9:00 AM, undisclosed location, Oahu

Of the ten operatives originally assigned to the CoF investigations by various military, federal and international groups, only six were present for the meeting. A meeting perhaps overdue, though the hectic schedules of those involved as well as the very nature of their jobs prevented them from working more closely together.

With a steaming mug of strong, black coffee in his system, Guile was as alert and awake as could be. Given that he'd had almost no sleep, that is. Standing ramrod straight, hands clasped behind his back, the colonel ran narrow blue eyes over each person in the small room. Habit, that.

Pierantoni sipped a mug of the stout brew as well, seated near the center of the long conference table, directly across from Guile. To his left was John Heagy, to his left was Cammy White. On Enrique's right was Nat, then Charlie in the chair to Guile's right. Before each person sat their laptops, some open, some closed.

Whether sipping coffee, twiddling with pens or simply staring into nothingness, weariness and tension lined every face.

"Alright boys and girls, let's get this done so we can all go back to doing some real work." This was their second meeting, and it had been badly delayed as it was. Everyone had been too busy for it to happen sooner, which probably meant they had a lot to discuss.
 

The colonel cleared his throat and began. "I'm sure you've each read your reports, but much of the information shared in this room can't be chanced to float around on memos to each other, in e-mails or be voiced over the phone without the proper protective procedures. So wake the hell up, and pay attention." Letting that settle in a bit, the colonel seated himself and flipped through one such stack of paper as he had mentioned previously, uncaring of his double-standard as he continued. "We did a bit more digging on the Shadowlaw facility that burned to the ground, and found traces of chemical weapons. Thankfully, the explosion rendered most of them harmless."

"But it raises the question of why they had such things here to begin with..." Enrique spoke, giving voice to what everyone was thinking. "What sort of chemicals are we talking about?"

Broad shoulders shrugged slightly. "It's impossible to give a full account, since some could have vaporized without a trace. Of the ones we found, most seemed to be in small doses and concentrated in small areas of the facility, so they were probably samples of some kind. Those we've identified so far have all been used to target the central nervous system..."

"Then it's not unlikely that Shadowlaw may be migrating into biological warfare as well," Heagy interjected. Chemical weapons were always a prelude to larger and deadlier things, not all of which had to be accompanied by explosives.

Guile nodded grimly, "As I said, there's no way to tell what was really in the facility. The explosion absolutely destroyed most of the interior... but truthfully, we may have gotten off easy." If any of what had been held within the warehouse had been leaked into the area, there was no telling how bad things could have gotten. The colonel caught Natalie's gaze for a moment. "And that lead? Shing Tao?"

Natalie nodded, recalling that she had reported her suspicions on the man to her superior, and had later submitted a proper report on it.

"He's gone. Back to his home, and out of our jurisdiction. We had nothing concrete to charge him with, nor enough reason to approach him directly for questioning," Guile finished.

Natalie sighed and massaged her temples. "Why does that not surprise me..."

"And the two you've been following, Cammy?" Charlie questioned turning towards the British operative, "What happened to the doll, and to Pablo Veracruz?"

The blond woman inhaled deeply and let it out in a sigh, elbows resting on the table while one hand twisted the stray strand of hair that always happened to free itself from her braids to hang over her forehead. "The rest of my team is tracking them now. With the first stage of the tournament over, both of them have been very busy... and with the strangest things. Archeological digs, mostly, trips to museums and private collections of ancient artifacts. Mostly scrolls or other pieces of writing. We can't tell exactly why or what, but they seem to be looking for something."

Wynshire nodded, "I can confirm that. Veracruz had a lot of research material in his room regarding ancient lore and cultures, ranging from well-known to obscure."

The older woman dipped her head slightly. "It's more than a little baffling, to say the least. I'm to fly out this afternoon to rejoin the investigation..."

"Fly out?" Guile echoed, lifting a nearly hairless brow.

Cammy nodded. "Pablo was last seen with Juli, and according to her tracking
device, she is in Peru."

*~*~*~*

Small airport in a valley near the Andes mountains, in northern Peru...

Juli stepped down out of the small, rickety single-engine plane and felt her legs shake upon touching the ground. She cast an evil glare at her partner as he tossed one of their bags to her, then climbed down and grabbed the other two pieces of heavy luggage.

"After this mission, we are never flying in one of those again."

Pablo only grinned, "Why not, chica? Part of the adventure is all in how you get from one place to the next. Being at risk makes you feel alive!"

"Being at risk of falling right out of the damned sky makes me feel unhappy, Veracruz. You don't want that again, trust me..." Juli had had a hard enough time keeping her food down in that contraption. It had shaken and quaked since take-off, and the pilot had been half-drunk enough to get a rise out of taking them as close to the treetops and mountains as possible. Turns out he used to fly a crop-duster, a fact that Juli would have been happy to know before they contracted the old loon. Had Juli not been strapped into her seat the whole four hours of the flight, she'd have throttled Pablo, who had chuckled at her all the flight long.

"Haha, Juli. Working with you never ceases to entertain me..." Pablo chuckled. If only she'd deign to entertain him in other ways. "You can blame your boss, by the way. He was the one who couldn't spare us a private jet."

She grumbled and the two trekked across the dusty field towards the nearby village. Juli looked around at the lush vegetation that began at the edges of the would-be airstrip and thickened as it stretched up the sides of the mountains. The village seemed to fit with the landscape, life in this remote part of Peru still carrying on much as it had for the past few decades, minus the addition of electricity.

They entered the village proper -- a settlement named Macchi. The people were of a darker complexion than Pablo, and looked to be indigenous, though whether they were Quechuan, Aymaran or some other people, Juli didn't know enough to tell. Pablo had given her a run-down of the country and its population, cultures and history along the way, but she'd been too busy wondering if they were going to die in that rustbucket of a plane to pay attention.

Smells of the open market and of a couple of food-stands piqued her interest as she let Pablo lead them to wherever their guide would be waiting. The smells of live animals drowned out the scent of the foods now and then, Making Juli's nose wrinkle. Guinea pigs in cages, llamas, and creatures she didn't recognize were being traded and sold. "What do they do with so many guinea pigs?" she wondered aloud. Surely there weren't that many people who kept the overgrown hamsters as pets...

Pablo grinned as they passed a food stand, "That delicious smell you notice now?"

Juli's brow furrowed as she nodded.

"That's called picante de cuy. It's a casserole made of fried guinea pig..."

Juli felt her stomach turn as her eyes widened, "They... they eat those things?"

He nodded. "It's actually not bad... Llama is on the menu, too."

Juli grumbled quietly. A cheeseburger never sounded better.
 

*~*~*~*

9:45 AM, back to the meeting...

"So you think the victims that were found were some types of assassins?" Natalie asked, regarding the evidence presented by Riq as well as his first-hand encounter with the child-murderer of his informant, James Fallon.

Riq nodded, "The bodies were overdeveloped in musculature, almost like a gymnast. Every one of them suffered major trauma in certain sectors of the brain, yet with no evidence of it being from an attack." It was easier to simply refer to the victims as 'they' or some other non-descriptive term. Thinking too much on the fact that these were children that had been experimented on and then thrown away gave everyone involved that inwardly-sick feeling of injustice.

Pierantoni continued. "There is some evidence to indicate that they had enhanced brain functions on the psychic level, but that's currently being argued between one coroner and another, since most branches still don't recognize parapsychology as an actual science. Another odd thing to note is that most have been confirmed to be autistic." Brows around the room furrowed in confusion.

"And the girl you encountered? Did she appear at all to share this handicap?" Charlie asked. Enrique shook his head.

"I can't be sure. Her motor functions worked perfectly, but she did look terrified when I pulled my gun. That's when she disappeared."

"It's the same girl," John said suddenly. All eyes turned to him as he elaborated, his dark eyes focused on Guile. "The report I submitted... you remember the girl who was in the alley prior to an encounter with Romanov?"

Guile nodded and Heagy looked towards Pierantoni.

"It's got to be the same one. Red hair, red marks on her face. Not quite a teenager, right?"

Enrique inclined his head to affirm this, but was inwardly troubled. Not by the coincidence, but rather something more personal. Umbrella had taken an interest in children with psychic abilities. Were they also watching the tournament for the same reasons that motivated them to take these kids? That he'd seen Victoria's name and picture circled in the newspaper at Geoffry Caldwell's house came to mind...

It was John who gave voice to Riq's thoughts. "If Umbrella made that girl --
and others like her -- into human weapons based on her abilities... then can that be what they're interested in doing here? And why dispose of the kids when they're so young?"

"Maybe they're failed experiments," Cammy offered. "Or they aren't useful anymore."

Natalie folded her hands on the table and spoke in a thoughtful tone, "You said before that Delta Red had discovered some communications between Shadowlaw's Dr. Hojo and some scientists within Umbrella..."

Cammy nodded.

"Then there is an obvious connection between Shadowlaw and Umbrella that I think we need to look more closely at. After all, one of Bison's operatives seems to have been a clone, and an imperfect one at that. The serum I took was keeping him alive. Not only that, but Bison has always been big on trying to control and manipulate others... just look at Iwa," Natalie said. Most eyes became downcast.

"Yeah, if anyone would be interested in the things Umbrella Pharmeceuticals can do with human beings, it would be Bison." Guile's sigh was the only evidence of his fatigue.

Enrique thought it over more, letting the conversation that continued between Guile, John and Natalie dull in his ears. To some, the ability to manipulate chi was something born of discipline and skill and to others it was simply natural talent. Plenty of those in the tournament exhibited abilities that could not be described as 'normal', but only one truly worried Riq.

Victoria... would they come after her? She never should have come here...

"Pierantoni? I believe you said something earlier about receiving info on an unregistered Umbrella research facility..." Guile's question jarred Riq back to reality.

"Yes," he stood and walked to the end of the room opposite the door, where a large screen showed a map of the local area. "Charlie, could you enlarge this portion?"

As Pierantoni pointed to a section, Charlie nodded and clicked a few keys on the open laptop that was set upon the table in front of him. A couple of seconds later, the area Riq had pointed to was shown in detail. "The thumb drive I acquired from Caldwell indicates Umbrella purchased and is currently using this small island... right here. A lot of activity has been going on there, none of it legal, as I'm sure you can all guess."

"So... that's where the men we apprehended were gonna ship those people to..." Natalie referred to the people who had been boxed like grocery items that she and her team had recovered shortly after she resumed 'work'.

"Seems so. Holden Blake's job was to cover up why Umbrella acquired it. That this isn't one of their registered research and development facilities is a dead give-away that something is up. Also... along with the location and blueprints, there was data on the drive that indicated that they have been developing biological weapons, according to the opinion of one of my people when it came to some pictures and documents on some machines housed within the productions area."

"Like we speculated Bison would be interested in," John interrupted with wide eyes. Riq nodded.

"I received a similar drive," Nash put in as he typed on the laptop's keyboard again, bringing up new images. "It was in my room, with no trace of who put it there. Seems genuine, though, completely in line with what Pierantoni found. Beyond blueprints, most of the data was centralized in what seems to be past experiments, some dating as recent as three months ago."

On the screen, pictures were pulled up of experiments, both 'successful' and 'failed'. The sounds in the room were a mix of quiet curses and soft gasps as photo after photo formed a grotesque collage of gore and disturbing proof of humanity's twisted side. From bodies that appeared both desiccated and animated, to images of what apparently used to be animals and humans with new limbs, mutated flesh and distorted features. Every picture screamed misery and pain.

Nash cleared his throat quietly. The pictures needed no commentary, they spoke for themselves, but he did have to address the documents. "Aside from the projects dealing primarily with mental abilities, most of their experiments end up like these, it seems. Only a lucky few suffer no outward changes, and those subjects rarely survive the full process of whatever is done to them. One subject is mentioned frequently in comparison to many of these. "Alice" is the name, and appears to have been the most successful test, although no further details are mentioned and it almost looks like they lost that one."

The images disappeared from the main screen, and Charlie produced a min CD-R
disc, handing it to Cammy. When she looked quizzically at him, he gave instructions.

"Each of you are to copy that into a folder. You will have only thirty-six hours to look over those documents and memorize the outlined facts, then the folder will automatically delete itself without a trace. Having this information will put you all in greater risk, but the advantage it may give you is well worth it. It should go without saying, but nothing within those documents is to reach the eyes or ears of anyone beyond this room. Even your superiors, for the moment."

Eyebrows around the room rose at that, but everyone understood the implications. No chances could be taken. Natalie caught Nash's gaze and nodded, as the disc finally was passed to her, and Riq picked up where Charlie left off.

"From what we can tell at a glance, their focus is equally distributed between biological enhancement programs, and rapid-spreading pathogens with lethal effects. There are even references to the incident in Raccoon City. There were few details on that, but the rumors about that appear to be true. The explosion was a cover up for something that happened there... something that originated within the developmental facility there. Some sort of outbreak of something referred to as the 'T-Virus'. Unfortunately we don't know much more about that situation, except that it was Holden who covered it up, along with several other questionable events."

Natalie let out a low whistle, "Damn... this thing just keeps getting messier. So, we know why Holden Blake died. What was this Caldwell fellow's connection to Umbrella?"

"Caldwell oversaw the control flow of these machines," Riq paused to point out what he referred to in the new image Charlie had put up on the screen, "but he didn't know what they were for. Aside from the purposes mentioned before, some of the machines appear to have receptacles and attachments tailored for the human body."

Cammy's eyes narrowed in memory. "Like Bison's Psycho Drive," she spoke with an underlying hatred. Guile nodded and gestured for Enrique to continue.

"It's all but certain that Umbrella intends to take test subjects from the tournament, and if Iwa Hoshi's actions are any indication, then Shadowlaw may be planning the same thing."

John's brow furrowed as he spoke up. "That's what I don't get. If Bison intends to grab people on his own, why the need for Umbrella to do it? If there is a connection, it's very loosely defined..."

Natalie inclined her head, gesturing with slender fingers as she replied, "Perhaps Bison is selecting others to be like Iwa, based on certain criteria, while Umbrella is selecting their victims based on something else. Shadowlaw has its hands in a lot of cookie jars..." Meaning that Bison could easily be working on his own projects while hiring or working with someone else towards seemingly similar goals. "It's possible," she added, "that the two aren't related... but it's not likely. We just have to figure out exactly what Umbrella can gain from that partnership. What Bison can gain is obvious."

"Stronger subjects with even lower resistance to his will, and a host of biological weapons and pathogens at his disposal..." Cammy sighed, puffing at that stray strand of hair.

"What we need now is to know the location of Bison's local based. His people are still operating just fine, so he can't have been limited to only the site at the docks..." John said.

"We'll know soon, with any luck," Natalie answered. All eyes turned to her. One corner of her lips turned up just slightly, "My last fight was an assignment. While Vega was unconscious, our people had him take a little 'detour' from the main treatment center. So far, the tracking device they implanted into him is still functional, but he has yet to venture far."

"Why did you go to the infirmary?" Guile suddenly questioned. "Prior to that fight, you hadn't been in for treatment at all."

"I was instructed to undergo treatment in the care of Umbrella's staff in order to check some things out. What I found was that they are collecting samples from participants when they are injured. For instance, I was treated for fractured ribs and multiple lacerations, accompanied by loss of blood. They took six vials of blood from me, and one tissue sample. Now, when someone has lost almost a quart and a half of blood, the last thing any sane doctor would do would be taking more from them."

John Heagy frowned, "They did something similar with me. I wondered what those samples were used for..."

"The tissue sample thing hurt like hell, didn't it?"

"Yeah, like having a fire brand-" John's reply was cut off by Guile's cool tone, directed at Natalie.

"Why in the world would your superior do that? You were practically off their record, now they have more data on you and that puts you at a higher risk than you already are." Someone else could have easily done the job. If Natalie could recover without aid after battles, it only made sense to keep with that habit.

"I can handle it," she responded defensively. "I'm not at any more risk than any other participants."

"Being at less is better... but it's not my department." Guile conceded with a look that showed plainly what he thought of whoever gave the order. He looked at his watch a sighed. "Okay guys, that's it for now. We'll meet again. I'll be in touch as to when."

Everyone stood and Nash gave the farewell. "Be careful and stay sharp. Nobody here wants a double load of work just because some @#%$ got themselves killed, right?"

Half-hearted chuckles as each gathered whatever they'd brought with them, and then everyone filed out of the room.

*~*~*~*

11:35 AM, The Makai

Laying out in the sun on one of the many lounge chairs by the pool, Victoria let her mind drift to the backdrop of the conversations going on around her. Hers thoughts migrated between what she would wear to her next fight, what Riq was up to, what that bastard Pablo was really doing here and whether she'd see him again now that he was out of the tournament... and who in the hell was wearing that cheap-smelling cologne...

The answer to the last question presents itself, as Millan notices Dan plopping into the lounge beside her, humming loudly to whatever was blasting through the earphones of his MP3 player. Catching Victoria's gaze, he turns to her with a friendly smile and wave.

"Ah, Vicky, isn't it? I saw your boyfriend a few minutes ago, actually."

"I already said that Sean's not-" Enid stopped in mid-speech as Dan had already resumed his attention back to the MP3, completely oblivious to her annoyed frowning stare. "Idiota..." (Idiot) she mutters, deciding to find something else to focus on.

On the other side of her, the fighter-turned-movie-star lay soaking up the sun. Against his tanned skin, his yellow swimtrunks were somewhat of a relief from the speedo-like choices of so many of the other men around the pool. Most of which, sadly, had absolutely no business wearing something so... so... tiny. At least he was nice to look at, she mused silently with a small smirk. The Hong Kong native was currently talking on his cell-phone.

Settling back with her Victoria's Secret catalogue, she tried not to listen, but couldn't help hearing.

"Uh huh... no. Nah, don't worry about it Nat."

Nat? Natalie? Hmm, I didn't know they knew each other... Victoria hadn't seen the two hang out much, although she had seen the star with the guy she assumed to be Natalie's significant other. Then again, she really hadn't seen 'Mien' all that much lately, and when she had, the girl had been dressed rather unlike her usual self.

"So, when do I get my badge?" Fei joked. Victoria was drawn back into listening.

"Ha ha, yeah, I know. I still can't believe you work for the FB-" Long seemed to catch himself before finishing, but it was two letters too late. One of Millan's fine brows arched, the other joined it. Natalie works for the government? Then what is she doing here...

Shortly, Victoria decided she'd had plenty of sun and left the pool area, having an idea...
 

*~*~*~*

12:05 PM, The Makai

Locke rapped his knuckles on the door, waiting a few moments. After a minute, the door opened to reveal Shibazaki, Karin's steward.
 

"Hello," Shibazaki greeted, recognizing him. They had met briefly a few times while Locke had assisted her in her stay after her hair disaster incident.
 

Holding up a magazine, Locke handed the item to the man. "I believe Miss Kanzuki needed a list of local fine-dining restaurants. Meliza suggested this as a reference and she included a list of her favorites inside with directions and phone numbers."
 

"Ah. Thank you."

With that, the man closed the door and Locke headed to the elevator. When he got inside, he stopped on one of the lower floors as a few tournament participants entered, dressed for the pool. Or beach. He was headed in that direction, casually dressed in a pair of drawstring navy blue pants, black swimming trunks underneath, sandals and a white aloha shirt with a pattern made of very pale gray maile leaves. It wasn't bad, certainly not as loud as other shirts he'd seen tourists wearing, and of course, he'd never wear it outside an island.
 

"Hey, Mien," one of the young women spoke into her cell phone. "Elena and I are heading to the beach...wanted to know if you wanted to join us. Give me a call when you get this." She turned to her companion. "That girl is always so busy..."
 

Locke recognized the speaker as Sakura Kasugano - a veteran tournament participant. He never met her before...but the company she could be found with were apparently some of the best in the fighting scene. The man she considered her mentor was legendary...as was his best friend, who happened to be a co-sponsor of this event. He briefly wondered if the sponsors knew what they had gotten into when they decided to host this tournament.
 

"If she and her fiancé are going to face each other in a match, maybe they're going to try to spend some quality time together," Elena shrugged.
 

"What floor?" Locke asked, his fingers hovering over the buttons.
 

Sakura peered around Elena to glance at the panel. "Oh...first floor is fine."
 

He pushed the close door button.
 

"What about you?" Sakura asked. "You planning on sticking around?"
 

"Yeah," Elena said with a nod. "At least a little longer. Even if I'm not advancing, it's nice to see everyone again...even if we only see each other when we're fighting each other..."
 

Once on the lobby floor, the doors opened and the girls stepped out. Apparently they were headed for the beach. He moved towards the pool and beach area, following the instructions Meliza had given him on where to meet up. Apparently, she was getting cabin fever and wanted to spend time outside. Which made no sense considering she was rarely in the suite. She'd been pulling long work days. Even now, she told him she had wanted to talk about anything he had found out the last couple days and how to 'prepare for unfortunate circumstances'.
 

His eyes narrowed slightly behind his black sunglasses as he glanced at her note again before looking to his left. The sandy beach seemed to stretch for yards. About fifty yards to his left, away from the hotel, were clusters of palm trees. Supposedly her 'meeting spot'.
 

When he got closer, he could see that the area was somewhat private, the group of trees screening them from the noise of beach visitors.
 

Meliza was currently in the middle of placing several stones at the corners of a beach blanket. She had chosen a spot in the shade, but the humidity in the air had enough warmth. Off to one side of the blanket was a light blue tote bag, an insulated bag, which he assumed contained food, a small insulated container holding champagne, and two folded towels. Like him, she was dressed for beach weather, wearing a purple halter bikini top and matching bottom, currently half-covered by a white pareo. He watched as she opened a plastic bag to inspect the contents before setting it aside.

Locke pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head before saying wryly, "If you wanted to go on a date, you could have just said something."
 

Meliza got to her feet, running her hands over her cloth-covered hips to brush sand particles off. "This isn't a date," she declared. "It's me doing something nice for you before we talk about the unpleasant stuff."

He lifted a brow. "Something nice?"
 

"You've done a lot since you got here, that's all."
 

"Hm." He glanced down at the champagne before meeting her gaze. "What happened to you in the last sixteen hours?"
 

She propped her hands on her hips. "Am I going to get interrogated every time I do something thoughtful for you?"
 

He moved forward, reaching up to touch her cheek. "No fever. You don't seem delirious..."
 

"Funny."
 

They sat down and ate lunch, prepared specially by The Makai's fine chefs and separated into different to-go containers.
 

As he refilled their plastic champagne glasses, he couldn't recall the last time he had seen Meliza this...relaxed. Running the hotel business seemed to take a lot out of her. Even before he came to Hawaii, she was like that. Deep down, a part of him missed the days when she was just a casino manager living in Atlantic City. Not that he didn't think her running the company was a bad decision. He knew when he got involved with her that her parents were going to retire and hand her the reins. Her job mattered to her, and he understood that.
 

"So..." Meliza trailed off after setting her glass aside. "Some of the participants have dropped out. They're either dead, quit or are just...gone."
 

"I heard," he replied grimly.
 

Meliza reached into one of the bags to produce two ti leaves, tying one end together in a knot. Then she moved over to him, sitting in front of him, leaning back against his chest. She reached for his right hand and placed his fingers around the knot of the leaves before she began twisting them and braiding them. He rested his chin against the top of her head, watching her movements. This really was the most relaxed he had seen her. She should stay on an island more often...
 

"Reno Tseng's room was cleaned out not too long ago," Meliza said quietly. "Not sure why yet...but...since he's gone...I guess we'll never really know the story behind him..."
 

"Not necessarily," Locke began before taking a drink from his glass.
 

"Meaning?"
 

"I ran into an old friend of yours in town. We thought he was in China." That had been an interesting meeting. Considering just a few years ago he had been on the opposite side. How drastically things changed...
 

Meliza's hands stilled and she looked up at him. "You mean...?"
 

"He said that Tseng told him that he came from his genes. And..." he hesitated for a moment, studying his glass. "Bison is one of the sponsors."
 

She froze. "What?"
 

He said nothing else and neither did she. But he knew exactly what was going on in her mind. Their last encounter with the M. Bison had nearly resulted in his death. And her being an Essence...Bison had tried to capture all nine Essences for his own personal gain.
 

After a moment, she continued her braiding.
 

"He must have used the guise of another company," Meliza concluded.
 

"Or he's working with one of them," Locke said in a flat voice. He slowly rotated his champagne glass between his fingers, remembering his thoughts on the elevator earlier. The sponsors had apparently gotten more than they bargained for in this tournament. "I couldn't find anything on the minor sponsors...they're here mostly for publicity. I don't think you have to worry about Masters or Kanzuki," Locke said, thinking out loud.
 

One word, which he had yet to voice, came from her instead. "Umbrella?"
 

"That's assuming a lot...but I wouldn't be surprised."
 

"Wait a minute..." Meliza sat upright, turning to face him. "Karin found out not to long ago that there were spies in her company...When we met with Holden, he mentioned that Umbrella placed spies not only in her organization, but also in Metro City, Hong Kong, and San Francisco, in the last city to shadow Ken Masters. And those were just a few."
 

"A few?" Locke frowned, easily making a connection. "Those cities have former tournament participants."
 

"Karin noticed that, too," Meliza responded quickly. "Holden told us that shareholders in Umbrella recommended spying on people in those locations to help the company advance their technology..."
 

His jaw tightened. "Did he say who specifically made that recommendation? And how would they know about them?"
 

"That's all he said...I'm guessing that's all he knew..."
 

"Damn..."
 

"You think Bison is the mystery shareholder or holders?"
 

"Or paying some of them." Locke frowned again, setting his drink down.
 

Meliza settled back down, and they sat in silence for a long time, as she finished her work and tied another knot to secure the braid. "Which wrist?"
 

"What?"
 

She held up what appeared to be a bracelet made of ti leaves. "Which wrist you want this on?"
 

He extended his right arm, and she began to tie the item around his wrist. He recalled Meliza saying once that she and her mother used to make this particular item, which name escaped him at the moment, along with other ti leaf adornment for her mother's hula performance groups. After securing his knot, she pulled out two more leaves and began to make another one.

"Did he say anything else?" Meliza asked quietly.
 

Locke knew who she was referring to. "Not really. It's too dangerous for him to be around, so he left." He didn't have to be a mind-reader to know that she was hoping he'd leave so he'd be out of harm's way, too. Not that many would recognize him. But he'd done a good job of keeping a low profile so far, and he intended to keep it up. "Don't."
 

"Don't what?"
 

"I know what you're going to say."
 

"I was going to say that even though you're probably better off in New York...I'm glad you're here."
 

He smiled briefly at that. Locke didn't consider himself sentimental, but there were times he did consider himself very, very fortunate. It seemed like he had lost a lot in the process to get here. He was already looking forward to when this tournament was over...and when Meliza would have more free time. Maybe they could just get away from everything, at least for a short while.
 

"You should probably tell Cooper what's going on," Locke said after a moment. Meliza's right hand man, and next in the chain of command in the company, was dedicated, loyal, and one of Meliza's trusted friends. "He'd want to know...and he can prepare for it."
 

"You're right..." She let out a quiet sigh, her eyes on the ocean, her thoughts far away from the simple bracelet she'd been making. "What did you do with that drive?"
 

The incriminating contents were better off in someone else's hands than theirs, as far as he was concerned. Meliza hadn't asked to see what was on it, all that mattered was that Umbrella was exposed for what they really were. "I left it in Nash's room. Hopefully he'll find the information useful..."