Spirit Animals

Chapter 27

Ed bit down the sigh he wanted to sound at the conductor's announcement that the train bound for Central would remain in North City station for another half hour as a mechanical issue was sorted. Falman and Al were sitting in seats on the other side of the aisle and both Chester and Ayala were curled up on the bench opposite Ed while Rachel bounced between Falman and Ed, chattering excitedly about going home. Falman got up from his seat after the conductor's announcement and his offer to shout coffee was enthusiastically taken up by Ed.

"Hey, Brother?" Al's voice stopped Ed from getting lost in his thoughts once more.

"What's up, Al?" Ed asked, wedging himself in the corner made by the train bench and window so he could face Al properly.

"Do you really think it was a good idea telling Colonel Moon to investigate the tremors?" Al asked, concern drenched in his tinny voice and Ed didn't bother suppressing his sigh this time.

They'd managed to get to Northern Command just on nightfall the day they'd left Fort Briggs. However, much to Ed's annoyance, the two soldiers Kemp had told him about had already left for the day and he couldn't talk to them about the tremors they'd felt in Vodgy. When he'd asked about their commanding officer, Colonel Trevor Moon, he'd been informed that the colonel was in a meeting at the time and his lieutenant didn't know when it would finish. She'd been nice enough to schedule him in for a quick 20-minute meeting the next day though so Ed couldn't be too mad.

He'd made sure that he and Ayala got to the meeting early so they could talk to the soldiers Kemp had mentioned before Colonel Moon. Unfortunately, Master Sergeant Dean Hardy and 1st Lieutenant Dereck Song hadn't been able to give Ed any more information on what they'd experienced, only repeating what Sergeant Kemp had said with a bit more detail. They'd been standing no more than 30 metres away from each other, each speaking to a different store owner. Song had been the one to feel the first tremor, telling Ed that it had been strong enough for him to feel it and throw him a little off balance but not strong enough for it to knock him off his feet and it had only lasted ten seconds at the most.

Hardy had backed up Song's claims, telling Ed he hadn't noticed anything happening with Song or the store owner the lieutenant had been interviewing. Kemp had apparently misheard or misunderstood the next part as Song claimed to dismiss the tremor as a small quake and proceeded to finish his interview before making his way over to Hardy five minutes after the tremor. It was when Song was within ten metres of Hardy that he'd felt a second tremor and this time, so did Hardy and the store owner the sergeant was talking with. Song then told Ed that after the tremors had stopped – this time they'd lasted nearly 20 seconds – and he'd checked on Hardy, he went back to the store owner he'd been talking to and when he asked, he found out the man hadn't felt the second tremor at all.

The lieutenant who'd scheduled Ed's meeting had then broken in to tell him Moon had ordered her to show him into his inner office and Ed had thanked her. After making sure neither Hardy nor Song had anything else to add, Ed and Ayala followed Lieutenant White into the inner office, thanking her when she'd left the office. Though Moon didn't cut an imposing figure, the way the man sat self-assuredly behind his desk and greeted Ed with a confident handshake told the alchemist that he could be someone he'd need to be careful of if he ever crossed him.

They'd started the meeting by exchanging pleasantries and introducing each other's Animals. Ayala hadn't been overly impressed with Moon's ferret but she decided to simply ignore it in favour of laying at Ed's feet and appearing to sleep as the two officers spoke. Since the meeting was such a short one, Ed decided to get right to the point and ask Moon whether he'd uncovered anything during his investigation of the tremors. Moon hadn't been pleased to report back that he hadn't but had been much more enthusiastic when Ed had asked him to explain why he was investigating these tremors at all.