Chapter 3: Esthar International
By mid-afternoon the next day, they had an ID on the body. He was twenty five year old Sascha Maurden of Winhill. Four years previously, he had disappeared without a trace, making their investigation suddenly much more interesting. Seifer was sitting on board the Ragnarok, reading through the missing person's report and sipping from a frosty glass of lemonade that Matron had brought him with lunch. In the top right corner of his screen was a photograph taken from Maurden's driver's license. He had been tall and dark with a serious face.
Seifer finished his lemonade and sighed, causing Quistis to glance over her shoulder at him. She was at another terminal, holding a small container and waiting for a reply from some sort of international DNA database in Esthar. They'd both been busy running errands for Kelly all morning.
"Find anything interesting?" she asked, setting down the little cup she was holding and walking over to him.
"No. But I haven't looked at his immunization records, birth certificate, or school transcript yet," he replied sarcastically. "Can't even imagine what sort of fascinating information I'll find in those."
"Are his parents still alive?" Quistis asked, leaning over his shoulder. "We should probably contact them."
"His mother is. She's still living in Winhill. She's the one who reported him missing."
"Poor lady." Quistis sighed, her breath puffing across the back of Seifer's neck. "What a horrible way to lose your child."
"I'm sure as hell not going to be the one to break the news," Seifer said and closed the missing person's report to bring up the transcript. "You can have that all to yourself."
"Gee. Thanks."
They both looked over the transcript for a moment and Seifer whistled through his teeth. "Wow. The guy was smart. Look at those classes — advanced physics, tons of bio. Looks like he was taking a bunch of extended studies, too. I'm surprised he didn't go to graduate school."
"So am I," Quistis replied. "Seems like he had everything in the world to look forward to. And he's not exactly the kind of person who you'd think would have many enemies. He'd hardly have time to make them." She pressed her lips together and tapped her fingers on the back of his chair. She smelled nice, Seifer noticed. Fresh and clean and sweet like she'd just gotten out of the shower.
A loud beep made her stand up straight again and walk back to her terminal.
"We got a reply," she said.
"About what, exactly?" Seifer asked, suspecting that Quistis had gotten the more interesting job while he'd been relegated to grunt work, stuck browsing through all of the guy's personal records.
"Kelly found some tissue she couldn't identify and thought it might have been from the attacker," Quistis explained as her fingers danced across the Ragnarok's controls.
"So she thinks there was a struggle," Seifer mused, framing the word that had been circling his mind all day: murder.
"We don't know. But this might tell us."
Seifer couldn't help but smile. He'd wanted a real mission, and it was looking more and more now like the means behind this man's death were sinister. It wasn't armies marching or assassinations or war, but it was as close as he could come by in today's peaceful world. A part of him felt a brief flash of guilt for feeling grateful for Sascha Maurden's misfortune, but tracking down a cold blooded killer was just the sort of thing that SeeD had trained him for. His heart was hammering as he moved to sit down next to Quistis.
With a metallic chime, the Esthar International logo flashed across her screen for a moment before a running line of text spilled over it. They both leaned forward to read the message:
Thank you for using Esthar International, specializing in worldwide information and resources.
We regret to inform you that the DNA plate you sent to us has no match in our database. However, if your are in possession of a quality sample, we can perform a high detail scan which may allow us to make a match or narrow down your field of search. If such a sample is available, please forward it to:
Esthar International Biomedical Division 528 16th Street Left Esthar City, Esthar
Quistis's shoulders visibly sagged as she reached the end of the message. "Well, that got us nowhere. Actually sending them a sample and waiting for them to process the results could take weeks."
"The guy's dead. He isn't going anywhere," Seifer pointed out. "We've got time to spare. Besides, we've got the fastest mode of transportation on the planet right here. We could just drop it off ourselves."
Quistis paused. "That's a really good idea."
"Damn right it is."
"No, really." She shouldered him out of the way as she stood up. "We've got to drop the body off in Deling City for the autopsy. You and I could fly to Esthar while Kelly is busy with that."
"What can I say?" Seifer shrugged. "I'm a genius."
"I wouldn't go that far," Quistis replied.
They'd both been sitting in the Ragnarok for hours, so she stretched her arms out above her head and arched her back until it popped, then bent over to smooth out her skirt. They were on official business, so they were both wearing their SeeD uniforms. Seifer hadn't worn his since the day he'd finally passed his final exam. It was now uncomfortably tight fitting around his shoulders and arms.
"I'm going to go talk to Kelly," Quistis said. "Let her know the plan."
She waved as she vanished through an automatic door, leaving Seifer to swivel back around in his chair. He thought about Sascha Maurden. The guy seemed innocent enough. Seifer couldn't quite imagine a scenario where a guy from Winhill would find himself floating face down in the ocean off Centra. There had to be something more to this death.
Right now it was a mystery and growing thicker by the moment.
0 0 0
It took all three of them to haul the still water logged body back to the Ragnarok. Once the sailors had scrubbed down their ship, they set sail again and dumped their entire catch out at sea. Not long after that, with the big, yellow body bag tucked away in one of their holds, the Ragnarok took off as well. Their pilot had been called back to Garden, so Quistis handled the controls, relying on the auto-pilot for much of the flight while she sat down and wrote a message to her boyfriend.
"I managed to gather quite a bit of tissue," Kelly said, interrupting the silence. "There should be enough for them to make a match, anyway. It's strange that they didn't make one in the first place. I mean, they should have been able to reply with animal, mineral, or vegetable, you know? What will you two do if the results come back and it is dragon hide or something? Case closed?"
"It wasn't an animal that abducted him from Winhill," Quistis pointed out.
The Ragnarok lurched slightly as they slowed down ahead of their destination. Quistis turned off the auto-pilot and took over the controls again.
"I have to admit," Kelly said, shaking her head. "I really don't think a person did this. This was messy. The poor guy was practically disemboweled. It's a lot easier, if you want to kill someone, to just slash their throat or crack their skull or go for the heart. Who kills someone by gutting them?"
"You'd be surprised," Seifer replied.
She looked up at him, her eyes wide. He liked the way that terrible knowledge and naive innocence seemed to co-mingle in her.
"I was looking at his dental molds last night," she said, the surprise leaving her face as she steered the conversation back into an area where she was more comfortable. "His enamel has worn down significantly since his last x-ray."
"Meaning?" Seifer asked.
"Meaning he was probably eating roughage. Unprocessed, raw foods. Which points to somewhere away from civilization. I can't confirm that though. Unfortunately, we lost the contents of his stomach postmortem."
Seifer grimaced at that unpleasant thought.
"Hold on back there," Quistis said from up front. "We're landing."
No one wanted to stay behind to guard the body against anything that might happen to it, so Quistis secured the Ragnarok before they left. The sun hadn't even set yet, but every light in Deling City was on, creating a twinkling expanse of concrete and neon on the horizon. Seifer loved this city. He'd spent all of his summers here as a cadet and was eager to walk the familiar streets again.
As usual, Deling City was alive and brilliant. After being in Centra, it was an overwhelming but welcome change. The streets were humming with traffic and the sidewalks were choked with people going to and from the downtown shops and bars. Quistis led the way to the hospital. The white, blocky building stood out against the grungy, glittery cityscape and looked like it had been dipped in bleach. The scrubbed appearance didn't end with the outer walls, and when Seifer walked through the revolving doors, his senses were assaulted with the characteristic scent of heavy antiseptics.
A woman looked up from behind the information counter when they walked in, a pair of glasses perched on the end of her nose.
"Can I help you?" she asked. She sounded like someone who'd smoked her entire life.
"We're from Balamb," Quistis replied and flashed her SeeD badge. "I called yesterday and talked to someone here about having an autopsy performed."
"Oh." The woman shoved the chewed up pencil she was holding in hair and began tapping on her keyboard. "You're going to want Dr. Kleinger then, the coroner. I think he left some forms here somewhere for you to fill out. Hold on…" She continued searching while Quistis tapped her fingers impatiently against the counter.
"We need transportation to get the body through town, too," she announced.
"Oh, he'll take care of that." The woman shook her head, pinched her lips together, and finally came up with the paperwork. Quistis handed it to Kelly to fill out while the doctor was paged to the information desk.
"Boy. Just when I think this mission is going to get exciting, it manages to get even more boring," Seifer said to Quistis while they waited.
"Better than sitting around Garden watching dust collect," she pointed out.
They stood side by side, rocking on their heels and looking up at the high ceiling while Kelly continued to work through the extensive paperwork.
"Want to play cards?" Quistis asked after a while.
"Yeah," Seifer replied, a little surprised at her suggestion. She was one of the best Triple Triad players in all of Balamb Garden. Seifer, on the other hand, had never devoted much time to the game and didn't think he had a deck strong enough to beat her. Still, it was something to pass the time while they waited, and he was curious what cards she might have.
They sat down, each selecting a hand from their decks. Quistis grinned as she turned over her cards, most of them shining back with very familiar faces. She had Squall's card, Rinoa's, Irvine's — even his own. Seifer's hand, however, featured a rather strong showing of ruby dragons and tonberries. He never played his prized possession: the chubby chocobo. Something about the slovenly bird amused him and he wouldn't risk losing it.
Quistis had him easily whipped and was claiming one of his ruby dragon cards to augment her own pile of them when Kleinger finally showed up.
"Sorry. I was in the middle of something," he said by way of an explanation. "You're the SeeDs from Balamb?"
"That's us," Seifer said.
Kelly offered the doctor the clipboard with all the completed paperwork, introduced herself, and the two immediately descended into a jargon filled conversation about the condition of the body and Kelly's findings so far. Seifer and Quistis followed them through the hospital and, eventually, found themselves seated in the back of a plain, white van.
The van rattled down the city streets and eventually out into the falling evening. The Ragnarok loomed on the horizon, its dragon shape eerily lifelike as it glowed red in the evening light. Kelly and Dr. Kleinger led the way up to the craft, still talking shop, though their conversation had taken a more personal bend on the ride out of the city.
"I went to medical school with him," Dr. Kleinger said, referring to one of Kelly's old instructors. "For a while, to get a little extra money to pay the bills, I worked in the morgue with him doing organ harvesting."
"Uh oh." Kelly laughed. "I think I know where this is going…"
Seifer didn't, and he was glad to never have to know as the two disappeared into the Ragnarok. He waited outside by the van. Aside from the dead body and the company, the evening was really quite lovely with the heady scent of spring flowers riding on a low breeze. It flushed away some of the salty sea scent that had permeated Seifer's skin over the past two days.
Kelly and Dr. Kleinger weren't gone long before they emerged again with the yellow body bag on top of a gurney. When they stuffed it into the open back of the white van, Seifer couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief.
Turning sharply toward him, Kelly said, "Hurry back with the DNA results. Okay?"
"Don't worry," Quistis said, smiling reassuringly. "We'll get them back here as soon as humanly possible."
"Don't let those Esthar guys give you the run around," she replied. "Even if they can't find an exact match, I want the nearest one. In fact, they should be able to prepare an entire report. I want everything they can find out about it."
"Right." Seifer and Quistis both nodded.
They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. The white van went back into the bird's nest from which it came, and Seifer and Quistis got back on board the Ragnarok. Seifer followed her up to the bridge where she sat down at the controls and set the auto-pilot for Esthar. They wouldn't arrive until well after nightfall, but that was a blessing in disguise. Esthar was beautiful at night, much more so than Deling. It was still overwhelming, still luminous and busy, but there wasn't quite as much disquieted spangle.
Take-off was rough, as most of Quistis's were. But the flight smoothed out once they had reached altitude.
"How much do you want to bet that Odine has his hands in Esthar International?" Quistis asked, plunking a few keys on one of the panels to fully engage the auto-pilot.
"Never pegged you as the gambling type," Seifer replied.
She shrugged. "It's not really much of a gamble." With a yawn, she pulled the clip out of the back of her hair and ran her fingers through her kinked tresses.
"Speaking of gambles," he drawled, smiling. "We have a while before we get to Esthar, and we still haven't had that rematch with magic."
She stretched out in her seat and grinned. "Right here on the bridge?"
"Don't worry," he said. "I promise I won't whip you too badly."
Her blue eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're on."
