Chapter 78: Do Your Job

Raymond was untied and Rick gave him back his gun and his two spare magazines. His tactical vest from his Il Veltro personna? Hell would freeze over before Rachel would hand that back. She even aimed her MP5 at him when he requested it.

The split in two teams was something the blonde woman was more than happy with. Even more so when she was paired with Rick instead of Jill. Not like she disliked her but she was more used to Rick and was really worried about his state.

With only one way available, they all got inside the cafeteria. There was a thick fog on the floor, almost high enough to reach the knees. By reflex, Rachel aimed low while Rick aimed at the second floor to deal with any threats. They move as one, protecting each other’s sides. Jill immediately noticed the ease with which they did so. It was cleared that despite the two years spent separated, their team habits were still there and still as sharp.

She and Raymond went up the second floor to go to the upper cabins, while Rick and Rachel or as the blonde woman called themselves ‘R&R’, went to the lower ones. With the two teams separated, RAchel used the opportunity to ask how he fared.

“How are you doing? Any… changes?”

Rick was upfront with her. “It burns. And itches. I can feel it spreading slowly.”

“You can feel that?” That astonished her.

He gave her a nod instead of verbalizing his answer. His interest was focused on a door with a card reader next to it. A simple wooden door, locked by the need of a key card. It was stupid, in his opinion. So very stupid that his idea of the ship having been designed by a Trevor got more credence. Rick didn’t even bother, raising his tomahawk to swing and destroy the wood. He simply kicked the door open, right next to its handle. The blow was so strong that it broke down.

“That’s one way to do it.” She commented with amusement before getting back on topic. “Do you know how long…?”

“If the speed is constant…. No. Even that…” Rick shook his head. “I can’t tell, Rach. I don’t have enough information, both on my body and on the virus, to know.”

The cabin was small. More of an office than living quarters. It had a few shelves with books, leading to a desk area, where they found a body with a blown up head sitting at it.

“Jackpot.” Rick walked forward, ignored the corpse and picked up a gun on the desk.

Rachel got curious but the space was so narrow and Rick so tall, there was no way for her to see what he found. “What is it?”

“A good old Colt Python.” He turned around to show it to her. Small barrel, silver metallic in color and with a black grip. “No bullets though,” he added and handed it to her. She took it without protest or saying a single thing.

There was nothing much to find in the area beyond a suicide note from the dead man. He had taken his life so he wouldn’t get killed by one of the Ooze, or to not go through starvation. A right way to go in both their opinion.

Leaving the room they went through another door. Some kind of library with an Ooze busy sucking the heavy amount of blood on the ground as if it was a delicacy. Rick took care of it without difficulty with his Tomahawk.

“It’s official, they’re not after flesh, they’re after—”

Rachel cut him off. “Blood.”

“Yes but I think they’re more after liquids in general. The ones which grabbed you… you had a huge bleeding gash on your thigh, yet it went for your head. After the torso, the thigh is the meatiest part of the body, the head? It has a lot of blood vessels but they’re just that, blood vessels. Not veins or arteries and everything else is just bones.”

Trying to not think about her near death experience, the blonde woman focused on the Oozes themselves. “It’s obvious they’re part fish. Raymond said something regarding the Abyss virus being found in deep sea level fish… Do you think that much like the zombies, they’re trying to… find water like they search for flesh?”

“It’s possible.” Rick answered after a moment. “Rachel… No more kisses. There was no exchange of saliva earlier but—”

She paled a bit at the realization that maybe she might be infected too but quickly realized that with how slowly the infection was spreading inside Rick’s body, she was most probably safe.

“Right. No more… Better not save my life anymore then.” Her joke landed flat for the both of them.

“Once my body has dealt with the virus and we’re out of there, you can kiss me all you want.”

This was as close to emotions as she has ever seen him display on the field. That surprised her and it toed on borderline shock. She didn’t know where that came from. The fact he wasn’t in the military anymore? Or the two years away from the highly dangerous missions? Last but not least his heartbreak from his ex. Rachel decided to put it on the latter. Claire being a target was a natural thing for her at this point. That brought her to another subject.

“Soooo…. You and Jill?”

“Is between us and she doesn’t want it to be known.” His reply wasn’t cold but disinterested.

There was no way Rachel would be satisfied with that. They both knew it but Rick foolishly hoped it would.

“Come on! How did it happen?”

Exhaling deeply through his nose, Rick let it go. It was better to feed his partner the information she wanted rather than ignore it. She’d be way too annoying in the long run.

“When I got back home, I dealt with all the paperwork to get a new ID, driver license and credit card. It drained the last bit of energy I had left in me so I went to see her. We had dinner at her flat and we played that mustache drinking game. She got drunk and horny and well…”

“You wanted to feel loved and cared for for a bit and she’s pretty.” She understood the rest of the story without him needing to say it.

“Yeah. That's it. Well… not quite. It was quite awkward in the morning but we hashed everything out, had sex again and now… I think… It’s just like you and me. Almost? It’s different because… The relationships are different. I don’t foresee having sex with her again on a regular basis but if the opportunity presents itself without asking for it, I don’t think she’d be against it.”

“Makes sense. She’s almost family to you. Or is.” A small smirk appeared on her lips. “Incest kink, huh?”

Rick gave her a flat look. “Really? You’re trying to kink shame me? You? Miss, I love to be choked and ass-to-mouth?”

Her smile broadened. “So it is a kink!”

Determined to not play her game like she intended, he deflected a bit. “Well… I don’t think it’s a kink but I do have unresolved mommy issues. Hence why I’m going for older women.”

“Fuck off!” She kicked the back of his leg with a pout. “I’m not old! I’m…!” she grumbled about her age making it unintelligible.

“And I’m twenty four. Now that we reminded each other our age, can we focus?”

Scowling at him, she hit him once more on their way to the next room. Another library. Minus the three Oozes, they took down with their sideweapons, there was nothing else but a single green herb. Finding them again after so long, didn’t help Rick thinking about the place being designed by a Trevor. More than that, it was another link to the now defunct Umbrella. While the trials completely destroyed the company, he wasn’t duped about the whereabouts of many of its scientists. Most of them joined another pharmaceutical company. Whichever one took control of Umbrella’s remains got the right to the herbs and that made Rick think that there was, indeed, a third party involved in the development of the T-Abyss.

The next room was a simple corridor. It led to a storage room, an actual cabin, numbered 200. Beyond a couple Oozes, a hand grenade and a green herb there wasn’t anything worthy of their attention. Only the last door did.

When Rick kicked it, the door didn’t budge and his foot just went through the wood to end up stuck. Rachel stifled a laugh while he held himself against the door frame to have a support and not fall to the ground as he tugged his foot back.

Looking through the hole he had created he saw another set of chains with a padlock. Aiming his .45, he shot the lock down. With the chains now on the ground, the door was free to be open.

“Smarter than a card reader.” was his only comment as Rick went through the doorway.

“True and a bit more effective.”

The only thing in front of them was an elevator. Not thinking twice about it, they got inside. It led to the upper cabin, where Jill and Raymond were and to the bridge. Deciding to leave the other team alone so he and Rachel could investigate on their own, Rick hit the bridge’s button.

Arriving at their destination, they went through a locker room and got some shotgun shells and a green herb. At this point, Rick just hoped there wouldn’t be a Tyrant juiced up from the T-Abyss.

The burning sensation had spread through his whole torso and he wanted nothing more than to tear his clothes off and jump inside a cold bath. This would be a very counterproductive measure. Not only the cold would shrink his blood vessels keeping the body heat inside and just cool down his skin but a fever was proof of a body fighting an infection. Cooling down the body like that could diminish the immune system’s efforts.

‘At least it’s not as hurtful as the G-virus. To be fair it was a fucking worm swirling around inside my body.’

If anything, Rick was thirsty. Not uncommon when you were sick with a fever but considering what they had learned about the B.O.W. made from the T-Abyss, he didn’t know if it was a good thing or not. At the very least he wasn’t thirsting for Rachel. Not in a different way than usual that is.

“Is that what I think it is?” Rachel called out to Rick bringing him back to the present. She was standing over a console and checking things on a monitor.

He got closer and had a look. “A nuke button. You know what that means.”

“Yeah and I’m not sure I’m liking it.”

Over their five years going in every corner all over the world, they only found ‘nuke buttons’ in labs working on B.O.W. . A last resort to purge the whole complex and make sure nothing dangerous escaped. The ultimate cover up in case of a viral outbreak. So far it was a hundred percent accurate.

The Queen Zenobia being a cruiser ship turned into a terrorist base, didn’t need such a thing. Logically it was supposed to store B.O.W. and release them onto their targets through UAVs. The fact that there was currently an outbreak on the ship had been attributed to a T-Abyss container failing and the virus infecting everyone. The possibility that it was a lab where the virus was produced had always been on the table but it was very low odds. Labs were hidden and out of reach for a reason. Who would put a lab onto a ship that would launch a terrorist attack? The fact that the F.B.C. destroyed the one ship during the Terragrigia Panic, officially dealing permanently with Il Veltro, was proof that it was a very bad idea. The lab could be taken out easily.

Yet, the presence of the nuke button proved otherwise.

“Me neither.” Rick shook his head. “This is bad. The T-Abyss is all about fluids…”

Rachel frowned and her face paled at the same time. “And we’re on a fucking ship in the middle of the fucking sea. We need to find that lab and destroy every trace of the virus. 70% of the world is water… If it’s released…”

“It would be the end of the world. Fights for clean waters while fighting the B.O.W. That wouldn’t be an epidemic but a pandemic. That cannot happen.”

“No. But what do we do with this?” Rachel pointed at the screen and meant the purge protocol.

“We keep quiet. Anyone who knows of it is working for Lansdale or a third party.”

She asked in suspicion “Raymond?”

“I can’t place him.” Rick confessed. “I know he’s working for O’Brian and not Lansdale but… It doesn’t mean he’s on our side. Taking down Lansdale may be a personal objective or an objective that aligns with a third party he might be working for.”

Rachel thought about the situation for a moment. About Raymond mostly. She hadn’t needed Rick to know that a pharmaceutical company may have provided the means to her boss to develop the T-Abyss. She had seen such things almost every time over the years.

The presence of the nuke button all but confirmed the existence of a backer from the pharmaceutical field at this point to the both of them.

“If he knows, he’s not working for O’Brian but is a triple agent.” She summarized. “Alright, I agree. We keep quiet about it. Jill?”

Rick didn’t even hesitate. “Tell her in private out of Raymond’s earshot.”

Rachel nodded and they departed for the stairs leading down to another level. After going through another door they had a choice. Take the elevator at the end of the path or turn right. They took the latter, bringing them to another intersection going right or left. The door on the left was a heavy one with the symbol of a helm on it. The one on the right had nothing so they went there.

It looked like a conference room. A long and wide table with multiple chairs around it. No Ooze was in sight and there was no air vent for them to sneak in. Feeling relatively safe, they began to move around to have a look or rather Rachel did.

Rick was feeling even weaker. As if the virus had finally accelerated his infection and his body answered in kind. He was absolutely burning up and every symptom of a fever was there. Sweat drenched him, the headache had started and he was filling chills. The shivers would start soon enough, his muscles already aching.

At this point he chose to limit his movements to conserve the bit of strength he had left and only move when his eyes found something interesting. Which they did. A workbook detailed the entire of the Queen Zenobia services available.

“Rach, we have a problem.” He called out to her.

Soon enough she was by his side looking at the passage Rick was pointing with his finger. “A Solarium. Damnit it!” Her sear packed quite a bit of heat. “As if being surrounded by water wasn’t enough, they have a fucking solarium. That place must be crawling with those things. All kinds of them.”

“It needs to be destroyed, or at least… the favorable environment. If they need liquids to survive and perhaps breed then turning the heat up might put an end to everything.”

“That’d be lots and lots of molotovs." The blonde woman grimaced.

“Yeah…” He diverted his eyes to look at her. “Found anything?”

“A bit of ammo and… This.” She proudly presented a golden key with the base in the shape of a helm.

“That’s good.”

Rick nodded and by tacit accord left the conference room to open the other door. From the looks of it, it was the Captain’s cabin. Rather spacious and luxurious. The light of a desk lamp caught his attention and went to check it out. Power was down so there shouldn’t be any light. What he found was a lamp working on a battery.

That was an important clue that hinted at the outbreak being rather recent. From the low luminosity and the battery itself, Rick could tell that the lamps had been turned on for at best a week. It meant that the ship was still operational after the Terragrigia Panic happened. Il Veltro was already dealt with by then so the crew of the ship was definitely working either for Lansdale or the third party.

This brought up the question: Why was the ship and probably the lab still operational eighteen months after the bio-terrorist attack?

A foul smell of rot came to the turning seat next to him and Rick didn’t need to turn it around to know he’d find a corpse. Not hesitating, he still turned it around to find what may probably have been the captain. Rising his tomahawk he aimed for the neck. What would have needed a single blow took four of them to properly sever the head from the shoulders.

‘At least… I won’t be bothered by an Ooze.’ Rick thought to himself.

Turning around he saw Rachel standing silently with a worried look. She had seen him hack the body weakly. Ignoring her, he looked at a ledger on the desk. The History of the Queen Zenobia.

“I fucking knew it!” His exclamation was not very loud despite how infuriating the information he discovered was.

Rachel got closer to have a look. “What is it?”

“Fucking George Trevor designed the blueprints of the fucking ship.”

She was well aware of the hatred her best friend had for the man and his work.In any other situation, she would have snorted. But Rick’s legs suddenly gave out and she barely caught him from falling.

“I’m… I’m staying here, Rach.” He said weakly.

She put one of his arms around her shoulders and ragged him to the Captain’s bed so he could lay down. Rick chose to sit first on the mattress, having something else in mind.

“Take everything.” His voice was low and the words came through a clenched jaw and gritted teeth.

Rachel didn’t need an explanation. She understood what he meant and quickly began to remove his belt with all the pouches and mags pockets attached to it. His small backpack was laid down one strap at the time. Next came his sidearm, leaving only his axe as a unique piece of gear.

While she put everything on then tuck the whole surplus, including his tactical vest, into the bag, Rick made himself comfortable on the bed. She reached for his cheek with one hand and caressed it lovingly.

“You’re going to beat that shit, you hear me?” She whispered.

“I will… but—”

Rachel cut him up on the spot. “There is no ‘but’. You’re not fucking dying on me as a result of saving my life. If you have to die, it’s because you fucked up, not because you saved my ass. Got it? I forbid you.”

Rick gave her a tired smile but soldiered on. “You’ll get… half of my… everything. House and car. Jill gets…. The other… Half.”

It infuriated her to hear him say that. The ‘shut up’ that escaped her lips sounded more like a growl.

“You want me to have half? Then you better marry me so I can take it in the divorce.”

The joke made him chuckle painfully. “You, marrying?” Hell would freeze over before that happened. “Worse odds than me dying, hm?”

“Exactly! So get some rest, beat that virus then survive. I’m not leaving that ship without you. We’re the expert in survival, that’s why we were chosen for the jobs we did, so do your fucking job.”

This time she almost snarled when she talked. When she was done, she huffed and left the room without looking back. She had faith that the most important person in her life would get through this.

For his part, Rick closed his eyes, too tired to even enjoy the sight of Rachel’s ass leaving.