The large, semi-circular office of the President of Galbadia had been decorated with a mind to the fact that it was the workplace of one of the world's most powerful men. Vinzer Deling had assembled quite a collection of artworks depicting great figures of Monterosa's history, including a few of himself, standing triumphantly in the middle of Timber Square or at his inaguration on the balcony just upstairs. But Lord-General Naraka, with his small frame and generally reserved demeanor, was not a man who had much presence, and the grandiose accommodations seemed ill-suited for him. At the moment, he was sitting at the heavy Timber-oak desk that had been made – in a great gesture of irony – for President Deling, his predecessor, and reading; a visitor entering the room might have trouble noticing him at first. Still, the scowl he wore on his face was enough to unsettle just about anyone who observed it long enough.

The appearance of Janis with yet another dispatch was not likely to improve his mood, regardless of the news he had to deliver. Yet the president's aide knew enough not to waste any time worrying about such things, because the president certainly didn't like to be kept waiting.

Naraka looked up immediately as the other man stepped into the room. "What is it?" he snapped.

"We've received another dispatch from the DSRC, Mr. President," Janis said. "Directly from Administrator Derrick. He informs us that he has dispatched a recovery team to return the Sorceress and Commander Leonhart to Galbadian custody."

"The idiot couldn't keep the SeeDs in his custody when they were confined on his facility; what makes him think he can catch them now?"

"He said that he hopes to solve the problem with resources already allocated to the DSRC, and therefore spare other Galbadian forces from unnecessary burden."

"Well, it's far too late for that," said Naraka; he had turned his attention back to the papers on his desk. "What else?"

"That was the whole of the message, sir."

"Fine. Make certain they keep a close eye on the eight SeeDs which they did manage to keep in custody; if any one of them manages to get off that facility, the Administrator can expect a swift termination of his command, no matter the results of his current blunder." He scribbled his signature on the paper he had been reading. "Deliver this to the Supreme Forces Commander. What's the status of our military preparations?"

"Command is mobilizing our naval forces on the East coast as we speak, and our land forces are on ready alert. General Tolmar signaled from Galbadia Garden; she wishes to know what if any action she ought to take."

Naraka nodded. "She is to suspend that Garden's autonomy, effective immediately, and close the campus to prevent any students departing. And she's to make clear that any hostile action will be met on our part with decisive force."

Janis nodded. "Yes, Mr. President."

Now, the Lord-General stood and turned to the window looking over the Central Square of Deling City. "Everything is coming together for them," he mused. "The Sorceress is free, and they could have dozens of agents roaming about my countryside; but they haven't won yet. I'm not Deling, and I won't allow myself to fall into his trap again. I will contain SeeD's threat, or I'll destroy it; and nothing's going to get in my way." He turned around, frowning slightly at Janis as if he had expected the man not there. "See to your business. You're dismissed."

"Thank you, Mr. President." Janis nodded, and left the room.

"Look, Foster, I had my doubts about letting you go after this story in the first —"

Besides talking on the radiophone, Miranda was scanning through a list of Dollet and Galbadian officials, a series of articles from the Times and competing papers regarding Galbadian naval activity in the south, typing up a day summary in her notebook, and finishing off the lunch she had picked upon arriving at the Lapin Beach Plaza. None of this prevented her from cutting Blake off before he had even finished his first sentence.

"Look, I've been all over town looking for military and government people who might talk to me, I've called half the people in the Galbadian Southern Fleet, the Joint Command Office in Deling City, the radio monitor stations; even the Press Ministry wouldn't say anything! There's no way I'm going to get anything if I'm stuck here in Dollet; they're giving me the big stonewall, and the only way around it is for me to head down south and see what's going on for myself."

"It's just out of the question, okay? We don't have the resources right now to —"

"I'll pay out of pocket," Miranda interrupted again. "I'll rent a car if I have to. Hell, my uncle's got a pretty new 600-series that he barely uses; I could just borrow that. Just give me the go-ahead, and you won't hear from me again until I've got the story."

"Well, damn, Foster, that almost makes it worthwhile right there. But I'm not going to send one of my best junior reporters —"

"I'm one of your best reporters?" teased Miranda.

"— after some pirate story when we've got the whole Galbadian military up in arms about...whatever the hell they're on about here. We need you in town for this, okay?"

"What if I said there was a connection?" Miranda asked.

Blake was actually silent for a moment. His response was, however, incredulous. "What?"

"A connection between the NALCON and the pirate story. Think about it; Galbadia's been handling these pirates way more seriously than's normal, and now they've upped the National Alert and won't even talk about why! I'm telling you, Blake, something fishy is going on here."

"Cute pun. Still, I —"

"Pun?" asked Miranda. "You mean 'fishy'? Come on, Blake, pirates and fish have only the most tangental connection to each other; it'd be a pun if I were talking about illegal whaling off Centra or something."

"Whales aren't fish, Miranda."

"Well, they're a lot closer than pirates are!"

Blake audibly sighed. "Foster, just because the Galbadians are clamming up now that they're at a higher alert condition doesn't tell us that there's a link between the two stories!"

"I know!" Miranda insisted. "That's why I've got to keep investigating! Blake, I like to think I have pretty good instincts on these things. Now, I've been working a few different stories for you now; wouldn't you say I usually don't go off like this without some good reason?"

There was a moment's silence on the other end of the line. "Oh, what the hell. But I want you back in town by the end of the week. We need more people who can use 'tangental' in a sentence."

"Blake, you're the greatest." Miranda hung up, and began picking up her things. It was only early afternoon, so she should be able to catch the 16:30 train to Timber, get set up that evening, and be ready to get started by tomorrow morning. She set to calculating whether or not she would have enough time to stop at home and pick up some things, but her train of thought was interrupted when she nearly collided with another young woman. "Woah!" she exclaimed. "Sorry; guess I wasn't —" Her apology was interrupted briefly as she noticed that the other young woman was dressed in the unmistakable blue-and-black uniform of a SeeD from Balamb Garden. "— paying attention there."

"Oh, that's all right," replied the SeeD. "...Hey, I just got into town; I was wondering what's been going on around here."

Miranda shrugged. "Oh, you know. martial law's over, but the troops are still here; curfew's been lifted, but we're encouraged to stay off the streets at night..." She nodded towards the coastline. "But, you know, they finally cleaned up Lapin Beach, anyway."

"Anything special going on just recently?" the SeeD pressed. "...They don't really tell us much about our job when they hire us, so we're all just guessing, you know?"

Miranda almost frowned; there was more to this SeeD's inquiry than simple curiosity, she thought. "Well, there's been more fighting up in the cliffs, I guess. Most people in the city don't pay too much attention to that anymore; a few partisans are just gonna annoy the Galbadians, not do anything serious. Especially with SeeD working with the G-men, it's pretty hopeless."

A faint shadow crossed over the SeeD's face, but she didn't comment on what she might have been thinking. "That it? I was hoping for something a bit more interesting."

Oh, yeah, said Miranda to herself. This girl's fishing for something. "Sorry, can't help you. If something else is going on, I'd kind of like to know about it myself. What with, you know, living here and all."

The SeeD nodded too; and now Miranda thought she was giving her a rather strange look as well. But the other woman smiled pleasantly, and the impression disappeared. "Well, thanks anyway. I guess I'll figure out soon enough."

"Hope it works out for you," Miranda agreed. As she was about to leave, she stopped to offer her hand. "I'm Miranda, by the way."

The SeeD took it, still friendly. "Linnis. Nice to meet you."

"Yeah. See you around, maybe."

"'Bye."

And the two parted ways. A moment later, as Miranda was replaying the encounter in her head, a thought occurred to her. She had been considering what it meant in SeeD's relationship with the Galbadians if SeeDs had to turn to outside sources for clues as to what their assignments were. Both Garden and the Galbadians were notoriously tight-lipped about such things, and even the newly arrived SeeDs would generally not be very talkative. Miranda wondered if this particular SeeD might have even been spying on her employers. Although she certainly wouldn't be able to cite any of this in the paper, it was something worthy of follow-up.

What she realized around then was that, in the course of the conversation, she had been hedging her words as well. So much so, in fact, that she had made no mention of the Galbadians raising the NALCON or the many speculations that were very common knowledge about what might be the cause. This might have made Linnis somewhat suspicious of her, as well.

I guess both of us need to brush up our techniques a bit, she thought, shaking her head. Then she went back to the debate of whether to return home or head straight for the rail station, or perhaps look after getting her uncle's car. Whatever was going on with SeeD, she had pirates to catch, and a theory to prove. Still, she filed away the SeeD's name and inquiries for a later time; something gave her the feeling that she had hit on something else to pressure Blake about in the days to come.