Read Online In this Night We Own (The Commander Book 6) by Randall Farmer - Free Book Online
Authors: Randall Farmer
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exaggerated. Sky had told several Crows a story about calming Hancock down by letting her rape him during one of her recovery rampages. Tonya had ignored the story as another exaggeration, but what if it was true? With a little bit more work, she might be able to drive a wedge between Lori and Hancock. Permanently. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about the foolish kick-the-can-down-the-road promise she had made to Lori about pushing the male Major Transform issue with the Council.
“Hancock likes to break people and she gets off on breaking them,” Tonya said. “Psychological breakage, not torture for torture’s sake. I’m sure what she did when she broke Focus Peshnak was more enjoyable than any sex, even counting whatever Crows she’s lured to her bed.” She also knew about Lori as the ‘soap opera Focus’, and how both of the Crows she was amorously linked to had also found their way to Carol’s bed. The fact had to gall, and rouse her jealousy.
“I don’t think so,” Lori said, angry. “This happened in a frigging battle, not during one of Carol’s over-the-top recruitment efforts.” Bingo!
“Nevertheless, I can’t help thinking that’s what she’s working up to doing to me,” Tonya said. “Which is why I’m angry.”
“If so, she’s not going to be listening to me on the subject,” Lori said, her emotions dissonant to the meaning of her words. Definitely trouble in paradise. “I’m not even sure I want to stop her. You want my help reigning in Hancock? Publicly apologize to her first.”
Click.
Tonya smiled. She had called to vent, and instead ended up driving a starter wedge between her two biggest pains in the ass. This showed promise, a lot of promise.
Part 2
Politics By Other Means
Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.
Arthur Miller
Chapter 4
Never startle a Crow.
“The Life of Crows”
Tonya Biggioni: August 20, 1968
The office had walls now. Simple drywall, not yet painted, but walls. And a door, which Tonya appreciated. A file cabinet occupied the northeast corner of the room, just shipped in from Faith Corrigan, COD, holding the Council’s files on every Focus in the United States. She was already far behind Polly’s schedule, not even done with this year’s crop of new Focuses. Her household remained unsettled two days after Hancock had broken into her office and left a bomb on her desk.
Tonya wished she had never even heard the word ‘Arm’. The only reason she had been stuck running the Focus Mentoring program was her supposed Arm Flap failures.
“So you let me know if you need anything,” Tonya said into the phone. “I’m glad everything’s going so well, and congratulations. It’s a tough job.”
Tonya updated Frances Raker’s file as she put the phone down. Cathy Elspeth had been mentoring her and Frances was in good shape; Raker had transformed young, and had enough sense and stomach to allow her mother to run the day-to-day household details. Tonya hadn’t been surprised at Raker’s success. She had a lot of respect for Cathy, unlike some of the other Focus mentors. Tonya had already run into two disaster cases and wondered how long it would be before she ran into a third.
She put Raker’s file into her Out box for Delia to file later and pulled the next file on the stack. Tonya had pulled the recent transformations to target first. There had been thirty-two Focus transformations already in 1968 and she had five more left to go. The next on her list was Focus Gail Rickenbach, and her file had little more than her name, age, and Clinic. Tonya rolled her eyes. Wini Adkins, a first Focus, Tonya’s old friend and current chief adversary was mentoring this baby Focus and showing her usual lack of bureaucratic polish. Delia, responsible for running down contact information, had clipped a little white piece of paper to the outside of the file with a phone number
“Hancock likes to break people and she gets off on breaking them,” Tonya said. “Psychological breakage, not torture for torture’s sake. I’m sure what she did when she broke Focus Peshnak was more enjoyable than any sex, even counting whatever Crows she’s lured to her bed.” She also knew about Lori as the ‘soap opera Focus’, and how both of the Crows she was amorously linked to had also found their way to Carol’s bed. The fact had to gall, and rouse her jealousy.
“I don’t think so,” Lori said, angry. “This happened in a frigging battle, not during one of Carol’s over-the-top recruitment efforts.” Bingo!
“Nevertheless, I can’t help thinking that’s what she’s working up to doing to me,” Tonya said. “Which is why I’m angry.”
“If so, she’s not going to be listening to me on the subject,” Lori said, her emotions dissonant to the meaning of her words. Definitely trouble in paradise. “I’m not even sure I want to stop her. You want my help reigning in Hancock? Publicly apologize to her first.”
Click.
Tonya smiled. She had called to vent, and instead ended up driving a starter wedge between her two biggest pains in the ass. This showed promise, a lot of promise.
Part 2
Politics By Other Means
Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.
Arthur Miller
Chapter 4
Never startle a Crow.
“The Life of Crows”
Tonya Biggioni: August 20, 1968
The office had walls now. Simple drywall, not yet painted, but walls. And a door, which Tonya appreciated. A file cabinet occupied the northeast corner of the room, just shipped in from Faith Corrigan, COD, holding the Council’s files on every Focus in the United States. She was already far behind Polly’s schedule, not even done with this year’s crop of new Focuses. Her household remained unsettled two days after Hancock had broken into her office and left a bomb on her desk.
Tonya wished she had never even heard the word ‘Arm’. The only reason she had been stuck running the Focus Mentoring program was her supposed Arm Flap failures.
“So you let me know if you need anything,” Tonya said into the phone. “I’m glad everything’s going so well, and congratulations. It’s a tough job.”
Tonya updated Frances Raker’s file as she put the phone down. Cathy Elspeth had been mentoring her and Frances was in good shape; Raker had transformed young, and had enough sense and stomach to allow her mother to run the day-to-day household details. Tonya hadn’t been surprised at Raker’s success. She had a lot of respect for Cathy, unlike some of the other Focus mentors. Tonya had already run into two disaster cases and wondered how long it would be before she ran into a third.
She put Raker’s file into her Out box for Delia to file later and pulled the next file on the stack. Tonya had pulled the recent transformations to target first. There had been thirty-two Focus transformations already in 1968 and she had five more left to go. The next on her list was Focus Gail Rickenbach, and her file had little more than her name, age, and Clinic. Tonya rolled her eyes. Wini Adkins, a first Focus, Tonya’s old friend and current chief adversary was mentoring this baby Focus and showing her usual lack of bureaucratic polish. Delia, responsible for running down contact information, had clipped a little white piece of paper to the outside of the file with a phone number
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