How to NOT Biohazard 2 (Patreon)

How to NOT Biohazard 2 - or ‘I am the one handling the money, so my plans have some relevance’ (Resident Evil UmbrellaExec!SI)

Alexander Ashford was an utter bastard.

It shouldn’t be something I should be able to preach about considering who my boss is, but the man had a different layer of evil to him that struck me the wrong way. Some may say that he ‘snapped’ into being a good guy after he got a view of what Alexia could do with some research on virology and the resources to commit something like that.

But the truth is that the man was far from good out of the fact he didn’t interact much with the twins. A quick glance wouldn’t tell, but I could tell by interactions alone between the trio to know they were at odds- siblings against ‘father’.

I wouldn’t blame him much due to the truth behind the twins, but, at the same time, I blame him for not being willing to go all the way in with that sort of plan. After all, he had them generated by her maternal ancestor with the hopes of having geniuses to contest Spencer’s influence in Umbrella since Alexander himself lacked the skills to keep up with the research.

Even now the Progenitor Virus was proceeding at a slow pace compared to the t-Virus because of how isolationist the family was in regard to external researchers. It was a reason for smugness to Spencer, and a reason for Alexander to resent himself… and the kids.

Still, the current situation ill-prepared me for a ‘close encounter’. Spencer was invited by Alexander to share a few private words in the latter’s office. I was thus left alone in the small living room before the office with the two kids (plus the guards of both parties). I knew their identities, their personalities and their threat level.

Alexia was the worst, but she was foiled by her own brother’s innocent prospective. Innocent but crippled due to a lack of emotional support to sustain his current childish mind beyond his sister, Alfred was a softie but one that had higher than average intelligence. And the fact he was born in this family was a bad situation for him due to the expectations he couldn’t match compared to his sister.

Still, he was my ‘main crutch’ in this interaction and, with Alexia not wasting a moment to poke at me with questions, I knew I had to play a difficult balance game to keep her at bay while also making it a conversation she can’t win.

The moment she won was the moment she would consider me lesser. And that would be enough to create me problems in my standing at Umbrella. Not now, but in the near future.

I needed her on the edge.

“So, you just do economics? Nothing else?”

“That’s quite dismissive of the importance of a budget, young lady,” I lightly chided the brat, knowing that she would try to undermine my strength there. “Economics is quite important, especially when you are the one deciding the best course of action to take in handling investments to fund research. I mean, do you feel it is not relevant?”

She raised a perplexed brow at that. “What do you mean?”

Cheeky. I was the one that asked the question and yet she was trying to keep in charge of the talk. Sadly for her, that only helped me with what I had in mind to say and do there.

“Well, I would have thought that you would have been more considerate of your brother’s own brilliance in handling guns.”

Despite what many would have to say in terms of ‘morality’ over having a child as young as Alfred using guns for sport, I have to say that the news I got on the child from Alfred himself painted a relatively amazing understanding of weaponry. I had dabbled on the topic out of concern for eventual needs to use a gun to defend myself and… the child was good.

Still, the main point remained. Alexia’s eyes widened a bit as she realized the mine she stepped on and, carefully so, she swiftly defused it.

“I would never undermine my brother’s achievements or yours Mr. Bukharin. I am… sorry for making it appear as such.”

“It’s alright, young lady,” I offered a full-toothed smile. “I understand that you are quite experienced with the vocabulary, but that you may not have experience in holding a conversation with someone that is not strongly affiliated to your family.”

Traduction: I forgive you for being so blunt, but I am not your servant and definitely not your friend.

From Alexia’s slightly irked look, she knew about half the message I delivered. Despite that, she seemed to play it safe after that mistake and she slowly did a bigger error against me- she thought she could wind me out by letting me talk but, due to how I kept her and her brother pulled in the conversation, she slowly allowed this to distract her and find this a pleasurable experience.

Her brother was having fun, with Alfred’s cute smiles melting the icy cold heart of his sociopathic sister.

And eventually I got to a topic that caught her off-guard.

“I wouldn’t say I consider him a father, but he is a role model to me,” I explained as Alfred inquired over my connection with Oswell. He had been of the assumption, which was forgivable due to the fact he is just a kid, that Oswell was my father. Technically yes, emotionally not as much. “I would say he does have a deep respect for me and has been up to give me the best education and understanding of the world as he could with his usual chores at work.”

In a nutshell, I made it clear that, despite his shortcomings, Oswell Spencer was better than Alexander Ashford due to the fact the former had no reason to be a bastard around me. The same couldn’t be said for Alexander and the twins.

It was a small seed of doubt, but enough to get noticed by Alexia as she nodded in agreement to my words. In the end, however, this interaction came to a full-stop when Oswell wheeled out of the office, his face showing some hints of irritation, and I could tell from Alexander that they had a bitter clash.

The older man was still the top dog despite Alexander’s efforts to put him off-guard. What was discussed? I didn’t know at the time, but I would eventually learn that ‘Alexander had the balls to ask Spencer to grant him some scientists of aristocratic descent’. I swear, the idiocy with Alexander and most of the Ashford family is truly painful to listen to.

It was thus time to go as we were sharing some last words before leaving, so I decided to try something quite unorthodox.

“If I may be a bit more free in my speech, Lord Ashford, I would like to say that these two children are quite clever. I really hope that they mature to the fullest of their potential.”

As I said this, I reached out and I patted their heads. Both looked positively happy at this, so I thought that was fine. The fact that Alexander didn’t seem to bear any issue with the sight further relieved me.

Alfred smiled at the praise and didn’t say anything as I pulled away but… Alexia’s hands shoot to catch my palm from leaving her head.

I was a bit stunned by this move, the child looking… the oddest possible. Her eyes were fully wide-open, yet focusing elsewhere as she just stood there for a moment, frozen and then… breaking away from the feeling. Her cheeks were flushed and she nodded as we left.

Quite the reaction, but I didn’t think much of it… I was unaware of the fact that, despite her delight in verbal praises, Alexia had been caught off-guard by the innocent headpat as something far more meaningful than any of those compliments she tended to get from tutors and teachers.

And that was going to leave quite an imprint on her mind as she stared at my retreating form with… intrigue.

—------d-d-d-d—--------

AN

The Ashford family in this verse is fucky as hell.

Also, an important element that may or may not be relevant to the plot itself: Alfred, Alexia’s twin sibling, is not a full male. He was born with both male and female genitals but ended up preferring to be male due to parental pressure. This may ‘change’ or not. Depends on my mood about it and if I can make something work from this or not.