These two unlucky wretches Vance did not know either, and seeing that the pair of them were not getting away, he had simply taken them himself before anybody else could.
Better than letting some League man have the benefit of it — he might as well give a leg up to himself, a man of the same organisation. That was how Vance thought of it.
"Let go of me, you League dog. Fight me one on one if you've got it in you — no Pokémon, and we'll see how I carve you up."
One of the two who had been taken jeered it at him.
At those words the Combusken standing behind the two of them wore a very strange expression, marvelling privately at how brave the man was, actually daring to call his boss out one on one.
The Combusken remembered perfectly well that his boss had put an Elite-class Pokémon down with one hand. How confident did a man have to be to say a thing like that?
"Talk less. By the look of you you're small fry. Don't worry, you won't die of it — ten years or so and that'll be the end of it."
"Bah. Idiot League. Without you swine and dogs, would we ever have come to this? I report something one moment and the next there are men at my door. You're the ones who left us no way to live."
The man was worked up, trying to break out of the rope that bound him.
By now the battle was drawing to its close, and men came back from the pursuit in twos and threes, some of them with prisoners of their own like his.
Once the prisoners had been handed over to the men who registered them, Vance no longer had to watch them; there were people whose business it was.
And because he had taken those two, it went up on the register and into the record, and after the operation a consignment of supplies would come down to him for it.
*I wonder whether the base under the Game Corner will come to any harm.*
Vance looked in the direction of Celadon and said it inwardly.
"Ha ha, Vance, I saw you take two of them. Not bad at all."
While he was still turning it over, Idris came across and greeted him warmly.
"Not bad."
Vance put him off with it, thinking privately that if the man knew Vance was the one who had chased him that day, he wondered whether he would still be so warm about it.
"I wasn't keeping today's assignment back to be mysterious about it. The people above wouldn't let us say — for secrecy, they said."
"Understood, understood."
"Mm, mm. You saw it for yourself: today's work went extremely well, and some of the credit for that may well belong to the secrecy. Oh, and quietly, between us — next we're going to comb through the city's government offices and drag out the Team Rocket moles."
Idris said it to him quietly.
"Is that so."
A look of surprise appeared on Vance's face at exactly the right moment.
"That's right. I'm telling you ahead of time because I get on with you. Don't let it slip."
"Ha ha, of course. I won't."
Vance answered, and put him off with it.
At the same time he was thinking: was the man sounding him out? Or did he really tell him this only because he got on with him?
"Ha ha, if you weren't off to challenge the Conference I'd have wanted to recommend you for the investigators. Still, this is just as well — you'll have more choices open to you later on."
Idris went on talking, and let out some inside information besides for Vance to remember.
*Perhaps the man is simply too friendly, and isn't suspicious of me at all.*
After several rounds of conversation, that was the conclusion Vance came to.
After that, over the following days, Vance went with Idris and the others to the government offices to investigate suspect personnel, and only when several days of running about were done did the call-up come to an end.
At parting, Idris warmly left him his private number, saying that if anything came up he could ask him for help, and Vance could only thank him for it.
Throughout the call-up Vance never had a chance to make the acquaintance of this Elite Four member, who might be a Dragon-type specialist or a Flying-type one for all he knew.
His standing was probably not enough for it, and the man was busy besides.
All he could do was see this member of the Elite Four from a distance. He looked much as he did in the anime.
A few days later Vance received a payment of five hundred thousand Poké Dollars and 300 League contribution points, compensation in thanks for the period he had spent called up.
"So this whole storm has blown over, has it?"
In the shop at the Pokémon Cottage, Ambrose ventured the question.
All those days of it, drawn up on that scale, had left him thoroughly on edge.
"It should count as over, yes."
Vance answered. Over these days Celadon City had gone back to the order it had kept before, and Vance had learned from Idris besides that they had already left Celadon and moved on to work on another city — which one exactly could not be said.
"Damn it all, this Lance of the Elite Four really could stir up that much. Several of the bases near us have been pulled out by the roots. It occurs to me all of a sudden that going up against that Xander was rather a good thing — he got the face out of it and we got the substance."
Ambrose said it bitterly. Only when you run into a powerful opponent do you understand how comfortable the ordinary ones you used to face really were.
Like that time when a strike was made against Team Rocket under Xander's direction: Team Rocket's losses were not large, and Xander got the effect he wanted.
"Enough, Fatty. There's no use in your saying any of this. Go and train your Pokémon properly instead. Whenever you reach Elite-Four-class and are made a Branch Chief, you'll get to take part in it."
"Heh heh, I'm only talking for the sake of it. Elite-Four-class — I don't know whether I'll reach it in this lifetime. Maybe only someone like you, Boss, ever gets that far."
"That reminds me, there's something I want to tell the two of you. Tomorrow I'm going away to travel."
Vance said it flatly, that he was going away to travel.
He meant to enter the Indigo League Conference, for which he needed eight badges, and while he was collecting them he could make a circuit of several cities in the Kanto region.
"Ah — you're going travelling, Boss?"
Ambrose said it in surprise.
"Mm. The people above have left our squad to act as it sees fit. The two of you can arrange things as you like here in Celadon City. When I come back I hope to see you both at the Advanced tier."
Vance nodded and said it to the two of them; part of why he had come today was to tell them, to let them know.
Emery said gravely, "Go carefully."
Ambrose followed it with, "Then here's wishing you a smooth road, Boss."
"Mm. Come on, then. Tonight's on me."
Vance got up and called the two of them along.
After that the three of them ate a meal together to mark their temporary parting.
............
"Damn it. I, Rufus, will not admit defeat. I've worked this hard — how could I lose!"
In rags, and with wounds on his body, Rufus came to another base, and after his identity had been verified the people there brought him inside.
"Safe at last."
Only when he had reached the other base could Rufus set his heart at rest for the moment, and at the same time he was thinking that as soon as his wounds healed he would throw himself into training and raise his strength as quickly as he could.
He, Rufus, would not speak of defeat easily. He would work, and work, and work again.
Because he had nothing else. Work was all he had left.