They gathered everything. Dr. Bard clutched the metal case against his chest, both arms wrapped around it, face set. Everything needed to bring Umbrella down was in that box.
The lab was cold enough to ache. Somewhere along the wall, a damaged circuit spit a weak spark. Ryan folded the ARK Plan briefing carefully and tucked it inside his jacket, against his skin.
The words wouldn't stop cycling through his head. Elpis. Brandon Bailey. Victor Gideon. Alpha Black classification. None of it belonged to anything he'd known before coming here. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, and he couldn't name what.
"We can't stay." Jill closed the last file and shoved it into her pack. "They could show up any minute. We move back to the monitoring room now."
Carlos nodded, heavy and slow. The certainty he'd walked in with was gone. What was left was something quieter and angrier. He gripped his rifle and said, "I'll take point."
They retraced their steps through the corridor, four sets of footsteps echoing off the walls. Blood on the floor. Equipment torn apart. The hospital kept reminding them what it had become.
The monitoring room door opened quietly.
Inside, nothing had changed. The medical monitors beeped their steady rhythm, and pale purple liquid moved down the IV line in slow drops. Becky lay still on the bed, eyes closed, lashes resting against her cheeks.
Except her color was different. The grey-white pallor was receding. There was pink in her face now, and her breathing had deepened, steadied. Even the tension around her brow had eased.
Dr. Bard went straight to her, lifting an eyelid, checking the readouts. The longer he looked, the more his expression shifted.
"This is... remarkable." He pressed two fingers to her wrist, studying her pulse. "At the rate the vaccine normally works, she'd need several more hours to stabilize. But her indicators are recovering fast. Her immune response is spiking in ways I've never seen. No ordinary child recovers like this."
Kendo let out a slow breath, the tightness draining from his shoulders. "She was so weak just a little while ago. I didn't think..." He shook his head. "Okay. Alright."
The room loosened slightly. Everyone felt it.
Ryan went cold.
He thought about the file. Exceptional antibody response to t-Virus and related strains. Presence of unknown viral neutralizing factor in bloodwork.
Recovery far exceeding normal parameters.
Age. Presenting symptoms. The way her body was fighting. Everything lined up. Becky might be the subject coded ARK-M-092. The primary candidate. The one they'd been building the whole program around.
He looked at her lying there, small and oblivious, and said nothing.
He kept moving. Pacing the room, letting his eyes work the space the way they always did, and when his gaze passed over the smoke detector in the corner, he stopped.
The white plastic housing had faint marks along one edge. Pry marks. And at the center sensor port, barely visible, a thin glint of metal that didn't belong.
He focused on it, and the internal structure resolved. The factory smoke sensor had been pulled out and replaced. In its place: a pinhole camera, lens aimed to cover the full room, wiring threaded back through the conduit into the wall. A live feed. Someone had eyes on this room.
His fingers curled slowly. His palm was damp.
Jill noticed. He'd kept his face still, but something in his eyes gave it away. She moved close, voice low enough for only him. "What did you find? Is it connected to what was downstairs?"
He looked at her for a moment. He trusted her steadiness. But if this got out before they were clear, Becky became a target for every party that wanted her. "Not now," he said quietly. "Once we're out. We're being watched."
She nodded once and said nothing more, just shifted to stand beside him, eyes on the door.
They were still working out the timing of the move to the roof when the door crashed open.
Tyrell stumbled in, breathing hard, clothes dusted and faintly bloodstained. "We've got a problem. Unknown unit, a lot of them, armored vehicles. They're almost at the front entrance."
Nobody moved for a second.
Then everyone did. Dr. Bard pulled the metal case tighter. Carlos raised his rifle. Kendo stepped directly in front of Becky's bed.
Outside, the explosions were closer. Under them, the low grind of armored vehicles and the sound of boots moving in formation.
Whatever was coming, it was almost here.