Chapter 5 - Never Send a Man to do a Woman's Job

Dust swirled and swooped in the dry desert air as Torian's motorcycle ripped relentlessly through the treacherous sand. "I see why CIPHER chose to take this 'road'," she muttered as, once again, her tires spun uselessly in the dunes. Backing out, she chose a course slightly to the right and continued on, muttering curses under her breath all the while at the bleak desert as she adjusted the tinted goggles on her face, which seemed to take great delight in slipping off at the worst possible moments.

"Damn you CIPHER!" she yelled as she was temporarily blinded by the sun's reflected glare as the sun came out from behind a series of clouds. "How anyone does this without sunglasses, I'll never know," she commented dryly to no one in particular as she stopped to shade her eyes and rest. Her long, forest green coat bearing the Vigilance Network badges was unbearably hot in the arid climate of Orre's northwestern desert, but she left it on; she couldn't risk losing allies by having friendly people see the CIPHER insignia on her shoulder and down her left arm.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of endless desert driving, she spotted a van. Immediately, she sped up and caught up with the vehicle, which sported the words Cale and Imogene's Personal Hygiene and Earwig Resistance across the back and sides. "Cale and Imogene…" Torian said to herself. "C-I-P…CIPHER?" She couldn't help but laugh at the words, though she was unsure of whether she was to die of incredulity right then and there; it seemed to her that CIPHER never made any sense anymore. At least, she was fairly sure it was CIPHER; not many businesses would even consider a name like the one on the van's back doors.

Still, she knew she had to keep her guard up. As she entered speaking range of the van's driver, she began to slowly kill off her engine. "Um, excuse me!" she called as she waved a hand to get the man's attention. "Hey, can you help me? My engine is starting to fail, and I don't know how to get back to civilization without my bike…do you think you can tow it to Phenac or some other city that's close to here?"

The van screeched to a halt and the driver, a thin, wiry man with long, black, greasy hair, jumped out. "Well, I'm not supposed to stop, but…" he stroked his short goatee and finished, "I could never say no to a pretty face. I'll find some rope; hop in." He smiled broadly and rummaged in a side toolbox.

"Why, thank you, hon," Torian said flirtatiously as she batted her eyelashes at him playfully. "I don't know I can repay you…"

"Dinner at Phenac's Blue Water Diner?" he suggested hopefully as he secured the motorbike to the back of the van. She smiled.

"Of course, anything for the man who saved my life," she answered sweetly as she stepped carefully to the cab. She didn't see anything suspicious when she peered inside, but she did see a heavy padlock on every exit out of the cargo hold. "Either Shadow Pokemon or hostages…" she whispered to herself. "I'll have to buy myself some time…"

The driver climbed into the cab and extended a hand across the narrow seats to help Torian up. "So, Miss, uh, Miss…"

"Kaylie," she said with another smile. "Just Kaylie." She took his hand and, as she pulled herself up, she quickly felt for the calluses he was supposed to have as a truck driver. "This your full-time job, driving vans and junk?" she asked curiously.

He nodded. "Yes, indeed. Been doing it for almost ten years now, and it's been one of the best jobs I ever had."

Torian smiled and nodded, pretending to go along with everything. "So, what's your name, pretty boy?"

"Daniel," he replied, almost a little too quickly. As the van sped along the sand, one thing repeatedly ran across her mind: his hands were too soft for him to be telling the truth.

Torian had been along the route to Phenac City countless times, and she knew for sure when they passed up the turnoff that this man was not who he said he was. Keeping up the charade, she asked, "So, where is Phenac in all of this?"

"He motioned toward the sand in front of them. "Just a little ways ahead. You like Pokemon, Kaylie?"

She shrugged. "A little indifferent, really. I'm not a full-time Trainer if that's what you're asking. Biking's more my thing." Leaning in close, she whispered conspiratorially, "Did you hear the news about CIPHER being back? ONBS showed it last night." Watching closely for his reaction, she began to tell him all about the details of the false news broadcast with staged gusto. Finally, after staring hard at the road, she saw his mouth move slightly.

"Damn them ONBS twerps," she read his lips move.

"Hmm?"

He looked up. "Oh, nothing. This road's a mite bumpy, though."

Torian racked her mind hard. She needed true convicting evidence, and she would get it soon. "So, what's your opinion of CIPHER?" Her hand went to his shoulder seductively as she spoke. She edged closer until her arm was around his shoulders and her hand rested on his left arm. He smiled dreamily and unconsciously allowed her to lift the sleeve of his shirt slightly. From her position, she could barely see it, but sure enough, there it was: the swirling CIPHER brand that had become so familiar.

"Nice tattoo," she said with a hint of sarcasm all of a sudden. "I have one of those, too." She held his neck in a tight sleeper-hold with a grip just tight enough to cause him driving problems. "Pull over. Now." Her voice took on a dangerous edge as she drew a pistol from her hidden boot holster and held it to his head. "If you don't pull over, I'll kill you and take the van anyway. Don't you want to live, pretty boy?"

He froze for a moment and the van careened out of control. "Drive, berk. Now, before you kill yourself and whatever you have back there in the back."

Daniel, if that was really his name, nodded quickly and grabbed the steering wheel with white knuckles. "Now pull over." She jabbed his temple with the pistol and sneered, "What, never been held up by a woman before? Well, there's a first time for everything, they say. Pull over, idiot!"

He slammed on the brakes, and she swiftly pointed the pistol out the window and fired. He gasped as he jumped and brought his hand up to his head. "That's a warning," she said darkly. "Now if you answer my questions, I might let you go. First, what's your name, because I can bet as sure as hell that it's not Daniel."

"A…Ashura," he stuttered quickly.

"Do you work for CIPHER?"

He glared at her. "Who the hell are you, anyway? And who are you working for?"

She held a finger to her lips. "My time for questions; I'm afraid I can't answer yours. Let me repeat, do you or do you not work for CIPHER?"

"What kind of question is that? You said you had a tattoo like mine; don't you know what it means? Which admin do you work for? I'll report this to the Grandmaster; Snattle will not be pleased."

She smirked. "It was Commodore Haxer Mercede back in my day. Along with Grandmaster Evice and his group."

"So you're a renegade from the old CIPHER?"

She shook her head and raised her eyebrows. "Now did I say that? I no longer work for CIPHER; I kicked the habit. Now tell me. What kind of cargo do you carry in this…um…gaudy vehicle?"

"Gaudy?" Ashura gasped. "Hey, I painted this myself, I'll have you know!"

"It shows," she muttered. "Answer the question," she said a bit louder and jabbed the pistol into his temple again.

"Okay, okay, not so rough!" he complained. "You wouldn't really shoot me, would you?"

She pulled the hammer back slowly as an answer. "Answer the question."

"Check and see," he said with a nervous laugh. "I honestly don't know."

She nudged him with her foot. "Go open it. If I even think you're trying to run, I fire. Got it?"

He hastily fumbled with his keys and unlocked the padlock, lowering her motorcycle. "If there's angry Shadow Pokemon here, it's your fault for unleashing them," he warned as the lock clicked.

"Shut up."

Torian peered inside the vast cargo hold. She heard a black toolbox the far end and jabbed Ashura with the pistol again. "Get in. Grab the rope while you're at it."

She securely tied his hands to a tie-down on the wall and left him there. With her gun back down and holstered, she crawled to the box and opened it. Much to her surprise, in it was laying a boy, who was rather short but looked to be about thirteen or fourteen in his facial features. His rather long red hair was bedraggled, and his bangs hung in front of his eyes, partially masking a particularly bloody cut above his right eye. The t-shirt he wore was partially ripped, revealing dark purple and blue bruises along his chest and arms, and his windbreaker pants were cut toward his left ankle, revealing a long gash that dripped blood into the bottom of the box. "Damn, must have been some struggle," she whispered as she surveyed the box to figure out how to get the boy out without injuring him even more. There was no way she could get him out on her own with her slight build…

"You!" she barked at Ashura, and she untied his hands. Gun drawn again, she nodded at the box. "Get the kid out of there and set him on the floor. If you hurt him more…"

Ashura grimaced at the thought of getting blood on his clothes, but he chose helping Torian over getting shot in the head. With strong arms, he lifted the boy out and laid him gently, or as gently as a CIPHER peon was capable of, and glared at Torian.

"You know, Kaylie, if that's even your name, that you can never stop CIPHER? Kalas tried to, him and that girl of his, five years ago, but we're back now, and we will always come back. Don't waste your time...besides, our Grandmaster is a much better leader, much more canny than Evice was. I wouldn't…"

"If I were you, I would shut up before I got my brains blown out."

Torian knelt down and felt the boy's pulse, which was faint and barely noticeable. "Okay, kid, let's get you out of here," she whispered. After a quick check to make sure nothing was broken, she picked him up as best as she could and exited the cargo area, shutting the door and locking it with her foot.

"Hey!" Ashura shouted, but the sound was heavily muted and barely heard.

With as much care as she could use, she laid the boy on the seat of the van so she could watch him and secured her motorbike to the back of the van. Finally, she climbed in, started the engine, and began to drive back toward the Vigilance Network HQ nestled in the northernmost forests of Orre.

As she was driving, she kept one hand on his neck, checking his pulse. She also noted that his red hair was matted with blood, most likely from the cut on his eye. Her leg began to fall asleep with his head on her lap, but there was nothing she could do; the cab was not that big and she was not about to leave him in the back with Ashura, tied up though he may have been.

"Hang in there, kid," she whispered, and cringed as the van lurched over a bump. "Damn, I shouldn't even be driving…I've never driven a car before…"

It went something like that the whole way to Vigilance Network HQ, and when she finally crossed over from the marshy middleground between the desert and the forests to the woods she was familiar with, she breathed a sigh of relief. White-knuckled hands clutching the steering wheel, she guided the vehicle through the camouflaged top-security gates, guiding the wheel with her left knee as she flashed an I.D. badge to the guards.

Arms shaking from tension, she all but collapsed in the cab after she parked it in front of the huge double-door entrance, leaning against the steering wheel. Catching her breath, she reached for her radio and found the batteries were dead. "Why now…" she muttered. Turning her head toward the building and yelled, "Steven! Kalas! Someone! Send armed men out here, and a medical tech! Oh, forget the formalities and warm receptions…just hurry!"

A young man who had just walked out of the doors nodded hastily and dashed back in. "I hope he's calling for help," Torian muttered dryly. Sure enough, a team of troopers followed him out in less than a few minutes, and she pointed to the vehicle. "There's a guy…he's hurt; he's in the cab. A CIPHER peon's locked in the back, the bike's tied to the very back, and I need to talk to Kalas!"

"Whoa, Torian, calm down," Kalas said soothingly as he, in his usual fashion, appeared almost out of nowhere. "You seem to have everything under control well enough…"

"You need to quit doing that," she muttered as she swung herself out of the van clumsily. "Where were Caipha and Destron?" she demanded. "Didn't you promise me reinforcements?"

"Torian, we tried radioing you, but there was no signal…" Kalas began, wringing his hands. "We found out not three minutes after you rode away from here that it was a false alarm. I managed to get a hold of the other two, but your radio signal wouldn't go up. Is your PDA tuned up?"

"Damn thing's out of batteries!" she growled. "I'm sorry, Kalas," she added in a softer tone. "I'm not really that upset…I'm just…it's just that…" She sighed and took a deep breath. "Look, I've never driven an actual vehicle, okay? There; you have the reason I was shaking when I got here. I mean, a motorbike you can see the ground from, but that monstrosity…you can get really claustrophobic in there…I almost peed in my pants every time I hit a bump!"

Kalas burst into laughter. "Torian, are you serious?"

She shrugged. "Well, I never learned how to drive. Most people that enroll in Vigilance Network can drive when they come, you know. All I ever had was my bike."

She glanced at the van. "Looks like it wasn't a false alarm after all…I managed to catch up with this somewhere around Phenac; the guy driving had a toolbox in the back with a beat up kid inside." Torian shook her head. "He's a mess; it's a good thing I don't care about clothes."

The leader of Vigilance Network glanced up and down Torian's bloodstained shirt and grinned. "Might want to warn Steven, or he might go into shock if he sees you all bloodied up like that."

She nodded. "I will, but…look, I don't want someone else to die at my hands. I'm really worried about the guy that got hurt. He looked like he was about twelve or thirteen, maybe fourteen. Poor guy, he got pretty torn up. His pulse was really weak when I brought him here, but he might make it…"

"Someone else to die at your hands?" Kalas questioned. "Torian, what happened?"

"Nothing, just something that happened while I worked for CIPHER, that's all." She shrugged it off. "I'm just spouting stuff because my nerves are on fire; don't mind me." She gave a weak laugh and headed toward the main building.

"Oh, and haven't you considered getting…you know…that removed?" Kalas called. "I mean, the weather's going to be pretty hot soon…and I remember you almost passed out in that coat of yours last year."

Torian rubbed her left shoulder thoughtfully. "I don't know…that would mean I would have to show it to whoever takes it off, right? Nah, it's there to stay."

Her boss sighed. "Well, I'll be happy when you reconsider…"

oOo

Torian had just turned a corner when Azer shot out from nowhere and knocked her on the ground. "You went on a mission and didn't take me?" he growled as he placed a heavy paw on her shoulder. "I am offended."

"Azer, my entire mission would have centered on me not being able to battle well," Torian explained. "I told you this already; you're a great fighter, but you never hold back. Besides, you have the Shadow essence, even though you're not a Shadow Pokemon yourself; any high-ranking CIPHER officer would have seen through my ploy immediately if you would have come along. I had no idea who I would deal with. Not like you missed much, anyway."

"I'm sorry…excuse me if I don't like to give up," Azer snorted. "It's not in my nature, okay?" He sniffed at her coat. "Is that blood? Grace above all mercy, Torian, did you kill rabbits too while you so conveniently left me here?"

Torian ran her fingers through Azer's fur affectionately. "Not at all. Yes, I love you too, Azer."