by P. S. Power
Scott moved past her gently, his expensive suit untouched. Brian was trying to come through the door too, weapon in hand, which got him grabbed by Denis… which didn’t do much to stop him, and then Bridget, which at least slowed him down a bit since she pinned his legs together. The large golden man turned to look at the scene and then winked, which got caught on the cameras no doubt, which were also trying to fight their way past Proxy, now that it looked like no one was going to die. Marcia thought they were being a little overly optimistic given the serious look on Brian’s face.
Prime spoke loudly enough for his voice to carry.
“Well, this was an interesting exercise. We should probably not do anymore that are quite this realistic while the conference is going on. We have all the wonderful people from the Food Network coming in after all, as well as other celebrities, like the new pop sensation Tobin Peterson, as well as Mark Steinberg from the “Steinberg and Friends” cooking program. This is going to be an exciting week for everyone and we all want to thank the good officers of the Miami Police Department for helping us stage this training event. Now we’re all heading down the street to the famous “Maison Enrique” for dinner. You’re all invited to join us if you wish? My treat.” He spoke directly to the police officers, but a small crowd was gathering inside the lobby, most of them looking a bit shaken still, as Proxy struggled to close with the police.
He really needed to calm the heck down, or it was going to trigger a really bad chain of events. Ink and Lauren had grabbed him too, which stopped him at the door for a few moments but even with all the strength and bulk on him, the guy was slowly progressing anyway. Only inches at a time, but it wasn’t physically possible, she didn’t think. Even if he were superhumanly strong, there was just too much weight with Lauren on him like that. He shouldn’t have had the traction to move at all. Prime couldn’t have done it and she didn’t think she could have either. He did it anyway, moving from side to side, shifting and flowing, rocking and not giving up anything to the people trying to pull him back.
She looked at the scene for a minute, wondering if Brian had just finally lost it. He should have been able to calm down, but for some reason he just wasn’t. Sure, he hated cops, but this was the kind of thing she expected from him when he was trying to protect someone, not what he did just because he was a little mad. Something was wrong.
“Brian… What is it? What’s your target?” The words made sense to her, but no one else seemed to get it. He glanced at her then froze in place.
“Sniper, behind the trees, six hundred meters. They don’t have a shot yet, but they’re going to hit the police when they try to leave. If we don’t stop them.” He started trying to move again, but stopped when she waved him back.
“Oh? OK. So, gentlemen and ladies, you all heard that? Don’t leave until we can catch the sniper. Level, Prime and I will do that. My dress is ruined already. Everyone got that? Brian, can you point us in the right direction?” It meant him being let go, but he just ducked to a knee, making himself a smaller target, hidden behind several cars from the attackers perspective and pointed, his finger unwavering. The position was on the ground, a clump of well manicured shrubbery with three palm trees nearby.
It was a race to see who’d get there first. It ended up being her, and the man on the ground was wearing fatigues, but an older style not used anymore. Whoever he was managed to shoot her as she grabbed for the rifle he had, which was a nice weapon, but not the best on the market. So a professional, probably ex-army by the look of things, or a really talented amateur that had actually studied up. After she slapped him lightly, not letting him stand up from the prone position he’d taken, she hoisted him to her right shoulder and carried the rifle in her left hand. No need to leave a mess.
“Is this one of your people?” She asked Sergeant Ruiz directly when she got back to the squad cars, but the man shook his head.
“Not ours. I guess we should take him in for questioning? Probably weapons charges if nothing else.” He waved, which got the fellow but in cuffs pretty quickly, before he could wake up. A short fifteen minutes later they all actually left, without any bloodshed at all. She sighed. It was just so messed up that they had to put up with crap like that from the police. She got the idea, that the men and women in blue were just out of their league and didn’t want to admit it all the time due to fear, but it was still a pain.
Without bothering to change, she decided to just go along with the others to the restaurant. They had a cover story out for the police, the fake training thing, so maybe it would be enough? Probably not, since the whole thing had to have been on some camera or another, but Scott had covered up so smoothly it sounded real to her. They had a mission though, getting to dinner, which meant walking to get some food. She’d have happily skipped out, but Warren’s friend was counting on them to help boost his sales. That was important too. You helped out a buddy if you could; it was why she was there herself after all.
Warren tried to take the lead, actually knowing roughly where the place was, but Bridget made him hang back, taking her job as his protector seriously. It was a good point, which got Marcia to move up into the lead, using her body to provide a bit of cover for the others. Scott flanked her, with his daughter on the other side. Level used her bulk to cover them from the back. It had to look a bit funny, but no one in the middle said anything about it. Most of them didn’t stop bullets nearly as well after all, and there had been an attack, or nearly had been, so it just made sense to stay ready.
Brian muttered, having moved in next to Warren, with Karen beside him, holding on to her hand.
“You should have let me kill those guys Marcia. They’ll just turn around and abuse their power again, probably hurting or killing the next person, since we won’t be there to stop them. We really need to do something about the police.” He sounded sincere but Warren, who was right next to him, snorted and rolled his eyes.
“Seriously? Look Brian, I hear what you’re saying, and even understand why, but those weren’t the same people that hurt you before. They were just some scared people trying to deal with a situation that they were way out of their ability class for. OK, it was almost exactly the wrong way of doing things, but that was just fear, not evil. They didn’t deserve to die for it, and it doesn’t mean they’re even bad guys really. Some probably are, but a lot of them are just working a job. You kind of over-reacted.” He seemed to realize that taking the man to task while he was still worked up might be a bad plan, but he didn’t take any of it back.
Marcia had to agree.
“It’s true Bri. Sometimes an asshole cop is just an asshole, not someone with a secret anti-Infected agenda. They were a bit too aggressive, but what would you have done if you suddenly got put into a position where you faced Ink, Lauren, Tobin and Peggy like that? Especially if you’d been told you were there to maybe protect some child that had been stolen?” She looked back, but only briefly, trying to keep her gaze moving in case another attack was coming. It probably wouldn’t, but odds were that sniper wasn’t in place by accident.
For that matter she should have gotten Chris to read him and make sure it wasn’t part of a set-up or a larger event.
The cool blonde spoke from behind her then, responding to her thoughts.
“He planned to start a “race war” by killing a few of the police and blaming it on the Infected population. The man’s not well, mentally, but he’s not a terrorist in any organized sense, just a person with a grudge and a police scanner. Not a credible threat.” Her voice was smooth, like she was trying to sound good for the cameras, but Marcia didn’t see anything close enough to be easily picking them up. Not out in the open. That just meant there might be hidden ones or things she hadn’t noticed yet.
They walked for a while in silence when Brian spoke again, his voice low and a bit menacing.
“Sorry. Not trying to be the bad guy. Still, you have to understand… most of you don’t seem to get what the police really are. They ar
en’t some group of basically good guys like you think. Most of them would abuse and hurt you if they could get away with it. You’re all just too powerful, protected, or lucky to have had to really deal with them yet. That doesn’t mean you should trust them. It certainly doesn’t mean I should.” He was looking around at least as much as Marcia was, so their eyes locked briefly, both set brown, if in different shades.
Warren shrugged, thin shoulders making the loose jacket he wore shift more than it should have.
“That sounds like the kind of thing someone that’s been arrested for something would say, doesn’t it?” His tone wasn’t adversarial, but Marcia winced, which he saw, his eyes going wide, realizing what he’d just said.
Brian snapped back at him, still on edge from earlier.
“You mean an expert on the subject of police abuse? Yeah, it does sound like that. Really, if you haven’t been arrested your just talking out of your ass when it comes to what they really do, aren’t you? The fuckers tried to kill me over and over again, even without me having broken any laws. I’m not the only one either. Maybe you should stop trying to blindly defend them and start learning about what the hell you’re talking about first? Do you think those police back there would have treated you fairly if they took us all in? As far as their concerned you’re one of us. You’d have been beaten and maybe killed, for being Infected, even though you aren’t. Is that really what you want to defend? If that’s what you believe in, I don’t want to know you.” The words got more than a little loud toward the end and Brian’s hand worked around to his waist toward the back, where his handgun was.
Marcia stopped and turned to look at them all.
“Brian, stop that. Warren has some good points and yes, you do to. No one’s denying that at all. We can’t afford to fight amongst ourselves, especially in public. You two want to hold a debate, let’s wait to get back to the base. Really though, both sides are right, so no one seeing it just one way is going to be correct. We need to keep things balanced here.” She started walking again, quickly, but not too fast for everyone else to keep up with her. It was going to be a long week if people started debating political things on the first day.
It was already ruined as far as a good vacation for Brian went. He was so agitated it couldn’t possibly be restful for him in any way. Plus he had obvious bruises forming from where Bridget and Lauren had tried to hold him back. It hadn’t been a fight, but in those few moments of struggling he’d damaged himself. It was kind of messed up. It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. It was more than she wanted to deal with really. That was part of her job though, keeping things together.
After a few steps it was clear the Brian wasn’t done though.
“What? Stop doing what? Telling the truth? Pointing out that the police might not be perfect all the time? Sorry if no one wants to hear it, but it doesn’t make it false. I didn’t sign up with the IPB to lose my right to free speech, if that’s what you’re saying then…” He didn’t finish the sentence. Probably because Tobin had worked his way to his side and patted his arm lightly.
“I think she means stop going for your gun. Warren is our friend and a good person. You should listen to him, even if you don’t agree with him totally. Just like he should listen to us when we talk about the things the police have done. But mainly it’s the gun thing.” The little froglike man sounded small and meek, but the words were decently clear considering how large the group was.
Proxy looked at his right arm and brought it around in front of him with a sharp jerking motion.
“Oh, sorry. I hadn’t realized I was doing that. It’s just, well, all the things I’ve done, I guess. I tend to get ready for a fight instantly anymore. I wasn’t…” The words stopped and he just walked for a long time, no one saying anything at all.
When he spoke again, they were nearly at the restaurant door. It wasn’t a huge place, but had a nice blue neon sign out front and looked clean. The door was solid though, not glass, a nice painted deep brown which looked good against the white textured walls of the place.
“I’m… It’s just that they always get away with what they do. Those police back home that beat and tortured me, tried to kill me… they got away with it. Who knows how many others they’ve killed since. The ones from the base that attacked us all, they’re being let go with no more than a slap on the wrist. Someone has to show them that they aren’t above the law. The law should count for them more than everyone else, not less. They’re supposed to enforce it, not break it over and over again. I just can’t see why no one else thinks that should matter. It’s like everyone is just saying that it’s OK to hurt me, to try and kill all of us, and you people don’t seem to even care.” He held the door open as everyone filed in. Wisely, no one answered him.
Nothing they said would help, would it?
The inside of the place was nice, at least as good as the restaurant at the base on floor one. It wasn’t busy, or hadn’t been before they got in, but others were behind them and two news vans pulled into the parking lot as Marcia headed through the door. She covered her stomach self-consciously, aware that she might be a bit out of place, since no one else wearing bullet distressed clothing as a fashion statement.
Well, maybe it would start a trend?
After a few seconds a slightly goofy looking man of about thirty, light skin, light brown hair and a funny white smock thing on, came out to greet them, beaming.
“Warren! You came! Wonderful. You brought friends I see? Very good, Indeed. We can seat you all now, if you would like? I…” The man looked worried for a second, scared even as he glanced around at the people that had walked in. After a few seconds the man froze, then whispered directly into Warren’s ear leaning close. Marcia couldn’t hear him, but from the look on everyone else’s face some of the others got the situation before she did. Better than average hearing wasn’t that odd for a group like this after all. She had good hearing, but Bridget and Scott could hear everything said clearly, no doubt. Ink too, Marcia thought.
It was a study in facial expressions though, watching Warren, she decided as his friend spoke. First he just went blank and tilted his head to the left about thirty degrees, after a few more seconds he frowned and that warped into anger from there. Swallowing he turned and looked at everyone else and shook his head. It didn’t take a genius to understand something was wrong. Christian closed her eyes and sighed, turning half away from both the men, as if trying to deny they existed at all.
Warren took a deep breath and looked at the ground.
“Apparently… Enrique doesn’t wish to have Infected individuals in his establishment. I can’t really believe it, but… I…” He blushed, looking ashamed for some reason, even though it wasn’t his fault.
It was illegal to refuse to serve people just for being Infected, but it still happened regularly. Given everything that had happened she wondered who’d kick the crap out of Enrique first, Brian or her, but the owner stepped forward, speaking quickly.
“It’s not that I dislike anyone, but having obviously Infected people here… It will hurt business long term. I hadn’t realized that Warren intended to bring…” A hand got waved in their general direction, but clearly meant to cover Lauren, Peggy and Tobin. Maybe a few of the others, but it was too vague to be certain.
She was about to step up to the man and offer to beat him down when two things happened. The first she kind of expected, which was that the agents, led by Lancaster, moved forward as a group, looking ready to arrest the man on the spot. The second thing was the odd one, the outlier. Denis stepped to the front of them all first and squared off with the man.
Instead of reading him the riot act, he whispered to the man, very gently.
“All right. If you’re too fucking moronic to serve our friends, we’ll just leave and take the cameras that are following us along with us. You know what? Screw it. I’m leaving anyway. I’d rather starve than eat here now for some reason. I think I’ll just go out and share that with th
e local and national news.” He spun and walked out, not even looking to see if anyone else was going to follow him. Brian did, which got Karen to as well, even if she had to be feeling conflicted, given her first mode. Marcia shrugged and followed. She had to eat like everyone else, but it wouldn’t matter to her if they hit McDonald’s instead of eating at this place.
A voice came into her ear then.
“I’m out of here too. Not that anyone will notice, but just so you all know. Someone should go and tell the news crew out front about this like Denis said. Several someone’s. I’d do it myself, but…”
It was a good plan. Too often Infected people just got pushed around, refused service or given treatment clearly designed to get them to leave as quickly as possible. Someone really should say something. It probably wouldn’t help, but it might point out to a few people that some behaviors were illegal.
“I agree Penny.” Marcia said as she hit the door, which was being held open by Denis for everyone else.
“We should say something about this right now. Prime, Charlot, would you two arrange that for us?”
The angry brunette had a tight look on her otherwise pretty face and her right hand was in a fist, glowing slightly, a white aura around it about an inch from the flesh.
“With pleasure dear. With pleasure.”
Marcia stood back, grabbing some of the others as she did, just so the cameras wouldn’t focus on them too much. It wasn’t that she wanted to bother hiding the “uglies”, like Peggy or Lauren, that wasn’t her point at all. What she really didn’t want was for Brian to be seen out in the open. He was just in a weird position in the world at the moment, being both loved by a large part of the population, especially women, and feared by those that viewed him as the most dangerous killer ever. She also wanted to keep Bridget off the screen if she could for much the same reason. People loved her, and thought she was darling and clever, but that would only last until they came to understand what she could really do. So for the time being it would be best to hide her a little.