"Our Branch Chief does play favourites, doesn't he. Making that Ambrose a Division Commander, while you, Nesbit, a Trainer with two Elite Pokémon, get nothing. It really is a shame."
Once they had left the room, several of them gathered together and talked in low voices.
What they were talking about was Vance's appointment of Ambrose. The man was only an Advanced Trainer, and to have him set on a level with the Elite ones did not sit well with them.
But after the fright Vance had given them earlier, none of them dared object to his face, and only dared mutter about it behind his back.
"This is good enough as it is, Talbot. He has at least not singled the rest of us out for bad treatment. You got the division you wanted, and I have been put under you. As for Ambrose — well, that is only human nature. They say the man is good with people and stands remarkably well with Vance, and it is the same with Emery. Those two are the Branch Chief's old hands. Is an arrangement like that not perfectly normal?"
Nesbit thought nothing of it. He saw no fault in the arrangement at all.
Back at headquarters they had all been disrespectful to Vance, and he had not done much of anything to them.
Which showed the man had some breadth to him. And as for who was given what, that was only human nature.
"Hmph. If he had singled us out on top of it, then that would be the measure of the man, and he would never come to anything."
Talbot said it with a snort, still not altogether satisfied. That day his Pokémon had been slack and slow off the mark. If it had not been slack — hmph.
He would certainly not have cut so sorry a figure. He would have been knocked down with rather more style.
As for Vance's strength, he granted him that.
While they were gossiping, Vance was busy.
Having heard out the men concerned, Vance drew a circle on the map. A new base would be built here, to make later operations easier.
"Bexley, these few places will do. You keep an eye on it. Whatever you're short of, go and tell Emery."
Vance said it, looking at Bexley.
"Yes, Branch Chief."
"Good. Off you go."
Bexley bowed and withdrew from the room.
"Knock, knock—"
"Come in."
Bexley was barely out of the door before Ambrose came in.
"Boss, you've set me over a fire to roast, haven't you?"
Ambrose pulled a long face and complained at him, then found a chair and sat down.
"How have I set you over a fire? Look at it — Division Commander. Very nice."
Vance said with a light laugh.
"Don't. I must be the only Division Commander anywhere who's weaker than his own subordinates. If it weren't for you standing behind me, I don't suppose they'd give me the time of day."
Ambrose had that much self-knowledge, at least.
"Well, if you know it, get on with it and work yourself harder. Get stronger, and quickly."
"I'd like to. You think I'm you? Getting stronger is like eating dinner for you — a few months of it and you've outrun what anybody else does in a lifetime." Ambrose rolled his eyes. There was no comparing himself with this freak.
It was like the top of the class asking the bottom of the class whether a hundred out of a hundred was really so hard.
It was not hard for the top of the class. He had it without trying. For the bottom of the class it was like climbing to heaven.
Fortunately Ambrose was not altogether useless. He could still put up a bit of a struggle.
"Right. If you've come here to chat, stop. I have a great many papers still to get through."
Vance said it with a hand to his forehead.
The Dark City branch was being built again from the ground up. The amount of work was enormous.
"As busy as that? Let me have a look."
"Hm?" An idea broke into his head, and Vance's eyes lit up. He fixed them on Ambrose.
"Er — Boss, why are you looking at me like that? It's rather frightening." Meeting that look, Ambrose felt a chill go down his back.
Instinct told him he was about to be stitched up. Nothing good could come of this.
"It's nothing. I only wanted to ask whether Division Commander doesn't quite suit you. Would you care to be Branch Chief for a while?"
"What!" Ambrose jumped, and the colour went out of his face. "Boss, I've no designs on the throne. The Branch Chief is you. The boss is you."
"I think you have taken my meaning wrongly."
Vance laughed and put down the papers.
"Ah. Then what did you mean?"
"What do you think?"
Vance's smile was radiant.
Half an hour later the Branch Chief's office that Vance had been sitting in had Ambrose in it, alone, swearing under his breath as he signed off papers. Vance had made the authority over to him and given him full charge.
Vance was playing the hands-off boss again, throwing the whole thing at Ambrose to deal with. It came to much the same in the end.
Here he was the biggest man there was. Nobody had any authority over him, and as long as the work got done, Giovanni, being the sort of man he was, would probably not trouble himself about it.
Besides, Ambrose was not the only one he was working; he had dragged Emery over to help as well.
Others might want the chance and never get it.
How fine it was, to have a taste of being Branch Chief, to sit in that chair and look at things from a new angle.
There was something in it for him too, was there not.
A special training room at the base, which Vance had set aside for himself. A Branch Chief in the Team Rocket system held a whole region; a training room of his own was no great difficulty.
The equipment in it was the best to be had.
At present the Gyarados and the rest were in the training room at their training.
In no time at all the Pokémon had broken through again. The Slaking had reached the peak of Elite, level 50.
The Gyarados was close behind at 49.
The Zweilous had come up to 48, the Aerodactyl to 46.
And the Blaziken had reached 40 — not slow going at all.
"Whoosh—"
A gust of presence blew across the room. Vance looked over. The Blaziken had broken through.
Out of Advanced and into Elite, up to level 41.
Today the Blaziken too had set foot in the Elite rank.
"Blaziken—"
The Blaziken cut a very fine figure now that he had broken through, blazing flame pouring off the whole of him.
Ha ha ha. He, the Blaziken, had caught up too. He had broken through to Elite.
"Roar, roar!"
The Zweilous was congratulating him, and the Gyarados and the others as well; even the Slaking, for once, broke off its sleep to offer its congratulations.
That little scrap of a Torchic had come as far as this, and stood on the same rung as they did.