[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 513 - Going to Pick Up Ada

Candice opened her eyes and let out a long breath.

"Witness a miracle."

She scribbled rapidly in her notebook.

"After homologous modification, you individuals can establish a psychic communication network that transcends physical media."

"More efficient than military encrypted radio, because you can fully trust Mutants. No risk of false information."

"Though I'd guess this ability has a range limit. Real-time communication regardless of distance seems unlikely."

"We should run an experiment sometime."

"I'll drive out from here, call you from Savannah, or even Washington, and see if it holds."

Leon stood and walked to the window.

"No rush on testing that."

This ability was way too overpowered.

Every Mutant he'd infected was now part of his living radar network. Silent communication, any time he wanted.

Was Ada at the Spencer Mansion right now?

And who was the other unlucky one?

Leon looked at his own reflection in the glass.

If he could hear, he could speak back.

He closed his eyes. Within that invisible web of sensation, he reached out and found it, the point of light that belonged to Ada, precise and unmistakable. He focused everything on it, like dialing a phone with no number.

Hundreds of kilometers away. Spencer Mansion. Underground safe room.

Ada had just been drifting toward sleep.

The fever from virus assimilation had soaked her in sweat. Now she lay sunk into the mattress, limbs heavy, body aching.

Then a low male voice dropped into her head.

"Who exactly are you calling a bastard?"

Ada's eyes snapped open. She was off the bed in the same instant.

Her right hand shot to the Glock under the pillow, reflex, no thought, the motion blur-fast.

The room held nothing but Rebekah, dead asleep.

Door lock intact. No sign of entry. Nothing.

Ada stood gripping the gun, frozen for 2 full seconds. Then she tossed it aside, pressed both hands over her face, and started laughing.

It built. Her shoulders shook with it. She laughed loud enough that Rebekah stirred awake.

Hah.

How the hell had that bastard Leon pulled this off?

"Can you hear me?" Ada tested in her mind.

"Clear as day." Leon's voice came back fast, carrying its usual edge of amusement. "Including the part where you complained about selling yourself to me."

"What, Umbrella Corporation's benefits not good enough? Thinking of jumping ship? Come to mine. Room and board included."

Ada rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling. There was a smile on her face, genuinely warm, the kind that belongs to people talking on the phone late at night when no one else is watching.

"Don't get cocky."

"I just didn't expect you to come with a built-in radio."

"Where are you?" Leon shifted gears. "When you kissed me while I was unconscious, you weren't wearing protection, were you?"

Ada covered her face.

"I was wearing it."

"I used your bodily fluids to try something, and ended up getting caught in it myself. That's all."

Only then did Leon get the full picture.

He relayed Candice's analysis to Ada. Ada absorbed it quickly and understood exactly what Candice had hypothesized.

"I sensed 2 nodes," Leon said.

"Besides you — who's the other one?"

"William Birkin." Ada's voice came back through the link. "Umbrella virologist. I put your bodily fluids in his drinking water."

Back at the prison, Leon raised an eyebrow.

William Birkin.

A real big fish.

The mad scientist behind the G-Virus.

Ada had played that beautifully.

"Well done." No hesitation in the praise. "Though you caught yourself in it too."

"How do you feel right now? Any urge to drop to your knees and worship me?"

"Keep dreaming." Ada's mental voice came out cold and flat. "Cut it out."

"My situation here is bad."

Leon's tone shifted. "What's going on?"

Ada laid it out concisely in her mind, Wesker's ultimatum, the matter with John, all of it.

"If I don't deliver the hard drive, Wesker moves on me."

"So — to keep a certain someone from getting jealous — I decided to bring Rebekah. Plan is to pull out through the Spencer Mansion's drainage exit tomorrow, daytime. Route's already mapped."

"How confident are you?"

"Fifty-fifty." Ada was precise about it. "The mansion is crawling with Tyrants. And even if we clear the building, Umbrella Corporation's pursuit teams are all through the forest outside."

"But waiting here to die isn't better."

Leon looked at the Atlanta skyline through the window. The night had gone quiet and dark.

"Send me your coordinates." A direct order.

Ada paused. "What are you planning to do?"

"Come get you." His voice was even. "You're one of my people now. I'm not going to sit here and watch someone push you around."

"Don't be an idiot." The urgency in her voice sharpened. "The security here isn't something you brute-force. Don't drag your people into this."

"I'm not bringing anyone," Leon said.

"Going alone."

"Are you insane?"

"Send the coordinates. That's an order." He put the full weight of command behind it.

Something shuddered deep in Ada's mind, irresistible, instinctive. A submission written into her genes at the molecular level.

She could not refuse this man's order.

The coordinates transmitted through the link.

"Wait for me."

"Stick to your original plan. Buy as much time as you can. If everything holds, we'll meet somewhere on the road."

He spoke with Ada a while longer after that, walking through her escape route in detail, making sure they wouldn't miss each other. Then he cut the connection.

In the lab, Candice looked up as Leon moved toward the door.

"Where are you going?"

"Out. Personal business." He pulled the door open. "Tell Rick the prison's defenses are his full responsibility while I'm gone. The moat project doesn't stop."

"How long will you be gone?"

"Depends on luck. Good luck, I'm back fast."

Leon walked out of the lab, crossed the corridor in long strides, and headed for the garage.

It wasn't that he didn't want backup. But Rick and the others would be dead weight against Tyrants, they'd done everything they could for him up to this point, and this particular problem was one they couldn't touch. He was faster alone.

Arklay Mountains.

Spencer Mansion.

Tyrants.

He rolled his neck. The joints cracked clean and sharp.

The T-Virus fusion had been complete for a while now. He'd been locked inside this prison ever since, patience running thin beneath the surface.

Time to move. Time to remind Umbrella Corporation exactly what a real bioweapon looked like.

He'd been wanting to find out how strong a Tyrant actually was.

Now he was going to find out in person.

➤ Next: So Here You Are