TWD - Zomboid - Chapter 250: Wesker, You Wouldn’t Want... (Patreon)

Ashley was only a minor distraction.

Ada didn’t care what the girl thought. Someone like Luke was rare enough in the apocalypse that it was perfectly normal for people to fall for him.

Her ribs had been hastily wrapped with bandages. It didn’t interfere much with her movement. She pulled a radio from her tactical vest and tuned it to Wesker’s channel.

She had lost her own radio in the village. This one had been taken from the villagers.

“Time to collect from our sponsor.” She glanced at Luke.

“Exactly.” Luke pulled Ada closer. “Let me work on that injury. I’m pretty good at treating minor wounds.”

He did have a First Aid skill.

It just hadn’t leveled up much because hardly anything had ever managed to injure him.

Ada pressed the transmit button.

“Bzzzt...”

Static crackled, followed by Wesker’s voice.

“Excellent work. I didn’t expect you to contact me again, Ada.”

Before she even spoke, Wesker had already figured out who was calling.

“Cut the crap.”

Ada interrupted him. “Where’s our payment?”

“Relax.”

Wesker chuckled. “I didn’t leave out a single thing you requested. Everything was dropped at the location you specified in advance. Your people should have received it by now.”

Ada switched to another channel and quietly asked for confirmation.

A moment later, a brief response came through.

Everything had arrived.

She switched back to Wesker.

“We got it.”

“There was quite a lot on your list. Just like last time, I prepared at least twenty thermobaric warheads, along with seven launchers.”

“There are also three doses of enhanced antiviral serum. They’re the latest product from my laboratory. For a short time, they can greatly increase the host’s cellular regeneration and provide resistance against most known viral infections.”

Luke’s ears perked up.

That was probably the same slow-release serum Ashley had been injected with.

He still had one dose in his pocket.

“Five hundred kilograms of military-grade C4, along with electronic detonators. I have no real use for the stuff, so consider it junk I’m getting rid of and part of your payment.”

Ada pursed her lips.

“Sounds like you really were dumping junk on us. Nothing valuable at all.”

Wesker went silent.

Ada didn’t press the point.

In truth, the thermobaric warheads alone were already enough to justify the entire mission.

Even she was reluctant to use something that valuable.

Then her tone changed.

“Wesker, as far as our partnership goes, I think it’s time I formally ended it.”

“Oh?”

“What exactly are you planning to do with the Amber?”

“What else? Deploy it, observe the results, then recover it. Except this time, I plan to use it in a major city-state. More than a hundred thousand people will begin evolving.”

“Are you out of your mind?!”

Ada immediately bristled.

“I may work for you, but I still have my own limits. Collecting samples, gathering intelligence, eliminating targets, fine. I agreed to all of that. But this time you’ve gone too far.”

There was a rare edge of anger in her voice.

“First you went behind my back and targeted Luke. That alone crossed a line.”

“And now you want to release another virus? Wesker, this is the apocalypse. There are barely any living people left!”

“What you’re doing isn’t selecting the next stage of evolution, and it sure as hell isn’t rebuilding order like you claimed in the beginning.”

“You’re destroying humanity.”

“Sooner or later, you’re going to destroy yourself along with it.”

Wesker laughed softly on the other end.

“Since when did Ada Wong have principles? Does that dog of yours know what you’ve been doing out there? Can you really wash all the blood off your hands?”

“He trusts you because you’re useful to him. That makes him no different from me.”

“Ada, that’s not how a honey trap is supposed to work.”

For the first time, Wesker found himself questioning one of his own decisions.

When he had originally told Ada to use her charms, he assumed that with her looks and skill, the man would fall at her feet.

Instead, he had somehow ended up losing Ada to him.

Luke couldn’t stay quiet after hearing that.

He took the radio from Ada.

“Wesker, listen to yourself. You really went and pissed off my little wildcat.”

Wesker gave a dismissive snort when he heard Luke’s voice.

“But...” Luke changed his tone. “Business is business, feelings are feelings. There’s no reason we can’t keep negotiating.”

“I’m curious about something. What exactly do you want Ashley for? Planning to copy Saddler and use her to pressure her father, the president?”

Ashley’s face immediately went pale.

Luke kept talking.

“I hear her father’s Ark is somewhere to the south. Two hundred thousand people, plus three nuclear warheads ready to launch.”

“A city-state with weapons of mass destruction like that is basically its own kingdom in this world.”

“So naturally, I have to wonder if you’re planning to control her and take that Ark from the inside too.”

Wesker replied, “Mr. Luke Li, you’re overthinking things. All you need to do is hand the girl over to me, completely unharmed. Everything else is none of your concern.”

“So you’re not going to tell me. Still speaking in riddles.” Luke sneered.

The fact that both Saddler and Wesker were after Ashley could only mean her father had something genuinely valuable.

Nuclear weapons were terrifying, but maintaining them after the apocalypse would be enormously expensive. They weren’t something anyone would use casually.

So what exactly did Ashley’s father possess that even Wesker wanted so badly?

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter.”

Luke made his decision without hesitation.

“I’m keeping the girl.”

Wesker had sent Ada to seduce Luke and ended up losing Ada instead.

Now he had sent Luke to rescue Ashley.

Why would Luke simply hand over such a valuable prize after going through all that trouble?

Wesker’s brow furrowed.

“Mr. Luke Li, don’t forget that I know where you live.”

The threat couldn’t have been clearer.

Ada held out her hand.

Luke passed the radio back to her.

“Funny you should mention that, Wesker. I know all of your hideouts too. Europe, North America, and the ones in Asia.”

“I’ve worked for you for years. Do you really think I never collected anything I could use against you?”

Luke’s expression immediately relaxed.

Now that was more like it.

“Wesker, I wonder what would happen if I packaged up all those coordinates, along with your personal information, and sent everything to the organization that’s been hunting you.”

The BSAA.

Wesker knew exactly who Ada meant.

Ashley’s father had a special unit dedicated to fighting bioterrorism.

Its members were among the few people capable of giving even Wesker serious trouble.

They had kept hunting him even after the apocalypse.

In fact, the reason he had left the Commonwealth was because they had already tracked him down there.

A long silence followed.

Luke almost thought Wesker had ended the call.

Then his voice came through again.

“Ada... you really slapped me across the face this time.”

Ada remained completely unfazed.

“That’s what happens when trust falls apart, Wesker. You made the first move, so don’t pretend you’re the victim.”

“I have plenty of contacts and not many enemies, so I can live perfectly well on my own.”

“You, on the other hand, are going to have a very bad time.”

“You wouldn’t want everyone coming after you at once, would you?”