Chapter 123: Locked In

Ada’s body moved on its own. It was when her chest touched the ground that her brain finally caught up as to why. She had felt it. A powerful chill down her spine. One of fear. Rick’s words had an effect on her but it was the tone of the last part that made her react on instinct.

“You’re all locked in with me.”

That was enough. Years of training, years of experience, made her body move protectively. It knew Rick was about to make his move and things would go bad. So it reacted by hitting the deck to not get caught in the cross fire between the street rat and everyone else.

When she saw the scientist's right knee blow back, completely shattered, she understood it was better for her to stay dead and observe. To get information on the young man who may not be an enemy but wasn’t an ally either.

Right before her eyes, she saw Rick disappear in a blink, like he had done earlier in the security room. One moment he was standing in front of the scientist, and at his back two soldiers. The next he was behind the latters. One punch crushed the throat of one. He would die of asphyxia within minutes. The other one was used as a meat shield after his neck was snapped with one hand.

It was done in a second. Two at best.

Rick grabbed the sidearm of his dead hostage with his free hand and shot. So fast it was as if the simple gun was an automatic or a machine gun instead of a semi-auto. But it wasn’t the most terrifying or aweing. What was, was that each bullet ended in the head of one of the mercenaries.

They all reacted the same way.

Their heads were thrown back by the impact of the lead and copper projectile. Their arms went slack and raised in the air from the recoil of their weapons now unmatched by their physical strength. Their bodies? Dragged back to the ground by the force of the impact on their heads.

All, without exception, fell dead as if it was an exercise. Or perhaps a manufacturing chain, where every unit, every item, is subjected to the same thing in the exact same way to get the exact same results.

Once out of bullets, Ada saw what was left of the mercenary used as a shield fall to the ground, Rick nowhere in sight. A dying scream came from her other side of her and she turned her head to have a look.

There, she saw Rick blinked into nothingness, right next to a merc who suddenly had a furious gash of blood come out of the side of his neck. She barely had the time to comprehend that the man had been stabbed in the jugular that another merc five feet away screamed too, his throat sliced open with Rick right behind him.

Those who were still alive kept shooting at the monster slaughtering them without much of an effort. Their shouts and yells were one of panic. They were scared and afraid and Ada really couldn’t blame them.

“M-m-monster! K-kill him! Kill him!”

Ada turned her head again and saw the scientist on his ass now. He was backing away with a very shaking body. Fear had overwhelmed the pain of his knee’s destruction. From the very wet spot on the man’s crotch, the small puddle on the ground and most importantly the acrid smell of ammoniac that made her nose crunched in disgust, it was clear it wasn’t just fear Rick was inducing but utter terror.

An alarm blared and soon enough more mercenaries came in from all sides. ‘So much for infiltration and discretion,’ Ada thought. Even more so when the sound of gunfire increased a lot. But so did the death cries too.

“Damnit! Shoot that thing—”

She recognized the voice of the captain who caught them, she also saw his head do a 180° turn from a punch. Despite the sound of gunfire, the sudden and violent breaking of the bones was clear to her ears. The soldier’s own machinegun was snatched by Rick in one swift movement and fired all around.

‘No need to aim and be careful of where you shoot when you’re surrounded.’ The thought amused her. She didn’t know why.

Rick got shot himself while doing so. Being stationary he was a very good and easy target. It wasn’t a surprise to Ada when he didn’t flinch much. His body was impacted violently and recoiled with blood flying everywhere. Unlike his earlier victim, however, Rick didn’t fall dead. The machine gun in his hand kept firing as if nothing was happening to its handler.

Once out of Bullet, her partner for the night disappeared again. He did it again when he reappeared a dozen feet away.

‘It’s as if he’s blinking in and out of reality.’

Again and again she saw him shimmered in and out of existence at different locations of the hangar. Each time one or more mercs died. Until finally, none were left standing or coming in to assist. Ada heard nothing at first but loud heavy breathing. Raising up, she had a look around and as expected it was a carnage. Bodies and blood were everywhere. To her surprise, Rick had very little on himself.

‘Then again, difficult to get drenched in blood when you can disappear before it reaches you.’

Standing to her feet, she noticed Rick making his way towards the scientist who kept baking away. He paid no attention to her.

‘Why would he? I’m no threat to him.’

The cries and pleas of the middle aged man for Rick to not approach him dight in his throat when he was grabbed by the collar of his shirt and hoisted into the air with one arm.

“Now, you’re gonna tell me wh—” Rick stopped talking when he noticed something wrong. With his free hand he snapped his finger in front of the scientist’s face. No reaction. “Did he… Did he die of fright?" He checked for a pulse and found none, prompting him to drop the body. “Huh. That’s a new one.”

‘I really can’t blame the guy. He’s a nerd that probably never exercised in his life and a scaredy cat. After the carnage you did, of course his heart would give away.’ Ada thought.

Rick turned to Ada. “I guess there is no need for infiltration anymore.”

The fake smile she gave him was Hollywood level. “It seems like it.”

“I’d like to know how they could have ambushed us though. First the palace was supposed to be empty, then the security was not quite like you were told…” He exhaled, tired. “Nevermind. Let’s get your info.”

After crouching down and taking the ID badge from the scientist, he tossed it at Ada and went to pick the one of another mad nerd. Leaving the hanger, but not before finding the manifests containing the information as to where and to whom the trucks were going, they checked the rest of the underground facility. The absence of any other personnel gave credit to the idea that the complex wasn’t supposed to have people present that night. It was proven true when they found a few computers in a lab.

By using the head honcho’s pass, they got access to his mail box. An email detailed a change in the schedule. Deliveries needed to be made early and in secrecy because of a potential mole leaking information.

“Found anything about that T-virus variant?” Rick asked Ada.

She typed away, opening and closing multiple windows of files and images on the monitor in front of her. “No. There is work done on the T-Veronica instead. It seems they were trying to… do away with its flaws by combining it with the Abyss virus.”

Rick’s blood turned cold. This wasn’t good news. The T-Veronica thrived in humid and high temperature territory and could quickly destroy and reform any eco-system. Released in the Amazon forest? Within a day all of it would be lost and mutated. In comparison it was very susceptible to low temperature hence why Alexia Ashford developed it in a base in Antarctica. The woman may have been an insane genius but she wasn’t crazy or stupid. The Abyss Virus for its part, developed very well inside organisms in cold temperature and high pressure. It was found in the fauna thousands of feet deep in the sea after all.

“A combination of the two would be disastrous. No eco system, no part of the world would be safe from its proliferation. Not even the T-Abyss would propagate that fast.” He spoke to himself.

“Hm… It’s not good indeed.”

He wondered if she was rethinking her contract with her client. The T-virus was one thing, this abomination the scientists were trying to make was far more dangerous. No question was asked however. It didn’t matter if her client got the data or not, he’ll track them down with both the support of the BSAA and the US government.

Ada removed the usb thumb drive from the computer and pocketed it.

“Here.” Rick presented her with the Broom Hc she had lent him and that he hadn’t had the opportunity to use.

After cocking an eyebrow at him in silence, she took the gun and tucked it on her belt.

“You probably have a few hours before the BSAA shows up to investigate.”

“I’m not done. I still have to destroy the data and this place.” She reminded him.

Rick simply gave her a shake of the head. “That new virus changes everything but…” He sighed and picked up the phone on one of the walls. “Maybe…”

He hesitated. Involving the BSAA would be dangerous. For himself. He’d have to answer questions neither he nor O’Brian wanted to answer about the slaughter in the hangar. That and how he came across the information about the secret lab under Oasis Remedies and why he infiltrated the place. Calling Walker wouldn’t be useful either. He doubted there would be enough undercover US operatives in Marrakesh, ones free on top of it, to help deal with the mess.

With a sigh he put down the phone, changing his mind about making a call.

“My copy of the data?”

Ada gave him a flat look. “I’m not your mom, get it yourself.”

Rolling his eyes, Rick conceded the point. Ada never said anything about sharing the data herself. “Wesker?”

This time he got a more emotional reaction from her. “I haven’t seen him since Spain in 2004. Better that way. I know he’s active in Eastern Europe and Africa or at least he was at the time.”

“Any organization name?”

“None. As far as I know he was self employed but I suspect he was working for someone. Probably one of the corporations who rose with Umbrella’s fall.”

“So a lot of them. What a waste of time.” He grumbled.

“Not quite. I know one of his regular contacts was an arms dealer named Ricardo Irving.”

Rick was familiar with the name. The man was Rachel’s target for the past eighteen months and was more slippery than an eel. The more she failed to catch him the more she wanted to kill the guy.

“I know the asshole.” was all the comments he made.

Now with a clear target, his search for Jill could continue. The problem was that Rachel wouldn’t be happy if she didn’t catch the man herself and O’Brian will never agree to partner Rick and her together. That was an issue for another time.

After stealing the data and erasing everything from the complex's server, Rick proceeded to deal with the bioweapon supposed to be sent away. It was an easy task. All he had to do was activate the nuke button.

Once he did so, he and Ada went back in haste to the elevator to get back to the security room. That’s where their path split. Ada used her grapple gun to reach for another building from a window, while Rick ran down the stairs to get out in case the whole building would be caught in the explosion of the underground labs. Arriving at the reception, he knocked out the night guard and carried him outside.

It was just in time to feel the tremor of the explosion, destabilizing Oasis Remedies violently enough that the building fell into itself. Not wanting to stay in the area he took the car he and Ada had arrived with and left the scene. After a good night of sleep, he went to the airport to get back to the States, where he made a call to Walker, reporting his findings. He left the data in the safe house they had used during the investigation on former Defense Secretary Wilson back in early 2006.

Now back in DC, he was filling in O’Brian.

The man was lighting his third cigarette since Rick gave him the down low. “I’m not letting you have any more vacation.” he wasn’t happy at all.

Rick simply shrugged, not caring.

“God damnit, Wald.”

“It’s not like I went there with the purpose of destroying the complex, sir. Get in, steal the data, get out. That was the plan. Didn’t work out so well, true but when I saw what they were working on… I mean… Sir… A mix between.”

“Yes, yes,” O’brian waved his hand in dissatisfaction. “I have an idea of how bad the T-Veronica and the Abyss virus could be together. That’s why I’m not too mad about it, but… damn it. What you did is not BSAA approved. It can’t be approved. That’s government's clandestine operations.”

“I know, sir. I’m not happy about it either. But I couldn’t let their operation go on. Not when they were about to make deliveries.”

“At least did you find something about Valentine?”

Rick nodded positively. “Ricardo Irving. He may be in contact with Wesker. Otherwise no.”

O’Brian wanted to tell him to give up even though he hoped Jill was alive somewhere. It was a pointless thing to do. Rick would simply quit the BSAA and search on his own and he couldn’t have that. It wasn’t like the man in front of him was volatile. The survival course was doing well and the investigations had little issues beyond the usual, save for this last one but then again, Clive couldn’t really blame him either for it. At least he wasn’t caught with a BSAA uniform so everything was fine.

“You’re not going after him. He’s Foley’s and Miller’s case.”

It was clear from the stone cold look Rick had on this face that he wasn’t happy by the news. “I know.”

“As soon as he gets back from his own investigation, I’m partnering you with Redfield.”

“Can I take a bullet in the head instead?”

O’Brian gave him an unamused look. “No, now go.”

Suppressing the urge to groan, Rick took his leave from his boss' office. The idea of making a team with Chris was a bit unpleasant. Not because the man was unpleasant himself but because he was a bonafide hero and a meatheat. The total opposite of Rick. Last but not least Chris reminded him too much of Claire. Not much of a surprise since they were brother and sister.

Regardless, he would suck it up and be professional as always. First thing first, he had to give the data he retrieved to Rebecca and Annette. He was sure that at least one of them would like it.