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Unfortunately, nothing he did to try to stop the bleeding where Loginov had bitten his shoulder seemed to be doing any good. The wound would not clot for anything.

Which meant there was a very good chance Carlos himself was going to become one of Jorge’s scary zombies.

Definitely a crappy vacation.

“It won’t stop bleeding,” he said, as much to engage Nicholai in conversation as anything.

“How could they have missed us?” Nicholai asked.

“What?”

“The chopper. We were right there in the street, in front of the hospital. How could they not have seen us?”

Carlos sighed and said out loud what he’d been afraid to admit up until now.

“They saw us.”

“What do you mean?”

Standing and putting his uninjured hand on Nicholai’s shoulder, Carlos said, “We’re assets, Nicholai. Expendable assets. And we just got expended.”

Before they could discuss the subject further, the pay phone in the ambulance bay, an abandoned cell phone in the passenger seat of the ambo, and several phones in smashed window of the Motorola store across the street began to ring, all at the same time.

Carlos looked at Nicholai in confusion.

Eighteen

Nemesis activated.

All systems came online one after another.

The flow of drugs ceased.

His head cleared.

An eye opened. Then the other.

Nemesis took in his surroundings.

As he did, he tried to remember who he was.

Wait, that was ridiculous. He knew who he was: Nemesis. All he needed now were instructions from his masters at the Umbrella Corporation. They had built him, and they directed him.

No!

A voice screamed in his mind.

The voice was familiar, yet wholly unknown.

I am not a tool of Umbrella! I’m trying to destroy them!

Destroy them? What an absurd notion. He was Nemesis. His sole function in life was to do the bidding of the Umbrella Corporation.

Nemesis rose from his bed. He looked around the room, identifying it as a hospital. In addition to the usual colors and textures, he could determine how hot or cold something was, and any ultraviolet radiation was enough to allow him to make out shapes.

My God, how is this possible? I can see in infrared and ultraviolet.

Again, Nemesis was confused. This voice was still in his mind, but he did not recognize it.

I’m Matthew Addison! I was supposed to meet with my sister, Lisa Broward. She was going to provide me with information that would expose the Umbrella Corporation’s illegal activities. Instead, I got caught up in a nightmare scenario. An entire underground complex of Umbrella’s, including five hundred people, was destroyed. I watched people die, even killed some myself—and ended up infected with the same T-virus that killed the Umbrella employees. I don’t remember what happened after that. What did they do to me?

Nemesis disregarded the voice. It made no sense.

The heads-up display in one corner of his visual range scrolled across with text.

ALL SYSTEMS ACTIVATED.

Then Nemesis received more instructions. No words came to him, he simply knew what he had to do next.

Christ, are they broadcasting right into my skull?

Nemesis walked to the door. A large hand turned the knob.

My God, how’d my hand get that big? And what the fuck are all these tubes and wires?

Walking with a heavy tread that felt like it was straining the floor’s ability to carry his weight, Nemesis proceeded to the atrium, knowing the most direct route from the Umbrella wing, even though he’d never set foot in this hospital before now.

In fact, he’d never set foot anywhere before now. He had no memory of anything prior to awakening in the hospital.

Dammit, that’s not true! I’m Matt Addison! I’m a human being, goddammit, and you can’t take my body—my life—away from me like this! Let me the fuck out of this!

Nemesis realized that this was some remnant of the template. Or perhaps a phantom program in his memory core. Regardless, he would ignore it until it went away.

Walking past a broken window, Nemesis found two large cases on the floor of the atrium. He bent over and opened one of them.

Jesus