The Old Valley Road Hotel.
By Wombat. -------------------------
------------------------------------ Chapter 3. Education and Induction.
------------------------------------ Part 19 - Wolf. ------------------------------------
Derek and Hal were riding down High Street, the main street of Ringtail Springs when the police car belonging to the local policeman came up behind them and turned on its flashing lights, signalling the two motor bike riders to stop.
The two bikers coasted to a stop in front of the police car, dismounted and removed their helmets.
Using his telepathic sense, Derek could tell that the policeman had a strong dislike of bikers, especially those who rode loud noisy motor bikes like Harley-Davidsons. Derek felt irritated as he watched the burly overweight policeman get out of his car and put on his cap. The cop was wearing dark sunglasses. His uniform shirt was stretched tightly over his pot-belly. Derek felt like zapping the man with a small bolt of lightning.
Hal: << You don't need to do anything nasty like that to him. You treat him with love. >>
Derek: << Excuse me?! >>
<< Yes, you love him as I do. >>
<< What? Make love to that fat pig! >>
<< Not necessarily right now. >> - <+ Amusement +> - << He's not a pig. He's a man like you, and me, only he has a less well developed consciousness. He needs love and understanding. Be kind to him. >>
<< Be kind to him?! >>
Their thoughts passed telepathically between them in a flash. It was so much faster and easier than talking.
Hal: << Yes, be kind to him. Follow my lead. Keep cool and calm. And above all, be nice to the poor fellow. >>
<< Why? >>
<< Because he's had a bit of a rough time. Because it's better to have him as a friend than an enemy. And above all, you live here. >>
<+ OK +>
"How can I help you, sergeant?" purred Hal in his deep mellow voice.
Derek noticed the triple chevrons on the policeman's epaulettes.
"You fellows aren't going to cause any trouble, are you?" asked the policeman sharply.
"Of course not," purred Hal.
"You guys just keep on going straight through then. I don't want any trouble in this town."
The policeman fingered his holstered gun as he nervously scanned the awesome sight of the two magnificently muscled bikers standing before him. Each of them looked as big as a house. Their jackets were completely open at the front, showing the bikers' thick bulging pectorals and the hard chiselled mountainous abdominal muscles. Their jackets were slit down the side to allow freedom for the massive wide lateral muscles of the back. Their huge muscular arms hung loosely at their sides. Their jeans were a tight fit over their mighty muscle-packed thighs and calves. Both moved with the grace of men trained in martial arts.
Derek sensed clearly the fear that the cop was hiding under a show of aggression. Hal sent Derek a telepathic cue.
"I live here," said Derek looking at the cop steadily.
He cracked a half smile, pulled out his licence and held it out to the cop. He could feel the policeman's eyes travelling up the spectacular hard well-defined and vein-covered musculature of his arm and gazing at the full-bellied football-sized biceps muscle with two thick veins running either side of it.
The cop remembered himself. He took the licence and examined it. He took note of the address. He was becoming less agitated and aggressive under the high beam of the loving vibrations Hal was transmitting to him.
"You the guy who lives in the old Valley Road hotel?" he asked.
"Yep," replied Derek. "I'm not about to turn it into a den of iniquity either. I like a quiet life." He grinned.
Hal reached into the policeman's mind and telepathically amplified his recollection of Derek and in the process, Hal modified it slightly to be in accord with the powerful muscleman standing in front of him. Derek watched Hal's skilful action with interest.
The policeman managed a small smile in reply as he recognised Derek. He handed Derek back his licence.
"I thought I'd seen you around the place. Seeing you in the bikie gear threw me off track. I didn't realise you had so much muscle. Usually you wear those baggy old khaki overalls, don't you?" The policeman was almost apologetic. He virtually sighed with relief as he realised he knew Derek albeit slightly. Derek was a local.
"I've been keeping to myself a bit. I had a few issues to sort out in my head," replied Derek.
"I hear the old pub is haunted," said the cop.
"Not any more. It's been cleaned out."
"Like you've had an exorcism?"
Hal: << The answer is 'yes'. He does not need to know all the details at this point. >>
"Yeah," replied Derek.
The policeman pushed back his cap and scratched his crewcut blonde hair. He was becoming visibly more relaxed, particularly as Hal was continuing to send him good vibrations full of love.
"What motorbike gang do you belong to?"
"We are members of the Roadknights Motor Cycle Club," replied Derek. He turned around and showed the cop the insignia on the back of his jacket.
"Oh yeah. I haven't seen you guys around here before."
"I've only joined fairly recently."
"Right, I see." The policeman looked at Hal. "Your mate?"
"This is my mate, Hal," replied Derek.
Hal proffered his great big hand to the policeman and to the cop's own surprise, he shook it. The great big awesome hairy mountain of muscle dwarfed the policeman but he appeared quite friendly. The huge man seemed special somehow.
"Sergeant, I notice you have rather an exalted rank for a small town like Ringtail Springs," Hal observed in his calm mellow voice.
Ouch! That hurt. Derek sensed the burst of pain and anger from the policeman as he reacted to Hal's observation. The fellow had been shafted. He had been a hotshot young detective in the drug squad in Sydney and he had been rusticated to Ringtail Springs because he had arrested some influential politician's little mate. Derek could not help but feel sympathetic towards him.
"It's none of your bloody business," snapped the policeman.
"I understand," purred Hal calmly. "Believe me, I do understand."
The policeman looked at him with a tumultuous maelstrom of emotions. He did not know whether to burst out crying on Hal's shoulder or snarl with anger. He struggled to get himself back under control. Hal sent out calming vibrations full of love.
"Be seeing you around, mate," said Derek cheerfully.
He and Hal mounted their bikes and rode away through the town. They could sense the policeman watching them with a certain sense of wistful longing. Those two men were magnificent specimens and they seemed pretty decent and friendly as well. They definitely were a cut above your average bikie. He had a hunch that there was something extraordinary about the huge bearded man-mountain with the long hair though but he could not put his finger on it.
The two men rode up High Street back to Valley Road where the others had rematerialised and were waiting for them at the garage.
Andy grinned. << You two had a little opposition? >>
Kevin: << Derek, you had an opportunity to watch The Master in action. >>
Derek: << I've had plenty of opportunities to watch The Master in action. >>
Laughter all round.
Derek: << Hal, you were absolutely brilliant the way you tweaked the cop's memories of me. You made it look so easy. But you can't help feeling sorry for the poor guy. He got shafted big time. >>
Wolf: << Yeah, we were watching you two and him. He busted some profitable little racket and they got him for it. You handled yourself pretty well, I thought. >>
Derek: << Thanks. And, Hal, thanks for coming with me through the town. I don't know how things would have gone if I'd been on my own. Did you know he was going to stop us? >>
Hal: << Yes, I could see there was a high probability of him stopping you and there was a real possibility you might have done something unwise with your super powers, given your lack of experience. >>
Peter grinned. << You might have fried him to a cinder or something like that. We couldn't have that now, could we? >>
Derek appreciated Hal's concern.
Derek: << Hal, can you predict the future? >>
Hal: << We all can, once we learn how. The future is not definite; it's not cast in stone. You see all the things that can happen in the future and you learn to judge the probabilities of future happenings. Some normal people can predict the future to a certain extent but we supermen are much better at it. If something is going to happen you don't like, you can change things to lessen the probability of its happening. But you must not interfere with God's Will. >>
Andy: << I predict lots of fun lies ahead for us. >>
With that, all eight translocated into the garage loft near the bed. Derek eagerly made his clothes vanish and paraded his magnificently muscled body naked before the other musclemen. He noticed Wolf looking at him hungrily.
Wolf: << Derek, did you know I'm a werewolf? >>
Peter laughed. << Yeah, a reformed werewolf. >>
<< Shut up! Derek, I want to eat you. >>
Derek: << Sounds interesting. >>
Hal and the others laughed.
Peter: << You have already discovered, Derek, that we can change shape. Hal's already changed into a woman once before and treated you to the joys of heterosexual sex. And he's transformed you from the nice trim hunk you were before into the magnificent muscle stud you are now. >>
Derek: << How did you know? >>
Peter grinned and affectionately put his massive arm around Hal's mighty shoulders. << We're telepaths, mate. >>
Derek sensed that Peter and Hal had been friends and lovers for a very long time. He felt a twinge of jealousy. The others picked it up and Derek felt a little ashamed.
Wolf put his powerful arm around Derek. He was already naked.
He laughed. << Allow me to rid you of your jealousy. >>
As Derek watched, Wolf's face began transforming before his eyes. Wolf's jaws lengthened greatly in a muzzle like that of an animal, a wolf. His eyes became almond-shaped like those of a wolf. His ears became longer with pointed ends. His whole face became fleshier. His teeth became dangerously sharp and pointy. His canines particularly lengthened into huge sharp fangs like daggers; they would have done credit to a tiger.
The rest of Wolf's body transformed. It rapidly became completely covered in a thin coat of fine soft grey fur. His massive chest and shoulders became wider, thicker and more muscular to a seemingly impossible size. His arms became longer and more thickly packed with muscle. The fingers lengthened and became bony; they now ended in claws. His legs remained the same length but they now bulged even more thickly with hard muscle. His waist elongated and became thinner. It bulged freakishly with muscle but it looked thin and wasp-like, particularly underneath the huge massive chest. With the extra length in his waist Wolf was well over a foot taller. He towered over Derek now. He was a lot taller than even Big Dick who stood 215 centimetres (7'1"). He looked over eight feet (240 cm) tall.
An enormous glistening bright red phallus of about half a metre long (20") with a dark red apple-sized cock head stood up hard and erect from his groin to his chest. Near the base were bulbous protuberances like those on a dog's penis.
"Crikey, Wolf, you look like something out of a horror movie!" exclaimed Derek.
Wolf growled throatily. He telepathed: << I want to suck you off. >>
Derek: << With those fucking great fangs, you've got to be kidding me! >>
The others laughed.
Wolf had difficulty speaking with his altered mouth, so he did not bother. He gave a wickedly toothy grin. << Derek, I want to eat you. >>
Paul: << It's all right. He's done it before many times and it's even better when you switch off your invulnerability. It's one hell of an experience. >>
Peter: << Even in the unlikely event he did bite your cock off, you can easily grow it back again instantly. You're a superman now. You've got supernatural powers. You can do anything you like. >>
Wolf lifted Derek up and laid him on the black vinyl sheets of the bed. He put his fearsome head between Derek's mighty thighs and started licking Derek's penis with his great long viscous tongue.
Wolf: << Go on, turn off your invulnerability. Lie back and enjoy the experience. I'm going to make a huge whoopee with you. >>
Reluctantly Derek switched off his invulnerability and submitted to the werewolf's attentions. His penis had quite shrivelled up with apprehension but the stimulation from Wolf's long drooling tongue wrapping around his penis overcame his reluctance. His penis started stiffening up again.
Wolf inserted a long bony finger into Derek's anus and tickled his prostate gland with a claw. To hurry things along, Wolf sent a small trickle of electric current from his clawed fingertip into Derek's prostate as well. Derek gasped and writhed. His penis stiffened rapidly into a huge thick steel-hard erection that was fully 18 inches (45 cm) long.
Wolf chuckled: << That is a lot better. >>
He closed his great sharp-fanged jaws around the length of Derek's huge fat penis. Those mighty jaws were just big enough to fully enclose that great cock. The base of Derek's penis was clamped tightly between the long sharp sabre-like canine teeth of Wolf's jaws. The dorsal surface of the penis rubbed against the ribbed roof of the werewolf's mouth. Sharp teeth nibbled along the entire length of Derek's penis as Wolf sucked on it noisily. Saliva dripped from his jaws onto Derek's heaving belly. The sensation was terrific; it was overwhelming. His cock had never been stimulated quite like this before. An orgasm started to build.
Sensing this, Wolf withdrew his finger from Derek's anus. He hoisted Derek's thick and powerfully muscular thighs up into the air and, arching his long flexible back, inserted his huge bright red glistening 20-inch phallus into Derek's arsehole and thrust it full- length into Derek's bowels. Derek gasped and groaned with the intense extra stimulation that cannoned into his body. Wolf's long whippy back curved and flexed as he thrust his great phallus in and out of Derek's heaving torso. The protuberances at the base of the werewolf's penis pushed against Derek's prostate, stimulating it forcefully. At the same time Wolf's huge jaws clamped shut on Derek's penis as he sucked on it furiously. His long bony fingers clasped tightly onto Derek's slim but strongly muscled waist. The claws on the ends of his fingers dug into Derek's heaving body. Red blood trickled down from the wounds in Derek's skin made by those fearsome claws. However Derek was past all caring. He was undergoing the most tremendous stimulation. He gasped and groaned and cried out and then his orgasm blew. It was huge, a mighty heaving orgasm like an awesome tsunami that rose and crashed upon the shore, sweeping all before as it washed far inland.
Derek screamed. His great big muscles bulged crazily as his body went into spasm. Veins like cables popped out all over.
Wolf sucked greedily on the fountain of spunk that gushed into the back of his fearsome mouth from Derek's penis. Wolf's sharp teeth were like those of a velociraptor. He sucked and nibbled and bit on Derek's huge hard hot fat cock. Bloody saliva dribbled down from Wolf's jaws onto Derek's heaving abdomen already slicked with sweat and blood.
Derek was clamped firmly in the throes of the orgasm. It continued on and on while Wolf pumped energy into him and sucked greedily on his gushing cock.
Finally Wolf let go. With a mighty howl he thrust his phallus into Derek's torso as far as it would go and ejaculated a great torrent of werewolf semen deep into Derek's heaving bloodied body. It poured into his bowels flooding into every nook and cranny of his abdomen. It felt like a burning and sparking torrent of white fire.
Derek's already intense orgasm intensified even further as it commingled with Wolf's great ecstatic explosion. The orgasms ran together creating a towering inferno.
Dimly, Derek became aware of hot wads of semen hitting his body. The other six men stood in a circle around the bed masturbating. As they ejaculated, gushes of spunk flew from their great big stiff cocks in long ropes and landed with splats on the man and the werewolf locked together in their orgasmic sexual embrace. The semen shower continued while the masturbating musclemen sprayed their seed over Derek and Wolf. This spurred Derek to even greater orgasmic heights. Semen dripped off Wolf's fur onto Derek's body.
As the orgasms of Derek and Wolf wound down, the other men leapt onto the bed and they all had a joyful happy orgy. Wolf separated from Derek and before he had a chance to revert to his human form, Big Dick grabbed Wolf's tail, lifted up his rear and impaled Wolf's arsehole with his steaming great cock. Kevin grabbed Derek from behind and thrust his big cock up Derek's anus. At the same time Peter jumped astride Derek and Kevin and impaled his anus on Derek's hot stiff bleeding cock. Hal got in underneath Wolf and Big Dick, grabbed Wolf's heaving haunches and pulled Wolf's red phallus into his anus. Paul and Scooter jumped into the thick of it and fucked each other.
The orgy continued on for ages. The men swapped around repeatedly forming different twosomes, threesomes and foursomes. Each man was fucking or being fucked by another. They were twirling and spinning and fucking and copulating in one manic energetic dance. At one stage, Derek shoved his great cock down Wolf's toothy gaping maw once more while Paul was fucking Derek up his arse for all he was worth. Big Dick had Wolf's phallus up his arse while Andy was hanging onto Wolf's tail and fervently fucking Wolf up his anus. Meanwhile Hal was fucking Peter.
In the wee small hours of the morning, the men and the werewolf collapsed together in one big happy spent semen-soaked heap on the bed, which had been strengthened supernaturally for the occasion. It never would have supported about a ton and a half of heaving muscular manhood otherwise.
Derek stretched out his arms and embraced all the others in one big loving hug. This was glorious bliss. His mind had run together with those of the others and they were one big happy blissful blob. He lay there completely at one with the others. His mind had melded with the others and this was a joy beyond compare. He was one with the other men. He was one of them. He was completely and fully accepted. He was loved. And he loved them with his whole being. He thanked God for his beautiful, wonderful friends and lovers. If this what his life was about, he was all for it. It was great!
Hal stirred and planted a big loving wet kiss on Derek's cheek. His hair was wet and sticky with semen. The other men stirred. Impressions, feeling and thoughts flitted between their telepathically connected minds. They were all completely happy. They were filled with love for one another.
Wolf was starting to become irritated by the drying semen caked on his fur. He heaved Big Dick off his body. Big Dick grunted and snuggled up to Peter.
Wolf looked at Derek with a rascally glint in his eye.
<< Do you want come for an explore around the town? >>
Derek: << With you like that? You'll freak out anyone who sees you like that. You look like a real monster, like something out of a horror movie. >>
Wolf got off the bed and transformed himself into a very real looking big grey timber wolf. His hairy coat was quite clean now. He jumped up on the bed again and licked Derek's face, just like a big dog.
Wolf: << Would you like to be an animal too? It's fun. >>
Derek: <+ A German Shepherd dog +>
Wolf telepathically handed Derek the appropriate template and Derek transformed himself in a big deep-chested black-and-tan male German Shepherd dog. He growled throatily.
Hal looked at them blearily. << You two up to more mischief? >>
Derek leapt up onto the bed and licked his face. He licked the bodies of as many of the others as he could reach. The semen sauce on the men tasted absolutely delicious.
"Bugger off, dog!" grumbled Andy in absent-minded sleepiness as he pushed Derek away. He was well fucked.
Hal: << I'll see if I can magic up some breakfast sometime later. >>
Big Dick: << Derek, you need to get in some supplies. This place has nothing to eat. It's bare. >>
Hal: << You don't need supplies. I can magic up something. Seriously though, Derek, it might be a good idea if you showed your face in town later on and let people know you're still around. Meanwhile, I'll see you two later. >>
Derek jumped off the bed. He wagged his tail and gave a short sharp bark. Then with a clatter of claws on the polished wooden floor, he raced off out of the loft and down the stairs after Wolf.
Down in the garage was an odd smell he had not noticed before. His nose was much more sensitive than before. There was a smell of old oil and rags; there was the smell of welding from over a week ago - it seemed such a long time ago now. There was another odour too that Derek did not know. Wolf identified it as rust. Derek was surprised that rust had a smell.
He sniffed around the garage. It was quite dark inside but Derek's enhanced eyes had enough light to see by. He identified his Pajero; it looked quite different from a dog's perspective. Derek noticed the smell of dog urine coming from one of its wheels. He sniffed it closely. Some damned dog had the effrontery to pee on his Pajero.
Wolf chortled. << You're really getting into being a dog. >>
Around the Pajero were parked the eight motorbikes belonging to Derek and his friends. They had an interesting smell of oil, rubber, plastic, leather and metal.
Derek, the big German Shepherd dog followed the grey timber wolf outside through the partly open door. The odours of the night swept into Derek's nostrils. This palette of smells was much richer and more powerful than he was used to. His sharp ears detected the snuffling, scurrying and scratching of a multitude of small nocturnal marsupials in the dark eucalyptus forest. He stood outside at the back of the garage, sniffed the air and let the perceptions flood into his senses. His ears were pricked at full alert.
Wolf whined impatiently. << Come on! It gets better once you're in the forest. >>
He raced off into the forest. Derek galloped off after him. Despite the darkness of the moonless night, Derek found that he could see quite well. He stopped to investigate the smell of dog urine coming from a tree. It was off his property but still Derek lifted his leg and marked the tree with his own urine. Some weekender had been walking her bloody poodle past his property!
He looked up into the trees as he heard the almost silent swish of an owl's wings as it searched for prey. It veered upwards nervously when it spotted the two canines prowling the forest floor. A marsupial mouse hopped across the path in front of them and disappeared down a tiny burrow at the base of an ironbark tree. Wolf ignored it and suggested to Derek that he do the same. Derek was watching intently with sharp pricked ears.
Wolf: <+ no need to eat; too small for you +>
Derek caught up with Wolf and they trotted along the forest trail side by side. Suddenly a wallaby leapt out in fright from under a bush and bounded away through the undergrowth in the darkness. When it realised that it was not being pursued, it stopped about a hundred metres away. Derek could hear it as it sniffed the air nervously.
The air was full of the rich odours of the plants, the gum trees, the wattle trees with their characteristic polliniferous smell, the hakeas and all the other plants that make up the Australian bush. There was a strong ground note of soil rich in damp humus, of fungi and rotting leaves. Frequently there would be a quick quaver of the smell from a small animal scurrying through the undergrowth. Derek stopped to listen to the small sounds of beetles making their way through the leaf litter on the forest floor. A quoll scampered across the ground to get away from the two canines.
Wolf and Derek followed the trail through the bush until they reached the edge of the town. The wolf and the dog stood at the kerb of Penny Lane, a well made road that was part of a recent subdivision at the edge of Ringtail Springs. There were a few houses scattered in amongst the trees on the land. They were all dark. Most were empty; they belonged to people from out of town. A couple of houses had people sleeping in them. Derek could sense their quiescent minds telepathically.
Wolf threw back his head and howled, a long mournful howl straight out of the boreal wilderness.
Derek was concerned lest Wolf wakened the sleepers.
<< What's the time? >>
Wolf neither knew nor cared. He continued howling. Other dogs started howling in unison as well. It was weird listening to them all coming in one after the other perfectly in tune. Soon dog howls were resonating from all around the town. The effect was electrifying.
Derek telepathically pinged Hal but got nowhere with him as his cock was being slowly sucked by Big Dick. Derek tried Kevin. No luck there either. He and Peter were gently kissing one and fondling another. Derek gave up when he found that the others were similarly distracted.
Derek: << Wolf, stop it! >>
Wolf did not take any notice. Derek bumped the wolf with his shoulder. Wolf in turn cuffed Derek. The dog and the wolf brawled playfully in the middle of the dark street then trotted off towards the town centre.
Wolf: << I love making the other dogs howl. It really calls out the wild animal in them. You should have joined in, Derek. Don't be such a worrywart. It might annoy some people, but it does no harm, really. >>
The streets were completely dark even in the town centre. The streetlights had been switched off some hours before to save electricity. The dazzling mass of stars in the southern sky shone down brilliantly, quite unimpeded by streetlights. The constellation of the Southern Cross shone brightly from high in the southeastern sky. The houses, shops and other buildings of the town formed squat dark masses between the trees beneath the stars.
Derek and Wolf spotted one building with a lighted window upstairs. It was the Ringtail Springs Police Station on the corner of High Street and Denison Street. Just for fun, Wolf threw back his head and howled. It was a beautiful, deep-throated, full-bodied howl that sounded as if it came straight from the Siberian forests. This time Derek joined in with a deliciously doggy howl. It was a bit high pitched at first but settled down rapidly into a big dog's deep howl. Other dogs around the town joined in the chorus howling in an eerie harmony.
A burly, thickset man appeared at the lighted window of the police station and peered out. Derek continued howling but checked the man telepathically. The man was the policeman who had stopped Derek and Hal the previous afternoon. He could not see anything in the darkness outside. He certainly could not see the dog and the wolf. He stood staring out of the window for several minutes then went back to surfing the Internet on his PC.
By this time, Wolf and Derek had managed to get most of the dogs in the town howling. Wolf stopped, as did Derek. The chorus of dogs continued on for several minutes then faded away to a few barks, whines and whimpers.
Curious, Derek and Wolf tuned into the policeman's mind as he returned to his PC.
Wolf: << I've got dibs on him. >>
Derek: << What? That fat-arsed copper? >>
<+ Yes. +>
<< Are you into fat arses? >>
<< I could really make something of him, given time. I could turn him into a spectacular hunk of a superman with lots of love and attention. And he'd be a challenge. >>
<< You really want to fuck him? >>
<< Yeah! I was looking him over through Hal's eyes when you and Hal were talking to him this arvo. >>
<< I see. >>
<< So, then. I've got dibs on him. Agreed? >>
<< Sure thing, mate. Agreed. But what if he prefers me? >>
<< Then he's yours, mate. >>
<< What if I don't want him? >>
<< Then you're just being bloody-minded. >>
Derek tagged the policeman telepathically then discovered that Wolf had already done so the previous afternoon.
Sergeant Kym Rowling of the New South Wales Police Force had had a very quiet night, which was not unusual. Ringtail Springs was a quiet law-abiding little town in which serious crime hardly ever happened. Therefore Sergeant Rowling made it his business to get to know the townspeople well. Even so, time hung heavily on his hands particularly during the evenings, despite the fact that several of the townspeople would invite him home for dinner. This was even more so since Jeannie, his now ex-wife, had left him more than two years ago. He felt very alone.
The police station at Ringtail Springs was a substantial two-storey stone building built in the middle of the nineteenth century when the town was much more raucous and boisterous with hopeful gold prospectors and the hard men herding cattle in the High Country of the Snowy Mountains coming to town. At that time there were six police officers living in the station. There was room for the sergeant and his family as well. Now Rowling had the big old building all to himself. He felt like a pea in a barrel, particularly since Jeannie had left him. Even if he was a big fat overweight pea, he reflected ruefully.
After Sergeant Rowling's police duties had been done for the day, he had a dinner of steak and chips washed down with a few beers at the Lion and Unicorn Hotel a short walk across High Street. Leo the publican was friendly as usual but he had to spread his attention among his other clients as well. Rowling had eaten alone at a table in the hotel's dining room. As he ate, he could not help thinking about the two bikies he had pulled over earlier that afternoon. There was something unusual about them that he could not put his finger on.
Back at the police station, he clumped upstairs and switched on his computer. First he logged onto the police department Intranet. There were a few official circulars e-mailed to him but nothing of great interest. He read them dutifully. There was also an entertaining and newsy e-mail from an old mate of his who was stationed at Boggabilla on the Queensland border. Then he navigated his way to the page on outlaw motor cycle gangs and searched it for the Roadknights. There was a faint bell ringing in some distant corner of his memory about the motor cycle club. He had no idea what it was about. Among the outlaw motor cycle gangs he saw the usual suspects, but there was absolutely no mention of the Roadknights. Puzzled, he set up a full search of the departmental Intranet. That turned up one hit, a media release about a member of the Roadknights rescuing a policeman from a flooded river in the north of the state. There was a photograph of a big and very muscular biker in denims shaking the hand of the Police Commissioner, Mr Ryan, while the rescued constable was looking on.
Kym Rowling looked at the screen of his PC wondering if that was the thing that triggered his memory. He remembered the incident. The constable had been trying to drive across a flooded bridge and his car had been swept off by the raging torrent that the river had become. He managed to escape from the sunken police car but would have been swept away to a certain death if the Roadknight had not dived in and rescued him. Rowling had thought at the time that the constable had been a real drongo for trying to cross the swollen flooded river.
Rowling next logged onto the Internet and searched for references to Roadknights there. There were hundreds of items about Margret Roadknight, the famous Australian folk singer as well as lots of other things. He gave up after a while, as he could not be bothered wading through the thousand or so references. He scored some hits when he added motor cycle club to the search string.
He went to the Australian Roadknight site first. There was not a huge amount of information. There were many colour photographs though of motorbikes and big muscular bikers in blue denims or black leathers. Rowling was surprised to see that a number of women were members as well and they were fine looking women too. He lingered over the photographs. After some time he found a page that contained what looked like some kind of mission statement. It said that the members of the motor cycle club had pledged themselves to serve the Lord God. Oh, gawd, a gang of Christian bikies, he thought to himself with a cynical smirk. A God Squad on bikes? What next? He wondered if these people were for real. He read on a little further and saw that membership was open to people of all faiths and denominations. However, prospective members had to meet peak standards of physical, mental and spiritual fitness before they would be accepted. Training was available to selected candidates. Members were obliged to keep themselves in peak condition.
Reading on, he found that the Roadknights were constituted as an order of chivalry similar to the medieval orders of knights. They upheld the chivalric code of honour. Kym Rowling smiled to himself sardonically as he pictured knights in shining armour charging around on motor bikes as steeds instead of snorting horses. However, his policeman's sense told him that they seemed pretty harmless. They certainly did not appear to be the sorts who were into making or selling drugs or going around frightening people or beating people up or the various other bad things that bikies did. But then, no bikie gang would put stuff like that on their web site.
The women looked fantastically gorgeous. The men all seemed to be splendid specimens of manhood involved in bodybuilding to a greater or lesser degree. Some were huge; they were veritable mountains of muscle, like the bigger of the two Roadknights he had stopped that afternoon. The smaller, Derek Powers, was an absolutely splendid specimen himself and he was extremely good-looking. It occurred to Rowling that none of the members in the photographs could be said to be ugly. Maybe they did not accept ugly members.
Sergeant Rowling found the table of links on the site and followed one to the web site of the U.S.A. chapter. That had more information. The Roadknights were a group of people who had pledged themselves to carrying out the Will of God. They were working towards preparing the Earth for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus although it was not known when that would happen. They would not force things along but they were dedicated to raising people's consciousness about this. Rowling thought that it was all very laudable. He snorted cynically.
He found the page of photographs. The subjects, all members of the Roadknights, were all magnificent specimens of humanity. The men there looked as awesomely muscular as the men did in the Australian site. The women looked as splendid and beautiful as well. There was the same requirement for peak fitness too.
Rowling found a page on the organisation of the motor cycle club. At the top was a photograph of the Grand Master, a bearded, longhaired, powerful looking bear of a man whose name was Hal Wray. Rowling looked at the photograph closely. He had seen that man before somewhere. Suddenly it hit him. The Grand Master was one of the two bikies he had stopped that afternoon. He was that massive mountain of muscle whom Derek had introduced as his mate Hal. So that was who Hal was! Hal Wray! What the fuck was the Grand Master doing here in Ringtail Springs? He sat back thinking but could not come to any conclusions.
He read the history page. The Roadknights Motor Cycle Club was founded in Australia in 1988 by Hal Wray who, according to the page, had journeyed around the world learning from great masters of spiritual teaching. The American chapter had been founded in 1991 and had grown strongly. A number of other chapters had been founded shortly after then in Britain, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France and other places around the world. Each chapter was headed by a Master.
This was getting better! Rowling was reading some stuff about a summons to a high crusade when down at the bottom he found this poem.
'A wind has blown across the world
And tremors shake its frame New things are struggling to their birth
And naught shall be the same. The Earth is weary of its past
Of folly, hate and fear, Beyond the dark and stormy sky
The dawn of God is near.
A wind is blowing through the Earth
A tempest loud and strong. The trumpets of the Christ the King
Thunder the skies along. The summons to a high crusade
Calling the brave and true To found a New Jerusalem
And build the world anew.
(F. C. Happold)'
Sergeant Rowling looked at the poem puzzled. His policeman's ingrained cynicism and scepticism seemed to be preventing him from getting the point.
His circling thoughts were scattered by the sound of howling outside in the street below. One of the animals sounded like a big dog like one of the Police Department's German Shepherd dogs but the other animal sounded like a wolf. It sounded as if it came straight out of the Siberian forests. It reminded him powerfully of the film 'Doctor Zhivago', which he had watched many times. He had thought of Jeannie as his Lara. It had really hurt when his wife had left him to marry that other man. The last couple of times he had watched the video, he had been reduced to a blubbering weeping wreck. It was painful.
The howling down in the street outside had the same eerie quality as the howling of the wolves in the film. It can't be a wolf. There aren't any wolves running wild here in Australia. But it certainly sounded like a wolf. Other dogs started howling in unison around the town. The back of his neck prickled. He shivered despite the mild night. What the hell was going on?
He noted the time on the PC, which was almost 5 am, then got up and peered out the window. It was still dark outside. He could see nothing in the street. The streetlights had been switched off hours ago. The only light visible was that coming from the room behind him. But wait! He saw a bright light in the East in the sky above the faint shapes of the mountains of the Brindabella Range outlined dimly by the faint glimmer of the approaching dawn. What was that?
He realised that the bright light was Venus, the Morning Star. The dawn was coming. A new day was starting soon. Something turned over in his mind. He was starting to get the point of the poem.
Rowling's head ached. It was bloody five o'clock in the morning. Wearily he sat down again at the computer and looked at the poem. The howling outside stopped. The other dogs in the town ceased too after a while. He flicked through the photographs on the American site again in a desultory fashion. He realised he was very tired. He had been on the Internet for hours. He switched off the PC and stumbled off to his bed. He hoped that the good burghers of Ringtail Springs would let him sleep in late this morning.
------------------------------------------ Continued in Part 20. ------------------------------------------