A radio crackled to life on one of the dead men. The voice that came through was flat, stripped of anything human, cutting across every active channel at once:
"All units, repeat priority command: First priority, live capture of suspected Subject 092. No lethal force. Explosive weapons are absolutely prohibited in proximity to the target. Second priority, secure Dr. Bard, recover the vaccine, recover all ARK Plan samples and documentation. All other personnel are to be eliminated on sight. Squad One holds the front entrance. Squad Two assaults the lower levels. Squad Three accelerates the flanking approach. Squad Four locks down the roof. Squad Five remains on standby for reinforcement. Target must be secured within ten minutes."
The three of them went still.
Five tactical squads. All of it aimed at them, at this building, at the small sick girl in the ward down the hall. Becky. They'd banned their own explosives to keep her in one piece.
Ryan's grip on Jill tightened without him meaning it to. He'd had a feeling about these people from the start, that they were something worse than Umbrella, more deliberate, harder to see coming. Now he had his proof. Whoever they were, they'd deployed at least five elite squads and thrown a net over the entire building for one suspected ARK Plan host.
Then Tyrell's voice burst through the comms, ragged with pain and effort, the wet crack of rounds hitting concrete audible behind him. "Ryan! Jill! They came through the ventilation shafts! At least six of them! I held them at the fire stairs but I'm hit, right thigh, through-and-through, I can't move! I'm not going to hold much longer!"
Kendo followed immediately, his voice grinding out through clenched teeth. Somewhere behind him, something heavy was hammering against a reinforced door. "Four of the bastards came through the vents on my end! They made it to the ward entrance! I put them down, but I've got a round in my right shoulder! Becky's fine. Door's locked, I'm in front of it, nobody's getting through!"
Then Bard, voice fraying: "I... I caught a fragment, a ricochet, it's in my left leg! I can't walk! But I've got the case, I've got it, I'm not letting go! Becky isn't hurt, she's just frightened!"
Ryan ran the tally. Carlos, left arm, through-and-through. Jill, right ribs. Tyrell, right thigh, through-and-through. Kendo, right shoulder. Bard hadn't even been in the fight and still caught shrapnel. Every one of them down in some way, combat effectiveness cut in half.
Ryan himself had taken a round square in the chest and was still standing.
"Jill." He finished tightening the tourniquet on Carlos's arm and kept his voice even. "Stay put. Don't move around, the bandaging just set." He looked at Carlos. "Hold this position. Don't let anyone push down the stairs. I'm going to the lower level, clear the flankers."
Jill caught his wrist. The worry in her eyes hadn't gone anywhere, even after everything she'd just watched him walk through. "Be careful."
He looked at her for a moment. Then he dipped his head and touched his forehead to hers, brief and quiet. "I'll be back. I'm getting all of you out."
He was already moving when the words left his mouth.
Down the corridor at a full run, into the fire stairs, around the corner, and he caught two of them mid-step, both already behind Tyrell with their weapons up. No pause. Two shots, back of the skull, both men dropped without a sound. The other four spun toward him and he put them down before any of them cleared their sights. Four rounds. Four seconds.
Tyrell was slumped against the wall, the wound in his thigh still bleeding steadily, his face ash-white. He stared at the hole in Ryan's vest. "You... they shot you. I heard it. You took a hit."
"Knocked me around a bit. I'm fine." Ryan tossed him a first aid kit. "Tourniquet, high on the thigh. Tight. Don't move more than you have to, you lose much more blood and you'll pass out."
He moved to the ward. Kendo was braced against the door, right shoulder soaked through, face pale and drawn, but he hadn't shifted an inch from that doorway. Through the narrow window Ryan could see Becky pulled into the corner of her bed with a blanket around her shoulders, eyes wide and watchful but quiet. No crying. Bard was against the medical cabinet nearby, a fragment still buried in his left calf and seeping, both arms locked around the metal case, refusing to put it down.
The whole group, wrecked. Everyone except him and Becky.
"Ryan." Carlos's voice came through the comms, tight and controlled, which meant it was bad. "Front entrance just committed everything. Three heavy machine guns set up in the lobby, two sniper teams, and they're pushing for the stairwell. I can't hold this much longer."
Ryan's expression didn't change. He looked through the ward window one more time at the people inside, the ones who couldn't move, who were counting on the door and the man in front of it, then turned and walked back toward the stairs.
All five squads were moving at once.
"Hold on," he said into the comms. "On my way up."
The pain in his chest was still there, dull and persistent. He didn't slow down. Behind him were people who needed the fight won. Ahead of him was everything they'd thrown at the building.
There was no version of this where they lost.