Giovanni slammed the photograph on his desk, nearly upsetting the vodka still sitting neatly in its glass. Beneath the desk, his Persian looked up sharply, startled, and mewled loudly at him. "You are certain this picture is real? Anything can be doctored these days," he tried to rationalize. He grabbed the glass, took another long draw, and emptied it. He nearly slammed it onto his desk again, but caught himself and set it down with a scowl.
His secretary, now fidgeting more nervously than usual, swallowed hard and nodded. "I am absolutely certain, sir. And this isn't the only one. A few other, similar photographs have been leaked into the public netspace."
"And they show all three Lake Guardians?"
"Yes, sir, each and every one, all no more than twenty meters from Cyrus."
"Have any other legendaries been seen with that pretentious, blue-haired bas-"
"No, sir," Michelle quickly interrupted.
The Rocket boss snorted and sat back in his chair. "Well, that's one good piece of news…" It was sincere, but his voice was still edged with sarcasm.
He glared at the photo. It stained his desk with its ugliness. As far as he was concerned, he didn't want to see that man's face, blurry and distorted or not, in Headquarters or in Saffron or in the region.
His initial reaction had been one of both amazement and something like jealousy. No, Giovanni didn't go chasing after legendaries or dabble in dangerous genetic engineering – not anymore, anyways. He'd tried it and the experiments had ended up costing him a thousand times more than he had made. After a few years he'd given that up. Humans, after all, were more easily tamed.
But to know that there was a man out there who'd done it, who'd captured not one but three legendaries… It was impressive. Stupid, but impressive. But legendaries were bad – bad for business and too difficult to control. The costs outweighed the benefits every time.
At least, for him.
Cyrus, though… That young man was a completely different story, from what he had heard. He hated money, he hated people, he hated everything, it seemed. Giovanni had once tried to negotiate terms of property in Sinnoh with the Galactic leader, only to be scoffed at and thrown out. It had been humiliating, to say the least!
More than anything, however, the man was dangerous. Giovanni knew himself to be greedy – that was all right. Greed kept him successful. All his power came through money and general intimidation. Cyrus, on the other hand, wanted absolute power. The man was a lunatic. He involved himself in matters best left alone. Giovanni had, too, but luckily he'd learned better before it was too late.
He sighed, pulling out of his thoughts and turning back to his secretary. "What has the Sinnoh government done about him?"
"Not much, sir," she replied with a raise of her eyebrows. She flipped to another file and pulled it out. After a minute of scanning, she paraphrased, "More or less, they've hidden the fact that the Galactic leader has returned and they are, and I quote, 'Hesitant to take action'."
"Hesitant, my…" He cut himself off with a growl and stood from his chair. Persian stood from her spot on the floor, stretching and looking up at him. "Call the Councillor in Sinnoh. Tell her I want to speak immediately. Send it to my conference room."
"Y-yes sir, immediately, sir."
Giovanni stalked out the door, the secretary and his feline at his heels, and he immediately went down the hall, Persian off somewhere else, and Michelle back towards her desk. He couldn't help but dryly chuckle as he heard her heels click down the hall. Even for an American, she was damn good at her job.
Just down the hall was his personal conference room. He leaned into the retina scanner and after a flash, it confirmed his identity and the door slipped open. "Lights," he called, and the dark room filled with light. It was a fairly large room, with a table for eight and a teleprompter off to the side. Giovanni entered a sub-room, where only a desk, chair, computer, and teleprompter were. It was slightly dimmer, even with the lights, and thus more suited to his tastes.
He sat at the desk, and as if on cue, the intercom button flashed. He hit it. "Miss Rosenberg?"
"Yes, sir," came her voice. "Councillor Tanaka is ready to speak with you."
"Very well. Put her through the fourth channel."
"Doing so now, sir."
Her voice cut out, and the teleprompter in front of him flickered to life. An exhausted-looking woman around his age looked back at him through the screen. She wore a black suit, same as most government officials. She also wore a scowl… again, like most government officials, he mused in a moment of epiphany.
"This had better be damn important, Mister Giovanni. Frankly, I'm sick of seeing your face every other week."
"That's not what you said ten years ago when we 'ran into each other' at that hotel in Slateport." He smirked as her face coloured in an amusing mix of rage and embarrassment. "And unless you'd like your husband to hear about your business trip that year…"
The regional senator looked ready to reach through the screen and strangle him. "You have fifteen minutes and not a second longer."
"I won't need that long, Councillor. I simply called out of…" The Rocket leader leaned back and spread his hands. "…concern."
"Well, that's very thoughtful of you, but-"
"I understand you have a dead man wandering your region."
She immediately fell silent. Tanaka folded her hands in front of her and shifted her weight in her chair. "Have you."
"Hm. Cyrus, yes? Caused some problems for Sinnoh a few years back, didn't he?"
"How do you know about this?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"I have a very resourceful secretary."
"What do you want?"
"What I want is to know how the leader of Team Galactic escaped from whatever hell he was in and now has his hands on not one but three legendaries!" he demanded, leaning forward again and placing his hands palm-down on the desk, voice rising to a yell. "I have businesses, men, women, resources, in your region, and I don't much care to hear that a lunatic is waltzing around putting my people in danger!"
"You think this is an easy problem, Giovanni?" the Councillor shouted back. "We are trying to prevent mass panic!" Tanaka sighed and massaged her temples, glowering at him. Lowering her voice, she finally said, "We are doing everything within reason to stop Cyrus and his followers."
"And how is that working out?"
She said nothing.
"That's what I figured," Giovanni muttered.
"Giovanni, you realized you are now under orders to keep this matter confidential, yes? Who else knows of this?"
"Me, my secretary, my top four admins, and likely my people in Sinnoh."
"And it's going to stay that way, isn't it?"
He couldn't help but grin at her statement, which was certainly nothing less than an order. "Or what, Councillor? You're going to have me arrested? I am not bound by Sinnoh's laws on media and publication."
"I have an entire file cabinet of charges sitting in this room. If I so much as see the names Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf in the newspaper or hear them on the evening news, you'll be locked up for five lifetimes." Her gaze hardened. "And don't even consider sending your personal little mafia army over here."
He frowned. "I really must protest. I am a businessman, not a general, and-"
"Save it, Giovanni. You and I both know Team Rocket doesn't just deal arms."
He paused. An idea came to him. So maybe mechanical arms couldn't be used, but… It wasn't the most pleasant idea, and yet… "I know someone. A very powerful individual, in fact. He may be able to assist us in this matter."
"Well, who is he?"
"He prefers to maintain his anonymity."
"He's not the dictator of North Korea, is he? Because, I swear to Arceus if you involve him again I'm going to-"
"No, no, far from it, Councillor."
She huffed, eyeing him skeptically. From the edge of the screen he saw her pull out a notepad and pen. "Can I at least get a surname?"
"Mm… Perhaps… not."
"A birthplace?"
"That's a complicated matter."
"Parents?"
"That's complicated as well."
Tanaka sighed loudly. "Are any of your so-called contacts not shady characters?"
"Do you want me to ask him or not?"
"Yes, fine, but soon. And Giovanni?" The senator waited until she was sure she had his full attention. "He's not going to create more problems, will he?"
"I certainly hope not."
"I will hold you personally responsible for this friend of yours."
He chuckled rather mirthlessly. "Trust me, Councillor, we are not 'friends' by any stretch of the definition. But I may be able to convince him to assist us nonetheless."
"See that you do. Keep me informed. But next time, just send me an e-mail. Tanaka, out."
The screen went dark, and for several seconds he simply stared at it. Giovanni at last stood and left the conference room, going immediately back to his office. A few employees nodded cordially to him in the hallway, but each of them immediately glanced away and hurried along when he failed to address them in return. Most of his workers, especially the ones who'd managed to stick around more than a few months, were smart enough to know when the boss wasn't in the mood for chatting. Newer recruits either learned quickly or left quickly.
Once in his office, he pulled the shades over the windows and crossed to the back of the room. He swung aside an innocent-looking photo frame and revealed a panel. The man tapped in a twenty-digit key code, and after both a retinal and thumbprint scan, the panel slid up and a computer out. Following a long series of log-ins and bypassing various tests, he entered into his personal network. Giovanni eventually made it to the file folder he was looking for, and started typing an encrypted message into the file:
My dearest friend,
I know you will see this because I know you have an interest in this folder. Where you get your hands on a computer every Tuesday evening is beyond me, but I suppose that's not my problem.
I have very important business to discuss with you. I will be in Cerulean Thursday evening. Meet me in the alley between 10th and 11th Streets, just off of Main Street at one in the morning. Meet me there. Bring no one.
…Though I suspect that will not be a problem for you.
And, though you are not keen to, trust me when I say this would be to your benefit. The crisis I come to you about is in Sinnoh, but before long it will reach Kanto as well.
He saved the file, making sure it was encrypted just enough so that no nosy computer techs would be able to read it, save for the one he had just addressed. A push of a button, and the computer shut down, slid back into the wall, and the picture frame was swung back over the panel.
On his way out, he accidentally bumped into his secretary. "Miss Rosenberg, I'm going to spend a few hours in the firing range downstairs."
"Y-yes, sir. If anyone calls, what shall I tell them?"
"Tell them I went to go shoot something."
With that bewildering statement, he left her standing there, files in her arms, staring after him.
Just business as usual, he mused as he walked away.