Chapter 45: Complications
The few steps it takes for me to cross the hall allows time to second guess my decision. Smothering that little voice of doubt, I knock softly.
A few moments later, there's movement on the other side of the door. I inhale and plaster a grin on my face. The door swings inward a bit, revealing a very dressed-down Tseng. He's wearing a dark gray t-shirt that clings to him pleasantly and lounge pants. As usual, his hair is loose and cascading down his shoulders.
"You're not in a suit."
When we were in that subterranean apartment I don't think I ever saw him in anything more casual than a pair of jeans. He was like a vapor whenever we weren't on official business.
Tseng squints. "Did you stop by at this hour to investigate if I wore my suit to bed?"
Warmth crawls up my skin. "No, no. Nope. Um…I know it is late, but I wanted to ask you a question. If that's OK."
Tseng seems to consider it. He steps back from the door, opening it wide enough to let me in.
His apartment is just like him — efficient, neat and comfortable. In front of the windows is a gorgeous plant with big purple leaves that have red veins. An entire wall is taken up by a bookshelf filled with fancy-looking tomes. Even though the apartment is the same size and has the same floor plan, our places couldn't be any more different. He's actually taken the time to decorate — unlike me.
Lamps cast the living room in a warm glow and there's soft music coming from a stereo. I stand there until he prompts me to sit and asks if I want anything to drink while heading for the kitchen. I ease down onto the edge of his brown leather couch and press my knees together.
"No, I don't want anything. Unless you're hiding my sister in one of your cupboards."
"Elyssia?" He stops and turns to face me, curious. "You've heard from her?"
My hope bubble bursts. "I thought maybe you had. I was coming to ask if she possibly contacted you since you two were partners back then. I mean, if Reno or Rude went missing, I just know one of them would be contacting the other."
Tseng sits down in an armchair, looking apologetic. "I'm sorry, Elena. I tried to reach her before Meteorfall to ask for her assistance, but her trail went cold. She didn't return my attempts at contact."
"Oh."
Tseng looks away from me, thoughtfully pinching his chin. "She was always incredible at stealth and evasion. Impossible to find unless she wants to be found."
I cross my arms. "I don't get it. I managed to find her a few days ago, but flaked out and disappeared."
We're silent for a moment and Tseng looks thoughtful. "That doesn't sound like the Elyssia I knew."
"That's the same thing the guys said."
"I wish I knew what to tell you, Elena. If I do hear from Elyssia, you'll be the first to know."
Dejected, I nod. "Thanks, Tseng. Hah, at least she's not dead, right? At least, not until I get my hands on her."
Tseng follows me to the door while offering his regrets. I tell him it's OK, even though it isn't, and leave.
As soon as the door closes, I turn around to see Reno walking down the hall.
He stops short. I stop. He looks behind me at Tseng's door and his eyebrows raise so high they almost disappear in his hair. "Well, well…"
"Don't." I narrow my eyes.
"I didn't say anything."
"You shut your assuming mouth before I tell all of ShinRa that you have an incurable, highly contagious sexually transmitted disease."
Reno puts up his palms defensively while laughing. "I wasn't going to say anything."
"Good."
Reno shrugs and starts walking down to his apartment.
"Stop it, Reno. It isn't like that!" I shout after him.
"Anymore," Reno says over his shoulder. "But I believe you."
Rolling my eyes and suppressing a much needed grin, I go into my apartment.
As soon as I shut the door, the weight of Tseng's words press down on me. Looks like I'm truly back to square one.
"You OK, Laney?"
I snap out of my thoughts — a swirl of all things Elyssia with heavy sprinklings of Rufus.
Across the back cabin of the helicopter, Reno's watching me from his seat. I'm sitting directly across the aisle from him. Rude is next to me. Our equipment for the mission occupies an empty seat next to Reno.
"We're almost to our target," another voice chimes in before I can answer. It's our pilot Finneas, a TempTurk. He's the very chatty, friendly blond who looks 14 instead of like a man in his 20s.
Shrugging, I don't bother pretending to be in a great mood and occupy myself with adjusting my black leather gloves. Even after several of these types of missions, I'm always a little nervous right before the drop.
This assignment is supposed to help me keep my mind off things. Rufus had cleared me to take time off, but I don't want to be coddled.
"This has something to do with you going M.I.A. yesterday, doesn't it?" Reno and his damn curiosity.
"How about we just focus on the mission?" I grunt and cross my arms, looking away. I end up staring at the back of the pilot's chair where Finneas' thick strawberry blonde, wavy hair is peeking over the seat. Rude shifts next to me and I just know he and Reno are probably exchanging questioning looks.
"What's there to focus on? We could do this in our sleep." Reno remarks.
I grind my teeth, but don't argue. He's right. With all the start-ups and more established companies trying to take advantage of ShinRa's weakness and poaching former employees who knew way too much about ShinRa's technology and plans, we've been doing a lot of these retrieval/destruction missions late at night.
Tonight's target is a 20 story office building in south Junon, or more specifically, a set of offices on the 15th floor. We could just waltz in, but we have flare for the dramatic, and we'd rather not risk the possibility of being seen breaking into a competitor's office to steal back ShinRa property. Rufus has a policy about keeping a low profile these days.
"When are people going to learn not to mess with ShinRa?" Finneas mutters as he angles the plane closer to our target.
Just like people can't seem to stop messing with ShinRa, Reno can't leave well enough alone.
"So, Laney, gonna tell us what's got you so bent out of shape? We're friends here. Let it out." His tone is cajoling, and I know he's just trying to manipulate me, but the locks on my mouth unhinge anyway. I don't think I can keep it to myself much longer.
I start, but Finneas interrupts again.
"You guys, I'm in position for the drop."
"Interruptions aren't polite, Finny," Reno jokes, to which Finneas waves a dismissive hand and laughs.
"I told you I hate nicknames."
Reno makes a snide remark back, but I'm not paying attention.
Before the guys even make a move to get up, I unbuckle and make it to the door. I strap on the detachable harness, which is attached to a thick black cable, and force the door open.
My heart jumps into my throat. Wind whips hair into my face. Releasing the sides of the chopper. I jump down boots first. Air rushes up into my face and pushes against me. There's a snap of the harness; my feet hit the rooftop, sending a shock through my legs. I detach my harness from the helicopter's cable and straighten my clothes.
The roof is nothing special, typical gray and white infrastructure, tangles of wires and heating and cooling units. The door to the roof and a door to the elevator shaft mechanical room sit a few feet away.
I don't wait for the guys to join me. I find a sturdy, unmovable object to attach the cable and adjust the harness' couplings. Rude touches down nearby and starts heading over to help me. I give him a wave and take off running across the roof.
"Elena!" I hear him call, but I don't stop.
As I reach the end of the roof, a gleeful shout tears from my lips and I leap over the edge. The pull of gravity is instant. I spread my arms wide and I'm in a controlled freefall. There's a snap and jerk of the harness. I stop short in front of a window on the 15th floor. I straighten out my positioning and hover in front of the glass. My silhouette shimmers in an outline of city lights.
"You could've waited, you know," comes Rude's voice over the headset in my ear. I don't say anything.
"So what's with Laney?" Reno asks.
"I don't know."
"Man, she tells you everything."
"Not this time."
Again, I don't say anything. I press my lips together, suppressing a smug smile about their concern.
For a moment, I dangle on the side of the building, trying to get my bearings. I glance down past my boots, all there is below is the building's courtyard and the dark streets.
"Guys, I'm in position," I finally say, loud enough to be picked up by the communication device nestled in my ear.
The wind gently pushes me from side to side as I fish out the glass cutting device in my pocket. It is no wider than a pen and is the length of my index finger. I press my free hand against the glass for balance and turn the device on. A blue laser light appears from its tip.
Carefully, I draw a circle with the laser. A thin blue line appears on the glass, following the motion of the light. When the circle is complete, I gently push its center. The carved glass falls backward into the office. It doesn't shatter, it just lands with a thud on carpet.
"How's it going down there, Laney?" Reno asks.
"Five minutes."
Reno sighs on the other end, but doesn't say anything to match my snark.
I move myself over the opening in the glass and climb inside, smoothly detaching the harness and perching on the top of the random worker's desk. I jump down onto the carpet and head to my target: the security room.
Using my memory of the blueprints, I make my way to the main security room, which is only a few doors down from the office I entered. The door is made of reinforced steel, and I can't blow the place up. I knock then stand beneath the camera next to the door, perfectly out of sight.
The door slides open and a security guard with a thick mustache stands there with a ShinRa-issue electromagnetic rod in his hand. He looks down the hall away from me. I pull the trigger on my tranquilizer gun. The little plastic needle lodges right in his deck. He pulls it out instinctively, looks at me dazed and scandalized.
He opens his mouth to say something, but his lips just hang there, slack and comical. Then his eye roll to the back of his head and he falls forward, slamming into the ground next to me.
"Yo, what the?" a woman's voice inside says.
I step inside just enough for visibility and shoot four times before the four remaining security guards can react, sending needles into their necks. They all instantly collapse where they stand or sit. Slumped against chairs, walls or face down on the floor.
"Hurry up, Laney," Reno's voice says in singsong.
"Kiss my ass, Reno," I reply in the same singsong voice. I shove the woman security guard's body out of a chair and sit down at the panel.
"So grumpy today," Reno says.
"Well, stop rushing me," I snap back.
"Guys," Rude, the voice of reason, warns. "We need to focus."
Reno mutters something that I don't catch. Phineas snickers.
No one else is in the building but me. Reno and Rude are still on top of the building waiting on me to activate the elevator. The shafts are locked down by security after work hours for anyone without clearance, one of the many inspirations they stole from ShinRa's old security system in Midgar.
"They really should try to be more creative with these security systems. We could hack these in our sleep." My fingers fly across the keyboard, typing in the very obvious lockdown override code written on a green sticky note next to the keyboard. "The elevators are online now."
"Thanks," Rude says.
"About time," Reno says.
Flipping through the security screens, I find what I'm looking for: the room holding the company's stolen ShinRa technology. The chamber is crawling with lasers. I slip the little USB drive out of my pocket and slip it into a port. There's a beep and I sit there while the device works.
A few seconds later on a different screen, I see Reno and Rude exiting an elevator and getting on another one that'll lead to the room with the lasers.
"So Laney," Reno says. On the elevator, he's looking up directly at the camera. "Seriously, what's with you tonight?"
"Nothing," I glare at the screen as if he could actually see the look on my face. "I don't know what you mean." Reno looks curious, but then shrugs and turns his attention to Rude.
"So, I think I'm gonna quit."
Rude looks over at him, questioning.
"While you're ahead, great idea," I remark.
Reno flips off the camera casually and continues what he was saying. "Smoking, that is. Was supposed to start six months ago, but ehhh."
"Why wasn't I consulted on this?" Rude asks. He sounds skeptical where I was expected encouragement and enthusiasm.
"I have to consult you about my life choices?"
"The last time you were without cigarettes for 24 hours, you got so agitated that you shot me in the arm."
"In my defense, you were grazed. And it wasn't on purpose, man."
Rude removes his shades and cleans them. "There was a bullet in my arm, Reno."
"If you want to get technical about it…"
"I had to get stitches."
I snicker. "Good luck on the smoking thing, Reno. If you get out of hand, I'll just kick you in the nuts."
"I second that," Rude replies, putting his shades back on.
"Heheh kick him so hard that they jump back up into his body! Or fall off!"
The men all groan in disgust. Reno and Rude both flinch.
"Not OK," Finneas chimes in.
"Disturbing," Rude agrees.
"Too far, Laney. There's a line and you just crossed it."
"It needed to be said." I say, feeling just a little more amused, but it does nothing to shake to cloud hanging over me.
They get off the elevator and exit into a hallway. I switch screens to follow their progress. The room they need is on the end of the hall. The USB device's work is done just as they reach the door. The door unlocks and slides open and the laser lights all die out along with the other security measures in the room.
"Easy peasy," I say, relaxing against the chair and cracking my knuckles. I catch a whiff of sweat and body odor from the unconscious security guards. The smell is rank and is filling up the airtight room.
"A little too easy, if you ask me," comes Finneas' remark.
"You're right," Reno replies. He stops short of entering and instead throws a small object into the room instead. We all take a breath and nobody says anything for several tense seconds.
Nothing explodes. No alarms go off. They're not immediately shot to death or impaled by anything. OK, we're good.
Quickly, I flip through every camera feed on the monitor. Nothing. "Still all clear on the cameras, guys," I say, more to comfort myself than them.
Reno and Rude proceed. Rude goes over to a group of servers that houses all of the company's projects. His job is to use the USB device to take all of their future plans and erase their information. Tomorrow morning when they come in for work, everything they have worked on will be missing and replaced with a complex, aggressive virus.
Reno goes over to a glass case sitting in the corner of the room and starts carefully cutting it open with one of the small laser cutters.
I stare at my nails while they work. My thoughts flashback to Elyssia. Her climbing out of the window. Rufus' caring concern. Tseng's lack of answers. A dull pain enters my mouth, and I realize I'm grinding my teeth again.
"I saw Elyssia the other day," I finally blurt. I launch into an explanation. It comes out in a frustrated rush, and I feel worse after it is all out in the air.
The guys don't say anything for too many seconds. Reno pauses what he's doing. "Wow."
"Wow? That's it?"
"Sorry, Laney," he says, his tone serious. "Wouldn't have expected that from her. Dick move."
"That's not the Elyssia I knew," Rude remarks, shaking his head. He's standing near the servers waiting and keeping an eye on the wide open door into the room.
"People change," Reno says. He returns to cutting the glass. "Wonder what she's hiding…"
Everyone falls silent, in thought. Finneas doesn't say anything.
"Rufus helped me find her," I say after a moment. I'd left that part out initially.
"Oh really?" Reno says. He's got the stolen ShinRa prototype out of the case and is slipping it into a black bag.
"Nothing's going on between us, Reno."
"I never said there was. You overestimate how much we care about your weird thing with Rufus. Right Rude?"
"I'm not getting into that."
"You sure cared a whole lot last year," I say.
"I don't recall caring that much."
"Pffft. We can't all have the amazing love life that you have, Reno. Nowadays you're hitting on married women and all."
"Hey, I didn't know Aisha was married. What kind of married person doesn't wear a wedding ring?"
Rude chuckles at this and in my perpetual grumpiness, I pounce.
"And what about you Rude? Hmm? Vanya is practically trying to have you for dinner!"
Finneas gasps.
"…."
"Finally! Someone says it!" Reno cackles. "He won't listen to me, but he'll listen to you, Laney."
Rude shakes his head and says nothing. He just removes the USB device from the server. All of the server lights flicker for a second and then do dark.
"Guys?" Finneas says. Nobody pays him any attention.
"Don't make this about me," Rude finally says to Reno.
"We're making this about you. Vanya's hot, she's a bad ass and she's not a spy. She's a Turk, so she gets it. And she's hot. And she likes you. And she's hot."
Rude sighs.
Reno continues. "All we're saying is that you haven't had a girlfriend in years and Vanya's offering. You've got to get over your trust issues, man. And hey, if you're not looking for anything serious, I'm sure she's down to f—"
"I don't have trust issues."
"Sure you do. I mean why else do you—"
"I'm not taking romance advice from you."
"Guys?" Finneas says again but I barely hear him over my laughing. At least they're not focused on me anymore. It feels good to laugh.
"What are you trying to say, Rude?"
I go after Reno before Rude can. "That you don't know the first thing about serious relationships. You're probably afraid of intimacy! You probably haven't ever even had a proper girlfriend—"
"Don't you start, Laney. You wouldn't know intimacy if it slapped you in the face. And you're as gullible as a two-year-old—"
"Calling me a TODDLER AGAIN are you?! You cocky—"
"If the shoe fits—"
"I'll put my boot up your—
"You can try—"
"GUYS!" Finneas shouts and the sound echoes around my eardrum. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUUUUUUIT UUUUUUUUUUUP!"
Our bickering stops.
"Get out of there, right now," Finneas' barks. "Something's wrong. They're calling us back to the HQ."
It takes us 10 minutes to get back to the roof. As soon as we hit the night air, with Finneas hovering overhead in the helicopter, we see what Finneas is so upset about.
A mushroom cloud is steadily growing, a bright gray against the midnight black sky. The smoke is covering a large portion of the sky. The smoke is coming from the direction of Edge.
"It's not Edge, it's Midgar," Finneas explains as he steers the chopper back to the HQ.
Apparently that's what he'd been told by Tseng while the guys and I had been having a stupid argument.
The air is heavy and expectant when the four of us descend on headquarters.
Tseng is waiting on us in the new conference room, which is already filled with the other TempTurks — Rod, Flint, Aimee, Dirk, Naomi, and Jayce. Three are missing: Vanya, Kamryn, and Kane. The TempTurks look at us when we enter, their expressions ominous and wary.
Tseng is at the head of the long glass table, and behind him is what appears to be a live aerial feed from Midgar. Smoke, fire and mangled infrastructure is all I see at first on the screen. It looks like Meteorfall all over again.
As I take a seat at the table between Reno and Rude and across from Finneas, I realize what is on the screen is actually the central mako reactor in Midgar, which still supplies portions of energy to Edge, Kalm and smaller settlements within an 100 mile radius.
Kalm. I tried to call my mom on the way here, but she wasn't answering. I swallow the panic in my throat and tell myself that there's no way she's in any danger all the way in Kalm, unless having spotty electricity is a danger. What about Elyssia?
Tseng crosses his arms and sits up a bit straighter. His expression is dark and there's an edge to his voice. "We believe there's been an attack on the central reactor in Sector Zero. The explosion seems to be mostly contained in that sector. However—"
"Are we sure it was an attack?" Rod says. "Doesn't make sense, does it?"
"It does," Tseng says grimly. "Engineers from the science department were there conducting field research for ShinRa's new energy project."
Those scientists were known to work around the clock these days, shirking weekends and vacations for what they considered a noble pursuit of new, sustainable planet-friendly energy.
If they were in the reactor or anywhere near it when it exploded…
"Weren't Kamryn and Kane on that assignment?" Naomi asks. She's toying with the end of one of her black braids, anxious. A hush falls over the room at her question. Oh no…
"Yes," Tseng says, his lips in a tight line. Reno swears under his breath. "Vanya as well," Tseng continues, frowning. "We haven't heard anything from them since at least an hour before the explosion."
My heart drops in my chest and I look over at Rude. His arms are crossed, but his expression is unreadable behind those dark glasses.
"Right now," Tseng continues, "Our rescue teams are in route. They can't do anything until the fire is under control. We won't know anything one way or the other for awhile."
Maybe they're alive. Maybe they made it out somehow.
Tseng looks directly as me, then Reno and Rude. "I called you three back due to the possibility that you were being targeted as well, if this was an attack and not just a freak explosion. Couldn't be too careful in the current climate."
The TempTurks all turn their attention on us too. I nod, biting my lip. Reno crosses his arms and Rude does the same.
Reno and Rude had originally been scheduled for the Midgar assignment until we got a report about another prototype stolen from Midgar's ShinRa HQ had popped up. I hadn't been assigned to anything until the last minute.
Tseng starts to talk again when my phone rings — loudly — in my pocket. He stops mid-sentence and every eye is on me. Wincing, I slip my phone out of my pocket and look at the screen. It's my mom.
"Um…." I can't tell them that my mother is calling. That's embarrassing. I point to the phone, mouth an apology to Tseng and get up out of my seat and leave the room.
"Mom?" I answer the phone, my mind is rushing — did Elyssia suddenly show up at her door with open arms and a thin apology? Did the mako explosion reach Kalm? Did the cat kill someone? I march into my office, shut the door, and start pacing.
"What's going on over there? People are saying there was a bombing in Junon? The lights went out and just came back on from the village mako generators. I tried to call earlier, but I couldn't—"
"I'm OK mom. It was Midgar, not Junon," I say, feeling relieved, but a wall of tension drops right back on me. I have to tell her about Elyssia. "We're OK here. I'm glad you're OK too."
"Those poor people who still live in Midgar though…"
"Mom, look, I have to tell you something."
Mom stops talking, and I'm imagining her sitting on the couch with the cat in her lap, stroking it with one hand and holding the phone with the other. "You're not pregnant are you?"
"W-what? Pregnant?! How?!" I sputter.
Mom chuckles softly, and I realize that was her disturbing attempt at trying to inject some humor into the night. "What's going on?" she says, more serious.
I'm silent for a moment, tasting the words on my tongue before I let them out. "Elyssia's alive."
"Not this again," Mom says under her breath. Then louder, "Elena, we've been through this before. You have to stop this. It isn't healthy."
Anger flares up in me and my words come out in a rush as I explain everything that happened yesterday, from the satellite photo to her running away from me in Edge. When I'm done, Mom doesn't say anything for a while. I stare at the phone, wishing I had done this in person.
"Are you sure?" She finally asks, her voice weak.
"Yes, I'm very sure."
"Why didn't you stop her?"
It stings like a slap to the face. Words tumble out before I can filter them. "Elyssia flakes out and it is MY fault for not catching her?! SHE IS THE ONE WHO RAN AWAY! HOW IS THIS MY FAULT?!"
"No, but—"
"I should've known better, right? Is that it? Too naïve to realize that my own sister might flee? I can't do anything right, huh?! Not when it comes to her!"
"Elena, sweetheart, calm down."
I throw the phone across the room. It smacks against the wall and slams into the ground, surely broken. I stare out of the window, arms crossed, tears brimming in my eyes.
How dare she...this is so unfair...
Sitting there for a moment, I close my eyes tightly until the tears recede, then I get up, straighten my uniform and smooth down my hair and go back down to the conference room.
