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.The giant two-story chamberthat housed the sewage-treatment machines was emp-ty of life, as cold and industrial and strewn withequipment as she'd expected.There was a hydraulicbridge that spanned the room, raised to the level she'dexited on - which meant that Annette must havegone down via the west ladder, the only other way out.Ada flipped through her mental maps as she startedacross the bridge, remembering that it went down intoone of the treatment center's dumping grounds."Drop it, you bitch!"Behind her.Ada halted, feeling a pain inside - thepain of a hearty slap to the ego.The second time she'dscrewed up, badly, in as many minutes, but therewas no way she was going to obey Annette's hystericalcommand.The woman's aim was for shit and Adatensed, preparing to drop, to spin and fire.Barn-ping!The shot hit the floor next to Ada's right foot,glancing off the rusting bridge.Annette had her.Ada dropped the Beretta, raising her hands slowly,turning to face the scientist.Jesus, I deserve to die for this.Annette Birkin walked toward her, a Browningnine-millimeter trembling wildly in one outstretchedhand.Ada winced inwardly at the sight of thatshaking gun, but saw a possible opportunity as An-nette moved closer, finally coming to a stop less thanten feet in front of her.Too close.Too close, and she's right on the edge of atotal collapse, isn't she?"Who are you? What's your name?!"Ada swallowed heavily, putting a stutter into hervoice."Ada, Ada Wong.Please don't shoot, please, Ihaven't done anything."Annette frowned, backing up a step."Ada.Wong.I know that name - Ada, that was John'sgirlfriend's name."Ada's mouth dropped open."Yes, John Howe!But.how did you know? Do you know where he is?"The disheveled scientist glared at her."I knowbecause John worked with my husband, William.You've heard of him, of course - William Birkin, theman responsible for the creation of the T-Virus."Annette fairly glowed with a mix of pride anddespair as she spoke, giving Ada hope; it was aweakness that she could use.Ada had read the files onWilliam Birkin - read about his steady climb throughUmbrella's hierarchy, the advances in virology andgenetic sequencing.and about the scientific ambi-tion that had made him a veritable sociopath.Itlooked as though his wife was operating on a similarplane - which meant that the Mrs.would have noproblem pulling the trigger.Play it dumb, and don't give her a reason to doubt it."T-Virus? What's." Ada blinked, then widenedher eyes."Doctor Birkin? Wait, the Doctor Birkin,the biochemist?"She saw a flash of pleasure cross Annette's face,but then it was gone, and there was only despair.Despair and the flickering of bitter madness, deep inher bloodshot eyes."John Howe is dead," she said coldly, "he diedthree months ago at the Spencer estate.My condo-lences, but then, you're about to join him, aren'tyou? You're not going to take the G-Virus away fromme, you can't have it!"Ada started to shake all over."G-Virus? Please, Idon't know what you're talking about!""You know," Annette snarled."Umbrella sent youto steal it, you can't lie to me! William's dead to menow, Umbrella took him from me, they forced him touse it! They forced him."She trailed off, her gaze suddenly far away.AdaTensed, but then Annette was back, her eyes wellingup with tears, the weapon pointed at Ada's face."A week ago, they came," she whispered."Theycame to take it, and they shot my William when hewouldn't give them the samples.They took the case,they took all of the finals, both series - except for theone that he managed to keep, the G-Virus."Annette's voice raised into a shout suddenly, apathetic and somehow pleading shout."He was dy-ing, don't you see? He didn't have any choice!"Ada understood.She understood all of it."Heinjected himself, didn't he?"The scientist nodded, her limp blond hair fallingacross her eyes, her voice a whisper again."It revi-talizes cellular function.It.it changed him.I didn'tsee - what he did, but I saw the bodies of the menwho tried to kill him, afterwards.and I heard thescreams."Ada took a step closer, reaching out as if to comforther, her own features set into a mask of sympathy,but Annette thrust the gun at her again.Even in hersorrow, she wasn't going to let Ada get any closer.But it's almost close enough."I'm so sorry," Ada said, lowering her arms."Sothe G-Virus, it leaked, it changed all of Raccoon."Annette shook her head."No.When the Umbrellaassassins were stopped, the case was broken.TheT-Virus leaked - the lab workers hit by the airbornewere contained, but there were rats, you see.Rats inthe sewers."She paused, her lips trembling.".unless Wil-liam, my sweet William has started to reproduce.Implanting embryos, replicating.it shouldn't betime for that yet, but I."She broke off, her eyes narrowing, the madnesssweeping over her again as visibly as a crashing wave.High color flared in her pale cheeks, her red-rimmedeyes glossy with paranoia.Get ready."You can't have it!" Annette screamed, spittleflying from her cracked lips."He gave his life to keepit from you, you're a spy and you can't have it."Ada ducked and leapt, pistoning both of her armsbeneath Annette's, shoving the gun up and away fromboth of them.The Browning discharged, sending around clanging off the ceiling as they fought forcontrol of the weapon.Annette was physically weaker,but she was driven by demons of hatred and loss, theedge of insanity lending her strength -- but no sense -Ada let go of the gun suddenly and Annette stum-bled, not prepared for the unexpected move.Shecrashed against the railing of the bridge and Adacharged, driving her elbow into Annette's lower belly,hitting her beneath her center of balanceand Annette half-turned, her mouth an opendarkness of surprise, her arms pinwheeling for bal-ance - and she plummeted over the railing, silently,not a sound until the dull thump as her body hit thefloor some twenty feet below."Shit," Ada hissed, stepping to the rail and lookingdown.She lay there, facedown and motionless, thegun still clenched in one thin white hand.That's just great.Walk into an ambush, not once buttwice for hell's sake, then kill the one crazy bitch whocan tell you where the samples are.A low moan floated up from Annette Birkin'sbody and she moved, hunching her back, trying toroll onto her side.Shit shit shit!Ada turned and ran across the bridge, scooping upthe Beretta as she hurried for what looked like acontrol panel next to the fan shaft ladder.She'd haveto lower the bridge, get to Annette before she couldcrawl away.except the panel was for the fan, and as anotherpainful moan - a slightly louder moan - echoed upthrough the chamber, Ada knew she didn't have muchtime.The dump, I can go through the dump, circle backaround through one of the tunnels.Even as she thought it, she was jogging for the westladder, hoping that the pitiful scientist was injuredenough to stay down for a minute or two.There was asmall balcony at the end of the bridge that lookedover the dump, and the metal ladder hung down froman opening at the far right.Ada lowered herself downas quickly as she could, dropping the last several feetonto a cement landing [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]