Chapter one: tabloids.
"This is the fucking problem!" yelled the president of Shinra corporation. "Whoever this bastard is He, she, it. I do not care! I want them stopped by any means necessary." The balding fat man plopped in his chair from his outburst tossing a newspaper in to the middle of the table. On the cover was the latest news on a series of large cargo thefts done by an anonymous group seemingly hell bent on robing the worldwide company of thousands of dollars in merchandise, anything from food products to untested weapons equipment. Worse yet it all was untraceable from any of the sea ports traffic stops and train scans. And it was making the high up shinra personnel go crazy.
The paper remained in the table's center; the news contained nothing new and even several minute details concerning the string of thefts. They were not only old news but rather a year old this day and had marked yet the largest cargo disappearance yet, half a million gil in material and medical supplies, Effectively gone without a trace in less than 12 hours ago. After every employee had left the vicinity the security tapes hadn't shown one person staying late or returning. There were no inconsistencies even the shadowing hadn't given away any unseen persons sneaking in. Scarlet, the woman in charge of the weapons division was speaking, rather shrilly about her 'concerns' to the previous cargo raid. "How, how Do the shipments keep disappearing it must be an inside job! My developments are under 20% because of lazy security! Lazard I don't know how your men keep failing to stop this but it's costing my division thousands every fucking time! Taken aback by the verbal assault the blond was jerked from his musings on the situation to defend his place as his head of the Soldier program." Excuse me Scarlet" her name dripped off his tongue with carefully diluted with distaste for the red clad harpy. "My men have been most vigilant since these damn thefts started, security doubled and even being manned with infantry as well as 3d and 2nd class soldiers. The problem may be not with the employees or the security maybe it's due to overlooking a pattern in the thefts. What are they after and what time do they take place. Hell maybe even old unused back ways sealed off from decades back. It's not like any of your or the other departments have looked over any of it more than once. The reports back were filled with holes. There's some laziness enough it would seem." Scarlet sharply closed her overly painted large mouth with a humph, having had her entire rant shut down chewed and spit back, in a most aggravatingly professional way.
Having heard enough the spokesman of the Turks, the companies 'information' division brought the first best idea to the discussion. "well, in light of that bit of information lacking, my team will see what the patterns we can find if there is one. As its seemed so far all have been at random from wutai to midgar. Hells even the bone village to the northern continent! Lazard, may I suggest redistributing the guards, maybe some new blood could help things in the future event of a robbery?" Nodding in agreement Lazard said to tesseng that he had been regularly switching the guard in shifts every 4 hours with recruits to patrol the area in partial installments to avoid holes in the watch. "Sounds like a plan I want the results by tomorrow evenings meeting. You're all excused." The president excused them and turned to his desk paging his secretary to cancel his appointments for the night and put them on in the morning tomorrow, apparently golfing was more important now.
Meanwhile the meetings occupants left , scarlet was quietly venting at hedger and palmer waddled disgustingly behind them murmuring something about tea, and lard, lots of, lard. Tessing and Lazard chatted on the possible information's over looked back ways air ducts would need blue prints of the buildings original plan and the alterations made to the buildings over the years, the security tapes would be a roe sham bow to decide whose division would have that daunting task over a late snack. The last to leave the president's office were still wearing discussed lip curls due to the comment of lard infused tea. "That is the single most disgusting thing I've ever heard. Blasphemy tea with lard how could any one drink that?" pondered the red general Genesis. " quite frankly he could up the intake, if we're lucky hell have a heart attack and grace us with the lack of his aroma, I don't think he's washed his ass properly in years…" shuttered Angeal, Sephiroth shook his head" thank you for the imagery Angeal. I'm surprised hojo hasn't run test on him on how he hasn't had need of a triple bypass yet…" Right!" chucked Genesis "I would put him in a water ball in a giant maze, tell him there's extra lard tea at the end and then not mark the end!" laughed Angeal " the puppy's wearing off on your imagination."Sephiroth smirked at his two comrades." we should head down to Lazards office and see what our next missions are. Groaning at the silver generals' missions' comment falling silent nodding, plodding onward to the bosses office for work to go do.
Fifteen minutes and a dozen floors later the first class generals were just turning the corner to Lazzards office door when Sephiroths phone went off it was lazzard on the ID. Rejecting the call and walking through the door had the head of Soldier hanging up the phone. " impeccable timing general, I have to say the turks are on a roll they have the patterns to the robbery's down, apparently they thieves are persons of hobbit, the pattern is simple and repeating. They are working on the shipment details for the dates and times now…the last hits have been wutia, costa del sol, the junon ,the major cities, and as always we have anything from merchandise to medical and weapons itn transit to all locations. tonight from here there is a shipment of untested materias , this could be a possible target. The turks have put out a dummy shipment and holding the real one here until these robbers are captured." Lazard paused to let the information settle among the men before him before continuing with the briefing. "There's more as well. You will each be stationed in the other citied awaiting shipments both will be dummy cargo and the real ones held were they are. Sepiroth , you are to remain here with the materia cargo to Juhno. Genesis your mark is costa del sols cargo of medical supplies to the bone village. And Angeal you're to take zack and head to wutai to escort the weapons cargo back here. gentlemen the trap has been set the total on these shipments together are 3/4ths of a million gil. Our hope is that this will be tantalizing enough to draw out these thieves into our hands. It's preferable that they are captured alive. You will need to travel with the shipments so go eat rest and pack what you'll need for tomorrow, it's going to be a long day, your excused" lazard finished with the briefing waited till the men had left till he put his fingers to rub at his temples. Barley half a minute and the desk phone rang sighing with fatigue he answered the phone. "Hello?" "The shipment connections are done, were guessing its medical supplies weapons and material. This time last year when the robberies began, they did a triple assault to our cargos explains how they did it. But were going to need coverage in wutai, junon and our own back door …"it was Tenseng. "I'm one step ahead of you and sent the firsts to our outgoing cargos to follow them along for the ride, let's hope they take the bait with the empty cargos." There was a silent moment on the other end, then tensing made an offer lazard couldn't refuse." Lets make a bet lazard, if mission is a success and we catch them ill treat you to drinks at Wutai's turtle paradise out next week off." Lazard paused" And if it's not? Tensing?" " then you have to pay the tab lazard, what do you say?" Lazard thought for a minute." Ok bets on tensing." Tensing chuckled low on the other end" Good, See you in a week,Wutai ,Turtle be late." "I never am tensing,Good luck and good bye" Hanging up the phone lazard leaned back in his chair with a smirk plastered to his face. Not once had he lost a bet to tensing. He had sent his best on these missions and was looking forward to a nice week in wutia.