Chapter 39
They had a pleasant day at the river the next day and then took the train in the afternoon. A month of train hopping, for Russia was truly a vast land, and they were at Moscow and the airport.
Katya and Igor looked at everything in amazement. They looked normal, for the most part. Vasilisa had told Nikola that, that was the way the two looked before he had ghouled them.
They were both blonde and blue-eyed and on the shorter side. With muscled builds, borne of a lifetime of hard labor. They didn’t speak English, but Vasilisa had taken to teaching them during the trip.
The two had the minds of children. Nikola marveled at that and regraded, killing them the first time. Even if they have attacked him. He vowed to ask Flavius to find another way to end Gehenna. With no one dying.
Ivan and Matthew waited for them at the airport and, when Ivan saw Igor and Katya, he called them brother and sister and embraced them. The two ghouls were happy to not receive pain from a vampire, and so they were excited about Ivan’s friendship. The fact that he spoke Russian to them endeared him to them all the more.
When Nikola went back, he checked how well his app was going along. Some people were complaining of migraines, others about constipation. But they were all losing weight. And so, even though in the papers his app was written off as a simple fashion trick, Nikola kept getting more sales.
Now that people were through the first phase, they could add vegetables in their diet. And so, Nikola launched that update for free for everyone who had bought the app.
Happy he was helping, and not just Americans either, but some of the most obese populations in the world too as the app was affordable, he began to search for the next app idea.
There were women who wanted a fitness trainer in their phone, but Nikola didn’t feel like he could add anything to the numerous fitness trainers that were already there.
Then, there was this small-time business owner who wanted an automated storage manager. Apparently, he was fed up with the managers who misplaced his wares and didn’t fill in the receipts well enough.
Deciding to do this and remembering that Google would have done this anyway in about twenty years, he drew on the memory of the code for the assistant and began to type.
Vasilisa went and sat by him and looked at the code with interest.
“What is this?” Nikola was reminded that Vasilisa was used to living in the wilderness.
“An app. A string of code that is going to manage storage inventory,” explained Nikola. Vasilisa nodded and stood silently by his side. Nikola let the soft music he had put on from YouTube and continued to write.
“Why make such things?” Vasilisa broke the silence after five minutes, and Nikola stopped just as he was debugging the beginning of the code. So far, he had just gotten the app to recognize barcodes. He figured that, if the storage manager could recognize barcodes, then it can count them and then the storage attendants would simply have to introduce it to the barcodes.
“I need money,” ok, he really didn’t. But he didn’t know if he could still get away with making apps twenty years from now. He already had ideas into what he could invest the money.
“Do you really? Dimitri told me you have millions,” which was true, but that wasn’t nearly enough for what Nikola had planned.
“I want to open a restaurant chain that offers affordable, but healthy, food,” his first app had inspired that decision. People would remember the name Nutrition Bowl from the app, and they might flock to the restaurants. Or the whole thing can crash and burn.
“For the mortals? Why? You are not one,” Vasilisa snuggled into Nikola, and the Bulgarian sighed.
“Healthy mortals means healthy blood. One free of cholesterol,” Nikola attempted to appeal to Vasilisa, but the vampire was not having it.
“If this works, you will become ridiculously rich. I know from McDonald's that food is a lucrative business,” when Nikola looked at him incredulously, he added, insulted. “I am not a country pumpkin!”
“I know that…” attempted to defend himself, Nikola.
“I want in on the idea,” Nikola felt uncomfortable. Did Vasilisa even have money of his own? It didn’t matter. He would still give him a share, if he wanted one.
“Ok, will do. But I need to make the money for an entire chain first. If I open more restaurants for all the states, at least one for every better known town or city, then people will flock to them,” Vasilisa chuckled and flicked Nikola’s nose.
“I’ll bankroll you while you play with these app things. How much do you need?” Nikola had no idea. He had thought that it would take him ten years’ worth of saving money, at least.
“It is really ok, Vasilisa,” Vasilisa pressed a finger on Nikola’s lips.
“I am not a charity case,” chastised him, the Methuselah. “I had nearly 11000 years to collect wealth. Calculate how much you need to start with, and I’ll bankroll you. But I need something from you.”
Nikola looked down and was ready to refuse when Vasilisa spoke again.
“I want an app too. One that is a grammar checker. I have dyslexia, you see,” Nikola looked at proud Vasilisa and nodded. But then, he paused.
“Why can’t you just buy one that already exists?” Nikola had been an English and what-have-you professor during his lifetimes. He was good with grammar.
“And have my name linked with a grammar checker? I will be a laughingstock!” Nikola snickered and Vasilisa send him a look.
“Ok, ok. I’ll whip you something. But, do you mind if I sell it later?” Vasilisa shrugged and Nikola considered it a green light. He will be a busy bee these coming months.
