Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 492 The Prisoner in a Dilemma

Chapter 494 The Prisoner in a Dilemma

Holt, a former oversight officer of the United States.

Two years ago, during a routine review of the maintenance records of the underground pipeline network at the alliance headquarters, he noticed that the routing of some pipelines deviated from the original design drawings. Although the material replacement records of some load-bearing structures were classified as "routine maintenance," they used high-strength alloys that required special approval to be used.

These anomalies were not within the scope of his investigation, so Holt did not make a fuss, but instead began to review the information in private.

After realizing a terrifying possibility, he contacted Soma, the former priest of the Dragon Spiral Tower, and commissioned him to investigate the condition of the ancient ruins near the Alliance headquarters.

He was already being cautious enough.

However, just looking at the size of the Plasma Cluster Castle that has risen from the ruins today is enough to show that conducting the investigation at that time was already an enormous risk.

At that time, the United States Alliance was already under the surveillance of the Plasma Group. Although it hadn't reached the point of being all-pervasive, it had essentially no secrets about any slightly sensitive projects.

Thus, before Soma's investigation results were delivered, Holt himself, who was investigating the anomalies, also became part of the anomalies. He resigned from the Inspectorate without warning and vanished without a trace.

Initially, Hugo's subsequent investigation pointed to a pessimistic conclusion: Holt was likely forcibly controlled and silenced by the Plasma Group using methods such as "hypnosis" because he had discovered something he shouldn't have. Under those circumstances, it was fortunate that he was still alive.

However, judging from Holt's current situation, the plasma cluster's seal seems to have retained a trace of humanity, and has not biologically erased the existence of this Inspectorate official.

Holt's cell was small, but it wasn't as gloomy and terrifying as the stereotypical prison cell.

The walls were covered with dense scratches, dates painstakingly drawn with fingernails or other sharp objects, in groups of five, spanning from Holt's imprisonment to the present day. Aside from that, the bedding, though simple, was clean and tidy, and there were even rudimentary washing facilities in the corner—this place resembled a hotel room used for house arrest rather than a real prison cell.

Holt, who lived there, was disheveled and unkempt, but his clothes were decent enough—especially considering the long time he had spent in that cell.

The rescue itself went very smoothly. The group brought him out of the prison and reunited him with Lian Wu, who was waiting outside.

Theoretically, leaving him here to await the Alliance's recapture of headquarters wouldn't be unreasonable—the cell seemed safe enough, and the food supply system was still functioning. However, Holt himself strongly insisted on acting alongside the Elite Four, and his reasons were quite compelling: if Team Plasma were driven into a corner, there was no guarantee they wouldn't resort to hostage-taking.

"This little fish was in this cell a year ago."

After being rescued, Holt's talkativeness was like a floodgate being opened. Perhaps it was because his long period of solitary imprisonment had made his desire to express himself excessive, but after seeing the dense date marks on the wall, no one had the heart to offer any criticism of his rambling.

"Every day, the plasma cluster would deliver the most basic food—a dry ration—to me through the pipe in my cell."

Water, and occasionally some canned food. Through the ventilation vent of the cell door, I noticed that Mama Little Fish would occasionally pass by the iron gate, so I started using the supplies I had saved to lure her, trying to establish a connection with her.

The former official paused, then gave a wry smile.

"It's not that I wanted this little guy to help me get out of trouble or anything. I just wanted something alive to look at at first."

But later, it became my only companion here. Being alone for so long, even just having someone to talk to would be nice.

The little fish flicked its tail beside Holt, sending up faint sparks of electricity, as if in response.

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"It's a pleasant surprise that it led you here."

Holt took a deep breath and turned his gaze to the depths of the winding passageways.

"This is part of the ancient ruins I investigated back then. It was only after being imprisoned here that I realized that I was on the right track, but I was too slow—slow enough that the plasma cluster beat me to it."

He organized his thoughts and continued—

"I guess the reason they spared my life was probably because of my position as an official in the Inspectorate. They probably wanted to extract some inside information or shady material from me that could help them control the Alliance. So they didn't kill me, but just imprisoned me here in solitary confinement."

"The environment was a little better than a typical prison, but the loneliness was almost unbearable. From beginning to end, I never saw a single member of Team Plasma. Food and supplies were delivered through that pipe day after day, like feeding a pet forced into a cage."

He stopped and turned to look at the several League Kings.

"My Lords, although it's certainly too late to say this now—the Plasma Group has long been residing underground at the Alliance headquarters. They've undertaken an extremely massive project here, far larger than I could have imagined at the time."

"Unfortunately, now virtually the entire United States knows about that project."

Lingju sighed, interrupting Holt's narration, and briefly told him about the Alliance's current situation: "—As you can see, the Alliance is trying to deal with this troublesome illegal building. However, they're temporarily stuck—the core area of ​​that castle is occupied by a large group of unknown totems; we just fought our way out of that hellhole. Mr. Holt, having been here for over a year, do you have any suggestions?"

When she asked that question, Lanju didn't really have any hope.

What valuable intelligence could a former official, imprisoned and isolated for a year, possibly provide? The topographical maps were likely outdated, and the layout of the plasma cluster was far beyond his reach. To put it bluntly, it was merely a polite, casual question designed to make this newly freed "survivor" feel that he still had value.

However, Holt did not immediately give a negative answer.

He frowned, his gaze fixed on a point in the void, as if deep in thought.

In fact, Holt's cell belongs to an ancient site that is many times older than the Plasma Cluster Castle.

While the "city defense master" Gerald utilized most of the ruins' structure and space, there were always some unused corners—overly narrow cracks, poorly supported mezzanines, or abandoned passageways that clashed with the overall layout. Gerald isolated these redundant parts from the main body of the castle, leaving only a few hidden passages that would normally be impassable.

However, this does not mean that these branch areas are completely outside the jurisdiction of the "City Defense Division".

If it weren't for the chaotic battle that just broke out in the core area, if it weren't for the fact that the Heavenly King and the detectives single-handedly reduced the number of Unknown Totems, if it weren't for the fact that Zero was forced to prioritize his limited surveillance resources in important areas—areas that should also be covered with Unknown Totems—any slight movement would have been detected immediately.

However, at this moment, the basic components that make up the castle's monitoring system are already in short supply. Those unimportant peripheral areas are the parts that Geralt discards first.

Therefore, under the guidance of Mama Xiaoyu, they were able to temporarily escape the omnipresent surveillance of the "City Defense Division".

Holt, who had been imprisoned for two years, was unaware of these subtle coincidences. All he knew was that he had been rescued, and that his rescuers needed an answer.

This is almost another coincidence that makes people laugh out loud, and it might even make people wonder if fate really exists in the world.

Because Holt possessed something in his mind that none of the others present had.

As a former inspector, he had seen the original topographical maps of the Alliance's underground territory—and far more than just seen them.

for a long time.

Holt looked up.

The bewilderment and confusion of the initial rescue were gone from those eyes; in their place was a calm yet sharp light—the kind of look a former inspector would show when faced with a case that required serious attention.

"Esteemed Heavenly Kings, and two detectives as well."

His voice was steady, each word deliberate and clear.

"Do you want to get out, or do you want to destroy this castle completely?"

"Of course we'll charge in—though that's what I'd like to say." Lian Wu scratched his cheek, a hint of helplessness in his voice. "But we just followed the energy flow into the core of the castle, where we expended most of our strength. Now, if we want to organize another forceful frontal breakthrough like that, our stamina and the medicine we carry might not be up to par."

"I'm not talking about that kind of place." Holt shook his head, his disheveled hair swaying slightly with the movement. "Do you want to know where the Plasma Team executives who are actually in control of all this are?"

"Can you take us there?" the handsome guy following behind couldn't help but ask.

"I'm not entirely sure," Holt said, scratching his head—a habit he'd developed from years of solitude. "But the way to the exit and the route there overlap, so let's talk as we go."

"It seems to be a long story." Wanlong pushed up his glasses, his gaze behind the lenses filled with the curiosity of a novelist.

Holt did not deny it, but simply nodded.

"I've been locked up here for two years."

His voice was calm, as if he were narrating something that had nothing to do with him.

"In the past two years, I have missed my hometown, my family, and my Pokémon partner who was separated from me when I was captured. I am also afraid of death that may come at any time. But these intense emotions have gradually faded with time. In the end, only one thing is left to bother me: boredom."

"In that cell, I had nothing around me. No watch, no books, no paper or pen, and certainly no electronic devices that modern people rely on for survival. I was isolated in a complete void—except for little creatures like Mama and Little Fish who occasionally wandered in, I never saw or heard anyone. There were no guards, no interrogations, and no outside information. They just left me there like a piece of luggage that was no longer of any use."

The group moved slowly and steadily through the narrow passage, passing many intersections along the way. Holt, who was leading the way, did not hesitate at all, as if he had walked this road countless times.

And his voice still echoed in the gaps of the corridor—

"In the initial period, I felt as if I were isolated from time and space. I was completely unaware of anything happening outside, and could do nothing but wander aimlessly in my cell. And the most terrifying thing was—I didn't know how long this would last. Days? Months? Years, or even forever?"

Everyone remained silent, and no one interrupted him.

"Just as I was counting the rust marks on the iron gate and about to go insane, I suddenly thought of a brilliant way to kill time."

A self-deprecating smile appeared on Holt's lips.

"Taking revenge on the plasma cluster."

"However, although it is called revenge, it is not like the capable trainers who smash through the cell door with a punch and capture the Team Plasma executives who captured me. My revenge is closer to a kind of self-numbing—a trivial and pathetic fantasy that can be done by just one person sitting in a cell."

"This fantasy is based on the assumption that the reason I am imprisoned by the Plasma Group is because I possess information that is dangerous enough to them—the anomalies beneath the Alliance headquarters. Since this knowledge is something my enemies fear, the more I recall it, memorize it, and even deduce and deduce like a detective based on those clues, revealing everything the enemy is trying to hide in my mind, the more it might come in handy someday."

He paused, then gave a wry smile.

"6

At least out of sheer boredom, I forced myself to accept this theory at the time.

"Fortunately, I did have some knowledge of what the Plasma Group was doing. Before I was taken over by them, I used every means at my disposal, including commissioning professional religious figures, to investigate the situation beneath the Alliance headquarters—this blatant approach may have backfired in the end, but it was at that time that I carefully examined the detailed blueprints of the Alliance's underground facilities."

"Oh?" Yueju raised her eyebrows slightly.

"I was almost ecstatic when I realized I could kill time this way."

A touch of pathetic warmth surfaced in Holt's voice.

"I first recalled the general outline of the floor plan I had seen from a rough memory, and then began to study the actual use of each space, correcting the errors little by little according to logic and reason. Correcting one place today and adding one corner tomorrow is like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle that can never be finished."

"To have reached the position of an Alliance Inspector, I don't consider myself a dull person, but intelligence doesn't play a significant role in this kind of mental game. In the process, I discovered that human memory is actually much more reliable than we usually realize. Given a sufficiently quiet environment and enough time, we can even recall information that we've only glanced at in the past with astonishing accuracy. Details you thought you had long forgotten, a stain on the corner of a document, the angle of a pipe on a drawing, a person's unintentional quirk—all of them will surface in the silence, as clear as if it were yesterday."

"When everything is perfect, I can build a three-dimensional model of the underground facility in my mind. I can become a worker or a sewer cleaner in it, walk in it, and feel the material of every brick and every pipe. I can even smell the musty smell and hear the sound of water flowing in the pipes—even though I have never actually been inside."

Wanlong listened intently, her lips slightly parted, as if she had already sketched out the scene in her mind—a lonely person, in endless silence, rebuilding the entire world brick by brick with her memories.

"The process sounds complicated, but for someone like me who has nothing to do all the time except sleep, it only took less than two weeks."

Holt continued—

"But that's still not enough—the design is still not perfect. It was just the Alliance's initial design, and the Plasma Group must have already altered it beyond recognition."

"That evil organization couldn't have been living underground in the Alliance from the beginning. Based on my deduction, they must have first settled in the ancient underground ruins that I commissioned Soma to investigate, and then dug a passage to connect their real headquarters with the Alliance headquarters."

"I have read the Alliance's archaeological report on the nearby ancient ruins. If there were direct map data, it would be clearer and more accurate—unfortunately, before I could receive the report from that Dragon Spiral Tower priest, I was already controlled by the Plasma Group."

He sighed softly.

"But for me, trapped in endless boredom, this is actually a kind of comfort. After all, I have more time to kill. To my rationality, all this analysis and memory is just a means to kill the emptiness. I am just using the name of revenge to prevent myself from breaking down."

"As for the result, when the time markings had covered just a third of the wall, I had already reconstructed the location of the ancient ruins in my mind. I even tried to deduce the true purpose of these ruins in ancient times, but ultimately gave up because there was too little known information. All I could do in the end was reconstruct a map."

"Moreover, at that time I couldn't confirm how accurate the space reconstructed from the report was. After all, I'm not a geology expert. Even if I could accurately recall every word in that report, I still couldn't be sure that the strata piled up in my mind actually existed on the real land."

"But it was at this time that I met Mama Little Fish."

He reached out and gently stroked the head of the little white fish beside him. The little fish comfortably squinted its eyes, its tail swaying gently.

"Its existence not only gave me someone to talk to and confide in, dispelling my loneliness, but also gave me a way to connect and verify the information in my mind with reality. Mama Fish can estimate distances by calculating the time it takes to turn each corner. It was with its help that I finally figured out the exact location of my cell in the underground ruins. At that moment, I realized that a pillar in the illusory maze in my mind had fallen onto the real ground."

"Did you memorize the entire terrain around here?" Wanlong couldn't help but ask, her tone filled with amazement.

Holt smiled calmly, with the serenity unique to those who have experienced the abyss.

"That's something we already accomplished in the first year."

"Since forming a bond with Mommy Fish, we've explored even farther places. Since we don't know when Team Plasma will come back to check, I didn't draw a map of all the information I remembered—but all of it—"

He raised his hand and tapped his temple.

"I've memorized it."

"So, can you see through the structure of this plasma cluster castle?" Lila asked tentatively.

Holt shook his head.

"I only know what it looked like before it transformed. The internal structure of the castle is probably completely different now." He glanced at the group behind him, and Mama the Little Fish had swum up to them again. "You guys must have found this little guy in the core area, right? The reason it was there was to confirm this fact for me."

"But one"

He changed the subject, his gaze becoming focused.

"Even if the appearance of the castle changes, the base that supports it, that is, the original outline of this ancient ruin, can never change. The overall stability of the building requires that the foundation must remain unchanged. This is a basic principle of architecture that even the 'Fortification Master' himself cannot violate."

Before they knew it, the group had arrived at a fork in the road.

Two paths stretched out in the darkness, one to the left and the other to the right, like a fork in the road of fate.

Holt stopped in his tracks.

"To be honest, when I was building those maps in my mind, I never thought they would actually come in handy. I even felt like I would be imprisoned in that place forever, until I died. Everything I did and thought—"

Really, it's just to kill time.

He took a deep breath.

"Therefore, although the path I pointed out to you has been calculated and simulated countless times, even I myself have no confidence in it. Damn it—I don't even know if meeting you all now is part of the scheme of that 'city defense division' you mentioned. Maybe it's all an illusion, maybe I've already gone mad, maybe you don't even exist at all—"

He glanced around at everyone, his eyes flashing with weariness and confusion. The rambling that had developed from being alone for so long, the shock of being suddenly rescued, and the momentous decision he was about to make seemed to have pushed his spirit to its limit.

"I confess," his voice lowered, "that I am merely a prisoner who doesn't know if I'm suffering from paranoia. Now, I hand over the power of judgment to you."

He raised his hand.

"Turn left, and follow that narrow pipe with the metal railing; it leads to the drainage system that was abandoned before the Alliance's first renovation. Follow that, and you should be able to reach the outside world."

"Turn right, go straight to the end, and you'll find a downward passage that looks like stairs. Follow it."

He paused.

"We can find the altar area of ​​this ancient site. I'm not a historian and know nothing about archaeology, but I think that a structure built in that shape couldn't possibly have served any other purpose than ritual. It's the center of the entire underground site, the starting point for all the structures. If the Plasma Group wants to completely control a massive structure—whether from a mystical or engineering perspective—that place is the only option."

The former official withdrew his hand, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the group.

There was expectation, fear, the pent-up desire of years of imprisonment, and deep worry about misjudging the situation in his eyes.

Which path will you choose?

"Mr. Holt."

The blueberry spoke.

The gambler's voice carried a contagious calmness, like the soft rustling of cards rubbing together during shuffling.

"I think you've misunderstood a fact."

Holt was slightly taken aback.

"In your opinion, we should have suffered a serious defeat in the process of attacking this castle—the enemy is stronger than we imagined, and we can't win unless we use tricks. So we are hesitating whether to retreat or risk our lives to fight it out."

Blueberry shook her head.

"But that's not the case."

"We are the Heavenly Kings of Unova." Lian Wu rubbed his fist, his body appearing exceptionally tall in the backlight of the corridor. "On this land of Unova, no matter when or where, no matter how many adverse conditions we encounter, we have never been weak."

"Or rather," Wanlong continued, adjusting his glasses, "it's even more incredible that Team Plasma would try to find a trainer stronger than us in the absence of their king."

The novelist's tone carried a hint of self-righteous pride.

"Since entering the castle, we haven't encountered a single trainer along the way. This in itself demonstrates the lack of strength of that illegal organization. Those legendary Pokémon simulated by Unknown Totems are indeed a threat, but after understanding the principle, they also found a way to defeat them. Now, even if we fall into a trap like Crystal Cave again, we still have a way to escape at any time—we've already paid our tuition, and we won't fall for it a second time."

"Did you understand?"

Blueberry raised her index finger and looked directly into Holt's eyes.

"Standing before you are three Unova Elite Four members, a Frontier Brain from the Battle Frontier, and an elite detective from Sinnoh."

"We don't need to worry about missing the mark on the first try, nor do we need to be afraid of getting stuck in a quagmire. Even if we make a mistake, we can get out of the predicament with our own strength and then try again."

"After all, it's not us who should be worried about our future, but our enemies. We are the elite squad sent by the champion to conquer this castle. In this place, we have always come and gone as we please."

"As long as someone can show us the way," Wanlong added with a smile. "The reason we couldn't find a way forward before was simply because the terrain was complicated, and we couldn't figure out how to break through the castle for a while."

Lian Wu looked at Holt, his tone as steady as a mountain: "You seem very worried about whether the map in your mind is reliable. But please relax. As long as you have a backup plan, even if you miss one punch, you can always throw the next one."

Blueberry reached out her hand to Holt.

"how?"

A slight smile appeared on his lips, the calm and confident smile that only a gambler would show when certain of victory.

"Interested in a relaxed and carefree revenge journey?"

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