Danger Girls
By Soul Hunter
"Expect the Expected!"
Chapter Three
Day 2, 4:21 AM (too darn early)
Okay, briefing time. We'd just left Balamb town in one of those nifty SeeD personnel carriers that's supposed to be so fast it can make Dollet in a matter of hours if necessary. Selphie told me about this once, about that time when she took that field exam with Squall, Zell, Nida, Arturo and Seifer
Seifer
Snap out of it, Rinoa!
As I was saying, we'd just left Balamb. I gotta admit I'm impressed with this vessel. It's only been three hours and already we're almost halfway to Dollet. Wish we had one of these in the Forest Owls. I do like our train, but added mobility definitely won't hurt. The only thing is I don't think it will do well with Watts. He's not exactly one of the best swimmers in our group.
Anyway, going back to the briefing. The Headmaster told us that our client this time is the High Minister of Dollet himself. I know quite well what this is about. Lately, there's been a slew of kidnappings in the city, apparently targeting young boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 15. The Dukedom government has been receiving much flak from its constituency for its inability to capture the perpetrator or perpetrators. And I suppose Minister Ramuh Elector (sounds like the name of a GF ^_^) has taken a personal interest into this crisis because he himself has a little girl a little girl in potential danger.
Monsieur Diego Corneo's name has been nearly synonymous to perversion. He's been reputed within the underworld as one of the primary contact persons in the lucrative flesh trade. And while the authorities cannot prove it or even establish a connection between him and other clandestine organizations suspected of promoting prostitution in different parts of the world, that shouldn't stop us from executing our mission objective. Ten to one, Corneo knows something about the recent wave of kidnappings. Twenty to one, he's directly involved in it.
And we need to thresh out information from him. Leads that might give the Dollet police something to work with in finding the kidnapper or kidnappers. Yep, definitely cloak and dagger stuff.
Though I really hate the method that we'll be employing. I feel a terrible crawling sensation on my skin while considering what must be done. How far should I go to acquire the information we need?
Murder, self-degradation, violence frankly, this isn't exactly the life that I saw myself living. Being a resistance leader is one thing. This one is a totally new ballgame.
And I don't think I'm ready for this yet though sadly, I can't turn back now. I wonder what these two are thinking about
I have to know. All this baseless speculation and cluelessly looking into what's to come is driving me nuts!
"Quisty"
"Yeah?"
"I was meaning to ask since we left Garden Uhh"
The very thought is so terrible I can't even force the question out of myself.
"What is it, Rin?"
"I think she wants to know if if you've already done something like this, Quisty. And frankly, so do I."
"Why do you want to know, Sef?"
Uh-oh I hope we're not poking our noses into her affairs too much.
"Well I wanna know what to do in this situation. Like do we"
"Go all the way?"
"Yeah"
"Well, there's always a first time for everything, right?"
Quistis can be quite elusive at times. But come on, she can't be serious about this! Is this really what it takes to be a SeeD? I understand from my orientation that we're not supposed to pledge allegiance to any one private entity or national government, due in most part to the very nature of our work. But maintaining independence and demeaning one's self are two different things. Shouldn't Garden start drawing the line between what is permissible and what's unacceptable? Is our goal that pressing as to disregard our personal values and virtues only for the sake of accomplishing our objectives?
"Ooh! That's too gross, Quisty. You think you can do that?"
"It's really not a matter of whether we can do it or not, Sefie. It's more an issue of what's expected of us as SeeDs. And in this light, I think there's really no difference between killing a battalion of soldiers and lying on a stranger's bed."
I think it's time for me to make this a personal matter, from Quistis' point of view.
"But would you actually do it?"
Hmm, she didn't answer. Maybe I struck a nerve here.
"Hah! You can't stomach it either, can you?"
"Well let's just hope that we wouldn't have to do it at all. Right, girls?"
----------
11:11 AM
Well, we're now in Dollet. First order of business is of course, SHOPPING! But this is purely business.
Honest!
We ARE going undercover as ugh prostitutes. And the least we could do is look the part, right?
Of course, there's really nothing wrong with mixing business with pleasure, is there? Especially when we're carrying this so neato B-Garden credit card with the most obscene credit limit I've ever heard of.
Oh geez, what in the world am I doing? I'm gonna get our covers blown if I use anything that could suggest Balamb Garden's involvement in this operation. Whew! That was close. I wonder if anyone of these two brought enough cash.
We can worry about that later. Right now, first thing we need to do is find some clothes passable enough to make us look like ugh prostitutes. But how am I supposed to know when I've never even seen one bona fide hooker in my life? I mean, I've only been exposed to two different environments: the lavish kind of life provided me by my dad, and the roughing up thingie that comes with being a leader of a resistance movement. Nothing in between, so to speak. I wonder if this dress will do.
"Rinoa, hookers don't exactly wear ruffles on the sleeves."
Eek! That's right. How the hell should I know?
"Okay, Miss Fashion Expert Selphie. You tell me what I should wear."
"Well maybe we can start with something a little conservative, then work our way down to something passable but not entirely exaggerated."
Hmm, Selphie seems to know what she's talking about. Okay, I'll let her do the selecting for now.
EEEK!!! You call that CONSERVATIVE'?!?
"You call that CONSERVATIVE'?!? Aren't we supposed to pose as hookers and not bondage girls?"
"Hmm This should work fine for your, Rinoa. You're not really that you know well endowed."
I wonder if it's okay for me to murder a teammate.
"Hmph! Fine, then. You're not exactly Miss Pamela Anderson yourself, Tilmitt!"
"Oooh! This is getting serious! Calling me by my last name, not a very good sign."
"Hey Rini, Sef, keep it moderate. We're not posing as street hookers, okay? We're high-class escort girls. A good and elegant evening gown will do just fine."
Quistis' suggestion would have been very welcome for me. But I can't help noticing her mood. She seems sad or maybe anxious about something. I wonder what Quisty's thinking about. And Selphie obviously noticed her mood, too.
"Quisty, what's up? Is there something wrong?"
"Hey, what's the matter, girl friend? Tell us."
Sometimes I really do question myself for asking too many questions. I didn't like how Quisty's face looked, especially after we bugged her about this. And then
" Yes"
Huh?
"'Yes'? Yes' is the matter?"
Selphie's remark was rather sarcastic, but Quisty didn't seem to mind. It looks like something is really bothering her. We had no choice but to wait as she moved about to unhook a maroon-colored dress from an adjacent rack. I thought everything was okay after that if I didn't see that resigned look in her eyes. It's like she's hiding some dark secret of some sort. I wonder what it could be
"Oh well, you two will learn about this sooner or later anyway."
Oh boy, here it comes.
"Learn what?"
"Yes I have done something like this before."
I can't believe what I'm hearing. I've always known Quistis to be the reserved type and one who would never ever be caught intentionally batting an eyelash to flirt with anyone. Not even with Squall. But considering that she's known as one of the best members of the SeeD corps, well I kinda realized as well that it might just be possible.
Oh my, I wonder how she feels about it.
"You're probably wondering how I feel about it."
"YEAH."
I feel a bit guilty after Selphie and I sounded like insufferable gossip parasites. I almost had to tell Quisty to just stop if she doesn't wanna talk about it. But deep inside, I I wanna know what it's like. I hate to admit it, but I feel a bit excited with the idea. I really wanna puke, but still
But instead of describing how it felt, Quisty started with an entirely different thing.
"It wasn't exactly a Garden sanctioned decision, merely something that came off as a result of one. This happened only about two months before you were transferred to Balamb, Selphie. A terrorist who was rumored to have fought a third front during the Sorceress War held hostage a small village just south of Timber."
"I think I heard about this incident. Was that the one where the village was held for ransom, then for some reason the terrorists withdrew even before formal negotiations were initiated between the Galbadian government and the terrorist leader?"
"Yes, Rini But there's more to that withdrawal than meets the eye."
Now this Selphie and I have to hear.
"While the Galbadians were trying to open up negotiations, Timber gave us a call, asking if we can send SeeDs to rescue the three nephews of Galbadian president Vinzer Deling who were presently in that village when the siege fell on them. So in response, Balamb Garden sent me, Xu and a couple of others."
See my point? At one turn they're helping rescue the relatives of a known, fascist dictator. Then at another, they'll be fighting the troops sent by this same dictator. I mean, how more ironic can anything else become?
"It turned out that the Galbadians' attempt at negotiating was just a decoy to mask our covert operation. Unfortunately, the plan was somehow uncovered by the terrorists, and we had to fight them in a full frontal assault that inevitably endangered the villagers. We had no choice but to retreat from the battle.
"Then a strange thing happened. At first it was really frightening when the leader of the terrorists ordered to round up all the villagers and gathered them in an open spot surrounded by machine guns. The leader – who adamantly refused to give us his name – threatened to kill each and every one of the hostages"
Uh-oh There's that look in Quistis' face again. I feel a bomb about to explode.
" Unless I agree to spend one whole night with him."
Sometimes I really hate it when I'm right. Selphie understandably shared my shock in what Quistis shared with us.
"Oh my!"
I'm almost afraid to ask, especially with that embarrassed look in Quisty's face. This is just too staggering for me to believe. A terrorist, going through all that trouble of occupying a whole village and holding hostage its people, under the threat of Galbadian artillery fire just to get Quistis to spend the night with him?
I'm almost terrified of the soul that has the capability to actually carry out a plan as insane as that. But I have to say also I'm more afraid of Quistis' options. Which aren't much, really. And I'm nearly petrified in asking her if
"Did did you do it? Did you spend the night with him?"
" Yes"
"What!!! Quisty what were you thinking? Didn't you even think about yourself? Didn't you even care?!?"
"Easy there, Rin. I'm sure Quisty has a damn good reason for that."
Yeah, sure.
But as a side note: this is one of the things I like about Selphie. She may look too carefree and perky from the outside. But she also possesses this sensitivity to people that sometimes puzzles the heck out of others who don't know her well. I remember how some of her detractors posted a thread in the B-Garden MB asking what's so special about her, giving such preposterous reasons for not liking her such as her excessively perkiness that borders on hypocrisy, and her apparent attitude of being unmindful about serious things.
But she is, in all practicality, a very sensitive person too. Squall once commented about her, about how she criticized him for always retreating into his own little world without sharing anything with us.
I mean, she does care. And no matter how adamant she insists about Quisty having a good reason for her action, I'm sure that Selphie wants to know and understand her like I do. I really do want to understand her, in spite of the fact that I see her decision as too mind blowing for me
So we just listened
"Rin, Sef That was the only window of opportunity we had in saving those people. Whoever he was, he was so good that he managed to hold back a whole detachment of the best SeeDs in Garden even without taking an active part in the battle. Up to now I still don't know how he did it. But it only went to show that I never had the luxury to ignore his threat. I had no choice. It was my job as a SeeD to save those people and that's exactly what I did. And if I have to make that choice again, I will do it. Including that"
My goodness I hope Quistis's attitude toward being a SeeD is more an exception than a rule. I know she's one of the best. But if this is what it takes to be the best I don't think I'm ready for this. I don't think I will ever be ready for this.
End of Chapter Three