In this Night We Own (The Commander Book 6) by Randall Farmer Read Free Book Online

Gilgamesh!
    Now this would be fun.  He had always thought that if he ran into Gilgamesh again he would be able to convince the young Crow to join him, linked as they were by his transformation.  Gilgamesh would certainly make a better Crow companion than Urine, and Enkidu doubted his master would need to rip the Law anywhere near as deeply into Gilgamesh’s mind as in Urine’s.  He waved again and pantomimed joining him for dinner.
    Gilgamesh vanished.  One second he was there, one second he wasn’t.  Oh ho!  So Gilgamesh had become one of those Crows.  How dangerous was he?  True, in his man form Enkidu couldn’t run down a Crow, but he could think better and fight off Crow dross attacks better in this form.  And, even on his best days, a Crow couldn’t beat a Hunter in any form of a physical fight, even if the Hunter was in man form.  Enkidu was as tall as a basketball center and built like a middle linebacker.  A Crow would be quicker and better with firearms, if any Crows could shoot firearms, but Enkidu’s healing abilities would more than compensate for this theoretical advantage.
    Enkidu waited outside Calloway’s Steak House for Gilgamesh to show, but he didn’t.  As soon as the restaurant opened Enkidu gave up on the flighty Crow, went inside and ordered some steaks.
     
    “So you can pass for human these days.”
    Enkidu put down his fork and knife, and looked up.  Gilgamesh was sitting across the table from him.  He hadn’t heard or metasensed the Crow approach.
    “Well, well, well,” Enkidu said.  “I’d thought you’d panicked and ran.  Glad to see you again.”
    Gilgamesh stared at him and didn’t say a thing.  His old companion had changed for the better – leaner, more muscular, much better looking, better dressed, and he had picked up the do-not-mess-with-me aura Enkidu had seen with Athabasca and the other Judge Crows who occasionally came by to consult.  Gilgamesh also carried, of all things, two tennis balls in his right hand.  The Crow was scared, perhaps even terrified, but as far as Enkidu knew, fear was the natural state of all Crows.  The good ones, like Gilgamesh, just lived with the fear.
    “I wanted to apologize for my behavior in Philadelphia,” Enkidu said.  “My Master hadn’t brought my mind back to full humanity, back then.  There was still too much of the beast in me.”
    “I understand,” Gilgamesh said.  “Save for the all-body five o’clock shadow, you look fully human, now.  Your Master has indeed done well for you.”
    Hmm.  “Anyway, I’m glad you’re here.  Gives me a chance to talk you into joining me.  I wanted to do so in Chicago, but I wasn’t able to run you down and have a quiet conversation.  So to speak.”  Enkidu sliced up some steak and wolfed it down.  Planning large robberies always made him extra hungry.
    “What, pray tell, do you want me to join?”
    “The Hunter Empire.  We’re remaking the world.  It’s time for all the Transforms to have strong leadership.  Hunter leadership.  Not the candy-ass bitch Focus leadership the rest of the Transforms are simpering after.”
    “I think I’ll pass.  Living with people who consider me to be prey would be quite disconcerting.”
    Enkidu laughed.  “But to a Hunter,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper, “the whole world is prey.  Even other Beast-Men.  But we’ve got it set up, now, so we don’t have to hunt for our élan like we used to.”
    “How so?”
    “Transform women, Gilgamesh.  Tamed Monsters are an endless source of élan!  They don’t even die in the process anymore!”  Enkidu smiled, as always proud of his pack of Gals and his skills with them.
    Gilgamesh nodded.  “I’ve heard stories the Focuses pass along about many unsolved Transform kidnappings.  Someone even nabbed a Focus earlier this month.”
    He knew.  The rat-faced bastard knew!  The Focus grab was supposed to be a secret!  They had supposedly laid down so many