"Is that for real?"
"Delaney, don't tell me you......"
The room broke into muttering, and even the aged Mayor turned to look, with a certain doubt in his eyes.
Delaney could not accept that at all. His whole future was riding on this.
"I didn't. I'm not. Don't go making things up."
Delaney cut him off. If he let the old goat go on he really would be finished, and once that much mud had been thrown it would stick whether or not there was anything in it.
"I'm warning you, watch your mouth. That's slander, do you understand? Slander. He is slandering me."
The hand Delaney had pointed at him was shaking, his voice had gone shrill, and his heart was beating unusually fast.
"Mr Mayor, he's slandering me."
He turned to the Mayor again. His Honour had had a hand in this project too, so how was any of it down to him alone?
The Sanctus Group was a Dark City company, wasn't it? It had been in business for years, hadn't it?
How was it that the moment he took it over it turned out to be a nest of devils? He had been well and truly stitched up.
And now the fire had come back on him, with Wycliffe holding this over his head.
"Ahem. We'll leave that undecided. It needs to be discussed properly."
The Mayor had spoken, from the head of the room.
"But this is what Delaney did. That much cannot be changed. Every convenience the Sanctus Group enjoyed came out of Delaney's own hand. Mr Mayor, you..."
"Enough. Let Delaney explain himself. This may not be what you are assuming it is."
Wycliffe was not about to let that go. He had worked hard to get his hands on this, and he meant to put Delaney through the wringer with it.
Holding that kind of advantage had gone to his head a little, and he had missed the tone in the Mayor's voice.
"Mr Mayor, I really think this..."
"I said, let Delaney explain. Do you not understand me? Is there something wrong with your ears?"
There was an authority in the old Mayor's words that came from nowhere, and Wycliffe went pale.
Not good. He had let it go to his head.
In the end all he could do was mumble.
"The Mayor is right."
Delaney let out a breath and turned over how to begin. It was lucky he had been clever about it: when he was promoted to Deputy Mayor he had brought the Mayor in on the project as a courtesy, something to pad the old man's record — otherwise the old Mayor would not have said a word for him today.
It suited him perfectly now, and he congratulated himself on that piece of foresight. With the Mayor involved, was there not room to work here — room to hit Wycliffe back?
It seemed workable.
"Gentlemen, I believe there has been a misunderstanding here. I thank the Mayor for giving me the chance to clear my name, and I thank him for his tolerance and his open mind, which is more than can be said for Wycliffe."
"You..."
Wycliffe's face darkened. Delaney really did open fire the instant he had an opening. He was about to say something when the old Mayor's stern eyes came round to him, and he shut his mouth.
"My colleagues all know that I volunteered for the transfer to Dark City, and that was only a few months ago. Before that I worked in Celadon City. I could not possibly have had any contact with them. And the reason I was promoted was my work against Team Rocket — everybody here saw it."
With solid ground under him, Delaney was back to his usual standard: unhurried, orderly, laying the explanation out point by point.
"The support given to the Sanctus Group was incidental, and I can vouch for that. I hate wrongdoing the way a man hates his enemies. There is nothing I would rather do than come down on every gang that breaks League law. My heart beats for the fight against crime, and heaven and earth are my witnesses........."
Having praised himself, Delaney went on with his explanation, taking motive and conduct in turn to show that he had had no part in any of it, and even producing all of his call records for them to examine.
"Crime and I cannot live under the same sky!"
Delaney roared it, his face full of righteousness.
"Clap, clap, clap."
"Well said!"
"I told you. Delaney is not that sort of man."
"Oh? Weren't you the one casting doubt a moment ago?"
"What? That certainly wasn't me, it was him. Don't go making things up — I'll have you for slander, you know."
...............
Delaney's explanation hit the mark. Everyone in the room was convinced by it, and it was so well reasoned and so well supported that Wycliffe could not find a hole in it.
If he really went looking, there was still something suspicious about it, but one look at the old Mayor's grim eyes and there was no point.
Wycliffe cursed his own miscalculation. He had not known about the connection to the old Mayor. He had been too impatient this time, calling the meeting in such a rush.
Failing to nail Delaney was one thing; he had handed the man a stage to shine on as well, and worse, the old Mayor was now displeased with him.
That was painful for Wycliffe. A blunder, an absolute blunder.
Delaney did have a certain talent, to play a losing hand into that.
"To make up for my own failure in this matter, I volunteer to lead a team, seize the Sanctus Group's remaining holdings and bring in the rest of them!"
Delaney had stepped forward again, the picture of righteous duty.
He had worked with the Sanctus Group before and knew a few things about them; whether any of it would prove useful he could not say.
No matter. Better to have something to work with, and if there was nothing, he would make something.
"Good, good. Then you go. I shall look forward to hearing good news."
The old Mayor rose, applauding, and said it to him with every appearance of approval for the gesture.
The rest felt the same. The man clearly had the right instincts.
"Mr Mayor, this was my......"
Wycliffe was trying to say that this was his doing, and how could it simply be handed over to Delaney; before he could get it out the old Mayor cut him off.
"Since Delaney is willing, and since you happened to start the thing off, you can go and assist him. If the two of you settle this, I'll put a commendation on both your records."
"Yes, sir."
With it put like that, he could only hold his nose and swallow it. Any more and he would offend the old Mayor past mending.
The man had not retired yet.
And so, absurdly, the job of cleaning out the Sanctus Group landed on Delaney.
"Damn it. That was close. That Wycliffe swine nearly had me."
Back in his office Delaney took a deep breath, then thought of something and pulled out those tip-off letters — one of them seemed to have mentioned some kind of Pokémon research.
He took them out and looked, and what was written there was, of all things, an account of the Sanctus Group's Pokémon research.
"Smack—"
Delaney slapped himself in the face. Careless. If he had read them earlier he would at least have been prepared.
Luckily nothing had come of it.
"Whoever is behind this — what are they playing at? They sent me a copy, they sent Wycliffe a copy. Did anyone else get one? Is this aimed at the Sanctus Group, or at me??"
Delaney's brows knitted and his mind raced, and then he shook his head. There was no need to worry about that for the moment. What he had to do now was clear out what was left of the Sanctus Group.
On the outskirts of Dark City, a fierce battle was under way in a factory compound.
Firelight shot into the sky, explosions came one after another, and figure after figure drove Pokémon forward, cutting their way in.
Vance, Blaine and the others stood behind the crowd, watching the fighting ahead.
"Things will be getting lively downtown about now as well. The Godbeast Gang won't have it as easy as they used to."
Vance said it with a faint smile. The intelligence in Rufus's hands and the others' had been arranged on his orders too.
Earlier on, hadn't the Godbeast Gang borrowed the League to strike at the Team Rocket branch? Then he would answer with the same thing.
The results were not bad.
Vance had already had word from the man he had planted at the city bureau. He simply had not expected the job to land on Delaney.