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Chapter 14
"Selecting the Flights"
Back in Manila, Ramzi and Abdul were trying to figure out how to force Pokemon to use explosion and not self-destruct. If there was one factor that needed to be taken into account, self-destruct would not cause an aircraft to be destroyed entirely as the Golem used self-destruct, allowing Philippine 434 to land safely in Okinawa.
But there was a far more pressing issue back on the virtual call with Giovanni. The number of flights to be targeted was something that Giovanni wanted to focus on more. Now, Ramzi and Abdul were on one of their many laptops researching flight timetables for flights travelling over the Pacific Ocean between Asia and the United States.
"What kinds of flights do you think we should target, Ramzi?" Abdul asked in Arabic.
"Flights with one stop before continuing onto the United States, Abdul," Ramzi answered back in Arabic.
Eventually, Ramzi logged onto the United Airlines website and began researching for flights there. Each flight would have to depart within a certain time frame and while the option to switch airlines was there, at least to Ramzi, he personally felt it would be better to stick to one airline.
"Here's one," Ramzi said. "Come here."
Gesturing Abdul over to him, Ramzi showed him the option in question: a United Airlines Flight leaving Manila and travelling to Los Angeles with a stopover in Seoul, South Korea.
"Look closely, Abdul," he added. "This is exactly what we are looking for. Place the explosive Pokemon on the first leg, then set it to go off on the next leg over the ocean. But, here's the fun part…"
He then scoured the United Airlines flight schedules for flights leaving from Seoul and he came across a flight leaving Seoul and travelling to Honolulu, Hawaii with a stopover in Taipei, Taiwan.
"We target more than just one flight," he laughed evilly. "I propose we target up to three flights at a time. The more explosive Pokemon we obtain, the better."
Ramzi then looked at a third United Airlines flight travelling from Bangkok, Thailand to San Francisco, California via Taipei.
"I also think we can throw in the element of surprise by having a Pokemon planted even before it starts the first leg."
"How?"
"After the second bomb is planted," Ramzi explained. "I fly to Bangkok from Taipei on the same plane and set the Pokemon to explode before it even changes flight designations. That will fool the authorities into believing everything will just be like the test run."
"Surely we will need more than that," Abdul remarked.
"What?"
"More Team Rocket agents willing to lay their lives down for the glory of Team Rocket. I myself propose we have up to five men involved, including yourself, of course."
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Essentially, he and Abdul also began targeting other airlines other than United Airlines.
Eventually, Abdul found himself onto the Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines websites targeting flights to Detroit, Michigan and Atlanta, Georgia via Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea respectively leaving from Taipei and Hong Kong.
"Giovanni will be pleased most assuringly," chuckled Ramzi evilly.
Naturally, Ramzi loved the idea and immediately began making plans to later schedule a call with Giovanni to share the idea with him. The greater the destruction, the stronger the victory would be for Team Rocket.
Of course, we wouldn't know the total number of flights until much later in this story…
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