Chapter 8

"The worse he'd do to danger them, would be snoring too loud and making them lose their concentration."

-Quistis Trepe

Have I ever mentioned that my life was crud? Yes? Well, isn't that the surprise. The way ol' Murphy kept buzzing back into my life like a persistent mosquito, made me want to break out the aerosol fly spray. Bad luck has a keen attraction to me, as I manage to run into it at every corner.

"It's funny," Murphy began, staring happily towards nothing. Yeah, it's a larf, alright.

"What is?" I asked him after a few minutes of silence, as I'm sure he would have trailed off forever if I didn't.

He sighed cheerfully. "We had hoped to find this coffin full of jewels and treasures beyond imagination... and yet we found something worth that ten times over. Just think of what secrets of the past we can unlock!"

A cocked my head at the little man, surprised to hear such wistfulness from him. Now, I would probably choose the jewels and treasures.. But what do I know about being a scientist? Heck, for all I know, moldy coffin men might be the hit of the town for these guys. Then again, I'm sure discovering 'secrets of the past' came with a hefty check.

I smiled a little, for once seeing a smidgen of depth in Murphy. "So, ah.. Where is the our little treasure right now?" Might as well get down to business.

"Oh, and here I thought you came all this way to see me!" he chuckled, lifting his eyebrows suggestively.

Yeah, forget about what I said. The waters had returned to shallow, and unfortunately, it wasn't enough for him to drown in. "Actually, it's my job to keep an eye on him."

"Oh I get it," He grinned, and gave a wink. I suppressed my shudder, giving a very weak smile. "Well come on this way and I'll take you to him."

With a wave of his hand, he turned and walked down the corridor. My only choice was to follow his ample frame, trying my best to keep my eyes off of it.

"Okay, here we are!" Murphy announced as we walked through the metal doors, since being unlocked by him.

I stared open-mouthed at the amazing setting, awed by the technology and dedicated workers. This just in: the mole people have been replaced by big people... either that or they grew a few feet awfully fast. Computers and fax machines were giving off beeping sounds, as printers inked paper, and scientists observed their subject.

Yes...their subject. OUR subject.

My eyes strayed to the man who had terrified me just days ago.. To find myself surprisingly calm. He didn't seem so scary at the moment. Then again.. Not many people look scary subdued and drugged up, belted to a table. His whole upper body was filled with needles and tubes; I wouldn't even try to figure out where all those pipes led. His bare chest rose up and down silently, and his face betrayed no emotion besides peace.

I smiled to myself.. Peace... wouldn't that be nice? My eyes spied some prep needles across the room. I swear it took everything in me not to sample a few of their wares.

I decided I'd better pull up a chair, as there would probably be no need for me to be here in the first place. What harm was he to anyone? The worse he'd do to danger them, would be snoring too loud and making them lose their concentration. I scoffed silently as I lowered myself into an absent computer chair. Oh yeah, the ones with the wheels. I guess I shouldn't complain too much, if this was one of the perks of the job.

Leaning back, I studied the body next to me who seemed so pumped full of sedatives that he was almost comatose. His long raven hair had been tamed back to make room for more tubes, and his skin was wiped clean of dirt of many ages. Yeah, not so scary anymore at all. Was this really the same man I had referred to as 'coffin' boy? He didn't seem different from anyone else here.. Nor did he look centuries old.

"Oh.. wow..." I heard Murphy's voice from the left of me. "We've got a little problem here."

Oh great.. Just when I get relaxed something has to go wrong. Gee Murph, you've sure got the timing. Not only did he interrupt my reflecting, but I had a hankering that he was about to prove me wrong about this man not being so different.

I stood up alert and walked hastily to his side, where he was examining something from his computer screen. I was kind of enjoying my rolling chair perk.. But I guessed it wouldn't be too bad to get some action here. I felt that all too familiar burst of adrenaline making its way around my veins as probed him for some answers. "What is it?" I asked a little too bit excited.

"Well, this is strange." he answered, rubbing his chin a little in confusion. "Hey Edna, come over here for a second." he beckoned to one of his lab assistants, putting me in the back of his mind for the moment. Well... I probably shouldn't get too angry at that.. I didn't really want to think about where I usually was in his mind.

A middle aged woman wearing a lab coat pried her eyes away from her work and walked over to us. She seemed slightly peeved from being interrupted from what she was doing, but managed to look interested in what her superior had to say. She gave him a look that signaled she was ready.

"What does this look like to you?" Murphy asked Edna as he pointed at the glossy screen.

Putting on a pair of glasses from her breast pocket, the brunette read what she was directed to. They shared a common look of astonishment . "Why, it looks like he has four GF's equipped, sir."

"GF's?!" I added undignifiedly, staring at Murphy with the same expression on my face. As fast as Cid eating his morning danish, my mind flickered back to my history class of years ago. It was a good thing there were no orphanage-born pretty boys back then, or I would've never remembered my stuff right now. Lets see... the first GF ever equipped was only twenty years ago.. I was pretty sure it was another one of Odine's latest inventions.. and then it was only one GF at a time. Back then the technology wasn't great enough for more than one. Supposedly a few subjects had their cerebrums fizzled out... lucky bastards.

Yes, there was definitely something fishy about this, and not entirely like the sand fish, either. True, this information has just been spit in our eyes, but I was almost positive that this situation would not be as easy to kill.

"Yeah.. I've run this program about three times now," Murphy replied flustered, "This can't be a mistake. There are four unknown GF's lurking in that body...."

He trailed off as the three of us looked uneasily at the man lying so peaceful on the hard, cold lab table. What in Hyne's name were we in for? Not just one monster, but four. Could this serine body be the host of some deadly attack? Or would these GF's be beneficial to the Garden's future? I really didn't want to find out, but I couldn't help but ask myself what they were going to do with them. They couldn't possibly... no, they certainly wouldn't... it's not logical..

"They need to be extracted."

Damn it.