A Method Truly Sublime (The Commander) (14 page)

“Because something strange happened with the juice,” Teas said.  “In early ’59 I discovered a juice pattern that allowed me to read, to within a point or two, a Transform’s juice level.  After
my discovery, I never made any more mistakes with Transform juice levels.  I passed my trick on to all the other Focuses who did juice patterns.  Then the strangeness started.  First, the other Focuses who knew about the juice patterns but couldn’t do them began to be able to quantify their Transforms’ juice levels to within a point or two.  Then Focuses who transformed and got placed outside of quarantine, who didn’t have any contact with the Quarantine Focuses, found they were able to also quantify juice levels, without being trained, without knowing what they did, after a couple months of Focus experience.”

I leaned forward in rapt attention.  Teas believed
her words.  I couldn’t say I hadn’t had similar strange feelings about the juice; I still suspected the juice’s tricks couldn’t all be explained by science.  My dreams, for instance.  The whispering.

“That’s strange,” I said.  “Why does this make you think there’s something wrong about the juice?”

“It’s wrong because it proves the juice is alive and intelligent,” Teas said.  “I cut back on my experimenting when I figured this out.  You see, Carol, the juice is alive, intelligent and out to get Transforms who abuse it.  So, be careful when you do whatever you’re doing to stay alive, and figuring out how to act as an Arm.”

She believed
her story, and I was tempted to believe as well, but I held back my belief.

You see, to this particular paranoid Arm
, Teas’ story didn’t sound as much like magic as it sounded like enemy action.
 

I kept Teas going for hours with my verbal prods, learning far too much about her own history and of her Transform household in the process.  She eventually called it a night and left, but without calling me on whether I
would accept her tag or not.

I stall
ed for time.  I believed I would be able to escape from this place on my own after my next juice draw.

That is, if the worsening nightmares and the ‘murderer’ whispering didn’t drive me crazy first.

Tonya Biggioni: March 17, 1968

Tonya took the phone from Delia and sat down
at Delia’s small desk.  “Hello?”  Delia gently closed the door behind her as she vacated the room.

“Tonya, it’s me.”  Wini Adkins.  “How are things going with you?”

“Fine,” Tonya said as she settled into the well-worn chair that had once belonged to Rhonda.  She wanted to grouse about the first Focuses allowing Teas to take her project from her, but doing so would be impolite.  So Tonya chatted with Wini.  Tonya counted Wini as her friend.  Wini had helped her out, back when Tonya had been a new Focus, and Wini’s influence had won Tonya her seat on the Focus Council.

Eventually, Wini got around to business.  Tonya had
suspected this wasn’t a social call right from Wini’s opening statement.

“So, Tonya, what do you know about the situation in Virginia?”  Wini asked.

Ah.  An opening to gripe.

“I
know Sarah” Focus Teas “isn’t making adequate progress with Hancock, on what should have been my project.  I’ve also learned that some of the FBI agents and Federal Marshals aren’t happy about the answers they’re getting from the young Arm,” Tonya said.  None of her FBI contacts would say why the government put Hancock in secret medical quarantine instead of making her arrest public.  Her best guess was the Johnson administration, bogged down in Vietnam and with an election coming up, didn’t want Hancock’s capture in the media and didn’t want the red flag of the Transform issue brought out into public view.  She also suspected Focus charisma at work, gently nudging the bureaucracy in whatever direction the first Focuses wanted.  Tonya didn’t trust her guess, though.  Before Hancock’s capture, she had assumed the Johnson administration would turn any Arm capture into a three-ring media circus.

“Good, good,” Wini said.  “Sarah’s been advising the Feds and digging the information we’re interested in out of Hancock, but in the process she’s gotten drawn into various tangents my colleagues aren’t happy about.  Beyond that I’d rather not say.  I’d rather
you didn’t come into the situation with any preconceived notions.”

Tonya sat up straight and let herself smile.  “You’re sending me in?  In what capacity?”

“You’re getting your old project back and taking over from Sarah.  Tomorrow morning, you’re going to be the Focus in charge.  Let me tell you what we’ve decided we want you to do.”

The ‘we’ bothered Tonya, but she knew enough not to say anything besides a neutral “Okay
.”  Taking over from a first Focus, even a lesser light like Teas, would be politically hazardous whether she succeeded or failed.

On the other hand, the dark gloom of the past week lifted from Tonya. 
Hancock was her project.  Now she would get to complete it properly.  She practically heard her household sigh in relief as the juice began to flow more easily.

“Here’s the deal, Tonya: we want Hancock broken, leashed, and tamed.  We want her firmly under the control of the Council.”  Which would mean under Tonya’s control, as the Council didn’t consider anyone else strong enough to control an Arm.  “Once
she’s broken, we want her released.”

Released?  “The government is going to be holding her tightly, and…”  Tonya said, attempting to wiggle off the hook, but Wini interrupted.

“Tonya, listen.”  Wini’s voice grew cold, as when Tonya had been a young Focus and screwing up.  “The details of how Hancock’s to be broken and released are yours to figure out, but you
are
going to do it.  We have confidence in you, Tonya.  We’ll be watching and waiting.”

Tonya closed her eyes for a moment after she hung up the phone.  Wilted.  She hadn’t been handed the plum assignment she wanted.  Not even close.

Wini’s orders were a surprise, and certainly nothing she had planned for.  She had expected she would be sitting for depositions and giving evidence for Hancock’s trial, not breaking her.  Why would Wini’s faction even need to break Hancock?  The Feds already had enough evidence to keep Hancock locked up forever or hauled in front of a firing squad.  Oh, and breaking Major Transforms was distasteful at best, and horrific at worst.

Tonya worried at her lip as another horrible consequence crossed her mind: if she broke Hancock
, Hancock would talk.  Part of what the Arm said, after she started to talk, would be about Keaton’s secrets.  How much did the Feds know about Tonya’s dealings with Keaton, if anything?  If the Feds got sticky about legalities, they might decide to arrest Tonya and about another dozen Focuses, who all had dealings of one kind or another with Keaton.  Every one of those Focuses would be open for conspiracy charges, or aiding and abetting.

W
orse, in her case, though.

Breaking an Arm would be the easy part
; getting Hancock released would be the difficult part.  Tonya doubted even her own powerful charisma would suffice.  She would need to resort to trickery, trickery with a low chance of success – and the people at the CDC’s Detention Center weren’t
her
people.  The price of failure would be high.

This was punishment.  Tonya wasn’t sure what she
had done to merit such a harsh smackdown, but this was a nasty piece of work.  The first Focuses thought she did a wonderful job.  Supposedly.  If true, this meant someone among her major political opponents at the Council level and below set this up. Tonya thought for a moment and decided they were unlikely culprits.  Her principle opponent on the Council, Esther Weiczokowski, had used Keaton’s services twice to keep unwanted Transforms in Clinics out of her household.  She wouldn’t want this.  Tonya had two major political opponents in the Northeast region, Lori Rizzari and Flo Ackermann.  She didn’t think either of them would be able to pull something like this off.  Furthermore, Lori had been directly involved with Hancock and probably sweated bullets herself right now, and Flo let Lori worry about the other Major Transform issues while Flo handled the Focus politics.  None of these opponents had any particularly large grudge against her: she was still on speaking terms with all of them.

Which led her back to the first Focuses
.  Quite a few of them had always been uneasy about Tonya, her skills and her independence.  Certainly Donna Fingleman was a prime candidate; hell, Donna as much promised she would make Tonya pay after Tonya’s interference in last year’s West Region Council seat ‘election’.  How, though?  Donna wasn’t even remotely close to any of Tonya’s backers or the Feds involved in this mess.

Truth was,
Tonya owed Wini.  Now Wini called in the debt.  Tonya couldn’t do but say ‘Yes, ma’am’ and soldier on.

Tonya
understood the adage: soldiers were expendable.

Among Focuses, even one’s friends could be bitches on occasion.

Tonya picked up one of Delia’s pens and started to plan.  She would need to be at the CDC’s Transform Detention Center in Virginia early tomorrow morning, which meant she had best start scrambling now.

---

“Hello?” Tonya said, picking up the phone.  She was back in her own office and an hour into arranging her visit to the CDC’s Virginia facility.

“It’s me.”  Focus Suzie Schrum, the first Focus
, Tonya’s official boss.  “Did Wini talk to you?”

“Yes, Suzie.  I’m arranging for my trip to the CDC now.”

“Good, good.  I have some additional orders for you,” Suzie said.  “In particular, I have a list of Sarah’s people who need to be removed from the Hancock project.”  Suzie proceeded to recite a list of names.

Tonya
listened.  “Suzie, I’m going there to consult, not take over.  I’m not sure taking over is an option.”

“Consulting is one interpretation of your orders,” Suzie said.  “It won’t be enough.  Trust me on this.  Be the bitch, Tonya.”  Suzie hung up, not bothering with any of the standard Focus pleasantries.  Typical.

Tonya shook her head.  This just kept getting worse.  The Virginia Transform Center was one of the crown jewels of the CDC.  She imagined taking over and shook her head.  Impossible.

This also start
ed to sound like it might interfere with her trip to visit her daughter Deborah. She didn’t want that to happen.  Progress had been slow but steady, and after months of Tonya’s persistent effort, Deborah had finally relented and permitted a visit. Tonya was going up there in a week.

“Polly, thank you for taking my call,” Tonya said.  “I’ve been ordered by Wini and Suzie to go to the CDC’s Virginia Transform Detention Center and take over as Focus in charge of the Hancock situation.”

“What?”
Tonya hadn’t heard Polly this surprised in years.  “Tell me everything.”

Tonya filled in Polly about her conversations with Wini and Suzie.  She gave them verbatim, unwilling to edit them at all.  She
didn’t have any idea where she might even need to edit.

“Damn,” Polly said, after Tonya finished.  Polly didn’t usually swear, but this was an exception.
“You can’t turn this down, if that’s what you were thinking by calling me.”

“No, that isn’t it,” Tonya said.  She would have been glad if Polly had ordered her otherwise, but
didn’t consider Polly’s help likely.  “What I’m looking for is advice.”

“Okay, then.”  Polly paused to think.  “You’ve got to take advantage of this, Tonya.  Make the Council look good…and competent.
Sure, solve their problems for the CDC, but make sure we get something out of this as well.”

“I plan
to.” An opportunity like this wouldn’t come along a second time, and solving the mystery of the Transform killings and kidnappings was her project.  Hancock was the likely perpetrator.  “Do you think the Feds are going to try and shake me down?”  Demand her services gratis.

“
No, but if they do, walk away,” Polly said.  “I’ll back you if they try a shakedown, and I’ll make sure Wini and Suzie rescind their orders to you.”  The Council President took a sip of sweet tea, or so Tonya thought.  “We’re the ones doing the shaking down here.  Take these fools for all they’re worth.  After a week of having to deal with Sarah, they should be primed and ready for you.”

Polly, like Suzie and Tonya, considered Sarah Teas a walking disaster, a hazard to the entire Focus community. 
Sarah was one of the few things the three of them agreed on, and one of the few issues where they reliably counted on support from Focus Claunch, the Network head.  The only thing standing between Teas’ freedom and her being forcibly retired from public life was Teas’ tacit support from Shirley Patterson.

“What’s the Council’s position on Hancock?”  Meaning ‘what is your position, Polly?’

“We’re looking for information; any and all information,” Polly said.  “We didn’t cooperate with Arm Hancock’s capture; neither did we have any say as to which government agency gained jurisdiction over her.”

“Fair enough,” Tonya said.  “I’ll call when I get to the CDC and give you a contact number.
Think about what you want to learn from the Arm and let me know when I get to Virginia. We can talk again when I get in.”