Ardos, Cipher's Grand Master, is in jail. Over 20 years have passed since Snag Machines and the Purify Chamber were needed. A land where the sun outshines the gale of darkness seems too hostile for evil to thrive.
When two International Police offic...
Ditto wasn't native to Orre. That meant GoD's Ditto was either caught elsewhere and returned to Orre, stolen from the Pokémon Day Care, or someone imported it.
Laila, Wisteria and Holly sat with Aiko on the floor of her office at Team Magma's lab. Since Courtney retired last year at 80, Aiko's day job was leading the lab as a climatologist. Her twin brother and Admin Kazuki was her most trusted assistant.
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With both parents and their twins being competent hackers, Team Magma's network was the most secure in Orre. They had everything they needed to hack anyone they needed to. Aiko didn't expect accessing lists of imported Pokémon to be difficult, but if Cipher had an equally talented hacker, she had to be careful.
'But first...'
She accessed police records in every town there was a Pokémon Day Care: Gateon Port, Agate Village and Pyrite Town. The last reported attack was almost 30 years ago, when Pyrite's Day Care Lady Rui was kidnapped by Cipher.
'We can rule that out...'
'Unless,' Holly suggested, 'An assistant took a Ditto home? If they were usually decent, their colleagues probably didn't question it.'
'Possible... but...'
Flight records were Aiko's next step. If passengers wanted to carry Pokémon, they had to be registered, checked and assigned to their boarding pass. Large Pokémon, like Wailord, were sealed in their Poké Balls for the duration of the journey.
'Only three Ditto have come in since Ardos was jailed... 26 years ago. One came with a World Championships competitor... and went back to Kalos with him. The others were with Victor Noble. He was probably bringing them to Jovi or the Day Cares.'
'This is far-fetched,' Laila said, 'And I feel mean suggesting it, but... Victor's kids with Peonia are Rose's, what, great-nephews? Could they be in with Primula?'
'Possibly... but let's check the import lists first...'
A notification pinged on Aiko's laptop. It was difficult to distract her, but her attention was utterly absorbed by the mundane email from Team Magma's leader, Yan, even though it was sent to everyone.
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