"No activity for two weeks, you said," Green mumbled, writing something in the small notebook he was carrying around. "Except for the guard at the front door, who ran off quickly when we came."
"No activity while I've been watching," Red replied, without much enthusiasm. "Nor have I heard anything about activity here."
"Well it looks as expected. Damage corresponds to what Team Rocket and Masked Rocket-used Pokémon would leave. However..."
"Problems?" Red asked, raising an eyebrow. "Obviously, they left the room pretty much as it was. Maybe as a shrine, or to show members that doubted their version."
"Someone has been here recently," Green said, meeting his gaze. Red felt a jolt of surprise and annoyance, but quickly composed himself and hoped Green's Golduck was too busy probing for clues to notice.
"Based on what?" Red asked, doing his best not to let his true emotions show in his voice. Green walked over and crouched by a broken table, running his finger across it's surface.
"See? No dust," he said, holding it up for Red to see. "If no one had been here for two weeks, there'd be dust on it."
"So they cleaned it recently," Red sighed. "They have pictures of Silver and Giovanni in here, as well as fresh flowers. Obviously, it's a shrine for their fallen leaders, and they want to keep it clean."
"I would've expected them to have a bigger shrine for Giovanni, though. This is too small, by Team Rocket standards."
"Maybe the gold statue they ordered didn't arrive yet," Red sighed, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Why do you even care? You said yourself that Silver and Giovanni had to be killed if they didn't give up."
"Three things," Green said, whirling around to meet Red's gaze again, his expression grim. "Firstly, I never expected to actually have to kill Silver, or even Giovanni. Second, I was hoping to find more evidence leading to other bases here. Obviously, they've removed any traces that could be helpful for that. Thirdly, if the Masked Rockets are able to enter a Team Rocket base and assassinate the leaders without that much obvious effort... They must be stronger than we thought. The Association threat assessment agency are going to be kept busy with this."
Red could barely keep the smile from his face, but he forced himself to supress the joy he was feeling, in case Golduck turned its attention his way. He had been worrying about Green somehow finding out what he was up to, but instead he had gotten his rival to focus more on the Masked Rockets and less on his own organisation. It would keep Green busy, and hopefully distract the Masked Rockets as well.
"By the way," he said, changing the subject. "I was wondering if I could stay in a guest room at the gym for the next week or so. I wanted to take some time off work and spend a few days with Yellow."
"Sure," Green said, giving him a rare smile. "All going well with you two, then?"
"Very. How're things with you and Blue?" Red asked. Green looked down, contemplating his answer for a few seconds before replying.
"Not good. She hasn't forgiven me for what I said about Silver before... You know."
"Sorry, I didn't think about that," Red told him. Obviously, that was a lie. The question would give him more information about the current relationship between Green and Blue, and disrupt his rival's focus a bit. "Have you tried telling her you didn't mean it like that?"
"You think she'd listen?" Green asked. "She won't even answer her phone."
"You think it's not worth trying?" Red countered. "I'll talk to her for you. Maybe I can help set up a meeting or something, when she's less busy."
"Right, thanks. She's working at the same place you do, isn't she? Yellow mentioned something about it."
"Yeah," Red said, nodding. "I figured working would take her mind off things. Sorry, can't tell you much more about it. Classified and all."
"It's okay, I understand. I can't talk about all my investigations for the Association either, so..."
"So we're in similar situations," Red finished, smiling at the irony of his statement. "I feel a bit sad, not being able to talk about anything with you anymore."
"It's just work we can't talk about," Green replied. "We still talk about everything else, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I think we're done here. Let's get going before backup arrives. I'm not really in the mood for battles today... Want to go have some lunch?"
"Sure, I'll pay. What do you want to eat?"