Chương 44: The Empty Annex

Iron Talon found the Pallet orphanage empty. Lyra delivered the report in person. She arrived at Pewter Gym during Rine's rest day wearing a travel coat over Saffron red. Kadabra walked beside her, spoon tucked against one shoulder. Veyra recognized Lyra at the courtyard gate and crossed the distance fast enough to violate the medical definition of walking. Lyra crouched. Veyra stopped before contact, sniffed her hands, then pressed her muzzle against Lyra's chest.

"This is new," Lyra said.

"Pack recognition."

"I'm honored." Gastly appeared behind her with a floating heart.

"Less honored." Lyra's smile faded when they entered the dormitory common room. She placed a paper file on the table.

"The Pallet Agricultural Placement Annex housed thirty-one children within the last month," she said.

"Iron Talon found sleeping rooms, training yards, false licensing documents, and DNA traces. No bodies."

"Where did they go?"

"Unknown." Rine opened the file. Photographs showed a low farmhouse complex south of Pallet Town. White fences surrounded berry fields worked by Grass and Ground Pokémon. Public records described vocational education for wards interested in agricultural training. Below the barns had been cells. Restraint rings remained bolted to concrete. A battle circle occupied one chamber. The walls were newer than those beneath Saffron but carried the same drain channels. Rine's hands became cold.

"Forty-eight hours before the raid," Lyra continued, "three cargo trucks left through the western service road. Cameras were wiped. One toll station recorded weight consistent with passengers."

"Route?"

"Viridian, then uncertain." Rine reached for his pack. Lyra put one hand on it.

"No." Dark energy moved around his fingers. Kadabra's spoon tilted. Veyra stepped between them. Not defending one from the other. Interrupting the shape of conflict. Rine released the pack.

"Thirty-one."

"I know."

"Every day gives Gideon time."

"Iron Talon has teams in Viridian, Pallet, and the ports. The League issued border notices. You possess no information they lack."

"I can Identify the children if I see them."

"Gideon wants you searching." The truth felt like accusation. Rine opened the photographs again. One child had scratched lines into the underside of a bunk. The investigators photographed them as possible counting marks. Seven vertical lines. Then a crooked triangle. Tomas used to mark safe hiding spaces with a triangle. Rocket orphanages shared training manuals.

"They know we exist," Rine said.

"Possibly."

"They might expect rescue."

"Then we rescue them intelligently." He hated the plural because it demanded trust. Lyra waited. Rine sat. The decision not to run lasted one minute at a time. They reviewed every page. Soil traces inside the trucks suggested western Kanto. A torn shipping label referenced Viridian Freight Cooperative. One child's shoe carried black volcanic grit uncommon near Pallet. Iron Talon analysts were comparing it to routes near Cinnabar, the Indigo Plateau, and industrial foundries.

Rine used Identify on the printed evidence. The ability worked poorly through photographs, but fragments appeared. Mineral residue: basaltic glass; iron-rich ash; processed carbon Probable environments: volcanic region / metal foundry / rail furnace Lyra transmitted the result. It narrowed nothing enough to justify travel. It still helped.

"Mira knows?" Rine asked.

"Only that another facility was evacuated. The younger children were not told details."

"She will find out."

"Probably." The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. They called her before rumor could. Mira appeared with Needle behind her and three schoolbooks stacked beside the screen.

"You look terrible," she told Rine.

"Education."

"I like school."

"Suspicious." She saw Lyra and sat straighter.

"What happened?" Rine explained without showing the cell photographs. Mira listened.

"Are you going after them?" The question carried faith and fear.

"Iron Talon is."

"I asked about you." Rine looked at Lyra.

"No," he said.

"Not without a real lead." Mira frowned.

"You always go."

"That is part of the problem." The admission surprised her.

"Then what are you doing?"

"Training. Learning Trainer law. Preparing for Pewter." It sounded selfish beside thirty-one missing children. Mira considered.

"Tomas wanted Pewter first."

"Yes."

"He'd call you an idiot if you left right before it."

"He would call me an idiot regardless."

"True." Needle tapped one drill against the screen. Mira's voice softened.

"Get stronger. Then help." Children should not have needed that kind of wisdom. Rine accepted it from her anyway. After the call, Lyra gave him a second envelope. No League seal. No Iron Talon mark. His name appeared in Gideon's handwriting. Rine did not touch it.

"Where?"

"Delivered to the Saffron Gym inside a box of dead flowers."

"Scanned?"

"Chemically, psychically, spectrally, and by an Absol borrowed from the League threat office."

"Absol detect disasters, not letter traps."

"It disliked the envelope."

"Reasonable." Rine opened it with psychic force. The page contained six words. You are training while they disappear. Nothing else. Gideon did not need more. Guilt supplied the rest. Rine read it until the letters blurred. Then he carried it into the Gym courtyard. A stone brazier burned beside the training hall. Veyra stood near him, Fire core warming in response.

"Ember," Rine said. She looked at the paper. Her flame reduced Gideon's words to black edges and ash. Rine watched every piece burn.

"He will send another," Lyra said.

"Probably."

"Will it work?"

"Probably." Honesty again. He looked toward the fields where novice Trainers practiced safe switches.

"Working is not the same as deciding." Lyra's hand found his. Rine allowed the contact. They spent the afternoon doing nothing useful. Pewter Museum displayed restored fossils and ancient regional maps. Lyra criticized three Psychic exhibits. Gastly haunted a Kabutops reconstruction until a curator threatened removal. Veyra slept beneath an outdoor table while Rine and Lyra shared fried rice from a paper carton. The missing children remained missing. Rine felt guilty when he laughed. He laughed anyway.

Joy did not steal resources from the search. Gideon wanted every good moment to taste like betrayal. Rine refused him that much. At sunset, Lyra returned to Saffron. She kissed Rine once beside the station gate, brief and deliberate.

"Train," she said.

"Search."

"We can do both." The train carried her east. Rine walked back to the Gym with Veyra beside him and Gastly inside his shadow. Thirty-one children waited somewhere beyond the city. Rine did not forget them. He also did not let Gideon choose his next step. The choice had to be remade the next morning. Rine woke at four with his pack beside the bed. He had packed in his sleep—or close enough that memory supplied no clear moment. Medical supplies, food, spare clothes, knife.

Everything needed to reach Viridian before evening. Veyra sat in front of the door. Morrow occupied the lock.

"Move." Neither did.

"I am not leaving." Morrow displayed the packed bag.

"I was checking supplies." Veyra's expression had learned skepticism from him. Rine sat on the bed. Desire came in waves. Find the station. Take the south line. Identify freight workers. Break into the cooperative. Follow anyone afraid. Each step seemed reasonable alone. Together they formed Gideon's route. Rine unpacked the bag one item at a time. At six, he reported to conditioning. Brock looked at the shadows beneath his eyes and changed the run into a walk without asking why.

They circled the outer Gym wall while dawn touched the museum domes.

"Gideon sent a message," Rine said.

"Lyra told me enough."

"I almost left."

"But you didn't."

"That does not feel like helping." Brock stopped beside a retaining wall built from stones of different ages. Some bore old tool marks. Others were recent replacements.

"Who built this?" Rine inspected it.

"Many people."

"Which stone holds the wall?"

"All of them."

"An obvious metaphor," Rine said.

"You looked like you needed one." They continued walking.

"Gym Leaders respond to regional emergencies," Brock said.

"Rangers search. Hunters track. Teachers protect children here. Doctors keep partners alive. None of us solves every part."

"Gideon built facilities while those systems existed."

"Yes."

"Then the wall has gaps."

"Always." Rine looked back at the uneven masonry.

"You inspect, repair, and hold your section," Brock said.

"You do not pull every stone free because you believe only your hands are trustworthy." Rine understood. He disliked the metaphor less than expected. After breakfast, Mara called. Iron Talon had identified the boy in the video. His name was Eli Corven. Ten years old. Missing from a foster home in Viridian for fourteen months. DNA recovered from the Pallet Annex confirmed he had lived there. No current location.

"His foster record says he likes drawing Flying Pokémon," Mara said.

"He has an older sister in Johto." The personal details hurt more than the number. Eli became a person rather than leverage.

"Tell her he is alive," Rine said.

"We cannot confirm that from undated footage."

"Tell her you found evidence."

"We will." Mara transmitted a sanitized version of the case file. It included Eli's drawings recovered beneath a mattress: Pidgeot over forests, Fearow above fields, and one rough Charizard carrying children away from a black building. On the final page, he had drawn a white-haired boy beside a black dog. The resemblance to Rine was poor. The meaning was not.

"Someone told them about Saffron," he said.

"The annex received internal reports after the raid. Staff may have used you as a threat or cautionary story."

"Or the children used it as hope."

"Possibly." Rine saved the drawing. Hope felt like another responsibility. Mara seemed to recognize his silence.

"Do not turn a child's drawing into an order."

"Everyone has become irritatingly perceptive."

"You are predictable."

"Worse." Iron Talon requested one thing from him: record a short message for any children recovered from other facilities. No promises of personal rescue. No operational details. Evidence that the Saffron survivors existed and that surrendering to League teams did not mean punishment. Rine sat before the camera. He tried three versions. The first sounded like a mission briefing. The second sounded like Gideon promising safety in exchange for obedience. He deleted both.

On the third attempt, Veyra sat beside him and Morrow floated overhead.

"My name is Rine Frostfang," he said.

"I came from the Saffron residence. The orphanage lied about what happened when we turned sixteen. Team Rocket will tell you the League wants to imprison you, take your Pokémon, or punish you for following orders. Some investigations will be frightening. Some adults will make mistakes. You are still allowed to leave when help reaches you." He paused.

"You do not owe me, the League, or Team Rocket proof that you are strong. Staying alive is enough." Morrow formed a small door in violet light. Veyra called. Here. Rine ended the recording. Mara watched once.

"Good," she said.

"What happens if someone edits it?"

"The original stays sealed with Iron Talon. Every distributed copy carries a verification mark."

"And if a child hears my voice and assumes rescue is guaranteed?" Mara studied him.

"Then we include a second message explaining that leaving can be slow, confusing, and dangerous. Hope does not have to be dishonest." Rine insisted on one more condition: no recording would be played as a threat during a raid. It was for dormitories, medical transports, and surrender negotiations—not loudspeakers while armed adults broke through doors. Mara added the restriction to the protocol. He expected her to argue that operational needs came first. She only said, "Your voice. Your terms."

Ownership over something as small as a recording should not have felt revolutionary. Iron Talon produced three versions: standard Kanto, simplified language for younger children, and one stripped of names for facilities where hearing "Rine Frostfang" might provoke an overseer. Mira volunteered to test the simplified version and rejected its first draft for sounding "like a nurse talking to a Slowpoke." The second draft sounded like a person. Rine approved it. The message entered Iron Talon's rescue protocol.

Rine could not enter every hidden facility. His voice might. That was not enough. It was something. When training began that afternoon, Rine arrived on time. He carried Eli's drawing folded beside Tomas's thread. One represented a promise he had not made. The other represented a dream he still could keep. He allowed both to travel with him.