The two of them came into the hall, and on the strength of the gold tickets in their hands were given a good little private box.
Inside it two attendants of delicate looks were waiting on them, and there were melons and fruit set out, and several large, finely made sofas.
"Vance, have you ever been to anything like this?"
Vance nodded and answered honestly. "I have. Never on this scale, though."
"Ha ha, well, of course. There aren't many auctions in the whole Kanto region on a larger scale than this one."
Nolan said it with a touch of pride.
While they were speaking the auction below began, two beautiful women in cheongsams standing on the stage, smiling, and opening the sale.
"Here's what's up today." Nolan took out a thick book and set it in front of Vance, and waved the two attendants out of the box.
Vance took it and opened it. The book listed the treasures on offer one by one, with a description of each.
"Hm? Only one pseudo-legendary in the sale? The other two must have been spoken for."
Vance turned to the back and let out a small sound of surprise. In the whole book he could find only a Gible; the other two pseudo-legendaries were nowhere to be seen.
Hearing him, Nolan smiled faintly. "That'll be it. The three pseudo-legendaries were a hook, really. Only one of them was ever going to be up for sale. It's good enough all the same, and there's plenty else worth having — I mean to take a few pieces home myself."
"That's fair. There are a few good things in here."
Vance was looking at one of the pages, where there was a treasure shaped like a blue bead, called a Deep Sea Orb. It could only form in the deep ocean, in a place where energy ran thick, and it took decades at the very least; it held pure Water-type energy in it, which could help a Water-type Pokémon through a bottleneck, and it raised aptitude a little besides.
That one interested Vance. It would suit the Gyarados exactly, and the Gyarados was close to breaking through to Elite.
Perhaps it was the pressure the Slaking had brought with it that had the Gyarados training so hard lately; it had already moved ahead of the Aerodactyl, going from level 39 to level 40, and it was stuck at the Elite bottleneck now. The Orb would do very well for it.
Even so, of the Deep Sea Orb's effects, the aptitude-raising alone was enough to have any number of Trainers falling over one another for it.
Most Trainers are only Trainers. They study battle and nothing else, and they are not like Vance, versed in several disciplines, able to build a Pokémon's aptitude up day after day. What they can do is hunt for treasures to raise their Pokémon's aptitude, or pay dearly — pay through the nose — for a Breeder to raise it for them.
So the bidding for the Orb would be fierce, and the reserve was not low either: one million Poké Dollars.
Vance took stock of his own worth. He had something like ten million Poké Dollars he could use, and if he sold off some of the supplies he was carrying he could put together a few tens of millions more.
Set beside the great men here, Vance was still a poor man; but buying this Deep Sea Orb would be no trouble at all.
Down below, outside the boxes, every one of the slightly cramped seats was taken, and the noise of the crowd rose and fell, shouting out their bids, fighting for the treasures.
Inside the little box it was a great deal quieter, and the view was better as well; there was even a bidding device in it, and all a man had to do was press.
............
"Why is it the Gible being sold and not the Deino? Director Jeffrey Thorne, I think you owe us an explanation."
In a large conference room aboard the S.S. Anne, a company of men in suits and expensive clothes were arguing loudly.
The great screen in the room was showing the auction.
The man being called to account was the S.S. Anne's largest shareholder, Jeffrey Thorne, of the Thorne family of the Kanto region.
The man calling him to account was another shareholder, from another of Kanto's great houses.
"Come now. If Director Jeffrey Thorne has done it this way he will have his reasons. You are too hasty, Marek — carrying on like that, aren't you saying you don't trust the Director's judgement?" A tall, thin, middle-aged man said it pleasantly enough, and when he had finished he gave a look to two other men in the room.
After that people started jumping in, some doubting, some believing, all of them shouting at once.
It was enough to make everyone present frown, and only when the thing had gone far enough did the tall thin man step forward and take hold of it. His name was Locke, and he too was a Team Rocket mole, buried quietly inside the S.S. Anne; by now he was one of her most important senior men.
"There has been an accident. Yesterday the Deino's Poké Ball vanished into thin air." Jeffrey Thorne said it suddenly, and rubbed his face.
"What? How can it be gone? That's several hundred million. And now it's gone we still have to pay compensation on the other end — in and out, that's several hundred million more."
Several of the men there heard it and lost their calm as well. It was not merely a loss of hundreds of millions; there was the chance of making enemies. The thing had been agreed, and now it could not be delivered. Offend a man and pay him besides — what kind of business was that?
"I am doing everything I can to find it. I hope there will be a result. That is why I put the Gible up first."
Jeffrey Thorne said it with his brows drawn together.
"Easy to say. One word from you — 'there will be a result' — and you think that covers the fact that you're not equal to the job? You can't manage the basic business of it. With what face do you sit there as executive director? Better to let Locke take the chair."
One of the shareholders was on his feet at once.
"Just so. If you haven't the ability, you step down for a better man. This isn't the first time you've got something wrong, Jeffrey Thorne, but this time is not like the others. I propose we hold a vote and elect a new executive director."
Another man stood up and put it forward.
"Now, now. Director Jeffrey Thorne has done very well. It needn't come to that." Seeing the moment for it, Locke rose and said it pleasantly.
But after they had talked it over, he replaced Jeffrey Thorne all the same, and took the post of executive director.
After the meeting, Locke and his people laughed out loud together in an office. It was done. Jeffrey Thorne going down meant they had very nearly got their hands on the S.S. Anne.
"Ha ha ha. Well done. Tell Stray Dog to keep the performance up and wait for word from me — he's to turn up at the right moment and be discovered by me." Locke sat sprawled across the sofa, smoking a cigar.
"And keep an eye on the buyers' movements. Once they're off the ship, pass word to that lot. If we can take it off them on the way, that's another fortune. Ha ha ha."
"Very wise, Chief. Two meals out of one dinner. Clever. Really very clever indeed."
"It's all in the organisation's service. The Boss wants me holding the S.S. Anne so that we have another source of income, and so that we can use this shipping lane to move important supplies. I have to do the job properly."
Locke said it at his ease.
"Branch Chief, bad news — something serious. We've lost contact with Stray Dog, and the Deino has disappeared too!"
He had hardly finished before one of his men came in, shouting it.
"What?"
Locke sat up straight. What he had taken for a sure thing had run into rough water.