DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FF7 OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS
Chapter Twelve
"Hang on a minute, tell me again why we're doing this?" asked Elena for about the eighteenth time.
Words failed Cid. He searched around for a suitable swear word but nothing came to mind. He couldn't believe just how completely dumb this blonde could be at times. He settled for snapping at Rude, "You tell her!"
". . ." said Rude, shrugging his shoulders.
"It is very simple, Elena," said Red XIII through gritted teeth, feeling his own almost limitless patience nearly at an end. "We are taking the back staircase to the upper levels of the Shinra building so as to avoid detection. There are no security cameras or guards here."
"But – " Elena began.
"But what?" Cid groaned.
"Well, isn't this just a little too easy?" she asked.
"Hojo is too over-confident; it has probably never occurred to him," Red answered.
". . . or he may have set a trap. . ." said Rude.
Cid frowned, "That's possible. Well, you two should know this place like your own house, so if anything seems wrong or out of place, speak up."
". . ." Rude agreed.
They climbed the stairs for a few more minutes, until Cid grabbed the banister and wheezed, "What floor are we on now? I've really gotta quit smokin'!"
"45th floor," said Elena. "Only 15 to go."
Cid gave a low moan and staggered onwards, a few steps behind the others.
* * *
"Sir, the evacuation of the Nibel reactor is complete!"
Hojo turned to face the grunt at the door, and smirked, "Good. That facility would have been too difficult to defend. The AVALANCHE won't find anything there now but an empty building. Still, that reactor served me well, and once the AVALANCHE are no more and I rule the Planet unopposed, I will have it restored to its former glory."
"One other thing, sir."
"Yes?"
"The airship Highwind was spotted landing in Midgar about an hour ago. Its present location is unknown, but we'd have seen it take off, so it must still be on the ground."
"Find it and destroy it."
"Yessir!"
* * *
As they passed a sign reading '60th floor' Cid gave a sigh of relief, then promptly collapsed in a heap by the wall.
"Bit out of shape, are you?" Elena said tactlessly.
"I'll be fine," Cid panted. "I just need a – need a – "
He patted the various pockets of his flight jacket but they were empty.
"$%^&%^!!" he yelled. "I'm out of smokes!!"
". . .quiet. . ." Rude said. "Somebody will hear you."
"Dammit, dammit all to hell," Cid cursed. "As if things hadn't got bad enough, I'm out of smokes…"
"You can get some later," said Elena. "What are we going to do now?"
"Who cares?" Cid lamented. "What's the world coming to if I can't have my smokes?"
"I suggest we head for the laboratory on the 66th floor," said Red. "If they are not to be found there, we will hopefully discover a clue of some kind."
"I could have sworn I had two full packs this morning…" Cid was saying.
"WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR STUPID SMOKES!!!" Elena yelled. "Do you want us to be discovered by Hojo?"
Cid grumbled under his breath and gave her a foul glare. He got to his feet and polished the tip of the Venus Gospel with his pilot's scarf, "All right, kids. I'll lead the way. We'll be outnumbered so don't start a fight unless it's unavoidable."
He glanced out at the foyer of the 60th floor, "There's a couple of guards, but they're not even looking in this direction. They're just sitting drinking their tea. Dammit, wish I could have some tea. Anyway, they won't see us if we're quiet. Rude, you'll have no problems there. Elena, think you can keep your mouth shut for long enough to get across to the elevators?"
Elena opened her mouth to retort, but then realised she'd be falling straight into his trap. She closed her mouth and just folded her arms, smirking.
"Let's go," said Cid.
Silently they made their way across the room, past the two guards who were engaged in conversation. As the heroes approached the elevator doors, something the guards were saying caught Red's ear.
"Where did you say they'd taken them?" the first guard was asking. "66th floor?"
"No, the Professor's built a new secret laboratory," said the other. "I don't know where it is, exactly, but I heard a rumour that - "
He was cut off as his communicator buzzed. Switching it to transmit, he said, "Yes sir?"
The voice on the other end was too garbled for Red to make out, but the guard nodded his head and said, "Yes sir, on my way!"
The guards got to their feet and began running towards the stairs. The elevator arrived and the doors slid open silently. Red and the others got in. The doors closed and Red announced, "I think they were talking about Cloud and the others. One of them mentioned a secret laboratory."
"You sure?" said Cid dubiously. "I couldn't make out anything they were saying."
"You do not have a feline's sense of hearing," Red told him. "I was not able to tell where this laboratory is, exactly. Perhaps Rude or Elena would know of any secret rooms in this building."
". . ." said Rude uncertainly.
"We discovered a couple of bomb shelters that the Shinra family never told anyone about," Elena said. "Down underneath the basement. Maybe Hojo's using one of those."
"He won't have had time to construct a full laboratory in the short while he has been in control of this building," Red reasoned. "He must be using an existing facility."
"Unless he had it built ages ago, before the Sephiroth trouble," Cid suggested. "Without telling anyone about it. He could have just moved straight back in."
". . .I don't think so. . ." said Rude. "Hojo was a powerful man in the Shinra corporation, but nothing happened in this building without the President knowing about it."
"Well, let's just go to the 66th floor labs and look for clues there," said Cid.
They agreed on that, and each of them took on a fighting stance as the elevator arrived at floor 66.
The doors opened and they quickly scoured the room before them. A few scientists sat at desks, most of them reading or writing documents, peering through microscopes, or working with test tubes and chemicals of various colours. There was no sign of Hojo, or their friends.
"They are not here," said Red. "Do you think we should ask one of these people where we might find them?"
"Nah, they'll be Hojo's flunkies," said Cid, turning to face the Turks. "Where d'you reckon we oughta try now?"
"…the basement?" Rude suggested. "It's possible that Hojo could have converted one of the old storage rooms."
Cid groaned loudly, but thankfully none of the scientists heard him.
"Don't tell me we gotta trudge down all those stairs again!"
"I guess we can use the elevator this time," Red shrugged. "It seems safe enough."
Elena punched the button for the basement and they waited as the elevator slid silently down the side of the building.
* * *
When Cloud next woke, the overhead light was shining unbearably brightly in his eyes, and he had a splitting headache. Holding his hands in front of his eyes, and pressing his knuckles against his forehead, he battled against the pain. He had to remain fully focused and alert for whatever Hojo had in store for him, and for any opportunity for escape that might present itself.
As his eyes adjusted to the light, he moved his hands away to see what was happening in the room outside his cage. Hojo and two other men were there. He couldn't hear anything, but Hojo was obviously giving orders to the other two. Cloud glanced down to see Yuffie still curled up asleep beside him. This time she was sleeping naturally rather than lying unconscious from being hit. He looked over to the other side; Vincent didn't appear to have moved from the last time he'd seen him. As Cloud looked over, the raven-haired man appeared to sense he was being watched, and his red eyes opened to fix on Cloud's. The two men looked at each other for a moment or two, but there was no way to communicate between them, so Vincent shut his eyes once more and appeared to have gone back to sleep.
Cloud turned back round as he heard the door to his cage being opened. Hojo beckoned impatiently to him to come out. He moved to wake Yuffie but Hojo shook his head and snapped, "Forget her! She is unimportant!"
Cloud had no choice but to walk to the door, ducking his head to leave the confines of the cage.
"Bring him to my office," Hojo said in a weary voice, gesturing that the two men should grab Cloud.
Although he was exhausted and weaponless, Cloud was still able to put up a fight. As the first reached to grab his arm, Cloud instinctively grabbed the man's wrist, twisted it sideways and flung the man over his shoulder to collide with the wall. The second man snarled angrily at him and aimed a punch, but Cloud ducked it easily, and with a right hook he sent the man sprawling. Both the men lay unconscious and now there was only Hojo to deal with. One defenceless scientist shouldn't be too much trouble, Cloud told himself. He knew he was wrong when he saw Hojo, who had his back to Cloud, spin round impossibly fast to deliver a devastating punch to Cloud's stomach. Only a lightning-fast dive to one side avoided the blow, and Cloud rolled over to see Hojo walking towards him, his face wearing the same icy, malevolent stare as always. That was, however, the only thing about him that hadn't changed. His entire body seemed to have – grown – he had to be four or five inches taller than he had been before, and powerful muscles protruded from his previously frail figure. As Hojo narrowed his poison-green eyes at Cloud, the swordsman knew he had only chance – run. Pushing off from the wall, he sprinted towards the room's only door, but again Hojo reacted impossibly quickly to snake out an arm, punching Cloud in the side of the head, sending him spinning back towards the cage he had just left. He lost consciousness and collapsed senseless at Hojo's feet.
* * *
As the elevator continued its progress down the side of the Shinra building, somewhat slower than they would have liked, Rude said to Cid, "…perhaps you should contact Reno and see how he is doing."
"Might as well," Cid agreed.
Unclipping his PHS from his belt, he called Tifa's number and waited for her to answer. After ten rings, it became evident she was not available.
"No answer?" said Red.
"Nope. Damn, I hope they're OK," Cid sighed.
He put his PHS back in place as Elena announced they had just arrived at the basement. The doors opened and Rude frowned, "…"
"This is new," said Elena, looking around. "Hojo has totally changed this area."
"Perhaps his secret laboratory is to be found here," Red said hopefully.
"Let's have a look around," said Cid, reaching behind his bandanna for a cigarette, then cursing when he remembered he hadn't got any.
He settled for polishing the Venus Gospel's tip with his scarf once more, and led the rest out into the basement complex. Not wanting to raise the alarm if it could be avoided, they took a more stealthy approach than usual. Cid hated sneaking around, but in unknown territory it was their only option. Once or twice they had to hide in empty rooms while people walked past, but they managed to find their way around the basement floor without really bumping into anybody.
"Over there," Red said eventually. "That door. The sign says 'Private Laboratory. No admittance to anyone without prior clearance from Professor Hojo'."
"Bingo! That's what we're looking for!" Cid exclaimed.
They walked over to the door. As might have been expected, it was locked. In no mood to waste time, Cid smashed the lock with the shaft of the Venus Gospel, and kicked the door open. The room inside was dark and he fumbled about for a lightswitch, eventually finding one and flicking the lights on.
"Yuffie! Vincent!"
Red bounded over to try and free his friends from the glass cages.
"I think they are sleeping," he said.
"Can't they hear us?" Elena asked.
"The glass must be soundproofed. I cannot open this cage."
Cid looked around in the room in the hope that there might be some smokes lying around, but there weren't any.
"Well, there's a door, so it must open somehow," he said, pointing to the cage Yuffie was in. "Besides, they got in there, didn't they? They must be able to get out again."
"Logically, yes," the lion replied. "There must be some mechanism for opening the cages. Take a look around the room."
They glanced around for a few moments until Rude pointed to the wall behind Cid, "…a control panel."
"Yes, that ought to be it," said Red, padding across to stand in front of the panel. "It looks to be an ordinary six-digit pass-code system. We simply need to punch in the correct sequence of numbered buttons."
"Six numbers? There could be a million combinations!" Cid yelled.
"To be precise, there are 151,200 combinations," Red told him. "We clearly cannot try them all."
"Can't we just smash this code panel and open up the internal circuitry so I can use that to open the cages?"
"That is a risky strategy. If something goes wrong we may never be able to get them open."
Elena tapped them both on the shoulder, "I think your friend is trying to tell us something."
Both of them turned round to see Vincent, standing up in his enclosure, beckoning them to come closer. They walked over.
"What's up, Vince?" Cid asked.
Vincent pointed to his ears, then the glass. He mouthed the word soundproofed. Red nodded to indicate his understanding. Vincent held up four fingers. Cid looked confused, "Huh? I don't understand. What's he – ?"
"Quiet," said Red. "I think he is trying to tell us the pass-code. That was a four."
Vincent held up a splayed hand.
"Five."
Two fingers.
"Two."
A thumb and index finger making a circle.
"Zero."
Seven fingers.
"Seven."
One finger.
"One," Red finished. "Rude, please enter 452071."
"…" the bald man acknowledged, leaning down to punch in the numbers.
Cid gave a cry of triumph as the cage doors slid open, and Vincent glided out to stand beside him.
"It is good to see you again," he said in a moment of rare emotion.
"Yeah, you too," said Cid. "Rude, Elena, can you get Yuffie out of there and wake her up? Vincent, where's Cloud?"
"I don't know. Hojo was here – he took Cloud with him."
"When was that?"
"A while ago. I have slept since."
"Hey, Cid!" Yuffie greeted him like a favourite uncle. "You got us out of there, huh?"
"Shucks, it was nothing," said Cid with false modesty. "You know where Cloud is?"
"Nope. I didn't even see him go."
"We had better locate him before Hojo does something terrible," Red urged.
Cid nodded, "Right. I'll try calling Tifa again to let her know our situation."
"I must find the Death Penalty," Vincent decided. "For I am little use without my weapon."
"Yeah, I want my Conformer back too," Yuffie added.
"We shall cover you," said Red.
He and the two Turks led the way out of the room to begin a search for Vincent and Yuffie's stolen equipment. Cid followed behind, still trying to get an answer on the PHS.
"Cid, any luck?" Elena called.
"Nope, dammit," Cid cursed. "It's weird. Her phone's ringing, but she won't answer."
"Try calling Barret too."
"I did. He won't pick up either."
"I just hope they aren't in any danger."