The Resident Eviloves : Connections (Lady Dimitrescu - Resident Evil)

Chapter 9 - The Queen and the Knight

Dr. Shepard sat in his chair in the living room of the family home, struggling to hide his nervousness. Facing him, a man dressed all in black, large closed coat, hat on his head, dark glasses and scarf hiding the lower part of his face, was seated on the sofa facing him, and behind him stood two other men, dressed in suits with stern faces and appearing to act as bodyguards. The man in the hat lit a cigarette and seemed more than confident in his attitude.

_"So Doctor Shepard? Do we have an arrangement?" he asked. "You know, my boss is not a very patient person, it would be wise to give us an answer right now."

Twisting his fingers around each other, the doctor didn't know what to do, feeling like he was trapped in a web woven from thousands of invisible but very real threads.

_"I... I'm flattered that you wanted to use my services, but I gave up..."

_"Yes, we know, doctor." the man in the hat cut him off in a falsely sympathetic tone. "We're sorry for the loss of your wife, but think of the benefits this new research will bring to us. All funding will be supported by our organization, you won't have to spend anything out of pocket. And with the reward won, you and your daughter will finally be able to get out of your... well... delicate situation, what do you think?"

Doctor Shepard swallowed, still seeming to hesitate. But steps approaching from the stairs caught his attention and as he watched he could see his daughter Emily, then 12 years old, coming from her bedroom and stopping at the entrance to the living room, seeing her father in the middle of discussion with these strangers who gave her a feeling of unease when she saw them.

_"Dad?" said Emily.

_"Ah, Emily, I didn't know you were home from school already." stammered the father rather awkwardly. "Listen, go to your room please. I have to speak with these gentlemen."

Emily chooses to obey despite noticing her father's more than obvious discomfort. She went back up the stairs and first had the idea of ​​pretending and hiding to listen, but had to give up when she saw that one of the bodyguards had come to the bottom of the stairs to make sure that she was going back to her room, which she had to do. Once Emily was out of earshot, the conversation resumed.

_"Your daughter is really charming." commented the man in the hat grimly.

_"Please leave her out of this." Shepard asked. "I will do my best to help you."

_"Good, that's what I wanted to hear, doc." replied the man. "Oh and your daughter's safety will of course depend on your silence... Alright, we will send you details of your future experience as required. Recently we met a woman named Miranda and she made us discover something... truly extraordinary, which could well revolutionize the world and everything we think we know about it."

_"And I imagine that's the thing you want me to study." Shepard said.

_"Precisely." replied the man in the hat, getting up from the sofa. "Several of our teams will study different samples of this "Mold", and one of them will see if it is compatible with the future "E-001" project. As for you, you will receive the names of your team members and your instructions in due time... Enjoy, doctor..."

But as the conversation ended, little was known to all that young Emily had sneaked out of her bedroom window, crawled along the gutter to the bottom, and come to listen while hiding under the living room window...

Emily was then pulled out of her sleep by the rather loud roar of the engine and slowly opened her eyes, to find that she was still sitting in that van, now driving down a deserted road surrounded by a sleepy pine forest as the dawn was just beginning to break. The man, Heisenberg, was still here beside her, busy driving the vehicle while silently smoking yet another cigarette. Emily rubbed her eyes, her mind still half asleep as the awakening was abrupt. She remembered that day perfectly, so many years ago now...