by P. S. Power
He didn't make a big production of things when the time came for the news conference. He marched to the back room behind the stage, got Clari to put some make up on him and refused to mention what he was going to be doing to anyone at all.
That meant that Doug and Janice really had to show up, even though he wasn't going to let them speak at all. The rest of Team One was there too, all in their uniforms, which were individual things, each one different than the others. Team Three didn't really have uniforms at all and Team Two all wore matching blue outfits, or at least variations of that. Some of them didn't fit in ordinary clothing at all, like Lauren, who was so big and armored that she usually just had an IPB decal on her front when she was working. The kind normally used on cars.
He didn't let the Director introduce him either, not wanting Braid to have that much of a chance to respond to things.
Brian held up the paper in his hand until the reporters in the room went silent. It wasn't the normal full compliment, there were only six of them, but they had cameras with them and direct lines to their networks, so it was enough. At least one seemed to be the intern or something, a boy that stood there looking nervous, even though he had a press pass on him.
"This is a signed Death Warrant for Senator Hooper. I'm here tonight to explain to all of you why we had to file for this, and to give the man a brief chance to explain himself, so that we won't have to serve it. That is our honest hope. It's come to our attention that there is evidence that-" A squeal of feedback ripped through the room then, causing everyone to wince and look around, a low murmur coming from the reporters.
It was just possible that the government, or some part of it, was busily jamming the signal. That or the whole thing was pulled off the air. Instead the press all looked over at a screen on the wall, one that showed what was going out over the IPB feed. Stations could use it or not, but he had a strange feeling that a lot of them were going to be running this one.
He just didn't know if it was real at all. After a few seconds he hoped to god that it wasn't.
It showed a man, nude it seemed, except for a black bar to censor his naughty bits from the public eye, moving towards a naked girl laying on a bed. She was crying. It was a heart rending thing to listen to.
"No daddy, no!" The voice was soft enough that there were captions at the bottom.
"Daddy has needs. Be a good girl now. Be a good girl..." Then the man moved on to the bed and started touching the girl.
Brian threw up. It was sudden and hard, forcing him to lean to the right and make a mess on the mustard colored carpet. The heaving didn't stop for nearly a minute either.
He recognized the Senator and his daughter too, a little girl that he'd helped to save once. Rage burned in his stomach and tried to come out violently for half a minute more. It wasn't a pretty thing and of course all the cameras were on him before he was done.
Standing he wiped his mouth with the back of his right hand, the bitter taste in it not enough to remove the horrible image from his mind. He didn't know where it had come from, but he had an idea. Trivia was basically the master of everything after all and she would have known what he was going to do. It was the last part of the video that really made it something real to him as he watched, secretly wanting to look away.
Nadia Fields, a person he'd never met in person, the little girl's nanny, walked into the room and tried to stop the Senator, pulling on him desperately, which got her beaten for a long time. That went on until he finally killed her, caving her head in, making a bloody mess on the floor. The camera shot didn't change at all through the whole thing, which made it look a lot more real than if it had. It looked like a some kind of camera set up to watch things. A "nanny cam", except this one was probably put in place by the nanny herself to try and protect her ward.
It was kind of clear that no matter what else was going on, if Nadia Fields was dead, the Senator wasn't going to easily talk his way out of this one.
Brian looked around and did something that was a lot smarter than he felt like at the moment. He gestured to the Director.
"Please take over... I can't..." He could have of course, but it worked wonderfully.
"Yes. That footage... We have to verify the whereabouts of Nadia Fields and the safety of the Senator's daughter is our first priority. As you can all see, this has to be taken very seriously. We didn't put that footage up, but this can easily be cleared up by showing us Nadia Fields. We ask that Senator Hooper come forward now and submit to truth verification..." It took a few minutes, but he got both the FBI and the IPB out to look for the man. It was both horrible, if the thing was real at all, which Brian had to hope it wasn't, and incredible at the same time. The feed was being re-played by every major news channel, with the conservative network already claiming it was a hoax by the time Brian got to the back room and turned on a television.
Mark and Denis came to find him, along with Penny and Marcia.
"So, Brian, what the hell? Did you get that set up? How?" Marcia said it easily, as if forgetting that they were always being watched. She couldn't forget things like that in reality, her innate caution wouldn't let that happen at all, so it was a cue for him to start spinning a story. He decided to go with the truth, or at least part of it.
"Not me at all. I... I don't know... but I think it might be real. We need to find Nadia Fields and see if she's alive first. If we can't... God, guys, I just don't know what to do. That poor girl." He shook his head, trying not to let tears run down his face and failing. It wasn't like him to cry, even over things like this, not anymore. But Denis was staring at him.
Trying to make him feel like he was torn up? Or maybe make it seem like he wasn't some kind of mechanical super killer with no soul? It was probably what had made him throw up too.
It made sense. He held up both hands and fought for calm, which took a bit, breathing hard the whole time. Finally Denis let go of what he was doing and he snapped back to a more normal state. The guy was powerful and could make a person feel anything, but that could be fought, if you really tried. At least he could do it. Hobbs could too.
It was hard, but the truth was he'd been taken by surprise too. The whole thing coming out of the blue like it had. The place was buzzing by the time he cleaned up and got back out front, more in control of himself. There was no statement from the Senators office yet, but there wouldn't be, even if he was innocent. They hadn't had a lot of time to try and process things. Every news channel had the footage though, Sam, a guy from the front office, ran in to deliver an update to them, which, most likely, was really for Marcia.
"This has gone viral on the web. In the last ten minutes over fifty thousand people have downloaded the murder. If we maximize this..." He didn't finish it at all. The guy was nice enough and probably fit, but he didn't really look it standing in the room with the rest of them. Even Mark looked pretty lean and hard compared to him. More of an endurance athlete of course. It had to do with his power. Machines didn't work well when he stopped time, so when he had to travel long distances he did it on foot, or sometimes, on a bicycle. The man had ridden and walked over more of the country than Brian had flown over. It showed on his lean form.
"No word on the Fields woman yet. Nothing at all. No contact, no missing persons report, not even any friends coming forward. Something should break soon, we have some people trying to get in touch with her family." Then without waiting for a reply he walked out of the room just as fast as he'd come in.
As odd as it seemed it was Mark that broke the tension, actually making a joke.
"I take it that Senator Hooper won't be doing our holiday special then, will he Brian?"
No one laughed, but it still helped a lot, he shook his head though and kept trying to figure out how to make it all work for them. The guy was a louse, and still would be, even if they found Nadia Fields later in the day, but this could also backfire on them greatly, if the daughter had been raped, but the nanny was alive, then the whole thing would be thought of a
s a fake. It was horrible, but the best thing for the world was, it turned out, for the heroic woman that had tried to protect her charge to be dead.
It wasn't a thought he was proud of having, even if it was true.
The next hours were tense, and no one even tried to sleep, watching the television and making phone calls to try and have the best information possible. Brian even got a call from the President, but couldn't say much about what might be happening. Mainly, as he explained, because he just didn't know.
"Seriously sir, I was just going to ask that he come forward and explain why he was having me locked away in a fashion that he knew I'd have to break, and had no control over. I'll still do that, if the rest of this isn't real. It's so horrible."
"Yeah, it is. This is a tragedy, no matter what happens. We need to get together and plan a statement, my cabinet and your people. Think your Director will be up for that? It's not half as glamorous as it sounds. I won't ask you to come in, I know that's dangerous for you, but if you have anything for me, call."
He started talking about the man just as he walked into the room they'd ended up gathering in, but decided not to censor himself. The President needed the information and it had to be correct, didn't it? He was a federal employee after all, making the man his uber boss.
"Director Moore is a pain in the ass most days sir. For me at least. I don't mark time by when I sleep anymore, but by how regularly we bump heads. As a rule he's more concerned with politics than people, and is willing to sacrifice his own agents for personal gain, or at least the gain of the IPB."
The man looked hurt, his face closing down as if it were a mortal insult, not just the way Brian saw him most of the time.
"He's also one of the best people I've ever heard of in a crisis, highly intelligent, and willing to sacrifice anything for the people of this country. So, yeah, I think he can handle a few boring cabinet meetings. I'll send him with a book of Sudoku puzzles. I'm sure he'll be fine."
The President didn't chuckle though.
"Good, I'll expect him in the morning then. See to that for me."
They didn't waste time on formalities but Brian did let the other man hang up first, so it wouldn't be him being the rude one.
"Director Moore. You're expected at the White house in, um, like six hours. You need a direct flight, one of the fast planes too. Who sets that up?"
"Sam..." The man seemed skeptical, but he didn't act like it was a trick.
Brian got Marcia to go and find him, because she knew where he might actually be. Denis came in with some drinks for them all, a light lemonade thing for him that was pretty good and coffee for the Director. When he left everyone else just happened to follow him out, as if it were a casual thing. It left Moore standing with him, alone.
"Do you really think I don't care about my people?" It was kind of quiet, and sounded a little hurt, but in an old man way.
Brian thought about it, not wanting to just be a jerk, but not caring what the man thought of him that much anymore. He never really had. They were just too different in that way and it probably couldn't be fixed. Some people just didn't like each other by nature. He shrugged and nodded.
"I think that you would do absolutely anything to keep the IPB together, but... I think that you don't care about most of the people here at all. You think you do, but you only really care about the ones you like. The rest are numbers to you, or entries in a book. You decorate the first floor like a palace, because the "stars" on Team One might have cameras coming in, and they could choose to leave. That's fine, I guess, but look at Team Two. The rest of us live in a four or five star hotel and they don't even get a super-eight? Have you eaten at their facility? It isn't horrible, but it sure as heck isn't what Team One eats, or even Team Three, eat. Everything there is just a little bit shoddy, everyone is kept just a little bit too close to each other, and in the end, I'm almost certain, you wouldn't blink an eye about sending them all to their deaths, not if it made the IPB look good. You certainly won't lose any sleep when I finally die. That one is probably fair enough, but Tobin, Lauren and the others don't deserve shoddy treatment. They're the backbone of the IPB."
The man went still for a second, like he was considering trying to argue the point, but in the end he just spoke, his face flat.
"There are a lot of things you don't know about. More than I can share with you at all. I do care. More than I can express. Never doubt that." It sounded really sincere.
The thing was, Brian did doubt it.
Very much so.
Chapter ten
It was clear that Hooper wasn't going to go down half as easy as he should have, given the huge uproar the video caused. He lawyered up so fast that no one even got to talk to the man. Just a mouthpiece that looked like an older version of a mummy from a nineteen-twenties movie. In a really nice suit, so at least there was that. The man refused to go on the air to defend the Senator either, just making a simple statement that the lies being spread were politically motivated and that the man hoped that no one had harmed his friend and employee, Miss Fields.
No one could find her of course, which really wasn't surprising, given everything. Brian just hoped the woman hadn't been killed to get her out of the way. He wanted Hooper taken down, but there had to be limits on things like that, or else they were the bad guys. Most people thought they were already, so when it was leaked that the IPB might have had something to do with faking the video a certain portion of the population latched on to the idea instantly.
They'd rather see the Infected as evil than their hero and savior as a murdering pedophile.
It was probably just human nature to think that way, so Brian didn't let the idea bother him too much. So far no one was claiming that he, personally, had done anything, even though he'd been about to make an announcement when the thing came to light.
The night was a long one and he had to go off to protect a group of small children from a crowd of men that were, as far as he could tell, fighting them in a pit. Like dogs. They were all American too, so it wasn't some strange and evil custom from overseas. When he got back, less than an hour later, having left about fifteen bodies behind for the police... the local cops showed up to arrest him, at the behest of the State Department.
He just shook his head and asked that they not be let inside the gate this time. If they came in he was just going to kill them anyway, since the State Department didn't have the right to arrest him for doing his job. They camped out in front of the base, waiting for him to leave, the ATF coming in a few hours later, even though there was no way they had any jurisdiction over him at all either. What he noticed and felt a little heartened by, was that the DHS and FBI both called in to say they weren't bothering to come at all.
Marcia grinned when she reported that to him, looking more than a little worn down from the events of the night. Not as much as he did, most likely, but her hair wasn't perfect anymore and her all white outfit had a smudge on the right arm that looked like she'd been fighting. No one had mentioned anything like that to him and she certainly wasn't hurt, so he just noted it and let it go. It was selfish, but for some strange reason the government trying to arrest him over something he couldn't help was kind of worrying. He wasn't going in though, which most of the people at the base finally seemed to understand.
"The DHS says that it isn't illegal for an IPB agent to stop crimes within the U.S. and the FBI put out a statement actually saying that they believe it's illegal for anyone to try and detain you based on your Infected status, which is what the State Department is essentially doing. There's a hearing about this in a few hours in D.C. and something about the Hooper mess. He's locked himself in his apartment with his wife and daughter. The police are trying to get in now. It's delicate, because they can't, by law, take him when he leaves to go into work. They don't know if he's hurting the girl right now or not."
Which worried the hell out of him. Brian just hoped that if it came down to it he'd take her place. If that happened he was
going to have to kill the man, which would be a problem, but he wasn't letting a little girl be raped or killed to cover up a crime. Not even if it was politically expedient. It didn't happen, of course and for once he didn't even trade out again for hours. The whole process was speeding up, it was clear, or had been since he'd gotten back from the past, as if he were stronger now and his power wanted him to keep doing more. It was good to be out helping people, but each time he left was a risk, especially at the moment.
The early morning was nerve racking, and when he sat down to lunch, hours later, he could barely eat at all. It was worse than just not being hungry too. His stomach was clenched into a tight knot and felt like someone had been hitting him all night long. The muscles along his shoulders were bunched and tight. That, added to the light shaking he was doing made him seem almost neurotic, no doubt.
It really was just about the girl though, and his own inability to help her. He'd have given up his life for her, but being unable to do anything made him feel awful, like he was seconds away from total failure at any moment.
The Senator made his way, with an armed escort of guards, to his early rounds on the hill, which let the local police use a warrant to search his D.C. apartment. There was no one else there. No wife, daughter or nanny. There wasn't even a trace of blood left on the carpet, even though the scene had clearly taken place in the girl's bedroom. The carpet was new however, so that could mean anything.
"Great." He paced in the television room on floor two, the one with a forty-eight inch screen mounted to the wall for easy viewing of events as they unfolded. Across the room Denis sat, almost as tense as Brian it seemed, his hands intertwined and fingers going white and red.
"Yeah, I know. We should have done something before. I would have, if I'd known about his daughter." Denis sat up and sighed, the process not seeming to give him any relief from the pressure at all.
"This is so fucked. What do we do? That little girl is out there somewhere, having who knows what happen to her and we're just sitting here, waiting for them to find some bodies, hoping for it, because it's the only way we can take that creep down. I may be an asshole, but even I know that's not a good thing." He sounded angry about it, but frustrated too.