Chapter 16

Dr. James Marcus, or at least a man that believed himself to be that founding father of The Umbrella Corporation, stood in the lounge area of the massive corporate jet, staring at a bunch of security camera images as they flashed by on a wide screen that stretched across the wall. Each image, whether still or moving, showed many different locations within the now devasted Raccoon City. People were running and screaming as zombies attacked from all around. There were many different BOWs joining in the fray as well. The sight of all the carnage and chaos brought a tear to his eye.

He glanced to Lord Ozwell E. Spencer, leaning on his cane nearby.

"What is on your mind, James?" Spencer asked, also observing the imagery.

"You had Sergei order Major Cain to release BOWs," Marcus replied.

Spencer nodded. "It was for the best. We can't have this situation getting out to the general public."

"This isn't one of our isolated incidents though," Marcus pointed out. "This is an entire city in Pennsylvania."

"It will still be no different," Spencer coldly stated. "You were quite right on your assessment back in Maine. We are having way too many incidents back-to-back after years of nothing. I cannot help but feel like this is being orchestrated." He sighed. "The situation is too hot, and your ideas on Costa Rica are sound."

"And what of the agents you still have in the city?" Marcus asked. "And the others that have yet to arrive?"

Spencer moved to a nearby chair, slowly taking a seat, the smooth leather making a slight swishing sound as he got comfortable. "I figure most of them will not make it out. The Watchdogs are all doomed, and considering that once Mr. Ginovaef arrives, he will be seeing to that personally, I suspect he will be the only survivor, assuming that he doesn't run into any issues."

"Albert has gone to Raccoon City," Marcus pointed out. "I bet you he's looking for Annette Birkin."

Spencer sighed. "So that he can find that child that he bore with her?" He scoffed and tapped his cane on the floor. "I wouldn't hold your breath that he'll find her. If you look to where she's at on the feeds, she's hunkered down, and trust me when I say that Albert is the last person Annette wants to see. I've already asked Major Cain to send The Nemesis after him if he tries anything off script."

Marcus tilted his head. "You're sending The Nemesis in?"

Spencer chuckled. "You were right that we need to deal with the surviving S.T.A.R.S. in Raccoon City. Major Cain will make certain that they're… taken care of, along with their former captain if The Nemesis lays eyes on him."

"And Ada Wong?" Marcus asked.

"She's one of the only people I want to make certain gets out of the city," Spencer revealed. "I have Sergei watching her like a hawk with the twins. They'll pull her out if need be."

Dr. Evelyn Marcus moved in from the front of the plane. "Pilot says we've got twenty minutes till we land." She crossed over to the wet bar and poured herself a stiff scotch. "I hope you two and Dr. Ashford are ready to give your best pitch."

Spencer chuckled. "Trust me, we shouldn't have to worry about Mr. Rossiter or Mr. Steingarten. My only concern is the board of executives."

"I'll make certain they hear us out," Marcus stated.

"Oh, I'm sure you will, father," Evelyn said, toasting her glass toward him. "Or they'll wish they'd listened."

"…contact was lost with our affiliates in Raccoon City just three hours ago now," Kurt Dalton, a TV reporter from Lathum City Channel 8 News said, sitting at the news desk with his co-anchor Christina Johnson, their names displayed below them on the screen.

"The last information that came through said that the previous attacks from what was being labeled as a Cannibal Cult is now getting the label of a viral outbreak," Christina said over the screen.

Dr. James Marcus, or a man believing himself to be him, stared at the screen from where he stood at the front of the massive boardroom. Lord Ozwell E. Spencer and Dr. Edward Ashford were both standing on either side of him. The board of executives for Biosyn Bioengineering were seated around the table, looking at the screen. The only one not sitting was Ron Meyer, whom was the one that had turned on the news. He had a remote in his hand as he glared at the three founders of The Umbrella Corporation.

"I have tried reaching my former partner from The Raccoon Press, Alyssa Ashcroft, by phone, but she isn't answering," Kurt stated over the screen. "We will continue to –"

Ron Meyer switched off the feed and then put the remote on the table before clapping his hands together. "A viral outbreak in Umbrella's hometown." He looked to Jeff Rossiter, Biosyn's CEO, and sighed. "Our company has suffered massive losses this past decade, and we're on the verge of ending up like InGen. We don't want this company in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The last thing we need is to take on whatever insanity that is going on in Raccoon City."

"No matter what it is that you think is going on in Raccoon City, we have the resources to finally obtain the InGen technology that Biosyn has wanted for so many years," Spencer stated.

"We've heard these words before," Meyer pointed out. "Lewis Dodgson sunk a lot of company funds twice over, and that isn't including the other illegal operations that he conducted before his disappearance in 1995." He gestured toward Bill Steingarten, the Chairman of the Board. "Mr. Steingarten, surely you see that this isn't the time to be bringing InGen's failures back into the conversation. We are working on recovery."

"You do realize the reason Bill and Jeff are being so silent?" Ashford asked. "They've already made up their minds. This is a formality."

"The board owns massive stake in this company," Meyer pointed out. "If we all vote against this, there will be no formal or informal decision on the matter. We have to –"

Several leeches suddenly shot out of Marcus' robe as he raised his right arm toward Meyer, the leeches attaching themselves to him as he screamed bloody murder.

The entire board broke out into a panic, jumping up and running for the exit, but more leeches flooded out of Marcus' robe and flung themselves through the air, attacking the board members.

"Was that really necessary?" Rossiter asked.

Marcus glared at Rossiter. "You saw the looks on their faces. They were all agreeing with Mr. Meyer."

Steingarten sighed. "Had to be done, Jeff." He stood up, straightening his tie. "We need to get in touch with that spy that used to work for Lew."

"Ed James?" Rossiter asked. "Why?"

"He's the one that will know where Site B is," Steingarten replied.

"You never asked him?" Spencer asked.

"I didn't want to be tempted to reopen the mission without proper backing," Steingarten replied. "With Umbrella, we have it."

Rossiter stood up, looking at the now dead board members. "Are they going to reanimate?"

Marcus raised an eyebrow. "How do you know about that?"

"Mr. Rossiter knows a great deal about how our viruses work," Spencer explained. "During the Chili vaccine incident, and the merger we were unsuccessful in obtaining, he was given a lot of information."

"I knew what was really going on in Raccoon City," Rossiter explained. "I figured it wasn't going to be long before you were knocking on our door."

"I will ask the children to devour the remains," Marcus said. "There won't be anything left to reanimate. We don't need an outbreak in Cupertino. It's bad enough we have to cover up Raccoon City." With that, he sang softly to the leeches what they needed to do.

The imposter that wasn't Dr. James Marcus, but thought that he was, stood in the massive valley of Isla Sorna, observing as the helicopters lifted several herbivore genetically engineered dinosaurs in slings and carried them off for their new home: Isla Tacano, one of the other islands in the same island chain. The animals had been tranquilized efficiently from the air before they even landed and hopefully wouldn't wake up until they were in their new habitat.

"Father!" Alicia Marcus called out in excitement as she rushed over, having been observing all of the captures with the rest of the family.

"You should still be with the others, daughter," Marcus told her. "I'm very busy."

"You don't look busy," Alicia accused.

"I'm hunting," Marcus told her.

"What for?" Alicia asked.

"Signs of carnivores in the area," Marcus replied. "I can hear them, but they haven't shown themselves yet."

"They're probably in the long grass by the river," Alicia offered.

Marcus nodded. "Yes, very good. They're trying to decide if it's safe to come after us since we are taking off with their meals."

"Their meals?" Alicia asked.

Marcus chuckled. "The herbivores: Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Apatosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus. Our main objective is the carnivores, but we needed to remove the food source in order to get them to show themselves."

"So, which ones are hiding?" Alicia asked.

"They're Raptors," Marcus replied. "I'm not sure which breed, but I hear and smell them. They're beautiful in a horrifying way. I want you to go back to your sister and nephews where you'll be safe. You're about to be taken to Isla Tacano anyway. That's going to be our new home once the construction teams are finished with the first facilities."

"Can't I stay with you?" Alicia asked.

"I'm about to go into danger," Marcus told her. "Please, do as I say."

Alicia looked disappointed as she moved off. Marcus watched her do so just to be sure. He could see Evelyn waving for her to come on, her son Simon nearby with his fake brother whom was being called Felix. Everyone knew who Felix Marcus really was, and it always brought a smirk to his face when he saw the boy, knowing that Albert would never find him.

Turning his focus back toward the distant, still hidden Raptors, Marcus concentrated, waiting for them to make the first move, but annoyance settled over his features as he spotted Dr. Edward Ashford moving over. "This isn't the time, Edward."

"I just wanted to let you know that Ozwell and your wife arrived on Isla Tacano with the first load of staff and Special Forces," Ashford informed. "They also have two special guests with them. I'm not sure if you recall Dr. Norman Atherton."

"One of the original founders of InGen that was dying back in the 80s," Marcus said. "We had just begun human trials of the T-Virus, and he offered himself as a test subject because he was dying of cancer, desperate to continue onward because he had too much to do. He knew about some of our plans with Biosyn and wanted to help us circumvent John Hammond. Hard to believe it took so long for us to finally get back on this path. I figured Atherton would've succumbed to the T-Virus by now."

"The original anti-viral trials were successful with him before more of them were failures, but he fights daily for control," Ashford explained. "The other guest wasn't someone we got willingly. He's a… consultant for us now. We had to fake his death with the local authorities after we picked him up. His name's Donald Gennaro. He was a lawyer for InGen, and he saw the original island that fateful weekend."

"You mean the ash ridden Nublar?" Marcus asked.

"It's recovered partially from the bombing the last few years," Ashford replied. "Life is regrowing."

"What news of my sister and nephew?" Marcus asked, but he wasn't really interested in finding out the answer. He was doing his best to keep focused on the impending threat.

"Julia and Johnny are still packing back home," Ashford replied. "They're going to take the next available flight out of New York City."

"Good," Marcus said. "Are you… going to retrieve Alfred from Rockfort?"

Ashford sighed. "I was wondering when someone was going to ask me about him." He shook his head. "No. He's the only one the company trusts to keep that prison running smoothly, and his people are watching Alexia's hibernation chamber in Antarctica. I don't want to even consider moving her. I don't know what either of them are capable of anymore… Not after…"

"Alexander," Marcus stated, placing a reassuring hand on Ashford's shoulder.

Ashford nodded. "My son only wanted to start a family of his own, and they were too unpredictable with the way he went about –"

"If InGen has taught me nothing else, playing God isn't exactly the easiest road to go down," Marcus said. "Please, see to the expedition out over the island. I've got the Raptors handled. My children are going to make certain of it. We need carnivores, and I'm sure it'll take too long waiting them out in the valley."

"It sounds like there are a lot of them out there," Ashford said. "Are you sure you don't want a detachment left to help you?"

"No," Marcus replied. "I just need a chopper and one of the cages strapped and ready. I'll be taking them to Isla Tacano myself. I have great plans for those Raptors."

Ashford nodded. "Very well. I'll leave you to it." And with that, he moved off.

Marcus sighed, pleased to finally be alone, but waiting the Raptors out was taking too long. He moved forward, singing softly to his children. The time had come as he would make the first move.

The attack came sudden, a Raptor appeared on either side of where he stood, but the P30 running through the imposter's body from the scarab went active and caused Marcus to jump into the air.

The Raptors jumped as well in his direction of escape, but Marcus was too high up as he spun through the air and landed several feet away.

The Raptors screeched and rushed in his direction.

Three more Raptors charged in from behind Marcus, but he spun around in circles, leeches flinging themselves out of his robe, attaching themselves to the Raptors, who tried to claw the leeches away, successfully doing so with some of them, but as Marcus continued to spin, more and more leeches threw themselves onto the Raptors, covering them from head to toe.

Finally, Marcus stopped spinning, a smirk forming on his face. "Hello, my dear children. You Raptors are now… mine."

As Dr. Edward Ashford sat in one of the SUVs, the humid wind blowing in through his hair, he looked out at the dense foliage as they drove down the path that had clearly once been a full road. That road was now mostly overgrown from the forest reclaiming the land, but there was still enough road to get around.

Suddenly, an explosion rang out, grabbing Ashford's attention. The front vehicle of the four in the convoy went flying end over end before finally collapsing, fire consuming the SUV.

As the other three came to a stop, Ashford jumped out of the passenger seat and ran forward with the Biosyn unit that he was with. They were all armed. He was the only one without a weapon.

"What the hell happened?" Ashford asked.

The lead soldier, Dillon, he thought his name was, sat crouched in the middle of the road, looking forward and pointing.

Ashford moved up to him. "Dillon?"

"There are mines all over the road ahead," Dillon told him. He stood up and turned directly to Ashford. "Someone has been expecting us."

"Then there are cameras all over the island that we haven't seen," Ashford stated. "Someone knows what we're doing. Do you think these mines were just planted?"

Dillon nodded. "Yes. Probably just minutes ago. Whoever our little saboteur is, he or she is still around. We need –"

Suddenly a bullet flew into Dillon's shoulder, knocking him backwards. "Son of a bitch! The trees, men!"

Ashford helped Dillon get to cover as the other Biosyn soldiers opened fire into the foliage. "How bad is it?"

Dillon winced. "Got my shoulder. Probably aiming for my head. Whoever it is, isn't that skilled with a gun."

A scream sounded out right before a loud thump. Ashford and Dillon moved back out of cover and moved forward.

"Do you need help?" Ashford asked.

"I'm fine," Dillon replied, moving past several of the men, Ashford on his heels.

Another soldier dragged a man in tattered clothes and a dirty lab coat out of the jungle and tossed him to the ground, dust flying up where he landed. He didn't look like he'd been shot. He probably had just fallen out of a tree from shock at being fired upon.

Dillon picked him up, wincing in pain from his shoulder. "You'd better have a very good story, or otherwise, you're dead."

Ashford observed the man. He was Asian and there was an InGen name badge on his lab coat. "Wait, he's InGen."

"That company has long since been in Chapter 11," Dillon reminded Ashford. "He probably just stole the coat."

"No, he's right," the Asian man said. "I'm Dr. Elliot Wu."

Ashford stepped forward. "Let him go, Dillon. That's an order."

"I don't take orders from Umbrella," Dillon said angrily.

"Your superiors and I are in alignment," Ashford said. "If you don't put him down, I'll –"

"Do nothing!" Dillon interrupted.

"Someone, detain Lt. Dillon, now!" Ashford ordered.

At first the other Biosyn men hesitated, but finally three of them moved forward and pulled Elliot Wu out of Dillon's grasp, taking their commanding officer toward one of the SUVs.

"I'm going to make certain Mr. Rossiter knows about this!" Dillon yelled.

Ashford shook his head and sighed.

"I know you," Elliot said.

Ashford turned around, a bit surprised. "I know who you are as well. You're Henry Wu's twin brother. You were both believed dead."

"I heard that my brother died on Nublar," Elliot said. "I actually found out everything about the Isla Nublar Incident after the fact. Some of InGen tried to keep this island going for about a year, hoping they could convert it to a new park, but then a really bad hurricane wrecked the place, and everyone evacuated… everyone except me. I got left behind, but maybe it was for the best. There was a contingency if something like that ever happened to someone. So, if you're here, The Umbrella Corporation finally merged with Biosyn. There were a lot of rumors, and I also heard that you're supposed to be dead, Mr. Ashford."

Ashford smiled. "Well, that puts us in an exclusive club then, Dr. Wu."

"Look, I've been trying to protect these animals for years," Elliot explained. "I have an underground bunker with all the security and rations I could ever need."

"Did you interfere when Lewis Dodgson was here?" Ashford asked.

Elliot laughed. "Him and his two stooges with their loud box? I saw everything that happened, and I knew they wouldn't be successful. The other team, I tried to assist in the shadows, but Dr. Malcolm's people really didn't need it. I could tell that they were just here to observe. None of them knew I was here."

"What changed with us?" Ashford asked. "Why change your tactics?"

"Because you were taking all of the herbivores off of the island. I figured you were on your way to the carnivores next, and I felt like I had to do something. My life's work was being removed. However, I might have a way to get you people to leave peacefully without risking anyone from the carnivores on the island."

Ashford raised an eyebrow. "You have my full attention."

Dr. Elliot Wu led everyone in their three remaining vehicles to The Worker Village. Dillon was left in his vehicle with one soldier to watch over him as Elliot led Ashford and the rest of the Biosyn soldiers into the area of the facilities that were clearly huts for people to live in. He moved directly to the largest of the homes that had a large MANAGER logo over the door.

Leading them in, he moved directly to the back wall and pushed aside a panel, pressing a large, red button on the wall. The nearby wall slid away, revealing a passageway going down.

Ashford stepped over. "You've been living down there?"

Elliot shrugged. "Trust me, it's a lot safer down there, especially at night. You don't want to be anywhere around this village at night."

Elliot and Ashford led the march down the stairs, which kept going and going for what seemed like forever.

"How is it that you have power here?" Ashford asked.

"The island is run on geothermal power," Elliot replied. "The upper part of the island regained power when Dr. Malcolm's people turned it back on, but I've retrained power down here the last several years without issue."

Ashford forward Elliot over to several large, circular containers. He lifted all of them one at a time, revealing embryos with the different dinosaur names labeled on them.

"This is how you don't have to take anymore animals," Elliot said. "Honestly, I'd prefer you brought my herbivores back and just took the embryos for them, but I'm not going to press my luck. I'll just restock the herbivores on my own."

"You need to restock your Raptors as well, I'm afraid," Ashford said. "My colleague, Dr. Marcus, has been hunting them."

"A man hunting Raptors?" Elliot asked with a laugh. "I highly doubt that."

"He's no mere man," Ashford replied.

Elliot sighed. "Fair enough." He then gestured at the embryos. "Take all you like. Just leave me three of each species so I can repopulate. I must warn you of two things though."
"I'm listening," Ashford said as the Biosyn men grabbed embryos, placing them in a storage container they picked up from the nearby table.

"First, some of those species we never got around to producing," Elliot informed. "I was too concerned about behavioral patterns to even consider making them, like the Spinosaurus. Those prefer living in water. I didn't want to risk it getting into the ocean and swimming off to the mainland. Secondly, there is a prion-based disease on this island. We code named it The DX Virus. Over the years, I've been trying and failing to find a cure. It occurred from ground up sheep's meat."

Ashford smiled lightly. "Viruses are The Umbrella Corporation's specialty, Dr. Wu. We'll figure out the issue and resolve it." He turned to move off before looking back. "If we're in a giving mood, I'll return to give you the cure for this island."

Elliot nodded. "I'd appreciate that."

"You sure you want to stay here?" Ashford asked. "We could use someone with your background on Tacano."

Elliot raised an eyebrow. "You're using one of the other Five Death islands?"

Ashford nodded. "That's right."

"These islands are cursed," Elliot told him. "I wish you luck, but unless you're leaving this island chain, I'll just stay on the island that I've come to understand."

"Well, if you change your mind," Ashford began, pulling out what looked like a communications device with the Umbrella logo on it. "you'll be able to reach me with this."

Elliot accepted the device. "Thank you. Good luck."

"Thank you for the assistance, Dr. Wu," Ashford said before moving to the Biosyn men. "Let's get a move on, gentlemen. Isla Tacano awaits."

Elliot watched them leave and then moved to the massive security display, pulling up the feeds for the valley. He singled in on the long grass area off to the side and rewound the footage.