[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 508 - Shooting Yourself in the Foot
Wesker held the mineral water bottle out, tilting it closer until the opening nearly brushed Ada's lips.
"Drink it."
An order.
Ada stared at the hand wrapped in a black tactical leather glove, then looked up at those permanently fixed sunglasses.
She knew this man too well.
Paranoid. Cold-blooded. Not a shred of human warmth in him.
Show even half a second of hesitation, and it wouldn't be a bottle of water waiting for her. It would be the fully armed security team outside the door.
No way out.
Ada reached out and snatched the slightly crushed plastic bottle from his grip.
She tilted her slender neck back and pressed the opening to her lips.
GULP!
GULP!
Her throat worked fast.
The icy liquid slid down her esophagus and into her stomach, dragging a wave of cold behind it. Half a bottle, no pause for breath, gone in a few seconds flat.
She turned the empty bottle upside down and shook it hard twice. The last few drops hit the expensive carpet.
Then she flicked her wrist and tossed it cleanly into the wastebasket beside Wesker's desk.
"Satisfied?"
Ada raised the back of her hand and wiped the water from her chin without looking away from him. Her tone carried mockery she didn't bother hiding.
"I told you there was nothing in it. You just wouldn't listen."
"Sir, should I go find somewhere to lie down now? Drop dead on the spot so you can see for yourself?"
Wesker looked at the empty bottle in the wastebasket. Then at Ada, standing in front of him, breathing steady.
That tightly wound paranoid nerve of his stalled.
No convulsions. No foam at the mouth. No sign of dilated pupils.
Just half a bottle of ordinary water.
Was he really overthinking it?
Was the broken tamper seal nothing more than an accident?
He withdrew his hand and leaned back into his chair. He'd rarely doubted his own judgment in his life, but the flat, decisive way Ada had drunk that water, no hesitation, no performance, had knocked the most dangerous suspicion clean out of his head.
Still. Clean water didn't mean a clean Ada.
Her behavior lately had been too off. Distracted. Like her mind was somewhere else entirely.
"You'd better pray you stay this healthy."
Wesker folded his hands, his voice settling back into that affectless monotone.
"The water. We're done with it."
"John's hard drive — the deadline doesn't move. You know what happens if you don't deliver. Get out."
Ada didn't say another word.
She turned and walked to the door, pulled it open. The corridor's cold air hit her full in the face, and she felt it then — fine goosebumps rising across her back. She'd been drenched in cold sweat. She hadn't even noticed when it started.
The door locked behind her with a soft click.
Ada kept her pace even, walking toward the elevator one measured step at a time. The surveillance camera above her rotated slowly, its red indicator light trailing her the whole way.
Spine straight. Hips steady. The walk of an agent without a single crack in her armor.
The elevator doors slid shut. Camera in here too.
Hold on a little longer.
Ada leaned back against the elevator wall and exhaled, long and slow.
It was working.
The chill that had settled in her stomach was already gone. In its place, something else was spreading — a fire, slow and deliberate, unfurling outward from her core.
The heat pushed through her bloodstream without asking permission, forcing its way into her limbs, her bones, all of it.
The elevator dropped. The weightlessness sent a hard wave of dizziness crashing through her skull. The floor numbers in her vision split and doubled. A high-pitched electric whine built in her ears.
Leon's bodily fluids.
An infinitesimal trace. Diluted through an entire bottle of water. It didn't matter. The homologous variant virus inside was unreasonable about these things.
This wasn't a poison. It was something worse, a forced invasion at the genetic level, rewriting her from the inside out.
➤ Next: Ada Wong, You're Completely Finished!