July 19, 2025 · Sub-level 4 Command Core, Frozen Lotus Temple · 20:56 CST
The command core was bathed in deep sapphire blue. Alen sat motionless in the high-backed titanium chair, back to the entrance, facing the massive curved holographic wall that wrapped around him like a living sphere. Thousands of translucent data ribbons drifted across the screens — satellite overlays, thermal maps of Wrenwood, survivor dossiers, encrypted DSO feeds. The only sounds were the faint hum of cooling fans and the soft pulse of the displays.
The central sphere flared. A life-size holographic projection of Ingrid Hunnigan materialised directly in front of him — seated at her DSO desk in crisp professional attire, rimless glasses, posture as composed as he had ever seen her. Her expression when she registered his appearance after five years was contained and precise, the specific warmth behind it controlled in the way that only a person with twenty years of professional discipline keeps warmth controlled — present, unmistakable, and entirely inside the register she had chosen.
"Control, come in," Hunnigan said. "Did you receive the data package I sent you?"
Alen didn't turn. "Yes. Report."
She leaned forward slightly. "We ran into unexpected trouble. What will you do about it?"
"I'm listening," Alen said. "Go on."
"Project Elpis. Still under DSO investigation. Highly confidential. I know who's behind it."
"Who," Alen said. Not a question.
Hunnigan pulled up the file. The data synced instantly to his screens.
"Victor Gideon. Prominent researcher for Umbrella Corporation during its final operational years. Worked directly on the Tyrant Project — t-Virus development and super-soldier creation. After Umbrella's bankruptcy in 2003, he purchased the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, a remote medical facility, and used it as a front for continuing illegal bio-experiments on undead subjects and kidnapped civilians."
She paused to let the data render on his screens before continuing.
"Years after Raccoon City, Gideon identified what he called Raccoon City Syndrome — a lethal, latent strain of the t-Virus that manifests decades later in survivors. He became obsessed with Project Elpis, the secret Umbrella-U.S. government initiative tied to the Sterilisation Strategy. Elpis was supposedly shut down after 1998. Gideon believes freeing it will revive Umbrella's vision of bio-weapon supremacy."
Alen stared at the screens, expression unchanged. "Don't worry about it. Thank you. Keep investigating."
He cut the connection. Hunnigan's hologram dissolved.
Alen remained facing the sphere. His titanium fingers tapped the armrest once.
"Trinity. Open Alex Wesker's entire archive. Umbrella Intelligence Division files. Full personnel list — senior researchers, scientists, all employees. I want it now."
∗ ∗ ∗
TRINITY INTERFACE — HOLOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE SEARCH
The command core lights dimmed to deep sapphire. The massive curved holographic sphere materialised around his chair, thousands of translucent data ribbons streaming past like digital ghosts. A soft, low chime resonated as Trinity's voice filled the chamber.
≪ Initiating deep archive scan. Source: Alex Wesker Personal Vault — Overseer Archive (Sein Island, 2000–2011). Clearance: Bloodline Alpha — Alen Richard only. Search parameters: Dead or alive — Senior Researchers, Scientists, All Employees — Umbrella Corporation 1995–2003. Cross-referencing Project W, Tyrant Division, Intelligence Division, and t-Phobos files. ≫
The sphere spun. Names flickered past in rapid succession — hundreds of redacted files, deceased personnel, missing researchers. Then the stream slowed. Stopped.
MATCH FOUND — PRIORITY OVERRIDE
Name: Victor Gideon. Date of Birth: 1971 (estimated). Umbrella Employee ID: UMB-4472-TYR. Rank at termination: Senior Virologist, Tyrant Project Lead Researcher (2001–2003). Current status per last Alex Wesker annotation: Alive — Persistent Threat.
A high-resolution photograph materialised in the centre of the sphere — Victor Gideon, mid-thirties, clean-shaven, sharp features, white lab coat with the Umbrella logo. Cold and ambitious eyes. Below it, his official ID badge scanned in with holographic security watermarks. Access granted by: A. Wesker — Overseer Signature, digital stamp 2002.
The sphere darkened. Alex Wesker's voice filled the chamber — icy, aristocratic, carrying the specific superiority of a woman who has decided she is the most intelligent person in every room she enters and who has not yet been proven wrong.
"Trinity, log this under Rejected Proposals — Elpis. I met with Dr. Victor Gideon today on the island. He presented his so-called Elpis Initiative — a desperate attempt to salvage the Sterilisation Strategy that destroyed Raccoon City. The man is competent, I'll grant him that. His work on the Tyrant line was adequate. But his vision is flawed at the genetic level. He believes we can free a stable strain that will grant true evolution to the masses. Pathetic. He still thinks like a servant of Spencer's old dream — mass infection, uncontrolled variables, inevitable collapse."
"I told him directly: Project Elpis is a dead end. The t-Virus latency issues he discovered are insurmountable without my t-Phobos framework. Fear is the only reliable trigger for true transcendence. His hope is nothing but a pretty name for another failure. He left angry but obedient. Monitor him. If he continues pursuing Elpis after my explicit rejection, he becomes a liability. End log."
A handwritten-style digital annotation appeared below the photograph — Alex's elegant, sharp script:
Personal Annotation — A. Wesker (2005): Gideon is ambitious but shortsighted. Useful for Tyrant maintenance, never to be trusted with independent projects. His obsession with liberating Elpis shows he lacks the vision for true superiority. If he contacts me again, terminate the conversation — and him if necessary. The Wesker bloodline will not be diluted by his mediocrity.
Alen stared at the glowing entry. The woman who wrote that annotation had been pregnant with him when she sat across from Baba M'Zati on a plateau in West Africa and vowed that her son would be a man. She had been running parallel calculations his entire life without knowing which would arrive first.
"So you were aware of Elpis," Alen said quietly. "Typical Alex Wesker — marking the threat, filing it, and moving on. Victor Gideon — play puppet master as long as you like. The heroes will handle you. I am going the reverse way."
He tapped a single command. Hidden satellites locked onto the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. Thermal scans bloomed across the screens.
He picked up the physical survivor file and began moving through it with clinical speed, already mapping the next position.
The phantom had begun to hunt.