"A few of us have already joined up with boss Wilder — no, with that Wilder — four of us in all. The rest are dead. The strongest is that Wilder. He has two Arbok of Intermediate strength and a Fearow that's nearly through to Advanced."
At that point Kell looked up, wanting to read his face.
"Go on."
Vance's expression stayed calm, and he said it coldly.
"Then there's that Wilder's woman, Yara, who has an Intermediate Dustox and a low-level Pidgey, and then Fatty, who has two Novice Pokémon, and last of all me."
Kell sold his boss Wilder out down to the last detail. He had seen how things stood by now: there was no escaping from a psychic, still less with a Gyarados of that strength eyeing him hungrily from one side.
Better to say everything he knew and beg hard, and he might just keep his life.
"This is the locator. It has positions on it for Wilder and the others."
As he spoke he took something like a tablet out of his pack and held it out to Vance. It was a purpose-built machine that could fix positions out in the wild where there was no signal.
Vance took it and looked. On the tablet were three red dots and one green one, spread apart, none of them far from here. The nearest red dot was only about five kilometres off.
"That Wilder is set on winning the trial championship, so he paid a high price for this set of locators and had us help him. On top of collecting, he means to take other members' results off them."
"Oh? Wasn't it on the plane that you said you'd finish me off?"
Vance asked it with something not quite a smile on his face.
"Cough, cough, that... we thought you... you only had a Magikarp, after all, we assumed you'd have come to grief somewhere. And then that Wilder brought a few of us along and looked for you as we went, only..."
"Only you never imagined my Magikarp would evolve, is that it? And never imagined I was a psychic either?"
"Yes, yes, yes. There, I've told you everything I know. Can I go now?"
"Not so fast. How am I to know whether what you've said is true? Here — look into my eyes."
Light rose in Vance's eyes as he worked hypnosis on him.
"What—"
One look and Kell's eyes went blank. He stood there like a puppet, and after that Vance asked and he answered.
"Good. You weren't lying."
A few minutes later, having got the honest answers he wanted, Vance released the hypnosis and said it.
The instant it lifted, Kell was struck with terror and dropped straight to his knees.
"I'm begging you, brother Vance, let me go. I've an old mother above me and a little brother and sister below, they're all waiting for me to come home. I can't die here. I'm begging you, spare my life."
Kell wept and wailed, the picture of a man who bitterly regretted everything.
"Just let me go like a bad smell. I'll be your beast of burden afterwards, I'll call you boss, I'll be one of your men. I'm begging you, don't kill me."
"Fine. Put your things down and go. I won't kill you."
In the middle of his begging Kell heard Vance say it, and his face lit up as he said to himself:
*Hahaha, saved. I've run into an idiot. A few pleas and he lets me walk.*
Not a trace of it showed on his face. He kept up the same grovelling, pleading look, set his things down and started off into the distance.
"Shoom—"
He had not got far when a Hyper Beam split the sky and landed on him precisely. Before he could even scream, the man was turned to dust inside the beam and vanished from the world entirely.
"Rooaar—"
The one who had fired it was, of course, the Gyarados.
"I said I wouldn't kill you. I never said my Pokémon couldn't."
Vance walked over into the crater, confirmed the man was dead and that nothing had gone amiss, gathered a few things up and left. Looking at the locator in his hand, he set off toward one of the dots.
Now came the hunt!
.........
"Damn it. He stays in camp taking his pleasure and sends me out to scout the ground. Bloody typical."
In the jungle, a young man of a fat build searched his surroundings with great care. His name was Tobin, and because of his build he had picked up the nickname Fatty. He was one of Wilder's several underlings.
"Squeak—"
The ground shifted suddenly at his feet and a Raticate came up out of the earth, chattering something at him.
Overhead, a Beedrill was flying as well.
"Still, it's hard to stay alive on this Trial Island without following somebody." Tobin said it glumly and picked up the locator in his hand.
"Oh? Kell is back from scouting already? Never mind, I'll have him come along. Safer that way."
On the locator, Kell's position was drawing closer and closer to his own.
Locator in hand, Vance appeared a hundred metres off, gave a small laugh and vanished from the spot.
"Hm? Is this thing broken? Where's it gone?" Seeing the red dot disappear, Tobin gave the locator a few slaps, and the display showed it again — behind him.
"There we are." Tobin smiled smugly, turned round to face behind him and called out: "All right, Kell, come out. I know it's you."
A figure came out from under the shadow of a tree and walked toward him.
At first Tobin could not make out the newcomer's face, and by the time he could, he saw it was not Kell.
"You—"
Tobin was about to speak when he found himself hoisted into the air.
"Crack—"
There was the sound of bone leaving its place, and Tobin's eyes went wide as his whole body slumped down limp, the breath gone out of him.
In that instant he had been killed, with no chance at all to answer.
"Squeak, squeak—"
The Raticate on the ground squeaked without stopping, full of fury. The Beedrill, though, had turned the moment he died and made straight off into the distance without lingering.
"Stop squeaking. I'll send you along with him."
Vance struck, and a Raticate's corpse was left on the ground.
At the strength he had now, dealing with a Raticate of Novice strength was no work at all.
"Nothing good here. It's all with Wilder, I expect."
Having gone through Tobin's things, Vance set out again, following the display on the locator toward the green dot.
The man had happened to be in his way, so he had dealt with him in passing.
At the Team Rocket base this one had done no small amount of swearing at him, and had been the loudest of the lot.
Five kilometres away, Wilder and his companion had just finished an activity not suitable for children, and the two of them came out of a hollow tree with their clothes in disarray and their faces flushed.
"Well? Doesn't it feel better out here? Hahaha."
Wilder laughed aloud, looking thoroughly refreshed.
His Pokémon were all standing guard nearby. Trial Island, a place of constant danger to everybody else, was near enough a holiday island to him — and in fact that was exactly what it was.