Chapter 11

"At Pan Am Headquarters"

It had been 14 hours since we left Tokyo and during our long flight, all I could think of was how to start off our investigation into the bombing of Pan Am 103. We were on a Pan Am Clipper Aircraft, a Boeing 747, the same aircraft that blew over Lockerbie. During those 14 hours, Tim and I got a feel of what it was like to be on a Pan Am Clipper Aircraft, the history of how Juan Trippe turned a simple air mail route into the national flag carrier of the United States, the golden age of air travel was led by Pan Am and the belief that it was becoming to an end was denialable to some, but not surprising to others.

Upon arrival at JFK, we looked at the remains of family and friends of those on board trying to get more information about their loved ones who were now dead.

"Look at that," I heard Tim say, gesturing me to look over to a group of people crowding around a Pan Am employee, demanding answers. "Should we do something?"

I then heard one of the people cry out that he was the father of one of the Pokemon League students and I made my way over to the crowd.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I shouted in a firm, but calm voice raising my hands to silence them. "Are you all with the Pokemon League students?"

"What is it to you?" cried a mother, her face filled with emotional exhaustion, causing me to take out my badge to show it to the crowd.

"Detective Harry Goodman, Ryme City Police Department," I said. "I've been asked by your government to investigate the downing of your loved one's flight."

"Police Department?" gasped another relative. "Are you saying that my daughter's flight was…?"

"We don't know at this time, but we are going to look into it. But taking your frustrations out on the Pan Am staff will not get you any answers. I'm sorry you are suffering, but we are all suffering."

Tim and Pikachu gasped in amazement upon my short speech to the crowd.

"Just to show they are not alone, Tim," I said as we left the Pan Am Worldport. "Just to show they are not alone."

Catching a taxi, we told the driver to drive us to the Pan Am building in Midtown Manhattan and it was here that our story and the story of the Gunsmith Cats would come together.

Driving to the Pan Am headquarters, it seemed like any other normal drive into New York City. Nobody would even dare to consider attacking the greatest city in the United States at least in our mind.

"That'll be $17.00, mac," said the cab driver as I paid the man. "Oh, and keep your Pikachu safe. Team Rocket is lounging about."

"Just ignore him, dad," Tim remarked. "He's probably making a sick joke about the bombing."

"A sick joke about an attack on this country," I sneered, proceeding towards the rotating doors of the Pan Am headquarters.

Walking into the Pan Am Headquarters, I couldn't help but feel a sense of amazement of how the United States national airline kept house. Men and women dedicated to providing the best service possible to Pan Am's passengers.

Of course, not all of them were going to be let off the hook at this point in time. Likely, they all contributed to the deaths of 270 people.

"Is this kind of bizarre, Rally?" we heard a young woman with blonde hair of about 17 or 18 years of age ask a young woman of Indian descent who was around 20 or 21 years old. "Going into a corporate office?"

"May, it's no different than going into Haines' political swamp," I answered. "If anything, some of these people may be worse than Haines or that crazy Russian we both remember."

"Oh yeah, her."

Looking towards the two young ladies, I couldn't help but wonder if I had seen them before. Walking over I took my badge out and stopped them.

"Um, may I help you?" the young woman asked, feeling slightly taken aback by being approached. "De..tective?"

"Sorry to intrude like this," I chuckled. "But uh…are you Rally Vincent?"

"Yeah?" Rally remarked, raising an eyebrow. "And you are…?"

"Detective Harry Goodman and my son, Detective Tim Goodman. We've been sent to investigate the bombing of Flight 103."

"Rally, should we trust these guys?" the young woman asked Rally.

"He is a detective," Rally whispered to her partner in a hushed voice. "No different than Agent Collins."

"And you must be…?" Tim asked the younger lady.

"Oh, Minnie May Hopkins, explosives expert," she chirped.

"If you don't mind my asking," I asked, slightly taken aback by how old Minnie was. "Aren't you a little young for this line of work?"

But Minnie brushed it off.

"People ask me that all the time," Minnie said. "Don't worry about it."

"Um, Detective," Rally remarked. "I trust you followed the Air India 182 bombing a few years ago off the coast of Ireland?"

"Yes, I remember you were tasked by the Indian and Canadian ambassadors to the United States to find the people responsible. They were Team Rocket agents of Sikh descent."

"Yeah, still awaiting trial but we got them," Rally said. "But it appears we are back in the saddle again."

Naturally, both Tim and I were confused.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when you are here to try and expand your firearm business and you are suddenly thrusted into an investigation involving a plane crash, that's a sign," said Rally. "Apparently, our friend from the ATF convinced us to investigate the downing, given our history with the Air India jet."

Then, I suddenly got an idea.

"Why don't we join forces since we are investigating the same incident?" I suggested. "If Team Rocket brought down an Air India jet, they might have brought down a Pan Am jet."

Rally said nothing, but agreed to join forces with me and Tim, since we both had Team Rocket on our respective radars. Boarding the elevator, we stood with a group of Pan Am executives who gave us a confused look.

"Um, what are you looking at?" Tim asked. "Is it my Pikachu?"

But the executives said nothing and as we got to the top floor, they walked out and gave us more and more confusion to their behavior. Nevertheless, we all focused on the same first step: which was meeting with the Chairman of Pan Am.

"Excuse me," I asked the secretary. "Is Tom Plaskett available?"

This made the secretary stop whatever she was doing.

"Do you have an appointment?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Naturally, this caused all of us to take out our respective badges and show them to her. "Oh, let me just see if he's available."

Picking up the phone, the secretary waited for an answer and a call soon came in.

"Mr. Plaskett?" she asked. "I have a couple of agents here to see you."

"At least she didn't say bounty hunter and…"

Not wanting to have May cause a fright, Rally nudged her in the side.

"Mr. Plaskett will see you now," the secretary answered. It took a few minutes, but we came across the office of the CEO of Pan Am. Knocking on the door, a man in a brown suit answered.

"Mr. Plaskett?" I asked, all of us showing our respective badges. "Detectives Harry and Tim Goodman, Ryme City Police Department."

"Rally Vincent, bounty hunter and Minnie May Hopkins, explosives expert," added Rally.

"Yes, the secretary said you'd be coming up," Plaskett said nervously almost as if he had something to hide. "Please come in."

Making our way into the office, we admired how nicely done the office was. Being a man of high position, Mr. Plaskett had every reason to be respectable. However, we couldn't help but notice he seemed to be hiding something.

"Now, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"First of all," I said politely as we sat down at his desk. "Please accept our condolences for what happened to Flight 103."

"Yes," Mr. Plaskett sighed, sitting back in his chair. "I was afraid that this was going to happen to us eventually."

"What do you mean?" May asked as Pikachu climbed up and sat on her lap.

Rather than answer us, Mr. Plaskett turned his chair around and looked out to the window that looked down on Park Avenue.

"I'm sure you're aware that couple of weeks ago," Mr. Plaskett explained. "A threat was made against one of our planes that would be flying from Frankfurt to the United States."

"Like a bomb threat?"

"Yes. It came into the US Embassy in Helsinki. The caller said it was a hoax, so we ignored it."

"Hoax or no hoax," I said, feeling slight aghast at the confession. "You need to take these things seriously because the safety of a human life depends on it. What did you or did you not do to combat the threat?"

"Well, I naturally trusted that my people at Alert Management would step up security."

Now it was no stranger to me that Pan Am's new security system wasn't exactly the best. Even though I flew international rarely, I could see the flaws that were displayed in the system.

"This is the new security program you initiated two years ago, correct?" Tim asked. "The one where you had the press at JFK Airport?"

"Well, the purpose was publicity," chuckled Plaskett. "But, the true purpose was to reassure our customers that we took their safety into account. Our head of ALERT, Fred Ford, thought we were putting profit over people's safety and he was fired as a result."

"In other words, he wasn't on the same page?" asked Rally.

"Well, yes, but at the end of the day, this is a business and in business, sometimes we have to agree to disagree."

I then glanced over at the model Pan Am 747 on Plaskett's desk. Part of me had that suspicion that Pan Am was indeed putting profit over safety.

"With all due respect, Mr. Plaskett," I said, rising to my feet. "It seems like your system is flawed."

This made Mr. Plaskett turn back around to give me a hard stare.

"Why do you say that, Detective?" he asked.

"I say that on account that Pan Am's security procedures aren't exactly what you will call…along the ranks of El Al."

Plaskett's professional demenaor seemed to go by the wayside upon hearing this.

"Why are you bringing El Al into this?" he asked. "They only have 20 flights a day, Pan Am has 400 flights a day."

"I'm saying that El Al may have fewer flights, but they have more of a focus on passenger safety. I feel that Pan Am has more flights but less of a focus on passenger safety. That's the hunch I'm getting right now."

"Pan Am is the national flag carrier of this country, Detective," Plaskett whispered, feeling his professional boundaries being violated. "We aren't like El Al because if we were like El Al, we would be alienating our potential and returning customers."

"Mr. Plaskett, do you understand that there were 25 students from the Pokemon League Training Academy on board your Clipper Maid of the Seas? That gives the suspicion that someone like Team Rocket smuggled explosive Pokemon on board."

"I should know," added Rally. "I investigated the bombing of Air India Flight 182 three years ago that killed 329 people, including 39 Pokemon trainers, and it was discovered that explosive Pokemon were smuggled on board an unaccompanied suitcase. Given the threat against Pokemon trainers that travel by air, your company should have complied with the new rules issued by the Federal Aviation Administration."

"I can assure you, Ms. Vincent, that we here at Pan Am followed all the recommendations made by the FAA after Air India," protested Plaskett.

"With all due respect, sir," she said, rising to her feet. "It's more than likely this was a case of sabotage on Team Rocket's part. You may think this might be a case of structural failure or a collision, but our investigation will determine if this was sabotage or not."

Having said our goodbyes, we left Plaskett's office, but we were not planning to leave Pan Am Headquarters. As we made our way down the elevator, we all began to get a further suspicion that if explosive Pokemon were smuggled, then someone within ensured that the luggage got on board.

"Well, that seemed interesting," Tim said to which Pikachu replied with a 'Pika, Pika.' "He just seems like he's hiding something…trying to protect the reputation of this airline."

"Mr. Plaskett seems more focused on the profits rather than the passengers," I said, remembering the Pan Am supervisor in Tokyo before we left Japan. "Doesn't he also understand that Pan Am planes have been attacked by Team Rocket before? I mean, before we left, the Pan Am supervisor in Tokyo said that his nephew was killed by a bomb they smuggled on board."

"That was the one that exploded over the Pacific, right?" asked Minnie May. "But they made an emergency landing in Hawaii?"

"You're catching on," said Rally. "But, it makes you wonder if there were Team Rocket agents seemingly disguised as Pan Am staff overseas? That's how I found out about the Air India bomb getting on so easily. 2 Team Rocket agents that were working for Canadian Pacific Airlines as baggage handlers were later arrested in Vancouver."

Now it was beginning to look like we needed to pay another visit within Pan Am headquarters.

"Where's the floor for their human resources division?" I asked myself, knowing where we needed to go next in our investigation.