Ward stared icily at the doctor. If the idiot couldn't understand sign language, he'd have to start writing it out for him, and by then he thought he'd have to start hitting him as well. "Idiot!" he tried to say, as he often forgot he couldn't use his voice when he got angry. All that came out was a raspy grunt.
"If you can't tell me vat you vant," the doctor said, "zen you are vasting my time and I cannot help you, stupid soldier!" He shoved the picture of Ward, Kiros and Laguna back into Ward's hand.
Ward glowered at him. Dr. Odine obviously didn't know how close he was to having his head twisted off his shoulders. Instead, he dragged the doctor over to the desk, took one of his many papers and a pen, and wrote the word "WHERE?" in large letters.
"Vere vat?" Dr. Odine said impatiently.
Ward pointed to Kiros in the picture once more.
"Vere is ze picture? In your hand!"
Ward took a deep breath, calmed himself, and hoped that a doctor this stupid would never have to operate on him. He took the pen and paper again and wrote, politely, he thought, "have you seen the man in this picture?" He shoved the paper to Dr. Odine and pointed once again to Kiros.
"I saw him ven he vas vith you," he said, and was about to turn away. Suddenly he turned back. "But I did see him one time after zat."
Ward urgently nodded for him to go on.
"I saw him once in Deling City, many months ago. Let me see... yes, I think zat would have been just before he died."
With that, he turned and left, leaving Ward standing stunned in one of the many rooms of Dr. Odine's laboratory.
A few hours later, Ward sat alone, drinking a cup of coffee outside of the Esthar City mall. He looked around him, trying not to think of what Odine had told him.
Esthar certainly was growing into a tremendous, and tremendously advanced city. But, Ward thought, it might still take years for it to reach its full potential. He thought that someday it could be the technological capital of the world, if it kept growing the way it was.
And anyway, he told himself, Dr. Odine had no proof that Kiros was dead. He had probably just heard rumors like the few other people who had known him. No one had actually SEEN him die by the hand of another Galbadian soldier. And also, Ward reminded himself, one of the rumors he'd heard from a soldier had been that he himself had killed Kiros, and how ridiculous was THAT? No, he thought to himself, Kiros is alive. Dying just wasn't his style.
"WARD!"
Ward nearly jumped out of his skin, and spilled his coffee as he reached for his harpoon. The idea of someone knowing his name startled him enough so that he was ready to fight immediately.
"Hey Ward!"
He turned around to see none other than Laguna Loire running toward him. By god, Laguna had aged, he thought. He'd only seen him weeks ago, but he looked like he'd been through the mill. Ward figured he must have heard about Julia as well.
Laguna plowed into him and hugged him. "Hey man!" he said.
Ward smiled and mouthed the words, "have you heard any news about Kiros?"
"Yeah, whatever," Laguna said, "I never understand when you do that. Kiros always does though."
Ward nodded frantically and motioned to Laguna that he did indeed want to talk about Kiros.
"Speaking of Kiros," Laguna said, smiling.
Ward was too excited to pay much heed to the fact that when Laguna smiled, he did so through an underlying sadness these days.
"Did you hear something about him?" Ward asked, only mouthing the words and knowing Laguna wouldn't understand him.
"Guess what? I found him!"
Ward felt a thrill of happiness and relief. Kiros was alive. The filthy sorceress' followers hadn't killed him. He grabbed Laguna and lifted him off the ground, nearly throwing him over his shoulder.
"Wooohoo!" Laguna shouted. "I always knew that stupid report was a crock!" Laguna said as Ward let him down. "Actually to be honest, he sorta found me. But, that's a story for another time."
Ward was tall enough that he could look over Laguna's head, and coming up the street from the mall, was Kiros, impossible to miss, as hard as he tried to blend in. He had his braids tucked into a plain black shirt, but was head and shoulders taller than everyone except Ward himself.
Ward ran to him, hugged him like he had hugged Laguna, then smacked him in the back of the head.
"I take that to mean," Kiros said quietly, rubbing the back of his head, "that you're upset I was gone for so long."
Laguna soon joined them. "What's he saying?" he asked Kiros.
Ward gestured wildly, telling Kiros that he had been worried sick, and had heard reports that Adel's followers had found one of the three men that had imprisoned her. He tried dramatically to show Kiros that he had been frantic, and worried for Laguna too, especially now, when the last thing he needed was to be alone. Why hadn't Kiros been able to contact him? He and Laguna had managed to stay in touch after they'd had to separate. Had something happened to him?
Kiros watched him patiently, occasionally nodding. Laguna watched it all with interest.
"He says he missed me," Kiros said finally.
Ward sighed. In truth, he knew that strangely enough, Kiros did understand him, as he did much of the time. In fact he was glad that Kiros had simplified what he had said, and left out the part about being worried about Laguna. He didn't want to remind Laguna that he needed to be worried over. Kiros was very tactful in that way.
Laguna seemed to have sensed it anyway, and was more subdued than he was before.
Ward took a pen out of his pocket and grabbed a napkin off a nearby table. He found it was easier to write things sometimes, as when he wanted to change the subject or talk about something out of the ordinary.
"I found Doc Odine," he scribbled hastily.
Laguna looked up at this quickly, with narrowed eyes. "What's he doing in Esthar?" he asked suspiciously. "He's supposed to be in hiding like we were."
"Couldn't stay away from lab!" Ward wrote on the back of the napkin.
Kiros peered over Laguna's shoulder at the napkin with interest. "What do you think?" he asked Laguna.
"I think Ward needs to get a new notepad."
"About Dr. Odine," Kiros said patiently.
Laguna looked sharply from Kiros to Ward. Ward knew that a great deal of people who had dealt with Laguna in the past thought of him as a klutz, or just some goofy guy who didn't know which way was up. But Ward knew what he was like on a personal level, and was glad that he was on Laguna's good side. Laguna was loyal, smarter than he let on, protective, and dangerous when he was angry.
"I think we should go see him," Laguna said softly.
The atmosphere during the short ride to Dr. Odine's laboratory was subdued. Kiros told Ward and Laguna about how he had been found by some of Adel's followers and escaped very narrowly by jumping off of a bridge onto a moving train. Ward saw Laguna lower his eyes when Kiros mentioned that for some reason. He looked at Laguna and gave a questioning glance to Kiros, who shook his head discretely. Ward felt a surge of panic, but he wasn't sure why.
"After that," Kiros went on, "I wasn't sure where to go. I found out that Adel still has a really strong following. There are plans to somehow bring her back, though I don't know how they could manage to even get to where she is. I mean, we really put her away."
Ward nodded. They had indeed put Adel "away." Laguna had convinced the space program to use the Ragnarok to send Adel, still sealed, into space. After that, the Ragnarok had been lost.
The people at the space program had been part of the Adel Resistance Group that had pursued Laguna as their leader. Laguna had declined at the time, to protect himself, his family, and Kiros and Ward from the publicity that would give them away to the sorceress' followers.
After sending Adel away, he had found Ellone and sent her back to Winhill to be with Raine, but Laguna had not gone back, for fear of being followed. The last thing he wanted, he'd said, was to bring the sorceress' men into Winhill where they would be a threat to his family. He'd hoped to lie low until they lost track of him, and then return to his wife.
Ward hastily tucked away the memories he had of the day Laguna had found out that his wife had died, and Ellone had been taken to an orphanage. There was no time now to dwell on things like that.
"I knew that they knew who I was," Kiros went on. "And I didn't want to be a threat to you two, so I kept myself away from both of you."
Ward held up three fingers, and wrapped his other hand around them, then made a fist. "We're a team," he said with those gestures. "We fight together."
"I know," Kiros said, and looked down at the floor of the shuttle in guilt. "But I was afraid for both of you."
The shuttle slowed smoothly to a halt close to Dr. Odine's laboratory, and Ward wondered what was so exciting to Odine that he'd been willing to risk going back to his lab in Esthar. He'd always thought of the doctor as one of the biggest morons he'd ever met.
----------------
"Good to see you, Doc," Laguna said quietly as they approached him from behind.
Dr. Odine turned around and took a step back when he saw all three men in his lab.
"I just told you," he said, pointing to Ward, "to go avay! And vat do you do! You come back vith ze freak and ze stupid one!"
Ward started to walk briskly to Odine, but Laguna gently put his arm in front of him. Odine still backed up into the wall.
"I am too busy for zis!" he said, trying to be more angry than intimidated.
"No one is here to hurt you, Doc," Laguna said, with just the hint of a warning in his voice. "I just wanna ask you a few things."
"Get it through your thick skull, you brain damaged soldier," Odine said, "I have nothing to tell you, and I cannot help you."
"We can help each other," Laguna said mildly. "We all sorta were involved in getting rid of the sorceress, you helped by researching her powers and limitations, and practically designed the seal. Whether we like it or not, we're in it together."
"It is over, you stupid man," Odine spat.
"I don't think," Kiros said in a reasonable tone, "that it's necessary to keep on insulting Mr. Loire. Necessary, or particularly healthy."
"It's okay," Laguna said, still staring at Odine, "he doesn't bother me. And anyway, it's not exactly over. They're still looking for all of us..."
"Zat is vy it is better if ve go our separate vays," he said. "I don't see vy, Mr. Loire," he went on, adding a venomous tone when he said Laguna's name, "you insist on bothering me here. I have vork to do that your tiny brain would not grasp!"
"If you don't want our help, that's cool too," Laguna said, once again ignoring the insult. He walked slowly towards Odine as if he didn't want to frighten him away. "But I still think you can help me. You're maybe the only person who knows just how the sorceress uses other girls and inhabits them. I know you took an interest in Elle just like Adel did. I figure maybe you know of a place where all those escaped little kids went, to get away from Adel."
Odine was silent for a moment, then laughed, a short, barking sound. "You are still looking for zat kid? All of zis is about a stupid brat?"
Before Dr. Odine saw what was coming, Laguna had slapped him, open handed, across the face. Dr. Odine was too stunned to move, and Laguna grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "Elle's not stupid," Laguna said harshly, "and she's not a brat. And I'll tell you something else, you callous, pompous ass, my own kid may be where Elle is, and your selfishness isn't going to keep me away from either of them."
Dr. Odine looked toward Kiros or Ward for help. Ward shrugged in a satisfied way as if to say, "you had this coming." Kiros leaned back against the wall with his arms folded across his chest, and watched with interest.
"I do not know vere ze girl is," Dr. Odine finally managed. "You rescued her... you sent her home, is all I know. But, zere might be an orphanage."
Laguna's eyes flashed. "You know something," he said, pushing Dr. Odine against the wall. "And you're not telling me. I've been to every orphanage I could find and haven't found either of them. So, I'm giving you one more chance to tell me everything you know."
Dr. Odine looked at Kiros, who smiled at him. Ward gripped his harpoon and also smiled.
"Barbarians," Dr. Odine said, sneering. "If I tell you anything it vill cost me my life."
Laguna let go of Odine's shirt, but didn't back off. "Then it's just a matter of who you want to get killed by, I guess," he said, letting his voice grow calm. "And look at it this way: if you tell me what you know, at least you'll be helping some kids in the process, and maybe if you're ever in trouble, you could come to us for help."
"Come to you for help? Never!" he swore.
"Alright, no more dramatics," Laguna said wearily. "It's pretty simple really. You're going to tell me what you know about the kids who escaped Adel's people and where they went, and we're going to leave. Or, you're not going to tell us, you'll be really sorry you didn't, and we'll leave."
Odine trembled in outrage for a few moments. "Fine," he finally hissed, relenting. "Zere is an orphanage. Very few people have ever known of it. I don't know who runs it but I know zey have children from all over ze vorld. Zere vas talk zat ze people who run it took an interest in ze sorceress, and how to stop her. Zey vere interested in stopping ze hunt for little girls. Zat is vy it vas so secretive. I do not know vere it is, except it is somevere south, by ze sea. Zat is all I know and I only learned of it months ago!"
Laguna looked over his shoulder and stared at Ward and Kiros. Excitement shone in his watering eyes.
"Do you think that's enough to go on?" Kiros asked.
"It has to be," Laguna said, and brushed past them both. "Let's go."
"I'd like to talk to the doctor for a second first," Kiros said.
Laguna nodded and wiped his eyes. "Okay, I'll be waiting for you outside, just hurry."
Ward knew exactly what was going on and he couldn't wait for it to happen. Kiros was so good at what he did.
"I'll tell you what I think," Kiros said softly, once Laguna had left.
"Vy are you still here?! I don't care vat you zink!" Dr. Odine said.
"That's okay, I'll tell you anyway. Humor me," he said, and approached Dr. Odine the same way Laguna had.
Dr. Odine was beginning to get the idea that he was being intimidated, and the fact itself was enough to intimidate him even more. He waited silently for Kiros to go on.
"I think you know a lot more than you told Mr. Loire."
*Zhing!*
Ward loved the look on people's faces the first time they heard the sound of the katal, when Kiros swept them from the sheathes so quickly.
Odine stumbled back against the wall.
A few minutes later, Ward walked out beside Kiros, leaving a stunned Dr. Odine bleeding the tiniest bit from a small nick on his throat.
If there was one thing that Ward always respected and admired about Kiros Seagill, it was his way of getting things done quickly and efficiently.
"Let's find a boat that goes south," Kiros said to Laguna.
"Why?" Laguna asked, still agitated and ready to leave that very second.
"We're going to see a Mr. Cid Kramer and his wife, who run an orphanage."
