"It really isn't any use, Fatty. Don't read too much into it."
Though by the look of Ambrose, he probably did not believe a word of it.
"I understand. I understand."
Vance did not explain any further and went back to the guest room Team Rocket had prepared for him.
Team Rocket's headquarters was a spacious place; there was naturally no shortage of somewhere to sleep.
In the hall, Vance looked over his own record in Team Rocket. His post now read Branch Chief of a city, and the only superior above him was Giovanni, whom he could contact directly.
A flick of the mouse and Vance opened one of the messages in his inbox.
It was on the situation in Dark City.
Dark City lay in the south-west of Kanto. It was not a large city and had few Pokémon resources, and there was no officially established Gym in it, though there were two privately founded ones, the Kaz Gym and the Yas Gym.
Both wanted official recognition and to become a true League Gym, and so the two of them were on very bad terms, at odds with each other, and by now close to open fighting.
On top of that, the the Sacred Order known as the the Godbeast Gang had a hand in it, which tangled the situation further still. They wanted Dark City for themselves, so they had moved against Team Rocket and borrowed another man's knife to do the killing; the Dark City branch had been badly cut up. But after their leader was given a lesson by Giovanni they had withdrawn without a sound, and there had been nothing from them since.
Team Rocket's strength in Dark City came to two Elite Division Commanders, three Squad Leaders, eleven ordinary combat members and seven technical staff: twenty-three people in all.
Ruined to the last degree was the only way to put it. The force had fallen very low.
It was smaller than a single division in some of the more prosperous cities.
Dark City was no great metropolis. Its former Branch Chief had been a Gym-class Trainer, and an Elite could make Division Commander there, much like the Team Rocket branch in Porta Vista.
Unlike Porta Vista, though, Dark City had to deal with this the Godbeast Gang that had sprung up out of nowhere.
What they could do was unfathomable. To a great man like Giovanni they were small beer, but to Vance they were not, and they deserved to be taken seriously.
Vance read on quietly, turning over in his head how to rebuild a Team Rocket branch into the kind of strength Giovanni had described, one that could be used at the critical moment.
"Hello — Delaney's gone to Dark City as well? And he's the Deputy Mayor of Dark City??"
As the mouse scrolled, Vance came upon a familiar figure: Delaney, the man he had met in Celadon City.
He had squeezed a sum of money out of Vance back then, and afterwards had made him hand over more to buy the standing of a League-Certified Trainer.
He had gone up in the world even then, made Director of something.
And now, after three or four months out of sight, Delaney had risen again: Deputy Mayor of Dark City, with a long string of further titles behind it, including a deputy bureau post on the investigators' side, and responsibility for public order in Dark City into the bargain.
"So that's it. Delaney's luck really is something. Barely transferred to Dark City and this comes along."
Reading it closely, Vance found that the the Godbeast Gang had done a great deal to lift Delaney so fast.
No sooner had he been posted there than that the Godbeast Gang crowd handed him their information; he had acted on it, moved his men and launched the attacks on the Team Rocket branch, with very good results, and had been promoted for it.
"Something's off about that. Delaney couldn't be connected to the the Godbeast Gang, could he?"
Vance read through it all and turned the guess over in his mind.
He was wondering whether Delaney had been raised up by the the Godbeast Gang. How else could it be so neat?
It was only a guess, of course. Perhaps the the Godbeast Gang had put out their information on Team Rocket and the man had simply happened to be there to catch it, and it was luck and nothing more.
But Vance was no longer a Squad Leader. He could not afford to think only of the surface of a thing any more; he had to go deeper. Even where the idea ran to the absurd, if there was so much as a possible tendency toward it, it had to be guarded against.
...............
In Dark City, Delaney sat in an office that was his alone, looking down from it at the people coming and going below, and his heart was full of ambition. At last. At last he had come this far, and all those years of effort had not been wasted.
"Mayor. League Commissioner..."
Something called ambition showed in Delaney's eyes. If Deputy Mayor was as fine as this, what must the view be like higher up?
The thought set his blood running again. The feeling of holding power was very good indeed.
A word from him, and the multitude bowed.
Respectful eyes without number rested on him, and the moneyed families looked at him quite differently now, and were deferential with it.
"How does it feel, Mayor Delaney? We are quite sincere about this. That was only our first round of gifts. There will be more to come."
In the room, a refined-looking man said it with a chuckle, every movement of him elegant.
At the man's words Delaney's smile vanished. Ah yes — he must not forget this. Come to that, his own promotion had something to do with them.
"You people can really work miracles. You even found where Team Rocket were hiding. Very good. The League needs people like you. If you have any thought of coming inside the system, tell me and I'll see to it."
Delaney sat down in front of him and said it with a faint smile.
There was a wish to bring them in behind the words, because this lot were genuinely capable and worth bringing in.
"I have no such ambitions myself. I do have a few relatives, though, if I might trouble you, Mayor."
"Easily done. Easily done."
Delaney nodded, smiling. No hurry. This was only the beginning; one step at a time was understandable.
After settling several more points of cooperation with Delaney, the man took his leave.
It was only the beginning; it would have to go slowly. You had to wait until the pig was fat before killing it was any pleasure — and besides, this particular pig had a good deal of use left in it for a while yet, and could be put to work for their the Sacred Order.
"The the Sanctus Group. Its president, Auberon, an Elite-Four-class Trainer. Working with them is all right enough."
Delaney had of course made his enquiries about the credit that had been handed to him, and knew that these people came from one called the the Sanctus Group.
It was a company founded by the Auberon family, natives of Dark City, whose roots there went back many years; its president had lately become Elite-Four-class, taking his strength up another step.
Perhaps they meant to back him. He had only just arrived in Dark City, and they had sent him a gift as large as this.
Having tasted the sweetness of it, Delaney hoped to go on working with them.
As Delaney saw it, all these people wanted was a few privileges, or a monopoly on Dark City's trade; they needed a voice on the League's side. And he, Delaney, with his outstanding ability and his fine touch, had caught their eye, so they were putting more in.
As for working with them, Delaney had not the slightest objection.
What official anywhere had no ties to the powerful families of his district?
Without their support the administrative work would be very hard to get moving.
He was not the first man to work with them, and he would not be the last.
He wanted to climb; they wanted privileges. Each took what he needed. And once he was promoted and out of Dark City, what went on here would be the next man's business.
"A record in office. A few more like this and the mayor's chair is mine. A pity, that — I hope they pull their weight."
Delaney burned inside, holding great expectations of the future.