"I'll send you a file on the Farrow family later. Inside Saffron City that family counts as a small power in its own right."
Cerise said it lightly. She worked in Saffron City, and knew the powers within its territory well enough.
Vance nodded and went on watching the Trainer who was directing the Raticate, guessing inwardly at where the man came from. Could he be one of the Godbeast Gang's people?
His entanglement with the Godbeast Gang went deep; in Dark City above all he had been tangled up with them a good many times.
Lately, though, there had been little news of the Godbeast Gang, as though they had gone quiet and vanished all at once.
But an organisation of that size simply disappearing was out of the question.
They might well be hidden away in the dark preparing something, waiting for a chance to do something vicious.
At the time, Vance remembered, they seemed to have made a breakthrough, and there was no telling how it stood now.
By what Alakazam had raised, it ought to have reached Darkrai; and afterwards, whether they would set their sights on other greater Legendary Pokémon, the likes of Latios and Celebi, or on higher ones still, the likes of Lugia and Groudon.
That was thinking rather far ahead. He drew his thoughts back.
It was equally possible that this Trainer was like himself, and had come by that Raticate through some chance turn of luck.
There was more than one person in this world with luck as good as his.
"Have you found something? You've been watching that man this whole time."
Cerise said it from beside him. By the look of him he had found something; this companion of hers did not do things without meaning.
"Something, you might say. The state of that Raticate of his is rather like one of my own Pokémon, and that one came from the Godbeast Gang."
"So you think he's one of the Godbeast Gang's people?"
Cerise frowned. Ever since the Godbeast Gang had appeared in the Kanto region, they had come into conflict with Team Rocket several times over.
"Not certain yet. We'll see."
Vance shook his head. Whether it was so or not would have to be seen later.
"If they are the Godbeast Gang's people, and come here to take part in the tournament as openly as that, it's a bad sign."
Cerise said it gravely, as though something had occurred to her.
"How do you mean?"
"They may have something big in hand. Something big aimed at Team Rocket, perhaps."
"There is that possibility, certainly."
Vance nodded as well, though the two of them were only guessing; how it really stood was still unknown, and it might be that they were making too much of it.
Over on the other side, Kai Farrow came out of a room with ill luck written all over his face. Ill luck it was: they had made him write out an undertaking on top of everything else.
Rotten bloody luck. He was the one who had lost face, he was the one who had been humiliated, and in the end nothing happened to Vance at all while he was the one they hauled in. Bloody rotten luck.
The thought of it alone made him furious.
"Damn it!"
The anger came up in him all at once and he gave a bottle on the ground a hard kick.
The bottle took the kick and flew up off the spot.
Behind him the officials had just gathered up their papers and were coming out of the room, and a bottle came flying into their faces; one of them was struck on the head and let out a cry of pain.
"What the — who's throwing rubbish about? No public spirit at all."
"It was that lad."
"Blast him, the arrogance of it. Hold him and bring him back in."
Kai Farrow was dumbfounded. He had given one careless kick — how had it flown all the way over there, and landed on those men of all people?
Before he could think any further he was surrounded by several of them and invited back into that room a second time.
"It's a misunderstanding, gentlemen. That was carelessness on my part just now."
"Do you suppose we can't tell whether it was a misunderstanding? Behave yourself."
"Do me the courtesy, gentlemen. I'm of the Farrow family of Saffron City. My grandfather Gerald Farrow is Deputy Mayor of Saffron City and an Elite-Four-class Trainer. He'll be coming to collect me shortly."
"It makes no difference who you are. You have broken the rules of the tournament, and we have the right to open questioning on you."
............
"Elder, are you certain there's no trouble in this?"
Wren said it to the old man drinking tea unhurriedly in front of him, an Elder within the Order.
"There's no need to be anxious, Wren. The Sacred Order has settled matters with the League side. Show as much of yourself as you can — take the championship if you can manage it, and win a name for the Sacred Order. That is all."
The Elder lifted a cup of hot tea, blew on it and drank a mouthful, his bearing and his voice uncommonly flat.
"It's still hard to believe."
Wren said it in a daze. He still remembered the Sacred Order being wanted by the League, and without knowing what had happened, here he was taking part in this tournament in the full light of day, under the eyes of so many of the League's high officers.
It put him under a pressure he had never known before.
"There is nothing hard to believe about it. When your strength reaches a certain point, everything is open to discussion. What lies between us and the League is only the use of a connection — no more than that we have one object in common."
The old man's clouded eyes were full of understanding. He took everything lightly.
"Isn't this asking a tiger for its skin? Even if the thing succeeds we'll be called to account afterwards. The League side sets itself up as justice, and our end won't be much better for it."
Wren still felt it was wrong.
"True. But without it we shall never break the position open. Only once things are in disorder do we have any chance at all. This short alliance with the League is a thing done for want of any choice; on our own we are simply no match for Team Rocket."
The old man shook his head. After so many trials of strength, even with the breakthrough they had made in technique they were not enough to stand against Team Rocket.
As the head of all the dark powers, Team Rocket was too strong.
So, on a chance opportunity, the alliance with the League side had been reached.
To reach it, the Sacred Order had put up no small quantity of good things, to get those people to speak for them.
The alliance had not gone smoothly at first; happily it had come off in the end.
The old man's clouded eyes turned on Wren.
"This time is also a kind of probe."
"A probe?"
"Yes. Once you have shown the whole of yourself, we watch how they react. If they can bear with it even in a matter like the tournament, it means this alliance is truly sound."
Hearing the old man say it, Wren's face began to look rather bad. So after all that, he was a probe?
And if it did not come off, would he not be in danger?
"Heh. I am in the same case as you. If it does not come off, we simply come to grief here. Everything we have, the Sacred Order gave us; to run a risk for the Sacred Order's plans is only proper, is it not?"
The old man's voice was flat, and yet there was a pressing force behind it.
"Yes, yes. I spoke out of turn."
Wren took it back. With matters as they now stood there was nothing to be done.
He could only go along with it. If he angered the man in front of him, his end would not be a good one.
Thinking of what the man was capable of, Wren shook all over.