Page 79 of From the Noblest Motives
"Bastards," Toby spat out when Shudder had finished the story. "Bastards everywhere."
"Certainly does seem to be a bumper crop."It's not as if I can disagree. "Dr. Parma, I'm hoping you can share your thoughts on what's happening with the Guild? Is the whole place corrupt, from the base of the cake to the topper?"
Dr. Parma made a considering sound. "My instincts say no. If it were the whole organization, they would have forced me out long ago, and those involved in unethical activities would have been doing so out in the open."
"Doc." Blaze drummed his fingers on the table, the metal thrumming hollow notes with each digit landing. "Didn't you saySludgejust waltzed in and took a gunship like he owned the place?"
"I don't believe he knows the waltz."
Damien sent her a hint of a smile. "You made a joke."
"Sometimes I manage." She waved that off. "It's concerning that he feels confident enough to do so, but he does take liberties from time to time as a privilege of office. I believe he was simply being, as Blaze would most likely put it, an entitled ass."
"An entitled, shit-brained ass," Blaze growled.
"As you say. But again, the way Dr. Heller was hiding research. The way Fox was so obedient and solicitous right until he came to the house. The fact that no one threatened me previously. This all tells me they're still in hiding. That there aren't enough of them to operate in the open."
Shudder put his chin in his hand. "What do you think they're after?"
"There are most likely two motivations." Dr. Parma held up a finger. "Money. There will be those purely driven by greed, like Hippocrata." She held up a second finger. "And power. I think in his own way, Sledge wants to see variants in a better political and social position. Or maybe I give him too much credit. But working with Cyril suggests at least some knowledge of his eugenics ambitions, and the variant-enhancing drugs suggest a desire to create super variants who can't be oppressed."
"Dangerous," Damien said so softly Shudder almost missed it.
"Terribly. They risk extermination. I also have to wonder if Hippocrata was working independently. If there are two or more factions within Guild Tower."
Blaze huffed. "Fucking mess is what it is."
"I feel like we're facing a war on a hundred fronts." Shudder raised his hands to ruffle through his hair, remembered he didn't have any, and put them back down.
"Not a hundred. Four."
Damien straightened. His head came up. He was about tosay things, and everyone appeared to sense it, doing their various versions of sitting back to shut up and listen.
He ran his fingers along the edge of the table for a moment before he spoke. "We have the legal and political front. The anti-variant conservatives. There's little secrecy about their intent, but their methods can be clandestine, since it's nearly certain that they were the ones who falsified evidence to convict Shudder. We don't know who specifically yet, but the timing of the legislation makes it obvious."
"I was supposed to be the evil, unhinged example," Shudder said, surprised that his voice remained steady.
"Yes." Damien reached a hand toward him, stopped, and pulled it back. "I'm sorry, but yes. The second faction is the oligarchs who ran the Fredamine Project and perhaps other such facilities. Once again, we have suspicions but no specific names. There's very likely overlap between these first two, since exploitation lives closely with oppression. There may be so much overlap that it's the same group. The third, of course, consists of the enemies we've made at the Guild, as Dr. Parma has laid out for us. We don't know all the players there, either, but at least we have a beginning."
"I feel like I failed you," Dr. Parma broke in. "If I'd been more careful, I could still be in place, gathering information for you."
"No.No." Damien shook his head adamantly. "They forced your hand. I'm glad you made it out safely."
Under those words Shudder heard,I can't lose you, too. Damien speak. He was getting better at it.
"The last front…" Damien pulled in a slow breath. "Is Cyril. With his eugenics, his altering minds without consent, and his theft ofchildren. He's the most insidious, since potentially, he could have suborned anyone, and his projects have old roots, spread throughout the continent."
The silence held prickling anger and shards of fear, and Toby blurted out, "So what do we do?"
Damien's answer was gentle, soothing the negatively charged air. "I don't know yet. But we've bought some time and have a place to think. Shudder's news conference was a good first step. Cyril was using him, but in that, he was correct. The more we drag things out into the light, the sooner some of these things can be resolved."
Shudder let that statement sit for a couple of beats before he knocked on the table twice. "Thank you, everyone. I think that's enough for one morning. Meeting adjourned. Geo, I'm coming down to see baby goats."
Late that afternoon,Glitch wandered back into Shudder's rooms with a device that looked like a palm phone with kitty ears.
"She can't call you back," he said as he thrust the altered device at Shudder without preamble. "No one can find this phone. But you can call her, and it won't be traceable."
"That's actually… perfect." Shudder gave him an approving nod. "A secure line where she can't call me back isperfect. Thank you, truly, for doing this on such short notice."
