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Chapter 15
(4/15/06 0900 Marco Island)
Elizabeth appeared and grimaced at the bright sun. She let her passenger go and pulled up the hood of her cloak before looking around. When she saw him she smiled and hugged Jamie. “Hi, son.”
He hugged her back. “Mother Elizabeth.”
The vampire indicated the man she’d brought. “Jamie, this is Cesare Jones. He’s training to be a physician and he’ll be providing medical care for you and your trainees for a while.”
Cesare was a painfully skinny man who still showed the signs of recent deprivation. His skin was so black as to be blue and his hair was short and wiry. He grinned and bowed. “Your highness.”
Jaime could almost hear the eyebrows going up on the people behind him. “Hello, Cesare. I’m known as Major Wolf, here; Jamie, when things are relaxed.”
“Yes, sir. I will remember that.” He gave Jamie a wide smile. “I’m just so glad to be part of the Kingdom.” He held up his right arm. “I lost this three years ago and Maude grew it back for me. That’s why I’m becoming a tradesman. I want to help others like I was helped.” He tapped the single pokeball on his belt. It was white and covered with red crosses.
“Cesare, why don’t you introduce yourself to everyone else.” Jamie glanced at Elizabeth as the former Tropic Leaguer bobbed his head enthusiastically and started meeting the others. “Is his pokegirl one of the Glasgow joys?”
She nodded. “Her name is Emily. She was working in a pokegirl center in the city when the disaster struck. She was off shift, which explains why she was in her pokeball at the time.”
“Ah. Does everyone in the Tropic League speak English with a Scottish accent?”
Elizabeth chuckled and lowered her voice. “They’re all from Haiti and most of them only spoke French and Creole. They believe they were taught English with a spell and don’t know anything about Alexandria and Selene, much less teaching machines. We’re putting them in the school and we’ll keep the magic charade going for as long as possible to keep everyone else in the dark.” She gave him a wink. “I was the template for English speech patterns. I voted for Dorothea, but everyone else was against it.”
“You’ve got a cruel streak. How’s my sister?”
She got that look mothers get when talking about their children. “Melanie is fine. She’s started classes and training with her father. I’m going to kill Kozakura, however, if she teaches my daughter any more Japanese curse words.”
“Promise? I can arrange for her to be blamed when Melanie learns some really good ones.”
She burst into laughter. “I know you don’t hate her.”
“She’s ok some days, but I got tired of the ‘me kami, you moron’ bit a long time ago.” Jamie shrugged. “Sometimes I still see it in her eyes.”
His mother nodded. “I see it, too, from time to time. Shikarou says she walks the edge of being oni in her beliefs but that so far she has done nothing objectionable.” She grimaced. “I’m glad for that too, because Kasumi would deal with it herself and it would break her heart.”
“She should go to Edo and look for a mate.”
“I think that she’s just out of her element. She headed off to Edo just as soon as she came of age and now she’s surrounded by Westerners again. In addition to that, the reputation she worked so hard to build in Edo is gone and she’s got to start over and this time it’s in a place that is likely to be quite hostile to tamers not under the control of the government.”
Jamie frowned. “I never thought about it that way, but I’m afraid my sympathy for her is limited. Still, give her my love.”
“I will.” Elizabeth kissed him on the cheek. “Be safe, Jamie.” She vanished.
He watched the spot where she’d stood and muttered, “I’ll try.”
Madison touched his shoulder. “Sir, are you all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He shook his head. “Have Ginevra cut them loose for an early lunch. I want them back at ten thirty. We’ll start working with them then.”
***
(4/15/06 1030 Marco Island)
Jamie looked over the group. “Cesare, how about we start by meeting Emily?”
“I think you’ll like her,” Jones chuckled as he pulled the pokeball from his belt and activated it.
Emily was a typical Glasgow nursejoy, slender, with shoulder length black hair, olive skin and chocolate brown eyes. She was wearing a white nurse’s outfit that was very short and mostly lace. She smiled slyly as she looked around. “Hi.”
Paige’s ears went back and she hissed softly.
“Major, this is Emily.” Cesare’s eyes twinkled with glee. “Emily, this is Major Jamie Wolf. He’s one of the princes.”
The nursejoy’s eyes widened. “Really? A prince?” She sauntered up to Jamie and winked. “Hi, your highness, I’m Emily.” She arched slightly, lifting her chest and reached out with a finger to touch the tip of her right breast. “This is hummina and this,” she touched her left breast gently, “is ooooohhh. We’re all pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Joshua’s mouth dropped and he turned bright red.
Cesare began cackling with laughter as Emily turned around, wriggled her ass and sauntered back to her tamer. Jamie fought not to roll his eyes or laugh at the expressions on the faces of the new tamers.
“I think we’ll start by doing some sparring. This is going to progress slowly until Kerrik gets back. The reason for that is: none of you has the right reflexes for battling, yet; and it would look bad if I let one of you get killed so early in the training. To that end, I’ll be taking you in turn and walking you through the motions of battling.” He glanced to the side. “Ginevra.”
The demoness stepped forward and held out a sheaf of papers. “I have here a summary transcript for each of you with a breakdown of the techniques your pokegirl knows. Take it and look it over. We understand that you don’t know what these mean or how they work, but the major will walk you through that briefly before the sparring starts.” She grinned evilly. “I’ll try not to hurt your alphas too badly. Honest.”
Tamers and pokegirls put their heads together as the tamers looked over the papers.
Jamie let them study the information for about ten minutes before nodding to Ginevra. “Sergeant.”
She smiled cheerily. “Corporal Weinstein and Yonit, you are up first.”
Joshua nodded and stuffed the piece of paper into his shirt pocket. “Yonit, get into battle position.”
“That’s a good way to do it, Joshua, since she knows where she’s supposed to be.” Weinstein grinned at Jamie’s praise as his tigress moved in front of her tamer and rolled her shoulders. “By the bye, you can keep the paper out until you’ve memorized what she can do and it comes automatically for you.” Jamie looked around at everyone. “One of the worst things you can do is use the same techniques over and over. It makes you predictable and, as I’ve been told, predictable is one step short of being dead.”
“Thanks, major.” Joshua dug the paper out again. “That will help.”
“Before we get started, something that everyone needs to keep in mind is that pokegirls are much tougher than humans. They can take and give out far more damage than we can, without resorting to artificial aids. They also have a wide selection of ranged attacks of various sorts. Tamers must always be aware of what’s going on in a battle because those attacks will not just disappear if they miss. They will hit whatever is behind the target. They will damage whatever is behind the target.” Jamie’s voice rose. “WHEN YOUR POKEGIRL IS THE TARGET OF AN ENEMY, YOU ARE BEHIND THE TARGET!” He smiled slightly when several people jumped at his bellow. “I cannot stress this enough. If you are hit by almost any pokegirl technique, you will be hurt and it is very likely you will be incapacitated or killed.” For a moment, his eyes met Carver’s and she slowly nodded. “This means that you cannot ever afford to be distracted in a pokegirl battle, even if there are rules in place that tamers are not legitimate targets. Don’t answer your phone, don’t try to reference a book or computer, and never, ever turn your back on what’s happening.”
“This also means that you really need to make sure your pokegirls are fond of you, so that when it finally happens and you are the target of an attack, be it accidental or deliberate, they’ll be willing to throw themselves in front of you and take the hit so you can keep fighting them. They will survive damage that would turn you into a grease spot; if you are a team, she’ll be willing to do this sort of thing for you. In return, they need to be able to trust that you will get the hell out of the way when somebody is charging up a hyper beam or solar beam to try and obliterate you, so they can focus on taking her down instead of having to protect your fragile carcass with their own.”
“In return, they need to know that you will do your absolute best to heal them up or save their life when they finally fall. That is the level of trust that pokegirls and tamers need to have to be really successful. The fact that leaguers seem to be unwilling to treat their pokegirls as well as they should means their pokegirls may hesitate to take that hit and that gives you an advantage.” He grinned. “Tamers are the weakest part of a harem and that makes them a prime target. If his pokegirl won’t protect him, your job gets much easier.”
Jamie pulled his pokedex from his belt. “In the end, it boils down to the fact that if you and your pokegirls trust each other implicitly, you can become almost unbeatable.”
He activated it and looked up. “Yonit has access to heart of darkness, which means it’s very likely she evolved from a goth pokegirl instead of a catgirl.” He looked up and gestured. “Ginevra, post.”
The demoness moved into position and went into a crouch. “I am recording and ready.”
“Recording?”
“Corporal, it’s our policy to record all of our battles, both for later review as well as to give me a record in case anyone challenges the results.”
Weinstein nodded. “Does everyone in Haven get a pokedex?”
“All of the tamers do. We’re still working on our manufacturing so we can contract with the leagues to provide them for outlanders.”
Carver frowned. “You aren’t a league?”
Jamie shook his head. “Nope. The leagues were created by a body in the United Nations. We had nothing to do with that.”
“How can you be so well supplied?”
“We brought a lot of stuff with us. You saw the lighter. It makes transport fairly easy.”
“Where did you come from?”
“Right now, I can’t answer that question.” Jamie raised a hand when Carver started to speak again. “I really can’t, and if you insist on asking, I’ll have to leave.”
“Why are you here and helping us? Can you answer that?”
“I promised to help. It’s true that helping you will give us a market for our supplies and you’ll tell the people you come across, which will give us more customers; but the real reason I’m here is that I said I would help you.”
“Are you at war with the Indigo League?”
“No. As far as I know, they don’t know we exist.”
Cesare grinned. “The Tropic League knows we’re there, though and they’ll tell everyone else about how you stole Cuba, I mean Haven, from them.”
“You have a point. Right now, I have no evidence that the Indigos know I’m here or that you’re becoming tamers.” Jamie rubbed his chin. “If they did, we’d probably have company by now unless they thought they could make you like them.”
“Not a fucking chance,” Carver muttered. “I’ll see them in hell first.”
“Then we need to get started.” Jamie looked at Weinstein. “You’ve got the list of techniques that Yonit knows, order her to attack Ginevra.”
The tigress grinned and cracked her knuckles. “I’m not a tyro, demon. You’re going to get hurt.”
Joshua frowned. “Is trash talk normal in these battles?”
“Trash talk? Oh, you mean insults.” Jamie nodded. “Psychological warfare is very important in any fight.”
“Why isn’t Ginevra doing it back?”
“I’m going to kick her ass, not talk about doing it.” The demoness gave Weinstein a disgusted look. “If you ever stop talking and talking. I grow tired of this.”
Jamie chuckled. “Ok, Joshua, you’d better do something before Gin clobbers your pokegirl.”
“Um, Yonit, use gust punch.”
The tigress pulled back her arm and drove it forward in a blur as it started to glow. There was a rush of air and five meters away, Ginevra was knocked off her feet. She rolled and came back up with a grin. “That was a bloody love tap. You’ll have to do harder than that, pussy.”
Yonit yowled as her ears went flat. “I doubt you can hit as hard, demon.”
“Permission, master?”
Jamie sighed. “One hit, since she challenged you, but then it’s back to business. No rearranging the terrain and nothing that will hurt her too much.”
Ginevra grinned. “I won’t make you stand still for it like I did, pussy.” She put her hands together and a torrent of water erupted from them.
Yonit threw herself sideways but was too slow and the hydro pump smashed her flying. She landed heavily and was still for a heartbeat before popping to her feet. She shook her head and water flew everywhere. Her ears were back and she growled low in her throat.
Joshua wiped water from his eyes. “Yonit, stand down and return to your post.”
The tigress gave him a startled look and straightened. “Yes, master.” She loped back into position and went into a crouch.
“Good call, corporal.” Jamie gave Weinstein an approving look. “You recognized the fact that she was about to attack on her own and reined her in. That’s an important part of a tamer’s job, to recognize when things may be moving out of control or when his pokegirl is starting to tunnel vision. We are our pokegirl’s eyes and we always need to remember that.”
“Sir, you told Ginevra not to hurt Yonit too badly and, since you didn’t say anything, I figured she has something devastating that might do a lot of damage to her. I was being prudent until I had more intel.”
Jamie looked surprised. “I gave that much away? Good catch, corporal.” He flashed a grin. “I have an advantage since I also have a printout of the techniques available to your pokegirls. I got that info when I scanned them for you. Your enemies won’t have that edge, but then, neither will you, in regards to them.”
“As your pokegirls become more experienced, they may learn other techniques, either on their own, by being taught them or by learning something that they saw used. It’s good to have a mix of melee as well as ranged techniques or your pokegirl will eventually end up in a situation where she’ll be at a serious disadvantage. Another thing to do is, if you have friends, their pokegirls and yours can learn from each other. The same can happen between girls in a harem. Just remember that you’ll have to order it. Pokegirls don’t normally share techniques since it goes against their competitive nature.”
“As you become more comfortable working with your pokegirls, I recommend letting them have more initiative in and out of battle. Not only does it prove you trust them, but it allows them to adjust to the fluid environment of battle without waiting for your input. In addition, it frees you up to look out for the threats she may have missed instead of agonizing over which of her myriad techniques to order her to use. However, that’s personal choice and entirely up to you.”
Weinstein looked at his paper. “Most of Yonit’s techniques are hand to hand, so I’d want her to close with her opponent whenever possible.”
“Yes. That allows her to bring her enhanced strength into play as well. Not all pokegirls have enhanced strength and you need to use every advantage you have. Your opponent will. There are no prizes for coming in second.”
Joshua nodded. “Yonit, close and get her!” The tigress raced forward and slashed at Ginevra, who backpedaled wildly, making Jamie dodge as she backed up. The tigress crowded her, claws raking bloody lines in the demoness’ skin. The air seemed to flicker and darken as Yonit activated heart of darkness in an attempt to crush Ginevra’s will to fight.
Ginevra’s eyes pulsed green and, suddenly, she was deflecting every strike harmlessly to the sides. They stood for several seconds with Yonit trying vainly to get through the demoness’ defenses.
Yonit screamed and the air seemed to vibrate with the power of the kitten’s roar.
Ginevra slid backwards several meters from the sonic blast but kept her feet. A shimmering ball of magenta energy appeared in front of her and a series of beams pulsed from it to take Yonit in the center of the chest. The tigress crumpled and went into convulsions as the psywave scrambled her nervous system.
The ball vanished as Ginevra ended the attack. Yonit’s convulsions ceased and she took a deep, shuddering breath. Her eyes opened and a shocked look appeared when she saw Ginevra standing over her, offering her a hand. The demoness pulled her roughly to her feet. “You are overconfident, but you have some small skill.”
“Th…thank you, sergeant.”
“See Tradesman Cesare and Emily for healing.”
“Yessir.”
The tigress moved painfully in the direction of Cesare while Ginevra moved back into position in front of Jamie. She glowed briefly and her wounds vanished. “Next.”
***
(4/15/06 1030 Capital League)
“Hi, Winston, would you mind if I borrowed Alice for a moment?” Glinda leaned in the door and smiled at her tamer. “I need her advice.”
Winston looked at Alice, who shrugged. “I don’t know what she wants.”
“Hurry back, we’ve still got to plan our sweep down into California.” Winston rubbed his eyes. “I’ll see about getting us some coffee.”
“We’re almost out, so go easy on it.” The snugglebunny followed Glinda outside. “What is this about?”
The sorceress shook her head. “Not here. Just come with me.” She led Alice outside and behind the storage building where they held unused casks and their collection of scavenged bottles. Paul really wanted to find a supply of bottles that all matched; so far, they’d been unable to find anyone making glass who was interested in such small orders. This meant they were scavenging any bottles they could find and sanitizing them for his bottling experiments.
“What is out here that you need my advice for?”
“It’s inside.”
Once she was inside, Alice stopped and stared. This room had been emptied recently as part of Paul’s campaign to get rid of the stuff nobody was using. Kerrik stood in the middle of the room. He’d been handcuffed with his hands behind his back and stripped of all of his clothing. His hair had even been unbraided and hung loose around his nude body. He was completely still, with not even his ears moving. His gear was piled haphazardly in a corner.
Tattypoo sat on a box, holding a pistol negligently in her hand. “Alice, we found him, can we eat him?”
The snugglebunny shook her head slowly. “Why are you hiding him here?”
“Winston would get squeamish if he thought we might kill him, so we thought we’d not bother him with our guest’s presence while you gave us permission to eat him.” Tattypoo grinned. “He looks pretty tasty, doesn’t he?”
“Who is he?”
“My name is Kerrik Wolf.”
Tattypoo leveled the pistol. “You, be quiet! Nobody is talking to you.”
“Or what, you’ll shoot me with my own pistol, make a lot of noise and draw Winston out to find out what’s going on?” He turned to Alice as Tattypoo sputtered angrily. “You’ll have to touch me to prove that my story is true.”
Alice was staring at his ears as Tattypoo jumped to her feet and advanced on Kerrik. “Tattypoo, wait.” The enchantress gave her a glare but paused. “What are you?”
“I’m a kami; I have had nothing to do with Sukebe, and I am not now, nor have I ever been, human. I also don’t mean any harm in coming here, but I am not going to allow myself to be killed or consumed.”
“Why are you here?” Alice slowly moved forward, flanked by Glinda.
“I have a gift for the winery and a business offer.” If his nudity bothered him, it didn’t show as he continued. “I may also have a place for more refugees in Operation Cowslip.”
“What do you know about that, and how do you know it?”
“I know that the program is supposed to find understanding humans and place pokegirls with them who can guide them in making a better world for pokegirls. I also know that the leagues are working to dehumanize pokegirls. They’re succeeding, too. As for how I know this stuff, a snugglebunny named Alice told me. She’s sort of your many times great granddaughter; the eighteenth Alice, if I understand correctly.”
Alice cocked her head. “Sort of my great granddaughter? Presuming you’re telling the truth, how can someone be ‘sort of’ a relative?”
“I want to kill him!” Tattypoo lunged.
Kerrik hopped over her head and landed next to Alice. “The short version is that I came to this world from another pokegirl world where the timeline has advanced to over three hundred years from now. The Alice number eighteen that I knew was the direct parthenogenic child of the Alice who was with that world’s Winston Archer. It’s likely her genetics will still be identical to yours.” He focused behind the snugglebunny. “Excuse me if I suddenly move, but Tattypoo wants to keep playing.”
Glinda burst out laughing. “He’s funny.”
Alice reached out and took Kerrik by the arm. She froze, and then her eyes widened. Kerrik grabbed her up and jumped out of the way of Tattypoo’s charge.
Alice shivered and Kerrik carefully put her down, before backing away quickly. Tattypoo frowned. “How’d you get free?”
Kerrik tossed her the handcuffs. “I can escape from those things in my sleep, if I ever go to sleep.”
“Don’t attack him,” Alice was rubbing her arms slowly, “and give him his clothes. He wouldn’t like the elves getting excited over him and, right now, we don’t need the disruption.”
“I want to kill him.”
Alice rounded on the enchantress. “I don’t think you’d succeed and I need you alive. He may be useful, too.”
Tattypoo blinked. “Is he really that dangerous?”
The snugglebunny glanced at Kerrik, who was standing with his arms clasped behind his back and rocking on the balls of his feet. His hair swirled around him, draping his body in silvery white threads that moved counterpoint to his motion. “Yes, he is.”
Tattypoo walked up to Kerrik and looked him in the eyes. “Are you?”
“Would you take it as a challenge if I said yes?”
A slow smile appeared on her face. “I might.”
“Then, I respectfully decline to answer that question. Are you going to attack me if I turn away from you to get my clothes?”
“Probably not.” She looked him up and down with an interested look. “I don’t see where you need clothes.”
“Like Alice said, I don’t want to get mobbed by elves. I’ve avoided taming any of them so far and I’d like to continue that trend. She sounded like she thought it might be a problem if I went outside nude. Besides, Winston might not appreciate me being undressed with his pokegirls and I don’t want to cause trouble here. Is he that understanding?”
Tattypoo’s smile vanished. “No, he’s not. Get dressed.”
Kerrik threw on his clothes and picked up his gear. He twirled his staff and draped it over his shoulder. “Can I have my pistol, por favor señorita?”
“No. Winston will decide if you get that back.”
Kerrik’s ears went flat for a heartbeat. He started to say something, stopped and shrugged.
Alice looked at him, curiously. “What were you going to say?”
“Nothing useful.” Her hand twitched in his direction and he stepped away from her. “Nothing personal, but I don’t know you that well, yet. I’m not big into touching with strangers.”
“Tattypoo is right, you are annoying.”
“I get that a lot.”
“Kerrik, I don’t want you to say anything to Winston about Operation Cowslip.”
“I won’t.”
Glinda snickered. “I wonder what Winston will think of him?”
“There’s really only one way to find out. This way, Mr. Wolf.”
Tattypoo grabbed a handful of his hair. “How can you walk with loose hair?”
“It takes a lot of practice.” She jumped when his hair pulled itself from her grasp and, quickly, wove itself into a thick braid. “That’s better.”
Once outside, Alice looked at Glinda. “Find Paul and ask him to meet us in the conference room. Tell him it’s important.”
The sorceress nodded. “This won’t take long since I know that, right now, he should be at the pond with Deirdre.”
Tattypoo stayed with Kerrik the entire walk to the main building. “If you try to escape, I’ll get to kill you.”
“I wasn’t aware I was a prisoner. So far, I’m getting what I want.”
She scowled and dropped back to keep an eye on him.
Alice gave him a curious look. “You are aware of how dangerous she is, correct?” He nodded. “Why do you keep taunting her?”
“I should probably stop. She means well enough and she’s being protective of everyone here.” He chuckled briefly. “She was away with Raul, so I didn’t get to meet her when I visited the winery on Earth Prime. She and Glinda hoped to become pokewomen during his life and were keeping an especially close eye on him.”
“Who is Raul?” Tattypoo pushed him gently.
His hands twitched as one ear rotated to track the enchantress. “Raul Archer was the head of the Archer family in 319 AS and the direct descendant of Winston and Alice Archer.”
Alice’s head whipped around. “I’m going to have a son?”
“That Alice did. The odds are pretty good that you will, too, after you become a pokewoman. She also had at least one parthenogenic litter so that there would always be an Alice working at the vineyard.”
“What about Paul’s kids?”
“The Bloody Flu made a tiny percentage of human males sterile when it sterilized the majority of human women. Paul McNeal was one of them.”
Alice looked stunned. “Deirdre will be heartbroken.”
Kerrik shook his head. “If we can work out a trade agreement, I’ll take a look at Paul if he wants me to. Not all of the flu’s effects are beyond my abilities.”
Her eyes widened. “Are you going to fix the sterile women? That might undermine Cowslip.”
“In some specific cases, yes; but, otherwise, I don’t plan to. Pokegirls are part of this world and I don’t see any reason to change that, in most cases.”
Tattypoo frowned. “What would constitute a case where you might change that?”
“Mostly what we call the menace pokegirls. Leviathaness, panthresses, widows and mantis pokegirls serve no useful function and I’ll eradicate them where I find them.”
“What’s a widow?”
“A widow is, to the best of my knowledge, an unanticipated evolution of the arachnae. It’s pretty nasty and has something called hyper venom that has only one known cure. It exists only to eat, until it lays hundreds of eggs and dies; and can depopulate a very wide region in a short amount of time.”
Alice’s eyes went wide. “That’s horrible.”
“I lost a grandson and his three pokegirls to a widow,” he replied, grimly. “That same widow killed fifty two other tamers and their harems, for a grand total of two hundred and twenty six people who died to destroy it. That doesn’t count the victims it killed before the tamers engaged it. I will kill them where, and when, I find them.”
Tattypoo grinned. “You’re ok.” She opened the door to the conference room and ushered them in.
A sandy haired man with ice blue eyes looked up from his cup and frowned. “I see we have a visitor.”
Alice slipped around Kerrik and settled down next to her tamer, running her hand down his arm as she did so. “That’s right. Winston, this is Kerrik Wolf and he’s got a business proposition for us and Paul. Kerrik, this is Winston Archer.”
Winston nodded and pushed a thermos towards Kerrik. “Sit and have some coffee.”
“Thank you.” Kerrik dropped his pack and staff near the wall. He dropped into the chair Tattypoo pointed at and poured a cup. He sipped and his ears flicked.
Tattypoo chuckled. “It’s awful, isn’t it?”
“Well, I’m afraid the last time I had coffee that tasted like this, I was in Russia during World War Two, and they were filtering it through bread,” Kerrik said slowly. “I have some roasted Haven coffee beans in my backpack, could I offer them as a greeting gift?”
“Yes,” Winston said without hesitation. “I was planning to include coffee in my charges for the job we were going to do, but I’d probably be given instant.”
Kerrik opened his pack and pulled out a bag. “Here. Café cubano is best made as an espresso and is very strong. It should be served with sugar and can be served with milk.” He smiled slightly and pulled out another small bag and a thermos. “Here is some sugar and milktit milk. It’s been heated to kill the enzymes that cause lactation.”
Alice blinked. “That stops the process? You know a lot about pokegirls.”
“I’ve got a source of information. Depending on what we decide, I may make portions of it available for you to add to your pokegirl index.”
“Anything you can add would be welcome.” Winston watched Alice leave the room with the coffee. “You had a business deal and she’s not making any comments against it, so it should help us a lot.” He frowned. “Do you know about her kind of pokegirl?”
“Snugglebunnys are professional spies and touch telepaths. I’m familiar with them, but I’ve only met two, so far.” He sipped at his cup again and made a face. “I’d like to wait until everyone who is involved in decision making is present, so I only have to make my little presentation once. Alice sent Glinda to get Paul.”
“That makes sense. Are those ears real?”
Kerrik flicked them rapidly. “Yes. I’m not human and I’m not poke anything. I’m a kami, which is a Japanese spirit creature that’s supposed to work for good.”
He broke off when the door opened and Glinda came in, followed by a titodile and a young man wearing a lab coat over his clothes. He grinned. “Hi, Win. What did you need to see me for?”
“Have a seat. The fellow with the ears is Kerrik Wolf and he’s got a proposition for us.”
The titodile giggled. “Everyone has ears, boss, even me.” She blinked and leaned over to peer at Kerrik. “He’s got funny ears, though.”
Alice came in with a thermos and handed it to Winston. “You get the first try.”
He grinned as he filled his cup with it. “It’s good to be the king.” He sipped and made a happy noise. “Sir, this is wonderful.”
“What is he babbling about?”
Alice slid the thermos in Paul’s direction. “Kerrik brought real coffee and I made a fresh pot.”
“He brought real coffee? Gimmie.” Paul grabbed for the thermos as Deirdre made a face. He chuckled at her expression. “That just leaves more for me.”
“Boss, that’s nasty stuff.”
Once Glinda and Tattypoo had cups of the new coffee, Winston turned to Kerrik. “You had a proposition?”
Kerrik pulled a compact computer from his pack. “Actually, first I have a gift.” He slid the unit in Paul’s direction.
“What is this?”
“Ok; first, I have an explanation; and then I have a gift.” Kerrik nodded towards the snugglebunny. “First of all, Alice has touched me and can verify that I can’t lie. This is something that you need to keep in mind while I’m explaining, because it does sound a bit fanciful.”
“Normally I wouldn’t explain this, but Alice already knows and I’m sure I can trust that you won’t pass this information along. I, and my family, came here from a different world. On that world, history unfolded almost identically to how it’s happening here, except for the difference that, on that world, the legendary pokegirls destroyed a lot of the available land in various places all over the planet. That made it a lot easier for the leagues to consolidate their holds on the remaining populace.”
“We lived in the Blue League, which is what had been Great Britain and the year was 319 AS, which would correspond to 2321 in the Gregorian calendar.”
Winston’s eyes were getting bigger and bigger. He looked at Alice and she nodded. He didn’t look reassured. “That means that events there are three hundred years ahead of events here.”
“Correct. When we determined that we had to leave the Blue League, it was decided that we’d move to another world and, eventually, this one was chosen.”
“Why did you leave?” Tattypoo’s eyes were intense.
Kerrik paused for a moment and Winston sighed. “I’m going to have Alice verify what you’re saying, so trying to put together a good lie is a waste of time.”
“I cannot lie.” Kerrik’s ears flattened for a second. “I was deciding whether or not I could ignore the question entirely. However, since I have told you that, you’re likely to insist that I answer. My son, Shikarou, had built a community on an island on the periphery of Scotland, in the Outer Hebrides. It was off the beaten path and difficult for the league to police. His community was a place where pokegirls could be citizens equal to that of everyone else, and the league wasn’t too keen on that concept. In addition, Shikarou is a kami, like me, while his brother Faelan, who also lived there, was sidhe. Unless killed by violence, kami live until they choose to die and so, like sidhe, are effectively immortal. They can interbreed with humans and produce fertile offspring and the league administrators wanted that gift for themselves.”
“What about pokegirls?” Paul sipped at his coffee. “Could they breed with them, too?”
“From where I sit, pokegirls are as human as you are and, yes, they can. When Shikarou’s women started producing kami children, the league was seriously spooked. When you add the fact that Shikarou had a supply of gold that they couldn’t find or touch, they decided that he had to go. We left before they could start killing us.”
“We moved onto the island of Cuba and renamed it Haven. Shikarou is the king of the Kingdom of Haven and he and his brother, along with their families and supporters, are building a home there.”
“Shikarou is a bit particular about the wine and beer he drinks. He finally found a place that produces both to his taste and, I must admit I like it, too. That place is the Archer Winery in the Capitol League. Because of that, when we started planning to leave, I visited the winery. There, I talked to Alice, the direct descendant of the Alice that was with that Winston.” He looked around the room. “Are you with me so far?”
“Yes.” Winston’s eyes were watching Kerrik intently. “What was your purpose in going there?”
“I suspected that the winery here and today would still be working to establish the procedures to make the wines and beer that I like.”
“Wine, maybe, but I haven’t considered making beer.” Paul shrugged. “It’s not something that excites me.”
“Hopefully, you’ll reconsider. Alice gave me the collected journals and recipes of three hundred years of master vintners at the Archer Winery, including those of the other Paul McNeal. The data also includes crop development, and yeast formulas, as well as what worked and what didn’t. I’d ignore the meteorological data since the weather here will be very different. Here, the land masses weren’t heavily damaged by Typhonna.”
Kerrik dug into his pack and produced a leather satchel and a meter long tube. He opened it to reveal a dozen glass bottles. “Alice also gave me samples of the yeasts they were using in 319, as well as samples of the grape vines and hops they were using. Your elfqueen will be able to speed their growth and give you fields of them for next year.”
Paul stared at the items with an expression of extreme lust. He blinked and took a deep breath. “I doubt we’ll be able to afford to pay for that stuff.”
“You don’t need to sound like your best friend died. Alice gave these to me because she knew I was going to give them to you, not sell them. They’re yours. All I ask is that you make beer, according to the recipe in the database.”
Paul’s hands twitched but he turned his head and looked at Winston and Alice. “You make better decisions than I do. Can we trust him?”
“Take them,” Alice replied firmly. “Just don’t get so immersed in them that you forget to tame your women.”
Paul snatched the items up and fled, Deirdre carrying the tube of plants.
“That’s quite a gift. Is that the only thing you want?”
“For the items, yes. For the business proposition, no.” Kerrik leaned back and drummed his fingers on the table. “I know what you’re doing as a pokegirl hunter. You’re working to capture ferals and find them a home, preferably a good one. We believe that pokegirls deserve that, too; and so I want to help.”
Winston gave him a sour look. “You don’t sound like you’ll be giving us whatever you have for free.”
“I won’t, but I will be giving them to you at cost, which is rather cheap.”
“Show us what you’ve got.”
Kerrik nodded and opened his pack once more.
***
(4/15/06 1630 Capital League)
“Winston is very interested in the offer and we’ve made a deal for the equipment I brought up here. He’s pretty much buying everything, including the pokeballs and all of the potions. His harem includes more than one high libido pokegirl and they were very interested in the Stamina XXX.”
He didn’t bother to mention that Alice was very interested in getting a storage unit, since they didn’t have any available for sale and hadn’t even begun to consider manufacturing them.
Kerrik leaned back in the command chair in the control cabin of the lighter and continued his message to Shikarou and Poppet. “Winston is heading down into California in a few days, and he’s going to let us know what he’s caught. I’m leaving a com unit with him and he’s willing to be part of Poppet’s intelligence network, as long as she shares relevant stuff with him.”
“They have a local elfqueen and I spoke to her briefly about Gwyneth’s idea of contact between elf kingdoms, but the truth is that Priss doesn’t have a kingdom and, as far as she’s concerned, the world ends at the winery’s boundaries. She’s not interested in ruling anything else or corresponding with other elfqueens.”
“I’ll be leaving in a couple of hours to head back to Marcos Island and, once I’m there, I’ll stick around and give Jamie a hand with training his hodgepodge of tamers. Satellite surveillance indicates the Indigo tamer we observed beforehand was joined by another and his harem. His injuries must have been healed because they’re both fairly mobile. They are not headed towards Marcos Island and, even if they turned around, I should be back there long before they can arrive, unless they’ve got a flier or teleporter.”
“I’m appending a list of all the things I sold, along with a wish list that Winston has given me. He understands that he can’t get SAP ammo, but he’s interested in the 10mm pistol and rifle with whatever ammo we’re willing to supply. Ammunition production is either spotty or nonexistent, and the ammo he gets as part of his payments for captures can be of varying quality and reliability. He’s also interested in the 15 mm as a sniper rifle. We didn’t discuss the 30mm, since at this point, it’s restricted to family use only.”
“I think that we’ll be able to use him as a distributor for our merchandise and he understands that he’ll be paying regular prices for that. It appears that Haven money will be more than acceptable in the area, especially the gold and silver coins. Apparently precious metals are still valuable, which will make our lives easier.”
“The wine production here is miniscule but growing every year. I’ve made Paul McNeal a deal on some wine bottles that I’ll have Bastion produce in lots of a thousand or so, along with the labels he wants. He’s excited about the journal and everything in it, and he and Priss are already forcing the grapevine I gave him to grow just as fast as she thinks is safe. They’ll have several acres ready for next spring. He’s also decided to try his hand at the beer, and I’ll be providing him with bottles and whatever else he needs.”
Kerrik thought quickly and finally shook his head as he sipped at some sake. “That’s all I can think of right now. I hope everyone is ok and I’ll be in touch. As far as Candace and her ‘when are you coming to get a starter pokegirl’ routine, you tell her that,” he paused. “No, don’t tell her anything. When I get back to Haven, I’ll tell her my opinion myself.”
“Anyway, I’ll send another message when I see how Jamie is doing. Kerrik, clear.”
“Message ended.” Virtue sounded amused. “What are you going to tell Candace?”
“To leave me the fuck alone, but I’ll try to find a slightly more diplomatic way to say it. Slug the message with the file that Winston gave us and send it to Poppet and Shikarou.”
“Message sent. There is an intruder on the lighter. Security systems are going online. The intruder has been identified as Alice Raikes, snugglebunny. She is not cleared to be on this vessel.”
“On my authority, clear her for this visit.”
“Very well, commander; Alice Raikes has been authorized for this visit. Security systems are returning to standby.”
Kerrik got up and was reaching for the door when Alice opened it, putting them face to face. She yelped and jumped backwards. He chuckled. “You wanted something?”
“You just scared me out of a year’s growth.”
Kerrik smiled slightly. “You wanted something badly enough to come aboard when I distinctly remember saying something about a security system and vaporizing intruders.”
“You also said it would let you know if someone accidentally strayed onto the ship, so we didn’t lose any elves. I need to talk to you.” She glanced past him into the control room. “Nice and cozy.”
Kerrik didn’t move out of the way. “So, talk.”
She gave him a slightly annoyed look when she realized that he wasn’t going to let her in. “I’d like to take you someplace private, so you and I can have a talk.”
He looked into her eyes for a moment. “Where would you like to go?”
She held out her hand and his ears went back for a heartbeat, before he reached out and took it. The view flickered and they were standing on the shore of a large body of water. The smell of salt in the air told Kerrik that it was an ocean. He glanced around as the waves rolled ashore and let go of Alice’s hand.
Alice settled down on a rock and gestured him at another one. “Please sit.” He shrugged and settled down as she gave him a cross look. “I need your help and I’m not sure how to go about asking for it.”
Kerrik assumed a patient expression and, after a few minutes passed, her cross look became a glare. “Are you going to say anything?”
“It doesn’t appear I need to, yet. I haven’t been asked anything. However, if you’d like, it’s a nice beach.”
“I have a friend who has some unique issues that preclude her from having a tamer.” She looked at him expectantly.
“That was a statement, not a question. One does not answer statements.”
Her ears went flat and then came back up. “Please work with me.”
Kerrik looked at the sky for a moment. “Let me guess, I should perhaps ask if you are suggesting that I might know someone who could be her tamer?”
“Yes, you do. I need your help to convince him to take her.”
“What’s her problem?”
“She has a very specialized diet and an extremely high metabolism.”
“How does that keep her from having a tamer? She eats a boxcar of food every day?”
“Something like that. She can only drink blood and she has to drink almost a gallon of it every day.”
Kerrik raised an eyebrow. “She does appear to have a problem. Not even an elephant can replace that much blood every day. I presume she kills her victims.”
“She doesn’t have any choice.” Alice looked out over the water for a moment. “That much killing isn’t good for someone.”
“If she got together 500 people, she could take a pint from each of them in turn, safely.”
Alice rolled her eyes. “Was that necessary?”
“You did say she has no choice. I was pointing out that there was a viable solution.”
“She needs a tamer.”
“It sounds like she’ll be going through them pretty quickly. No league will want to lose three hundred and sixty five tamers a year to her.”
“What about you?”
“I wouldn’t want to lose that many tamers either.”
She made a frustrated noise and jumped to her feet. “You know what I mean.” When she reached out to touch his face, he leaned way from her. Her eyes narrowed. “You let me touch you before.”
“I needed to be believed. That’s been accomplished, and now I can go back to not letting strangers touch me.”
Alice put her hands on her hips. “She needs a tamer and you can produce that much blood everyday, without any side effects.”
He gave her an odd look. “I’ll be eating for what, six? You don’t think that wouldn’t be a side effect? There’s also a small problem with my blood. Experimentation has proven it to cause euphoria in vampires.”
“She needs to stop killing people every day. She can live with a little euphoria if that happens.”
“You could kill her. Not every person can be saved.”
“Damn it, Kerrik! She needs help and you are the only person I’ve met who can help her. Will you?”
His eyes narrowed and he regarded her with an unfriendly look. She blinked and looked away. “So, you did learn that I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress. You do realize that this is rather underhanded.”
Alice glanced at him and looked away again. “I know, but she’s one of my best friends and I don’t have so many of them that I can afford to lose one. I’ll manipulate more than you to help her.”
“What you’re saying is that you’ll throw me to her in order to help, no matter what it does to me.”
She sighed. “I think the two of you will be good for each other. She needs a tamer and, once you have a pokegirl, certain people will stop asking the same question over and over.”
He snorted. “I wish. They’ll just insert the word ‘next’, and ask the same question. ‘When will you be getting your next pokegirl?’”
“Then, you can mention her special needs and express a concern for the safety of anyone else in your harem.”
He chuckled. “I suppose that is true enough. You really think I’m the only person who can help her?”
Alice’s shoulders sagged with relief. “I do. I know that lying to you is a waste of time.”
“I’ll meet her.” He frowned when she held out her hand. “This again? Oh, all right.” He took it and they vanished.
***
Name: Wolf, Jamie Harris
Age: 17
Residence: Kingdom of Haven
Status: Active
Rank: NA
Security Clearance: Theta
Licenses
Tamer Y
Master Tamer Y
Researcher N
Watcher N
Breeder Y
Active Harem
Species Name
Demoness Ginevra
Duelist Madison
Foxymaiden Paige
Alpha: Ginevra
Beta: None