In It For the Money

XXVIII

"My team?"

"Yes." The milky white eyes stared into his and instead of being pushed away, he wrapped his arms around the girl and held her close.

"We found you."

"And Papa is very thankful."

"Your fathers here?" His next, unasked question was answered the moment a slender and cold toned voice filtered into the room.

"Very."

Chris was in a boarding room with Sheva and a small team of people. He explained the situation and how delicate it was, stressing over the facts that two agents were likely already being held captive alongside their companion. His mind was racing. Jill of all people, escaping the home of a man who worked for Wesker. To go and save him? He couldn't wrap his head around it, but looked to Blaze. The man hadn't spoken a word, but was glaring slightly at Chris.

The kind of glare that could kill a man during combat. The kind of glare a killer would give someone. Finally the man spoke, his tone dark and lowered. "So what do we do, Chris?"

"We save them. All three of them." He saw the male's eyes soften a bit, like he'd over stepped. Watching as he shifted up more against the door and looked away towards the corner of the room where Sheva sat in a chair, sharpening her combat knife. "Alright team. Here's the plan."

Everyone lifted their gaze to see the man. Sheva's eyes softening as she saw the concentration in the man's eyes.

"We need people to stay here and guide us from afar. Like how we do on normal missions."

"Nothing about this mission is normal. Is it Chris?" Blaze asked, pushing away from the wall and walking closer. Arms still firmly crossed over his chest. "We gotta keep it a secret from the higher ups in command?"

"Yes. This ops is top secret for only our ears and eyes. What we do here over the following week stays under wraps. Now." Chris began to go over details about how he wants the mission to go down.

"And what about Wesker?" Sheva asked, her tone soft as she put the knife back into its sheath.

"We killed him once." A gaze from the back of the room flicked to the back of Chris' head when he had turned to the woman fully. Curiosity and anger bubbling over like a pot left unattended. "We can do it again."

"And what if he's stronger?" An almost unfamiliar voice called out. Chris turning his head to meet those sharpened blue eyes.

"We'll have to adapt." Chris answered calmly, maintaining eye contact.

Jake scoffed at that and turned his head away from the man. "This why you called me here? Am I supposed to be the adaption?"

"No. I asked you to be here because you're smart. And you know your way around a stealth ops. We need that in the field. I can only have two others with me. Sheva is one of those people."

"What about that dog faced man over there?"

"I'm not!" Blaze snarled, eyes sharpening.

"He's doing his own in person recon for us. Going in from behind. We'll ambush from both sides." Chris answered quickly, causing Blaze to relax and look away. "That's why we'll need you."

"So I'm here to make sure dear old dad doesn't cause more harm than he probably already has?" Jake muttered, closing his eyes to consider. "Yeah, and uh. What am I getting out of this?"

Chris chuckled hearing this, nodding. "Name your price."

"Don't got one. Just," The two men made eye contact and were quiet for another few moments before Jake sighed and continued. "But promise this isn't something over revenge."

"Not this time." Chris answered and Jake could see the honesty on his face. "But he still needs to go before he tries hurting more people."

And a few hours later and the team had perfected the plan and put it into action. Chris driving in a hummer while Blaze carefully traversed the wood line, gun held loosely in his hands. The only sounds he could hear were his own boots crunching the leaves and twigs beneath him, breathing less than steady as he tried to get his mind to focus. He was to be a sniper from a longer range, and it's not that he couldn't, but rather that he wouldn't be close enough to know what was really happening. Only what he could hear from their connected earpieces. His feet slowed to a stop as he heard the sounds of hushed voices from a short distance in front of him, but with no bodies to match them to. He squinted, eyes narrowing until he glanced upwards and found a speaker attached to a branch on an oak tree.

A sigh fell from his lips as he slowly and cautiously continued moving forward. Once he reached his vantage point he placed a finger to his ear piece, watching  through his scope as Chris got closer to the compound. "I'm in place, Captain."

Chris nodded and shifted the rear view mirror to watch Jake's not so amused face looking out the window and sitting leaned back arms crossed over his chest like a pouting child. He chuckled slightly before returning his gaze to the road in front of him. "What are we looking at?"

"The whole outside is completely empty. Almost like there's no one here." He muttered back, scanning the area. When he was about to return to looking at Chris he spotted a flash of black and blonde exiting the building and peering around cautiously. "Shit, single tango."

"Can you tell who?"

"I'm just barely too far off for my scope," Blaze answered, setting his gun down on its stand and pulling out his high tech binoculars. As he zoomed in he sucked in a breath, feeling the cold metal through his shirt as a gun clicked into the ready. "Always a step ahead, aren't you?" He asked, continuing to look at the mystery man. "Wesker's down there alone. You wanna tell me why?" In the flick of an eye he had rolled off of his stomach and shoved the gun to the side, causing the bullet to fly into the dirt and the sound to reverberate through the woods. He fought with the person until he slammed their body into the tree closet and held their own gun against their lower ribcage. "Well?" The way he said their name caused their blood to run cold. Never had he considered his childhood friend to be his closest possible enemy, but the tone and venom in Blaze's voice said everything he needed to know.

"Heh, wouldn't you know by now?"

"Know what?" Blaze asked, eyes softening as his grip slightly faltered. Which was all the other male needed to free his arm and slam it into the side of Blaze's head, knocking him out cold.

"I'm not the person you thought I was."