The Infected 3: Cast Iron

by P. S. Power

  That decided her pretty quickly. Better to look gullible than like a murderer.

  She’d get Lancaster to call it in to the Director, and let him deal with the actual fallout. It was his job after all. Plus, it would sound better if he was the one telling the secret service all about what they’d heard. All just rumor so far like it was. Even Cal Morris trying to shoot Wilson didn’t mean there was an assassination plot happening. It could have just been personal. Maybe the men had a history she just didn’t know about? Old enemies from way back? Rivals for the same girl in school or something that wouldn’t even show up in the intelligence files at all? It was possible. Not likely of course, but still worth looking into.

  Marcia wanted to take all her people and leave, but knew that could be used against them too at the moment. It would make it look like Penny was just going around killing people. Since she could do that if she wanted and no one could really stop her, that wasn’t a rumor that Marcia ever wanted to start. They’d paint her as a good girl that had to do a very hard thing instead.

  Or they’d try to do that at any rate. It might not work, she knew.

  Penny was hard to show in a good light, because she just didn’t show up at all. It was her greatest strength as an asset, but also a PR nightmare. Luckily those she just got to dump on Charlot.

  At the moment though, it was time to eat. The food all looked pretty special for a picnic, coming in several courses, with things like stuffed mushrooms, some kind of seafood that looked like crab baked into little cakes and sandwiches as well as potato salad. It all tasted the same to her, so she tried to smile at Warren and Tobin as everyone else told them how wonderful it was.

  “Great job guys.” It got added after she choked down a bite of stuffed mushroom that felt like soft mush in her mouth. It wasn’t their fault eating was a chore for her after all. Besides, it was all on camera.

  Then they were given cake for dessert. It was part of one Mark had made, a white cake with white frosting and decorations on the outside that made it look pretty good, even though it didn’t really say picnic to her. Tobin passed it out for them and made certain she got an extra large piece of it.

  “Der ya go.” He spoke like that sometime, his own private accent, made up of softly slurred words and a ducked head. It wasn’t that he couldn’t speak clearly, just something he did at times. It was kind of cute, like something a child might do. The guy was in his mid-twenties though. Plus he was going to be famous soon. Really he should avoid that kind of thing for a while, she decided, nearly mentioning it, until she noticed the camera pointing at her face.

  “Thanks Tobin. Looks great.” She took a big bite and made sure she didn’t react to the texture at all. Some foods didn’t work too well once you took the flavor away. It was calories though and she needed them. Mark, who was sitting across from her by about ten feet, next to Christian, smiled and waved at her.

  “I hear that you arranged for Denis and Scott to go head to head in a cooking contest with some of the other shows? I for one can’t wait.” He looked over at Denis who was making a face and then switched to Scott, who looked pleased that the attention was finally turning back to him, where it no doubt belonged. Mark nodded to him gently.

  “It’s going to be hilarious. We’ll all help though, if the rules allow it. That plus the other two cooking contests and a mock up episode of our show, along with some panel discussions, and we’re done for the week.” He seemed to think it was all doable.

  “Though we really need to watch out for the Cake Kings. That…” He shrugged and then looked over at Christian, shaking his head a bit, like it was something he didn’t really want to share, but she thought he should.

  “That show was originally my idea. It was the one I came up with, before I popped Infected. The network gave it to Jerry instead, which made sense. He was supposed to be my assistant on the show and I just couldn’t do it at the time. So, you know, Chris says he has some issues there, feeling like he didn’t really earn it, which is ridiculous. He’s really made the show his own. Hence us needing to be careful. The sabotage will probably continue, even though it’s not needed. You saw those products he and his team had earlier. Really, that fantasy cake… It was executed flawlessly.” Mark sounded relaxed and slightly sleepy, which was normal for him. He had to stay calm all the time, or his power would trigger. It wasn’t a little thing either. He was practically a meditative master and had to be, just to interact with people at all.

  Warren rolled his eyes and looked up at the sky.

  “Yes, it really was. It also took them at least a week to make. Using a stained glass motif with LEDs and carefully cast sheets of hard candy sculpture was brilliant, but not something they did yesterday. It would have been more interesting to see what they could have done in the same time frame we had to work in. Not that I’m grousing about it, just, well… OK, so I’m bitching like a little girl. Sorry. I’ll stop now.”

  Across the way, sitting with the Team two people, Kerry laughed.

  “It does show a bit of insecurity, doesn’t it? Still, they’re the cake decorating show, so it’s fine if they win that one. We have more actual cooking on ours and do a lot of other things too, so we need to win a few of the other events or people will think we suck. It’s going to be hard getting past the judges though, even if what we make is better. I was surprised they let our wedding cake win today. It really was better, but…” She took a bite of potato salad and gestured at it with her fork, a piece of real silver, since Warren wouldn’t let them use plastic. It was wasteful and damaged the environment.

  Kerry swallowed, still pointing.

  “This is really good Tobin.”

  “Thanks.” The little man turned green and looked away, but smiled.

  For a while after that, everyone made small talk and forced food on her, like it was some kind of a game. She didn’t say anything about it until Mark offered her a second piece of cake. She took it, but really didn’t want to try and eat it. There just wasn’t enough of a payoff in it for her. Plus it was suspicious. No one else was being fed like she was.

  Looking at the plate she let her brow wrinkle.

  “What gives? I know I need to eat a bit more, but this seems over the top.” She almost asked if they’d spit in her food or something, but didn’t. They were food pro’s and wouldn’t do that. Warren would probably do violence to anyone he caught trying that kind of thing, even if they did have super-powers. Mark might too, which was saying something, since the man didn’t have a violent bone in his body.

  He shrugged and looked her square in the eye.

  “Marrisa from “A Taste of Italy” noticed you earlier and started to compare her weight to yours. She’s too thin, as you might have noticed? It reminded us that you need to eat more. That’s all.” He spoke smoothly as if it was really just that, but Charlot sneered at her, which was her attempt at a friendly smile and explained.

  “The point there dear, is that if a clearly anorexic woman is trying to get down to your weight, you have a problem. People are starting to talk about it. So do your part and eat. We’ll do ours and keep you fed. Alright?” She sounded ready to argue the point, but it wasn’t needed.

  Looking down, Marcia realized she had gotten kind of thin. It wasn’t exactly all that bad, but if everyone was noticing, it might be an actual issue. That or they could have just been screwing with her. Still, medical agreed that she needed to eat more, so she’d make the effort. She could drink a pint of vegetable oil before bed each night or something.

  “I guess.” She ate the cake and didn’t say anything more about it. They were right and she needed to do her part. Most people didn’t have to struggle to eat enough, but everyone had their own cross to carry in one way or the other. This one was just hers.

  As they walked in she half expected explosions or something like that to happen, but the world stayed quiet, the hotel lights making it look pretty in the dark. The beach was lined with towering structures and a lot of people
were out, even this late, most of them having a party of some kind. It was awkward, since any of them could be setting up to attack, but that was just part of her first mode, she thought. Not that it wasn’t true, but the odds were that most people weren’t going to go after this group for one good reason.

  They couldn’t win if they did.

  They wouldn’t try it using force at least, she amended. That left a lot that people could do though, from calling in false police reports, to making it look like they were being attacked by the IPB on film. Nothing happened, but she kept her eyes open, even as she whispered to Lancaster about reporting the information they had.

  “Is it enough, do you think?” He sounded reasonable and skeptical at the same time.

  It made her snort in sudden laughter.

  “Heck no. We’ll look like morons here. It has to be done though. Go through Moore and let him spin it for us. He’s good at that kind of thing.” They were almost into the hotel, standing in the open door when Marcia heard the yelling. It was coming from a female.

  Not one of their people, since those were all with them. She double checked that again quickly. All accounted for. It was coming from a ways off. More than anything Marcia wanted to ignore it, but it was getting louder as they all walked in slowly, looking at each other. Whoever it was, the woman sounded angry and like she’d had a bit too much to drink. More than just a little, since most people wouldn’t be throwing things in the hallway of a hotel. At least that was what Marcia took the crashing sound to be.

  Unless it was about her crew though, or had to do with an Infected person directly, it wasn’t their business. At least Marcia hoped not. Keeping that in mind she walked slowly, noting that the noise wasn’t letting up at all. They had to round three turns to find the source of the noise, which came from the lobby, not the hallway at all. About half a dozen people stood around as a woman who seemed to be on drugs of some sort slapped at Alan the guy with the glasses and thinning hair that had decided that Denis and Scott should be in a contest together.

  The woman laying the hurt on him wasn’t doing it very well. In fact, soft cooking show guy or not, Alan was holding his own pretty well, blocking almost everything she threw at him and doing it calmly, trying to yell loud enough to be heard over her as she hurled verbal abuse his way. That was a good thing, since they had cameras with them too, and without needing to be told too, they started capturing the scene.

  The wild looking woman was dark skinned, but a coffee and cream color that probably worked well on camera. She was wearing what seemed to be a teddy, a few bits of see through material and a garter belt around her left thigh. From what she was yelling though the whole thing didn’t seem to be about Alan at all. He was just in her way, trying to get her to calm down. It also wasn’t about sex, despite the costume.

  “Deb, sweetheart, let’s go find a place to sit and talk this out? I’m sure that no one wanted to mess with your schedule. It’s all a work in progress. We can just change some things back; it’s not a real problem.” Looking panicked the man saw them all and stared at Prime, who was notorious for being into himself. Denis got a glance too, which told Marcia a lot about what was probably going on.

  Alan had tried to set up that contest thing for them and now Deb, whoever she was, had a problem with it. Possibly because Denis and Scott weren’t real competition and she felt insulted by the comparison. They could always just cancel the thing though. They’d just let Scott help somewhere else and he’d be happy. As long as he was the center of attention that was. Maybe they could have him host something or other?

  That of course, wasn’t the problem. Not totally. The woman didn’t seem to care that she’d be in a contest with other junior show members even if they weren’t good at their jobs. No, it was that they were Infected.

  “You can’t make me work with them. What if they rape me? Or god, who knows what? Eat me or something? Infected people do things like that. Look at that Jackal guy. The Network is responsible for making sure I don’t get hurt while I’m working and I’m calling my lawyer! Making me be in the same room with monsters is a breach of contract. I’ll own the whole thing if you don’t fix this.” She punctuated the last word by hurling a name placard from the front desk into the wall behind the innocent man working the counter. He looked pretty scared. That or annoyed. It was a bit hard to tell given everything. His smile looked frustrated, rather than happy.

  Marcia knew that she was leaning toward annoyed herself. She was about to wade in and protect Alan’s honor physically when someone else did it. The man was still dressed like a chef, having come from out of shooting something, hearing the commotion no doubt. It was the guy with the heavy New Jersey accent.

  “Debbie, what the hell are you doing? Trying to get us all kicked out of the hotel? We still have five days here, you know. Now what’s the problem?”He sounded reasonable to Marcia, but apparently Deb didn’t like the sound of it, because she started screaming again for several minutes.

  It was a rant against the Infected, mainly. One it wasn’t very coherent, but that accused several of them of some pretty nasty things. Personally. Not just the Infected in general, but people actually in the room.

  “That guy from that Infected show… the one that sleeps with his sister? That and the guy that raped his own daughter! That’s what they want me to work with! I won’t have it. No! Tell them that if they don’t fix this, I quit. I mean it! They can fill my time spot with someone else. Get some Infected freak to do it. I’d like to see them try it. Lose the whole network without me. They need me. Won’t do it.” She started to wind down about then, realizing that most of the people watching her were the ones she was talking about. She looked scared and like she was about to run for it when Denis started speaking.

  “I don’t now, and never have, slept with any of my sisters. Just for the record here. I think you got that from the fact that our father was a crazy anti-Infected activist that forced his daughters to marry him. Got to love Christianity, right? So he might have had some things in common with you, since you both seem to hate people for having a disease and all that. Still, the part about me sleeping with my sister, since it isn’t true, is just slander. You might want to watch saying things like that on camera. For that matter, Scott didn’t harm his daughter at all. He was framed and it was all uncovered, since it wasn’t a very good job of it. So that’s two lawsuits you can’t win right there. Plus, you know, refusing to work with people due to bigotry is Illegal now. Just thought you might want to know all that.” He sounded snarky and a bit mean when he said it, but didn’t follow it up with a string of four letter words, so it was a win for him, given his old habits.

  Scott took a deep breath, and then didn’t respond at all. Instead they all just watched the woman go wide eyed and then start screaming again.

  “Help! They’re trying to kill me! Help!”

  Trying not to seem too mean about it, Marcia had to roll her eyes. At least New Jersey man and Alan tried to get her to quiet down. Then, they weren’t half as high as Deb seemed, in fact celebrity chefs or not, they both seemed sober and ready to work. This went on until the police came again, about five minutes later. They weren’t anyone that Marcia had seen before at least, but there were six of them and they all held their hands on the top of their holstered weapons, the clasps already open, ready to draw. She rolled her eyes and then let them close. She got the general idea, but the police pretty much knew who they were now. They really should have gotten the word to not interfere in IPB business. At the very least they should have come in asking questions instead of trying to use intimidation tactics. That, obviously, wasn’t going to work here and they had to know that by now.

  “Everyone back off!” The one in front growled, using a command voice, as he’d no doubt been taught in the academy. It normally worked, except for when it caused people to become violent, which was about ten percent of the time. More so with people that already didn’t like the police and didn’t trust them to do thei
r jobs.

  The woman started screaming and pointing at Denis and Scott.

  “They were going to kill me! Get them, get them!” It was sudden and convincing enough that one of the men in the back, who was standing next to a female officer, drew his weapon.

  That should have been Denis’s signal to drop them all, but he was distracted by the woman in front of them, shocked that she’d say something so obviously untrue. That meant he didn’t even notice when Proxy started moving on the man. The whole scene was too close to something from Brian’s past for him to let it go or wait for it to be resolved peacefully. Marcia had read the police reports enough to get the general idea; it was pretty close to a replay of something horrible for him. Apparently he’d learned some better tactics since then and wasn’t letting it happen again.

  About three seconds later the officer was lying on the ground, having made several loud crunching noises as bones broke in his face and possibly back. The other police tried to fight then, but it didn’t work. Less than twenty seconds later, the group of six was unconscious, and most probably needed to go to the hospital. Or they would, except that Brian was returning to the first one, ready to make sure that part wasn’t necessary.

  He really didn’t like the police, which everyone pretty much got already, including the cops no doubt. Sure, they’d messed up again from his perspective, but what were they supposed to have done? A crowd of super-humans surrounding a woman that claimed her life was in danger? Of course they’d gone for a weapon or two. It was what they were trained to do, since they didn’t stand a chance any other way. In this case they just hadn’t stood a chance at all.

  Before Brian could kill the man Lancaster spoke, his voice calm, like it almost always was.

  “Easy there kid. Easy. We need them alive this time. Christian can check out their intent for us, when they wake up. It’s pretty obvious who we are at this point, so they knew they were breaking the law no doubt, drawing on federal agents. Let’s see how this one plays out.”