Reflection, page 15
part #2 of The Infected - Mirror Man Series
“Oh, I’m Sally. I should have said that first. I’ll work on that.”
He nodded then, not smiling at all.
“Thanks, doll. I’d actually guessed that part, for once. I don’t sleep, so decided to poke around and found this place. I haven’t really done a lot of physical things since I… You know, became like this? It’s hard to get used to. Not that it’s new, exactly.”
There was a nod from the giant lady, who towered over him. Even standing back in the doorway, clearly working not to loom at all.
“Yeah? Can you lift weights at all? That’s kind of my big hobby, anymore. I mean, I’m good at it, so why not, right? Here, let me…” She moved to a rack of what had to be the biggest dumbbells Gary had ever seen. Now, Richard had seen some that were much larger, at the IPB base. Outside of that he hadn’t at all. Not under any identity he’d ever had.
Schooling his mind, he focused on being Gary at the moment. Especially since the woman, moving easily, picked up what had to be a nearly two hundred-pound weight and casually handed it to him. He took it in his upper right hand, since that was the one he thought of as being his strong hand. That did two things.
The first was that he promptly fell forward. The textured metal didn’t cut into his hand or leave bruises, but he had to stabilize himself on his other five limbs in order not to go down. Sally gasped, at first. Then, almost instantly, she nodded.
The second thing that took place was that he curled the huge thing with one arm. Not an amazing amount of times, just ten. Then he transferred it carefully to his upper left hand and did the same for the lower two. Each getting ten reps. He might have done more weight, he thought.
Then he knew, since Sally wasn’t the kind to leave good enough alone.
She worked upward until he was holding nearly three hundred pounds in each hand. He couldn’t do much of anything with it, but the thing wasn’t dropped and he was able to shuffle over to the rack and put it back on his own.
That got the lady to close her eyes.
“Just with that we could put you up against half the people here. We’d need to work out a fighting style for you first. Not that you have to fight if you don’t want to. You were a Marine though, right? I was in the Army Reserve, myself. Then I woke up with this body and two heads one day. Horrible nightmares. That’s my first mode. They aren’t good. I…” The muscular woman shook her head then. The right hand one. “I take speed to stay up. It’s killing me. I get to choose though. Incredibly horrible dreams or eventual liver and kidney failure. For now the idea of dying in a few years doesn’t sound so bad. You get that one, I bet.” She waved at her two heads then.
He sort of did. Not for the reason she was thinking. He knew that it was possible to change back. Sally didn’t. It made a difference. He was smart enough to understand not wanting a first mode though. First hand. Nightmares didn’t sound that bad. Not sleeping because of them kind of did though. It was hard enough just not going to bed like a normal person for him already. Even if he didn’t get tired.
There was no way that the black toothed, four eyed and four-armed monster wasn’t going to understand her plight though. Even if he hadn’t been hit too hard that way so far, personally.
So he nodded.
“I heard that the IPB has a new treatment. They can’t fix everything. I don’t know if they could help me at all. Some people that are too different have died, trying it. I’d go and do that… I just want to get Peg set up first.” He picked one of the people as his special friend. She was the one that he had a room with so it fit. “Then, well, I don’t think it’s a trick. Too many people have been helped. Even just being able to tell who people are again might be worth it. Even if I have to look the same.”
The trick was to act like he wasn’t certain it would work.
Both heads smiled at him then.
“It’s tempting, isn’t it? Even if they just kill us all, that might be better. Well, for some of us. Peg could pass, with a headscarf. Nancy… Even being Infected the world would accept her, I bet. Price… That one has to be tough. The guys get it the worst, out in public. People walk away from me. Someone like him will just be attacked, as often as not. How is that for you?”
That was a dangerous question to ask. Also a trick one, he realized. The woman wasn’t asking what it was like to be a tiny Infected man. She was trying to find out if he was a man or a woman. He’d been a Marine. To him that meant man, all the way through. To her, who’d also done the military thing, probably a lot more recently, it could mean either.
“It’s tough. People assume that I’m male. No breasts, you know? Plus, high and whiny voice or not, I talk like a gangster from an old movie. On purpose. I was a man before. Now… I’m pretty much not either. I mean, things are different as for the plumbing. It works, bathroom wise. The rest…” Shrugging wasn’t really possible.
It was the first time he’d mentioned that part of things to anyone since leaving Noram. Erath had told him that he was pretty much a Ysidril child though. Several times, seeming almost as if that might be a mistake. Not male or female yet. That he wouldn’t be, until he grew up.
Which was never going to happen for him. Anytime he went into the mirror world he’d de-age to about the point the Ysidril had set for him. Thankfully, if all went well, he’d be back to being himself in a few weeks. If not, then he was going to be stuck like that for a long time. It wasn’t all bad. It also wasn’t him.
For a long while the woman didn’t speak. When she did her voice was kind.
“So… After we get your Peg set up, you and I head off to Montana and see if they try to stick us in a wood chipper? I can drive. I mean I have a license. No car.”
She seemed serious about running off with him for that. Even if they were going to be killed, instead of helped.
“Yeah. I can get us a ride. I mean, the others know that I’m planning to try it. If I live, then Price might do it, too. If you want, I’ll go in first? Then if it doesn’t work, or it’s a trick, you can stay away.” It wasn’t that big of a risk.
A small one, since his change back would be a fairly major thing. Erath had done the first bit, meaning that, for a fair test, one of the others needed to get him back. They were working on tricks and techniques for it. Things that should work. Nothing was assured. The trick there would be getting the right people to do the work on it. The ones that had lost people before would be best.
That way they could prove to everyone that they could do it. Even if it was close to being as hard as anything ever could be to manage. Erath had done it, with a lot of help from Tim and Tor on the planning side. If the others could change him back, looking like he was, that would be incredibly huge.
Both heads teared up then. Bending over the giant blonde hugged him. It was a bit strange but worked for him. The contact felt nice. Warm and close. Better than he was used to from such things. Like his brain chemistry was telling him not to let go and that the world was totally right, the whole time he was in contact with her. It was a powerful effect. One that took him off guard. Like it had with Erath, the whole thing wasn’t sexual. Just incredible.
Luckily, he let go instead of clinging to the poor woman like a freak. It was close, he realized. When the letting go happened he still felt better. Closer to the woman than they really were by many times. Like they’d had sex and he hadn’t rolled over and gone to sleep. On the good side he knew that she wouldn’t be feeling that way.
There was a wiping away of tears though.
“That’s really nice of you. We can do it together? I don’t trust them… The IPB. They’ve gotten a few friends of mine. Only… They didn’t just roll in and start killing people for being Infected. Each of them was having problems. It was probably the only thing anyone could have done in about half the cases. I don’t know on the rest. Maybe, if the world were different, we could have talked them down. Holly…”
There was no explanation of who that was.
Gary didn't ask. Some things were stories that had to wait, if they were ever going to be told at all.
A third shadow hit the door then. A dapper looking fellow in a three-piece suit. It was a classical design. His teeth were whitened and his dark skin looked pretty close to perfect, except for a few darker scars on the bottom of his chin on the left. It was just enough to make him seem manly, instead of like a dandy.
His hair was curly and a deep black, with no other color to it. Meaning he was younger than seemed right. Probably about thirty or so. That or he colored the gray out of his hair. The shiny shoes needed a sound polishing but were real leather.
Rather than say hello, or explain why she looked a bit weepy, Sally covered by winking at Gary with one eye from her left head.
“Gar, could you hop up on the bar there for a bit?”
He didn't ask why, since clearly it was all about impressing the boss, for some reason. Possibly to try and set him up for a fight to the death. Hopefully as the likely winner. That wasn’t assured at all. Still, if that was the game, then he needed to play into it.
As he hopped up, laying almost flat as he drifted downward, Sally started talking. She did it well, too. Dramatically.
“We had three new fighters come in today. Well, two fighters, their trainer and their manager. Here…”
As he swung from the bar a bit, by his upper hands, she scurried over, got two hundred-pound weights and handed them to him. Carefully. As if she was ready to take them again if he couldn’t hold himself up. Not only could he, Gary managed to do arms curls as he did pull ups. Meaning he was a good bit stronger than he had been in his human shape.
“This is Gary. Their manager. The rest are even more impressive, physically. Nancy… We probably can’t use her. She’s too powerful. Jelena was tossed around like a ragdoll and literally couldn’t touch her. Super strength, speed and a force field. She’s also incredibly hot. Asian, to set the look there. We were thinking of getting her in as a ring girl? It’s a waste. If she was a lot less powerful her fighting skills would still have her near the top of our league. Her boyfriend is even better. I mean, easily pro-level, MMA. Possibly boxing and something like Muay Thai.” She stopped and laughed a bit. “High strength and speed though. Also really hard to hurt. Probably a class four. He’s willing to lie and claim to be a three though, to get fights. We need to be careful there, but I think he can handle it. You know, not kill anyone.”
She went silent for a bit, as the dark skinned well-dressed fellow nodded.
“You said there were three fighters?” For some reason he looked at Gary then, his face interested in how that would work.
Ignoring the plea to not have Price accidently kill anyone.
Sally nodded then. Even if it was clear she got the idea. The man might be in charge and he was well spoken enough, in a slightly over enunciated way. Like a person that had grown up with a strong accent, who needed to prove to the world that they were more than their beginnings.
“Peg. Their trainer. She’s good, too. At about the same level as Mick. Female. Cute, without being too much. Nancy… If it were a fair world she’d be in movies or at least porn. Honestly, she could probably do either one of those things anyway. Go and get a job acting. I don’t know why she hasn’t.” There was a baffled tone to the words.
Which got Gary to drop, still holding the two hundred-pound weights. He used the rest of his limbs to catch his weight but had to admit it hurt a bit, through his lower back. He didn’t let that show and the stinging faded as he set the things down and stood up. It was enough to remind him not to do it again.
The man in the suit saw that and smiled.
Then he stuck out his right hand, to shake.
“Ronaldo Carlisle. I run the business side of things here. The cash at the gate, the house take on the gambling spread. Sally here does the important parts. Just don’t tell her I said that, or she’ll take over and I’ll be back to running boosted stereos out of the back of my brother in-laws van.” He smiled as if that were a joke.
Which it probably was. They needed a face man for the whole thing to work, at a bet. An uninfected person who could deal with the public and pay whatever bribes they needed to. Things that might not be even taken if a two headed woman tried to set the deals up.
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Carlisle. I’m Gary.” He left it there. The man didn’t ask for more of a name, either.
“Nice meeting you as well, Gary. What’s the plan for the night, Sally? Put the new people in?”
There was a slow shrug. The left side head spoke then.
“We have a full ticket. I want to put Peg in on Friday, for the first fight. Against Sansosa, I think, if he wants it? She’s strong, fast and good, but not over the top that way. He’s a better fighter technically.” Stopping she looked down at Gary. “He’s a professional boxer and has a college wrestling background. So, he’s good. Roided up to hell, which means he can’t get pro-fights right now. Not until he goes clean. It’s a pretty even match, I think. Slightly in Peg’s favor, since she’s good that way. Solid. She held Mick for half an hour before getting caught in an arm-bar earlier.” That was for Ronaldo.
The man beamed a bit, hearing that.
“That’s not bad. Can an Infected woman beat a powerful regular man? It’s a real fight though? I mean, do we need to give odds on one of them?”
The words were both familiar and didn’t mean much to Gary. He’d never gone in for gambling. It was a con game, designed to skim money from both the winners and losers. Legal in places, though not where they were standing.
Not that he cared about that part of things.
There was a pause and then a shrug on the two headed ladies part.
“Honestly? I don’t know. I think that she’s probably a class two? Is that about right Gary?”
She was probably closer to a class three or four, thanks to her training, but he nodded. She hadn’t ripped Mick apart earlier, which probably meant she could pull that off with this Sansosa guy.
“A one point five to two? How good is this other fellow? I don’t want my fighter eaten up in her first match. Even is… Well, I don’t want her getting too hurt.”
The financial boss spread his hands and smiled.
“He’s good. Like Sally said. If she says it’s a fair match, then it probably is. It’s a fight. We don’t want anyone taking on anything they don’t think they can handle. We have tapes on Sansosa, don’t we Sal? You can run those by Gary and his fighter, see if she’s comfortable with the idea. It’s short notice. Most of our fights tend to be like that. We don’t have the stability to book things months out from the event, yet.” The man smiled. It seemed pretty genuine. “Not that I don’t have some feelers out for that. We might have to change locations, to keep the gambling up if we go legit. I can’t say much. You understand what I mean.”
There was a dark look from Sally then. As if she really did.
Gary, on the other hand was left almost totally in the dark. It sounded fine, really. If they went legitimate then there probably wasn’t a lot to investigate. So far Sally seemed to actually care about the fighters. True, Peg wasn’t a class two, which Sally knew first hand and Sansosa was on drugs but that didn’t seem like too big of a mismatch on the surface. They could pull out if it was a bad fight, even. At least until these people got some good blackmail material on them.
That or they racked up enough debt to have to take any fights offered, no matter how bad a mismatch it was.
So far there was no proof of anything like that. Then, if they hit you with things like that on the very first day, even Infected people would probably run away. The screaming would be optional. Some would, no doubt. Likely, right to the local police. That might not help them, if the cops were on the take.
In his experience, most U.S. police and the Canadians tended to be sort of honest that way. They might buckle for a truly large sum of cash, of course. Then, it wasn’t worth paying Officer Maroni two million dollars not to hassle you about the local weed trade for most small-time players.
True, an illegal fight club would be pulling in larger funds than that. Especially a place that was putting normal men and women up against super powered people. That kind of matchup would get bets flowing for certain. The trick would be in setting things up so that thing at least looked fairly even. A good human fighter, a real pro, might have a good chance even against a class three if the powers involved were right.
Which could be Sally’s point with Sansosa.
Gary nodded.
“I’ll get her around. The others too, if you don’t mind? They should meet the other boss here. Just a word, Mr. Carlisle? We were told earlier that you might be asking people for sex. Don’t try that with Price. We need to fit in here and I don’t think that one would fly well. He’s not against others doing that kind of thing. Just him, you know?” That part came out high pitch… and hard enough that the other man blinked, as if Gary were going to do the beating himself.
Honestly, he wasn’t sure what Price would do about that kind of thing. Probably say no and not be a grumpy old man about it. If that was the case, then he might be playing things wrong. Worse, if Carlisle wasn’t into that kind of thing, then he’d probably just insulted the man enough that they might end up fighting.
Ronaldo swallowed a bit.
“He’s got a bad mode?”
It took a half second to work out what the guy was getting at. Asking if Price would go after him physically for real, do to something that was outside of his control. It was the kind of thing that might get them asked to leave.
So he smiled and shook his pointy little face.
“Nah. His mode is fine. He’s really happy all the time. I just don’t want to put up with the fallout of him running around for a month trying to sleep with every woman in the place to prove he’s not a funny boy. It might hurt his mindset for fighting, so we should avoid that. The fights come first, right?” He didn't know that at all.
Still, the other two both nodded, with Ronaldo even taking a deep breath.
“Whew! Yes, I’ll avoid that one, then. Thanks for the warning. One thing we don’t need around here is more drama. You didn’t mention the ladies with you though. Or yourself, for that matter.”
