I burst into the office and see, some distance to the left—where the door to the private quarters is located rather than the working office (if I'm still remembering the canon correctly)—two illuminated figures. One is short, while the other comparable in size to the Four Eyes. Yup, Claire is currently persuading the daughter of one mad scientist to join her and not get herself into trouble. What can you do—maternal instincts have kicked in. And straight ahead, slightly to the right, behind the wall, that very same bloated figure is descending, and judging by the vertical, relatively rapid drop, by elevator. Damn it! He's about to turn my test subject into a stuffed trophy… and on top of that, he'll run into Birkin. Tough choice. I need to intercept him before that happens—and I even know how.
"Follow me, we're almost late!" I barked, then dashed to the wall and began quickly searching it. I don't have the opening sigils, but neither did the chief. No, I'll concede they might have existed, and what Claire found could've been a spare set in case the originals were lost. But that doesn't interest me. I'm not looking for a lever or anything like that—I'm looking for the seam of a hidden door.
"Found it!" I crowed when I spotted a narrow gap in the wall of suitable dimensions.
"What?" the Four Eyes didn't understand.
"The door!" I snapped, extending my claws and setting to work on a forced entry, overpowering the mechanism in a couple of moments. Whatever you say, my strength has increased.
"Go in and set it back in place. I'll deal with the shaft," Yamata tossed over her shoulder as she lunged ahead, grasping my intent on the fly. Smart girl. I wasn't wrong choosing you—I doubt I'd have meshed so well with someone like Bertha, or that we'd have achieved the same level of mutual understanding.
While I returned the door to its original position and checked that I hadn't actually broken anything, my burglar had already picked open the elevator shaft. Seeing that I was finished, she made an inviting gesture. I didn't bother chiding her for excessive theatrics at a moment like this—obviously, these were echoes of the personality fragments she'd absorbed during her first feeding. No point tormenting the girl further over it. I jumped.
Yamata, unlike me, having developed along a somewhat different path, couldn't boast the same bodily and skeletal durability, so under acceleration she crawled down the sheer shaft, rapidly working her limbs.
Landing atop the elevator car, I slithered inside like a snake and emerged into the corridor. Straight ahead was a wall; to the left, a dead end—so right it was. A couple of meters, then another right turn, a Z-shaped bend, then straight—and there he was: a frightened fat man, or rather a heavyset older gentleman with magnificent sideburns and a mustache, yanking out his gun. A girl lay slung over his shoulder; judging by the absence of illumination, she was already well and truly dead. Time to begin the intimidation act!
Hissing, wings flaring, I charged him, accelerating at the last second and feigning a grab. But just like the Tyrant, I can't properly control acceleration—so instead of the police chief himself, I snatched the girl's body.
With a terrified expression, the police chief bolted for the door to my left and locked it from the inside. No, a steel-clad door is serious business—but if I'd needed to, I could've smashed it in. Right now, though, the main thing was not to cross paths with Claire, Sherry, and Leon. Hoisting the girl's body more comfortably, I headed back to the elevator.
"Womanizer," the Four Eyes declared, snorting skeptically at the sight of the loot.
"Make up your mind—am I impotent or a womanizer?"
"One doesn't preclude the other. Come on, let's head up." And she vanished into the elevator shaft first.
By some miracle, we managed not to run into Claire, and soon found ourselves back on the roof, where I latched onto the neck of my "lab rat." I've lived to see the day—calling a truly gorgeous blonde with a C-cup chest a lab mouse. Though we'll see what comes of her; I already had one civilian once, also a blonde…
Leaving a bit of blood behind so there'd be something to infect, I settled in to wait, as did Yamata, who was reading something intently. Had she really managed to "liberate" something already while we were in the police chief's office?
"What are you reading?" I asked. Nothing was going to happen for the next five to ten minutes anyway.
"Oh, just some dirt on a certain Irons. And along with it, material that could hit Umbrella unpleasantly. Not fatal—and they could cover it up quickly—but if we find more information like this, that would be simply wonderful." Yamata narrowed her eyes predatorily, looking at that moment uncannily like a well-fed panther.
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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