All That We Are (The Commander Book 7) by Randall Farmer Read Free Book Online Page B

bridge over the Charles River, and Gilgamesh pointed, once they had gotten to the other side, to a path leading down to the not-frozen-over river.  “Are all Crows this way?  I thought we’d become part of his association,” Lori said, using Sinclair’s term for a Crow’s circle of safe friends, associates and acquaintances.  Lori’s face puckered up, like she stepped into a deep puddle of cold wet mud, or she bit into what she thought was an orange and got a lemon.
    Gilgamesh brushed some snow off a stone bench and sat.  He left room for Lori, who sat down beside him and hooked her left arm through his right arm.  “I’ve met several senior Crows in person, and they’re all that way,” Gilgamesh said.  “None of the younger Crows are.  I’d never thought about this issue much until you asked your question, but you do have a point about them.  Something happened to the senior Crows many years ago, something the younger Crows haven’t shared.  The older Crows have much tighter associations than the younger Crows have – if you think Sky is bad, you should spend some time talking with Shadow.  Both Sky and I had guessed the Crow killer was a Crow and his pet Beast Men, but neither of us could convince Shadow to take our idea seriously until we had overwhelming evidence, simply because it was rude to accuse another Crow .  The old Crows won’t talk about whatever happened to them, either.  I don’t understand their attitude at all, of course, being a younger Crow.  Nor do I feel the same way.  In fact, I distrust many Crows.”
    Lori reached out with her free hand and flicked a few flakes of snow off Gilgamesh’s nose.
    “You were right, Gilgamesh.  Ann’s opinions are of supreme importance, and Ann does look out for me,” Lori said, going back to an earlier topic.  “I’m not sure what I’d do without her.  Go mad, most likely.”  This from a Focus who said she didn’t love any of her Transforms.  Gilgamesh decided not to comment.  “She and Connie worked their positions out among themselves.  Connie runs the day to day business of Inferno, while Ann gives advice and occasionally puts her foot down – and runs me.”
    “As best she can,” Gilgamesh said.  Nobody ‘ran’ Lori unless Lori let them.
    “You’d be surprised.  These past several years, Ann’s been in charge of my reading.  Teaching me anthropology.”
    “So, is her ‘running you’ business or pleasure, Lori?”
    “Moving juice and protecting my Transforms is my business,” Lori said.  Tired.  “Everything else, including being a professor and my work on figuring out how we crazy Transforms can survive the Transform demographic bomb, is pleasure.”
    “Oh, yes,” Gilgamesh said, and grinned.  He understood Lori’s comment, and it almost made him glow with pleasure.  As a young Crow in Philadelphia, he had Crow companions who sparked his interest in the esoteric nature of Transforms and Transform Sickness.  Since the Philadelphia massacre, he had few chances to talk about such things with other Transforms, and he missed those discussions so much.  “I’m currently trying to wade through the Popul Vuh.  It has to tie into Inferno’s myth hypothesis – there were Transforms involved in those legends.  I can just feel it.  I was wondering…”
    They drew pictures in the snow and lost themselves in esoteric theorizing.
    Gilgamesh hadn’t enjoyed himself so much for over a year.
     
    “We probably need to get back to Inferno,” Gilgamesh said, three hours later.  He could metasense the distress of Lori’s distant bodyguards.  They felt the cold.
    “Business can wait.”  Lori grabbed him, and began to unbutton his shirt.
    Gilgamesh’s heart skipped a beat.  Surely Lori couldn’t be serious.  Now? Here? For a second, Gilgamesh fought panic, but it passed.  Something seemed right about this.  More than the normal male pleasure urges, something of the juice.
    This was Lori.  She was