The Infected 3: Cast Iron

by P. S. Power

  Peggy shrugged and muttered something that wouldn’t serve as an answer, but Tobin nodded.

  “I’ll go. Some things are more important than feeling comfortable.” He sounded confident and proud in that moment, which was good, since at least three cameras were on them when Marcia looked around. She was used to it, from the base, since everything was captured all the time, but she had to remember it now. Say the wrong thing here and the world might just hear about it by the next day.

  “Alright. We’ll go with that then. Peggy, we need a decision in an hour. If you can’t choose for yourself… Flip a coin? There is no wrong choice here.”

  That was almost true. For the others there really wasn’t a bad choice, for the moment. For her there could be though. If she sent the wrong people, if she should be consolidating the forces, rather than spreading them out, or if the exact opposite was what would work, it would all be her responsibility. The hard part was that almost everything had good reasons for doing it right now. The IPB needed good publicity, but they needed their people to be safe too. More than anything they needed to know what the hell Hooper was up to.

  She didn’t mention it out loud, but that was going to be Penny’s new job. Tracking down and getting data on what the man really had planned. She needed some training first, but it was clear they just didn’t have much time for that. Maybe not even the weeks they’d need. Conroy would have to figure out how to deploy her fast and then they’d need to do everything just right. The real problem was that Hooper was a Senator. The Director thought he was dirty, even illegally so, but he’d been careful not to openly accuse the man of anything, because that would end badly. For them. Instead he’d called on the man to fix what his followers were doing in his name, asked him to speak out against it.

  It had been clever, and would be even more so if it worked. Hooper was kind of trapped now by those words. If he didn’t put a message out to end the violence, he’d look culpable. If he did, then it would look like he was admitting that his own people were behind it all. Marcia figured he’d weasel himself out of it, with a vague speech apologizing for how his innocent friends had been lumped in with hate groups simply because they saw the need to protect themselves from the evil Infected. The man was good at things like that after all. Too good for it not to be something other than what it seemed.

  It wasn’t the first time, but she kind of wondered if Braid was controlling the man somehow. Feeding him information about what exactly he needed to do to bring about the war she wanted. The woman could have worked her way in with the man; after all, even though she had powers, she wasn’t Infected. Just insane. A person from another world that wanted to help could have a certain draw. If the man even knew he was being manipulated at all.

  It was just as likely that he was what he seemed too. A power hungry bigot that lived in constant fear of anyone with more power than he had, no matter what they did with it. That might explain why he tried to kill the President. If it really was him at all. She knew it was, but that didn’t mean she was right. She knew a lot of things to be so, that just weren’t. It was mainly her first mode, she knew since it pointed out what could be, making her suspicious. But it did that to everything. Almost everything. It saved her most of the time, since she didn’t trust anything, but it made hating people harder too. Some people deserved it, like Mic and Weathers. Others, like the kids they’d have with them… that was harder. They didn’t seem good, but was a twelve year old boy responsible for the stupid things other people had taught him?

  The trip ended for her, Chris, and Penny that day. Brian too, of course. Peggy opted to go with Denis, even phrasing it that way, since the two were kind of going out. She didn’t know all of it, but it seemed to be more than casual, but not a real relationship. He was attentive enough, but people like Peggy didn’t let others in if they could help it. She’d be afraid that the man would find someone better looking and leave her. That was probably correct too. Hopefully Denis wouldn’t be a vast jerk about it when it happened. He was pretty hot though and famous enough to be getting attention from a lot of women, so it would happen eventually.

  Mike sat with her and Brian, with Penny. Christian was the odd one out, sitting toward the back, near the prisoners, but not with them either. She was busily taking things out of the men’s brains as they flew, not wanting to wait, in case she uncovered something important. After two hours she got up from her seat and walked over to the others, nearly sitting on Penny until both Brian and Mike put their hands out to stop her. Mike jumped up, so she could sit, since she looked exhausted. He leaned on the side of Marcia’s comfy cream colored chair so he could listen in.

  “I… there’s something wrong Marcia. I kept coming back to why they would have called you, Lancaster and Reyes in on like they did. Mic thinks it was about torturing you, like he said earlier and the other man seemed to think it was a courtesy, extended to old friends so that you wouldn’t die. I’m not sure though, but I think the boy with them knows more about it. He keeps thinking about the woman with long hair that came and told them what to do. The one in charge. I’m not positive, but I think it might have been one of Alpha Squad. The one known as Trivia? I’ve only seen video footage of her, since Brian is always in too much pain to take things from his head on purpose, but that seems right.” She yawned and rubbed her face with both hands.

  “Sorry. That means this wasn’t done on accident. It was probably a set up from the get go. I don’t know what the plan really was, but we may have walked right into it.”

  Brian shook his head, looked at the aisle like someone was standing there and then let the barest hint of a smile twitch at his mouth.

  “Dharma says no. From the data she got from my subconscious mind, it seems more likely that it was meant to be successful, but that…” He froze, looked at the aisle again and then at Chris who was staring at the girl Marcia couldn’t see, as if she’d said something amazing. It was one sign that Brian hadn’t totally lost his mind at least. It was still eerie as all get out when they did that.

  “She says that… It seems like Trivia is… on our side. Working against the others from inside their own operation.”

  Marcia snorted.

  “Great. We can use the help. Of course if that’s the case someone is going to need to come up with a cover story for her, or she’ll be found out instantly. We need to get with Hobbs on it. He’s the only one of us that really seems to have a handle on what to do about Braid’s kind of person. Of course, that’s provided the whole thing isn’t just a trick somehow.” It was probably that. Why would one of the enemy help them prevent a war they’d been working on bringing about for years? For decades.

  Unless it was as simple as the woman realizing that Braid was a fruitcake. Powerful didn’t mean right, and war was bad. Always. For the little people it never made sense. On occasion it did to governments, but most of the time… no. It was just a way to get people killed for too little reason. Of course Trivia, who used to be called Know It All for a reason, had the sum of human information held in her head all the time. It was just possible that she’d worked out that she wasn’t really on the side of right.

  Marcia hoped so, because otherwise they were going to lose so badly it wasn’t even funny.

  Mike hugged her around the shoulders, getting a look from Brian. It wasn’t possessive, but he didn’t smile either. After a bit he just gestured at them with his fingers and looked toward the back where the prisoners were.

  “So, you were all part of a group, back in the eighties?” It was an attempt to make conversation, to change the subject so that the prisoners couldn’t hear what was really going on. Not that they’d ever escape, but if they did, it wouldn’t do to let them have too much information. Not even the kids. They’d be freed eventually after all, which meant they couldn’t learn anything of value. The best thing would be to make sure they were dead, so they couldn’t talk, but that wouldn’t be happening either. She couldn’t stomach it.

  Mic had t
hat part right. It really was her weakness. The idea that people she knew and loved would die scared her more than the idea of dying herself. It always had. Not that she loved these particular kids, but they were children. You didn’t just kill kids because it was convenient at the time. The baby that the woman had shot on the porch still hung behind her eyes as they traveled. Sure it would eventually fade, but for now the idea of taking out these other kids was too much for her to think about.

  So she didn’t. Instead she sat back and tried to answer Brian without feeling ancient.

  “The nineties. I was in the CIA then, like Agent Wilson is now. I handled covert ops and was assigned to work with a team of Green Berets. This bunch. We worked together longer than most teams did. I’d just left to get married and settle into a desk job with the company when I popped. Kind of ruined my plans. I got divorced and then came to the IPB. No real choice given my background. They weren’t going to let me just walk around.” She didn’t explain the rest.

  Penny sounded pleased enough though, as she chimed in.

  “And now I get your ex-husband as my new trainer. What do you think, mom and dad, are you going to get back together? Please? It’s best for us kids.” The teasing went on for a few seconds while everyone laughed. Even Brian chuckled a bit, his eyes darker than she’d seen them in the last week.

  The eye’s of someone who knew too much and couldn’t share it with the rest of them. Some pain just had to be held inside for the good of everyone.

  Mike shook his head in response to Penny, but Marcia tilted hers.

  “We’ll see. I don’t know if I’m grown up enough for a real relationship, but there’s no one else I’d rather have around.” She leaned into Conroy’s arm and looked up at him. It was a real moment, a point of connection that she’d never thought she’d get again.

  No one spoke for a long time after that, but eventually Chris went back to work trying to get information and Brian started chatting with Penny and Mike about ways to improve communications with the invisible girl. Most of it would take some tech savvy, but Brian was certain that with a little help they could put it all together.

  Marcia hoped so, because the next bit was going to have to be mainly on the girls shoulders. They didn’t have anyone else that could do what was needed. Not as well. She pulled out a pad and started taking notes on Brian’s ideas. It might just turn out to be the most important thing she’d ever do. Marcia didn’t know it for a fact, but she suspected it. For the moment, that was enough.

  It would have to be.

  Because if they’d won this round at all, it was due to an outside player and that was… A horrible feeling to have. How bad were things that their best hope was a woman that was in thick with the enemy? It would have been terrifying if she let herself think about it, so instead she fell back on old habits and planned instead.

  They hadn’t lost yet, so they couldn’t stop fighting. If she didn’t keep going, she might lose everyone and that idea was the worst thing she could imagine, it would mean being all alone. So she’d keep on as well as she could, no matter what.

  She’d fight until there was nothing left of the world if it came to it, to protect her friends. Marcia just hoped that would be enough.

  She suspected it really wouldn’t, but it was what she’d do until something better came along.

  Marcia just hoped that whatever that was came fast.

  Otherwise she didn’t think they’d survive. Not most of them.

  Sighing she leaned into Mikes arms and closed her eyes, just for a moment. She almost wished it would never end, but after a while she opened her eyes again and got back to work. It was her job to save the world after all. It was all of their jobs. Even if it wasn’t totally fair all the time. Someone had to do it and this time it looked like it was up to them.

  Hopefully they’d be enough.