He could not get away himself, but he could let Vance go and pick up the credit instead.
For whatever reason, he rather liked the look of Vance.
"What sort of mission is it?"
Sylas asked it into the phone.
"Transport. Over Pewter City way — we collect a few stones and bring them back. It's rated three stars for difficulty, but there's nothing to it. I've already got the joints of it greased, and all anyone has to do is make the handover outside the city. Well? Do you want it or not? A job this good, if I hadn't got my hands on it quickly somebody else would have taken it long ago."
"I'll get back to you shortly."
Sylas hung up and looked at Vance.
"Here, a good thing has come along, and you happen to be sitting right here for it. Do you want to go?"
"What good thing?"
Sylas set the mission out for him and explained the key points of it.
"Do you want to go? It's a three-star mission this time, which is not bad at all. If I could get away myself I'd want to go too."
"I'll go, then. Thank you for looking out for me, Commander."
Vance thought it over for a moment and decided to go. From the way the man described it, this three-star mission was not difficult at all.
In Team Rocket's mission system, difficulty was graded in five stars, and the more stars a mission carried the harder it was.
A three-star mission was no small thing. Usually it took someone at Division Commander level to handle one.
What was more, the number of missions completed counted for a great deal when it came to promotion later on.
Beyond a man's own strength, anyone due for promotion also had to have the mission record to match.
For a Squad Leader like Vance, promotion to Division Commander meant missions.
"Good. I'll send the information over shortly, and you just go according to it. Oh — you can go on your own. We can't spare too many of our people for it."
"Understood."
They talked for a while longer, and then Vance left Sylas's office.
Who would have thought that coming here to pay his respects to the Division Commander would turn into a stroke of luck like that — walking out with a three-star mission.
And the talk with the Division Commander had gone very pleasantly, with the man looking out for him.
He had not run into the kind of Division Commander who envies talent and comes down hard on his own subordinates. That was a comfortable thing.
"True enough. I'm not the protagonist. It's not as if everywhere I go somebody has to have it in for me."
Vance said it with a small laugh. A real protagonist, wherever he went, would find someone lining up against him, and then would come the great outpouring of power and the road of slapping faces, and in the end everyone who had crossed him would be dealt with, every one.
What he had run into was a superior who was easy with him and looked out for him besides. This was Team Rocket, a dark organisation, and even so he had run into a "good man".
He went back to the quarters he had been assigned.
As a Squad Leader, he had been given a flat of fifty-odd square metres, to live in alone.
He went briefly through the information Sylas had sent. By the look of it the man had been right: this three-star mission was not difficult, and could fairly be called a free ride.
Out of caution, though, Vance made his preparations thoroughly all the same.
The next day, a crowd of people appeared in a thick wood outside Pewter City.
Vance was among them.
Since Sylas had put in a word for him, Vance joined the mission without the slightest trouble.
Two other Squad Leaders had come with him from the same branch, both of them Sylas's men as well.
You could see that Sylas treated the Squad Leaders under him well.
As things stood, more than thirty people had arrived, seven of them Squad Leaders, the rest there to lend a hand.
Vance looked around him, his face careful.
"Whooo—"
A gust of wind came through and a good many dead leaves came down with it.
It might have been his imagination, but Vance felt the sky darken a shade.
The people at the edges broke into noise, and men from the other branches surged forward toward one direction, calling out their congratulations.
"Members of the Pewter Branch Fourth Squad. Presenting the Division Commander."
"...What is all this?"
While Vance was still puzzling over it, laughter came from that direction.
"Ho ho ha ha."
"The Division Commander's here."
A figure appeared before them all, stepping across the fallen leaves with an easy grace, the cloak behind him snapping in the wind, coming down in front of the crowd with perfect poise and giving the cloak a flick — handsome, and no mistake.
It was a cultivated-looking man in his thirties or so, with a pair of bright, keen eyes, dressed in the uniform of a Team Rocket Division Commander.
Vance was caught staring himself. That performance of the Division Commander's was really... so damn cool!
The whole business of walking on the leaves and landing like that was genuinely stylish.
"I trust you've all been keeping well."
Percival said it to the assembled crowd, smiling broadly. His mood was clearly good.
"Hahaha, Commander, still as handsome as ever."
"Nothing to it." Percival answered with a laugh, and looked over at Vance and the other two. "You three would be the ones young Sylas sent."
"We are. Commander Sylas sends his regards."
"Ha, a pity young Sylas isn't coming. Don't worry, any of you. One of my Pokémon has broken through to Elite-Four-class. This mission is as good as done; there's not the slightest problem with it."
Percival said it in high spirits, a shot in the arm for all of them. No wonder he was so confident.
"Heavens, Commander, one of your Pokémon has broken through to Elite-Four-class? That's wonderful, hahaha."
"Congratulations on reaching Elite-Four-class, Commander."
"With you leading, Commander, this one's in the bag."
The crowd cheered and jumped about. With an Elite-Four-class Division Commander at the head of it, this really was in the bag.
Who would have thought the mission would be a free ride like this? Delightful.
"Elite-Four-class!"
Vance was shaken too. He had not expected this Division Commander to have raised an Elite-Four-class Pokémon without a word to anyone.
According to the material Sylas had given him, Commander Percival was an established Gym-class power. Perhaps one of his Gym-class Pokémon had made the breakthrough.
Elite-Four-class, though!
It was a height that ninety-nine per cent of Trainers never reached. In the Pokémon League or in Team Rocket, it was enough to put a man among the upper ranks.
After a few more words with the crowd, Commander Percival took two of his men and went on ahead, telling the rest to stay here and be ready to receive them.
What they were receiving was a set of stones that held some mysterious power in them, of great research value — and required by Team Rocket headquarters.
"There shouldn't be any surprises, surely."
Vance thought it, looking in the direction Percival and the others had gone.
Commander Percival had made a very fine entrance, and he had shown the strength of an Elite-Four-class man.
Even so, something did not sit right with Vance, and if you asked him where the problem was he could not have told you.
Still, Vance trusted this vague feeling of his. It had steered him clear of no small amount of trouble before.
"What's the matter, Squad Leader Vance? Why the serious face? Smile a bit. The Commander's carrying us this time."
Someone nearby saw him like that and said it kindly.
Vance's grave face was badly out of place among all the high spirits, which was why the man had spoken up.
"It's nothing, nothing. I was thinking over a difficult problem."
Vance produced a smile and made up an excuse on the spot.
"Ah, right. Take your time over it, then."