Every head snapped up.
Ryan was sitting on what remained of the second-floor railing, though no one had seen him arrive. He wore his black coat, a silver lighter turning lazily between the fingers of his right hand, a heavy black tactical case resting beside his left.
"Uncle Ryan!" Sherry's eyes lit up instantly.
"Uncle Ryan." Becky dipped her head, respect evident in her tone.
Leon saw Ryan and felt the tension finally drain out of him completely. He let out a tired laugh. "How long have you been here?"
"Since Mendez went centipede. Been a while, Leon." Ryan smiled and gave him a wave, then glanced down at the corpse on the floor and nodded approvingly. "Solid fire transitions, good reads on the blind spots. Midterm exam, full marks."
Sherry lifted her chin, proud.
Ryan dropped lightly from the second floor, landing without raising so much as a speck of dust, then turned and lifted the tactical case down one-handed, tossing it onto the debris-covered floor.
The heavy thud shook the boards. The thing clearly weighed a ton. How he'd carried it up to the second floor without making a sound was anyone's guess.
"Full marks deserve a reward."
The metallic latches popped open with a crisp click. Inside, two weapons sat in neat rows, their designs sleek and futuristic, surrounded by stacks of high-grade ammunition and medical sprays. In the dim firelight of the cabin, the gun barrels gave off a cold matte sheen.
"Fresh from the Star Fire labs. Electromagnetic kinetic rifles. Seventy percent recoil reduction, triple the armor penetration of a standard rifle. Kendo custom-built these for the two of you."
He tossed the two heavy weapons over. Sherry and Becky caught them cleanly, racked the bolts with practiced hands, and the crisp mechanical snap of steel seating against steel rang through the quiet cabin. "Graduation present. They're yours."
Luis, watching from the side, looked like his eyes were about to fall out of his head. He swallowed hard, unconsciously edging closer to Leon, and muttered under his breath, "Buddy, is it too late to defect to their company? This kind of benefits package would make Umbrella people weep."
"Luis Sera?"
Ryan's voice came slow and easy. His gaze drifted from the two girls and settled on Luis, light as a feather, his tone perfectly unreadable.
The moment his name left Ryan's mouth, Luis felt a chill crawl up the back of his neck. He forced out a dry laugh, trying to hide his unease behind his trademark irreverence, and shrugged. "The one and only. And you, my very 'expensive'-looking friend, are staring at me like I'm a vial of virus stock waiting to be harvested."
"Not quite a vial."
Ryan took two unhurried steps forward. His boots ground against the charred wood on the floor with a sound that set teeth on edge. He casually lifted his gun barrel and dragged it through a pile of scorched charcoal, kicking up a scatter of sparks.
"I just want to confirm something. That thing back in Raccoon City, the one in the black leather trench coat, built like a football with bad stitching, who liked to stomp around screaming 'STARS' - was that your handiwork?"
The cabin went dead silent. Even the wind and rain outside seemed to fade.
The smile froze on Luis's face. Every line he'd been preparing to pitch himself as a "senior consultant" jammed in his throat. He glanced nervously at Ryan's blank expression, then at Sherry and Becky casually handling their new heavy firepower, and cold sweat slid down his temple.
"Oh... you mean Nemesis." Luis coughed twice and inched half a step behind Leon without meaning to. "That was... that was an Umbrella Europe project. I was only responsible for a tiny, negligible bit of... parasite adaptability... post-deployment maintenance."
"A tiny bit of maintenance?"
Ryan laughed from sheer disbelief. He holstered his gun, closed the distance in one stride, and clapped Luis hard on the shoulder.
The slap landed with a dull crack, heavy enough to buckle Luis's knees and leave him wincing.
"Buddy, do you have any idea that because of your 'tiny bit of work,' I had to run from my front door all the way to the NEST?" Ryan leaned in, staring him dead in the eye. "And at the end I got to play in the mud with it at ground zero of a nuclear blast?"
"Hey! Easy, man!" Luis was backed against the wall now, both hands up in surrender, voice cracking. "I didn't expect it to be that resilient! According to the design specs, it was supposed to shut down for self-diagnostics after three rounds of heavy fire. Who knew it'd develop such a 'personal attachment' to you?"
"Oh, it was personal all right. It was planning to physically stitch me into that pile of rotting meat it called a body."
Ryan's eyes narrowed, turning dangerous. "Luis, how do you think we should settle this debt?"
"Well, about that..."
Luis's Adam's apple bobbed. His eyes darted frantically. He switched to the most ingratiating expression he could manage, clutching the metal case in his arms like a golden pardon from the governor:
"To make up for the 'aesthetic mistakes' of my youth, I came bearing gifts! The Amber! Plus the latest technical data! Plus this brain stuffed full of Umbrella's dirty secrets! Just don't feed me to the bugs outside and I swear, every machine in the Star Fire labs will run on the sweat of my redemption!"
"Uncle Ryan, want me to help him think more clearly?"
Becky's voice cut in from the side, ice-cold. She leaned against a wooden pillar, her tactical recurve knife spinning in a lazy circle around her fingertip, the blade catching a sliver of cold light.
"No no no! Beautiful lady! Violence doesn't solve scientific problems!" Luis was practically hopping in place, and he whipped around to Leon like a drowning man grabbing for a rope. "Leon! Help! Your friend here is scarier than Saddler!"
Leon watched Ryan's expression, the look of a man who'd been waiting a long time to find the person who owed him, and felt a shameless stab of amusement. He sighed, reached over, and gave Luis a sympathetic pat on the other shoulder.
"Luis, I'd start figuring out how to dock the emotional damages from your paycheck. Trust me, the fact that your Nemesis chased him across all of Raccoon City and didn't get torn apart on the spot? That thing already set an industry record."
Listening to the two of them go back and forth, a flicker of mischief crossed Ryan's eyes. He finally released Luis's shoulder, took the metal case Luis offered, and stepped back. The pressure vanished with him.
"Fine. Your brain gets to stay for now." Ryan straightened his coat sleeve, his tone settling back into its usual lazy drawl. "But Luis, fair warning. If whatever you cook up in Spain turns out to be just as unkillable and just as disobedient, I won't mind letting you experience the thrill of being hunted by your own creation."
"Absolutely not! I swear!" Luis let out a long, relieved breath and thumped his chest.
Then he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and muttered under his breath, "Besides, I can't run that kind of marathon anyway..."
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