The Infected (Book 9): Proxy: War Day Read online

  Mary narrowed her eyes, but nodded at him.

  "It can be a hardship, with that sort. The spirits of the dead that walk with the living. At times the best we can do is endure and placate them. I..." She shook her head slowly then. "We owe her too much, for helping bring our Scott back from the land of the dead. Perhaps you should lay with her, as she wishes? It is not what I want for you, but a small price, if it is her will?"

  Brian sighed, "It isn't that I don't like her, it's that I'm with you, and she didn't ask. That's a big thing here. You aren't allowed to have sex with people without their consent. You know that." He wasn't actually certain of it, but she nodded.

  That was nice to see.

  "Truly. It is different in my home world. There you must be powerful enough to hold to your own will as that goes. I did not have issue in such ways too often, nor do I hazard one such as Hobbs would have, but many do not have such freedom. I can see that your ways are different, but it is one of those things that is difficult to really follow. Even the most common of girl or man is to be held sacred to the whims of those with power?"

  They chatted about it for a while, making the donuts, which was more interesting than he would have thought. They were able to get them raised, cut out and cooled, as well as decorated and iced on time, though it was closer to seven than he really liked.

  Most of the military men were there, in formation, when he put the pink boxes in the dining area. Running over to them from the dining tent, he thought he might be late, but it was fifteen minutes early. That meant he was able to go and put the nine inside the trailer, because dangerous or not, he couldn't work out and hold it at the same time.

  Simpson, nodded to him when he came out, as everyone else slowly came over. Even Marcia wasn't there until five till.

  That part of the day went pretty well, thankfully. The beginning class of fighters was horrible, but they all got a good work out in, and just before they left, he managed to get one of the military women, Robertson, to set up shooting and weapons lessons for everyone. He needed to practice as much as possible too, but so did everyone else that could be spared.

  He'd never thought of it before, but it was clear that most of the real work was done in the office, not the field. That day even went pretty smoothly as far as that went. There were no new creature attacks, and while the phone rang a lot, only one of them was something that needed operatives to come in. It was a call from a police department in Arkansas, that was having trouble with a man who was Infected. He really just seemed to think that they'd been picking on him, because he was different.

  Brian went still, understanding what was happening. The man had a bad first mode, and felt angry at the cops, because they really had been going after him more than was needed. So he was about to kill them all, if he could. It was probably fair even, just based on what the man on the phone told him. Some of the officers had been pushing the man around, and threatening to shoot him if he didn't do exactly what they said, half knowing that he both didn't have a real power, and couldn't help but fight them if they kept at it long enough.

  Except that, when it came down to it, the man had surprised them. He may not have had a great power as far as fighting went, on the surface, but he could tell what they were thinking, at least well enough to make it hard for them to do anything to him. They were about to shoot, and end it, when Brian got there, along with Wren, the front desk girl.

  "IPB, stand the fuck down!" He glared at the ten cops, and then rolled his eyes, as they looked around uneasily, as if expecting the man they'd been harassing to give up. Rather than accepting they were the problem. "I mean you, assholes. You've been being pricks, and now are looking for an excuse to kill this guy for no reason. We aren't doing that today. Go home, and leave him alone from now on, unless he commits a real crime. If I hear about you hassling him for no reason, there will be a problem. Now, go." He didn't make waving motions at them, but felt like it.

  It would be hard enough to manage the guy, without them acting like it was a good time to measure their penises. It was enough that Brian nearly just started killing them all. That was counter to working together, but then, so was what they were doing.

  "Go!"

  One of the officers didn't move, but looked angry himself.

  "We have to take him in. He resisted arrest."

  Brian tilted his head, and let it shake a bit. "That is the most retarded thing I've ever heard. You were trying to falsely arrest him, so he resisted, but now you have to arrest him for resisting arrest? Get the fuck out of here. Really, if those are the rules, then quit your jobs, because that means you're the bad guys. We don't have time for things like that." He was being a bit meaner than he needed to be, but it was an effort not to kill them all. Even the angry man they'd been abusing seemed to be doing better than he was, merely not letting them grab him.

  After another minute or two of discussion, the boys in blue left. That meant he and Wendy could do something useful.

  He watched them leave though, to make sure it wasn't a trick.

  "There we go. Sorry about that. Can you get a handle on your first mode now? I notice that you just didn't let them take you. Even if you're pissed off. That's a good sign."

  The man nodded, but then closed his eyes.

  "I'm so... I want to kill them all. I can't, but... I don't care right now. I..." There was frustration in his voice too.

  Wren looked scared, but didn't back away. After all the man had said he wanted to kill the police, not go after her.

  Brian took a deep breath.

  "Okay, let's go through some breathing exercises, and try to get that under control. We can go sit on the curb there?" It wasn't too high, about six inches or so, but it was a decent day, the really cool weather having not started yet, and still not too hot. It was dry too, so the man did it, and even listened as Brian ran him through some basic exercises.

  "I know, it sounds like new age BS, but it works, if you use it. Slow your breathing, make yourself relax and get away from people before they make trouble. I'll talk to the police here, and make sure they know not to do this again. They'll still go after you if you start to lose it, or if you commit crimes, but not just to make you fight them." He hoped, but the thing there was that he had enough pull to make them toe the line, at least a bit.

  The man believed him, even if he could read minds, and tried to get things under control. It took about an hour, but after that he was able to drive himself home, which wasn't too far away. Before they left, Wren looked around at the buildings in the not very large city, and seemed a bit upset.

  "Why did you bring me? I didn't even do anything."

  Honestly, he didn't have a clue, himself. It had just seemed important at the time. This girl had been needed there, even if he couldn't tell her exactly why that was. His power did things like that. Making him do strange things, from time to time. If others could be believed it made them do things like that too. Most of the people at the old base had mentioned things happening that they were sure felt like he was making them do it. Not that Brian was, exactly. His power though, seemed to be able to do that kind of thing. At times.

  "Because I wanted you to see that people can manage their first modes, and I wanted the police to see me with someone that was clearly Infected who wasn't a threat. I think that we need to have real programs to help people with their first modes. Soon." He'd never really thought about it before, but the girl nodded, happily.

  "Like what Bridget has been talking about? A federal program to get people help before real problems start?"

  "I hadn't heard that one from her yet. I'll ask about it. Can you work on that with her? You seem to be doing all right that way." It was rude to ask what a person's first mode was. If yours was bad, you were supposed to tell them, if you could, to prevent problems. There was no rule saying you had to if it wasn't going to make a lot of trouble though.

  Wendy just nodded.

  "Okay. That's really important though, isn't it? I'm
only sixteen... I don't think anyone will listen to me about it."

  He looked at her, then nodded, not letting her see that he hadn't understood that about her before. She was really just a kid. So was Bridget, but this girl should have been living with her parents still, not working for the federal government. Then, she should also be thinking about boys, the prom and her grades. None of those things would likely be happening for her now. Well, except that she should be getting some kind of schooling. Even if it was just on the computer.

  "If no one will listen to you, then get with Marcia or me. I'll run it by the President if you can come up with something that will work. I'd do it, but I'm too busy dealing with the whole Braid thing right now. This is nearly as important, and if we don't end up losing... Well, in the end, it might be more so."

  Then he got them back to the very humble, and rather slapped together, base.

  No more missions came up that day, so he was able to eat a late lunch with Bridget, Phoebe and Doug. It was just in the mess tent, but the food was hot, being hamburgers that day, and filling enough. He made himself eat two, having skipped out on breakfast. They had fries though, and salad, so he got plenty. Bridget ate about six times what he did, and looked at the food line longingly. She didn't go back for more, grabbing a box of donuts instead.

  She explained it, so they'd all understand.

  "The Marines don't really make enough yet. If I have much more than this, someone else will go hungry. So, I kind of need to make do." Picking up a jelly filled, she stuck half of it in her mouth at once, then finished the rest of it faster than Brian could have figured out that it had lemon in the middle. "Not that I'm complaining about the donuts. That's not too bad. I'm still getting half my calories from oil each day. Not my favorite. I know, I'm a little wimp, but I could do with a bit more solid food."

  Doug looked at the donuts with envy, but didn't go to get his own. In fact he hadn't even eaten a burger or fries, sticking to a large salad. He did have dressing with it, but not too much, since it was ranch.

  "Yeah. Eating all of that must be hard."

  Phoebe got the idea, setting down half the burger she had and pushing the brown tray away, as if to deny any temptation. Not that she was heavy really. Normal enough, but just that.

  "Yeah, Bridget gets the short end of the stick there. Not that I couldn't do with a few more calories per day, but... Drinking oil has to be sickening." She looked away, and was clearly trying to fight off a name calling session. She did it too.

  That got him to snap his fingers. It was hard to do, being that they were a little greasy at the moment. Thinking about what he'd just eaten left him feeling more than a little guilty though. Like he should make up for it by running for a few hours.

  "Right, Bridget, you have a plan for getting people trained to handle their first modes?"

  That wasn't really what he'd gotten from Wren on the topic, but the tiny girl finished a cake donut with coconut on top of white icing and locked eyes with him.

  "Yeppers. I was thinking that we could do it in two parts. One for kids, in school, and the other for adults at clinics, or libraries. Whatever is around. Teach meditation, bio-feedback, and troubleshoot when possible, to help people. Work out strategies to help people cope if they can't do anything about it, all that. We get that kind of training, or used to, here. Most just get told to handle it or they'll be shot. Half the problems that we've had in the last month are due to Infected people acting in self-defense, but then not being able to stop, because they know that the cops, or even the IPB will kill them. It's generally what happens, no matter what the law says, so... Why shouldn't they try to fight? If they don't have as many problems to start with, we can maybe get the police to not be thugs all the time, and save some lives. The cops' lives too, so it's worth doing. It shouldn't even be all that expensive. There just aren't that many Infected in the U.S." She started in on another donut, which caused a gap in her speech.

  Brian nodded, thoughtfully.

  "That's pretty good. We'll need to get some cost estimates. It could be hard to get through Congress right now, but I can present it to Bill, the next time we talk. Really, I should probably call him again today. Oh, I talked to Maggie yesterday. Have you been keeping in touch?"

  "Not really. I should, but I've gotten too busy to do anything. I haven't even been calling Jeremy lately. I used to do that about once a week. Just to keep a line on things. We should both do that stuff though. I'll get with Mags and you can do her dad and Jeremy." Phoebe looked at them both funny, and bit her lips, but Doug didn't.

  "Brian's going to be doing two dudes? Himself? Wow, I didn't even know you liked them that way." There was a snicker to it, but Phoebe looked like she was about to have a stroke. Finally she spoke, the words just flowing out.

  "Gay anal Brian. Stick it in your ear, butter sex! Butter sex! Hot, hot, hot! Blow monkey. Blow!" Then she covered her face, and was either laughing or crying. It was hard to tell.

  He sighed.

  "Not that there's anything wrong with that. But, you know guys, really mature... You do both get that we're talking about the President and the guy who got me my armor? Neither of whom are gay, but if they were, I wouldn't have a problem with it." This was mainly for Doug, since he was the one that should be able to control what he said.

  Phoebe blushed though, "I did say it was hot, didn't I?"

  Brian made a considering face, and nodded.

  "I do seem to recall something like that."

  That got Bridget to go off, but at least she wasn't talking about him, just suggesting that she'd rather see Doug doing that kind of thing. Between them, the girls both laid out a rather compelling arguments for Gravity to at least do some porn for the internet. He finally looked at both of them sadly, but didn't say anything about their teasing.

  Instead he glanced over at Brian.

  "Wait, is that Jeremy the one you told me about, from when you were at MIT?"

  That at least got the conversation changed, and let them get back to work, as soon as Bridget finished her dessert. That was, very clearly, the important part, Brian understood. The girl was the sort that needed other people around. She thrived on attention, and while it was clear she hurried to get finished quickly, it was equally certain that she really didn't want to be alone.

  It was no go on talking to the President, though Brian got voicemail this time, instead of Maggie Lawrence. Jeremy, however, was in. Just not available to come to the phone at the moment. His assistant spoke to Brian instead, since the Professor was, he was informed, taking valuable work time away from their project to actually teach his own classes, rather than having someone else do it for him, like a lot of the other professors did.

  "Oh, that makes sense, he always hated that in college. When some goofy kid walked in and pretended to know what the day's lesson plan would be, instead of someone that actually understood the material? Which is probably insulting to you, if that would have been your job. Still, this way you can do some work yourself on the project, proving that it was a good plan all along. Well, could you tell him that Brian Yi called? I should be at the base here for another few hours. I have a cell number too... Let me give that to you?"

  He was using the land line, but that was just habit. Marcia wasn't even at her desk, so it wasn't just him being in the way. If he were going to call people like the President, it paid to be on a secured line, didn't it? Nodding to himself, he gave the number and then his name again, spelling it for the man, who sounded not much younger than he was. Given he was likely a doctoral candidate, the man might have been older than he was, come to think of it.

  After a bit there was speaking from the other end of the phone.

  "Oh? Hey, Brian... Steve here wants to know if you're saying that you're the Brian Yi. I don't know what that means... What college are you from?"

  The word Proxy was said in hushed tones, but loud enough for him to hear.

  "That's me. I'm an old friend of Jer's. So if you could pas
s the message? I'm going to try and get another set of armor from him. Mine was stolen, by Tesseract. My knife too, but it's the armor that I really miss." He could take a regular blade with him now, if he planned ahead, and just get new ones if they broke. That nano-mesh suit had saved his life hundreds of times though.

  "Sure? I'll do that." It was still pretty clear that he had no idea who Brian was at all. Which was a good sign as far as he was concerned. The fewer people that knew he was a killer, the better he liked it. Not that he'd been doing that poorly for the last few days. Compared to the rest of the last year, he was practically not killing anyone lately. It was nice.

  They hung up after that.

  Then he buried his head in paperwork, trying to fight off a constant series of yawns for the rest of the day. Stupid Becky, and her late night molestation and lies that had made him get out of bed like that... He understood the idea though. She'd gotten caught being naughty, so had made up a reason to be there with him. That didn't really make a lot of sense. Why would she have bothered doing that? Especially since it wouldn't be that hard to find a guy looking for some hot, no strings attached, ghost action. If he'd been single he would have taken her up on it.

  Except that it kind of might be understandable. It was just hard for him to credit the idea as real. If she loved him maybe just getting some attention from any random guy might not be the same for her... Well, they had spent a lot of time together, and while he thought of Doug as his best friend, he was closer to Becky than he'd ever been to anyone in the world. For months they'd been literally attached to one another. She'd lived inside his mind. Then, before she had the ability to even make a real move, he'd found Mary.

  It would have been rough, if the whole thing had been reversed, wouldn't it? Talk about being friendzoned. Of course, he did think of Becky as being a real person, and as both a friend and sexual being, not just some kind of placeholder or eunuch. It might not make her days any brighter, but it was true enough. He just had someone else, and wasn't going to mess that up, if he could help it. Even if Mary suggesting that he entertain her was kind of intriguing. Besides, Becky was on his list for the moment. Laws had to be for everyone, or they couldn't work, long term.