Book II, Part I: Outbreak - Vector's Gambit
Chapter VI—Crackdown
[July 12, 2152 | Galbadia City, Streets | 11:18 AM]
Fiona Carmichael was not having a good day. It was understandable, after all; any day that began with waking up normally and wound up with you running from a trio of highly-trained SeeD officers tended to put a damper on your mood, she reasoned.
"Lovely," she muttered to herself, sparing a quick glance behind her as she changed lanes to avoid a slower-moving car driving down the Galbadian street. She had to admit that she'd had worse chases - at least Galbadia had wide streets and little traffic in broad daylight, which was more than could be said for Esthar. Aircars made for interesting things to try and escape the police in, all things considered.
Quickly, she grabbed her phone and stabbed a button with her finger, setting it in the cupholder beside her as the speed dial option began ringing.
"Yeah?"
"Sam," she said, glad to hear her friend's voice. "Got a problem."
"What kind of problem?" he asked, right before tires squealed as Fiona juked again to avoid a car that threatened to pull out in front of her, followed quickly by the sound of the car horn blaring from behind her.
"The usual," she said, acting more nonchalant than she felt. "Getting chased through the streets by a SeeD team. Nothing big."
"Fi, what the hell are you doing?" he exclaimed as Fiona spared another look back. "You weren't supposed to go looking for those guys!"
"I didn't go looking for them, Sam!" she retorted. "I went to Lassiter's, and they just happened to show up right as I was leaving!"
"Oh, for..." Sam started, an audible sigh coming across the call. "What do you need, Fi?"
"Clear way to someplace I can lose these guys," she responded.
"Where are you now?"
"Just passing...4th and Jasper."
The car suddenly jolted from behind as a bolt of magical energy struck it, causing Fiona to rapidly compensate for the impact in order to not wreck as she continued to drive at high speed. She spared a glance in the rearview mirror and could see an older girl leaning out the window of the vehicle behind her, hand outstretched as she took careful aim before casting another bolt of magic at her car. This one she avoided, swerving into the lane beside her and letting the bolt fly past her car before moving back to her right.
"And now they're shooting magic at me. Got anything yet, Sam?"
"Working on it, Fi...I'm good, not a miracle worker."
"Nice to know I've been lied to all this time," she snarked, gunning the engine as she blew through an empty intersection, red light and all. As quickly as she had revved her engine, she was forced to slam on brakes and swerve to avoid clipping another car that pulled out from the intersection ahead, this one -
Yes, that was most definitely someone in the passenger's seat that was yelling and pointing at her, and not because she'd almost killed them. Which meant the SeeDs behind her had backup.
"Sam...! How's that plan coming?"
"Just keep going, Fi - I've almost got something!"
"Good, because they just did get something - like another set of people chasing me!"
"Are you kidding...no, you're not. Great..." Sam muttered over the call, sighing again. "This just keeps getting better."
Her car jostled again as another bolt of magic crashed into it, and she could hear the screeching of metal on pavement as part of her rear bumper dislodged and began dragging on the road behind it. A few seconds later, she flinched as her back windshield shattered from another well-aimed attack, and she shifted back to the left a bit before slamming the brakes as she came up on the next intersection, throwing the car into a drift and making a hasty right turn that just missed a car sitting in the lane next to her as she cut onto a side street. She could hear tires squealing behind her as the two pursuing vehicles scrambled to brake and make the same turn, and she took the opportunity to pour on as much speed as she could to get some distance.
"Where are you now?" Sam asked, causing her to look for the nearest street sign.
"I'm on Downton...just passed Clover," she remarked. She spared a glance back then, seeing one of the pursuing vehicles behind her; whether the second was still following, she couldn't tell. "Might've lost one of them - can't see from here."
"Okay, okay...gimme a minute...tell me that's the schedule I think it is..."
Her car jerked again, more powerfully this time, and she heard a loud 'bang' as one of her rear tires went flat, leaving her fighting for control of the vehicle for a few tense seconds on the narrow side street.
"Sam, I'm running out of time here!"
"Alright, I've got it! Take the next left to Cutler and make your way back to Elverton! You've got...about two and a half minutes to get there - you'll know your break when you see it!"
"On it," she said through gritted teeth, still trying to keep the car in line and moving as well as she could with a busted tire. She hit the brakes again, a bit more carefully this time, and turned onto Cutler Avenue just in time to dodge another pair of magical bolts coming from the car behind her.
She resisted the urge to swear profusely as she realized that the other car that had joined the pursuit was now in front of her, approaching at a rapid pace.
"Just not my day," she muttered, looking for a way out of the mess she'd just inadvertently driven herself into. Without thinking, she braked again and swerved into the parking lot of a nearby gas station, narrowly missing a car about to turn out as she weaved beside the cars at the pump, heading for the exit that led to the street crossing the one she was on now. Her shattered tire and bumper threw up more sparks as they bounced along the paved lot, and she wheeled out onto the intersecting road before veering right again, getting back onto the same road she was traveling on. She noticed that the vehicle that had been behind her a moment ago was now in front of her, while the one that had been approaching was now doing a hasty U-turn to try and rejoin the chase. The car in front of her hit the brakes suddenly, trying to slow down and box her in on the smaller street, and she could see the woman in the front seat turning around to lean out the window again with a hand glowing with magical power.
Another quick dodge sent her into the oncoming lane for a brief second - thankfully, there were no cars coming at the moment - and she revved her engine once again, car shaking as she accelerated past the car in front of her. She spared a glance at the one driving as she passed, seeing a young man's face and short hair, and she couldn't resist a smirk despite all the danger as she recognized the face she thought she may never see again.
"You're persistent, DeValle," she muttered, swerving back into the right lane in front of her pursuer.
"Fi?"
"Just talking to myself," she replied, hands shaking as she felt the car's stability slip a little further. "How long do I have?"
"About...45 seconds. Step on it, Fi!"
"What do you think I've been doing? Sightseeing?" she retorted, speeding up as much as she dared in her car's condition. She didn't have much of a lead, all things considered, but the SeeD members seemed to be hanging back a bit, trying not to stay right on her tail again lest she pull another crazy maneuver and give them the slip.
Unfortunately for them, she realized as the sights ahead of her came into view, they were about to regret that decision. She almost laughed as she saw the telltale yellow and black, X-shaped signs and flashing red lights denoting a train crossing, realizing all at once what Sam's plan was.
"Sam, have I ever told you that you're crazy?"
"Sometimes crazy works, Fi," he replied, a hint of smugness in his voice. "You see it?"
"Yeah, I see it," she said, glancing off to the right and spotting the freight train that was heading for the crossing. "It'll be close, but I can make it."
"I'm not picking pieces of you up off the street if you don't," he shot back, listening as Fiona pushed all the power she could from her engine to beat the train across.
Fiona had a death grip on the wheel, listening to the horrible sound of metal on pavement coming from her ruined tire and seeing the sparks flying in the rearview mirror, but she didn't let up on the gas as the gates began to go down. Thankfully, there wasn't anyone ahead of her in the lane, and she kept her focus straight ahead as she drove towards the crossing, hoping she could time it right. The gate in front of her dropped fully across the lane, but she didn't care as she smashed through it, shattering the wooden bar into flying splinters as she flew across the tracks ahead of the train. Her car shook terribly from the speed and jarring movement across the rails, and for a moment she feared she'd lose control completely, but she somehow managed to keep it under enough control to recover and slow down a bit as the train passed through the crossing, blocking both of her pursuers' vehicles from view and from following. Finally slowing back down to what she deemed an acceptable speed given her car's condition, she started winding through more of the city suburbs, taking several turns and offshoots to try and obscure where she might be heading next as she let herself calm down again.
"Thanks, Sam," she finally said, glancing back down at her phone.
"It's what I do," he replied. "It was the kid, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. Darius DeValle, Jr. in the flesh. I'd never forget that face after what I did."
"How many of them are there?"
"I counted at least four, from what I could see - there were two in each car, but I couldn't see if anyone else was in either vehicle outside of the passenger seat. Four fully-trained SeeD operatives hunting me down is the exact opposite of what I needed right now," she sighed. "We're so close, Sam..."
"I know, Fi. Won't be long now, though - I just need a little more time. The paperwork's almost finished, and soon we'll be able to shut the door on this whole messy business."
Darius was more upset than he'd been in quite some time, though he did a good job at hiding it from most of his team. Silvia, however, knew better, as did Revolver. Both of them had seen enough of his varied moods to know when he was well and truly bothered by something, and it wasn't hard to see how frustrated and helpless he was feeling right now. He couldn't believe they had been manipulated the way they had - the whole time, they thought they were leading her into an ambush with Silvia's team as backup, and they'd been outrun at every turn like amateurs.
"You have her plate?" he asked Andréa, who simply nodded.
"Of course. It was the first thing I did."
"We'll run it once we get back to my place, and see what we can come up with. Silvia - get back in touch with the police. Our little chase is bound to draw some attention from them, and maybe we can get their help in tracking her down. If they have any problems with how we handled things, let me know and I'll take care of it."
"Got it," Silvia replied, stepping away a short distance as she reached for her GLD.
"Naoki, Sumiko - you two come with me, back to Lassiter's shop. I want to see if there are any kind of clues left there before the police start swarming the place."
"You don't think they could be there already?" Sumiko asked, curious.
"Maybe, but probably not. We've only been gone...what, fifteen or twenty minutes? This is Galbadia - crime's so rampant and common most of the time that people don't take as much interest in things like that. It might be hours before someone notices what happened and cares enough to call it in - if they call it in, of course."
"That's...disheartening," Naoki said, frowning at the thought of a murder being beneath notice. Darius merely shrugged.
"Welcome to Galbadia. If it wasn't for the Deling family and my dad having kept the greater part of the organized crime under their thumbs, it might be a lot worse."
Revolver gave a snort of disgust at the words, but said nothing.
"Revolver. Can you track her?"
"Her car was fast - she's several miles away by now, if not more. It may take me some time, but I can find her," Revolver replied matter-of-factly, beginning to cast magic on himself. Slowly, he levitated into the air, wind currents swirling lightly around him as he headed off in the direction Fiona's car had fled.
"Good. One less thing to worry about for the moment," Darius mused, looking over at Silvia as she approached again. "What's the word?"
"They'll be on the lookout for her, and they want to ask us a few questions about what we know of her," Silvia replied. "You want to go to Lassiter's first?"
"Yeah," he said. "May as well get what we can before we get tied up with the cops - our luck, we'll be there the rest of the day."
[July 12, 2152 | Galbadia City, Galbadia City Police Department | 12:33 PM]
Jennifer Reis looked up from her computer, brushing an errant strand of hair away from her eyes for the third time in as many minutes. She was the chief forensics scientist for the department, and they had just started her on working a case that had just come through involving a murder downtown - a man named Quintin Lassiter, she saw, pulling his file up on the computer briefly. The man didn't look too troubling compared to some of the people she'd seen files on - a few convictions for things like carrying a firearm in public areas without his license on him and the like. No murders or gun violence, which almost surprised her for someone who ran a gun store in one of the seedier parts of the city.
She reached for the cup at her desk, taking a swallow of the liquid inside before almost spitting it out again. The coffee was stone cold now, the result of her running around throughout the morning and forgetting to make a new cup after the last interruption she'd had. Sighing, she got up from her desk and grabbed the cup, walking across the hall to the small break area and pouring the contents down the sink. She was still waiting on more information anyway; taking a minute to get another cup of mocha-flavored happiness wouldn't hurt anyone.
"Too busy even for coffee?" a male voice behind her called, and she turned to see one of her coworkers standing there with some Gil in hand, examining the selections at the soda machine.
"Had a whole cup, and now it's cold," she replied. "Already had a cup, Jack?"
"Yeah - had one a while ago. Figured I'd grab something here instead of another cup, seeing as how it's almost all gone," the man replied, shrugging and putting his Gil note into the slot. A bottle of soda hit the bottom with a dull 'thud' as Jennifer refilled her coffee mug, tasting the warm beverage gingerly to make sure it wasn't too hot.
"They have you on some hot stuff this morning or something?" Jack asked, twisting the top off of his own drink.
"Didn't start out too bad, but we just got a call about a murder downtown from - of all people - a group of SeeD officials out of Trabia Garden."
"SeeD? What's Trabian SeeD doing all the way out here?"
"No clue, but they just tore up a little bit of real estate out in the residential sector chasing down some suspect of theirs," Jennifer remarked. "Waiting on the full report so I can start compiling some info on the suspect now."
"You'll be waiting a while, probably," Jack said with a chuckle. "More than long enough to finish that cup of coffee this time around."
"Sure hope so," she said with a sigh. "Could use it this morning. Didn't sleep all too well last night, and it's getting to me more than I'd like."
"Lot of bad stuff happening lately," Jack replied. "How long ago was it that the whole mess with the Deling family went down?"
"About a week and a half ago, I think. Something like that," Jennifer replied dismissively, sipping her coffee again. "Is it a bad thing to say that I wasn't all too sad to hear what happened?"
"Deling was an arrogant prick," Jack said, putting the cap back on his soda. "Probably just pissed off the wrong person this time and paid for it, president or not. No sense wasting time out of your busy day to feel sorry for someone like him."
"Yeah, you're probably right," she remarked with a sigh.
"With him gone, I suppose we'll see some new blood in the office. Could turn this piss-poor excuse of a nation around yet. Any ideas of who might replace him?"
"Does it matter?" Jennifer snarked, shrugging. "If it's not a Deling, it'll be one of their family's stooges. No matter who goes in, we lose. This country has been headed downhill ever since Deling Sr. first took office, and I doubt it'll get better any time soon."
"Sadly, you're probably right," Jack agreed as Jennifer started to leave. "Headed back so soon?"
"Probably need to check for that e-mail with the report," she replied, heading out of the room as Jack followed behind. "What, you're gonna come too?"
"I've got a few minutes," he replied, which she realized really meant 'I'm trying to get out of working for a few more minutes.' She shook her head as she stepped back into her office, pulling up her e-mails and checking through the three new ones she had. Two of them were requests for some recent forensic files needed for trials which hadn't been filed away yet, but the last was the one that she was waiting on, and she pulled it up before started to read over it and pick out the details.
"One male found dead at his shop...one female suspect fled the scene, SeeD team pursued...chase stopped by train...ah, here we go. Fiona Carmichael - that's who they want the file on."
"Haven't we heard that name before?" Jack asked, a thoughtful look spreading over his face.
"No, that was Leona Michaels," Jennifer said absently, beginning to pull up the national database used for criminal information. Everything from arrest records to fingerprints was kept there for easy access, and she pulled up the search menu before typing the name into the field and pressing 'Enter.' Instantly, two results came up, and the woman clicked on the first option to open the file associated with it, being presented with a mugshot of a middle-aged woman along with personal details in just a few moments.
"Whoops...had it age-sorted," she muttered, looking at the incorrect file for a moment before going back to the search results. "They said this girl was probably in her twenties or so. Let's see..."
She clicked on the second file...
...and blinked.
In bold letters adorning a picture of the seal of the Federated Commonwealth of Esthar, a single phrase was spelled out.
"This file is classified 'CONFIDENTIAL' by order of the office of the President of the Federated Commonwealth of Esthar. Access to this file is prohibited."
Jennifer and Jack stared at the screen for a moment, unable to do or say anything in the face of the warning message that had appeared, and for a brief instance Jennifer thought someone must be playing a joke on her. She'd been working in the department for years, and she had never encountered a file that had any kind of security clearance on it, much less one from a government halfway around the world.
"...You're seeing this, right?" she asked, the rhetorical question garnering a mute nod from her coworker.
"With my own two eyes," Jack replied. "What in the world do you think's in that file?"
"I'm suddenly not sure I want to know," she said, standing up from her chair. "I've got to let the chief know about this, maybe see what we can do to get into that file. Watch my desk for a moment, would you?"
"Sure," he replied, setting his drink down on the desk and taking another look at the message. Jennifer stepped out of the room as quickly as she could manage, headed down the hallway towards the office of the chief of police.
Something told her that the rest of this particular day was going to be anything but routine.