Chapter 24

Jackson Courtlandt had been in the middle of a meeting with the Umbrella Board of Executives when Dr. Thomas Sidney suddenly stood up, pulled a handgun, and fired wildly at the fifteen members of the board, minus Mr. Trent, as he had been unreachable for days.

Having taken cover almost immediately, being that he was the one at the front of the table giving their quarterly earnings report to the board, he hadn't surprisingly been the first person that Sidney had opened fire on, which gave Jackson the advantage. He only had moments, and he had been prepared for something underhanded to happen since the initial outbreak in Raccoon City occurred. Contingencies had been put in place, and sadly, he had been right to worry that something was going to happen.

'It just didn't seem to me like a member of the board was going to cause something,' Jackson thought to himself as he pulled out a remote and pressed the big red button on it, calling for his one hope of survival in this situation, thankful that he kept this secret weapon near him at all times, regardless of how creepy it was.

A handgun got shoved in Jackson's face as Dr. Thomas Sidney bent down to him, looking under the table.

"Why are you doing this, Tom?" Jackson asked, hoping that he could delay the inevitable for just a moment longer. However, no words came from Sidney. It was as if he was a zombie, but he clearly wasn't. Jackson had seen what the T-Virus was capable of, and this wasn't that.

From the corner of his eye, Jackson could see something flashing red under Sidney's dress shirt. Perhaps that had been what was going on. However, before Jackson could even react any further, a massive crash occurred.

The Thanatos Tyrant had come through the wall with incredible force, having taken out a few other walls leading into Jackson's office where the creation had been hiding and waiting, completely under Jackson's authoritative control.

Sidney looked away from Jackson, reassessing the threat level. He turned the gun on The Thanatos Tyrant, opening fire on him.

That was enough of a window for Jackson to sphere Sidney to the ground, knocking the gun away. He pulled his remote and pressed buttons, causing The Thanatos Tyrant to stop its pursuit. Looking back to Jackson, he caught a right hook to the face, knocking him back from shock only. Sidney had never been much of a fighter, but he was definitely trying his best.

Jackson looked to The Thanatos Tyrant, pressing buttons. "Hold him, but carefully!"

The Thanatos Tyrant moved over as Sidney got to his feet and moved for his gun, which had skidded several feet away. He grabbed the weapon, but as Sidney turned back around, The Thanatos Tyrant grabbed him by the throat and lifted him into the air, causing him to drop the gun once more.

Jackson got to his feet and moved forward, ripping open Sidney's button-down shirt, revealing the scarab device, pulsating violently. "What the hell is that?"

Sidney thrashed against the hold The Thanatos Tyrant had, showing surprising strength as he tried to break free from the hold.

Jackson grabbed the scarab device, but it held firm, the legs actually pinching harder against Sidney's skin. He looked to The Thanatos Tyrant. "You pull it off, but do it carefully."

Reaching up with his free hand, The Thanatos Tyrant pulled on the scarab, causing Sidney to scream as it was occurring. Finally, the scarab came free.

"Drop him," Jackson ordered.

The Thanatos Tyrant let go of Sidney, dropping him to the floor as he coughed wildly.

Jackson extended his hand out. "Let me have that."

The Thanatos Tyrant obliged, handing over the scarab.

Jackson looked it over from top to bottom. All he could see was a label belonging to The Connections on the back end of the device, but it was so small that you'd completely miss it if you weren't really looking for it.

"The Connections?" Jackson asked in a whisper. "That terrorist faction that has been undermining our weapons and drug dealings overseas?"

"They watch," Sidney said, causing Jackson to turn toward him. "They know everything. They wait, and they plot. They seek the means to bring a rebalance."

Jackson stepped over, offering a hand to Sidney. "What are you babbling?"

"It's their motto," Sidney replied, accepting the hand, being helped to his feet. "I could hear it. Unconsciously, I knew what was going on, but I couldn't do anything about it." He looked at the dead members of the board, shaking his head. "I can't believe I did this."

"Stay focused!" Jackson snapped. "How long have you had this thing on you?"

"About a month," Sidney replied. "You might've noticed my change in hair color and skin pigment at that point too. That thing did that to –"

"And how did you end up with it?" Jackson interrupted.

"Ada Wong," Sidney replied.

Jackson shook his head. "Figures. I'm guessing you got seduced by her."

"How do you know her?" Sidney asked.

"I'm the one that introduced her to Mr. Trent," Jackson replied. "And he's the only one that wasn't here for this meeting. Interesting timing."

Screams echoed outside the door as gunshots rang out. Jackson nodded toward the hole in wall that The Thanatos Tyrant made. "Let's get out of here. The holes will lead to my office."

"Does all of that mean that there's more people under scarab control?" Sidney asked as he followed after Jackson through the first hole, The Thanatos Tyrant following after them.

"More than likely," Jackson replied. "But there's no knowing how many people Ada Wong got to."

Three massive holes later, they were in Jackson's executive office. He moved to a wall where a display case stood. He grabbed a small bust statue of Lord Spencer by the head and pulled it back, revealing a huge button. He pressed the button and then stepped back.

"That supposed to lead to the Batcave or something?" Sidney joked.

"Something like that," Jackson said as the wall moved aside, revealing a vault door. "It's my panic room, which also has an escape shaft. It'll lead us out of here, but I want to know what's going on before we just leave." He pressed in a sequence of numbers on the vault, and then it swung open. They all stepped inside as the double entrance doors got kicked in.

Jackson and Sidney both turned back, seeing the Vice President, Joel Allman, blondish-white haired and pale skinned, moving in with a determined expression on his face. He raised a handgun, but Jackson quickly pulled the vault door closed.

They could just barely hear the gunshots bouncing off of the door as Jackson sighed. "The Vice President of our branch. Wonderful."

"Mr. Allman is a married man," Sidney pointed out. "How did she get to him?"

Jackson looked at Sidney like he was an idiot. "You've seen Ada Wong. You didn't escape her."

"I'm also not married," Sidney pointed out. "I have needs, Jack."

Choosing to ignore that comment from Sidney, Jackson stepped over to a large bank of monitors and took a seat.

Sidney stepped over as well, glancing multiple times at The Thanatos Tyrant, seeing the blank expression on his face as he simply stared off at nothing in particular. "Are we safe with that thing?"

Jackson chuckled. "Very much so. He's completely under my control. It was a damn good thing that I took him from Dr. Mueller before Raccoon City went to hell."

"It seems like Mueller is always losing everything," Sidney observed.

Jackson couldn't help but smile. "Well, he needed to stop getting too attached." Placing a hand on his chin, Jackson pulled up multiple feeds into Umbrella security, and he saw many breaches having occurred in different facilities, most in America. He brought up camera feeds and saw different people slaughtering their own compatriots.

"Looks like Charles Coleman is annihilating our Special Forces headquarters," Jackson pointed out.

"Amanda Whitney is killing everyone at our public relations office," Sidney said, pointing at a different monitor.

"We've lost Industrial Services because of David Bischoff," Jackson commented.

Sidney sighed. "Ellis Benjamin is killing some of our brightest researchers at the Paris Facility."

"Similarly, the Paris Board of Executives have been killed by Tommy Neilson," Jackson said. He shook his head. "Dr. Duvall has resurfaced as well. Looks like he was the one that hijacked The Spencer Rain cruise ship. We had a lot of dignitaries and politicians there for a party to gain new support for the company. There's an outbreak on that ship now."

"And our Medical Equipment warehouse is under attack by Douglas Lauper," Sidney informed.

"Finally, Linda Baldwin is killing everyone at the main Research & Development lab in Philadelphia," Jackson said. "Oh, and it looks like those renegade S.T.A.R.S. have attacked The Hive in Russia."

"Someone is destroying Umbrella from the inside out then," Sidney surmised.

"It would appear that way," Jackson commented before standing up, moving for an elevator door at the far end of the panic room.

"Do you really think it was Mr. Trent?" Sidney asked.

"It's highly possible," Jackson replied. "Him being missing from today's meeting and no one being able to reach him is suspect, but this scarab I pulled off of you gives me pause." He pressed the button, opening the elevator door. "Thanatos, let's go."

The Thanatos Tyrant moved forward finally as Jackson and Sidney stepped on.

"What does the scarab tell you?" Sidney asked as he stepped aside inside the elevator for The Thanatos Tyrant to move past him.

"That Brandon Bailey thinks that just because he's a founder of the company that he can ignore direct orders," Jackson replied.

The doors to the elevator closed as shock crossed Sidney's face. "You think this is Dr. Bailey's doing?"

"Him or him and Mr. Trent," Jackson said, narrowing his eyes, angered beyond belief.

"So, what do we do?" Sidney asked.

"Remember when we were trying to take over the company about twenty years ago?" Jackson asked. "How we started out strong, but then people started disappearing on us?"

Sidney nodded. "The Darius doctors and a few others were all we got."

A smirk crossed Jackson's face. "Now that we know Dr. Bailey is going to war, it's time we pick up some old habits once more."