The Infected 3: Cast Iron (38 page)

Marcia had to agree though. It just made sense. The surprising part was how cool the girl was under pressure. Crying, but ready to enforce what was needed at the same time. Even if it meant going against the new management.

Luckily Mike Conroy didn’t have a problem with being corrected, if the person doing it was right.

“I hear you Cooper. I’ll lay off for now. We should get back to the bus, or have it come here, get ready to move. Maybe get to town and find out what’s going on?” It was all sensible.

“No.” Marcia looked around and sighed.

“We need the bus I mean, that parts right. We should send for it. We need to be here though, because Brian will come back to this location.” If he was still alive. He was a good fighter, hard, and unwilling to quit. Maybe even psychically gifted in a way that related to that kind of thing. She was almost certain of it in fact. It might not be enough to save him if the bombs had started dropping. Plus, he could just make a mistake or get unlucky. Some situations were just unwinnable. Like the one they were in, possibly.

They sent Tobin for the vehicle, along with Denis, who could actually drive it, if it came down to that. Not well, probably, since he’d only ever driven cars before, but it wasn’t exactly like there was heavy traffic on the roads. They jogged off at better speed than they’d come in at. True, Marcia could have made the trip faster, but if Sammy had taken off or wouldn’t come back with the others she’d be stuck trying to find some other transportation and might miss it when Proxy popped back in. They didn’t have much to help him with she didn’t think, and mentioned it, sounding a little listless as she did.

Without asking what she meant, Mike rummaged through his bag and pulled out a red cordura satchel with a white cross on it.

“Special medical kit. Enough for minor surgery if we have to do it. Meds, suture material, bandages and a half dozen other things they don’t sell you at Wal-mart.” She poked through it, noticing that it was a lot more complete than that even. Some of the drugs weren’t strictly legal to have, even with a prescription. They had their uses though and an old special forces guy with his skills knew them all.

The bus got there about fifteen minutes later, Sammy at the wheel, meaning he hadn’t bailed on them. That was good. She kind of liked the guy. Then, he was just a man hired to drive them around and bribed to pass messages, not a team member. No one could have really blamed him for running home when it all started going down. It turned out that he didn’t have a reason to yet, as the first reports were just starting to hit the radio. He left it on and opened the door after he parked so that everyone could hear.

The reports were…

Awesome from the sound of it.

Much better than she could have hoped for. D.C. was still there somehow, even though a few strikes hat hit the ground. The Whitehouse was damaged; on fire still and the news people on the air were giving panicked descriptions of the air battle going on, not certain as to which side they should be rooting for.

Marcia kind of got why that was. After all, it was a fight between the remaining ten Air Force jets, which had been responsible for the bombing of the capital, and four obviously Infected people. Bridget was one of them, the only one described by name, since she was IPB and sort of famous. The other three were just… people.

 Infected people that were trying to help when the chips were down. Civilians.

The regular people didn’t know what to think about that. The reporters spun theories, half of which were something along the lines of the noble Air Force sacrificing their lives to protect against the evil Infected. Luckily that didn’t last too long.

The President had been injured in the attack on the Whitehouse and the First Lady was possibly hurt too, but his daughter was fine. Apparently Proxy had traded out for her and that saved her life. He’d gotten her away, along with the special guard that had saved the President and part of his Secret Service men. Most of those died in the blast. The President had been shielded physically by Level though, along with several members of his regular guard detail who’d used their bodies to try and protect the man.

There was no word as to what happened to Ink, or where Proxy was. He hadn’t come back. It was rare, but he’d done that once before, moving directly from one situation to another. It was hard on him to do, but it wasn’t like he got much of a choice in the matter. The other option was that he’d be dead and never coming back at all. Marcia just couldn’t stand that idea at the moment.

“Thank god Bridget’s alive.” It wasn’t a lot to cling too, but since everyone else at the base might just be dead, it would have to do.

The voices on the radio changed, as they rushed to a special announcement from the senate.

The voice on the air was rough, filled with emotion… and familiar. Marcia moved closer, realizing who it was. It made her stomach drop.

“This is Senator James Hooper. I regret to inform you all that my worst fears have been realized. A group of rogue Infected military personnel have tried to take our country from us by force, attempting to move against the President and killing his wife, Martha. The plan apparently involved an attack on the rest of the government as well. Luckily federal agents were able to thwart the worse of this attack and remove the threat and are battling with the aid of civilian forces to protect our capital at this very moment. We should all bow our head in prayers of thanks and for those lost in the horrible events of this day. God bless.” It was a good speech, the kind of thing that screamed that it wasn’t him and his cronies behind it without ever actually saying the words out loud.

The man was a genius when it came to making the Infected look bad after all. They didn’t even have anyone that could speak for them, to counter the idea that the original plan had been from the other side. Hooper had taken what was at least a partial defeat and turned it into a victory already. It was the last straw, the crushing weight that made her look down at the white of her uniform and start crying.

Mike came over and hugged her, just holding her while it all came out.

It wasn’t fair.

Oh, life wasn’t fair, she knew that, but this… to attack like they had and then to blame it on someone else… How could they defeat that? They just couldn’t. Even as Infected people risked their lives to save innocent civilians from their own kind, they were being blamed for it. Hooper had been clever enough to not even tell the people at home that the federal agents he’d talked about were IPB and that the civilians that were holding off the attack on the capital were Infected.

It was probably enough to send them all to war, she decided. After the new Hooper act got voted in at least. The last one had called for concentration camps. Who knew what people would be willing to do this time.

Then another voice spoke, another announcement came. At first she didn’t recognize the voice, since she’d rarely heard it sounding so firm. So angry. It was Director Moore and he was partway into a newscast when the station they listened to picked it up.

“That’s correct. This was an attempted military coup. As you well know the U.S. military doesn’t allow Infected individuals into the service, and the indication at this point is that anti-Infected terrorists were behind today’s actions. The attempts to destroy the IPB headquarters was thwarted with no damage to the facility or personnel.” He stopped as a voice came from further away.

It sounded like Brian.

Marcia blinked, but it wasn’t just her that noticed it. Penny gasped.

“Brian? That’s Brian!” She sounded happier than a girl that had kind of dumped all over the guy at one point should actually sound, but that was their business. Karen perked up and agreed that the voice was his though.

“What’s he saying?” It was hard to hear at first, but a microphone finally got brought in, to pick him up, so people could understand him.

“The indication is that this event has been carried out by Hooper supporters in the military, along with civilian aid from hate groups and other terrorist organizations. We do not know if it was done under his direction at this time or not, but it’s clear that the Senator is trying to spin this to make it look like Infected are involved in the attack, when the only thing that we’ve done so far today is protect the President and Washington D.C. from destruction.” He repeated it several times, explaining himself when asked to by the people on the scene.

Lancaster slapped his forehead.

“Brian… God this isn’t going to go over well. I know it had to be said, but I just wish we could have gotten someone else to say it. The President maybe.” He sighed and moved back a bit, as if trying to distance himself from the conversation on the radio.

Moore came back on then and made a sound that was very close to “Humph.”

“While I know that might be hard for some to hear, it’s simply the truth. We’ve been trying to soften the blow for a long time, but it’s very clear that certain forces in the government are involved in trying to start a war between the Infected population and the non-Infected. Like it or not, his personal plan or not, Senator Hooper is considered the defacto leader of the major terrorist groups in this country. I ask right now that he step forward and state publically that he is not, in fact, responsible for these people and ask them to not continue to perform acts of terror in his name. We need this to stop, before it becomes something we cannot control at all. Blaming the Infected for the acts of his own followers is inexcusable….” It sounded for a second like he was going to say more, but instead he just gasped and stopped, ending a few seconds later.

“Thank you. We’ll update you all when new information comes in.”

Then the radio show started rehashing what was known. The air battle was over and while lives on the ground had been lost as planes crashed, and two of the Infected that had been fighting were missing, with another just flying away fast. Bridget was alive. No one could get to her for comment, because she’d moved in to help put out the fire at the Whitehouse. It was a brilliant plan, since as jazzed as she was, she’d probably have said the wrong thing.

It was enough that the IPB Director had called out a Senator like he had. People kind of expected that sort of thing from Proxy, since he didn’t pull many punches, but Moore was thought of as reasonable and gentle. The kind grandfather of the Infected that was so mild people sort of forgot that he was one of them too. Most didn’t even know. He was just an old guy that spoke to them from the television every now and again.

It was Lancaster that pointed out that they needed to find a way to get in touch with the base. The situation with Proxy was weird, since he always went back to the location that he left from. As far as everyone knew, it was a rule. The agent was trying to call again when Yi showed back up. Already bandaged in several places, a few pink burns showing with salve on them.

“Hey everyone.” His voice had that sullen sound it got when he’d killed a bunch of people. Normally, even if injured he was pleasant enough when it was just a rescue mission without death.

This time it was different though.

“Uh.” He stopped and hugged Karen, even though it clearly hurt to do it. Then he hugged the air in front of him.

“Um. Guys. The First Lady is dead. Ink… He tried to shield her with his body. It almost worked. He… didn’t make it. The bomb… Lauren saved the President and his daughter is fine.”He shuddered a little bit then took a deep breath.

“The base… It’s still there, they…”

No one was speaking, just waiting for him to finish. Ink was dead. They hadn’t been all that close personally, but Marcia had liked him well enough. Kerry was crying about it though, which made sense, the man being her teammate. Karen was too and touching her cheek she realized that tears had come down her own face. She couldn’t really feel them, but her eyes watered.

There was a soft sob from Tobin, but no water dripped down his cheeks.

“They… tried to nuke us. They tried to hit us with over a thousand nuclear weapons all at once. That’s nearly twenty percent of the countries arsenal. It was a major military action. Missiles mainly, at first. Then bombers. It was… vast. I got there just in time to see it. Took Doctor Clinton’s place. I don’t know why, he wasn’t in danger as far as I could tell. It let Kern bandage me up though on the fly. I got some decent drugs too.”

Everyone stared for a while, until Mike asked the obvious question.

“A thousand nukes? How did you… The base there, it’s fine? How?” He looked baffled and she couldn’t blame him.

Marcia knew though. It was obvious to her.

“Less. The Director. No one thinks about it, because he’s old and soft spoken most of the time, harmless seeming, but at one time he was considered the most deadly single man on the planet. His power is just to make things vanish. They just stop existing as far as anyone can tell. My bet is that he just got to the surface in time and made them all go away.” That included the men in the planes no doubt. That would be a problem, since the man hated killing. He’d stopped using his power for nearly twenty years because of it. Maybe a bit longer than that even. Thirty years or more. Longer than Marcia had known him at least.

That got a nod from Denis.

“I’ve seen him do it. Just a gun though. I didn’t know he could do that much all at once. Good thing though, I mean, if that’s what happened.” Denis moved toward Brian, carefully, since the man could be a little skittish after a fight, and found himself pulled into a hug by Karen.