The Infected 1: Proxy (53 page)

"Right. If the field were spread forty ways, even if someone had done the same thing, everyone involved, all forty-one of them would have died to take out Tesseract. This time, one on one, all that would have had to die is me... and him of course. Someone smarter or freer in space than I am might even be able to take him out without dying. I may even be able to figure it out myself, if I have enough time..."

Lancaster told him that he'd just come to make sure that Brian wouldn't kill everyone that came in, after the way he'd beaten down Charles before. People wanted to see him, but none of them were police or even former police, except Charles, who promised to keep his distance. Friends first, he announced, going to the door to call for the first group.

Karen, Penny and, oddly enough Carl, came in, each one giving him a hug. Karen and Penny cried for a bit, but Carl just told him that this light duty stuff would only last so long and that they had a lot more training to do if he was going to go around getting himself in fights like that one. The words had a jovial ring to them, but sounded worried underneath, not something Brian associated with the man at all.

The next group crowded into the doorway impatiently, so Karen kissed him on the cheek and so did Penny. Carl didn't, but he threatened to, which got Brian to laugh. It surprised him that laughing didn't hurt at all. That was a first for being in the hospital, so he must not be too injured. Good. About time he caught a break as far as pain went.

Next was the rest of team three, Christian coming into the room for once, smiling when she got close. "Oh... my, yes, that does seem to have worked! I thought you'd be in agony, but you feel... fine."

Mark smiled and shook his hand. Marcia hugged him for a long time when her turn came, long enough that the others started to look at her funny. Brian didn't care. As far as he was concerned she could hold him for the rest of the day. For once he wasn't too sad or injured to appreciate it.

Team two came in groups of three, finishing with a group of people he hadn't met at all before, Soar, who's name turned out to be Felecia, he'd heard of from Becky. She looked like a pterodactyl and could barely speak, due to her beak. She seemed surprised when Brian put his arms out for a hug. An interesting thing since her fleshy wings had to wrap around him to make it happen. Charles seemed surprised too as he stood in the door watching. Brian hoped the girl wasn't underage or something. A lightning bolt through his ass would probably stress his heart a little.

Lobo didn't have any other name, at least not that he'd tell anyone. He sounded fine, perfectly normal even, but looked like a lobster, except lavender in color and standing upright. Kind of cool looking really. They shook hands, Lobo had articulate claws, but carefully didn't rip Brian's soft fleshy appendages off, so it was all good with him.

The last team two member that came in, not all of their team, not even half if he'd been told correctly, was a man named Hobbs. He looked hard, scarred, red haired and bearded. Dressed like a street person rather than in a team two uniform or even sweats. He bowed from a distance, but smiled hugely at Brian.

"Advocate Yi" He intoned and bowed again, then left without explaining, still looking vastly pleased for some reason.

Charles stood in the door still and waited for Hobbs to clear the room, speaking but not walking in. "He's from a different place... a different reality... that's what he claims at least. From what he says their whole world uses advocates in their legal system. He couldn't really explain what they were, until he heard about you, then he told us they were basically what you were, without the teleportation thing."

Soar came over for another hug, so Brian held her for a bit letting her go only when she moved to stand straight again. When they left he expected things to calm down, that everyone that had wanted to see him had already come in. That, he soon discovered, turned out to be wrong.

First Director Moore, Charlot Chambers and the makeup artist he'd worked with before that one time, Clarice, came in. Charlot moved toward him carefully and gave him a hug and the Director put a hand on his arm for a few seconds, looking... proud of him. Brian appreciated it, especially since half the times they'd met the man had taken Brian to task for something or other. As he moved back the other woman stepped up, so he put his arms out so she could hug him too, which she did chuckling.

"I came to do make-up, but my friends will be extra jealous when they learn I got to hug you too! Now, we don't have a lot of time, can you do what you did last time? Hold still and follow directions like that?" This came out in a friendly sounding way and Brian thought it would be doable, hoping that the others would tell him why a make-up artist was needed while she worked.

They didn't. Maybe he was just supposed to guess? Twenty minutes later the woman stepped back. "Charlot, any suggestions?"

The press agent shook her head. "Perfect. You always do such a good job on him. Fast too. Maybe we should have the others take lessons from him?"

Clari smiled and patted Brian on the arm gently. "A good canvas makes the painting easier."

The Director stayed by his bed and the others tucked themselves in the back right hand corner of the room, then the place flooded with reporters and cameras. It felt like someone had opened up a flood gate at least, possibly literally, the way they flowed in. Brian didn't know what they wanted in particular, but he smiled and welcomed them all. He'd stinted at least some of them out of the birthday party he promised to throw for himself, after all, having gone crazy at the time and being in a bit of a mood. Maybe they'd come for their cake?

After a bit everyone got quiet as if waiting for a statement from him. The Director looked at him meaningfully.

"I'm... not sure why everyone is here... This is just another day around here really... This is even my regular hospital room." He smiled suddenly which got a laugh on the line.

"Does anyone have any questions?"

Noise erupted in the room. He held up his right hand, smiling, until everyone was quiet. Then seeing the blond female reporter he recognized from the thing with Prime, he pointed. She smiled at him, looking... pleased, he thought.

"Brian, people are starting to wonder if your powers are somehow greater than advertised, especially now, after this incidence with Tesseract, the only known class eight on the planet. Would you care to comment?"

Brian smiled and shook his head.

"I really haven't done anything that any of you couldn't have done too. The only difference is that I was there. That's all my ability really is, getting there in time. I'm not special and don't have hidden powers or secrets, not that I know about any way. Um, well, maybe what I do in the shower is a secret, but certainly not a power... Though with all the cameras here... I know, it's not as interesting... but it's the truth."

Looking around he found a man near the back that didn't look familiar at all, he looked shocked when Brian selected him to go next.

"Um, McCreedy is a known anti-Infected legislator, would you, being Infected yourself, still save him if you knew who you were protecting before hand?"

Brian nodded.

"Yes. Just like I'd protect you, or some little Infected kid, a homeless person or anyone else. Even people that hate me just because I'm different. It's happened a lot more than once or twice." He smiled and shrugged. "Everyone is worth saving, if we can."

Brian moved to the next questions and answered them all as honestly as he could, hoping he wasn't making too many mistakes. Finally the director stepped forward, after about twenty minutes, and smiled like a politician.

"That will have to be all for today, the doctors said that if we let you grill him for over twenty minutes they'd storm the room and I think I see them gathering in the hall right now." The reporters laughed, but Brian really did see several of the medical staff standing outside looking surly. He waved to them, getting another laugh from the press.

Even after they cleared out, Brian smiling the whole time because people kept snapping pictures while they backed out of the room, he found the day wasn't done. Everyone cleared out of the room suddenly, not as if planned, it just seemed that they all had other things to do. Some of them really small things. Taking a phone call that might not even come, going to the bathroom, things small enough that Brian felt more than a little suspicious, like it was a set up for something. About ten minutes later three people, two men and a woman, walked into the room through the door.

The first man that entered was small, dark haired and felt... old. Brian couldn't place why, the face was unlined, the movements seemed normal, not subdued or tired. He wore a suit that didn't quite match, the gray stripped slacks were neat and clean, ironed, and seemed, not new, but well cared for. The jacket was the same quality, not the best, off the rack probably, but well taken care of. Underneath this was a white shirt that did look new, it nearly glowed it was so white, as if a soft black light was hitting it all the time.

The woman looked older, not old, maybe forty or so. She looked nice, like a kind person, the few lines she had all showed she smiled a lot. She wore make-up, but just enough to make her look well blended in color and brighten her lips a bit. Her blouse was a deep navy, with matching slacks and bright red shoes that added a nice offset of color. Around her neck she sported a black scarf with white polka-dots all over it. The whole thing looked very retro fifties to Brian. She saw him looking at her and smiled, the kind of smile that makes you want to do it yourself, which he did.

That last man he recognized, the janitor from floor eight, and now that he saw him again, the waiter from the first floor. Gray haired, medium in build. He wore different clothes today, better, very nice clothing if Brian was any judge. The four thousand dollar kind of suit that most people, even the very wealthy didn't normally bother with. It wasn't just good, it was perfect. Everything about the man was. Each hair, now that he looked, set exactly where it needed to be, no lint or loose threads anywhere. Even the air from the ventilation system seemed to still around him somehow.

They were all white, but with distinctly different ancestries, the first man looked slightly Asian, the last a bit Jewish, the woman Italian. Something nagged at him about the first man. After a few seconds he got it, he'd seen that shimmer before.

Recently.

Instead of panicking, he looked at the woman, who stood smiling in the center of the group and made himself smile again.

"Hi. I don't think you and I have met before... I'm Brian Yi. Obviously I know these others, at least in passing..." He held out his hand to her, which, after she walked to his bed side, she took and shook firmly, her hand warm and dry in his.

"I really can't give my name just yet. Please don't take offense, it's a rule of sorts. Call me... Trivia." Her voice sounded smooth and as kind as her face looked.

Brian thought for a second and let go of her hand at the appropriate time, not clinging on too long in his distraction.

"God of where the three roads meet?" Brian asked, curious about what her answer would be. The woman's eyes lit up.

"Where all information eventually passes! Indeed." Her hand went to his chest, the right side away from the wound he'd put there trying to stop Tesseract.

The man on the left grimaced and rubbed at the wound on his own chest as Brian shifted his gaze to him.

"So, Tesseract, Trivia... and... Jan-i-tor? Please tell me it's Jan-i-tor, because that would be so cool. Everyone seems to get all pretentious with their superhero names. Or super-villain names as the case may be...." Brian let his eyes hood slightly, reached over to his left arm and removed the I.V. drip so he could stand. Trivia removed her hand from him slowly as if she really didn't want to startle him and took a step back, smiling.

She held up her hands, licking her lips a little as she did, not trying to be sultry, but seeming a little hesitant and nervous. "Mr. Yi... we freely admit that we aren't on the same side in what's coming, at least not in any way you'll be able to see, so in that way, we're the bad guys to you. We may even manage to kill you some day. Before that though, we come with a message..."

Brian looked at them, and stood up slowly, watching them all as closely as he could, pretty sure that any one of them could kill him at any time. He didn't know it for a fact, but if they hung around with Tesseract and felt safe just walking into IPB headquarters like this, they were probably not to be taken lightly.

"Let me guess... don't get in your way or you'll kill me? Kill my friends? Torture puppies in my name?" Snorting softly he took a single step forward. Tesseract started to shimmer and the light in the room shifted toward a purple hue. Trivia put up her hand toward the man, as if telling him to stop.

"Not at all. Threatening you would be beyond useless and threatening your friends worse than suicidal, even if some people don't really understand that yet. As for puppies... That would just be too wrong to consider." Her smile looked sweet then, innocent.

"No Mr. Yi, our message is this only; when she begs for you to drop it and tells you to leave her alone, even though it breaks your heart to do so and might drive you mad with grief - do it. That's all."

She walked back to him and placed her hand on his chest again, warm through the dry paper of the hospital gown. Then, slowly so as to not spook him, she leaned in her lips finding his cheek.

"For what it's worth, this time at least, what I just told you is what has to happen. It doesn't matter who's side you're on. I'm sorry. Please remember that. When she needs you to drop it, and begs you to leave her alone, you have to do it. The balance of our reality depends on it."

Then Tesseract flared suddenly, causing Brian to surge toward the man expecting an attack, hoping to take the man before he could change the physical space around them too much to move coherently again. None of the others reacted outwardly, they all seemed to shrink in place, not moving, but looking like they weren't getting smaller, just moving further away rapidly, somehow not seeming to move at the same time. Then they were gone. No sign that anyone had ever stood there at all. The silence they left was eerie, almost painful in a way. It felt like his senses all ached with the sudden removal of stress, like stretching too far for too long, only to have it hurt when the move was released.