Xu crossed into the cafeteria and took a quick look around, her eyes quickly searching out her target.  Nida sat at a table near the windows, surrounded by the three members of squad 48.  The three very female and very interested members of squad 48.  He finished his sentence and they all burst into laughter, clearly hanging on his every word.

Xu approached, cutting her way across the cafeteria.  Nida turned as she approached.

"Xu!" he said, waving to her.  "Come, pull up a chair!"

One corner of her mouth turned up in a secret smile.  "Thank you, Captain Nomura, I'll stand."

"Suit yourself," he replied.

"48," she commented, clasping her hands behind her back, "if memory serves, you're supposed to leave for Winhill in one hour.  I'd hate for you to miss the train."

The members of squad 48 took the hint and scrambled to their feet, hurrying out of the cafeteria.  Nida turned to Xu with something beyond irritation on his face.

"What the—" he said.

"Walk with me, Nida," she commented, turning and heading out of the cafeteria.

"Hey!" Nida called out, following her.  "What the hell was that?  I had a very good chance of going home with one of those girls."

Xu raised an eyebrow but didn't turn to look at him.  "Based on the rumors, I'd say you had a good chance at going home with all three of those girls."

"So why did you—"

"We have a lot to do, Nida, and very little time with which to do it."

"What are you talking about?"

They'd reached the central elevator and boarded, Xu's cardkey moving the elevator to her office.  While Squall's had the advantage of size, he'd never really bothered to decorate.  The furniture served a purely utilitarian purpose.  Xu, though, had carefully crafted her office to suit her tastes.

Every time he entered her office, Nida had the impression that he'd walked onto a chessboard.  The whole office had a clean, efficient look, accented by the purity of its black-and-white color scheme.  Squall's office had considerably more chrome, but Xu had no visible metal.  Black woods and white silk screens.  A quick glance around the room furthered the comparison – many SeeDs considered chess a hobby, given its importance in their curriculum.  Xu, however, elevated the hobby into an obsession.  She loved chess more than Triple Triad, considering the latter preferable only because games only had to last a few minutes.  As Nida glanced at Xu's décor, he spotted no fewer than four chess sets, all with games in progress.  In one of the games, Xu would no doubt have Quistis as an opponent, meaning the game would end in an inevitable draw.

"Sit," she said, indicating one of the chairs.  When Nida did, Xu lowered herself into the chair behind the desk.  She tented her fingers together and studied his face.

"Xu, again, what is all this about?  You know I hate it when you get all cryptic." Nida asked.

"You were at the briefing dinner tonight; you heard Seifer and Fujin's report."

"I did?  I mean, yeah, I did," he nodded.  "But what does that have to do with—"

"While Squall was comatose, Quistis and I have been assembling a profile of Mallis.  With the information Fujin gave us, I was able to fill in the blanks.  Whatever Mallis's next move is, I predict he'll make it within the next twenty-four hours."  She paused for a second.  "If he hasn't already."

"And you want to be ready."

"I do," she replied.  "Specifically, I want to be ready by the time Quistis returns from meeting her sister.  She's on her way out now, and I'd like to have good news for her when she returns."

"And where do I come in?" Nida asked.

Xu picked up a remote control and pointed it over Nida's head.  He swiveled his chair to see a very expensive painting slide away to reveal a video monitor.  She clicked again, and the camera winked to life, showing security feeds from Balamb Garden – the day of the fall.  The images focused on The Storm, wave after wave troopers raining down from the sky.

"The Storm," he said.

Xu's eyes flicked to the ceiling for a moment and she ran her tongue over her teeth.

"I've gone over the tapes extensively.  On a one-to-one basis, even our cadets outperformed Mallis's troops.  The problem is that there was a nearly infinite supply of them.  Every time we started to make headway, a fresh wave came in.  They sandbagged us with numbers."

"What are you proposing?"

Xu waved her hand, indicating one of the chess sets.  "When your opponent has a material advantage, you do what you can to neutralize it without sacrificing any material of your own."

She waited a second, gauging Nida's reaction, before continuing.

"In short, we destroy The Storm."

Nida whistled.  "That's a pretty tall order, lady."

"I know," she said.  "That's why you're here."

The images on the screen continued to play.  Ship after ship descended on Balamb Garden, expelling its human cargo before retreating.

"You're the one who first identified The Storm.  What can you tell me that would be helpful?"

Nida shook his head.  "I only know a little.  The sort of stuff I've read in history books."

"Let's start with the basics," she said, looking at the screen.  "How many ships were in The Storm?"

Nida scrunched up his face as he tried to remember what his late father – an expatriate test pilot from Esthar – had told him.

"Freeze it here!" he exclaimed, pointing to the screen.  Xu did so.  The screen showed nine ships, flying in a wedge-shaped formation.  "Two-hundred ninety-seven ships," he said.

"You're sure about that?" Xu raised an eyebrow.

"That wedge is called a 'drop,'" Nida explained.  "You know, like a drop of rain?  Nine ships to a drop.  Eleven drops to a cloud, making ninety-nine ships in a cloud.  Three clouds – thirty-three drops – make up The Storm."

Xu nodded, impressed.  "Two-hundred ninety-seven.  Now we're getting somewhere."  She started the tape again.

"In going over the tapes, I have identified no fewer than fifty-four ships used in the attack on Balamb Garden.  Six drops.  I have records obtained from Esthar that unassailably document the destruction of one-hundred fifty ships."

"So Mallis has between fifty-four and one-hundred forty-seven ships," Nida said.  He shrugged.  "We're halfway there."

"More importantly," Xu continued, "we know what we're looking for.  The security feeds tell us The Storm isn't at Balamb Garden.  And you can't just hide fifty troop ships behind a mountain.  You need the troops to man them, the fuel to power them, the crew to service them."

"We need a small army to work on the Ragnarok, and that's just one ship," Nida acknowledged.

"Exactly.  Plus, Mallis has to keep tabs on the Apocalypse.  Lately, it's been in the hangar at Garden, but he had to keep it somewhere before that."

"Plus," Nida said, getting into the spirit of things, "he has to have somewhere big enough to keep all the men.  Each one of those ships typically has between fifteen and twenty soldiers on board.  Even if he just has the fifty-four ships, that's at least eight hundred soldiers.  It's not like they can all call in sick for work to invade some place.  They've got to be housed.  Barracks.  He needs something... huge.  Something too big to conceal."

"That's my thinking," she nodded.  "Whatever he's using, it's so obvious that we'd naturally look past it."

"So how do we find it?" Nida asked.  "How do we find the obvious?"

"That's my job," Xu said.  "An operation this massive will leave a paper trail.  I'll find it."

"And my job?"

"You tell me what to do when we find it.  Even in a best-case scenario, we don't have the capacity to take down fifty-four ships and the base that houses them."

Nida frowned.  "I can't help you there.  But I know who can."

"I'm all ears."

"Put a call in to FH.  Mayor Dobe's house."

Xu registered a moment of shock.  "That sandal-wearing hippie?  Why him?"

"Not him," Nida explained.  "His wife."

"Fine," Xu responded, dialing the phone.  "Why her?"

"She built it."

Xu stopped in mid-dial.

"The Storm, I mean," Nida said.  "She designed it pretty much top-to-bottom."

Xu shook her head and continued dialing.

The monitor went blank for a second, flaring the SeeD insignia as the Security department cleared the call.  After a moment, Mayor Dobe's face popped up on the screen.

"Nida," he said.  "This is a pleasant..." his voice trailed off as he saw Xu.

"Mayor Dobe," Nida said, "I'd like you to meet Xu Xiucai.  She's SeeD's Executive Officer and head of the SeeD Judicial Corps."

"A mercenary and a lawyer," Dobe said, barely disguising the contempt in his voice.  "Lovely combination."

"Sir," Nida said, unperturbed, "I'd like to speak with your wife.  Please."

Dobe grumbled briefly but went to fetch his wife, Flo, who appeared on the monitor shortly thereafter.  They went through the introductions again with no warmer a reception.

"Hi, Flo," Nida said.  "Listen, I have to ask a favor of you."

"Whatever it is, the answer is 'no,'" she said.  "You left FH and decided to become a mercenary.  If your father were alive..."

Nida's voice cooled at once.  "If my father were alive, he'd be proud of me.  He'd understand that I left FH to protect it.  Sooner or later, some less-than-savory person is going to realize just how much untapped potential is in the collective brains of FH and come knocking on your door.  They will capture or kill you all, and your pacifism will be useless.  I joined SeeD so that when that day comes, I can help protect my home.  And if I have to get my hands dirty to do it, so be it."

Xu glanced over at Nida, a trifle amazed.  Flo seemed less impressed and Xu decided to intervene.

"Ms. Dobe," she said.  "Are you familiar with a man named Justinian Varrant?"

Flo paled enough that Xu could see it over the videophone.

"I see that's a yes," she continued.  "Then I assume you know what he's capable of.  He is alive and well and very determined to see the resurrection of Adel."

Flo's hand fluttered to her throat.


"To do this, he is using an airborne invasion force that you may also find familiar.  Allow me to send you some pictures."

Xu transmitted the pictures from the fall of Balamb Garden.


"These pictures were taken when General Mallis – whom you know as Varrant – invaded Balamb Garden.  You can see he's using the very weapons you designed.  He has at least fifty of these ships and possibly as many as one-hundred fifty.  With them, he overran our home.  Killed our loved ones.  If you don't help us, Esthar will be next.  He will revive Adel.

"Do I need to tell you what his next target will be?"

"Wh... what do you want?" Flo said.

"All the data you have on The Storm," Nida said.  "Design specifications.  Fuel requirements.  Anything that could tell us where he's hiding this stuff or how we can take it apart."

Flo's eyes fell to the floor.

"Five minutes," she mumbled.  "Give me five minutes to get it together, and I'll send it over to you."

"Thank you," Nida said, just before she cut the transmission.  "What now?" he asked Xu.

"You wait for Flo to send you the data.  Find me a weakness.  I'll go look for Mallis's paper trail."

Nida rose to leave the office and Xu had already started typing on her computer.  He'd have time for Squad 48 later.