RE - Chapter 370: The Meeting (Patreon)

The moment the power went out, Alan and Leon saw the guards at the entrance responding to questions over their headsets, then turning to see what had happened.

Their chance had come.

“Move!” Alan pulled on his gas mask, and he and Leon burst out of the alley, each throwing a tranquilizer dart at one of the entrance guards.

“Ugh!” they both grunted.

The guards collapsed before either could reach the dart lodged behind his neck. Alan and Leon raced into the building, leaving the bystanders staring after them in bewilderment.

A few curious onlookers ventured closer, but once they saw the guards were merely unconscious, they hurried away.

They weren’t fools. Nobody had died, and the two men who had rushed inside wore gas masks. Maybe it was an official operation?

Ordinary people like them were better off watching from a distance.

“They’re on the top floor. I’m not taking the stairs.”

“Me neither.”

They headed for the elevator, which had stopped working when the power went out.

Alan and Leon forced open the first-floor elevator doors with their bare hands, entered the car, and climbed through the access hatch in its roof.

“Hope this thing works,” Leon muttered, eyeing the rope ascender in his hand.

Alan smiled. “Relax. That bad-luck buff of yours only applies to vehicles. This should be fine.”

“That isn’t reassuring at all.” Leon shrugged. “Guess I’ll trust my luck!”

They attached their ascenders to the elevator cable and quickly started climbing.

Meanwhile, panic broke out among the two parties meeting upstairs. The drug lord, who had boasted that nothing could go wrong with the deal, immediately lost his nerve.

The government official buying from him, however, looked perfectly relaxed.

“Aren’t you even nervous?!”

“What’s there to worry about? If they arrest me, I’ll say you forced me into it.”

“You son of a bitch. Get up!” The drug lord gave an incredulous laugh and drew his pistol on the official.

“It was a joke. Don’t be so touchy.” The official chuckled and raised his hands, still looking entirely too confident.

They were all in the same boat, after all.

“Boss, the elevators are down too. Should we use the stairs?”

“The fucking stairs? Do you have any idea how many floors there are?” The drug lord forced down his anger and thought fast. “Lock down the stairwell. Tell everyone on the lower floors to stay alert and hold their positions!”

“Don’t worry. They’ll have to use the stairs to reach us, and every floor is guarded. They won’t get through easily.”

“Shut up!” The deal had fallen apart, and the drug lord had lost what little patience he had left with the official.

“All right, all right.”

By then, Alan and Leon had reached the top floor. They looked at the closed elevator doors, climbed a little higher, and tapped on them with their feet.

Sure enough, someone came over to investigate.

“What the hell was that noise?”

“Should we open it and take a look?”

“Pfft, can you even open it? Don’t fall down.”

“How hard can it be? Watch me!”

He worked his fingers into the gap and pulled with all his strength. It took some effort, but the doors finally slid apart.

He leaned out and peered down into the shaft. The darkness beneath him seemed bottomless, enough to make his legs go weak. Still, he turned to his colleague. “See? Easy.”

“Hey. How about looking up?” Alan aimed down at the guard and fired without hesitation.

At such close range, the bullet passed straight through him. He toppled backward as his life drained away.

Before his colleague standing nearby could react, a bullet also Piersd his skull.

“Strange. Was that gunfire outside?”

“Impossible. From that height? Did they climb up this fast? And there’s been no report from below either!”

Before they could figure out what was going on, gunfire rang out again outside the office, and soon, silence returned.

A deathly silence.

The drug lord swallowed. “You! Go check!”

“I’d advise us all to stay put.”

“Fuck off!”

The official sighed. The man might know how to sell viruses, but his judgment was another matter entirely...

Since he couldn’t be persuaded, he’d just have to look out for himself.

The drug lord watched the official remove his jacket, leaving a white shirt underneath, then empty his trouser pockets and turn them inside out.

Watching this, the drug lord’s face twitched. “You’re pretty damn good at this.”

“In this line of business, you need a backup plan.” The official smiled. “Isn’t that right, Mr. Kidnapper?”

“…Kidnap my ass!”

Before he could finish cursing, a blinding flash filled the room. His ears rang, nausea swept over him, and his limbs curled up as he screamed.

Leon had shot the guard who opened the office door, while Alan had tossed in the flashbang that caused the chaos.

They stormed inside, subdued everyone still capable of moving, checked their ammunition, and trained their weapons on the entrance.

Sure enough, a crowd of bodyguards appeared at the door. Gunfire erupted across the office, shattering the floor-to-ceiling windows behind them. The spectators below scattered in panic, afraid a falling shard of glass might kill them.

As the two fought on, power suddenly returned to the building. Alan could also hear gunfire echoing from other floors.

“Ada?”

More bullets whistled over Alan’s head, snapping him back to the fight. He pulled a grenade from his belt, removed the pin, counted two seconds, and hurled it toward the doorway.

The explosion rocked the office. The shockwave blew out what remained of the glass behind them, leaving only the bare window frames.

Leon reloaded, stuck his weapon out from behind cover, and fired a blind burst. Then he pulled the pin on his own grenade and followed Alan’s example.

When the second explosion faded, silence returned. The drug lord and the official were either scared enough to wet themselves or so stunned they could barely remain conscious.

Alan noticed that the gunfire below was growing louder. And there was something happening above them too...

“...Leon, behind you!” Alan spun around and saw someone descending on a rope from the roof. His finger tightened on the trigger, but before he could fire, Leon shouted, “Don’t shoot!”

Alan hesitated, then trusted his partner and held his fire. The newcomer swung into the room, boots crunching on the broken glass.

Within moments, gas-masked soldiers filled the space in front of Alan.

Their weapons remained trained on Alan and Leon, and they kept watch over the two half-conscious men nearby.

Leon slowly stood, checked behind him, then looked ahead again.

Ada strode into the office and shrugged at them.

A man stood behind her. He carried no gun, but something about him made it clear he was dangerous.

“Leon S. Kennedy. Alan Han.”

“We finally meet.”