Chapter 39
"Blowing the Whistle"
Sitting in the interrogation room with Team Rocket Member Baby O still felt tense, but he was certainly above the callus and evil Leon "the Cutter" Vorgitch. Just from looking at him, he felt like he needed to vent, spill all the details of what went on in that apartment leading up to the capture of the Neuss Cell of Team Rocket.
"Um, Baby-O," Detective Looker said as Baby-O sat in deep thought. "Could you describe to us what went on inside the apartments? How were Pokemon treated?"
"Awful, man," sighed Baby-O, rubbing his face in his hands. "We used to get them in by truckloads from Japan. I remember being there as the trucks pulled in and they were all brought in like shipments of weapons. Some were in Pokeballs, others were not."
Taking a sip of water, Baby-O took another deep breath.
"The orders we got from that bitch Madam Boss, they made me sick. We had to brainwash the Pokemon that were stolen from even thinking about their trainers, man."
"How were they brainwashed?" asked Tim.
"Beatings, torture methods. Threats of death. One time, there was even a Charmander shipped in direct from Pallet Town. Poor guy, they forced him to evolve into a Charizard."
As he spoke, Baby-O could start to envision the Charmander being dragged into the courtyard, with chains around its neck and being whipped by the cell members to evolve.
"Evolve! Come on, evolve or die!" Baby-O heard the sounds of the cell members holding the whip. "You belong to us now as property of Team Rocket! So, evolve!"
The sounds of whipping continued to be heard until Baby-O could take it no more.
"The Charmander tried to stay strong, but he couldn't. Eventually, they forced him to evolve using the dope gas."
"The R Gas?"
"Yeah, man. But he was too injured from the whuppings he got. So he…he…"
Baby-O took another deep breath and sighed, the memories of that Charmander still fresh in his mind.
"He was killed," Tim whispered, feeling nothing but sympathy. "The Charmander was killed because it wouldn't evolve."
"Well, I had to do something to avenge him!" cried Baby-O, getting up from the table. "So, I came to the International Police and surrendered, man! I was the one who ratted out the cell!"
"Yes, I remember that back in October when we had the raids, O'Dell," remarked Looker as he turned to look in the mirror. "You were the only one willing to cooperate with us. But, there has been something I have been meaning to ask you…why?"
"Because I joined Team Rocket to be a Pokemon handler, driving Pokemon to and from one facility to another. One time, I had a shipment that was being sent to Tehran and I didn't take it there."
"What did you do?"
"I ordered the pilots," Baby O explained, remembering how he forced the pilot to divert from it's intended flight path. "To turn off the transponder and head to the nearest airport. I was going to have the Pokemon I had returned to their trainers by any means necessary."
"Did you tell anyone at Team Rocket about this?"
"No, because I wanted them to believe I carried out their orders, man. You see…I joined Team Rocket to make a living handling Pokemon. But not to see them stripped of their dignity and forced to kill innocent people. I don't kill…but what else was I to do, man?"
Looker produced a small smile and tapped Baby-O on the left hand as a sign of support.
"You did the right thing, son," he said. "I knew you were going to be a good informant from the moment you pleaded guilty."
This made Baby O feel better and in a sense, made Tim feel slightly better as well. It certainly felt good that there was some people in the world who cared about the best interest of Pokemon, even if they were on the evil side.
"But, Baby O," I heard Tim say next. "That Spanish Airliner that was being targeted. Do you know how far it was to being completed?"
"Days, man. Days," he confessed. "We had devised a bomb using the electrical energies of a Pikachu's tail combined with a Voltorb and an Electrode that would go off at an assigned altitude."
"And what was that assigned altitude, Baby O?"
"31,000 feet. The plan was for the plane to be out over the Mediterranean where our submarines were located, waiting to collect the Pokemon that survived the bombing."
So, it was becoming clear that the attempted bombing of Iberia Flight 888 were to have taken place after taking off from Barcelona. However, it didn't make sense to me given that airplanes don't climb to 31,000 feet that quickly. If it had exploded, it would have been off the coast of Spain or even on the ground in Barcelona if there was a weather delay. Much like in the case of Pan Am Flight 103, that was also supposed to be destroyed over water.
"And where were the submarines positioned?" asked Looker.
"Somewhere south of France and west of Italy," answered Baby-O as a prison doctor came in with a vial of insulin while he rolled up his sleeve. "You might want to look away, dudes."
So we did look away as the doctor administered Baby-O's life saving medication.
"Anyways, that was the plan."
"Baby O, what kind of plane was Iberia 888?"
"A 747 with roughly around 400 people on board. The flight from Madrid to Barcelona is usually empty, so someone would have planted the bomb and got off in Barcelona before coming back here to Dusseldorf."
"And you told everything about this to the International Police?" I asked.
"Yes, Detective. In exchange for a reduced sentence, suspended if I provide information on how to capture Madam Boss."
Just then, there was a knock at the door and Colonel Andrus peeked in, urging us to come forward quickly.
"What is it, Colonel?" asked Looker.
"The Team Rocket agents who hijacked Pan Am 73 that were on trial in Nuremberg," he said. "They've been sentenced to death by hanging."
"Cyrus, Diamond Dog and Billy Bedlam?" asked Baby-O. "Those dope fiends?"
"Yes, those dope fiends, O'Dell. The ones that Keane and Koster were prosecuting."
Before he was led back to his cell, Baby-O had some final choice words for us.
"They used to be a part of the training class I was in," he said. "They also helped run the cell from behind their prisons and I testified at their trial. So, if you want to get confessions out of them, you'd better hurry."
"Thank you," replied Looker and we immediately left the prison while Baby-O was returned to his cell.
After we had gone, Colonel Andrus had one last word for Baby-O.
"They'll be executed tomorrow night," he said to him.
"Yeah, I know that," sighed Baby-O. "I know that."
…
So, we were off to Nuremberg to interview not only the hijackers of Pan Am Flight 73, but also some of the top members of the Team Rocket Neuss Cells. But the executioner waited for no one.
…
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