I slept almost the whole day. Maybe I would sleep even more if not for some strange sounds nearby that later turned into a loud breath over me.
And that scared the shit out of me, so I immediately tried to get up, but instead hit something with my head.
"Ouch! That hurts!" The familiar girl`s voice sounded before me.
That hurts a lot to me too, have to admit. I put my hand on forehead and slowly opened my eyes to see Leaf moving back, keeping her hit forehead too.
"Leaf? What the heck are you doing here?" The only obvious thought in my mind quickly turned into words.
"Waiting for you to hit me… Ouch…" She replied to me slowly descending on the chair. Something changed in her appearance. Now she has long grey hair, and wears a blue shirt with skirt. The bag for items and the rest hangs on her shoulder. She also seems to wear a low hat that fell down after our collision. I should say, with this outfit she is more suitable for training dangerous monsters hell knows where.
"No, really, how did you get here?" My pains disappeared soon and just the annoyance left for now.
"A room is for two people. This PokeCenter has all rooms doubled. And what a coincidence – we are roommates!"
"Too many coincidences for one girl like you…" I gave her a suspicious look. "Well, I will not say that I`m too angered about that… A familiar face is better than the unfamiliar one, right?"
"Yup, that`s right!" She threw her bag in the chair and then turned to me with a bit sad look. "Looks like you already took the bigger bed?"
"Ah, never mind." I said while getting up from the bed. "I will not be here tonight."
"Really? Where will you be?" She asked while taking her fallen hat.
"I could say, this is a secret. Very dark secret."
This time she gave me a suspicious look, but then turned away indifferently.
"Well, I will not be here tonight too. I am invited to the party at S. ship here in the docks."
Talking about damn coincidences… Firstly, she is going to the same ship as I am. Secondly, this exact night the party of some sort will be on the ship. And finally, she is hooked exactly to me.
Well, maybe I can use this. The party will be a very good chance to find the Bill`s customer and the device. And, maybe, Leaf can help me in distracting the man without attracting any attention to me. Coincidences or not, this can be convenient for me.
I took out the ticket from my greatcoat and looked at it. The ticket was actually not to the sail trip on this vessel but this exact event. And there`s no even date on it! Damn, Bill, if I did not make it here in time, the whole operation would be a whole lot harder.
"Looks like my secret is a secret no more…" I showed the ticket to Leaf. "I`m invited too."
"Whoah, this is so awesome! We can go there together!" She seemed to actually enjoy this piece of news.
"Yeah, I think…"
"Let me guess. It`s your investigation that led you here, right?" Leaf asked playfully.
"Nice job, journalist! But let`s keep it secret, okay?"
She shut her mouth with an imaginary zip.
"Good, so… Do we need to wear something… special on this party?" I questioned Leaf. She looked down in a deep thought and then looked back at me and shrugged.
"I have no idea. But if we will dress wrong, at least, we`ll do it together!"
"Yeah, right. If there`s a dress code at the entrance, both of us will be kicked out."
She laughed a bit and headed to the shower. I sat on my bed and started to think about the plan of my operation. Of course, involving Leaf here isn`t the best thing, as I don`t trust this girl much. But she can be useful, and that`s it. Maybe, I can ask her for help without revealing the real purpose of my plan.
After some minutes of me thinking about the plan, Leaf finally came out of the shower and made an unambiguous hint that gentleman should wait for lady outside. I sighed and headed to the shower too – after the days of active life like mine I really need it. And when I was nice and clean outside, Leaf was ready to go. I quickly dressed too and stopped her on the way out.
"Wait a second; I want to ask you something."
"What is it?"
"Can you help me in my investigation? I could use a little of your assistance there, on S.S. Anne."
"Oh, with pleasure!" She gladly agreed. "What should I do?"
I quickly explained my plan to her, trying to avoid any mentions of the device itself. Her part isn`t very hard, I guess, and it definitely doesn`t involve burning down the whole ship. I`m even surprised of myself. At least, she nodded in agreement that she understood me and will do her best.
"I`m on it!"
"Great, thanks, Leaf. Drinks from me later. Someday."
She playfully sighed and looked at me with a disappoint. After that we left the room.
I took back my four pokeballs from the nurse, again listened her scary speech about "pokemon Centers willing me to return someday" and left. Leaf was already waiting for me outside.
"Are you ready?" She asked me while graciously fixing her hair.
"Eh, how can I be ready to this? Let`s just go already." I replied with a bit of despair.
"Remember, you will be my cavalier for tonight!"
"Yes, my lady." I bowed low to her. "But don`t expect much from me, I`m not too gallant as a cavalier." That was so damn true.
"Ha! Don`t worry, sometimes I too confuse first course fork with the second one. You`ll be fine, let`s go."
Well, that sounded a bit more promising than I expected. I have no idea what will await us there, what people will we meet and what they will do. Actually, I would like not to meet any people at all. As always, attention is my enemy.
The day finally came to end when we reached the Vermillion city port. As before, I hid my pokeball shoulder belt under the greatcoat to avoid any unnecessary attention from other pokemon trainers. From now on I have to remember and use all my hiding skills. I was pretty good at that, to my luck, otherwise I would be dead now sure.
Leaf quickly led me to the port. To my surprise, there was almost no security, just a couple of guards with Growliths. These guys will definitely smell the drugs in someone`s ass, I`m sure, but they will not help against the possibility of terrorists. In Unova it is very strictly with that.
At least, for now we safely passed the post and got into the distributive zone. Leaf left me for a few seconds to consult to worker about the location of our designated ship, and with a bit of frustration he pointed us in a direction of large tablet with the writing "S.S. Anne – pier #24". After a thankful nod, Leaf returned back to me and grabbed my hand.
"It`s this way." She headed to the direction while dragging me with her.
"Hey, slow down a bit, you`ll tear my hand off!" I tried to break free from her grip and stop the motion.
"Oh, sorry…" Leaf guiltily looked at me and let my hand free.
"What`s the rush, girl?"
"The registration to the party will end soon! We have some minutes left!"
I noticed some notes of despair in her voice. As for me, I could get onboard even without the invitation, and that actually was my plan. But Leaf has to get to the party to execute her part of the plan.
"You quickly run there, I will join you a bit later." I gently pushed her in the direction of the ship she was running to.
"Are you sure you will make it?"
"Yes, of course. Don`t worry. Stick to the plan, and everything will be okay." I raised my thumb to ensure her.
"You can count on me, Ven!" She replied to me with the same and ran outside, to the registration point.
When finally left alone, I came to the window to observe the place. From here I could see a large plate over the ladder to the ship. The plate stated "No battles onboard!" That made me smile a bit, because that was actually a very good move. No one wants to make a hole in the bottom and sink the whole damn ship. And that is very possible, when someone uses Dig.
I looked to the side of our ship. The best chance for me to avoid the noisy party and people is to break inside the vessel from the cargo hold. Standard procedure: hide in one of the crates and be gently transported to the destination, do even more stupid things for profit. Considering the amount of actual security and control here this should be a piece of cake.
Carefully I left the main building. Hiding in shadows and avoiding the workers, soon I got to the cargo area. Yeah, as I expected, everything here was automatic, and just a couple of people were controlling the process. The first one just sits in his control tower and watches all lights to be green; the other one is lazily walking around, watching the contents of boxes before their transportation to the conveyor line that is connected to the ship itself. All the rest is executed by the big machine in the center. Speaking about unemployment in Kanto region…
I waited for the worker to check one of the crates before its loading and jumped inside when he was away. Cautiously closing the cover of box, I left a small gap to breathe and look into.
Very soon I felt some moving around me; the transportation is on the way. A bit of adrenalin filled my veins just from a thought that I`m riding inside a box with… something that smells like a bunch of last-year cakes… on a conveyor on a height over 30 meters higher the waterline. Damn, this is one of the most stupid things I ever did…
Finally the motion stopped as the crate finally was delivered to the ship. Through a gap I could see the metal ceiling and a faded light. Some voices sounded from the outside, but they were distant, so I pulled myself together and found some courage to shift the box cover and look outside. Some guys in dirty worker uniform were standing near the exit, turned away from me, smoking and talking about something connected to the football. As I could hear, our Kanto Team is losing again this year. That`s so sad even if I don`t care about our sports anymore.
But I had to pass these two in order to leave the cargo storage. I could just knock both of them out, with a classic double-head strike, but I didn`t want to. They do not look like very bad guys and also can wake up early and raise the alarm, and this is the last thing I need right now. Tying them up? No time for that… Maybe I could use a distraction of some sort.
They were busy enough discussing the hopeless situation for Kanto sports, so I quietly got out the box and hid behind the table. Some documents were lying here, and these were the lists of shipment. Suddenly a thought struck my head – what if the device is in one of these boxes? I thought that traveler could carry this thing with him all the time and brag about it… Or just keep it in his room. Damn, Bill even didn`t tell me what it is! Is it small or big, how it looks… And I forgot to ask. Now this becomes a lot harder than I thought.
But, maybe, something in these papers could tell me about the cargo on this ship. If this is in the storage, I should definitely find it. Of course, if this traveler wrote this as the 'forest scanner' and not something else. Such possibility could not be excluded. I wonder how Leaf is doing…
I took out a small device and put it into my ear. I didn`t use these for so long time... Hope this will work here.
I gently tapped the dynamic twice to make Leaf`s one reply. This jest makes a quiet but horrible screeching noise and notifies another about the connection. Leaf didn't reply immediately but after some seconds.
"Damn it, Ven, this could use a better ringtone. You can`t speak, right?"
I repeated the double tapping to reply.
"Ouch, stop it! I get it. I walked around a bit and, I guess, and found the foreigner that you described. He doesn`t have any sort of case with him."
Well, this could mean at least three things. The device is small enough to hide in clothes. Or it actually is in his room or here, in the storage. Or… something worse.
I took some risk to whisper to Leaf.
"Name…"
"Oh, right. I already found it out. His name is Archie Aquantis."
That`s something. I could try to find his name in these papers and then find the correct box. Too bad I can`t risk more to thank Leaf right now, but this can wait until we meet again. At this moment I need to take these guys away as I`m going to rustle the papers.
What could I do here? I looked around to find something that could distract the workers. The best result is to get the chance to run outside the storage. I could find any other quiet place to read the documents, and if the device is hidden in this traveler`s room - what I`m more sure of - then I will be closer to it. Otherwise… I will have to find another way to get back here.
After my quick observation I found at least six ways of making a good distraction. But two of them can easily kill me, three can easily kill them, and one can kill the whole ship. The last one is remaining, and this is also the easiest one.
Some crates were stacking right on each other. If I could make the highest – and the most unstable one – fall, this will definitely attract the attention of workers and give me some time to walk around the stacks and get outside.
So I cautiously and quietly climbed up the heap of boxes and pulled the highest on the edge and managed to jump down and hide behind the lower boxes before it fell down and broke. The loud sound of cracking wood and, I guess, expensive glass attracted the workers, making them drop the cigars right here and run to the place of incident.
"Shit, what was that?"
"I hope this is not another Wailmer escaping the pokeball inside a damn crate…"
Meanwhile I carefully walked around the other crates and sneaked into the hallway the people were blocking. I walked the ladder up and got into another set of corridors. After a quick look-around I made sure that I`m alone and far enough from other rooms that could possibly contain more people and sat under the ladder to read the papers.
After some minutes of checking every list I didn`t find any signs of A. Aquantis. Looks like this devil have this device somewhere not in the cargo storage. So I put the papers on the tube nearby so someone will find them later.
So, I have to check the foreigner`s room. First I have to find out where it is, so I connected to Leaf again. This time normally.
"Leaf, I`m online. Are you there?" I quietly talked to her. But in reply I got a horrible ear-tearing noise. "What, you can`t speak?"
"No, I just wanted to take revenge."
"Listen, girl, I need to find out what cabin this guy lives in now. Can you find it out?"
"But… how? You told me not to speak to him. And you will also need the key."
Damn it, she has a point. I didn`t want to attract any attention to her. This will be not very nice of me when tomorrow after me stealing the device Leaf will be caught and suspected because she interested in it. And despite me being an indifferent and heartless bastard, I still don`t want to frame the poor girl. She is cute and useful.
"I will head now to you and think about it on my way. You think about it too." I commanded to Leaf and took the device out of my ear. Too bad I have to go to the party. I will not trust the key-stealing operation to Leaf. She will definitely refuse and even worse – start suspecting something.
I headed upstairs, following the signs and directions. Fortunately, I didn`t have to wander around for too long and soon found the main hall luckily without being spotted by anyone. To my surprise, I didn`t see anyone too.
Soon I got to the large and decorated room. A lot of different people are talking about their things, drink and sometimes dance. The classical music is playing at the background; officiants serve the meal and drinks to the large smorgasbord in the center. Well, if I`m invited, why not eat something exotic? Hope there is no fried Wurmple eggs.
I came to the table and chose the least scary thing on it. Well, whatever it is, it`s quite delicious. I quickly walked around the table, eating and drinking whatever looks good and safe to me, and then heard Leaf`s distant voice.
"Ven, come here!"
I raised my head with mouth and cheeks full of different things and searched for my companion. She was jumping near the scene, waving her hand high for me to notice. I quickly chewed the food that already was in my mouth and filled it again with another party of suspicious round things, and headed to Leaf.
To my surprise, she was in a dress now. Long light-blue dress, made of quite expensive silk, with tinsel and a decollete modestly opening her averagely-sized but still pretty attractive chest. I approached her and tried to interest where did she get it, but talking with mouth full is not my thing. She just laughed and took my hand.
Just now I noticed that a slow music is playing right now, and everyone are split into couples and dance right now. And, as I see, Leaf is going to dance with me too. So I quickly swallowed everything I had and tried to walk away.
"Girl, I`m not a good dancer."
But she suddenly grabbed my hands, put them on her torso and approached me very closely, putting her hands on my shoulders. I felt a bit awkward for a moment, but when she started to slowly move around, I had to follow her.
"Where did you get this?" I asked her, whispering.
"Does it matter? Look inside." She replied and turned her head away, revealing her decolette to me. The whole situation became even worse when I immediately stomped her leg. We stopped for a moment, but then she silently forced me to continue.
"Look… inside…" She whispered to me, pulling her chest a bit closer to me. Well, usually my corrupted and a bit perverted mind would not hesitate for such things, but this looked strange. I lowered my eyesight down into her decollete and besides the pair of soft boobs I saw… a key.
I understood immediately.
"Is that… his room`s key?" I tried to shout with whisper.
"Yup. That`s right."
"How did you get it, girl?" The level of my surprise was rising higher and higher.
"A bit of woman intuition and journalist skill. Do you want it?"
I looked suspiciously at her. She just smiled in reply. Damn, she looks like Jane right now!
"What do you want for it?"
"Finish this dance with me. Without. A. Word."
I silently continued cautiously following her lead in dance, if this could be named dance at all. But all that was worrying me now is this exact girl`s personality. I suspect she knows why I`m here, and maybe the fact that she is here too is no coincidence. I should watch over her.
"Here is he." She suddenly said to me. I turned my head back as I could to see a high man in dark-blue suit that was unzipped on the higher part of his chest. A large golden chain could be seen from this point of view. He had dark skin, a short beard and a strange scar in form on an X right over his nose and across the whole face. I wonder why Bill didn`t mention this mark before. It looks recently got, actually.
He was dancing with a girl that for some reason looked familiar to me. She was not very high – comparing to her partner. She had purple modest dress and well matching short purple hair. But from the look on her face I couldn`t say she enjoys this too much. Or maybe she is just tired.
I wanted to ask Leaf a question again, but remembered about her words. When did women start to order me? Well, I have to be cautious with her, as always, and do what she tells for now.
Fortunately for me, the music ended soon and the couples began to spread again. Some people returned to single dances, others – to the table. Leaf gently grabbed my hand and led me away from the party, behind the curtain. There she took out the key and handed it over to me.
"Thanks a lot, Leaf. I… I will not ask anymore how you got it." I suspected that I don`t want to know that.
"Maybe now you will tell me why do you need it? You are not going to rob this strange gentleman, are you?"
"He is a part of my investigation. One of traces led me to him. And… he may have some evidences for it."
"Oh, how cool!" She hopped on place a couple of times, happily clapping. "My investigation on Route 3 was completely useless; maybe you can give me some more new information about that? As a journalist, you know, I`m very interested in this story."
"Yes, yes, but… later, okay? When I will finish it, I`ll give you everything I know."
"Okay then. I`ll be watching this guy. I`ll give you a signal if he will suddenly head back to you."
"Thanks, Leaf, I appreciate it." I said while putting the dynamic in my ear.
I hid the key in my pocket and headed to the hallway with a plate "Residential bay". The number on the key – 38 – directed me straight to my goal. I found this room quickly and stood in front of it with the key ready.
So… It`s time to do some lawful stealing…