Chapter Ten
The Train Job
"Just stand wherever you want," Zone called as they all entered and spread out in the small room. Most of the space was taken up by a large table, it's surface decorated in a model of the many train tracks that ran outside of Timber. Several model trains were already in place. Squall and the others took up positions in front of the three resistance members.
Zone gave them a goofy grin. "This is a full-scale operation," he announced. "Our resistance, 'The Forest Owls,' will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence! Exciting, huh?" Rinoa and Watts eagerly seconded his opinion. The three SeeDs just stared at them, not saying anything, so Zone cleared his throat somewhat uncomfortably and then continued. "It all started when we got a hold of some top-secret info from Galbadia."
"I got the info, sir!" Watts suddenly cut in eagerly, grinning at Squall, who barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes.
"There's a VIP from Galbadia coming to Timber."
"Super V-I-P!" Watts inserted again. Zone continued as if he hadn't spoken.
"The guy's name is Vinzer Deling," he spat. "Our archenemy and the President of Galbadia."
"Vinzer Deling is a scoundrel," Watts interrupted again, scowling. "He's a dictator, not a president. Not even popular in Galbadia, sir!"
"President Deling is taking a private train from the Galbadian capital," Rinoa supplied then. Zone nodded, then continued.
"Our plan is to—,"
"Blow it to smithereens with a rocket launcher?!" Selphie suddenly questioned eagerly, eyebrows quirking. The three Owls gaped, eyes widening.
"Ah . . . not quite," Zone finally managed, looking and sounding rather disturbed. Zell, near the back of the room, sighed loudly.
"So get to the point!" he insisted impatiently. "Just tell us what to do?"
Zone and Watts looked disconcerted, so Rinoa cleared her throat and stepped forward, motioning to the table. "Shall we begin?"
Everyone gathered around the table and stared down at the model.
"First, I'll go over the model," she announced, then pointed to one of the trains, the one with only two cars. "The yellow train on the top right is our base. We're riding in it right now. Right next to it is the dummy car. We made it look just like the president's car." She gestured to the other train, the one with four cars. "Their train has three cars. First, there's the locomotive followed by the 1st Escort. The red car is the president's car. Deling should be inside. The last car is the 2nd Escort. Once we get on this one, we begin the operation." She lifted her head to stare at each one of the SeeDs in turn. "Our ultimate goal is to seize the president in his car using our base. That means, we'll have to switch our dummy car with their president's car." When none of them said anything, she cleared her throat and then plowed ahead. "Ok, now I'm going to explain the procedures in seven steps."
She pushed the Owls' train forward until their 'dummy car' was alongside the '2nd Escort car.'
"We'll get on the roof of the 2nd Escort by jumping off the roof of our dummy car."
Watts inserted then with, "the 2nd Escort is the only one that is equipped with sensors, sir." Rinoa nodded.
"A high tech officer is on board," she agreed, then waved her hand. "I'll talk about the sensors later." She traced a finger across the top of the 2nd Escort, then across the ugly red car next. "We can move across the roof of the president's car without worrying too much."
"Deling hates the company of his guards and being surrounded by sensors," Zone announced, "and keeps them away from his car."
Rinoa motioned to the first track switch point in front the train cars. "We'll have to complete the uncoupling before the first switch point," she proclaimed. "If we don't . . ."
"Boom!" Selphie cried excitedly, causing the Owls to jerk in surprise. She grinned at their startled looks. "Game over, right?"
Rinoa blinked. ". . . yeah," she agreed after a moment, then cleared her throat and turned back to the model. "So we'll have to move fast. I'll explain the uncoupling process in a minute." She unhooked the president's car from the 1st Escort. "After the car is uncoupled we'll have the dummy car and our base move in." She pushed the Owl's train across the tracks and then lined them up. "At this point, our train and their train will be linked and moving together." Then as they approached the second switch point she unhooked the Owl's locomotive from the dummy car in front of it and the president's car from the 2nd Escort car. "This is the last uncoupling," Rinoa announced. "The process will be similar to the first one. If all goes well, we should be able to escape with the president's car," she continued, pushing the connected Owl's locomotive and the president's car off down another track at the 2nd switch point while the original train—now with the dummy car—continued straight. She sat back then with a sigh and a grim smile.
"After that, we'll return to our base and confront Deling. We have exactly five minutes to complete the seven procedures. If we fail, our train will collide with theirs at the switch point and it'll be all over. Don't forget that."
Zell blew out a low whistle. "Five minutes?" he murmured then, eyebrow cocked. "You sure that's enough?" Zone snorted.
"According to the simulation that we ran, it should only take three minutes to complete the operation." He smirked. "Piece of cake for SeeDs, right?"
Selphie grinned. "Of course!" she exclaimed confidently. "Too easy!" Rinoa chuckled.
"Ok," she called, "now let's talk about how to avoid the sensors on the 2nd Escort." She turned to her fellow Owl. "Go ahead, Watts," she encouraged.
The chubby teen cleared his throat, then began motioning to the car in question. "The guards have a sound sensor and a temperature sensor, sir. Any sound will trigger the sound sensor, so move across very quietly, sir. The blue guard is carrying this sensor. The temperature sensor will go off if you remain stationary, sir. The guard in red is carrying this one, sir. When a guard opens the blind, that means he's checking the sensor, so be careful! The range on these sensors is equal to the length of one window. So keep an eye on the window below, sir."
Zell's brow had wrinkled into confusion long before Watts was finished. Even Squall had trouble following all that, amongst all those 'sirs.'"
"So exactly how do you avoid 'em?" the blonde demanded. Watts blanched, then shrugged.
"Umm . . . basically, run or stop, depending on which guard is below you."
Rinoa sighed and took over again. "That's about it for the sensors. Next let's talk about how to uncouple the Escort cars."
"Question!" Selphie suddenly piped up, raising her hand. Rinoa glanced at her and the bouncy brunette continued. "How can you uncouple cars from a moving train?" Rinoa winced.
"Umm . . . we can't uncouple the cars directly," she admitted somewhat sheepishly.
Zone quickly continued. "Instead, we'll have to tamper with the control system that manages the uncoupling. If we temporarily disable the circuit for the connection, the car will uncouple automatically," he then announced proudly. "To disable it, we have to enter several codes."
"And we have the codes," Watts inserted again. "Rinoa has them, sir!" The girl in question nodded vigorously.
"I'll be in charge of relaying the codes to Squall." She turned to him and he fought the urge to turn away from her steady, eager stare. "Squall, you'll slide down the side of the train using a cable and enter the codes into the system. Now I need you to listen carefully. Each code is made up of numbers between 1 through 4 and each has 4 digits ; 2341 is an example. But the keypad won't have numbers. Instead it'll have four buttons; an x, a triangle, a circle and a square. For instance, if I relay the code 3124, you'll push square, circle, x and triangle," she explained. "You'll have to be quick and precise. You'll have about five seconds to enter each code. Otherwise the code will change and the past entries become invalid."
Inwardly Squall growled at the stupidity of setting up such a dumb security system—who ever heard about using shapes as a keypad, and why the hell couldn't she just tell him the corresponding shapes in the first place instead of confusing the issue with numbers?—but kept his mouth shut and just nodded. Rinoa heaved a relieved sigh, then sat back again.
"So, like we said, we have to enter all the codes to disable the connection. After we uncouple the cars, we'll wait for the others to operate the rail switch. Remember, we have only five minutes to do everything, so make sure that you're prepared." She blinked at their continued attentive stares and then cleared her throat. "Um . . . that's all."
The three SeeDs nodded and then straightened. Selphie hesitated however, scowling down at the trains. "By the way, the model's nice but the president's car looks kinda shabby." She glanced back up at the Owls, two of which were fighting smirks while the other—Rinoa—was slowly turning red in the face. "Why is that?"
Watts chuckled. "Yeah, Rinoa made it," he revealed, "that's why. We bought everything else at the gift store."
"Oh," Zell returned, wincing. "I thought some kid made it," he then proclaimed, half smirking, half wincing. "The paint job sucks too."
Squall felt his lips twitch. Yeah, he conceded inwardly, it kind of does.
"Oh, shut up!" Rinoa burst out, hands on her hips. "I made it look like that on purpose," she insisted then, tone indignant. "It represents my hatred for Deling."
Zell snorted. "Hatred, eh?" He chuckled. "Yeah . . . right." Selphie made a face.
"It's one of the . . . ugliest things that I've ever seen in my life," she announced. "You must really hate him."
Squall was losing the battle as far as not cracking a smirk was concerned at his squad's relentlessness. Rinoa's face was a bright cherry red by now.
"Are you guys finished?!" she snapped, stomping her foot. "Enough about the model! Can we get on with it now?"
Zell and Selphie hung their heads, shamefaced though still fighting smirks and chuckles. Squall straightened with a sigh, face devoid of all emotion. Rinoa pinned her gaze on him.
"Do you understand?" she questioned.
"Yes," he responded with a nod. Rinoa pumped her fist, grinning.
"Let's decide on the party!"
Watts immediately fell back a few steps. "Gathering information is my specialty, sir!" he proclaimed, eyes wide, before running out of the room entirely. Zone fell into a crouch near-by, cradling his mid-section and groaning.
"My stomach!" he wheezed painfully.
Rinoa glared down at him, hands catching onto her hips with an annoyed huff. Just then the locomotive they were in suddenly released it's breaks and began rolling forward. Rinoa glanced up, then turned to Squall.
"We're moving again," she announced needlessly, then turned for the door. "I'll go take a look." She left, then in the next breath ran back in. "Talk to Watts when you're ready," she added as an after-thought apparently. "The sooner the better."
The three of them exchanged looks, then Squall shook his head and led the way out of the meeting room. They found Watts standing near the exit. He grinned.
"Have you seen the dummy of the president, sir?" he questioned eagerly. "If you haven't, please have a look-see! It's like a piece of art!" Squall just stared at him, not moving and his expression unchanging, so Watts' smile faded and he cleared his throat before straightening. "I know the kidnapping plan must be tough, but best of luck to you, sir." He glanced out the window to check their progress, then turned back, looking torn between nervousness and excitement. "Are you ready, sir?!"
"Yeah," Squall assured, tone bored.
A few moments later the three of them found themselves on top of the Owls' dummy car, hanging on for dear life as the train sped forward in excess of sixty to eighty miles an hour. Rinoa crouched on the roof as well, towards the front. She motioned to them. "Squall, over here!"
He crouched low and carefully moved forward, Zell and Selphie right behind him. They all crouched down near Rinoa. "We'll catch up with the 2nd Escort soon," she yelled over the rush of wind, indicating the other train in the distance, of which was closing fast. "Let's get ready. We should time our jumps well after we catch up to them to save some time. From now we have exactly," she glanced at her watch, "five minutes to complete the operation. Let's try to use every second."
In no time their train pulled up along side the other. Zell crossed first, then Selphie, then Rinoa. Squall was the last to cross over. By the time he had steadied himself the others had already crossed to the other side of the car. Rinoa motioned for him to move it. Squall hesitated, however, recalling from her spiel earlier that this was the car with the sensors. He could hear voices inside the car, however, and after a moment it became obvious that Galbadia's high-tech gadgets were on the fritz. Therefore he stood in a crouch and just moved across as quickly as possible.
"This is the president's car," Rinoa explained quickly, as if Squall had forgotten already. "After we get across, we'll proceed with the uncoupling."
The group made their way over the top of the president's car and then onto the back end of the 1st Escort. Zell and Selphie took up positions farther down while Squall and Rinoa remained toward the back.
"This is the 1st Escort," Rinoa called. "We're gonna uncouple this first. Like Watts said, there should be two guards on this car. Selphie and Zell, you guys keep an eye on the guards. Let us know early if you see them coming."
"Alright, I'll watch the blue guard!" Zell pronounced, leaning over the side just enough to peek into the windows below.
"I'll take red," Selphie seconded, doing the same.
"The red guard is closer," was Rinoa's sudden observation. "Squall, you might want to keep an eye on him, too." Squall nodded once to indicate he'd heard. She reached back behind her and then pulled out a cell phone, flipping open the top. "Ok, are you ready to enter the codes?" she questioned then. "You remember everything, right?"
Squall had to fight to keep from letting his annoyance show. "Yeah," he replied, tone abrupt. If she noticed, Rinoa didn't indicate that she had. Instead she began pressing buttons on her phone.
"We'll have to enter three codes to disable the circuit for this uncoupling," she proclaimed, then lifted her eyes from the phone's display and met his steady stare. "Ok Squall," she called. "Get the cable ready."
Squall removed the repelling contraption Zone had shoved into his hands before they'd left and quickly attached it to the roof of the train, then clipped the cable to one of his belts.
"The system to enter the code is down there," she yelled, pointing downward to the side of the door. "You can't miss it. Ok let's do it," she exclaimed after he'd nodded again, leaning back and preparing to drop off the side of a moving train. "We have four minutes left," she announced after checking her phone. "Good luck, Squall!"
Without another word or gesture Squall pushed himself off the roof of the train and swung down until his boots landed on the bottom ledge, catching himself. He tore open the small access panel and then motioned for Rinoa to get on with it. She called out the first two codes and he entered them with no problem. Zell suddenly yelled out that the blue guard was approaching, then Selphie echoed that about the red. Squall scowled and stayed put however, indicating impatiently for Rinoa to hurry up and give him the third code. She stuttered a little, flustered, but Squall entered the number flawlessly before hitting the retract button on the remote in his hands and shooting back up the side of the train an instant before the red guard passed by the door window.
Squall then followed Rinoa back across the president's car to the 2nd Escort. He held on, as did she, and watched—breath held—as the Owl's locomotive and dummy train squeezed in onto their track at the switch point, the locomotive latching onto the president's car and the dummy car automatically hitching to the 1st Escort. Rinoa motioned to the doorway below.
"Ok, we're back at the 2nd Escort. After this, we're home free. Remember there are two guards on this car too. Zell and Selphie are up ahead working on uncoupling our train from theirs. So you're on your own this time." She gave him a nervous smile. "Let's get this over with."
Squall watched the activity of the two guards below for a moment, then went ahead and repelled down the side of the train. He put in two of the codes, then lifted back up just in time to avoid a patrol. "Three minutes, forty seconds," Rinoa called. Squall nodded grimly without looking, watching the guards. As soon as they turned their backs he dropped back down again and then swiftly inputted the last three codes.
Rinoa lead the way across the detaching cars to the Owl's locomotive, Zell and Selphie meeting them half way as it detached from the dummy car and then sped off down the second switch point with the president's car in tow. The other train moved on down the original track toward town, oblivious.
The four of them re-entered the engine and met up with Zone and Watts, who were waiting in the first hall. Zone grinned. "Finally," he breathed. "We've waited so long for this encounter with Vinzer."
Watts was grinning from ear to ear. "Was that perfect sir?!" he questioned, "and under three minutes as well! Amazing, sir! You're the best, sir!"
Squall just sighed while Zell and Selphie preened under the praise. Rinoa turned to the others.
"Well then . . ."
Watts blanched. "Leave the intelligence up to me, sir!" he cried, the turned on his heel and took off toward the back of the car. Zone fell into a crouch in the corner, clutching his stomach. Rinoa huffed angrily, hands on her hips. Then she turned to the SeeDs.
"You three! Let me know when you're ready to go! As soon as you're ready, I'll begin serious negotiations with the president!"
Squall bit back a groan, rubbing at his temple with a wince. 'Serious negotiations?' Better make sure my GF's equipped.
Squall glanced at the others, who gave him nods of readiness, before he turned back to Rinoa and motioned that she get on with it. She took a deep, fortifying breath, then opened the door that would lead to the president's car and stepped inside. Squall, Zell and Selphie were right behind her. Selphie swung one of the ends of her nunchaku, bored, and Squall kept a hand on the handle of his gunblade, just in case. They entered the lushly furnished passenger car however, and the only person inside was the supposed President Deling, seated with his back to them.
Squall and the other two hung back while Rinoa approached Deling. "President Deling!" she called out, striving to make her voice sound strong and intimidating. "As long as you . . . don't resist, you won't get hurt," she announced. Squall rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, biting back a sigh. This was pathetic . . .
"And what if I do resist . . ." the president suddenly questioned, oddly enough, causing Squall to turn his gaze back forward, frowning in confusion and burgeoning suspicion. "What would you do?" he continued to question, turning to stare at Rinoa. "Young lady?"
Rinoa gasped, face paling, and took a hesitant step backward.
"What's wrong?" Squall demanded, his hand taking a firmer hold on his gunblade.
"Boo-hoo," the 'president' suddenly cooed, "too bad." Then he got to his feet and turned. It was obviously not the president. Whatever it was, Squall wasn't even sure it was human. It's face seemed . . . distorted somehow. As if someone had smeared a bunch of putty on it and it was beginning to melt off. It was a disturbing image, to be certain. "I'm not the president," the thing announced needlessly. "I'm what they call . . . a body double. All these rumors about the many resistance groups in Timber . . . You pass along a little false information and they fall for it." It sneered at them, the image truly grotesque. "How pathetic. Seems like there are only amateurs around here."
Rinoa gasped, eyes wide. "Ama . . . teurs?!" she breathed, half-way between offended and frightened.
The body double suddenly hunched over and lurched a step forward. Squall tensed, fingers flexing around his gunblade. Inwardly he cursed. Rinoa was standing too close to the thing, within lunging distance, and he didn't have any clear shot with her so near.
"Ahh," the thing groaned. "My butt hurts from all this sitting . . . Young . . . LADY . . ." he proclaimed, the voice beginning to switch octaves like crazy, going from normal to deep and guttural—inhuman—with every other word. "So what did you have in stORE for me had I resiSTED?" it demanded, turning on Rinoa, who backed a couple of steps away, eyes wide and face pale. "Why doN'T you teLL mE."
The creature suddenly made a swipe at Rinoa, who let out a shriek and then fell back on her rear, having tripped. Squall jerked his gunblade out and fired a warning shot then, cutting off the thing from getting any closer to her. It whirled. Zell had already fell into a fighting crouch, fists raised. Selphie brandished her nunchaku, expression stern.
"QuiTE aMUsing thouGH," it growled, lurching a few steps forward, doing as Squall had hoped and focusing on them instead of a defenseless Rinoa. "For beINg such amAtEurs . . .!! HoW daRe YOU InSUlt tHe presIDent!!!"
At that the thing launched itself with surprising speed. Zell raised his arms to defend himself, but cried out as the thing latched onto his arm and then bit him. Blood spurted free from the wound, gushing between the slavering creature's lips before a pained Zell recovered. Grimacing, the blonde wrenched the arm the creature had a hold of around, tearing a small chunk out of his forearm but catching the thing in the temple with his elbow on the way, then he smashed his opposite fist directly into the thing's face before finishing it off with a bone-crunching uppercut with his wounded arm again.
The body double stumbled back under the barrage, snarling, blood now staining it's face and the front of it's expensive navy blue suit. Zell fell back a couple of steps, cradling his now freely bleeding forearm. Selphie tossed him a Potion, which he quickly administered with another pained growl while Squall kept the creature busy avoiding a few slashes of his gunblade.
He finally caught the thing in the forehead with a direct hit, and the body flopped to the ground. Squall started to loosen, thinking it over, but gaped when the whole body suddenly started to melt.
"What the . . ." he murmured, stunned. The human façade disappeared, and in it's place rose a huge pale-skinned monster of grotesque, asymmetrical proportions, it's skull-like head complete with razor-sharp teeth protruding from it's gaping maw. Rinoa just stared, eyes wide, from where she'd retreated to the far end of the car.
Selphie stepped forward.
"It's undead," she announced. "I heard about a trick you could use when fighting undead, back in Trabia." She glanced at Squall. "Permission to try something crazy, sir," she asked.
She and Squall were first to break apart, dodging the creature as it made a swipe at them with it's massive right claw appendage. It snarled in frustration.
"Do whatever the hell you think will work!" Squall snapped, darting in to catch the thing in the midsection, firing his gunblade. Unfortunately—since undead weren't exactly in desperate need of their anatomy—it didn't have a whole lot of effect.
"Ok!" Selphie crowed. "Zell, if you've got holy magic or fire magic," she called, "now's the time to unleash it!"
She followed that up by raising her nunchaku and calling a cure spell . . . on the monster. Amazingly the thing groaned and hissed in pain, and Squall watched in stunned dumbfoundation as parts of it's flesh began to bubble and ooze as if it had been struck by acid.
Zell hesitated, then put his uninjured hand to his forehead before holding it out in front of him, palm raised.
Squall jerked as a very familiar roar lit up the train car. He knew his mouth had to be hanging open as none other than the bad-tempered, foul-mouthed GF Ifrit suddenly appeared. It unleashed with a massive fireball attack that left nothing but cinders of the undead monster—as well as destroying a great deal of the interior of the car they were in.
Selphie put away her nunchaku, then went over to examine Zell's wound, which he allowed with a pained hiss. The flesh around the teeth marks were starting to turn a greenish purple, which wasn't a good sign. No doubt he'd been poisoned. She administered an Antidote, to which he yelped.
"Oh don't be such a big baby," she snapped, and Zell gave her a wounded glare in return. Squall just stared at him, scowling.
"You're junctioned with Ifrit?" he demanded after a moment. Zell jerked at the sound of his voice, then gave him a sheepish smile, his free hand going back behind his head.
"Ah . . . y-yup." He suddenly grit his teeth against the pain when Selphie continued with her first aid, hitting him with a cure spell. The now healthy red teeth marks slowly began to knit closed before their eyes. "I . . . uh . . . don't tell many people," Zell admitted, "just for this reason and the reaction you're gettin'. A lot of people hold a mean grudge because of that damned SeeD qualifying test," he grumbled then.