Free A Method Truly Sublime (The Commander) by Randall Farmer Page B

story, but as a young Crow, no one would tell him.
    “The ‘who’ is the Skinner.  Stacy Keaton.”
    Shadow paused.  “Have you contacted her in person?”  Wary.
    “No, just by letter.  So far.”  He had looked over the Skinner quite carefully once he arrived in California.  She had gone to ground.  No organization, no contacts with anyone he could see.  Spooky.  In Philadelphia, she had a large organization of normals she ran around, mostly criminals.  Seeing a Major Transform as powerful as the Skinner go to ground put Gilgamesh on edge.
    “Good,” Shadow said, relieved.  “What did you tell her, anyway?”
    Gilgamesh smiled.  “I wrote the letter on stolen paper, using gloves, so she wouldn’t catch my scent.  I slid the letter under her door when she wasn’t home, so she couldn’t trace me.  I addressed it to ‘SK’.”  He read the rest of the letter to Shadow, leaving out Tiamat’s location.
    “That’s it?”
    “That’s it.”
    “How did she react?”
    “Poorly.  I think she realized how much I understand about her to say even that much, and she didn’t like it at all.”
    “Did she try and track you down?”
    “Absolutely she tried to track me down.  She’s still trying.  But after I dropped off the letter I’ve stayed at least four miles away from her house.”  The time since he slid the letter under the door had been terrifying.  He had given her almost nothing to work with, but knowing so didn’t help.  He couldn’t sleep, instead watching her constantly for any suspicious activities, or for whatever had spooked her.  Hyper-alert.  His things were packed and in his truck, all ready to leave the city at the least hint of anything suspicious.
    “You’re taking awfully large risks, Gilgamesh.  Are you sure you understand what you’re doing?”
    Gilgamesh closed his eyes and didn’t answer.  His nerves had been asking him the same question ever since he made his decision to act and he still didn’t have an answer.
    “It’s all right,” Shadow said gently. “It’ll be all right.”
    Neither of them believed it.
    With the Skinner unwilling to act on his request his next task was to find an apartment near the Arm’s place…and send the Skinner another letter.
     
    ---
     
    The Skinner acted before he finished his second letter.  The Skinner drove into downtown San Francisco and went into a random building, the only Transform or Major Transform present, according to his metasense.  There, of all things, she did a pantomime routine pointing at something in the building.  Five times.  Including flapping her arms like a bird.
    Like a crow, perhaps?
    Gilgamesh waited as the Skinner went back home and very firmly stayed home.
    He had to check, dammit.  He crumpled up his partly written letter and left his new apartment.
     
    The building turned out to be an unemployment office and the place where she did her pantomime was right in front of a job board.  Gilgamesh checked the papers and index cards haphazardly thumbtacked to the job board until he found the Skinner’s message.
     
    Crow Eradication Service
    Work in the extermination industry.  Minimal pay, long hours, lots of hunting.  Often futile.  Call xxx-xxx-xxxx for more information.
     
    Gilgamesh skedaddled until he was far away from the unemployment office before he broke down and called the phone number.  Long distance.  With a Los Angeles area code.
    “Rodriguez Message Service,” a woman said.  “How may I help you?”
    Shit.  Gilgamesh held the phone away from him, fighting panic.  He stammered for a moment.  “I don’t have an account with you, but I believe someone may have left a message for me.  For, um, ‘Helpful Crow’.”
    “Of course, sir.  Let me check.  Yes, here it is.  For liability purposes, understand that we aren’t responsible for the content of any of the messages we deliver, but we are responsible for the veracity.  Do you wish to copy this