Chapter 5 - Checkmate

The client was classified; clearly a government sanctioned mission. The objective was simple enough, a quick assassination, messy as they liked, no questions as to why. Westin Ode, the CEO of the Belhelmel Medical Research Foundation, 48 years old, a career man. The time was coming up to 8pm; he would still be in his office, if he followed his usual routine.

The sun had almost disappeared behind the horizon of lofty skyscrapers, casting over them a reddish-purple glow. The city was silent and almost completely empty, except for the faint sound of the elevators that carried passengers between the lacing walkways. Outside the Belhelmel building, the buzzing stopped suddenly, and three silhouettes straightened and stepped into the courtyard. Decksian Aranaya, recently promoted to an S – Class SeeD, was expecting moderate to heavy resistance, and for that he was glad for the company of his two companions; however inexperienced they might be in these particular types of contract.

No movement in the courtyard, which he expected; any guards would be inside, lest they expose the fighting to any potential witnesses. Esthar had the image of safety, after all, and it would be a bad idea to spoil it. The three SeeD approached the large doors and peered through. There was a team of them and they had already seen the intruders, but they were waiting.

"Sid," Decksian began in a whisper, not taking his eyes off the guards. "You go first. Run in there, quickly, and deploy your cover. Rudy and I will handle the rest, just keep low, okay?"

Sid nodded sharply, and through the invading darkness there was a flash of teeth as the other team member grinned. The doors flew open to an instant volley of gunfire. Sid ran, keeping his shield to his face, and crouched. The shield extended both ways in a series of snaps, and it rang with the sound of bullets. Rudy was slower in his entrance, taking the chance to release his own flurry of bullets in response. He joined the other two behind Sid's cover, but had decided that he wouldn't hide for long. His first magazine was almost empty as the cover began advancing towards the rapidly reducing number of enemies. Only three remained; only a meter separated them from the SeeD, and Decksian flew out from the side with his sword raised. The first to react fell to Rudy's gunfire, and Decksian quickly dispatched the others. The echoes of battle faded.

"Good work." Decksian remarked, before they began towards the location of Ode's office. Between Sid's shield and Rudy's combat rifle the small pockets of resistance that remained were easily quelled.

"You SeeD certainly like to take your time."

The large wooden doors to the target's office would have been in sight, were it not for the armoured man standing before them. He spoke as though trying to force gravel from his throat, was heavy-set and had striking blonde hair; altogether the very image of the head of security. He grunted and burst forward to strike at them. His large cleaver suddenly clattered to the ground. Rudy lowered his rifle as the rest of the man slumped to the floor, a small hole bleeding profusely above his right eye, and the contents of his head strewn around behind him.

"Too messy." Decksian frowned. "Far too messy. More subtlety next time, okay?"

"He posed a threat, Decks, I took him out." Rudy approached the corpse looking as if he himself might explode with excitement.

"The target should be inside. Let's just get this over with, please." Sid was always quietly spoken, but whatever he said always mattered somehow, and he was the first into the office.

Rikriel looked up as the door opened a crack. He had heard the shot, but he was actually quite comfortable sitting on the corner of Westin's desk, so he didn't get up. His boss, against Rikriel's advice, insisted on seeing the SeeD die, and was currently in his chair deciding what emotion he was feeling. Three young adults came carefully through the door. The first had dark red hair, was thin, and had a shield. The second had a sword, dark skin, steely eyes and a deep frown. The third had a gun, which gave Rikriel his usual response of a cold jet up his spine, dirty blonde hair and an expectant smirk. So this was the team they had sent against him. The sword wielder held up his hand, an order for the gunner not to fire, and Rikriel released his breath. The three were otherwise silent.

"Fire Platoon, right?" Rikriel started, looking at the dark-skinned man and assuming that he was the squad leader.

"This is an emergency, isn't it?"

"…Who are you?"

"I was SeeD." There was a visible reaction from all three of them. "A long time ago. I have a lot of good memories from back then, a lot of bad ones too, but I can say I look back on the whole thing pretty fondly."

Rikriel stood up, and Decksian raised his sword.

"Don't worry, I'm not just going to try and kill you. Although if I were you might want to widen your stance just a little. Would have helped in case I had decided to rush you just then."

He reached down to his weapon holster and slowly withdrew his edgeblades.

"I was Sabers, mostly, see? Reached S – Class eventually."

He sighed and leaned back against the desk, obscuring the SeeD team's view of their target. Westin was keeping quiet. He must have been enjoying the spectacle.

"How is Garden, by the way?" Rikriel tried to sound nonchalant.

"It's fine." Sid spoke up immediately. "Can't you just let us do our job?"

"I know how you feel." Rikriel replied. "He's never been on an assassination, has he?" He turned to face Sid. "You'll get used to it, everybody has to. You just need to hold your breath, and give yourself a few weeks afterwards to do whatever you want to most. Or you can keep a book of everyone you killed and hope that somehow by writing down their names they'll never be forgotten." He finished with a chuckle, before his smile darkened and lowered to a sad frown.

"Let's just get this over with, I'm already bored." The gunner announced, as Decksian watched Rikriel brood quietly, before raising his head.

"So you're not going to leave."

Decksian shook his head.

"I suppose you're right, then." Rikriel answered in almost a whisper. He stepped forward and swung his weapon at Decksian, the hard wooden handle collided with the side of his head with a loud crack and sent him sprawling to his knees.

"D…don't shoot! This one…aahh…these two need to be clean!" The squad leader cried out, before falling on to his back. Sid threw up his shield and stepped over him towards Rikriel. He readied his arms back for a strike, but his attack was easily blocked by the edgeblades.

"You telegraphed that. Don't make it so damn obvious." Rikriel remarked as he kicked out, spun around and swung his blades towards the man's legs. Sid jumped back, narrowly avoiding losing his shins. There was a clap from Ode's chair. Rikriel pivoted around to seek out the third team member, and his full vision was met with the black metal of a gun. He fell to the floor with an ungraceful crash.

"You son'of'a'bitch!" The gunslinger roared. Rikriel lunged out with his edgeblades, letting the chain curl around his leg. The shooter's roar twisted into a loud grunt as he joined Rikriel and Decksian on the floor. Sid stood there for a moment, staring at his two fallen colleagues, before refocusing on Rikriel. He swung down with his shield, aiming at his face, and hoping to deliver the final blow. Rikriel pushed up, his arms wide and the chain of his weapon taut. He pushed hard against the force of the shield, his face tightening in effort, and he quickly released the pressure, rolled to the side and got to his feet. All of them were now standing again, and Rikriel widened his stance. Rudy's gun bounced against the floor as he threw it and ran at his enemy with his teeth bared. Rikriel swung and the handle connected, but the attack was just ignored. He tackled Rikriel to the ground and began to punch him. He punched him over and over, until almost every opening in Rikriel face was hurling spatters of blood with each strike. Rikriel started to feel it rise within him, through the intense pain. An unmistakable warmth that he hadn't felt in years. His head began to buzz as he became weaker. If there was a time to unleash his Limit Break, now would be it. Rikriel grunted in pain.

Another punch, and Rikriel could feel his face getting softer, but the pain had gone now. There was a blurred shout from somewhere, and another one. Hands closed around his neck, and Rikriel struggled to breath. He started to flail wildly, kicking out and struggling with as much strength as he could muster. His hand struck Rudy's face and he used the opportunity to quickly turn to his side. Rudy quickly fell off of him, disorientated. Rikriel's chest heaved and he spluttered as he tried to get back up. A blurry figure slid into view above him and Rikriel blinked; watching him for a moment. The figure raised his leg. Rikriel closed his eyes to brace for it, and for a moment the sensation of pain came back. He breathed out.

Rikriel regained consciousness slowly, and when he did it was to complete silence. He lied there, recollecting and recovering, his blinking lasting longer than it should have and his body aching everywhere. A sharp intake of breath, and Rikriel turned his head up to see the desk. There was a hand hung over the edge, a wrinkled, bloodied hand. It was dripping. Rikriel forced his eyes open and tried to focus on it. His eyes drifted closed again, and they didn't reopen for a while.

A sharp, short pain woke him. The man above him shrunk back a little at seeing him return, before grabbing his shoulder and pulling him into the chair. Rikriel groaned to himself, trying to feel his face for wounds.

"Here's something to help the pain. There's quite a lot of the stuff here."

Rikriel gripped the arms of the chair to steady himself, and looked up at the man seated on the other side of the desk. It wasn't Westin Ode. There was a class on the table, filled with water and with two round pills fizzing inside it. He quickly grabbed it and gulped the whole thing down at once. Some semblance of reality returned immediately, and Rikriel surveyed his surroundings. All around him were workers, some with masks covering their mouths. They were sweeping, wiping and scrubbing. Rikriel could hear more of them outside.

"Rikriel, is it?" The man before him smiled gently. He was much younger than Ode; more slender. He must have been around Rikriel's age, around mid-thirties. His smile seemed to soften the brightness of his eyes. Rikriel could see that he wore a full suit, navy, and his hair was dark and cut close to the scalp.

"Are you feeling better? Do you need a doctor at all? You look quite beaten."

Rikriel's lips tightened into a thin line, and he shook his head slowly.

"That's good to hear." The man linked his finger together in front of him.

"My name is Harlin Albion, I'll be your new boss, should you decide to keep working for us after this little…fiasco." His smile widened.

"I…"

"Before you answer. You've clearly been through a lot over the past few days; I hope the prison was a good surprise for you, although I do apologize on behalf of Mr Ode for putting you there. A man can hardly be blamed for curiosity now, can he?"

Rikriel stared at him without opening his mouth. To get away with trespassing so easily, to have his job still available even after that; Rikriel was taken aback. There was something behind that.

"I would be a poor excuse for a man should I just let you go, after everything that's happened. I would even go so far as to say that you've shown exemplary loyalty to this company, just exemplary. And for that I think a small reward is in order. I'm going to offer you a new job; no more of that laboratory nonsense. I'd like to offer you the opportunity to transfer departments. I've read in your file that Mr Ode let you have some extra work as a liaison for a client once, as per your specific request. This new job I'm offering you will be something like that. You'll be acting as our chief liaison to the Estharian Government, and as such you will be working very closely with me. It's not a particularly difficult job; you'll be almost like a messenger: all you need to do is supervise the more discreet research projects, report on their progress and recommend new strategies and improvements. You'll have your own team, your own office and a substantial pay rise, but you will need to sign the Esthar Secrets Act."

Rikriel needed a moment to think. Westin had gone, presumably the SeeD team succeeded with their mission. Rikriel remembered the bloodied hand. Now instead of being fired he was being offered a job that seemed too good to be true. But Rikriel could see past that; he could see what was happening. He had gone against the Estharian government in trying to stop the assassination; he had known about the assassination. Now they'd have him sign the Secrets Act, and now they'd have him be silent. Westin was the victim of a political assassination, the Callas brothers' succeeded in their plan to ruin him utterly, and now the company had been taken over by the government itself; and there was nothing Rikriel could say to anyone about it. Quitting would be the morally right thing to do.

"Sounds good."

Harlin got to his feet with a large grin. He held out his hand, and Rikriel stood and shook it. Mr Albion looked behind him and beckoned a man that was holding a wad of paper. The man put the paper on the desk and Harlin turned it around, opened to the last page and slid a pen towards Rikriel. Rikriel quickly signed the document.

"Excellent. You'll start next week. Should give you enough time to fully recover. Now go home and get some sleep. Oh, and I believe this is yours." He handed the edgeblades to Rikriel with a smile. "It's quite an interesting weapon, if I do say so myself."

"…Thank you."

Rikriel turned and quickly left the office, his head spinning. He passed the large group of cleaners and in to the reception area, where he was met with the sight of a large pile of bodies. Those SeeD really had made a mess; that would definitely impact their payment. Rikriel sighed to himself and shook his head, pushing the doors to the outside and feeling the wind catch his hair. He didn't really feel tired at all. Sitting on the elevator, Rikriel shivered. At least he still had his coat.

The walk home was quiet, as it usually was, and Rikriel had walked fast, so it wasn't long before he turned the key in the lock of his front door and saw his dog again. Rascal barked and circled around his feet. He must have been hungry. Rikriel decided to put his food bowl in the living room today, and after Rascal began eating he fell down onto the sofa with a large exhale. After a few seconds, Rikriel lazily picked up the remote control and turned on the television. He wouldn't waste this; not having work tomorrow, he could stay up all night if only his body allowed him. The screen flickered to life. A reporter, breaking news.

"Galbadia has issued an official withdrawal of forces today as the CEO of the Belhelmel Medical Research Foundation, Westin Ode, announced his registration quietly, earlier last night. Mr Ode was alleged to have been involved in treason, an allegation Galbadian officials aggressively denied. A statement released by the President of Galbadia stated that the massing of troops was simply a cautionary measure and that there were no current plans for an invasion. Esthar quickly responded with a message of peace, and after investigations concluded that Mr Ode was never involved in any Galbadian projects. Public opinion for a war against Galbadia has also taken a complete u-turn, with 38% now still backing the idea – the lowest number for years. Mr Ode is currently unavailable for comment."

The television picture flicked as Rikriel changed channel.