The Good Doctor's Tales Folio Eight (2 page)

More? 
‘More’ didn’t sound good to Iris.  “Why don’t the other Focuses know this?”

“Why?” Gloriana said.  “
They are not worthy
.  Those who are worthy are not yet ready.  A time will come when they become ready, because Judgment Day is soon approaching.  Then, we will bring the Holy Spirit to them.  Those who are not worthy, such as those who fashion themselves as witches, we have a fate waiting for them.  Even our most trusted servants must choose between their sort of evil witchery or our true consecration to the Holy Spirit.  When the time of choosing comes, we will cast out those who do not accept the Holy Spirit, and they will be Focuses no more.  We can not only teach you to consecrate the Holy Spirit into your household, but we can also teach you how to keep your consecration secret, until the Day of Judgment approaches.”

With all her heart,
Iris wanted to be among Gloriana’s elect.  It was the only true good Christian thing to do.

Establishing the Houston Territory

Salvaging Chicago
(Carol Hancock’s POV)

I found Chimeras doing every other night sweeps of Chicago.  I was glad I
had flown into Indianapolis and rented a car there instead of flying into Chicago directly.  I had no particular interest in alerting the damned Hunters to my presence.  Paranoid, and on guard, I found Chimera juice traces, about eight miles apart, a regular hunting grid.  The one covering the area of my interest was – bless my bad luck – Enkidu.  They weren’t even attempting to hide themselves.

I didn’t want a fight; when I took back Chicago I wanted overwhelming force and no chance of failure.  I had neither
, nor the necessary permission from my boss, Keaton.  Right now, I only wanted my people, at least the ones who had avoided jail and death.  I went down my list and confirmed my fears.  I found Luke and Indy, my moneymakers, in jail, and my fence, Moose, long gone, in the state pen.  Police Sgt. O’Malley had indeed killed himself when he got exposed.  Following Keaton’s instructions, I didn’t check on Pete.  The darker part of my organization was gone, wiped out to the last cheap handgun.

I growled in annoyance and continued my stealthy work, ready to hunt down what remained of the clean side of my operation.

My first target on the clean side of my operation, Greg, was doing just fine.  He was, of all things, engaged to Ying Tien.  The gym, however, the one I had spent so much time on, was bankrupt.  In a couple
of weeks, the estate of Mr. Oldman, my moneyman, would be auctioning off my gym equipment.  Mr. Oldman, my moneyman, wasn’t worth salvaging.  His health had deteriorated and he now spent about half his time in the hospital.  The Tiens were losing ground monetarily again due to Grandma Tien’s inability to run a kitchen.  I repressed the urge to arrange for her to have a fatal accident.  I gave up on Absoth.  He had quickly slid back into alcoholism without my help.  Dick, the mailman, did fine.  My control on him still held and he still followed my advice, meaning his life had turned around.

I visited Dick first, but my disguise no longer mattered.  He knew I was Carol Hancock, Arm and serial killer, but we made due.  I offered him a job as my operations manager in Houston, with a substantial raise.  He took the job, so I tagged him.  He had earned both by not screwing up his life after my capture.  I assigned him the task of buying my own gym equipment at auction and getting the damned shit shipped to Houston.

Then I went and visited the Tiens, after an intense search of the area around the China Garden to make doubly sure the police, FBI and the Hunters didn’t have eyes on them.  The Tiens occupied a special place on the clean side of my operations, because I had used them as fraudulent references, and because I had once killed a Chimera on their front doorstep.  I exercised more caution here than with the others – Keaton’s faux-Hancock spree from Dallas to Youngstown and every medium sized town or larger in-between had stirred up the Feds more than I had ever experienced in my tenure as an Arm.  Connecting the Tiens to me wasn’t impossible.

“Mr. Tien,” I said, sitting down at his table in the back of the empty restaurant where he did the daily books.  The warm mid-afternoon sun shone through the thin spots in the faded velvet drapes.  “So glad to see you.”

He about died on the spot, not having noticed my entrance.  I was good at stealth these days.  “Ma’am.  What can I do for you?”  His hands shook so much the pen he had been holding went flying into the air.  I snagged the pen as it went by.

“Someday, I’m going to be coming back to Chicago to live,” I said.  “I’d like your family to still be here, safe and sound, when I get back.  Is Ying around?  I’d like to talk to her and Greg.”

“I, I can call.  They are engaged, yes?”

I nodded
, and he went and called.  In the meantime, Joey drifted by, a big smile on his face.  Thirteen now, and his voice had changed.  I remained his hero, more so because I was an Arm.  He wanted, of all things, an autograph.  He promised to keep my identity a secret.  I wouldn’t tell him the stories he really wanted to hear, though.

Mr. Tien came back and saw the money I had slipped into his ledger.  “Do you know anyone in Houston?” I said.  I had weighed my options back and forth for hours.  Should I start over in Houston, or should I breech my own security, connect myself to Chicago and use what I had put together here?  I could make the argument both ways, but good people were hard to find, especially for legitimate business purposes.

I studied Mr. Tien’s face.  He could have made a phone call to the police, but hadn’t.  Business with me was lucrative; and since I hadn’t involved the Tiens in any of the darker aspects of my dealings, my business was mostly legal save for the part about who they dealt with.  Also, he had seen my fight with the Chimera in his parking lot.  A demon I might be, but a friendly demon had potential.

“Yes, yes,” he said.  “Cousins.”  He immediately understood what I wanted, and why.  “You want addresses, phone numbers?  You make sure Ying not get in trouble in Houston with this Mr. Petroski she engaged to, yes?”

I nodded.

We talked.  I let him vent his frustrations with Greg and the failure of Greg’s gym.  He envisioned some rather large positives to getting Greg and Ying out of his hair, mostly on the Greg side of things.

A little over ninety minutes into my meeting with Mr. Tien, Greg and Ying walked in, entering through the gaudy restaurant doors with their carved dragons and peeling paint.  Ying, as elegant as I had taught her to be, ran up and gave me a hug, all worried about me, and asking if I was okay and why I had lost so much weight.  I smiled and remembered how much I cared for her.  She had figured out I was a woman in disguise long before my capture, it turned out.  This wasn’t the first time she had surprised me with her nerve and smarts.

Then, oh lord, Greg tried to pull a pistol on me.  Here I was reunionizing with Ying, and he decided I
would blame him for the gym bankruptcy.  Panic, pure and stupid.  I removed the pistol from his grasp before he clicked the safety off.  “Calm down,” I said.  “The past is the past, not worth worrying about.  However, if you want another chance at running a gym…well, I’m going to need one in my new home.”

Greg damned near peed his pants.  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, reflex, without thinking, his mind still confused by panic.  He would get a tag as soon
as this meeting ended.

“It’s all right,” Ying said to Greg, with a snap of command and of tone a frustrated exasperation.  “Just do what she says and don’t do anything else stupid.”

Greg blinked, said, “Right,” and calmed down.

Well, what do you know.  Ying had gotten to Greg.  When I thought about those two together, I hadn’t expected she would be the one on top.  Greg liked his ladies meek.  Or had.

Ying, I decided, was one hell of a lady.

I tagged Greg as soon as I got him out into the parking lot.  The tagging went fine, though it felt empty, as if something this significant, with one of my inner circle, should have a little more ceremony.  The oddest thing happened afterwards, though.

“Ma’am, what about me?” Ying said.

I blinked.  I hadn’t planned to tag Ying.  I figured she would follow along with Greg and keep him in line.  I certainly didn’t plan to expose her to the serious side of my business.

“What about you?”

“Well, ma’am.”  She stopped.  Started again.  “Don’t you want me to work for you?”  She kept her face straight, but she radiated hurt underneath as loud as a siren.

Wonderful.  Just wonderful.  “Ying,” I said, “Greg may be involved in some things that are a little bit dangerous.”

She tilted her chin up.  “So you’ll need help, then.  I can help.”

I just looked at her, and gradually her eyes fell.  “I’m sorry, ma’am.  I don’t want to impose.  I’ll certainly do whatever you want me to.  I don’t mean to ask for some special role.”

Oh, hell.  She worshipped the ground I walked on and here I was rejecting her.  Didn’t she understand people shouldn’t want tags?  That tags were something I forced on them against their will?

I sighed and touched her head.  I had never been able to resist her. “I supp–”

The juice moved before I even got the words out.  I blinked again and she smiled, and then gave me a huge hug.  “Oh, thank you!  Thank you!  You won’t regret this, I promise.”

Dammit!  I hated when the juice did things on its own.  It made me feel like a puppet instead of a human being with
free will.  I smiled down at her, though.  How could I do otherwise?

Her personal devotion
reminded me of Ann Chiron, Focus Rizzari’s Transform anthropologist, and the way Ann interacted with Lori.  I bet Ying would chew the crap out of me if she thought I got out of line, and worship the ground I walked on all the while.

This had to be a variant on my predator effect, this version working more like Focus charisma.  However, I wasn’t a
classical beauty, and I didn’t have a melodious voice, though I swore both my looks and my voice had been slowly improving over time.  This wasn’t my ‘go take a flying leap’ command charisma, either.  This aspect of my charisma was seductive, but not sexually seductive.  I was a pillar of strength that others, some others at least, wanted to follow.

I liked this particular Arm talent just fine.

“Ying,” I said, changing dozens of pages of plans in the blink of an eye.  “You and Greg are going to put together a gym in Houston.  You’ll be dealing with an ally of mine, a Focus Laswell, and you’re going to treat her right.”  Not that Thelma needed any protection from anyone except the predators.  She had straightened out Rogue Focus’s captive Focuses with ease, and those two were now functional members of the new Houston order, nicely under Thelma’s wise leadership.  “Plus, I’ve got some other stuff I’m going to give you besides.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ying said, as we all piled into my car.  Greg nodded.  He respected me, but he still worried.  His biggest worry?  He feared I would demand to sleep with him and mess up his relationship with Ying.  Interesting.  I kept running mental notes, for my project for Keaton regarding people control.  Chapter exityex – how to control people by not sleeping with them.  Good for at least one raised eyebrow and perhaps a ‘huh’.

“You two are going to find a place for me to live in Houston.  I’m too busy to do this in person.”  For one thing, I had a bunch of money to steal to finance this whole mess.  Despite Keaton’s newstolen wealth, none would be flowing my way.  “You’ll end up dealing with other people in my organization as well.  Legitimate types.  You won’t know their real identities, and you shouldn’t try and find out.”  I didn’t need Frances anymore; she would be working for Zielinski now.  I suspected Zielinski and Ying would be working together, at least to start with.  He could teach Ying a lot about running shady operations.

“Of course,” Ying said, all ready to take charge and carry out my wishes.  I had a lieutenant.  A legitimate, loyal lieutenant, one who would be happy working for me.  I shook my head and marveled as we worked out the details of how the money for the gym would appear out of nowhere.

---

“Buy the damned house,” I said, to Ying.  I was more than ready to be out of this claustrophobic little hole of a hotel room with its stinks and cramped quarters.  I knew, intimately, every stain on the carpet and every nick in the sink.  If I didn’t get out of here soon I would do something drastic.

“Using all our tricks, ma’am?” Ying said.  She was surprised.  The tricks consisted of an intricate web of money connections, through her extended family, tricks I hoped the authorities would never be able to figure out.  I was having trouble, myself, and I was the one who had set up half of them.

“Yes,” I said.  Ying smiled.

“We have the gym equipment from Chicago now,” Greg said, and spread the paperwork out on the small hotel table.  The equipment was being stored in a local warehouse in Houston.  “However, you need to take a look at the latest models…”

I patiently looked over the latest models.  Greg was a sucker for ‘new’ and this year’s improved gym equipment was out.  I approved too many of them, alas.  I was a sucker for the stuff as well.

“So,” I said.  “How soon can I move into my new house?”

“Tomorrow,” Ying said.  “The house has been on the market for nine months, vacant, and the sellers were getting desperate.  I arranged things so you can move in early.”  Ying had the bright idea of going through her local relatives for ideas and had
discovered a large market in Houston for cash-only housing deals the local property tax collectors didn’t need to know too much about.

Anticipation grew.  Houston was already
mine
, but I would feel much better if I owned where I slept at night.

Rolling Balls
(Henry Zielinski’s POV)

“I’m yours,” Zielinski said
as Carol entered his motel room.  He had taken to reaffirming the tag after every multi-day separation from Carol.  One of Carol’s new people, a young oriental woman, studied the tableau with far too much interest.  Carol was living in a quickly acquired Houston home, her new lair.  Delivery people were stacking the new furniture for the place in boxes out front.