The Forgefires of God (The Cause Book 3) by Randall Farmer Page A

Patrelle.  The trap I sprung was a part of the deal.  After they took me out, the Arm Task Force was going to be protecting Adkins, Schrum, Teas and Fingleman.  The Task Force was the only FBI group able to take on Major Transforms.  Other than six Special Agents trained in Monster tracking and killing, they don’t have anyone who’s ever faced a Major Transform.”  Meaning: the rest were useless as protection.  “I’ve got the names of the Special Agents in charge of protecting each of the four, and their assigned manpower.”
    I thought about it for a minute.  “We can’t sit on this.  It’s got to go to Keaton.  We’ve got to go to Keaton.”
    “I’m only going there on a direct order,” she said.  “Keaton screwed me, blued me and tattooed me last time I was there.”  Haggerty eyed her leg, and I could see her thinking of having it cut off, to get herself out of a trip to visit Keaton.  Then she sighed, and I knew she would obey.
    “Yeah, I know.  But we’ve got to go.  We’ll get you healed up as much as we can, but in a few days you, me, and McIntyre get to make a trip to Los Angeles.  Lori, too, to present herself.”
    “Keaton’s going to kill McIntyre and Lori.”
    “I’ll admit that wouldn’t pain me any to see McIntyre go, but you’re mine and he’s yours, so that gives me an obligation to protect his puckered smarmy ass.  Keaton’s too smart to go after Lori.  I hope.  In any case, we go.”
     
    Gail Rickenbach: December 13, 1972
    Carol strode past her without even acknowledging her existence as the Arm crossed the midnight darkness of the Branton’s lobby.  Gail winced.  Carol had been with Lori for hours this evening in an unoccupied part of the Branton, and everyone in the building felt the storm.  Fighting, making up, fighting, making up, a week of professional and personal spats compressed into one rough evening.  Carol had been sleeping with Lori regularly, something Inferno had both hoped for and feared for years.  They loved Carol, but weren’t sure she was a good influence on their Focus.  Certainly not now, with Carol’s beast on the prowl.  No sex tonight, or no sex Gail could metasense.  Just a lot of sturm and drang.  Carol, Lori and Amy needed to catch an airplane tomorrow morning to go meet with Keaton.
    Gail badly needed someone to talk to, someone knowing and senior to her as a Major Transform.  She saw things more clearly than before, and she didn’t like what she saw.  Freeing Carol from Patterson’s dreaming attack and Bass’s screwy tag should have banished Carol’s beast, but didn’t.  Worse, with the foreign influences gone and Carol no longer under orders to torture her victims every day, her beast became even more seductive.  Gail’s tag with Lori made things worse, not better. Gail had tried to talk to Lori yesterday about her fears, and all she got was an invitation to join Carol and Lori on their nighttime city cleanup expeditions.
    This, however, was business.  To hell with politeness.  Gail yanked on Carol’s tag and put some juice behind the yank.
    “Gail, what do you want?  I’m busy,” Carol said, not even breaking stride.
    “I’m farther along.  Can we try one more time?”
    Carol stopped her trek across the dark lobby.  She sighed, looked over her shoulder and gave Gail a predatory stare.  “Only if we can do this quickly.”
    Gail nodded.  She had waited here in the dark lobby for almost two hours, knowing Carol would need to come by here on her way out.
    Carol stalked over to the main stairway and started to run up the stairs, not looking back, daring Gail to make even one squeak about how she would rather use the elevator.  Nope, no elevator this time.  Gail jogged up the dimly lit stairs behind the Arm, signaling to Gilgamesh to grab Van and Zielinski, and meet them in the upper floor bedroom they used for their experiments.  Gilgamesh and Van met Carol and Gail in the room, but Zielinski lagged