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

  The rest of the day actually went about the way he thought it would. He spent about an hour trying to find Jeff Shaw, and located him in upper Washington State, in a small and isolated cabin in the woods. Then Brian took the cooking show people in to capture him, which took all of ten seconds. Mark had brought duct tape, with festive Christmas patterns on it even if that was a bit early, and the instant they were on the ground simply captured the man and left him wrapped up in the whole roll of shining red, glitter and sticky. There wasn't even a real struggle then, and Brian was able to tuck the jerk into the all metal cell on the base less than a minute later.

  He did make sure that Warren was there the whole time to ensure the other man's safety and comfort. It wasn't really needed though. Yes, Brian hated him, and sort of wanted him dead. That went without saying. The man had tried to kill him, just because he was Infected. No one would really have expected Brian to love the idiot. He was a vile piece of trash who had helped to destroy what faith Brian had held for anyone in authority.

  That their meeting had been set up by Devorah Timberland was nearly certain. Everything in his life, nearly, was like that, wasn't it? When he looked hard enough, there was some tiny nudge, or influence, meant to control what he did, and where he'd end up. Locking him, eventually, into a world of his own devising that was exactly what Braid wanted.

  It was hard for him to face, but in the short term, that was really what had happened, wasn't it? Brian was making the world into what he wanted. A thing where the Infected could be free, and the majority would have to bow down to his will. Not as slaves, but as reasonable people that wanted to live. If it wasn't for the long term part of things, which couldn't survive past him, he didn't think, if it all went on too long, it really would have been about perfect. Except that right now he'd have to take full responsibility for all the dead people that would be coming if it wasn't fixed.

  It didn't matter now though, did it? The trick had been in finding the man. It hadn't taken all that long either. An hour, or just a bit more.

  That meant, he thought, that he could do the same thing with Devorah. Find her and handle things. On his own. Oh, Mark could do it too, but in the end, the woman really did need to die. It was the only real way for the cycle to be broken. Then again, it was just possible that he needed to do the same. His power was what was controlling the world now. Yes, set in place by someone else, but if anyone was ever going to really be free, ever again, that had to be stopped.

  So, he had a plan.

  First though, he went around and tried to say goodbye to everyone, without giving away that he was really doing that. It was harder than it sounded, since he wasn't really known for being a back slapping kind of guy. More than a few of the others got that something was up. That he was acting funny. Warren even set up a chair outside of Shaw's cell, which meant that Brian got hit with his power as soon as he walked up. Seeing what he feared most.

  At first he didn't get it, since it was just Jeffery Shaw standing there, dressed like a cop. Smiling, he realized that no one would have given him a uniform, and especially not a side arm with which to attack him.

  "Hey, Warren. So, noticing anything strange?"

  "Yep. I keep seeing my old camp counselor. Inside the bars though, so I'm not that worried. You?"

  He shrugged.

  "I just see him. Armed, but I get the idea. Anyway, I'm about to take off and do something. I just wanted to let you know, so you can tell everyone else why I'm not here." That was vague enough, wasn't it?

  Apparently not, since Warren made a face at him, the thin man shaking his head a bit.

  "Something big?"

  "Yeah. Big enough. I'm going to take down Braid. Once and for all. I... May not be able to come back. I have a plan, which will probably get both of us stuck in a different universe. One that I'm going to build inside of myself. It sounds more impressive than it is, really. If it works, then the world will go back to how it's supposed to be. People won't really notice much, I don't think. Then it will be up to the rest of you to stop the war from happening. Get that Jake guy to tell everyone to play nice and work together, maybe? They might listen to him. He's kind of awesome."

  "Yeah, he is. You are too, you know that? In a different way, but it's there. Are you sure there's no other way?"

  Brian blinked, then shrugged.

  "Oh, lots of them. I'm not even sure any of this is really needed. I just can't afford to be wrong. This is about as far away from what Devorah Timberland would want as I can figure out, so I'm running with it. I can't claim there's honestly more to it than that. I mean, right now, it's my power that's in control of the world, not hers. The important part is probably getting me out of the way. After that... Well, I'm really just making sure she doesn't get away with it."

  That was probably just him being a douche, but there it was. The Bitch wasn't going to take over his entire world, using him as her pawn.

  So, it was time for the two of them to finally have that war. The one that he should have managed to start a long time before, but hadn't been good enough for.

  He waved to the skinny chef, then just to be ironic, did the same with Shaw. That got him flipped off and called names, but Brian smiled. Things were really starting to hurt now, as he got ready to change the future for the final time.

  He sat on the ground, outside the headquarters trailer, and then closed his eyes. It made it easier to focus and seemed a bit more official and real that way. Going inside his head he felt around for her, his greatest enemy, kind of expecting the woman to be illusive and hard to find. As if she could avoid him by some mental trick, or changing location? As far as he could tell, she didn't even try.

  Then, tingling a bit, he opened a universe inside himself. A very tiny one, like where he'd always kept people when he took their places. Then carefully, he grabbed Devorah Timberland, his greatest enemy in all of creation, and placed her right in the middle of it. Still alive. That wasn't going to be enough though, he realized. He could sense the line already, through the pain that wracked his body in the moment, how in a few days, Tesseract would work out where she was, and free her.

  This then was the point that future Bridget had been speaking about. If Brian didn't kill her now, there, in that instant, then she'd escape, and the world would never be free again. Not until he died. The world going with him. True, in over a thousand years, nearly twice that, which was kind of cool, but when that happened, they all died. Everyone that could have come after that point. Tens of billions of people, or more.

  So, sitting in the dirt, very near to where they held morning formation, Brian did a thing that wasn't strictly possible. He punched a hole into the space inside of himself, and wrapped his body into it.

  That hurt. He had already been in pain, but it was so much worse than what could be felt that he was nearly certain he'd killed himself, in that moment. Only things kept hurting, so he had time to get his job done, didn't he? Either he was just going to live, and was being a baby, or it didn't matter where they were. Actually, though he couldn't prove it yet, he kind of thought it was that first one.

  "Hello, Devorah." He wasn't really speaking, of course.

  She was the only other thing there. A body, hanging in space, not needing to breathe, unable to really move. There was some shifting anyway, because he was there now, giving her a thing to measure by. Before that point, he really doubted that the woman could have managed much. It tugged at his mind, and he was the one that had figured out that this place could exist. It was similar to a thing he knew, but an alternate version of it.

  "Brian." She looked around, and then shook her head. "I wasn't expecting this."

  "No, you really weren't, were you? It wasn't a thing inside the stream of time you had me make. You didn't think that you were actually going to win, did you? That you could control almost my entire life, from the start, and not have to pay for it?" He grinned. It got her full attention.

  The whole world around them was blank.
/>   Not dark, blank. He could see her perfectly well, even though there was no light. How that worked he didn't know, but it did. So he saw her grin back, her long gray and black braid swaying behind her.

  "I really did. You can't have won. I've seen the future, Brian. All of them. This never happens. What is it, anyway? Some kind of mental trick?"

  He glanced down at his own body, which looked pretty normal to him, and then into her brown eyes. They were a little bloodshot, he noticed.

  "Nope. I created a universe and put us both in it. I have three days in which to kill you. If I fail, then Tesseract will come for you. If I manage it, then my world is free of you. Also the ripples of your passing will cause him to take a good bit longer to make the connection to you here. I have no clue how that works. My guess is some kind of psychic thing?"

  That got a laugh, and a head shake again. This time a bit more of one.

  "Ah, Brian. Do you really think you can beat me? I already know everything you're going to do, and don't seem to need air, food, or water here. If I never tire, then I can easily avoid you until Glen comes to retrieve me. Even if I fail, then you'd be stuck here, forever."

  He shrugged. Actually, that part wasn't true at all. He could leave whenever he wanted. The truth was though, that unless he could assure that the world wouldn't be controlled by him anymore, he wouldn't be going back to it.

  That wasn't what he said however.

  "You created a being that would sacrifice himself for others. Then warped my power until it could only see your chosen path as being the right one. You also made me a killer, Devorah. For nearly two years now I've done very little else but train, and work at learning to destroy other people. You are very good, but do you think you can really avoid me for three days? There's nowhere to hide here, and nothing to stand on. I don't think it will really go the way you think. I set this up on purpose. This is the one place I could find where you just can't beat me, in a fight."

  She blocked, and tried it again as he grabbed her arm, and wrapped a leg around her thigh. She managed to knee him in the groin pretty well, but he'd already been in so much pain he couldn't feel it.

  After that, things went pretty quickly. She was, as he'd mentioned, very good. Her abilities allowed her to almost get away from him a hundred times. There was simply no place for her to go, and in the end, he was stronger and faster than she was.

  Brian didn't play with her, nor was he cruel. No more than her struggling forced him to be. He just killed her, first crushing her throat, then breaking her neck, a moment later. Watching closely he saw the light go out from her eyes. Then he hung there with her corpse, just waiting.

  Not moving, or, eventually, even bothering to think. It was peaceful. He didn't need anything, and nothing changed. Not until a purple and black tear came across the universe he was in. It grew, and eventually he drifted toward it, Devorah's body floating along with him.

  It wasn't his plan to go back, but there it was. Tesseract had decided to pull him into the world along with the woman that had misled them both for so long.

  Her body hit the dirt. The area was familiar, being right in front of the trailer that was the IPB main headquarters building now. They really needed to fix that, if they could. It just looked so low rent. He got ready to fight Tesseract, not caring if he died this time. That didn't happen though. The man just glanced at the body of Braid and nodded. He looked like his normal human self.

  "So, that part of time has passed? This is different than I remember. It seems that my old friend should have known better than to underestimate you." He gave a little bow toward Brian, then turned to look at the others that had come out to see what was going on. No one was fighting yet, not even Impulse.

  To his surprise, Bridget walked over. Not to him, or to see the body, but to Tesseract. She held out her hand, to take the older man's.

  "Like I told you, if you got him back, and made sure everything was fixed, I'd be yours. I'm ready." She sounded very certain of everything, as if some bargain made with a villain counted. Then, to her, maybe it did? She was pretty honest, and didn't say a lot she didn't mean most of the time. Besides, could anyone really afford to try and cheat a being like Tesseract? Even her?

  Before Brian could move to kill Tesseract, which was about to happen, the man smiled at her. It seemed both incredibly creepy and loving, at the same time. Real, too.

  "Yes. Not yet though, my heart. I will love you always, and we will be one, together, but not like this. Not as a debt to be paid. Especially since Proxy has already set the world to right, and could have walked from that place he made at any time. If I took what you offered for that, then it would come between us later. No, for now, simply take my love, and know that I will wait for you. Always."

  Then, rather dramatically, the world flashed purple, and he walked backwards, seeming to grow smaller the whole time, without moving.

  Brian looked at her and screwed his face up, just a little.

  "I'm touched of course, but... Don't you think you can find someone a little closer to your own age?" He could say that now without being hypocritical, he thought. Mary was gone from his life. Or at least they weren't dating any longer.

  He glanced down at Braid and shook his head.

  "We need to see to this. Have a funeral, or whatever she would have wanted. I bet she didn't make any plans for that kind of thing." It was a bit sad, but Kevin Moore came forward, and while he looked sad, he didn't cry over the body of his wife. They hadn't been together for decades after all.

  Not that it still wouldn't be sad for him.

  Brian just felt a bit relieved, to tell the truth. Then, he'd been with her for a while after her death. He didn't know how long, actually.

  He glanced at Bridget, who gave him a funny look. Probably because she'd tried to rescue him, and even the guy she'd gotten for that could tell he hadn't needed help that way.

  "How long was I gone?" He'd intended to stay gone forever, but as far as he could tell, with Devorah dead, the future was all nice and chaotic again. With millions of possible paths. Enough so that he had very little clue what was coming, as far as that kind of thing went.

  His granddaughter, his friend, shrugged, her shoulders not going very high for her. She sounded a bit annoyed, when she got around to speaking to him.

  "Three weeks. Everyone else had written you off, so I got Glen to come and look for you. He actually thought that you were both dead, but came anyway. I guess he isn't nearly as creepy as I'd been thinking. Which is probably part of his clever plan to get with me. Not a bad one though, really. I have to admit, I think better of him now, and I'd already been willing to stay with him just at a shot to have you back. So, I guess..."

  She tackled him, hard enough that he wasn't certain it wasn't an attack for about half a second. It was just a hug though. One that left him breathless and in pain, but that was still all it was. He half expected to be hit a few times, but no one did, even as several others moved in to hug him too.

  It was a different group of people than he would have figured on, if he'd thought about it.

  First of all, Brie moved in. She looked good, and smelled nice. Like pumpkin pie. The spices for it anyway. It reminded him to be hungry again. She pressed against him warmly, and kissed his cheek.

  "There you are. I didn't think we'd get rid of you that easily. Did it take the whole time you were gone to finish her?" She knew the answer, of course, since he did. That was her power. So the question wasn't for her, but rather everyone else.

  "No. That took a few minutes, she was good, thanks to her power, but with nowhere else to go, she couldn't really hang in there very long. I just didn't come back. In case my power was going to keep holding the world static, like it was. I guess things are nicely enough messed up now? Hopefully that holds. If not, then..." Well, he'd done what Mary had planned to do with him and left the reality he stood in for long enough, it seemed. He could do it again, if it came up.

  Before she could even no
d, several other people crowded around him. Some of them old friends, and a few new faces. He was pounded on the back by Rigs, who was dressed like he was in the military now. It was adorable, being that he also looked like a teddy bear. One that moved and spoke, but managed not to be too creepy about it at the same time. Then Scott and Charlot came over, with his daughter in-law holding him a bit too closely considering everything.

  He lost a few people as he was welcomed back, but noticed that some of the military guys and gals made their way past, and managed to pound him on the back too. Wendy, Phoebe and Sinclair came by with Doug, as if they were all part of the same group now. Maybe they were? He'd have to ask if they were all dating or what, but later, when he had Doug alone.

  No one said anything serious until Marcia caught up to him, about fifteen minutes later.

  "If you're done getting your cuddle groove on, we actually have some work to do? Things have not been quiet since you left. Team Four has been out almost constantly, and we've been using Lariat to get the rest of our operatives into position. We've stopped most of the major conflicts, but it hasn't been easy. Do you think that you'll be trading out soon? If not, we could use the help in the office. Press stuff. Meet and greet in an hour. People will be glad to see you. Also to hear that Braid is dead. I hate to be a ghoul, but we need to get the word out on that one. Maybe sell it as an epic battle. Do you think this will end things now?"

  He didn't know.

  "Probably not. A lot of things will be calming down soon. Braid was behind so much that's happened to all of us over the last years. She had people though, and some of them might well keep on trying to make trouble. The hate groups aren't going to just vanish, for instance. We need to actually make those illegal, if we can. Without her guiding things though, I bet we get some breathing room now. Life will go on, and sooner or later we'll have to deal with whatever comes, but I for one am looking forward to a break."

  Marcia looked around, a bit skeptically, then moved in to hold him for a bit.