The man glanced at his watch another time. The woman he was supposed to meet was now ten minutes late. Taking a look around him, he wondered for a second why she would set her meeting here. Marble floor, beige walls, long meeting table, few lamps lighting up the whole room; it all seemed too formal to him. Grabbing his coffee cup, he took a sip before putting it down once again.
“What's taking her so long? Is she trying to test my patience or something?” he asked out loud to nobody in particular.
He decided to put himself at ease, thinking he would be waiting for some time. He put his feet on the table and he leaned back in his chair, his arms behind his head.
After a few minutes, someone knocked on the door once before entering. Upon seeing the man sitting inside, she glared at him and closed the door behind her.
“So,” the man started, “how are you doing?”
“You thought you could get away with this?” she asked, ignoring the formalities.
He raised an eyebrow to her question. “With what?”
“You told this guy he could join us, while you knew full well that we couldn't hire him.”
“What's the big deal?” he inquired, keeping his laid-back attitude.
She began walking around the meeting table, absorbed in her thoughts. From what the man guessed, something seemed to worry her greatly. The sound of her footstep knocking the marble resonated throughout the room, perturbing the silence the man had grown accustomed to before her arrival. Despite her concern, he remained calm, almost untroubled by her reaction. After two turns, she stopped and focused on her own breathing while the man looked at her, waiting for her to relax. No sound could be heard outside of the woman's sporadic breathing. When she finally calmed down, she raised her head towards him.
“How do you think the boss is gonna react to that?”
“No need to make a whole fuss about it,” the man replied. “That dude won't do anything stupid.”
“I wouldn't be making a whole fuss about it if you didn't lie to him, you know. How could you believe that this would do us any good?”
The man tensed up at her question. “You should see the positive side,” he argued. “He won't be joining the Trainers' Federation.”
“How's that positive? Do you think I care what some kid does with his freaking life?” she asked rhetorically. “Right now, he's out there risking his life for nothing. At best, we'll be wasting time and money to rescue him. At worst, his death will give ammo to the anti-pokémon crowd. And if someone finds out that the Ranger Federation has killed someone, we'll be screwed. And guess what? Since you're under my command, I'll be the one responsible for the mess you made, regardless of the outcome.”
Putting two and two together, he realized his mistake and what that would mean for him. Startled, the man pushed his feet off the table, causing him to fall backwards out of his chair. Despite his injury, he stood up quickly, facing her. “No, please, don't fire me! I'll do anything,” he begged her.
“You better bring him back to me before he meets the PLF,” she ordered.
The ranger took a step back. “Wait, the PLF's down there?”
“Yeah. You should be aware of that, even if you're not a field agent,” she reprimanded him. “Whatever. For some reason, they've decided to show up in Vastwood. Most rangers are already there, we need more people in the field. You'll go there and find him before it's too late.”
“But why have they decided to show up there? Are they trying to recruit more members or something?”
“I have no idea,” she said, shrugging. “They're there, and that's all there is to it. Now get moving, ranger!”
“Yes, ma'am!” he answered before storming out of the room.
The woman sat down on a chair and sighed. For a moment, she reflected on her day, exhausted by what she had gone through. In the morning, she was told that their scouts had underestimated the PLF troops in the region. They would need more than triple the number of rangers that they already had to secure the region, but she wasn't allowed to have any more than those she already had. And now there was someone who decided to go through the battlefield, unaware of the dangers that he would have to face. It was that ranger's fault. If he had kept his mouth shut, none of this would have to happen. She wondered what went through his mind when he thought about this.
The woman stood up again and walked up to the door. She knew that tomorrow would be another arduous day for her and her crew, and this ranger had just made everything even more complicated.
“What an idiot,” she muttered to herself before leaving the room.