With Blaine here, and in charge of things besides, nothing untoward was likely to happen.
"Boss, you're back."
Catching sight of Vance, Ambrose came forward and put his arms round him, moved by it.
Two days he had been gone without a word, and even Ambrose had worried for him — the opponent had been so strong, after all. Now, seeing Vance safely back, he was glad of it naturally enough.
"Mm, I'm back." Vance nodded slightly, and went on. "While I was away, nothing happened with those Division Commanders?"
Ambrose thought for a moment and answered. "Not yet. There was something odd about it at first, and then Lord Blaine came and that was the end of it. And Talbot and his people have rather come round to you — they were standing up for you in what they said."
"Mm. It seems saving him once has been of some use."
He asked about other matters as well, and learned that Blaine was still at the base, at his research in the laboratory, and had used his standing as a Team Rocket senior to have several of the Division Commanders assist him.
Ambrose had not gone, and that too was because he was not strong enough; he could have been no help had he wanted to be.
Leaving Ambrose to his work, Vance went along to the base's laboratory. The Dark City branch base was a small place, but it had everything a base ought to have; whatever should have been there, was there.
Set against the others, the equipment was rather behind the times, and there was not much talent either — a mere handful of people all told.
Inside the laboratory Blaine was watching the data come up on the great screen in front of him, and by turns his face showed that he had got something and that something was not clear to him.
Rufus stood behind him with a calm face and his heart leaping inside him.
Blaine looking at it so must mean he was satisfied with the data — and Rufus had got it at the risk of his own life, so the reward ought not to be small.
Sorrel, Talbot and the other Division Commanders stood at a distance, waiting for whatever he might need.
The great door moved and opened to either side, and Vance came in.
"Branch Chief!"
The Division Commanders all rose together and called it out respectfully.
Perhaps it was thinking that Vance had come alive out of the hands of an Elite-Four-class and returned safely, which had shown them what real strength was; their manner was more respectful still than before.
"Ah. You must be Vance."
Blaine turned round and saw that it was a young man, and from his face knew who the newcomer was.
Earlier, headquarters had sent through his particulars, and the Boss, Giovanni, had told him to keep a good eye on the boy.
"Yes, I am Vance. My respects, Senior Blaine."
Vance said it politely.
His manner sat very well with Blaine, who said, "Mm, mm, there's no need to be so formal. Rufus tells me you went up alone against the other side's Suicune Trainer?"
"Mm. There was nothing else for it at the time. It had to be that way."
"The man was no weakling either, and I hear that Suicune has Elite-Four-class strength. That you got away from him says something for you. You've earned the name of an Advanced Psychic."
Blaine said it with a faint smile. Even by his measure, for Vance to have done that much was very fine indeed.
There was a great difference between Gym-class and Elite-Four-class, and that the Vance in front of him had escaped from an Elite-Four-class said something out of the common about him. No wonder headquarters had told him to keep an eye out. A man like this, once he had grown, would be a senior officer himself.
So he found himself interested, and fell into conversation with the young Branch Chief in front of him.
"There was luck in that fight as well."
Vance said it modestly, with a slight smile.
"Ha ha, modest with it. Good, good."
Blaine clapped Vance on the shoulder in open approval, which made Rufus, standing behind, thoroughly envious — he had put in a great deal of work to be thought well of by Blaine, and Vance had managed it in a moment.
Then he thought of what Vance was really worth, and shook his head.
He was a fool. What was the sense of measuring himself against a man like that?
He had his own road to walk, and so long as he worked at it he would not come off too badly in the end.
"How are these data, senior? Have you got anything from them?"
Vance said it, looking at the figures on the screen along with him. String after string of them, packed close, with a great many technical terms annotated besides; he could only take it in roughly and knew no more than the surface of it.
"Some. Why, can you read it?"
Seeing Vance looking at it with him, he asked it in passing.
"Not very well. I'm not in your line, senior. Pokémon research is not a thing I'm good at."
At that Blaine laughed. "Ha ha ha, that's natural enough. Where is there anybody perfect in every respect? You are what you are on the Trainer's road; if you were the same in this line as you are as a Trainer, where would that leave the rest of us?"
Then he went on.
"So what do you plan to do next?"
"Build the branch up properly."
"Build the branch up? You don't want to hit back at them a little?"
Blaine raised an eyebrow slightly and put the question.
Vance said with a laugh, "I can't manage it for the moment. Why, are you offering to help, senior?"
He had only said it in passing, and to his surprise Blaine agreed to it.
"That I could do. As it happens I'll be here these next few days. Do you have intelligence? When do you move?"
Vance was taken aback for a moment, then caught up with it and said, "As for intelligence, I think Rufus will have some. Isn't that so, Rufus?"
Hearing himself named, Rufus said quickly, "I do know a little, though I don't know whether it can be used."
He did not put it too strongly. He had been undercover, but with his cover broken they would be taking measures on that side, and what he had learned might be of no use by now.
"Branch Chief Vance, what about your side? Have you found nothing at all yet?"
"Not yet. The branch is newly set up, the members are somewhat weak, and there has been too little time; we haven't got at anything true and exact yet. All I have in hand at present are a few leads, and they still need sifting."
"Is there anything touching the Sanctus Group?"
Blaine said it.
"There is."
"You're not bad at your work." Blaine nodded, and went on. "What I know is that there is something wrong with this Sanctus Group. The several company premises they've set up are full of research facilities of one kind and another. Do you know now what to do?"
Every outpost had its own intelligence system, and that Blaine had known all this before he did was nothing for Vance to wonder at.
"Broadly, yes."
"Oh? What, exactly?"
"It would be discourteous not to return what's been given. We make them into what we are — and bring the League in with us. The League won't want to watch an organisation that could threaten them growing quietly in the dark either."
"Good. That's a very good plan. Then I'll stay on here a few days; it suits me to go through these data anyway."
Blaine decided to stay and see how this Branch Chief would go about it, and to keep a hand over him while he was at it.
"If you need intelligence support, you have only to tell me."
"I will."
They talked a little longer, and then Vance left. Next he had to make a showing of himself again — and the result of that showing Blaine would see, and Giovanni would see.
With clear leads, the thing was easy enough to manage. The branch intelligence system he had set up before went to work, searching and sorting, and turned up several more useful pieces; and with the help from Blaine's side, they had pretty well all of it in hand.
And so another two days went by.
Vance and his Pokémon had fully recovered.
The Slaking had gone up a level, to 52.
The Gyarados was 50, the Zweilous 50, the Aerodactyl 47, the Blaziken 43.
Each of them had made some breakthrough of his own.
And Vance now had a Gym-class Slaking in hand, which made him a Gym-class Trainer in earnest.