Chapter 14: Beneath Their Noses
Squall introduced Rinoa to the other members of his small squad as they entered the small train cabin. After the pleasantries were exchanged, Rinoa led them into a side room, clearly the planning room for the group's operations, judging by the tables, pegboards, and paper littering the area. The low lighting and atmosphere reminded Squall of movies where the rebels were planning their big operation against the evil empire. The parallels were not lost on him.
"Just stand anywhere you want," Zone said as he followed them into the room. "Just make sure you can see the table with the models on it." Squall nodded and took up a position in front of the table, where he wasn't in anyone's way. The one in question featured a simple model of a pair of trains on parallel tracks, with a couple of intersections between the tracks.
"This is a full-scale operation," Zone stated as Watts entered the room and closed the door. "Our faction, the Forest Owls, will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence!" Watts and Rinoa grinned and nodded along with their leader's proclamation. "Exciting, huh? You guys will be remembered too!"
The SeeDs were less than impressed. Selphie turned her gaze out the nearest window, poking her fingers through the closed blinds to look outside. Zell leaned against the wall, while Squall's hands sat on his hips. His expression told Zone he didn't want to wait around listening to the speech, but he decided to add to his glare.
"What are we doing?" he asked bluntly.
Zone glanced back at Watts, and they exchanged helpless shrugs before the leader turned back to Squall.
"It all started when we got top-secret info from Galbadia," Zone explained.
"I got the info, sir!" Watts piped in.
"There's a VIP coming into Timber," Zone continued.
"Super V-I-P!" Watts added, excitedly. He was almost wriggling with exuberance.
"His name is Vinzer Deling," Zone continued, and that name caught Squall's attention.
Vinzer Deling. The President For Life of Galbadia, the ruthless dictator who had conquered, one by one, the various territories in the west, defeating the Dollet empire and overrunning Timber. Deling held on to his power through a loyal military command and aristocracy; he wasn't very popular among the regular soldiers or the civilian populace of Galbadia itself. For a brief instant, Squall recalled his dream as Laguna, and the Galbadian soldier's stint in Timber during Deling's war.
On the tail end of that was a realization: It seemed extremely likely that Deling was a target in this mission. Likely for assassination or kidnapping. If that was the case, then this plan had better be perfect. The President's guards were dangerous adversaries, and Squall didn't like the idea of having to fight Deling's escorts. Even if they were the best fighters for hire in the west, Squall doubted only three SeeDs could overwhelm Deling's personal bodyguard.
"Deling is taking a private train into Timber from Deling City," Rinoa explained. "Its heavily armed and loaded with soldiers, which is to be expected of the President's train."
"Our plan is to-" Zone began.
"Blow it to smithereens with a rocket launcher!" Selphie shouted hopefully. Squall turned his head towards her, and a faint grin worked its way onto his face. Not a bad option, considering the defenses Rinoa said were on the train. As he glanced at the diminuative SeeD, Squall noticed Zell wasn't even looking at the Forest Owls, instead having turned his attention to several periodicals and documents pinned to one of the boards.
"Ahh, not quite," Zone responded to Selphie's violent, if practical, solution.
"So get to the point!" Zell growled, turning around, all appearances of patience fading from his face. "Just tell us what to do!"
Rinoa sighed and nodded. She stepped past Zone, and stood beside Squall next to the table.
"Okay, shall we begin?" she said, gesturing for everyone to gather around the table. They did so, with the guys giving tiny Selphie room to look, and Selphie giving elbows to those who didn't give her that room fast enough.
Now that Squall took a closer look at the trains, he noticed the details. The two train tracks were horizontal and ran parallel, with the upper track featuring two train cars, one painted yellow like the Forest Owls' base train. The lower track featured four cars, an engine, two heavily armored military transport cars, and a more finely designed car not unlike the ones used by SeeD. At least, it should have looked finely designed, but the car itself was rather badly constructed and painted terribly. Almost like a four-year-old had made it.
"The yellow car is our base," Rinoa explained, gesturing to that car. She tapped the car attached in front of it. "This is the dummy car. We've designed it to be exactly like the President's car, at least from the inside."
Rinoa moved down to the second train.
"This is their train," she said. "It has four cars, the locomotive, the first escort, the President's car, and then the second escort. Both escorts are loaded with troops. Our objective is to seize the President in his car with our base car. To do this without alerting the escort cars before we can get clear, we'll have to switch the President's car with our dummy car. We'll use two switch points along this part of the train tracks to accomplish this."
"So, how exactly are we gonna pull this off?" Zell asked. "Seems kinda impossible."
"Not quite," Rinoa replied. She flicked a small switch on the model, and the trains began moving. "We can pull it off in seven steps. First, we pull our train up alongside theirs, and then our boarding team jumps from the roof of the dummy car to the roof of the second escort."
"Jump?" Selphie said, surprised.
"How far apart are the lines?" Squall asked, agreeing with Selphie's questioning.
"Not far, sir," Watts responded. "Normal humans could probably make it, and with those Guardian Force junctions you SeeDs have, it wouldn't be hard to pull off for you guys."
"Okay," Squall said with a nod. "Second step?"
"Cross the second escort car," Rinoa explained.
"The second escort is equipped with sensors, sir," Watts added. "You'll have to proceed with caution."
"Tech officers are on board, monitoring them," Rinoa said. "I'll cover them and the sensors later. The third step involves crossing the President's car. There aren't any sensors or guards."
"Deling hates the presence of his guards or having sensors around him," Zone added. "Which is why he keeps them out of his car."
"Fourth step involves uncoupling the first escort car from the President's car," Rinoa said. "It has to be very quick, and done before the first switch point. Otherwise-"
"Kaboom!" Selphie shouted. "Right?" Rinoa nodded grimly. As they spoke, the Presiden't car and the first escort seperated.
"Yeah, so we'll have to move fast." Squall opened his mouth, about to ask Rinoa about the uncoupling process, but she stopped him with an upraised hand. "I'll explain the uncoupling process later. After the cars are uncoupled, we have the base and dummy move in. The trains will automatically re-link and will be moving together." The top pair of cars crossed the switch point and linked up into one long train.
"We uncouple the trains before we reach the second switch point," Rinoa continued, and the trains seperated once more as they reached the second switch point. "By the time the Galbadians know what happened, we'll be long gone with the President's car. We have exactly five minutes to pull this off."
Squall had questions, but Zell beat him to the punch.
"Five minutes? Will that be enough?"
"We've run simulations," Zone responded. "It should only take three minutes to pull it all off. Piece of cake for SeeDs, right?"
"Of course!" Selphie shouted. Now that it looked like some real action was going to happen, she seemed more than eager to get to the mission. "Too easy!"
Squall wished he could share her exuberance, but he saw many flaws in the plan. It required a lot of good timing, and he had a few questions, particularly about how they were going to go about the uncoupling process.
"Okay, now about the sensors," Rinoa said. "Watts?"
"The guards have a sound sensor, and also a temperature sensor, sir," Watts explained. "They're both directed up, and are wired through plates in the roof so they detect what's going on on the rooftop. The effective range of each sensor is about the width of a window. If the sound sensor picks up any large noises beyond the wind above the train, it'll go off, so you'll have to be very sneaky and quiet, sir!"
The SeeDs nodded at Watts's advice.
"The temperature sensor will pick you up if you stay still. Any abnormally high temperature in the area the sensor is scanning will set it off, so dodge the sensor if you can."
"How will we know when they point the scanners at us?" Squall asked. "We can't see through the metal."
"Optic cable," Zone responded. He held up a minature flat television screen and a slender cable with a glass end, connected by a long coil of wire. "This camera can be slipped in through air vents or their windows. It connects to the flatscreen, and with it you can see when and where the guards are checking the sensors."
"How will we know which sensor is being checked?" Zell asked.
"You can't, not unless you spot the guard using it, sir." Watts responded. "There's a blue-uniformed junior officer watching the sound sensor, and a red-uniformed senior officer observing the temperature sensor, sir."
"So, move quickly, and quietly," Squall said with a nod. "Avoid lingering around the temperature sensor, if possible, and don't make any noise around the sound sensor."
"That's about it," Rinoa said. "Now, about uncoupling the cars."
"Yeah, question!" Selphie said, hopping up and down. "How do we uncouple the cars from a moving train?"
"We can't uncouple the cars directly," Rinoa responded. "We'll have to enter codes to disable the circuts controlling the coupling process. If we do so, the cars will uncouple automatically."
"Where do we enter these codes?" Squall asked.
"The mantainence technician's access panel, just below the door you use to board the train," Rinoa replied. "You'll need to rappel down the side, and then enter the codes. I'll be with the boarding team, so I'll be relaying the codes to whoever is entering them. The keypad will have four buttons on it, corresponding to the numbers in the code. But instead of numbers, there will be symbols. We only have the codes in numerical format, though."
"How will we know which is which?" Zell asked.
"The keys are arranged in a line, starting with one and ending with four," Rinoa explained. "You'll only have about five seconds to enter the code, or it will change and the previous entries will become invalid. We do have the sequence by which they change, so I can still supply you with the codes, but we'll have to restart the whole process."
Squall nodded in understanding, and he turned to his squad. Zell glanced up at his team leader, looked back down at the model, and then shrugged.
Selphie, however, seemed somewhat puzzled.
"Hey, by the way," she began. "This train model's nice, but the President's car looks real shabby. Why is that?"
"Rinoa made it, that's why," Zone explained. "Everything else we bought at the gift store."
"Yeah, I thought some kid made it," Zell commented. "Paint job's ugly as Diablos's butt, too." Squall didn't comment, but he did notice how terribly made the Presiden't car was in the model.
"Oh, shut up!" Rinoa complained, sticking her tongue out at Zell. "I made it look that way on purpose. It represents my hatred for Deling and his whole government."
Squall glanced at Rinoa to see honest hate and anger stamped on her face as she glared at the model. Zell, however, was unimpressed. He muttered something and leaned back against the wall.
"Its one of . . . the ugliest things I've ever seen," Selphie commented. "You must really hate him."
The train suddenly shuddered, and began moving once more.
"Moving again," Rinoa said. "We must have finished the hook-up process with our dummy car." She turned to Zone and Watts, her expression asking them if they were going to come with her on the mission.
Zone made a pained face, and clutched his stomach.
"You know me, and my terminal nervousness problem with my tummy!" he said. "Ouch, my stomach . . . ."
Watts shrugged, and stepped back in the face of Rinoa's gaze.
"Information gathering is my specialty, ma'am," he responded, then turned and hurried out the door, not wanting to get involved in the execution of the mission.
Rinoa shook her head at her comrades' cowardice, then turned back to Squall.
"We'll be ready soon," she said. "Are you guys prepared?"
Squall's hand dropped to his gunblade, and he drew it out. Rinoa watched as his practiced hands and eyes inspected the weapon and the rounds in the chamber, before sliding the weapon back in its sheath. A quick check of his knives, gear, and a mental rundown of his junctioned magic and his Guardian Forces completed the inspection. It had taken less than thirty seconds. He glanced back at Zell and Selphie, and the affirming nods of his squad responded to the unanswered question.
"Ready," he responded as he turned back to Rinoa.
-------------------
"How much longer is this going to take, miss Trepe?" the conductor asked, not sounding very happy. He looked up and down the length of his train, then glanced at his watch.
"I'm sorry," Quistis apologized. "But we have to detain the train until we're certian he isn't on board."
"I understand that," the conductor replied. "But I need to know how much longer the delay will be until I can leave. There's talk that with Deling in Timber, all the train lines will be closed for security reasons, and I don't want to have to deal with angry passengers who are mad that their train couldn't make it because it was detained by you under Balamb's permission."
"Garden will cover the costs if that happens," Quistis assured him. "But we need to make sure he didn't escape by boarding your train. He's extremely unruly, and we already have a team operating in Timber. He could threaten the operation there." At that moment Jofey, a SeeD who had accompanied Quistis as part of the search team in Balamb, emerged from the train.
"The train is empty," Jofey said with a shake of his head as he stepped off the train. "He's gone."
"That's impossible," Quistis responded, looking down the length of the train. "The conductor said he bought a ticket and boarded."
"Well, he's gone now," Jofey replied, the SeeD's hand resting on his sword, in its belt by his side. "We searched the whole thing. There's no way Seifer could have avoided us."
"Does this mean you are finished?" the train conductor said, his voice sounding impatient.
Quistis sighed, and nodded.
"Yes, we're done here," she said. "Sorry to have wasted your time."
The conductor nodded, and stepepd back onto his train to tell the crew that they were ready to leave now. As he did so, several more armed SeeDs stepped off the train, looks of dissappointment on their faces.
"If he's not on board, then where could he have gone?" Quistis asked as the SeeDs gathered around her. Jofey and a few other SeeDs shrugged.
"It could have been a foil to throw us off," Elain, a female SeeD, suggested, leaning on her halberd. "He may be taking another route out of Balamb."
"But how?" Quistis replied, shaking her head. "We've got the harbor covered, and there's no airfield anywhere near Balamb, so how could he have escaped?"
"Seifer's a clever one," Jofey said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "He's been slipping out of Garden since as long as I can recall, and he knows our security and search methods perfectly."
"It doesn't matter," Elain added. "He can't escape from Balamb without either the trains or a boat."
"There's a half-dozen small towns on the coast," Quistis said with a shake of her head. "He could have gotten a boat from any of them."
"We've got people checking them out right now," Elain responded. "If Seifer's taken or stolen a boat from any of them, we'll know." Quistis reluctantly nodded.
"Okay," she began, having to raise her voice as the train's engine started behind her. "Jofey, you and two other SeeDs stake out the train station. Elain, I want you to take a search team to the harbor and sweep every boat that can cross the ocean, to either Dollet, Timber's coast, or Fisherman's Horizon."
"You think he'd be desperate enough to go to FH?" Jofey asked, surprised.
"Yes," Quistis confirmed with a nod. "From the way he was talking about Timber, I'd say Seifer would be willing to go all the way to Timber through Fisherman's Horizon."
"There's no trains running through there," Elain stated, sounding unconvinced. "You think he'd walk all the way across the Horizon Bridge?"
Quistis nodded.
"Okay," Elain replied with a shrug. "Whatever you say."
"I want the rest of you to cover every possible entrance or exit from Balamb," Quistis instructed the SeeDs. "No one is to get out without being checked." The other SeeDs nodded.
"And you?" Elain asked, arcing her eybrows. "What are you going to do?" Quistis glanced at Jofey.
"Jofey said it best," she explained. "Seifer's been dodging our security methods for as long as we can remember. If he managed to slip past our net, I'll be in Timber to catch him."
-------------------
Squall was impressed with the dummy car the Forest Owls were attaching to the front of their base. The vehicle was finely appointed, and looked exactly like the inside of the real President's car, judging by the recon photos Watts had obtained of the real thing. Everything from the carpets to the chairs to the mini-chandelier, even a small television screen built into the wall under a sliding panel, had been replicated.
But, the most impressive aspect of the car that had been replicated was the President himself. It was a life-sized, fully animatronic replica of Deling, complete with a face that almost perfectly resembled the real dictator's. However, he didn't think it would withstand much scrutiny up close with a detailed inspection.
"Aw," Tim, the Forest Owl who made the fake President, said when Squall had voiced his concerns. "That won't be a problem. There'll be a newspaper covering up his face, and plus, I've added a motion detector that activates whenever someone gets close. Try it."
Squall did so. When he got about close enough for a good look at the President, the head rose up slightly, as if looking up from a newspaper it was reading.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now," the dummy declared, its mouth moving in good lip-synch with the words. "If there's nothing in particular, I order you to leave, immediately!" The dummy sounded the part, replicating Deling's voice well, and sounding suitably angry and irritated. Squall gave Tim a nod of approval.
"Seems pretty real, huh?" Tim said with a grin. "No one will ever realize its a fake until its too late! With what I programmed him to say, no guard will ever look over the paper!"
"Unless they want twenty lashes and one month's pay lost!" another Forest Owl added, to some laughter.
Squall had left shortly afterward, meeting Rinoa, Zell, and Sephie back in the main cabin in the base car. Of the group, only Squall and Selphie carried weapons. Zell didn't need them, but Rinoa . . . .
"We're's your weapon?" he asked, to which she shrugged. The girl reached under her coat and patted a pair of knives in their sheaths at her waist.
"Usually I carry a slashing crossbow," Rinoa explained. "The kind that returns like a boomerang. But it won't do me much good on top of a speeding train, so I've only got my backups and magic."
"You use magic?" Selphie asked, surprised.
"Yeah," Rinoa replied. "I took some self-defense training by a reputable master in Deling City, and a former military magic specialist in Dollet gave me some instruction in using magic. The Forest Owls taught me some more, so I've had enough to stand even with a Galbadian trooper."
Squall nodded, glad to hear that Rinoa would be able to hold her own in the coming operation. At that point, Watts entered the cabin.
"Okay, sir!" he said, excitedly. "We're close to the train! Are you ready?" Squall glanced to his teamates, once more getting the confirmation from them that they were prepared for the operation.
"We're good to go," Squall stated.
-------------------
Quistis stepped into the private SeeD cabin, and gave it quick sweep from the door. There seemed to be nothing amiss. The curtains were in place, the beds were unrumpled, and the closet door was shut and sealed. Seifer wasn't in the room.
She let out a breath and shut the door behind her. Quistis crossed the room and set her belt and equipment pouch on the couch, along with her coiled rante and knives, then sat down beside them. She stretched out slightly, relaxing. She welcomed a bit of peace after Garden's mad chase to recapture Seifer.
Though as she relaxed, closing her eyes, Quistis wondered why she had decided that she herself was going to be the one to stop Seifer if he did slip their nets. It was understandable that she would be the only one to go, as they had only so much manpower, and Quistis was the best SeeD sent to Balamb, and they'd obvously want the best in Timber if they could only spare one.
But yet, there was something else . . . another reason why Quistis was going herself that stemmed from motivations beyond mere logical measurements of skill. But what was it?
Concern. That was it. Quistis was worried about Seifer, her onetime student and the largest failure on her list of students. Quistis was concerned for her former student's well being.
Quistis shook her head at that notion. Why would she be concerned for Seifer? After all, he'd openly insulted her, and oftentimes scorned her descisions and orders. But yet, he was a failure, something that Quistis desperately wanted to correct. Maybe by going after him, Quistis was subconciously trying to mend her mistakes?
She sighed and shook her head once more. Standing up, Quistis began to walk to the console on the far wall, opposite the bed. Maybe she should order something to drink. Some wine might help her relax.
Then something hard and heavy clubbed the back of her head, and Quistis went spinning down to the floor. Her vision went blurry, yet as she fell she saw a figure behind her. White coat, blue vest-
-Seifer!
"Sorry, Quistis," he muttered as her vision began to fade, blackness closing about her. Desperately, Quistis tried casting a spell, but she couldn't focus. The blackness engulfed her senses, and she fell into unconciousness.
-------------------
Seifer watched Quistis pass out, and then shifted his junctioned magic around. He focused his magical energies on his magical power, and cast a Sleep spell on Quistis while she was out. The empowered magic would render her unconcious for at least an hour or more.
With Quistis safely out, Seifer turned back to the bed. While before, it had been nicely made, now the cover was thrown off, to reveal a large, square hole cut in the matress, large enough for himself to have hidden himself in while he covered himself with the sheets. He stepped over to the bed, and took hold of the sheet.
A couple of minutes later, he had cut three long strips from the bedsheets. With these, he securely bound Quistis's wrists and ankles, and gagged her. That done, he focused on her, Drawing out her Guardian Forces. He already had the same ones Quistis possessed, so the ones he'd Drawn became simply stones in his hand. Without her GFs, Quistis wouldn't be likely to escape before they reached Timber.
Once Seifer was certian Quistis couldn't get free, he walked over to the door controls. He opened the sliding door, and then stabbed his gunblade into the inside control panel. One shot blew it apart. He then stepped outside, and shut the door with the outside controls. A tap of a button locked the door.
Quistis was contained.
A minute later, Seifer walked up to the conductor. He handed the man a wad of gil.
"The lady in the SeeD cabin doesn't want to be disturbed until we reach Timber," he explained. The conductor pocketed the gil with a nod.
"Oh, yeah," Seifer added, handing the conductor an envelope. "Make sure that gets mailed to Quistis Trepe at Balamb Garden. Its very important to her." Inside that envelope were Quistis's Guardian Force stones.
"Of course, Mister Almasy," the conductor said with a smile.
"Cut the 'Mister' crap," Seifer said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Its just Seifer."
-------------------
Squall edged forward on the roof of the fake Presidential train car. The wind whipped his hair, and the sheer force of the passing air pushed hard on him. Still, it wasn't enough to stop the SeeD, or even to really slow him down much, considering his junctions.
Squall stopped as he reached the front end of the fake car, and looked back to Rinoa, Selphie, and Zell as his teamates approached, also crawling on the roof. While he waited, Squall turned back the the steadily approaching train ahead and slightly to the left of theirs. On both sides of the train tracks, forests and rolling plains passed the two vehicles as they traveled through through Timber's countryside.
"We'll catch up soon!" Rinoa shouted over the wind as she reached him, to which he nodded. Squall looked back to Zell, who was carrying the optic cables. He would be responsible for watching the guards, and he already had the portable screen strapped to his left forearm.
His team gave him the thumbs up, and Squall nodded. he turned back to the approaching train, to see it have come much closer. Squall judged the distance, and nodded.
"That's close enough!" he shouted when they were thirty feet behind the car. Rinoa nodded, and waved behind her. A Forest Owl who was standing at the top of the train nodded, and shouted down into the door. The relay to the engine room was quick, and at twenty feet between the two cars, the distance became stable.
"Zell, you're first!" Squall shouted, stepping to the side. Zell nodded and moved to the edge, and with a shout of "Geronimooooo!" he leaped the distance. His GF-enhanced muscles hurled him across the gap, and he landed with ease on the roof. Selphie was next, and with a cheer of "Whoo- hoo!" she too was on the rooftop of the second escort. Squall gestured to Rinoa, who crawled up beside him.
"Don't drop me," she warned, slipping an arm around his neck. Squall shrugged as Rinoa climbed onto his back. Her arms locked around Squall's neck, and she clutched them tightly.
Then Squall leaped, flying through the air with shocking ease, the wind whipping his hair once more. For an instant, there was nothing between the two and the rushing ground below but air.
And then he landed, perfectly balanced, on the roof of the second escort.
"Okay!" Rinoa shouted, checking her watch. "From now on we have exactly . . . five minutes to complete the operation!"
-------------------
Sargent Aves looked over his men. Of the thirty Galbadian soldiers assigned to the President's second escort, two-thirds of that number were asleep. The remaining ten men were either talking among themselves, or in PFC Jern's case, watching his sound sensor monitor.
Aves sat back in his chair, and glanced at his watch. They'd be in Timber within three hours. Then, the President could do his thing and they could go home. Aves was looking forward to getting back to Galbadia. He had three weeks leave scheduled when he got back, and his duty as part of the President's Elite Guard kept him busy too often with keeping Deling safe from his many enemies. Maybe he could spend some more time with his son . . . .
"Sargent," one of the soldiers called, gaining Aves' attention. He looked up, to see the soldier in question looking out one of the back windows.
Out there, on the train track running alongside theirs, was a second train, about twenty feet back but steadily moving away. It was an oddly configured train as well, consisting of the locomotive in back pushing the front car. How unusual.
Something about the train set off alarm bells in the officer's head. He turned to PFC Jern.
"Jern, get that sound sensor up and running," Aves ordered. The soldier nodded and hopped to it. "The rest of you, on alert." Aves headed over to the temperature sensor while he was doing so. He activated the device, not even bothering to check it to see if it was running properly. He wouldn't need to, as Aves knew his machinery worked properly at all times. It never failed; after all, he was the one who serviced it!
"Sir?" another soldier, PFC Elick, asked. "Should we alert the President?"
"Negative, private," Aves said with a definative shake of his head. "We'll shoot a message to the first escort, but we're not going to disturb the President unless we need to. He's a politician, not a soldier, and he's more likely to panic if he thinks something is wrong."
"Understood, sir," the soldier responded with a salute.
"Jern!" Aves shouted. "That sensor up and running yet?"
"Its online, sarge!" Jern replied.
"Alright, PFC," Aves began. "You sweep starting from the rear of the car. I'll start at the front. Everyone else, be at alert. I want those guns loaded and cocked, and that magic ready to go! Elick, be ready to send an alert to the first escort if we get a positive reading for an intruder, hear me?"
"Sir, yes sir!"
The troopers never realized that everything they were doing was being recorded on the optic camera poking through the window.
-------------------
"Yo, Squall!" Zell shouted.
"I'm right here," Squall responded, somewhat more quietly. "I can hear you just fine."
"Oh, sorry," Zell replied with a shrug. "Umm, anyway, we'd better get moving. They're suspicious."
"Are the sensors online?"
"I think so, yeah," Zell replied. "Looks like . . . the guard with the sound sensor is moving back. The red guard is moving to the front."
"Okay, so we have to move very quietly from here on," Squall said with a nod. He thought for a moment. "It'll be too noisy and will probably register on the temperature sensor if we all go at once. Zell will go first, you can signal to us when its clear and when the guards are approaching." Squall held up his index finger. "One finger for sound sensor getting near us. Two fingers for temperature." Zell nodded. "And be sure to indicate which direction they're coming at us from. Rinoa, you're after Zell. Then Selphie, then me."
The group nodded, and Zell moved forward, placing his hands and feet precisely as he stalked over the panels of the roof. After about ten feet, he stopped, glanced at his flatscreen TV, and then stood up partially and ran the rest of the way in a low crouch, not stopping until he reached the front of the car.
As soon as he had done so, Zell spun around, and glanced down at his flatscreen. He glanced up and nodded to Rinoa.
She nodded back, and began to make her way down the length of the train. She crawled about as well as Zell, although her movements were nowhere near as smooth or practiced at the SeeD's.
Zell kept glancing back and forth between the monitor and Rinoa, watching the guards. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he held up a hand for her to stop. She did so, and everyone took in a hard breath of air.
Had they been detected?
Zell watched the monitor intently, looking at the two guards. One, the sound officer, had paused, and was rubbing his chin. The man looked down at his sensor, then glanced up at the man in red armor, clearly his superior. He began to open his mouth, then paused, then opened his mouth again. He almost looked . . . confused?
Zell scratched his head, wondering what was going on. Then, the proverbial lightbulb went off over his head as the man shook the sensor.
Something was wrong with the sound sensor!
Zell looked up, and pumped his hand furiously for Rinoa to come on. She looked at him, confused, until he tapped his ear and made a slashing sound. Rinoa nodded, understanding Zell's meaning, and scrambled forward.
Knowing that Squall and Selphie could make use of this as well, Zell leaned over and pumped his arm towards them as well. He made the same signal with his ear and hand, and Squall nodded.
"Selphie, go!" he shouted, and he waved his hand for her to run on. She bolted, running across the top of the train. Squall watched her go, and waited a second, long enough for her to get enough of a lead so that he could follow and they'd both avoid registering on the temperature sensor.
Once he was satisfied that she was far enough ahead to avoid detection, Squall began to follow after her. By now, Rinoa had made it to the far end of the car, and Selphie was almost there as well.
Squall almost reached the halfway point when Zell's eyes widened again, and he held up his hand for his squad leader to stop. Squall froze, not even breathing. Zell then looked up, held up one finger, and indicated the sound sensor was directly beneath Squall, and more importantly, it was working. Zell looked down again, and then glanced up. With a gesture of two fingers, Squall knew that the temperature sensor was headed his way as well.
And just like that, Squall was suddenly trapped, unable to run, but unable to stay put either.
-------------------
PFC Jern was trained in operating the sound sensor he held in his hands, and thus, as he began his sweep from the end of the train, he could tell something was wrong. The sound register seemed to be offline somehow. So, barely a few steps into his sweep, Jern paused, rubbing his chin.
Sargent Aves, his obvious superior, had been responsible for servicing the sensors on the train right before it left, and making sure they were operating. If something was wrong with the sensor, then it was his fault and would be his responsibility.
Jern began to open his mouth to tell his superior what was wrong, but then paused. What would the sargent say if Jern questioned his work on the sensor, considering that Aves was very proud of his mechanical and technical skills? And how would Aves respond to Jern's challenging his superior's work in front of the rest of his men?
But still, there was the possibility of intruders, and if Jern didn't tell his sargent something was wrong, then that could comprimise the President's security. And Aves certianly wouldn't take the blame for it. In the Galbadian military, if an officer could use a lesser ranking soldier as a scapegoat, they usually did. If something went wrong with the security system, Jern would be the one with the pay cut and demotion, not Aves.
Not sure what to do, Jern frowned, and then shook the sound sensor, and tapped it a few times. To his relief, the sensor began operating, and he let out an audible sigh of relief.
"Something wrong, PFC?" Aves demanded, glancing back at his subordinate.
"Um, no sir!" Jern replied with a salute. "Sensor's operating fine!"
"Good," Aves stated with a nod. "Those things always work fine. I designed 'em, you know!" The sargent chortled, and the rest of the group of soldiers laughed with him, even though most knew Aves was just boasting.
At that moment, Jern's sensor beeped faintly, and he looked down at it.
"Sargent, I think I got something," he called. "Very faint reading, sir." The whole train shushed in an instant. Several soldiers' hands clutched their weapons more tightly now, ready for action in an instant. Aves immediately checked his sensor, then began advancing down the train, eyes riveted on his sensor.
"Elick, that hand better be hovering over the alarm button," Aves called as he moved down towards Jern, sweeping the ceiling very methodically. If there was something up there, his sensor would spot it.
-------------------
Squall's mind raced. He couldn't move, probably not even jump. If he did, he'd surely be spotted on the sound sensor. But if he stayed put, that only delayed the inevitable reading he'd make on the temperature sensor.
Movement made sound, and his staying in place would trigger the temperature sensor. But what other options did he have? There was no way he could hide his body heat.
Or wasn't there?
As Aves closed in with the temperature sensor, Squall focused,and called up a basic Blizzard spell. He had to concentrate very hard now, to ensure the spell went as he needed it to.
A Blizzard spell was really a misnomer. The name conjured up the image of a snowstorm, but in reality, the basic spell simply created a heavy block of ice that shattered on contact after being hurled by telekinetic force. However, magic was a mallable thing. If one focused their will and concentrated enough during the casting, one could somewhat shape the result of the spell one was casting.
Such was what Squall was doing. He didn't want to hurl the ice, and he didn't want it to shatter, either. What he needed was for it to stay intact long enough. Just for a few seconds, really. That was all he needed.
But manipulating the magic wasn't easy. Squall was a combat specialist, who used magic in a supportive fashion, supplementing his skills with the gunblade and his junctions. He knew how to cast advanced spells using his Guardian Forces, but had only taken the most basic magical manipulation classes in Balamb Garden. GF spellcasting somewhat limited what one could do with spells, so those classes weren't as heavily emphasized there as they were in Trabia Garden.
Squall focused on the block of ice forming overhead. He needed it to be the right density and exist for the right amount of time, which was really as long as he could get it to. He didn't want it to go flying anywhere, either. If everything went as he wanted it to, the ice block would fall right into his hands.
The Blizzard spell finished casting, and a block of ice, slightly larger than normal and signifigantly denser, finished forming. Instead of flying anywhere, it simply dropped. Squall deftly caught it, almost sighing in relief that the spell had acted the way he needed it to. He also almost cringed; the ice was bone-chillingly cold, and if it weren't for his junctions, his hands might have started going numb.
But he didn't have time to think about that. Within moments, that temperature sensor would be scanning him.
-------------------
"Lemme have a look-see here," Aves said, looking down at his temperature sensor. "There's no way anyone could have slipped past my scan, so he's either here, or further back. And he'd only be further back if he slipped your scan, Jern."
"No way, Sarge," Jern replied with a defiantive shake of his head. "Been watching this thing like a Thrustavies. No way he could have slipped forward or backward without me hearing him."
"Good," Aves replied with a nod, scanning up into the area directly over Jern. "Nothing slips past my scanners. Hmmm, let's see . . . ." Aves watched his scanner for any abnormally high temperature. After several seconds, the scanner showed him a negative. There wasn't anything up there giving off any body heat.
"Well, PFC, looks like we were mistaken," Aves said with a chuckle. "No way in hell there's anyone up there. But, let's sweep to the back in case somehow something did get past your watch, eh?"
"Of course, sir," Jern replied, and they began moving towards the back of the car.
-------------------
Zell waved, and Squall was more than happy that both sensors had moved on. He stood up, and hefted the magical ice shard he had placed between his legs to mask his body heat. With a quick upwards heave, the ice chunk went flying up and away, shattering in midair a good hundred or so feet behind the train. Squall scrambled forward, and soon reached the front of the car.
"Wow!" Selphie said, looking suprised. "That's some tough manipulation you did back there, especially considering you cast with GFs."
"You were trained in manipulation?" Squall asked as they began moving down the President's car.
"Like any good student out of Trabia isn't!" she replied.
-------------------
Lietenant Griff glanced at his watch as he leaned back in his chair.
"Ah, time for the report," he said, glancing up at the private sitting across from him in the first escort, Private Sivern. Unlike his commander, Sivern was not leaning back with both boots on his table, acting totally nonchalant even with the warning from the second escort concerning possible intruders.
"Private, if you'll do the honors?" Griff said with a wave of his hand. Sivern hesitated for a second, a retort on his lips concerning how he'd been the one to make the standard five-minute report to the President the last twenty-seven times, and that he'd appreciate if the Lieutenant followed the damn procedure he'd outlined for this trip.
But Sivern said nothing, instead simply nodding and heading back.
"Stupid officers," Sivern muttered, shaking his head at the fat laziness the President's guards showed as he opened the door between cars. Opening the door into the President's car, Sivern once more had to supress a whistle at the luxury appointments.
President Deling himself, a somewhat overweight, graying, dark-haired man in his sixties, was sitting in the same spot on the same couch Sivern had seen him in last time. The President glanced his way, slightly annoyed at the constant doting his guards were putting him through.
"Sir!" Sivern said, snapping to attention and saluting. "Everything is in order, sir!"
"You again," Deling muttered, shaking his head. "That's twenty-seven times now. How many more times are you going to disturb me with that meaningless report?"
"Sir, I'm sorry, sir," Sivern replied. "But, it is my duty, sir."
"Hard to believe that anyone would put up with this nonsense," the President muttered. "But I suppose its none of my business. Dismissed."
"Sir, yes sir!" Sivern replied with another salute. He turned to leave but paused, sniffing the air. "Sir, do you smell something?"
"No, Private, I do not," Deling replied.
"But there's something slightly rank in the air, sir," Sivern said, looking around. "Are you sure you don't smell anything?"
"I'm certian," Deling answered, his voice very cold and almost dangerous. "I smell nothing. You are dismissed, Private."
"Of course, sir. Forgive me." Sivern saluted again and walked out of the car, shaking his head.
"Great, just great," he muttered as he returned to his car. He shouldn't have pushed the smell issue. He might have insulted the President himself! "There goes next month's pay check. How am I gonna propose to her now? I'm gonna have to put it off again . . . ."
-------------------
"'Kay, optic cable's inserted," Zell called as he finished slipping tha cable through the vent on top of the first escort. "I've got a good view of the whole car from here."
"Good," Squall nodded, finishing fastening the cable to his belt. "Selphie, you got this end?"
"Yup!" Selphie replied, coiling the cable around her hands.
"I've got the codes," Rinoa said, holding up a piece of paper that flitted in the wind. "You ready?" Squall nodded.
"Zell, anyone near the rear door?"
"Nope," Zell replied with a shake of his head. "No one moving. I've got a single officer in red and a soldier in blue sitting near the rear, but everyone else is towards the front."
"Keep an eye on 'em," Squall ordered, and moved to the edge of the train's roof. Glancing back at Selphie, Squall got a thumbs up, and then dropped down the side of the car, holding onto the cable for dear life.
Selphie stopped the cable precisely, and Squall braced his feet against the rear door, coiling his legs into a crouch so he could get at the control panel, the rushing ground only a couple of feet below.
"Still clear?" he called to Zell.
"You're clear!" Zell shouted back.
"First code!" Squall called as he opened a small panel beneath the door. Surely enough, there was a series of four symbols, a cross, a square, a triangle, and a circle.
"First code is . . . ." Rinoa began. "Four, three, four, one!"
Squall punched in the symbols. Circle, triangle, circle, cross.
"Second code!" he shouted.
"Second code is . . . . Two, one, three, four!" came the reply. Squall punched it in.
"Third!" he shouted.
"Third is-"
"Incoming!" Zell shouted. "Get back up!" Squall was hauled up by Selphie, barely dodging the glance of a wandering blue-uniformed soldier.
"He spot us?" Squall asked, to which Zell shook his head.
"Nah, just talking with the two at the back," he said. "Let's see . . . looks like he's going back now. Umm, you're clear." Squall nodded, and Selphie took the cable in hand once more. He leaped off again, and once more was stopped inches above the rapidly passing ground beneath.
"Okay, third code is . . ." Rinoa continued. "Its one, four, two, one!" Squall pounded the buttons in, and then was quickly hauled back up. He glanced to toward the connected cars, and unsurprisingly, the two disconnected. With nary a sound or movement beyond a faint creaking in the disconnected couplings, the cars came apart.
Moving quickly, the team scrambled to the President's car as it slid away.
"Okay, now, we wait for the others to get in position," Rinoa said, looking back.
She held up a hand, and lit a green flare. That was the signal to the Forest Owl's base car. A responding green flare confirmed that they had been seen and the yellow base, with its false dummy car, sped up. It quickly passed the retreating President's car, and a moment later, reached a junction, sliding onto the same track. The base fell back, reaching the President's car and automatically coupling with it. Then, it sped up, dragging the whole train up to connect with the first escort car. As soon as it met, the cars coupled, and one long train was suddenly formed, linked together and moving.
"We have to move fast," Rinoa said. She handed Selphie the same paper she'd been reading to Squall. She then pulled out a second paper. "You and Zell use those for the dummy car, its got the codes to release it from our train. These," Rinoa held up the second paper, "Will be for the second escort. I'll take care of that one with Squall."
"Gotcha!" Selphie replied, and she and Zell moved forward to disconnect their train from the dummy. Squall and Rinoa crawled to the back, Squall getting the cable ready.
"There won't be anyone to watch for you this time," Rinoa warned, to which Squall shrugged.
"I'll keep a lookout for myself," he replied. "You just give me those codes."
-------------------
"What should I do?" Sivern asked himself as he walked back to the President's car. "I know he isn't gonna like it. But its my job." Steeling himself, Sivern stepped into the car and prepared to deliver his report quickly. No hanging around this time, he assured himself.
"S-Sir!," Sivern began, stuttering slightly. "Everything is in order, sir!" This time, though, the President didn't look up, and didn't even say anything at all, he just kept looking at the newspaper he was reading.
Well, at least he wasn't mad, though Sivern wondered where the President had gotten the paper from. Maybe from the second escort? Then Sivern noticed the smell, or lack of one. Huh. Maybe the President had been right and Sivern had been mistaken?
"Hey, Private!" Griff called out as he stepped back into the President's car. "What's taking you? I'm about to whip that idiot who challenged me to Triple Triad and . . . ." Griff looked around, at the unusually quiet President and the surroundings. "Is there a problem, sir?" he asked the President, stepping closer. As Griff approached, the President looked up from his paper.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" he complained gruffly. "If there is nothing in particular, I order you to leave, immediately!"
"S-S-S-Sir! Aye aye!" Griff practically stumbled over himself, stepping back and saluting frantically. "YESSIR! You! Private! What are standing around for? Move! Get back to your station, before you comprimise the President's security!"
"Sir! Yes sir!" Sivern wanted to add 'hypocritical retard' onto the end of that but held his toungue, instead hurrying back to the first escort.
There goes another paycheck, he thought. No ring, and now no candlelight dinner. Sivern was never going to get married . . . .
Though something bothered the private. The President's car seemed odd. Almost shabbier, somehow. But that didn't make sense, not at all.
-------------------
Sargent Aves strode back and forward through the second escort, almost acting as if he were on patrol. PFC Jern walked with him, while the rest of the troops sat around, not as on edge as they had been but still anxious. There had been no indication of intruders, and now, the suspicious train that they had seen earlier had flown past at high speeds. Aves didn't know what was going on, but he was worried.
"Jern, check the front windows, see if anything odd's going on," Aves ordered. "Elick, check with the first escort. I'll check out back. Everyone else, stand ready!"
Confidence boosted slightly by his order, Aves walked to the back of the train, looking out the windows for any threats.
"Sarge!" Elick called as Jern reached the front of the train. "Sir, I can't reach the first escort."
"Everyone, at alert!" Aves shouted, checking his arm-guns. Too much weird stuff had been going on, and Aves had had enough. If something was wrong with the intercom, he was well within his rights to put his men at alert in case of intruders. Better to be safe than sorry.
"Jern, check outside!" Aves called as his men readied their weapons.
"Yes sir!" Jern paused by the front side door, looking out the window. He thought he might have caught a flash of black, but it was probably his eyes playing tricks on him. Still, he had to make certian, and thus, Jern slid open the door leading between the cars, so he could check outside.
-------------------
Squall had entered the fourth code, and was ready to enter the fifth when he caught a flash of blue in the windows, that of a patrolling trooper. Thinking quickly, Squall pushed off the side of the train, moving forward to where the two cars met. There, he'd be out of sight of prying eyes.
It was there that, perched between the two cars, Squall heard the soldier opening the door between the cars, and realized very suddenly that he would be practically right in front of the soldier when he stepped out to check.
-------------------
Jern stepped outside, looking to his right, then left.
"Hm," he said, shrugging, looking back and forth again. He turned and stepped back in, shutting the door behind him.
"Negative, sir. I didn't see anything," he called back.
-------------------
Squall had nowhere to go but up. And thus, up he went, leaping straight up into the air and perching between the two cars, his feet placed on either rooftop. He waited up there, not breathing, until Jern had become satisfied that there wasn't anyone out there.
"Fifth code, Rinoa," he asked her. Rinoa, sitting right next to where Squall was perched, nodded.
"Four, two, four, two," she said, and he nodded. Squall dropped back down and to the side, and entered the final code. He then pulled himself back up.
"Done," he said, and as if on cue, the train cars began decoupling. The two scrambled back onto the real President's car. Up ahead, they could see Zell and Selphie having finished their work, the first escort and its dummy car pulling ahead slightly.
A second later, the base car hit the junction, and turned off with its prize.
-------------------
"The hell?!" shouted Griff as he saw the yellow car pull off with the President's car. He flicked on the intercom. "Stop the train! Stop the Hyne- damned train!"
The engineer in the locomotive immediately complied, slowing the train down immediately. Moments later, the whole vehicle shuddered as something slammed into the train from behind.
"Secure the President! Now!" Griff shouted, and his men complied, charging to the back and into the President's car. They met Sargent Aves and his men, who were running forward, their car having been what had slammed into the train and caused the violent shudders.
The soldiers crowded around the President, who was still reading his paper as if nothing had gone wrong.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" the President shouted angrily, looking up. "If there's nothing in particular, I order you to leave, immediately!" With that, he resumed reading his paper.
"I'm sorry, sir!" Sargent Aves said with a salute. "But there appears to be a threat to your saftey, and we have to protect you, sir!"
The President said nothing, in fact he didn't even twitch a muscle in response to Aves's warning. Aves and many other soldiers looked around at each other, confused at the Presiden't odd behavior.
"Excuse me, sir," Lieutenant Griff said, stepping into the car. "There appears to be a threat, and we're acting to-"
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" Deling shouted. "If there is nothing in particular, I order you to leave, immediately!"
"But sir, there's a threat to your life, and-"
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" Deling repeated again. At that moment, Private Sivern stepped forward, as if suddenly realizing something. Before anyone could react, he snatched the paper from Deling's hands.
"If there is nothing in particular, I order you to leave immediately!" the President continued, seeming to completely miss the fact that his paper was gone, rudely snatched out of his hands. In fact, he didn't react at all as Sivern reached over and pushed him hard. Deling toppled over, falling to the floor.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" Deling fumed on the floor, still holding his hands out like he was clutching the newspaper.
"We've been had," Sivern proclaimed, even as the President ordered them to leave his presence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------
What? It ends so abruptly? What about the battle at the end?!
......grin Guess what? The battle with the President gets its whole seperate chapter! Just like Ifrit, some of the major boss battles get their own chapters, though I'll roll in some of the intro to Timber itself in there too. To tell the truth, this upcoming chapter and part of the game is one of my least favorites. But I'll slog through it, and try to give ya'll the best writing I can!
Squall introduced Rinoa to the other members of his small squad as they entered the small train cabin. After the pleasantries were exchanged, Rinoa led them into a side room, clearly the planning room for the group's operations, judging by the tables, pegboards, and paper littering the area. The low lighting and atmosphere reminded Squall of movies where the rebels were planning their big operation against the evil empire. The parallels were not lost on him.
"Just stand anywhere you want," Zone said as he followed them into the room. "Just make sure you can see the table with the models on it." Squall nodded and took up a position in front of the table, where he wasn't in anyone's way. The one in question featured a simple model of a pair of trains on parallel tracks, with a couple of intersections between the tracks.
"This is a full-scale operation," Zone stated as Watts entered the room and closed the door. "Our faction, the Forest Owls, will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence!" Watts and Rinoa grinned and nodded along with their leader's proclamation. "Exciting, huh? You guys will be remembered too!"
The SeeDs were less than impressed. Selphie turned her gaze out the nearest window, poking her fingers through the closed blinds to look outside. Zell leaned against the wall, while Squall's hands sat on his hips. His expression told Zone he didn't want to wait around listening to the speech, but he decided to add to his glare.
"What are we doing?" he asked bluntly.
Zone glanced back at Watts, and they exchanged helpless shrugs before the leader turned back to Squall.
"It all started when we got top-secret info from Galbadia," Zone explained.
"I got the info, sir!" Watts piped in.
"There's a VIP coming into Timber," Zone continued.
"Super V-I-P!" Watts added, excitedly. He was almost wriggling with exuberance.
"His name is Vinzer Deling," Zone continued, and that name caught Squall's attention.
Vinzer Deling. The President For Life of Galbadia, the ruthless dictator who had conquered, one by one, the various territories in the west, defeating the Dollet empire and overrunning Timber. Deling held on to his power through a loyal military command and aristocracy; he wasn't very popular among the regular soldiers or the civilian populace of Galbadia itself. For a brief instant, Squall recalled his dream as Laguna, and the Galbadian soldier's stint in Timber during Deling's war.
On the tail end of that was a realization: It seemed extremely likely that Deling was a target in this mission. Likely for assassination or kidnapping. If that was the case, then this plan had better be perfect. The President's guards were dangerous adversaries, and Squall didn't like the idea of having to fight Deling's escorts. Even if they were the best fighters for hire in the west, Squall doubted only three SeeDs could overwhelm Deling's personal bodyguard.
"Deling is taking a private train into Timber from Deling City," Rinoa explained. "Its heavily armed and loaded with soldiers, which is to be expected of the President's train."
"Our plan is to-" Zone began.
"Blow it to smithereens with a rocket launcher!" Selphie shouted hopefully. Squall turned his head towards her, and a faint grin worked its way onto his face. Not a bad option, considering the defenses Rinoa said were on the train. As he glanced at the diminuative SeeD, Squall noticed Zell wasn't even looking at the Forest Owls, instead having turned his attention to several periodicals and documents pinned to one of the boards.
"Ahh, not quite," Zone responded to Selphie's violent, if practical, solution.
"So get to the point!" Zell growled, turning around, all appearances of patience fading from his face. "Just tell us what to do!"
Rinoa sighed and nodded. She stepped past Zone, and stood beside Squall next to the table.
"Okay, shall we begin?" she said, gesturing for everyone to gather around the table. They did so, with the guys giving tiny Selphie room to look, and Selphie giving elbows to those who didn't give her that room fast enough.
Now that Squall took a closer look at the trains, he noticed the details. The two train tracks were horizontal and ran parallel, with the upper track featuring two train cars, one painted yellow like the Forest Owls' base train. The lower track featured four cars, an engine, two heavily armored military transport cars, and a more finely designed car not unlike the ones used by SeeD. At least, it should have looked finely designed, but the car itself was rather badly constructed and painted terribly. Almost like a four-year-old had made it.
"The yellow car is our base," Rinoa explained, gesturing to that car. She tapped the car attached in front of it. "This is the dummy car. We've designed it to be exactly like the President's car, at least from the inside."
Rinoa moved down to the second train.
"This is their train," she said. "It has four cars, the locomotive, the first escort, the President's car, and then the second escort. Both escorts are loaded with troops. Our objective is to seize the President in his car with our base car. To do this without alerting the escort cars before we can get clear, we'll have to switch the President's car with our dummy car. We'll use two switch points along this part of the train tracks to accomplish this."
"So, how exactly are we gonna pull this off?" Zell asked. "Seems kinda impossible."
"Not quite," Rinoa replied. She flicked a small switch on the model, and the trains began moving. "We can pull it off in seven steps. First, we pull our train up alongside theirs, and then our boarding team jumps from the roof of the dummy car to the roof of the second escort."
"Jump?" Selphie said, surprised.
"How far apart are the lines?" Squall asked, agreeing with Selphie's questioning.
"Not far, sir," Watts responded. "Normal humans could probably make it, and with those Guardian Force junctions you SeeDs have, it wouldn't be hard to pull off for you guys."
"Okay," Squall said with a nod. "Second step?"
"Cross the second escort car," Rinoa explained.
"The second escort is equipped with sensors, sir," Watts added. "You'll have to proceed with caution."
"Tech officers are on board, monitoring them," Rinoa said. "I'll cover them and the sensors later. The third step involves crossing the President's car. There aren't any sensors or guards."
"Deling hates the presence of his guards or having sensors around him," Zone added. "Which is why he keeps them out of his car."
"Fourth step involves uncoupling the first escort car from the President's car," Rinoa said. "It has to be very quick, and done before the first switch point. Otherwise-"
"Kaboom!" Selphie shouted. "Right?" Rinoa nodded grimly. As they spoke, the Presiden't car and the first escort seperated.
"Yeah, so we'll have to move fast." Squall opened his mouth, about to ask Rinoa about the uncoupling process, but she stopped him with an upraised hand. "I'll explain the uncoupling process later. After the cars are uncoupled, we have the base and dummy move in. The trains will automatically re-link and will be moving together." The top pair of cars crossed the switch point and linked up into one long train.
"We uncouple the trains before we reach the second switch point," Rinoa continued, and the trains seperated once more as they reached the second switch point. "By the time the Galbadians know what happened, we'll be long gone with the President's car. We have exactly five minutes to pull this off."
Squall had questions, but Zell beat him to the punch.
"Five minutes? Will that be enough?"
"We've run simulations," Zone responded. "It should only take three minutes to pull it all off. Piece of cake for SeeDs, right?"
"Of course!" Selphie shouted. Now that it looked like some real action was going to happen, she seemed more than eager to get to the mission. "Too easy!"
Squall wished he could share her exuberance, but he saw many flaws in the plan. It required a lot of good timing, and he had a few questions, particularly about how they were going to go about the uncoupling process.
"Okay, now about the sensors," Rinoa said. "Watts?"
"The guards have a sound sensor, and also a temperature sensor, sir," Watts explained. "They're both directed up, and are wired through plates in the roof so they detect what's going on on the rooftop. The effective range of each sensor is about the width of a window. If the sound sensor picks up any large noises beyond the wind above the train, it'll go off, so you'll have to be very sneaky and quiet, sir!"
The SeeDs nodded at Watts's advice.
"The temperature sensor will pick you up if you stay still. Any abnormally high temperature in the area the sensor is scanning will set it off, so dodge the sensor if you can."
"How will we know when they point the scanners at us?" Squall asked. "We can't see through the metal."
"Optic cable," Zone responded. He held up a minature flat television screen and a slender cable with a glass end, connected by a long coil of wire. "This camera can be slipped in through air vents or their windows. It connects to the flatscreen, and with it you can see when and where the guards are checking the sensors."
"How will we know which sensor is being checked?" Zell asked.
"You can't, not unless you spot the guard using it, sir." Watts responded. "There's a blue-uniformed junior officer watching the sound sensor, and a red-uniformed senior officer observing the temperature sensor, sir."
"So, move quickly, and quietly," Squall said with a nod. "Avoid lingering around the temperature sensor, if possible, and don't make any noise around the sound sensor."
"That's about it," Rinoa said. "Now, about uncoupling the cars."
"Yeah, question!" Selphie said, hopping up and down. "How do we uncouple the cars from a moving train?"
"We can't uncouple the cars directly," Rinoa responded. "We'll have to enter codes to disable the circuts controlling the coupling process. If we do so, the cars will uncouple automatically."
"Where do we enter these codes?" Squall asked.
"The mantainence technician's access panel, just below the door you use to board the train," Rinoa replied. "You'll need to rappel down the side, and then enter the codes. I'll be with the boarding team, so I'll be relaying the codes to whoever is entering them. The keypad will have four buttons on it, corresponding to the numbers in the code. But instead of numbers, there will be symbols. We only have the codes in numerical format, though."
"How will we know which is which?" Zell asked.
"The keys are arranged in a line, starting with one and ending with four," Rinoa explained. "You'll only have about five seconds to enter the code, or it will change and the previous entries will become invalid. We do have the sequence by which they change, so I can still supply you with the codes, but we'll have to restart the whole process."
Squall nodded in understanding, and he turned to his squad. Zell glanced up at his team leader, looked back down at the model, and then shrugged.
Selphie, however, seemed somewhat puzzled.
"Hey, by the way," she began. "This train model's nice, but the President's car looks real shabby. Why is that?"
"Rinoa made it, that's why," Zone explained. "Everything else we bought at the gift store."
"Yeah, I thought some kid made it," Zell commented. "Paint job's ugly as Diablos's butt, too." Squall didn't comment, but he did notice how terribly made the Presiden't car was in the model.
"Oh, shut up!" Rinoa complained, sticking her tongue out at Zell. "I made it look that way on purpose. It represents my hatred for Deling and his whole government."
Squall glanced at Rinoa to see honest hate and anger stamped on her face as she glared at the model. Zell, however, was unimpressed. He muttered something and leaned back against the wall.
"Its one of . . . the ugliest things I've ever seen," Selphie commented. "You must really hate him."
The train suddenly shuddered, and began moving once more.
"Moving again," Rinoa said. "We must have finished the hook-up process with our dummy car." She turned to Zone and Watts, her expression asking them if they were going to come with her on the mission.
Zone made a pained face, and clutched his stomach.
"You know me, and my terminal nervousness problem with my tummy!" he said. "Ouch, my stomach . . . ."
Watts shrugged, and stepped back in the face of Rinoa's gaze.
"Information gathering is my specialty, ma'am," he responded, then turned and hurried out the door, not wanting to get involved in the execution of the mission.
Rinoa shook her head at her comrades' cowardice, then turned back to Squall.
"We'll be ready soon," she said. "Are you guys prepared?"
Squall's hand dropped to his gunblade, and he drew it out. Rinoa watched as his practiced hands and eyes inspected the weapon and the rounds in the chamber, before sliding the weapon back in its sheath. A quick check of his knives, gear, and a mental rundown of his junctioned magic and his Guardian Forces completed the inspection. It had taken less than thirty seconds. He glanced back at Zell and Selphie, and the affirming nods of his squad responded to the unanswered question.
"Ready," he responded as he turned back to Rinoa.
-------------------
"How much longer is this going to take, miss Trepe?" the conductor asked, not sounding very happy. He looked up and down the length of his train, then glanced at his watch.
"I'm sorry," Quistis apologized. "But we have to detain the train until we're certian he isn't on board."
"I understand that," the conductor replied. "But I need to know how much longer the delay will be until I can leave. There's talk that with Deling in Timber, all the train lines will be closed for security reasons, and I don't want to have to deal with angry passengers who are mad that their train couldn't make it because it was detained by you under Balamb's permission."
"Garden will cover the costs if that happens," Quistis assured him. "But we need to make sure he didn't escape by boarding your train. He's extremely unruly, and we already have a team operating in Timber. He could threaten the operation there." At that moment Jofey, a SeeD who had accompanied Quistis as part of the search team in Balamb, emerged from the train.
"The train is empty," Jofey said with a shake of his head as he stepped off the train. "He's gone."
"That's impossible," Quistis responded, looking down the length of the train. "The conductor said he bought a ticket and boarded."
"Well, he's gone now," Jofey replied, the SeeD's hand resting on his sword, in its belt by his side. "We searched the whole thing. There's no way Seifer could have avoided us."
"Does this mean you are finished?" the train conductor said, his voice sounding impatient.
Quistis sighed, and nodded.
"Yes, we're done here," she said. "Sorry to have wasted your time."
The conductor nodded, and stepepd back onto his train to tell the crew that they were ready to leave now. As he did so, several more armed SeeDs stepped off the train, looks of dissappointment on their faces.
"If he's not on board, then where could he have gone?" Quistis asked as the SeeDs gathered around her. Jofey and a few other SeeDs shrugged.
"It could have been a foil to throw us off," Elain, a female SeeD, suggested, leaning on her halberd. "He may be taking another route out of Balamb."
"But how?" Quistis replied, shaking her head. "We've got the harbor covered, and there's no airfield anywhere near Balamb, so how could he have escaped?"
"Seifer's a clever one," Jofey said with a shrug of his broad shoulders. "He's been slipping out of Garden since as long as I can recall, and he knows our security and search methods perfectly."
"It doesn't matter," Elain added. "He can't escape from Balamb without either the trains or a boat."
"There's a half-dozen small towns on the coast," Quistis said with a shake of her head. "He could have gotten a boat from any of them."
"We've got people checking them out right now," Elain responded. "If Seifer's taken or stolen a boat from any of them, we'll know." Quistis reluctantly nodded.
"Okay," she began, having to raise her voice as the train's engine started behind her. "Jofey, you and two other SeeDs stake out the train station. Elain, I want you to take a search team to the harbor and sweep every boat that can cross the ocean, to either Dollet, Timber's coast, or Fisherman's Horizon."
"You think he'd be desperate enough to go to FH?" Jofey asked, surprised.
"Yes," Quistis confirmed with a nod. "From the way he was talking about Timber, I'd say Seifer would be willing to go all the way to Timber through Fisherman's Horizon."
"There's no trains running through there," Elain stated, sounding unconvinced. "You think he'd walk all the way across the Horizon Bridge?"
Quistis nodded.
"Okay," Elain replied with a shrug. "Whatever you say."
"I want the rest of you to cover every possible entrance or exit from Balamb," Quistis instructed the SeeDs. "No one is to get out without being checked." The other SeeDs nodded.
"And you?" Elain asked, arcing her eybrows. "What are you going to do?" Quistis glanced at Jofey.
"Jofey said it best," she explained. "Seifer's been dodging our security methods for as long as we can remember. If he managed to slip past our net, I'll be in Timber to catch him."
-------------------
Squall was impressed with the dummy car the Forest Owls were attaching to the front of their base. The vehicle was finely appointed, and looked exactly like the inside of the real President's car, judging by the recon photos Watts had obtained of the real thing. Everything from the carpets to the chairs to the mini-chandelier, even a small television screen built into the wall under a sliding panel, had been replicated.
But, the most impressive aspect of the car that had been replicated was the President himself. It was a life-sized, fully animatronic replica of Deling, complete with a face that almost perfectly resembled the real dictator's. However, he didn't think it would withstand much scrutiny up close with a detailed inspection.
"Aw," Tim, the Forest Owl who made the fake President, said when Squall had voiced his concerns. "That won't be a problem. There'll be a newspaper covering up his face, and plus, I've added a motion detector that activates whenever someone gets close. Try it."
Squall did so. When he got about close enough for a good look at the President, the head rose up slightly, as if looking up from a newspaper it was reading.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now," the dummy declared, its mouth moving in good lip-synch with the words. "If there's nothing in particular, I order you to leave, immediately!" The dummy sounded the part, replicating Deling's voice well, and sounding suitably angry and irritated. Squall gave Tim a nod of approval.
"Seems pretty real, huh?" Tim said with a grin. "No one will ever realize its a fake until its too late! With what I programmed him to say, no guard will ever look over the paper!"
"Unless they want twenty lashes and one month's pay lost!" another Forest Owl added, to some laughter.
Squall had left shortly afterward, meeting Rinoa, Zell, and Sephie back in the main cabin in the base car. Of the group, only Squall and Selphie carried weapons. Zell didn't need them, but Rinoa . . . .
"We're's your weapon?" he asked, to which she shrugged. The girl reached under her coat and patted a pair of knives in their sheaths at her waist.
"Usually I carry a slashing crossbow," Rinoa explained. "The kind that returns like a boomerang. But it won't do me much good on top of a speeding train, so I've only got my backups and magic."
"You use magic?" Selphie asked, surprised.
"Yeah," Rinoa replied. "I took some self-defense training by a reputable master in Deling City, and a former military magic specialist in Dollet gave me some instruction in using magic. The Forest Owls taught me some more, so I've had enough to stand even with a Galbadian trooper."
Squall nodded, glad to hear that Rinoa would be able to hold her own in the coming operation. At that point, Watts entered the cabin.
"Okay, sir!" he said, excitedly. "We're close to the train! Are you ready?" Squall glanced to his teamates, once more getting the confirmation from them that they were prepared for the operation.
"We're good to go," Squall stated.
-------------------
Quistis stepped into the private SeeD cabin, and gave it quick sweep from the door. There seemed to be nothing amiss. The curtains were in place, the beds were unrumpled, and the closet door was shut and sealed. Seifer wasn't in the room.
She let out a breath and shut the door behind her. Quistis crossed the room and set her belt and equipment pouch on the couch, along with her coiled rante and knives, then sat down beside them. She stretched out slightly, relaxing. She welcomed a bit of peace after Garden's mad chase to recapture Seifer.
Though as she relaxed, closing her eyes, Quistis wondered why she had decided that she herself was going to be the one to stop Seifer if he did slip their nets. It was understandable that she would be the only one to go, as they had only so much manpower, and Quistis was the best SeeD sent to Balamb, and they'd obvously want the best in Timber if they could only spare one.
But yet, there was something else . . . another reason why Quistis was going herself that stemmed from motivations beyond mere logical measurements of skill. But what was it?
Concern. That was it. Quistis was worried about Seifer, her onetime student and the largest failure on her list of students. Quistis was concerned for her former student's well being.
Quistis shook her head at that notion. Why would she be concerned for Seifer? After all, he'd openly insulted her, and oftentimes scorned her descisions and orders. But yet, he was a failure, something that Quistis desperately wanted to correct. Maybe by going after him, Quistis was subconciously trying to mend her mistakes?
She sighed and shook her head once more. Standing up, Quistis began to walk to the console on the far wall, opposite the bed. Maybe she should order something to drink. Some wine might help her relax.
Then something hard and heavy clubbed the back of her head, and Quistis went spinning down to the floor. Her vision went blurry, yet as she fell she saw a figure behind her. White coat, blue vest-
-Seifer!
"Sorry, Quistis," he muttered as her vision began to fade, blackness closing about her. Desperately, Quistis tried casting a spell, but she couldn't focus. The blackness engulfed her senses, and she fell into unconciousness.
-------------------
Seifer watched Quistis pass out, and then shifted his junctioned magic around. He focused his magical energies on his magical power, and cast a Sleep spell on Quistis while she was out. The empowered magic would render her unconcious for at least an hour or more.
With Quistis safely out, Seifer turned back to the bed. While before, it had been nicely made, now the cover was thrown off, to reveal a large, square hole cut in the matress, large enough for himself to have hidden himself in while he covered himself with the sheets. He stepped over to the bed, and took hold of the sheet.
A couple of minutes later, he had cut three long strips from the bedsheets. With these, he securely bound Quistis's wrists and ankles, and gagged her. That done, he focused on her, Drawing out her Guardian Forces. He already had the same ones Quistis possessed, so the ones he'd Drawn became simply stones in his hand. Without her GFs, Quistis wouldn't be likely to escape before they reached Timber.
Once Seifer was certian Quistis couldn't get free, he walked over to the door controls. He opened the sliding door, and then stabbed his gunblade into the inside control panel. One shot blew it apart. He then stepped outside, and shut the door with the outside controls. A tap of a button locked the door.
Quistis was contained.
A minute later, Seifer walked up to the conductor. He handed the man a wad of gil.
"The lady in the SeeD cabin doesn't want to be disturbed until we reach Timber," he explained. The conductor pocketed the gil with a nod.
"Oh, yeah," Seifer added, handing the conductor an envelope. "Make sure that gets mailed to Quistis Trepe at Balamb Garden. Its very important to her." Inside that envelope were Quistis's Guardian Force stones.
"Of course, Mister Almasy," the conductor said with a smile.
"Cut the 'Mister' crap," Seifer said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Its just Seifer."
-------------------
Squall edged forward on the roof of the fake Presidential train car. The wind whipped his hair, and the sheer force of the passing air pushed hard on him. Still, it wasn't enough to stop the SeeD, or even to really slow him down much, considering his junctions.
Squall stopped as he reached the front end of the fake car, and looked back to Rinoa, Selphie, and Zell as his teamates approached, also crawling on the roof. While he waited, Squall turned back the the steadily approaching train ahead and slightly to the left of theirs. On both sides of the train tracks, forests and rolling plains passed the two vehicles as they traveled through through Timber's countryside.
"We'll catch up soon!" Rinoa shouted over the wind as she reached him, to which he nodded. Squall looked back to Zell, who was carrying the optic cables. He would be responsible for watching the guards, and he already had the portable screen strapped to his left forearm.
His team gave him the thumbs up, and Squall nodded. he turned back to the approaching train, to see it have come much closer. Squall judged the distance, and nodded.
"That's close enough!" he shouted when they were thirty feet behind the car. Rinoa nodded, and waved behind her. A Forest Owl who was standing at the top of the train nodded, and shouted down into the door. The relay to the engine room was quick, and at twenty feet between the two cars, the distance became stable.
"Zell, you're first!" Squall shouted, stepping to the side. Zell nodded and moved to the edge, and with a shout of "Geronimooooo!" he leaped the distance. His GF-enhanced muscles hurled him across the gap, and he landed with ease on the roof. Selphie was next, and with a cheer of "Whoo- hoo!" she too was on the rooftop of the second escort. Squall gestured to Rinoa, who crawled up beside him.
"Don't drop me," she warned, slipping an arm around his neck. Squall shrugged as Rinoa climbed onto his back. Her arms locked around Squall's neck, and she clutched them tightly.
Then Squall leaped, flying through the air with shocking ease, the wind whipping his hair once more. For an instant, there was nothing between the two and the rushing ground below but air.
And then he landed, perfectly balanced, on the roof of the second escort.
"Okay!" Rinoa shouted, checking her watch. "From now on we have exactly . . . five minutes to complete the operation!"
-------------------
Sargent Aves looked over his men. Of the thirty Galbadian soldiers assigned to the President's second escort, two-thirds of that number were asleep. The remaining ten men were either talking among themselves, or in PFC Jern's case, watching his sound sensor monitor.
Aves sat back in his chair, and glanced at his watch. They'd be in Timber within three hours. Then, the President could do his thing and they could go home. Aves was looking forward to getting back to Galbadia. He had three weeks leave scheduled when he got back, and his duty as part of the President's Elite Guard kept him busy too often with keeping Deling safe from his many enemies. Maybe he could spend some more time with his son . . . .
"Sargent," one of the soldiers called, gaining Aves' attention. He looked up, to see the soldier in question looking out one of the back windows.
Out there, on the train track running alongside theirs, was a second train, about twenty feet back but steadily moving away. It was an oddly configured train as well, consisting of the locomotive in back pushing the front car. How unusual.
Something about the train set off alarm bells in the officer's head. He turned to PFC Jern.
"Jern, get that sound sensor up and running," Aves ordered. The soldier nodded and hopped to it. "The rest of you, on alert." Aves headed over to the temperature sensor while he was doing so. He activated the device, not even bothering to check it to see if it was running properly. He wouldn't need to, as Aves knew his machinery worked properly at all times. It never failed; after all, he was the one who serviced it!
"Sir?" another soldier, PFC Elick, asked. "Should we alert the President?"
"Negative, private," Aves said with a definative shake of his head. "We'll shoot a message to the first escort, but we're not going to disturb the President unless we need to. He's a politician, not a soldier, and he's more likely to panic if he thinks something is wrong."
"Understood, sir," the soldier responded with a salute.
"Jern!" Aves shouted. "That sensor up and running yet?"
"Its online, sarge!" Jern replied.
"Alright, PFC," Aves began. "You sweep starting from the rear of the car. I'll start at the front. Everyone else, be at alert. I want those guns loaded and cocked, and that magic ready to go! Elick, be ready to send an alert to the first escort if we get a positive reading for an intruder, hear me?"
"Sir, yes sir!"
The troopers never realized that everything they were doing was being recorded on the optic camera poking through the window.
-------------------
"Yo, Squall!" Zell shouted.
"I'm right here," Squall responded, somewhat more quietly. "I can hear you just fine."
"Oh, sorry," Zell replied with a shrug. "Umm, anyway, we'd better get moving. They're suspicious."
"Are the sensors online?"
"I think so, yeah," Zell replied. "Looks like . . . the guard with the sound sensor is moving back. The red guard is moving to the front."
"Okay, so we have to move very quietly from here on," Squall said with a nod. He thought for a moment. "It'll be too noisy and will probably register on the temperature sensor if we all go at once. Zell will go first, you can signal to us when its clear and when the guards are approaching." Squall held up his index finger. "One finger for sound sensor getting near us. Two fingers for temperature." Zell nodded. "And be sure to indicate which direction they're coming at us from. Rinoa, you're after Zell. Then Selphie, then me."
The group nodded, and Zell moved forward, placing his hands and feet precisely as he stalked over the panels of the roof. After about ten feet, he stopped, glanced at his flatscreen TV, and then stood up partially and ran the rest of the way in a low crouch, not stopping until he reached the front of the car.
As soon as he had done so, Zell spun around, and glanced down at his flatscreen. He glanced up and nodded to Rinoa.
She nodded back, and began to make her way down the length of the train. She crawled about as well as Zell, although her movements were nowhere near as smooth or practiced at the SeeD's.
Zell kept glancing back and forth between the monitor and Rinoa, watching the guards. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he held up a hand for her to stop. She did so, and everyone took in a hard breath of air.
Had they been detected?
Zell watched the monitor intently, looking at the two guards. One, the sound officer, had paused, and was rubbing his chin. The man looked down at his sensor, then glanced up at the man in red armor, clearly his superior. He began to open his mouth, then paused, then opened his mouth again. He almost looked . . . confused?
Zell scratched his head, wondering what was going on. Then, the proverbial lightbulb went off over his head as the man shook the sensor.
Something was wrong with the sound sensor!
Zell looked up, and pumped his hand furiously for Rinoa to come on. She looked at him, confused, until he tapped his ear and made a slashing sound. Rinoa nodded, understanding Zell's meaning, and scrambled forward.
Knowing that Squall and Selphie could make use of this as well, Zell leaned over and pumped his arm towards them as well. He made the same signal with his ear and hand, and Squall nodded.
"Selphie, go!" he shouted, and he waved his hand for her to run on. She bolted, running across the top of the train. Squall watched her go, and waited a second, long enough for her to get enough of a lead so that he could follow and they'd both avoid registering on the temperature sensor.
Once he was satisfied that she was far enough ahead to avoid detection, Squall began to follow after her. By now, Rinoa had made it to the far end of the car, and Selphie was almost there as well.
Squall almost reached the halfway point when Zell's eyes widened again, and he held up his hand for his squad leader to stop. Squall froze, not even breathing. Zell then looked up, held up one finger, and indicated the sound sensor was directly beneath Squall, and more importantly, it was working. Zell looked down again, and then glanced up. With a gesture of two fingers, Squall knew that the temperature sensor was headed his way as well.
And just like that, Squall was suddenly trapped, unable to run, but unable to stay put either.
-------------------
PFC Jern was trained in operating the sound sensor he held in his hands, and thus, as he began his sweep from the end of the train, he could tell something was wrong. The sound register seemed to be offline somehow. So, barely a few steps into his sweep, Jern paused, rubbing his chin.
Sargent Aves, his obvious superior, had been responsible for servicing the sensors on the train right before it left, and making sure they were operating. If something was wrong with the sensor, then it was his fault and would be his responsibility.
Jern began to open his mouth to tell his superior what was wrong, but then paused. What would the sargent say if Jern questioned his work on the sensor, considering that Aves was very proud of his mechanical and technical skills? And how would Aves respond to Jern's challenging his superior's work in front of the rest of his men?
But still, there was the possibility of intruders, and if Jern didn't tell his sargent something was wrong, then that could comprimise the President's security. And Aves certianly wouldn't take the blame for it. In the Galbadian military, if an officer could use a lesser ranking soldier as a scapegoat, they usually did. If something went wrong with the security system, Jern would be the one with the pay cut and demotion, not Aves.
Not sure what to do, Jern frowned, and then shook the sound sensor, and tapped it a few times. To his relief, the sensor began operating, and he let out an audible sigh of relief.
"Something wrong, PFC?" Aves demanded, glancing back at his subordinate.
"Um, no sir!" Jern replied with a salute. "Sensor's operating fine!"
"Good," Aves stated with a nod. "Those things always work fine. I designed 'em, you know!" The sargent chortled, and the rest of the group of soldiers laughed with him, even though most knew Aves was just boasting.
At that moment, Jern's sensor beeped faintly, and he looked down at it.
"Sargent, I think I got something," he called. "Very faint reading, sir." The whole train shushed in an instant. Several soldiers' hands clutched their weapons more tightly now, ready for action in an instant. Aves immediately checked his sensor, then began advancing down the train, eyes riveted on his sensor.
"Elick, that hand better be hovering over the alarm button," Aves called as he moved down towards Jern, sweeping the ceiling very methodically. If there was something up there, his sensor would spot it.
-------------------
Squall's mind raced. He couldn't move, probably not even jump. If he did, he'd surely be spotted on the sound sensor. But if he stayed put, that only delayed the inevitable reading he'd make on the temperature sensor.
Movement made sound, and his staying in place would trigger the temperature sensor. But what other options did he have? There was no way he could hide his body heat.
Or wasn't there?
As Aves closed in with the temperature sensor, Squall focused,and called up a basic Blizzard spell. He had to concentrate very hard now, to ensure the spell went as he needed it to.
A Blizzard spell was really a misnomer. The name conjured up the image of a snowstorm, but in reality, the basic spell simply created a heavy block of ice that shattered on contact after being hurled by telekinetic force. However, magic was a mallable thing. If one focused their will and concentrated enough during the casting, one could somewhat shape the result of the spell one was casting.
Such was what Squall was doing. He didn't want to hurl the ice, and he didn't want it to shatter, either. What he needed was for it to stay intact long enough. Just for a few seconds, really. That was all he needed.
But manipulating the magic wasn't easy. Squall was a combat specialist, who used magic in a supportive fashion, supplementing his skills with the gunblade and his junctions. He knew how to cast advanced spells using his Guardian Forces, but had only taken the most basic magical manipulation classes in Balamb Garden. GF spellcasting somewhat limited what one could do with spells, so those classes weren't as heavily emphasized there as they were in Trabia Garden.
Squall focused on the block of ice forming overhead. He needed it to be the right density and exist for the right amount of time, which was really as long as he could get it to. He didn't want it to go flying anywhere, either. If everything went as he wanted it to, the ice block would fall right into his hands.
The Blizzard spell finished casting, and a block of ice, slightly larger than normal and signifigantly denser, finished forming. Instead of flying anywhere, it simply dropped. Squall deftly caught it, almost sighing in relief that the spell had acted the way he needed it to. He also almost cringed; the ice was bone-chillingly cold, and if it weren't for his junctions, his hands might have started going numb.
But he didn't have time to think about that. Within moments, that temperature sensor would be scanning him.
-------------------
"Lemme have a look-see here," Aves said, looking down at his temperature sensor. "There's no way anyone could have slipped past my scan, so he's either here, or further back. And he'd only be further back if he slipped your scan, Jern."
"No way, Sarge," Jern replied with a defiantive shake of his head. "Been watching this thing like a Thrustavies. No way he could have slipped forward or backward without me hearing him."
"Good," Aves replied with a nod, scanning up into the area directly over Jern. "Nothing slips past my scanners. Hmmm, let's see . . . ." Aves watched his scanner for any abnormally high temperature. After several seconds, the scanner showed him a negative. There wasn't anything up there giving off any body heat.
"Well, PFC, looks like we were mistaken," Aves said with a chuckle. "No way in hell there's anyone up there. But, let's sweep to the back in case somehow something did get past your watch, eh?"
"Of course, sir," Jern replied, and they began moving towards the back of the car.
-------------------
Zell waved, and Squall was more than happy that both sensors had moved on. He stood up, and hefted the magical ice shard he had placed between his legs to mask his body heat. With a quick upwards heave, the ice chunk went flying up and away, shattering in midair a good hundred or so feet behind the train. Squall scrambled forward, and soon reached the front of the car.
"Wow!" Selphie said, looking suprised. "That's some tough manipulation you did back there, especially considering you cast with GFs."
"You were trained in manipulation?" Squall asked as they began moving down the President's car.
"Like any good student out of Trabia isn't!" she replied.
-------------------
Lietenant Griff glanced at his watch as he leaned back in his chair.
"Ah, time for the report," he said, glancing up at the private sitting across from him in the first escort, Private Sivern. Unlike his commander, Sivern was not leaning back with both boots on his table, acting totally nonchalant even with the warning from the second escort concerning possible intruders.
"Private, if you'll do the honors?" Griff said with a wave of his hand. Sivern hesitated for a second, a retort on his lips concerning how he'd been the one to make the standard five-minute report to the President the last twenty-seven times, and that he'd appreciate if the Lieutenant followed the damn procedure he'd outlined for this trip.
But Sivern said nothing, instead simply nodding and heading back.
"Stupid officers," Sivern muttered, shaking his head at the fat laziness the President's guards showed as he opened the door between cars. Opening the door into the President's car, Sivern once more had to supress a whistle at the luxury appointments.
President Deling himself, a somewhat overweight, graying, dark-haired man in his sixties, was sitting in the same spot on the same couch Sivern had seen him in last time. The President glanced his way, slightly annoyed at the constant doting his guards were putting him through.
"Sir!" Sivern said, snapping to attention and saluting. "Everything is in order, sir!"
"You again," Deling muttered, shaking his head. "That's twenty-seven times now. How many more times are you going to disturb me with that meaningless report?"
"Sir, I'm sorry, sir," Sivern replied. "But, it is my duty, sir."
"Hard to believe that anyone would put up with this nonsense," the President muttered. "But I suppose its none of my business. Dismissed."
"Sir, yes sir!" Sivern replied with another salute. He turned to leave but paused, sniffing the air. "Sir, do you smell something?"
"No, Private, I do not," Deling replied.
"But there's something slightly rank in the air, sir," Sivern said, looking around. "Are you sure you don't smell anything?"
"I'm certian," Deling answered, his voice very cold and almost dangerous. "I smell nothing. You are dismissed, Private."
"Of course, sir. Forgive me." Sivern saluted again and walked out of the car, shaking his head.
"Great, just great," he muttered as he returned to his car. He shouldn't have pushed the smell issue. He might have insulted the President himself! "There goes next month's pay check. How am I gonna propose to her now? I'm gonna have to put it off again . . . ."
-------------------
"'Kay, optic cable's inserted," Zell called as he finished slipping tha cable through the vent on top of the first escort. "I've got a good view of the whole car from here."
"Good," Squall nodded, finishing fastening the cable to his belt. "Selphie, you got this end?"
"Yup!" Selphie replied, coiling the cable around her hands.
"I've got the codes," Rinoa said, holding up a piece of paper that flitted in the wind. "You ready?" Squall nodded.
"Zell, anyone near the rear door?"
"Nope," Zell replied with a shake of his head. "No one moving. I've got a single officer in red and a soldier in blue sitting near the rear, but everyone else is towards the front."
"Keep an eye on 'em," Squall ordered, and moved to the edge of the train's roof. Glancing back at Selphie, Squall got a thumbs up, and then dropped down the side of the car, holding onto the cable for dear life.
Selphie stopped the cable precisely, and Squall braced his feet against the rear door, coiling his legs into a crouch so he could get at the control panel, the rushing ground only a couple of feet below.
"Still clear?" he called to Zell.
"You're clear!" Zell shouted back.
"First code!" Squall called as he opened a small panel beneath the door. Surely enough, there was a series of four symbols, a cross, a square, a triangle, and a circle.
"First code is . . . ." Rinoa began. "Four, three, four, one!"
Squall punched in the symbols. Circle, triangle, circle, cross.
"Second code!" he shouted.
"Second code is . . . . Two, one, three, four!" came the reply. Squall punched it in.
"Third!" he shouted.
"Third is-"
"Incoming!" Zell shouted. "Get back up!" Squall was hauled up by Selphie, barely dodging the glance of a wandering blue-uniformed soldier.
"He spot us?" Squall asked, to which Zell shook his head.
"Nah, just talking with the two at the back," he said. "Let's see . . . looks like he's going back now. Umm, you're clear." Squall nodded, and Selphie took the cable in hand once more. He leaped off again, and once more was stopped inches above the rapidly passing ground beneath.
"Okay, third code is . . ." Rinoa continued. "Its one, four, two, one!" Squall pounded the buttons in, and then was quickly hauled back up. He glanced to toward the connected cars, and unsurprisingly, the two disconnected. With nary a sound or movement beyond a faint creaking in the disconnected couplings, the cars came apart.
Moving quickly, the team scrambled to the President's car as it slid away.
"Okay, now, we wait for the others to get in position," Rinoa said, looking back.
She held up a hand, and lit a green flare. That was the signal to the Forest Owl's base car. A responding green flare confirmed that they had been seen and the yellow base, with its false dummy car, sped up. It quickly passed the retreating President's car, and a moment later, reached a junction, sliding onto the same track. The base fell back, reaching the President's car and automatically coupling with it. Then, it sped up, dragging the whole train up to connect with the first escort car. As soon as it met, the cars coupled, and one long train was suddenly formed, linked together and moving.
"We have to move fast," Rinoa said. She handed Selphie the same paper she'd been reading to Squall. She then pulled out a second paper. "You and Zell use those for the dummy car, its got the codes to release it from our train. These," Rinoa held up the second paper, "Will be for the second escort. I'll take care of that one with Squall."
"Gotcha!" Selphie replied, and she and Zell moved forward to disconnect their train from the dummy. Squall and Rinoa crawled to the back, Squall getting the cable ready.
"There won't be anyone to watch for you this time," Rinoa warned, to which Squall shrugged.
"I'll keep a lookout for myself," he replied. "You just give me those codes."
-------------------
"What should I do?" Sivern asked himself as he walked back to the President's car. "I know he isn't gonna like it. But its my job." Steeling himself, Sivern stepped into the car and prepared to deliver his report quickly. No hanging around this time, he assured himself.
"S-Sir!," Sivern began, stuttering slightly. "Everything is in order, sir!" This time, though, the President didn't look up, and didn't even say anything at all, he just kept looking at the newspaper he was reading.
Well, at least he wasn't mad, though Sivern wondered where the President had gotten the paper from. Maybe from the second escort? Then Sivern noticed the smell, or lack of one. Huh. Maybe the President had been right and Sivern had been mistaken?
"Hey, Private!" Griff called out as he stepped back into the President's car. "What's taking you? I'm about to whip that idiot who challenged me to Triple Triad and . . . ." Griff looked around, at the unusually quiet President and the surroundings. "Is there a problem, sir?" he asked the President, stepping closer. As Griff approached, the President looked up from his paper.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" he complained gruffly. "If there is nothing in particular, I order you to leave, immediately!"
"S-S-S-Sir! Aye aye!" Griff practically stumbled over himself, stepping back and saluting frantically. "YESSIR! You! Private! What are standing around for? Move! Get back to your station, before you comprimise the President's security!"
"Sir! Yes sir!" Sivern wanted to add 'hypocritical retard' onto the end of that but held his toungue, instead hurrying back to the first escort.
There goes another paycheck, he thought. No ring, and now no candlelight dinner. Sivern was never going to get married . . . .
Though something bothered the private. The President's car seemed odd. Almost shabbier, somehow. But that didn't make sense, not at all.
-------------------
Sargent Aves strode back and forward through the second escort, almost acting as if he were on patrol. PFC Jern walked with him, while the rest of the troops sat around, not as on edge as they had been but still anxious. There had been no indication of intruders, and now, the suspicious train that they had seen earlier had flown past at high speeds. Aves didn't know what was going on, but he was worried.
"Jern, check the front windows, see if anything odd's going on," Aves ordered. "Elick, check with the first escort. I'll check out back. Everyone else, stand ready!"
Confidence boosted slightly by his order, Aves walked to the back of the train, looking out the windows for any threats.
"Sarge!" Elick called as Jern reached the front of the train. "Sir, I can't reach the first escort."
"Everyone, at alert!" Aves shouted, checking his arm-guns. Too much weird stuff had been going on, and Aves had had enough. If something was wrong with the intercom, he was well within his rights to put his men at alert in case of intruders. Better to be safe than sorry.
"Jern, check outside!" Aves called as his men readied their weapons.
"Yes sir!" Jern paused by the front side door, looking out the window. He thought he might have caught a flash of black, but it was probably his eyes playing tricks on him. Still, he had to make certian, and thus, Jern slid open the door leading between the cars, so he could check outside.
-------------------
Squall had entered the fourth code, and was ready to enter the fifth when he caught a flash of blue in the windows, that of a patrolling trooper. Thinking quickly, Squall pushed off the side of the train, moving forward to where the two cars met. There, he'd be out of sight of prying eyes.
It was there that, perched between the two cars, Squall heard the soldier opening the door between the cars, and realized very suddenly that he would be practically right in front of the soldier when he stepped out to check.
-------------------
Jern stepped outside, looking to his right, then left.
"Hm," he said, shrugging, looking back and forth again. He turned and stepped back in, shutting the door behind him.
"Negative, sir. I didn't see anything," he called back.
-------------------
Squall had nowhere to go but up. And thus, up he went, leaping straight up into the air and perching between the two cars, his feet placed on either rooftop. He waited up there, not breathing, until Jern had become satisfied that there wasn't anyone out there.
"Fifth code, Rinoa," he asked her. Rinoa, sitting right next to where Squall was perched, nodded.
"Four, two, four, two," she said, and he nodded. Squall dropped back down and to the side, and entered the final code. He then pulled himself back up.
"Done," he said, and as if on cue, the train cars began decoupling. The two scrambled back onto the real President's car. Up ahead, they could see Zell and Selphie having finished their work, the first escort and its dummy car pulling ahead slightly.
A second later, the base car hit the junction, and turned off with its prize.
-------------------
"The hell?!" shouted Griff as he saw the yellow car pull off with the President's car. He flicked on the intercom. "Stop the train! Stop the Hyne- damned train!"
The engineer in the locomotive immediately complied, slowing the train down immediately. Moments later, the whole vehicle shuddered as something slammed into the train from behind.
"Secure the President! Now!" Griff shouted, and his men complied, charging to the back and into the President's car. They met Sargent Aves and his men, who were running forward, their car having been what had slammed into the train and caused the violent shudders.
The soldiers crowded around the President, who was still reading his paper as if nothing had gone wrong.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" the President shouted angrily, looking up. "If there's nothing in particular, I order you to leave, immediately!" With that, he resumed reading his paper.
"I'm sorry, sir!" Sargent Aves said with a salute. "But there appears to be a threat to your saftey, and we have to protect you, sir!"
The President said nothing, in fact he didn't even twitch a muscle in response to Aves's warning. Aves and many other soldiers looked around at each other, confused at the Presiden't odd behavior.
"Excuse me, sir," Lieutenant Griff said, stepping into the car. "There appears to be a threat, and we're acting to-"
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" Deling shouted. "If there is nothing in particular, I order you to leave, immediately!"
"But sir, there's a threat to your life, and-"
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" Deling repeated again. At that moment, Private Sivern stepped forward, as if suddenly realizing something. Before anyone could react, he snatched the paper from Deling's hands.
"If there is nothing in particular, I order you to leave immediately!" the President continued, seeming to completely miss the fact that his paper was gone, rudely snatched out of his hands. In fact, he didn't react at all as Sivern reached over and pushed him hard. Deling toppled over, falling to the floor.
"I'm in a very bad mood right now!" Deling fumed on the floor, still holding his hands out like he was clutching the newspaper.
"We've been had," Sivern proclaimed, even as the President ordered them to leave his presence.
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What? It ends so abruptly? What about the battle at the end?!
......grin Guess what? The battle with the President gets its whole seperate chapter! Just like Ifrit, some of the major boss battles get their own chapters, though I'll roll in some of the intro to Timber itself in there too. To tell the truth, this upcoming chapter and part of the game is one of my least favorites. But I'll slog through it, and try to give ya'll the best writing I can!
