"Branch Chief Vance, this is your supply list. Your signature, please."
A member of the logistics office stood in front of Vance with a sheaf of lists, waiting for him to sign.
These were the supplies Giovanni had provided.
"Let me see."
Vance took them and looked. The lists were packed so tightly with materiel that his eyes swam. There was a great deal of it, a great deal — Giovanni, as one would expect, did nothing by halves.
Most of it was of little use to him now, though. Back when he first joined Team Rocket it would have been worth more.
The supplies were mainly for the needs of members at Elite rank and below. His own pay and allowances were not in there; those came separately.
When he had been through it all, Vance signed his name.
"Are the supplies to be sent on to Dark City, then, Branch Chief, or will you collect them yourself?"
"Send them to Dark City. There's no need to do it in the next day or two — wait for word from me."
"Very good."
With that the man took his leave.
After that Vance went on to a large lecture hall, where more than a hundred people were already seated.
The few at the front had hard faces and cold eyes; one look told you they were not easy men to get along with.
As Vance came in every eye turned on him, and there was surprise in all of them. They had not expected this new superior of theirs to be so young.
He looked like a green boy. Where he had come from, nobody knew.
They had been ordered here and told that a new superior would be arriving, after which they would all go to Dark City together.
Who the new superior was, and where he came from, they had not been told.
Among them a few of the deeper sort were thinking about the reasons for that, and did not put their heads up too readily.
And a few of the hot-tempered ones were already put out the moment they saw Vance walk in.
"Good day to you all. My name is Vance. The Boss has seen fit to trust me, and I am about to take up a post in Dark City. Since you are all here, we shall be colleagues from now on."
Vance said it politely from the front. He had come here to recruit, though by the look of the men below him there were some who were not inclined to accept him.
Several of them, seeing how young he was and how politely he spoke, could not sit still a moment longer.
"Hold on. You're not telling us you're the new Branch Chief of Dark City?"
A powerfully built man with a shaved head stood straight up and said it loudly.
His voice was like a great bell and his build was fierce; one look told you he was not a man to cross.
"I am."
Vance smiled faintly and looked at the man, curious to hear what he would say.
"Then which of your Pokémon is the strongest? Might we see it?"
The bald man said.
"Certainly."
Vance nodded, took out the Slaking's Poké Ball and let it out.
The Slaking appeared on the floor, lying down asleep. Feeling that it was out of the ball, it opened its eyes, took a look round, decided nothing was happening and went back to sleep. Every man there could feel the aura coming off it.
And because they could feel it, a good many faces turned ugly.
Elite!!
The Slaking's aura was Elite and no more. They had not misread it.
"Boy, have you got any other Pokémon? Because if that Slaking is the strongest you've got, I'm not taking orders from somebody who got here on connections!"
Another of the hot-tempered ones got up as well and shouted it.
It had to be a joke. A Branch Chief over a whole city, and he was a green boy? And his strongest Pokémon was an Elite Slaking?
Yes, they would grant it — to have that Slaking at his age was very respectable. But for him to be their superior, it was not enough.
As for what he had said about the Boss trusting him, they had a laugh at that.
The transfer orders they had received came from the headquarters personnel office. The boy was probably gilding his own face.
Or else he was somebody's relation who had got himself made Branch Chief of Dark City through a few connections, and they were to be his stepping stones, taken along to keep him company while he played.
"It's about the strongest I have. I have a Gyarados of much the same strength as well, but the room here is small, so I won't bring it out."
"Very good." Hearing Vance say it, several of them felt entirely settled in their minds. As young as that, he had to be somebody's relation.
"Like hell. You're not fit to be my superior. Leaning on having a Gym-class Pokémon, are you? It's no good. I'm not having it."
Believing he had Vance's measure now, the bald man who had spoken first let fly at once.
Not in the least afraid of giving offence.
What was there to be afraid of? What sort of place was this?
Team Rocket headquarters.
That they had been kept at Team Rocket headquarters proved they were worth something, that they had a trick or two about them.
They were not to be treated as ordinary Team Rocket members. Every one of them was marked out for development, and Team Rocket had put no small amount of thought into them.
Naturally their opinion of themselves was high, and several more of the hot-tempered ones let fly as well.
Vance kept smiling and looked round the hall. A few had not joined in, and were watching to see what he would do, with the air of men settling in to enjoy a show.
Or perhaps they were the more calculating sort, and thought there was more to Vance than met the eye.
*So these are headquarters people. They've got tempers, all right. Even the way they carry themselves is different.*
Vance still remembered that the outstanding recruits of every Team Rocket intake were entitled to come to headquarters.
In his own intake there had been three of them, himself and Nolan and Cerise, and none of the three had chosen to come.
Besides them, some who performed well were transferred to headquarters later on.
Anybody with real strength had a temper. That was normal.
So Vance was all in favour of it.
And so the power surged up in him, pinned the loudest of the shouters where they stood on the instant, and then with a crash slammed them down.
Tables and chairs went to pieces. The men lay on the floor with their heads all but empty.
The savage pain through them reminded them that they still had bodies. They wanted to howl, but their mouths were held shut, and they could not get a sound out.
The pain turned their faces red and brought the cold sweat streaming off them.
In that same moment their Pokémon came out of their Poké Balls together and put themselves in front of their Trainers.
Fortunately the hall was large enough that a dozen or so Pokémon appearing at once did not make it crowded.
The rest were shaken by the turn it had taken. They had not expected this polite, smiling young man to move on them like that.
They looked at Vance and found no Pokémon at all — only the Slaking asleep beside him. Which meant that what had just happened had been done by the young man in front of them??