"Ladies, gentlemen…" she began. "I can't begin to express how much this means to me, to be here infront of you all today. To have been a part of such a momentous milestone such as the Jenova Project is simply overwhelming." Tears misted her eyes, and she paused to briefly dab them away. Gazing out into the sea of people, she saw Hojo standing in the front, a proud smile etched on his face. "I'd like to thank all those involved in the Project, not least of all Professor Hojo, without whom this would never have been possible." She gestured for him to join her on the podium. He looked down, embarrassed, but at repeated urgings and pushed from those behind him, he took a place at Lucrecia's side as she continued. "As the new Head of the Shinra Science Division, I pledge to you that I will continue Professor Gasts work. With our combined Mako and Jenova infusions, we have already created the best soldiers the company has ever seen. Now, going forward we will create the greatest soldiers the world has ever seen!"
Anything else she might have said was drowned in the roar of cheers and applause that followed her words. Raising her arms, she soaked up the acclaim, basking in the glory of her work.
Eventually, she waved a farewell to her beloved audience, and allowed herself to be ushered from the stage. As soon as she stepped off, she was surrounded on all sides by flocking admirers.
"Lucrecia, you were amazing…"
"Incredible, so good to see you again…"
"Miss Daley?" Lucrecia looked down, and saw the eager face of a child staring up at her. "When I grow up I wanna be just like you!" beamed the youngster. Reaching down to ruffle his hair, she bestowed a dazzling smile upon him before being swept away on a wave of adulation.
- - -
She awoke with a slight start, surprised to find that morning had come around so quickly. Of course, she realised. Today was Professor Gasts big meeting.
The Professor had been thrilled with the Project so far, indeed they'd managed to exceed everybody's expectations in just about every way. Fusions of Mako, Jenova and animal cells had provided spectacular results and the small team was way ahead of their planned schedule. Now Gast had called the group together to outline their next step.
Lucrecia could feel her excitement bubbling already. She had an inkling of what the big announcement was, and couldn't wait to find out how she could be a part of it.
Spurred on by Jenova's subtle manipulations, she hurriedly dressed and gathered her belongings.
- - -
Vincent sat behind his desk in Midgar, massaging his temples, with an array of manilla files spread out before him. Three weeks, and so far their investigations had produced the square root of FA. Zip. Nothing.
He and Linden had spent well over four days going over what remained of the bar, sifting through the fragments trying to piece together an exact picture of what had happened. They'd spent the next two interviewing all the witnesses they'd rounded up. To give them some credit, a few nearby SOLDIERS had arrived on the scene not long after the incident, and had done a respectable job of getting names and addresses from survivors. A lot had slipped though the net though, and Vincent suspected that these people were the kinds who didn't want their information taken and therefore precisely the people he actually wanted to question.
Today, he had the unenviable task of going to the Shinra mortuary, where he would be given the results of two autopsies - Preston and his apparent killer. He didn't really see too much of a point, after all he knew already how both had died, but he had a vague hope that the coroner might have turned up some useful snippets of information. Still, he could safely say he wasn't going to relish the experience.
He'd given Deacon the job of trying to trace the assassin, figuring that the Turk's computing skills would be put to good use digging up some data. He'd had more luck than either of the other two, but every potential lead so far had wound up to be a dead end. Right now he was tracing some of the mans relatives. Fingers crossed one of them could shed some light on the situation.
There was also the pressing matter of recruiting another Turk to take Preston's place. Vincent had learned well from his predecessors, and kept a record of any potential candidates locked away in his office. It was a secretive process - none of the people knew that they were being watched - and one that only the leader of the Turks had the authority to carry out.
He ran his hands over the files infront of him, and the faces of five people looked back at him. Each one had the ability to become a Turk, and he had to find the right one. They came from variety of backgrounds too. One was from the Midgar slums, a second was a small time conman, another was a well off merchant's son that reminded Vincent somewhat of himself. One of them was even currently employed by Shinra, a man in the rank and file of the army.
The task of ploughing through the records and making a decision sat squarely with Vincent. He'd already narrowed it down to these five - Preston has skills that needed replacing, and it was essential that the recruit filled the gap he'd left behind.
He picked up the file on the soldier and leafed through. Reconnaisance photographs, interviews, medical records, everything was there at his fingertips. Scanning the information, he rapidly reached the conclusion that this was not the candidate for the job. If he wanted brute force the man would have been ideal. But Preston's speciality had been undercover espionage, slipping into places unnoticed. The six foot muscle bound soldier in the file would stick out like a sore thumb in just about any environment.
Adding the manilla to his 'Discarded' pile, he leafed through the next. A slight smile started to spread across his lips.
Kain Dawson, aka Daniel Law, aka Livingston Arden... The list went on for a good half page. The man had a list of aliases as long as Vincent's arm, and a crime record to match. For the most part nothing too serious - fraud seemed to be the overwhelming charge - but he spotted the odd GBH and assault in there as well. His photo gallery could almost be a mistake, as in no two pictures did he look the same. He'd even managed to pass as a Wutaian in one of them. Not bad going for someone from Mideel.
This was the con artist, a master of disguise who'd made his dubious (though highly successful) living by swindling large sums of money from naïve companies and investors. Vincent kept hold of this file.
The last three he whittled down to just the one; the well educated merchants son that had caught his eye in the beginning. Going by the name of Luca Healy, he appeared to be intelligent, good with weapons, and most intriguingly, had a flair for amateur dramatics.
Both of the remaining men looked ideal. The challenge now was to recruit one of them. As he'd found out years ago, Turk interview processes were simple and to the point: accept or die. So far he'd been lucky, having enlisted both Deacon and Linden without having to kill anyone, and he was hoping to keep that 100% track record in tact.
His musings wer interrupted by a sharp rapping at the door. "You free, boss?"
"It's open." Vincent put down his collection of paper and sat back in the chair as Deacon entered the room. "Got anything for me?" he asked optimistically. The Turk gave a cryptic half smile in reply. "Is that a yes or a no?"
"Both." Deacon located a spare chair and pulled it up to the desk. Taking a small disk out of his jacket pocket, he pushed it over the tabletop. "On here is everything I've been able to find out about our assassin" he explained. "The good news is that there's a fair bit."
Vincent took the disk and slotted it into the drive of his computer. "And the bad news?" he asked.
"No motive that I can establish."
"Damn."
This was the part where everything kept coming unstuck. No matter what new piece of information they dug up, none of them had been able to find a reason for why this had happened.
Vincent sighed. "So what do we have then?" he queried. "I'll go through this little lot later, just give me the specifics."
Deacon settled himself in the chair. "What we have is a man named Mitchell Houser, twenty three years of age. Born in Junon, moved to Nibelheim about five years ago with his parents."
"Any previous?"
"None. I checked with every law enforcement agency and he's clean as a whistle." The Turk shook his head. "That's one… issue we have. He's held down a job with the local store for three years, and according to his boss he was a perfect employee. That is until three days before the… incident." No Turk liked mentioning the word 'assassination' when applied to their own ranks, so they'd found a euphemism for it instead. "Apparently he didn't show up for work on the Tuesday, and when the shopkeeper popped over to the kids house to check up, no-one there knew where he'd gone. His mother said he'd left for work usual time, but something seems to have happened in between."
Vincent frowned, digesting the facts as they stood. "What would cause an average Nibelheim hick to suddenly drop everything and head to Midgar to kill himself and one of us?" he pondered aloud. It made no sense, and if there was one thing Vincent hated, it was things not making sense.
Deacon could only offer a hopeless shrug in return. "I investigated everything under the sun" he said ruefully, "and couldn't put together any connection between him and Preston. The only lead I've been able to get is you."
"Me?"
"You. This guy made the occasional delivery to the Shinra Mansion. Groceries and the like. You ever seen him?"
The leader of the Turks felt his frown deepen. "No" he said firmly. "I'm positive that I've never set eyes on him before. The housekeeper deals with the deliveries, and I didn't recognise this guy from his picture." Vincent was certain of that. Blessed with a near on photographic memory honed by his years in the elite group, he almost never forgot a face.
Deacon gave a resigned sigh. "Then that's screwed that lead too" he said wearily.
Vincent attempted a comforting expression, but didn't think he quite pulled it off as well as he'd hoped. "It's better than nothing" he said, "and it's more than we had before. Now I want you to collaborate with Linden, he should have all the info on people this Houser talked to here in Midgar."
The Turk nodded curtly and stood up. He almost got to the door before turning round again. Vincent's gaze had dropped back down to his desk, and he was resting his head in the palm of one hand. "Hey, boss?"
"Yes?"
Deacon bit his lip. He knew that Linden had been forbidden from interfering in this kind of thing, but that was Linden… "You er… spoken to Lucrecia recently?"
Vincent's face went carefully blank. "Not for a few days" he replied. "She's been busy in the labs a lot."
"Oh. Well, tell her Linden and I said 'hi' next time you call."
"I will."
- - -
The object of their discussions found herself seated in the Nibelheim basement, notebook in hand, staring up at the Project leader. Gast had an undeniable enthusiasm that infected everyone else in the room. Even Hojo had put off his usual sour demeanour. This morning, he only looked mildly annoyed with life.
Gast cleared his throat before starting the address. "Ahem… Well, I suppose you're all wondering why I called you here so precipitously" he began. "As you're all no doubt aware, the President is most pleased with what we have accomplished, and is eager for us to continue." Even the great Professor couldn't hold back the smile from his face.
Behind the group, the Jenova specimin hovered in her tank, keeping a close watch over her puppets.
"I'm sure you're also aware that Doctor Hojo has been working on some complicated new biological formulae." The scientist in question nodded smugly towards the assembly. "The proposal that he and I have worked out would be a most perfect mix of everything we have learned so far."
The Professor scanned the three people in front of him, each leaning forward in barely concealed anticipation. His smile increased tenfold as he delivered the punchline.
"We're goin to run a new test. On a human embryo."
