by P. S. Power
"You have to stay hidden. I can't explain it right now, but in a month or two, maybe less, the camps are going to start. When they do, the plan will be to go for the low level Infected first. The class ones and twos. That's most of them, and they're the easiest to control. After that, the real fighting will start, when they go for the people that can fight back. You're safer not being known. From now on, if anyone asks, tell them that you hate the Infected, and that you don't want anything to do with them. After I get a ride back to the base. Tell people I smell bad or something, if it comes up. For God's sake, don't tell them that we're related. Doing that is about the worst thing that you could do."
That got her to seem upset again, but she just looked ahead and drove.
It was about the best plan they had, after all.
For his part, Tobin just huddled near the floor, and hid.
Chapter nine
The next week was oddly anti-climatic for Tobin.
He was given a ride back to the base on a very nice jet, one that was Christian's since her family had several. Along with a hefty "reward" for having saved an heiress. It was only fifty-thousand, but that was about the limit of what anyone would really give for that kind of thing, and more would have looked less like they were buying a service, and more like they were helping a relative if anyone ever suspected anything. It had taken Tobin hours to make them see that too. Richard had wanted to give him ten million. The way they thought of the amounts were just different, but he had to figure that his way of thinking about it was the one that made more real world sense.
Nikki had her father's lawyer put out a press release that was nearly perfect. It condemned hate groups, and the morons that attacked her, many of whom were being prosecuted, while at the same time subtly showing how insulted she really felt about someone claiming she was a dirty Infected. Those words weren't used, but the lawyer was paid enough to be more subtle than that. It got the point across pretty well.
Kerry actually moved to his room, more or less, and they'd been linked in the press enough that it was pretty clear that she wasn't sleeping with her brother. Charlot let them know that they could break up at any time after that, since it would be more believable than if they stayed together for too long. She didn't explain why however.
Brian had a lot more work coming in, going to fight six to ten times a day, trying to protect various people. It was a sudden and huge change, and no one could really track what was happening, but the idea was that it would keep tensions down and influence the vote on the Hooper act. The revised addition.
It didn't work. He found that out on Friday, just after Bridget pulled him to his room, laughing.
"Shower up fast. I'm starving."
She'd been with him a lot for a while, even if she wasn't being punished much anymore for having gotten Clark out. There had been no sign of him at all. If he was smart the man had gone to Canada. He was too white for Mexico and didn't speak Spanish, as far as Tobin knew.
He hurried, knowing that no matter how fast he moved, she'd still be waiting for him when he got out. That wasn't exactly right, since she was gone, and it was Georgia that was there. She grabbed him into a tight hug that had none of her normal sexiness to it at all. She also looked extremely frightened.
"Oh God. It passed. I can't believe they did it. They passed it."
They both jogged down the hall, stopping to pound on doors and collect people. No one had to ask what "it" was. They all knew. It was the Hooper Act. The bill that basically would strip all human rights from the Infected. Even the revised form of it was...
Monstrous.
Worse, the pundits on television clearly blamed him for it happening. Personally. He just had to stand in shock as he watched it unfold, the wide screen television on the second floor being turned to the more liberal news channel.
"Tobin Peterson inadvertently using his power in a way that affected people at home seems to have been the key deciding point. Before that, the Republicans didn't have the needed votes for this to pass both the house and the Senate. We have reports already of anti-Infected groups calling for the legal incarceration of all Infected. There's been no word from the government on this as of yet. Bill, you have something from the President?"
That, of course, was the last hope. President Lawrence. He was liberal, and had lost his wife in an attack by hate groups, ones trying to kill him, and take over the government. The common thought was that he'd veto the act, but that wouldn't be for at least a week.
Brian stood up and stretched a bit, but when he turned to the room, one that had most of the IPB in it, his face was deathly serious.
"We need to assume that the President's hand will be forced in this case, somehow. I don't know what that will be, but we need to be ready." Then he left the room.
The rest of the people muttered, but it was a subdued thing. Tobin got that. They were being watched. Taking a deep breath, feeling anxious and like he was going to be physically ill, he looked around and spoke loudly.
"I'm going to take along walk, and clear my head. Does anyone want to come with me?"
It was funny, but everyone actually did. All the Agents and Operatives at least. He was afraid that once they got away from the base everyone would look to him for bold leadership advice, but that got shared between Brian and Marcia. She went first, addressing everyone loudly.
"This is fubar, people. We need to move all non-essential and civilian personnel off the base. ASAP. Agents... You need to seriously consider resigning. This is going to get ugly and being marked as one of us won't help you."
"Screw that." This came from Burkes, who was looking both dapper in his dark suit and incredibly angry, his slightly gray crew cut making him seem younger, but his years still showing around his eyes. "We won't bail on you. If we don't take a stand against things like this, they'll keep happening."
Brian nodded, his own eyes even darker than normal.
"Thanks. Marcia's right though. You need to pull back, and protect your families. Just assume that from now on we're all being watched all the time. Even when off base. We need to get on Tobin's idea and spread everyone out too. A few nukes coming in without warning, and we could lose everyone. They almost managed it once."
That got the idea outlined, but everyone still looked scared. That, or ready to fight. That part was clear in the eyes of many.
It was a very dangerous thing too. Marcia explained it to them. Carefully.
"The problem we have is that the government will have to know that the instant that they start calling for Infected to be rounded up, we're going to fight. That means that the only sensible first move will be on us. We have to stay connected all the time, and ready to vanish. The problem and it's a known one for military thinkers, is that no modern military force can stand against us. If it comes to a war, the unified Infected win. That means that they have to fight on a different battlefield to have a chance. I have no clue what that will be, but we have to bet that it's going to happen."
Tobin looked at the light skinned woman, her face pretty and normal looking, and then at the others. A lot of them might be able to pass. Or at least hide.
"We need to disable the tracking devices. Or be able to. How did you do that Bridget?" He sounded soft, but she heard him anyway, from across the flat and dry ground between them. She was about fifty feet away. When she spoke it was very loud.
"I used a very strong DC magnet to pull the chip out of Clark. It hurt, but it worked, and didn't destroy it, so it kept functioning while he ran. They work off of bioelectric energy, the chips I mean, so that won't work forever, since they'll run out of stored power, but we can get a bit of a head start, if we need it?" She looked around and Brian nodded.
"Good. I want you to work on that. We need enough for everyone. Figure that each working team will need one of those units and hide that you have them somehow. We're spreading out, and those of you that can will need to find a place to hide. The rest of us..."
Tobin knew that one to
o well. He couldn't vanish. Not short of wedging himself in a hole and staying there. That was one idea though, for him. Lobo, Soar, even Snow Queen, it would be a lot harder for them. Some of the others too.
Prime moved forward, his voice confident and strong, but his face seemed troubled.
"We have some land and an underground dwelling. Team One put it together for everyone. I can see the sense in spreading out, but some of the most obvious people should be there, if we can manage it. Under the radar."
The conversation went on well past the time that anything new was being suggested. There was only one thing that everyone agreed on. They weren't going to a camp, and if anyone tried to put them there, they'd fight.
It wasn't until the end of their walk, as they were headed back, that several people came to him. It was an odd grouping. Hobbs, Denis, Christian, Karen, Kerry and Brian. Looking around he noticed that Mark was behind him too.
Tobin sighed.
"Braid. She set this up. Using me. It was a trap the whole time, and she won. No matter what I did, she kept a thousand steps ahead. It was all about this vote, wasn't it?"
Hobbs smiled, and shook his slightly fuzzy red head.
"That is the power of a Timberland. The strange precognition of their kind. It is not a happy thing to be the one to trigger such a trap, but can we blame a single cog for the clock being wrong? We have a chance to set this right. Your leader, Lawrence, is a man of good heart. We need to protect him now, more than ever. I know not how this should be done, but it seems the right path. The easiest path to preventing him from taking action, is his death and replacement."
Oddly Brian seemed to agree.
"Right. We need good people with him. I have some in mind. Let me run it past the Director first."
Then he patted Tobin on the shoulder, and walked on. Everyone did, except for Christian, who stood next to him, waiting for the rest to get out of earshot.
"This is all my fault. If I'd been less shallow... A bit less vain... I would have kept you and this might have been averted. You at least would have had a better life." She looked into his black eyes and seemed sad, but Tobin smiled at her.
"The life I had, was mine. It hasn't been good, but if this all works out, then it was probably what had to happen, to make it all work, wasn't it?"
She tilted her head and gestured toward the door.
"Maybe. Isn't that how the future always is?"
"Yep. I think so at least."
They started to walk back, slowly, with Tobin working very hard not to project his own fear into the world. The situation was very bad, and so dark that it was impossible to see how they could fix it. At every turn they'd been cut off and it was possible that when they woke in the morning, that day or the next, it would be to the sound of explosions.
Instead of dwelling on it, he sighed.
"So...mom."
That got a strange, and rather wry look from Christian.
"Yes, son?"
"Can I get a pony for Christmas?" He winked, feeling nearly comfortable with her for a moment.
"We'll see. We'll see."
He got that. For one thing, they'd have to live that long first, wouldn't they?
Then, he'd made it that far, so why not?
They headed back together, walking close, but watching the world carefully. It was a different place now than it had been the day before.
A different, and more dangerous world, by far.
Table of Contents
Proxy
Gabriel
Cast Iron
Proxy: Reunions
Cellophane
Goblin