Shine (The Infected: Mirror Man Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  Except that it showed up, floating in front of him, overlaid in red letters.

  That got him to nod a bit.

  “Oh… Um, Lydia and Sara from here? We could also get a few other people, possibly. It…” The text moved, telling him a lot, if reading a little like a novel. It took a bit that way, but he finally smiled.

  “It seems that Marcia Turner is good with it? So you can land there, tomorrow our time? At the IPB base. We’ll have ten volunteers ready for you then. They can stay with you for as long as you need?”

  Instead of seeming upset with the burden that implied, the tall, pretty fellow, relaxed a lot.

  “Ah… That’s good! I was worried that not all of the students would be prepared on the first day. We need to set up observation as well, for learning. Can we have some of my family in as well? I don’t want to presume…”

  That part seemed off to him, but the prompt in his head, in written words, suggested a few individuals, by name.

  “I think Cindy is saying that would be fine? Tenet and Terry?”

  That got a happy smile. Will, who was actually with the others, even if shorter, being about six feet tall, seemed to get what was going on.

  “You’re on with Cin right now? I have some things for her, if she can get with me in a bit? I need to report. She’s a friend of mine.”

  He didn’t know how to set that up. The words coming at him had a plan for them though.

  “Um… Certainly. As soon as we’re done here? Not that I need my hand held, she’s just in with Turner right now, in case they need to slap me down for my overbearing ideas? Which is a good point. What else do we need to do to make this work for you all?”

  That, it seemed, was a lot. The people there needed to be introduced around, which was going to take someone who actually knew everyone. That wasn’t Howard at all. Not for the room they were in. Really, unless they were going to find the residents of Shady Lane, he wasn’t doing any rooms for the time being. Not as far as networking was going to be had.

  On the good side, Brian and Katie hit the room then, both looking disturbed. Kate rallied first, walking over to the little group they had collected. Even if it wasn’t that small.

  “Rich! I was just coming to take our friends around. We haven’t met yet, but it’s like I know you all. Willum, of course. Tor, Tim, Alyssa and Patricia, isn’t it?”

  Will, who had purple hair and eyes, bowed a little toward her, which got everyone else to do it. He nearly didn’t, but the red words floating in front of him said that he needed to as well. Really, the whole room was supposed to do it, but only a few people managed it at all. Tobin, across the room was in on it, for some reason.

  Brian managed it as well. Probably due to either knowing the people with them personally, or because they got a warning like he did. It worked, so he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth on that score. When they all stood up, Katie moved them around, introducing them to almost everyone there. Even people that she didn’t know. After a bit, Brian covertly waved to him.

  “We have a thing. In the basement.” The words were bland sounding. Tired, nearly. That or bored.

  Howard smiled and waved to the others, then moved in and gave Eve a hug, then slapped Will on the arm gently.

  “I need to go and do some work. Just cleaning, I think. It was very nice meeting you all. Make a point of keeping in touch?” How they were supposed to do that, he had no way of working out. He didn’t even have a phone, or a permanent address, for the time being.

  Everyone nodded at him anyway, with another round of bowing from the tall people. Then he was walked away by Brian. Slowly at first, though they sped up at the basement door and jogged down the stairs, as soon as the thing was closed.

  “It’s the mission with Noah. The whole thing is about to go down. Denis is in position, I can’t go in for backup. Or, I could… He won’t take out all my powers, but people might catch on if that kind of thing was used. We have video and audio communications though. Brie set it up. I could use a second pair of eyes here. If anything happens… well, then we have to do what we can. Noah has a limited area that he can affect, so… If we have to, we can get the agents and Denis out.”

  Which would leave the kid alone, stuck with the monsters that had kept him for who knew how long…

  Howard had to stop himself then. Obviously, the kidnapped boy would have an idea of that time, along with the people that had kept him. Also, Katie and probably a few hundred other psychics or people with the right kinds of powers would have an idea as to how long he’d been held. If they lived at all, the kid’s parents might as well.

  He’d never had children himself, but it was hard for him to imagine that a good person, no matter who they were or what they did for a living, would let their kid fall to people like the ones that had little Noah. Given his powers and the kinds of things that these folks liked to partake in, it was pretty certain that he’d been abused, a lot. It was a thing that hadn’t crossed his mind before that moment, there, when they were about to try and get him back. That or kill him.

  If doing that, taking his life was a kindness, then Howard decided to kill the people that had taken him. The current plan seemed to be more along the lines of political ruination. It wasn’t enough, but odds were that people as powerful as the ones they were dealing with would be immune to things like prison. That left very few ways to punish them for their crimes.

  Even fewer when it came to stopping them from doing it again. How he was going to get that done… That part was kind of outside of his reach. He could get a gun and walk out of a mirror to kill them, if he could find out where they were. It wasn’t going to be easy to get done, he didn't think.

  The pictures, the video feeds coming in came from six sources. Body cameras, that were being shown on separate, but nicely large, screens. The people all had masks on, as well as firearms. They were inside a van at the moment. Two vans, he understood, after a few seconds. What they looked like on the outside, he couldn’t tell. Something in a light color. There was gear in the back, as well as beds.

  Ambulances. That got him to smile. Oh, they weren’t cop cars, but the idea really was close enough. The driver had a mask on in each case. He could see that when the other men turned to face front. Those looked human. At least they should at a distance. They didn't show the real faces of the men, however. Those people, the drivers, had light blue shirts on, with patches in different places. What they said was too hard to read.

  No one spoke for a long time. Finally, one of them, who sounded familiar, started in on the whole thing.

  “They’re coming out with Noah. He’s in the third vehicle. There are three guards with him, including the driver, all armed. G… You’re up. Let vehicles one and two pass.”

  Denis spoke then, his voice distorted, but it was still him. The other man had that going on as well. A slightly robotic sounding thing over his regular way of speaking.

  “Understood. Confirming third vehicle. Third vehicle will be taken down as soon as the go is given.”

  More to the point, the driver and guards would be. How that was going to happen was up in the air. After all, given the man’s powers, he had a whole lot of options.

  Interestingly, when the first fellow spoke again, a few minutes later, what happened was very different than Howard would have figured on.

  “Now. Take them.”

  Instead of the car crashing, or anything like that, they just slowed down, and when the others in their caravan were out of sight, they pulled over to the side of the road. Then the doors opened. The three guards got out first, dropping their weapons, and laying on the ground. Where they seemed to fall asleep.

  Then one of the ambulances drove up, with a man who had a black balaclava over his face calling out.

  “Noah? Come with us. We’re kidnapping you from these people.” He had a gun out. A small handgun. The kid, probably freaked the heck out, still moved from the back seat, his small body moving quickly enough, give
n the situation.

  “Um…” He paused when he got in front of the man. “I don’t know what to do.”

  Leaning in Brian touched a button, which caused his voice to play on the far side of things, for some reason.

  “Go with these men. They work for me. I’ll explain it when you get away.” That didn't sound like it would work at all, but the kid did it anyway.

  Then, as if there had been no major crime at all, they drove off, into the night. No one even tried to follow them. It made for a tense hour and a half. In a way the whole thing had gone a lot better than he would have expected. There was no shooting at all. The police still hadn’t been alerted to the kidnapping as they got the kid out of state. At that mark, Brian stood up and pushed the button again.

  “Dump… G. On the side of the road, at random. Pick up in ten minutes.”

  The hard-seeming Chinese man meant it, and moved across the country to get their crew mate back. After the others had abandoned him on the side of the road, where he hid in some trees, then after a minute, turned his body camera off. It worked, and they had Denis in the basement about a minute after that, getting him much earlier than promised. It wasn’t a mistake.

  “There he is!” Howard felt wrung out and worn to a thin thread, but faked sounding pleased anyway. Really, he was, since Den was one of his crew. Having them all back, well away from the scene of the crimes… It let him finally relax. In a way that he hadn’t for a long time.

  That was his first mode, which felt pretty happy, given that he’d stolen a lot of dangerous things personally, then helped get a whole kid. Both were hard and complicated jobs. The second one had clearly been better managed than his had. He felt bad, and elated, at the same time. He’d won and gotten his prizes. For a moment that was all that mattered.

  At the same time, he knew that it wasn’t true. He’d fudged the whole thing up. Even if they’d pulled it all off. More to the point, his personal performance had been horrible. He’d let himself take risks that weren’t needed. They didn't have the correct information for it and instead of doing the safe things, he’d gone off the rails at every turn.

  Looking at the others, he tried not to seem self-centered. After all, these were men that weren’t used to being criminals. At least Denis wasn’t. Brian killed often enough that he was probably hardened to some ideas like that. It meant that reframing the whole thing was going to be needed. In order to protect their minds.

  “Great work. Both of you. Kerry and the Agents as well. The rescue operation was solid, all the way through. We… I, have to do some things for the first part. It worked, but… Well, later. Right now, we need to get you into a different outfit and have you hit the party, if that’s still going. Oh… We have a team leaving from your IPB base tomorrow, to head out and have changes made? Ten of them. You wanted Peggy in the mix? I don’t know if you can go with her. You know, have that face fixed?”

  That part could have been taken as being mean, but Brian nodded along anyway. Picking up on the idea without missing a beat.

  “I agree. Far too pretty for a real man.” There was a head shake, but instead of lashing out due to nerves, Den smiled.

  “Fuck you. Both of you. I know that I’m pretty. After all, all the men seem to want me.” He sobered then. “Which, let me assure you, isn’t my favorite thing. Maybe I should have that fixed?”

  Howard forced a snort then.

  “Nah. It isn’t about your looks that way. We just live in a time where that kind of thing is more acceptable than it was when I was a kid. It isn’t you at all. If you’re in the public eye, you’re going to get attention. I’m sure the ladies are doing that too. They just don’t use ladders to sneak into my bedroom looking for you. Yet.” He went back to sit down, then realized they needed to get new clothing for Denis. That meant sneaking to his bedroom.

  To steal his things without being seen. It was a pretty low risk job for him, but he went over it all, carefully. He double checked the location, and how he was going to carry the clothing back. Which was simply by putting it all in a pillow case. They had to hide what was in it, but no one was going to be doing a search of him. Doing too much would be more out of place than doing too little.

  The trick was not being seen the whole time. Which, was a thing that Denis could do for himself. True, he could have also just walked up the stairs on his own given all of that, but Howard kind of wanted to plan something correctly, or nearly so, to make up for the snafu that he’d been in charge of before.

  It took longer that way, but by being careful and really not noticed thanks to the field being put over him, from the basement, let him come back ten minutes later. When that was done, Brian vanished with the old clothing. Taking the mask and gloves as well. Removing the potential evidence against them. Each thing they did right made them just a little bit safer.

  As if it were his place in the world, Denis went to the kitchen, to help work on dinner. It wasn’t exactly being out for the party, but that had grown while they’d been gone, rather than gotten smaller. Even better, a few people with cameras were there, moving around and asking questions, for the local news.

  Katie moved over to him, her arm going over his shoulders.

  “I’ve been telling everyone that you’re my nephew. Just so you get how sick it will look when we start making out later.” She didn't seem bothered by the idea at all.

  For his part, Howard shook his head.

  “That’s gross, Aunt Brie. I can’t believe you’d say that.” He could, and the woman just laughed, patting his behind as she moved off into the crowd. It wasn’t noticed by anyone. Not that he could tell.

  Eve, his new friend from earlier waved to him.

  “After dinner? Your room?”

  He nodded. The woman was attractive, after all. Very much so.

  Plus, it had been a very long time since he’d even considered being with a woman. So long before, that part of him wondered if he remembered how to get the job done.

  It turned out that he did.

  Chapter sixteen

  The party didn't exactly rage into the night, but there were still people there, sleeping on the sofas, when he got up in the morning for his run. That meant he was dressed up in his exercise sweats, when he started through the front room. Interestingly, there was a girl there, when he did.

  She looked to be twelve or thirteen, he thought. A baby, really. The kind of individual whose parents should have been watching her on a weekday, even in the summer. Especially given that she was a doll. Cute enough to be out getting into trouble, possibly with adult men, if they were perverts.

  The kid looked white, ethnically, but had a good tan going. Her eyes were a light blue, and her hair was long and brown. Straight for the most part, but with enough curl to it not to be boring. Her clothing was just normal though. A nice shirt, which buttoned up the front and a skirt that modestly covered her down to her mid-shin. It was either think of it that way, or pretend that her showing ankle was saucy. That ship had sailed about fifty years before though. Even someone as old as he was had adapted to that.

  She was just standing there, looking around, but inside the closed door to the place.

  When she saw him, she waved.

  “Hi. I’m Sara. Um… Cindy said I should come in here, so I teleported over. I used Mary’s powers for that, since everyone thinks that Brian’s are too dangerous. I’m supposed to pretend to be Denis?”

  Howard actually had caught that one. They didn’t need her to be there, but she’d come all that way for them anyway. He didn’t know that she’d be quite as young as she was, but that wasn’t a big problem. He’d been told she wasn’t old, which wasn’t a lie.

  “That sounds good. Denis is back already…” She just nodded, as if the idea of being the man for who knew how long didn’t really bother her at all. The thing there was that Cindy should have known that it was the case. The nature of her power seemed to say that.

  Apparently, Sara got that part as well.

/>   “I was told that. Still, I get the time off, since my teacher is away on vacation. I can go back, if you want me to.” The voice was plaintive sounding. Manipulative. Also, he realized, not a thing that they needed to have a fight over.

  He wasn’t working that day, after all. They could probably manage to watch a kid without it being too big of a deal. It was a bit early still, and there were people on the couches, listening to them, if a bit drunkenly.

  “Why not stay for a bit? We can go running and do fun things like that. Fly kites. Build sand castles?” he kind of expected the little girl to not love the sound of that kind of activity, being old fashioned and boring.

  Instead she lit up, a lot.

  “I’ve never flown a kite. Where do we get one of those?”

  He snorted then.

  “Get? Um… Make. You make kites. I can help you with that. We need…” Really they needed a woman to be there. Sara was just a bit too cute to leave with a strange man. Even if he knew that he’d never harm a child. “Do you know Kerry Yoder?”

  That got a slightly shy nod.

  “Sort of. We’ve met. She’s not one of the people that watches me. Brian is supposed to be here, isn’t he? Cindy said so.”

  That got a nod for the kid.

  “He is. Let’s go and see if we can get people around, then go for a run? I need to try and do that almost every day now, I think. I kind of took a break for a while, so have to get back into condition. That might not happen. Everyone went to bed late. It was a party.”

  There was a gentle nod, then she leaned down and picked up her bag. It was a large tan colored duffle that reminded him a bit of when he’d been in the Marines. A long time before. It seemed to be filled with things that weren’t hard, so the girl wasn’t bringing in bombs or anything. At least, if she was, they were wrapped up in something to hide the fact.

  It was a bit odd, since he knew where to find Denis and Kerry, along with Katie, but Brian was a bit of a mystery that way. Not that it was a huge issue. As they moved to the back hallway on the ground floor, near the doorway to the basement, the man himself came out. Followed by Kate. Both of them smiled at the girl, so they at least figured she belonged there.