Twenty-Five.

MATT SUPPOSED HE SHOULD'VE BEEN RELIEVED that Alice wasn't the bad guy here, that Lisa's instincts had been correct to trust her, but finding out that it was Spence who was singlehandedly responsible for this entire nightmare made him sick to his stomach.

Or, rather, sicker.

Alice threw off her jacket. Matt remembered that it was actually Spence's jacket, given to her outside this very lab to keep her warm.

He went over to the door and tried to pull the handle so it would open. It didn't work.

"Your boyfriend's a real a.s.shole," Rain muttered.

"He shot the locking mechanism out." Matt gave up on the door and turned to face the two women. "I can't believe that son of a b.i.t.c.h is gonna get away with this."

"I don't think so."

All three of them turned to look at the monitor that was now lit up with the Umbrella logo. A speaker near the monitor sounded with the child voice of the Red Queen.

"I've been a bad bad girl."

Matt watched as the monitor provided a view of Spence running up the stairs to the train station.

The view switched to that of an overhead security camera located right by the train itself, which was right where they'd left it several lifetimes ago. Spence went to the train, opened the outer door to the same closet J.D. had found him in. He pulled out a duffel bag, unzipped it, then removed a shiny metal case that had four circles in the four corners and a codepad.

Entering a code into the pad, the four circles all turned, and then the top slid open.

A smile of relief spread over Spence's face. Matt wished he could say the same for himself. That was the case Alice had been planning to steal and give to Lisa-and which Lisa was going to give to him.

The T-virus.

The motherlode.

The means through which Matt and Aaron and the rest of them were finally were finally going to expose Umbrella. going to expose Umbrella.

Matt ground his teeth. He had to get out of here somehow and get that f.u.c.king case!

Spence wrapped a strap around his biceps, tapped his arms to bring up a vein, then prepared the hypo-gun for an injection.

Before he finished, though, he stopped and looked up. It appeared as if he'd heard something.

Then some-thing fell from the ceiling and ate Spence alive. fell from the ceiling and ate Spence alive.

Matt had a vivid imagination, fueled by reading too many comic books when he was a kid, not to mention some of the vile and depraved acts he saw while working the Federal Marshal's office.

But this-this was so far beyond the pale as to be in another hemisphere. In his wildest dreams, he couldn't imagine anything as revolting as this.

Whatever the thing was, it looked like a cross between a rhino and a human. The skin was corded and plated, with horns sticking out of various spots. It had opposable thumbs, but huge claws sticking out of its fingers and toes.

It had a tongue as long as a snake, and it had more teeth than a piranha.

Those teeth were chowing down on Spence right now.

Then it turned its head up toward the camera.

Whatever that thing was, it didn't have any eyes.

Matt's determination to bring down Umbrella prior to today was a votive candle compared to the inferno it was now. There was no way in h.e.l.l h.e.l.l he was letting this company stay in business. he was letting this company stay in business.

Eventually, he found his voice. "What-the f.u.c.k-is that?"

"One of the Hive's early experiments, produced by injecting the T-virus directly into living tissue. The results were unstable. It was being held in stasis until you cut the power to its storage unit. Now that it has fed on fresh DNA, it will mutate, becoming a stronger, faster hunter."

As the Red Queen spoke, Matt watched as the eyeless thing's flesh-if you could call it flesh-rippled and expanded. The head altered, becoming more angular. The claws expanded, and the torso lengthened.

"Great," Rain muttered.

"If you knew it was loose, why didn't you warn us?" Matt asked the computer.

Alice, however, was the one who provided the answer. "Because she was saving it for us-isn't that right?"

The computer spoke matter-of-factly. "I didn't think any of you would make it this far-not without infection."

Rain turned her sweat-drenched head and looked at the monitor. "Why didn't you tell us about the anti-virus?"

"This long after infection, there's no guarantee it would work."

"But there's a chance, right?"

"I don't deal in chance."

Matt looked around the room. He saw the other door, the one with the number pad.

What the h.e.l.l.

He went over to the door and started entering numbers at random. At this point, they didn't have a d.a.m.n thing to lose.

Rain had gotten up, grabbed the fire axe, and looked at the large window.

"f.u.c.k it."

Then she collapsed onto a chair.

"No pressure, guys."

"You require the four-digit access code."

Matt resisted the urge to shout, "No s.h.i.t!" Instead, he just tried more numbers at random. Maybe he'd get lucky.

Right, lucky. Hey, there was a first time for everything, and after thirty years of life, he was due to have good luck with something something.

"I can give you the code, but first you must do something for me."

Matt stopped entering numbers and looked up. The computer was dealing?

"What do you want?" Alice asked.

"One of your group is infected. I require her life for the code."

Matt recalled Rain's earlier characterization of the Red Queen as a "homicidal b.i.t.c.h." That seemed a lot less hyperbolic now.

Alice was livid. She pointed at the monitor, which still showed what was left of Spence's body next to the metal case he'd stolen from this very room. "The anti-virus is right there right there on the platform-it's on the platform-it's right there right there!"

"I'm sorry, but it's a risk I cannot take."

Before Alice could yell again, Rain spoke.

"She's right."

She tossed the axe she was holding at Alice, who caught it unerringly.

"It's the only way. You're gonna have to kill me."

Matt shook his head. First Kaplan, now Rain. Did Umbrella train these idiots to all be suicidal?

"No." Alice spoke with finality.

"Otherwise we all die down here."

No, not suicidal, pragmatic. To a fault.

A sudden noise grabbed Matt's attention. He looked up to see the thing that killed Spence throwing itself against the window.

Matt had no idea what the window was made of-it obviously was some kind of Plexiglas or some other extra-tough substance-but it may not have been tough enough. The monster's first attack left a hairline crack.

It was only a matter of time before it got through.

"The PlastiGlas won't hold forever."

Rain got down on her knees and leaned forward, like she was a French Revolutionary waiting for King Louis to take her head.

Or maybe a samurai warrior about to commit seppuku seppuku.

"Do it," she said.

Alice looked as aghast as Matt felt. "Don't. Get up."

"Do it."

"Rain, please, get up."

"You don't have long to decide."

"Do it."

"Kill her."

"No."

"Do it now!"

The creature smashed into the window.

"Kill her." "Do it!"

"Rain-"

"Do it!" "Kill her." "No!"

Alice screamed, hefted the axe--and smashed the Red Queen's monitor. A second later, all the lights went out, and what few systems were working powered down.

Emergency lights came on a moment later. "That's some axe you got there," Matt said. Alice shook her head. "The axe didn't do this." A clicking sound came from the door. Matt whirled around to see the door start to open...

Twenty-Six.

BART KAPLAN WATCHED ALICE, RAIN, AND the others go off into the vent even as he stuck the barrel of the revolver into his mouth.

This was it.

He'd f.u.c.ked up enough. His stupidity got One, Warner, Drew, and Olga killed. His panic indirectly got J.D. killed. h.e.l.l, his shutting down the Red Queen was what let these zombies loose.

He should pay for what he did.

Even as a zombie that used to be one of the doctors clambered up the pipe toward him, he prepared himself to pull the trigger.

At the last second he pulled the gun out of his mouth and shot Dr. Zombie in the head instead.

Then he threw the gun at the one behind the doctor. "You're gonna have to work for your meal!"