Kelly Marlene

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"Miss Kelly."

Before Adrian could draw, T-Lilith raised a hand and greeted the woman.

So this was the Miss Kelly she kept mentioning.

Adrian frowned.

Kelly seemed to be like Freeman, another researcher from whatever hole-in-the-ground lab had built T-Lilith. The young woman liked her, apparently, but Kelly had not stopped the tragedy that happened in that lab. As far as Adrian was concerned, that made her no different from the people who had taken T-Lilith apart piece by piece in the name of research.

That alone made kindness impossible.

Adrian dropped the bags to the floor. One hand closed around T-Lilith's smaller hand. The other settled on the Glock at his waist.

"Miss, I think you have the wrong man."

Kelly did not seem to expect that level of hostility. A tiny flicker of alarm crossed her cold face before she forced herself steady.

"I am not mistaken. I came for that young woman." Her eyes shifted to the door. "Or are you not going to invite me in?"

"Why would I?"

"A contract," Kelly said after a moment of hesitation.

Not long after, the three of them were back inside the office.

Adrian dumped the groceries on the table and stared at Kelly, who sat on the couch. His face was dark.

"Start talking. What you say next decides whether I twist your head off."

Kelly's attention was not on him at all.

From the moment she entered, she had been watching T-Lilith. When the young woman began humming an off-key tune and pulling women's clothes from the bags one by one, Kelly's cold expression gradually softened, like ice beginning to melt.

She looked like a worried mother watching her daughter.

That annoyed Adrian even more.

His fingers struck the table hard.

"Miss Kelly. You said you had a contract."

"Sorry. I was distracted."

The apology was more symbolic than heartfelt. Kelly crossed one leg over the other, laced her fingers over her knee, and looked up at Adrian with a cold, controlled face.

"First, let me introduce myself. My name is Kelly Marlene. I'm a biochemist. Until recently, I worked at a research facility on a classified project. That project produced this young woman. Codename: T-Lilith."

"Get to the point. I still need to cook. I don't have time for lab bullshit."

Adrian waved her words away impatiently.

"Do you remember the armed escort from a few days ago?" Kelly did not go straight to the heart of the matter. "You saw the two humanoid organisms that emerged from the storage tanks, yes? They were T-103C Tyrants, a new model our facility developed from the original T-103 line. Ah, forgive me. That may be difficult for you to understand. In simple terms..."

"I understand." Adrian cut her off. "Tyrants. Umbrella's classic B.O.W. line, developed through T-virus research using compatible genetic material tied to former Soviet officer Sergei Vladimir. Plenty of black-market variants trace back to the T-103 line."

His tone turned rougher.

"Now hurry up and get to the point."

For once, Kelly was the one caught off guard.

This young mercenary hiding in a small Eastern European country knew classified information like that? After Umbrella's collapse, many files had vanished or been sealed by the organizations that seized them. Kelly herself had only accessed that data after becoming a core member of the project.

He recited it like he had memorized a classified briefing.

'Who is this mercenary?'

"If you understand, that helps." Kelly gathered her thoughts and continued. "Tyrants are among the more successful B.O.W.s. In my superior's view, however, they were not enough. He wanted a Tyrant with greater intelligence and a body closer to an ordinary human being, without sacrificing combat ability."

She glanced toward the room where T-Lilith was changing.

"So we stopped relying on normal clone bodies as the base. To make the base more compatible with the T-virus, we began creating genetic defects artificially, then using the virus to complete what was missing. Traditional Tyrants modify a normal genetic base with the T-virus. Our goal was different. We combined defects in the clone subject's genome with the T-virus like pieces of a puzzle, using the virus to repair and complete those defects."

Her voice remained precise.

"After thousands of failures, we obtained an almost perfect result. Human appearance. Tyrant-level strength. Greater cognitive ability. That is this young woman. T-Lilith. Full designation: Tyrant-Lilith."

Kelly finished and looked up, trying to read Adrian's reaction.

His face had not changed. It remained dark enough to hide everything.

T-Lilith had finished changing beside them. She wore a white inner shirt under a loose red jacket that looked one size too large, light blue ripped jeans, and white sneakers. She walked lightly to Adrian's side, tugged his shirt, and asked, "Adrian Voss, does it look good?"

"Perfect. T-Lilith looks pretty in anything."

The darkness on his face melted instantly. Adrian turned, smiled, and stroked her head.

T-Lilith seemed to show off as she turned once in front of Kelly. "Pretty, Miss Kelly?"

"Pretty."

A stiff little smile touched Kelly's face.

She wanted to return to the conversation, but Adrian's attention had left her completely. She had to cough lightly to remind him she existed.

Adrian teased T-Lilith for a while longer, then said, "T-Lilith, take the food to the kitchen and wait in the bedroom for a bit."

"I want to hear Adrian Voss talk to Miss Kelly."

"Trust me. Give us a minute."

He stroked her head again.

T-Lilith relented. Expressionless, she gathered the bags and left.

"Mr. Voss," Kelly said once T-Lilith was gone, "since you understand Tyrants, you likely understand other B.O.W.s as well. Then you should also understand the value of this product. My... superior hopes I can recover this rare individual for the organization. As matters stand, T-Lilith's success cannot be reproduced. You risked your life to recover her from the battlefield. I assume you hoped to sell her for a good price. Name one. As long as it is not unreasonable, we can afford it."

"Before we talk about that." Adrian's eyes stayed on her. "The security team was wiped out that night. The BSAA and the Tyrants were busy tearing each other apart. How did you know I took T-Lilith?"

"I implanted a tracking device in T-Lilith," Kelly said.

"You're here on behalf of your organization to retrieve her?"

"Correct."

"Interesting." A cruel smile cut across Adrian's face. "Cargo that important ends up in Loplers, a place even God avoids, and the big organization behind you doesn't send a security team to kick my door in. It sends an unarmed scientist to negotiate."

He moved before the sentence finished.

Before Kelly could react, he had her by the throat and pinned to the couch. His other hand drew the Glock and pressed the muzzle to her forehead.

"You think I'm stupid? Are you playing with me?"

"No. Listen, I can explain..."

Kelly could barely breathe, but she still tried to argue.

Adrian had no interest.

"Shut up. You and the people behind you are lower than scum, and I say that as scum. I heard you shot that young woman to test her performance. Impressive. A very fast spinning gun. Long bursts. You used a minigun on a woman who barely had a life outside a tank."

"I tried to stop..."

"Don't make me laugh. You were probably excited too, weren't you? Wondering how many rounds she could take. After all, she was your precious killing machine."

His smile grew manic. His eyes went bloodshot, and his voice trembled.

"To keep myself and T-Lilith safe, I can't let you leave this city alive. She seems to like you, and I'll admit I'm worried she'll hate me if I kill you in front of her. But we're past that. Two streets over, there's a warehouse that handles outsider corpses in Loplers. The quiet woman there will cut you into pieces with a chainsaw. So go on. Last words."

"Actually, I am..."

"Good. I heard enough."

Adrian cut her off.

"Now die."

A pale hand caught the back of his collar.

The next instant, Adrian flew backward.

Even as he went, he fired three shots at Kelly on the couch. All three missed wildly and punched into the wall behind her. It still scared Kelly badly enough that she felt the rounds snap past her face.

Adrian hit the floor hard. He looked back and saw T-Lilith holding his collar.

"Miss Kelly is good," T-Lilith said. "She will not hurt us."

"You shouldn't have saved her."

Adrian got to his feet, dusting himself off.

"She's still a researcher. Anyone who touches B.O.W. research is a devil who sold their soul. They're freaks obsessed with turning every living thing in the world into something twisted. They never think about the disasters their work brings. If you let her walk out of Loplers alive, not only are we in trouble, they might even..."

"Enough!"

Kelly slammed a hand against the table and cut him off. She drew a deep breath. The expression she gave him was complicated.

"I came alone. I installed T-Lilith's tracking device without authorization. The organization does not know she is here."

She told the truth at last.

"I lied because I thought you recovered her only to sell her. I thought opening with a transaction would make it easier to take her away from you. I was wrong. Unlike the other mercenaries I have known, Mr. Voss, you are a kind man."

For the first time, something sincere showed through Kelly's cold face.

Adrian said nothing. He only stepped in front of T-Lilith without thinking.

"You do not need to treat me as an enemy," Kelly said. "Our goal is the same. We both want this young woman to live happily. Not as a weapon. As a woman."

"How do you prove that?"

Kelly looked at him. A struggle seemed to move behind her eyes. After a long silence, she made her decision and said something that shocked even Adrian.

"I was the one who leaked the T-Lilith convoy's route to the BSAA."

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