att(pirated)

"That damn, yankee rat!" Comte Henry snarled, tossing the printed report onto the oak desk in front of him. The stack of paper landed with an audible thud, only for it to be eclipsed in scale by the sound of a fist slamming against the wood. "To come into my home, stick his nose into my greatest project, and then demand that one of my most promising candidates be sacrificed on the altar of his ego. And then, when I tell him to get lost, he goes and does this?"

Doctor Eugen Wesker simply nodded at the Frenchman's petulant display. It took all of his decorum not to snort at the European Director's childish outburst, and to put his next words as diplomatically as possible. "In fairness, you were the one to invite him onto the estate."

"That's because I'd hoped that he was turning over a new leaf. That he'd finally left his obsession with his damned vanity project behind, and that he was going to do something productive for a change. It seems that my hopes were misplaced." Henry shook his head, before swiping the report off the desk with the back of his hand and spreading the contents across the room.

The doctor ignored it, he already knew what the report contained. The report was Doctor Marcus' report to the board on his concerns about the management of the European branch of Umbrella Pharmaceuticals. It included all of the common talking points, from misallocation of funds to improper workplace conduct, and insinuated that the Comte had misallocated valuable company resources to his own ends. Specifically for renovations to the Lorie castle and his mansion. The Intelligence Division would inevitably conduct their own investigation, as they were required to do, but everyone already knew that they'd find nothing of real substance. The report, in itself, was nothing more than a pointless waste of time. But in the world of company politics, airing concerns like that was the closest Doctor Marcus could get to defecating on the director's desk.

"He's still going with that? I'm surprised that the head office shut him down after the incident. The amount of money we spent on covering it up… that money could have funded one of our larger labs for a full year." Eugen asked, leaning back in his chair as he recalled the memory. Off the top of their head, they'd covered up the incident by setting the training center's dorms alight, and paying off the coroner to confirm that the charred bodies they recovered had belonged to the deceased students. The insurance payout had gone some way to cover the costs, but the ensuing out of court bereavement settlements with the families had still put a noticeable dent in the USA branch's finances. It set their other projects in nearby Racoon City back by years, and outright canceled the development of more remote facilities in Alaska. Which in turn forced their roles to be added to the Racoon City facilities.

"I've asked Oswald about that, but he'd prefer to keep Marcus where he currently is. At least we know where he is, and the Arklay facility can easily respond if the situation changes." Henry explained, a dark tone in his voice as reached the end of the sentence. Both of them knew exactly what was meant by 'the situation changes,' and exactly what the company policy was to such changes in its black operations.

The standard response being a squad of men in unmarked gear, with unmarked guns, leaving behind unmarked graves.

"The Arklay facility… Albert's part of the research team over there, isn't he?" Dr Wesker asked, gently stroking his chin as he recalled the memory. The ghost of a face, of a man with perfect aryan features, marred only by a childish obsession with sunglasses and hair gel. It was a stupid look, if you asked the old man. But he also wasn't an expert in what passed for stylish these days, so he was also willing to admit to ignorance on the matter.

Henry nodded, leaning back in his chair as he recalled what he knew. "He is. He was reassigned there after the class of seventy-eight. As far as I'm aware, he's working on their version of James' work."

"I didn't know you kept such a personal tab on my candidates." The doctor couldn't help but smirk. It was no secret that there was a bit of a rivalry between his first batch, and the Comte's second. It was a friendly rivalry, but a rivalry nonetheless.

"Only the frontrunners and the troublemakers." The comte smiled, chuckling to himself before the smile slowly began to slip from his face. "I didn't know much about Albert before he went there, but given his… cutthroat research practices, I fear that he may have learned the wrong lessons from James."

"All of the Wesker children are potent assets, ones that must be tempered with a proper moral code and a strong sense of responsibility. But if Mr Spencer feels that he's still on track for his milestones, then I suppose that we must accept his judgment." Eugen shrugged, picking up his glass of water and taking a sip. Hopefully, the comte took the hint and dropped the line of questioning.

"It sounds like you disagree with that?" Henry asked, completely ignoring the hint to choose another subject.

The doctor paused for a few seconds, before shrugging. If Henry wanted to go down this path, then so be it. But if he was asked, the doctor wouldn't hesitate to lay the blame for any potential information leak at the comte's feet. He knew just how seriously Spencer took matters of privacy around the project, and he wasn't willing to see just how much he could get away with before a USS team was sent after him. "We have our disagreements over the first batch. The matter of morality, and it being a factor in determining if a candidate successfully meets our criteria, was one of the larger issues that we've locked horns over."

"The morality of the candidates, or the morality of their foster families?" Henry asked, bringing up the biggest problem with the first batch candidates.

The first batch of Wesker children, rather than being taught in a centralized location like the second, had been placed with individual foster families. It had been Lord Spencer's belief that placing the children with families that held similar beliefs to him would result in those beliefs being taught to the children. Along with providing a healthy upbringing and a sense of belonging.

"Is there really a difference?" The doctor sighed, shaking his head. Unfortunately, the approach had failed. Some of the families became neglectful of their assigned candidates, treating them as little more than a source of income. While others refused to give them the required moral education, owing to the decline in the popularity of eugenics as a scientific practice. In the end, hundreds of candidates washed out of the program. And millions of dollars worth of funding was spent with no benefit or results.

"A shame, if only Oswald was more flexible." The French nobleman shook his head, an act that briefly made the doctor wish to punch him. And the urge only got more intense as he used the opportunity to brag about his program. "Still, I'm confident that batch two won't have such a large rate of washouts. With the centralized method, we have a better grasp on their developing minds, which we can mold to our requirements."

"Perhaps. But that doesn't mean that you're free of problems." Eugen stated, pulling a printed picture out of his pocket, and sliding it over the desk to his colleague. The picture was grainy and out of focus, as the camera's fixed field of vision was oriented towards the massive dining room table in the Henry mansion. In the picture, it showed Comte Henry and Doctor Marcus in conversation. However, the edges of the camera's field of vision covered the upper balcony, allowing the camera to catch someone snooping on them. That portion of the camera's field of vision had been cleaned up and enhanced, revealing a girl almost seven years old, with short blonde hair and a small build.

Candidate 203.

"Is that… Tanya?" Henry asked as he stared at the picture. His brooding expression only got more severe at the sudden revelation. The previous day had been bad, but this just made it worse. "How much does she know?"

"I don't know. What did you and Doctor Marcus talk about?" Eugen asked as he settled back in his chair, feeling very satisfied with how he'd managed to put the director on the backfoot. Though that was the extent of his satisfaction with the situation. Any information leak was bad news, and the fact that 203 was well placed within her batch, they couldn't just liquidate her without causing problems with other candidates.

The comte was quiet for a few seconds as he recalled the previous day's events. But before too long he recounted what had happened. "We were talking about what he'd been shown during his visit. The facilities, the personnel, the lab, stuff like that. James was impressed by our progress here, and how the candidates were developing compared to the national baseline. He inquired about taking one of them back to the training facility, but only to help out with his… research. After that, things started going downhill. And after he insulted Edward's memory I had to ask him to leave."

The doctor let out a low whistle at the answer. The kind you'd normally use when looking at a bad car accident, or something equally disastrous. His concerns about the situation with candidate 203 temporarily forgotten at the news of the American doctor's audacity. He didn't know much about the history between the founders of Umbrella, but insulting the dead was a faux-pas almost everywhere in the world. "So he saw how well that group was doing, and tried to obtain one of them for his own ends?"

"It would appear so. And to make things worse, his preferred pick was two-oh-three. I told him that she wasn't available, due to her assignment to the Ashford girl, but..." The director trailed off, shaking his head at the implications of what the candidate might have overheard. If she knew just how much they were using her, it could easily alienate her. And that would be a major problem going forwards.

But at the same time, it also gave them something that they could leverage. "Do you think she might have heard that? That Marcus wanted to take her away?"

"It's possible. I hope she didn't hear it all, but she was snooping on us for an unknown amount of time, so I can't be sure." Henry shrugged, before fixing the doctor with a frown. He wanted the old man to get to the point, and quickly. Doctor Wesker didn't miss that look, and ensured that the director didn't have to wait.

"Well, perhaps we can spin this to our advantage? Maybe we could give her enough information to figure out that Mr. Marcus didn't have her well-being in mind, and that she's safer with us?" Eugen suggested, leaning forward a bit to illustrate that he was being serious with his idea. Sure, solving an information leak with another information leak was a risky strategy, but it was certainly a lot safer than letting her mind wander.

"I suppose so. I did bring up the class of seventy-eight as my reason for denying him one of the children, so she'd already know about it. And some of the staff on the estate used to work at the training facility…" Pierre trailed off again, stroking his chin as he considered the doctor's suggestion. Though it was evident that he didn't have a better alternative, he quickly agreed with the idea. "I suppose we could ask a couple of the handlers to bring it up in conversation while Tanya is nearby. Not the full thing. Just enough that she knows that James was doing… bad things."

The doctor simply raised his eyebrow, and repeated the last two words. "Bad things?"

"Bad things." The comte repeated, pausing for effect before sighing and explaining further. "I'll leave it up to the lead handler, Ms Anderson, to decide where the line is. She might stop at hinting at it, she might spill the beans. Personally, I don't really care as long as it illustrates to our little investigator that she just dodged a bullet."

"Hopefully, this will help foster a sense of loyalty and trust from her. She won't be of much use to us if she keeps hiding the true extent of her skills from us." Eugen belatedly hoped, even though he felt in his guts that it was a fool's hope. The reports they'd received from the various handlers at the mansion and staff at the Paris branch, had all said the same thing. '203 maintains higher than expected intellect, but her guarded personality makes understanding her limits difficult.'

"As much as I'd love for that to happen, I doubt it. Tanya keeps her cards too close to her chest for us to get an easy peak at them. But we can infer enough about her already to build a decent psychological profile." Henry explained, smiling as he recalled what he knew about their most interesting candidate. "Take her friends as an example. She's actively investing her time in the other candidates, and is helping them with studying and keeping up with the curriculum. She'd only do that if she had a comfortable enough advantage to spare the time to support other people."

"She sees the potential in the people around her, huh? I'm sure HR would love to have her around." Wesker suggested, earning a small chuckle from the Comte and lightening the mood. It went without saying that her skills, both the ones she had now and ones she'd gain in the future, were better used elsewhere.

"I guess they'll have to do without." Comte Henry chuckled, dismissively shaking his head at the whatever mental image he'd conjured, before getting back to business. "So, how is the group doing from a medical perspective?"

"So far I don't see any pressing developmental issues. The only issue so far has been with candidate two-two-three, his blood lead levels are higher than expected. We estimate the rate to be somewhere around thirty micrograms per decilitre. We'll continue monitoring it, but as the source is benign and not worthy of surgery." Eugen explained, pulling an envelope out of his briefcase and handing it to the director. The letter contained a summary of the most recent medical check up, listing each of the candidates and if there was cause for concern or not.

"I'd argue that a bullet lodged in one of my candidates is cause for concern. Put him on chelation therapy for now, and book him in for surgery. I want it removed before it can have an effect on his development." The comte ordered as he took the letter, and cut it open with an ornate looking letter-opener. The doctor nodded and made a mental note of it, even if he didn't see much of a reason for it. The levels weren't high enough to warrant surgical removal of the source.

"I'll book it for later this month." Eugen replied, before continuing with his briefing. "Aside from that, all of the candidates are fit and healthy. Barring any unexpected issues, we expect all members of the France group to meet all of our physiological standards. Assuming that they follow our training and dietary regime."

The director nodded at the news, never once looking up from the written report. He took a minute more to read through it, before putting the letter down and addressing the one part that wasn't included. "And their psychological development?"

"Most of them are developing well, though a lack of emotional attachment to their handlers is a consistent problem. My team is looking into ways that we can improve the situation. But if things don't improve I'll have to recommend abandoning that section of the program, and focusing on developing the group into their own family unit." Doctor Wesker recounted from memory. He couldn't recall the specific reasons for why the candidates weren't engaging with their handlers off the top of his head. But it was already included in the main report, so if pressed he could just direct the Comte to that.

"Unacceptable. We need the children to have as strong of an emotional attachment to their handlers, as they do with each other. Start looking into ways to improve it. If it takes chemical alterations, then so be it." The comte ordered with a frown. Of course, the doctor had already predicted the problem. This would have been avoided if they gave each of the candidates a traditional family group, like the first batch. But the only place where they'd been able to implement that had been with the Alaska group, and that was only due to where they were based. Massive village-size apartment blocks were exactly common in the west. And they couldn't operate in the east for obvious reasons.

The doctor ignored the fact that he'd been partially vindicated, and moved onto the three problem cases within the group. "Aside from that. Two-two-three's emotional development is still not where we want it, courtesy of his past experiences. And two-thirteen is still fairly clingy with two-oh-three, and that will need to change. And the previous issue with two-oh-three's information leak could develop further into paranoia if we don't sort it out."

"Agreed. Jonah's psychological issues aren't going to be an easy fix, but with time we can probably sort things out. The Tanya issue will hopefully be resolved within a month, so we can put a pin in it. As for Valerie, I'll put pressure on the handlers to get the other members of her group to try and be more social with her when Tanya is away in Paris. Though if worst comes to worst, then perhaps an extended transfer to another group could be warranted." Henry nodded, accepting the issues without even batting an eye. They were both known issues, but they still needed to be reported during their routine meetings. After all, a problem ignored was a problem that could easily come back to bite them. And they simply couldn't afford that.

"Any ideas on where you'd send her?" Wesker asked, running the scenario through his head. There were a couple of Wesker program groups that could take a candidate on a temporary basis. But with things like this, simply tossing 213 at any random group could easily do more harm than good.

"Not off the top of my head. But I'll have a look." The comte shook his head. He opened his mouth to continue, before the phone on his desk started to ring. The European Director picked up the receiver, and held it to his ear, his expression darkening as his secretary relaid some unknown information to him. The man nodded, once, twice, before pressing a button on the receiver and sighing. He was quiet for a few seconds as he processed the unknown news, before addressing his guest. "Sorry, Eugen. We'll have to wrap this up early."

"That's fine. I need to handle some things before I make my report to Lord Spencer. Then I'll head out to the Pacific Island facility for a checkup on how the injured candidates are recovering. If you have any more questions, my full report is with your secretary." Doctor Wesker nodded, before standing up from his seat. The meeting was over, and there was no point in dragging it out over something that the French lord could find out for himself.

"Fair enough. Give Oswald my regards while you're there." The lord replied, before pressing the button on the phone's receiver again, and starting to talk in rapid-fire French. With that, the doctor took his leave. Stepping out without a second look back.