[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 506 - In That Case, Why Not Control Wesker Too?

The night pressed down thick and heavy. Deep in the Spencer Mansion's underground levels, the ventilation shafts droned on, dull and unchanging.

Ada stared at the Glock on the table.

Irritation churned inside her chest, restless and directionless.

Why did she keep letting Wesker lead her around by the nose?

If Leon's bodily fluids could become a slow-acting poison to control William Birkin, there was no reason Wesker couldn't have a drink too.

She pulled another bottle of mineral water from the refrigerator.

This required precision. Extreme precision.

She found a medical scalpel, the blade thin as a whisper. She positioned the tip at the connection points of the plastic tamper ring and flicked, barely any pressure at all.

Several hair-thin plastic filaments snapped.

The tamper ring came free, clean and intact.

She unscrewed the cap, poured a small measure of water out, then carefully dripped in the clear liquid from the extraction tube — Leon's bodily fluids, prepared earlier. She set the tube aside.

Now came the restoration.

She fitted the broken tamper ring back onto the bottle neck one careful millimeter at a time. Pressed the plastic cap straight down, vertical, aligned to the threads. Applied firm pressure. Rotated clockwise.

CLICK!

A perfect seal.

From the outside, it was an untouched bottle of purified water, factory-fresh. Even the condensation beading on the label looked natural.

She turned it over once. Checked it again.

No visible flaws. At least none she could find.

She changed into the black silk dress, stepped into her heels, and walked the corridor toward the top floor.

Wesker's office. Spencer Mansion, uppermost level.

The door was unlocked.

Ada pushed it open and stepped inside.

The overhead lights were off. The only light came from the desk lamp, pooling yellow across the desktop. Wesker sat in the wide leather chair, hands folded on the surface in front of him. His sunglasses rendered his expression unreadable.

"I said three days." His tone was even, utterly flat. "Coming here in person changes nothing. I don't want excuses."

Ada crossed the room. She set the water bottle on the edge of the desk and leaned against the corner, letting her posture go soft.

A submissive angle. The mask she wore best.

"John is more stubborn than I expected." There was real exhaustion in her voice. Something close to pleading, too. "Two more days. Just give me two more days."

Wesker looked at her.

This woman was not one for vulnerability. She wore arrogance the way other people wore skin. To see her like this, it was rare.

The mission was genuinely difficult. John had a near-paranoid streak when it came to protecting certain things. If Wesker pushed too hard and Ada fumbled it, the board would have questions he didn't want to answer.

"Fine." His fingers tapped the desk once. "Two more days." The flatness in his voice didn't shift. "That is the absolute limit. No hard drive, don't come back. You'll be waiting for a purge instead."

"I understand."

Ada exhaled slowly, turned, and moved toward the door.

"Wait."

She stopped.

Her back was to him. Her breathing snagged for half a beat.

Wesker's gaze had drifted to the water bottle.

An old habit. When something occupied his mind, his hands always found something nearby to turn over, to handle. He reached for the bottle without thinking.

Then stopped.

Something was off.

His eyes, steady behind the dark lenses, dropped to just below the bottle cap.

There.

The disguise was excellent. The tamper ring's serrations lined up perfectly, every gap exactly the right width. Nothing out of place.

He ran the pad of his thumb slowly along the lower edge of the cap.

No resistance. That particular friction — the slight, characteristic drag of an original plastic seal's connection points — wasn't there.

The filaments were severed.

This bottle had been opened.

Wesker didn't twist the cap. His grip tightened instead, slow and deliberate. The plastic bottle gave a faint, soft creak under the pressure.

"You've developed quite the habit," he said, tone unchanged, "of bringing people water."

Ada turned around.

Her eyes went to the bottle in his hand.

The air turned solid.

➤ Next: The Meticulous Wesker