[TWD x Resident Evil] — Chapter 611 - The Red Queen's True Worth

Leon pushed open the door.

Chris stood in the corridor outside, walkie-talkie in hand.

"What's going on?" Leon asked, pulling the door shut behind him.

Chris shrugged.

"That kid Simon just radioed the camp's comm room. Says the motherboard decryption hit a critical node — ran into trouble he doesn't dare call on his own. Has to be your decision."

Leon nodded and walked straight toward the prison's communications center.

He pushed the door open. James and a few task force members were off to one side, calibrating their equipment. The moment they saw Leon walk in, they stopped what they were doing and snapped to attention.

That absolute, reflexive obedience had been carved into their bones.

Leon crossed to the control panel and picked up the headset.

"Simon. Talk. What's the situation."

A few seconds of static, then Simon's voice crackled through, buzzing with barely-contained excitement.

"Boss, this thing you brought back is an absolute work of art!"

"Umbrella's encryption algorithm is the most insane I've ever seen — took some doing, but I've completely severed her hardwired backdoor connection to Umbrella Corporation headquarters."

"Get to the point." Leon had no interest in listening to him gloat.

"The point is, I've got root-level database access to the Red Queen."

"Her memory is packed with a massive amount of data, experiment footage, researchers' daily conversations, clinical observation records on every type of mutant. All of it."

Simon was hammering away at his keyboard on the other end, the rapid clatter carrying through loud and clear.

"This AI spent way too long inside The Hive. She recorded virtually everything that ever happened in there, through cameras placed absolutely everywhere."

Simon paused.

"Boss — should I just run a full physical format on her?"

"Wipe all her memories. When she reboots she'll be a completely clean AI that only answers to us."

"Those disgusting bioweapon experiment records aren't any use anyway, and they're eating up memory."

Not any use?

Kid, they are incredibly useful.

Hearing that proposal, Leon's eyes narrowed slightly.

He thought it over for a second, then rejected it outright.

"Forget it. Don't touch that data." His tone left no room for argument.

"Why?" Simon sounded genuinely confused.

"Those experiment recordings you're calling garbage, every single one is hands-on empirical data that Umbrella's lunatics paid for in human lives."

Leon pulled a chair over and sat down.

"The Red Queen personally witnessed the birth, loss of control, testing, and final physical results of every bioweapon they ever built."

"That kind of first-hand material, you cannot buy it at any price."

"Marcus, William, and Candice need exactly this right now."

Leon saw it with complete clarity.

The prison base currently had some of the sharpest minds anywhere assembled under one roof. They were working on how to perfectly fuse the T-Virus with the mutant factor and roll it out at scale. With the Red Queen's vast experimental database as a reference, the research timeline could be cut by months, possibly years.

"Just rewrite her core logic so she recognizes us as the highest-authority holders."

"Keep the memories. All of it is an asset."

"Understood, Boss, you want to squeeze every last drop of residual value out of this machine." Simon reversed course immediately.

"Give me 10 minutes to finish the final rewrite."

10 minutes later, a single crisp keystroke came through the comm.

"Done! The Red Queen is now completely yours."

The corner of Leon's mouth pulled into a satisfied smirk.

Then his gaze drifted to the black metal motherboard Kaplan had left sitting on the table.

"A motherboard alone is useless." He tapped his fingers on the tabletop.

He knew all too well how enormous this super AI's appetite was. The Red Queen running at full capacity required immense power and an extraordinarily complex hardware infrastructure to support her. The few dozen diesel generators the camp had right now wouldn't even be enough to boot her up.

A complete equipment framework would have to be built for her from scratch.

And right now, there was only one location, ready-made, that could supply that hardware.

"Chris."

Leon turned to look at the big man who had been waiting quietly off to the side.

"Boss." Chris stepped forward. "Your orders."

➤ Next: Giving Simon a Vacation