Carlos wondered why no one had bothered to in-clude that little nugget of information in their briefing but decided not to ask. It didn't really matter at this point; they had to get to the trolley. He didn't know Nicholai well, but Mikhail Victor was no threat, not in his condition, and he needed to get to a hospital. Trent had said there was one not far from the clock tower.

But Umbrella's eyes and ears…

No. Their stories were the same as his; they'd fought and watched their teammates die, gotten lost, looked for a way out and ended up here. It just felt weird, sud-denly having two more people involved. Trent had him questioning everyone's motives now, wondering who might be involved in the alleged Umbrella conspiracy, worrying about what he could and couldn't say.

Besides, Umbrella screwed them over, too. Why would they want to help the bastards who landed us in this shit? Trent may be telling the truth, but he's not here. They are, and I need them. We need them. Jill couldn't possibly object to having a few soldiers on her side.

"There's a cable car we can use to get out there," Carlos said. "Right to the clock tower, I think. It's close, it runs west… and with all those things out there looking for fresh meat…" "We could use a ride out of town," Nicholai broke in, nodding. "Assuming the tracks are clear. Wonderful. Are you sure it's in operating condition?" Carlos hesitated, then shrugged. "I haven't actually seen it. I ran into a… cop, I guess, a woman, she told me about it. She was on her way there, to see, she said she'd wait for me. I wanted to see if I could find any-one before we left." He felt almost guilty telling them about her, and abruptly he realized that he was letting all of Trent's crazy spy crap get to him. Why keep Jill a secret? Who cared? Mikhail and Nicholai exchanged a look and then both nodded. Carlos was glad. At last, a real plan, a course of action. The only thing worse than being in deep shit was being in deep shit with no direction. "Let's go," Nicholai said. "Mikhail, are you ready?" Mikhail nodded, and together, Carlos and Nicholai lifted him, supporting his weight as evenly as they could. They edged into the parking garage and had al-most made it back to the office when Nicholai let out a mild curse and stopped. "What?" Mikhail closed his eyes, breathing deeply. "The explosives," Nicholai said. "I can't believe I forgot why I even came back this way. After I found Mikhail, I just…" "Explosives?" Carlos asked. "Yes. Just after the zombies attacked, and my squad" – Nicholai swallowed, obviously struggling to maintain his composure -"after the zombies at-tacked, I ended up near a construction site, back in the industrial area. A building was being torn down, I think, and I saw a few discarded boxes with high ex-plosive warnings. There was a locked trailer, I was going to break in but another wave of them came after me." He met Carlos's gaze squarely. "They'd think twice about attacking in groups if we had a few RDX dyna-mite mixes to throw at them. Do you think you can make it to the trolley without me? I can meet you there." "I don't think we should split up," Mikhail said. "We stand a better chance if…" "If we have a way to keep them from getting too close," Nicholai interjected. "We can't afford to run out of ammo, not without something else to back us up. And there are the others to consider, the creatures…"

Carlos didn't think splitting up was such a good idea, either, but remembering that clawed thing from outside the restaurant

– and what about that big feon inside the restau-rant? Jill said it would be coming after her again… "Yeah, okay," Carlos said. "We'll wait for you at the cable car." "Good. I won't be long." Without another word, Nicholai turned and quickly walked away, out of the garage and into the night. Carlos and the pale Mikhail struggled on in silence. They'd gone back through the office and out into the street before Carlos realized that Nicholai hadn't both-ered asking for directions to the trolley. Nicholai had to resist a powerful urge to check the computer again as soon as he was out of sight; he had wasted enough time playing the upstanding squad leader to the two idiot soldiers. It had already been nineteen minutes since Captain Davis Chan had filed a Watchdog status report from the Umbrella medical sales office – about two blocks from the parking garage – and if Nicholai was very lucky, he might catch Chan still in the act, checking updated memos or trying to get through to one of the administrators. Nicholai jogged down a narrow alley plastered with flyers, hopping over several corpses strewn throughout, careful to avoid their upper bodies in case they weren't dead. Sure enough, one of the blasted-looking things near the end of the alley tried to reach around and grab his left boot. Nicholai jumped it with no trouble, smil-ing a little at its frustrated moan. Almost as pathetic as Mikhail. Carlos Oliveira, though. Tougher than he looked, and definitely brighter – no match for him, of course, but Nicholai would want to get rid of him sooner rather than later…… or not. I could bypass that charade entirely. Nicholai pushed through a metal door to his right, into another alley littered with human remains, con-sidering his options as he hurried along. He didn't need to go to the clock tower for any reason, just the hospital – and he didn't have to take the trolley. Toy-ing with Mikhail and now Carlos was enjoyable, but not a necessity. He could even let them live, if he chose… He grinned, turning a corner in the winding alley-way. What fun would that be? No, he was looking for-ward to watching the trust in their eyes crumble, seeing them realize how stupid they'd been… Tic tic tic. Nicholai froze, understanding the sound instantly. Claws on rock, ahead of him, the almost gentle clatter coming from the shadows above and to the left. The only available light was behind him in the walkway's comer, one of those buzzing fluorescent security lamps that barely had the power to show itself; he backed to-ward it, the tics coming faster and closer, the creature still unseen. "Show yourself, then," he growled, frustrated with yet another instance of bad timing. He had to get to the sales office before Chan disappeared, he didn't have time to battle one of Umbrella's freaks, much as he wanted to. Tic tic tic. Two of them! He could hear claws scratching cement to his right, where he'd just been, even as an unholy shriek sounded from the dark in front of him, a sound like madness, like souls being ripped apart…

… and there it was, screaming, leaping from the dark as the other joined in its monstrous song, moving black hell in stereo. Nicholai saw the raised hook claws of the one in front of him, the snapping, dripping mandibles, the gleaming insectile eyes, and knew the other was only a second behind its sibling, preparing to jump even as the first landed. Nicholai opened up, the rattle of automatic fire lost beneath the twin howls, the rounds finding their mark on the first, its scream changing as it shuddered to a stop barely three meters away – and, still firing, Nicholai crouched and fell backwards, rolling up on his right side in a single fluid motion. The second charging animal was less than two meters away when he hit it, bloody divots appearing in its shining black exoskele-ton like flowers in explosive bloom. Like the first, it twitched and spasmed to a halt before collapsing, its shrill cry becoming a gurgle, becoming silence. Nicholai got to his feet, unnerved, not sure of the species – either brain sucker or the more amphibious deimos, another multi-legged breed. He'd expected the viciousness and the attack method, but hadn't under-stood how fast they were.

If I'd been even a second later…

No time to consider it, he was in a hurry. He edged forward, quickly stepping over the dark, oozing sprawl of limbs, breaking into a run as soon as he was past. With each step away from the dead creatures he felt his composure returning, felt a flush of accomplish-ment warm him from the inside out. They were fast, but he was faster – and with such monsters loose in the city, he wouldn't have to worry about Mikhail or Carlos or anyone escaping what they were due. If he didn't get to enjoy the pleasure himself, he could revel in the knowledge that his comrades would certainly fall prey to any one of a dozen horrors, their inadequate reflexes failing them, their lack of skills ensuring their doom. Nicholai tightened his grip on the M16, a rush of ela-tion adding spring to each agile step. Raccoon was no place for the weak. He had nothing to fear.