rica," Marcus replied. "Umbrella has never looked at that area of the world. We would be like shadows down there, and the lot of us will be safe if something unexpected occurs."

"Get them out of there!" Ashford exclaimed. "Tell the HQ to begin lockdown procedures and get as many essential staff out as you can!"

Spencer turned on his cane from the sudden outburst, almost losing his balance, but Marcus helped to steady him. "Thank you, James."

Marcus smiled. "Always, Oz."

Ashford handed the car phone back to the driver and then stormed back toward Marcus and Spencer. "We've got an incident. I think James might be spot on with taking a new direction."

"What happened?" Spencer asked.

"Agent HUNK's team obtained a sample of the G-Virus, but not without William getting shot," Ashford explained. "HUNK made a frantic transmission to Reston explaining that William had injected himself with G and was turning into a monster. He attacked their team, and they lost the samples."

"We're looking at an outbreak in Raccoon City proper now," Marcus surmised. "This is exactly what I was worried about."

Spencer shook his head. "Is Agent HUNK still alive? And what of Agent Derek?"

Ashford shrugged. "We don't have confirmation on either of them, but I'd assume they're still –"

"What importance does those two Special Forces have over the others?" Marcus asked.

"Don't you remember, James?" Spencer asked, concerned that the programming was having an issue. "They're Wesker Children."

Marcus' face twitched. "Wesker… Children?"

"Yes," Spencer stated, but it almost seemed like a question. He could see the way Marcus' face was reacting.

Concern crossed Ashford's face as he quickly moved back toward the limousine.

Marcus' entire body began to twitch and the red glow of the scarab beneath his robe intensified, clearly failing to keep control.

"James, what's wrong?" Spencer asked, slowly trying to move backwards, his cane barely keeping him standing.

"Let me go!" a voice that sounded desperate and scared yelled from Marcus' mouth.

Ashford moved forward again with a remote, pressing several buttons as he pointed the device at Marcus.

Finally, Marcus calmed, taking several deep breaths. He looked in confusion at both men. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Ashford replied, putting away the remote. "Everything's perfectly fine."

Spencer cleared his throat. "James, do us a favor and recall your children. If we're going to take a flight to Cupertino, California to speak with Biosyn, we need to get a move on."

Marcus nodded and moved several feet away, closing his eyes, concentrating on his children and recalling them to him.

Spencer allowed Ashford to help him move back toward the limousine. "What the hell just happened, Edward?"

"We might have a bigger problem than we realized," Ashford replied. "There's a very good chance that the host for James was a… well, one of the thirteen. I suggest we not use the other phrasing again. I'm sure you just forgot, but James was never involved in the thirteen experiments. That's why there was no memory from him when you were talking about HUNK, or well, Miles, and Derek."

"Who even is the host?" Spencer asked. "Evelyn and Dr. Bailey were less than forthcoming on that."

Ashford smiled. "That's because you didn't bother to ask. All you cared about was having a chance to make up for your past wrong doings with James."

Spencer looked a tad annoyed by that comment.

"He was Billy Coen, a disgraced Marine that was set for execution," Ashford explained.

"Billy?" Spencer asked. "Short for William. There was a William in the thirteen. My God. Have we become so unknowing on the whereabouts of most of the thirteen that this man escaped our knowledge?"

Ashford nodded. "And to top it off, it's ironic that he was on Commander Regan's team that went to West Africa for our little… execution project."

Spencer's eyes widened. "He's the one that was framed for that?" He shook his head. "If it weren't for the fact that this man had been around the real James in his last moments, and can control the leeches because of the P30 pulsing through his veins, I would scrap this and start fresh with a different host. This could make things difficult down the line. We need to keep Albert away from him, or it could cause another incident."

"I agree," Ashford concurred. "And as much as you adore Alex, she is going to have to leave your castle for the time being."

"I have missions that she needs to be sent on anyway," Spencer said. "That's easily handled."

Ashford rubbed his chin. "This Biosyn plan… it might not be too far off the mark. We can keep Albert away. He'd never look for any of us in Costa Rica, and as long as we kept the number of people that know about all of this to a minimum, it's a safe bet."

"We don't need too many of Umbrella in the know if we have Biosyn on board," Spencer offered. "This is the target of opportunity that I'm sure they've been looking for: our funding and their minds."

They could hear the car phone ringing once more and the driver answer.

Spencer sighed. "We're very popular today."

Ashford shrugged. "It's probably another Raccoon City update."

The driver leaned out his window once more. "Tom Kurtz from S.T.A.R.S. headquarters. He says it's urgent."

"Isn't everything anymore?" Spencer asked, sarcasm dripping off every word.

Ashford accepted the phone. "Edward Ashford speaking."

Spencer turned away as Ashford had the conversation. He looked at Marcus, seeing him still looking out toward the distant Caliban Cove Facility, his arms spread wide. He was singing a soothing melody, still recalling the leeches. Some had returned as they were crawling around the area, but others were probably still making the trek back. Spencer was just pleased that Marcus had been distracted with his song and hadn't heard their conversation, or at least, hopefully he hadn't been eavesdropping.

"Thank you for the update," Ashford said. "I want you to stay in contact with me, Tom. We may have work for you and your most loyal in the near future."

Spencer turned back around as Ashford handed the phone back to the driver. "So, what new calamity has befallen us?"

"Do you remember that Mr. Kurtz was going to be taking over as Director of the S.T.A.R.S.?"

Spencer nodded. "They were going to retire Director Palmieri in more ways than one."

"The second retirement wasn't successful," Ashford revealed. "He got abducted and escaped a chase through New York City."

Spencer shook his head. "Do we know the culprits?"

"They were wearing hoods," Ashford replied. "You do remember that Director Palmieri is one of the thirteen?"

Spencer nodded solemnly. "Marco. Yes, I do remember. He would've been a great loss, but we couldn't allow the loose end."

"Now an unknown party has one of the thirteen," Ashford said, stating the obvious, but he didn't say anything else as he saw James Marcus moving toward them.

"The children are all accounted for," Marcus informed.

"Do they bring us any final information?" Spencer asked.

"Only that the three S.T.A.R.S. survivors escaped by a boat rescue," Marcus said. "There must be other S.T.A.R.S. defectors."

"That reminds me," Ashford said, grabbing their attention. "Tom said that he received faxes of the security camera pictures from Caliban Cove. He recognized the team with Miss Chambers. They were all from the Exeter, Maine branch. One of them had actually gone to Tom asking questions about Raccoon City that he shouldn't have been asking, but Tom didn't pursue it further, believing he'd calmed Captain David Trapp's mind. The others were John Andrews, Karen Driver, and Steve Lopez. Driver and Lopez are the ones that didn't make it out."

"So, Captain Trapp is a potential problem," Spencer surmised. "It was more than likely him that contacted Rebecca Chambers."

"But the real question is who contacted Trapp with information about Caliban Cove?" Marcus asked.

"We have a traitor in Umbrella," Ashford offered.

"We need to compile a short list of everyone that knew of Caliban Cove's existence," Spencer said. "We have to discover who could've done this. Regardless that this traitor stopped us from ending up with a global problem, they are willingly disrupting our plans from within, and they are working with our enemies."

"What if it was William Birkin?" Marcus asked. "He knew of Caliban Cove, and he was clearly being difficult about handing over the G-Virus. He could've been trying to get our focus elsewhere and off of him."

"That's very possible," Spencer said. "But we have to exhaust all possibilities. No one is out of the realm of suspicion until we're all in unanimous agreement." He nodded toward the limousine. "For the time being, we collect the rest of our family and make for the airport." Receiving help from Marcus and Ashford, Spencer moved with the others for the vehicle with the leeches following pursuit.