The Infected 1: Proxy (48 page)

It surprised him that Marcia was part of it, but only because she spent so much time with him. People with power didn't spend their time alternating between giving him hugs and nearly breaking his arms, or at least, he hadn't thought they did. Apparently things were different than he'd imagined.

Brian looked around and no one spoke so he shrugged and started asking questions to get them going.

"Charlot said I need to go and talk to the press? What's the situation? If it's another one of these things, then I need my armor and I'm going in armed this time, even if all I have is a tiny knife..." He looked around, the director cleared his throat and pointed to a screen looking cold and sounding a little angry.

"Here, just watch, it's easier than trying to explain..."

On the screen a man stood, livid with rage and speaking from the purest heart of fear, telling the world of the specific-infector and how it could be headed anywhere, including to the U.S. or a large population center in Canada and if that took place, horrible things would happen.

So far Brian didn't see the big deal about it. Even when the scared man told everyone that these things were class fives and showed pictures of them, dead ones which Brian recognized personally, flannel shirt guy and topless woman, who he assured the room didn't look half as scary as they really were when they started moaning and howling in the dark. Just thinking about it made him want to leave the room and hide under his bed for a week. He told everyone this out loud, getting a nod from a few of the people as they looked at the images.

What came next was the part that had everyone on edge. The man, Senator Hooper, their old friend, called for the internment of all Infected in the United States and was pushing for an emergency action to do just that - immediately. No trial or wrong doing would be needed, just being Infected would be enough.

Ah, Brian nodded to himself, that would be enough to get people here going.

The press talked about it excitedly, many of them seeming to support the idea, at least in theory, with only a few pointing out how it wouldn't work at all and would only force the good Infected people to hide or fight. Fear seemed to be winning the day, with most of the coverage showing people on the street grudgingly accepting that something like that should be done.

"Wow, this Hooper guy is good!" Brian said brightly, his voice not even holding sarcasm. "He took a pretty serious situation that needs all our attention and turned it into a national tragedy in the making all by himself. I wonder if he has people to think of things like this for him, or if it just, you know, pops into his head without even trying?"
Even without a real plan they knew they needed to say something, or else fear could sway a lot of minds against them all. Brian didn't know what to do but didn't feel too lonely since no one else had any real ideas either. Shrugging he suggested they just tell the truth.

Charlot held up a hand for silence and got it. "What do you mean exactly Brian? Who's truth?"

"Why not just tell them that this is potentially bad, that we're trying to do something about it, but that trying to round up all the Infected and put them in concentration camps would make our job a lot harder and not protect anyone from this current threat at all? What do people really want right now? This threat out there with Prime and Level standing by ready to fight it, or this threat out there with those same people wondering if the showers have water or malathion gas today?"

It seemed simple to him.

Charlot thought for a while and finally nodded. "Risky as all hell, but what else can we do? I don't want to go to a concentration camp myself and I'll tell you all right now that I'll fight to the death if anyone tries to put my family in one." A soft white light glowed around her clenched right hand, held at her side, the desks and tables pushed away from her a few inches. Brian nodded at her once. That answered the question of her being Infected or not at least. He also had to agree with her on the point.

They made plans then, which didn't overly include Brian, thank goodness. He'd have to go and stand in front of the cameras with team one later.

"Why not everyone? I mean everyone that can stand to be in the room. Look, people know the different teams exist, hiding everyone but the pretty people away just adds to the stigma. Put them out front, let people see who they really are, warts and all. After all, if I'm a ninety-three year old woman from Illinois, I'd rather have Lauren guarding my back than some college drop out that worked in a factory less than four months ago... These things are scary, maybe we need to show them that the good guys can be scary too, but are on their side, and always have been?"

Nobody liked that one much at all. Charlot told him about how delicate public perception was, and seemed to be controlling her voice to keep anger out of it. That, Brian guessed, probably meant the suggestion was incredibly stupid. It made sense to him showing the public how tough they could be, but he conceded the point. They were the experts for a reason.

The event itself went fast, they told the press the truth, all of it and answered every question asked. Brian didn't speak or even go out, just sat in the green room waiting. Then he went and mingled after the thing was over like he'd been told to. For some reason a group of reporters gathered around him like he was Prime or something. Most of them asking softball questions about how he felt, if he'd been scared and stupid things like that. This took a lot longer than the initial press conference had. Moore may not always be his favorite person, but when it came to getting the news out fast and correctly, the guy ruled. When the wall clock said it neared three, he just left, waiving to the Director on his way past.

"I have a party to get to, Bridget's birthday, level nine common room, drop by and bring friends, we have a lot of cake..." He slapped the older man on the back as he passed him, hoping it looked friendly to everyone watching.

The party was small to start with, Penny showed and hugged Bridget, who then held her hand for most of the party and would search for her if she let go for too long. After about an hour, before they had the cake, no one could see Bridget any more. Except Brian and Penny.

"Cool! I'm invisible! Quick, let's sneak into the showers!" Bridget actually jumped up to go, but Penny fought to stay seated laughing.

"Brian, tell her not to be silly... Everyone's coming here right now, they're not in the showers..."

This got a laugh from the girl when he related the message.

Then Penny got Bridget to let go for a while, still next to her and she slowly became visible to everyone else after about fifteen minutes. A person from second team, a squat and powerful looking man pulled out a camera, a digital, which showed Bridget, but not Penny. Meaning it was more about being hard to notice than invisibility for the smaller girl.

Still, possibly useful.

They had candles on the cake in the common room, small multi-colored things that looked wonderfully out of place on the majestic cake. Bridget blew them all out easily and wouldn't tell anyone what she'd wished for. When she opened her gift from team three, she stood up and ran around hugging all of them. The emeralds in the bracelet really did look good on her, Brian decided. Christian really knew her jewelry.

People came in and out over the next few hours, including people Brian hadn't thought to invite at all, which kind of shamed him. Kitchen staff and trainers, the guy that worked the register at the main store on level four and admin people Brian hadn't ever even met before. There were over three hundred people that lived and worked in the building, and he'd only thought about a small handful of them, all operatives. Of course Bridget's friends included almost everyone, since she knew no inhibitions and had lived here her entire life. A few probably stayed away, irritated by the girl and her twitchy, highly energetic ways, but nearly a hundred came, even with a crisis of sorts going on.

Good to see people got what was actually important, Brian thought, as he watched the comings and goings. There was still cake left, so he had another small piece, hungry, but not wanting to make a pig of himself. Bridget came over to him on four separate occasions to get a hug and would almost immediately run off to do something else, dance, eat, watch a tiny part of a movie on the wall, or most commonly hug someone else. Her behavior sometimes strayed into the bizarre, but when people reigned her in she corrected herself quickly, never making a big deal of it, just fixing whatever someone objected to. Though Brian kind of thought that stuffing her face with a fist full of the white cake looked like fun when she did it.

It was tempting to do it himself, but people needed him to be in shape, so he decided against it.

Near the end Karen came in with most of team one, including Bridget's parents, who mingled for a bit before taking their daughter away with them. Hopefully off to do something fun.

Brian started cleaning up as everyone moved to leave, Karen and Mark helping. Lauren stayed to help too, so Mark sent her away with most of the remaining cake, since team two had a lot more people than they did, including the birthday girl. Besides as a group they needed to eat a lot more than team three did.

Penny had left earlier, to do something, but came back just in time to help with the last of the clean up. She didn't come over to talk, staying across the room for some reason.

Karen stayed with him at least, so he had someone to talk to. He wondered if he'd done something to upset Penny at the party, said something off putting or insulting without meaning to. Brian tried to remember, but couldn't come up with anything in particular. Finally he walked over to her and asked if she was feeling all right. After all, even if he was going to live for a while now, he didn't have time to play guessing games. No one did, not really.

"What? Oh, yeah, fine... I just didn't want to intrude, you know, with you and Karen. I didn't know... I mean I'd heard some things, but... around here people talk. When we met earlier, I didn't know that you two were, you know a couple. I wasn't trying to, I don't know..." She looked sad about the situation. Having already been rejected by her once Brian didn't feel too inclined to fill her in on his lack of relationships, but figured he shouldn't let something like that stand uncorrected. Sure it made him look good, but Karen had a reputation to protect as a public figure.

"We're not... I don't know what people are saying, but we're just friends. Don't get me wrong, she's great, and I'd love to be closer to her, but... there are complications. I really can't go into it yet, but, yeah. I don't think I can make that work as tempting as she is."

Unless Becky had gone away or something and since she was playing a big part in keeping him alive, he really would rather keep her than not.

"Thanks! Good to know I'm appreciated. I've... been trying to ignore things with my sis, I mean, you should be allowed to have a real life too and not have it ruined by me, right? So far, not so good..." The ghost girl popped in and then back out as fast as she spoke, making Brian's head spin a little.

Karen walked over and asked Brian what he was doing, her voice holding concern, which made him chuckle, since this time he hadn't even been talking to himself at all. Not even her dead, or maybe not so dead, little sister.

"Oh! Right, have you two met? Karen, this is Penny, who's really is this invisible all the time... Penny, Karen..."

Karen put her hand out, her eye's going wide when she felt the soft contact of a hand in hers.

"Hi! Nice to finally meet you!" Karen said, trying to focus her eyes on the empty space in front of her.

Brian passed what Penny said along to Karen for a while, until about a half hour later, when Karen turned to him suddenly and kissed him on the cheek.

"So nice to meet you Penny! I've got to go meet some people for Director Moore, one of the hassles of team one... I'd love to chat again sometime soon though, if that's good for you?"

As she left Penny turned to him a bit sheepishly and told him that she could see how people might get the wrong idea.

"She likes you Brian... I mean like, really likes you. Girls don't hang on you like that if they just think of you as a friend."

Without waiting for an answer she spun on her heel and marched away quickly. Not knowing what else to do, Brian finished cleaning up the mess in the common room, shocked when Mark showed up with a vacuum cleaner. The floors were always immaculately clean at the base, but he'd never seen anyone doing the work to make it happen before. Not here at least.

They were finished by about eight and had a late dinner in the dining room, Salisbury steak with roasted red potatoes and gravy. He knew intellectually that it was basically the same as meat loaf, but for some reason he always liked it a lot better. Meatloaf just had a different texture that reminded him of other things he didn't like to think about while trying to eat. Brain matter and stuff. After that Brian just decided to go to bed, not having anything else to do and feeling tired around the edges again, a kind of feeling that sleep couldn't really shake off, he knew.

As he walked back to his room Dharma popped in to view and told him to get ready. He felt a wave of panic, his stomach dropping hard. His mind flashed on the idea of moaning things in the dark, things that wanted to kill him en mass. The emo-girl chuckled.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch. It's just some regular rapists. Drunk guys even. Two of them. The girl is in her twenties, the one your replacing. Take it at a run? Three, two..." He ran into the men who collectively had a single gun. The other man held a broken beer bottle. The fight didn't last long, about seven seconds. After he knocked them both out he stood for a moment, wondering if he should kill them.