Free All Beasts Together (The Commander) by Randall Farmer Page B

behave like Keaton – or myself – our behavior will give credence to the people proposing the Romanian solution.”
    Since I left Keaton, one of my more important projects was to figure out where Arms fit in the world, and from that, a functional system of Arm morality, because normal human morality didn’t work for an Arm.  I had been too busy surviving to make much progress, but this little tidbit might be an important part of the puzzle.
    If Ann and Lori were right, th eir theory might shoot down any possibility of an ‘anything goes’ ethical system.  I wasn’t surprised.  I considered the ‘anything goes’ system suspect, much as it appealed emotionally.  The authorities didn’t need to catch me and kill me if they caught all the normals as they transformed and killed them first.  If I and my fellow Arms sufficiently aggravated the normals…
    I would rather be tortured to death by Keaton than die from juice withdrawal.  Dying by any other means would be much better.
    No more killing sprees.  Hell, in the end, I bet us Arms wouldn’t be able to kill any normals.  Not a result I liked.  No more killing sprees was one thing, no killing of normals at all was a whole different bowl of salad.  I listened to Ann while she lectured about Transform demographics, information far too hot to publish.  I understood some of these horror stories from Zielinski’s teachings.  When Ann prattled over to the Van Reijn model of Transform differentiation, I indicated subtly to Lori I already knew this, but didn’t want to upset Ann.
    Lori caught the hint.  She motioned to Ann to finish up.  Ann complied.
    “Okay,” I said, having taken the five minutes of Ann’s lecture to think through the Network’s offer.  “I agree.  Everyone has to have some goal in life, I guess.  There’s only one problem.  I don’t trust the Network.  Someone in the Network is after me.”
    “Who could possibly be after you?” Lori asked.
    I told the two of them about my encounter with Officer Canon in Philadelphia.
    Lori and Ann exchanged gazes and shrugged.
    “What, you don’t believe me?” They didn’t.  Hell.
    “I believe you experienced what you experienced, Carol,” Lori said.  “However, any Focus or Crow able to do that trick is powerful enough to have, um, taken you out.”  Lori did something with the juice, and without warning another Lori sat in Ann’s chair and the lab held one less Ann.  A moment later Ann reappeared, holding a gun on me.  I glared at her and she holstered it.
    A threat so blunt should have sent me through the roof with adrenaline, ready to slaughter any attacker.  Instead, I merely felt edgy.  I tried for an explanation and guessed Lori had calmed me with her charisma, charisma I hadn’t sensed in use.  I took a deep breath.  I didn’t want to get hostile.  Really.  Fuck.
    “So?”
    “I don’t believe that was an attack.  Aggressive recruitment attempt, yes.  Attack, no,” Lori said.  “And no, it wasn’t me.”
    I had only thought she might have been the attacker, and only for an instant.  I was profoundly glad Lori approved of me.  I was severely overmatched.
    “Who might have done it?  Why?”
    “There’s at least one member of the Focus Council who believes you’ve been poaching Transforms on a regular basis.  Starting before you left Keaton.”
    “That’s…”  I stopped myself.  I had seen Lori’s elaborate security precautions.  The powerful Focuses were paranoid.  “You know I haven’t.”
    “I do now.”
    “Your powerful Network Focuses aren’t much into polite, are they?”  Lori didn’t answer; impolite, and on purpose.
    “This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Lori said, after a painfully long pause.  “You reject the Network, you reject the Network.  You’re on your own.”
    “I’ll deal with you.”
    Lori frowned.  She didn’t believe me.  “You won’t even tell me where your lair is.  What your goals in life are.