"Oh? What sort of assignment needs me?"
Vance answered, sitting up a little straighter.
"Ha ha. It is the business of going round the Gyms in the various cities. Once a year; it has always been the custom. But we have a good many League-accredited Gyms here in Kanto, and every year they must be inspected and the ones that fall short picked out."
"So you mean — you want me to go and inspect Gyms?"
"Yes and no."
Pemberton kept him waiting a moment, and then said:
"Did I not say it? There are a great many Gyms in the Kanto region, and naturally some are strong and some weak. What I want you for is to inspect the strong ones — the Viridian Gym, the Saffron Gym and those. As for the weaker ones, you need not go to them in person, of course; others can do that."
"Ha ha. It comes down to appearances, if we are honest. Hands are short at present, and if we are not to lose face there is nobody but you."
Pemberton said it with a laugh. Send a man of low standing to inspect a Gym, and if he had not the strength for it he would only make a fool of himself, and lose the Inspection Department face in front of the Gym besides.
And Vance turning up was perfect, coming just at this moment.
He had the name and he had the strength; to send him to inspect a few of the strong Gyms could not have been better.
It would show what the Inspection Department was made of, and raise the department's standing.
Which was why, the moment he was back from his trip, he had called Vance in to the office.
That said, Pemberton handed over a list with the names of eight Gyms written on it; and as it happened those eight were precisely the Gyms at which Vance had won his Badges.
Even the Cerulean Gym, which had sunk to the bottom of the list since its old Gym Leader died in battle, was among them, and had been picked out on purpose with a red circle round it.
"What is the Cerulean Gym doing here? As I remember, that Gym is not strong."
Vance pointed at the Cerulean Gym inside the red circle and put the question to Pemberton.
"That one is a special case. To tell the truth it is on the weak side. Since the last Gym Leader died in battle his daughters have not been able to take it on. I know very well that if it were properly inspected the Gym would not pass. But there are exceptions to everything. Ahem."
Vance watched him quietly, waiting for him to go on.
"Well now. The last Gym Leader died in battle, so on the League's side — myself included — we all feel the Cerulean Gym should be given a chance; and not only a chance, but a good deal of support. Putting it on this list is a kind of support in itself. So when the time comes, you know what to do, I take it?"
"Support? Grouping it in with the strong Gyms, you mean."
It came to Vance that in that way, when the ratings were made and resources handed down, the Cerulean Gym would get as much as these strong Gyms did.
Then he laughed, and nodded. "Mm. I take your meaning."
"Ha ha, then that is settled. We are all of us inside the League, after all; and with the dark forces as strong as they are now, none of us knows when something may happen to him. It is as well to have it so, is it not?"
Pemberton said it as though with feeling.
Even a man like himself, who was not on the front line of the fighting, could not know when some mischance might overtake him.
So he naturally thought very well of this sort of special treatment within their own circle.
"Quite, quite."
Vance showed that he understood. It was only human nature: a man lives for fame and rank and profit, but he thinks about what comes after his death too, and things of this kind grow out of that of themselves.
Such is the human scene. Whoever goes out into the world — even in a society of Pokémon with powers beyond the natural — must give the way of the world its due.
"Good, good."
Pemberton was well satisfied. This deputy head had a future beyond measuring: strength, and so practised a hand with people besides. The road ahead of him would only grow wider.
Barring accidents on the way, barring other factors coming into it, he would certainly be one of the great men later on.
Such was the eye and the instinct of Pemberton's thirty-odd years in office.
"That is about the whole of the year's work. If nothing large comes down from above, I shall not trouble you again."
Pemberton explained it all, throwing the door wide open for him.
"Then many thanks, Director Pemberton."
"Ha ha. Not at all."
..................
After sitting a while in the office building Vance skived off and left it.
The inspections could wait a few days; the time Pemberton had given him was ample, and there would be no hurrying.
That evening, after dinner, Vance's communicator sounded.
Vance glanced at it, and his face turned serious. He went inside and opened the connection.
Giovanni's cold, stern face appeared on the screen.
He sat in his office chair as always, with a great pile of documents on the desk, stacked square, and the Persian beside him, one hand stroking its forehead.
"Meeowr—"
The Persian made a comfortable sound, enjoying Giovanni's hand.
"Boss."
Vance said it respectfully, giving him the name of Boss.
He was Conference Champion now, and his own strength counted for something; but in front of this ruthless man it still felt no different.
"Vance. We have not spoken in a long while. When you took the Conference Championship I never gave you my congratulations."
Giovanni said it lightly from the other side of the screen, a smile at the corner of his mouth.
"It is nothing at all. If the Boss were to congratulate me, I should feel it was more than I could bear."
Seeing that Vance was as he had always been, with no pride in him, Giovanni gave a slight nod and looked approving.
"Blaine tells me you sent him several Legendaries, which has been a great help to their research."
"It is no more than my duty. In my hands the things were so much waste; I could not make full use of them. Handed over to Senior Blaine they are worth a great deal more. And I got no small benefit from Senior Blaine besides."
Vance said it truthfully. Properly speaking he had lost nothing by it, and had even come out a little ahead.
Holding the things in his own hands, he could not turn them into anything.
This way was best.
"Mm. Is there anything else you need? Let us do this: come to headquarters when you have time and pick out a few things from the logistics office. Call it my support of you."
"Thank you, Boss."