The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  “I’m good. I was just headed down the hallway when they stepped out, Morris pulled a gun and fired at me, then they both… Exploded. I didn’t hear anything, it just happened, almost like it was magic. I need to get out of here. I don’t want to explain to my boss what I was doing at a shootout. I’m supposed to be on vacation right now.” He looked around and then shuddered just a tiny bit. The man might be a psychopath and largely without fear, if she was reading the signs correctly, but that didn’t mean adrenalin couldn’t start flowing when things got bad. He looked ready to fight though, not run.

  Marcia stared at the scene, the whole thing not making any sense for a while, until Proxy and Impulse ran up. The girl was letting Brian keep up with her, jogging slowly to the scene instead of rushing in like a moron. Like she had. Then, she could back it up by being almost impossible to hurt. The girl could too, but it was protocol to wait for your teammates when possible.

  “Penny.” Brian looked at the wall and ran over, holding something that wasn’t there. Someone, Marcia understood. Cellophane.

  It explained how someone had just walked up behind the guys and shot them, one after the other. It even explained how she’d heard the nine. It was probably that the sound had gotten out of the range of whatever kept people from noticing things Penny did. It was an odd thing, but it made sense.

  “Is she hurt? Do we need to…” The hard part of working in the field with the girl was that she pretty much couldn’t be helped if she got hurt. She did it herself, or they got Brian to take care of it. No one else could see her well enough. At all, to be honest. Most people couldn’t even feel her, unless she made their limbs dance all around or something. Mark could see her, when he was using his power, but that wasn’t as useful as it sounded for medical problems. If something was wrong, they’d just have to do their best and get Brian help with the more complex bits. Call Dr. Burrows back at the base and have her walk him through what had to be done.

  “No, I’m fine.” The girl sounded small and far away, almost unheard in the silence of the hallway.

  “I shot them. Those men. I killed them.” She sounded like she was in shock.

  That made sense; the girl hadn’t killed anyone before most likely. Hit a few people, but there was a point after the first time you killed a man that it all hit you solidly. Penny was going to get that now, it seemed. Without anyone really being able to be there for her. Marcia didn’t shake her head, but wanted to, and walked over to where Brian was, kneeling beside him, holding her arms out. She thought she felt something then.

  Penny could feel her if nothing else, right? She was less able to tell if the girl was around than most people, but it was about the thought this time, nothing else. She needed to know her people, her team, were there for her.

  When she turned Wilson was gone already. Not that she blamed him, but that would be harder to explain than not. All they really had now was a shooting by an IPB operative of two men. Penny couldn’t really prove it was a righteous shoot, since neither men was Infected. Looking at the hair and body shape, she figured that the second man was probably Harpo. The clothing was nicer than she’d have thought would be his style, but the hair was a distinctive blond fuzz. Wiry and obvious. His mouth was still in place too, so they could check dental records, if it came to it.

  It would have been easier if the men had been Infected though.

  Marcia shrugged.

  Why shouldn’t they have been? She pointed at them and made sure Proxy was looking over at her at least. Others had started to gather, and cameras were rolling already, so she tried to act like what she was saying was real. It was harder to do than it sounded, but she thought she might have gotten it right.

  “Two shooters with ties to a terrorist organization? What’s that Penny? You saw them both use Infected abilities? The bigger one was enraged the whole time and tried to kill an innocent bystander who ran off?” She kept it up for a minute, acting like she was just checking the facts as they came in.

  Brian stood and nodded.

  “I see. Well, that makes sense. A lot of the higher levels of the hate movement have been taken over by self-loathing Infected. Good job, saving everyone in the hotel from their shooting spree Penny. I’d hate to think what would have happened if you hadn’t come along like that.”

  They kept that line of patter up for a while, until Lancaster and the other black suited agents walked up, looking at things calmly. None of them said anything about who the people on the ground were, but Lancaster did make a point of finding Penny. He seemed to be patting her on the back. It was hard to tell, since the man was just waving his hand a little as far as Marcia could tell. That didn’t stop him from doing it, even if he did look like he was having some kind of mental breakdown.

  It was Reyes that got who the bodies were first, since the I.D. they both carried had pictures of them. That was one problem with fake ID. You couldn’t be around people that knew you well. Taking his time he held the plastic licenses out for the others to look at.

  “Damn.” It was dark and muttered, but Marcia had to nod at the man.

  “I know, not a good thing at all.”

  Her first impulse was to run, get everyone out of the building to protect them, then double back and see if anyone was watching. That part still needed to be done, but they couldn’t really afford to leave yet. Sure, her part in this was half done. Now she just needed to find the other two missing men and it would be finished well enough. Finding out what they were doing, either being forced to it or on their own volition, would make her feel better, but wasn’t really important to the mission.

  Whatever they had planed it was too dangerous for her to mess around in. Penny wouldn’t have killed them if they hadn’t seemed about to kill someone themselves. That she’d managed to do it before Wilson bought it was pretty fast work. Most untrained people would have just stood around, waiting to make sense of the situation first. Normally that got people killed. They didn’t have the shoot first mentality needed to really take a life before things got even worse. Instead they froze, trying to understand what they were seeing, like it was a movie playing out in front of them.

  Penny had done her job though and hadn’t complained about it yet even. It was practically a miracle.

  Protocol said they had to wait for the local PD to get to the scene, as well as the local IPB unit, before taking off. It was unfortunate. It meant, given everything, that Proxy had to stay and really, he just had a problem with the cops. It wasn’t his fault, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t end up being an issue again. Especially now that he was on this bunches radar. If they pulled the normal strong arm crap with him, the whole thing was going to blow up on everyone fast.

  It would be important to try and get that calmed down before anything too severe happened. The hallway was starting to fill with people too, only part of them belonging to the IPB. Most were camera crews, so if Brian had another meltdown, the whole world would get to see it.

  Before she could try to talk Brian into being reasonable, Denis walked over though and gave the black fatigued dressed man a serious look.

  “We have too much going on for you to do anything Yi. I mean, look around.” He didn’t let his attention waiver, but waited while Brian did exactly that, noticing that they were the center of attention. Then he continued without so much as blinking.

  “So if we have a problem with the police, I’ll drop them. You just hold your position and try to “talk me down” if it comes to that. That will make it seem like I’m just overreacting and since no one will be hurt, that should play a lot better on the Ten O’clock news.”

  Brian didn’t make a sound for a long time, but he finally shook his head.

  “I get the idea. I’ll be good. I just… We really, really need to do something about the police. Look at those guys yesterday. They were about to open fire on us, just because a few of us look a bit different. What would they have done if they had Lauren or Peggy alone, or Tobin?” His gaze found those v
ery people, since they’d come out into the hallway when the rest of the cooking show personnel did.

  All their people came in fact, making Marcia realize something.

  “Mark! The cakes. They’re a target; we need to secure the back door.” She didn’t even get to the mention of the full idea before Stasis blinked out of existence. It was a real point though. Normal people wouldn’t have used the death of two people as a distraction to gain entry for something that trivial, but these were TV people. Thinking they were above that kind of thing might just be a mistake. True, she’d probably be wrong, but if she wasn’t it could make a huge difference.

  After all, she wasn’t all that certain that the Cake Kings weren’t doing it because of a deep and abiding hatred of the Infected for instance, meaning that it was a form of terrorism. Maybe they should arrest them all for questioning? That probably wouldn’t play too well, so she let the idea go. For the moment. If they kept doing it though, she was having Christian take a peek at their minds. There were limits after all and pranks were almost always a form of hostility, no matter what anyone claimed.

  They had to wait for a long time before the cops came. The IPB local got there first, even though they were called last, as was required by the rules. The four men that showed up had a familiar look to them, all in great shape, and all in their thirties or forties. Not a lot of young guys made the cut. Normally the IPB was just too hard to get into unless you’d proved yourself mentally stable and secure, meaning it was hard to get agents to fill all the positions. On the good side it meant that they just did their jobs and didn’t try to get in a dick waving competitions with anyone, most of the time at least.

  This time they seemed fine, right up until the police got there.

  “This is a crime scene. Get these fucking freaks out of here now, or we’re placing you all under arrest.” The words had a slightly panicked edge to them, coming from one of the twenty or so police on the scene. The grey haired one, who was a lean man with nicely tanned skin. He didn’t look friendly though, with a constant look of disgust on his face. The lines showed it to be habitual at least and not just about them. It was like life displeased the man and he was going to take it out on everyone else.

  But no one was that disgusted all the time. Not unless it was their first mode. Marcia caught Chris’s eye as she stood in the crowd and mentally tried to convey what she wanted. A half minute later the attractive blonde, who was in at least three camera shots at the moment nodded just enough to let her know she was right.

  The man was Infected.

  Also in charge of the police in the area, as far as this crime scene went. It wouldn’t do to out the guy either, since that would just ruin him, most likely. She smiled instead.

  “Material witnesses. This is an IPB investigation; you’re being called in only as a courtesy. Since we believe this is linked to terrorism we’re most likely going to have the FBI and DHS all over this too in a few hours. Best to let us handle it and just guard the perimeter. Both safer for your people and the civilians on the scene, less hassle for you all that way too. Maybe if you moved the cameras back though?” She spoke gently, so her voice wouldn’t carry, but that didn’t help as far as the man in blue was concerned. She wondered what his ability was? Probably nothing that impressive or he’d have been tagged by the IPB by now. You couldn’t be disgusted by everything and have a really active power without it being triggered eventually.

  Most Infected didn’t have some kind of incredible power though, did they? Just emotional issues with no real benefit or payoff. That this guy managed to keep a job and even do well in it meant he managed his first mode pretty well most days. That, or the police had a high tolerance for certain negative emotions than most work places did. Either way, it seemed to be working out for the guy.

  He growled at her and curled his lip more, but turned and waved everyone back.

  “This is a crime scene. Move back. Get everyone back. We’re on the perimeter. No one comes or goes without our say so. No one gets in without it being cleared by me personally.” It was a slightly odd way of doing things, but Marcia could work with it. True, not everyone would have their ID on them, but as soon as they were cleared, most of her people needed to get back to the show and then the picnic. They weren’t cancelling that just because her old buddies were dead on the floor.

  Morons. What the hell had Morris been thinking? Why call her in, Lancaster and Reyes too, if they were actually involved in something? Wouldn’t it have been safer to just do whatever they were doing? If the CIA guy hadn’t been jerking her around that thing they were doing might be linked to a coup or assassinating President Lawrence. Was the man even going to be in the area any time soon though? Marcia didn’t have the whole schedule in her head or anything, but she didn’t think so.

  What did that leave then?

  She had an odd feeling it was mainly about getting her and the guys out of the way. But why bother? Did they think that she’d have some sort of special ability to thwart an assassination attempt? It wasn’t even her job to try. Not really. She’d have been back at the base running drills right then, if Morris hadn’t called her in.

  Safe and monitored the whole time.

  Crap.

  “This is a set-up.” She muttered the words out loud, and only Brian seemed to hear her, but he looked away and started to nod slowly.

  “Yeah, that sounds about right. Braid then? It kind of has that feel.”

  It did, but that wouldn’t matter. They needed to stop the plan, whatever it was, and at the same time show that they weren’t responsible for it. That was the most likely part of all this, Marcia figured, pieces coming together solidly, all at once.

  “We’re not being tracked as closely as normal right now, which means that whatever they have planned might just be pinned on us. We need to make sure that doesn’t happen. How though? We could all go back to the base, but if we do that, then we have almost no chance to stop whatever it is that might be happening.” Not as easily at least.

  Brian had an idea.

  “Get Charlot to handle it. She can put together a documentary or something, which would put us all on camera almost all the time for the next week. Then if anything happens we’ll have video proof of our alibis. Well, everyone here except me, I mean. My power means that I could be anywhere and back before it gets noticed, but everyone else should be covered.” He shrugged and looked around, but clearly couldn’t find the PR lady.

  It was a plan though. They were all IPB, except Warren and really, private contractor or not, he lived with the same rules they all did, which meant surveillance twenty-four hours a day when on the base. They were watched in bed, in the showers and even on the toilet. No one was going to scream about having some cameras watching them now. The only difference here being that it wasn’t just a random precaution. They had a real reason to do it this time. It was about protecting themselves and the people around them.

  That would have to wait though. The crime scene work took a lot longer than it should have, since the local guys from the IPB didn’t really know most of them, recognizing only Prime, Proxy and Lady Glory right off the bat. The famous kids as far as an agent was concerned, which meant they missed her totally, even though she was their boss. After a few minutes they seemed to get who Lancaster was too, since he was pretty high up in the organization on their side of things, but that just meant they went extra slow, methodically taking down all the statements by hand, trying to make sure they didn’t mess anything up. Then, before they really got finished, DHS showed up and the whole thing had to be gone over again. The FBI still wasn’t there, but the ATF did show up, since Morris didn’t have a license for the weapon he was carrying. Harpo did, which was pretty scary to Marcia’s mind.

  That meant he either didn’t think he’d be shooting anyone illegally, which meant he was killed when he didn’t need to be, weapon still undrawn, or he really didn’t think it would matter in the end. A suicide mission. Probably not this part of
things though, since between him and Cal they should have had Wilson dead to rights. Really, they probably would have, if they’d wanted him actually dead. The idea was one that she kept to herself for the time being.

  After all, Penny didn’t know that, and she’d just been following orders. Casting doubt on her kills now would serve only to hurt her future ability to act as a shooter at need. It felt a little cold blooded, but Marcia knew that having the girl able to kill on demand was a much bigger asset than having her old buddies alive was. Especially if they’d turned on their country like it seemed they might have. If they were innocent, well, Penny still didn’t need to know that, did she? The men were already gone and she really needed to feel good about it. Or at least like she’d done the right thing. It was crucial at this stage of her development.

  It was seven before they were let go, and that soon only because they were all staying in one convenient location for the week. The cake contest had been pushed back a bit, so that they could all attend, and that meant they’d be having dinner on the beach in the dark if they didn’t hurry things along. They could have gone to the restaurant, but Tobin kept shaking his head and Warren looked about ready to slap someone if they suggested it. It had been a lot of work getting everything put together after all and would probably hurt the little guys feelings if they skipped the picnic he’d packed up.

  Marcia wanted to stand around shaking her head the whole time too, so instead sat in the audience with everyone else, a scantly filled room as far as bodies went, with their people being about half those attending. Marcia tried to clap when it was needed, smiling as she could for the cameras. She was next to Bridget on one side and had Brian on the other, which meant they could whisper a little between scenes. The whole “contest” was being taped, and that meant it went way slower than a real event would have, lights and cameras being re-set occasionally. They even did multiple takes when lines got flubbed.