Ill Wind

Instead of continuing to the top floor where his own apartments were, Rufus took the elevator back down a floor to the office levels. That floor was nearly deserted, as it was after working hours, but Rufus could see light shining from under Tseng's door. The president walked past it without knocking, however, and entered his own office at the end of the hallway. He was glad to see that the outer office of his secretary was also empty. He crossed to his door and punched in a combination on the keypad. The lock clicked, and Rufus swung his door open, not bothering to close it behind him before going to his desk. Tseng might possibly stop by before long; he usually did before leaving for the day.

Once in his office, Rufus picked up the phone on his desk, dialing the number of the warden's office. When she answered, the president asked if a healer had been summoned for Darkin. She assured him that it had been done as usual. Rufus thanked her and hung up. That had been the routine for three weeks now. Darkin had been left to recover somewhat from the injuries he'd had when he was brought to the prison. Once he had regained most of his strength, however, the interrogations—the torture, not to put too fine a point on it, had begun. All of the Turks except Kerri had gotten a shot at him. That had been the routine. A day of interrogation, after which a healer was called, Darkin allowed a day or so to recover, and the process began again. Yet the man had not talked.

It certainly wasn't due to a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Turks. They'd all seen Kerri's condition when she was rescued—they all felt a desire to repay the man responsible for it. Rufus had seen this before with Elena. When she first joined them, her habit of carelessly revealing information had irritated her senior colleagues to no end. Rufus snorted in amusement as he remembered that Reno had even threatened to staple her lips together. But when she had been kidnapped by Don Corneo, the rest of the Turks had pulled together to get her back, going as far as to join forces with AVALANCHE in order to save her. They might have been annoyed by her, but she was a Turk, and their motto, though unspoken, was deeply ingrained—don't fuck with a Turk. Opposing them, even injuring them, could be forgiven, as evidenced by their now neutral relations with the former members of AVALANCHE. Trying to take one of their member apparently could not. They had lost enough comrades.

Rufus himself, though he had their unswerving loyalty, didn't share the same bond that they had with each other. He was and always would be outside their circle. Though sometimes he regretted it, he knew it was necessary. How else could he order them on assignments that might well mean their death? He told himself it was all for the good of the planet, and staved off guilt with the giving of material things. Their apartments, company cars of their choice, and of course the exorbitant paychecks, the Turks wanted for nothing. And whenever he saw the shared pain in their eyes at the torment of one of their own, he quietly shouldered the blame and gave them the only thing he could, the opportunity for revenge.

Before sitting down, Rufus pulled the files on GALEFORCE from his bottom drawer and set them on his desk. He then went to a filing cabinet in the corner and retrieved Kerri's file from that. He sat and pulled his chair closer to the desk, then spread open the GALEFORCE file first, studying it as if he hadn't already committed most of it to memory. He had told Reno that he suspected an informant at the Academy, but what if he had been wrong? What if the traitor was even closer than that? Kerri's presence at Shin-Ra Headquarters wasn't exactly a secret, especially since Reno had begun a relationship with the young woman. Office gossip being what it was, that particular tidbit had spread fast among the regular personnel. They were always a bit leery of the Turks, and seized any opportunity to make them seem less intimidating.

If the resident playboy had only slept with Kerri, no one would have been surprised. But the fact that they were “shacking up”, as the slang had it, had astounded those who were familiar with Reno's sexual exploits. So had the fact that he had stopped bedding any willing female employees he could find. It had made many people curious about the rookie. Had the wrong questions been asked? Had the connection between Kerri and Darkin been discovered from within his own company? Though Turks no longer used their last names officially, the information wasn't exactly secret. The fact that the rookie shared Darkin's last name could have been found out. He glanced at Kerri's file for a moment. Kerina Corliss. Though Darkin Corliss's role as head of GALEFORCE had only recently been found out, it was quite likely that an informer would already have known the information, depending on how high in the ranks of the terrorist organization that person was.

Kerri herself? Unlikely. Rufus wouldn't rule out the possibility, but quite honestly, he didn't suspect her of being a traitor. For one thing, there was no way anyone could have known that Tseng would choose to recruit her. Tseng had also thoroughly investigated her background, and there was no evidence of Darkin being in more than infrequent contact with her. Everything about her story had checked out.

Rufus looked up at a slight sound from the doorway to see Tseng standing there. “Come in,” he said.

Tseng entered and sat down in one of the chairs opposite Rufus. “Did he crack?” was his first question.

Rufus shook his head. “Not yet, even though Reno was in exceptionally good form. He is still quite insistent on speaking with Kerri.”

“Will she do it?”

“Reno is going to persuade her.” Rufus closed the GALEFORCE file and replaced it in the drawer. He drummed his fingers on Kerri's file for a moment, debating on whether or not to re-read it. He decided not. Like the other, he knew it by heart. Instead he handed it to Tseng. “Would you return this to the file cabinet, please?” he asked.

Tseng did so, and returned to his seat. “Why do you think he wants to speak with her so badly?”

“I have no idea. He gives the impression that he cares nothing for her. Yet, Tseng, somehow I feel that something may be revealed if she meets with him. Anger makes people careless, and the only time Darkin shows true anger is when he speaks of his daughter.”

Tseng nodded. “I noticed that as well. Sir? She won't be in the cell with him, will she?”

“Of course not. I do not want her within his reach.” Rufus tented his fingers under his chin. “When she agrees to speak with him, I would like for you to accompany her and I.”

Tseng grimaced. “Reno isn't going to like that.”

“Reno will have to understand and accept my decision. He is far too emotionally involved to be present.” Rufus leaned forward, folding his arms on his desk and meeting Tseng's eyes squarely. “One. We must find out who the informant—or informants are. Two. We must know why the meeting was scheduled, the meeting that Kerri was supposed to infiltrate before she recognized her father. It was important enough for Darkin to attend with barely any security. Why?” He leaned back in his chair, waiting for Tseng to respond.

“One more thing, boss. Groups like GALEFORCE usually try to garner public sympathy. They haven't. Since the bombing of the orphanage, the public hates GALEFORCE as much as Shin-Ra does. That leads me to believe that Darkin has a personal vendetta, and has his followers convinced that he is fighting Shin-Ra to defend the welfare of the planet.”

“I have come to the same conclusion,” Rufus agreed. “But what personal vendetta? Because my instinct tells me that whatever it is, it has nothing to do with the daughter he is so intent on speaking with.”