AS21
Nida peered over Dr. Kadowaki's shoulder and grimaced at the corpse in front of them. The doctor was preoccupied, flipping through charts and glancing up every now and then with a frown on her face. Sitting back down Nida sighed and bit his lip. Kadowaki turned and eyed him speculatively,
"I've never seen anything like this," she confessed, "and I really don't care for these results,"
"Is there any doubt? Any chance you might be wrong?" Nida asked hopefully,
"I don't think so." Kadowaki dropped the reports on the side table beside the hospital bed and echoed Nida's sigh, "No, there is no doubt. He died from withdrawal symptoms."
Nida closed his eyes and took a deep breath, willing his mind to stabilize and stop bombarding him with thoughts and questions. He left the lab with Kadowaki on his heels and the two of them sat down in her clinic office away from the body, the chemicals and fluid tests. It was quiet inside the little office and Nida felt immediately better.
"Will you be able to isolate the exact chemical formula that caused this?" Nida asked,
"Oh, I think so, I have a team of chemists on the job already. We're both thinking the same thing: the chemical formula is probably similar to the one we found in the genetically-altered victims, we'll start there and look for matches. If there isn't one...well, we'll see," Kadowaki mused.
She might have elaborated but Nida's phone suddenly rang. Raising his eyebrows he fished it out of his pocket and flipped the top, "Nida here... Irvine? ...Yeah, what about it? Are you sure?! Okay, okay, yeah, I'll come pick it up. Right, see you in a few."
Nida hung up and gave Dr. Kadowaki a nervous smile, "Irvine says they might know what Shimmer Stone Dust is,"
"What? Well, tell me!" Kadowaki exclaimed,
"They think it's an illicit drug," Nida replied,
"That would explain a lot."
Nida rushed out of the office and down to the cargo bay where the Ragnarok was parked. He paused for a moment to admire the ship's sleek beauty. Keying in, and feeling impatient while the ship slowly came to life Nida let his fingers dance over the controls. There was nothing more that he wanted than to pilot any ship or vehicle that Balamb carried. Although Selphie was a dynamic match for his engineering and motor specialties he knew her creative mind was best suited for other situations, leaving him to take care of all things transportation. Recently he had been far more involved in missions than he had expected. It wasn't such a bad thing but, as Nida reflected, he felt so much more comfortable behind the steering apparatus and controls of a machine.
Just before he took off Squall bounded into the cockpit and grabbed Nida's shoulder, "Kadowaki told me Irvine called you?"
"Ah! Sorry, Squall, I guess I got excited," Nida apologized sheepishly, "Irvine thinks Shimmer Stone Dust is an illicit drug, he might have a sample and I'm going to go pick it up, give him a call will you? I completely forgot to update him,"
"Will do. Be careful handling that stuff," Squall said before turning and jogging out of the bay.
Nida closed the hatch and took off. It would be a decently long trip, he would have plenty of time to think.
OoO
After Squall hung up from his call with Irvine he felt slightly more light hearted. They had a lead, they might have figured out what Dust was. If Dust was an illicit drug then they could forge solid connections linking all their questions together. His nearly made it to the elevator and back to his dorm when Kadowaki intercepted him and pulled him into her office. She showed him the data sets and determined cause of death for Callex and effectively stifled Squall's good mood.
"You can die of withdrawal?" Squall asked, feeling a headache coming on,
"Apparently with this drug you can," Kadowaki gave him a penetrating look, "warn the others. I don't know how much you need to consume before your body becomes dependent, I don't want any of my SeeDs becoming addicted to this,"
"I will," Squall closed his eyes momentarily, "This isn't good."
He escaped her office and went straight to his dorm. Once in the sanctuary of his quarters he sat down and began to plan. Quistis and Selphie were probably safe in Esthar, but he'd send them a report to let them know the latest information. Irvine and Michelle were in the most danger but so far both were playing it safe. He'd still have to contact them again. For the short term he could regroup his team and discuss where they were at. With his plan decided, Squall grabbed his phone and made a few calls.
In an upstairs lounge plastered with papers and graphs, their official "mission lounge", Kerei greeted Squall absently as she poured over the latest notes. Zell and Rinoa came in slightly after with packaged dinners from the cafeteria. Amid mouthfuls of food the four of them began to tease apart the puzzle.
"Let's assume for now that Michelle and Irvine are correct and Shimmer Stone Dust is a drug," Squall told them,
"Okay." Kerei nodded, "So. Callex told us that the rebels hiding outside of Trabia were all on Dust."
"And we know that those same rebels have a connection to the caves on the Galbadian continent," Squall offered.
"We know the Biomechanical lab has an interest in the caves as well," Rinoa added thoughtfully.
"Yes. The caves are a source of a chemical compound that has something to do with the genetic transformation or combination of human DNA and plant material," Kerei frowned.
"Under Trabia are biochemical laboratories that might be of interest to the rebels," Zell spoke up, "this would be a lot easier if we were scientists."
"Yes, it would," Rinoa sighed, "but we're not, we're soldiers."
"When Kadowaki isolates the foreign chemicals in Irvine's drug sample we can compare them to the plant and crystal samples we have, that will provide us with a key link," Kerei told them, "so, let's pretend that there is a link, what then?"
"Then we have a link between the Biomechanics lab and the caves...and the rebels," Squall paused for a moment, contemplating what he had just said, "but we still don't know where Dust actually came from,"
"We need a connection between Trabia Garden and the Biomechanical Lab," Rinoa narrowed her eyes, "both locations have access to chemical resources, but that's not enough,"
"No, it's not," Squall agreed, "We'll probably have to wait for Selphie and Quistis to complete that link."
"We're making progress," Rinoa smiled, "I feel relieved."
"I'll feel relieved when we know where Malach is," Zell replied darkly, "think about it, he knows we're on to him, he doesn't know that we've established these connections but as fast as we're making them he's probably out there trying to break them up!"
The room quietened immediately.
"We need to find Malach." Kerei whispered,
"Irvine needs to tell us where Dust came from; Quistis needs to discover what the Biomechanical lab wants with Trabia." Squall clenched his fist,
"We know the rebels were being paid by someone, we don't know who that person is or what their connection is to all of this," Rinoa brought up suddenly, "that could be key."
"Hyne. We're running out of time, aren't we?" Zell groaned,
"We have to wait for the other teams," Squall reinforced, "wait, there is one thing we can do: we can go back to the caves, and we can go back to Trabia and monitor both locations. Malach might head for either spot."
"Should we destroy the caves?" Kerei asked tentatively, "I mean, we know that part of the chemicals have been coming from there,"
"We don't know if they have a means to create them synthetically yet though," Squall replied, "we might need something in there for further evidence as well."
"What about setting up a guard?" Zell suggested, "I don't care if we can't blow it up, but we can't let those creeps get back in,"
"Agreed," Rinoa declared, "we can't let them have access to those resources."
"It's a good idea." Squall nodded, "I'll contact Xu and let her know, Zell, Kerei, set up teams of cadets and arrange them to your satisfaction. Rinoa, contact Trabia and get an update, see if there has been any further rebel activity. We flushed out one hole but that doesn't mean there aren't others. In the meantime, I'll update Irvine and Quistis."
The four of them stood up and filed out, each filled with determination.
OoO
Armed with the knowledge that Dust could be a serious and lethal drug Irvine couldn't help but feel slightly sick at the thought of sending Michelle out with Ambrose. The purple-haired SeeD had assured him she could do it but there had been faint unease in her grey eyes. He remained at their kitchen table with a mug of coffee and an unfocused gaze directed at the tabletop. Suddenly he wished Quistis were here. If there was one SeeD he knew he could depend on utterly and completely it would be Quistis. He had watched her perform in action many times and knew she rarely hesitated and never, ever, gave up her space to anyone. Not that he expected Ambrose to pull a shifty move on Michelle, Irvine found himself smiling, no, that would be a very bad move: Michelle's weapons of choice were very sharp knives, both for throwing and dual-wielding. He had helped her train when she was a cadet, both of them snipers of a fashion.
Still, she was young and looked far more fragile than Quistis. However, Quistis was in her element in Esthar; using her quicksilver brain and Michelle was a native of Dollet, somewhat crucial to the mission. Draining his coffee Irvine stood up and sighed, he might as well do the chores while she was out. Laundry, visit the bank, buy some food...how entertaining, he thought ruefully.
Later he would be glad for the excursion to the grocery store. The day was overcast and chilly with wind but the walk through the streets kept him sufficiently distracted. There weren't many other people out, given the time of day they were probably at work, and because of this Irvine found he noticed details he had missed during his stay. For one, there were homeless. Crowded between buildings or huddled against street signs their indiscriminately coloured clothing helped them blend in with the drab greys and browns of walls and cement.
Pausing when he noticed dubious activity down one of the alleys Irvine was caught in a sudden gust of wind that nearly took the hat off his head. His coat whipped around him furiously and he groped at his head in surprise to make sure the hat didn't sail away. Miniature whirlwinds of leaves, dust and scraps of paper swirled violently across the street and collided with his trench. As quickly as it had started the wind suddenly died. Irvine huffed and pulled a leaf out of his hair before dusting off his coat. A stray wrapper was caught in the folds at the bottom of his pants and he freed in annoyance before his eyes widened and he snatched the wrapper back up again.
Shimmer Dust read glittery gold letters in fancy script on pale lavender paper. Irvine frowned at the blatant advertizing, was it possible Shimmer Dust was something different? He pressed the wrapper between his palms to flatten it out and inspected it more closely. From the creases he could tell it used to be a wafer-thin square package. The name was printed diagonally across the front and on the back was an elaborate stamp with so many scrolling curls and flecks it was impossible for him to decipher. Pocketing the wrapper he continued on his way.