Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 3: Pursuit

FORTY-ONE

The first thing I noticed about the mansion was the quiet. It didn't look much different than I remembered, although I thought there were more dust and cobwebs than before. A heavy stillness lay in the air, and I shivered at the dark memories being here brought back. Just ahead of us along the right side of the house past the foyer, the wooden staircase wound its way up to the second floor. I started to lead the girls toward it, but then Jessie suddenly took my arm.

"Cloud, wait," she whispered. "Let's look around first."

I blinked. "Why? If Sephiroth's here, he'll be in the basement just as he was last time. I doubt there's anything else to see here."

Tifa shook her head. "No, Jessie's right. Who knows what surprises he might've left for us? We should check the rest of the house first, just to be sure. Then we'll go down to the basement."

"Securing the perimeter," I nodded. "Alright, makes sense."

We started with one of the small sitting rooms on either side of the front hall. The one on the right didn't have anything of interest, but we found an old desk in the lefthand room that looked promising. And so far, no monsters. But I wasn't entirely sure it would stay that way. Light from a nearby window filtered in from outside but didn't go very far in the gloom that hung sullenly about the mansion.

"Look here!" Aerith exclaimed, taking a small sheet of paper from one of the desk drawers. "It's a note of some kind."

She was right. The note wasn't long but left us with more questions than answers. Jessie and Tifa crowded in close to see it as I looked over it, and the style of the carefully-written script seemed vaguely familiar, as if I'd seen it before somewhere else. I felt a brief twinge of pain in my head as I tried to remember, then shook it off and concentrated on the note, reading the words and numbers carefully again.

I must remove any who would interfere with my research, including that meddlesome Turk. I'm quite proud of how I altered him—he is now quite a unique specimen, especially after what Lucrecia did. Her attempt to save him merely added to the perfection of my design.

But he was too dangerous to leave unattended, so I locked him away in the basement, forever trapped in impotent fury. Lucrecia will probably never forgive me, but it doesn't matter. She has served her purpose in the experiment, and the child is growing as expected. He will be strong, more than anyone else. My crowning achievement.

I suppose I should write down the combination to the safe upstairs in case I feel like tormenting that foolish Turk again. He is entertaining, I'll give him that. It's almost like a game, seeing how far I can push him. But I digress. There is much yet for me to do, and the president wants results. Fool. Science cannot be rushed. But I suppose I should finish this up. Let's see now, the combination for the safe is...right 36, left 10, right 59, right 97. The key to open that Turk's cell is inside.

"Someone's locked up down there?" Jessie breathed.

"Seems that way," I replied.

Tifa shivered. "Who would've done that?"

"From the writing, it sounds like Hojo," Aerith grimaced. "I'd know his style anywhere. And this is just the sort of thing he'd do. But what I wanna know is, what did he do to this guy?"

I was curious, too. "Let's ask him."

"You think he's still alive?" Jessie wondered.

"Could be," I replied. "The note looks pretty old, probably from the days when Shinra was still here, but we should at least look for him. He might help us, and whatever Hojo did to him may have kept him from aging too much. Any enemy of that bastard's our ally."