Once again, on a hot day, Thomas makes the long journey, on foot, from the Grant estate to Ft. Stanford. He's got the vampire ferret's remains in a sun-proof bag.

At the fort, they empty the bag's contents on a wooden table. Curious, many NAU soldiers surround it. It's like nothing many of them have seen...

Some of them know herbalism. They collect body parts from the ferret, and put them next to certain plant and animal parts with certain properties.

In sick bay, the nurses attend to Thomas's bite. It looks like Thomas killed the damned creature just in time...

A Serrano defector, who knows a bit about black magic, comes to the ferret's carcass, and examines it. He surrounds it with herbs, sits on the table, before it, clasps his hands together, and performs a little chant...

All around the shadowy room, a storm blows. The NAU soldiers have to hold onto their hats, to keep them from blowing out of their hands; military protocol forbids them from wearing their covers inside.

Thomas walks in, as this ritual is taking place. He watches, and learns...

Some of the soldiers shout, as the ferret suddenly grows three heads...like Cerberus. He opens all six of his eyes. They all glow red.

"I am Bom-Bom Fez-Jura Grond," the ferret hisses. "I am a devil, and a ruler of the Hutu tribe. Many droughts and lake floods I have survived, and many I still will. I have seen the future...and I will do whatever in my hell's power I must do, to preserve its glory."

Thomas stands behind the Serrano herbalist, and tries to talk to the devil. Behind him, a lot of nurses try to stop him...but can't.

"Why," Thomas asks, "did you try to suck me dry?"

"What do you expect, accursed son of Japheth? I am devil. I drink what your kind thrives on."

"Your nation is black. You...DID say the Hutu one, didn't you?"

"You remember correct. But I am no ally of the Hutu people. Rather, I am an ally of their darkness. By night, I assemble it. Together, we protect the Hutu. You are a product of Japheth, and therefore, a product of a great race. A great race that has, and is destined to, collect many Hutu souls in cages, enslave them, and teach them how to hate you. And when their time comes, I delight in instructing them in their glorious revolt against your kind."

"I have no quarrel with the Hutu tribe. In fact, I've heard they've got some very big and strong elephants over there..."

"Endeavor to broker peace, if you must, accursed Grant son of Japheth. But in the future, one of your male descendants captures and enslaves three of my favorites. He will sell one to someone worse, and slay two in the Grey House itself. I come here to you, to take your blood, to prevent that aberration...by preventing you from regenerating, and producing the white devil who, in the future, gets elected to the Grey House, and slays the great hosts of two of my favorites before a worldwide audience!"

Thomas gapes. "One of my descendants...becomes president of the NAU?!"

"Do not sound so proud, white devil," the ferret's three heads command. "Now, you die!" With that, the ferret shrieks, in three-part harmony via all three heads, enlarges his fins, and leaps forward, straight towards Thomas's chest...

Near the wall, one of the soldiers flips a lever. Above, a skylight opens, and instantly turns the three-headed ferret into ashes.

Now a lump of coal, it falls before the Serrano's crossed legs. It shatters, when it touches down.

All around, silence cloaks the room. Everyone's seen...but no one believes.

Before long, Thomas's commanding officer has issued him a transfer order. From now on, Thomas is going to be away from home MUCH more often than either he, his relatives, or his slaves are used to. They're sending him to Samoa...to protect him.

At home, everyone's going to miss Thomas...in all but the way Thomas prefers to be missed. He can't imagine that Samoa will be anything like the Sierra Nevadas. Then again, he's kind of hoping that it won't be.