PART FOUR:

THE FALL OF UMBRELLA

Chapter 18

Ada Wong saw Leon Scott Kennedy reaching out toward her, and she heard him scream out her name as she fell into the darkness, but she smiled, despite what was happening, as she had told him "Live", which was what she desperately wanted for him. So much in her life had been about the mission. Every single mission had to do with her need to complete tasks that most normal people wouldn't be able to do, but Ada Wong wasn't ordinary. She was quite extraordinary.

There had been so many successful covert operations over the years in Europe, Japan, and a few in America before this fateful one in Raccoon City, Pennsylvania that would end her life. She was certain that Albert Wesker would be laughing at her if he could see her now. Hell, he was somewhere in the city, or at least had been, so he probably did know this fate that had befallen her, or maybe he didn't. It was just funny to her that just hours before, she'd been talking to Wesker about accepting new missions with him for Trent in the near future.

'Trent,' she thought. 'That creepy son of a bitch won't get the G-Virus after all.'

Not that she even knew why he wanted it in the first place. She had speculated, of course. The obvious reason was because he was on the Umbrella Board of Executives, and they wanted what they believed to be their property, which Dr. William Birkin had been keeping from them.

'Birkin. It was Annette that shot me in the shoulder. Was she still a threat to Leon? She had been right there, but we were too concerned with us to even look.'

Ada had long since not been able to see Leon further up anymore. She couldn't even hear him screaming out her name now either. Thankfully, she could die in peace and be pleased with herself that Leon would at least survive.

Suddenly, she got hit like being run into a brick wall, but it wasn't from her hitting ground or perhaps banging into something on the trip down. She had been grabbed, and all she could see at the moment was white clothing. Trying to pull her head out of the grip it was in, if even just a little, despite that her shoulder was killing her even more from the bullet wound, she could finally see the gray skinned head of a Tyrant.

Brief panic overcame her, as Ada instantly believed it was the same Tyrant that had been stalking around the police department, killing survivors, looking for the G-Virus just like she was, but that thought left her as she remembered that the trench coat that Tyrant had been wearing wasn't white, which this Tyrant clearly wore all white, and he had sunglasses on to cover the more than likely dead glare that the former human had. The Tyrant in the police department, from the brief glimpses she'd had of him, had not been wearing sunglasses.

A moment later, Ada found her high heeled shoes touching the ground, and she looked around to see that she was indeed standing, the massive Tyrant merely staring down at her. Her shoulder was in agony, but she did her best not to show it, not wanting to give away any weakness.

"Uh, thanks," Ada said to the Tyrant.

"I'm sure Ivan would respond to you if he could," a Russian voice said from the shadows as Sergei Vladimir stepped forward, his hands clasped behind his back.

"Sergei Vladimir," Ada stated, shaking her head. "I should've known it was you. I heard you have been keeping one of your brothers as a bodyguard."

Sergei chuckled. "Well, I have Ivan's twin nearby as well. He is waiting for us at our escape chopper with a couple… special guests."

Ada crossed her arms. "Let me guess: Albert Wesker is one of them."

Sergei sighed. "I'm afraid not. He has already left Raccoon City, and from what my spies tell me, he has gone off script. Him getting some wiggle room from Mr. Trent clearly wasn't the best option." He turned, moving down the corridor. "Come. We must leave before this place detonates."

Ada could finally hear the alarms and the self-destruct warnings blaring somewhere far off as she followed Sergei, Ivan trailing behind them. "How did you know where I was?"

Sergei chuckled. "Just like you, I know a great many things."

After blazing their way through multiple hallways, blasting giant spiders and the Hunter series BOWs as they went, the Ivan Tyrant thankfully taking care of most of the issues himself with his bare hands, Ada found herself following Sergei into the train station, which he told her before they entered would lead them to the underground heliport where their escape awaited them.

However, Ada saw absolute chaos in the train station as they moved over the above catwalk, and down below, she could see a woman with her hair tied up in a ponytail, fighting a Tyrant series, possibly the one that had been in the police department, but it looked like it had mutated since then. She wasn't fairing too well.

Ada didn't pretend to know who the woman was, but she did at least know her name: Claire Redfield. She had been in the police department, and Ada had avoided running into her a couple times while she was frantically searching for Sherry Birkin. Ada hadn't needed Sherry at the time, but she had wished that she had pursued her as perhaps she could've used the girl to get her mother to have been a little more cooperative.

"Sergei, we should help her," Ada said.

Sergei looked down below and scoffed. "Why?"

"She has been taking care of Sherry Birkin, and if she survives, the Birkin girl survives," Ada offered. Though, this was a gamble as she didn't know if Sherry was even still alive.

Sergei seemed to like that response regardless and handed over his machine gun to her. "Be quick. We have to get out of here, and the medical supplies for your shoulder are on the chopper. Ivan, let's move."

Ada watched as Sergei and Ivan moved away, continuing down the catwalk. She then turned toward the battle between Claire and the Tyrant. "Here! Use this!" She tossed the machine gun down, feeling agonizing pain in her shoulder from tossing the weapon, knowing that Claire saw her above, but she doubted she'd be able to recognize her, as it was pretty dark where she was standing.

Her good deed done, Ada moved to follow after Sergei and Ivan.

Stepping onboard the Umbrella Corporate Jet right behind Sergei and Ivan, Ada stopped, shocked to see the two men in there that were already seated. From the corner of her eye, she saw Ivan move into the cockpit, where she figured his twin Tyrant was sitting as well.

Sergei took a seat across from the two other men and patted the spot beside him before grabbing for the first aid kit so he could get the bullet out and patch up her shoulder. "Strap in. We are leaving."

Ada moved over, sitting down beside Sergei. She strapped in as the chopper picked up off the ground and moved upward, toward the escape doors that were opening to street level above ground. She had heard about this section of the facility, but considering that part of the roadway would have to move for it to open, she didn't think it was a real area of NEST. However, as she saw cars and other debris falling down all around them, Ada realized that the rumors had indeed been true, and that this area had been created for an emergency escape only.

She winced and had to hold back a scream as Sergei went to work on getting the bullet out of her shoulder.

"Do you know who I am?" the older man of the two, wearing a pinstriped suit and wireframe glasses, asked.

"Dr. Brandon Bailey," Ada replied matter-of-factly. "You're one of the lesser-known founders of The Umbrella Corporation, and rumor has it, you have a kid with one of James Marcus' kids, but everything I know, I got from Mr. Trent, which I still don't know if I can believe him."

Brandon smiled. "Always believe Mr. Trent, and well, if it weren't for the other founders, Evelyn and I would be married, and Simon would actually know I'm his father." He gestured toward the man beside him. "This is Professor Peter Jenkins. He was head of the Genetics Department at Raccoon University."

Ada nodded. "I know. I was following you a few weeks prior to the outbreak for Jackson Courtlandt."

Jenkins sighed. "I knew I wasn't being paranoid for nothing."

"Jackson removed the Tyrant series that Peter was working on with Dr. Gregory Mueller before the outbreak," Brandon said. "We've been trying to find out why, but the answer alluded us."

"And then Albert Wesker showed up earlier tonight wanting Thanatos," Jenkins said. "Considering that you were partners with Dr. Wesker, we thought maybe you'd know what was going on."

"Albert doesn't like to share very often," Ada admitted. "He was more concerned with Annette Birkin than anything else the last time we spoke."

Brandon looked to Sergei.

Sergei grunted. "Then he knows."

Ada looked back and forth between all three men. "Does someone want to clue me in?"

"Albert has a child with Annette," Brandon revealed.

Ada's eyes widened. "You're not serious."

"Da," Sergei said as he wrapped gauze around Ada's shoulder. "Dr. Gregory Mueller was taking care of him when he was first born, and named him Jake Mueller, but when he turned two, Dr. Marcus whisked him away."

"He became Simon's brother Felix Marcus," Brandon said. "So technically the boy has been under my care ever since, and the last thing we need is Albert discovering where the boy is. He's quite… special."

Ada shook her head. "Because of whatever you people did to him when he was a boy, right? The Wesker Children. I thought it was a myth, but Mr. Trent keeps telling me there's more to it."

Brandon shook his head. "Trent has a knack for sticking his nose where it doesn't belong. So does the rest of the board of executives, for that matter." He sighed. "As do the other founders as well."

Ada leaned back as Sergei finished patching up her shoulder and crossed her long legs, swaying the one in the air slightly. "Why is it that I feel like there's a very strong reason why you're spilling all of this information to me?"

"Because we are defectors of Umbrella," Brandon replied. "We have been for years, but we stayed involved in the company to gather intelligence to use in our efforts to stay in the shadows."

"So, what exactly do you call yourselves?" Ada asked.

"We're The Connections," Brandon replied.

Ada raised an eyebrow. "The Crime Syndicate? Money laundering, drug and weapons trafficking and all-around terrorism? How are you any different from Umbrella?"

Brandon sighed. "Perhaps we aren't, but we haven't been utilizing our scientific research in the means of murder. We are doing things to help medicine. It's what Umbrella was originally founded for, but it got perverted over the years because of corporate greed. We only do the illegal things to fund the research. We're going to bring Umbrella down from the inside out, but in order to do so, we have to fight dirty."

"And that's where I come in." Ada surmised. "As a spy, you need my espionage skills."

"Now more than ever," Brandon told her.

Ada uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. "So, you're going to go against Spencer, Marcus, Ashford, Wesker, and probably even Trent and the rest of the board? You think that you can outmatch what they've been doing for centuries now? Don't you think that Umbrella is going to fold simply because of what's happened in Raccoon City?"

From the distance, an explosion rang out, NEST finally going up in flames.

Brandon grabbed a file on the empty seat beside him and handed it out, which Ada accepted. "That details their plan to destroy the entire city. A massive strike is going to annihilate all traces, and then Spokeswoman Amanda Whitney will swoop in with her silver tongue and all of her best experts to reveal their big cover up. Umbrella comes out squeaky clean."

Ada looked through the file and sighed, a tear coming to her eye which she quickly wiped away, not wanting to show weakness. "So much death. So much destruction."

"This is why The Connections exist," Brandon said. "We are going to tear them apart from the inside and then fold that umbrella ourselves. Their perversion of what we were originally trying to accomplish will be ended, and then I can rebuild a better future."

"Does Evelyn know about this?" Ada asked.

"She won't understand," Brandon replied.

"If she loves you, you can make her understand," Ada told him.

"Do you feel that way about that pretty boy cop that was following you around?" Sergei asked snidely.

"Leon and I barely knew each other," Ada snapped to the Russian beside her.

Sergei chuckled. "That wasn't what it looked like during my investigation."

Ada narrowed her eyes. "You were following me."

"Da," Sergei replied. "I still work closely with Mr. Trent. I have to keep him appraised on his sanctioned missions."

"If you think Leon will understand, I'll have him brought in," Brandon said. "And if you're right, and he does fall in line, then I'll bring in Evelyn."

Ada looked down, uncertain.

"See?" Brandon asked. "That look you have, that uncertainty, that's why I don't bring my love in. She's too deep with her family. Until Umbrella is gone, I cannot let her in. Now, what say you?"

Ada looked back up, determination returning to her face. "Where do we start?"

Jenkins was the one to hand over a file this time which said PROJECT SCARAB. "We have been working on control devices with the use of The Progenitor Virus."

"It was the original virus that started it all," Brandon explained. "If we can utilize it in ways to make people do things they wouldn't normally do, we can break apart Umbrella that much faster."

Ada opened the file, seeing three pictures: old James Marcus, young James Marcus, and Billy Coen. "I recognize this man. He was supposed to be executed, but he supposedly escaped his military police escort in Raccoon Forest. Regason Base searched, managing to find the dead MPs but no Billy Coen."

Brandon nodded. "Keep looking."

Ada moved the pictures aside and saw a detailed description of the scarab device that Brandon had constructed and how the P30 derived from The Progenitor Virus would take its host and turn it into a subject willing to do whatever the master asked of it. "What is all of this supposed to mean? What does it have to do with Billy Coen?"

"He is our first trial with the scarab," Brandon replied. "But my Evelyn was involved in choosing Billy, and as such, she's taken control of his retraining, turning him into her father."

"Coen thinks he's James Marcus?" Ada asked.

Brandon nodded. "And I need you to be ready for when the time comes to reclaim Coen. Right now, I'm fine with him being where he is, as he has adapted to taking control of leeches, which is helpful for the time being."

Ada shook her head. "I don't understand how this is supposed to help your cause with The Connections."

"It shows that the scarabs work," Brandon replied. "We're going to put them into mass production. That's the other part of your mission. You're going to be the one to befriend, or perhaps even seduce people, get them comfortable with you, and then use the scarabs on them. You'll essentially reprogram these people, and then they'll betray The Umbrella Corporation for us, sabotaging all of their efforts, one mission at a time."

"Then if Coen isn't my first objective, who is?" Ada asked.

"Security Chief Charles Coleman," Brandon replied.