Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 59: Escape Plan

The remainder of the week had been a busy one. Following his unexpected trip through the final evaluation course – which, Reno had been pleased to say he’d done pretty damned well on – he and Tseng had returned to Midgar. Veld had remained behind in Junon to attend to matters relating to the theft in Gongaga at Heidegger’s personal “request” and wouldn’t return until Friday afternoon.

… Which had left things back at the office in a little bit of a disarray, since Tseng had been forced to take over for him in the interim, and Reno, in turn, had had to pick up where they’d left off with the rookies without his mentor. It had been hectic… but they’d managed.

In fact, it wasn’t until Veld was due to return that Tseng finally had a moment to take a break from managing the plethora of assignments that had come in since the discovery of the weapons theft. Reno found him shortly before lunch, waiting for him in his and Rude’s office.

“Boss? Somethin’ up?” he asked, a little surprised to see the senior Turk seated at his desk.

“No,” Tseng replied, sounding somewhat put-upon. Reno’s eyebrows shot upwards.

“So… what are you doin’ here then?”

“Hiding, quite frankly,” Tseng replied, in an irritated tone, “Heidegger has been to my office no less than four times this morning, inquiring as to whether or not Veld has returned from Junon yet. The commander is due back in about twenty minutes, incidentally. After our illustrious department head’s latestvisit, I thought it prudent to make myself scarce until then, before I said something I’d almost certainly regret.”

Reno snickered quietly.

“Man, he really must be makin’ a pain in the ass of himself if you’re about to lose it on him…”

“The man has somehow gotten it into his head that we should have prevented the theft outright. No amount of logic seems to be able to persuade him that we’re not Leviathan-be-damned psychics, and that if we don’t know about an asset, we have no ability to protect it.” He groaned softly and pressed his fingers against his temples, slowly massaging them. “The sheer ludicrousness of his rants is enough to give me a migraine. I’m honestly not sure how Veld hasn’t simply shot him yet.”

Tseng sighed and shook his head before continuing. “He picked the worst possible time to decide he wants to micro-manage us, as well,” he ground out, “I have three rookies I should be preparing to onboard. Instead, I’m juggling Veld’s workload as well as my own, and relying upon you to handle Petra and Liam entirely on account, while Veld is forced to oversee some ridiculous Gongaga task force that can’t even go to Gongaga until Rufus clears it with the landowners. He’s doing this out of pure spite, you realize… The explosion and the theft were PR disasters. The president is less than happy about them and has decided to blame Heidegger. Heidegger, in turn, has opted to throw the Turks under the proverbial bus… which quite honestly makes me supremely angry, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about it!”

The redhead blinked in surprise. “Fuck… he really is gettin’ under your skin.”

“Yes, he is. Hence my decision to make a strategic withdrawal from my own office for a short while and hide in yours.”

“Anything I can do to help?” Reno offered, but Tseng shook his head.

“Your continued willingness to take over training duties for me is already immensely helpful. Though if you do happen to have some spare time…”

“If there’s somethin’ else I can do, just name it, Boss…”

“Would you mind filling out the necessary forms to requisition a PHS for each of our new rookies? I realize we won’t need them for another week, but I’d prefer to have them on hand ahead of time. There’s apparently been some turnover in the IT department, as well as some… minor sabotage… by a disgruntled employee. Requests are going to be a bit slower than usual until it’s sorted out. I’d also suggest hand-delivering said forms. Otherwise, Leviathan only knows what pile they’ll end up in down there right now.”

“Sure thing,” Reno replied, but paused, “Uh… What kinda ‘minor sabotage’?”

Tseng snorted softly. “My knowledge is largely secondhand at the moment, as building security is in charge of handling such matters and, thanks to Heidegger’s constant harassment, I haven’t had the time to request an update from their office… but apparently the assistant to the head of the IT department was displeased with his most recent performance review and decided to seek employment elsewhere. As a parting gift to the Company, he infected part of the network with some sort of virus… which has rendered a number of file servers in Advertising completely unusable… and disappeared.”

“Tch… sounds like IT’s havin’ almost as good a week as we are…”

“They don’t have self-important board member breathing down their necks every few minutes… so in my opinion, their own difficulties cannot possibly compare.”

Reno shook his head and walked around his desk, grabbing Tseng by the arm.

“Come on, Boss… I think you need to get outta the office for a little while,” he said with a soft laugh, “It’s lunchtime, anyway. Let’s go grab somethin’ at that place you like…” He grinned widely, and added, “Before we, ya know… end up re-living my Hell Week, with you on the receivin’ end of Heidegger’s wrath.”

Tseng grudgingly allowed his protege to pull him to his feet, and snorted softly.

“At the moment, I’d almost like to see him try raising a hand to me. It would give me all the excuse I needed…” he grumbled.

The redhead eyed his mentor in amusement. It wasn’t often he saw the man so thoroughly riled. Tseng generally went out of his way to keep his temper well in check, even at the worst of times. Apparently even Tseng’s near-legendary self control was no match for General Affairs Department head’s endless meddling.

“… Uh… Let’s take the stairs while we’re at it,” Reno snickered, “Somethin’ tells me we don’t wanna find out what would happen if you ended up in an elevator with him right now…”

---

Tseng closed his eyes and inhaled deeply the earthy aroma of one of his favorite teas, letting the familiar scent unfray his nerves a bit. He was grateful to his protege for all but dragging him out of the building. Reno had been absolutely right. He’d needed a break. Heidegger had truly been wearing on his last nerve.

When he opened his eyes again a moment later, he found the redhead eyeing him with what could only be described as barely contained mirth. He raised a questioning eyebrow at the younger Turk.

“I still don’t get the whole tea thing,” Reno laughed. Tseng smiled and a faint chuckle escaped his lips.

“I suppose it’s more habit than anything else, at this point. When I was little, tea was my mother’s cure for nearly everything. It didn’t matter if I was ill or merely upset about something. She would inevitably appear with a pot of tea. I find it… comforting.”

“Mom liked to sing to me to make me feel better. There’s not a lot I remember about her real clearly anymore… but I don’t think I could forget her voice if I tried.”

Tseng glanced over at the younger man in surprise.

“I… think that may be the first time I’ve ever heard you speak of her, outside of your annual visit to Sector 2…”

Reno dropped his gaze for a moment, looking a little awkward.

“Yeah. I know,” he said, quietly. He breathed a heavy sigh, and looked up again. “I just… kinda figured it might be time to start movin’ on. ‘Cause… I don’t wanna just forget her, ya know? And that’s what’s gonna happen if I keep lettin’ it.”

The senior Turk smiled and took a sip from his cup, savoring the subtle flavor for a moment. He knew exactly how hard that must be for the redhead. His mother’s death was a deeply painful childhood trauma. One he did not like to think about, much less openly discuss. Unfortunately, that made thinking about her somewhat problematic, because eventually, every train of thought led back to that single event.

“I take it you’ve been working towards that?” he said, knowingly. He doubted very much that this would be the first attempt he’d made at opening up.

“Yeah… Rude’s kinda been helpin’ me out for awhile now. It’s gettin’… easier,” Reno gave a somewhat strained laugh. “I can only do it for so long, though…”

“I understand,” Tseng said, gently, recognizing the comment for what it really was; a request to change the subject. “It might interest you to know that Veld has, as of this morning, extended an official offer of promotion to each of our new rookies. Ryuunosuke didn’t bother taking advantage of the week he was given to consider it. He accepted immediately. I’ve not yet heard whether the others have given Veld an answer, as well.”

“Heh… what? No more last names, now that we’re makin’ it official?” the redhead teasingly asked.

“He’s going to be one of us. There’s no longer a need for such formality,” Tseng shrugged, “It’s… simply always been that way. Recruits are recruits. Turks are family.” He smirked slightly. “Speaking of whom… you and I need to sit down together on Monday to work out their first week’s itinerary. There are any number of things that we, unfortunately, can’t do ahead of time. They’ll need credentials, equipment… and of course, there’s the building tour. And it will all need to be scheduled around our regular duties.”

Reno’s eyes widened at that.

“Can I come with you when ya give ’em the tour? Please?!”

The Turk lieutenant laughed softly. “You get excited over the strangest of things…”

“I just really like the idea of showin’ off all the cool stuff we got access to…” the redhead grinned in reply. “So? Can I?”

“If you wish,” said Tseng.

“Sweet!”

Before Tseng could respond further to his protege’s enthusiasm, however, their quiet lunch was interrupted by his PHS. He glanced at the caller ID, frowning slightly when he saw that it was Remy.

“Tseng here,” he answered.

“Sir! We have situation!”

---

Reno had to grab hold of the door handle to stop himself from being thrown towards the center console as Tseng rounded the corner without so much as taking his foot off the accelerator. As the vehicle straightened out he groped blindly for the seatbelt, desperately dragging it across his body and clicking it into place.

Just in time, too, as another sharp turn loomed.

“Ya know… I’m startin’ to understand why Rufus put the damn five-point restraints in this thing, Boss…” he commented, just before the next corner all but slammed him into the door, even with the seatbelt in place. Tseng smirked slightly but didn’t take his eyes off of the road.

“Be ready,” he said, “We’ll cut them off on the bridge.”

The “situation” Remy had notified them about had turned out to be exactly what Reno had only half-seriously warned Rude of earlier in the week. The Zenshou’s rumored operation in Midgar? It had indeed been to retrieve their captured comrade… and even with the extra security put in place to keep an eye on her, the Zenshou had somehow slipped in unnoticed.

He had a feeling that Rude was going to be anything but happy about it… but at the moment, Reno didn’t have time to worry about his friend’s feelings. He was too busy trying not to be hurled straight out of Tseng’s car.

The Zenshou might have made it into the building undetected, but they hadn’t made it out quite so easily. Remy had managed – barely – to attach a tracking device to their getaway vehicle… right before they’d come dangerously close to running her off of an overpass.

Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to follow them any farther. Their little maneuver had left her vehicle bottomed out and stranded on a median over in Sector Two. Veld was still en route from Junon. Rude was meeting with a contact down in the slums. Kai and Sykes were both out of the city on escort assignments. Thus, it had been left up to Tseng and Reno to pick up the pursuit… which they had done about six blocks ago.

Another death-defying turn rocketed them out directly into the path of the vehicle they’d been chasing since somewhere over in Sector Three. Tseng had effectively circled around them, taking the long way and miraculously coming out ahead of his target. The sleek black sports car screeched to a halt in the middle of the road, blocking the oncoming vehicle. Having no other options but to t-bone them, it, too, squealed to a stop. The two Turks climbed out, guns already drawn and leveled at their quarry, and approached the other car.

As they did so, the doors on either side opened and two of the vehicle’s occupants stepped calmly into the cool afternoon air. A light rain had begun to fall at some point during the chase, but it was ignored, for the moment, by all present.

“I would strongly suggest surrendering,” Tseng stated, with more than a hint of malice in his voice. While his attention was focused on the pair, however, Reno’s eyes were trained on what he could see of the backseat of the car… or, rather more accurately, what he couldn’t see.

“I’m afraid we can’t do that. But you would be wise to lower your weapons,” the man who’d climbed out of the passenger side replied, not intimidated in the least by the two Turks presently aiming loaded weapons at him. The redhead’s eyes widened. This, he realized, was just a little too reminiscent of his very first encounter with the Zenshou… in the middle of a snow storm on the Great Glacier.

The Ifrit-be-damned backseat was empty, save for their recently rescued prisoner.

“Crap. Tseng… we’re missin’ one…” he said, his voice pitched for his mentor’s ears only. There had been four people in that car when he and Tseng had taken off after them. He was sure of it… particularly since one of the backseat passengers had been shooting at them at the time. And there had still been four people when he and Tseng had lost sight of them as they’d broken off to flank the getaway car. Which meant that they were now a Zenshou short. Thunder crackled in the distance, warning of the impending storm that was headed their way… and, perhaps more ominously, warning of the danger Reno was all too certain they now faced.

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, the fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, and the all-to-familiar sensation of someone watching him from behind settled over him. He instinctively turned… only to have his world sent spinning as a brutal strike from a fist sent pain spiking through the side of his head, leaving him dazed and off-balance. The next thing he knew, he was being held tightly against a much larger individual’s chest, a thick arm are pressing against his throat, choking him.

“Reno!” Tseng shouted, retraining his weapon on the new threat. The redhead’s vision darkened as the pressure against his throat increased, cutting his airway off entirely. His hands clawed futily at the arm that restrained him. He was forcibly dragged in a wide arc around his mentor as the man rejoined his friends. Tseng’s gun arm never wavered. He kept it pointed directly at the younger Turk’s captor.

“Let him go…” Tseng said, a dangerous note in his voice.

“You have choice to make,” the Zenshou who’d addressed them just moments ago informed him. “You can continue this attempt to stop us, and try to retrieve your former prisoner. Or you can lower your weapon… and I won’t order my colleague over there to snap your subordinate’s neck.”

The pressure on Reno’s throat eased slightly, allowing him to finally take a full, gasping breath. The reprieve was short-lived, however as the grip on him changed, and his head was roughly twisted to one side, dangerously close to the limit to which his neck could accommodate. He could just barely see Tseng out of the corner of his eye, gun still pointed at the man who held him.

“Tell me… do you think you can kill him before he kills your compatriot?” the apparent leader of the little group queried. “Are you willing to risk trying?”

After a long moment, Tseng grudgingly lowered his weapon. The sharp tension on the redhead’s neck eased, but the man still didn’t release him. Instead, his fingers coiled harshly into the young Turk’s hair, yanking his head back so that his gaze was trained on Tseng. Reno growled low in his throat and tried to break the hold… but it was like struggling against a brick wall. The son of a bitch was easily the size of Sykes, and as strong as both he and Rude combined. He wasn’t going anywhere.

“Good. Now set it on the ground and kick it over here,” the Zenshou continued, pausing for a brief moment in apparent thought, before adding with a malicious smile, “Your backup weapon as well. You look like the type to carry one.”

The Wutaiian Turk glowered but silently did as he’d been ordered, setting his gun on the pavement and then reaching slowly for the smaller backup firearm strapped to his ankle. It joined his primary weapon on the ground and he angrily kicked both of them over to the thief.

“Now let him go,” Tseng demanded.

“Of course. We’re not in the business of murder… unless of course someone is foolish enough to get between us and our merchandise,” the man said, smiling coldly. “But… just in case you’re still entertaining the notion of continuing this pursuit…”

He nodded to the one still holding Reno captive, and the redhead unexpectedly found himself being flung to one side. Pain lanced through his skull, and all he knew after that was darkness.

---

He couldn’t have reacted in time, even if he’d expected it. One moment Reno was being held prisoner… the next, he was being slammed, face-first, into the railing along the side of the bridge. Blood gushed from his nose, and the young redhead went limp in his captor’s hands, out cold. A moment later, the Zenshou giant effortlessly lifted him by the back of his jacket and tossed him over the railing like a rag doll.

“No!” Tseng hissed, his stomach dropping at the sight. A splash from below told him the drop had been a long, but survivable one, and he ran to the edge, peering over into the dark water of the drainage canal several meters down. His protege remained unmoving, drifting slowly along with the current. He swore under his breath and hesitated just long enough to glare back at the Zenshou leader.

“This isn’t over,” he declared, definitively, and then hoisted himself onto the metal guard rail… and jumped.

He was already in mid-air when he realized that something was wrong. Pushing off from the edge, he’d felt a pop followed by a near blinding pain in his right ankle. For a moment, he’d half-thought he’d been shot… but that was a pain he was familiar with. This felt more like the time he’d torn a muscle behind his knee during training… only about a hundred times worse. He hit the water awkwardly, in what would probably have been best described as halfway to a bellyflop. The impact forced the air from his lungs, and he received a face full or water that drove itself into his sinuses, causing him to gag, as he emerged coughing and sputtering.

His chest ached as he hurried to find his bearings. It took him several seconds to locate Reno, and by the time he did, the distance between them had increased dramatically. He knew in that moment that he had no time right now to worry about whatever injury he’d just sustained. The redhead was still unconscious, hurt, and quickly being pulled deeper into the city’s drainage system.

Having no other alternative, he started to swim, doing his best to ignore the pain in his leg and his chest. It took far longer than it should have to reach the younger Turk, but finally… finally… his fingertips closed around the sleeve of his jacket and Tseng was able to pull Reno towards him. By then, every breath he pulled in bordered on excruciating, likely as a result of hitting the water in such an ungainly position. He wouldn’t be surprised if an x-ray revealed a rib fracture or two.

But he’d have to worry about that later. Right now, he had more immediate problems. With great effort, he managed to get the two of them over to the side of the drainage channel, breathing heavily from the exertion as he clawed his way back onto dry land, while trying – and largely failing – to continue ignoring the pain he was in. He dragged Reno’s limp form up behind him and laid him out on the ground, shaking him roughly.

“Reno!” he prodded, but his protege remained unresponsive. By then, the storm that had only been threatening previously was raging in earnest and the skies were being lit up every few moments by flashes of lightning. He pressed his fingers against the redhead’s neck and tried to find a pulse, but his own heart was hammering so wildly at that point that he couldn’t have told the difference between Reno’s and his own, anyway. At last, Tseng leaned down, positioning his ear close to the redhead’s mouth, listening for any sign of breathing… and to his relief, he heard it.

“Thank Leviathan…” he breathed. He’d come dangerously close to losing him once to those damned Zenshou. He was not going to let it happen a second time.

His hand went to his pocket, searching for his PHS, to call for help… only to find it missing, likely lost during his impromptu swim. He patted Reno down, in an attempt to locate his phone, and came up only with the shattered remnants of the device in his breast pocket. Apparently, it hadn’t survived the encounter with the Zenshou. The realization led to still more under the breath swearing on the Turk lieutenant’s part. He was going to have to handle this on his own.

He could wait until Reno came to… which, in fairness, would likely be the sensible choice, he noted to himself, as he attempted to flex his damaged ankle and found it quite thoroughly immobile. That was almost certainly an Achilles tendon injury. A similar injury had befallen Kai years ago… though in her case, she’d only torn the muscle. Tseng had felt a very distinct pop before the pain had started. He had a feeling it was slightly more serious than a minor tear.

The alternative was to limp his way back to his car – assuming he could even stand – and return for Reno in the vehicle. Though driving a manual transmission car would be… difficult… with only one working foot.

That left only the third option. Reno didn’t weight much. It… wouldn’t exactly be the most dignified method of conveyance, but he was relatively certain he could eventually drag both the redhead and himself back to the bridge. It wasn’t that far, and sitting around, soaking wet, in the now-driving rain was doing neither of them any good.

In the end he opted for the choice that would ultimately get them both to safety sooner. Hopefully. Gathering the unconscious Turk up and slinging him over his back was a less than pleasant experience. His abused ribs ardently protested even the smallest of movements at that point, and it took quite a lot of pushing, and pulling, and rearranging before he was confident that he could manage to move without dropping him.

And then he’d started to crawl… The journey itself took him nearly ten minutes.

By the time he’d reached his destination, he was exhausted, and the redhead was slowly coming around. Tseng groaned faintly and propped the younger Turk up against the side of his car, joining him a moment later and letting his eyes close. Tseng didn’t want to move another inch… but he knew his rest would be a short one. He couldn’t sit there indefinitely. They both needed medical attention.

But at least, for the moment, they were not in any danger. The Zenshou were long gone.

The Turk lieutenant groaned softly as he realized that he was going to have to explain in the near future – and prayed that he would be doing so to Veld and not to Heidegger – that the sum total of their mission was the loss of one very valuable prisoner, two injured Turks, one drowned PHS, and one more in several pieces. Not an outcome anyone was going to be pleased with.

“… Ow.”

The Turk lieutenant tiredly turned his head to his right. Reno was gingerly prodding what was most likely a broken nose as he tried to sort out what in the Nine Hells had just happened.

“I wholeheartedly concur with that sentiment,” Tseng deadpanned, coughing slightly.

“So… did we win?” Reno asked. Tseng closed his eyes again and let his head thump back against the car.

“If I wasn’t quite certain a few of my ribs are fractured I’d be sorely tempted to laugh at such a preposterous question…” Tseng replied.

“Yeah. That’s kinda what I figured…” The redhead staggered to his feet, looking around, before finally glancing down at his sodden – and by now somewhat bloody, as his nose was still bleeding fairly heavily – clothing. “The fuck’d I miss?”

“Our Zenshou friends thought you might enjoy a swim in the drainage ditch. I was given the choice of leaving you to drown and trying my luck against them, three on one… or jumping in after you. I opted for the latter,” the Wutaiian Turk replied, grimacing as he attempted to get up and utterly failed. “Though I’m not sure I fared much better against the drainage ditch. I’m going to need some assistance. My ankle is… not in the best of condition after that.”

Reno reached down and helped him to his feet. Or, rather, his foot, as only one was willing to support his weight at the moment.

“Come on, Boss… Think you might need to pay a little visit to the Doc even more that I do, for once…”

“Hmph… before or after I inform Veld of this debacle? It might be more efficient to simply wait, rather than bother Justinia twice in one day.”

Reno grinned slightly. “That fall knock a sense of humor into ya or something?” he teased, helping his mentor limp to the passenger side door. “Seriously, though, Tseng… you look like hell, and I’m guessin’ I probably don’t look much better. Let’s get the fuck outta here.”

Tseng gripped the redhead’s shoulder and carefully lowered himself into the waiting seat. Reno circled around and climbed behind the wheel, starting the engine, and the Turk lieutenant sighed. As he reached over to shift into gear, the redhead suddenly laughed.

“And what, may I ask, is it that you find so amusing about our current situation?” the Turk lieutenant queried, one eyebrow rising in annoyed curiosity. Reno shook his head.

“Nothin’ really… just that the last time I was behind the wheel of your car, I was getting’ arrested for takin’ it out for a joyride without tellin’ ya about it. Never thought you’d actually let me drive it again.”

Tseng closed his eyes. “Desperate times call for desperate measures. Don’t expect it to become a regular occurrence. Now, drive… before I come to my senses and insist making the attempt myself.”

---

There was a sharp snap and a near-blinding stab of pain as Dr. Ward realigned the break.

“OWWW!”

She ignored the shout, and Reno groaned as she continued prodding the injured area around his nose. Even with the local anesthetic, that had fucking hurt.

“I know ’tis none too pleasant, my little headache… but it’s got ta be done,” she clucked, shaking her head, “I knew it was hoping fer too much ta think yeh’d make it an entire two weeks before yeh turned up in my medical suite. Since when does light duty include high speed car chases and street fights, then?”

“Hey, I was havin’ a nice, calm lunch with the Boss ‘n taking it easy like a good little Turk who obeys medical advice,” Reno protested. “I wasn’t planning on gettin’ called up to recapture an escaped prisoner, ya know…”

“Mmhmm…” the doctor responded in a tone that plainly said she thought otherwise, as she applied a splint to his broken nose and taped it in place, “There yeh are. Good as new.”

Reno’s fingers found their way to his face, cautiously exploring the injury, and he winced.

“Well, now, don’t go poking at it, fer Titan’s sake. What part of ‘broken‘ was I unclear about?” she chastised him, gently pulling his hand away from his face and setting it firmly in his lap. “Yeh’ll be fine. But yeh’ll want ta get some ice on that soon as possible fer the swelling. I’d suggest sleeping sitting up fer the next few nights, too. Nothing else fer it but time ‘n anti-inflammatory painkillers. Yer still on medical restriction fer another week anyway… ‘long as yeh don’t have any complications, I don’t think we’ll need ta change that.”

“Thank Ifrit…” Reno sighed in relief, hopping down from the table. “How ’bout the Boss?”

“I’ve already shipped him off ta Midgar General. But I expect he’ll be joinin’ yeh on restricted duty soon enough,” she replied, “If it’s a full rupture of the Achilles tendon, as I suspect, I’d be willing ta bet he’ll be in surgery before the day’s out, and on crutches fer a good bit after.”

“Great…” the redhead muttered, “Fuckin’ Zenshou assholes… They couldn’t’ve picked a worse time to pull this shit if they tried.”

“Language!” Ward snapped, annoyed, and Reno cringed.

“Sorry,” he sheepishly responded, “Seriously, though! We’re busy upstairs… and we got three new rookies comin’ in soon that Tseng’s s’posed to be gettin’… ya know… acclimated, or whatever ya wanna call it… plus we got two other rookies that need supervisin’… ‘n Heidegger keeps draggin’ Veld off to do Shiva only knows what… plus the –” He had to stop and physically bite down on his tongue to stop himself from swearing again. “– Ifrit-forsaken Zenshou keep pullin’ things like this.”

He sighed heavily and leaned back against the edge of the exam table.

“It’s just… we were already stretched kinda thin lately, with me bein’ out for so long, ‘n now Tseng’s probably gonna be sidelined for awhile, ‘n I’m s’posed to be learnin’ how to do his job… ’cause he wants me to do it for real someday.”

Doctor Ward chuckled softly.

“Finally got around ta telling yeh, did he?” she replied, smiling. Reno blinked.

“Wait… You knew about it, too? For Shiva’s sake, did everyone in the Company know before I did?!”

His wide-eyed exasperation drew a genuine laugh from the aging doctor, and she turned away for a moment to retrieve a red sucker from the jar on the counter, which she calmly pressed into his hand.

“Well, I can’t speak fer the whole of Shinra Company… but I’ve certainly had my suspicions fer quite awhile now,” she teasingly replied, “Now… yeh take that treat ‘n yeh get yerself back ta work. A broken nose isn’t enough ta justify sending yeh home early, ‘n it sounds like yer going ta be needed. I’ll give yeh a ring when I hear back about yer that mentor ‘o yers.”

“Thanks, Doc…”

“And fer Titan’s sake… try not ta end up back in here again before yer next appointment. In a week.”

“Heh… I try not to make promises I can’t keep Doc…” he replied with a faint laugh. Ward threw her arms up in exasperation before finally shooing him out of her domain.

By the time he returned to Turks’ headquarters, Veld was back in the office… and looking decidedly pissed off.

“Reno! My office, now!” he demanded before the redhead had even fully stepped out of the elevator. Reno resisted the almost overpowering urge to groan out loud, instead only doing so mentally, and wordlessly followed the Turk leader into his office.

The sight that greeted him was not a pleasant one.

“Well?! Explain yourself!” Heidegger bellowed before either Turk could say anything. Reno visibly flinched at the tone. It was a little too close to the one the executive had used the time he’d had the younger Turk by the throat during Hell Week.

“Uhh…” the redhead stammered, caught off-guard by the sudden interrogation.

“What happened?” Veld interjected, “How did our prisoner escape, and where is she now?”

“I’m… not entirely sure on the how part, sir…” he hesitantly replied, “Me ‘n Tseng were out of the office when Remy called ‘n told us what was goin’ on. They were already halfway across town before we even knew there was a problem. We caught up to ’em, got ’em stopped, ‘n tried to take ’em into custody… but we were outnumbered ‘n one of ’em managed to get around behind us.” He mentally cringed before continuing. “The one that flanked us… he, uh… grabbed me ‘n used me as a hostage. Tseng didn’t have any other choice, sir. It was either let ’em go, or let ’em snap my neck.”

“He should have let them snap your Hades-be-damned neck!” Heidegger thundered, before turning on Veld. “What are you going to do about this?!”

“I already have our head of intelligence trying to track them down, and we’re watching all points of exit from the city, sir. We –”

“Not good enough! I want them captured and made an example of, and I want it done now!,” he growled, and then rounded on Reno again, “And I want this worthless excuse for a Turk and his equally worthless superior disciplined severely for allowing them to slip through their fingers!”

The redhead ground his teeth, forcibly clamping down on the response he wanted to give that demand. Thankfully, Heidegger opted to stomp out of the office without giving either man time to respond, and Reno could have sworn he actually felt the floor shake with each angry footstep. The redhead hardly dared breath until the executive had viciously slammed the door behind him, lest he end up saying something that’d he’d end up paying for later. Veld took a seat at his desk and sighed in irritation.

“I’m sorry for that. He demanded a first hand account and I was notified that Tseng is presently at the hospital. I’m afraid I had no choice but to summon you instead. What exactly happened out there?”

Reno shook his head, still angry at the obnoxious executive’s self-important posturing. “Like I said… we were outnumbered. Tseng cut ’em off on a bridge over in Three, but they musta stopped just long enough to let their muscle outta the backseat while we were flankin’ ’em. We didn’t realize it until it was too late. Asshole came around behind us ‘n grabbed me ‘n then the guy that seemed to be in charge of shit made Tseng surrender his weapon. Then the fucker chucked me into the drainage channel, so Tseng had to haul my ass out before I drowned. That’s how he got hurt, I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I was kinda unconscious at the time, sir… My face had an unexpected encounter with a metal railing.”

Veld snorted softly. “That would certainly explain the current state of your face, then… What about Tseng? Are his injuries serious? I’m afraid I didn’t have time to get specifics from Medical before Heidegger showed up.”

“The Doc said somethin’ about an… uh-key-leez tendon… or somethin’ like that? All I know is that his ankle was fucked up pretty bad ‘n I wouldn’t be real surprised if he cracked a rib or three, the way he was movin’ when I finally came to. Doc said he’d probably be getting’ surgery for the tendon thing ‘n she’d call me when she had an update.”

“Alright. I’ll check in with her myself, as well. I assume you mean Dr. Ward?” he queried, and Reno nodded, “And please for the love of Odin tell me she hasn’t sidelined you again. Tseng will obviously be out for the remainder of the day at the very least and someone needs to manage the rookies’ training schedule.”

“Nah, I’m still good for light duty, sir. I’ll take care of ’em… uh… right after I go find some ice and swallow about half a bottle of aspirin.”

Veld groaned and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “Of course… what am I even thinking, keeping you here? Go and see to your own injuries.”

“Yes, sir…”

---

Tseng glared in annoyance at his elevated, and thoroughly immobilized foot. He was scheduled for surgery first thing in the morning, provided the swelling had been reduced to more manageable levels by then. He’d been informed that he’d been in a cast for several weeks afterwards until the tendon healed.

Because of course he would. It wasn’t as if he had anything better to do than to hobble around on crutches for the next few weeks. He certainly didn’t have any new rookies he had to get situated, or a successor to train, or murderous thieves to track down…

He scowled slightly and wondered when his internal monologue had developed such a tendency towards sarcasm. Probably, he mused, right about the time he’d appropriated, and essentially adopted, an equally sarcastic little redhead from the Slums.

“Well… you look utterly thrilled to be here.”

The Turk lieutenant snapped out of his brief reverie and turned his attention to the door, managing a slight smile as he spotted his mentor striding into the room.

“As always,” he sighed, “Did you have any luck locating the Zenshou?”

Veld made his way over to the bed and took a seat.

“Afraid not. They’ve either slunk out of the city undetected, or they’ve gone to ground somewhere. Rude has put out a few feelers for information with his network, but it’s largely a waiting game at this point,” he replied. He smirked and gave a quiet little laugh. “I’m also under direct orders from Heidegger to discipline you severely for failing to recapture the prisoner and add her three cohorts to our guest list. So… consider yourself severely disciplined.”

“I’m not sure I’ll ever truly recover from so terrible a reprimand, sir,” Tseng obligingly deadpanned, “Is Reno alright? Justinia didn’t put him back on mandatory leave, did she?”

“No. He has a broken nose, but seems to have otherwise walked away without a scratch on him. There’s been no changes to his status, and he was back to supervising your rookies as soon as Heidegger finished screaming at us,” Veld chuckled.

Tseng scowled in response. “Reno has been in recovery for over a month after saving the vice president’s life… One would think that pompous, arrogant sack of lard could get over himself long enough to at least acknowledge that.”

“Mmm… I think he was too busy calling the pair of you worthless excuses for Turks to recall your protege’s most recent heroics,” Veld commented, rolling his eyes slightly. He shook his head. “Don’t let it get to you. I’ll deal with our department head. You focus on healing.”

“Yes, sir.”

Veld smiled warmly and leaned closer, brushing a stray lock of hair away from the younger Turk’s face.

“So… a ruptured Achilles tendon, eh? I can’t imagine that was an especially pleasant sensation…”

“Hmph… no, sir, it wasn’t. Nor was bellyflopping into a small river,” he muttered in reply, “It wasn’texactly the most graceful of rescues. At least Reno wasn’t conscious to actually witness it. I doubt I’d ever live it down if he had been.”

Veld snorted in laughter and gently squeezed his protege’s shoulder.

“What matters is that you did rescue him. I’d much rather have all of my Turks return home at the end of the day than come up short in favor of capturing a Zenshou or two. I’d prefer if they came home with all of their limbs in tact, as well… but I suppose beggars can’t be choosers.” He paused for a moment and frowned slightly. “Speaking of the Zenshou, however… as much as I hate to agree with Heidegger on anything… we need to put a stop to this. The thefts and attempted thefts are bad enough, but now they’re waltzing into Company headquarters right under our noses. We’ve been much too reactionary to this situation. I’m sending Remy and Rude to Wutai to do a little proactive reconnaissance. They’re leaving tonight… and I’m sending Reno home with you as soon as you’re out of surgery tomorrow to ensure that you’re fit for duty come Monday morning.”

Tseng raised an eyebrow in something of a challenge to that statement, and Veld laughed.

“Alright… fine. He told me he was going to tend to you over the weekend. I made it an order just in case you attempted to turn down the help. Injured or not, you have a lot to prepare for and only one more week to do so. Victor Reese accepted his promotion this afternoon. We’re only waiting on Latchley now. You’re going to need him.”

The younger Turk snorted, half in irritation and half in amusement.

“So long as he doesn’t attempt to cook for me, as well… I honestly wouldn’t mind the company, sir,” he chuckled.

~end chapter 59~