The two women sitting beside General Ross were, naturally, the Eredar Twins.
The woman in red, calling herself Ada Wong, was Alythess.
The one in blue, using the name Carla Wong, was Salyssra.
After they agreed to cooperate with him, Evenson hadn’t hesitated for even a second before appointing both of them as directors of Umbrella Corporation.
It sounded impressive.
In reality, the entire company consisted of fewer than ten people.
That headcount even included a dog and one permanently disabled employee.
Titles meant very little.
Whether you were a director, an executive, or a department head, everyone still ended up doing fieldwork.
Tonight’s assignment was General Thaddeus Ross.
In their eyes, he wasn’t simply a useful contact.
He was a long-term investment.
"Two whiskeys."
Salyssra ordered the drinks.
As the bartender set them down, she slid a crisp hundred-dollar bill across the counter and dismissed him with a casual wave.
Money was the one thing the twins didn’t lack.
In less than a month after arriving in this world, they’d taken control of a thriving nightlife operation.
Between legitimate businesses and considerably less legitimate ones, cash flowed in faster than they could spend it.
Unlike a certain warlock who had lived in this universe for years and still somehow remained perpetually broke.
The bartender accepted the generous tip, glanced discreetly at the three customers, and quietly disappeared through a staff door.
Working in a New York bar taught valuable survival skills.
Recognizing conversations you absolutely did not want to overhear was one of them.
Ross’s expression darkened.
Those twenty soldiers...
How could he ever forget them?
Two months earlier, a twenty-five-man strike team had infiltrated one of America’s most heavily defended military installations.
Five infiltrators searched the secure storage facility.
The remaining twenty held off the entire base.
Armed with nothing more than improvised barricades built from modified civilian vehicles, they fought an entire reinforced battalion head-on.
Even after every restriction on military firepower had been lifted, American forces struggled to gain the upper hand.
Only sustained attacks from armed helicopters finally wiped them out.
Even then...
Ross had long suspected the search team had actually found what they’d come for.
They simply couldn’t escape after their rear guard was destroyed.
So they erased every trace they could...
...and accepted death.
The battle had lasted nearly an hour.
More than a hundred American soldiers had been killed or wounded.
Twenty enhanced humans had inflicted that level of damage without tanks, bunkers, or heavy support.
No soldier forgot something like that.
The subsequent investigation concluded those attackers were likely artificially enhanced super soldiers.
That revelation changed nothing.
The incident remained one of the greatest humiliations suffered by the U.S. military since Pearl Harbor.
This hadn’t been terrorism.
It had been a military operation conducted on American soil.
Anyone responsible would have been interrogated first...
Executed later...
Then interrogated again if that were somehow possible.
And now...
Two women were calmly sitting beside him, claiming those enhanced soldiers had been their products.
Ross didn’t believe for one second they had come to surrender.
"So those were your creations."
He set his glass down with a sharp crack.
"Give me one good reason not to hand you over to the police."
"Or military intelligence."
He intended to seize control of the conversation immediately.
Whatever they wanted...
He wouldn’t let them dictate the pace.
Ada Wong merely swirled the whiskey in her glass before taking an elegant sip.
"If that’s what you’ve decided..."
"What a pity."
"We came here to discuss a partnership."
Ross’s eyes narrowed.
"A partnership?"
His beard trembled with anger.
"The moment those soldiers attacked a U.S. military installation, they became enemies of this country."
"And now you have the nerve to ask an American general for cooperation?"
"The audacity is unbelievable."
His voice thundered across the otherwise quiet bar.
Outwardly, Ross looked every bit the outraged patriot.
Inwardly...
He was intrigued.
The twenty enhanced soldiers hadn’t turned into uncontrollable monsters like Emil Blonsky.
They had retained discipline.
Reason.
Obedience.
That alone made Umbrella’s technology priceless.
"You misunderstand, General," Ada replied calmly.
"We didn’t attack your base."
"We simply sold a batch of enhancement drugs to a client."
"What they chose to do afterward wasn’t our concern."
Ross answered almost immediately.
"That doesn’t absolve you."
"You knowingly supplied enemies of the United States."
"Your products caused enormous losses."
"You bear responsibility."
Curiously...
Ross accepted her explanation with almost no resistance.
He no longer treated Umbrella as the mastermind behind the assault.
Only as its supplier.
And when he spoke of "taking responsibility," he clearly wasn’t imagining a military tribunal.
Thirty years ago...
Perhaps.
Now?
After decades navigating politics and classified operations, Ross understood how the real world worked.
This was negotiation.
Nothing more.
If guilt could become leverage...
Then leverage had value.
As for the soldiers who died...
If their sacrifice ultimately strengthened the nation, Ross considered it meaningful.
Salyssra finally spoke.
"I don’t know exactly how many soldiers died that night."
"But I do know this."
"Our technology can save far more lives than were lost."
"I don’t know how much money your government spent cleaning up that disaster."
"But compared to the value our research can create..."
"It becomes insignificant."
Ross slowly shook his head.
"Not enough."
What he wanted wasn’t a mutually beneficial partnership.
He wanted their technology.
Cheaply.
Ideally...
For free.
Ada smiled knowingly.
"I understand."
"But your position isn’t exactly strong either, General."
Ross fell silent.
She wasn’t wrong.
Officially, he’d escaped punishment after the Abomination incident.
Unofficially...
His career was over.
Sooner or later, some perfectly respectable excuse would be found.
A reassignment.
Mandatory retirement.
An advisory role with no authority.
Whatever form it took, the result would be the same.
He would quietly disappear from public life.
Forgotten.
For a man who had spent his entire life chasing military glory...
That fate was unbearable.
Which was why, the moment Umbrella mentioned cooperation, he hadn’t dismissed them outright.
He hadn’t even questioned whether they were telling the truth.
Instead, he’d instinctively begun negotiating.
If he could secure Umbrella’s technology on favorable terms...
If he could deliver something this valuable to the military...
Then perhaps his career wasn’t finished after all.
Perhaps...
This was the opportunity he’d been desperately waiting for.
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