The Infected [Books 1-6] Page 7

  “I don't have much of a sense of taste, or smell, so eating's a chore. You'd think it would go the other way, but I don't get hungry either, so it's just work. Marcia. They call me Beatdown here. Um, first mode is suspicion, but not paranoia. That means I suspect people of things, but only when something gives me a real reason too. This is Denis. Itch. First mode greed. I could put up with him stealing money from my wallet if he wasn't such an ass at the same time, but that's cultivated according to the psych people.”

  Denis flipped her off and looked at Brian.

  “Yeah, I'm an a-hole. So I hear your Montrose's new bitch? What's that like? I noticed you walking a little funny, so he must be hung, am I right?” Itch looked at him, his mustache twitching a little. He wasn't a big man, curly haired, dressed pretty nicely, except for the bow tie.

  Who wears bow ties anymore?

  There must be story there. Maybe he didn't want to wear anything that could be used against him as a weapon, so real neck ties were out? Of course that only worked if this was a clip-on and it didn't really seem to be. The rest of the clothes were a little loud, but red pants with a plaid jacket wasn't too bad.

  Brian looked back at him and smiled, noticing Beatdown had risen slightly and looked like she might hurt the guy. “That's about the size of it. Without the penetration, not yet at least. There hasn't been time. You know how it is, you get busy and one thing leads to another, the kids, the job... How about you? You getting any lately?”

  Stroking his mustache he told them about how he and Penny had hooked up just the night before. Penny laughed.

  “Tell him that I said jerking him off while he watches gay porn doesn't count as “hooking up”. It's not true, but neither is what he said. I can't stand the guy.”

  He related what she said, chuckling a little.

  “Fuck you, buddy. No one can see or hear her. That's her whole thing.” He flipped Brian off too, making him smile. He'd dealt with jackasses before. True, none as aggressive about it as this guy, but then this was a special kind of place.

  Penny however pushed the curly-haired jerk backwards in his chair, spilling him over with a small thud. Dennis stood, not realizing who'd done it, but angry and suspecting, rightly, that it hadn't been an accident. Instead of thinking it through, the man looked around and realized that everyone else in the room was too far away to have done it. So to his mind, that left the new guy? Brilliant. Well it could have been him, if he was telekinetic or something.

  Pointing at Brian he cursed a few times and stared at him hard. Instead of an itch or a burning sensation like he expected, or raw pain, he felt... nothing. All the pain had vanished suddenly. The small man had a wicked little grin on his face as he glared angrily.

  “How's that then?” Denis asked.

  Brian didn't even have a second to tell him “not bad” when he felt it, the tingling that meant he was about to leave, to go to where someone needed help.

  “Oh, crap, stop! Stop!” He got this out just before he found himself in the small room. Falling suddenly as if the chair had been pulled out from under him. A man with a knife stood in front of him. Brian felt the scared little girl he'd replace. It was a vague feeling, but strong enough he noticed it. Brian knew he couldn't do a lot physically, but he had to help her somehow. He stood as smoothly as he could even with all the pain, pretending to be uninjured. Well and strong. Fierce, body relaxed and ready to fight. Mind scrambling, he came up with a plan of sorts on the fly. It wasn't a good plan, he knew, but maybe he could pull it off...

  Brian roared at the man, praying he wouldn't be Infected or it turned out to be that his abilities would be lame if he was.

  The man backed up away from him, fear in his eyes.

  Thank god.

  Brian screamed at the man, keeping his voice as deep and manly as he could, “I am the Lord of Vengeance, flee before me or die!” Then he ran at the man, praying the guy would run instead of fight. Knives freaked him out and the guy had this knife out to use it already. Brian got nearly to the man before he turned and fled into the house, a cluttered space with trash and old newspapers all over the inside. Roaring again, trying to keep the man scared Brian scurried for the front door. He could see it there, across the dim room. Oddly enough an old, dust-covered piano stood off to his left. The man swung back into the room, holding a shot gun this time and pointing it at Brian.

  Of course. Couldn't have just run away, could he? That would make it too easy for Brian. Can't have that.

  Pain or not he made his legs work. If he didn't, this freak would kill the little girl he'd replaced. He'd die himself before he let that happen. Struggling, he made it to the door. The room had light coming through a window, but no interior lights, giving it a sad and run down look that spoke more of desperation than insanity. But then this fuck was going to cut up a little girl and there was no way that could be called sane.

  Working the locks quickly, Brian got the door open just as a loud boom sounded, deafening him a little in the close space and leaving a pattern in the wall to the right of the door, about a foot and a half away from his right arm. He kept going as fast as he could. As he ran he yelled for help. Then remembering something he'd heard on TV once, Brian yelled “fire” instead. The show had said that people would come and check on a call of fire when they wouldn't if a person called for help, especially a man. After all, their own house could be the one burning, so they kind of had to. That was the logic anyway. He didn't care if anyone came or not, Brian just wanted to scare the guy in the house enough to keep him from following and hurting the girl.

  A police car stopped, blocking his path, and he nearly froze in fear. The cops, would they hurt the girl? He hoped not, and ran toward them.

  “My name is Brian Yi. IPB! In that house back there a man was going to kill a little girl. He needs to be arrested.” He felt the tingling again and knew he didn't have long to explain. “The girl will be back. Protect her! IPB, Brian Yi. Check it...” Then he was back in the dining room, which was now a mess. Itch lay on the floor bleeding and a chair had gotten broken while Brian had been gone. A stately looking blonde-woman – that pale kind of blonde that looked like an ice queen even if they were kind and warm-hearted – stood looking at the room. Seeing Brian she raised her head and gave a single nod.

  “Good... you're back. Alive and unharmed it seems. Now we have to clean up this mess and file the incident reports...” Her voice sounded pretty cold, matching the look. Then again, who wouldn't? Brian decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, since this couldn't be the best circumstances under which they could have met.

  She turned and left them standing there, her soft-yellow, flowing blouse and white pants leaving Brian's eyes feeling a little hurt. They weren't garish clothes, so he didn't know why that would be, but something about her made his eyes ache, just a little.

  They all straightened, except Denis, who sat on the floor talking about suing whoever hit him. Penny chortled and told Brian how after she realized what had happened she'd hit him with her chair.

  “Even after all this he doesn't realize I did it! I could probably have sex with him for real and he wouldn't be able to feel anything... So maybe he should stop telling everyone we're sleeping together?”

  Brian didn't repeat what she said because, while Denis sat holding his head with his right hand, he pointed with his left, not at Brian, but at Mark, who had stooped to clean up some wood splinters from the floor.

  “You could have stopped her! I know you see her in your stasis thing... Why didn't you take the chair or something, ass wad!” He looked put out and angry, but he didn't try to hit the man or move on him aggressively. That made sense to Brian, since functionally speaking, he literally couldn't touch the other man if he didn't want him too. But Mark could touch him all he wanted. Even if he didn't want to hurt the smaller man, he could strip his clothes off and dump him in the middle of the gym, or shave his head or any of a thousand different things people never think of, because a resisting
person would make it nearly impossible. If he wasn't blaming Penny... Was he blaming Marcia? How would she have hit him with a chair from the other side of the table, from behind?

  Mark kept sweeping with a tiny plastic-handled brush into a plastic dust pan, standing when he finished, still smiling.

  “Oh I could have, true, but didn't... that was because I think you deserved to be hit with a chair.” The voice came out calmly, peace radiating from it. “You were at the briefing, and you know that Brian just came from an incredibly hard work out designed to cause him enough pain to keep him from exchanging like that. By doing what you did, you essentially tried to murder him, Denis. Worse than that, you did it not even realizing that you were dumped over by Penny, probably because you keep claiming to be sleeping with her when you aren't. Not that I condone your own needless violence either, Penny. Still, Denis, I have to think that being hit with a chair is the least of your worries.” Mark turned and walked to the kitchen without looking back.

  Marcia looked over at him and pointed to the clock.

  “Don't you have an appointment to keep? This situation isn't going anywhere. We'll have someone down to the gym to take whatever information they need while you work. While we work actually. Jason asked for my help. Please tell him I'll be there just as soon as I know for certain that we don't have to kill Itch here. I'll be a little later if we do. Body disposal.”

  Brian still shaking from the adrenalin and shock of the attack, attacks really, nodded and walked out of the room stiffly, his lower back ached, but his left calf felt like it had been set on fire. It probably happened while he ran away, forcing himself to move that fast on top of the massive fatigue.

  He found Jason standing in the gym waiting and updated him.

  “So, that's what happened there. I don't know what paperwork will be coming, but Marcia sent me down and said she'd be down herself as soon as they have things in hand.”

  The other man asked him to wait so he just sat there, on the floor, wondering if he'd be able to get up later at all. Beatdown walked into the room before Jason came back and headed to him directly, carrying a weird-looking pad. She held it up as she approached.

  “Quick fighting one-oh-one: when in doubt, poke 'em in the eyes. Kick to the groin, bite, spit, pull hair, always try to hit people with things other than your hands when you can, and don't stop until they're dead. Other people need other rules, but for you, kill them each time and never hold back. Even practicing anything less is a waste of your time. Right now, we need to get you used to hitting people and fighting dirty, as well as get you into shape. More to the point, we need to get your head into shape.” She stepped toward him rapidly, human level speed, but super high end.

  “If I come at you like that, what do you do?” She stood still waiting. He worked it through, and after ten seconds spoke, feeling hesitant.

  “Poke you in the eye?”

  “Excellent. Now don't get me wrong, by the time we're done, you're going to know three or four complete martial arts styles, all the moves, and drill on them endlessly, but if you have any inkling of fair play in you, get rid of it now. That's just going to get people killed. The wrong people.” The way she said this last he could tell she added it just for him, playing on his innate desire to protect others. Still it was the truth. If Brian failed, he didn't get screwed, others did.

  She taught him three basic punches and made him hit the glove over and over again until he couldn't anymore, then she darted her head at him suddenly. He punched her in the nose. Not hard, his arms didn't have the energy to really have force, still he gasped at what he'd just done, fearing that the blow would injure her, but she only smiled.

  “Good! A bit of a dirty trick, but you got it pretty close and it's natural to use what you've just practiced if a fight breaks out. Really you should have gone for my eyes. We'll work on that when your arms recover a bit.”

  She went on to explain that she didn't feel pain and really couldn't be hurt by anything Brian did. “Not dissing you, but if you hit me fresh, with your best punch, you couldn't do more than move my body back. Which we'll also work on using to your benefit soon. So if I tell you to hit me, I mean it. Go ahead and really let loose, got it? Now, go ahead, upper cut to the middle, as hard as you can.” Her hands dropped outward, waiting.

  Brian swallowed and hit her. He didn't let himself wait, but he felt awful after doing it, afraid he'd hurt her. She didn't move or change expression at all. The only reaction was his hand aching like he'd connected with something solid, a wall or a rock, not a mid-section.

  He shook his hand a little.

  “Sorry about that, we'll get you gloves now. I'm surprised you did it that fast. I expected you to take a week to get over hitting a girl. Your hand hurts because I have shear thickening fluid under my skin, it's one of the half-dozen physical protections my body has. When you hit me it stiffened until it became rock hard. Or would have if you'd hit hard enough. You're tired, so no broken hand today.”

  Then she drilled him on ten other kinds of punches until he stopped hitting with any force at all.

  Jason came back with an older man with a gray tweed jacket, dark brown skin, and mostly bald head with wispy white hair around the edges. Wrinkles seamed his face, but the man wore a genuine smile as he walked up, a large hand coming up to shake a good six feet away. He wore a large gold-colored wristwatch, something Brian had only noticed the officials here doing. Everyone else just used the clocks on the walls, at least those he'd met to talk to... most of them were women, he realized. Brian didn't know for sure, but he thought that women might tend to wear watches less often than men did.

  He put his own hand out to shake with the man, and smiled, hand limp in the other mans solid grasp, from the exercise and damage.

  The man didn't seem to want a lot, just a basic run down of everything that happened. He told him as quickly as possible, trying not to blame anyone or guess as to motives. The man thanked him and nodded to Jason, then walked away.

  “Well, that's done then. Martin there is... Well, kind of like a super lie detector. He always knows when people are telling the truth and apparently everything you said checks out. Now we just have to see about everyone else.”

  For the next section they took him outside and showed him how to fire a hand gun. He didn't fire it, he couldn't do more than hold it right now. In both hands. Jason knew this too, so had him go over every part, how to load it, unload it, chamber a round, aim and fire and what to expect when it went off. Jason did all the actual instruction on this himself, Marcia just watching along with Brian, but paid attention almost as closely it seemed.

  Dinner was quieter, since no one tried to kill him at all. Yummier too, actually being eaten this time. The afternoon had been misery that way, but he hadn't mentioned it. Sometimes he wouldn't be able to eat now. He'd deal.

  Penny sat next to him and a professional cook made the meal, just meat loaf with mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables, but it was pretty good. Denis didn't show up, but Christian did. It turned out she held the position of team leader, which, if Brian had known that before, he'd forgotten. She didn't give them any new information about the situation, so he didn't ask. It would work out, one way or the other.

  In all, Brian found he couldn't be all that mad at the guy, except that he'd been lying about sleeping with Penny. Brian wouldn't have cared if it was true, but lying about it with her sitting right there and not being able to deny it seemed... cruel. For his part, making him go away like that, well, it had been scary, sure, but in the end a little girl lived that he didn't think would have otherwise. That had to go in the win column, and Denis had a part in that, no matter what he'd intended to have happen to Brian.

  Oh, it was still a dick move and he felt tempted to kick the guy's ass himself, but one beating for it felt like enough and Penny seemed to have done a pretty good job.

  Chair to the head. Boom.

  Christian kept looking at him funny as he ate, so he wiped his mou
th carefully, hoping that Penny would tell him if he had food all over his face or something. He still looked pretty bad, scabs and red lines all over, which were just a little sore when he dabbed at his mouth. Brian had to wonder if the telepath had been looking at him like that because of his thoughts, not anything else, but that didn't seem right.

  His thoughts hadn't been that bad had they? Or was he being too hard on Denis? Should he cut the guy more slack than that? Maybe he was just having a bad day – which Christian would know – and things got out of hand? Well, if so, no big thing. There wasn't enough time in the day to fight with people that were supposed to be the good guys too. Not if he could help it.

  After they all finished eating he helped clean up, moving slowly, feeling a lot more stiff than he had earlier. Just walking across the room hurt a lot. Even sitting hurt right now, which worked for him when he took a moment to think about it. Not fun, but exactly what they'd planned to happen.

  After that he had nothing to do for about an hour. Brian didn't even know where he should go for his shot. He asked Penny, who ran down the hall, which he knew because she called out to him as she did it, coming back a few minutes later.

  “The doctor's going to come to you, so if you could be in your room at nine that should work well. I got Christian to read my mind for once – yay – and make a call. Before you ask, no, I can't be heard over a phone directly... At least I haven't gotten it to work yet. Now if I record my voice and they play it back later, with me away from the machine, it works fine. I don't know why exactly, I'm a little hard to study I guess.” She laughed and linked arms with him, walking him to his room.

  This time she suggested he shower first and get ready for bed, so she wouldn't have to strip his clothes off again. Brian started to feel awkward, then realized that Penny had just helped him out the day before. He'd been sodden when he fell on the bed no doubt. If his looks didn't matter, then being seen naked shouldn't either, right? Nodding, Brian took her advice.