Inside the pitch-black space a knot of light flared up all at once, and out of it a middle-aged man came walking slowly — a well-bred face, a good suit, a smile held at the corner of his mouth. He was raising a hand in greeting, as warmly as a man hailing an old acquaintance.
A Dusknoir came along at his side, its presence beyond any sounding.
Being dragged in here had to have been that Pokémon's doing.
"Auberon! What are you doing here?"
The words were out of Delaney before he could stop them. Auberon, here of all places — the former president of the Sanctus Group, a company he had backed himself, a man he had had no small amount of dealing with.
Then the man had been exposed. Wycliffe had brought it out, the secret Pokémon experiments, and the thing had come within an inch of dragging Delaney down with it. He had kept his head, cut himself free in time, turned the danger aside and the risk into a credit, and come out of it with a commendation from the League and a medal.
What appalled him now was that the man was back. And his own position was not good — hauled without warning into this inexplicable black space.
At the same time Delaney wanted to swear at somebody. Dark City really was weak. Anyone at all felt free to come here. This time it was this; last time somebody had stormed the League's administration building.
He honestly had no words left for it.
That was small cities for you. There were simply no truly powerful Trainers in them, and the moment some strong dark force came in it turned very dangerous — above all anything past Elite-Four-class.
Dark City's strongest defence, for instance, was Elite-Four-class.
In ordinary times that was enough, and Delaney had thought so himself.
Who could have known things would go on getting more absurd from there? He had seen battles above Elite-Four-class more than once by now.
Looking at this Dusknoir and the sheer weight coming off it, by his own judgement it was without question a Pokémon beyond Elite-Four-class.
There was nothing he could do against it. He was a Gym-class Trainer in name only; if an Elite-Four-class came for him he would have to go down on his knees.
That was why he was afraid. He was helpless, and his life was in another man's hands.
"To look in on an old friend, naturally. Inspector Delaney."
Auberon said it with a faint smile, walking straight over and stopping in front of him.
"You still dare show your face! Don't you know the League has you on its wanted list? And you turn up here — you've no regard for the League at all!"
Delaney held his posture, forcing himself to stand firm on the outside while inside he was in a fine panic, and hurried to put the League up as a shield to see whether it would hold the man down. If it would not, he had nothing else.
"Heh. The League's arm doesn't reach this far. And as for Ellery, here in the city — a mere Elite-Four-class, nothing more. He is no match for me. Today is not yesterday."
Auberon shook his head a little, with the look of a man holding every thread in his hand. The day Dark City's Chief Investigator Ellery had run him down was months ago now. He was strong these days. A little thing like Ellery was no match for him.
The League was sending nobody, and there was nobody in Dark City who could stop him.
"What do you want?"
Delaney's voice came out low.
"Nothing at all. I told you, I came to see an old friend — and while I'm here, to go on working with you. Ah, yes. Some while ago I heard you went out and cleaned out one of the Sacred Order's strongholds. You'll have the data from it here, I expect? And a few Pokémon. Those will have ended up with you as well, I imagine."
"The rest of it you may keep. But that Zorua is not something you can hold on to. Hand it back to me."
"What Zorua. I don't know anything about it."
Delaney refused on the spot and flatly denied it.
"Oh? Is that so. That isn't for you to decide. Dusknoir."
The Dusknoir behind him moved, and in an instant had him under control.
"I'm asking you. Where is the Zorua?"
"It was sent away."
"Sent where?"
"It was to go to Saffron City, but something went wrong at the logistics department. There was a Team Rocket raid. Then Saffron said it had never arrived. Something went wrong with it. Where it is now, nobody knows."
"Could it have gone wrong at some other stage?"
"It shouldn't have. There was nothing out of order at any point..."
Delaney's will was not a firm one. There was not the slightest resistance to it; under control, he set the whole thing out in order.
"Team Rocket again..."
Auberon's brow drew together. If it was Team Rocket, that made things awkward.
Then something came to him and his face hardened. The Sacred Order had come on since; they were stronger now. It was worth trying something.
The last reprisal had cost the Sacred Order dearly. They had lost several Godbeast Envoys.
This time it was Team Rocket's turn, and he would start with Dark City's Branch Chief. Going by Team Rocket's own structure, a Branch Chief was no more than a Gym-class Trainer.
A little Gym-class Trainer? What waves could he raise in Auberon's hands? The only thing that needed holding off was Cinnabar Island, and there were people already going for that.
"I want all of it. The files, and the files on this Team Rocket activity too. Barring accidents, the Inspector will have another chance to distinguish himself. We can go on working together, you and I."
"We'll see. We'll see."
Delaney had come back to himself. The colour of his face was not good, but he forced a smile onto it.
"This isn't last time. I'll want something held back."
..................
"Branch Chief, sir. We have the north district quietly under control, and the groundwork is laid."
"The east district is nearly finished as well."
"The intelligence placements are going smoothly. We're inside the League's city bureau now."
In the base, Vance listened to his people report, nodding now and then.
On the whole it was not bad. It was going quite smoothly.
"We've got results too, meowth."
A Meowth put up a hand and spoke in its turn.
It made a strange picture, a Meowth mixed in among the rest of them, sitting in on the meeting.
The Division Commanders and Squad Leaders present all found it peculiar.
"What results."
Vance gestured slightly for it to go on. What could this Meowth have come up with.
"If the Branch Chief would step this way. We've finished building the capture robot, meowth."
Meowth said it as a request for leave.
"Let's go, then. We'll have a look at what Operative Meowth has produced."
Vance was first out of his seat, and the rest of them followed.
A short while later, in a warehouse, a huge robot shaped like a Meowth stood towering in front of them all.
"This is what we've made. I call it Meowth Number One. This model can stand up to Elite-class attacks — enough to match one of our Division Commanders — and it carries several systems."
"This one here, for instance, is the capture apparatus. It can catch Pokémon, and it resists electricity, fire, water, ice, rock..."
"This is its power unit. It converts light energy, air energy, electrical energy and so on into drive power for the robot itself..."
"The systems are simple, the materials are simple, and with our wise Branch Chief's support it can go into mass production now. It isn't expensive to build, either."
That last point woke them all up. Leaving everything else aside — if it really could be mass-produced the way the Meowth said, that was a useful body of strength.
In future they could put these robots in on operations, especially the high-risk ones.
That would cut the danger to a great many of them enormously.
For the Elite-class operatives above all, it would be more useful still.
Vance's face stayed calm through it. Nothing in the Meowth's performance seemed to surprise him.
He watched Meowth talk it up to the skies and only nodded mildly, with nothing else showing on him.
But the men at Squad Leader level were deeply moved, because this was something they could actually use.
It really was a fine thing to have.