The sea breeze blew softly across the Zweilous's faces, lifting the whiskers on his brows; but there was none of the despair, none of the bleakness of the last time.
Quite the reverse. He was full of drive.
Those boundless deep-blue waves carried an eager air with them.
Zweilous found it all very comfortable.
The same S.S. Anne, near enough the same spot, and yet the feeling was quite different.
"What is Zweilous looking at? Thinking back on the past?"
Vance leaned on the rail and looked out into the distance beside him.
"Raaugh, raaugh—"
Zweilous answered him.
The two heads did not react in quite the same way.
Black One looked far heavier about it, as though there were more of a story behind it, as though he felt it himself.
That came of the remnant soul in the dragon bead from back then, which had kept Black One's consciousness on the same wavelength as before.
Black Two was the flatter of the two about it. He could understand why Black One was as he was.
Understand, but not feel. He was one body with Black One and had some of the memory handed down to him, but it was not with him as it was with Black One.
That was normal enough. A Zweilous's two heads fight by nature, each contending for control of the body; it was only Vance's stepping in that had made this one something of an exception.
Black One was simply too strong — strong enough to hold Black Two down.
While man and Pokémon leaned on the rail, talking idly and musing, other people were busy.
"Are you certain? The thing has been brought here?"
In a cabin aboard the S.S. Anne, a group of people stood around discussing something.
The group divided faintly into two parties, dressed differently from each other.
One party looked uniform and neat, with a capable air about them.
The other was a little ragged, as though thrown together at short notice.
"Is this information of yours from the Godbeast Gang reliable? Don't go wasting our time."
A square-faced man in plain clothes spoke first.
"Absolutely reliable. Where Legendary Pokémon are concerned, the Sacred Order are the specialists. What that man is carrying has to have something to do with a Legendary — because we are looking for it too."
The man who appeared to lead the other party answered him straight.
They were people of the Godbeast Gang and of the Pokémon League. A matter of cooperation had set the two sides moving against Team Rocket, and that was what had brought them together here.
"Hmph. Let us hope so. If you find anything, tell us. We have business of our own, so we will be going."
"You—"
Seeing that the companion behind him had objections, the leader put a hand on him and said to them all with a smile, "By all means."
The others said nothing, pulled the door open and went out.
It might be cooperation, but they still did not trust these people. There was resistance in it, and contempt as well.
"Damn them. Captain, we're not his subordinates. That tone he takes?"
Once they were gone, the young man who had been held back burst out with it, speaking to the leader — the captain of this party.
"Damn it. The League talk big enough, and what have they ever managed to do to Team Rocket? Not much in the way of ability, and all the airs in the world."
"Damn it, I've half a mind to walk out. The look on him — if I hadn't reasons to hold back, my fist would have been in that punchable face of his long ago."
More than one of them had objections; once the first had let fly, the rest brought theirs out too.
"Put up with it. I don't like it either, but there's no help for it — in Kanto the League are the ones in charge." The captain rubbed at the space between his brows and joined in the complaining.
At that they all went quiet, and said no more.
"What we have to do now is take that thing off them. The rest can wait. If the High Priest can bring it off, then as for the seat of the ruler of Kanto — if the League can sit in it, so can the Sacred Order!"
"Get to work. Send word to our man planted aboard the S.S. Anne and have him nose about, see whether he turns anything up. Searching like this is no way to go about it."
the captain ordered.
"He isn't placed very high, I'm afraid. He'll hardly get anything worth having."
"Let him go and look. If there is nothing, so be it. We are not resting everything on him."
"Yes. I'll see to it now."
A famous liner that made money like the S.S. Anne was bound to catch the eye of every great power. Most of her directors were League men, the great families banded together and running her jointly.
By any reckoning of where she belonged, the S.S. Anne fell on the League's side.
Only, out of sight, Team Rocket had taken her; and the world outside did not know it, and went on taking her for the League's.
Across the boundless blue of the sea the S.S. Anne sailed on.
Alongside the shore she had looked enormous; in front of the ocean she became very small indeed.
"Heh heh. Those girls just now were good-looking, and they had a bit of class about them as well. Why not get talking to them?"
Nolan said it with a grin.
"I'm not in the mood for that at the moment."
Vance answered mildly, and the two of them walked into the auction room together.
The auction here had started again.
Pseudo-legendary Pokémon and the like did not interest Vance.
He had come mainly to see whether there were any treasures from beyond the sky — to try his luck.
On the stage the auction went on at full heat, treasure after treasure carried out to the front and put up for the room to bid on.
Vance watched it lazily. The bidders were worked up enough; their eyes shone at the treasures on the stage and they shouted their bids out loud. And the woman auctioneer was charming, with those long bare legs under the hem of her skirt.
Watching on, he caught sight of somebody he knew.
Idris Thorne!
"What is he doing here? Surely there isn't going to be trouble on the S.S. Anne this time as well?"
Vance turned it over. Besides Idris, the several people beside him were roughly League men too.
They sat below the stage, but their attention was not on the auction; their eyes went over the room as though they were looking for something.
Which was what had put the thought into Vance's head — that something was going to happen here again.
With a party like that aboard, something must be going on.
What had it been the last time? Some illegal dealing, and the International Police had turned up over it. Was it to be the same again?
This time Vance was not afraid as he had been before.
"If these people are aboard, the other side will have made ready for them."
Vance thought it through, and had no wish to be drawn into it.
Just then Idris, casting about him, brightened.
Not because he had found the man he was after, but because he had seen Vance sitting off to one side.
He got to his feet at once and came over.