"Okay, shoot," she said neutrally, thinking about the way he'd looked at her out on the balcony. She'd seen that look before, from other men—and she wasn't sure how she felt about it from Carlos. Before he'd left for Europe, Chris Redfield and she had been getting pretty close...
"Before I came here, I was approached by this guy about Raccoon, about what was going on here," Carlos started, and Jill had just enough time to feel stupid about her assumption before-his words sank in.
Trent!
"He told me that we were in for a rough time, and offered to help me out. I thought he was crazy at first—"
"—but then you got here and found out he wasn't." Carlos stared at her. "You know him or something?" "Probably as well as you do. It was the same with
me, just before the estate mission, he gave me information about the mansion—and told me to be careful who I trusted. Trent, right?"
Carlos nodded, and although they both opened their mouths to speak, neither of them said a word. It was the sound of the approaching helicopter that cut them off, that made both of them grin and exchange looks of joy and relief.
"Let's talk about him later," Carlos said, pushing open the front doors, the chop of the 'copter's blades filling the tower's lobby as they both stepped out into the yard.
Jill only saw one transport helicopter but didn't care, there obviously wasn't anyone else to evacuate, and as it swung over the crashed trolley, she and Carlos both started to wave their arms and shout.
"Over here! We're over here! "Jill screamed, and she actually saw the clean-shaven face of the pilot, his smile glowing by the lights in the cockpit as he flew closer—
—close enough that she could see the smile disappear hi the same instant that she heard the weapon discharge to their right, a look of horror dawning on that youthful face.
Shhhh—
A line of colored smoke, streaking toward the hovering ship from someone on the roof of the tower's adjunct buildings,,surface to air, bazooka or rocket launcher —
—BOOM!
"No," Jill whispered, but the sound was lost as the missile slammed into the 'copter and exploded, Jill numbly thinking that it had to be a HEAT rocket to do the damage it was doing as the airship spun toward them, listing badly to one side, fire spouting from the shattered cockpit.
Carlos grabbed her arm and yanked, almost jerking her off her feet, pulling her out into the yard as a high, climbing, whining noise blew over them, the burning helicopter stuttering forward as they huddled behind
—and then it crashed into the clock tower. Flaming chunks of metal and stone and wood showered down upon them as the transport plunged through the roof of the lobby, and like the voice of destruction, Jill heard the Nemesis's triumphant scream rising above it all.
NINETEEN
CARLOS HEARD THE MONSTER'S SCREAMING howl and started to get up, still holding Jill's arm. They had to get away before it saw her—
—and the front of the building cracked open as though it were made of balsa wood, wreckage from the helicopter spewing out in a burst of smoking debris.
Before Carlos could get down, a large piece of blackened rock from the building's outer wall smacked into his left side. He heard and felt a rib give way as he fell, the pain instant and intense.
"Carlos!"
Jill leaned over him, her gaze darting back and forth between him and part of the tower he couldn't see, the grenade launcher still clutched in her hands. The Nemesis had stopped roaring; between that and the sudden, brutal silencing of the bells, Carlos could hear
something thumping heavily to the ground, followed by the crumble of powdering rock in a slow, even rhythm. Crunch. Crunch.
It's coming, it jumped off the roof and it's coming—
"Run,"Carlos said, and he saw that she understood, a second before she took off, that she had no other choice. Boots kicking the ground away, she left him alone as fast as she could.
Carlos turned his head as he sat up, willing himself not to feel pain, and saw the creature standing in a pile of broken concrete and burning wood, unaware that the hem of its leathery coat was on fire as its aberrant gaze tracked Jill. As before, it didn't seem to see him.
As long as I don't get in its way,Carlos thought,
propping himself against the cool stone of the fountain, lifting his riflelt doesn 't hurt, it doesn 't, doesn 't.
In a single, powerful motion the Nemesis lifted a rocket launcher to its giant shoulder and took aim, as Carlos started firing.
Each chattering round from the Ml6 sent a fresh pulse of muffled agony through his bones, but his aim was good in spite of the pain. Tiny black holes appeared on the creature's face, and Carlos could hear the pingof ricochet off the battered launcher. The fleshy tentacles that rose up from beneath the monster's long jacket whipped around its upper body as if outraged, coiling and uncoiling with incredible speed.
Carlos saw that it was swinging the bazooka toward him, but he kept firing, knowing that he couldn't get up in time to run.Get away, Jill, go!
It sighted Carlos and fired, and Carlos saw a burst of light and motion coming at him, felt the heat of the
high-explosive anti-tank missile radiating against his skin—
—and somehow, he wasn't dead, but something not far behind him blew up. The force of the blast lifted and threw him roughly against the side of the fountain; the pain was spectacular but he raggedly held on to consciousness, determined to buy Jill a few more seconds.
Half laying across the lip of the fountain, Carlos started firing again, shooting for its face, rounds going everywhere as he struggled to control the weapon.
Die, just die already.. .But it wasn't dying, it wasn't even flinching, and Carlos knew he only had a half second left before he was blown into a greasy stain on the lawn.
The rocket launcher was pointed directly at Carlos's face when it happened, a one in a million shot—
/Carajo!
—as one of the metallicpings turned into an explosion, a sudden white-hot light show. The monster pitched backwards as its weapon disintegrated, drop-
Carlos's rifle went dry. He reached for a new magazine, and there was new pain. He lost track of the light, darkness pulling him down.
Jill saw Carlos collapse and made herself stay where she was, standing between the trolley and a hedge row. She'd seen the Nemesis go down, thrown into the burning rubble by the misfire that had obliterated its bazooka, but its confirmed ability to avoid death kept
her from going to Carlos. If it was still corning, she wanted to keep it focused on her alone.
The grenade launcher felt light in her hands, high adrenaline giving her a second wind with a ven-geance—and when the Nemesis rose up, one shoulder burning, blistering black and red flesh visible beneath its ruined clothing, Jill fired.
The buckshot-loaded "grenade," like a super shotgun shell, sent a concentrated blast of thousands of pellets across the yard—but she missed the howling Nemesis entirely, the shot tearing new holes in what was left of the tower's front wall.
The Nemesis stopped screaming even though its chest was still burning, the skin crackling and black now. It squared its body toward Jill as she broke open the grenade launcher and snatched another load out of her bag, praying that it was more seriously injured by Carlos's lucky shot than it appeared.
It lowered its head and ran at her, its gigantic stride carrying it toward her incredibly quickly. In a second it was across the yard, its snaking appendages spread out as if to grab her up.
Jill leaped to her left and took off at a dead run, still holding the grenade, in between the row of hedges and the undamaged west wall of the tower. She could hear it enter the row behind her as she reached the end; it still almost had her, its speed extraordinary, putting it an arm's length away as she rounded the end of the row—