Lori’s household proved interesting. He hadn’t expected a mansion on a ritzy estate, with a converted garage, barn and guest house as additional living space. Or the swimming pool, cabana, and tennis court area converted into an obstacle course and training ground. Oh, he knew the American Focus households were wealthier than their Canadian counterparts, but a mansion? Connie had explained that most Focus households in the States were dirt poor by American standards and Lori’s household was somewhat of an exception, but still…
Also, the household was huge. The current total population was 67, which Lori said was a bit lower than normal for her household. Of the 67, 37 were Transforms, also a bit low for the household. Sky had never imagined a Focus household with 37 Transforms. 22 was the norm in Canada; 7 triads and the Focus. Nor had he expected a household that changed its size and makeup so often. The estate had sleeping space for a hundred with emergency plans for up to two hundred, both numbers reached on occasion due to visiting families and visiting Focus households.
Their biggest problem was actually parking, and that involved lawsuits. Sky didn’t want to know.
“I can’t live around this many people, Lori,” Sky said. “I’d go nuts. Panicky. Very embarrassing for a Crow of my age.”
“Kwal embar..bar..” Lori said, stumbling over his words, trying to make them out. Oh, he had switched to French again. Sky repeated himself in English. He had to do something about that problem!
“I thought you lived in a Focus household in Toronto?”
“I live one floor down in a government assigned housing project. I do maintenance in the housing project and the normal tenants of the place pay me under the table to do the pied piper routine and keep the rats out,” Sky said.
Jay, their guide, turned to Sky and gave him a puzzled look. “Government assigned housing project?”
“Focuses and their households are on welfare because in Canada discrimination against Transforms has been legalized,” Sky said, in explanation. “Lying about being a Transform is a capital crime, essentially, because once they stick you in prison, there’s no way a Focus can keep you in the juice. Officially, it’s only a minor felony, but…”
They were walking down the hall of the third floor of the main house, the foldaway bunks salvaged from a railroad sleeper car all neatly folded up for the day. “On this side, sir,” Jay said, “we have the Ardoin’s place. They’re one of our eleven real legit families.” Jay was about fifteen, perhaps sixteen, and wore a suit and tie and an incongruous baseball cap with a ‘tour guide’ hand-embroidered flame logo. About half the kids attended school on the grounds of the estate, the rest going to private schools. Sky had frozen in shock when he learned Inferno (the name of Lori’s household) did not ‘share and share alike’. A full third of any income-earner’s income stayed private, after taxes. He knew some American Transforms held jobs, but had never thought through the consequences. The fights about money had to be ferocious. Strange, though, he hadn’t picked up anywhere near the resentment he expected among the household members he met. Didn’t they realize that Transform communism, as wags in Canada called it, was the only way to go?
“Hello?” Jay called. The door opened, and an older Transform lady appeared. “Mrs. Ardoin, this here’s Sky. He’s a Crow and he’s going to be staying with us for a while.”
“I’m honored, Crow Sky,” she said. “Focus,” she said, nodding to Lori, who had drifted into the background. “We’ve had several Crow visitors here at Inferno, but never when I was around. If you have time, why don’t you come in and visit for a moment.”
“I would be more than pleased,” Sky said. Mrs. Ardoin waved him in, along with Jay, and at the last, Lori.
No bodyguard. “They don’t let me off the grounds without one,” Lori had said, earlier. “But the household ruled years ago everyone capable of being a bodyguard had to learn, and everyone else has to go through the equivalent of Transform boot camp. Bodyguards are not needed.” There was something about this Sky wasn’t quite catching. Too much in the household was strange.
Sky stopped abruptly. Mrs. Ardoin was a dumpy little woman and her apartment was nothing more than a normal bedroom. Her husband wasn’t present and neither were her children, who to Sky’s sensitive nose numbered four, all school-aged. They were rich by his standards, but not from the American perspective. Not, however, at all normal.
The room was beautiful.
“You like?” Mrs. Ardoin said.
“Yes. You’re an artist, perhaps?” The tiny apartment had the usual hideaway beds, as well as several gorgeous paintings, three pieces of sculpture, some found art, framed photographs of people and scenery. Everything was just right. He had no idea how she did this magic, but everything in the room just worked together.
Mrs. Ardoin smiled a secret smile. “Interior designer,” she said. “I run my own consulting business but I’m free, today. At least until the phone rings.”
“That’s fabulous,” Sky said. “Don’t you have trouble being a Transform, um, pardon me, ma’am.”
“Well, actually, being a Transform does limit my business somewhat. My clientele is all by word of mouth. However, it’s a lot better than having no clientele at all, which was the case when I was stuck with Focus Abernathy, who I’ve heard you and the Focus are having a little bit of a problem with.”
“Ah,” Sky said, and turned to look at Lori. Lori had set up this meeting somehow, but didn’t change her expression or juice glow one bit as this production unfolded. Lori did ice queen so well, but where was the fawning deference? None of the household Transforms doted on her at all and he sensed none of the constant tiny juice adjustments he had gotten used to metasensing from his five Canadian Focus acquaintances. None of the ‘feed the Focus all the time’ routine, either, though Lori had packed in an appallingly huge snack when they passed through the kitchen on the tour.
“Would you like a seat, Crow Sky?” Mrs. Ardoin said. Sky nodded and he and Mrs. Ardoin sat at a tiny table. Lori and Jay sat next to each other on a couch across the room and Jay took Lori’s hand. That was another oddity he had noticed, the physical touching. The normals in the household were always touching, rubbing against and hugging Lori. A few of the younger Transforms did it too, but none of the older Transforms. He found it strange.
“My husband Frank lost his job at the Ford plant when I transformed back in ’59. They couldn’t find me a Focus near where we lived and we lost everything. Focus Abernathy got me, all the way from Ohio. Focus Abernathy’s place was a big old farm outside of Bridgeport, Connecticut. We lived in trailers, what they call mobile homes nowadays. When they got bad, we would sell them, buy new ones from the salvage lots and fix them up. We grew our own food and raised our own animals. It was a hard life.”
Sky nodded again. “Yes, a very hard life. Several of the Focuses I work with in Canada have similar living conditions and it’s hard on the household members.” Government housing didn’t always mean apartments in big cities. “Especially the normals. What was Focus Abernathy like?”
Mrs. Ardoin turned away, looking outside the window. Sky took a peek outside and turned back. The doctor slash researcher was outside, teaching a few Transforms some sort of advanced Transform trickery. Sky and Lori had almost had a fight over the man. She wanted Sky to talk to him, let the doctor examine him. Sky had put his foot down. No doctors or researchers. He had grown tired of that type in Canada after he returned to civilization. Even a Focus’s pet doctors set him off, these days. He had learned his reaction was nearly ubiquitous among Crows. Lori had relented, which was good, because that was one of his ‘no negotiation’ positions.
He kept having the feeling he had been frowned at somehow in that conversation but couldn’t put his finger on exactly where.
“Focus Abernathy was a monster,” Mrs. Ardoin said, her voice a whisper. “She used juice like a whip, demanding instant obedience or else. She kept everyone but her favorites low on juice, and kept her favorites pumped and
high. Three of her favorites were men and her men got to sleep with anyone they wanted whenever they wanted. About the time Frank and I got out of Focus Abernathy’s grasp she was just coming into her charisma. She loved to use her charisma to get her people fighting each other and to get the normals to do her favors.”
Mrs. Ardoin paused for a moment, and continued to look out the window. Her face reddened with anger and Sky smelled fear on her. “Focus Abernathy wasn’t very smart for a Focus. Her favorites could talk her into doing the stupidest things and she’d just go along. She and her favorites lived high on the hog while everyone else suffered.” Her voice lowered even more. “She believed in astrology.”
Sky sat, speechless. Mrs. Ardoin didn’t need to explain the latter. Sky felt her emotional state through his metasense and his own mind filled in the details. If the stars ordained a Transform was going to have a bad day, or her love life was about to be a mess, Focus Abernathy arranged it so: arbitrary insanity, a surrendering to Maya, the illusion of reality. He wiped tears from his eyes.
“Your family’s escape from such a place must have been miraculous, Mrs. Ardoin, a godsend, an exodus from hell. The thought of such a Focus household fills me with horror,” Sky said. He sniffled and tried to wipe his nose surreptitiously.
“I owe my life to this household and the Focus many times over,” Mrs. Ardoin said, turning to look at Sky, her eyes the eyes of a fanatic. “If there is anything I can do to help you, Sky, in your appointed mission, be sure to ask. Anything.”
Behind him, Lori had reacted to Mrs. Ardoin’s hot emotions with an emotional echo of her own. Behind the ice queen Focus glow Lori’s power answered and for the first time Sky saw behind Lori’s mask, into the complex inferno of Lori’s juice-driven power and capabilities as a Focus. The pieces came together at last.
Kindly lovable Lori’s ice queen exterior hid a terror, a frightening set of capabilities he never imagined a Focus might possess. Despite having only about half his tenure as a Major Transform, despite his bravado in their confrontation at the tourney, she could have indeed snuffed him like a spent candle without half a thought. He had seen a tiny inkling of Lori’s capabilities a year ago, when he had gone wild and trailed the Focus and her crew across two hundred miles of Ontario wilderness as they had tracked down an ogre-ish Monster. She had killed it herself with her raw power to manipulate juice. Her real talents lay as virgin and leashed inside of her as her sexuality did, expressed only through her charisma. She had only just scratched the surface of her juice manipulation abilities.
The older Transforms loved her and feared her both. The younger ones, growing into their own power around her, both loved her and worshipped her. He pitied anyone who foolishly threatened Lori or her household, for they would not live through the attempt. Sky grabbed hold of his panic and thrust it away as only an ancient Crow could do. He understood now why he had fallen so thoroughly for Lori. Ah, Sky, he thought, what have you done to yourself, falling for yet another dangerous one!
This Focus’s hard edges were razor sharp. Just like Arm’s. Just like Anne-Marie’s. Just as beautifully wondrous.
“Thank you, Mrs. Ardoin. Thank you very much for your explanation. If all goes well, Focus Abernathy and her appalling evil games will be stopped.” Sky stood.
“Down here, behind this door, is the staircase to the attic,” Jay said. They had finished with Mrs. Ardoin and were back to the tour.
“We don’t need to bother with that,” Lori said, turning around.
“Oh, but we do,” Jay said. “I’m positive Sky’s going to want to see this.”
Sky shrugged. Attics were attics, places to hide. Right there with basements and under the floorboards of houses that didn’t sit directly on slabs. Seen one, seen ’em all. Jay opened the door and started up the stairs, stopping to make sure Sky followed. Well behind them, Lori tapped the toe of one of her shoes on the polished hardwood floor of the hallway, then with a sigh of resignation and exasperation slowly followed the duo.
“You ever see an attic like this?” Jay said to Sky when they reached the top of the stairs. Sky looked around, taking a few moments to understand what he saw. He let shock cover his face, a payoff to Jay.
Crow heaven.
Boxes, stored furniture, and old bedding, packed the attic from floor to ceiling, all likely unneeded furniture and overflow furniture created when the household members moved from their former lives into the cramped spaces of a Transform household. Not just any ol’ attic, though. It was huge, to match the rest of the house. It was also finished, floor, walls and angled ceilings, all in polished hardwoods. Exquisite. Save in the tallest part of the attic, down the center, the attic roof sloped down to lower than Sky’s head. With a whoop, Sky took off into the dark dry mustiness of the place, burrowed down into a pile of unused rugs and quilts, and vanished. He shook for a few moments, letting a bit of overwhelming panic loose to work itself out. Then he relaxed and lost himself in the dance of the dozens of Transforms on the grounds of the estate this Sunday afternoon.
Well behind him, Lori and Jay discussed proper decorum, obeying Lori’s signals, and other minor issues. Jay hugged Lori as she lectured him, then mussed up her hair and extorted ten dollars from her, the proceeds of a bet he had made with the Focus, predicting he would be able to find a place in the house Sky would like. Lori paid up, kissed Jay on the cheek, and walked around the attic, calling for Sky.
They would never be able to find him here, Sky realized. They would have to unpack the entire attic. He could easily ward this area from Lori’s metasense so he could sleep, rest and meditate. Oh, the dross of it all!
“Friggen Crow,” Lori said, only five paces away, but not able to sense him at all. “Where the aich eee double toothpicks did you go, anyway?”
However, he still had his mission.
“I’m right here,” Sky said, in a more standard Crow whisper.
“Where?”
“Right in front of you.”
Lori looked around, gave up, and sat down on the edge of a covered chair, only a few feet away from him. Oh beautiful lady, come down and snuggle with me, Sky thought. He forced those thoughts away. Professional! Think professional!
“Jay thinks you’ve found a home,” Lori said. “He’s been studying Crows. All the Crow information in our library. He’s even talked to a Crow, Sinclair, over the phone. Sinclair wasn’t quite sure what to make of some sixteen year old grilling him for a school project. Jay had figured out ahead of time you’d love the attic but didn’t tell me. He just bet me he’d find a place for you.”
Sky giggled for a moment, as Sinclair was so bloody straight-laced it was funny. Just imagining Sinclair talking to a kid from a Focus’s household was worth the price of admission to this place.
“This place is perfect.” Sky burrowed in deeper, the noise enough to allow Lori to place him. An invitation to join him, if she was so inclined. Fat chance. She didn’t move an eyelash. “Why doesn’t your household use this attic for living quarters?”
“Well, two reasons. First, it’s unheated, though I doubt that bothers you any more than that would bother me. Second, we do need the storage space.”
Third, it’s improper for people to live in an attic, Sky filled in for Lori what she left unsaid, but otherwise believed. Raised in luxury, he bet. Had this mansion been her girlhood home? That would make sense, if she inherited it. Lucky for her she learned about Crows soon enough to avoid having to do the Transform household shuffle.
“Focus Abernathy sounds like a real winner,” Sky said. “But she’s not the sort who would be able to think up her mutie mill project. I don’t know if you’ll agree or not, but I think someone else is behind the mutie mill and is using her.”
“Oh, I agree,” Lori said. “Most likely my boss, Focus Schrum, who essentially owns Focus Abernathy. She’s hard enough to put together an atrocity like that without batting an eyelash.”
“Your boss.” Marde! There goes the mission, the whole th
ing undone in an instant because, by coincidence, the Focus he chose had the same boss as the perp. Ah, why couldn’t he live a normal life? Why hadn’t Annie or Focus Russell noticed they had sent him out to do the impossible?
“No, I’m not going to back out,” Lori said, with a lilt to her Boston Brahmin voice. Sky relaxed. “She’s one of those first Focuses I told you about that I’m having trouble with due to the researcher I’m protecting. We’ll just have to work our way around her.”
“Won’t this get you into trouble?”
“Not if I play things right. Or, at least, any more trouble than I’m already in.”
Ah, you don’t mind trouble, my ice queen Focus with the heart of a star! I’ll show you trouble, if you would be so kind as to burrow down here with me. Sky barely repressed a laugh. “So, what’s next?”
“There’s a meeting of the local members of the Northeast Regional Council, a bunch of nearby pushy Focuses like myself, in early January. Business, planning for the next national Council meeting in March, boring stuff. I’m the Northeast Region VP. If we play this right, I can have the votes in my pocket already to get Abernathy shut down before the meeting starts. I can spring this on Focus Schrum, who’s the Northeast Region Council President, and she won’t be able to do a thing about it. I’m going to need real proof; my political partner, a very straightforward woman, is going to require it.
“So we’ll need to examine the place ahead of time.”
“Okay,” Sky said. “So that’s why you invited me to work with your people for the next few weeks?”
All Beasts Together (The Commander) Page 16