Betrayal: Chapter 2

"Reno, I have explained this twice. If you ask again, I'm taking your cattle prod away," he replied, walking more quickly.

"Aw! Don't be like that, yo! Besides, you promised me that you wouldn't do that anymore," the younger man protested.

He gave him a flat look, "No. I said I would not if you did not purposefully annoy me." They reached the cache he had set up earlier in the week and Reno cleaned himself up.

"So since I have a disguise, does that mean that I get to have a new name?"

He took a deep breath. Reno was just trying to get to him because he knew his partner was worried about him. "Yes. You get to have a new name. Vegas. There."

Reno paused from applying dye to his hair to stare at him. "Vegas? Like the lost city in the kid's book?" He snorted, "What the hell kind of name is that?" When Reno was finished with the dye, his hair was a nondescript brown. They applied a thick base to cover his tattoos and dressed him in clothes any ShinRa employee might wear. He was virtually unrecognizable with all his trademarks covered or missing. "Now, what is it I'm supposed to do first?"

His lips thinned slightly at being asked yet again, but he answered before they parted ways, "I need you to plant a bomb in a shipment of Rufus's clothes that are due to be delivered to the Mansion. Be sure that the box is packed neatly. That is imperative."

Rufus frowned. The attack on the ShinRa building yesterday had gone off at almost the wrong moment. Ten minutes later and security might not have been able to hold the lobby. With Personnel restructuring every department and transferring between installations, things at HQ were beyond chaotic. This was why he'd been inclined to deny the original request from Betice, head of Personnel, but Tseng had convinced him otherwise.

He looked at his monitor again. Sighed again. A bomb had been found in his clothes shipment. Luckily, it had not been someone from Housekeeping sent to pack it, so the neatly packaged bomb had stood out among the twine wrapped mess he'd received an hour ago. Rufus looked down and saw a long, black hair on the arm of his coat. He plucked it off and wrapped it around his hand, then touched it to his forehead as if it could impart some knowledge of its owner. "Tseng, what are you doing?"

He kept a watchful eye lest they be seen meeting. "I want you to go to Heidegger's Wake."

"That dive? Bad bunch in there. But whatever. Here, take this thing," Reno replied, handing over a very large, very heavy bag covered in sigils. "Watch out because the guy said it'll get feisty almost as soon as it's outta the bag." Something moved inside.

He nodded in understanding and they parted ways. He grunted as he hefted the bag. He'd had to rewrite his plans very quickly when Rufus announced he was returning to HQ tonight. What was he thinking?

"A what was found in my rooms?" Rufus demanded.

"A juvenile zolom. A baby, really, about as big as a man," Elena repeated.

Rufus stared at her a moment longer, then shook his head to clear it. "The employee who discovered it?"

She smiled brightly, glad to have some good news, "In surprisingly good shape, Sir. Good thing you left a golf club out. I didn't even know you were still playing."

A thin smile crossed his face as things began falling into place. "Expedite our flight."

Reno stepped into the bar and right away spotted something that shouldn't be there. ShinRa employees. Despite the name, accidents tended to happen to ShinRa who came. He strolled towards them, feeling good in street clothes, "Yo, you know ShinRa ain't welcome here, right?"

One of them, even drunker than the rest, mouthed off, "Yeah, maybe we're different."

He laughed and casually swiped the man's beer for a drink. The man blinked stupidly at him like he couldn't believe he just did that. "You don't look different."

The man stood up, swayed, and his face turned an unhealthy shade of red, "Oh yeah? Well, you better ask Maurice 'bout that!" One of the more sober ones started to try to shut him up.

A fierce grin came over his face as something by Prodigy began to play. "That's my cue!" And with that he smashed the mug over the sober one's head. He flicked out his stick and it was on!

"Reno, do you always have to clear the bar?" Tseng sighed. He stood just outside of the security camera's pickup while he watched Reno clean up in a rarely used bathroom on Level Three.

Reno shrugged, "I didn't. There was still people standing when I left. But I got the names, yo. They've been working with that terrorist organization, the Condor Group, and their contact is Maurice Blave." He filled him in on the rest of the information, then began to reapply the base covering his tattoos.

He was putting the finishing touches on the makeup, watching Tseng out of the corner of his eye. "I went to visit the kid that got zolomed earlier. Turns out it's the guy you don't like. Yanno, the one who hears all the gossip? Yanno, I knew they were paying you. They always do. But you've never spent the money before. So what's this about you buying a house in Costa del Sol?" Reno's hand had closed on his shock stick and he watched Tseng for any change of expression. It never came, but suddenly there was the sharp report of a firearm. As darkness closed in, he saw the camera get ripped out of the wall.

Tseng's shoes clacked on the tile as he leaned over him. "You shouldn't have asked that, Reno." And then there was nothing.