"No eliminations were needed," Janine was telling Red as Surge entered the office. "I'll keep some of them under survelliance, though."
"Good," Red replied. "Keep up the work, we'll have plenty more to deal with soon. Surge?"
Surge waited until Janine had left the office, then leaned against the wall, arms crossed in front of him.
"Eliminations?" he demanded. "What's that about?"
"I gave Janine orders to kill anyone who might turn into a problem later. She didn't find anyone like that, this time."
"This time?" Surge growled. "You can't just go around removing members because they happen to disagree with you! Even if you're the new leader, you should know our members are loyal to the organization and-"
"As loyal as you were to Giovanni and Silver?" Red interrupted, doing his best to look unconcerned. Showing weakness now could get him killed. "We do what we have to do, for the good of the organization. Besides, Janine didn't find any problems. We shouldn't let that distract us now."
"Fair enough."
"I assume you wonder why I called you to this office?"
"I assume you want to know if preparations are going well, for your takeover. They are, by the way."
"Among other things, yes, thank you."
"What other things?"
"One part of the original Team Rocket organization that I intend to keep intact is the system with one leader and three subleaders. I need you to be one of those subleaders, reporting directly to me."
"Three? I assume Janine is one of them, so who's the third?"
"I've convinced Blue to join us. She'll be a good asset," Red replied. "Also, she wants revenge on the Masked Rockets for killing Silver. He was like a brother to her, after all. That'll give her motivation."
"You're colder than I thought," Surge remarked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Manipulating a girl into working for the man who killed her almost-brother? What's next, drowning Skitty?"
Red's eyes flashed with anger at the remark. Surge almost sounded as if he thought Red had taken pleasure from such an act. More than that, it stung because it was technically true. He had manipulated Blue, and if she ever found out she would probably try to kill him.
"I did what I had to," he replied, finally. "Is that a problem?"
"No, sir," Surge replied, giving him a mock salute.
"Not a word to Blue about Silver."
"Of course not. I'll go prepare the briefing room. Most of the higher ranking members have already arrived, and they're getting impatient."
"Do so," Red agreed, nodding. "Send Janine back in, please. She's waiting just outside."
He watched Surge leave the office and its anteroom via a set of survelliance cameras, then turned his attention to Janine, who was standing patiently in front of him, waiting.
"Yes?"
"As I suspected, Surge is not too happy about the latest turn of events. Plant some bugs in his room and office, just to be safe. I don't want him to become a problem later on."
"He'll be angry when he finds out, don't you think?" Janine replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Angry?" Red replied with a sad smile. "He'll expect it."
"So none of you trust eachother."
"We have good reasons not to," Red agreed. "If it ever becomes necessary to kill him, the code word is 'lightswitch'."
"That'd be bad for business. Make it more difficult to control the organization."
"I'd only give the order in an emergency, and I don't think we're likely to have one anytime soon," Red told her in a chiding tone. "Besides, we're all expendable if we have to. Right?"
Janine cocked her head to one side, gazing at her master for a few seconds, before reluctantly nodding. She left the office, without making a sound. Alone at last, Red leaned back in his chair, sighing to himself.
What he had to do was tough, but there was no choice. He also knew he was the only one strong enough to do it. There was a message from Yellow on his Pokégear, explaining that she was leaving to stay with Blue for a couple of days. Taking a deep breath, he returned to his schedule. It was going to be a long, long day.