Chapter 8 - The Mission in FH
"Everyone buckle up!" Selphie shouted through the intercom from the pilot's seat of the Ragnarok. "This landing may be a little r-"
The Ragnarok landed with a hard thud on the landing pad in FH.
"...-rough," Selphie finished, smiling sheepishly.
"Tell me again why I let you fly my ship?" Laguna asked, peeling himself off of the hard metal floor of the cockpit.
"'Cause I have puppy dog eyes mastered to an art," Selphie giggled, getting out of her seat.
Squall and Irvine stumbled into the cockpit, looking rather disgruntled.
"Selphie..." Squall began through gritted teeth, his fists clenched. He looked to see her eyes large and pouty. The puppy dog eyes. "...ugh, nevermind."
He shook his head and walked up the small aisle to the front.
"Alright, listen up," Squall began in a loud voice. "We are-... Where's Eve?"
"Here!" Eve yelled, rushing into the cockpit. "Sorry, Commander. That landing knocked the wind out of me."
Selphie smiled sheepishly again.
Squall nodded briefly, then continued. "We are going to divide into two teams. The first team, Laguna and myself, will go directly into town and interrogate the subject, while you other three will be standing watch in your assigned positions.
"Now, the mayor here isn't very fond of us, so team two will need to stay out of sight, as I'm sure he will see you as a threat if you're all standing around out in the open fully armed. He'll know we're here if he sees the ship, obviously, but I don't want there to be any sign we're on a mission. If you're spotted, tell them the president of Esthar is going night fishing for all I care, but I really don't recommend that you get spotted."
The others nodded in understanding before the commander spoke again.
"It is dark outside and your vision will be limited. Be careful and keep your eyes open for anyone, and I mean ANYONE that looks even mildly suspicious, but be sure to keep tabs on where Laguna and I are at all times. You all have your earpieces and mic transmitters in place, correct?"
"Yes, sir," the SeeDs replied.
"Good," Squall said. "If there is any kind of foul play or questionable activity, I want you to inform me immediately. The subject we are here for may be a target for these soldiers for all we know. Be ready to leave for your positions in three minutes. Once you are in position, report to me, and it should take Laguna and myself approximately ten minutes to arrive at our destination. That is all. Go to the dock and wait for my signal to leave."
"Yes, sir!" the group said. They all double checked themselves for their weapons and items, and then left to wait in the loading dock for their commander to give them their signal.
"Let's hope the mystery soldiers aren't here," Squall mumbled, checking that his gunblade was securely in place.
Laguna gave his son a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Oh, come now...you know you wanna kick some ass."
Squall's lips broke into an involuntary grin. "Well, when you're right, you're right, Dad."
After receiving word that his SeeDs were in position, Squall and Laguna walked the long distance from the Ragnarok to Grease Monkey's place calmly and casually, both occasionally glancing around for any sign of trouble. Or any sign of anyone.
The street was desolate, with the exception of Selphie hidden in a shadowed alley between two buildings, across from Grease Monkey's door, ready to act as immediate back up should there be trouble inside.
Irvine was on a nearby rooftop with his sniper rifle ready should there be an outside ambush, keeping watch over the entire street from his high vantage point.
Eve was standing in shallow water up to her waist, under the left side of a nearby pier, watching the events from a distance. Here she had a view of the street entrance from one side, giving her time to warn the others if someone were to come from the main road or landing pad. She couldn't see the other end of the street, but she figured Irvine could see it clearly enough to give fair warning.
"How's it going there, Eve?" she heard Squall ask in her earpiece.
"Fine, sir, nothing to report," she said smoothly. She tried desperately to keep her teeth from chattering, mumbling under her breath, "The water is fucking cold, however."
Squall chuckled, quietly, glancing around as he continued walking. "You'll be out of there, soon."
Eve winced, not realizing he'd heard her. "Sorry, sir," she said. "I didn't think you heard that."
"It's alright."
There was silence on the line for several minutes, until Squall and Laguna reached their destination.
Laguna opened the unlocked door, gun raised, and quietly stepped in, Squall following.
"Hello?" Laguna said into the darkness of the room.
Squall fumbled for a lightswitch on the nearby wall. Their eyes settled on the center of the room.
"Holy shit," they said in unison.
"Sir, is everything alright?" Selphie asked, alarmed from the comment.
"Well..." Laguna began. "He's dead."
Selphie gasped in their earpieces.
"Just stay put, guys," Squall commanded, examining the long incision in Grease Monkey's throat. "We may not be alone. Keep your eyes open. We're going to take a look around in here."
Eve stood in the water, her eyes darting around the street in front of her, watching for any kind of trouble.
She was about to ask Irvine if there was anything happening on the other side of the street, when she heard a small rustling from a nearby bush on the other side of the pier's entrance. She narrowed her eyes, trying to make out any figure behind it, but the pier was obscuring a large portion of her view of it. She became still and held her breath, listening for any other sound.
Seconds later, she heard it again. The tiny shuffle of a rock being ground into the dirt by something heavy.
A footstep.
She released her breath quietly, then took another, and began to lower herself further into the water. Hope this earpiece is waterproof.
Her head went under silently, her eyes open. She watched the bush through the water, as she swam the width of the pier to the other side. When she reached it, she stayed under the water, her eyes never leaving the wavering image of the bush above the surface. She waited.
Then she saw what she was looking for. The figure of a human in black moved slightly from behind the thick shrubbery.
Eve slowly swam back under the pier, and brought her head up to the surface silently. She wasn't sure what to do. She could dispatch the soldier easily, without alarming the others, but it was highly unlikely that he was here alone. However, if there had been a large group of them, she was sure that Irvine or Squall would have spotted at least one of them already. There weren't very many other hiding places nearby, so the group was probably small.
But if she warned the others, the soldier might hear her. True, she'd spoken to them from here earlier, but that didn't guarantee he'd heard her, and she sure as hell didn't want to run the risk of him hearing her now. He might warn others before she could get to him.
Making her decision, she descended into the water again. She swam back to the end of the pier, her eyes fixed on the figure behind the bush. She got closer than she had before, trying to get a look at the angle he was standing at.
She waited under the water to see if he would turn his back to her. Seeing that he probably wouldn't and she would run out of breath if she waited too long, she made her move.
The soldiers head was turned away from the water, looking out at the street. She rose from the water, as quietly as she could. She was two feet from him when a voice spoke in her earpiece.
"Eve, what are you doing?" Irvine asked, seeing her get out of the water and walk to a bush.
The sound from her earpiece was so faint, but in the dead silence of the street, the soldier heard it and turned.
Eve cursed and closed the gap quickly.
The soldier's eyes widened as he registered her presence. "Hey..."
Eve smiled at him, then wrapped her arms quickly around his head and turned it forcefully until there was a violent snap.
The soldier's body crumpled to the ground.
"We've got company," she spoke quietly. "I just took a soldier out. There may be more."
Squall cursed as he heard Eve's warning.
He and Laguna grabbed whatever papers and folders they'd found in the room and shoved them into a large bag.
"Let's go," Squall growled.
He stepped out the door, Laguna following closely behind. Selphie ran over to them as they came out, all scouring the area for anyone other than themselves.
Irvine joined them moments later, followed by a sopping wet Eve.
"Stay tight," Squall commanded, as they proceeded to the Ragnarok cautiously.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of hard, running footsteps behind them as three soldiers emerged from inside another building.
Squall and his comrades all braced themselves for battle as the soldiers approached.
But the soldiers didn't seem to be slowing down. Squall caught one as he tried to run past, ripping through his stomach with his gunblade. The soldier dropped to the ground, but the other two kept running, dodging the attacks that Selphie and Irvine threw at them.
The group watched in bewilderment as the soldiers ran off, never slowing down or looking back.
"Why didn't they...?" Selphie began.
"Fight us?" Irvine interjected.
"Because," Squall answered, watching the men vanish into the distance,"they didn't come here to kill us. They were trying to leave."
"Why would those men kill Grease Monkey?" Selphie cried as she gripped the controls of the ship tighter, confused by the whole situation.
"That's what we're trying to find out," Squall mumbled, distracted by his task of looking through the papers they'd collected.
Laguna sat in the seat next to Squall, also flipping through the documents.
Irvine sat next to Selphie in the passenger's seat, trying to piece together what was happening. Squall hadn't been very liberal with information about this whole thing. All Irvine knew was that they wanted to talk to Grease Monkey, there were some weird mystery men in all black running about, now Grease Monkey was dead, probably because of the mystery men in all black that were running about, and Squall is not very happy about any of this.
Not that Squall was ever all that happy about anything.
He glanced over to his commander, observing the scowl he had on his face. That boy really needs to get laid again.
Eve sat at the far end of the cockpit, her head resting against the back of the seat, her eyes on the ceiling. On occasion, she would glance over at Squall, then back to the ceiling. She was getting quite tired.
She glanced at her watch. It was only 11:13 p.m.
She sighed and looked back over to Squall.
Eve was starting to like that man.
She knew she shouldn't become emotionally involved, but she couldn't deny her attraction to him. It's not like she had a chance with him, anyway. She'd seen the way he acted around Rinoa that very morning. He'd kissed her hand and smiled at her in a way she'd never seen him smile at anyone else. There was no doubt in her mind that he was still deeply in love with his ex-girlfriend.
Not that she wanted to change that. A relationship between herself and Squall would be impossible. Inane, even. There was just no way. Besides, she rather liked being single.
At least for now.
"Most of this is junk..." Laguna grumbled, suddenly. "Work orders, bills, maps, blueprints..."
Squall looked up in interest. "Blueprints of what?"
"Well, mostly just things he was building it looks like... but I can't tell what these are," he replied, handing a small stack of them to Squall.
"These are..." Squall began as he looked through them in amazement. "These are blueprints of Gardens."
Laguna and Squall looked at each other.
"You do mean like flowers and gnomes and shit, right?" Laguna asked, denying what he knew was the truth.
"No... I mean SeeD Gardens... each of them. Galbadia, Trabia, Balamb... even Esthar's new Garden."
"What the hell...?" Laguna breathed, bewildered. "Why would...What the hell is going on here?"
A/N: I must say, I'm especially proud of this chapter. There will be more action than this later on, but I think this sets things up nicely. Sorry for the lack of Rinoa stuff, but I wanted to spend some time getting the action started. But don't worry! There will be plenty of sappy stuff later! There may even be some steamy stuff next chapter... Keep reading!
To lendmemoni- Thanks again! I'm coming up with all sorts of ideas for where I can take this, so I promise to try and make it as interesting as I can.
To yummychocolatexD- yeah, you know... had to make my readers squirm a little... but there will be lots more good Squinoa stuff later...
To Rinoaleonheartilly (it got too difficult to remember where all the capitalizations were. hee hee)- Thank you so much!! That kind of review is what motivates me to keep writing! I'm so glad you're enjoying it!
To DBH- Thank you for correcting that error... my husband gave me the same argument, but I ignored him. I changed it here, however. :-) Thanks again!
Frederikke Neergaard- I'm typing as fast as I can!! ;-)