Vance had not meant to take it at all, but things had turned rather quickly, and in the end he had landed one for a million Poké Dollars, so he might as well keep it.
It might serve some purpose later on; there was no telling.
Elsewhere, Delaney received them one after another, and at last got the money up to two billion, which met the figure he had in mind.
"Chief, is this all right, doing it this way? The earlier ones all paid a great deal more than these later ones. I'm afraid they'll have something to say about it."
Once the man had gone, the secretary raised it with him.
"Is that so? Who told you they'd all get the same?" Delaney glanced at him in surprise, then asked, "What was that median figure again?"
"Five million. Of the top-ups the lowest was one million one hundred thousand and the highest eight million three hundred thousand. Forty-one came in above the median, seventy-two below it."
"Fine. Then let those forty-one go straight through, and put the other seventy-two down as probationers who need confirming afterwards. Simple enough."
The thought came to Delaney and he had his answer at once.
"Ah, but isn't that rather..."
"Rather what? With a thing like this you have to show a difference. You want them to feel the money they spent was money well spent. *I* go straight through, *you* still have to be confirmed — there's your difference, isn't it? Then they'll think the money was well spent, and they'll have their bit of face. I could put the lot of them through, mind, but I precisely must not. It's a question of keeping the thing going afterwards."
"As for the ones who need confirming, whose fault is it that they gave less? You get what you pay for. What I promised them is that it is a hundred per cent certain, and a probationary League-Certified Trainer is still filed with the League, still a genuine League-Certified Trainer — they only need to make some contribution to be confirmed. That's not me telling lies."
Delaney laid it out with chapter and verse.
"And it's because we've lost rather a lot of people lately, and because we have to deal with whatever Team Rocket does next, that we're short-handed and the higher-ups have widened the quota. Otherwise they could want it all they liked and not have it. If you want the truth of it, they're the ones getting the bargain."
"But, ah, didn't Chief Xander say the Team Rocket forces had been dealt a very heavy blow? So why do we still need to..."
"Ahem. We still have to prepare, and as far as I know just how heavy that 'heavy' was is open to debate. Remember not to let that go any further."
"Yes, Chief. I'll be careful. It won't go any further."
...............
Once the event was over, Vance went to the Team Rocket base beneath the Game Corner.
Having come by this "League-Certified Trainer" standing, he had to let his superiors know.
"You're telling me you can become a League-Certified Trainer?"
"Yes. It was put forward by this Delaney, and there shouldn't be any difficulty with it. I moved and got myself one of the places."
Vance answered him.
"Ha ha. Looks as though they lost no small number of people in that battle, if they're opening up that many places. It's usually very hard to arrange."
Sylas smiled and said it.
"That is an opportunity."
"Mm, I thought the same. Out in the field the standing makes a good many things easier."
Vance kept his face calm and answered him clearly.
"Then the timing is fortunate, because I had been thinking along those lines myself. So what are your own thoughts, Vance? Are you willing to go under cover inside the League and carry out missions?"
Sylas's expression turned serious and his voice dropped.
"Nothing against it," Vance said, taking it on at once, with a smile.
Undercover in the League, then. There seemed to be no small number of Team Rocket people under cover inside the League already.
"Ha ha ha. Good. Then your mission from here on is to go under cover in the League and climb as high as you can. Where the organisation has given you no orders, you may use your own judgement."
Sylas decided it on the spot. He had intended it anyway — put Vance inside the League, and with his ability and talent he ought to be able to work his way into a position, which would make the returns that much greater.
There had been several successful cases of the same kind, and all of them had brought Team Rocket no small advantage.
"If you need anything, you can ask for it, and the organisation will support you from the shadows."
Sylas added it. To back a man like this, Team Rocket did not mind paying something out so that he could grow quickly.
As he spoke, Sylas took out an authorisation slip, signed his name to it and handed it to Vance.
"Take that to the logistics office. Call it the branch's seed money for you."
Vance took it and looked: the slip was made out for three million, to be drawn at logistics.
"Thank you, Sylas."
"It's nothing. Do well for yourself, lad. Call it an investment — I'll be looking for a return from you later on."
Sylas waved a hand, easy about it.
But Vance knew that the Division Commander was looking after him.
They talked a little longer, and then Vance rose, took his leave and went.
"The League will never imagine that the man going under cover is a Psychic, will they? Ha ha."
Watching Vance's retreating figure, Sylas began to laugh. In the ordinary way of things every organisation hid talent like that away and cultivated it carefully. Who would send it out under cover? The risk was considerable.
On this one, he was operating on a higher plane.
He drew the money at the logistics office and then went to the training room for his usual work.
At the same time, Vance was thinking about how to go on from here. How to make his way inside the League.
In fact there were several seniors in Team Rocket who had made a respectable showing inside the League, and some of them had even become Gym Leaders, like Lt. Surge, the Gym Leader of Vermilion City.
If you wanted to make your way in the League and hold an important post, there were several roads to choose from.
One was the Gym road: join a Gym, become a Gym apprentice, and work your way up step by step.
Another road was to enter the tournament and place well in it. Once you had caught certain people's eyes, that generally led to decent prospects.
The tournament in the Kanto region is the Indigo League Conference, held once a year, and it is also a mechanism for selecting talent; no small number of the people holding high positions in the League came out of it.
Besides that.
Another was to earn merit and win promotion, and there were many ways to earn merit: striking at dark organisations, relief work in disasters, keeping a city safe, and so on.
There was also patronage — being thought well of by some great figure who then raised you up, and away you went, straight to the top.
And there was going to university, which could also take you upward; the professors, who held the knowledge, were treated well wherever they happened to be.
...............
"Torchic—"
While Vance was turning over the road ahead, Torchic came running up, thoroughly excited, and preened himself in front of him.
He had broken through a level and reached Level 9, one step closer to entering the Novice stage.
"Well done, Torchic. Better again, a whole level. One step closer to making money."
"Torchic—"
At the words *making money*, Torchic's eyes filled with fighting spirit.