Chapter 29

"The Neuss Cell"

After leaving Frankfurt Airport, we proceeded northwest with Detective Looker and the West German police towards the town of Neuss, a small town located just outside of Dusseldorf. Arriving in Neuss, I found it to be just your average West German city. Most of the people seemingly were friendly and one might wonder just who would want to plot such atrocities here.

We soon found ourselves at an apartment complex on the outskirts of Neuss, much to our confusion.

"This is where the cell was broken up back in October," said Detective Looker as we got out of the car. "Ever since then, we've had the apartment under constant guard in case any other Team Rocket agents might try to retake it."

Stepping into the building, I noticed that the residents of the building were no different than you or me. These were young families…young children…young professionals and college students with their minds set only on celebrating the holidays.

Going up the stairs, we soon arrived at the apartment that was under guard by the International Police. To me, it looked like one of those apartments or condos you might find in the Carribean or something.

"This is it, Detective," said Looker, allowing us inside. "Apartment 832."

Stepping into the apartment, we came across an apartment that looked like it hadn't been touched in almost two months. Everything was scattered over the floor, blankets were laid out on the couch and there were still dirty dishes in the kitchen sink.

"Hey, what's this?" Tim asked, directing us to look at what appeared to be a device on the kitchen counter that in reality was another cassette player. "The speakers…they look like they've been opened."

"They were opened, Detective," explained Looker, throwing a pair of latex gloves for Tim to put on. "Go ahead."

Putting the gloves on, Tim looked at the cassette player and found his confirmations that the cassette player was in reality…a device used to place explosive Pokemon inside of it. Tim then looked closely at the inside and found several tiny hooks, smaller than a fingertip.

"These must be what they would attach the Pokemon to," Tim said. "In a sense, turn them into suicide bombers."

"You got it," remarked Looker, then directing Tim to look over at a purple powder. "And that's not all…"

Tim took the powder bottle and closely inspected it.

"That's 'R' powder," he said. "Which was used to cover the Pokemon up so they wouldn't be detected by Airport security."

"Sort of like an invisibility cloak of some kind," I wondered, not knowing just how popular those words would be a few years later. "They would just take the explosive Pokemon and dump this powder all over them. Must have been torture."

"And that's not all, Detective," said Looker. "Follow me."

He then led us into one of the bedrooms that two twin beds and what appeared to be a flight schedule on the dresser just below mirror level.

"It looks like a flight schedule," Tim remarked. "Iberia 888 from Madrid to Tel Aviv via Barcelona."

"We broke the cell up at the right time," said Looker. "About four days before the arrest, they were planning a dry run on a Spanish airliner heading to Israel. The plan was to fly from Madrid to Barcelona, get off in Barcelona and have the bomb detonate on the way to Tel Aviv. We are talking roughly around the same number of casualties as Pan Am 103."

"The date was targeted as October 30th," I said. "And they probably had a plan to fly to Spain and back."

"They did, Detective Goodman," answered Looker. "The plan was to fly from Dusseldorf to Madrid and then to Barcelon before flying back to Dusseldorf."

Looker then led us into the master bedroom and showed us a stack of forged passports and several Pan Am flight timetables.

"This apartment was a factory for terror," Tim sighed. "How many people occupied it?"

"It's hard to say, but we did catch about 30 members. However, they were released due to lack of evidence. Those 10 members were from a terror group working with Team Rocket in this region: the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Those members were released and the remaining 20 were captured because they had Team Rocket connections."

"From the looks of it," I said, looking at the pamphlet of timetables. "That it wasn't just Pan Am flights to New York they were targeting from Frankfurt. Looks like flights to Washington, DC, Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco were targeted as well. Of course, they settled on New York because everybody goes to New York."

"And that's not all we found here," Looker said solemnly as he led us out of the apartment and around the back of the complex. As we got to the back we found an area that was fenced off and had International Police officers guarding it.

"What's that?" Tim asked. "It looks like a grave."

"You guessed it, but guess what's in the grave."

He reached into his coat pocket and handed Tim the picture of who was inside. His eyes widened in disbelief as he looked who exactly was buried. Inside, he saw a Pikachu…a dead Pikachu with cuts and bruises all over it's tiny body. Trembling, Tim let the picture drop to the ground.

"Sick bastards," he said quietly and shakily. "SICK MOTHERFUCKING BASTARDS! Where are they?"

Tim's sudden outburst made both of us jump back in surprise.

"Where are they?"

"Tim, calm down," I tried to say in order to restore order.

"No, tell me where they are! All of them!" Tim demanded again and I knew that he wanted to pay some of the captured a visit in their cells. To Tim, it was bad enough to have one Pikachu in the hospital, but having another Pikachu lying dead in a picture had pushed him over the edge.

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