Disclaimer: I still do not own FF8 however I plot some evil plots that will gain me the SQUARESOFT Corporation! *Gets dragged away by police officers*
Chapter TwentyThe four had proceeded to the Caraway basement, of which the secret entrance was located in James Caraway's study. After entering through the secret passage, they advanced down the slate, winding stairway. They arrived at a large room with pipes hovering near the ceiling. A few manholes had been scattered throughout but the rest of the décor consisted of boxes upon boxes of files, papers, records, listings, everything a government would have access to.
Squall dropped his bag with a thud, "Yeah … so is this a maze of some sort?" He asked annoyed, finding no way to maneuver through them.
"No." Caraway responded equally as annoyed, he carried on through a gap between two columns of boxes that reached seven feet high. The rest followed. Rinoa found it was indeed a bit like a maze, striding nervously through thin corridors that turned endlessly.
At the second corner or so they arrived at a more open space and Squall felt his slight claustrophobic tendencies fade away. It seemed like a little house made of boxes. The divisions were made with boxes that rose up to around three feet high. In one particular 'room' there was a double bed. He couldn't see many other divisions however sitting at a particularly large division was a table with six chairs around it … Julia, Riana and Alessandro all sitting, open mouthed in surprise at who had just walked in.
"Mom, dad!" Alessandro was the first to recover and he jumped from his chair, over the boxes to his parents. Riana followed soon after however, short to a fault, she did not try to leap over the boxes. She just took what seemed like the entranceway into the division.
Julia also got up, blinking away the water in her eyes. "Thank goodness …" She sighed and leaned against the table to support her shaking legs.
The reunion was short-lived. Caraway motioned to the table for everyone to sit and 'conference' as he called it. Riana chose to sit on her mother's lap, as there was a lack of chairs. Zell went into a lengthy explanation on how he had been an agent for the past two years, whilst working for Caraway. The general admitted to having a large amount of suspicion concerning Ackroyde's plans.
"Alright … now we must figure out a way to end all this." Caraway began, folding his hands on the foldable card table.
"Can't we just run?" Squall asked, avoiding eye contact with his father-in-law, "Change our names. People do that when they're in trouble."
"Why're we in trouble?" Riana squealed, her eyes open and alert.
"Shh …" Rinoa hushed and when her younger daughter turned back to look at her she only shook her head. "Not now."
Julia looked upon her daughter and granddaughter with pity. It wasn't right; they didn't have to go through this. They shouldn't have to go through this.
"I thought you were a man." Caraway's gruff voice could have sliced through ice, "You think running is an honorable solution?"
Anger rose to a new height for ex-Agent Leonheart. Too much had happened in one night, too much for him to be justified a coward, "Eat shit!" He slammed his fist on the table angrily, making everyone flinch, "For once, think about others!" He stood up towering over Caraway, both of his fists on the table, "I am a man … who thinks about his family's safety first. I don't care if your name bites the dust."
"Squall …" Rinoa pleaded but it wasn't of much use. He turned around and left the room of made of cardboard boxes and found his way to the back of the basement. There were no boxes here, only the wall that separated this section of the basement from the house-like divisions and two doorways leading Hyne knows where. The Caraway mansion was filled with mysteries and Squall didn't have the mind to solve any at this point.
He heard heavy footsteps behind him, recognized the sound of men's boots. He reflexively reached for the pack of cigarettes in his jacket pocket and lit himself one with a match. Caraway spoke in a low voice, "Does she know you smoke?"
"Does she know her father's a twit?" He responded, taking a drag on his only physical flaw letting the carbon monoxide bond with his red blood cells, calming his raging spirit for a split second. His back was still to his opponent.
"I thought she had justified that a long time ago." His voice was harsh and meant to sting but Leonheart had grown immune already, "If we run they will chase us to the end of the world until they find us. You may say that will take a while and you're right but that will only have exhausted Ackroyde's patience and so when he strikes, he will strike to kill."
"Okay." Replied Squall, puffing on his cigarette as if it were life support, "So what the Hell is your fucking honorable solution, General Caraway?"
"Infiltration." The agency General replied coldly.
"Woah, that's way too fucking precise for me, you're going to have to be a little more unspecific." Leonheart replied sarcastically, taking another long drag of his cancer stick.
"Infiltration … we-infiltrate-the-headquarters." Caraway hissed, enunciating every word as if he was speaking to a mental health-recovering patient.
"Okay." Squall replied almost as if he thought it was a grand idea. He threw his cigarette butt on the floor and grinded it with his heel. When he turned to his father-in-law the pupils of his eyes seemed to contain a flame and he suddenly spat, "AND THAT WOULD BE A FUCKING STUPID IDEA! You still haven't seemed to catch my drift, I've got a wife, a son and a daughter … walking into a building with thousands of trained people who want my fucking ass isn't on my 'to-do' list!"
"Oh, I 'catch your drift'." Caraway snapped, "Believe me I do. I've also got a wife and a daughter … WHO IS MARRIED TO A DULLARD!"
"A dullard?" Squall repeated almost as if he was about to burst into hysterical laughter, "Hoo boy, am I glad the way you talk hasn't rubbed off on your daughter!" He returned to the table division, (With Caraway snapping behind him, 'My way of speaking, speaking … not talking.') "Thank you Julia, for teaching Rinoa how to speak English like a normal person because I wouldn't understand single word coming out of her mouth today."
"Shut up you cretin!" Caraway snapped, following behind, "There is absolutely nothing wrong with the way I speak English!"
"No, no, no … you sound like an 'pompous' ass." Squall mimicked a bit of Caraway's dialect.
The general roared back, "Mark my words, Leonheart … if you don't die in battle I'll kill you myself!"
"DAD!" Rinoa snapped, surprised with herself, "Just … shut up!" Squall gave a satisfied smirk but she soon turned to him, "Stop acting so fresh, Leonheart, if anyone sounds like pompous ass it's you."
He gaped at her, "What?" Zell leaned back in his chair leisurely, chuckling at the exchange. He was smirking until Squall reached over the table and grabbed him by the collar. "What's so funny, you shitkicker?" Zell shook his head with a nervous smile and raised his hands in a movement of surrender.
***
The two doorways at the back of the basement were really leading to two different bedroom-like quarters. Caraway had reserved one for himself and had ordered Squall and Rinoa to take the other room with their kids. Zell had been unfortunate enough to be handed a rifle and told to stand guard until three in the morning. Then he could head back to the double bed that was confined between boxes.
Rinoa and Squall's room contained one double bed though there was a small closet-like room linking along with it that included a bunk bed. They set down the heavy suitcases and looked around their new 'living place'. "Could have decorated." Rinoa spat out sarcastically at the gray cement walls.
"If you aren't happy with it then you can go back out onto the streets." She hadn't realized Caraway was right in back of her, "Or maybe I'll fetch you some wallpaper and wood at the nearby renovation center."
"Go to Hell …" She muttered underneath her breath however Caraway caught her words with an air of indifference.
Riana and Alessandro were already looking around excitedly at their new bunk beds, "This is so cool!! Dibs on the top bunk!" Alex cried out, climbing the wooden ladder quickly.
"I want the top bunk!" Riana protested, "MOMMY!"
Unfortunately for the two brawling children, their mother was far from in the mood to solve the ridiculous arguments, "Shut up or I feed you to the dog!" She snapped, pointing at the whining Angelo in a secluded corner of the room. He barked weakly and curled up, his tail not wagging.
"Angelo would never eat us!" Alex retorted back. He didn't always picked the right moments, his mother was having a near boil over.
"You're right, but I'll bet you those werewolves in your closet would!" She screamed out before realizing what she had said. The color in her son's face completely drained, "No, no … that's not what I meant … there are no monsters here." She tired covering up her mistake, "Look, there isn't even a closet! So no monster! There is no monster, none …"
"Good job, Rinoa." Squall rolled his eyes, getting a well-earned glare in response from his fumbling wife.
"Mommy … why do we have to hide out in this basement?" Riana's voice was small and shy, as if she didn't really think she wanted an answer.
"Well …" She struggled with the answer caught in her throat. For the first time she felt thankful that her father understood and henceforth left the room, closing the door silently behind him. Squall shifted nervously on the spot.
"Yeah … and was that all about back in the house? I was really scared … I didn't know you could fight." His face lit up slightly as if he withheld admiration for his mother's martial arts skills, almost as much as her mathematics skills that got him through his homework.
"Both me and your mom can fight." She recognized the heavy voice as Squall's and she listened to him go on painfully, "And we have our reasons for that. It's a pretty damn long story too, so we aren't going to cover it all."
The kids remained silent, "Your mom and I used to work together at an agency."
"Woah! Like secret agents and stuff! That's … so wicked! So you guys had all kinds of high tech devices like James Bond?" Alex burst into ecstatic awe and Riana only looked on confused. 'Maybe it's like in the movies … the two agents that fell in love with each other?' She thought.
"Yeah … no, it wasn't cool." Rinoa murmured, barely audible, and then continued, "It's not what you think it was at all." Her voice was calm and even.
"You know, you guys want to sit down?" Squall gestured to the bed and Riana immediately climbed on. Her brother followed suite, then Rinoa, and then Squall himself.
Riana instinctively went to her mother, sat on her lap and leaned back in a tired fashion, with the fixed idea of falling into a deep slumber. "Well anyways," Squall continued narrating, "Our job … was …"
Rinoa interrupted curtly, "We used to be assassins."
Sabam: Well, both kids will have different reactions, I'll tell you that much. Man, poor kids, what would you guys do if your parents told you they used to be assassins? And Rinoa had just threatened to feed them to the dog! *Shakes head* I'm sorry if the characters pass off as psychotic, but they're really supposed to be immature. Anyways, please review, it's important to me to know how you feel about my writing. It's a process that allows me to get better! Review, review, review!
Sidenote: I imagined Caraway with a British accent. Sorry.