surging beats.
He took a deep breath, then another, and after a
moment, his heart slowed down to a more normal
pace. The shrieks of the crows gradually grew distant,
blown away on a softly moaning wind.
Jesus, how dumb can I get? Stupid, stupid.
He'd stormed out onto the deck looking for a fight, looking to avenge the deaths of the other
S.T.A.R.S. and been shocked into stupidity by
what he'd found. If he hadn't let himself get so
freaked out by Forest's death, he would have made
the connection sooner between the birds and the
types of wounds and perhaps noticed the gather-
ing flesh-eaters that had watched him from the
shadows, looking for their next victim.
He headed for the door back to the main hall, angry
with himself for going into a situation unprepared. He
couldn't afford to keep making mistakes, to let his
attention wander from what was in front of him. This
wasn't some kind of a game, where he could push a
reset button if he missed a trick. People were dying,
his friends were dying - and if you don't pull your head out of your ass and start being more careful,
you 're going to join them.
Another torn and lifeless body crumpled in a cold
hallway somewhere, another victim to the insanity of
this house.
Chris silenced the nagging whisper, taking a deep
breath as he stepped back into the high gallery of the
lobby and closed the door behind him. Beating him-
self up was no more useful than charging blindly
around in a strange and dangerous environment,
looking for revenge. He had to concentrate on what
was important: the lost Alphas and Rebecca.
He walked toward the stairs, tucking Forest's weap-
on into his waistband. At least Rebecca would be able
to defend herself.
"Chris."
Startled, he looked down to see the young
S.T.A.R.S. member at the base of the wide steps,
grinning up at him.
He jogged down the stairs, glad to see her in spite of
himself. "What happened? Is everything all right?" Rebecca held up a silver key as he reached her, still
smiling widely. "I found something I thought you could use."
He took the key, noting that the handle was etched
with a tiny shield before slipping it inside his vest.
Rebecca was beaming, her eyes flashing with excite-
ment.
"After you left, I played the piano and this secret
door opened up in the wall. There was this gold
emblem inside, like a shield, and I switched it with
the one in the dining room and the grandfather
clock moved, and that key was behind it."
She broke off suddenly, her smile faltering as she
studied his face. "I'm sorry ... I know I shouldn't have left, but I thought I could catch you before you got too far ..."
"It's okay," he said, forcing a smile. "I'm just
surprised to see you. Here, I found you something a
little better than a can of insect repellent."
He handed her the Beretta, pulling out a couple of
clips to go with it. Rebecca took the gun, staring down
at it thoughtfully.
When she looked up at him again, her gaze was
serious and intense. "Who was it?"
Chris thought about lying, but saw that she wasn't
going to buy it and realized suddenly what it was
about her that made him feel so protective, that made
him want to shield her from the sad and sickening
truth.
Claire.
That was it; Rebecca reminded him of his little
sister, from her tomboy sarcasm and quick wit to the
way she wore her hair.
"Listen," she said quietly, "I know you feel respon- sible for me, and I admit that I'm pretty new at this.
But I'm a member of this team, and sheltering me
from the facts could get me killed. So-who was it?"
Chris stared at her for a moment and then sighed.
She was right. "Forest. I found him outside, he'd been pecked to death by crows. Kenneth's dead, too."
A sudden anguish passed across her eyes, but she
nodded firmly, keeping her gaze on his. "Okay. So what do we do now?"
Chris couldn't help the slightest of smiles, trying to
remember if he'd ever been so young.
He motioned up the stairs, hoping that he wasn't
about to make another mistake. "I guess we try another door."
Wesker didn't catch much of the conversation be-
tween Barry and Jill, but after a muffled, "Good luck," from Mr. Burton, he heard a door open and close somewhere near by and a moment later, the
hollow thump of bootsteps against wood, followed by
another closing door. The hall outside was clear, his
team off on their mission to find the rest of the copper
crests.
Looks like I picked the right room to wait in.
He'd used the helmet key to lock himself into a
small study by the back door, the perfect place from
which to monitor the team's progress. Not only could
he hear them coming and going, he'd be able to get a
head start to the labs.
He held the heavy wind crest up to the light of the
desk lamp, grinning. It had been too easy, really. He'd happened across the plaster statue on his way back from talking to Barry, and remembered that it had a
secret compartment somewhere. Rather than waste
valuable time searching, he'd simply pushed the hide-
ous thing off the dining room balcony. It hadn't been
hiding one of the crests, but the sparkle of the blue
jewel amidst the rubble had been almost as good.
There was a room just off the dining hall that held a
statue of a tiger with one red eye and one blue, one of
the few mechanisms that he'd remembered from an
earlier visit. A quick visit to the statue had confirmed
his suspicions; both eyes had been missing, and when
he'd placed the gaudy blue jewel into its proper
socket, the tiger had turned to one side and presented
him with the crest. Just like that, he was one step
closer to completing his mission.
When the other three are in place, I'll wait until
they're off looking for the final piece and then slip right
out the door.
He considered going to check the diagram, but
decided against it. The house was big, but not that big,
and there was no need to expose himself to further
risk of being seen. Besides, they probably hadn't
managed to find any of the other crests yet. He'd
already had a close call when he'd gone downstairs to
retrieve the jewel, almost stepping directly into Chris
Redfield's path. Chris had found the rookie and the
two of them were blundering around, probably look-
ing for "clues."
Besides, this room is comfortable. Maybe I'll take a
nap while I wait for the rest of them to catch up.
He leaned back in the desk chair, pleased with
himself for all he'd accomplished so far. What could
have been a disaster was turning out quite nicely,
thanks to some quick thinking on his part. He had
already found one of the crests, he had Barry and Jill
working for him and he'd had the good fortune to
run into Ellen Smith while he'd been in the library.
Oops, scratch that. It's Doctor Ellen Smith, thank
you very much.
After fetching the wind crest, he'd gone to the
library to check the small side room that overlooked
the estate's heliport, the entrance concealed behind a
bookcase. A quick search had revealed nothing useful,
and he'd been about to check the back room when Dr.
Smith had shambled out to greet him.
He had tried to get a date with her ever since he'd
moved to Raccoon, drawn in by her long legs and
platinum blond hair; he'd always been partial to
blonds, particularly smart ones. Not only had she
repeatedly turned him down, she hadn't even tried to
be nice about it. When he'd called her Ellen, she'd coolly informed him that she was his superior and a
doctor, and would be addressed as such. Ice queen,
through and through. If she hadn't been so damned
good-looking, he never would've bothered in the first
place.
But my, how your beauty has faded, Dr. Ellen. . .
Wesker closed his eyes, smiling, reliving the experi-
ence. It had been the ratty strings of blond hair that
had given her away as she'd shuffled out from behind
a shelf, moaning and reaching for him. Her legs were
still long, but they'd lost a lot of their appeal - not to
mention a fair amount of skin.
"What lovely perfume you're wearing, Dr. Smith,"
he'd said. Then two shots to the head, and she'd gone
down in a spray of blood and bone. Wesker didn't like
to think of himself as a shallow man, but pulling the
trigger on that high-riding bitch had been wonder-
fully- no, deeply-gratifying.
Like icing on a cake, a little bonus perk for taking
matters in hand. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll run into that
prick Sarton down in the labs. . .
After a few moments, Wesker stood up and
stretched, turning to scan some of the titles on the
bookshelf behind him. He was eager to get moving,
but it might take the S.T.A.R.S. awhile to find the rest
of the puzzle pieces and there was really nothing he
could do to hurry the process; he might as well keep
busy.
He frowned, struggling to make sense of the techni-
cal titles. One of the books was called, Phagemids:
Alpha Complementation Vectors, the next one was,
cDNA Libraries and Electrophoresis Conditions.
Biochemistry texts and medical journals, terrific.
Maybe he'd get that nap in after all. Just reading the
titles was making him sleepy.
His gaze fell across a heavy-looking tome sitting by
itself on one of the lower shelves, bound in a fine red
leather. He picked it up, glad to see a title he could
read printed across the front, even one as stupid as,
Eagle of East, Wolf of West.
Wait - that's the same thing written on the fountain.
Wesker stared at the words, feeling his good mood
slipping away. It couldn't be, the researchers had gone
nuts but surely they wouldn't have locked down the
labs, there was no reason for it. He opened the book
almost frantically, praying that he was wrong
and let out a low moan of helpless rage at what
was tucked into the sham book's glued pages. A brass
medallion with an eagle engraved on it lay in the cut
away compartment - part of a key to yet another of
Spencer's insane locks.
It was like the punch line to a cruel joke. To get out
of the house, he had to find the crests. Once out in the
courtyard, he'd have to make his way through a
winding maze of tunnels that ended in a hidden
section of the garden - where there was an old stone
fountain that marked the entrance to the under-
ground labs. The fountain was one of Spencer's
fanciful creations, a marvel of engineering that could
be opened and closed to hide the facility under-
neath - provided, of course, that you had the keys:
two medallions made out of brass, an eagle on one, a
wolf on the other.
Finding the eagle meant that the gate was closed.
