The Good Doctor's Tales Folio Six (3 page)

“You have her in the office area?”

Honey nodded.  The formal motel office and lobby were the only place large enough for people in Tonya’s household to meet, and served not only as the common meeting area, but also as their common kitchen and dining room.  They didn’t have much choice in the matter – society wasn’t kind to Transforms, and few employers would take on a Transform if they could help it.  Many of Tonya’s Transforms were unemployable, simply because they were Transforms.

“Send her
up here,” Tonya said.  She glanced quickly around her room to verify her people had cleaned it properly.  Neat narrow bed, plumped pillows, two chairs beside a small table with a vase of several fresh marigolds, several boxes of used children’s clothing and old household accounting ledgers stacked neatly behind the chairs.  Slightly messy desk, but no one but Tonya ever touched her desk.  She sat behind the small desk and thought. 

DeYoung was three years y
ounger as a Focus than Tonya, and had a reputation for being both talented and uncooperative.  Not a local, either – she lived in Richmond, Virginia, and was part of the Southern Region of the overall Focus organization, the UFA.  Tonya belonged to the Northeast Region, and was rather important, as well – for a year, she had been their official representative on the Focus Council, the national governing board that coordinated all Focus activities.

Honey brought the woman, to Tonya’s surprise a Transform woman, to Tonya’s office.  The
woman was stern looking and young, with wavy black hair, a half head shorter than Tonya.

“Come in,” Tonya said. 
She didn’t rise from behind her desk.  “I’m Focus Biggioni.”

“Poe,” the woman said.  “I speak for Focus Martine DeYoung.”  No last name, Tonya read on her, to Tonya’s surprise.  The woman possessed exceptional control and poise, giving off almost no emotional signals at all.  Trained by her Focus, perhaps?

“You’re one of her Transforms, then?  All the way from Richmond?”

Poe nodded.  “I am held in high trust by Focus DeYoung, Focus Biggioni.  I have represented her throughout the country.”  Strange.  Few Transforms would stand for that, Tonya knew.  Most had a hard time leaving the town the Focus lived in – and some weaker-willed Transforms had hysterics if they were forced to leave their household unaccompanied by their Focus.

“Have a seat,” Tonya said, and motioned the woman Transform to a chair.  She pulled it up to in front of the desk.  “What can I do for you today, Poe?”

“Martine and several of us in the DeYoung household have decided to do something about the deplorable state of
Transform life.”

“I see,” Tonya said, turning frosty.  Individual Focuses, especially young third generation Focuses like DeYoung, weren’t supposed to act on their own initiative.  Doing so could bring the wrath of the normal authorities down on the necks of all the Transforms.  “How are you going to be accomplishing this miracle?”

“We’re putting together a group of like-minded Transforms, both here and in other countries, to lobby for Transform rights,” Poe said.  “The laws of all nations, save the nations who have criminalized all Transforms, are silent on the question of citizenship rights of Transforms.  This gives the local authorities free reign to persecute Transforms as they wish, it gives businesses free reign to discriminate against Transforms as they wish, and it gives Focuses free reign to treat the Transforms in their own households as they wish.”

Tonya’s gaze turned even frostier.  “Have you enslaved your Focus?” 
Focus enslavement had happened before.  Although the UFA tolerated such aberrations, the Council didn’t give the slavemaster Transforms the right to act politically in their Focus’s name.  Tonya’s question was a powerful charismatic demand.

Poe shrugged off the charismatic demand, and sighed.  “No.  Martine is out talking to other Focuses and
Transforms in the Southeast Region.  I was picked to handle the Northeast Region.”

“The Council
won’t stand for this,” Tonya said.

“If we can convince intelligent and forward looking Focuses like yourself to support our goals, then we will end up working with and for the Council.”

“I will never do so,” Tonya said.  Radicals.  Not unexpected.  She thought the first generation of Focuses – the ones quarantined by the government and who had later and illegally broke free of their quarantine – held their power too tightly.  They had apprenticed the leading members of the second Focus generation, which Tonya belonged to, and brought some of them into the inner circle, but they had brought in none of the third generation of Focuses.  The first Focuses had suffered greatly under the quarantine, and they and their people carried mental wounds that would never heal.  To some degree, they had shot their bolt breaking free of the quarantine, and were now working on giving power over to the second Focus generation so they could retire.  One of the hot items on Tonya’s agenda was politicking for the Council Presidency, as the current Council President, a first generation Focus by the name of Wini Adkins, had already announced she was going to retire after the next full Council meeting in early October.  Wini, one of Tonya’s closer friends among the Focuses, favored Tonya for the position, but not all the first Focuses did.  There were two other candidates, both current Council members.

Poe shook her head.  “You know as well as I do that Transforms have to move to secure their own civil liberties, or we
’ll be consigned to be second class citizens forever.  We have to make common cause with the other downtrodden minorities in America and throughout the world.  More importantly, we must come to some agreement regarding how Focuses treat their own Transforms – a Focus who enslaves her own Transforms is as bad as the Transforms who enslave their Focus.”

“All very interesting, and all Council business,” Tonya said.  “Is your Focus interested in sitting on the Council?”  The South Region representative, first Focus Faith Corrigan, needed replacing.  She dutifully represented first Focus Sarah Teas on the Council, but otherwise didn’t put any other effort into Council business.  Her mental efforts, such as they were, were all involved with the new Focus mentoring program.  Focus Teas wanted Faith out of the seat as well, but Faith possessed her own independent power-base, and so far showed little interest in retiring.

“Only as a last resort,” Poe said.  Tonya frowned, and exerted her charismatic will.  She wanted a better answer than that.

Poe nodded, answering Tonya’s charismatic jab.  Yes, this was a well-trained Transform.  Few would even notice Tonya’s charismatic efforts.  “As the Commander, Martine does not believe it would be correct for her to sit on the Council.”

The Commander?  Tonya didn’t have any idea what Poe was talking about, but her comment did rattle Tonya’s juice.  “I know of no Commander,” Tonya said.  “Is this something Focus Teas dreamt up?”  Teas’ head was always full of schemes and nonsense, one of the reasons the South Region was always a mess.

“It
’s something Martine realized, after the car accident,” Poe said.  “We’ve been keeping it quiet until now, but after learning about the Major Transform conflict in Europe, and after the rise of Focus Monster Keaton, we convinced our Focus to go public with her epiphany.  The time is right for all us Transforms to claim our rightful place in American society.”

Strange, very strange.  The ‘car accident’ prompted something from Tonya’s memory.  Almost two years ago, a Focus died in a car accident, pronounced dead at the scene, only to revive herself a day later, in a County morgue.  Tonya concentrated and charismatically ordered forward her memories of the incident.  Yes, that was Focus DeYoung.  Focus DeYoung lost two of her three Focus attendants in the accident, a loss that left the
inventive young Focus mentally unstable.

“You may be right,” Tonya said, non-committal.  “I
’ll think about what you’ve said.”  And make some phone calls to some first Focuses who needed to know about this development as soon as possible.

“Thank you,” Poe said, and stood.  “I’ll let you get back to your business, then.”  They shook hands, and Poe left.  After the door closed, Tonya looked at her hand
and metasensed it.

Something wasn’t right, here.  Poe of the no last name had far too much presence for a Transform woman.  Her juice ached with strength only a Major Transform should possess.  The Commander nonsense also kept shivering Tonya’s juice, meaning it was something of importance.  Yes, something very fishy was going on here.

Tonya picked up the phone and dialed.

Hammer Time
(1964)

Tonya
recognized today’s problem.  Once, this sort of problem had been common in her house, Transforms ‘getting ideas’ and acting on them on their own.  She didn’t enjoy having to punish her Transforms for this sort of thing, but if she didn’t, a Transform could slip her control.  She knew from experience what misery might result.

“Marty?”

“Yes, ma’am?  I’ve been meaning…”  Marty Fenner said, and stopped.  He stood in front of Tonya’s desk in her combination bedroom and office and seemed to have no idea of his transgression.  Tonya frowned at him from behind her desk and stripped him down into low juice.  He fell to his knees, brought low by pain. “Ma’am?”

He had seen a problem in household supply procurement – too much tissue paper, paper towels and toilet paper, and not enough milk and fruit juices. 
He had corrected it by himself.  “Fenner, next time you get a bright idea about how to run the household, run it by me first before you change anything.  All changes to the household budget must be approved by me before they’re implemented.  Understand?”

“Ma’am, I…”

He still didn’t understand.  He had been a member of her household for six months, and quite a good one.  Nevertheless, it was
her
household, not anyone else’s.  She needed to make that clear.  She kept his juice low and painful, and let him sweat.

“My decision,” Tonya said
.  She came out from behind her desk and stood over the kneeling man.  What he had tried to say was that he was only trying to help.  She didn’t want any help, though.  Nor did she need any help.  “Always my decision.”

Now he understood.  “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

“Good.  Don’t make this mistake again,” she said.  Tonya turned and left Marty kneeling, and adjusted his juice to one day’s use above the low juice state.  Uncomfortable for Marty, but not absurdly so.  Enough to remind him of his errors while he worked through his daily chores before going out to his real-world job.  At least he hadn’t managed to mess that up yet – he still had a job, and still brought in money for the household.

---

“We’re going to be meeting at the usual place, in Norrie State Park,” Focus Polly Keistermann said.  “Be there by noon on Saturday.”

“We’ll be there,” Tonya said, and hung up the phone.  Damn.  She
moved the phone to the corner of her desk and put her head in her hands.  She hadn’t been able to weasel out of Polly why the executive council of the Northeast Region needed an emergency meeting.  Machinations like this made her head hurt.

If Tonya and her entourage left well before dawn, they could use the freeway system, cut through the New York City area, and reach the State Park – ten miles north of Poughkeepsie – early.  Keep the trip down to a few hours.  If they left at six, it would take them until noon to make it, because of traffic.

On Saturday,
Tonya and her people, two cars worth, bodyguards and aides, took off at four in the morning.  She wasn’t able to sleep in the car – as a Focus, she needed less than half the sleep each night as she had once needed, and could get by with less.  Instead, she closed her eyes and thought, not lulled by the hum of the engine or the warmth of the rising sun.  The visit by Poe bothered her more than it ought to.  In addition, Tonya couldn’t figure out why Shirley had told her to not talk about those sort of visits over the phone.  Even more annoying, her last Monster hunt had been a bust: she and her people had been unable to find the Monster, and she still got the shakes thinking about the fruitless hunt, always sure the Monster was about to jump them from surprise and kill more of her people.

When her entourage pulled into the State Park
hours later, Tonya found Polly already there.  She had already chased off a cul-de-sac worth of campers from their campsites, enough for the executive committee.  Tonya directed her driver to take the campsite beside Polly’s, and after the car stopped, Tonya waited until Tommy opened the car door for her and handed her out of the car.

“Good morning, Polly,” Tonya said, looking over the area Polly had chosen
.  Four campsites, each with a picnic table and fire pit, secluded, well wooded, with a distant view of the Hudson through the trees.  She walked over to where her peer and former friend was directing traffic among her people.  “Who’s going to make it?”  She knew better than to ask the topic of the meeting.

Polly smiled one of her fake smiles, and led Tonya away from
where Polly’s catering crew set up food and defenses in preparation for the meeting.  They were from Polly’s own household.  Polly’s household business was Mercury Catering, a viable catering concern, and as usual Polly had them running like clockwork.  “Shirley’s too busy to attend,” Polly said, and Tonya nodded.  Shirley Patterson, one of the first Focuses and one of Tonya’s important backers, rarely attended any of the business meetings these days, even though she was officially in charge of all the Focuses, the political power behind the Focus Council.  “Suzie’s expected – she’s the one who called the meeting.”  Focus Susan Schrum was the President of the Northeast Region, and a politically powerful first Focus.  Tonya was surprised to discover Suzie had called the meeting. Suzie wasn’t known for her skill at delegation, and Polly was doing the meeting organization.  “Anne is going to make it.”  Anne Trail, also a member of the first Focus generation, was little more than a follower of Suzie Schrum.  It surprised Tonya that Focus Trail was even invited – she was just a titular member of the executive council, a courtesy extended to all the local first generation Focuses.  “Marcia, Lynn and Christina are going to make it, as well.”

Tonya nodded.  Marcia Abernathy, Lynn Roscoe and Christina Hubenak were the other politically important members of the second generation Focuses in the Northeast Region.  In Tonya’s opinion, Marcia was a twit who didn’t deserve to attend even the open meetings, but Suzie Schrum had pushed and gotten her
in the executive committee anyway.  Another vote in Suzie’s pocket.  This made seven attendees, and the implications of having those exact seven were not lost on Tonya.  Something fishy was going on.

All morning, various Focuses and entourages trickled in, squeezing seven entourages into four campsites, each greeting the others in turn as they arrived.  After a large snack and lunch, the Focuses gathered around the most remote picnic table, with Suzie Schrum claiming the end of the table, sitting there like a queen on a ratty folding chair she had provided.  Two hours of household chit-chat had already passed, the sort of chit-chat that could continue all day, with the number of Transforms each of the seven of them were responsible for.

“Focuses, we’ve got a problem, and I’m not going to
dance around the edges of this one,” Suzie said, after putting down her fork.  She was beautiful, as almost all Focuses were beautiful, but in a pinched, narrow sort of way.  Her light brown hair was always a tad off, and her mouth settled naturally into a frown.  Silence descended like night at her statement, all eyes now on Suzie Schrum.  “Focus Julius has become unhappy with some of the recent Council decisions and has decided to start up a rival group to either split the Focuses or to replace the Council.”  Suzie’s comment brought mutters from everyone except Polly, who Tonya realized must have already known.  This was a big problem.  Mary Beth Julius was one of the first Focuses, in fact, the eldest of the active first generation Focuses.  Tonya had never met Focus Julius, and knew little about her, as Julius was a South Region Focus and had never attended any of the national Focus Council meetings during Tonya’s tenure.

“As you may or may not know, Mary Beth was the leader of the Focuses for the first half of
the planning phase of the quarantine breakout,” Suzie said, grimacing and tapping her forefinger on the wooden table.  “I wouldn’t say her leadership was an unmitigated disaster, but it was close.  Only after Focus Rhodes was killed by the FBI did Shirley take over.”

Nods around the table, and more muttering – the story of Marla Rhodes’ death was one of the more
well-known Focus stories, with a moral none of the first or second generation Focuses could ignore.  Focuses weren’t alone as Major Transforms, and their male opposition, though secretive and supposedly non-existent according to UFA official policy, were dangerous in their own right.  Tonya hadn’t known Rhodes’ death led to Focus Patterson’s takeover of the pre-Breakout Focus leadership.  Tonya didn’t participate in the muttering, instead keeping her attention directed at Suzie Schrum.

“The group she’s started up she’s calling the LPS, the Lucy People’s Society,” Suzie said, gazing at each of the Focuses in turn around the table.  “Have any of you been contacted?”

Tonya shook her head, but Polly nodded, as did Lynn and Christina.  Christina suddenly looked pale.

“I see,” Suzie said.  Her bodyguards walked up to her back, and improbably, Christina’s walked up behind
Christina’s back, as well.  “For those of you who have not been contacted, the stated goal of the LPS is to aid the FBI and other governmental authorities who are trying to hunt down the renegade Focus-Monster, Stacy Keaton, and to make it such that when other Focus-Monsters transform, they are treated like true Monsters.”  The authorities killed true Monsters out of hand.  “But that’s just Mary Beth’s cover story.  The real goal of the LPS is to supplant the Council – they’re just using the Focus-Monster question as a leverage point.”

“They contacted me because I’ve voted against the majority in the Council regarding these failed Focuses,” Polly said.  “I told them to get lost.”

Polly’s comment brought a large smile to Suzie’s face.  It looked unnatural there.  “Well, Polly, it’s nice to hear that.  You’ve earned a lot of respect among the average Focuses.  With that and the clout you have on the Council, you’d have made a nice plum to fall into Mary Beth’s lap.”

“But Suzie,
you know
I’d never go against the wishes of the Council,” Polly twittered.  Tonya tried not to wince at her former friend’s antics.  Polly wasn’t a fluff-head, though she portrayed one when she needed to.  Polly was, actually, a rather independent Focus, elected to an at-large Council seat through the strength of her politicking with Focuses across the country.  A couple of years ago, before her election to the at-large Council seat, she published – just among the Focuses – a large pamphlet on the subject of Focus charisma, some of it rather technical in nature, likely cribbed from an unknown collaborator or just plain stolen.  Before her paper, none of the Focuses believed their charisma had anything to do with the juice, or the fact they were Focuses.  The juice component of Focus charisma had been Tonya’s discovery, a result of a long conversation with a knowledgeable but arrogant doctor and researcher.  Afterwards, she had shared the information with Polly, her closest friend among the Focuses at the time.  Polly had named it, followed up on the research, and had been far more rigorous in her investigation of it than Tonya could have ever been.  Tonya had agreed things would work out better if only one of them claimed its discovery, and since Polly had named the trick as ‘charisma’, she sat back and let Polly claim all the credit.  In return, Polly had agreed to help Tonya politically.  They had both gotten on the national Focus Council, but the first Focuses hadn’t been amused at the tricks they pulled to get there.  The firsters had put them both through the ringer after they got on the Focus Council, and in the process drove a wedge between the two of them and ended their friendship.  Polly had managed to maintain her independent power base, but Tonya hadn’t, and many considered her to be little more than a well-bought flunky of Schrum, Adkins and Patterson.

No, Polly and Suzie Schrum didn’t see eye to eye on many issues at all.

“You’re making a big mistake,” Christina said, leaning forward intently.  “Focus Julius may be going against the Focus Council, but regarding these so-called failed Focuses, the Council is wrong.  The Focus-Monsters are too dangerous and untamable.  They’re predators, filthy predators who prey on us – on Transforms and Focuses.”  Focus Lucy Peoples had died trying to help the first of the failed Focuses, back before the first Focuses broke out of the government quarantine.  The Council believed it was the government’s mistake, playing political games with doctors and treatments – and not that of the failed Focus – that led to Lucy Peoples’ death.

“Let’s vote, then, on this,” Suzie said.  “Everyone in favor of supporting the Council on this question?”

Five hands went up, all save Christina and Lynn.  A moment later, Lynn’s hand went up as well.

“All in favor of requiring unanimity on the Northeast Region executive council regarding this question?”

Four hands went up.  This time, neither Polly nor Lynn supported Suzie.  Four, though, was enough to carry the question.

“So that’s the way it’s going to be?” Christin
a said.  “Fine.  I’m off the executive council, then.  I’m not about to compromise my principles for such foolishness.”  She stood and stalked off, covered by her bodyguards.  In a few minutes, her entire entourage had pulled out of the campground.

“Well,” Suzie said, after Christin
a’s car pulled around the corner and vanished – and Suzie had signaled for her bodyguards to stand down, “Enough of this unpleasantness.  I move…”

Anne cleared her throat, and raised her hand.