Pokemon: Criminal Life

Chapter 229: 229-Sea Mauville

"That's exactly the kind of work I do," Sieg said. "Water-types are the core of my roster, and I've spent enough time at sea to know what open-water combat actually looks like as opposed to what it looks like in a controlled environment."

Briney studied him for a moment in the way of someone who had interviewed enough people to know the difference between someone presenting a resume and someone who had actually done the work. Then he started to say something, stopped, started again, and this time followed through.

"The expedition involves Sea Mauville."

The name landed without dramatic effect on Sieg's expression, which was the correct response. He had read the file thoroughly enough to have the relevant details immediately available.

"The old Mauville Holdings platform," Sieg said. "Abandoned after the New Mauville Project was cancelled. Partially submerged now. Designated as a nature preserve at some point."

Briney nodded. "It was designated as a preserve, and later converted into a tourist site after the structure and the marine environment around it had time to merge. But that process took years, and during those years, a great deal of material was left behind. Documents, records, anything connected to Sea Mauville's operational period and to Mauville Holdings as a company." He paused. "This expedition is not a solo effort. The other names involved are Wattson from Mauville City, Elder Raymon of the Stonehouse family, and Mr. Stone."

He said each name with the deliberateness of someone who understood what those names represented and was using them to communicate the scale of the interest.

"We've sent teams before," Briney continued. "The interior of Sea Mauville has been claimed by the local Pokémon population for long enough that it's genuinely hostile territory now. Every prior attempt ran into something it couldn't handle. Which is why the specification was Water-types and open-water combat experience rather than general trainer credentials."

Sieg kept his expression neutral and his attention on Briney's eyes. The file had mentioned failed prior attempts. Hearing the confirmation directly from the source was different from reading it.

"Two people," Briney said. "The space inside is too confined for a large group to operate effectively. One slot is yours if the demonstration goes the way your record suggests it should."

The demonstration took twenty minutes at the dockside facility Briney used for exactly this purpose. Sharpedo and Crawdaunt in open water, putting enough through their moves to give an experienced judge a complete picture. Briney watched from the dock without expression. When it was over, he nodded once.

"Three days from now. Southern access point. Nine in the morning."

The three days resolved themselves into a clean preparation cycle. Sharpedo's injuries finished healing ahead of schedule, the saltwater recovery treatment having done its work at the expected rate. Sieg spent time on the team's conditioning, reviewed everything he had on Sea Mauville's layout from the material Briney sent over, and used one afternoon to contact Celeste Solans with a question about the Stonehouse family's interests in Hoenn, getting back a response that confirmed Elder Raymon as the family's commercial representative in the region.

He thought about the failed prior expeditions more than once. People who had attempted the same thing and came back empty, or did not come back at all. The building had been underwater long enough for a complete ecological takeover, which meant whatever was living inside it now had years of established territory and knew the space far better than any intruder would.

Water-types in confined flooded spaces. He ran the permutations and started thinking about which team configurations made sense.

The southern beach of Slateport on the morning of the expedition had the quality of early light on open water that was particular to the coast, the kind of morning that reminded you the ocean was real and large and indifferent to schedules. The Sea Mauville platform was visible from the access point, a tilted dark mass breaking the surface roughly three hundred meters out, the deck angled at an angle that made it look like something caught in the middle of sinking rather than something that had arrived at its current state years ago.

"Quite a sight," Sieg said to no one in particular.

"Isn't it."

He turned.

Cynthia stood a few meters away with the easy posture of someone who had been there long enough to have already done her own appraisal of the structure. She looked different from the cruise ship. A sky-blue short-sleeved shirt, her arms visible, the golden hair pinned back with two butterfly clips that moved slightly in the sea wind. The formality was gone entirely. What was left was the same person without the occasion's requirements.

"You're the second slot," Sieg said.

"Elder Raymon asked me directly. Apparently our families have a shared history in the research community." A brief, slightly self-aware pause. "My grandmother and the elder go back a long way."

Sieg absorbed this. The Stonehouse family's research connections, Cynthia's grandmother, is a known figure in that same circle. The reasoning was straightforward once the piece was in place.

"The challenge you offered on the ship," he said. "Honchkrow and Togekiss. I said I didn't have time."

"You said you had something to handle."

"I did." He looked back at the platform. "Sea Mauville, it turns out."

Both of their Pokédexes signaled at the same moment. The briefing package Briney had sent: approach vectors, what survey data existed of the interior layout, water depth at the access points, the partial floor plans recovered from the original construction documentation. They read through it without commentary. The building had been thoroughly colonized, every passageway and chamber mapped against the Pokémon species that the prior expeditions had confirmed and the ones they had only suspected.

"Not easy," Cynthia said when she had finished.

"No." Sieg put the Pokédex away. "What Water-types are you bringing?"

She answered by releasing them.

The first materialized with the kind of presence that made the word "beautiful" feel like the obvious and insufficient first response. Milotic uncoiled from the release light with a movement that was entirely its own, long and unhurried, cream-colored scales catching the morning sun and breaking it into seven distinct colors that shifted as the body moved. Two pink ribbon-like antennae hung from between its eyes, drifting with the air currents. The tail end was a deep-layered pattern of blue and pink scales that shimmered with the same prismatic quality as the body, and the whole creature simply held itself with the composed stillness of something that had no reason to perform. It was demonstrating nothing. It was simply there.

Sieg looked at it for a moment longer than he usually permitted himself with things that were not tactical considerations.

The second Pokémon came out beside it, smaller and different in character, the contrast between the two was immediate.

Cynthia watched Sieg's expression during the reveal with the quiet attention of someone who had seen Milotic produce this response before and found it accurate rather than excessive.

"The interior is going to be cramped for something Milotic's size," Sieg said. Which was not a criticism. It was an observation about geometry that both of them were already aware of.

"I know." Cynthia was already thinking through the same problem. "We'll work around it."

Out over the water, something broke the surface near the platform's submerged edge and slipped back under without visible urgency. Whatever had claimed that building had done so completely enough that it was already aware of the people standing on the shore.

Sieg looked at Cynthia. She was looking at the platform.

"Ready?" he said.

"I've been ready for three days."