The Infected 3: Cast Iron Read online

  “Enrique. He’s really good. Don’t worry though, you can just sit next to me and tell me what you want. We won’t let you get lost, you’re our bud. Don’t even think about it.” He sounded confident, but he wasn’t used to how hard it could be to keep track of the girl, even if she was next to you. It was nice though. Marcia got the idea that he was clearly a team player. That was probably why he was so good at his job on the cooking show.

  Bridget rummaged through a back and pulled out a pale pink thing that looked almost like a slip, it was so plain. She held it up to the air, away from her, as if trying to hand it off.

  “Brian said this would fit you. Karen got it for you and gave it to me so you’d have something to wear other than sweats. There are a couple of choices, but I like this one best. It will show up on camera, right? You can wear it with running shoes too. All the cool IPB agents do that.” Pointing at her feet under her own dark green dress to demonstrate that fact, Bridget smiled.

  “Besides, it’s short enough that if you don’t wear underwear you can flash the photographers, except, you know, nothing will show up. It’s enough to make the right wing press cry, don’t you think?”

  It was funny, so they all smiled at the idea; though Penny assured them she was going fully clothed, even if it didn’t matter. She was pretty modest after all. It was kind of linked to her first mode.

  Ink and the singers met them in the lobby, where they’d all been waiting, the blocky man standing in front of the others looking fierce as two police officers stood in front of him, hands on their side arms, ready to draw them in the universal greeting police gave obvious Infected everywhere. Just before Marcia could start walking over the elevator next to the one she’d just gotten off of with the others opened. It was most of the rest of them, packed in densely to share the ride. Proxy got off the car at a run and only sped up as he closed with the two uniformed men. It looked like he was about to tackle them when Scott caught up with him, plucking him from the air as he started to make his move.

  “It’s alright… I’m sure…” The large golden man had changed into a very expensive suit and looked stunning enough that everyone in the room turned to stare at him. That or they’d noticed Brian darting across the room and realized what that meant. The police belatedly tried going for their side arms, as if that was going to help them at all. After about ten seconds they realized they were surrounded though and started backing away, pistols in hand.

  “Back-up! You’re interfering with police business. Step back now!” The older of the two, who was only about thirty, pointed his weapon at the whole group of them as they slowly closed on the scene. Everyone stopped, except Brian, who shrugged off Prime’s hand and started toward them again.

  Ink looked around, panicked and then, very deliberately, stepped in front of the police. Guarding them with his body. Sticking to the plan.

  “It’s… Well, it’s not OK, Proxy, but this is something we can handle with words. There was just a mistake, or false report or something and these… officers, have come to discuss it. Why don’t you and Prime go ahead or at least back to the room and I’ll handle this? Or… Kerry could do it?”

  The words were actually having an effect, though Brian still looked ready to jump in and kick some cop ass, until the younger policeman started yelling again, then jumped forward and hit Ink with his pistol, on the back of the head. It didn’t actually hurt the man, though he got a strained look on his face and finally turned on the officers and gave them an annoyed smile as the man tried to hit him a couple more times n the face.

  “Look… we’re IPB. We’re all federal agents and we outrank you here. You don’t have power of arrest over us, unless a murder has been committed and even then, since we’re all Infected, the IPB would still handle it. So back the heck off and holster your weapons. Now.” It didn’t work at first, until the three non-Infected agents stepped in the way, all wearing black suits. They had their badges with them and everything, which made the whole statement suddenly seem a lot more real. Most of the Infected operatives generally didn’t bother carrying a badge, even though they all had them issued. They should though, if they were going out in public. She’d have to send out a memo on it or something.

  Lancaster took the lead, his voice fairly calm, no weapons visible at all. It was more than Marcia probably could have managed really. Oddly she didn’t feel freaked or anything, just annoyed. She let the senior agent handle it though. Her job was to ensure that Proxy didn’t attack anyone.

  Well, that and to make certain this wasn’t the set up for an attack of some kind.

  Walking to Brian, who was being hugged by Karen now, she put her body in the way directly. Waiting for an explanation without asking. Lancaster would handle that part.

  “So, gentleman, what exactly is the issue here?” He sounded smooth suddenly, calm and relaxed, but that wasn’t real, she knew. He just did that before he had to fight. It was a meditative thing, a trance to help with combat. It hadn’t been in her personal training, but it worked decently well from what she’d seen. It really helped with shooting a lot, not unarmed combat so much. That was due to the fine motor control being better in a relaxed person, she thought.

  For a long time both officers just stood, as if they couldn’t believe that anyone would be just talking to them calmly while they had weapons out. It was true that they didn’t have any power over the IPB agents or operatives, but not all police officers knew that. Most didn’t in fact. It was meant to keep the police from hassling their people, but it didn’t mean they wouldn’t see to punishing someone for a real infraction. It wasn’t like diplomatic immunity that way, though as far as the police were concerned it was nearly identical. If they had a real problem, they should have just called the IPB local office and gotten them to handle it, but again, most cops didn’t know that was an option.

  Hard to blame them for poor training, especially on something that didn’t come up all that often for them. It was difficult to remember since her world held a lot of Infected people, hundreds of them, but the Infected only made up about one percent of the population over all. Most police went months or years without running into one that they knew about. Even at that, the vast majority of Infected were dangerous due to their first modes, not their powers.

  The older officer looked around and seemed to get the idea first, that starting a fight here would be a bad idea, so holstered his weapon. It was done in a slightly jerking fashion, made rough from adrenalin and nerves. No one would have been standing there, surrounded like they were, and manage honest calm. No one that had a brain at least. He spoke, gesturing at his partner to get the gun out of view.

  “We received a call reporting a young boy being kidnapped by Infected that fled into this hotel. Do any of you know about that?” His hand moved back to his weapon.

  Karen rolled her eyes. It took a lot to get her to do something like that, because it normally wasn’t something that she would have allowed herself to do, feeling too bad for the police that had been misled. It meant she was pretty ticked about their behavior then, Marcia thought. Otherwise she probably would have tried to hug them and explain or something.

  “You mean the drowning boy that Prime and Impulse saved? The one the Prime flew back to his parents on the beach safe and sound? Is that the same one? I’m pretty sure that saving children doesn’t count as kidnapping yet. Is there an actual complaint even, or was it someone just calling anonymously to create problems for us? It’s a thing that some hate groups have their people doing, trying to make trouble for the IPB.” She crossed her arms firmly, a black clutch bag in her right hand. It matched her shoes, which were actual high heels. Her dress was a nice deep blue, but otherwise didn’t look that much different from the black one Marcia had on. They shopped in the same places. Thinking about it, Karen had been the one that had picked out the dress Marcia wore for her.

  The police refused to divulge information, which probably meant they didn’t even have it, which got Brian to gr
owl at them.

  “Was there even a real call, or did you just make it up to go after some Infected freaks? Is that your deal here? You don’t have enough to do, so you figured you take off after my people? You really want to screw with the IPB? Do you know what a death warrant is? I’m thinking about putting the paperwork in on one for both of you right now. I’ve had enough of you stupid cops trying to interfere with us without just cause… You know what, screw it. Karen, let me borrow your phone.” The words weren’t that bad, and there was no way in hell that anyone would sign off on a death warrant on police officers for just talking to them, even if they had made up the claim.

  They probably hadn’t though. They just weren’t used to the fact that any time the IPB did anything there was a rash of spurious complaints like this. It was part of an organized harassment campaign targeting Infected. The bigots were everywhere anymore. Even on sunny beaches it seemed.

  It was even worse for the people that didn’t have the powers and protection that the average IPB operative had. Some people couldn’t even leave home without being physically attacked. Brian actually dialed the phone and started talking into it like there was a person on the other end. After about twenty seconds he looked up and husked at the men again.

  “Full names and badge numbers as well as the specific department you’re with. Failure to provide them will allow me to summarily execute you right here, by the way, and so will lying about who you are.” It sounded like a dare to her, but the men swallowed and gave the information, while trying to claim they weren’t subject to things like death warrants.

  Kerry walked over, dressed like a librarian in a whole lot of beige. That or like a church lady. Her hair was up though and she had make-up on.

  “Actually we can get a warrant on anyone interfering with IPB business. Normally we wouldn’t bother with something like this, but Proxy has had some difficulties with certain departments. I… How about this, we’ll get him to place a hold on that warrant for a while, and let the local office investigate the issue? I’m sure that if neither of you have a history of doing things like this on purpose, we can just forget the whole thing. I mean, if it was a real kidnapping, we’d want you to come and investigate, but surely you can see that you pulling weapons on federal agents might not look that good, right? Especially since it sort of looked like you were hassling Level and Tobin over the issue, when they weren’t anywhere near the child in question. A miscommunication, I’m sure.” She looked over her shoulder at Proxy and then back at Denis, who was staring at both officers.

  They suddenly sighed and shook their heads almost as one. The older man rubbed at his short black hair.

  “I… Look, sorry. We weren’t trying to stir up trouble. The honest truth is that we got a report that we figured wasn’t real, about Infected flying away a child, and then we saw the big one over there and the woman with the teeth and got a bit scared. We’re pretty much taught to go aggressive when that happens, since we don’t normally get a second chance if we don’t. It’s not fair to the innocent people, but we can’t tell the difference all the time and if we don’t come at a situation hard, we could end up going home in a body bag.” Whatever Denis was doing to the man, it made him sound legitimately sorry, not like he was just trying to talk his way out of things. The voice was sincere and the other officer looked like he agreed with the statement, nodding and wisely keeping his mouth shut.

  It sounded about right to her, but Brian kept talking on the phone, hanging up about a minute later. Then he approached the officers again. Both men dropped hands to their weapons, almost as one. It was a mistake, given the situation, but natural reflex for them. Proxy scared them. He should, Marcia knew. If they were sane at all.

  “Oh? Well, if you’re too afraid to do the job right, don’t you think you should maybe, I don’t know, do something else? Your job is to enforce the law for everyone. Not go around using your authority to harass innocent people at the behest of bigots and terrorists. Not to use superior numbers to beat or falsely imprison people that haven’t done anything wrong. If your job requires you to do evil things, you have a duty to society to not do it. You’ve failed in that today. Probably a lot of other times too. The only difference is that right now people that have the power to stop you are involved. You aren’t just going to be able to make any of us disappear into a cell or die in a ditch alongside the road.”

  He walked over to the men and smiled. It wasn’t something anyone should ever have to see and they seemed to understand that pretty quickly. He didn’t move, not even blinking, which got the men to follow suit. It was probably a trick, meant to get them to respond physically, Marcia realized. If they drew on him now, while he was just standing there, trying to get a legal document, it would be an honest kill. Legal in any court. The only thing about that was the officers most likely didn’t have that information at all. The younger one let his hand wrap around the handle of the gun and started lifting it ever so slightly when Lancaster’s phone rang.

  Holding up one large finger the man listened for a moment, and then made a face. It wasn’t anything overly pleased, but then he just shrugged.

  “Alright then. Here.” He held out the phone to Marcia, “it’s for you, the Director?”

  She wanted to hold her breath and pray that the man just wanted souvenirs and that the call was a coincidence. That wasn’t her job though, was it? Clearly Charlot would be in charge of that. Possibly Bridget. The girl was practically like the man’s granddaughter after all.

  “Turner here.”

  “Marcia? I hear there’s a small problem there? Well… We actually have one here as well. Um, Sam, from the head office? He put Mr. Yi’s application for a death warrant in as requested… only… It already came back. I’ve never seen one process that fast. But, you see…” Director Moore stopped talking and took several deep breaths.

  “It’s been approved. Only from the sound of the situation there it shouldn’t have been? I need you to handle this. Without any death, if possible? This has all the earmarks of a trap.”

  That was the truth. She shook her head trying to fight the mess that was surrounding her out of the way mentally.

  “On it then. I’ll take care of it.”

  4

  How the heck she was supposed to stop Proxy from killing the officers she didn’t know. It wasn’t like she could just throw down with him in a hotel lobby. Technically speaking he had a legal right to kill the men then and there and she didn’t have one to even try to stop him, orders or not. That would be a huge fiasco though if it happened.

  It wouldn’t really have mattered if the men had been terrorists, rapists, or even pedophiles, it would have been bad. People would hear about it and be afraid that the evil IPB had made the charges up. Killing them for being mildly inconvenient and afraid of Infected people would be absolutely moronic. Almost everyone was afraid of Infected people. Brian wasn’t normally that kind of person, one that did irrational things, but he had a real reason to dislike the police. Several reasons actually. It was still a really bad plan and now she had to get the situation under control. Somehow.

  “Right…” She had to play the situation very carefully and get things in the correct order or the men might just die before she could explain why they shouldn’t be killed. So what to do? Lie. Obviously. The only problem there was that Brian would be getting a call from the justice department in a few minutes, confirming that the warrant had gone through, so she couldn’t just claim it had been denied.

  It wouldn’t matter that it was a mistake that might be corrected in a few days, or even something that their enemies had arranged to discredit the IPB, the press would be all over it and hate of the Infected would grow as a result. It had the feeling of Braid all over it. The kind of trap they were just supposed to just walk into, one baited in a way that Brian couldn’t get himself out of. Not alone. His hatred and first mode desire to protect others from the general threat of the police was just too strong. Regular people might not ge
t that he really didn’t have a choice in the matter at that moment.

  She’d have to be clever then.

  “Alright, the Director is putting a freeze on this one Brian. This is clearly just a situation that’s been set up to make us all look bad. So what we’re going to do is let these men walk away now and just send an agent over from the local office in the morning with some pamphlets about what not to do with if a similar situation comes up again. Really, other than drawing down on federal agents and being aggressive at the wrong time these guys didn’t even really do too badly. I know the police aren’t your favorite group as a whole, but…” The rest of the sentence was drowned out by the sirens. It had been working too. She’d seen it in Brian’s eyes before he spun to look out the glass front of the hotel lobby.

  The flashing red and blue lights came through the front windows as the ten police cars showed up. Worse, the men inside didn’t just walk in to chat, they hide behind their car doors, weapons trained on the building, like it was a hostage situation or something.

  Marcia had to shake her head. It was about as stupid a thing as they could have done.

  “How the heck did they even know to show up? I didn’t see either of you calling this in.”

  Neither officer said anything; they just stood passively, looking out the window. After about a minute of waiting one of the men outside, who was too close to the building for good combat work, used the speaker on his car to shout at them. Worse, to yell at one of them.

  “Surrender now. Brian Yi, come out with your hands up! Anything less than compliance will end in your death. Surrender now!” The last words were nearly screamed, more than a hint of panic in them.

  It kind of made sense, after a fashion. Brian had killed police before and gotten away with it. Righteous kills, since they’d been taking part in terrorist or other illegal actions at the time, but that meant that almost every officer in the U.S. was personally afraid of him now.