The alarm went off at 5am, a good hour earlier than I would have liked, but it wasn’t for me. Eric was going to a three-day conference at Azure City, and needed to set out early for it was a good four-hour drive away.

"You could have always used the helicopter which would have got you there in an hour or so," I mumbled for the millionth time as I turned over and tried to go back to sleep.

"I can’t turn up to something like that in an enormous black helicopter, can I?" was always his reply. I was proud of my helicopter, which I had acquired two months ago. Saved a lot of time and a lot of driving around. But of course not everyone is as efficient as I am, husband included. No, I shouldn’t say that, Eric’s always been good at handling his time. I don’t think he likes flying actually, for I had to almost drag him on board when we went to test it out. I don’t fly it personally of course, I have someone to do that. I wouldn’t know where to start. The trouble with me is once my sleep has been disturbed, I find it hard to drop off again. Come to think of it, I don’t think I had that problem until I was pregnant. I sigh and lie on my back looking up at the ceiling, listening to Eric trot back and forth getting himself ready.

"You won’t forget to get some information on the people giving the lectures, will you?" I asked.

"I haven’t forgotten. Anyway, one of them lives only a few miles from here in Pallet Town. A Professor Oak, I think. You could send someone to look at his place before I’ve even heard his lecture," Eric replied. I looked at him.

"Why didn’t you tell me that before?" I asked.

"I only found out a couple of weeks ago," he said. "Things kept cropping up which made me forget."

"You’d better not forget anything whilst you’re at this conference," I said. He smiled at me.

"I won’t. I’ve been doing this job long enough now, Izzy," he said, doing up his tie. He was soon ready to go.

"I’m going to get some breakfast. Do you want a drink or are you staying in bed?" he asked.

"I’ll be down in a minute," I replied. After spending a further five minutes in bed I dragged myself out, wrapped myself in my dressing gown and went downstairs. Dawn was well on its way now. I sat down at the table, and Eric brought over a cup of tea for me. We had our usual morning conversation about what my plans were for the day, and what needed seeing to, who needed to be briefed in something, how so-and-so was useless, typical run of the mill stuff. Eric finished his breakfast, went to put on his coat, then looked at me sweetly, holding his arms open. I smiled and went over to him, and we hugged each other.

"I’ll ring when I get there," he said.

"I’m not in my office today, remember," I replied.

"We have an answering machine, don’t we?" he said. I looked up at him. He ruffled my hair. "You’ll always be beautiful whatever your hair colour," he said affectionately, referring to our conversation the previous night. I squeezed him with my arms causing him to groan.

"I’ll see you in three days then," I said, kissing him soundly. He nodded and returned my kiss.

"Bye," he said, stepping out of the door and closing it quietly behind him. I went into the kitchen and listened as the sound of the car engine broke the early morning silence before fading again.

A couple of nights later, my sleep was disturbed by the phone ringing. Groggily, I reached for it, noticing at the same time that the clock said five to three.

"This had better be good," I spat down the phone. Whoever was on the other end audibly gulped before speaking.

"Uh Ma’am it’s about Mr Sakaki."

"What about him?" I said, not liking the tone of his voice. Sleep dropped off me.

"He’s been in some sort of accident. He’s in Azure City hospital."

"How is he?"

"I…I don’t know Ma’am. I think it’s pretty bad."

"Have the helicopter prepared this instant. I’m on my way," I said, putting down the phone. I hurriedly got dressed, trying not to think of what might have happened to Eric. In a few minutes I was on board the helicopter on my way to Azure City. It was an agonisingly long journey. When we finally arrived at the hospital, I marched straight in demanding to be taken to him.

"Mrs Sakaki, there’s some things you should know first," the doctor told me.

"You can tell me on the way," I answered back. The doctor took my arm and almost pulled me into a room.

"Well?" I said impatiently. The doctor seemed to shuffle slightly.

"I’m afraid your husband has died," he said quietly. I shook my head.

"No, that can’t be true. He was alive when I was told he was here. You must be mistaken."

"He passed away about forty five minutes ago. I’m sorry," said the doctor.

"I want to see him," I said. This was stupid. I wanted to see Eric, not some dead person.

"Soon, Mrs Sakaki. We’ll need you to formally identify your husband. Unfortunately I must give you some more bad news."

"More?"

"I don’t think his injuries were consistent with an accident," the doctor said.

"He was attacked?" I said. That didn’t seem to make any sense either. They must have the wrong person. Eric was probably still tucked up in bed in his hotel.

"Yes. He had severe head injuries when he was found. The post-mortem will be able to tell us more."

"I’d like to see him now, and get this sorted out," I said firmly. The doctor nodded, and escorted me back out of the room. We went down several long corridors until we reached a room. I made the agent that came with us wait outside. There on the bed was a body covered with a sheet.

"Are you sure you are up to this?" asked the doctor. I folded my arms and looked at him.

"Let’s get this over and done with," I said. The doctor remained expressionless as he pulled back the sheet. I looked down and actually felt the colour draining from my face. It was Eric. I had known it deep down that the doctor was not mistaken, but now I could no longer deny the fact to myself.

"Is this your husband?" the doctor asked.

"Yes," I said, touching Eric’s cheek. He didn’t look as if someone had attacked him. He looked asleep, and part of me wanted to tell him to wake up and stop being stupid. The rational part of my mind was the more dominant though. Eric was gone. Though his body lay before me, it was just the shell that contained the soul of the man I loved. Still, I leant forwards, placed a kiss on his lips then stood up straight again. I watched as the doctor pulled the sheet back over Eric’s face.

"How long until I can have the body back?" I asked.

"About a week. We need to do tests to establish exact cause of death."

"I don’t suppose you have any clue as to who did this?"

"No. You’d have to talk to the police," the doctor replied. I winced internally at that. I noticed my agent was gesturing to me through the doorway and went out of the room without looking back.

"Ma’am, it’s your son," he said, passing me a phone. I took it.

"Giovanni?" I said. I remembered then I had forgotten to leave anything to tell him where I had gone, and wished he hadn’t called, not at this point in time.

"Mum? Someone said dad’s had an accident? How is he?"

"Well," I began, then for once was lost for words. I moved away from my agent and the doctor to get some privacy and to stall for time. "Giovanni, he’s dead." Maybe I could have said it in a different way, but at the end of the day there was no way to soften the blow. There was a silence at the end of the phone.

"He had very bad injuries," I said.

"What happened to him?" Giovanni eventually asked.

"I don’t know yet," I replied, half-truthfully. I did not wish to discuss this over the phone.

"When did he die?"

"Before I got here," I said.

"Oh," was all he said. I could tell he was struggling, and decided to finish up.

"I’ll be home before the end of the day," I told him. "I have some matters to take care of first."

"Okay," he said. I suddenly wished I was home with him.

"You go and do whatever you want today," I said. "I’ll see you later."

"Okay," he repeated, then we both hung up.

The rest of the day seemed to pass in a blur. Talking to the police was a nasty business, but I needed to find out what had happened to Eric. By the time I was ready to go home, I had some idea. Last night he had gone out for a drink with a group of people he had met at the conference. He had decided to leave before the others so he’d get a decent nights sleep before the final couple of items at the conference and the long drive home. Some witnesses had come forward to say that a man seemed to be following him. He got almost to the hotel when someone else said they saw Eric and this man arguing. The passer-by had continued on his way, thinking nothing of it. About half an hour later, Eric was found sprawled on the pavement, with what turned out to be fatal head injuries. Another two minutes and he would have been safe in the hotel. I had left the agent that had accompanied me to Azure City behind to get as much extra information as possible. It was now early evening, and I was home. Nobody had said much to me. I don’t think they really knew what to say. I asked not to be disturbed for the rest of the day. Giovanni was waiting for me. He made me a cup of tea without being asked, and sat down with me at the kitchen table.

"Do you know anything else about what happened to dad?" he asked. I gritted my teeth. How do you tell your child that their father has been murdered?

"Yes I did," I began. Giovanni looked at me expectantly. "It was no accident," I said.

"Someone killed him?" Giovanni said. "Who?"

"I don’t know. But I will find out, Giovanni, even if it takes twenty years and half my fortune. I will speak to Trey about it in the morning after my agent I left in Azure City has updated me on any news."

"Why would someone want to kill dad?"

"I don’t know," I said again. That had been something nagging at me. I could understand if someone wanted to kill me, but not Eric. There had been no death threats, no internal problems for a while now.

"I hope the bastard burns in hell," Giovanni told me, heatedly.

"So do I," I replied, ignoring his language. "And I hope it is after a slow and painful death."

"Was dad in pain?"

"It wouldn’t have been for very long," I said, hoping that was true.

"We’ll find whoever did this, mum. I know we will," said Giovanni, determinedly. I could see anger burning in his dark eyes. He was all I had left now.

"I suppose I had better make some phone calls," I said, rising.

"Is there something I can do? Don’t you want something to eat?" he asked. I realised I had hardly eaten all day, but I wasn’t hungry. I shook my head, then left the kitchen.

The calls weren’t the easiest thing I had ever done, but I managed it. Now I was sat on the bed going through Eric’s suitcase that I had brought back with me. At the hotel I had kind of tossed everything in, but now I went through the items in it slowly. I told myself it was in case there might be some clue to his killer, but it wasn’t that. I knew there probably wouldn’t be anything. I found a set of notes that he had made during the conference, and set them aside. I would read those at a later date. I took out one of his shirts, and pressed the material against my cheek, breathing in the faint scent that still lingered on it. I reached into the case again and brought out the case that contained his reading glasses. I opened it, and took them out, holding them in front of me. My mind went back to the Project Rocket days when I was nineteen and Eric was just a fantasy for me. I used to ask him to read through things for me so I could see him in his reading glasses. I thought they made him look even more adorable, especially when he would look up and his eyes would kind of peer out over the rims. Ah, his eyes. They had been what had attracted me to Eric in the first place. I don’t know if it was because of his jet-black hair, but they seemed such a vivid blue. He always smiled with his eyes as well as his mouth. I folded up the glasses again, and realised that tears had begun trickling down my face. I wiped them off, but they wouldn’t stop coming. I held my hand up to my mouth in time to stifle a large sob. I set the glasses down on Eric’s bedside cabinet, next to a photograph he had on it of me holding Giovanni when he was about a year old. Then I lay down, curling myself into a ball. I cried the hardest I had done for a very long time. This was worse than when my father died. At least there was a sense of closure with his death, and I got to say goodbye to him. The last time I had spoken to Eric was in the evening of the first day of the conference, the day he left. He should have been home now, he should have been telling me more about the conference. He should have been asleep beside me tonight. Why oh why did I start arguments with him over the smallest things? Why didn’t I ever tell him how much I appreciated all the little things he did, like bringing me cups of coffee when I was staying up late to finish a bit of work, then giving me a kiss goodnight on the cheek. Or how I would always come down to find a bouquet of red roses and peach lilies – the flowers in my wedding bouquet – sat on the table on our wedding anniversary, even though I sometimes forgot it. Or…the list went on. When was the last time I told Eric I loved him? Coupled with my grief was the anger I felt that someone had dared take him from me for no apparent reason. I was too tired to let it affect me much. The morning would be a different matter.

I must have cried myself to sleep for I woke up to find it was pitch black. After getting changed for bed, I crawled into bed and tried to go back to sleep. It was a restless night, as were the few following it. Everyone in all three divisions and their sub-divisions of Team Rocket knew what had happened to Eric and knew that I would suitably reward whoever found his killer. With most of Team Rocket looking for the person, it would only be a matter of time before he was found. Yet in a more direct manner, I entrusted Trey to find the killer for me. Of all my agents, I knew he could do it. Eric’s funeral was soon after, on a beautiful sunny day. I missed him terribly, and it took a good couple of months before I could bring myself to get rid of some of his belongings such as clothes. After the initial fuss, everything died down somewhat, and life returned to some kind of normality. A year on and no one had found Eric’s killer. Trey insisted he was getting there, but if the killer had gone underground, that made things even more difficult even though we were underground ourselves. Giovanni had taken Eric’s death hard too – he was a lot closer to his father than he was to me. Ironically, he was much more my son than he was Eric’s. I had been told as much when he was growing up, and now that he was practically grown up I could see it. When we got on, we got on fine, but without Eric as a mediator, some of our battles were ferocious. Giovanni had grown tall, gaining an inch or so on Eric, and often tried to use his height to intimidate me. However, I was not easily intimidated, especially not by my own son. I understood him to some extent, he was keen to spread his wings and in the process test the boundaries of his new found adulthood. When he went away to university, it eased things somewhat. University helped him finish growing up, especially when he had his first serious relationship with a girl. I knew that it wasn’t his first girlfriend – there had been a couple of others but they were really only teenage flings. It only lasted about six months or so, and I never got to meet her. He seemed kind of evasive when I asked him why it had ended, for he had been happy enough with her. He had mumbled something about "just one of those things" and the matter was left at that. Almost two years to the day Eric had died, and Trey came to me with the news I had been waiting for.

"Some good news, and some bad news, ma’am," he said.

"What’s the good news?" I asked.

"I’ve tracked down your husband’s killer to Vermilion City. I have someone keeping an eye on him at the moment."

"And the bad news?"

"I believe you know him. Your sister’s old partner, the one who went to jail."

"Kyle?" I said, and frowned. "Minty never said anything about him being released."

"Maybe he didn’t go and see her," Trey replied.

"Bring him in," I ordered. Trey nodded and left the office. I picked up my phone and dialled Minty’s number.

"Hello?"

"Minty, why didn’t you tell me Kyle had been released?"

"He came to see me just after he was let out, but I refused to have anything to do with him and haven’t seen him since. I didn’t think you would care about him being out, else I’d have told you. Why are you asking me?"

"It doesn’t matter. I just heard something and was curious," I replied.

"Oh. You sound pretty angry for something out of curiosity," she said.

"I’m not having a good day," I said. "I have to go now."

"Okay, Isabella. I’ll speak to you soon. Bye."

"Bye." I closed my eyes in frustration. Stupid, stupid Araminta.

A few hours later, with Trey by my side, I made my way down to the place where some people had ended their miserable existences. There stood Kyle, with two guards. He smirked at me.

"Well if it isn’t Isabella. Took your goons long enough. Must be slipping."

"Why?" I asked.

"Why? Why did you have to ruin my life? I loved Minty, and looked on Stefan as my own son. But I wasn’t good enough for you, was I? You had to pull us apart, even though we were happy."

"You did that all by yourself. You abused Minty, you stole her money. The only time I got involved was when Minty asked me to."

"You made her concoct some story to the police. Then you filled her head with stuff so that when I went to see her she didn’t want to know me," Kyle said adamantly.

"So you killed Eric just because of that?" I snarled. The smirk came back onto Kyle’s face.

"I had some business to take care of in Azure City. I was going to come after you, but then decided that was too risky. So I had decided to go to the police with as much information as possible about Team Rocket."

"You know nothing about Team Rocket. You couldn’t have even located the headquarters," I retorted.

"Then by the merest chance I saw Eric walking down a street, so followed him," Kyle continued. "When I got closer, I called to him. I can still remember the look of surprise on his face. Then I thought ‘That bitch took my girl away from me, so why don’t I repay the favour? Get at her in an indirect way.’ I don’t know exactly what happened next, but I started yelling something about you, and he began yelling back. I picked up some brick and went towards him, my arm raised. He told me not to be stupid, but I didn’t care. I’ll give him credit, he put up quite a fight, but I managed to give him a good crack over the head. It only stunned him, so I hit him again and again, till he was unconscious on the pavement. Then I left. And you know what?"

"What?" I hissed. Kyle leant forwards.

"I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it because I knew how it would affect you."

"You are insane," I replied. "It’s all in your head. You drove Minty away yourself, then you killed Eric to get at me. You made him suffer for no reason."

"Aww, the big boss has a heart after all. Oh, if only you could have heard his dying cries, seen the blood running down his face…"

"Shut up," I snarled, placing both my hands round Kyle’s neck with such force his head snapped back against the wall. I squeezed as hard as I could, my fingernails digging into the flesh of his neck. When he began to loose consciousness, I let go and watched with hatred as he spluttered back to life.

"Not bad," he wheezed. "Though I was expecting worse."

"I haven’t finished yet," I said. I turned to Trey. "Your gun, please." Trey looked at me a little surprised, but knew better than to defy me. He handed me the weapon. I raised it so it was pointed between Kyle’s eyes.

"You wouldn’t dare," he said, a slight quaver of fear in his voice. The two guards next to him looked at each other uncertainly. I set the gun to fire, the click making an echo round the room. Then I turned and walked away from Kyle, the gun lowered by my side.

"I thought as much," Kyle mocked. Suddenly I spun round on my heel and shot him clean through the knee. As he howled with pain, I handed the gun back to Trey.

"Nice shot," he commented. I was not interested in compliments.

"Take your time," I said to him. I gave Kyle one last look.

"Goodbye Kyle," I said, heartlessly, and left the room. Eric’s murderer had been found, but that did not make me particularly happy since I now knew he was killed for such a stupid little reason by a stupid little man. I never revealed to Giovanni the identity of his father’s killer just told him that he had been caught and dealt with. At least it was something off my mind in one sense.

The next couple of years passed by quietly. Giovanni graduated from university, with first class honours, I am proud to say. Then came something I never expected.

"Ma’am, Miyamoto wishes to speak to you."

"Send her in," I said, wondering what it was about. Miyamoto stepped into my office. Ten years it had been since she had first entered Team Rocket. Yet her body language seemed to be that of the sixteen-year-old rather than the experienced twenty-six year old.

"What can I do for you?" I asked with about as much friendliness I ever gave to my agents. She stood before me and clasped her hands in front of her, a sign I had learnt meant she was nervous.

"Well," she began. "I wasn’t expecting it myself, and I certainly didn’t set out to do it. It’s just happened." She paused and looked at me.

"Go on," I said.

"I’m pregnant," she blurted out. I realised she must have been able to see the surprise on my face for she seemed to almost smile.

"I was not aware that you were currently in a relationship with anyone," I said. I knew that she had had past boyfriends during her time here, but the last of them had been well over a year ago. She blushed, her cheeks and ears going a rosy red.

"I wasn’t. Well, not a proper one. I had a kind of on-off thing with this guy, but he disappeared off before I realised I was pregnant."

"I see," I said, though I didn’t really. I never thought Miyamoto was one for flings. When it came to my agents, I didn’t really care what happened in their personal lives as long as it didn’t interfere with their work. That had been the one main disadvantage to partnering men with women. Occasionally they fell in love, and wanted to get married. That was fine until the woman got pregnant. I did my best to discourage it by ensuring horror stories about termination and experiments were spread around, for it was a pain in the arse when it happened. It seemed to work, for the rate was fairly low. Miyamoto was the first for several years.

"Well, congratulations then," I said to her. She smiled, obviously relieved that I hadn’t reacted angrily.

"Thank you," she said. "What am I going to have to do now?"

"How do you mean?"

"I can’t go on any more missions for the time being," she said. I realised she was right, and sighed in annoyance. I would have to take her out of fieldwork for the best part of a year.

"You can split your time between instructing trainees and researching," I said. "Those seem to be your next best areas."

"I suppose. Is that immediately? What about Cal?" she asked.

"Immediately, Miya. And Cal has done many missions by himself, hasn’t he?"

"Of course, ma’am." Miyamoto said apologetically.

"So, when is it due?" I asked, more so I could tell when to put her back out on missions than anything else.

"About the end of November," she replied. I nodded.

"Have the weekend off, then report to the laboratories on Monday morning," I said. "You may go."

"Thank you," she said, surprised, and turned to leave.

"Your wages shall be docked this month," I said. She gave me a rueful look and left. I wasn’t going to let her go completely unpunished regardless of whether she was my best agent or not.

"I presume Miya has told you her news?" I asked Giovanni that evening as we sat down to dinner.

"Yes. I saw her a couple of days ago," he replied a little unenthusiastically.

"Aren’t you happy for her? I thought she was your friend?"

"I am happy. It’s just unexpected, that’s all. And I’m tired. Celadon City is a long drive," he said. Though he had learnt to drive a couple of years ago, I had bought him a car for his last birthday. He hardly stopped using it, his latest excuse being to pay Minty a visit on my behalf. I hadn’t seen her myself for a while, being too busy as usual. Yet I looked at him suspiciously. Maybe he had liked Miyamoto more than I thought, and was a little disappointed she’d gone off with someone else. I suppose I wasn’t surprised, he’d known her all through his teenage years, and spent a lot of time with her especially when he was younger.

"Of course," I said. "How’s Minty, anyway?"

"She’s fine. I think she’s upset that you don’t keep in contact very often though. And she said she hasn’t been bothered by Kyle any more."

"That’s good," I answered. "Maybe someone killed the fool."

"Who cares?" Giovanni shrugged. I smiled darkly to myself. I certainly didn’t.

Chapter 6