Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 76: Witness to Torture

“You know… normally, I’d be glad to see you.”

Tseng paused in his bid for the administration building at the sound of a familiar voice, and turned to see Viridia mere steps away from him and approaching fast.

“You’re not glad to see me?” he queried.

“At the moment… no. Because if the Turks are getting involved, it means we’ve got a real problem here.” She continued walking, and he quickly fell into step beside her.

“I take it, then, that the suspicion the captain is missing is more than mere suspicion at this point?”

Viridia nodded. “I’ve had security up all night searching this base from top to bottom, and then from bottom to top. We’ve been scouring Lower Junon, the shoreline, the forest… thus far, there’s been no trace of him. Tseng… he has top level security access to virtually everything on base. Weapons, computers, the reactor… We’re changing access codes left and right, per protocol, and increasing patrols and security checkpoints, but it goes beyond just a major security breach for Junon. He knows our battle strategies, infrastructure, defense capabilities, details of classified orders, troop positions in and around Wutai, and more. Information that could cripple any number of Shinra operations…”

“Wutai isn’t playing around. They know they have no chance in an offensive war. They’re hoping to sabotage us. Weaken us. Did you hear about the attack in Midgar yesterday?”

“Only bits and pieces,” she replied, “It was a surprise attack on a civilian event, wasn’t it?”

“Yes… it was. And had three of my Turks not happened, by pure chance, to be there to sound the alarm and slow them down until Shinra troops could arrive, it would have been far worse than it ended up being. It was sheer luck that we found out about it almost as soon as it began and were able to mobilize as quickly as we did.”

Viridia shook her head. “When the enemy is stronger than you, you focus your attacks at his weakest points. Something tells me this war isn’t going to be as easy to win as the President seems to think it is. Wutai has no intention of facing Shinra head on, and never did. They’ll sneak around in the shadows, chipping away at us bit by bit until they’ve evened the odds… or until they’ve done enough damage that pursuing this is no longer worth it to Shinra.”

They entered the administration building and Viridia led him over to the elevators, pressing the button for the security offices, and sighed.

“I’m so caught up in everything that’s happened in the last twelve hours I haven’t even asked…” she said, “How have you been?”

“… Well enough,” Tseng replied.

“Tseng… don’t lie to me.”

The Turk gave her a small, self-deprecating chuckle. “I’m… coping. It’s been eventful enough lately to keep my mind occupied with thoughts of other things most of the time.”

“And when it’s not?” she pointedly asked.

“As I said… I’m coping. I’m under no illusion that I’ve come to terms with the loss of my sister or my role in it.”

“And what about staying with the Turks?”

“For now… all I know is that I desperately need them. They’re my family. Indefinitely, however… as Veld recently told me, know one is certain what the future holds.”

---

Kai firmly shut the door behind her, leaving Remy on her own in the observation room. She turned to Reno, a serious expression on her face.

“Look, kiddo… Fair warning. Things are probably going to get pretty ugly.”

The redhead swallowed somewhat nervously and nodded. “Yeah… I kinda figured. Um… w-what exactly should I be doin’ in there?”

“Observing. Analyzing. And most importantly, watching my back,” the senior Turk replied. “Not that he’s likely to get loose, but this guy and his pals were out there gunning down unarmed civilians yesterday. Doubt he’d hesitate to try taking out a Turk, given half a chance. Weapons?”

“Yeah, yeah… I’m armed,” he replied, and then at her pointed stare quickly added, “With a gun. My EMR got fried in the attack, anyway. Haven’t had a chance to see about fixin’ it yet.”

“Good Turkling,” she chuckled, “And you’d better not pull any of that shooting the hostage bullshit like you did during Hell Week.”

Reno managed a smirk in spite of his growing anxiety. “Don’t get taken hostage ‘n I won’t have to shoot you,” he returned.

‘For Leviathan’s sake, are the two of you planning on starting this interrogation some time today?’ Remy’s disembodied voice suddenly chided in his ear, and Reno yelped in surprise… much to the amusement of Kai. She snickered at him and then scanned her ID to open the door to the observation room and stuck her head in.

“Keep you panties on, Remy. I’m just making sure my baby Turkling doesn’t do anything stupid in there.”

He heard a soft, impatient sigh over his earpiece, but the other Turk didn’t say anything further as Kai shut the door again and guided the rookie over to the other room.

“For the record… I know it looks like we’re alone down here, but there are guards – members of the Shinra army, not building security – stationed at strategic intervals, and Remy’s going to be notifying them that we’re starting. If he does manage to get loose, he’s not going very far. Which means that, in the unlikely event something does go wrong, don’t take off after him. If Remy tells them he’s escaped, they’re under orders to shoot anything that moves. And they will. With extreme prejudice. Got it?”

Reno nodded. “Got it.”

“And don’t just stand there like an idiot the whole time, either. You’re smart. You’re damned smart. Something occurs to you, say so. You wanna know something I’m not asking about, ask the son of a bitch yourself.”

The redhead blinked in surprise, not having expected to be told to actually take part in this interrogation. Kai snickered.

“Nothing like getting tossed into the deep end and being told to sink or swim, eh, Baby Turkling?”

She scanned her ID a second time and the lock disengaged. Pushing the door open, angry shouts greeted them, as their prisoner loudly demanded he be released. A moment later Reno was following Kai inside. The man glared at them with what Reno could only describe as a look of pure hatred.

“You’ll get nothing from me, Shinra scum!” he spat at them. Kai calmly drifted over to where he was shackled and he lunged at her, but the bonds held him fast in the chair. The senior Turk didn’t so much as flinch. A split second later, she’d drawn a knife – from where, Reno wasn’t sure. It seemed to appear in her hand as if by magic. She drove it through the prisoner’s right hand and into the wooden arm of the chair, eliciting a howl of pain that sent a chill down the redhead’s spine.

“We’ll just see about that,” she said, coldly, and yanked the blade back. It was accompanied by a brief fountain of blood and a stream Wutaiian that Reno had no need for Remy to translate for him.

---

It was nearly lunch time. Sato had finally dismissed Rude after the injured Turk had come across some information that had given him a new lead on the bomber, Istev. He’d disappeared about half an hour ago to follow up on it.

Rude wished he could have gone with him. Being stuck on crutches sucked… though at least he wasn’t feeling completely useless. One of the benefits of working in intelligence. There was plenty to be done that didn’t require being one-hundred percent mobile. He eyed the screen in front of him and flicked the joystick on his controller with his thumb, watching as the image shifted, taking the view around the corner.

And since he wasn’t, in fact, one-hundred percent mobile at the moment, he was taking the opportunity to familiarize himself with the old surveillance drone Tres had given him… now that the controller had finally been located. He was largely just running the insectoid-looking machine around the halls of Turk headquarters, learning how to steer it, control its camera, and so on. It was an incredibly ancient and clunky piece of machinery by current standards, but interesting, none the less. The newer models ran smoother and quieter – and were a lot lighter – from what Tres had told him… but they cost the company quite a bit of money to build. In his mentor’s own words, Tres ‘wasn’t about to hand the keys to a sports car over to a beginner for a joyride’.

That was fine with Rude. He was having a blast with this thing.

The battery alert on the controller lit up, signaling that the drone needed to recharge, and he began guiding it back towards his office. Along the way, the camera zeroed in on a familiar figure emerging from the elevator, and he grinned, steering it straight towards her.

Cissnei let out a startled gasp as it surprised her by scuttling out in front of her, and stared at it in confusion for a moment before laughing quietly and bending down to pat it on the ‘head’.

“Aww… Who’s a nice little drone?” she giggled. Rude snickered softly and nudged the joystick forward, causing the robot to skitter off, back towards his office. A few moments later, it shuffled through the door and over to him.

“Having fun?” Cissnei asked as he was reaching down to plug it into its charger. The other rookie looked up a bit awkwardly, not having expected her to follow it back to him.

“… Just practicing,” he replied, and gestured to his leg, “Can’t exactly hit the training hall right now.”

“Well, it certainly looks like you’re having fun to me,” she teased, smiling warmly, “Um… at the risk of tempting fate, given how things went the last time I asked… Do you want to join me for lunch?”

“I was waiting for Reno…” Rude said. He glanced over at the clock. Kai and the redhead seemed to be taking their sweet time with this interrogation, and he was getting hungry. “… but I think he’s going to be busy for awhile yet. Sure. Let’s go.”

He hoisted himself out of his chair and grabbed his crutches from against the wall. The pair made their way down the hallway and back to the elevator.

“… How are things going with Rufus?” Rude asked as the car began its decent to the cafeteria. Cissnei laughed quietly.

“You know… I really don’t know why all you guys make him out to be just awful. He’s been perfectly fine for me all morning. Maybe a little cold, but not outright terrible. Seriously… from the stories I keep hearing, I half expected him to start behaving like a screaming toddler the moment I stepped into his office.”

Rude shrugged. “I haven’t worked with him much, either, so all I know about him is what the others have told me. Reno calls him a dick most of the time, but I don’t think he really dislikes the guy. And Tseng is actually good friends with him. So… I don’t know.”

The elevator chimed and they stepped out into the hallway and headed for the cafeteria. A line was already forming, and they hurried to join it.

“Well, Rodney apparently hates him,” she snickered. “I can’t get him to tell me why, though. Every time I ask, he gets this embarrassed look on his face and changes the subject.”

The line moved surprisingly fast, and Cissnei picked up both of their trays, carrying them over to the Turks’ usual table while Rude hobbled after her. He wondered just what had happened with Rodney and Rufus. Judging by the way Rufus had stormed into their office that morning, the vice president wasn’t exactly thrilled with the rookie Turk any more than Rodney liked him. He was definitely going to have to look into this further.

The pair took their seats, and Rude started in on his sandwich. He grimaced slightly at the dryness of the turkey inside of it, but at least it was palatable. He’d seen a lot worse come out of that kitchen.

“So, Rude… can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“The attack yesterday… I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. I woke up twice last night, after dreaming about it. Does it bother you, too?”

“… Yeah,” he replied, “Don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my life.” He paused for a moment before admitting, “I’m glad Reno was there… because I think I froze for a minute or two. Didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to do…”

“Yeah…” Cissnei sighed, “I kinda did, too. I mean… all those people running everywhere, and the explosion, and the screaming, and the shooting. It was just… I didn’t know where to start! Everywhere I looked, someone needed help!” She took a small bite of her pasta and shook her head. “And ever since, I’ve been wondering… am I really ready to be in the field yet? Or do I need more training?”

Rude snorted softly. “You’re as bad as Reno…” he chuckled.

“… I’m… what?” she asked, puzzled.

“You don’t even want to know how many times I’ve heard ‘I’m not good enough’ from him… and had to smack some sense into the idiot,” he replied, grinning now.

“But… he kicked ass out there!” Cissnei protested. Rude shrugged.

“Sometimes he just doesn’t see how good he really is. Gets real down on himself when he screws up, too… like he did with Director Faine.”

“… I suppose I can relate,” the other rookie said. “I’ve always been kind of a perfectionist myself. I hate it when I can’t seem to get something right on the first try.”

“He’s not really a perfectionist… he just had a really screwed up childhood. He doesn’t like making things hard on other people,” Rude replied, without thinking. He frowned and shook his head. “… But I shouldn’t be talking about that. It’s pretty personal. Don’t think he’d appreciate it.”

Cissnei nodded and took another bite. “Gotcha. Though I can kinda relate to that too. My childhood was a little… er… unconventional. I’d bet a lot of people might call it ‘screwed up’.”

Rude raised an eyebrow in curiosity, and Cissnei giggled.

“I mean, I didn’t like… grow up in a cult or anything like that. I was… raised by the company. By Shinra. Sort of. I’ve been a ward of Shinra Company since I was seven, so more than half my life.”

He blinked, trying to process that information, and suddenly found himself wishing that he’d snuck a peek at her background file at some point. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to have access to them… he didn’t yet have that level of clearance. But Tres could be a bit…er… forgiving… when it came to his protege doing everything strictly by the book… largely because knowing things he wasn’t supposed to know was kind of in his job description. If there was a legitimate reason for it – or even a vaguely justifiable one – the senior Turk was unlikely to berate him for excessive snooping. It’s what they did.

Thus far, he’d restrained himself out of respect for his fellow Turks’ privacy. He only knew so much about Reno – beyond what the redhead had told him after they’d become friends – because he’d personally helped compile his background file.

Cissnei suddenly giggled again, and Rude shook himself from his thoughts.

“So I guess you don’t know everything about everyone after all,” she teased, and he blushed.

“… You were raised by Shinra?” he asked, recovering slightly.

“Well… in so much as the company has legal custody of me until I turn eighteen next month. I suppose, technically, I was raised by my guardian. Who works for Shinra… SOLDIER division. Basically the same arrangement Reno had with Tseng. See… my dad was in SOLDIER. And my mom… she was training as a Turk recruit, but then, well… I came along and I guess she decided that she wanted a safer career, since she was about to be a mom and all. So she went into military intelligence instead.”

She looked down at her plate, with a sad expression. “Not safe enough, as it turned out. It’s a long story and I’d rather not get into it… The short version is that, when they died, I didn’t really have any living family I could go to, but the Director of SOLDIER… the one before Faine… he’d known my dad since he was little. He made sure I’d be taken care of.”

“That’s –”

“Hey, Cissy… Enjoying babysitting duty?” Rodney abruptly cut in, a smirk firmly plastered on on his face. He sat down next to her, setting his lunch on the table. Cissnei glowered at him.

“Stop calling me that. And hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s impolite to interrupt someone else’s conversation?”

“Well, if you’re in this good a mood, I guess I have my answer,” he snickered. The other rookie rolled her eyes.

“Actually, I should be thanking you. Being assigned to Rufus is loads more interesting than being a stand-by escort all day. At least I get to do something once in awhile. Are you having fun sitting around doing nothing?”

“Better than having to put up with that spoiled little shit of a vice president all day. Come on, Rude. You must’ve spent some time with him. Back me up here. Rufus is a nightmare.”

“…” Before Rude could say much of anything in response, Cissnei was laughing.

“A ‘nightmare’? Oh, come on, Rod… He’s been perfectly civil to me. To be honest, I can’t for the life of me figure out why you have such an issue with him. What happened that was so terrible?”

“None of your damn business,” Rodney scowled, and shoved an bite of pot roast in his mouth. After a moment, Rude suddenly realized that he was sulking. He could venture a guess as to why. Rodney prided himself on being the best. The best in his class in the recruiting program. The best materia user among the rookies. The best marksman of the four of them… But apparently he wasn’t the best when it came to diplomacy. And he was irked that Rufus got along with Cissnei and not him.

Cissnei seemed to pick up on that as well, and hid her smirk behind her apple.

“So…” she said, changing the subject, “Any sign of Kai and Reno yet? They were still downstairs when Rude and I left. What could be taking so long?”

“Hmph… how should I know? I didn’t get picked to take part. Again,” Rodney muttered, petulantly.

“Ugh…” Cissnei groaned in exasperation, “Are you still on about that? Of course Reno’s going to be picked over us for assignments like this. He’s been a Turk longer. He has seniority.”

“Hmph… sure. Technically. But you and I have been training at least as long as he has, if not longer. And it probably doesn’t hurt that he’s Tseng’s personal hand-picked rookie,” he shot back. He glanced over at the other rookie, “And as far as that goes, Rude has seniority on all of us. Why didn’t Veld send him with Kai?”

“… Might have something to do with me taking a bullet to the leg yesterday,” Rude pointed out and Cissnei snickered.

“Rodney… just admit it. You’re jealous.”

The rookie choked violently on the bite he’d just taken and spent the next several seconds coughing spastically while the other two looked on in amusement.

“Jealous?” he finally managed, “Of Reno? Oh, please. What in Hades’ name do I have to be jealous of there?”

“Would you like a list?” Cissnei asked, smiling sweetly. Rodney glared at her, and then gathered his half-eaten lunch, stood up, and stormed off. Cissnei rolled her eyes and turned back to Rude. “Sorry about that… Normally, I just humor him when he gets like this, but he’s been such an ass lately. He thinks he’s so much better than Reno just because he didn’t go through recruitment like we did. Ugh…”

Rude smiled slightly.

“… I think Reno’d really appreciate you standing up for him like that.”

In fact, he was sure of it. Rude certainly did.

---

Reno watched in silence as two men in Shinra army uniforms carted off a stretcher, its formerly white covering stained a deep crimson in several places. Kai stood next to him, her face a mask of dispassionate apathy. He repressed the urge to shudder.

He’d known it wasn’t going to be pleasant, but dear Ifrit…

The man had lasted a lot longer than Reno would have, he was certain of that. If someone had done to him even a handful of the things Kai had done to their prisoner, he’d have told them anything just to make it stop. Hell, he’d have made shit up, if he had to.

His eyes fell on the chair in the center of the room. The steel shackles hung from the arms, their gleaming metal coated in sticky red. It was still dripping into the pool on the floor, and he was slightly amazed by just how much blood their was.

This time, went the urge came, he couldn’t stop the shudder of revulsion. He didn’t bother to try. Shortly after the body had disappeared down one of the long hallways, Remy joined them.

“I’m surprised he lasted so long,” she commented. “The younger ones typically break much faster than that. A pity he knew so little, but I think what he did tell us will be useful, none the less.”

“They must be keeping things compartmentalized. Anyone we pick up is only going to know what they absolutely need to know,” said Kai, and Remy nodded.

“Then we’ll have to see about capturing someone who needs to know a bit more than he did.”

“So… Who’s up for lunch?” Kai asked. Reno felt his stomach turn, and swallowed hard against the bile that was rising in the back of his throat. How the fuck could she want to eat after that? He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to eat again.

Remy snickered. “Your interrogation. Your cleanup,” she replied, nodding to the mess in the room.

“Hmph… What do you think I brought the rookie for?” the other Turk answered, grinning. The redhead’s eyes widened and he suddenly felt faint. A soft groan escaped his lips, unbidden and the next thing he knew, Remy was holding him by the shoulders, steadying him. She frowned deeply at Kai.

“That’s not funny. Clean this up. Reno and I will handle the transcription.”

If Kai answered her, Reno didn’t hear it. He was too busy trying to keep his stomach’s contents inside his stomach. He was swiftly escorted out the door, leaving her behind. He simply let Remy guide him, not particularly caring where she was taking him as long as it was away from… that. He found himself in another room… this one occupied by a long conference table and several leather-bound chairs. The senior Turk pressed him down into one.

“Lean forward,” she said, without preamble, “Head down, between your knees, and take a few deep breaths.”

Gentle pressure between his shoulder blades encouraged him to follow her instructions. He pulled in several shuddering breaths while her hand rubbed slow circles on his back. He wasn’t sure how long he sat like that, but eventually, the disgusted, nauseated feeling began to subside and his breathing evened out.

“Better?” Remy asked and he managed a nod. “Ugh… sometimes I swear Kai has no recollection whatsoever of what it was like to be a rookie herself.”

“You sure she doesn’t just get off on tormentin’ us rookies?” he asked, voice still somewhat shaky as he looked up. The senior Turk chuckled softly.

“Well… there’s that, too, I suppose. Are you alright?”

“Tch… other that havin’ that shit haunt me in my sleep for the next few nights? Never better.” He slowly sat up, and when he was confident he wasn’t going to spew whatever might remain of his breakfast all over her, he turned his gaze on Remy and fixed her with a curious expression. “… Just… Why?”

The senior Turk sighed. “Sometimes the information is more important than the person who possesses it. It’s seldom pleasant, and it takes a very skilled hand to extract that information. Too little, and you learn nothing. Too much and you risk killing the prisoner before he says anything useful, or tainting what is given up with their own desperation for it to end. Kai is one of our best when it comes to walking that line.”

Reno swallowed sharply. “I don’t think I’d ever be able to do that to someone…”

Remy stood up and smiled slightly. “Perhaps not. No matter what the rumors about us may say, not every Turk has the stomach for torture. Though one should never say never. You’re still young and relatively inexperienced. You don’t yet know what you’ll eventually be capable of.”

The rookie couldn’t help but wonder if that was supposed to be comforting or not. Some of what Kai had done to that man was… monstrous. He wasn’t sure he ever wanted to find out if he was ‘capable’ of doing that. Because he wasn’t quite sure what that would make him.

“Come on,” said Remy, “Let’s get back upstairs. Veld will be wanting a full report on everything we learned… even if it wasn’t much.”

His legs still felt weak as he stood and followed her down the hall to the elevator. He pointedly avoided looking at the door to the interrogation room, even though it was closed. The knowledge of what was behind that door was already seared into his mind. He didn’t need any reminders.

The two Turks boarded the elevator and Remy turned to press the button that would take them back to headquarters. Her hand froze midway to the panel and she hesitated a moment before turning back to him and pulling him into a tight embrace.

Reno relaxed into her, letting his cheek rest against her shoulder, nuzzling against the side of her neck. He could smell her perfume, and it was oddly calming. He was almost positive it was the same scent she’d been wearing the night he’d gone home with her… a far more enjoyable memory than what he’d just witnessed, and he let himself lose himself in it for a short while.

All too soon, though, it ended and Remy wordlessly released him after pressing a soft kiss against his forehead. She turned and pressed the button for the fifty-eighth floor.

---

Reno sat silently in his office, half-reading through the various memos that had arrived in his inbox since that morning but largely just thinking about what he’d witnessed earlier that day. He’d skipped out on lunch, not fully trusting his stomach quite yet. The other rookies had, apparently, gone on without him and then gone back to their respective assignments, because there was no sign of either Cissnei or Rodney in headquarters, and Rude was absent from their shared office and had been since the redhead had returned.

Remy had told him to take a break. That they’d tackle the transcription of the interrogation together after lunch. That had been almost an hour ago. He’d have to go meet up with her again soon, and frankly, he wasn’t sure he was ready to hear the recording played back to him. He took a deep breath in through his mouth and slowly exhaled through his nose. It was one of the breathing exercises from his yoga class… and silly as felt doing it, he couldn’t deny that it did have a small calming effect. At the moment, he’d take whatever he could get.

A soft knock interrupted his rhythm, and he turn to see Kai hovering just outside the open door.

“Hey,” she said, a note of hesitation in her voice.

“What’s up?” the redhead asked, a bit leery of anything she might have for him to do at the moment. The senior Turk stepped inside. She sighed quietly.

“… I just wanted to make sure you were still upright. You looked pretty shellshocked when Remy took you back to headquarters,” she replied. She paused awkwardly for a moment, “And… maybe I should have been just a little less flippant after we finished. You probably didn’t need that.”

“Ya think?” he snorted, and Kai snickered.

“So’d you puke?” she queried, taking a seat on the corner of his desk, “Because you looked like you were gonna puke…”

“Tch… no, I didn’t puke,” the rookie said with a roll of his eyes. She grinned slightly.

“That’s my baby Turkling,” she laughed, and reached for his hair. Reno made a vague sound of annoyance, but let her pet him. Kai’s grin widened.

“Finally decide you like that?”

“Finally decided there’s no point in tellin’ you to cut it out when you’re just gonna do it anyway,” he muttered… though the protest was halfhearted. It actually wasn’t so bad, really. It did kind of feel nice, even if it did make him look like a kid. He glanced up at her. “Hey… can I ask ya somethin’?”

Kai withdrew her hand and folded her arms over her chest. “About the interrogation?” she guessed, and Reno nodded somewhat awkwardly. “You want to know how a person gets to the point they can do something like that to another human being and still live with themselves, huh?”

The redhead opened his mouth to protest – that might have been what he was wondering, but it wasn’t how he’d intended to phrase it – only to be cut off.

“Look, it’s alright. I know. It’s beyond fucked up, and you have to be a little fucked up to do it,” said Kai, as she smirked, “And let’s face it… I’m more than a little fucked up.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Reno… We’ve all got darkness in us somewhere. Some of us are just more okay with letting it out once in awhile.” She let her hand gently caress his cheek and slip under his chin, lifting his face to look at her. “You’re still just a baby Turkling. You haven’t seen enough yet to get to a place where you want to hurt someone before they can hurt you or someone you care about. And honestly… I hope you never do, but I’m not that naïve.”

“… How’d you get there?” he found himself asking, and Kai’s face darkened.

“I lost someone… special. Bad intel, bad command decisions, bad luck, bad situation all around. After that… I wanted the people responsible to suffer. And eventually, I wanted to make sure it never happened again, no matter what I had to do.” The senior Turk shook her head and sighed. “This job changes you. It changes everyone eventually. And not always for the better. Do me a favor, okay? Stay a baby Turkling awhile longer for me, huh?”

---

Viridia was far too thorough sometimes, Tseng mused as he read through the reports from the base’s security office. He’d be joining the investigation personally once he was completely up to speed… though to be honest, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do that Viridia hadn’t already thought of and seen to hours ago. He’d placed a call to Veld to keep him advised of the situation, but beyond that… well, without a hostage or a ransom or a body, his role at present was mainly just observation. Everything that could be investigated was already being investigated… and by people who knew Junon and the surrounding area far better than he did.

Light footsteps interrupted his reading, and a moment later a plate and a steaming cup of tea was set down on the desk in front of him. He glanced up from his reports.

“Lunch,” said Viridia, “It’s almost two and, given how early you arrived, I’m sure you haven’t eaten all day.”

“Any news?” he asked, obligingly reaching for the sandwich on the plate.

“Possibly. One of the search teams found a campsite near the foot of the mountains. I’m going up there to see if there’s anything of interest.”

“I’ll join you,” Tseng replied, setting his meal aside and getting to his feet. Viridia gently shoved him back into the chair.

“The transport doesn’t leave for ten minutes. Eat. And in the meantime, I’ll fill you in on what I know.”

“Has anyone ever told you how insufferable you can be at times?”

Viridia snickered softly. “Constantly. You should hear what the new recruits say when they think I’m not listening… and I’m fairly sure I’ve heard it from you on more than one occasion before now, as well,” she teased.

“So long as you’re aware,” Tseng chuckled. He picked up his tea and sipped it. “Now… about this campsite.”

“It was extremely well hidden. A search team passed it by entirely this morning. They only spotted it after climbing a low ridge. No one was there, but they report that someone had been very recently. The remains of the campfire were still warm.”

“I see…” he replied, and at her stern look reached for the sandwich again. He had to admit… he hadn’t realized how hungry he’d been getting until there was food in front of him.

“Do you think we’ll find him alive?” Viridia asked.

“The longer he’s missing, the less likely that becomes, I’m afraid.”

The security officer nodded in understanding. “Then hurry up and finish that. We’ve got a captain to find.”

~end chapter 76~