Chapter 101: Preparations

Rick filled his mouth with hot grilled bacon while watching Angela; the greasy and salty taste on his tongue raised his mood after the previous night. She was enjoying the aroma of the mug of coffee she had in hand. It wasn’t her enjoyment which interested him, it was how awake she was.

A welcome change in his personal opinion. Jill was the grumpy type. She could bite your head off if you didn’t give her half an hour and a very bitter black coffee. Rachel was like a sloth unless she felt horny which happened more often than not. At least, with him. Claire was the cuddly type. Either she snuggled to you feigning being asleep and not wanting to wake or she started her day slowly.

Angela was awake, ready and not in some kind of mood.

“What is it?”

Rick chewed the last of his food and swallowed it to answer his partner’s question. “I’m pleasantly surprised to finally work with someone who behaves normally in the morning.”

One of her eyebrows rose and arched to signal her confusion. “Normally?”

“No grumpiness, no sloth or…” He pointed at Rebecca sitting two tables over, her eyes fixed on him. “No murderous look.”

Side glancing at the former STARS, Angela frowned. “Huh.”

“Cherry on the cake, you’re not asking about it.”

“That’s not any of my business. I know you enough by now that if I need to know or if you want me to know, you’d tell me.”

Rick stared at her for a moment, then put the last piece of bacon in his mouth. “Yeah, I’m going to ask O’Brian to be partnered with you more often.”

This was a subject that interested her. Not being paired with Rick necessarily but how pairs were decided to begin with. It was something Rick hadn’t talked about at all. In her opinion it was something important. The more you knew your partner the more efficient you’d be on the field but she supposed that with what Rick could do, he didn’t really need a partner at all.

“How does that work?”

“Hm?”

“How are pairs decided?”

Rick blinked, his brain dealing with the question which came from the left field. “Oh, that. Well…” He wiped his mouth with his napkin. “There are no ‘pairs’ technically speaking. When two agents are needed, O’Brian just picks two people. True, most often than not the pair are the same. Jugs and Meathead, Barry and Parker, Grinder and Jackass… However when one of the duo is away for whatever reason, the pair change. For the Zenobia, Jugs and I were put together while our usual partners were with each other.

Angela realized that Rick had no partner. The empty desk he gave her and the fact that from the report she read about the Queen Zenobia, Chris’ partner at the time was Jessica Sherawat, everything pointed at the woman. The small issue was that with Rachel, the number of agents at the top office was odd. Someone was bound to go solo more often than not. Or it simply gave credit to pairs not really being assigned.

“Hm… So I might be your partner.”

“It’s either that or I’ll be the solo which would make sense.”

“What about Rachel? Isn’t she… Shouldn’t she be your designated partner?”

Rick shrugged. “Apparently O’Brian would rather die than put us together. Not like I blame him. Rachel and I… Lots of explosions, lots of destruction, lots of people dying when we’re working together. Most of all, lots of complaints. He nearly had a stroke when he learned I punched Senator Davis and I was alone. Us two together?” He shook his head in amusement. “The only reason he would do so is because it’s the end of the world.”

“I could be teamed up with her too.” Angela remarked. She didn’t dislike Rachel, if anything she found her funny with how flirty she was but sometimes it was a bit too much to her taste. She was fair however, those moments were outside working hours. From Barry’s words, Rachel was very professional while on duty.

“You probably will.” Rick nodded. “Either Parker or Barry too, so you can familiarize yourself with others. Grinder is the only guy who stands Jackass, so both are out. Jugs and Chris are busy in Europe so they’re out too.”

Angela finished her coffee as the last of the BSAA members joined for breakfast. They waited in the hotel’s lobby soon after so they could brief everyone about their tasks in more detail than O’Brian told them. A few grumbled at being on watch duty while others were excited at hunting possible BOW in the forest and seeing some action.

While Rick and Angela weren’t present, it was Rebecca who was in charge. There hadn’t been any protest about this but a few questions. Rebecca wasn’t technically an agent and shouldn’t be the one leading. Her experience in the Arklay mountains back in 98 and her knowledge about viral agents made her the correct choice.

“I hate you.”

Rebecca’s voice was full of anger and Rick’s face was utterly stoic. He was standing behind her, both hands on her shoulders. Right in front of them were the carcasses of the mutated leopard and wolves. The news that she would have to be elbows deep inside of them to search for the key they needed revulsed her. Especially so early in the morning.

“O’Brian sent you. Blame him.”

Fortunately for her, Rebecca wasn’t alone. The coroner was there too and he lent her some gear to make the autopsies. The man was a conversationalist and soon enough, both were talking about BOW in general. Two nerds working while having fun.

Rick went back to the precinct, where the BSAA completely made the interrogation room theirs. The map of the area had been hung on a wall making it easily accessible for everyone. Angela was briefing both BSAA and the police about the zones they would have to search. There were markers for the victims found, and the encounters of the leopard, the wolf pack and she was currently adding the location of its den.

Among the stuff that had been brought up from Washington was mainly weapons. Not the kind used for a hunt but the kind used for war. The most prominent were sub-machine guns with the regular 7.62 NATO ammo. Nothing worth picking up for him. Not after finding Collins weapon stash. What was interesting however was an ammo belt for bullets. With one of those he could load as many .357 cartridges as he needed.

Angela finished the briefing and joined him to the side. Rick was trying to find the best way possible to carry both his shotgun and his Winchester.

“Don’t you think it’s a bit too much?” She asked him.

He settled on putting the rifle vertically behind his left shoulder. “No. I need a big caliber and the guys didn’t come with anything like that. There is also never enough ammo and finally, switching weapons is faster than reloading.”

“I supposed the latter is true.” She had no experience about this but the thought of discarding a mag and loading another didn’t seem as fast as simply letting go of your weapon for another. It was especially true for firearms without magazines, like shotguns, revolvers and rifles.

“What about the back-up? What are they doing?”

Angela looked inside one of the weapon cases to see if there was something interesting. “I ordered them to make teams of two and to team up with at least one officer. I assigned each group and area they are to comb after gridding the map. They’ll depart soon.” She picked up two short distance radios and tossed one to Rick.

Everything being in order, the duo watched the police and BSAA leaving to do their jobs. For their part, they had nothing else to do but to wait for Rebecca and the coroner to finish cutting up the BOW and find the key to the elevator in the cabins. Hopefully. Without the key, the floor of the elevator will have to be blown up. Following that, it was rappelling down until they reached the entrance to the lab.

‘I hope it’s not like in Nest and we won’t need an ID bracelet to enter or go anywhere. The time delay to drill through the doors would be annoying.’

Rick remembered clearly the three thick metal doors serving as entrance to Nest. There was no way he could go through them by simply running like a ram at it. Concrete was one thing, providing the walls weren’t too thick but metal doors? It was beyond what he could do.

The whole morning went by agonizingly for Rick. Angela had her book and Nicole to talk too who had stayed behind to coordinate everyone out there. He had nothing and as a result played mine sweeper to hell and back.

He nearly kissed Rebecca square on the lips when she came in from the door linking the morgue to the precinct. Still clothes in her medical gard, she tossed him a set of keys.

“Here; your keys.”

“Thank you.”

Rick quickly got a look at what he had in hand. He counted four keys, and one key chain. A sigh nearly escaped him when he saw there was no beep for the elevator but the chain gave him pause. It was a thick but flat octagon in two colors: red and white. The perfect representation of Umbrella’s logo. What intrigued him however, was the black dot at the center. Using his thumb to cover it, he pressed and felt it sink a tiny bit. His guts told him it was it and he gave a nod to Angela who had been watching silently.

“Did you find anything else inside their stomachs?” Rick removed the key chain and pocketed it, leaving the keys on the desk.

Rebecca was already on her way out. She stopped at the door frame and turned around. “We’re not done yet. We still have one wolf and the leopard to process.”

“Okay. Angela and I are moving. We’ll make contact once we know the click works.”

“Suit yourself.”

For the first time since her arrival her tone didn’t contain any anger. Which was normal for Rebecca. She burnt hot but fast. The fact that her anger persisted well over the night and into the morning had been exceptional in Rick’s opinion. It also meant that he really pissed her off.

Emptying a weapon crate, he loaded all his gear inside of it. Angela did the same. He carried it effortlessly to their SUV and loaded it in the trunk. This time Rick went behind the wheel.

“I hope you didn’t forget anything because we’re not coming back to fetch it.”

Angela felt a tad bit offended by the remark. “I didn’t.”

Rick simply gave her a nod. Whether for acknowledgment or understanding of her unhappiness at his question was up for debate but it didn’t matter much. He let her turn the radio on and the rest of the road was spent in silence between them.

The car was turned around and parked back to the chalet. It was in case they needed to leave in a hurry. There wouldn’t be any waste of time by making a maneuver or putting the shift on R.

Angela opened the trunk and they began to gear up. The first thing that went was their winter coat. The cold was biting them to the bones but it was fine. They weren’t naked under it, they had ample warm clothes which would keep their body heat inside the lab. There was no way an underground facility where viruses and BOW were studied would not be controlled in the ambient temperature.

The tactical vest came first, next were the different magazines for their respective weapons. No less than four for Angela’s P90 and four for both their service weapons. Rick put his belt for the .357 bullets around his waist and his bandolier containing his shotgun shells above his vest. A filled knife holster ended at their ankle and another at their shoulder. Their Tomahawk was put horizontally at their lower back. Angela tucked the holster for her .44 Python under her left armpit and Rick put his Winchester behind his left shoulder like he had practiced earlier. The radios were the last to be attached to their free shoulder.

Rick gave Angela the beeper once they were ready. They entered the chalet through the garage door, already the difference of temperature outside could be felt.

“If I get sick I’m blaming you.” she warned.

He stayed silent but inwardly rolled his eyes. Once inside the pantry, Angela didn’t hesitate. Hand raised with the beeper in it, she clicked it. The sound of something mechanical and heavy echoed from below. They felt a jolt under their feet and the ground slowly lowered. The furniture against the walls stayed where they positioned.

Pulling out his phone, Rick quickly called Rebecca. Unfortunately she didn’t pick up.

“Becca, we’re getting in. If we’re not back by dawn, lock the area and have the guys on standby to deal with whatever may come out. Also call O’Brian.”

Hanging up, Angela gave him a look. “Dawn? That’s rather ominous.”

Rick pumped his shotgun. “I must have spent too much time with Rachel because I got a really bad feeling right now.”

Not reassured, she checked her submachine gun. The safety was off and turned on the flashlight. Whatever was awaiting them, she was ready to face it and come out of the other side alive.