Chapter 19: Infiltration

The small vessel crept through the water like a prehistoric, predatory fish. Night was beginning to deepen and to the west the last golden vestiges of sun were being smothered out of existence. Seifer took a deep breath and watched the island slowly approach on the navigation screen monitor. He'd slept fitfully but felt rested and ready to fight.

Adrian was standing next to him, his wide shoulders touching Seifer's own. And next to him was Kelly, her pale face radiant in the light from the panel. They'd turned off all of their on-board lights and were approaching in the dark to avoid any chance of being seen. While they'd been sleeping, Kelly had been sweeping the island with radar and what she could get from their satellite link-up and had found what she thought was a good place to land. For the first time, Seifer felt like they had the advantage. They knew now what they were going into, who they were after, and what the objective was. His blood was pumping hard.

Quistis was standing next to Brecht, her stance stiff and her blond hair unbound. It spilled over Brecht's hand as he reached up and rubbed her back. Seifer had heard her apologize and Brecht apparently took that to mean their relationship was safe and sound. Personally, Seifer thought she'd been right-on in everything she'd said and didn't think she needed to take any of it back.

Her demeanor puzzled him and left a weight in his stomach. They'd had something for a minute there on the island. He couldn't believe it could already be over. But it seemed clear that back in reality, back at Garden, Quistis wanted to be with Brecht — the safe, stable option. Otherwise she would have broken it off with him already.

It hurt. And it made him angry. How could she choose that bastard over him? God damn. It was hard on his self-esteem.

Especially now that, despite the fact that Quistis was still in charge of the mission, Carson had taken it upon himself to command.

"Kelly," he said, "I want you to stay on board to act as central command since you're not trained for the field. We'll all take communicators and keep in touch with you." He tapped a small band around his wrist. Seifer had a similar one: radio communicators set to a high band frequency only Balamb Garden used.

"Right." She nodded.

"We don't know if they have any vessels," Carson continued. "But since they've been coming and going from this island for years, we should assume they have at least a few boats. Keep an eye on the radar and evade them if you can. But if you need to shoot them out of the water, do it."

Quistis was chewing her thumbnail, her hand obscuring her expression.

"The rest of us will make a direct attack on the compound. It's probably best that we try to avoid the monster."

"The shadow cat," Quistis provided.

"What?"

"That's what its called," she said.

"Right. So, we'll destroy the lab and take down anyone who gets in our way. Any questions?"

"If we destroy the lab, we might lose information on how to deal with the shadow cats," Adrian pointed out. "They have a cure for the poison and probably some way of managing the things seeing as they've been living alongside them."

"That's a risk we have to take," Carson replied. "Once all the information on how to create one is destroyed, we can just leave the existing ones here on the island. I think it's safe to say no one's going to be able to get them back to the mainland."

Seifer crossed his arms. He wished Quistis would speak up and quit letting Carson treat her like a frail little flower who couldn't take care of herself. She'd come close to really standing up for herself earlier and then she'd apologized for it. How could she let Brecht ignore the things that made her who she was? She was a SeeD, a brilliant mercenary. She wasn't an average woman.

"Kelly, let me know when you change position in case we need to be picked up in a hurry," Carson said.

"I will," she promised.

"All right. Is everyone ready?"

Seifer looked back and forth from Adrian to Quistis. They nodded.

"We'll be working in teams," Brecht reminded them. "Seifer and Adrian, then myself and Quistis."

It wasn't necessary to remind them again. Seifer didn't like taking orders from anyone, let alone assholes like Brecht, and he was itching to split his knuckles on the man's big fat head. With a monumental effort, he restrained himself, grumbling under his breath to Adrian that the almighty instructor now leading them probably hadn't been in the field since he'd taken his SeeD exam.

The ship slowed to a crawl, eventually coming to a stop near where they thought the compound was located. As far as they could tell, the place was very near the cliff they'd fallen off in their escape, so they'd chosen a shallower area further up the coast.

"Let's go, then," Brecht said and grabbed Quistis's hand before he opened the door. He pulled her out with him into the water. It wasn't deep, coming up to Quistis's breasts, and Seifer could tell that Brecht was still dragging her along by the way she followed close behind him.

"Suppose he's going to hold her hand the whole way?" Adrian asked quietly as they too slid out into the sea.

"Probably," Seifer grumbled darkly. "Why the fuck is she putting up with this?"

Adrian shrugged. "He did risk a lot coming after her."

Seifer didn't need or want to reminded that Carson Brecht had saved them from certain death.

Kelly closed the hatch behind them and the craft bobbed silent and dark in the water as they waded away from it and to shore. Seifer was getting damn tired of being wet when they finally stepped up onto dry land. He wrung some of the water from his shirt and shook some from his boots. They were going to be completely ruined by the time this mission was over. They'd make good company for his trench coat, he thought.

The trees were quiet. Checking a compass, Quistis started off into the dark interior of the island and Brecht let her lead the way.

Seifer suppressed a shudder as he stepped back into the forest. He drew some confidence from the thought that he'd already survived the worst this island could throw at him and he drew from that as they slid stealthily between the trees and undergrowth. Carson was in front of him and Adrian was at his back. Their steps were the only sound Seifer could pick up in the night air. It there was a shadow cat nearby, it was lying still. He willed it to snatch Brecht and be contented.

Hyperion was heavy and reassuring at his side. Hell, he thought. He'd killed one shadow cat; he could kill another.

"Hold on," Quistis whispered after a while and held one hand up to stop them. "This is it."

Seifer was surprised. They hadn't been walking long. Their flight, which had seemed to last for hours, hadn't really been very long at all.

No wonder we got away.

Quistis crouched down in the brush, Carson beside her. Purposefully, Seifer got down right behind her and loomed close to peer over her shoulder. As much as he liked Adrian, he intended to switch partners — if for no other reason than to irritate Brecht. They watched for several silent minutes until the door to the compound opened, revealing the white symbol on the front of the building with a flash of light from inside. Quistis leaned further back into the shadow of the underbrush, pressing her back against Seifer's chest, her bottom against his thighs.

Seifer's stomach muscles tightened.

One man walked out of the building. Seifer recognized him immediately: Abra. The little man closed the door behind him and was then lost in the darkness as their eyes adjusted. Breathing slowly, no one moved or spoke until they were certain he was gone.

"As soon as we're in, they're going to know," Quistis whispered.

That didn't bother Seifer. The men and women inside didn't pose much of a threat. It was a lot more dangerous being outside the compound.

"There's only one way in we know of. So we'll just have to storm it and hope for the best," Carson replied.

Adrian tightened the gloves around his fists, the leather creaking softly. Seifer too reached down and checked his weapon. Carson Brecht used twin short swords, neither as powerful or intimidating as Hyperion. Seifer grinned to himself. Brecht could never compare to him there.

"Make sure your communicators are on," he instructed, then informed Kelly through his own that they were going in.

Seifer took a deep breath and waited until the compound's doors swung open again. The two men preparing to leave screamed as the four SeeDs came rushing out of the darkness. Adrian knocked one to the ground with a powerful blow while Seifer cut the other down with a swift stroke from Hyperion. Brecht and Quistis took on the two guards standing inside, replacements for the two that had been killed when they escaped.

In the shuffle, Seifer saw Quistis leap over her prone guard and sprint down a hallway. He moved to follow her. She seemed to know exactly where she was going, so he ran hard to keep up, his feet pounding against the cement floor. They were both short of breath by the time she stopped in front of a pair of double doors, far separated from the rest of the team. She turned around, and when she saw him, her blue eyes went wide.

"Seifer? I thought you were Carson. You were supposed to stay with Adrian."

He shrugged and she regarded him curiously for a moment before looking away.

"Think you can get us in here?" she asked, gesturing to the locked door.

"You better believe it," he replied, grinning. He raised his gunblade above his head and brought it down against the latch. The sound of his weapon triggering echoed down the long hallway behind them and the door knobs broke, tearing part of the locking mechanism off with them. He motioned Quistis to step back, then gave the doors several swift kicks until the rest of the lock gave way.

They walked into a room filled with jars. It was the one Quistis had told him about, he realized. Glass cases lined the walls, illuminated with dim orange lights that made the jars and the creatures they contained look vile and infected.

"Seifer!" His communication badge burst to life with Carson's angry voice. "You were supposed to stay with Adrian!"

He turned the sound down on the device and ignored the message. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Quistis do the same. She was walking down the row of cases, apparently looking for something in particular, so he turned his attention to the desks in the middle of the room. With a shrug, he cast a fire spell at the nearest computer, melting its plastic casing and destroying the hard drive, then iced the smoldering remains over. Then he moved onto the next one, and the next.

"What are you looking for?" he finally asked Quistis. She was standing now in front of a completely empty case, her arms crossed.

"The shadow cat specimens," she replied. "They were right here the first time. They must have moved them."

"What for?" Seifer asked. "Were there a lot of them?"

"Dozens."

Seifer thought for a moment, then said, "I guess it doesn't really matter. The computers and the files are the important bits, right? Not much anyone's going to be able to do with the specimens."

"Someone like Dr. Odine would be able to clone one," she pointed out.

"If he got past the shadow cats in the jungle first. I'm sure they're here somewhere. Maybe this is a different room than the one you were in the first time. Hard to tell — they all the same."

"Maybe," she conceded. "I guess we'll have to sweep the whole building."

They destroyed the last of the computers and lit up several thick sheafs of paper files before walking out into the hallway again. Seifer watched Quistis walking in front of him under the dim lights. She was wearing the skirt from her SeeD uniform, though it was still dirty from their initial trek through the jungle, and it pulled tight against her bottom as she stepped. A tantalizing expanse of thigh and knee showed between the edge her of the skirt and the top of her boots. Looking at her, he remembered lying in the lean-to that morning and running his hand down her leg and gripping her to him. And he remembered the eager sounds she made, the way her lips felt pressed against his own.

Flushed with sudden lust, he had a hard time paying attention to what she was saying as they stopped at another room. They used to same routine to get inside and to destroy all the computers inside. It was satisfying to smash and pummel and burn and distanced his thoughts somewhat from other things he'd rather be doing.

Then they moved onto the next room, and the next.

As they moved methodically down the hallway, two men finally appeared and came rushing at them, guns drawn and bullets flying. One zinged past Seifer's head as he ducked out of the way. Quistis snapped her whip back behind her and threw out her left hand to cast. Knowing how powerful her spells were, Seifer got close behind her and waited in the safe bubble of her personal space for the hail of rock and fire to abate. When the spell finally cleared, both men were lying prone on the floor.

"Effective," he said, surveying the damage, "but not as satisfying as doing it with your hands."

"You're just jealous because you have the magical ability of a geezard," she replied and smiled up at him.

He laughed, and they walked around the two unconscious men and into the next room. It was filled with filing cabinets, which they emptied and burned. Quistis stayed behind, her hand poised over the smoking pile of papers and ready to put out the fire with a water spell, while Seifer moved on, hoping to find something more worthwhile. He was hoping, too that he might find some people. So far the place seemed to be half abandoned. The thought gave him pause.

It was possible that the islanders had more than one building, maybe even another location more fortified than this one, and that they'd moved everything there. It would be a lot more difficult to complete an operation like this without the element of surprise on their side. And he didn't want Quistis to have to go back to Garden for a support team. He really didn't want Brecht to be right about this mission.

Turning down a new hallway, he burst into a new room and recognized it immediately. The bed, the blankets, the lone mirror on the wall. Everything looked the same as it had the night they left.

"Oh…wow," Quistis said as she came in behind him. "Is this our room?"

Our.

"Or one just like it," he replied.

She walked over to the bed and picked up the ratty green blanket that was lying across it. The material slipped through her fingers to spill back onto the mattress and she laughed softly as it fell. They had slept under that blanket together, Seifer thought. They'd been naked on top of it. He shivered and tried to push his thoughts in another direction. Quistis hadn't broken it off with Brecht yet — might never. And it wouldn't do him any good to dwell on what could have been.

"It's strange being here again, isn't it?" she asked.

"It's only been a few days," he reminded her.

"Yeah. I know. But it seems longer than that. So much has changed since then."

He wasn't sure what she meant, what had changed, but she was standing close to him now and the familiar room felt insulated from the battle they were fighting. If this was really the only place he would ever get to experience the sparks between them, he thought, then he should kiss her now…for old time's sake. To hell with her boyfriend. He felt miles away and this was their space, a place where he couldn't intrude.

Quistis must have been thinking something similar, because a moment later she popped up on her toes and kissed him. At first, Seifer didn't know how to react. He hadn't expected her to make the first move and didn't know what her intentions were. Just a peck? Or something more? But as he tentatively kissed her back, they quickly remembered the morning in the lean-to and picked up where they had left off.

With a sigh, Quistis melted into him and tangled her hands in his hair. Whatever they had was still there. It sparked to life and raced like a wildfire through Seifer's stomach and up to his heart. He drank her in, needing her to quench the flames. And her mouth returned the gesture, becoming greedy too. She was a demanding kisser…the sort of woman who left a man standing dazed and dumb by the time she was done.

He wanted to talk to her and try to convince her that this was so much better than anything she could find with Brecht. But he didn't want to stop kissing her long enough to say what was on his mind. Words could come later. Right now, her body was sweet and pliable. And in this moment, in this place, she was his.

Down the inward curve of her back, over the swell of her bottom, and back up again his hands wandered, pressing her closer, tighter.

He was ready to throw her down on the bed or just press her up against the wall, mission be damned, when she gradually began to slow them down.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, her forehead and nose pressed against his, her arms around him. "I know now's not the time, but I've been wanting to do that."

Had she? Seifer smirked, wondering if there maybe wasn't a chance for them after all.

"We'd better get back on task," she continued and reached down to turn the volume back up on her communicator. Immediately, Brecht's voice burst from it, making them both frown.

"Quistis! Respond, damn it!"

"I'm here," she said, raising the communicator to her mouth.

"You need to get back to the front of the compound now," he said. "And bring Seifer with you if he's there."

She looked up at him but there was no flash of shame in her expression.

"We're on our way," she replied. "What's going on?"

"I just heard from Kelly. It looks like the islanders are getting ready to leave."