Chapter 12

"Spies in the Fold"

Getting off on the floor for human resources, we were immediately greeted by confused and worried stares from the human resources staff, almost like we were invading their personal space. It almost as if we treated like individuals that could do whatever we wanted. Having just paid a visit to Mr. Plaskett, May and I proceeded down to Pan Am's corporate security offices. But it seemed that they knew of our arrival courtesy of Mr. Plaskett.

"Are you the detectives that visited Mr. Plaskett?" asked a man in a dark suit as he dashed towards us and stopping us from going any further. "Are you?"

The snapping in his voice made us both push back slightly.

"Yes, yes we are," I stammered, showing my badge to the man.

"Don't bother, he told us who you are. You're detectives."

"Well, we're gunshop owners and I'm the bounty hunter and she's the explosive specialist."

I then slammed my badge into the man's face.

"And I'm the detective and so is my son," I said, firmly as Pikachu prepared to charge his cheeks to shock the man, but I stopped him. "We're investigating the downing of Flight 103."

"What is that to us?" he asked, clearly angered by our presence. "This is human resources."

"Exactly," Tim said. "Apparently, you have had some workers overseas that aren't what they say you are. You are going to hand over their files to us."

"Do you have a warrant?" he asked, his voice raised slightly. "If not, then get out of here before I call security!"

I knew that we still needed to get the files and Tim managed to sneak out of sight towards the offices while we distracted them.

"That's a shame considering that there were terrorists disguised as your employees, sir. If you are withholding evidence…"

"I am not withholding evidence, nor do I intend to!"

"Look, let's all just calm down and take a deep breath here," Minnie May said. "Surely we are all better than this as people aren't we."

"Not helping, Minnie," Rally muttered. "These guys are serious."

Inside the offices, Tim and Pikachu scoured through employee files of Pan Am employees that lied their way into the company. They were trying to find anything, something that might possibly connect Team Rocket to what happened in Lockerbie, Scotland.

"Pika, Pika!" Pikachu cried, gesturing to Tim to come over to him.

"What is it, Pik?" Tim asked as he found suspicious names. The names were forged together and the descriptions were false. "No way!"

Gathering the evidence, Tim and Pikachu darted out of the office and were just about to get off scot free when…

"Hold it right there!" demanded the Human Resources officer. "Where do you think you are going with those files?"

"These are the files of the people you hired that have murderous intentions," said Tim. "If you'll excuse us!"

"Give them to me!"

"Sorry, this is now property of the Ryme City Police Department. Good day."

Dashing into the elevator, we proceeded down to the ground level seemingly home free with our first piece of evidence.

"That was interesting," gasped Tim. "So, what now?"

"We go through the files and see if it matches anyone we believe is with Team Rocket," I said.

We then proceeded down to the lobby and made our way into a restaurant called Cucina and Co., to study the evidence and to lay down from any Pan Am building security officers who might be looking for us.

Going through the files of each applicant, the first thing we noticed is that the Team Rocket suspects all had facial recognition from other crimes that they had committed. But one in particular caught my attention.

"Hey guys, look at this," I said, drinking coffee. "Do you recognize this guy?"

We then looked at a picture of one of the suspects who was a middle aged man with short brown hair and had on a red necktie.

"That's Looker," Tim said. "Isn't he the one who helped orchestrate two hijackings one time?"

"Yes," added Rally. "He ordered the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 three years ago for 17 days. A navy diver was killed and Looker has been wanted for his murder ever since. Says here that he applied to work for Pan Am's Alert Security in July 1986 shortly after Fred Ford was fired."

"What position at ALERT?" May asked.

"As president of the Alert program," I answered. "So, it's him that runs Pan Am's own security system."

I just then had another thought that popped into my brain and no, it wasn't the sudden urge to drink another cup of coffee.

"That other hijacking he orchestrated, wasn't it Pan Am Flight 73 in Karachi, Pakistan?"

"Yes, that's with Neerja, the flight attendant who died protecting passengers," Rally gasped, remembering the event. "Poison and Fighting type Pokemon were used in the hijacking."

"But did Pan Am itself know?" wondered Minnie May.

"Well, it says here that following the Flight 73 hijacking, he requested a transfer to the airline's mini-base in Frankfurt as a security chief there."

Now it was becoming obvious that this man was seeking a transfer so he would avoid being found out that he was the man responsible for the Flight 73 hijacking.

"There's also some guys that followed him to Frankfurt too," Tim said, passing over pictures of three young men all in their 20's. "Their names are Ken, Ryu and Harry. No last names."

"More like Moe, Larry and Curly," remarked May, looking at their pictures. "These guys worked as baggage handlers at Kennedy Airport in May of 1986 and then became trained in Alert Security over in Frankfurt three months later."

Then we moved onto the final picture, a young man in his early 20's.

"Here's another guy with Team Rocket ties," Tim remarked. "Christopher Yusaku, worked in Pan Am catering at JFK also in 1986 before also going to Frankfurt to work in their catering division. It says here that his primary food to cook is noodles."

"Noodles?" Rally remarked. "What does noodles have to do with anything?"

"People love their noodles," said Minnie May.

"It seems to me that these guys are heads of the operation and Looker is the ringleader," I declared. "What is clear is that they all transferred from New York to Frankfurt in late September 1986 following the Flight 73 hijacking. What is also clear is that perhaps Madame Boss ordered them to set up shop here until otherwise noted."

I then turned back to my lunch, but knew that I needed to report my findings back to Ryme City and await our next set of instructions. Some of our suspects were already working in Pan Am and were now on the run outside of the United States. Just then, we saw the Pan Am human resource officers come down with several security guards.

"Surprised he took a long time," Tim said as I got to my feet while one of the security guards tried to grab me. "Hey, take your hands off of me!"

"I've called the NYPD to have you all under arrest for theft," he said. "They'll be here shortly."

Struggling against the guards, we were forced out of the restaurant only for an authoritative voice to call out.

"Hold it!" he said as Rally and Minnie May looked up to see their friend from the ATF come to their defense. "Let them go."

"Who gave you the authority?"

"Me," said the ATF Agent. "Agent Bill Collins, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. I'm also investigating the Pan Am 103 explosion as well as these lovely people and their electric rodent here."

Naturally, Pikachu didn't like being called a rodent.

"I don't care who you are, Agent Collins," snapped the human resources manager. "Your friends here stole the private property of Pan American World Airways."

"Is that so?" he asked, walking over to the human resources manager. "If I had stolen the documents, would you arrest me if I was doing my job?"

This made the human resources manager feel somewhat uncomfortable as Bill smiled smugly at him.

"Now then," he said. "I'll have you know that these people you have are working to solve the crash of your flight…if it's considered a crash, of course."

"Are you saying that our Flight 103 was…?"

"Nope, not until all the evidence is collected, my friend," Bill interrupted. "So, why not release my friends and let them do their job? You might as well, because you won't be getting back those files anytime soon."

With very little option, the HR manager told his security forces to stand down. We were released and headed back to our table.

"What's going on?" asked an NYPD officer. "We got a report of…"

"Only a false alarm, my friend," Bill said. "Go on, there's plenty of thieves at the malls this Christmas."

So, the cops left and so did the human resources officer and his security officers. Once they were gone, Bill came forward to our table.

"You'll have to excuse Pan Am's higher ups," he said, looking over at Rally and Minnie May. "They are a little…cautious about who touches their property. Might as well finish up, pussycat. You've got a lot of work to do. I'll be eating my lunch if you need me."

Chuckling, Bill proceeded back to his table, much to Rally and Minnie May's annoyance as they quietly flipped the bird at him. However, there was something else that was starting to connect somewhat regarding Pan Am itself.

The conversation with CEO Tom Plaskett, the confrontations with human resources just now, it all started to make sense to me. Part of me felt that if Team Rocket was to blame for what happened in Lockerbie, so would Pan Am itself.

However, it was still too early in this investigation to tell at this point in time.