Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 1: Arrival

TWENTY-THREE

Jessie and I had already picked the one we were going to use. Once we got inside, we'd head across the platforms until we got to the storage room. It was at the top of a ladder and acted as a sort of hub with a few other exits, one of which led to the area outside Reactor 5. Jessie would then hide the bomb inside the wall, and tomorrow we would pick it up on the way in. All there was to it.

Walking down the short flight of stairs to the ground, we made our way to the right side of the Seventh Heaven, where I'd parked the Hardy earlier. Jessie was unusually quiet as she got on behind me, sliding onto the leather seat without a word. And I thought I knew why. As the days had gone by and we'd gotten closer to taking out Reactor 5, she'd grown more and more anxious and depressed.

Jessie had tried to hide it behind a smile and her typically cheerful demeanor, but I knew her well enough by now that I'd seen the pain in her eyes. She was a good actress and had fooled most of the others. But not me. I had a pretty good idea of what was eating her up inside, and I was sure it had been going on for a while now.

Over the past week, she had taken to watching the news whenever more reports came in about the Reactor 1 bombing. And they'd always include footage of what was left of it, a smoldering, smoking ruin, and the damage the explosion had caused to Sector 8. The number of dead and wounded always seemed to be going up as time went on, and Jessie had seemed to wilt a little more every time the counts were updated. I'd told her not to watch, but she wouldn't listen.

After I gunned the engine to life, we rode the bike quietly through the slums, the motor humming steadily as I drove. Jessie put her hands on either side of my waist as we passed into the outskirts, but she didn't say anything. She had carefully put the bomb inside one of the Hardy's storage compartments earlier when we had ridden over to the bar from her workshop, and I was sure it was on her mind.

We drove past the pillar complex without slowing down or looking at it. Although I hadn't dreamed about Jessie's death up there since our second night together the day of our picnic, I hadn't forgotten about it. Not once. Or my promise to save her from that fate. I wouldn't let what I'd seen become real. I wouldn't.

The trip through the Corkscrew Tunnel was fortunately uneventful as we made our way topside. We passed a train going the other way but didn't slow down. Jessie had made everyone a new ID by now, and they seemed to be holding up alright. Well, she hadn't finished mine yet, so I was still using my old one. I only hoped they'd hold out for the return trip back to the slums later on.

I'd brought Buster with me this time, and I drove the bike with my right hand while holding my sword in my left. As we neared Sector 4, I kept an eye out for the entrance leading to the underplate. Jessie found it first, patting me on the shoulder and pointing a short distance ahead of us and to our left. I saw it, nodded, and started to slow down. When we got close enough, I brought the Hardy to a stop.

I parked our motorcycle next to a small hatch set in the wall at the top of a short metal ladder. Killing the engine, I got off the Hardy while Jessie did likewise, shouldering Buster while she opened up the storage bay on the lefthand side and took out a dark gray backpack. Inside was the bomb and the remote detonator she'd made for it.

"This way," she pointed to the hatch.

I climbed up the ladder first with Jessie following close behind me, her backpack on her shoulders. When I got to the hatch, I opened it up and slid into a narrow service duct that went straight ahead for a dozen feet or so before hitting a dead end.

The place was a tight fit, but we managed. A second ladder was set into the floor at the far end, and we climbed down into another, longer tunnel. Jessie and I followed it for a little while until it opened out onto the series of suspended platforms that formed the Sector 4 underplate. They were fenced in by high metal railings, and here and there, we saw the huge lamps that were used to create the illusion of day and night in the slums lying far below us.