The Infected (Book 9): Proxy: War Day Page 26

  Because it was clear that he understood exactly who Brian was. Proxy. The killer. It played over his face, but left him seeming a bit baffled, not scared. That meant this man didn't think he could be there for either of them, didn't it?

  His mother looked ready to cry.

  "Ron... This is my son, Brian. I never mentioned him."

  Rather than get upset, Brian smiled and stuck his hand out. It hurt, since he was supposed to act all moody and argue the point. Make accusations, and leave abruptly. That was his power trying to fix things, back to the one quiet line that was possible. Except that bad things would happen to everyone on that line, eventually. Good too, but it wasn't enough to outweigh the end of everything that would eventually come. Nothing ever could. Not for him.

  "Brian Yi. Estranged child. Pleased to meet you? I came to get some information about my childhood tutor. It turns out that she's an insane super villain that's been controlling my entire life. So... Mom, anything on that?" It hurt too much for him not to stay on topic. There had to be a payoff, didn't there?

  The new man, Ronald, blinked a lot, but shook hands professionally, and looked at the other people standing there slowly. They all looked young, but only one of the women actually was. That would be confusing when he explained no doubt.

  Lyn seemed to remember her manners, and went a little wide eyed.

  "Would you all like to come in? I think I have some pictures. I'll have to dig the album out. Would you like some coffee? Tea?" she backed away from the door, her hand still touching her husband's arm, as if afraid that he was going to be angry over the intrusion. If that was the case, the man was hiding it really well in the moment.

  He looked relaxed as he stepped back. The motion was fluid, too. Almost too smooth. Something was a little off about it, which Bridget and Brie both understood about the same time he did. Well, Trivia probably had already known. The man was Infected. Probably in a way that was very minor, with a good first mode. Something very calm.

  More, when Brian looked at his own mother, he could feel the soft distortion of space around her, coming off of her in gentle waves. It was distorting time, he thought. Making it seem like she was moving just a bit faster than she really was.

  It was a surprise, to say the least.

  It had never occurred to him that his mother would have been Infected. Until he'd popped, Brian had hardly even thought about that kind of thing. It hadn't been an issue growing up. No, everything had been all about math. Drills, and practice, with very little else involved, until he'd gotten old enough to escape what his parents wanted.

  Mainly pushed by his mother. He'd figured that she was just a run of the mill tiger mom, wanting him to excel in life, but now, thinking back, he could see that she'd been a bit over the top even for that. Like she'd been obsessed with him being intelligent, or...

  Brie smiled at him. Explaining, a bit too warmly.

  "An obsession with borrowed success. After a fashion."

  That... made sense. She'd pushed at his father too, hadn't she? Relentlessly. That meant poor Ron here was probably getting hit with that now. Hopefully it wasn't too bad for him.

  Bridget looked at her great grandmother, and nodded.

  "Some coffee would be nice."

  The others agreed, though Brian didn't really need anything except some pain meds. Not that they'd help, he didn't think.

  The inside of the place was different than he'd thought it would be. They'd put in new furniture, and it was all nice enough. It showed that money had been spent on it, and that it was kept up well. Almost as if planning an escape, Lyn tried to run from the room without saying anything else, heading toward the kitchen, Brian knew. That left Ron standing there awkwardly. The poor guy. Abandoned like that, when he didn't even understand the situation yet.

  "I'm afraid this is a bit of a surprise. Please, sit. I... Well, I guess it isn't that big of a deal. People have children, and I knew that she'd been married before. I've met Lue, he's a nice person. Neither of them ever mentioned you though. I wonder why?"

  The balding man reminded Brian a bit of Alan Brown, from the Food Network. Soft spoken, but filled with energy. Also more than a bit polite. The wire rimmed glasses didn't hurt either, as well as the thin face. It wasn't exact, but it reminded him that he needed to get in touch with the man, so that he'd know to tell the network to run the holiday special. No one had mentioned it to him, but since they'd thought that bunches of the people in it had died, he was willing to bet that they'd planned to shelve the thing. It would be a shame though, since they'd all worked so hard on it.

  Well, not him, but everyone else.

  Brian smiled then, even through the agony that the whole situation was causing.

  "They disowned me when I quit college. I'd been pushed too hard for too long, and had a bit of a mental breakdown. It was too much for either of them to understand, I guess. I hope it didn't lead to them divorcing. I guess it probably did, in the end. I'd say it was selfish of me, but I didn't get a lot of choice in the matter at the time. So, I quit MIT, and got a job. Since then neither of them have spoken with me. I also joined the IPB, which has kept me kind of busy for a while. Proxy, from the news?" He watched the man carefully, and saw him nod, confirming that part of the whole thing. It meant his mother would be aware of that too, no doubt. "So, on the good side, you're a shock too. How did you meet?" That was a nice and normal thing to say, wasn't it? He sat, feeling tense, thanks to the disruption all of this was causing.

  The others did too, each of them seeming a bit different than the others.

  Trivia was relaxed, and a bit detached, her body seeming upright as she settled on the sofa, but calm. Bridget was fidgeting, enough that Ron noticed. More than was normal for her too. Then, she was meeting her great grandmother and step-great grandfather, wasn't she? It kind of had to make a girl nervous. What if they didn't like her? Or whipped out math drills that she wasn't ready for? She'd heard Brian's stories after all.

  Mary however looked ready to harm someone. Why that was, Brian didn't know, but he waved to her, and got Bridget to scoot over a bit, so that she could cuddle in alongside of him. Lyn clearly noted that when she came back in with a loaded tray of things. Coffee cups, cream and sugar.

  Her eyes lit a bit, looking at the situation.

  "So, Brian, who are your friends? Is this your wife?" She locked eyes with Mary, who scowled back a little.

  He smiled though, holding her hand.

  "She's my girlfriend. Also, we have a child. That's going to be interesting to explain. There was time travel involved. It's... one of my powers. One that didn't make the news."

  His mother might not have seen him for years, but she nodded then, getting the general idea.

  "You're Infected too? I'd hoped it would skip you." She tensed, looking at the others, but relaxed a bit as she settled in next to Ron. They held hands too.

  Smiling, he waved at the others.

  "Everyone here but Mary is. Oh..." He gestured at Brie, who was the furthest away. "Brie is a friend of mine, you've probably met? She used to work for Devorah, the super villain? She was a spy for our side. My guess is that she was put on you at least a few times." He didn't know that, but Trivia nodded.

  "Oh, sure. I did the photography for your wedding?" She was looking at Ron when she said it and the man smiled.

  "Ah! I thought you looked familiar. It's a small world, isn't it?"

  Because that was why it had happened. It was just a coincidence, and Trivia had needed a job at the time. Rather than comment, he nodded, and gestured at the tiny red-head. "This is Bridget Chambers. Impulse, of the IPB. You've seen her in the news?"

  That got a slow nod from both of them, as if they could have missed the connection? Both he and Bridget were wearing IPB uniforms, and she was distinctive looking.

  Lyn let her face go a bit tight.

  "We... have. Things have been a bit frightening for a while. All the fighting. We've been considering a move to someplace away
from people. So far Vancouver hasn't been hit with too much, but I've heard that Proxy has been in town. Hunting the police? A coworker of mine told me about that. You know him?" This was addressed to Bridget.

  The girl snorted, and rolled her eyes. She at least got that Lyn was trying to pretend not to know that Brian was Proxy. Probably so that Ron wouldn't be scared. In a way it was nice of her, but the man was clearly made of sterner stuff than that. He'd gotten who Brian was without batting an eyelash.

  "Yep! I don't suppose that your coworker mentioned that those same cops had tried to kill him a few years ago? Or that Proxy spared their lives, even though he didn't have to? That was all over the news. Marcia told me that everyone thought he'd kill the entire force, but he didn't. He's too nice that way." There was a bit of an edge to her voice, but Lyn smiled.

  "Mary is your girlfriend you say? I have a grandchild? Time travel, so... Bridget? It would explain why you're all here." Except that it didn't.

  Brian glanced at the girl, and shrugged. Then he smiled.

  "Bridget is your great granddaughter. Her father, Scott, is my son. Um... Prime? The superhero? Just to make sure things are clear, Mary is from a different reality, but can travel in time and space. We met back in the eighties, and Scott is older than I am now. Bridget is sixteen. My entire life has been warped, screwed with, thanks to Devorah Timberland, who is also from a different reality, and has what works out to be super-precognition. That all makes sense, right? So, you mentioned some pictures? Any paperwork or anything you can remember about her would be good too."

  The woman, his mom, stood up suddenly, moving in a flickering fashion that probably meant she was incredibly stressed. Her power was kicking in enough that it was hard to miss. It was the first time he remembered noticing it. Then, he'd never paid much attention to anything but the numbers she'd driven him to study as a child, had he?

  On the good side, even though she left the room, she was back about twenty second later, holding a thick album. When she opened it and handed it over to him, he saw pictures of himself, as a chubby little kid. She pointed, as if they were all there to reminisce. There was a ribbon next to the first picture.

  "That was the first contest that he'd won. He was very smart, even back then. I think... You want the next page?"

  He turned it, to find a slightly more youthful Braid, looking much like she did now, but with darker hair and fewer lines on her face. Blinking, he had to nod, since it was all coming back.

  She'd been nice to him, and told him how smart he was, but had also pushed him into working constantly. That had been where things had started for him. The constant drills and sets of numbers that had been his entire world for years. She'd been there with him, according to the pictures, until he was nine, or so. Then his mother had taken over, with a vengeance. How he'd forgotten that, he didn't know.

  "I..." She sounded a bit sad, and held onto Ron as if afraid he'd get away. "I just wanted the best for you. That was all I was trying to do. I know, now, that it was too much. I should have let you have a real childhood. It took me a long time to realize what I'd done to you. I'd thought that I was making you better. More able to be a success in the world. Then you dropped out and stopped talking to me. I couldn't understand why, for the longest time. It seemed so ungrateful."

  Mary scowled at her, but he let himself chuckle a bit, and kept looking at the pictures. There were a lot of them, and most of them had to do with math. A few had him playing the oboe.

  That had been blown up with the base. Jeremy had kept it for him. That reminded Brian that he needed to call him again too, since he hadn't heard back. Even if it was just to say goodbye. They'd been friends, after all.

  Bridget crawled half on top of Mary to see the pictures, and finally made a small sound, tapping on one of them. At first he didn't get it, but then noticed who she was pointing to. A man that looked familiar, in the background of one of his contest pictures. His face was half turned away. Lyn leaned in and smiled.

  "Mr. Yamoto? Glen, I think it was. He was a bit strange. I don't know why, but he always came to see you, when you did anything in public. I tried to keep him away from you. I'm not certain, but I think he might be a pedophile." She shuddered a bit, and Brie covered her mouth, laughing.

  Bridget didn't, just crossing her arms.

  He glanced at the other pictures and shook his head.

  "Super villain. Tesseract, the master of space and time. As far as I know he isn't that twisted though. Oh, he's helped to destroy the human race, but..."

  Trivia nodded, "he isn't into children. Obsessed with Bridget here, but that has to do with his first mode and the fact that Devorah linked the idea of her being his soul mate to his mind decades ago. It let her control him totally. She had a hold on each of the others that way. Never me... But I was spying on her, which she knew... So stupid."

  If anyone else in the room was following along, Brian didn't know. He stood up then, since it was clear that he had all the information on the topic he was going to get. For some reason that got Mary to stand too, and Bridget to make a face at him.

  "Seriously Brian? You aren't going to tell her the rest of it?"

  "Rest of what?" Nothing came to mind really. He glanced at the girl, and then Brie, to see that both of them were shaking their heads.

  Bridget was the one that sighed at him, fidgeting rapidly enough that a warm breeze came off of her.

  "Oh... I don't know, that you're Proxy? That you have to go and leave this entire reality soon in order to try and save it from eventual destruction? Any of that stuff? Or even that you're a bit pissed that you didn't get a real childhood? I had more of one, and I lived my entire life on a government compound. People made sure I got to play and watch television anyway."

  She glared a bit, at Lyn, but Brian shrugged.

  "She knows all that. Well, the part where I'm Proxy, and that I didn't get much of a childhood. They have T.V. here and watch the news. It would be kind of hard for her to miss that part. She was physically with me as a child, so that isn't some great mystery to her. The rest of it... Well, that doesn't matter. I have to do what I can, and this might well be goodbye. There's no need for me to drag that out. I should find dad too. Is he doing well?"

  Lyn actually smiled then, because she really did like to see people being successful.

  "His business is doing very well, and he remarried too. She doesn't think much of me, but she's a darling woman otherwise. We get together about once a year and talk. After you left school, well, Lue is clever enough to work out that it was my fault, in the end. I don't know why he didn't talk to you though. I would have thought he would, but I guess he got busy? First with the divorce and then starting over again. Things can get in the way." The words were a bit lame as such things went. As an excuse, well, being busy was a thing, he knew. It wasn't like he'd reached out to either of them, was it?

  It was good to know they were both doing well, and strange to find out his mother was Infected like that. Except, given that it was some kind of time dilation power, it made sense, didn't it? No one really knew how that kind of thing worked, but it was possible that Braid had picked him for a reason. He was probably the one person in the world that would end up with the specific abilities she could use to control everything.

  Even all the math when he was a kid had probably been about shaping his mind into the form it had been. A calculating machine that could change all the variables into the one reality that she needed.

  After a moment, he really wanted to kill Devorah. Bridget had mentioned that, hadn't she? That he should kill her this time. Future Bridget. That, or alternate reality future Bridget. That... didn't make sense though, did it? Braid had claimed that he couldn't have gone to the future, and spoke of the world going into a red shift, but he'd just accepted that information and hadn't asked about it with anyone that might really know. Frowning, he turned to Mary.

  "Time travel, what color is it?" That probably wasn't enough for her to go on, bu
t Mary smiled at him, as if he were being cute.

  "Well, that depends on who's doing it, doesn't it? I tend to see it as green. Zevros mentioned that he sees yellow. Why?"

  "Ah, I went to the future and it was red. Devorah told me that it meant I'd gone to an alternate reality, not the future. That doesn't make sense though, since there's only one future available from here..."

  Or maybe it did make sense, his girlfriend shook her head though, and looked at him closely.

  "Why would you take her word for anything? She'll say whatever she needs to in order to control you. The Timberland line is not noted for being honest, even back home."

  He was still standing, so handed his mother the photo album back.

  "I need to be going. If I don't get to talk to dad... Tell him that I came by? That I love him? You too." Neither of those things was true, but his mother smiled, happy to hear it anyway.

  "I will. Brian... Be careful? I don't know what's going on really, but this feels like a goodbye, not someone planning to win."

  She was a smart person, after all. Still, he managed a smile through the agony that was constantly running through him now.

  "Oh, don't worry. If I lose, then I'll live a decent and fairly comfortable life for a very long time. Millions will die though, and the world will come to an end when I do die. The real question is what happens if I win. Maybe nothing, but this whole thing hurts enough that it doesn't seem likely."

  She looked baffled and so did Ron, but he gave her a brief hug, shook the man's hand and got them all out of there before they had to stay and explain the whole thing several more times. It wasn't going to make sense to anyone else, he didn't suppose, and trying would just make things worse for them later. Telling them that he might win, and still live, well, he hoped so. It just didn't feel very likely.

  It wasn't like he could see that future. Only the one where he lost. It was incredibly clear to him, being only the one thing.

  Outside he held on to Mary's hand, and noticed when Brie moved in on the other side. She took his hand too, which had Bridget glaring at her a bit, for some reason. It wasn't like the woman was hitting on him, was it? Mary didn't seem to even notice the move. Then, a bit of hand holding wasn't all that large of an issue in his world. People did that kind of thing just to try and make sure he didn't have a meltdown.