The Arklay Outbreak

Chapter Twenty-Six

Wesker pressed a button on his keyfob and his car headlights flashed twice. He opened the driver’s side door and looked back toward the police station, the exterior illuminated by streetlights. At night, the place looked like an oversize mausoleum.

I’m never going to see this place again, he thought. He wasn’t at all sad about that fact, as he had too much else to be concerned with, but he had spent ten years working there and needed a moment to resign himself that his career as a police officer was over. He found it funny that he didn’t care at all about law or justice, and had worked there solely to conceal his own crimes, and yet he had still been a pretty good cop in those ten years. If Raccoon City survived the oncoming undead apocalypse, and Wesker made it through without getting exposed as the mad scientist he was, he could almost see them putting up a plaque in his honor, commemorating his years of loyal service. It almost made him laugh just thinking about it.

“Wesker! Wait!”

He looked up toward the side entrance to the police station and saw Jill Valentine coming toward him. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to any of his team members right now, but at least it wasn’t Chris or Barry. Both of them were too smart for their own good. Jill, on the other hand, despite being a perfectly competent police officer and an overall nice person, was a bit naive and short-sighted. Lying to her was easier than lying to the others because she wasn’t as good at spotting a lie.

“What is it, Jill?” he asked, tossing his jacket into the passenger seat.

She caught up to him and panted a little, putting her hands on her hips. “Are you going home?”

“Yes, I haven’t been sleeping well. I think I’ll need to be well rested come tomorrow.”

Jill was on the verge of saying something, and then seemed to lose her train of thought. “Why? What’s happening tomorrow?” she asked, taking the bait.

Sometimes, getting the edge in an argument was simply a matter of saying the right things to provoke the right questions. Jill came out to the parking lot to ask him something, probably a specific question about Bravo team that he didn’t have a convenient lie for. All he had to do was insert comments at the right time to throw her off course. She had probably already forgotten what she had come out to ask him. And when she went back inside, she would feel as if he had answered it.

“You know as well as I do that something’s wrong with this mission Bravo’s supposed to be on,” Wesker said, leading her to agree to the obvious to turn the conversation in his favor. “I can’t do anything about it just now, but after twenty-four hours without radio contact, I can officially declare an emergency regardless of the circumstances.”

“You don’t expect radio contact for that long?”

Wesker realized he had overstepped his bounds. He had to make up something. “When they called in, Enrico said that they were being instructed to maintain radio silence, even over private bands. I don’t know if it has to do with the nature of the location or their mission, but I got the feeling that they wouldn’t be allowed to call us back.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s a secret government installation, and they’ll probably have to sign non-disclosure agreements or something. I don’t know. This is supposed to be an undercover mission, and I think that they won’t be allowed to contact us. It’s just a hunch I have.”

That seemed to satisfy her, even though Wesker had made it up on the spot. “So what happens after twenty-four hours?”

“If we don’t hear from them, I can say that the mission is in danger and have Irons authorize a rescue mission to go after them.”

“Would Irons do it?”

“He hates this as much as I do. He had no choice but to send Bravo, but if I give him an opportunity, he’ll send us right after them.”

“He didn’t look happy when we talked to him,” Jill said. “He said he couldn’t give us any details about what Bravo was doing.”

“I know. He said the same thing to me. But if we don’t hear from Bravo by tomorrow night, we can do something about it. I don’t care if it’s a secret installation or not, we’re going to back Bravo team up.”

Jill smiled and Wesker felt a weird mixture of pride and self-disgust. He lied to her with a straight face and won her over completely, and even after years of practice, it still made him feel like a jerk sometimes. He saw that Jill respected him more in that moment than she ever had before, and it made him feel worse and better at the same time.

“I’m glad to hear that we’re going after them,” Jill said. “Do you mind if I tell the others?”

“Go ahead. The sooner they know, the sooner they can get ready. I don’t even know what we’ll be going up against, so we have to be prepared.”

Jill nodded and set her hand on Wesker’s shoulder. “Go get some sleep then. We’ll see you tomorrow, and we’ll be ready.”

Wesker smiled and got into his car. “Good night, Jill,” he said as he closed the door.

“Good night, Wesker,” Jill said, stepping away from the car and retreating back into the station.

Wesker turned the key and the car came to life. He watched Jill walk away and sighed to himself, putting the car in reverse. Jill would tell the others, and by the time they left tomorrow evening, the rest of the team would be anxiously awaiting their departure. They would be looking forward to their chance to rescue Bravo team from whatever they faced. They would willingly hurry to their ultimate demise at the Arklay labs. It was so pathetic it almost broke his heart.

Because they had no chance of succeeding. All of Bravo team would certainly be dead by tomorrow night, if they weren’t dead already. And Wesker fully intended to be the last member of Alpha team left alive when it was all over. Their “rescue mission” would really be a suicide mission.

Wesker put it out of his mind and drove his car out of the parking lot. He had to get back to the labs. There was still much more to do.

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