Chapter 7 - Eridos Verich

The familiar, busy, crowded streets and bright, flashing lights of a city at night filled Torian's senses as she made her way through the crowded Central District of Gateon Port. She had no idea who this Verich fellow was, or even what he looked like; all she knew was that he had a neat, spidery handwriting and he preferred fax machines to PDAs.

Mind wandering, she absentmindedly made her way to the Krabby Club, which wasn't exactly the most sophisticated bar in town, and slipped inside before anyone could ask how old she was. With certain, deliberate strides that exuded a confidence she did not really feel, she approached the grimy bar. "Do you know where I might find a Mr. Eridos Verich?" she asked the bartender politely.

A look of fear crept into the old man's gnarled face. "Eridos…Verich?" he gulped nervously. "V.I.P. room, up the left stairwell."

"Who is he, if you don't mind my asking?" She suddenly developed a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. Silently, she released Azer and stood firm as a chill swept through her body.

"Who is he…" the bartender let out a loud hoot of laughter. "You kidding right?" When her blank stare did not change, he shrugged. "You obviously ain't been here long, lassie." He looked around nervously and whispered, "S'posedly, he's some old noble guy from the Orange Islands. Says he's here to see the sights and all but..." the old man shivered involuntarily. "He just got this aura of power…evil power. He's filthy rich, and he bought everyone in here drinks just a few minutes earlier, but I don't think it's because he's some nice, doddering old millionaire with money to burn. I'd watch my step if I was you, girl."

"Thanks for the warning," Torian said, inclining her head to show her gratitude. Swallowing the growing feeling of unease, she nudged Azer with her heel and the two of them made their way through the crowd and up a set of old, creaky wooden stairs.

"Wait!" the barkeep called. Glancing over her shoulder, Torian noticed the old man limping toward her, cleaning rag still hanging from his hand. His voice lowered to a conspiratorial whisper. "They say he's waitin' for someone here. Be careful, lassie, but you didn't hear that 'un from me."

Torian's heart, which had been sitting uneasily at around bowel-level, plummeted to the soles of her feet at this. She glanced at Azer, who returned her look with a very confused look of his own, and finished her ascent, the floorboards groaning from her weight. It was not a comforting sound, she mused as she turned the rusty doorknob and entered the room.

The scene she saw before her was not one she expected. The V.I.P. room, unlike the rest of the Krabby Club, was richly adorned in silks, expensive rugs, and ornately carved tables. Sitting at one of these tables was an old man, rather stout, wearing shiny grey robes emblazoned with elaborate artwork. Flanking the table on either side were two younger men, one appearing to be in his mid thirties and the other to be about twenty-five. The elder "guard" (at least, she assumed they were guards) was bedecked in long, royal blue robes, while the younger guard wore similar clothing, only in red. Both of them wore stoic, intimidating looks on their faces, contrasting quite nicely with the old man himself, who, despite his serious-looking bodyguards, appeared to be in a quite pleasant mood. "

"I was invited by a Mr. Eridos Verich?" Torian said slowly as she approached the table.

"Ah, Torian Kiyalrin, I presume?" he asked in return with a booming voice quite uncharacteristic of his size. "I have been waiting for you."

"Famous last words," Azer whispered so that only Torian could hear him as he sidled up beside her and curled up at her feet.

"Come, Torian, sit. Chardonnay? Merlot? Anything I can get you?" He motioned to the blue-clad man. "Ardos! Pull a chair up for her! Fetch this young woman a glass!"

Torian accepted the glass and sat down. Whatever the bluish-purple drink was, it smelled absolutely vile.

"Nope, not like you're two years under the legal limit or nothing," she heard Azer mutter from somewhere behind her. She answered with a kick, which he apparently evaded, because all she managed to brush with her heel was a few strands of loose fur.

"Now, to business." Verich clapped his hands together in glee. "You see, there is a reason I have requested your presence here. There is a certain something I seek, and sources have told me you may know where it is."

"Me? What sources would tell you that?" she asked suspiciously, pretending to sip at the wineglass in her hand.

"An old man such as myself with enough money can garner information from just about anyone," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "I was a good friend of your dear father..."

"Any friend of Haxer Mercede is no friend of mine," she spat, heat rising to her face.

"Wait; calm down, dear child." Verich waved his hands in supplication. "I knew the man far before CIPHER was even created. A brilliant mind, that one. Shame he went the direction he did, really."

She blinked incredulously. "You knew Haxer before..."

"I certainly did. I knew the old dog back in his university lab days. Shortly before he joined CIPHER, he informed me of a certain Shadow Pokemon, one that had, in fact, hoodwinked the Shadow process. It still has the Shadow aura, of course, but it's very faint. In any case, this Pokemon may be what is needed to defeat CIPHER; with it we may be able to unlock the clues about the Shadow process. He also told me you had a knack for Pokemon, even at your young age. If that knack is still there, then maybe you can assist me in my search for this weapon?"

"I thought CIPHER created the Shadow process."

Verich shook his head vehemently. "No, no indeed not! That process was nurtured in the laboratories of the Johto Regional University of Sciences, way in Goldenrod City. CIPHER merely stole those lab secrets and improved upon them, my dear."

Torian nodded as normally as she could, but inside, she was feeling very uneasy. From his description, it almost sounded as if he were talking about Azer. If that was the case, she would have to watch what she said from here. "If I hear anything about this Pokemon, I'll be sure to let you know, Mr. Verich," she said slowly. "I wouldn't want to slow the stopping of CIPHER, now, would I?"

The man's eyes twinkled again, but more in a sinister way. "Of course not, child, I thought you would say so. That is all I wished to speak to you about, and it is a pleasure to talk to the only child of my old friend. Safe travels, dear." His voice gave her chills that reverberated throughout her spine, and she was glad to leave.

Nodding her thanks, she rose and bowed deeply, discreetly tipping the glass of wine into a potted plant as she did so. Then, she pretended to drain the glass, keeping her hand over the clear crystal to hide the fact that there was no wine left to drink in the first place. "The same to you, Mr. Verich," she said smoothly and slipped out of the V.I.P. room, Azer hot on her heels.

"Torian, we need to find a place to talk," Azer whispered urgently as he bounded down the steps behind her. Waving to the barkeep, who was busily bussing tables, Torian strode out of the establishment, making her way toward an abandoned dock. The moon was high in the sky by this time, and though the activity on the street was bustling and alive, the docks were deserted, devoid of life.

"Torian, you realize that Mr. Verich guy was talking about me, right," Azer pointed out when they were finally out of earshot of other people. "I have this feeling he's not telling the whole truth, if he's telling any at all."

"I agree, Azer. I'm worried, more than anything," Selene fretted. "What if this were a ruse to keep me out of Vigilance Network duty for a little while? CIPHER could be planning an attack at this very moment, and I'm not on duty to stop it from happening!"

"You can calm down now, Captain," Azer reassured her with his usual dry tone. "You're a fairly high ranking officer. There's enough grunts available for battle fodder to supply them until you get back. You're not supposed to worry about full-scale attacks, anyway. That's Destron's job; he's the tactitian."

"Don't worry?" Torian spat incredulously. "That's bullshit, and you know it, Azer. I'm one of the few, and possibly the only one in Vigilance Network that knows exactly how CIPHER lays its dirty little plans. They might be able to survive a full scale attack without me, but...how am I supposed to keep from feeling guilty if twenty people die and I could have been there to stop it from happening?"

She fell silent and watched the dark blue waves wash up at her feet. Azer, who usually had an acidic remark for everything, sensed her distress and merely curled up at her feet.

oOo

At another dock, about a city block away, tall, lanky, red-robed Eldes sat and watched the girl who had, only minutes ago, been his master's honored guest. Through his eye-mounted zoom lens, he could watch her as though he were standing right in front of her, and with such a lens, it didn't take a hawk to see the salty tears that dripped down her cheeks. Nor did he have to look much longer to spot four CIPHER peons that crept behind her, knives raised and ready to strike.

A sharp, keening whistle disturbed the still night air of Gateon Port. The peons sprang into action and dove for the girl, but Eldes had already primed a semi-automatic regulation handgun, and it only took him four, lethal shots to drop all four of them to the ground. It was only after the instinctual action that he realized those four shots could possibly cost him his freedom...and possibly his life.

A sudden, gripping fear seized his heart as he ducked behind a crane and out of sight of anyone drawn out by the gunfire. Slowly, he was realizing the enormity of what he had just done.

oOo

Torian looked around frantically as Azer snarled and bared his fangs beside her at the dead bodies. "That was too close, pal," he warned. "If I were to be a bit more presumptuous, I would say someone wanted you dead."

"That's a comforting way to put it," the redhead spat back as she gripped her pistol tightly and wished dearly that she had donned the bullet-proof vest offered her when she had left the Network stronghold. Cautiously, she crept along the street and ducked behind a crane, almost tumbling into the lap of Mr. Eridos Verich's red-robed bodyguard.

He clapped a hand on her mouth, muffling her yell of surprise. "Hold your tongue here!" he shushed her, but his voice was not one of malevolence. "Follow me," he instructed, "and stay low!"

Not in any position to disobey, Torian grudgingly allowed the guard to lead her to a massive cruise ship docked in one of the more elaborate parts of town. Behind both of them, Azer snarled and spat, but did nothing to provoke her supposed kidnapper. She figured she could always get herself out of whatever situation she was getting into later when she found out what was going on, and with that thought in mind, she recalled Azer to the safety of his Pokeball.

The boarding plank they took to reach the ship was, as expected, heavily guarded, but the red-robed man flashed an ID card confidently, though Torian could feel his shaking hand gripping the back of her coat like a sweaty vice. "Eldes, here with a witness to the coup," he declared, but she noticed he whisked her inside before anyone could get a good look at her face. Finally, he yanked her into the ship and sealed the hatch, making sure the faint click was audible before releasing her with a breath of relief.

"You," he said breathlessly, "must get out of Gateon. Now. Get out of Orre, and get as far away as you can from this place. The Grandmaster is on the move, my lady; here, there is a back way to escape from this ship. Allow me to show you..."

"Not without answers," Torian demanded. "Who are you? Who do you work for?"

"I surmise you know the answer to that question already, my lady, if I am right in recognizing that tattoo on your shoulder."

Torian's blood ran cold as she realized her coat had a large rip right down the left sleeve. Exposing the one thing she dearly wished to hide. "You are going to answer my first question before anything else happens," she said shakily, keeping one hand ready on her gun.

"There is no time!" he hissed as he grabbed her tightly by the shoulder and steered her quickly through an open hatch and down a steep flight of stairs. "I will explain when you are set to make your escape."

"You're helping me?"

"Only because I must."

He was silent the rest of the walk, which consisted of two more narrow, twisting hallways and one more flight of steel steps that were more like ladder rungs than stairs before opening up into a small landing that led to a deck equipped with a small lifeboat. It was there that he turned to her and gripped both of her shoulders tightly, a sense of urgency belayed by his glowing, amber eyes.

"You are undoubtedly Haxer Mercede's daughter," he murmured as he looked over her. "You carry that same, self-confident air. An aura of power, almost."

She broke away from his grip and spat on the ground beside her. "I am nothing like that pig!" she snarled, her eyes veritable daggers of fury. "How do you know me, anyway?"

"Haxer Mercede is dead," he replied simply, "and he left you, his sole surviving heir, to CIPHER in his will. Unfortunately, you have angered one too many officials of the current CIPHER hierarchy, and so there are many who wish you dead. I could not impose such a fate on one so young."

"He did what?" she screeched. Her fury at her adopted father knew no bounds, it seemed. "Good riddance to the old he-bat, but...hell..."

"Torian, you must leave Gateon. Do you promise me this? If not willingly, know you save my life by doing so, as I saved yours by shooting down the thugs that meant to kill you."

"I suppose that's fair," she mused. "I guess I don't get to indulge in the pleasure of knowing your name?"

"Eldes." He extended a hand, which she shook firmly. "It is nice to have finally met you in person, my lady. Know that whenever you strike a blow against CIPHER, there is a force on the inside aiding your efforts."

With that, he all but pushed her to the deck, and they unhooked the lifeboat in silence. Finally, as she slipped overboard to her freedom, he tossed her a tiny metal cube. "A cloaking device, my lady," he whispered to avoid the attention of guards on the upper decks. "So you are not seen. Be safe!"

"Shame," Torian muttered as she activated the camouflaging technology. "And I was just getting to know him, too." Without another word, she gunned the engines and skimmed the light craft out of the harbor.