THE VROL TRILOGY (116 page)

"
That is good
news, my son. Join me as soon as you can
."

"
Got it -
where are you
?"

"
In a
beer-chugging contest
."

Max figured his grandfather would do
something like that, so he concentrated on his brother-in-law.
Bagatelle started to wake up, and had predictable amounts of pain
that Max understood, having felt an electrocantus blast before,
when Liliana knocked him back to his day form the night of the
Battle of the Blood.

"Wow, what hit me?"

"
Me. It's
easier for me to communicate via the comm. I had to shock you. Do
you remember protecting the little girl
?"

"Yeah, pretty much. It was like I was fading
in and out, but what about you? You're in assassin form. Can you go
back to phase 1, or will you go to full death mode and become an
eating machine?"

"
I don't know.
Only one way to find out, but here, take
this
."

Max jumped up onto a concrete slab, punched
his clawed hand through a thin metal wall, reached inside and
pulled an electrical line out of the cell tower shelter, and
carefully handed the insulated cable to Bagatelle so he wouldn't be
shocked by the exposed live wires.

"
If I go
crazy, shock me and wait for me to wake up
," said
Max.

Max grimaced as much as a man with a
wolf-like face could, and then concentrated, feeling his
musculature act as if it were confused - it wanted to go in both
directions, phase 3 and phase 1. But in the end it was a battle of
mental willpower over the corporeal, and Max's mind won,
successfully reverting back to his day form, right under a bright,
shining full moon. Still wearing his street, clothes, which were a
bit torn up, he did some quick repairs and conjured a similar
outfit for Bagatelle.

"Ok, let's go to Pops. He's waiting for us,"
said Max.

"Where's he at?"

"A bar in a private zoo. Rancho Las
Lomas."

Max slipped his brother-in-law over to where
Draagh was located. The two future-lycans stepped out from behind
an enclosure containing a Bengal tiger, which made the animal go
completely nuts. Other nearby animals also started acting up, so
Max threw a cantus to sedate the poor creatures. The two then
entered into a small barn-like bar full of bikers and cowboys.
There were numerous people dancing in the small establishment, with
a live band playing what was called country music, on a small
stage. Looking around, it was easy to spot Draagh, who was in the
middle of a beer-drinking contest at the bar. He easily outsized
most of the men in the establishment, which was probably why
everyone was being so friendly to him. The two walked up to him,
and he smiled as he slammed his empty beer mug down.

"My sons! It is good to see you were
successful! You have defeated the full moon! Please, have a beer
with me! It is quite refreshing!"

"Draagh, where are the burgers?" asked
Max.

"Oh, quite safe, on my table in the Hub."

"Ok, let's go. I want to see my wife now. I'm
tired."

Draagh sighed, pushed beer mugs to his
grandson and Bagatelle, and then turned to go out the small door
leading to the front of the bar.

"Draagh, hang on. This does look good," said
Max as he pushed one of the beers over to his cuñado. The immortal
Primulus grew a large smile and returned, where the three thrust up
their large, frosty mugs and pounded down what ended up being a
really tasty local brew. They then headed for the door after
finishing their beers.

Outside there were dozens of personal
conveyances called motorcycles. Each had two wheels, and an
inefficient internal combustion propulsion unit, dangerously placed
below the fuel source, which happened to be a small, metal tank
that was filled with a refined, combustible form of petroleum. To
Max and Bagatelle the vehicles looked like rolling bombs. To Draagh
they looked like a lot of fun.

"I shall have to revisit this place one day
soon, but first things first, my boys. Let us go home. We have a
hungry family awaiting the delicacies we have acquired."

Chapter 34 - Melt

Max's extended family sat around, digging
hungrily into their burgers and fries, as Liliana lightly nibbled
on some potatoes that weren't covered in cheese and gravy, watching
everyone as if she were studying them.

"Lili, sweetie, what's wrong?" asked her
mother.

"Nothing, Mami. I was just wondering
why Grandfather was dressed like a
20
^th
century purveyor of
prostitutes."

"Lili, he didn't do it on purpose. He just
searched 50 years too early for fashion trends. It's easy to do
when you're millions of years old," said Max, as he finished his
second burger.

"Yes, that much is true, my dear. But did you
not find my purple hat with the very large feather to be
fashionable? I believe I should show it to Krynos. I am certain he
would appreciate the style."

"NO!" everyone cried out in unison, but their
concerns turned to laughter when they saw the old mage snickering
under his breath.

At that very moment, none other than Krynos
walked into the dining hall, sniffing the air and smelling the new,
yet delicious scents.

"My friends and family! What is it we have
here?" asked the king, as Draagh nonchalantly waved his hand over
the burgers, doubling them in quantity; basically cloning them.

"In-N-Out burgers - Double-Doubles, from an
Old-Earth food establishment, sir. Would you like to try one? Max,
Draagh and G brought them back from the past," said Jennie, as she
delicately consumed on a fried potato.

"Hmm, I usually do not eat the red fruit," he
responded, seeing fat, juicy tomatoes in the burgers," but I
believe I shall try one."

Picking up a burger, which was dwarfed by his
enormous hand, he eyed it appraisingly, and then closing his eyes,
he took a bite. Everyone watched with great curiosity, as Krynos
was known to eat only the most basic of foods, and even then
usually close to raw.

"Hm. Hmmm. Ermm," he hummed with a full
mouth. "This is… this is most excellent!" exclaimed the king, as he
grew a wide smile. "We should have these hand foods at least once
every fortnight!"

"Please, my king try these - they are
potatoes, but prepared in a manner unfamiliar in our region,"
pleaded Liliana, as she held up a small box of fried potatoes.

Taking some, he looked at them finding them
to be curiously small, so he stuffed them into his burger and took
another bite.

"It shall be tradition, Commander Gunnarson,
and I wish for you to lead a raid on this land and bring these
experts to my castle where we shall-"

"Um, sir," interrupted Max, "we can't go and
kidnap poor fry cooks. They're just kids."

"But, why not? They should be honored
that they could ply their wares within the castle walls. Look, I
shall allow them to be turned. Lycan culinarians of the hand-held…
what are these called? The
doubling
?"

"Double-Double, but that's not the point, my
liege. These are children from the distant past. In fact, they are
living in an excellent era. It was roughly a decade before global
society started to feel the effects of poor governance, which was a
precursor to the formation of the Exodus barge fleet," advised
Bagatelle.

Krynos, my brother. I believe I have a
solution," Draagh said, as he attempted to salvage the
situation.

"And what would that be, old friend?"

"We can teach the current staff to prepare
these burgers. In fact, I believe this would be an excellent
opportunity for Max to practice his knowledge transferal
skills."

"Oh yeah! I did that once already!" exclaimed
Max.

"You did? How did you do that, Max?" asked
Jessica, who was fortunate enough to be sampling burgers along with
the group.

"Um, your… friend… Marko. I taught him
bartending in seconds."

"Oh, I see…" Jessica stammered.

Max knew he was going to have to speak with
the two eventually. Jessica believed Marko had given their son over
to the Vrol, but the lycan male insisted that the child was dying,
and he had adhered to some moral code and had comforted the child
until it expired. In any case, he put it to the back of his mind
and enjoyed another burger.

###

The following morning, Max woke up with
the sun penetrating his east-facing window. Jennie was wrapped up
all over him like spaghetti, and Liliana was sprawled out on her
back at the far end of their massive bed, her head hanging over the
edge, which exacerbated her snoring. They had all passed out from
what was colloquially referred to as a
food coma
.

Unwrapping his wife and pulling her close
into his arms, she woke up slowly and murmured a bit. He loved just
looking at her, and was truly regretful that she had suffered for
six months, while he only waited a few days before they were
reunited.

She's more beautiful when
she awakes than most are in a lifetime
, he thought,
paraphrasing an old song. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Jennie
mumbled that she needed to get up and start her day.

"Shhh, just stay here for a minute, love. We
aren't used to eating that kind of food."

"Yeah baby, let's try to steer Krynos away
from opening a fast food place in the castle," she whispered.

Max was about to respond, but was interrupted
by a substantial thump on the floor. Sitting up quickly, they both
noticed that Liliana had rolled off the bed. Max scrambled to the
front of the bed and peered over the edge - where Liliana was on
the floor, still asleep and still snoring.

"Wow, she's out cold," he said. "I'm gonna
put he in her room. Be right back," he finished with a devious
grin. Jennie smiled and wiggled her eyebrows, and as soon as Max
dropped down to the floor and popped out of view, Jennie ran to the
sink and furiously brushed her teeth, getting the taste of
hamburger out of her mouth.

I think I'll take my time getting to the
office today.

A couple of hours later, the pair walked into
the main dining hall, where Bagatelle was eating his breakfast,
accompanied by Jessica, Gabriel, Michael and Clarisa.

"Morning, Max, Jen. Slept well?" asked the
former rear admiral.

The couple looked at each other and smirked,
and after Max kissed his mother on the cheek they all sat down
together, passing on breakfast, and instead only drinking their
beloved yerba mate.

"So, when Draagh shows up let's discuss how
we can get the new comms made and installed in your agents," said
Max.

"Yeesh, Max.
Installed
- that sounds so… impersonal, but I
get the idea," laughed Bagatelle.

"What do you guys mean -
installed
? What comms are you
talking about?" asked Jennie.

"We're going to make techno-organic speakers
that are implanted into the cochlea of the user's ear. Then, on an
awesome suggestion by G, we'll put the activation switch right
here," Max explained, as he held up his hand and pushed his thumb
into the middle of his first finger.

"Oh, so will the comms be telepathic?" asked
Jessica.

"No, sadly we can't do that. Most agents are
normals, and even if they had recessive lycan genes, we couldn't
activate them or they'd go nuts during Azul's two-day full moons,"
Bagatelle informed the cute lycan woman from an alternate timeline.
"They will need to speak, albeit in a whisper, but they'll hear
communications inside their heads, through their inner ears. It's
the next best thing. Plus, the devices will be untraceable, and
won't use electromagnetic wavelengths for signal transference."

"Nice. I'll pretend I understood all that,"
quipped Jessica, with a certain amount of self-effacing humor.

Ok, then. Let's all get to our tasks. G and I
are going to the old guy's office. Gabriel, are you coming with
us?"

The archangel nodded and got up to go to his
father's quarters. Max kissed his wife, and then looked down at her
left hand. He hadn't noticed before - she was wearing his mother's
wedding ring.

"Jen, how did you - when did you?" he
stammered, looking over at his mother.

"Oh, Maxie, I thought it was about damned
time. Your father, well, Charles - he died years ago and I simply
have no use for it. It is where it belongs now," Clarisa said with
a huge, warm smile, as she scooted over and kissed her
daughter-in-law on the cheek.

"Ok, sounds good to me!" he responded, but
then looked down at his own ring finger, which was without any
ornamental jewelry. Quickly, he smiled, spun his hand around, much
like a magician of old and said, "Ta-da!" and was displaying a
simple wedding band made of gold.

"I want all of the ladies to know that
I'm taken. You know, it
is
tough getting hit on all the time and stuff…"

"Oh shut up, you dork!" Jennie jokingly
scolded him, slapping his posterior as he passed by to go to start
his day.

###

Max, Bagatelle, Gabriel and Michael sat in
Draagh's study as the old mage rummaged through books and scrolls,
apparently searching for something. They were there to formulate a
plan to eliminate the barges, or at least make it impossible for
any retrofitting of FTL hook drives to be possible.

"We'll need to first make sure that Johnson
can't jump on a military vessel and flee," said Bagatelle.