The Good Doctor's Tales Folio Nine Read Online Free Page A

with Carol.  He immediately thought of one of Ann’s predictions.  She expected Crows without a juice linkage to a Focus would find themselves in the position of stealth lovers.  Stealth lovers in nature were low-rank males who mated with a dominant female behind the back of the dominant male.  Not uncommon among primates, though not something seen before in humans – but, then again, wasn’t that true for many Transform behaviors?
    “How important do you consider this problem to be?” Hank said.
    “Critical,” Gilgamesh said.  “My partner finds this annoying.”
    Hank repressed a snort of laughter.  The Focus was quite capable of being extremely annoyed about many diverse subjects, and quite capable of acting on her annoyances, as well.  He remembered Sky’s description of the Focus’s first meeting with him; she had shot at Sky just because he had been fresh.  The Focus could be a very dangerous woman.
    One primary property of stealth lovers was they needed to be fast.  “I believe this to be a juice induced problem,” Hank said.  “Like many similar problems, you should be able to combat it with your Major Transform talents.  In addition, I know of some literature regarding this problem that might be of some help.”  He wrote down a couple titles of hard-to-find books dealing with the subject of carezza and extended foreplay.  They hadn’t done much for him, but he was a normal.  A Major Transform ought to be able to make fine use of those techniques.
    “Thanks doc,” Gilgamesh said.
     
    ---
     
    Amy’s comments, though not the sort of comments he was comfortable hearing from a fifteen year old, explained why Gilgamesh was stuck as a stealth lover.  “I suspect Gilgamesh doesn’t count as being a member of Inferno at the juice level – and Sky does.”
    Amy shrugged.  “That matters?  I mean, becoming a household member is just a bunch of words.  There isn’t anything going on at the juice level when we welcome someone into the household.  You’ve been through it, Doc.”  He had – the ‘words’ were part of a ritual where you accepted that being a member of Inferno meant there was a price on your head.  The ritual was a mock funeral.
    “ It matters at the household superorganism level,” Hank said.  Amy’s eyes lit up; they had talked about this earlier, regarding the Focus and her recovery.  “Not all juice use is overt.  In fact, I have a hypothesis…
    “That’s it,” Ann said.  “Sky’s hung up on the words.”   Hank blinked, turned toward the voice, and realized that Ann, Bill and Bob had walked over to within hearing distance.  Eavesdropping, and in Ann’s case, thinking.
    Hmm.  He could believe it.  If th is were the case, civilizing Sky would be more difficult than he had hoped.  It meant Sky had entangled his adaptations to his Crow-ness in his Buddhist beliefs.  Tied up in the words, in what Sky called the immanence of existence.  Sky’s personal epistemology, reinforced by the juice to shape his reality and close it off from change.  Sky was going to fight this tooth and nail, not for an instant knowing why he was having such problems.
    “I’m not sure how you’re going to get to Sky, if you’re correct,” Hank said.  “You might also think about how to better make Gilgamesh a part of Inferno.  There’s a lot he might be able to do to help you, if you can make him more comfortable here.”
    Bill smiled at Hank’s statement, while Ann remained tense, and Bob looked utterly lost.  “Tim says you’re more of a danger to us than Focus Biggioni at her worst,” Bill said.  “I never understood, until now.”
    Hank didn’t react.  He translated Bill’s comment as ‘we’re not interested in having Gilgamesh as a part of Inferno’.  After a short juice signal exchange, he and Ann walked away.
    Dr. Bob didn’t leave, and neither did Amy.  “Since you’re in one of your voluble moods, Doc, do you have any problems with