Chapter 10 – Chills

Walking towards the actual cluster of buildings that made up the Snowpoint military research laboratories was somehow intimidating in itself. I mean, it was probably the biggest open secret out there that Sinnoh's government did all of its chemical and biological weapons research in there. So when I felt a tingle running down my spine halfway to the laboratories' side entrance, I was only slightly comforted when General Harding informed me that it was probably just my nerves – we hadn't reached the security energy fields yet.

The laboratory complex itself was built very low to the ground, and resembled a bunker more than anything else. However, lights could be seen through the numerous barred windows that faced us, and people were visibly moving about in the squat little buildings. From what General Harding had told me about the place, the laboratories were not actually above the surface; anything above the ground was considered as non-hazardous, and the real serious research projects were all kept fifty feet beneath the installation.

"Get ready for that Valsalva manoeuvre, kid!" General Harding said, as we stepped up to a set of glass sliding doors.

"What?" I asked, confused, even as I stepped through the door and felt my ears pop. Oh, so he meant that manoeuvre. A quick exhalation while I pinched my nose shut did the trick, and I turned to him for an explanation.

He merely smirked as he shifted his duffel bag to his left shoulder. "They keep the air pressure in here lower than it is outside, so your ears will definitely pop on entry."

"Why would they do that, sir?"

"Well... I think it was something to do with germs and chemicals..." he scratched his head with a sheepish expression on his face. "Something about how air would flow in if there's a leak, but mehhh, I hate physics! Ask Lorelei when you see her."

"Oh, I think I got it, sir," I perked up a little upon recalling some of my high school physics. "Pressure in here's lower than the outside, right?"

"Yup," he nodded.

"So air would flow in from the region of higher pressure, like you said," I paused for a moment before continuing, "and so if they had bacteria on the loose in here, the air currents would keep them in until the breach is sealed."

He turned to stare at me with a raised eyebrow, "Holy shit."

"Sir?" I asked, fidgeting a little under his gaze. "Are you alright? Did I say something wrong?"

"Nah... It's just that," he smirked once again, "you got it right, hah! Looks like you're a little smarter than your boss, kid!"

"It's nothing, sir-"

"Whatever," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Lunchtime has come, I see! So let's grab a bite at the cafeteria!"

I squinted at him. "Sir, do you even know where it is?"

"No idea, but that's what getting lost is for!" he cheerfully replied, stalking off down a random corridor.

I sighed, and began following him as he took an abrupt right-turn and vanished down a corridor with a 'NO ENTRANCE' sign pasted next to it.

xxx

After nearly an hour of getting lost, we finally sat down to have lunch – yes, we did end up getting hopelessly lost in the maze of corridors that was the installation. More than once, we found ourselves being chased out of a dead-ended corridor by irate personnel in laboratory coats, and in one case, a furious snover actually fired Leech Seeds at us.

Eventually, a kindly old chemist took us to the cafeteria after seeing us getting cornered against a wall by an angry hyogamon. Well, it helped that General Harding had let out Adrienne, who was perfectly capable of using Flamethrower, as he assured me.

"So, kid," he spoke with his mouth full of bread, "what do you think of the place?"

"It's... nice," I shrugged, taking a bite of my own sandwich. "Where's Lorelei, though?"

"We'll find our way to her once we're done with lunch – it's the most important meal of the day!"

"... I thought that was breakfast, sir."

"Food is important, kid!" he smirked at me. "You can definitely trust me when I tell you that I know how it feels like to be hungry, thanks to my trainer days."

That caught my curiosity, "How so, sir?"

"Well..." he looked sheepish as he answered the question. "Food wasn't always in abundance out on the old training routes, and I'm not exactly the greatest cook out there. You can ask Gary or Adrienne – we ended up eating lots of burnt food whenever I cooked."

"Oh," I shifted in my seat. "So how did you resolve that problem?"

"I learned to cook better, for one," he laughed. "And I eventually found myself two travelling partners – Fen Siow Loong and Gary Maine."

"Generals Fen and Maine?" I asked, slightly goggle-eyed. "So that's how you three ended up becoming such good friends!"

"Too true – Gary was good at handling those punks that tended to bully new trainers, and Fen was a handy backwoodsman all-around," he smiled dreamily as he spoke – clearly those days were times that he looked back on with fondness. "I was more of a tag-along, really. But then again, I was the only one among us who actually made it to challenge Steven; Fen could never get past Drake, and Gary was walled by Glacia."

"So sir," I asked, as I crumpled up my sandwich's wrapper, "why did all of you come to Sinnoh?"

"For me, it was coming home in a way," he answered. "Fen wanted a change of scenery, and Gary... Well, he's a free spirit that enjoys going to see new places. In fact, when he couldn't beat Glacia after his third attempt, he continued travelling. I think of the three of us, he was the first to see Johto and Kanto."

I glanced at the plain-faced clock that hung above the serving counters. It showed that the time was presently fifteen minutes past one, which probably had us within the installation's lunch hour. And yet somehow the cafeteria remained considerably empty – it was as though everyone had forgotten about lunch or something.

"Umm, sir?"

"Eh?"

"Where is everyone? Shouldn't it be lunch now?"

He looked around, and jumped a little upon noticing the lack of people around us. "You're right, I think. Damn – the nerds are at it again."

"The nerds?" I asked pointedly.

He chuckled, "The last time I came here, I asked Lorelei that exact same question. As it turns out, most of the laboratory personnel tend to forget about conventional mealtimes. Hell, they even tend to mess up their perceptions of day and night – they just work and work and they'll sleep whenever they're sleepy. Same goes for food, I guess."

"Damn," I whistled, "that sounds pretty crazy."

"You bet your ass it is – we get the most reports of chronically overworked personnel from this installation."

Just as he had finished speaking, the cafeteria doors slammed open with a terrific bang, and everyone turned to look at the person who had just barged in. However, there was no one standing in the doorway, or even the corridor beyond it. We all turned back to our tables, and resumed whatever it was we had been doing.

"Sir, what-"

"There you are!"

A bossy female voice cut me off, and made us both jump a little. We turned as one to look in the direction of the voice, only to see a bespectacled woman in a robe-like outfit stalking down the corridor towards us. A jynx was shuffling along behind her, and several files were hovering in the air behind it like a streamer of paperwork that soon caught up with it when it stopped. She eventually made it to our table, and glared at General Harding.

"Lorelei," he called out, seemingly oblivious to her furious facial expression. "Nice to see you again-"

"You're late, Harding!" she snapped, tapping the face of her wristwatch. "Five minutes, to be precise! Now, explain yourself!"

"That portal over on Coronet-"

"That fucking portal," she threw her hands up in the air, "can go suck shit! It's messing up all the physicists' readings, and also our supplies! Did you know that we lost an entire shipment of weapons last week?"

He gaped at her. "Say what?"

"We lost an entire crate of prototype firearms last week," she grumbled, as she spun about on her heel and gestured at us to follow her. "They were being teleported out, but the kadabra never did reach his destination... Arceus knows where he ended up with those guns. And now, I have some problems involving one of the bloody physicists – he managed to cut a hole through the wall using a laser of some sort."

With that, she began marching down the corridor using a speed comparable to General Harding's when he was zooming through port control. We had to break into a run to keep up with her, and soon enough, we had lost sight of her. Thankfully, her jynx's little paper trail allowed us to follow in her footsteps through the labyrinth of metal-walled corridors. Finally, we came to a stop in front of her office door, which a blank requisition form was slipping under.

I'll admit that I was a little slower in trailing her than I was when I usually followed General Harding. Maybe it was because, well, she was Lorelei! One of the few surviving members of the Elite Four! Some might have branded them as traitors to the human race for choosing to side with the digimon, but I honestly wasn't too bothered about those accusations – I suspect I would've done the same if given the choice of defection or death.

"Come on, kid," my boss shrugged as he shoved the door open. "Let's take a look at how things are here, eh? Looks like she might be a little busy for an affinity consultation today..."

"Who's too busy for an affinity consultation?" Lorelei snapped, looking up from her paperwork-laden desk. "I do not need you to tell me if I'm free or not, Zachary Harding!"

"Apologies, milady," he retorted, while giving her a mock bow. "Maybe I'll head to the pokemon tanks?"

"Do whatever you want and go wherever the fuck you want to – just close the door on the way out. And if I hear that you've caused any disturbances around my installation, I'll have your guts for dinner."

He left her office, and I made as if to follow, but Lorelei called out to me.

"Not you, sweetie – lock the door and get over here," she said, sweeping up most of the paperwork and dumping it into her 'In' tray with one smooth motion. "Now that Zachary's finally out of here, we can get this done with."

"If you say so, ma'am," I nodded, stepping up to her desk and unclipping Silas' pokeball from my belt. "Should I?"

"First things first," she replied, shaking her head. "We need to talk, so take a seat."

Well that was unexpected. Awkwardly, I clipped the pokeball to my belt and sat down in front of her desk, on a wooden chair that had most definitely known some better days. It was then that I realized that up till that point in time, I had yet to actually notice any defining facial features on her.

Her skin was pale – almost translucent, really – and her cheekbones were very prominent. Frosted spectacle lenses prevented me from seeing her eyes, and also left me wondering just how she actually saw anything at all. Her blue hair was tied into a loose ponytail that hung down over her back, and several loose strands hung loose on both sides of her face. The robe-like outfit she was dressed in clearly was thicker than it appeared to be, since if had no visible creases or folds.

"So, tell me... What do you know about Zachary Harding?" she asked, clasping her hands together on her desk. "You've been under him for about five months now, so you ought to know at least a little bit about him, I think."

"Umm, he's my immediate commanding officer?" I fumbled with my answer. "He's extremely hyperactive, enjoys greeting people by attacking them-"

"I meant aside from the obvious, thank you very much. Any idiot down at that circus Canalave calls port control can see that."

I hesitated for a moment. "Well, he was a contender for the 2082 Hoenn League Championships – one of the few contenders who actually type-specialized all the way. He is also involved in many departments at port control, including some... field work."

"If by 'field work' you mean he gets sent to the Underground, do go on – that's nothing new for me," she sighed. "Tell me, do you actually know anything personal about him?"

"Umm, I don't know much else about him, ma'am," I said, shaking my head. "Come to think of it, he doesn't talk much about himself."

"Hmm," she nodded with a thoughtful expression on her face, as she took her glasses off. She proceeded to wipe them with her sleeve, and I realized that the frosting on the lenses had actually been due to condensation. "To be frank, that's not unexpected – he's one of the most secretive officers we have on the continent. Have you ever heard of his previous assistant?"

"Tammy, right?" Babamon had mentioned her once or twice, but otherwise, no one had said anything about her. "She was the last assistant he had with a water dominant affinity?"

"Yes, Tammy Silvas was his assistant, and she had a water dominant affinity," she replied, frowning a little. "Anything else you know about her?"

"Nothing else, ma'am."

"She was a promising young soldier, and was tested for a water affinity after she nearly died during a desert training exercise," Lorelei said matter-of-factly. "Apparently, she became dehydrated extremely fast – one of the signs of a rather advanced water affinity."

"Begging your pardon, ma'am, but how could that be a reliable sign?" I asked. "Maybe she missed breakfast or something?"

"Boy, she became dehydrated mere minutes after being sent into the desert. Upon further testing, it was found that she was one of the water dominants," she replied, shaking her head. "As Sootopolis and Cerulean City already had their water departments fully occupied, she was deployed to Canalave as Zachary Harding's assistant. She was given a tentacool as her starter, and started work within two days of her arrival."

Lorelei looked me in the eye as she continued speaking, "And then she died."

"How did she die, ma'am?" I asked apprehensively – I did not like where her train of thought seemed to be heading.

"Her tentacool stung her to death, it seems," Lorelei said evenly. "And that would have been the end of it, save for the fact that Esther Maxwell is a close friend of mine."

"You mean Dr. Esther?"

"Indeed I do – she contacted me and offered me samples of the tentacool's venom for the biological weapons department, since it usually is too mild to kill. Obviously, the tentacool Tammy had been assigned was capable of producing a more potent venom than most members of its species – rare, but hardly unheard of."

"And then, just before Esther could ask Zachary Harding for access to the tentacool, she finds out that it had been killed."

By then, I was pretty confused. So the girl had been killed by her tentacool, and the tentacool had been killed afterwards. "I'll take it that the circumstances of the tentacool's death were suspect?"

"Correct," Lorelei offered me a thin smile. "Looks you do have some brains, after all. The tentacool died due to poisoning with its own venom, for your information."

"Excuse me?" I asked in disbelief. "Could you repeat that?"

"Tell me," she sighed, "how much do you know about a tentacool's physiology?"

"Not much, really..."

"Well, they aren't actually that similar to normal jellyfish in the sense that they don't actually produce their own venom – the venom is produced by symbiotic bacteria that inhabit their tentacles. If the bacterial population suddenly explodes for some reason, the tentacool's venom will become highly potent, and might even affect the pokemon's health. Apparently, Tammy's tentacool died thanks to its own toxicity," she paused for a moment. "Are you following me?"

"So you're saying anomalous bacterial growth killed it? But that goes along with her probable cause of death, doesn't it?"

Lorelei fixed her cold gaze on me. "It does, but the post-mortem on the tentacool revealed normal toxicity levels."

I stared at her once I had digested her words. So it seemed that General Harding's former assistant had been killed by her started – quite a notorious species, for the record – which in turn had been killed by its own excessively potent venom. But the post-mortem had revealed normal toxicity... "Could the venom's potency have been affected by the tentacool's death?"

Lorelei shook her head, "No, which is why the case is so suspicious. Well that, and the fact that Zachary Harding has a tentacruel."

Upon hearing that, I felt a slight spike of an emotion running through me – whether it was fear or excitement, I could not tell. "Are you suggesting that he killed her?"

"I am suggesting no such thing," she scoffed. "I am merely trying to warn you about the uncertainties that surrounded that case. Like you said, he has not revealed much about himself to others. Tentacruel are too common for his to be suspected outright, and she was found dead near the docks, anyway."

"Zachary Harding may... have his quirks, but he's a good man," she said, after a moment's hesitation. "He knows what he's doing, and you'd be hard-pressed to find members of the old-guard that are sympathetic to our cause. But then again, it is for that very reason that I suspect he's become a target."

"For who, may I ask?" I was bewildered.

Lorelei lowered her voice. "Not all of his former peers from the league days are that forgiving when it comes to him being in the military. In fact, the reason why he gets sent to the Underground so often is because they keep tabs on the training population – which is where I suspect the murderer is in hiding."

She leaned forward, and fixed her frosty gaze on me. "Be very careful with your safety, boy. Tread carefully around Zachary Harding, since I suspect that someone out there has it in for him"

Part of me was relieved that she hadn't named him as the murder suspect, but the other parts of me were still reeling from the shock of finding out that General Harding's previous assistant had died under such questionable circumstances. I didn't know what to say, and was mercifully spared from having to give her an answer when someone began thumping her office door loudly.

"Lorelei?" General Harding's voice came through the door. "Just what are you doing to my assistant in there? Kid, she isn't molesting you, is she?"

"Nothing of the sort," she retorted. "Go and open the door, let that oaf you call your boss in."

Nodding mutely, I got up and unlocked the door. General Harding practically bounded into the office... and was quite literally dripping wet. Lorelei stared at him, lips drawn into a thin line.

"Is there some logical reason why you're soaked, Zachary?"

"Lala was a little too happy to see me, I guess," he grinned. "And apparently, your lapras' son enjoys humping people's legs."

"Yes, my dear little Crusoe has shown a tendency to do that. However, I do think it's Kingsley's fault for introducing him to that dratted lillipup," Lorelei sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Now get out of my sight and get yourself dried up. I don't need a pneumonia case up here, especially not right now with my present workload."

"I live to serve, mistress," he replied with a sweet smile. "Anything else I might be of service in? Shine your shoes, get you dinner, kiss your arse?"

"Just get the hell out of my office," she snarled, as she snapped the pencil she had just picked up.

"Come on, kiddo! It looks like we've managed to piss her off enough for today!" General Harding smirked.

"But sir, Silas-"

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!" With a flash of light, a froslass materialized in front of us. "Lassie, get them!"

"Holy fuck!" cursed my commanding officer, ducking as the icy ghost sent an Ice Beam his way. "We'd better run, kid!"

"Sir, tell me... why do you do this to us?"

"Life's too short to not have some fun, kid!" he happily declared, even as he evaded a Shadow Ball that exploded into an inky black mess on the wall. "And it's going to be a lot shorter if we don't get out of here fast!"

And that was how we ended up running through the corridors of Snowpoint laboratory, with an angry froslass hot on our heels.