Soren solidified in front of the wary woman, his form growing more substantial by the second.
"I saved your life twice. Is this how you treat your savior?"
Ada stared at him, cold disgust written all over her face.
Soren caught that look, then glanced at her disheveled clothes and clicked his tongue. "Don't look at me like I'm some kind of pervert. I have no idea what happened to your clothes."
He pulled over a stool and sat down. "If I actually wanted to do something to you, you wouldn't have woken up at all."
Heaven knew he'd only had Alessa search her for anything useful. Who the hell knew where the white coat had gone? She'd still been wearing it when they dumped her into Silent Hill.
Probably got tossed out like trash by Alessa.
Ada didn't answer right away.
She kept scanning her own body for anything out of place.
Aside from feeling a little weak, there were no signs of violation. No lingering touches, no soreness, nothing.
More importantly, she remembered how this man had faced down an army of monsters and still had the energy to talk to himself like it was just another Tuesday.
Someone with that kind of power didn't need to lie to her.
After weighing her options, Ada took a slow breath and lowered the gun a few inches.
"Who are you, really?"
Soren watched her ease up and allowed himself a small smile. "Just a mercenary who gets paid to do jobs."
Ada's expression didn't change. "A regular mercenary who can casually wipe out a horde of monsters? And walk out of that underground hellhole like it's nothing?"
Her mind flashed back to the last thing she saw before blacking out—a dark silhouette moving through the chaos.
Whoever this guy was, he had pulled her out of a situation that should have been impossible to survive.
Soren sighed at her still-guarded posture and dropped the jokes. "Since you like straight talk, let's get to business. How much do you know about that underground base buried in the mountains? You went through all that trouble to reach the deepest level. What were you really after, Ada Wong?"
The moment her real name left his mouth, Ada's eyes sharpened.
She locked onto him. "You investigated me?"
"Did I need to?"
Soren shook his head, that knowing smile still playing on his lips.
"I also know the name you're using right now is just one of many aliases you've worn. And it happens to be one that fits pretty well."
Ada went quiet.
This man was terrifyingly strong and seemed to know far too much about her. Going head-to-head with him in a completely unfamiliar place would be suicide.
After a long moment, she slowly lowered her arm and holstered the pistol.
"I took a contract," she said at last.
"The client wanted me to infiltrate the base, find out what they were researching, and bring back hard evidence."
Soren nodded. "I'm listening."
"The entire facility belongs to the Armitage family. And the construction was backed by official government funding."
"Armitage family? Government involvement?"
Soren's brow furrowed slightly.
Government money didn't surprise him. When there was enough profit on the table, capitalists would shake hands with their father's killer. Valak-level bioweapons were just another line item.
But Armitage… the name rang a bell. He was sure he'd heard it somewhere before.
He filed the question away and looked back at her. "That's it? If it was just a simple recon job, the upper levels would've been enough to satisfy the contract."
He gave her a half-smirk. "But you let yourself get captured on purpose, didn't you? Hoping they'd drag you deeper."
Ada's pupils contracted.
Where the hell had this guy come from? He even knew her exact plan.
She hesitated, then decided there was no point hiding it anymore.
"A few months ago, the head of a major multinational corporation attended a banquet in the States. After that night, he was a completely different person. He started tearing down every long-standing company strategy and funneling massive amounts of money into shady shell corporations."
"Once the other board members managed to restrain him, they suspected the real man had been replaced. But there were no surgical scars, no hard evidence. So they hired me to investigate."
"And the people who hosted that banquet were the Armitage family."
Soren listened, then asked, "Usually clients keep their identities hidden from mercenaries, don't they?"
"Only the necessary background checks," Ada replied flatly. "Knowing why someone's paying you can help you avoid fatal traps."
That was how the job worked. Sometimes employers hid things out of embarrassment or fear, and those hidden details could get you killed. Plus, today's client could easily become tomorrow's enemy. Information was valuable on the black market.
Soren snorted. So the client paid her and she immediately started digging into them?
"So you went deeper because you wanted to find out about this specific thing?"
"Yes."
Ada's voice dropped, laced with real caution. "From what I've gathered, the Armitage family has already used this method to control several high-ranking officials. Even inside the government, they have people."
"But that's not the worst part."
"What they're really doing down there… is figuring out how to forcibly stuff demons into ordinary human bodies."
"And the technology is already mature. There's a high chance that successful demon vessels are already walking among normal people."
Soren nodded. That part he already knew. Miles. The skin-faced thing. Plenty of other products of the same process.
He looked at Ada—her face a striking mix of Eastern softness and Western sharpness—and a mischievous thought crossed his mind.
Without warning he said, "But when we first met down there, you told me they were researching something called Valak's spiritual creation."
Ada's expression froze for a split second.
Shit. She'd completely forgotten she'd fed him that story.
Before she could explain, Soren stood up. The sudden movement made her hand twitch toward her gun again.
He glanced at her instinctive reaction but didn't seem bothered. "Stay here and rest for now. Once we reach somewhere safe, I'll let you go."
With that, his body dissolved into nothing inside the room.
Ada sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the empty space where he had been. Her eyes flickered with calculation.
She glanced out the window at the eerie forest and the strange little town beyond it, then decided against exploring any further.
Back in the moving sedan, Soren's consciousness returned to his body.
Valak's situation—he'd already gotten most of the details from Pyramid Head. Anything missing didn't matter much.
Besides—
He opened his palm. Resting in the center was a small, sleek USB drive.
At that moment, the black cat curled up beside him let out a sleepy yawn and stretched.
Her front paws extended, back arched high, then her form shimmered and rapidly lengthened.
Bayonetta leaned back against the seat, long legs crossed, casually running her fingers through her slightly messy hair.
Absher, who had been focused on driving, caught the transformation in the rearview mirror. His hands jerked on the wheel so hard the car swerved for a second.
What the hell kind of monsters was he riding with?
He swore to himself that once this job was over and he made it back alive, he was done. No more chasing dangerous scoops for a big story.
He'd go back to the paper, write nice little human-interest pieces, and live out the rest of his days in peace. Quiet and ordinary was the real luxury.