Ricardo Irving was a high-ranking employee of TRICELL, Inc - he worked his way up through the business and had an uncanny ability to find good business leads in otherwise unprofitable-seeming areas. One such location was Kijuju, West Africa where he managed an oil field which served as a source of income. Another source of income was from that of
Albert Wesker, who had ties with TRICELL Africa in general and Irving directly, funding the business in exchange for assets. A result of this combination was TRICELL Pharmaceuticals - a subsidiary company which mirrored Umbrella Pharmaceutical in many ways.
The pharmaceutical company (which Irving was a Director) researched B.O.W.s (Bio-Organic Weapons) and primarily focused on the
Plaga parasite which were recently brought back from dormancy by the
Los Illuminados cult. The company further developed the original
Plaga and created Type 2, Type 3 and Type 4 Plagas respectively. New types of B.O.W. were developed - some were similar to what was found in Spain (such as the
Ndesu, which was a derivative of the
El Gigante) and some were entirely new (such as the
Popokarimu). They also had access to old Umbrella research and data (most likely provided by Wesker) and created new versions of the
Licker (known as the
Licker β). Wesker also developed the
Uroboros virus which was based on the Progenitor virus - which was the organism which originally kicked off the entire
t-Virus development run.
On the side, Irving personally sold these B.O.W.s onto the black market and put the money back into TRICELL. This allowed the B.O.W. development to continue and also allowed Wesker to attempt to perfect the
Uroboros virus which was initially too destructive.
He was eventually contacted by
Oswell E. Spencer's butler, named Patrick. He informed Irving that his master was not long for the world and that he had requested a final audience with
Albert Wesker. The message was passed onto Wesker and the two o would eventually meet at the Spencer Estate.
After a time, the B.S.A.A. caught wind of what a TRICELL employee may have been up to in Kijuju and promptly dispatched
Chris Redfield to find them, who then met up with his contact
Sheva Alomar. Together, they proceeded through several areas until they found Ricardo Irving. Attempting to disrupt the chase and hoping to eliminate Chris and Sheva, Irving had spread Type 2
Plaga amongst the locals which had turned them into
Majini. He also released a
Test Subject who had been injected with the
Uroboros virus - the infection was considered a failure the the
Test Subject had turned into a hulking, seemingly indestructible monster covered in tentacles.
Unfortunately, these methods had all failed the B.S.A.A. were still high on his tail. This was especially irritating for Irving as he was locked in to meet with a buyer on some more black market dealings and had to attend. He seemingly completed the deal, and while attempting to escape with the money, he was cornered by Chris and Sheva.
One last-ditch attempt to kill them ended up in the complete destruction of the TRICELL oil field, which obviously meant the end of his legitimate arm of the company. After losing this, ultimately Irving was forced to inject himself with a Type 3 Dominant Species
Plaga parasite by a cloaked
Jill Valentine, who was being chemically controlled remotely by
Albert Wesker. She handed him an injector which contained the parasite. He knew full-well that there was no going back once the
Plaga started to take over, he would be mutated forever into an unknown form. Despite that knowledge, he would willingly destroy his human self to protect his interests.
After luring them to a lake, he injected it into himself which caused the parasite to morph his physiology greatly - his human body was covered in growths and reduced to take the form of the tongue of a large aquatic monster. A battle ensued on the water between the mutated Irving and the B.S.A.A. agents - who soon emerged victorious.
Dying, his human remains dropped from the rest of the creature and used his final words to inadvertently tell Chris the location of a secret lab - the location of Wesker and his TRICELL companion
Excella Gionne.
