Haiku grimaced at the foulness of the gristle dross when he first helped move the cut sludge, dropping his end. “Grab it like you mean it,” Gilgamesh said. “This isn’t bad. The Focus’s rooms will be much worse.” Haiku looked momentarily panicked. Gilgamesh smiled encouragement.
Haiku took a breath and then clenched his teeth as he grabbed the cut gristle dross. His face twisted and his eyes watered, but he didn’t let go. Gilgamesh nodded approval.
“You’ll make it. Keep going.”
By morning, the household was a cesspool. They had cut apart and moved all the gristle dross out into sunlit areas, where several days of sunshine would do its thing and degrade the dross into nothing. The cutting stirred up the rest of the dross, a heady mixture of regular and gristle dross that churned restlessly like some sort of rotting swamp, contaminating everything it touched. Gilgamesh felt foul and bloated with the poison of it. As a Crow, he lived off dross, and usually dross was good, but this dross was far past usable. They needed to clean the rest out, and each of the three Crows would do their part, sucking down the muck as if they were gathering useful dross.
“Are you dealing with this crap all right?” Sky asked Haiku. Haiku was sweating and shaky, but he was still here.
“I’ll make it,” he said, and then dared a question. “You work with her, though. How can you stand to be so close to her?” Focus Rizzari.
Sky looked up from where he was attempting to scrape out a nasty little mess in the ventilation system.
“It’s a matter of choosing your risks,” Sky said. Choosing risks was a concept all Crows understood. “All Major Transforms are dangerous. However, some Focuses are easier to deal with than others, and at least most Focuses understand the benefits of working with a Crow, and won’t abuse us.”
Haiku shook his head, unwilling to believe. “But you aren’t even hiding from the Focus. I hear you even live with her.” He turned to Gilgamesh. “And I hear you even deal in person with an Arm!”
Gilgamesh nodded. He refrained from mentioning just how ‘in person’ he dealt with Tiamat, or how Sky lived with Lori.
“But she’s a predator. It’s crazy to deal with her at all.”
“As Sky said, it’s a matter of choosing risks,” Gilgamesh said. “I make myself valuable to her. If I’m going to live near a predator, I’d like her to be more interested in protecting me than killing me.”
Haiku shook his head, unable to understand the idea that someone might choose to work with a predator. Gilgamesh leaned forward toward him.
“It sounds odd because it’s different,” Gilgamesh said. “But it works. We share the same enemies.”
“Interesting. I’m going to need to think about this,” Haiku said, turning away from them and working on sucking down yet another clump of foul dross.
Sky gave Gilgamesh a thumbs-up sign. Slowly, one Crow at a time, they were growing the Cause.
Can’t Handle Slippery
“Remember that life is neither pain nor pleasure; it is serious business, to be entered upon with courage and in a spirit of self-sacrifice.” – Alexis de Toqueville
Tonya Biggioni: September 1, 1972
Tonya Biggioni stepped out of the back seat of her car to face the menacing gate. The gate was eight feet of layered chain link fence, topped with loops of barbed wire. Beyond the gate was a second chain link fence, again topped with barbed wire, and then a Focus household. Delia and Mark Otwell joined her, formally attending her a half-step behind, and deathly silent.
“Focus Biggioni,” Tonya said. “Focus Schrum is expecting me.”
The guard studied her, silent, and slowly opened the gate, just wide enough for them to pass. Tonya nodded, pretending he had showed her the courtesy due her station.
Tonya knew from experience not to use her metasense while visiting Suzie Schrum’s compound, but even so, a bad-juice headache began its low throb at the base of her skull. Bad juice always choked the place, and Tonya never understood how Suzie lived here, much less passed juice to her people. The question would remain unresolved again today. Again, Tonya wouldn’t dare to ask.
“I hate this place,” Delia said, as they passed up the dirt driveway, between seedy trailers and mobile homes. As Tonya’s personal aide and representative, she spoke for Tonya when Tonya couldn’t be present herself.
No children played among the lodgings of this household, not ever. The people here hadn’t been young fourteen years ago, when they helped lead the first Focus’s escape from Quarantine. Now old, they glared at Tonya with cold eyes from under their dirty and worn metal trailer awnings. Many of them had large dogs at their feet, dogs as contaminated by bad juice as everything else in this place. The dogs growled at Tonya and her people.
Suzie Schrum was one of the eighteen surviving first Focuses, one of the nine who ruled the other first Focuses, and using Focuses like Tonya, ruled all the Focuses in the United States. Of the nine, four were members of the inner circle, and Suzie was one of those as well, second only in political power to their leader, Focus Shirley Patterson of Pittsburgh.
“Pretend otherwise,” Tonya said. Harsh, but this was no time for weakness.
Suzie Schrum owned Tonya. She knew Tonya’s little secrets, and a few secrets that weren’t so little. The things Tonya once did to keep her household afloat, in the early years. The harsher things done because she could, back when she didn’t know any better. Suzie had been willing to keep everything a secret. All Tonya needed to do was take Suzie’s orders.
At first, the relationship had been symbiotic. Tonya did what Suzie wanted, and in exchange, Tonya got political power. Tonya became the Northeast Region Council Representative because of Suzie Schrum.
Three years ago, though, Tonya had changed sides. Tonya was the Cause’s mole now, and she only pretended to be Suzie’s loyal servant. Officially, the Cause advocated technological advance and cooperation among the various forms of Major Transforms. Radical, but at least an arguable viewpoint.
Unofficially, the leadership of the Cause worked to throw the first Focuses out of power – including Suzie Schrum. Keeping Tonya’s secret agenda secret was a dangerous business. She was as glad to be here in Suzie’s White Plains compound as she would be glad to eat bugs and worms.
Suzie’s own dilapidated doublewide trailer sat near the center of her compound, a beat up beast with a porch that sagged at one end. Tonya ascended the two creaking stairs, and the guard whistled and knocked. In an ordinary household, the whistle wouldn’t be necessary, but in an ordinary household the Focus would be able to metasense her visitors. Another pair of growling dogs guarded the porch, Dobermans this time, a matched set.
The East Region Focuses often spoke of a rumor, about a pit under Suzie’s trailer. A place she would put Focuses who displeased her, where she let her dogs gnaw on them. Most of the East Region Focuses thought this an exaggeration, a tall tale.
Tonya knew otherwise. From personal experience.
“Sit,” Suzie said when Tonya and Delia entered. Mark stayed outside. Procedure. Tonya sat. Delia didn’t sit. She stood behind Tonya and didn’t move.
Suzie sat behind a hard-used WWII vintage metal desk. Five telephones sat on top of the desk, along with piles of papers and manila folders.
Papers and folders filled the entire living room of the trailer. Also books, ledgers, and coffee cans filled with office supplies. Shelves of raw pine lined the walls, those too piled high with papers. No one else was in the room.
“I want some answers about Amy Haggerty,” Suzie said. She was a thin woman with colorless hair and colorless eyes. Suzie would possess the usual Focus beauty if she bothered, but Tonya hadn’t seen Suzie even try in the last five years. Suzie wore her light brown hair tightly back in a bun, and her clothes were always conservative and shapeless.
With a start, Tonya realized Lori Rizzari was the same way about her appearance. Fanatics, the both of them. She was briefly fervently glad that at least her ally in the Cause didn’t share
Suzie’s darkness.
“What about Amy Haggerty?” Tonya said. Courtesy among Focuses meant Suzie should make small talk first. Offer Tonya some food. Ask about her household. Tonya ignored the inescapable insult.
“What about? It’s about what the hell that idiot is doing! I thought we had a leash on those Arms. Instead, she’s killed someone, one of our Network people! She wasn’t even subtle about the murder. She just waltzed into the Albany FBI office like she had every right to be there and blew his brains out. She’s got Claunch spitting nails.” Suzie said the last with the barest hint of a smile. Michelle Claunch was the first Focus who ran the Network, and a political opponent of both Suzie and Tonya.
“There’s some infighting going on with the Arms,” Tonya said. Arm Bass had used one of the Network’s friendly FBI agents to track down the Commander, in an attempt to kill her and Focus Daumarie of New Orleans. Amy Haggerty, the Commander’s current boss, took offense and removed the traitor from existence. In Lori’s words.
“Infighting?”
“I don’t know the details, but you know how it gets among us Focuses when tempers start running hot.” Tonya shifted uneasily in the rickety wooden chair and wondered why Suzie had bothered to summon her here. This particular issue was a distraction. “Then double or quadruple the heat. These are Arms, remember. The idea of the Arms going through channels on an internal Arm issue is ludicrous.” Tonya didn’t particularly appreciate being stuck defending the insufferable workaholic Haggerty, or any of the Arms for that matter. If she never had to deal with another Arm in person, that would be a day to celebrate.
“Freelancing’s simply anarchy. The Council’s good at policing the Network. The Arms should let us handle the Network problems.”
Tonya nodded. “I agree with you and I’m angry about it myself. I’ve heard their point of view, though. They think we’re too slow.”
Suzie shrugged. “Hotheads. Idiots. Well, what’s done is done, and the Network is Claunch’s problem. If she can’t keep a leash on her people, I’m not going to shed any tears over them.” Suzie paused. “If you want to be useful, you could figure out how to re-establish your control over the damned Arms. I’m not happy with the job Rodriguez is doing.”
Arms represented power to Suzie, and Suzie wanted power in whatever form she could find it. Tonya thought Suzie was dreaming if she thought she was going to regain control of the Arms, especially since Focus Lupe Rodriguez’s first Focus backer, Donna Fingleman, was yet another inner circle first Focus, and not one who often agreed with either Suzie or Tonya. Unfortunately, little details like feasibility never interfered with Suzie’s dreams. “Consider this a new job assignment.”
“I’ll certainly do my best,” Tonya said. And while she was working on that, she could throw snowballs in hell, too. Tonya didn’t ask any questions about her new assignment, purposely leaving it as vague as possible. Vagueness allowed more wiggle room on the impossible task, on any impossible task.
Suzie reached over to a stack of manila folders that sat on the shelf behind her and grabbed the top one. She dropped it on her desk with a coffee-can rattling bang and opened it up. “Claudia Francher is running a chop shop dealing in stolen cars.”
“What?” Tonya said, trying hurriedly to remember who the hell Claudia Francher was. Tonya headed the Focus organization responsible for mentoring newly transformed Focuses, and as part of that, she monitored hundreds of young Focuses.
“Why did I learn that from someone other than you?”
Tonya closed her eyes and forced a juice pattern into being through the miasma of bad juice. The effort felt as if she was driving an ice pick into her brain, but the pattern did allow her to summon up the memories of her notes on Claudia Francher. Yes, she did know about Claudia’s chop shop operation. Claudia’s mentor was an old friend of Lori Rizzari’s. Lori swore her friend could be trusted.
“Suzie, as far as I remember, Claudia was completely clean,” Tonya said. Claudia was a young Focus up in Boston, competent and gutsy. Tonya hadn’t passed the information on Claudia’s blackmail handles up to the first Focuses. Protecting young Focuses from the first Focuses was one of the things Tonya did to advance the Cause.
“You sure?” Suzie asked.
Tonya nodded. “I catch most of the information about the young Focus’s troubles, but I can’t catch everything. I do thank you for letting me know about this one. I’ll follow up and get you the full information immediately.” Tonya had hoped to protect Claudia, but that was a lost cause now, and Tonya needed to cut her losses. Everything she found out about Claudia would go straight to Suzie after this.
“You should have known this,” Suzie said.
“Yes. That’s my mistake.”
Suzie looked Tonya up and down. “You’re capable of doing better. Do you think my orders are no longer a priority?”
Damn, Tonya didn’t let herself say. There were far too many ways that Suzie could make Tonya and her household pay for screwing up. Sweat began to pool on Tonya’s lower back.
“No, no, not at all. Let me get the information on Claudia for you, and I’ll certainly put more effort into making sure I don’t miss anything.” She would need to feed Suzie something juicy soon, perhaps the Focus up in Maine and her smuggling tricks.
“I would hate to think you’re not giving me your best effort.”
“So would I. I always try to do my best for you and for all the first Focuses.”
Suzie patted the tall stack of manila folders. “Then why do I have an entire stack of folders like Claudia’s?”
Tonya paled. The stack loomed, over a dozen high. By numbers, the stack covered more than a third of the young Focuses Tonya withheld information on. A dozen young Focuses who would now find themselves under the thumb of the first Focuses. Someone had betrayed the Focuses. More immediately, someone had betrayed Tonya.
She was dead.
Suzie smiled. “This information came from a group of someones who say ‘they watch’. Them. I think you’ve made some unfortunate enemies, Tonya.”
The Crows. Again! “Fortunately for you,” Suzie continued, “I despise their scheming guts and I’m not going to give them the satisfaction of taking you down.” Suzie smiled, and Tonya’s skin crawled. “Your Cause is looking an awful lot like a lost cause, though, when you can’t even keep your allies from pointing out your mistakes.”
Tonya nodded and answered with real anger. “I see your point about those watchers.” Damn Haggerty and the thrice-damned Eskimo Spear! Things had worked so much better when the Cause had been able to work in secret.
“In any case,” Suzie said, “I’m going to levy a fine of a thousand dollars per folder. Fourteen thousand dollars, and I expect to see the cash within a week. I’ve made you a copy of each folder, and I expect you to follow up on each one and report exactly what’s going on.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate your forbearance. I’ll get started on this immediately.” Fourteen thousand dollars was a lot of money, but Tonya’s household was in good financial shape these days.
“I’m not done yet,” Suzie said, in a voice like ice, and Tonya froze. “When you work for me, I expect you to give me your best effort. You seem to have forgotten what working for me means.”
Tonya opened her mouth to give some false and reassuring response. After looking at Suzie’s cold face, she decided not to.
“Come with me,” Suzie said. She led Tonya and Delia down the narrow trailer hallway, while Tonya’s stomach did flip-flops. She couldn’t help remembering the time when the Commander told the entire Focus Council what she thought of the Focuses’ betrayal during the Clearing of Chicago. Suzie had held Tonya responsible for the Commander’s words. That was the time Suzie tossed Tonya into the pit. She still had nightmares about those few hours.
Suzie opened the door to a small bedroom and led Tonya and Delia in. The smell of the room was foul and odd dark spots spattered the walls. A man lay tied to the bed. He was an ordinary-looki
ng man, in his forties, and he gave his Focus a passionless gaze.
“Hello, John,” Suzie said.
“Focus,” the man responded. His voice was harsh, magnificently ruined. He didn’t blink as he kept his eyes on his Focus.
“Tell these fine people what you do for us here.”
“I’m a groundskeeper at the Autumn Hills Country Club,” he said.
Suzie nodded and smiled faintly at Tonya. “Since you’re so interested in all this new technology floating around these days, I’ve decided to show you some of mine.” She smiled wider. “Consider this a gift.”
She put her hands on the man and he screamed. Horrible, mad screams, the screams of a mindless animal. He thrashed wildly, but Suzie didn’t react. She kept her hand on his head, and he only screamed louder.
Tonya metasensed what Suzie did and her blood ran cold. She had driven the man into juice withdrawal. Tonya, so inured to cruelty over the years, had never seen Suzie’s withdrawal imprinting tricks first hand. She wanted to scream with the man. She closed her jaw tight with an effort of will and stood like a statue. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Delia weeping.
Tonya could offer her no support. Not here.
Suzie didn’t stop. The man sweated blood, little red rivers seeping from his pores. He thrashed and sprayed those drops of agony over the room and the people in it. A few drops landed on Suzie’s cheek and she smiled.
After more than a minute Suzie took her hand off the man. He collapsed down on the sweaty and bloody bed, gasping for breath, woeful.
“I know you always wondered why it was called ‘the wet’,” Suzie said, with her inhuman smile. “Now you understand.”
Tonya turned away, unable to face the man and his cruel Focus. Her head throbbed and she wanted to break into tears. This was such a terrible place, the bad juice almost alive, snarling at her like one of Suzie’s dogs.
Love and Darkness (The Cause Book 2) Page 6