CHAPTER 5

That morning in Kalm was fine, really fine. Like any other sunny day, the cool wind blew the green, lush grassland gently, the birds chirping away happily, the sun shining down and bring brightness to the land. It was just another day, another peaceful day.

But it wasn’t for Cloud. Today was the day he is going to depart on a journey for the search of Aeris. His mission, find Aeris, either live or death, hopefully alive. But there were things still clinging on to him. Distracting him. Cloud looked at his wife-Tifa. They had just finished breakfast and now he was packing up his equipment and Tifa was washing the dishes. Tifa allow him to go, but something tells him he shouldn’t.

“Tifa, Mrs. Audrew will be here in a minute and she will take care of you. If anything happens, call me on the PHS. I will be home immediately.” Cloud told Tifa that was wiping the table.

“Tifa, please take care of yourself. Go to the clinic regularly and do what the doctors say.” Cloud continued while examining his sword.

Tifa just kept quiet. She continued doing housework like any other day, except she was very quiet that day. She hadn’t spoke a word that morning.

“Tifa, say something. Please.” Cloud pled Tifa to reply him. Tifa just kept quiet, ignoring Cloud.

“Tifa...”

A loud rumbling noise made by a flying vehicle was heard from above. The noise was loud, indicating the distance from the source and their house was very near.

“Cid?” Tifa finally spoke for the first time.

“No, I don’t think so. Cid didn’t know about this. Besides, the highwind doesn’t make this kind of noise.” Cloud trying to guess what the source of the noise was.

“I guess I gotta go. If anything happens, just call me.” Cloud said and grabbed his equipment and left for the door. Just as he was about to leave, Tifa shouted.

“Wait!”

Cloud froze at his position. He was afraid that Tifa might had changed her mind, that suddenly Tifa wouldn’t left him go.

“Be careful, please.” Tifa said and looked at Cloud. Cloud looked back and smiled.

“You too.” Cloud replied and left his house. Now all Tifa had to do was to wait, to wait for the return of Cloud.

After leaving his house, Cloud dashed straight to the place where he will meet the Turks. From far, he could see something landing there. It was a chopper, he guessed, painted in blue and white. When he got closer, he got a fright. He saw the a big word “Shinra” painted on the side of the chopper. Then, a few men wearing blue uniform got off the chopper and looked at him. Cloud was petrified at first, but then recalling that Shinra had fallen for some time ago, he gathered up his guts and went to meet the guys there.

“Are you Mr. Cloud?!”

Cloud saw a man from the chopper approaching him. This man was clinging onto his hat and shouted at the top of his voice against the noise made by the chopper. Cloud got nearer and got a clearer picture of the man. The man was around six feet tall, well-built, had a mustache, wore sunglasses, wears his uniform neatly and looked like an experience military officer. Cloud looked at him, not knowing who he was and how he had knew Cloud.

“Mr. Cloud. I am Agent Jaacob, chief of operations, nice to meet you. Agent Reno had asked for our service and these are the people you are going to work with for the next few days. Allow me.”

The man, although looked tough, spoke with a polite tone. He led Cloud to the others in the chopper and introduced them to Cloud.

“Meet your team. These are highly trained professional, trained to handle all sort of problems and obstacles. We assure you that there are no obstacles we cannot overcome.”

Cloud, not believing that the Turks had actually hired military staff to aid him, stood there looked at five men in front of him including Agent Jaacob he just met. The first was a man with thick spectacles, working on hand-held computer, trying to figure out something. At first sight, he was a geek with uncombed blond hair, unshaved mustache and a big sight problem. But behind those glass was a dashing young man who knows more about computers than people. He greeted Cloud when he noticed Cloud.

“Agent Alex, a.k.a ‘Specky’. Master in computing, machinery and anything that has to do with technical stuff. Once involved in the computerizing of Shinra corp’s defense. Then, meet Agent David.”

Cloud looked at the man Agent Jaacob was pointing at. This man was skinny, short and relatively small. He wore a funny type of hat, like the ones usually wore by Shinra officers and didn’t spoke much. His uniform was quite neat but a few buttons unbuttoned. He had black hair, a small beard and always rubbing his chin, he looked like a wise man.

“Agent David, a.k.a ‘Wiseguy’ was a Geologist, Chemist, Physicist and minor in a few more science subjects. He will be in charge of evidence and anything that requires his help.”

Cloud looked at the two and didn’t know what to say. They are smart people, way smarter than Cloud himself. This investigation might had used just a little too much talent. His eyes were now fixed onto the third man. This man looked like a walking zombie, his eyes were barely opened and looked like his been living on coffee. This man had an almost bald head, had many wrinkles on his face, probably one of the senior among them. He didn’t spoke a word. Just holding a canister, sipping it occasionally.

“This is Agent Dubchek, our senior advisor in criminology. He is capable of entering criminal’s mind, track them down and solve cases unlike everyone else. Once a mole-hunter in the Shinra-corp, he was feared by many staff that leak information out of Shinra.”

Cloud now looked at the last man in the line. This is a young man, a very young one. He looked like a hyper-active kid who can’t wait to show something in his line of expertise. He had brown hair, blue eyes and looked like a new member of the organization. His uniform were not tucked in properly and his hair was combed into a dashing style. He had a knapsack too, although what was inside remained unknown.

“I am Agent Roswell. You can call me ‘kid’. I just entered the team so I am quite new. I specialize in explosive and anything that had to do with boom. I too specialize in weaponry and simple mechanisms. So, when do I get to do something?”

The young agent introduced himself, eager to do his first job. Cloud just looked at him. He felt awkward and sat down. Cloud then looked at the others and thoughts filled his mind. He didn’t know there were so many specialist to aid him. Wonder where Reno get all this help?

“Reno?” Cloud asked Agent Jaacob that was inspecting some equipments.

“He’s off to gather the others. He will arrive shortly.” Agent Jaacob answered.

“The others?” Cloud asked with a curious tone.

“Ah, here they are.”

Cloud heard rumbling noises came from afar. Cloud turned around and got the shock of his life. At first he saw five dots, then six, then seven, then eight approaching them. The dots became bigger and all those were choppers carrying military personnel in it. Cloud, not knowing that such a big crowd would join his party, was petrified.

The choppers slowly drew closer towards them and one by one landed on the grassland, making the grass dance like mad and the noise of blade whistling in the air mute all speech that was made. Cloud saw soldiers in blue uniforms poured out of those choppers, greeting each others and checking equipments. Reno got a big explanation to make.

“Jaacob!”

Cloud suddenly heard voice beneath the chopper blade noise. That voice was dead familiar. It could only be...

“Reno!!!”

Cloud spotted Reno the moment he saw him and dashed towards him. He knocked Reno right off his feet but Reno recovered skillfully.

“What the hell in going on here?” Cloud shouted at the top of his voice.

“You need an investigation team right? You got it!” Reno shouted back.

“I only need you guys! Not a whole bunch of I don’t know whos?! What the hell’s wrong with you?! This looked like an all out assault!!” Cloud shouted again.

“That’s what you get when you signed contract A!!” Reno shouted in reply.

“Contract what?!” Cloud shouted with a questioned tone.

“Look at this! It says we are fully in charge in handling personnel! Read it!”

Cloud snatched the contract and took a look at it. Reno was right. The Turks are fully in charge in handling personnel. Reno conned Cloud!

“Why you...You are robbing everything out of me!”

Cloud scolded at the moment he realize Reno was actually doing this to drain Cloud’s money. You see, Cloud had already hired these men, whether he liked it or not. If he call off the deal, he had to pay losses to Reno and the Turks. Man, isn’t this day light robbery?

“I know you had a hell lotta money to hire these men! Only your materia collection weighs a fortune. What we did was getting all the help you need, and all you need to do was pay.” Reno replied. Cloud mumbled a few words and headed back to Agent Jaacob. He can’t stand seeing Reno anymore.

“Why in the world would you help Reno out?” Cloud asked Agent Jaacob that was talking to the other agents.

“After the fall of Shinra, we are all jobless. We need something to support ourselves besides making a living in shops and offices. We need something that could bring us big fortune, excitement and anything to do with our specialties. We joined this organization called Shinrao.” Agent Jaacob replied.

“Shinrao?” Cloud asked.

“Yes. Look. Shinra, Shinrao!”

Jaacob pulled Cloud along to the side of the chopper and showed him the word that was painted on the chopper. Jaacob’s right. There was an ‘o’ behind the word Shinra, except the ‘o’ was painted with a big paintbrush and make the chopper looked like stolen goods.

“Tell me this isn’t a revival of Shinra-corp.” Cloud pressed his palm against his temple.

“No, don’t worry, no mako-extracting business was involved. You see, after the fall of Shinra, their assets were just left unused. What we do was to gather those assets and use them for our own organization’s purpose.” Agent Jaacob explained.

Cloud, still not believing how Reno made him a fool was about to scream and cry for help. Furious, he asked Jaacob another question.

“So, what’s next? A rocket scientist?”

“In fact, I am one. I once was involved in the Shinra space program.” Agent Alex suddenly replied. Cloud covered his face and left himself thinking. He felt so stupid.

“Ah, here comes the arms!” Agent Jaacob shouted out pointing at a huge crate that was carried by two choppers.

“What?! Weapons?! What the hell do you need that for?! This is a search for a missing person for god’s sake!!” Cloud shouted at Agent Jaacob.

“Well, you will never know.” Agent Jaacob said and started heading towards the dropping zone.

“Sir! Requesting permission to start assembling, Sir!” Agent Alex stood up and requested Agent Jaacob. Agent Jaacob nodded and Agent Alex ran to the dropping zone.

“Assemble what?” Cloud asked, hoping it wasn’t another shocking answer.

“Some old unused mechs left by Shinra.” Agent Roswell answered.

“Mechs?” Cloud asked with a shocked tone.

“Yeah! You know! Big machinery walking on two leg with missile pack on their back and armed with two auto cannons or high-powered lasers?” Agent Roswell continued.

Cloud just stood there quietly. He couldn’t believe what had happened for the whole morning. It was too sudden, too fast-moving and too huge. Cloud needs a moment, a moment on his own.

“Damn you Reno.” Cloud uttered while the agents started working.