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Chapter 18

"What is at Stake?"

Having met with the station manager in Cebu, we flew back to Ryme City via Tokyo and rather than head back to my house, we headed over to Ryme City Police Headquarters. During that time, we had to find out who and what these five Team Rocket agents were and fast. Lucy and Psyduck dashed back to the television station to prepare for the morning's news coverage, although it was probably not a smart move considering that both she and Psyduck had their brush with death.

"Monkeys?" Lieutenant Hoshida remarked as we briefed him on what had transpired. "He called five possible subjects monkeys? Sounds racist to me. Then again, we try to maintain a code of honor in our society."

"Yeah that," I replied. "But whoever these guys are, they constructed a dry run for this plot to bring down jetliners. According to what we found here, these guys also traveled on Flight 434 back on December 8th. The load factor on the Manila-Cebu leg was light, so moving around from seat to seat was likely."

"And something tells me that they aren't playing musical chairs," sighed Yoshida, looking down at the supposed pictures of the five agents. "No, I think it's clear who these bozos were up to. They were probably scouting places to plant the explosive Pokemon at. Most likely, over the center fuel tank."

"There's something else though," my dad said. "At Lockerbie, the explosive Pokemon were placed at the front of the plane, not over the fuel tank. Maybe it was a learning experience for Giovanni. Then again, his mom was still running Team Rocket at the time."

To this end, my dad had a point. What happened on Pan Am Flight 103 six years ago was entirely operated by Madam Boss. It was her suggestion that the explosives were to be placed just below the cockpit because she wanted the passengers and crew on board to suffer. Even though he was a sick person like his mother, Giovanni probably wanted his targeted victims to die a quick death.

"I also got this from intelligence sources in Manila," Hoshida said as he handed a notice to me and my dad. "It appears that Yousef and his partner in crime have been seeking flights travelling across the Pacific Ocean. They are right now targeting three weeks from now to launch the attack."

"What kind of flights are they targeting?" I asked, shocked by the intelligence gathering. "And how many?"

"About three flights as of right now," answered Hoshida. "All of them operated by United Airlines. The routes are identical to Flight 434."

Studying the intelligence, we could see that three flights were indeed listed: United Airlines flights all travelling from Asia to the United States. The first would fly from Manila to Los Angeles with a stopover in Seoul; the second would be from Seoul to Honolulu with a stopover in Taipei and the third was to go from Bangkok to San Francisco via Taipei.

"Do you see the pattern here?" he asked.

"Pika," gasped Detective Pikachu.

"But what I don't get here is the third flight," I inquired. "Why go from Taipei to Bangkok and then back?"

"Probably because Taipei to San Francisco is more direct than, say, going from Taipei down to Bangkok and back up. The other two flights make sense."

Then the lieutenant handed us another piece of intelligence. This one was concerning the Pope's impending visit to Manila for World Youth Day.

"This also came across from Manila," he explained. "Apparently, Team Rocket has selected the Pokemon needed to poison the Pope."

"Poison?" I gasped. "What do you mean?"

"There were reports from the Pokemon Center in Manila that a Nidoran and Nidorino were stolen on December 4th. Apparently, they belonged to a Philippine couple."

"Which makes sense given that Nidoran and Nidorino are poison types. Essentially, poison the Pope and then that would kill him right then and there before any help could be summoned," my dad summarized. "So what happens now?"

There was no doubt in my mind what was going to happen next.

"You go down to Manila and stalk Yousef and any associates he has with him," declared Yoshida. "I'm going to contact my contacts in Manila and let them know you are coming."

Having been given our orders we prepared ourselves to hit the road again back down to the Philippines. Still, the idea that the Pope would be targeted for assassination and three planes would be targeted for destruction gave us an idea of what would be at stake. For the next month and a half, including during Christmas again, we were on assignment to stop Team Rocket from killing more innocent people.

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