Guilt’s Cost: Part XLII

Misinformation

Porter rarely saw Hojo these days, as the scientist kept himself locked in the lab alone working on Cloud. Although he had a passing curiosity for what was going on behind those closed doors he was mostly just relieved at his reprieve from the mad man.

Bringing his dog to work had now become a habit, and he had discovered much to his delight that D, for all his oddness of appearance, was a chick magnet. When walking through the halls with his canine companion women would often stop him to ask questions and pet D. Moreover, it had been D that got Porter talking to the brunet girl in accounting that he had been suffering a crush on for the last several months.

One day while handing in yet more of Hojo’s expense reports, the young accountant had gotten up from her corner desk and approached him. Never having had much luck with women, Porter had only ever given her shy smiles.

The woman knelt in front of the dog and grew wide-eyed. "Wow, what a great dog…"

Porter just gazed down at her blankly, disbelieving that she was talking to him. "Oh, uh, yeah."

She patted the top of the animal’s head. "Well, what’s his name?"

"D", Porter said simply.

"Well aren’t you just the bee’s knees?" She said to the dog. "Was he in some sort of accident?"

Porter was finding it hard to think. Locking up in front of the opposite sex had always been his curse. "What’s that?"

"Your dog. He’s robotics from the neck down, so I was wondering if he’d been hit by a car or something." She asked, finally standing back up.

"Oh, I don’t know." Porter’s heart was pounding. "He came from the lab here and I found him in the trash going to the incinerator."

She gasped. "Oh my God, that’s horrible! That was so kind of you to save him."

Porter managed a smile, realizing that he had just unintentionally impressed her. "It was the least I could do. When I took him home his body was all messed up and I had to fix him, but I guess you can see he’s fine now."

"Gosh, you must be awfully smart to have been able to do that." She smiled at him, getting lost in his green eyes. "My name is Rayna. What’s yours?"

He stammered for a moment. "P..Porter."

"Porter, huh?" Her ebony eyes examined him. "And you must be a Turk, I’m guessing?"

Her insight wasn’t miraculous due to his tell tale suit, but he grinned shyly. "Yes, ma’am."

"Wow, I’ve never talked to a Turk before." She fidgeted with her hands. "If you don’t mind my saying, most of your contemporaries are a little off standish."

He nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think some of them take the whole Turk thing a little too seriously."

"Well, it’s finally nice to meet one of them that doesn’t." She dropped her gaze to the side. "So, I suppose a good looking Turk like you has a girl?"

Porter’s heart jumped into his throat. There were all kinds of rumors about how chicks dug Turks, but this was the first time anyone seemed to notice or care. "Well, actually, no."

She reached out and shoved him playfully. "So, you’re either single or not into women, huh?"

Porter laughed out loud. He was as straight as they came. "Single."

"I’ve seen you looking at me before when you drop off those reports." She still avoided eye contact, her face blushing slightly. "Were you ever planning on asking me out?"

There was a good likely hood that Porter was going to fall over dead from shock. "Do you want me too?"

"God you’re cute!" Rayna finally looked back up at him. "Would I have asked that if I didn’t want you too?"

He swallowed hard. "Do…do you want to go out sometime?"

"Tell you what. I get off at five thirty. Why don’t you just meet me back here and we’ll go out to dinner." She said with confidence.

Porter readily accepted.

He had been going out with her nightly ever since, and had never been happier. Although a very attractive man, he had only had a few girl friends in his life, and none of them had ever seemed as interested in him as Rayna. He was quickly falling in love with her and he didn’t really mind. Knowing that she was in the building where he worked actually made him look forward to coming in every day. This coupled with the fact that Hojo had recently made himself scarce almost made up for his crappy assignment.

Porter was sitting in his small office daydreaming, anxiously awaiting quitting time. There had been little for him to do today and he was incredibly board. When the door to his office was thrown open, he jumped up from his desk.

Hojo stood there, looking more tired and haggard than usual. "Porter!"

The young Turk tensed as he acknowledged his visitor. "Sir."

Hojo took several steps in and finally stopped before Porter’s desk. "I need you to do me a favor."

"What is that, Sir?" Porter could almost smell the evil oozing from Hojo.

The scientist threw a small white envelope onto the desk. "Take that to Quigley. It contains some very sensitive material."

Porter furrowed his brow in confusion. He knew very well that Hojo had long suspected that particular researcher as an ASRIO agent. "Why would you want him to have secrets?"

Hojo hung his head, forever frustrated with Porter’s lack of sense. "It’s called misinformation, dear Porter. It makes mention of Mr. Strife’s presence here at Shin Ra, but it fails to mention the fact that he is very much dead."

"So you want ASRIO to think he isn’t?" Porter picked up the envelope and shoved it into his coat pocket.

"Very good." Hojo smiled. "See, you can think when you try."

Porter let the insult slip by. "I see."

Hojo was desperate to share his work with someone, and with Porter being the only one he trusted, he snapped. "Would you like to see what I have done?"

"Yes, Sir." He was only half lying.

"Good, come along." Hojo said turning and walking from the room.

Porter followed along, D walking at his side. Hojo led him to the lab and unlocked the doors. Upon entering, Porter saw something that stopped him in his tracks.

Sitting on a table in the other end of the room sat Cloud, looking very much alive. He had been dressed in a black long sleeve shirt and matching pants. Glossy black leather boots covered his feet. Cloud just sat staring blankly toward Hojo and Porter.

"What did you do?" Porter asked the scientist in a whisper.

Hojo smiled. "You have long known of my affinity for adding mechanical amendments onto living things such as you dog, correct?"

Porter just nodded. He had noticed such a pattern to the mad man’s work.

"Well, I decided that it would be fun to try the opposite, and Mr. Strife here presented the prefect opportunity."

The Turk just continued to stare, noticing that the life support collar that Cloud had previously wore was gone.

Hojo continued. "With his dead brain removed, he presented the prefect chance to try wiring a computer into a human body. I already had perfected attaching wires into nerves so with just a little effort, I have made the once unanimated body move again. The computer tells the body what to do, and I in turn, tell the computer. Watch."

Hojo took a few steps toward Cloud. "Mr. Strife, please be so kind as to show Porter that you can stand."

With one fluid motion, Cloud slid from the table and got to his feet. It didn’t look unnatural whatsoever. Cloud never took his eyes off of Hojo.

"How does he know to look at you?" Porter couldn’t help but ask.

"The computer inside him recognizes me and whenever I am around he will look at me, unless I tell him to turn his attention to someone else. I have given him a memory of just a few people to recognize. Myself, you, and Ms. Lockheart and Mr. Valentine."

Porter wanted to run away. "That is amazing, Sir."

"Thanks, but I know." Hojo looked back at Porter and pulled off his glasses. "Correct me if I’m wrong, but have I not seen you with that little number from accounting?"

"Yeah." He replied quietly.

"Oh." Hojo took a few paces toward him while cleaning his glasses with the edge of his lab coat. "I want you to do me a favor."

"What is that, Sir?"

"After you give that envelope to Quigley," Hojo reached into a pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. "I want you to take that sweet thing to dinner, on me."

Porter reached out and took the money. "That is very generous of you, Sir."

Hojo smiled. "Yes, I suppose it is. Go now, all right?"

"Yes, Sir, and thank you." Porter forced a smile as he retreated from the lab.

When Porter got onto the elevator with his dog, he allowed himself to shiver in disgust. The image of the dead man walking so naturally was going to haunt him for a while. He looked down at the money in his hand that Hojo had given him. He had an urge to throw the cash to the ground, but once he saw the large denominations of the bills he couldn’t stop himself from shoving it into his pocket.

The doors of the elevator opened and Porter found himself on the floor that held Quigley’s office. He made his way to it and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" A tired voice called from within.

"Porter."

"Come on in." Quigley requested.

Porter entered the cramped office to find Quigley hunched over a pile of paperwork. "Hojo wanted me to give you this."

Quigley sighed and reached out taking the envelope. His dirty blond hair hung in his face, and he pushed it back behind his ear so his dog brown eyes could examine what he’d been given.

Porter watched the researcher read the note, and smiled to himself as he realized Quigley had a definite German Shepherd type quality to his appearance. This was even further enhanced by the fact that at some point during the day, Quigley had managed to smudge something black on the end of his nose.

Quigley seemed disturbed by what he read and let the letter fall back to his desk. "You work for a real sick bastard, you know that?"

Porter smiled. "Yeah, but you work for him too."

Quigley raised his eyebrows. "Oh, I guess I do."

Porter had always liked this man, if not for his absent mindedness then for his gentle and even nature. "Well, I need to get going."

"Okay." Quigley stood up and extended his hand. "See you around."

Porter accepted the handshake before going to meet Rayna.