THE VROL TRILOGY (65 page)

"Query: What else can we do? My Lord, we have
analyzed every three and four-dimensional travel stream executed
via your ghanlo within the past millennia, which is the entirety of
the data that exists since the last purge."

Socrates would not lie. He could not - it was
a mathematical impossibility, as he was basically a sentient
computer program. He and Draagh (and Jennie on many occasions) had
diligently traveled to every single location recorded on his staff,
which was really known as a ghanlo - the staff merely being the
conductor for the power that the old mage carried with him, and was
connected to his DNA. It was this very connection that allowed Max
to 3D slip around Krynos' castle, but at the same time reject the
young man when a 4D slip was attempted. Draagh's ghanlo was his,
not Max's. The young man's genetic similarity to his grandfather
permitted local teleportation, but not advanced navigation via The
Hub, resulting in Max's disappearance.

"I believe I will need to try something on
the border of desperation. Yes, desperation," the immortal plainly
said. "There is one thing we have not yet attempted, and although
it sounds totally implausible we must try."

"Query: What would that be, my Lord?"

"In order to put my plan to the test we must
find Max's father."

"He could be in eternal purgatory for all we
know, my Lord, you even stated yourself that he is nowhere to be
found at present."

"Perhaps, yes perhaps, but I believe there is
someone who does know where Mija-El resides. He will be loath to
share this information with us, but we may yet convince him to
assist."

"Query: Who would this individual be, my
Lord?"

"Max's uncle, Gabriel."

"Oh my… Query: Will that really be
necessary?"

Elsewhere in the castle, Luigi Bagatelle
travelled down multiple corridors to a stairwell that led to a
basement armory in the bowels of the massive stone complex. It was
from there that the recon team would depart after meeting, planning
and gathering armaments. It was to be a unitary mission; corral a
nest of cannibals into a predefined network of caves that only had
one entrance and exit. Then, simply leave them to expire from
reduced levels.

"G! Welcome!" blurted out the very excited
Lieutenant Gunnarsson, the former Lieutenant Jennifer
Escalante.

"Good morning, Lieutenant. I assume you slept
well…"

"I did, yes I did, thank you."

Jennie smirked at her brother's formal
response in mixed company. Even though he had previously commanded
an entire fleet of highly advanced, interstellar spacecraft, he
was, at that moment, a mere ensign in a lycan army that enjoyed the
technological power of 5
^th
century Vikings, which was like comparing the power of a
bumblebee to a nuclear bomb.

"So Mr. Bagatelle, I am confident you read
the parchment of our mission objectives."

Bagatelle had indeed read the parchment. In
fact, he went over the orders three times. Not so much because he
felt it necessary, but more because he found it oddly quaint and
very cool that he was reading orders on parchment, and not on
transpaper or a personal console. He had already accustomed himself
to taking orders from his former subordinate officer and younger
sister, Jennie. That wasn't a big deal in any sense of the word. He
just felt it necessary to work harder than everyone in order to
master his skills. As soon as he mastered his skills he would be
able to supersede all of the competition - and it truly was
competition. It was mathematical and to the point. But the next
response was a phrase he thought he would never emit from his
mouth.

"Yes, ma'am. I have read and studied our
mission, and am ready to fulfill my duties."

"Excellent, then! Troops, let's hit the
road!"

Jennie led the group of a dozen lycan males
out of the armory, up the stairs and out into the main courtyard,
where Krynos was standing and waiting to see them off.

"Lieutenant - I trust your judgment in all
you do. Best of luck in your mission and please, if you encounter
any danger at all, do not hesitate to slaughter the brainless ones.
I know that Draagh insists on a more, how does he say, humane
solution, but your safety is paramount in any case."

Jennie nodded and bowed to her king. Then
turning back, motioned for her soldiers to follow. Bagatelle
brought up the rear - not because he was a lesser soldier, but due
to the fact that Jennie had assigned him to sweep behind - his
years of military experience would be put to great use even though
he was merely a lycan ensign.

As they moved out through the massive
front gate, Bagatelle looked down to see Krynos' pet sharks
playfully swimming in the expansive moat that surrounded the
castle. One of his typical chores was to feed the sharks, which
usually consisted of tipping a cow or two into the water. When
first told to do that he was mortified, as he could not imagine
torturing a poor, dumb animal in such a manner. However, his
distaste for the task waned significantly when he found that the
sharks' lunches were magically stupefied, and that they were
basically standing unconscious and would not feel a thing when they
met their demise. His niece Liliana, however, was a completely
different story - she would frequently go and toss living creatures
into the water for her
pets
,
as she called them. Bagatelle took it all in stride, realizing that
the young girl was raised in a different world.

Marching in formation in a northerly
direction, the team moved on for roughly two hours through various
landscapes - wooded areas, plateaus, rolling fields of grass, etc.
Finally they came up to the foothills of some minor mountains that
seemed to be constructed of granite. There were a number of caves
at the base of the nearest slope, and using her spyglass, Jennie
saw disheveled, heavily breathing people running about in all
directions. The team had arrived at the nest of the cannibals -
poor, unfortunate humans infected by a virus that stripped away all
logic and reason, the aforementioned replaced by an insatiable
hunger for brains… human brains. Those who were bitten, but managed
to not have their skulls cracked open and their gray matter snacked
upon, ended up being cannibals themselves. Those who were eaten
simply died, as would anyone who suffered such injury.

After Jennie had effectively placed the
majority of her troops at key positions on the perimeter, Bagatelle
moved up to confer with his sister. This in itself was not really
necessary, as the team had magically-enabled comm badges. Small,
metal emblems pinned to their leather jackets, they enabled group
communications, with each lycan hearing the others' thoughts.

"Jennie, how can we get those poor souls into
the caves without them attacking us?"

She just looked at her older brother with a
slight grin and nodded her head out into the open area. Looking out
to where she had pointed, he was startled by a number of staged
explosions that caused even more chaos than already existed, but
had the desired effect - most of the Cannibals immediately took
refuge in a large cave. Recon team members ran up and clubbed
escaping cannibals over their heads, knocking them unconscious and
leaving them on the ground. When it appeared that nearly all of the
infected were either trapped in the cave (as once in they were
unable to leave, thanks to a one-way barrier cantus that Draagh had
embedded into small stones they had brought along and placed near
the caves) team members picked up the unconscious afflicted and
tossed them into the cave.

Jennie looked on from her perch on a small
hill, and on her comm called everyone back in. Bagatelle was
assisting with the leftover afflicted, and had just tossed the last
poor soul in his prison when he looked back at his little sister in
horror. She failed to notice an escaped cannibal as it dropped down
onto her from a tree, knocking her to the ground. It took a savage
bite out of her shoulder, effectively injecting blood and saliva
into a vein, which was all that was needed in order to transfer the
proper viral dose.

Jennie immediately decapitated the mindless
machine with her katana, as she screamed out in pain. Bagatelle ran
to her side, reaching her in a matter of three seconds.

"Jennie! What… what do I do? Are you
affected?"

Jennie looked up at her older brother with an
expression of resignation. Breathing heavily, she quickly face
downwards, not wanting him to see her eyes go bloodshot.

Her head started to pound, and she started to
feel angry - extremely angry.

"G, tie me up in the tree - now."

Chapter 10 - Welcome to Lykanrol

Max awoke in a heavily wooded area to a small
ray of sunshine on his face, and even though he had completed the
transition back to his day form, he could still taste deer blood in
his mouth. Sitting up slowly, he carefully scanned the horizon to
make sure that nothing was watching him. He smelled nothing close,
aside from some wildlife and refuse - which in itself was an
indicator of the existence of hominid life forms, he had no idea
where he was in relation to Club Seven Sins, but he seemed to be
getting used to becoming lost. One thing was for sure - he needed
to find some clothes, as his change to death form shredded his
previous outfit.

Detecting no nearby presence, he leaped up
and took off in a northerly direction. He seemed to be drawn to the
north ever since he had accidentally arrived in the Los Angeles
area, although he had no idea why. He ran over the remnants of a
broken freeway for what amounted to be ten kilometers when he
finally picked up the scent of a group of lycans, along with a
small settlement of humans to the east. Curious but cautious, he
went to the settlement first, looking for clothing, which he easily
found outside on a clothesline drying in the sunshine. It took him
a bit more snooping before he found a pair of boots in a barn that
fit him sufficiently. Not finding anything that could be used as a
weapon in the poorly built structure, he ran up into a wooded area
and selected a tree branch that would function as a spear. Amping
himself to his battle form, he used his elongated, sharp
fingernails to carve a point on the end. Then, grabbing his spear,
he jumped up and headed off to where the lycans resided.

After capturing and consuming two
rabbits (and peaking his levels), Max approached a clearing, taking
care to stay downwind to decrease his chances of being detected. He
saw a main structure, surrounded by numerous huts, tents and sheds.
Focusing his vision he found that he could see heat signatures
inside the small buildings - something he had not previously been
able to do in the Rhönen Dominion. He made a mental note to test
that particular skill when and
if
he ever got home.

Smelling 3 male and 2 female lycans,
Max paused as he determined his next move - he needed allies. He
needed to find a way home, and he still had that odd urge to go
north. So, he decided to approach from a neutral position, making
plenty of noise so as to not startle the encampment. He had nothing
but bad luck with lycans since accidentally arriving in Los
Angeles, so he really had no reason to believe that this clan would
behave differently. However, as he had learned how the locals
behaved he was relatively sure he could pull off a little acting
job and be more like
them
.

Trotting down an exposed hillside, he
made sure he kicked a couple of rocks and started to whistle a tune
(which happened to be his national anthem,
el himno nacional de Nueva Argentina
). This was
enough to bring two males and a female out of the main structure.
The largest male, looking around 50 years of age, stood in between
what appeared to be his two subordinates, arms folded as he watched
Max approach.

"Who are you, ass-hat?" asked the large lycan
in the middle.

"Heya! I'm Max."

"Oh yeah? That's nice. Hey, do you know what
state you're in?"

"Umm…… California?"

The apparent leader gave Max an incredulous
stare, and then, believing he was incredibly humorous said, "No,
you dick. You're in a state of mass confusion. Leave or die."

Of course this prompted his cohorts to
snicker and guffaw. Max held his ground and kept approaching while
still holding his homemade spear.

"Hey, I'm not here for trouble.
Actually, I
am
lost. I got
dropped off by some demons and managed to escape the boundary where
I..."

"You escaped the Vrol and the boundary? Huh?
How did you do that?" the leader interrupted immediately.

"Well, I am not sure how I did it, but
I did. I'm not here for anything. I'm just trying to find my way
back… hey… you know what they are
called
?"

The leader nodded, looked at his companions
and finally gave Max a look that was more representative of what
one could consider respect.

"Yeah. I'm originally from Canada. Name's
Miles. This here's Sally and that's Indie. My mate, Sheeva, is
still sleeping. She's carrying my pup so she needs rest. Jason's
sleeping too - he had night watch. What's your name again?"

"Max. Max Gunnarsson. I'm from… umm…
Argentina… originally."

"Argentina?" asked Sally, speaking for the
first time, "isn't that in the southern part of the planet?"

Max had obviously encountered people with
more than superstitious knowledge that consisted of half-truths and
rumors. They knew of the Vrol and of the southern hemisphere. He
knew he would have to make something up quickly, and then play dumb
while he tried to get some answers out of them.