The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  “I want you on the whole cooking show team. If anything happens at all, they shouldn’t be seen using their powers for anything except fun and frolic. Normally the agents would do that, but I think you can start learning the ropes of leadership. Suit up. This is a real work day. Try not to do anything though. If it comes to it, make sure you handle things with minimal use of force and try to use your words first. We don’t need more footage of you kicking the snot out of the police for instance. Though better you doing it than Brian. With you they’d at least live.” It hadn’t been her fault, not overly, since they’d been running a terrorist operation at the time, but the video footage made it look like she’d just tore into a group of helpless uniformed men. It was an illusion, editing tricks mainly, but the girl just nodded.

  “All right. I need a shower and food first though. I get all cranky if I don’t eat regularly.”

  “OK. I get first shower though, since I’m ready. Ten minutes.”

  It took less than that, and the girl practically darted in as soon as the door opened, but they were headed off to the agents’ room, three doors down on the same side of the hallway, not twenty-three minutes later. They both had make-up on and both wore their Team One outfits, which were totally different from one another. Not like Team Two that all wore nearly identical blue jumpsuits or Team Three that wore whatever the heck they felt like at the moment. Bridget had on something like spandex that was a dull green with olive colored patches at the shoulder. It was plain and a bit more lackluster than Marcia had thought the girl would have gone with, since she’d been allowed to design her own costume and everything. The shoes were simple running gear, dyed to match the rest of the outfit. It made her look like a tiny foreign commando as played by a ballerina. A very boring one. No sparkles or anything. Not even a tiara.

  It made Marcia smile. The idea that the junior partner on Team One had decided to go so far against the expectations of everyone else and focus on practicality was a good thing in her book. A sign that someone, somewhere, was having a positive effect on the girl that had nothing to do with her parents. They were…

  Marcia wanted to say they were good people and they weren’t evil or even bad. She really would have liked it to be true, but Scott was about as shallow and self-centered as possible without turning to a life of crime and Charlot, even though they were friends, was basically a bitch twenty-four-seven. It didn’t bug her all that much, but they were far from being the best parents ever. How their daughter was ending up being anything more than a wild and fairly spoiled little brat she didn’t know. Whatever it was she needed to find out and make sure it kept going though. Maybe it was Rachel, her grandmother? After all, she was about the only person at the base that could spank Bridget if it came to it.

  They were just about out the door when a voice spoke in her ear.

  “Hey… What’s the plan for today? Am I on duty or something? I can’t exactly just go and see the sights or anything, can I?” Penny spoke from her bed, which was a tangle of sheets and blankets in odd lumpy patterns. It looked like she and Warren had been wrestling in it all night.

  Marcia covered trying to make it seem like she knew the girl was there the whole time.

  “Um, actually yeah. What did you find out about the man you followed last night?” After a few seconds something slick forced itself into her right hand. It was a convenience store shopping bag with something inside. It took a second to get the idea.

  Penny explained anyway, sounding happy enough.

  “Wallet. Its leather, so maybe you can get his fingerprints off of it? I mean, if his identification isn’t correct. I tried to tell you all last night, but everyone kind of ignored me. I was amped up, you know, scared, which kind of sends my power into maximum hide mode. No one could hear me for a long time, or realize I was around, so I figured that trying to share this then was a moot point. Is that good? He was about to get into a car, a blue Ford Torus, and drive off, so I didn’t know what else to do.” She sounded shy about the idea, as if it might have been a vast mistake or something.

  “Perfect really. It may be fake ID, but if nothing else it gives us a lead and you followed orders really well. Clever making your own evidence bag like this. I’ll take it to Lancaster and tell him that we need to come up with some kind of protocol for when you get jazzed. I didn’t know that your ability could overwhelm the ear buds like that. Kind of cool, since it means that no one can just grab one and use it to track you in the field if you get scared enough.” Wallet in its protective housing she stepped out into the hall then turned to speak into the room.

  “Chambers and I are going to head over to the agents’ room for a bit, then she’ll be back in about ten to twenty minutes to get you up to speed on the days plan. She’s in charge of security for the cooking show crew. I’d like you to help her with that. It means following orders, but that shouldn’t be a problem. Any questions yet?”

  “Yeah. Are we doing anything fun this trip? I mean, other than not being at the base? I don’t care for me so much, but Brian… It would be cool if we did something that he’d find fun. I don’t know if anyone really gets how bad he feels about the whole thing that happened yesterday. With the police and all that? Denis too. He told me that he feels responsible for not keeping a tighter rein on the cops, like it was his responsibility or something. It’s crazy, but maybe something nice later? A dinner at a place that won’t kick us all out for being Infected maybe? Or… I know! We should have a picnic. On the beach. No one can ruin that. Well, unless the sandwiches suck or someone makes it rain. Would that be OK?” The voice had started to taper off as she went, and ended in no more than a whisper that sounded so shy it was hard to hear.

  It was a decent plan though.

  “OK, we might have to juggle some schedules around. Get with Warren and see what he says about it. Do you know where he got to? I thought you might be with him, but…” Penny wasn’t his keeper and if the man wanted to sneak out alone, even if it was stupid of him, that was his decision.

  “Here…” The man’s voice came from the far side of the nice room, sounding half yelled. It was only picked up by her ear bud, meaning he’d caught some of Cellophane’s field. He wasn’t really invisible then, just really hard to notice at the moment. If she had a camera he’d show up on it, but she wouldn’t be able to see it in real time, only later. It had to be some kind of psychic level effect that Penny had, but it could linger on another person, if she was physically close to them for a while.

  “OK. You have conference stuff. Please don’t leave without Chambers and Cooper. You’ll need to get ready first anyway. Half an hour for that. Penny get’s the shower first. Make sure you get an ear bud in, if you don’t have one already.” Then she shut the door, not really caring if they followed her orders or not. She suspected they wouldn’t, but at least Bridget followed her to the room just down the hall. She knocked softly, or at least was trying for soft. Her right fist rather boomed against the cream colored finish of the thing in front of her. That was a side effect of her invulnerability. When something hit her, she had several processes that made her skin and the tissue under it temporarily harden. It was like trying to knock gently with a rock. Doable, but it took skill to get it done correctly all the time. It looked nice, but the whole place did, in a slightly modern way. Clean and nicely decorated, if you liked that kind of thing.

  Reyes opened the door, looking rested and chipper enough, and let them in without a word, looking down the hall both ways before shutting the door. Burke was up, and Lancaster was stirring, but still in bed, shirtless and uncovered to the waist. Hopefully he had shorts on, or he’d be trapped until they left. At least if he didn’t want to flash the underage girl. Marcia had seen him naked before, several times, so it wouldn’t faze her at all. They’d never dated or even slept together, since he was too professional for that, but when you did field work together, people saw stuff.

  He waved a bit and sat up, standing easily, showing a pair of tight bikin
g shorts. Not naked though, so good enough. He was in his forties, forty-six, which was three years younger than she was, but still had abs going on under the hair on his chest and stomach. It wasn’t bad, but it ruined his look just a bit. She’d never gone in for really hairy men.

  “Anything new? Operative Cooper collected some data from the man she followed from the bar last night.” Marcia grinned and hefted the bag in her left hand to about shoulder level.

  “His wallet. She tried to preserve it for fingerprints even. Pretty slick, considering she hasn’t had any real training at all yet. We need to get on that.”

  Lancaster rubbed his face and stifled a yawn, getting an answering one from Bridget and Burke. Everyone smiled about it, but listened to the blond man.

  “Excellent. I agree as far as the training goes for Cooper. Yi has been showing her some hand to hand and fire arms techniques, which we should step up I think. He needs to do something different soon anyway or he’ll burn out. He’s kept up with his practice and is getting better, but teaching can’t hurt at the stage he’s at. For the rest, well, I can do some of it. You want to cover the rest?”

  Did she? Marcia was a lot busier day to day than she let on, but Penny was potentially a major asset, now that they could talk to her and communicate what they wanted. It was worth a little lost sleep to make sure that happened.

  “Yes. I’ll get with you and Brian when we get back and work up a schedule.”

  The large man nodded and looked at Bridget and then her, gesturing toward the uniforms.

  “Photo shoot I don’t know about today? Or is it just that we’ll probably all end up on camera a hundred times before lunch?”

  Bridget shook her head.

  “Neither, I’m just on duty, working security for the cooking show team. Cooper is with me on that. I’m in charge.” She said it in that half fierce way of hers that generally meant it would be an issue if you disagreed with what she just said, but Marcia backed her up with a nod.

  “Right. Who’s running it on the agent side; she needs to coordinate with them on it. I’d like Chambers to take lead, if possible. Training.” Why not? It was real enough, since they needed eyes watching for anything, just in case. The problems the day before had bumped things up to a high alert status as far as she was concerned. Not strictly a Team One activity most of the time, running anything except publicity, but it was one way to keep the girl sharp and ready.

  Maybe out of trouble too.

  Burke held up his hand, just about mid-chest height.

  “That’s me. It’s not a high threat situation, or wasn’t before the events of yesterday. Still, given everything I think having three of us on it can’t hurt. Should we get Ink involved too? He’s security for Goblin’s group.”

  Before Marcia could say yes, Reyes sighed.

  “Tobin. He really doesn’t like being called Goblin. It was an assigned name, but kind of insulting. He won’t mention it, because of his first mode, but I can tell it bugs the crud out of him. We don’t have a different one for field use yet, but if it’s just us, I think his real name would work better.”

  Burke didn’t miss a beat, just shifted gears without hesitation.

  “Right, Mr. Peterson then, since he’s going to be a VIP. Should we include his detail as well?”

  Marcia thought for a few seconds. It was a strange thing, since the ones most likely to catch flack were the Uglies, but they were also the most able to take care of themselves if it came to a fight. Warren was the most vulnerable that way out of everyone they had with them. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have the regular agents keeping tabs.

  “Do it. Ink’s solid, but things are getting strange here. Speaking of which, any news on the missing people?”

  Reyes pointed to the laptop in front of him and shrugged.

  “So far Morris’s story checks out. We can’t find his daughter, Harpo, Weathers or Mic. They all have family members missing too. Weathers’ son’s family is off the grid, along with Harpo’s daughter, though Morris mentioned her being worried, so that might be a new thing. Mic doesn’t really have anyone that I can find, so that’s hard to tell. What that means I don’t really know yet. It seems like too many people for them to all be snatched from different locations without it being noticed. We’re planning to do some calling around to double check in about an hour, just to make certain we aren’t looking at a computer generated smoke screen. If it plays out, we’re planning a trip to the stores where the last credit and debit transactions took place.” He shrugged. It wasn’t a lot to go on, but so far looked like Cal hadn’t just lost it.

  Not that Marcia was all that pleased with the man at the moment. He’d always been a bit of a pig, if in an affable enough way. Old age and stress had made him worse though, it looked like. At least if all the Infected crap and refusing to work with them wasn’t just a signal she was supposed to be reading somehow. More than anything she wished that she’d gotten Christian in on the matter the night before. It was a waste of resources not too and it would streamline things incredibly if she’d help out. That last part might be a problem, because Chris tried to avoid reading minds when possible and this still wasn’t work related, but if she would, it might just save a whole lot of time.

  As things stood there was almost nothing for them to do for a while, except get to breakfast with everyone else. That meant getting people out of their rooms, which would probably take a while. Marcia started making the rounds, pounding on door after door, only to find a mixed reception waiting for her.

  Denis was up when she knocked, and looked tense when he let her in, even though the other two with him sounded happy enough as they puttered around, getting ready for the day. She remembered to talk to him about what was going on, but decided not to do it in front of Peggy and Lauren, since it might be about them in some way. Denis feeling trapped into a relationship or something or not wanting to hurt their feelings but not being interested in them as more than friends? That probably wouldn’t even be a real issue with Peggy, but Lauren had problems that way. Her first mode was loneliness. It couldn’t be helped. Except when Denis washed it all away at least. That would probably be enough to make the woman fall in love with him.

  “Hey Marsh. What’s up? Do we need to…” He trailed off and looked at her meaningfully, asking if there was an emergency that he wasn’t supposed to mention out loud.

  Good man. He was learning and everything.

  “Breakfast. We’re all going together, so that we can get on the same page for the day. Ten minutes.” It would take longer, but telling people that would just get them to be even later.

  “Oh? Um, sure, I guess.”

  She moved to the next room, which took more pounding to get people up, since it was Tobin and Ink’s room. Apparently Ink was a sound sleeper. Tobin was ready in a few minutes though and moved out to follow her as they got the others in turn. The boys didn’t let her into their room though, which made her wonder if someone else was in there. It didn’t take her long to figure it out, since Kerry wasn’t in any of the other rooms.

  She looked at the small black and green man next to her, but he just shrugged.

  “It’s a convention. People do stuff. They’re old enough. Besides, if they share a bed I don’t have to share with anyone else.” He turned all green though, a dramatic thing she’d only seen a few times before. When he got scared he kind of changed color to match his surroundings. It wasn’t a very good camouflage but it was more entertaining than not. She kind of thought this one was just his version of blushing though.

  Probably because the other two had been having sex. In front of him. Kind of mean of them, since dating wasn’t easy when you looked like a frog, most likely. Everyone that knew him loved Tobin, but that didn’t mean he was exactly hip deep in woman that wanted to sample his wares. Except for possibly Christian. She had Mark though. Marcia had never asked if it was an open relationship or not. Chris would probably be all right with that sort of thing, given her history, but Mar
k always seemed a bit quiet. Of course she hadn’t known him before he popped, so he might have a lot more held inside than she’d ever know. Well, if that worked for them, she wasn’t going to complain. Otherwise she was going to have to find someone to sleep with Tobin herself. That it wasn’t already a vast problem was probably because his life was looking up over all, what with the album and people actually liking his music. Even the bigots just claimed he had an unfair advantage singing, rather than trying to claim he wasn’t good at it.

  A short half hour later everyone was traipsing down to the hotel’s restaurant, wondering if they’d be served at all. It was a hit or miss thing and Penny offered to sneak over and clean out the buffet if they tried to get rid of them.

  Brian smiled, which actually looked genuine.

  “Argh matey! Thar be Penny, scourge of the high buffet.” He was teasing, but Penny chuckled.

  “Darn straight. How else can I get by in the world? Still, it means we won’t starve, if they shun us like Amish ne’er do wells or something.”

  They didn’t. In fact the waitress that served them smiled a lot and treated them all like they were famous or something. She didn’t even hesitate to put in a special order for Lauren, which had the chef out to ask for particulars, since she had to drink everything through a straw and needed a very high calorie diet. That ended with Mark running back to the kitchen with the man, but got a nice protein drink for their giant armored friend. Served in a large glass pitcher that had a soft fog of condensation already forming on the outside.

  “Wow, this is good. What is it? Hazel nut and chocolate with bits of donut?” Lauren sounded pleased enough, though it seemed a bit overdone to Marcia. It was basically a milkshake after all. Even Marcia could make one of those.

  Of course, she just got a normal plate of food and another bottle of oil. Olive this time, from the label. She downed it in a few minutes, treating it like water and made herself finish the food on her plate. It might not help much, drinking oil straight, but it was something worth trying. No one looked at her funny about it though. Not at their table. Next to them a man stared for a bit, but then just whispered to the woman next to him for a while. It was probably about her, but she didn’t really care. She’d been drinking oil straight. It might just be noteworthy to some people.