RE - Chapter 305: The Peacock Knight (Patreon)

“Ah... I’m exhausted.”

Ashley collapsed onto the freshly made bed, looking like she had no strength left in her body.

Seeing his owner climb into bed, Shadow leaped up after her and naturally curled into her arms.

“If you’re tired, get some rest. We’ll be right outside. Call us if you need anything.”

“Mm. You guys worked hard too.”

The bedroom door closed.

Ashley stared at the chandelier overhead, but she wasn’t sleepy at all.

She had seen so many pictures of herself with her mother when she was little today. Of course it had made her miss her.

She just didn’t know how to say it out loud.

“Whine.”

Shadow licked Ashley’s neck and nudged her with his nose, as if to say, I’m here with you!

“You little sweetheart...”

Ashley stroked his head. In the end, she sat back up, switched on the slightly worn bedside lamp, and took her mother’s notebook from the drawer.

Then she quietly began to read.

After closing the door, Alan returned to the living room and sat down on the sofa, just in time to hear Leon and Krauser talking.

“Everything around here has been arranged too. They’ve assigned a retired elderly woman to look after Ashley. Her background has been checked, and there are no issues.”

“Hmm... If the President has gone this far, I get the feeling he’s made a pretty serious decision. All we can do is support him as best we can.”

Krauser picked up his glass and drained it in one go. Then he glanced at Alan, who was sitting beside Leon.

“The people at the top have their own plans. Alan, you don’t look well.”

Alan instinctively touched his face before realizing what Krauser was doing.

“You’re baiting me?”

“I just threw it out there. But judging by that reaction, you two really are hiding something from me... Can you tell me?”

Krauser deliberately softened his tone, not wanting to put either of them under pressure.

After all, he knew what kind of work they were involved in now. The things they dealt with could easily affect thousands, even tens of thousands, of lives.

Leon crossed one leg over the other and left the decision to Alan.

“We’re not trying to hide anything from you. We just didn’t want you worrying about it.”

“Hmm. That sounds serious.”

Krauser frowned as Alan pulled three vials from a concealed pocket inside his clothes.

One was already empty. The other two held a faint bluish liquid that caught the light.

Krauser immediately ruled out drugs.

That left his second guess.

“A virus?”

“More precisely, a viral inhibitor.”

After Alan answered, Leon continued.

“Four months ago, Alan suddenly disappeared. I searched for a long time and couldn’t find a single lead. Eventually, we found him in Simmons’s private laboratory.

“...I got there too late. Alan had already been injected with an entirely new virus. We still haven’t completely figured out what it’s made of.”

Krauser’s expression grew darker by the second.

Alan pointed toward the vials on the table.

“These are temporary inhibitors. They stop the virus from spreading into my limbs, but they’re becoming less effective over time. Besides helping with this mission, the other reason I came to China was to find Luis.”

Krauser nodded gravely.

“...I can’t believe how much you two have been through without me knowing. And now that I do know, there’s still nothing I can do to help... Sorry.”

Alan put the vials away, stood, walked over to Krauser, and threw an arm around his shoulders.

“What are you talking about? We’re still alive because of everything you taught us back then.”

“Krauser, the best thing you can do for us now is protect Ashley,” Leon said. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this. If Simmons has already made the President this wary of him, then Ashley isn’t automatically safe just because she’s in China.”

Krauser picked up the radio clipped to his chest and tapped it with one finger.

“Don’t worry. I’m not like those useless bastards. Simmons, huh? I’ll remember that name.”

“That’s all we needed to hear.”

Alan raised his wrist and checked the time.

“It’s about time. I’m supposed to meet Luis soon.”

“He’s coming to pick you up?”

“Yeah. Sounds like he’s made some money.”

...

“Hey! Over here! Sorry, beautiful. We’ll have to make it another time~”

Alan watched Luis kiss the back of a strange woman’s hand goodbye, the corner of his mouth twitching violently.

Then his gaze shifted to the outrageously red convertible parked behind him. There were even decorative symbols and lettering plastered across the body.

Alan couldn’t help himself.

“Holy shit. What kind of peacock-mobile is that? The traffic cops seriously haven’t stopped you?”

“Hehe. Plates, registration, everything’s legal. Come on, brother, let me take you for a ride!”

Luis was wearing a black leather jacket and leaning against the side of the car.

As Alan approached, he sprang up, vaulted clean over the door, and dropped into the driver’s seat.

Alan could only endure the stares of passing pedestrians as he climbed into the passenger seat.

“Put the roof up.”

“Where’s the fun in that? Driving with the top down feels great.”

“Are you putting it up or not? I feel like a dog at a kennel with everyone staring at me.”

“Fine, fine. You really have no sense of style.”

“I’m good. I don’t want that kind of style.”

Luis laughed and raised the convertible roof.

A moment later, he stepped on the gas and sped away.

They drove all the way out toward the outskirts of the city.

Luis kept one hand on the steering wheel while pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket with the other.

He shook one loose, put it between his lips, tucked the pack away, and lit the cigarette.

Click.

The cigarette caught.

Luis exhaled a thin ring of smoke, set down the lighter, then pulled out a pack of gum.

“Want one?”

“Thanks.”

“Hey, I know you don’t smoke. Thoughtful of me, right?”

Alan tore open the wrapper, popped a piece of gum into his mouth, and started chewing.

“Not bad. You’re finally learning.”

Luis spared him a sideways glance.

“Still as sharp-tongued as ever, my friend.”

He rolled down the window and held the cigarette outside, tapping the ash away.

As the cool night air washed over him, his usual playful expression gradually faded.

“All right, tell me what happened. I never knew you had a hobby of getting yourself injected with viruses. Where’d you screw up? That’s a rare sight. You guys made it through Spain without a scratch.”

Alan blew a bubble with his gum and shrugged.

“Even the best horse can stumble. People screw up too. I still can’t remember how someone managed to kidnap me and keep me floating in a culture tank for several months.”

“Wow, my friend. Now that is a rare experience. But if you’ve actually lost part of your memory, then this probably isn’t anything simple.”

“That’s the least of it. They also made a clone of me. A girl, too. She has almost all of my memories.”

Luis went still.

He drew deeply on his cigarette, then crushed the butt into the ashtray beside him.

Smoke drifted through the car, leaving behind a smell that refused to disappear.

“Memory cloning? Wasn’t that one of the experiments Spencer poured a ridiculous amount of resources into years ago, only for it to fail in the end? I heard about it when I was working for Umbrella.

“And now they actually succeeded with you?”

Luis’s expression turned grim.

“Damn. Now we’re in trouble. One Spencer was enough to create Umbrella. Give me a whole team of Spencers, and they could probably kick an entire country around like a soccer ball.”

“Mm-hmm. If the whole world were full of Spencers, we could just head into space and start looking for aliens.”

“I’m serious... Although, all right. Sounds like I’ve just taken on one hell of a job.”

Alan pulled out his phone and checked his messages.

“At least there hasn’t been any large-scale biohazard outbreak since I escaped. So chances are they haven’t completely figured me out yet, right?”

“...They already managed to produce a clone. If they accomplished that much in three or four months, whoever was studying you is definitely no ordinary researcher.”

Luis silently ran through possible candidates in his mind, but for the moment, no one fit.

Seeing that, Alan brought the conversation back to the main point.

“The main reason I came to find you is the virus inside me. According to Rebecca’s latest analysis, it may contain genetic fragments from the parasite used in the Nemesis series.”

The moment Luis heard “Nemesis,” he gave a bitter smile.

“Well, there it is. The boomerang finally came back and hit you. Looks like I still haven’t finished paying off my debts.”

“But?”

“But Don Quixote doesn’t give up that easily. Besides, I’d like to take a closer look at this whole memory-cloning mystery of yours.”

“Hey, don’t study me to death.”

“Hahahaha! Relax. As long as you’re tougher than a lab rat, you probably won’t die.”

“Probably?”

“If you really do die... I’ll visit your grave every year and leave the finest gum I can buy as an offering!”

“Go fuck yourself.”