Code Veronica - By S. D. Perry Page 0,6

soul - on the iso-lated oasis that she had named Rockfort, where she had made a magical life for herself and her progeny over the generations... and now, in the blink of an eye, some horrible fanatic group had dared to try and destroy it. Most of the second floor architecture had been warped and twisted, doors crushed shut, only their private rooms left whole.

Uncouth, uncultured miscreants. They can't even fathom the measure of their own ignorance.

Alexia was weeping upstairs, her delicate rose of a heart surely aching with the loss. The mere thought of his sister's needless pain fueled his rage to greater inten-sity, making him want to strike out, but there was no one to submit to his anger, all the commanding officers and chief scientists dead, even his own personal staff. He'd watched it happen from the safety of the private mansion's secret monitor room, each tiny screen telling a different story of brutal suffering and pathetic incom-petence. Almost everyone had died, and the rest had run like frightened rabbits; most of the island's planes were already gone. His personal cook had been the only sur - vivor in the common receiving mansion, but she'd screamed so much that he himself had been forced to shoot her.

We're still here, though, safe from the unwashed hands of the world. The Ashfords will survive and pros-per, to dance on the graves of our adversaries, to drink champagne from the skulls of their children.

He imagined dancing with Alexia, holding her close, waltzing to the dynamic music of their enemies' tor - tured screams... It would be nothing short of bliss, his twin's gaze locked to his, sharing the awareness of their superiority over the common man, over the stupidity of those who sought to destroy them. The question was, who had been responsible for the attack? Umbrella had many enemies, from legitimate rival pharmaceutical companies to private sharehold - ers - the loss of Raccoon City had been disastrous for the market - to the few closet competitors of White Um - brella, their covert bioweapons research department. Umbrella Pharmaceutical, the brainchild of Lord Os - well Spencer and Alfred's own grandfather, Edward Ashford, was extremely lucrative, an industrial em - pire... but the real power lay with Umbrella's clandes - tine activities, the operations of which had become too vast to remain entirely unnoticed. And there were spies everywhere. Alfred clenched his fists, frustrated, his entire body a live wire of furious tension and was suddenly aware of Alexia's presence behind him, a trace of gardenia in the air. He'd been so intent on his emotional chaos that he hadn't even heard her approach. "You mustn't let yourself despair, my brother," she said gently, and stepped down to sit beside him. "We will prevail; we always have."

She knew him so well. When she'd been away from Rockfort all those years ago, he'd been so lonely, so afraid that they might lose some of their special connec - tion... but if anything, they were closer now than ever before. They never spoke about their separation, about the things that had happened after the experiments at the Antarctic facility, both of them just so happy to be to - gether that they would say nothing to spoil it. She felt the same way, he was certain. He gazed at her for long seconds, soothed by her graceful presence, astounded as always by the depths of her beauty. If he hadn't heard her weeping in her bed - room, he wouldn't have known that she'd shed a tear. Her porcelain skin was radiant, her sky-blue eyes clear and shining. Even today, this darkest of days, the very sight of her gave him such pleasure... "What would I do without you?" Alfred asked softly, knowing that the answer was too painful to consider. He'd gone half-mad with loneliness when she'd been away, and sometimes still had strange episodes, night - mares that he was alone, that Alexia had left him. It was one of the reasons he encouraged her never to leave their heavily secured private residence, located behind the visitor mansion. She didn't mind; she had her studies, and was aware that she was too important, too exquisite to be admired by just anyone, quite content to be sus - tained by her brother's affections, trusting him to be her sole contact with the outside world.

If only I could stay with her all the time, just the two of