Chapter 20

Leon Scott Kennedy liked to think he was making the rest of the people in his team, if that's what they really were, proud. It distracted him from his concerns about Claire Julianna Redfield still being missing. They hadn't heard from her brother Chris since he took off to rescue her at an Umbrella prison facility called Rockfort Island.

Rebecca Chambers, David Trapp, and John Andrews at least had made contact with the arms dealer in London that they'd gone to see, and they were thankfully on their way back to Paris. If they didn't hear back from Chris soon, David had already said in the communication that they were going to go after the Redfields. No one was going to be left behind.

Barry Burton had been in the gym facility on the premises, and it would be Leon's turn to go there next, but for the moment, he was doing his rounds, making certain that nothing was out of place with the normal routine of the day. Something unexpectedly happened, however, that got his undivided attention: the mailman stopped at the mailbox at the end of the drive.

'That's weird,' Leon thought as he had passed by the window in the front room.

They didn't receive mail at this safe house. No one knew that they were there. Well, there was a chance that Trent knew, because that weirdo seemed to know everything whether he was told or not, but they hadn't heard from him since he'd hijacked their original flight overseas to take them to Utah instead. Whatever he was up to, Leon hoped that it was something to help them out in the end, because they really needed the assistance and some intel to go along with it.

'Does he not care that Claire got abducted in the Umbrella Paris headquarters?' Leon thought to himself. They had staked the place out for days, gathering as much intel as they could before even trying to hit the place. They thought they knew the ins and outs of everything that needed to be done, and considering that they had Chris Redfield and Barry Burton on their team finally, it should've been a slam dunk victory, but what they hadn't expected was for Dr. Morpheus D. Duvall, the head of the facility, to disappear, and for suddenly several other high ranking individuals to show up with a security services party led by Rodrigo Juan Raval to storm the place, apparently knowing that they were coming.

They were planning for something to happen. Somehow, they'd known that the team was in Paris. That was the only way that everything had gone South so quickly. A rational man would've tried to be positive about what happened and been grateful that only one of them had been taken instead of the entire team, but Leon cared dearly for Claire. They'd gone through a lot since that first chance meeting in Raccoon City, and despite that neither of them still knew what they felt for each other, there was clearly something there, and it drove him absolutely nuts that Chris hadn't allowed Leon to go with him to rescue Claire.

Moving out the front door, keeping his right hand in his pocket, holding onto his hidden handgun encase something happened, Leon briskly moved for the mailbox, but he tried to look as casual as he possibly could, not wanting to appear like something was out of sorts should any of the neighbors be watching. It was only human to be nosy, after all.

Slowly, Leon opened the mailbox, wanting to make sure that there wasn't a bomb inside, but he was surprised to see that all that was there was a letter. Putting on a pair of surgical gloves from his other pocket, not wanting to be caught by some surprise virus or disease on the letter, he pulled out the letter and looked it over. It was actually addressed to him! Apparently, it had come from Costa Rica as the stamp and return address stated, but the return address gave nothing away, as it looked like a standard post office box had sent it.

"Costa Rica?" Leon asked in a whisper. "Who the hell would –"

"What are you doing, Kennedy?" a feminine voice asked from behind him.

Leon had been so caught up in the letter that he hadn't heard a vehicle pulling up. Turning around, he saw what he could only figure to be Paris' equivalent of a taxi service dropping off Jill Valentine and a Latino man with long hair that he didn't recognize. It was true that Leon didn't actually know Jill, but he'd seen pictures of her from Chris and Barry. Apparently, they were a tight group, so that would help in the long run, especially considering their history with Umbrella as well.

However, Jill knew what Leon looked like because of his entrance examinations, resume, and information that had been sent to the RCPD from The Police Academy before he was hired. Despite being hired in as a rookie cop for Marvin Branagh's unit, he had been looked at by S.T.A.R.S. as well before being declined, but that had all been months before his graduation and only days before their mission into Raccoon Forest that kicked off the nightmare they'd all been dumped into overtime.

"We got mail," Leon replied.

Jill nodded. "I can see that, but you shouldn't be out here. Why the hell would we be getting mail anyway? No one knows we're here."

Leon shrugged, turning the envelop to where she could see it. "It was addressed to me, so someone from Costa Rica knows where we are."

"Costa Rica?" Jill asked, glancing to the Latino in confusion before looking back to Leon. "I don't like it."

"That's why I'm being careful," Leon said. "I've got gloves on. I know how to handle this kind of thing." He then turned his attention to the Latino. "I'm Leon Kennedy."

"Carlos Oliveira," he replied. "You'll forgive me if we don't shake hands yet, amigo."

Leon nodded. "I get it."

"Carlos was part of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasures Service," Jill explained. "We met in Raccoon City during all the insanity. I still don't get why you and I didn't cross paths, but I don't guess it matters now."

Leon looked worried. "He's Umbrella?"

Carlos rolled his eyes. "Of course, that's the only thing he took away from that exchange. I was a hired mercenary. I didn't work directly for Umbrella."

"We helped each other," Jill said. "He's good, and apparently Trent vouched for him. We had a long conversation on the flight overseas about our mysterious benefactor. Let's get inside."

Leon nodded as he led the way to the front door. "We haven't heard anything from Mr. Trent since Utah. I don't think he even knows what happened to Claire."

"Barry filled us in over the phone," Jill told him. "Has she or Chris made contact?"

"Nothing since Chris went off after her," Leon replied.

"That's not good," Jill said. "Chris knows better than to leave everyone in the dark."

Leon moved inside the front room and ushed for Jill and Carlos to follow after, closing the door once they both were in.

Standing in the doorway that led into the kitchen, Barry Burton had his arms crossed, staring at them. "Have a good flight?"

Jill grinned. "Yeah, as good as coach can be."

Barry chuckled, moving forward. He hugged Jill tightly.

"Ugh, you stink," Jill said, pulling back. "And you're wet. Is that sweat?"

Barry couldn't stop laughing. "I just finished working out."

"You need to take a shower then, asshole," Jill told him.

Carlos stepped over and held out his hand. "I'm Carlos."

Barry accepted the handshake and raised on eyebrow to Jill.

"He's good," Jill said. "Got me out of Raccoon City."

"Then that's all that matters," Barry said, patting Carlos on the shoulder.

"Holy shit," Leon said. Everyone turned toward him as he practically collapsed on a nearby couch. Finally, Leon looked up to them. "Ada's alive."

It took some convincing, but after Leon finally made all three of them realize that this had to be legit and that Ada wouldn't have put any kind of virus or disease on the letter, they all took turns reading it.

Barry was the last one to do so as he sighed. All three of the others were staring at him. No one said anything for way too long, the silence unnerving.

"Talk about an information dump," Jill said, shaking her head.

"Where is Rebecca and the others anyway?" Barry asked. "They should've been back by now."

Leon shrugged his shoulders, but it was obvious that he was more in a trance than anything else. "You want to contact them?"

Barry sighed. "I'm sure they'll be along soon. Anybody know who Billy Coen is?"

Jill raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? You didn't watch his public trial?"

Barry shrugged.

"He was convicted of killing twenty-three innocent people in some African village," Jill said. "Got dishonorably discharged from the Marine Corp and was sent for execution at Regason Base."

"Why would Rebecca know him?" Barry asked.

Jill shrugged her shoulders. "All I can do is take wild guesses. We should find out from Rebecca when she gets here."

"Find out what?" Rebecca asked as she moved into the safe house with David and John right behind her.

Jill moved over, hugging Rebecca.

"I'm glad you're safe," Rebecca said, returning the hug and then pulling out of it.

"Captain Trapp," Jill said with a nod to David.

"Please, just David now," David said. "There's no point in retaining titles anymore."

Jill nodded to him and then looked to John.

"I'm John Andrews," he said, shaking Jill's hand. "I was part of David's team that went with him and Rebecca to Caliban Cove."

"I'm glad you're alright," Jill said. She then moved to Carlos and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Everyone, this is Carlos Oliveira. I don't want anyone freaking out like Kennedy almost did, but Carlos was a mercenary hired by the U.B.C.S. He wasn't actually Umbrella. He's one of the few good ones, and we need him."

"Probably now more than ever," Carlos said. "That letter really puts a lot of things into perspective."

"What letter?" Rebecca asked.

Barry moved over to Rebecca and handed out the letter to her. "We're going to have some questions after you look at this."

Rebecca accepted the letter, confusion on her face.

After what felt like an eternity to everyone else, Rebecca handed the letter over to David to read next and sighed. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about Billy Coen." She shook her head, seeing the confusion on John's face and she mouthed an 'I'm sorry' to him. "If you guys had read my statement after the mansion, you would've saw that I mentioned Billy in it as being dead. That was a lie. We survived a horrific experience together prior to me arriving at the mansion. It was the reason that none of you found Edward Dewey's body. He was miles away in the rubble of a train at The Umbrella Management Training Facility. We were taken there by the reincarnated James Marcus."

"And now Billy thinks he's James Marcus," Jill said.

Rebecca reached under her shirt and pulled out a necklace that she took off. There were dog tabs attached. "I took these from Billy after we got out, and we went our separate ways. He must've gotten captured. I didn't know what actually happened to him. I figured, as brave and strong as he was, he'd get out of the forest and find his way to Lathum. Create a new life for himself, change his appearance, the whole jazz. I never imagined something like this." She turned to Leon as David handed off the letter to John. "Do you believe this Ada?"

All Leon could do was nod. He was clearly still in shock over all of this, trying to digest everything he'd learned.

Rebecca nodded remorsefully to him. She had heard about Ada before, but it was likely she didn't know the entire story. Leon had clearly gotten a lot closer with Claire, so Rebecca figured that would be the end of any discussion about Ada. Clearly, things had now changed.

"That bastard lied to you, Leon," John said as he moved over, handing the letter back to him, which he accepted. "You asked Trent, point blank, about Ada, and he lied to your face."

Leon nodded. "Yes, but I think that's the least of our concerns. She said he's part of Umbrella's Board of Executives." He looked outward to everyone. "What if he's been playing all of us the entire time?"

"I may have been the last one to come into all of this, but I'd like to think that he seems legit," Carlos offered. "Whatever his intentions, it feels like he's helping."

"He definitely helped me with that device," Jill said. "I don't know what would've happened if he hadn't given it to me before the mansion."

"And he may be a little… eccentric, but he gave me everything I needed about Caliban Cove," David pointed out. "Why would he do the things he's done if he didn't want to bring Umbrella down?"

"What if this is just some game?" Barry asked. "What if he's trying to take out his corporate enemies so he can take control of Umbrella for himself?"

"We need answers," John said, clasping his hand to Leon's shoulder. "There has to be a way to contact that man."

The front door opened, and everyone became edgy, considering their conversation, which caused them to all pull their guns and point them, Leon and John getting up off the couch as they did so.

Chris Redfield and his sister Claire Redfield both raised their arms into the air.

"We surrender," Chris joked.

Jill shook her head. "About damn time, Redfield."

Leon quickly moved over, hugging Claire. "I'm so glad you're alright."

"It's good to see you too, Leon," Claire said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

Leon pulled back. "What's wrong?"

Claire teared up, having to wipe them away. "I had a very… trying experience between Rockfort Island and Antarctica."

"Antarctica?" Leon asked.

"I'll explain everything later when we're alone," Claire promised him.

"I have some very unsettling and confusing news," Chris said. "I wasn't sure exactly how to tell all of you what was going on till we were in person, and that's why I hadn't been in contact since I took off to rescue Claire, so I'm sorry for that.

"Your news can't be any worse than what we've got," Jill said, nodding toward Leon, but before he could hand out the letter, Chris continued.

"Albert Wesker is alive," Chris stated.

Jill immediately snapped her head back. "What?"

"You can't be serious!" Barry exclaimed.

"There's no way he got clear of the blast," Rebecca said.

"It doesn't make any sense to me either, but he was on Rockfort," Chris told them. "He attacked the island trying to get to a woman named Alexia Ashford. Wesker has powers now that I can't even begin to understand."

"Powers?" Jill asked, raising an eyebrow, clearly not believing any of this. "Like comic book shit?"

Chris nodded. "Crazy, I know. If I was any of you, I wouldn't believe it either, but it's real. He's extremely fast and very strong now. There could be more to it than that. I'd just about bet that he's invulnerable. That could be how he survived the mansion explosion."

"You think he's been like this since before we met him?" Barry asked.

"Maybe," Chris replied. "Maybe not. I don't know what to believe anymore."

Jill shook her head. "Well, I don't want to dampen your spirits even further, but you need to see what Leon has."

Leon nodded to Jill and then handed the letter to Claire. "This is going to be a lot to take in."

Claire raised an eyebrow but accepted the letter regardless, beginning to read as Chris looked over her shoulder, trying to save themselves time with the reading process.

Leon moved back to the couch and sat back down again, John rejoining him. They had both gotten pretty close after the events in The Planet back in Utah, and so they had realized that they made a really good team and stuck together, outside of the trip to London, of course, but Leon hadn't actually gone with them because he was too worried about getting Claire back and had stayed with Chris and Barry in hopes they'd hear something, which had worked out despite being left behind by Chris.

"You've got a pretty complicated relationship with this woman, Leon," Chris finally said.

Leon looked to him and nodded. "You have no idea, Redfield."

If it were at all possible, Claire appeared more saddened than she already did. Loosing Steve Burnside had taken its toll on her after having gained a strong connection with him during their horrific adventure together, but now she was feeling more lost. Finding out that Ada was still alive gave her pause. Firstly, she was grateful to Ada for having been the one to throw down the machine gun that she'd used to finish off Mr. X back in Raccoon City, but there was the bigger issue: her feelings for Leon. Claire didn't entirely know what she really felt for the former rookie cop, but whatever the feelings were, there was a strong chance that he felt similar. Ada still being alive would greatly complicate things.

"We need to figure out some way to communicate with Trent," Claire said, despite that she had other concerns that she wanted to bring up, but those were a private thing for Leon.

"Hey, hey, maybe I might have something," Carlos said. "I mean, I was just a mercenary, and Umbrella probably thinks I'm dead, but since I do have a connection to the company, maybe they'd let me have an audience with Mr. Trent."

"Or you'd end up being taken to a firing squad and killed," Barry said, shaking his head. "We can't trust Umbrella to do the right thing, because they'd see you as a survivor of Raccoon City, and someone that could potentially go to the press or the authorities. Eye witnesses aren't what they want. That's why all of us have targets on our backs. It would've been a good idea. Don't despair on that, but we don't want to lose anyone."

Carlos nodded.

"He's right," Jill said. "But you were brave to offer."

Chris raised an eyebrow, seeing the way that Jill and this new guy were looking at each other. It made him feel uneasy, so he decided to change the subject. "Look, we do know two really important things despite Trent: Jill's father, Sherry Birkin, and her aunt were taken to Italy."

Claire nodded in agreement. "I've been out of contact with Kate Boyd, but I didn't think that there was any reason to worry about that. I thought Umbrella wouldn't try anything with Kate's background, but I was wrong. We have to rescue them."

"And be glad that my family isn't amongst them," Barry said. "I knew something wasn't right when Kathy had to take the girls out of Florida, and then I kept hearing from them that they had to move yet again. Umbrella are trying to get our loved ones."

"And they nearly got me killed trying to make me think that dad was in Raccoon City," Jill said. "No matter what we do, I'm going to Italy."

"And so am I," Claire said.

"There's also the business with Russia," David pointed out. "Sergei Vladimir having access to something called The Red Queen and something else called TALOS doesn't really make me feel very good."

"Yeah, we can't forget about any of that," Leon said. "We're going to have to split up."

"I'm going to Alghero, Italy," Barry stated matter-of-factly. Everyone stared at him, which he merely shrugged his shoulders. "I've been wanting to take down Lord Spencer ever since we got lost in this nightmare. He'll be there with the others."

"Which means I'm going to Italy too," Rebecca said. "I have to help rescue Billy."

John stood up and crossed over to Rebecca, but he saw her put a hand up.

"Hey, it's ok," Rebecca assured him, placing the hand on his chest. "I think you and David should go to Russia. I'll be fine going to Italy, and when we're reunited, we'll finally take that first date you keep teasing about."

John looked at her slightly shocked, but he did his best to cover up any embarrassment since they were around the rest of the team. "This Billy Coen, he means a lot to you."

"And so do you," Rebecca promised him before giving him a short kiss on the lips.

John smirked. "Yeah, alright."

Rebecca chuckled.

Chris nodded to Barry and then Rebecca as well. He moved to where he could look at everyone all at once. "Screw waiting around for Trent. We already know something stinks about him. David, John, Leon, and Carlos pack for cold weather. You four are going to Russia. The rest of us are taking down The Umbrella Founders in Italy. Everyone, get your supplies ready and prepare to go. We're leaving now."