Time moved quickly, and by the afternoon of the following day Vance and Ambrose had arrived, as agreed, at a lavishly appointed hotel.
A waiter showed them through to a large private room. A good many people were there already, sitting about in twos and threes, talking quietly.
Most of them looked to be middle-aged; a few were around Vance's age. Every one of them was in a suit, hair neatly done.
When the two of them pushed the door open a few heads turned. Seeing who it was, they lost interest and went back to chatting with the friends beside them, drinks in hand.
"This lot are mostly from small and mid-sized companies."
Ambrose swept his eyes around the room, then leaned in and said it low, close to Vance's ear.
Vance nodded to show he had taken it in.
Only the two of them had come this time. Emery, still sour about the whole business, had stayed away.
"Manager Ambrose, it's been a while. And this is?"
A young man came over smiling, greeted Ambrose, and then looked at Vance.
"This is the owner of our company. I only work for him," Ambrose said, and then introduced the young man in turn.
Ambrose had met him at the last banquet, and they had worked together on a few things since, so there was something of a relationship between them.
"Good to meet you."
Vance put out a hand and said it.
"And you, and you."
They shook hands, gave brief accounts of themselves, and sat down together at one of the tables.
The man's name was Padgett, a Celadon local and the owner of a small company himself; in a good year he cleared upwards of ten million Poké Dollars.
He and Ambrose got along well enough in conversation. Vance sat to one side and put in a word only now and then.
"Ah, it's no easy thing, being a small trader. Up before dawn and working past dark, and all we get out of it is what we sweat for. And who knows what Chief Delaney means to say to us in a minute."
The more Padgett talked, the more he complained.
The two of them smiled and said nothing.
"Business has been hard lately, too. Last time it cost me seven hundred thousand in tea money, and heaven knows when I'll earn that back. It's a difficult thing."
"It's hard on everyone."
Ambrose pulled a long face of his own and agreed.
"What if we raised it with Chief Delaney afterwards? Or sent word up the line — that things are very hard for us."
Padgett looked as though the idea had only just struck him, and put it to them.
"Heh. We'll see about that, we'll see."
Ambrose answered with a smile.
They talked a little longer, and when Padgett saw that the two of them were not going to shift, he lost his appetite for it, excused himself, got up and went over to another young man.
"We're young, but we're not stupid. That one had us down for a pair of suckers."
There was a sharp light in Ambrose's eyes. He had heard what the man was really after well enough — young did not mean gullible.
"Heh. The nail that sticks up gets hammered down."
Vance said it, smiling too.
Ten minutes or so later the room went quiet. The doors opened and Delaney came in at the head of the party, gesturing very politely for the four men behind him to come through with him.
The four looked like men of no small standing. Vance recognised only one of them, a man of the Quillon family; the other three were probably of much the same rank. Here to lend their weight to the occasion, he supposed.
"Ha ha, my apologies, everyone. I was held up."
Once his guests were settled, Delaney came out in front of the room and spoke up.
"Not at all, not at all. Chief Delaney is a busy man. That you could come at all is no small thing."
"Just so, just so."
Voices came from the floor, flattering him.
"Ha. Then let me come straight to the point. I have called you all together for something honourable. As you know, only the day before yesterday we fought an engagement with Team Rocket. There were many deaths among our people, and more wounded still. I could not bear to look on it, and it pained me to hear of it. So I have a proposal, and gathering you all here was chiefly for that."
Delaney wore a grieving face and his voice was low.
"So how can we help?"
Someone answered from the floor.
"Simple..."
Watching the two of them sing their duet, Vance wanted to laugh. Strip it all away and what was it about, if not money?
"Well said. On behalf of my company, I pledge one million Poké Dollars, and I hope it helps."
Someone in the room spoke up loudly, out of nowhere.
"A good cause like this, and you'd leave me out? I'll put in a million as well."
Another man rose and called it out.
"Nice."
It was all Ambrose wanted to say. Good grief. Every one of them an actor.
With those two to start it off, others gradually followed, and the mood in the room warmed.
"Ha ha, I understand how you all feel, and I won't let you give for nothing. I put the matter to my superiors, and this time, anyone among the leading donors may have a League-Certified Trainer for his own household. It goes straight through review and straight onto the register, and if he takes up League work later on, there are advantages in that too."
Delaney dangled the carrot, and the room perked up at once. A League-Certified Trainer — now that was a useful standing to have. For anyone who meant to make his way inside the League system later, it helped enormously.
The review for League-Certified Trainer status was fairly strict, and only a limited number were issued each year.
There were a great many benefits, too. You were entitled, for instance, to pay a fee and have a chance at one of the starter Pokémon; you could go to the Pokémon Centers of any city for free treatment and lodging; you might even get the chance to call upon the famous professors...
On a Trainer's journey, all of that was worth a great deal.
And it was what many in that room wanted, the sore spot they all shared.
They wanted their families to produce a strong Trainer, but a genuinely strong Trainer is not a matter of money alone. It takes seasoning, it takes someone to guide you, it takes connections, and so on — and this "League-Certified Trainer" standing went some way towards making up the difference.
Delaney's words caught Vance's interest as well. League-Certified Trainer — wasn't that just another way of saying the League's own inner circle?
Looking at the eager eyes of the small businessmen around the room, Vance could not help giving Delaney a mental thumbs-up. Really impressive. That head on him, that gift for making money — it was a waste on a public post. In business the man would have been a magnate.
"Two million Poké Dollars from me, in support of this good work of yours, Chief Delaney, sir."
"Three million from me."
"Two million three hundred thousand from me."
"Three million one hundred thousand."
...............
"Ha ha, no hurry, no hurry. If you would all be so good as to fill in your details, and the sums pledged."
Seeing it, Delaney laughed out loud.
A waiter went round handing out sheets of paper to everyone there to fill in.
"Boss, how much are we putting down? Do you want to make a play for this League certification?"
Ambrose took his sheet and looked over at Vance.