She sat in silence, listening, watching, a faint smile tracing across her lips.
Mallis used Squall's office as his base of operations, and Scarlet seized Quistis's office and dorm room for her own. She liked it here, it gave her a sense of her adversary. For all she'd read about Quistis, all the time she'd spent studying the dossier, nothing drove home Quistis's nature like seeing her personal space.
Quistis found her career as a SeeD lucrative, and made good use of the material rewards. She'd surrounded herself with expensive things, but did not flaunt her wealth. It would take the eye of a connoisseur to see the value in Quistis's possessions. Their value did not seem to appeal to Quistis, though. Expensive masterworks of art shared space with valueless prints. She seemed driven more to acquire things that pleased her senses than to buy things for their inherent worth.
Books, above all, dominated the woman's life. Her office had books stacked in every available space. They sat arranged in a perplexing order, without regard to alphabet or subject matter. Scarlet sensed the existence of an underlying pattern, but its precise nature eluded her. Scarlet imagined that abandoning her library in the invasion had torn Quistis apart.
"Enter," Scarlet said, responding to a sudden knock on the door.
Biggs and Wedge slid through, worried.
"Yes, what is it?" she prompted.
"We... there's an—" Wedge started.
Scarlet cut him off. "Intruder, I know."
"Um, yes. It's—"
"Al-ma-sy," she said, letting the word roll off her tongue, savoring each syllable.
"How did you know?" Biggs asked.
"Statistical inevitability. He was bound to come sooner or later. I'm surprised he held off this long, actually," she shrugged. Biggs and Wedge looked blank. "It's all in his file. He thinks of himself as a Knight. He has... a compulsion to play the hero. He wanted to save Fujin the day of the invasion and they stopped him. He was bound to try again."
"Should we call the General?" asked Wedge.
"No. He's en route to Dollet, and we're under standing orders not to contact him while he's traveling."
"So what do we do?"
Scarlet rose, shaking out her hair as she did so.
"Biggs, Wedge, wait here. Watch the computer. When the General arrives, the team in Dollet will notify us. Then – and only then – you may call him. Give the reference code 113-SA. That will prompt him to further action."
"Should I mobilize the rest of the security forces?" asked Wedge.
"No," Scarlet replied. "We couldn't trap him if we tried. He grew up here, spent his childhood exploring the tunnels and warrens. He knows every inch of this place." She thought for a long moment. "You won't be able to stop him with numbers. The more you throw at him, the more he'll kill. But there's a way."
Scarlet's mouth twisted into its predatory smile, and Biggs shuddered.
* *
Seifer crossed through the secret area and into the main body of the training center, ever vigilant for signs of danger. The center – the sole twenty-four hour facility in Balamb Garden – lay dark, unused. And something else disturbed him.
He waited, listened for the rustling sounds of grats on the move, or even the thunderous footfall of a T-Rexaur, but... nothing. Utter silence. Mallis had the training center cleared, every creature inside slaughtered. Still, Seifer kept his movements quiet and stayed far from the main paths, limiting his route to the darkest shadows.
As he neared the exit of the training center, his ears perked up: the whir of security cameras. An insulting challenge – he'd memorized the location and coverage of every camera in the building before his thirteenth birthday. Still, better to err on the side of caution. Seifer didn't proceed until he'd seen every camera and affirmed its position.
He slid into the darkened main concourse with a grace born of a thousand midnight escapes. He checked every side and dashed across to the central spire, plunging into the small stream with the barest splash. While the water never exceeded ankle height in most places, Seifer knew the location of a small access port.
He flipped open a switchblade and used it to pry up the lid, as the water poured down into the room beneath. The port only saw use when the stream stopped running, but Seifer had made use of it in the past. He grabbed the lid and brought it down with him, snapping it into place from beneath.
Garden's designers had not constructed the tunnel with Seifer in mind. Standing at his full height, his head brushed the ceiling, so moving at a crouch, he proceeded into the labyrinth.
His memory served him well, and a moment he reached another access port. This time, he used his switchblade as a screwdriver, eliminating the screws with cool efficiency. He set the panel aside and eased into the corridor beyond.
The elevator shaft stretched above him. He pressed the button next to him, summoning the elevator. In descended and Seifer entered, knowing the most exposed part of his journey stretched ahead of him.
He needed to get to his office on the third floor. However, before the assault on Garden, Mallis had his office on the third floor. And the security matrix indicated that someone made regular use of Squall's office since the assault – that sounded like Mallis. So Seifer's instinct for danger told him to avoid the third floor as much as possible. The second, then. To do that, he'd have to send an empty elevator to the third.
He stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor, setting to work at once on opening the floor panel of the elevator car. As it opened he attached a cable to his legs, and fixed the other end to the underside of the elevator car. Without hesitating, he jumped through the opening, hanging upside down from the elevator car.
The elevator stopped, and Seifer lowered himself to the opening at the second floor. Still inverted, he opened the security panel next to the door at set to work rewiring it. A small chime from above him indicated that the elevator doors had closed. The car would soon resume motion and return to ground level.
"If Squall can do it from a moving train, I can do this," he muttered.
The doors on the second floor opened. Seifer shoved off the opposite wall and released his cable at the height of his swing, rolling through the doors as the elevator car slid past.
He moved through the classroom wing, finding it – as he'd hoped – deserted. He headed for the end of the hallway, ascending the stairs to the exposed terrace.
The fresh air made for a welcome change from the confines of the tunnels and the elevator shaft. Seifer's eyes ran up the building to the window of his office on the third floor.
Overcome with a brief attack of common sense, he sighed. "I was a lot younger the last time I did this," he murmured.
Pushing his doubts aside, he climbed onto the narrow railing and pulled himself up onto the face of Garden.
His hands scrabbled for purchase – if he'd brought his cord, he could have used it to ensure he wouldn't fall, but he'd left it on the elevator. He found an irregularity in the surface and dug in his fingers.
He reached up, his left hand looking for another handhold. He found one, and pulled himself up a little more.
Seifer glanced again at his window, now a few inches closer to him. He smiled.
* *
She looked across the floor of the Dark to where he sat.
No, not he, she corrected herself. It.
"It's time," she called out.
No response.
"Did you hear me?" she called again, annoyed at its failure to reply.
From the darkness, a lone green light swiveled to look at her.
Scarlet nodded, pleased.
* *
Seifer hazarded a quick glance in his office as he crawled past. He noted with disapproval that Mallis had only stationed one guard inside, and resolved to demonstrate the true value of the buddy system.
He passed his window and moved above it. With the tip of his steel-toed boot, he kicked the side of the building, creating a noise audible inside the office. He waited, then kicked again.
It worked this time, as the guard inside came, opened the window to check it,
and leaned outside.
Seifer kicked downwards with all his force, causing the man to go tumbling to the ground. This done, he found it an easy task to slip back into his office. He pulled out the keyboard of the security station and started typing.
* *
Selphie arrived to find the Intelligence section a flurry of activity. She liked to see her people working hard, but they'd awakened her from a pleasant sleep, one of the first she'd enjoyed since the fall of Balamb Garden. It worried her.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Eva, Seifer's chief aide in the Security department, answered her.
"A few minutes ago, we started receiving a transmission from an encrypted source. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself, but..." Eva, not a timid woman, seemed at a loss for words.
"But?" Selphie prompted.
"It's from Balamb Garden," Eva said.
"You're sure?"
She nodded.
"What does it say?"
Eva pressed the note into Selphie's hands.
Stand by to receive transmission. Have breakfast waiting for me. Make extra – I won't be alone. 30127.
"30127," Selphie murmured, her mind rolling through the list of SeeDs and their code numbers. "That's... Seifer." Her eyes flew open.
Eva nodded again.
Just then, the monitors in the room lit up, showing feeds from every security camera in Balamb Garden.
Selphie started for the door. "I'm going to get Quistis."
* *
He sees her across the cavernous room known as the Dark. His eyes should not see that far, but they do. He expected to see the blue coat men, but he does not. They do not come to torment him now. They fear him, and they have left. She does not fear him. He does not know how he knows this, but he knows.
She glows red at first, then green, like night vision. She moves closer and he seems to recognize her.
"Do you know who I am?"
He stares at her, remembering.
His voice sounds strange when he speaks. Metallic, somehow. Amplified.
"In... Instructor?"
ERR
Cross referencing with available profiles...
Identified: Scarlet
Aide to Varrant; superior officer
Obey all commands
Obey all commands
Obey all
Break
It hurts him, like shouting inside his skull. She smiles, and that hurts him too.
"Ah. That would be one of your... improvements. I suggest you get used to it. Now, do you know who – what – you are?"
An easy question. A safe question.
"SeeD Cadet McMurdo."
ERR 983
Unacceptable Designation
Acceptable Designations = Varrant-Videlic Weapon/Armor Replicant: Mechanized; WarMech
It hurts him again. He can't escape the voice.
"I am told you know what to do in case of an invasion?"
He blinks, and then the voice reminds him.
"Invasion.prg" loading...
Objective$ = "Fujin"; "Heartilly"; "Trepe"
Locate Objective$
Secure Objective$
Target$ = "Leonhart"; "Almasy"; "Kinneas"; "Dincht"; "Tilmitt"
Locate Target$
Cancel Target$
It doesn't hurt this time. Her smile makes him happy.
He smiles too. He knows his place, knows his role. They have hurt him, they have hurt his masters, and he must hurt them.
Let them tremble.