The floor just made the situation worse.
The clatter of pots and dinnerware echoed off steel and concrete in the oversized institutional kitchen. Tonya’s own guards washed dishes. At Donna the Dumpy’s orders.
Galling.
Tonya’s boss’s boss, Focus Shirley Patterson, had sent her here to interfere. Shirley’s last phone instructions were to “…keep Donna from putting her pathetic stooge, Titus, on the Council.” Tonya did her duty and politely passed along the order. Donna’s flaming temper tantrum ended with Tonya and her crew’s capture.
According to Focus Laswell, the previous holder of the Council seat, Carrie Sue Sanderson, had been forced to resign after being caught paying off a Crow. Sanderson’s suspicious resignation, along with Dumpy Donna’s comment about ‘Monster activity’ being unusually high recently in the Kansas City area, made Tonya suspect she didn’t know the full story.
If so, Shirley wouldn’t want Tonya to take this, well, sitting down. Tonya forced her mind away from catty Fingleman insults. She had to take control of the situation.
Donna’s guards, both Transform and non, shared the same steel-eye glare in their eyes and hard athletic bodies as Focus Rizzari’s guards, which did nothing to quiet Tonya’s nerves. Mixed gender as well. Unlike the other first Focuses, Donna was as open to innovation as the more inventive younger Focuses. However, did Donna train her people to resist Focus charisma? Unlikely, as Donna had little charisma to play with.
Tonya was a master at Focus charisma.
She stood and tugged her carefully tailored teal suit into position. Tonya had the magnetic charismatic presence of a nineteen-year-old movie star and the looks to go with it, despite her fifty-plus years of life.
Two of the guards turned from the door to face her. “Ma’am, you are to…” the left one said. Tonya caught his eyes and he stopped. She got the second a moment later. Two others watched her from beside the ovens and they stepped forward with a frown. She used her well-trained Focus athletic enhancements to twirl in place and capture their gaze. A moment later, she caught the eyes of the other five, who guarded Tonya’s entourage.
“Ignore me. Wash those dishes!” Tonya commanded Donna’s guards. “Your Focus is depending on you.”
They complied, meekly. Right now Tonya didn’t care about the subtleties of her craft.
“Ideas, people,” Tonya said, to her entourage, now freed from the dishes and gathered around her. “Our goal is to bring this farce to a halt.”
---
Four hours later, as the kitchen clock read five minutes after three in the morning, Donna stalked into the kitchen, a brace of guards around her. She was a rare creature, an ugly Focus, with limp brown hair, a puffy face, and about 40 pounds of extra weight. “What’s the meaning of this!” she bellowed, hands on her hips, glaring at Tonya.
Tonya smiled up from where she sat comfortably on one of Donna’s kitchen chairs. “I’d say your guards aren’t as well trained as you think.”
Ten minutes ago, Tonya had sent one of Vivian’s Transforms, who had been serving as a waiter, out with a note for Donna. ‘Hang it up for the night – you’re deadlocked.’ The Focuses in the meeting looked as tired as Tonya.
The stout first Focus turned her back on Tonya and gave orders to her guards. They ignored her. She yanked on their juice until they fell to the floor, unconscious, and she still didn’t get any response from them. She stalked back to Tonya.
Tonya smiled and said nothing. Her own bodyguards ringed her, weapons out.
“Give them back to me, bitch,” Donna said, her face dark red. “I’ll ruin you for this.”
“You’ll do no such thing. Sit. Calm down. Think things through.”
Her guards parted for Donna, who sat, calmed down, and started to think. Tonya’s charisma got through to the first Focus because Donna let herself get upset. Tonya was thankful Donna hadn’t barged in earlier, giving Tonya enough time to rest and regain her edge. Her earlier charismatic gambit with the guards had overextended her, farther toward low juice than she liked.
“Shirley may have made you untouchable and given you permission to play games with your charisma, but you’re still going to regret it,” Donna said.
Tonya anted up. “Shirley doesn’t want any more of your well-owned flunkies on the Council. She wants a Focus with some spine. She isn’t going to force you to choose any of your local political enemies as Council rep, though.”
“Those orders don’t excuse you for charismatically controlling my guards.”
“I wouldn’t have done so if you hadn’t bundled me off to the kitchen with your own unnecessary strong arm tactics,” Tonya said, and leaned forward, close to Donna, and whispered. “Don’t even think of messing with my household in Philadelphia, either,” she said. “I have an Arm in my back pocket who considers tagged Transforms a rare delicacy and I’m more than willing to use her.” Tonya couldn’t afford to hold back if she expected to get out of this scrape intact.
Donna didn’t flinch from the Arm threat. “An Arm you can’t even talk to on the phone.” She snorted. Damn. She knew about Tonya’s Keaton problems. “You interfered in the meeting with your damned charisma. Shirley’s not going to appreciate this.”
Tonya shook her head. “No, I didn’t interfere. I just made sure that a goodly number of your invited Focuses knew about Shirley’s wishes.” Tonya smiled, then, not a good smile. “It was your generation of Focuses who taught all of us the power of notes under plates.”
Donna leaned back and calmed down even more, not at Tonya’s command. The first Focus had surrendered.
“I see. This never happened,” Donna said, speaking about both Tonya’s capture and her takeover of the guards. “Officially.” Donna closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. “What happens next?”
“A few minutes ago, I noticed a Focus and her entourage pull in. Someone told her the meeting was over, even though it wasn’t over at the time,” Tonya said. “Someone you didn’t invite, perhaps?”
“Lupe Rodriguez, a Focus from Los Angeles.”
“I’m guessing several more uninvited Focuses will be arriving tonight. At Shirley’s invitation. We’re going to wait until they all arrive, and then we’re going to sit down with them and work out a deal.”
---
Donna led Tonya into a small meeting room in the VFW hall. Six Focuses waited for them, and of the lot Tonya recognized only one, Thelma Laswell. Donna’s guards closed the door behind them. Tonya had been on the phone, checking her contacts. Her peer and nemesis, Focus Rizzari, had made another Transform trade. This was the fourth engineer Rizzari had traded for this year, which smelled like a new Rizzari scheme.
No word from Keaton, of course. There had been months of no word. Tonya had no idea what those Arms were up to, and it killed her.
“Donna, what’s goin’ on?” one of the Focuses said. “If’n I don’t get word tah my people soon, they’re gonna cause yah some high caliber technical difficulties.”
There wasn’t a bodyguard in this meeting room.
“This is a private meeting,” Donna said. “Your people will keep.”
Donna turned to Tonya. “As we agreed, here are all the non-invited Focuses. From left to right, they’re Lupe Rodriguez, Pansy Wilson, Connie Webb, Thelma Laswell who you already know, Enid Gladchuck and Deena Forrest.”
Like Thelma, both Webb and Rodriguez were second generation Focuses who had transformed before Kennedy’s inauguration. Tonya knew a fair amount about both of them. The others were third generation Focuses, two of them unfamiliar to Tonya even by name.
“This is Council Representative Tonya Biggioni, here by the request of Shirley Patterson,” Donna said. All the Focuses save Deena sat up straighter. Tonya did have a dark reputation, as did Shirley. “We’re going to talk about the open Council Rep seat in closed session.”
“Oh, that’s what my dream was about,” Focus Forrest said, she of the ‘high caliber technical difficulties’ threat.
Tonya made eye contact with the Focus and ordered her to shut up. The Dreaming was not for public discussion, even in a closed group like this. They didn’t know each other well enough to talk about such private matters.
Tonya’s charisma slid off Focus Forrest without effect, to Tonya’s surprise. Focus Forrest didn’t have even the slightest bit of charismatic presence. As far as Tonya knew, you had to have charisma to resist charisma.
Which meant Focus Forrest wasn’t an ordinary Focus.
“Not that I’m a Dreamer like some Focuses I know. Who’s this Focus Patterson, dearie?” Focus Forrest asked Donna. Tonya couldn’t believe her ears.
“She’s our political leader,” Donna said. ‘Our’ meaning the first Focuses.
“Oh, her? What’s she doin’ interested in me?”
Tonya wondered the same. Focus Forrest was dressed in well-worn blue jeans, a checked long sleeve shirt and a mud-spattered cowboy hat. The other Focuses wore haute couture, or at least as haute couture as their households could afford. Tonya knew her clothing enhanced her charisma and she suspected all the other Focuses in the room felt the same way. Well, except for Forrest.
“I’m sure we’ll find out soon,” Donna said. “I think…”
Focus Gladchuck interrupted. “I wasn’t asked to come here by anyone outside of our region,” she said. “Madame Region President, I’m here at the request of the Bay Area Focuses and I have five proxy votes from them.” Tonya easily grabbed Gladchuck’s eyes and had the Bay Area Focus fidget her hands. Nope, not a Council-quality Focus.
“Except mine,” Focus Wilson said. “I too am honored by Focus Patterson’s call, but shouldn’t a Council Rep be someone older than I am?”
“How long have you been a Focus?” Tonya asked Focus Wilson, as she wrote a note to Donna. A second echelon Focus like Gladchuck shouldn’t be here.
“Just under three years,” Focus Wilson answered.
Tonya nodded. “We’ll have to take your experience into consideration,” she said. Focus Wilson fidgeted back down into her seat.
“Enid, I’m afraid you didn’t make the cut,” Donna said. “Why don’t you go wait outside?”
“Sure, Donna,” Focus Gladchuck said, then wrote something on a legal pad she carried with her and gave it to Donna as she left the room. Tonya glanced at Enid’s note; she had thrown her proxy votes of support to Connie Webb. It spoke to Tonya of backroom local politics, always dangerous.
Tonya gathered eyes. “Why don’t each of you tell me what you’d add to the Council if you’re selected?” Of the five who remained, Tonya only rolled Focus Wilson with her charisma.
Tonya nodded to Lupe Rodriguez to start.
“Like Deena, I’m a witch, a Bruja in my language, but of a different variety than Deena,” Lupe said, in heavily accented English. Tonya had never heard the ‘witch’ term used before for Focuses, save when certain someones were insulting her. Lupe hadn’t used it as an insult. It sounded like the culture of the West Region Focuses had started to diverge from the Focuses of the other Regions. Such a divergence wouldn’t be good, couldn’t be good. “I deal in juice-laden symbols and I’m a specialist at adjusting Transforms to the realities of life within a Focus household.”
The latter was one of Tonya’s specialties. Lupe possessed an impressive charismatic presence, and she would make a fine Council rep. Tonya next turned to Focus Wilson, who stammered for a moment, then started over. “I believe too many Focuses are straying from the old established ways of the first Focuses,” Wilson said. “They’re attracting too much attention to themselves and are risking another Quarantine.” Unluckily for Wilson, both Tonya and Donna had ‘strayed’.
Donna passed Tonya a note reading ‘Over my dead body’. Tonya appended ‘Then we are in agreement’. “I’m afraid you’re right, Pansy,” Donna said. “Your youth works against you in this. You can wait outside as well.”
After Focus Wilson left, Connie Webb spoke next. “Ma’am, Region President Fingleman. I’m afraid I’m one of the Focuses Focus Wilson is upset about. Some might view this as two strikes against me, but I consider my ‘straying’ as my strongest qualification for this position. First, I’m a lawyer, currently employed by a small legal partnership working exclusively in the area of corporate law. My career has given me ample experience in adversarial situations as well as situations where I must work with groups of people who are striving for a common goal.” Tonya nodded. She knew of Connie’s profession, and now realized Connie backed it up with an extremely stiff charisma. “Secondly, I’ve organized my household in a new fashion that I term the corporate style. It allows for more flexibility and greater equality among household Transforms than the other household models.”
“Really?” Tonya said. Connie frowned and shook her head. “We need to talk. I use a corporate style myself.” She had for years, though she didn’t think such a thing worth publicizing.
“Are you trying to claim credit, Focus Biggioni?”
Oh, and prickly as well. Tonya put Connie below Lupe on her mental list. “No, not at all.”
“Good.” Focus Webb mentally appended ‘you Patterson puppet’ to her comment.
Tonya held in a sigh of annoyance and turned to Thelma. “My turn?” Thelma asked, and Tonya nodded. “I’m not tryin’ to brag or nothin’, but I’m a bidnesswoman in the same approximate strata as Donna here and Focus Keistermann. If selected, I’d bring my bidness knowledge with me to the Council. On the oth’r hand, I’m not campainin’ for the job, if you get my drift. If y’all select me, fine, but I think any of the other three here’d do better on the Council than I’d do.”
Connie passed Thelma a note once Thelma was finished, and she passed it back, and so on and so forth. Business, not politics, Tonya decided, reading the two of them as best she could. Since they were from San Diego and Houston, respectively, they likely didn’t often deal with each other in person.
“You wait’n on me?” Focus Forrest said, after an entire room full of eyes rested on her for half a minute. “Well, I’ve never figgered out this charisma thang of yours, but it never seems to bother me none, so who cares, anyway. Me un my household hunts Monsters.” Oh, that’s where Tonya remembered Focus Forrest from. She ‘un’ her household weren’t half as good as Focus Rizzari. “I’m a witch, which means I do things like this.” Focus Forrest concentrated for a moment before she loosed a juice pattern illuminating the room to Tonya’s metasense. Tonya bit her tongue in surprise, as Forrest had used her household’s juice buffer to power the illumination, a trick only Council President Keistermann and Council At Large Representative Bentlow knew. The lack of charisma, though…well, at least Deena could protect herself from it, though it left a foul taste in Tonya’s mouth.
“If selected, I sure hope you’uns can help me with my damned financial problems. We’re almost two hundred smackers in debt,” Focus Forrest said. “Gotta run both ways, yah know.”
Tonya turned to Donna, puzzled. Donna shrugged. ‘She’s so obnoxious she can’t get along with her own household most of the time’ Donna wrote. ‘Seen enough of these?’ Tonya nodded in return.
“Why don’t the four of you go wait outside?” Donna said.
After they cleared, Donna shook her head. “Any one of them will be a pain in the rear. They’re all equally, uh, acceptable to me.”
Donna’s comment surprised Tonya. “I’d rate Lupe first, Thelma second, Connie third and Deena fourth.”
“That’s just because Connie got under your skin,” Donna said. “Tell me, do you think Connie would hold up on the Council?”
“A bitch like her? No problem,” Tonya said. Likeability wasn’t high on the list of what Tonya thought qualified someone to be on the Council.
“So there. What I would like to do is nominate the four of them and let the West Region Council choose which one. Don’t worry, they won’t select Deena. Nobody likes her.”
Tonya sighed. “They’ll choose Webb.”
“My guess as well. I
can’t imagine Shirley objecting to Connie, either,” Donna said. “Especially since Connie’s going to have a little meeting with Shirley, Wini, Suzie and a few others, just like you had.”
There was that. Tonya shivered, remembering.
“No, you’re right, Shirley won’t object to Focus Webb,” Tonya admitted. “Nor will I.” Even if Webb didn’t like Tonya, she would still be a vast improvement on the Council over Carrie Sue.
“It isn’t over between us,” Donna said.
“I wasn’t foolish enough to think it was,” Tonya responded and narrowed her eyes.
Donna smiled and left the room.
---
“She’s evil.”
Tonya shook her head at Geraldine Caruthers’ statement. The recently transformed Focus Caruthers was in Philadelphia to visit Tonya, chatting in Tonya’s sitting room – two comfortable chairs and a coffee table in a room occupied at night by four sleeping teenagers. Tonya had grabbed Gerry as a mentoree to save her from the ineptitude of the standard Focus mentoring program. Tonya did the same for all the local new Focuses. Gerry and her household lived in Baltimore, and she had transformed six months previous. Tonya flexed her shoulders to assuage the ache of the all-day all-night car ride back from Kansas City.
“Why do you think so, Gerry?” Tonya asked. She didn’t disagree with Gerry in the slightest, but wanted to hear Gerry’s rationale.
Gerry wrung her fingers together in hesitation. The new Focus stood about five six and hadn’t been a classic beauty before her transformation: small chest, no hips, a slightly too large nose, and lifeless light brown hair. Nevertheless, Gerry wasn’t immune to the slow post-transformation changes which made all Focuses more beautiful; she no longer elicited winces when people first saw her. “I’m not sure, Tonya. When I met her for the first time,” at the Northeast Region Focus’s annual meeting, “she seemed to be an ordinary Focus. Later, at the dinner meeting, something just clicked and I realized how evil Focus Schrum was.”
Now We Are Monsters (The Commander) Page 5