Reflection, p.3
Reflection, page 3
part #2 of The Infected - Mirror Man Series
“We have a mission. Lydia is up for that. Transport and planning. Mainly logistics on moving us around. Both to Noram and then for the actual mission on our side. Communications, too. We’re going in undercover, so that’s going to take some doing. On the first leg…” He shrugged. “That’s going to be about begging for some work to be done, if possible, as well as visiting with Sara. Everyone that’s going needs to be at the HQ in two hours.”
He tried to make it sound official, which basically worked.
At least the man that was there, Keith, nodded.
“There you go, Lydia. A real mission and everything. Now if we could just get Team Two hooked up for anything.” The fellow gave Richard a knowing look then, followed by a shrug. “It’s a lot better than it used to be. There just isn’t that much to do right now. We only need so many people for Team One. People would probably be scared if I was posing for photos with their wife and kids anyway.”
That was self-depreciation. The kind that wasn’t properly needed. Most men would have been worried if Keith was posing with their wife at a least. He was manly seeming and decently muscled. A lot of men would feel inferior to him due to that. His face was fine enough, at a guess. He was a bit untidy, with a day’s or more worth of thick beard growth but that seemed popular enough for the time being.
Not knowing what to say, Richard shrugged back. When in doubt, copy what the other person was doing. As long as you didn’t do it so much that it became mocking, folks tended to like it well enough. It made them feel like you were just like them.
“We have… Nan and Peggy for this mission? Plus, an Agent and myself. Lydia isn’t going inside with us. It’s a real enough thing, though.”
That got everyone in the room to nod and seem happy enough at least. Phoebe, the foul-mouthed girl, grinned.
“Fuck me with a grapefruit… Or a cucumber.” There was a different tone to her voice then. Instead of sounding like she was fighting the words, they just flowed, like regular speech. Especially on the last sentence.
So he nodded at her. She blushed nicely enough, as if she’d been asking for something kinky of him. On purpose. When he spoke he ignored the words, since he was clearly supposed to.
“When the regular trips start back up, you should go and see about having that first mode removed. I mean, you can always swear if you want to, right? It’s always nice to have a choice. I’d get you in today but we’re already begging for work to be done out of turn. On the good side, I bet we can bump you up the waiting list, since you know people on the inside.”
The girl, who looked to be about the same age he did, whatever that meant, flared her nostrils a bit. It made her seem a bit insane.
“I’m not really allowed off the base. Not without permission. I ran away once… So…” There was no swearing that time, at least.
Lydia nodded a bit, looking down. In shame. Lauren did much the same. Keith on the other hand made a snorting sound.
“Meh. I bet Richard and Lydia can get you set up that way. Just have the student working on you do something cool and kind of hard to do and it should be enough. Maybe learn to change colors or something on demand? Most of the work people want done is taking things away or looking better. If you do something unique it could work. Even Marcia would be willing to let you go if you were taking a real risk to make us look good.”
The words showed a certain kind of street savvy, Rich had to admit.
That being the case, he let his eyes narrow a bit, then agreed.
“You know, I bet that’s true. I’ll see if we can do that. It won’t be that unsafe or anything, either. Not if we do it right. Let me get with Tim Baker on that? Anyway, Lydia, I kind of need you inside an hour, over in headquarters? If that won’t put a huge hole in the learning day, I mean.” He looked at Lauren, since she was the schoolmarm there.
Rather than glare at him, she just nodded.
“We can make that work, for a mission. So, I just show up in two hours to go and visit Sara?” She was clearly kidding.
Keith did the same, raising his right hand.
“Oh, me too. I haven’t seen her for over a month. She’ll forget her movie watching buddy if I don’t head over there soon, I bet.”
That didn't sound very real to Rich. Nodding anyway, he threw in a casual smile.
“Good idea. You should see about setting up some movies for her to watch over there. See you in two hours.” He started to walk out, since he wanted to change clothing first, if possible.
He was in real clothing at the moment. As in they were solid and made of material that was designed to take wear and tear. Around his neck he had a magical talisman that allowed him to put on magical clothing. It was a thing he didn't do in public very often. Not in his own world. The trick there was that the IPB wasn’t admitting to having a trove of magic like that, for the time being.
Mainly it was being hidden from the rest of the government. They might feel threatened if they knew it existed, after all. The IPB was already too powerful for most of the other agencies to feel comfortable with. Not in political influence, just in that they could have taken over by brute force if it ever became needed.
Plus, if they told the rest of their people about that kind of thing they might be expected to share. It was a finite resource, so they didn’t really want to do that, as an organization. At least that was how Rich was taking the basic directive from Turner. That meant he hid the clothing amulet he had on him, unless he was heading to a different world.
About twenty feet outside the door of the school building Lydia caught up with him. She wasn’t panting, even if it was clear that a bit of jogging had taken place to reach him.
She moved in silence for about ten seconds.
“Um… So, the mission? Is that real or code for something else?”
There was a blink on his part then, since it was clear that she meant something more adult than cutting class early for the day. That was a bit different than he would have expected from her. Even with the warning from Cindy on the issue.
“Real. We’re infiltrating an illegal fighting club. It’s mainly Infected people doing the fighting, which means it’s our job to see what’s going on there. You can get us there, right? We might need to be moved at times as well. If that happens, then you’ll need a disguise. Really, we should get your face changed for that too, if we can. You don’t mind being a man for a few weeks, do you? Maybe with some scars and a tattoo or two?” That was teasing, which the kid got.
“Or I could just look older? Maybe a bit different, in case anyone sees me? I can’t go everywhere. I can go from any node to almost any place, so heading in that way works but I haven’t learned to open those up on my own. There are natural ones and I can use shortcuts, so we can travel kind of fast that way. It isn’t really teleportation.” She didn't seem embarrassed about that.
Which was correct. It was a skill that she’d won for herself by brutally hard work. Not a power, strictly speaking. Not a gift that was handed to her. A thing that she’d taken for herself. There was no need for her not to be proud of that. Not that she was letting that show through in particular either.
“That probably works better for us than if you could just zip from spot to spot. It makes it seem more like the kind of power that a bunch of regular Infected might be able to bring to bear for regular travel. Faster than a car, without being such a big thing that it makes you a class five. Anyway, when we get into Noram… I guess we need to find Sara first? Then get off to the Moon there and beg for a while. They’re into groveling there, right?” He pantomimed a bow as he moved, not doing it very well.
They were huge on bowing there, even when you weren’t asking for things.
She nodded, her face lighting up a good bit.
“That does work pretty well. Still, we shouldn’t just show up at a school like that. No one has said anything overtly about it but it’s kind of considered rude there to just show up to see a student. You’d need to see the headmaster first, I think. That’s Douglas Baker or his wife, Laurie. Really, we should probably show up and bother someone else, at a distance and then see if it’s all right for us to meet up with Sara. That will seem more polite. On the nice side, we can kind of kill several birds with one stone, since Douglas Baker is Tim Baker’s father. I happen to be friends with Dumas Thompson, who’s Douglas Baker’s grandson. Piece of cake setting that all up.”
She smiled, since it probably wasn’t that simple. It did sound like a nice piece of social engineering, however. Working people around inside their own rules, in order to get what you wanted. Hopefully without them ever becoming too suspicious of your intentions.
They walked for a while about five minutes, in silence. As they did, Lydia seemed to become a bit nervous. Probably due to the silence, coming from his direction. When they got inside the head office, he waved a bit.
“I need to change into my traveling outfit. Do you have anything…” The words were very close to being rude. The girl was basically a soldier, so wasn’t going to have fancy clothing on hand, all the time. They could get into the magical stores for that though and hook her up with the same thing he had.
Rather than look upset, the kid let her head float up, once only.
“I have an outfit or two for that. I’m not the Ambassador or anything but I get invited to fancy parties over there on occasion. Not here, of course. Just over there, where I get to be the cool alien girl that travels between worlds.” She tapped her chest, near her throat, to show what she meant.
That she was wearing a magical clothing talisman around her own neck. It made sense and showed a certain level of cleverness, her having cadged one of those for herself. Possibly from another reality directly, given she could come and go as she pleased.
“Good. We need to be somewhat impressive that way, this time. Something… A bit more matching with what they do there? I haven’t really paid that much attention. Can you set that up for us? I need to change first. Get out of the real clothing. Otherwise things are going to get awkward.” That and lumpy, since the magical clothes would form right over whatever you were wearing.
Ideally you were naked when the thing turned on.
It took a few minutes for him to get into the head and strip. The device, as soon as he wanted it to turn on, which he indicated by tapping it gently while holding the idea of being clothed, put him in a basic brown outfit. Simple trousers, pull up boots that folded over at the top and seemed like leather and a loose top that would have been a long sleeve pullover made of rough fabric, if it had been real. When he walked out, holding his real clothing under his right arm in a bundle, Lydia was already there. Dressed in an identical outfit to himself.
She held her left hand out, to take his clothing.
“We can store it behind the front desk here. That way we’ll be able to grab it first thing when we get back.”
Richard didn’t really care where they kept the clothing, as long as they had a plan for it. Doing what Lydia suggested would work well enough, of course. That meant he did what she wanted, handing the bundle over instantly. She didn’t bother speaking to the woman behind the counter at first, just doing what she’d suggested, ducking down.
When she was gone, there was a soft whisper, which got the blonde next to her to go wide eyed.
“We get to go to another world? That’s great!” The words from the secretary were loud and out of place. Enough that Turner came out of her office, looking stern.
She glared at Richard for some reason.
“You’re taking Sinclair with you?”
The words got the brown clad Lydia to stand up, suddenly. She looked a bit guilty. She started to stammer, as Rich shrugged. It was clear that Lydia had said something like that to the other girl. Probably a friend of hers. Offering to try and get her in. Then it was jumped on a little too hard, possibly messing up the treat or payment that Lydia had in mind.
The thing there was that you backed up your crew on a job. Even if you didn’t always get why you were supposed to do it. Planning things out was better though, which Lydia should have understood. They’d need to chat about that, if they were going to be working together very often. Now he was stuck, with Director Turner looking at him like he wanted to steal all the girls away for a long weekend without asking their father’s permission first.
“Right. I put Lydia on transportation for the mission. That and outside communications. I guess she’s getting her team set up for that? We might want to arrange for some alterations, if she’s going to be seen. Possibly… Um… Phoebe, as well? On communications, so we can have twenty-four seven coverage that way. If they’re seen doing it, that can’t come back on us. They’re all a bit distinctive right now, since we only have so many young people around here.” They had some disguise devices, that worked a bit like the clothing ones, only for faces. It would be enough, he didn’t doubt.
That didn’t get this particular girl over to another world of course. It was his fault for spinning such a poor lie. With proper planning they could have done a much better job. Part of that was clearly on this new girl though. She’d blurted when whispering back was clearly the order of the day.
Their shared boss crossed her arms and scowled.
“You want Phoebe and Sinclair for this? What if they take off, once you have them over there? They’ve done that kind of thing before.” The words didn’t hold even an ounce of playfulness. As if fleeing into a world where they didn’t know the language or customs was going to be an easy thing for anyone to do.
Thinking that, he shrugged.
“Then they do? Really, they should make contacts first, if they want to plan that kind of thing. Get trained up on what would be needed first. I doubt that will be happening too easily today. This is mainly about unit cohesion, right now. We can leave them here or select someone else if you want. It’s just the team that Lydia thinks will work for this. It’s up to her. You too, of course.” There was no sense that he cared at all.
Which was directly down to the fact that he didn’t. Also, it would help get Turner on their side if she was in the loop. She wasn’t stupid, so would catch that there was no real reason for them to take all the girls they were. It wasn’t for a slumber party after all or anything like that. Richard wasn’t even trying to get them into bed. Mainly because that would be wrong, to his own way of thinking.
After about forty hard glaring seconds, most of which had Sinclair being looked at like she was due for a solid paddling, the boss lady snorted.
“Fine. Lydia, you’re in charge of that. Got that Sinclair? If you or Phoebe mess this up, she gets in trouble for it. I want you to work out constant communications with the team going in on the mission. That means at least one of you is awake and on that at all times. Get with Agent Lloyd on that and see what he wants done that way. He’s your expert.” The woman turned on her heel then and all but stormed back into her own office. Leaving the door open.
Sinclair seemed a bit scared. Lydia however sighed and looked relieved.
“There we go! I kind of meant that we might be able to get you out later. You get to go this time though! Yay! We can put your language lessons to use finally.” Turning to Richard, she made a bit of a face. “We’ve all been learning Standard. Phoebe, Sinclair and me. It comes up working the front desk and Phoebe is our friend, so…” She seemed embarrassed that she might be getting her pals in on the good things like that.
Ones with useful skills, it seemed. That made it a decent idea, all on its own.
“Good pick for the crew then, if they have the language down at all. At least on the first leg here. Can you get outfits for them? We should do that part carefully. Who does that for us?”
Rich knew the answer, which was that they had a whole Cindy Mableton for that. She was the Ambassador for that world after all. It meant they were taking her, even if it hadn’t been her plan for the day. Not that he hadn’t been there thirty odd times himself already. That was for a fairly specific thing though. He’d dressed in nice business attire in the main, not in silk and velvet outfits, which were popular for the men there. At least the wealthy and powerful.
The thoughts had Cindy coming out of her office, also wearing brown. Matching Lydia and himself. Holding out four white glass amulets with glowing blue on the front. It was some kind of mystical sigil. What it meant… Well, that was probably something like clothing amulet. Just in a different language. Magic, if not Standard.
“Lydia, why don’t you go and collect people? They need to rally in about an hour and forty minutes. We’ll meet back here when you have everyone. I do like your plan for this. If we’re going visiting we need to look the part, if I have the rules for that down correctly.”
The girl smiled at him, touching his arm lightly.
“They do really have rules for it. We aren’t even trying to stay for months on end. That’s inside what’s allowed, by the way.” She grinned then, a bit wickedly. “Then, if one of them ever shows up at your door, you’re expected to take them in as well. Keep that in mind, since vacationing in a different reality is amazing. I’m kind of shocked that none of them have come here for that yet.”
Lydia took off then, at a jog. Who she was getting specifically Rich didn’t know. Not that it really mattered. Having the entry team with them was a good idea, since the more time they had to bond, the smoother they’d be able to work as a unit. They weren’t getting much that way, due to the nature of what they were doing.
Though, no one had claimed they had to go right into the fight club. It made more sense to do some recon first, then go in. Armed with information. Before he could mention that, Cindy reached out and touched his arm.
“I’ll work up a dossier on that. It’s true though. No one did say you had to rush in first thing, did they? I’d probably do it that way but if you want to be all professional about things like that…” There was a playful hit to the arm, which hurt enough that it was hard not to react to it.
It rocked him to the side and made a dull thumping sound at the same time. Like a punch from a boxer would have. Cindy acted like it was nothing and Sinclair looked… scared.
