Darren took off with Olivia, Roberta and Jesper on his back.
Since I assume that none of you have ever flewn on the back of a
dragon, and are dying to know what it is like, I better describe that
to you. On second thought, since I haven't done that eider, I better
not. Anyway, Darren flew, with Olivia as his navigator, towards El
Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Regina de los Angeles de Porciunculs,
or Los Angeles for short, (or LA for even shorter), where the Hell's
Angels conference should take place. As Darren flew over the Pacific
Ocean a precarious and inevitable incidence was about to happen. The
flying equipage should soon pass the date-line. 'Hmmm', you might
think, 'Why is that a precarious incident?' Think again! This is
suppose to be Saturday, but on the other side of that line it is
still Friday! We can't end Saturday already and go back to Friday,
since that would make this whole story very strange.
So, please let us all pretend that
it is Saturday when Darren lands in the States, and I promise you a few
more extra jokes. Now when this is sorted out, back to
the flying dragon.
Even though Darren now felt a lot better that he had felt this morning,
his stomach still was far from good. Darren started to suspect that he
was about to get the 'runs'. A few minutes later he was proved
correct, and this affected a few Japanese fishermen in a way that you
better not know the details of. However, after a surprisingly short
time of flight, Darren announced that they should fasten their seat
belts, since it was time to land
outside Los Angeles. Even if Darren's landing technically couldn't be
classified as a crash landing, it still was a pretty lousy one. After
the landing Darren said:
"Not a bad landing, if I may say so myself."
Since no one were fit to give their comment, Darren continued:
"Where are they? Where are my bikers? I want to walk around with my
eyes closed and my mouth open, right now!"
Less than 5 km away from Darren, a gathering of Hell's Angels members,
larger than the world had ever seen before, were just about to start
off their conference. There had been a small delay, since 17 of the
more notorious members still hadn't come. The 17 members all came from
the same group, and hadn't been seen since they visited a circus for a
few days ago. Since patience isn't a prominent feature among bikers,
they decided not to wait for the 17 members any more, and opened the
conference anyway.
In the meantime, Olivia talked to Darren:
"Let's get this straight. You are actually planning to walk around
with you mouth open?"
"Yap!"
"Okay, but if your eyes are closed, how can you be sure that you don't
eat somebody else by mistake?"
"If I get something without a leather jacket, I spit it out."
"Darren, have you realized what kind of horror and danger you expose
all these people to?"
"Bah! It will give them a story to tell their grandchildren.", Darren
ended their conversation, and started to walk towards the central
LA.
It didn't take Darren a very long time to find a bunch of bikers. With
his sensitive ears he could hear that the bikers were talking about
the conference. He slowly started to sneak toward his prey, murmuring
under his breath:
"This must be Dragon Paradise."
45 minutes after Darren had walked away from the others, he
returned. His facial expression was extremely hard to interpret, since
it only was indicating that he was filled with many different
feelings. His pot belly was easier to interpret,
indicating that Darren was filled with a good square meal. Before
anyone else had the chance to open their mouth, Darren said:
"I have two news. One good, and one other. Which one do you like to
hear first?"
"Is the other news, bad news?", Olivia asked worriedly.
"No, not at all. It is extremely, extraordinary bad news."
"In that case, let's hear about the good news first."
"I found some bikers, and now I feel great and I don't have to eat
again for a few hours."
With a voice trembling with fear, Olivia said:
"I am glad for your sake Darren, but what about the other news?"
"After I ate 13 bikers, I realized that the bikers were not Hell's
Angels members, but Los Angeles policemen, supervising the
conference.... I'm afraid that the largest police force ever is sort
of after me. Sorry..."
"Ask me if I am surprised, Darren", Olivia said.
"Are you surprised?"
"No."
"I'm a bit surprised." Roberta interposed.
After Roberta's interference Olivia almost lost the thread, but after
looking really confused for about 10 seconds, she continued:
"Darren couldn't you for once stay out of trouble? What are you going
to do now?"
"Well,..... I can go undercover!"
"Undercover? Like in; Put on a false mustache, a derby hat and
stuff?", Olivia derided Darren.
"No comments."
As Olivia read the riot act to Darren, a bunch of mysterious looking
people approached them. Judging from their appearance most of them had
a personality that contained the odd mixture of evilness and
humidity. One man, obviously the leader of the bunch, said to
Darren:
"The word on the street is that you enormous creature revenged Rodney
King by gorging on policemen. We like that. We have a huge warehouse
nearby, if you like to go to a safe place."
"I don't think I'm familiar with....", Darren begun.
"Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Cal Apone, and I represent the LA-mob.", Cal
interposed.
"...Rodney King?", Darren finished.
"Nice to meat you Mr King", Cal said and stretched his hand towards
Darren.
Darren looked kind of puzzled as he shook Cal's hand.
"Well, do you follow us Rodney?", Cal said since everybody else
remained silent.
When Darren, after some deep dragon thoughts, realized that Cal
thought that Darren's name was Rodney, he felt really pleased.
Getting an alias was a very good start when you were planning to go
undercover. He said:
"Okay, Mr Apone, let's go and see if your warehouse is big enough for
me. By the way, does it have a really big door too?"
"Oh, yeah. Our own Sublime Porte. Follow me and see for yourself."
As they walked to the warehouse Darren was very anxious to convince
Roberta, Olivia and Jesper that they should start calling him Rodney to
help him to adept to his new identity. Olivia and Roberta were easy to
convince, but Jesper became all confused. He couldn't understand that
when Darren's name obviously was Darren, why anyone should call him
Rodney then. It made no sense. However, after Darren had told Jesper
that he should do that since they played a word game, and that the
loser of the game should be the bait in Dar.. Rodney's next
biker haunt, Jesper promised to call Darren Rodney. When they came to
the warehouse they all noticed that the house was huge, and that the
door to the house was enormous. The door was in fact so gigantic that
Darren in less then 5 minutes manage to squeeze in through it. When
they all were inside, Cal decided to explain one or two things:
"So, this is our H.Q., where we gather to inform each other about our
latest deeds, and were we play high stake poker."
"Poker?", Darren wondered, "Did you say poker?"
"Yeah Rodney, I did say poker."
"I love poker. Can I join the poker game?", Darren asked.
Since Darren is't something you say no to, Cal promised Darren that
he could join the poker game. However, Olivia, tried to convince him
not to. She said:
"Da.. Rodney, don't do it. Didn't you hear that they play with high
stakes?"
"Yeah, that's good since I will win more. I'm a poker expert, you
know. I play poker all the time at the circus, and I almost always
wins."
"That may be true, but I have a strong feeling that these men are
better card players than the orang-outangs and chimpanzees you usually
play with."
"Trust me, I'm not going to do anything foolish.", Darren said and
walked away to the poker table.
Strange enough Darren's reassuring words didn't seem to
set Olivia at rest.
Half an hour later Darren came back from the poker table. Since he
looked a little ashamed, Olivia said with a sigh of despair:
"I know that look. You, have good and bad news?"
"You are half right...."
"Oh, no. What is the bad news?"
"I lost Roberta at the poker game!"