One good thing I can say about children is that they grow fast. Giovanni’s two today. Yet I have another reason for celebration. Yesterday my father told me he wanted to concentrate solely on his research, which meant giving up his position as head of Team Rocket. Which meant that from next week I would take his place. Finally I had got what I had wanted for so long – complete control of Team Rocket. I could finally go ahead with the plans I hadn’t been able to persuade my father to go through with, and negotiate on my terms only. I watch Giovanni playing with a present my father gave him. Some toy that has buttons that when pressed make a plastic Pokemon pop out of a box and say its name. It’s driving me up the wall already – it hadn’t taken Giovanni very long to work out how to use it. He’s a bright child. He learnt to walk fairly early, and he can say several words and a few simple phrases. Eric adores him and I wish I could too. Don’t get me wrong, I do care about Giovanni, I wouldn’t hesitate to send one of my thugs after anyone who tried to harm him, but I can’t say I love him in the way a mother should. I cuddle him and tuck him up in bed like any parent, but something is missing. Try as I might, I can’t seem to fill in the missing piece. It makes me sad, which in turn usually vents itself as anger. I sometimes find myself yelling at the child as if he were one of my agents that had displeased me. I can’t bring myself to tell Eric how I feel about our son. He’d probably dismiss it as my imagination. I sigh, and stretch out a bit more on the sun lounger. I still haven’t told him about becoming head of Team Rocket. Last night he had been in a rare foul mood, and had stomped off to bed early complaining of a headache. He was out at the moment buying some items for a small family tea we were having for Giovanni’s birthday. Minty was coming over. Funny how when you have children suddenly birthdays and Christmases become excuses to see each other especially if those occasions fell on weekends. It was Saturday today, perfect for lazing in the sun. Giovanni stopped his play to stare at a wild Butterfree that fluttered through the garden. He pointed at it.

"Mummy, look!"

"It’s a Butterfree," I told him.

"Buffee," he said with a smile.

"But-ter-free," I repeated.

"Buffee," he said again, and giggled. I couldn’t help but smile at him.

I think my father was the one who was most happy to see everyone together. Kyle, the man Minty had moved to Celadon City to be with looked half bored most of the time. I didn’t like him one bit, he looked like a money-grabber, but if Minty was happy, then fine. She spent most of her time playing with Giovanni, so much so I began to wonder if she was going to take him back with her. Stefan occupied himself with some stuff of his own and Giovanni’s toys, even though he was now nearly eight years old. It was getting late, and Giovanni was getting tired of being handled like a toy. Perfect excuse to escape for a little while.

"Say goodnight," I said, taking him from Minty’s arms. He just scowled and wriggled about.

"Goodnight, Gio," Minty smiled at her whinging nephew.

"I’ll take him," Eric offered. I shook my head.

"It’s alright," I said, and walked upstairs before anyone could say anything else. I set Giovanni down on his bed. He immediately tried to curl up in a ball and go to sleep. I uncurled him, much to his protests and began to get him ready for bed. He didn’t shut up until I was finally able to tuck him in, along with his favourite soft toy, a Meowth that had somehow been christened Fred. He fell asleep almost immediately, one arm bent to allow him to suck on his thumb. I hoped he wasn’t going to wake up at four in the morning, expecting everyone else to be up too, a habit he seemed to have at the moment. I yawned as I left his bedroom. Being out in the sun for most of the day had made me sleepy. It wasn’t much longer though before I too was able to crawl into bed.

"You didn’t tell me you were taking over Team Rocket," Eric said accusingly.

"Well, yesterday evening you were like a bear with a sore head, and today you took so long in Viridian City I haven’t had the chance to," I replied. "How did you find out, anyway?"

"Your father asked me what I thought about you taking over, and I had to ask what he was talking about."

"Oh. Well I’d probably be telling you now anyway." I told him, closing my eyes.

"I don’t think he’s made the right decision," Eric said. I opened my eyes again.

"And why’s that?"

"Running part of a business is different from running a whole business. I don’t think you’re ready."

"You’re wrong. I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time."

"I know. But what about Giovanni?"

"What about him? It’s not like I work in another country, is it?"

"Yes, but you’ll be spending more time away from here."

"You’ve always known that I’d be running Team Rocket one day. If father had died four years ago, I’d have taken it over then."

"Still, I didn’t think it’d be this soon."

"It is, so accept it. I’ve got it all planned out. And no, I’m not going to forget you and Giovanni in the process." With that I closed my eyes again, and rolled over, indicating that I did not wish to discuss the matter further.

"But mum, everyone else is allowed."

"I bet they’re not if you talk to their mothers." We’d been through this a million times now, and it was getting tiring.

"I want to be a Pokemon trainer."

"You will be, you’ll just be doing it a different way to other people."

"I don’t want to go to that school. I hate school."

"Tough. I’ve paid a lot of money so you can go there."

"I’m not going."

"Yes you are, so stop whinging about it."

"You can’t make me."

"Oh yes I can, even if I have to drag you there myself."

"Dad would let me go on a journey."

"Your father agrees with me," I replied, which was a bit of a lie. We’d argued about it till we were both blue in the face. I wanted to send Giovanni to the Pokemon Technical Institute, though neither he nor Eric agreed about it. If we had been an ordinary family, I’d have been prepared to let Giovanni go and get lost looking for Pokemon. However, I was the head of Team Rocket, which had doubled in size since I took over nine years ago. As well as plotting the present, I had to look to the future. Giovanni was my investment. I wanted him to take over one day from me, even if he wasn’t keen on the idea at the moment. He was only just eleven years old, after all. Becoming a grown up was a century away from his perspective. By sending him to the Pokemon Tech, he would be educated about Pokemon without the danger of something happening to him. It had been known for kids to vanish on their journeys, victims of wild Pokemon looking for dinner, or harmed by the hands of another human being. In remote areas there was no nice Officer Jenny to run to, no Pokemon Centre to use as a safe haven. And being in a city didn’t guarantee your safety either. I had used this argument against Eric, though with much more difficulty than usual. I looked at Giovanni sitting on a stool with a sulky face. Only another two years before he became a teenager. He was strong willed like me, but at the moment I had the power to keep him in check. I knew it was going to be harder as he got older, but he was well aware that I was not to be pushed. Like now.

"I don’t want to go away," he said.

"You’ll be back for the holidays. Anyway, you didn’t want to be a trainer until a couple of months ago."

"But mum..." he began. My patience snapped, and I slammed my hand down on the work surface, almost knocking my cup of coffee over.

"Listen you brat," I shouted. "I make the decisions round here, and if I say you are going to that school you are going to go to that school regardless of what everyone else is doing. I am sick of hearing you whine like a baby about it. Do I make myself clear?"

"You never let me do anything," Giovanni yelled back, jumping off the stool. "I hate you!" He ran out of the kitchen, presumably to either his room or outside somewhere. I didn’t follow him this time. Last week he’d made me so angry over something I had chased him round the house to give him a smack. I let my anger subside. By dinnertime it would have been forgotten.

A month later, Giovanni had been shipped off to the Pokemon Tech. At first he had phoned home almost every night, but the calls were beginning to come less frequently. He was a year older than the majority of pupils when they started, but he had found some people his own age. It was actually quite strange not having him around the house, trying to tell me about something he’d found in the woods or what he had done at school that day. But I had plenty to occupy my mind. These days I had the field agents all in teams of two. I had found that a male and female combination worked best. Two men competed against each other, and two women often fell out. My very best agents I would sometimes let work alone. They were known as the ‘elite team’ within the lower ranks of the agents. I, meanwhile, had become known as ‘Madam Boss’. I don’t know who invented the name, but I suppose they have to call me something. A lot of them never see my face after they’ve been recruited, never mind know my name. I don’t see a lot of them either, though I know exactly what they are doing. I have people employed to report back to me on the goings on of the lower members of Team Rocket. I looked at a memo on my desk. Two of the security section had been killed. They weren’t the first, and they weren’t going to be the last. The two dead men weren’t vital personnel, but it was still a loss. We would recover from it however. The phone rang.

"Yes?"

"Ma’am, there’s a girl here at the gates wanting to sign up. Shall I bring her in or tell her to go away?"

"How old?"

"Uh...just a moment." The guard turned away from the phone to ask. "She says she’s sixteen, ma’am."

"May as well bring her in then. Make sure she gets the briefing first." I put the phone down. Eric and my father both said I was awful for allowing kids as young as fourteen in these days. But I argued back that I had never went out to get kids, they came to us. I always had them go through a tough interview first, the briefing, at which point the majority backed out of joining. Even grown people in their twenties and thirties had balked. I did not want a bunch of wimps in Team Rocket, and the briefing was the perfect way of getting rid of them. Then if they still wanted to join, they would be brought up to see myself or one of my assistants if I was not available. I returned to my work. I would be going away to the Orange Islands for three days on business, and was making sure that things here at headquarters were not going to fall apart. I didn’t leave Eric in charge, for he looked after the scientists along with my father. Instead I usually left Trey or Oliver, who compiled all the reports on the field agents, to keep an eye on things. They were about the only two people other than my family who I could trust. Half an hour passed, and my phone rang again.

"Ma’am, the girl passed the briefing."

"She still wishes to be in?"

"Yes."

"Well bring her to me then." I put the phone down, and prepared myself for the interview. I tidied up the papers on my desk, and made sure my personal appearance was impeccable. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," I said, sounding as authoritative as I could. The door opened, and the girl was ushered in.

"Reece, get the young lady a chair," I said. Reece took a chair from the corner of my office and set it in front of my desk. He then left us alone.

"Sit down," I said. The girl did as I asked. I surveyed her. It was obvious that she had been brought up well, for she did not slump or lean forward in her seat. She sat bolt upright, her legs together, and her hands clasped round the rucksack that lay in her lap.

"So you wish to join Team Rocket?"

"Yes ma’am. I do."

"Why? You’re a young girl with your whole life ahead of you. Why get involved with us?"

"To be honest, I have nowhere else to go. I don’t have anything to do with my family anymore. I’ve got kind of bored being just a Pokemon trainer. I need something different."

"You are aware that you commit yourself for life to Team Rocket. If you suddenly get ‘kind of bored’ as you put it, you cannot just wander off to find something else to do."

"I have been told that, and I have no problem with it."

"You are also aware of the penalties for betraying us?"

"Yes, but I know how to keep a secret," the girl replied evenly. She didn’t seem to be in awe of me or intimidated like others had been. She was mature for her age, which pleased me.

"So you’re a Pokemon trainer?" I said.

"Yes ma’am. I have twelve gym badges." She opened her rucksack and fumbled around in it, bringing out a small box. She opened it and placed it on my desk. Inside were twelve badges neatly pinned in rows. I allowed myself to raise an eyebrow.

"Not bad. Where have you finished in the league?"

"I’ve never battled in the league," she admitted, putting the box back in her rucksack. "Of course, that was my aim when I first started on my Pokemon Journey. My family were always telling me I could win the league easily, and I began to get fed up with hearing it. I stopped going home, and for the past couple of years I’ve been travelling around getting by with odd jobs and street battles. That’s how I managed to get twelve badges."

"Experienced then?" I commented. This girl was different from anyone else I had taken in.

"I’d say so," she replied.

"Very well," I said. "I will accept you into Team Rocket." I reached into a drawer of my desk and pulled out a form. I placed it in front of her along with a pen.

"Read it very carefully. Once you have signed it, you cannot back out." The girl just nodded her head. I watched as she worked through the form. She was a pretty little thing with large blue-green eyes and purple hair tied back in a ponytail with a green ribbon. She would be a beautiful woman. It almost seemed a shame to see her signing her life away, but she clearly understood the situation. She finished the form, and handed it back to me. I checked it through, the neat handwriting easy to read. Everything about her was neat and tidy.

"Welcome to Team Rocket, Miyamoto," I said.

"Thank you," she answered.

"For the next week or so you will stay here for training. There are three other people training currently. You should be able to find a partner from one of them, and be assigned your first mission. Hopefully the next time I speak to you will be when your mission has been successfully completed."

"I understand," Miyamoto replied. I pressed a button on my phone. A minute later my secretary came in.

"Alison, take the young lady here to get a uniform, then take her down to Oliver. Tell him to show her the grounds and find her a room. She will be joining the other trainees tomorrow."

"Yes ma’am," said Alison. Miyamoto rose up gracefully.

"Goodbye," she said to me, politely.

"Goodbye," I replied, watching them go.

A week later I enquired as to how the latest batch of trainees was doing. I stood in Oliver’s office as he shuffled some files around.

"They’re not bad. I put them in with some others yesterday in the training gym. One of them stands out though."

"Really?"

"Yes, that girl who came last week. Miyamoto, isn’t it?"

"I believe that is her name."

"Might be worth keeping an eye on. She’s one of the best recruits I’ve seen for a while."

"I thought so too, actually. But the real test shall come when she is out on a mission. Has she chosen a partner yet?"

"They’ve not quite matched up yet, but I think she’ll pair off with Cal, the lad from Prism Town. They’re similar in age, and get on quite well. He’s not too bad either."

"Keep me informed," I told him.

It was only another eighteen months before I had Miyamoto and Cal moved up to the elite team. The only reason it took so long was the amount of testing to see if they really were trustworthy. The elite agents had access to things normal agents never even realised were there. Even though faced with tougher missions that were not always with her partner, Miyamoto continued to have one of the highest success rates any field agent in Team Rocket ever had. Yet she never boasted about it, never made a big deal of the pay bonuses she received. She just got on with her job. Miyamoto was popular amongst the other agents too. She was one of those people who it was hard to dislike. She wasn’t perfect though, and made her mistakes, and had her failures. Yet with the experience she already possessed, and the experience she was gaining meant that these were few and far between. Her feedback from observations was also excellent, and my father thought highly of her too. He wanted her moved to the laboratories, but I knew she was happier out in the field. Six months on and she had come back from her first mission abroad, tracking down a rare variety of Arbok. Meanwhile, I had personal things to sort out. My father’s health had not been good recently. He was in his mid sixties now, and though he did not work as much as he did, he refused to give up completely, and could usually be found in a quiet corner running some experiment. Minty had tried to talk to him, but he just laughed off her concerns.

"I’ve managed to survive raising you two girls, so I hardly think a little spell of being under the weather is going to do much harm," he joked. Father was not the only of my concerns at the moment. Today I had got Giovanni’s report from the Pokemon Tech, and the news was not good. He had failed the beginner’s class once already and had to spend this year doing it again. Not only had he failed it again, he had done even worse than before. The report was littered with comments such as:

"Giovanni has plenty of potential, yet he puts in little effort."

"If he cannot get his act together I see no point in him continuing at the Institute."

Angry was the wrong word. I was livid. I had tossed the report into Eric’s hands, and gone to find Giovanni who was outside holding a mock battle with his Krabby. Without saying anything I had grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back inside, all the way back into the living room. Work had been stressful recently and, coupled with the worry I had for my father, I had only needed the slightest thing to make me blow my top. Unfortunately for Giovanni, this wasn’t a slight thing, at least, not to me.

"Do you think I paid all that money for you to spend two years sat on your backside?" I yelled. "Well, do you?"

"No," came the quiet reply.

"In that case why have you failed again? That you did once is bad enough, but to do so again, and to do it even worse is not acceptable. I expected more from you. Everyone expected more from you."

"I don’t like it there," Giovanni said in a small voice.

"Well if you hate it so much, then why don’t you do some work and get out of there? This could have been your last year starting this September if you hadn’t been such a lazy fool. Am I asking too much from you? Are you so stupid you cannot read a textbook?"

"Izzy." Eric said my name like a warning. I ignored him.

"I’m sorry," said Giovanni, wiping away a tear.

"Sorry for what? Not working hard enough? Being useless? Do you think I could run Team Rocket if I spent two days being bone-idle never mind two whole years? Would I be in charge if I didn’t put in some effort? Your grandfather has spent the majority of his life dedicated to his work, and to laying the foundations of the company. You know what? He would like you to run it after me. For some reason he thinks you have far greater intelligence than your cousin Stefan. Reading your report makes me wonder where he got that from."

"I’m not stupid," Giovanni sobbed. The tears were running down his face now. Eric got out of his seat and grabbed my shoulder. I shook him off.

"It’s just as well you didn’t go on a Pokemon Journey for you would be an even worse failure than you already are. You’d probably be dead by now," I stormed.

"That’s enough," said Eric, stepping between Giovanni and me. We glared at each other. Eric turned to Giovanni.

"Clear off," he said. Giovanni bolted like a rabbit.

"I have not finished with him yet," I shouted, partially towards the door so Giovanni could hopefully hear me.

"There was no need for that," said Eric.

"Yes there was," I spat. "You are far too easy on him. You always have been."

"Compared to you a brick wall would be easy on him."

"What the hell’s that supposed to mean?"

"Yes, he had a bad report but there’s no need to reduce him to tears."

"If he can’t take his own mother having a word with him he’s not worthy of anything."

"You call that having a word? He’s not one of your agents."

"And what would you have done? Sat down and had a talk to him?"

"Yes. And I certainly wouldn’t have called him a failure and useless."

"That’s what he is."

"Will you calm down?"

"No I won’t. Not until my son stops being a disappointment," I shouted. Eric could normally calm me down when I raged, but not this time.

"He is not a disappointment, Izzy. Maybe you should take the time to find the root of the problem instead of laying into him."

"He has brains somewhere in that head, he can use them to work out any problems he has. That’s all he is, one big problem."

"I sincerely hope you do not mean that."

"Why? What are you going to do about it? If it hadn’t been for you he wouldn’t have existed, and we wouldn’t be standing here arguing about the little runt now," I screamed. The next thing I knew was a stinging slap across my left cheek. I gasped and blinked, my mind reeling from the shock. I held my hand up to the cheek, and looked at Eric. I think he was almost as surprised as I was.

"Get out," I hissed, recovering some composure.

"Giovanni is not the only one who needs to think about their actions," Eric said.

"Get out!" I cried. Eric narrowed his eyes, and looked down on me coldly before he turned and left the room. I drew in another sharp breath, and walked over to look in a mirror that hung on one of the walls. My cheek was scarlet, and still throbbing. He had hit me with enough force to turn my head, and I could make out part of an impression his hand had left on my face. I still couldn’t believe it. We’d had some horrendous arguments, but he had never lifted a finger against me. I made my way out of the room. No sign of Eric or Giovanni. I slipped into the study to immerse myself in some work for a few hours.

The next day things were very much more subdued. We talked about what to do with Giovanni calmly, and decided that the best thing to do was to get someone to give him some tuition to get him up to speed, even though that meant not taking a holiday that year. Despite what I had said in the heat of the moment, Giovanni was not stupid, and he was not a problem. Not a big one, anyway. Which is why I took two of my best agents off normal duties for the next few weeks to train him. One was Miyamoto, the other was a man named Xan, the only person who came close to Miyamoto in terms of successful missions. If they couldn’t get Giovanni on track then no one could, and I would be forced into reconsidering my successor. Fortunately for everyone, the idea seemed to work. Giovanni’s report at Christmas was almost sparkling, and he seemed to be a lot happier in himself. Shortly after the New Year, I got a phone call I didn’t want to get. My father had collapsed. Despite my wishes, my father had travelled to Saffron City to attend a conference. He had not been well at all over Christmas, seeming to suffer from one illness after another. I travelled to Saffron City to the hospital there where father had been taken. Minty also arrived. She wanted him moved to Celadon City, I wanted him moved to Viridian City, but the doctors told us father was too weak to go anywhere. He seemed okay when we first arrived, and was able to talk to us. Then he began to deteriorate quite rapidly, and two days later he passed away. Just like that, very quietly, very peacefully, a world away from the controlled mayhem that was Team Rocket. After sorting out all the legal stuff, I travelled back to the headquarters. The past few days had seemed a blur. I snuck back in quietly, not wanting to be inundated with things the moment I passed through the gates. It was late afternoon, and was already getting dark. I slipped into the house, which was dark. Eric must be working late. I set my bag down on the table in the kitchen, not really knowing what to do with myself. I had not been in this situation before. My grandmother had died not long after my wedding, but I was not close to her. I had been too young to feel any impact from my mother leaving us. Members of Team Rocket died or disappeared, but that was to be expected. Later, Eric came home to find me sat brooding in almost complete darkness, the lamp in the corner casting a dim light.

"I didn’t know you were coming back," he said, sitting beside me.

"There was no reason for me to stay any longer," I replied softly, not looking up.

"Izzy, I’m sorry," Eric said. I closed my eyes, fighting back tears. I didn’t like crying, not even in front of Eric. It was a sign of weakness. The moment passed and I was able to open my eyes again.

"They said it was failure of his kidneys and liver," I said. "But he was fine when I first saw him…" I broke off. Eric more or less knew the rest now.

"Come here," he said gently, pulling me towards him. I leaned my head against his chest and wrapped my arms round him. He stroked my hair in a soothing way. Even after all these years I still wondered what I had done to deserve Eric. I realised it had been a while since we cuddled like this, and I nestled against him a bit more, drawing a warmth from him I often felt I myself lacked. It wasn’t enough though. I raised my head and looked at him. He smiled at me affectionately. I didn’t return the smile, just leaned towards him and kissed him, my fingers running through the hair on the back of his head. It wasn’t quite as thick as it used to be, but was still soft. He began to respond to me and I felt his hands move over the fabric of my clothes. Soon I lay on my back, my long ebony hair cascading out over my shoulders and across the pillows as I looked up at Eric, straight into his beautiful blue eyes. Making love might seem a strange thing to do under the circumstances, but I needed the closeness it brought, and it took away the pain I felt inside, even if that would be just for a little while. It also reinforced some of the bonds between us that had never gone away, but had faded a little. We didn’t get the chance to be intimate much these days. Afterwards we still held each other close as we lay under the covers. I listen to Eric’s breathing as he sleeps, and concentrate on it to get rid of the stuff going through my head, using it to pull me into sleep too.

There was a surprising amount of people at father’s funeral. We all stood huddled in the cemetery, snow gently falling down round us. I could imagine my father being amused at the sight. Minty sobbed for most of it, yet I couldn’t help feeling happy. It wasn’t because I wanted father to be dead, just the feeling that I could say goodbye to him knowing he had had a happy life, and was proud of me. He had told me that just before he died, as he lay in the hospital. Looking back I can see he knew he was going to die, even if neither Minty nor I wanted to believe it. Being the sensible man he was, he had made sure he had left a will. The personal fortune he had accumulated was split evenly between Minty, Stefan, Giovanni, and myself, though the money for Giovanni would be in a trust until he was eighteen. It wasn’t like he was short of cash anyway, for he got a monthly allowance. Stefan could have his straight away, for he was almost nineteen and a half. Not that I thought he deserved anything, for he’d grown into a smart-arsed brat. I blamed Minty’s partner Kyle for that. But it had been my father’s money, and he had been fond of both his grandsons, though he often said Giovanni was the one more likely to make something of himself. Which of course secretly made me very pleased.

Chapter 4