by P. S. Power
“Um, hey, would you like to feel something else for a while? I can do that.”
The black eyes stared at him and nodded after a bit.
“Anything, pain even, or anger. I just don't want to be alone forever.” The weeping that came sounded horrible. Worse, the sadness was mixed with the isolation she felt too, she couldn't even hide from it for a few minutes. Not that way.
He waved her ahead of them, “all right, you have to stay in view and I won't be able to do this all the time, it takes work, so remember that.” He thought for a minute and then realized that what was needed here wouldn't be passion or pleasure, not even joy. Just peace. Kind of like what Beth had produced earlier, only about a thousand times stronger. It had to be strong to overwhelm her first mode. When the human tank walking in front of them got inside the door, he hit her and made a point of burying the loneliness totally, making the feeling of calm and steadiness so powerful that nothing else could exist within her at all for a while. She turned and clapped her hands, joyful thuds that sounded a bit like someone striking two cement blocks together.
“Thank you. This is so much better! I haven't felt free of the loneliness for so long. Years. Even just to have a few moments, knowing I have to go back... it's totally worth it.” When they all got in the elevator opened as if planned and Director Moore, Brian Yi and Karen got out, walking over with confused but friendly smiles on their faces.
That part wasn't exactly true, Denis didn't think. Really, Karen just looked happy and friendly, like a girl that really wanted to sell you a time share or get your butt into the seat of a new car. Professional and a little forced, but that was hard to tell, given her utter compassion it could have been real with her. Brian looked forced too, his face seemed darker, as if he'd just gotten back from killing someone again. The Director, he seemed a bit baffled by the whole thing.
Well, who wouldn't be?
They'd gone to get information and find out if they could prevent an attack at the planned riot or stop a terrorist action. “Demonstration” the bigots called it. Then Hobbs and him come back with a couple of chicks? Yeah. Strange to say the least.
All of this caused him to lose his hold on Lauren and she slipped back to normal, but she just thanked him again, sounding less sad now. She still had snow melting on her shoulders.
“Thanks, that really helped.” She told him, ignoring everyone else for the time being.
Denis smiled softly and shrugged, getting what had to be going on in her head for once. It was over now. That she'd had her moment of freedom and that was all she could expect.
“It's not like I don't live here you know. If you need me, I'm around. Only, let's make appointments for it or something. Maybe we could run together or something. I have to run anyway and focusing on using my ability at the same time...” He looked at Hobbs who simply beamed.
“Aye! That fits with the next section of things nicely. Let's say ten in the morning on days when other demands don't take you away Denis? In the gym on fourteen to start? Our Lady Lauren can go first, then we can add and subtract others to present a challenge for you. That plus the increased meditation should be a good start. Along with the greater amount of distance run that I have planned for you.”
Great, even more work. Still, if he was going to be doing something similar anyway, why not help out a giant suit of armor? You never knew when a class five being your friend could come in handy. The Director looked at him funny again, so he explained. For some reason the minds eyes got wide and then he smiled himself.
“Wonderful. If it's not an imposition, perhaps we could send a few others to those sessions as well? A bit of relief from their first modes would be a lovely thing for some here, even if only for a few hours a week.” The man smiled at the other women and held out his right hand to Bethy first.
“Kevin Moore. Director of the IPB.” He said, the implication being that someone needed to introduce the women pretty quick.
“These are... Well, the long story is why they're here and it actually wraps into a whole lot of other things, you'll want to talk to us in private soon. Possibly outside... in fact, snow or not, outside. For now... Well... um... Bethany Yoder is the mother of one of our operatives on Team Two. Kerry Yoder? This is her sister Ginger. Both Infected. The rest is... Important, and we need to get Kerry in on this as well as... Charlot Chambers. The rest-”
“It's well enough said. This is important, and the Director no fool. We need only arrange for the meeting in safety. Shall I go and summon the Lady Kerry?” Hobbs turned to the Director and waited on orders properly, but seemed so dammed relaxed about the whole thing. Ginger and Bethy didn't want him to leave, wary of the strangers that had come, but they did want to see Kerry.
Once Hobbs left, at a quick walk, headed straight to the elevators, Brian held out his hand to the new women as well. He had a smile on his face, a genuine one that was a lot warmer now that there had been mention of the women being related to someone at the base. That meant they were probably friendlies. Plus they were Infected.
So Denis hadn't started importing bigots yet.
“Kerry's a friend of mine, of all of us really. She's doing great work on Mark's baking show. “Steinberg and friends”. She's actually in the show too, so you should watch it and tell all your friends. I know that he's pleased with her work. Mark, I mean. She agreed to help back me up not so long ago if the police attacked me. Denis actually took care of it, but it was good to know she was there to lend a hand just in case. You should be very proud of her.” The – Infected or not – didn't get said, but it practically poured off the man, dressed in a Team Three exercise uniform with black long johns on underneath. It looked a little funny, but warm, and given the temperature outside, who could blame him? Maybe a pair could be bought in the store on base. Not that Denis had any money at all. Right. Well, he wanted some anyway.
He'd have to remember to ask Brian where to get them and maybe if he could arrange for it to happen. They were friends, right? So asking wouldn't hurt.
Then he focused on the moment, hard, and after about ten seconds didn't care about that anymore. It really was like magic.
Being the Director, old, and not wanting to be uncomfortable, Moore got several agents to bundle up and go out past the edge of the property to set up an emergency tent big enough for about ten people to sleep in.
It wasn't some marvel of science or anything, just a thick cloth tent that they set up a propane heater in. It took a while because the agents had to come back and get shovels so they could clear the snow to the ground. They worked fast though, like losing even a minute would cost someone a life. Probably a big part of why they always seemed so good at their jobs. The agents just didn't hold anything back when it came to work. Pure focus on the job at hand, like their lives depended on it. Or at least like someone's did, if not their own.
Probably because it was often just the truth. It might even be in this case, he realized.
They sat on benches in the lobby, since Hobbs pointed out that going anywhere would just slow down what they needed to do before he left. The man never cared for comfort. Not that Denis had seen. Not his own and not that of anyone else if there was something to be done at the moment. Really, only the current situation had probably kept him from dragging Denis outside to meditate. That and the growing windstorm. Snow had started to blow hard about the same time the elevators opened and Kerry walked out with the man himself.
“Mom? Ginger? Um...” She said cleverly, disguising her pure bafflement with raw confusion. Finally she just stared at them and went very still. As strange as it seemed she focused on Brian and looked more than a little scared. A slight sense of energy came from her as she readied to fight her way free.
Their way free.
The Director got it first and tensed, but Proxy just grinned at her and spoke quickly, waving his right hand a little, a relaxed and friendly gesture.
“Not anything like that, I don't think so at least. We can't talk about
it here though? So we need to move outside as soon as the agents have a place set up for us.”
It was all accurate, concise and meant nearly nothing to someone just walking up on the scene. For that matter the people here, Brian and Director Moore, Karen... they had no clue about it all either. They were just acting on what Hobbs and he had told them. It was important, but showed a lot more trust than Denis would have expected from anyone there except maybe Karen. She trusted everyone anyway and he had kind of gotten her the only parachute on a crashing plane once, so that might sway her opinion.
Blinking slightly it occurred to him that it might be swaying everyone's. After that had happened everyone had kind of started acting like he was really a part of the team, hadn't they? Almost everyone.
The agents made it back before Charlot Chambers got there but only by a minute or two. When she got out of the elevator she wore a heavy winter jacket and a snow suit that would have looked at home on a mountain, near a ski resort. Possibly with a mug of hot chocolate in hand. A soft pink and white combination of puffy, well-padded clothing. She looked cute. The outfit even had a little pink fuzzy hat to go with it.
Not one, but two agent driven snow vehicles, Sno-Cats, if the name on the side meant anything, pulled up on their large tracks, the big machines a dark brownish green sitting in the light that came off the front of the building. One of the agents ran in and loaded them all on carefully, calling out brisk instructions about where to step and helping them all on.
Denis rode with Hobbs, Kerry and the other spawn of Prophet Darren, while Moore got Chambers, Karen and Brian. Safety issues no doubt. This was an odd situation to say the very least, and the agents weren't going to trust Denis to bring wholesome and friendly guests. So far no one had even asked him directly if they were friendly.
A bit of an oversight no doubt.
The ride took four times as long as it would have on foot. The tracked vehicles were much faster, but the tent had been set up a good ways away, near where the bomb had been put after the television show attack. That meant driving in the vibrating and lurching machine all the way to the main gate. Then around the exterior a good ways, avoiding low hills that didn't look like much in the daylight, but could, according to the driver, be a real hassle in the snow. The world narrowed as they drove, the only thing that could be seen being the lights from the base in the distance and a glow of headlights in the falling and blowing white fluff that surrounded them.
“Well, less than fun for a family reunion maybe, but I really doubt anyone will be listening outside the tent in this.” He smiled trying to look happy enough, but Kerry kept swallowing and held on to her sister's hand tightly as they rode.
What, did she expect a death squad or something? OK, she had kind of infiltrated the IPB, but as far as he knew, she'd always done her job well enough and hadn't done more than tell some very non-secret things to her family. That she had family to talk to was a little odd here, but that didn't make it illegal to tell them about her day job. If anything, having family that cared for you and even visited would have been encouraged if anyone had thought about it. Whatever the reason, she looked freaked when they got them all out of the snow-vehicle and into the fairly cramped, but decently warm tent. It must have been fifty degrees inside already. About the same as in the tracked monstrosities they'd rode in on. Good enough, considering how cold it was outside already.
Hobbs, surprisingly, did the speaking, his words carefully chosen and not half as flowery as normal. Not exactly his flat mid-west voice either, but very clear, so no mistakes would be made. He looked at Director Moore without so much as glancing at anyone else at first.
“We've infiltrated “The Pure” as directed, but the situation is very different than we were led to believe. It's run by a group of women who are all the daughters and wives of one Darren Jones, the religious leader of Senator Hooper's forces. Most are Infected, mainly class twos if I judged things correctly, a few class ones, yet with abilities true. Kerry Yoder and Denis Tompkins are both related by birth to the same man and we bring proof of great criminal wrong doing on the part of the villain.”
OK, Denis thought, looking at Hobbs, it might be a little flowery. His words were correct though.
Charlot Chambers nodded at the women and then, as if having to draw on some deep internal reservoir of personal strength, did the same to Den. Hobbs didn't stop, outlining the proof, the videos and genetic testing done.
“All we really need then is a new sample of Jones' DNA.” Brian said quietly. This got a funny look from Bethy who held out a light blue folder to him.
“We already have the DNA... It's real and everything.” Beth sounded worried and looked at Denis a bit desperately.
Brian smiled and nodded a bit.
“Yeah, you do, and well done. Having this information means that the IPB can just skip about seventeen hoops in this investigation all at once, but if we're going to prove anything we need to do it in a way that the public will believe. Clearly nothing we do will have much play in court. If he were Infected we could use it as a reason to arrest him, at least if he used his powers to-”
Four voices spoke at once, Kerry's loudest. She took a deep breath, almost a half sob and spoke quickly as if trying to make sure she didn't lose her nerve.
“He is. Probably a class two, coercion, using words as a focusing medium. If he has time to talk to you for a while, most people will just do what he says. It... The boys almost all left or, well vanished. I don't think he could just order a person to commit suicide, not if they were mentally healthy, but he had their whole lives to beat them down first. None of them lasted at Faithhome past twenty. None of them. I think he did it on purpose, beat them down and broke their spirits so that they'd leave when he told them to, or, you know, kill themselves. I think most of them did that. I can't prove it.”
They couldn't watch the video at first, but the agents were sent to get a machine, a portable DVD player, and set that up for them. What it showed was bad. Enough so that Lady Glory started glowing blue and then vomited loudly after throwing herself outside.
Denis nearly followed her.
He'd gotten abuse, torture, electric shocks, beatings and all that growing up and had thought it was about as bad as what could happen. What was on the screen in front of them was so much worse... It took all the new meditative skill he had not to break down crying. Moore turned the screen off and stood in the light of the single camp lantern they had in the tent.
“I see. Well, once we prove it hasn't been tampered with, that footage will no doubt be very useful in proving our case. As it is right now, we have more than enough to pick up Reverend Jones as a hostile Infected. If he were less high profile and less attached to the anti-Infected movement it would simplify matters. As it stands we may have to destroy him publicly first, then move in, otherwise the hate groups will use him as a rallying point, no matter the evidence we provide after the fact.”
The man began to direct things then, organizing and setting them all in motion. He was good at it. Masterful in a way that made everything suddenly flow somehow, without major ripples at all.
Things moved, though to Denis it all took place in an odd half speed time. Dr. Burrows came out, bundled up in a blue coat and big mittens on over gloves. The cute Japanese woman took the skin and hair samples herself, from all of the people related, meaning Denis too. Food from the restaurant got brought to them and beds arranged on the first floor. So nice rooms, but ones protected by a team of super-heroes all the time. Not as scary as being on the fifth floor with Kerry. A few of her teammates might be a little off-putting to the new women at first.
Plus, nicer digs all around.
They'd handled Level easily enough though, so maybe that wouldn't have been an issue? Denis wondered if he should send Tobin over to watch them? If there was anyone Den trusted to do that, it was him. Well, and Lancaster, but an agent standing around would be conspicuous. He made the suggestion to the Director, which oddly enough th
e man simply agreed to almost instantly. It didn't hurt that everyone else had started nodding almost instantly.
“Yeah,” Brian added softly. “I don't think anyone would be able to get past him very easily at all. He's solid.”
From the back of the tent where a small clutch of un-Infected agents stood one of them let out a dark sounding half chuckle.
“Damned straight he is. Mild mannered, polite and willing to do almost anything to help out. Want me to set it up?”
The Director nodded.
“Do it. Set up a full schedule in fact. Low key however. See if Mr. Peterson would perhaps consider entertaining the ladies? That might...”
“Right. He's a friend of mine anyway, so that would be pretty normal. A bit shy, but I can just set him up with Ginger.” Kerry smirked a bit when she said it.
Denis raised an eyebrow.
“Um, not to be a prick, but if you're making fun of Tobin, we're going to have words Kerry.” Denis tried not to growl the words, but they came out kind of flat anyway.
“Nope, he's great. Ginger just has the social skills of a sixth grader, that's all.”
Ginger proved the concept by sticking out her tongue and then laughing a bit.
“Do not. That would require at least getting to hold hands with a boy, wouldn't it? What's wrong with this guy. If he'd be willing to date me I mean. Maybe.”
“Wrong?” Denis tilted his head, then shrugged. “Nothing really. He's short, big head, black and green and code named Goblin, but really, if you can't see past that, it's your problem, not his. He's...”
“Perfect.” Karen added softly, smiling a little as she said it, but clearly meaning it.
“Yeah, see? Perfect.”
Ginger laughed, but tilted her own head a little.
“Sounds good then, I'd love to meet him.”
Then they waited, no one telling them why at all.
A mere three hours later they were all loaded back into the Sno-Cats and driven to the front door of the main building. It looked weird right now, like looking out of a snow globe into a large well lit room. One with trees in it. As they approached the building Kerry leaned over to him and whispered.