Free Love and Darkness (The Cause Book 2) by Randall Farmer

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.