When Quistis gets back to her hotel room, it's well after dark, and she wants nothing more than to crawl in the shower and attempt to sleep and to never drink Odine's Whiskey again. However, she opens her laptop, and opens her e-mail client.
Welcome, Quistis! You have 3 new messages.
Inbox:
Subject: How are you doing?
Subject: Concert Tickets
Fwd: Zell's Latest T-boarding Fiasco…this time with pictures!
Clicking on Xu's message first, Quistis quickly scans the contents.
Q,
Here's the information on the concert you wanted. You owe me a drink.
Or six.
X
Attachment: File/Concert
Open?
Y….
Opening…..
Password?
...
Message:
Q,
2 Matches Found within date and region specification.
Byron, Selek A.
Damas, Brekis L.
-X
Quistis drums her fingers on the keyboard for a moment. While Selphie is by far the resident tech among them, she does have some hacking skills of her own. She slips into the Galbadian Military records with a whisper of code, and begins digging. If the security is anything like Esthar's, she's got about four minutes before she's booted- three minutes before they initiate a trace.
ACCESS: GALBADIA GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE DATABASE, UPLOAD DAMAS, BREKIS L._
Brekis L. Damas
Age: 26
Galbadian Military, Soldier Class C: Infantry
Magic Class: N/A
Combat/Specialty: Secretarial
Combat Missions: None to date
Status: Active
Address:
502 Walton Way Apt. G
Galbadia Y6495
Relatives: Mother, 59 Centrian Island
Quistis immediately closes the window and moves on to the next. They wouldn't hide combat missions, not on a classified database. The guy is a straight paper-pusher, and of no interest to her.
Selek Byron interests her, however. Ranmor wouldn't use a merc off the street, not some deserter that might one day try to blackmail him if the wind shifted. Ranmor was smart. He'd use one of his own, someone bound by loyalty, an older merc whose job was tied to the success of the administration, and closely, so he would have nothing to gain by Ranmor's downfall, because it would mean a loss of steady business. That was the only kind of person Ranmor would trust- a narcissist-borderline sociopath whose main priority was his own neck. This guy would contract high paying jobs that paid gil that he wouldn't have to launder, that he didn't have to conceal. He would live comfortably, out in the open. Edea's death was pegged as a suicide, so he wouldn't have gone through the trouble of covering his tracks, which he would know sometimes kicks up more dust than hides the shoe prints.
Most of all, he wouldn't be expecting anyone to check in the first place.
Cracking her knuckles, Quistis begins typing.
ACCESS: GALBADIA GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE DATABASE, UPLOAD BYRON, SELEK A.Selek Andres Byron
Age: 28
Galbadian Military, Soldier Class A
Profile: Restricted
"Restricted," she repeats, drumming her fingers.
This is new territory, but Quistis is reasonably certain in her tech skills, and she proceeds with confidence.
Two more minutes.
UPLOAD: .
.AVF
INSTALLATION COMPLETE.
UPLOAD QUERY: SELEK BYRON
ACCESS RESTRICTED. OVERRIDE?
Y_
OVERRIDING RESTRICTION...
RETRIEVING INFORMATION FROM DATABASE.
...
RETRIEVAL COMPLETE.
X
Selek Byron
Age: 27
Blood type: O positive
Magic Class: N/A
Combat/Specialty: Custodial
Combat Missions: 15758-A, 65254-X, Full list under B. Spec 154-6526AX, Classification Level 5
Known addresses:
1523 Hollister Avenue Apt. 36D,
Deling City
Galbadia Y6492
Phone number: Unavailable
Secondary:
456 Paladin Drive
Laguna Beach Drive
Esthar, CX543
Phone number: Unavailable
Black Ops team, currently enlisted as guard detail to President Ranmor. Active magic user, Class B, with restriction to GF use.
Weapon: Martial Arts- specializes in Sambo and Ninjitsu styles
Confirmed Kills: Unlisted
"Combat/Specialty: Custodial" is a military slang term for 'clean-up' crew, and these comprise anything and anything that usually is not on the up and up of military operatives. Traditionally, men selected for 'custodial' work are born loners, no living family, with very few moral scruples and more often than not, borderline personality disorders. Before Rinoa, Squall would have been an excellent candidate.
With seconds to spare, Quistis quickly closes out the window, but not before she commits some important details to memory.
...
...
...
..
.
Quistis answers the phone on the second ring, rising from her shallow sleep to fumble at the receiver.
"Yes?" She never identifies herself on a public phone- it is a habit she retains from her early reconnaissance missions.
"Hello, is this Quistis?" The voice is light and pleasant- it reminds her of the airy breeze that used to whisper over the isolated world of their childhood.
Sis.
"Hello, Ellone," she replies. Though perhaps most precious to Squall, Ellone had been like a big sister to all of them, and she feels a familiar, if vague, sisterly affection for her. "How was your trip?"
Whether she is talking to Ellone face to face or over the phone, the young woman always seems a world away. True, Ellone has a maze full of memories both her own and not her own, but unlike the others, she has no blood on her hands, and Quistis has always been acutely aware of the distinction.
"Oh, it was very nice, thank you. Winhill is such a pleasant departure from Esthar, and it's so lovely this time of year."
"Did Squall come along with you?"
"No, he was busy, but I stopped by Balamb on the ship. It was nice to see everyone, but I was sorry to miss you."
Quistis has her exhausted her range of appropriate topics for this conversation, and so she waits for Ellone. Thankfully, Ellone picks up the silence after a beat:
"You're wondering why I sent you on the mission."
"It was a General class mission- it was open to any SeeD, not me specifically."
"Forgive me," says Ellone, "But I knew you would take it."
Quistis finds she likes being read by Ellone roughly as much as she liked being read from Ranmor- not at all. "This isn't like the war, Ellone. You can't just send people places without their knowledge or consent."
"I understand your anger," replies Ellone gently. "But whatever your reasons, you accepted the mission willingly, didn't you?"
"And what were your reasons for offering it?"
"I thought it would be good for you and Seifer to see each other again. You were always so close as children, and-"
The rest of Ellone's sentence is drowned out by Quistis inner disbelief. Close? During their childhood, she had given Seifer a bloody nose more than once, he had attempted to bury her alive, put gum in her hair, and willfully disobeyed every single order she had ever attempted to give him, to say nothing of the time he attached her underwear to a flagpole and made Zell salute it, which resulted in a black eye-
Ellone is unaware of Quistis's mental list of wrongs done to her person, and has been talking through it, "-thought you would be a comfort to him in that terrible place."
'Comfort' is not a word that has ever had a place in her and Seifer's relationship, but Quistis decides to leave Ellone her delusions.
Someone should be able to have them, after all.
"When I visited him, he asked about you," continues Ellone, "He asked how you were, what you were doing."
Quistis frowns. Seifer had asked about her?
"And before you ask," says Ellone, and there's a hint of a smile in her voice, "It was my idea, not his, for you to come."
"But why?"
"Because I thought you two could help each other, I suppose," replies the young woman simply, leaving Quistis more confused than ever. Static crackles on the phone then, and her voice cuts out for a moment. "I'm sorry, Quistis, but I'm on the train right now...afraid the connection isn't very good. Please send my regards to Seifer...and Quistis?"
"Yes?"
"Take care of him...if he'll let you."