Chapter 38 He never wanted to be mayor 

 A receptionist looked up.

"Yes?" she said rudely.

"Hi, I want to pay a parking ticket," April handed her the pieces of paper he put on the table. 

She took the tickets and automatically typed them into the computer and inserted the card reader.

"Pay here or cash?"

Alex paid, by fingerprint.

"A receipt, please."

" A receipt?"

" Yes. My employee who takes care of this wants it."

She growled and typed. 

" Good. Where do you want him to go?"

April was curious to see if Alex would use an excuse and if so, what it would be.

"North Block High Command in Hawaii. Attn: John Simmens."

She looked at him.

"Are they kidding me?" 

"No. Why? You can print it out for me right here and I'll give it to them when I get back to Hawaii."

She pressed a button.

"Boss, there's a crazy man here." 

It took a few minutes for a man about 95 years old to come out, April was amazed at how much he looked like Alex. He looked at Alex.

"Fate them Doris. Better than the weirdo with the sunglasses coming back or the others."

" The other one?"

" Yes, the one in the camouflage suit, where you made a fool of him and his henchmen tasered you. " 

She growled and clicked through the system. 

"That he could just walk around freely like that..."

"Uhh Uther was here..." came from Liz.

The old man looked at her.

"Sure. He came through with an army of people, unloaded crates of supplies. Panicked everyone. The tanks, the troop carriers, the helicopters. Everything..."

Liz tilted her head.

"That must have been the recapture campaign ..."

The old man let out a contemptuous sound.

"More like slaughter, they didn't stand a chance, the way I saw it, the campaign was waged from all sides, each side looking for suitable terrain. Where did you even get that from?" He looked at Alex.

"I met him in a café."

He looked at him skeptically.

"You four to my office" He turned and left, Alex followed him, April with the other two as well. The office was comfortably furnished and reminded April more of a second living room. The old man swallowed a handful of pills and washed them down with water.

"Bah, this stuff tastes like shit," he looked at Alex.

"So, what do you want, boy?"

Alex grinned. 

" The three of them wanted to know their master's roots." 

The old man looked at April, Mei and Liz. 

He laughed, came closer and looked at them.

"You guys have grown up, last time you were just little climbing monkeys. "

He pointed to a framed photo of Liz, Mei, April and Sue sitting on his lap as children. 

"But why only three, where's the four?"

April was the first to answer. 

"She's in London, has a job as a psychologist and is trying to protect her son Lucas from the world."

He looked at April. 

"So what do you guys do? "

"Mei and I work for Dad."

"John calls it an assistant, Liz." 

"Ttzz, more like watchdogs."

Old Miles looked at Liz scrutinizingly. 

"And what did you do before?"

"Uh, I worked for the task force until I was a captain, then I took some time off and worked as a mercenary in South America and Africa and sometimes in the USA. Well, and then I had a break in my life and came back..."

He continued to look at her, then at Mei.

"I was in the same task force as Liz, when she left I took an exchange program in China and worked with my uncle there and came back when my contract was up. I'm a captain too."

"You mean he couldn't do anything more with you."

" Pffff."

April was nervous inside, her career was boring.

He looked at April.

"I'm a major, currently in intelligence, was in the task force like those two, then in the press office and mapped ruins in the north block."

"Oh, oh, what was your last one?" asked Liz.

"The subway stations in New York." 

"Ah, so the ray pills," Liz drew closer.

"And the mutant alligators?"

April looked at her. " The what? "

" I heard in South America, there are supposed to be mutant alligators running around underground."

"Uh no, but I found an old station from World War II ..."

Liz looked at her. "No mutant critters?" she grumbled. 

Old Miles smiled. 

"There are enough sightings of mutated animals in the wild, cougars, wolves, bears, deer, elk and so on. "

"I've killed mutant cougars and wolves." 

Mei looked at her. 

"You forgot the wild boar in Bavaria."

Liz nodded, pulled out her phone and scrolled through her gallery to show her photos.

"Great. Hey, scroll back. Is that a shark?"

Liz grinned.

"Yes. I just managed to jump into the neighboring boat."

"April, look at the eyes."

April looked at her cell phone and stared into the mouth of a mutant great white shark.

" Did you shoot it?" asked April.

" Pppff, I used it as a trash can because the ones on the boat wouldn't cooperate."

"So you hijacked the boat and threw the people overboard."

"No, they didn't cooperate."

Alex scratched his nose.

"Which of you has the most combat experience?" asked old Mile. 

Without waiting, April and Mei pointed at Liz. Who stared at them both.

"What? Why me?"

April grinned. 

" I archived your body count, 2300 uninfected."

" Pffff, can I help it if they have idiots for pilots and can't read the target properly?"

"Sure, and the wrong homing beacon was a coincidence too?"

Liz looked at them both and grinned. 

"No, I stuck it on the idiot's back on purpose. The explosion was so powerful, I could hear it for miles. "

"You're incorrigible, that reminds me of when you lit the firecracker and flushed it down the toilet in sixth form," Mei commented.

Liz laughed. 

"Yeah, back then we had a month off school and could make up the work."

Old Miles cleared his throat and the three of them looked at him. 

"Liz, how come you have such a high number?"

" Well, there were often several groups of attackers on the assignments. "

Old Miles looked at Alex, who lit a fag. Then to the three of them and sighed. 

"You really are from him."

All three nodded.

"How was dad at school? " 

"He was a jock baseball, football, rugby, but he also did regular classes and got a scholarship to college. "

" Uhh dad went to college?"

" No, I chased him into the Navy and there to the Seals and then put him in an agency through contacts."

Alex fumed and nodded.

"Had to do a lot of catching up in night school."

"Long before he got the assignment for Europe, he left a bloody trail in the world. 

in the world. That's when your father took it easy. "

" Our Aunt Babsi, meaning Sue mum, came up with a conspiracy theory."

Old Miles laughed. 

"No. He was working for us, doing jobs there as a cover. If that shit hadn't happened, he'd have come back around New Year's. "

They stared at him with open mouths.

Liz looked at April.

"And what would have happened then?"

"He would have changed his appearance again, nothing major forced diet etc..... "

He looked at Alex, then back at Liz.

" I read his observations on the net. You know kids. When I read them, I knew he already had a plan."

April nodded. "The scientists say they were valuable resources. Which contributed to defense research, including social proof."

"Old nerd," Mei commented.

"Even," she stuck out her tongue.

Old Miles cleared his throat. 

Liz looked at him. 

"But what makes his observations different from those of the other grandfathers?"

He grinned. 

"A very good question. The CDC had thought the epidemic was a curable disease, just like the other organizations. They even ended up miscataloging the infected. Most people thought it was zombies or something. "

"The old infected already look like that when they have nothing to eat," says April.

"But the new ones already look like zombies," Mei then said .

"Exactly, so they didn't get the sledgehammer out straight away and what did that do? That new ones kept popping up. When I shot the first one in the head, I knew they could die and not move after that. I digress again. "

"Why didn't Dad stay here after Grandma's accident?"

He muses.

" Well, my Annabelle was pregnant, it was going to be a girl. They were on their way to the hospital when they were hit by a truck. Her father was an honest soul, when he met her he changed his life. He had the courage to ask her to marry him. The fact that he was attracted to several women was no different for Annabelle. 

She had just completed her master's degree in sociology and was partying in Vegas. Lots of alcohol, women and men and so on. She met him there when he won a poker tournament. They drank, slept together and then he hit the jackpot and she got pregnant. He didn't leave her when she told him, but he took responsibility. 

So they left him with a neighbor that night and her sister was supposed to pick him up the next morning. When the accident happened and she didn't show up, she called the sheriff.

 He picked him up. A.J. was a calm, well-adjusted child at the time and could spend hours with a comic, a book or building blocks. He then called the youth welfare office because he was an asshole and lied to them about how badly he was being treated. 

So they tracked down his father's family and handed him over to them. I found out about it on my cell phone when I was on my way back and contacted them."

"You had contact with them?"

"Of course. They were willing to look after him until I won the bureaucratic war. Then I brought him back here. They often came here to visit him. "

He flipped through the album and pointed to a family photo.

"Uhh Baba looks so young." 

"She insisted he grow up multilingual. I had no problem with that.

Liz taps a photo of Alex, aged three and a half, standing in a cat costume next to a stunningly beautiful woman and a gigolo.

"It was Halloween and he really wanted to look like our pet cat. So Annabelle made him a costume."

Mei took a photo of it. 

"How cute!" Liz had to grin.

Alex pulled out his cell phone and called up a photo of the three of them in the cat costume. Shortly afterwards, his cell phone rang and he answered it.

April could hear Gitte.

"Honey, when are you coming back?" 

"Soon, why?"

" We want to see you in one of those costumes." 

" Min schicks an uns!" was heard from Jannet.

"We'll talk about it when we get back."

He hung up and looked at Mei. She looked at him innocently. 

" You can reduce your intercourse, Mei. "

" Okay. I'll back off!"

Liz giggled.

" Bullseye!"

"That's not funny, Liz, he even calls Uncle Lee, and even there Traffic is on the back burner."

"That's exactly why," she continued to giggle.

"Grandpa, why aren't you surprised at his appearance?"

Miles looked at Alex.

"Looks? Oh yeah, the president's looks are annoying. The way he is now, the way he looked when he came back. He always looked different anyway. There was a new camouflage technique back then, they stuck chips in the back of his neck, which could then change his appearance. But that was dangerous, they didn't know what the side effects were. Only the most radical used it."

He hobbled over to his table and pressed a button.

"Doris, come to me with the camera for a photo when you're done."

He coughed.

"The photo in the army file is his original form. He's had an alteration cure for Europe."

Then he picked up a tablet and limped back, handing it to Alex.

The latter looked at him questioningly.

"You're rejecting my request for a genetic boost."

Alex took the tablet, activated it and looked at the documents.

"Grandpa, did Dad do martial arts or something and what was it like with women?"

"He did something like that in a dojo here in the city for a while. A little family thing."

He flipped through the album and tapped on several photos of Alex competing in a tournament at 16 in the gi.

"Did he win?"

"No, he was disqualified in the final. I think he pulled his arm out of his shoulder joint back then."

"Tell me Pa, it says here that you didn't come to the appointment in Vancouver."

" I told them I needed something close by ..."

Alex sighed. " I'll have you flown to the clinic in Seattle, Pa."

Miles looked at him fixedly.

"I thought it was just a shot."

" How about Hawaii? You could see the mothers of the three again there."

Miles pondered. 

"From when? "

"Depends if you want to take me or someone else. I can organize a room for you in a hotal. "

" But I need the premium package " 

" Premium package? " Alex looked at the tablet and scrolled down.

" Grandpa, what's with Dad's womanizing now?" Liz asked.

"Oh, I forgot. He had one back then, but not a real one. She had a crush on him. But A.J. well, his head was filled with other things than women. He had a lot of cousins his age and was used to that sort of thing. "

Doris came in, camera in hand.

Miles hobbled over to the sofa and sat down between the three of them. Doris looked at him skeptically.

"Please take a photo of us Doris."

She did as she was told and looked at the picture on the camera.

"Somehow this all seems so familiar" she began. She looked up, first at the three of them, then at Alex. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed. 

"Hello, it's me. Can you explain to me what the Premium and VIP package is all about?"

Min took a few selfies. He typed on his phone and scrolled through the gallery.

"Look here grandpa, this is Luke with Sue. "

Miles looked at his cell phone. 

Doris froze.

"You're the girls from back then..."

Liz grinned. 

" Yep. "

" Then it's him " She looked at Alex. Who was listening on the phone.

Three people came in Two women and the sheriff from the diner.

"Mayor! There's someone standing in the parking lot marked for me again, he started."

"Oh, relax, Sheriff," said one of the women, who also wore a uniform and looked muscular, the other was more petite, both very similar in appearance. She waved a copy of the ticket in her hand. 

"I want an explanation for this, my deputy proudly walked in with the copy and said he caught someone and the system says. It's already chopped off."

Miles stood up with April's help. Alex hung up the phone. 

"So Dad, you get the package for the employees. Premium is only for the TV stars."

" Employees..." he looked at Alex. "What's the difference?" 

Alex grinned. " They'll call you sir and treat you like a big shot. "

"And what do the starlets get?" 

" Wellness and ass kissing."

"Oh, one more question. Why do people ask me if I'm involved with the group that's been active lately? "

Alex looked at him in silence.

"Well... I got into the industry, a friend."

Liz looked at Mei.

"Oh, that's why he came back."

Miles looked at her.

She smiled.

"The friend he's talking about is called Uther, Dad's a lamb next to him. Uther has the transportation network, the logistics, the defenses," she mused. 

"He's achieved a lot, today's cities in Africa are centered around his facilities because they have the best security. No warlord or would-be dictator dares to touch them because they are the only really safe retreats."

"And how do you know that?"

" Um, that was my employer when I was on vacation. "

"I see. And why the surname?"

Alex cleared his throat.

"Well, I wanted something with a surname, something legal..."

Miles looked at him.

" Good. But be clear about this. I'll say it's my grandson's."

Alex grinned.

The two women stared at Alex, one winced and slammed down on the empty armchair Alex was sitting in next to Miles. 

"You could theoretically even get the rest of the requests cut off when you get there."

"What about the budget requests I've been waiting ages for?"

"You can do that now. The person in charge is here."

Everyone stared at him, Alex looked at her.

"What?"

He looked at the three of them and then at the beefcake staring at him.

"Yo, Susan." 

A vein throbbed in his forehead. He looked to the armchair where the other was staring at him with wide, watery eyes.

"You're mean, A.J.," came out of her. 

He went to her and patted her head. Susan stomped towards him and tried to grab him, but he dodged. He stood behind the armchair and grinned. 

"Tz tz tz too slow, Susan." 

The three of them stared at the scene and Miles sat back down with them. He leafed through the album and pointed to a photo of Alex, who was 17 years old and holding two crying girls, about eight years old. 

"Those two were the first to sign up for the Gene refreshment back then, I gave them my seat then. "

"So we have aunts too then?" came from April, looking at the two of them. 

"What are you trying to do to Pops, A.J.?" muttered Susan. 

He grinned. " A vacation to Hawaii with a genetic makeover."

" Really? And you came all the way from there for that?"

" No." He pointed at the three of them sitting on the sofa. 

Susan looked at the three of them and raised an eyebrow. 

"So, these are your aunts Susan and Geni."

" Huh? Auntie? " 

Geni stood up first and walked towards the sofa, looking closely at the three of them. 

"You're A.J.'s little ones."

She hugged the three of them in turn. Which confused them even more. Susan looked from Geni and the three of them to Alex. 

"These are your daughters? That was before," she thought.

" Oh crap, I always forget that I forget the time with the refresher. "

Alex grinned. Miles cleared his throat. 

" So A.J. I'll take you up on your offer, but I want to take these two with me."

He pointed at Susan and Geni. Debi looked at him dumbfounded.

" Boss, that's not possible, we have so many appointments until next week."

" Fine, then in two weeks' time" He looked at Alex.

" Sure, we'll pick you up on the plane then." 

" Wait, why do you want us to come with you Pops?" Susan asked.

Miles looked at her. 

"Didn't you say years ago that you..." he thought about it, "your mother, I think," he pointed at Liz, "still has a score to settle with her and wants to kick her ass and Geni needs a change." 

The woman addressed looked at Miles in a bit of a panic.

"I'm happy here," came out of her. 

Miles looked at Liz, Mei and April in surprise. Liz laughed and looked up from her cell phone. She reached for the phone. And turned it to Susan, where once there was a picture of her and then a reply in the form of a picture of Gitte sticking her tongue out. Susan gasped. 

"It's her turn, I'll finish her off," she gritted her teeth. 

Liz reached for her cell phone again. 

Alex cleared his throat.

"I'm going to Salt Lake now with April to get John's stuff. Liz, you and Mei stay here, I'm sure your aunts can show you around town and tell you about my past."

"What? Why?"

"We're flying from here to Vegas when I get back."

"Still..." Liz pouted.

" Geni is very good at martial arts Liz, he trained at the same dojo as me when I was a kid. "

Geni nodded vigorously. "I'm sure Master Xin will be pleased."

Alex smiled.

"If you two manage to beat him and Geni, I'll buy you something of your choice in Vegas."

Mei looked at him thoughtfully. 

"Whatever we want? I mean, like if I find extremely stylish sneakers that are sinfully expensive. "

"Or a new accelerator for my rifle..." came from Liz, then she looked at Mei, who grinned.

"Good, then you have something to do now, April, come on, let's go. "He went to the door and was stopped by Susan.

"You're up to your old tricks again, you did it to us yourself back then," she said quietly. 

 He looked at her, then at Liz and Mei, who were egging each other on.

"Yes, but they need motivation and you can also use them on your problem case."

"Problem case? I've only got half-wits and wannabe machos here..." she looked at him, then the penny dropped.

"Well, I could use Bibi..." she looked at the two of them again, then at Alex.

"She's not without ... "

"Try her, then you'll know how good she is."

Susan mused and Alex left, April following her after saying goodbye and following her father to the car where he loaded Mei and Liz's travel bags and brought them inside. 

She sat down in the passenger seat.