The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  "I'd like to point out here that we aren't in the same system you are. If we find out that a law or two was bent or even broken, we can and will look the other way. At least as long as the person doing it is helping us to do our job. Isn't that right Captain Monroe?" It was mean to include the guy, but Brian still didn't like him. He'd been an asshole and deserved to be needled for it. The thing with the elbows was possibly a little over the top, given how things were going so far, but how was he supposed to have known that to start with?

  To his credit the man didn't bitch about it at all, pretending he wasn't hurt.

  "That's right Remoss, these men are just trying to get at the truth. I'm sure they can help you get that black mark out of your record, maybe even before promotion time. That couldn't hurt, you have a good record after all." The words sounded inane but seemed to get the Officer to perk up a little.

  "Great, what do you need? My psych records? Blood? Testimonials from friends, coworkers and family?"

  Brian smiled, fighting to make it reach his eyes and not seem like a psychopath.

  "Were going to be having some people in, on a related issue. They have abilities that might be useful in clearing you. Do that and you won't just be clearing your name, but helping us out. It can't hurt to have a government agency happy with you. Not if you're looking to climb the ranks. True, it's the IPB, but you never know what's going to come up." It was true enough, and the man smiled again.

  "Sounds like just what I need. Do you think it was some kind of Infected power then? Why did it only affect me? Was it the guy we arrested?"

  Lancaster took over them, sounding professional and smooth.

  "No. His power is something totally different. Something made you see things that weren't there though and that isn't normal at all, so yes, given that you weren't dropping acid before work, seeing that probably does mean someone else used an ability on you. Maybe on everyone in that room. We'll need to talk to them all, it seems." He held out his hand and started a round of shaking again.

  "Please let us know if you remember anything at all, and if possible, stay close to town for a few days. Since we don't know what's going on... Well, if anything strange happens to you or around you, don't hesitate to call us." That got the numbers passed around for the IPB, Lancaster and the base, just in case the man was nervous about dealing with the local office. It was an odd thing, but Daryl had mentioned it happening every now and then.

  Mainly people that were Infected and afraid that being to near the IPB meant instant death, but there were probably other reasons. Late taxes or something stupid like that.

  The idea made Brian smile. He'd found a man with a truck full of pot once and let him go. He even helped him avoid the Mounties. It wasn't his job to bust people for most crimes. He only took care of the Infected. Even then it was only supposed to be when they were doing something wrong.

  It wasn't exactly true for him though was it? He stopped monsters, but some of them were just people. Evil ones, but his power didn't seem to care if you were a certain kind of person, it just sent him into action when it was needed. Right now it didn't seem to be. It was odd that there would be a big break like that, two weeks nearly, without having to fight like that, but it worked out pretty well. He'd thought it was all about him coming here to kill these guys and maybe their friends and families if they were rotten bigots too, but so far it was looking a whole lot different than that.

  Shaw, the worst of them to Brian's mind, hadn't come in yet though. Remoss had left already, going back to his shift duties in a professional and timely fashion, but there was no sign of the other man.

  "I guess we should take the Captain here to the Emergency Room?" Dislocated elbows hurt. It was why he did it to the fellow in the first place. He'd already snapped them back into place, that happened almost by reflex anyway, the man probably not even feeling it as a separate movement. He'd need splints, and probably someone to help him take care of himself for the next six weeks or so.

  Giving him a rather stern look Lancaster agreed.

  "You know, we could have avoided this if you'd just kicked him in the balls."

  Brian shrugged.

  "Everyone's a critic. Twenty-twenty hindsight and all that. Besides, I'm just doing my job, the Captain understands that, right?"

  He smiled at the man encouragingly, then helped him up to get medical attention.

  Gently.

  He wasn't the cop after all.

  Chapter 2

  The doctors weren't pleased to find out why Monroe had two damaged arms, but it wasn't that bad, Brian assured them. The muscles and tendons were damaged, but nothing was torn completely. A lot of strain, but that was to be expected, given what he'd done.

  "Wait, you did this? Was it a training accident or..." The man trailed off, as if hoping it was something that innocent.

  "Oh, no. He was trying to refuse aid in serving a Death Warrant. That's a no-no. Technically I could have killed him for it, but I was feeling generous. If it ever comes up, remember, a person serving a Death Warrant has the legal right to harm or kill anyone in the way of performing their duty. It could come up for a doctor, so spread that around a bit. Normally it's a good thing to stop death, but in that one circumstance it's best not to even try." He had his professional voice back and a serious look on his face, so the Doc didn't ask if he was kidding. He wasn't.

  Actually the rules were looser than that even. If he wanted to he could still claim that the whole department was guilty of collusion in hiding Shaw, without any real proof of it, and take them all down. You couldn't even argue the matter in court. The warrants were hard to get, for most people. For some reason his requests kept going through lately, which probably meant he had a friend in the Justice Department somehow. So far he hadn't killed any of the targets, choosing to let them go and sit on the warrants for a while, to make sure they were guilty in a way that required the final option.

  Which was basically what he was doing now with Remoss and Claring. It would be harder with Shaw, even if he had been mind controlled. The man had just seemed so evil the whole time. It didn't come as a shock to Brian that he hated the man. What did was that the Doctor was shouting at someone down the hall.

  Lancaster was laughing, but seemed to have noticed that he hadn't been mentally present for the whole thing too.

  "Ah. Funny. Anyway, we need to get with IPB local and see if they can help us run down some leads. Should we start with everyone that was at your house that day?"

  Brian shrugged and noticed the burning pain that ran along his back. It was a phantom thing, coming and going. It hurt, but there wasn't anything that regular drugs could do for it. It was from a burn scar he had there, that covered about half the skin. It had gotten better for a while, but in the last month the pain had come back. No one knew exactly what kind of energy had done it, so it could be something real, or just a mental artifact, like phantom limbs for amputees. Real, painful, and very hard to treat.

  He pretended it didn't affect him.

  "Shaw first. Then we need to talk to headquarters and see who's available to check things out. Ellen Doer or Christian Poures would be my first choice, but Chris doesn't leave the base much and I don't know about Ellen." Except that she was good at her job and younger than she pretended to be by about forty years. That was linked to her first mode he bet. An obsession with some older English lady. Brian hadn't asked and no one told him. It was pretty harmless though. Not a horrible thing to be obsessed with if you had to go that way.

  "Right. We can call that in when we find a room. Otherwise we're sleeping in the rental and they probably frown on that." He said it as if it was a joke, but they didn't have a lot of options. Maybe camping out. He could afford some tents and sleeping bags even, so it wouldn't be that bad. They could make s'mores. It would be fun.

  Lancaster had to help the Captain answer his phone when it rang, it being in his jacket pocket, he couldn't hold it with both arms in splints, so it got held to his face fo
r ease of use.

  "What? You have to be shitting me. On the side of the road. Still running? No... locked? OK... No... I don't know. I'll call you back in a bit, let me check on that."

  He looked at the black clad Agent and shook his head a little, getting him to hang up.

  "Shaw is missing. His car was found on the side of the road, empty. Locked and shut off though, so he got out on his own. We don't know what you want done about it. APB or do you want this to be kept low key?"

  It wasn't lost on him that the man kept looking at Lancaster for this information, not him. Then he probably hated Brian more, and the black suit really did lend authority to the whole thing. Maybe it was just that. Or even age. If he'd just met them, he'd have assumed Lancaster was in charge too.

  The man sounded like it even.

  "No, we'll go into this one quietly. If he heard that there was a Death Warrant out on him, he may have just run for that reason alone. It's illegal, but if they're going to kill you anyway, might as well. Of course anyone that helped him do it is in trouble now too and they won't get a court hearing, so you might want to spread the word that doing that in this case can lead to some pretty dark things."

  There was a moment then when Brian almost reassured the man that he wouldn't actually murder someone for just helping a buddy, but there was a good chance that this buddy was fleeing because he was guilty. If that was the case Brian wasn't letting it go, was he? Anyone helping him might be dying for it and really should be warned.

  Then they had to call Rick, the guy's boyfriend. Lancaster dialed the phone, but Monroe did the talking.

  "Hey... Um, I'm at the hospital, I... kind of had an accident. No, I'm fine, mostly. I can't use my arms for a bit though. Right, so I could use a ride. Um, normal I guess. No one from work is here, just some IPB guys. No... Rick... They know. One of them guessed if you can believe that. As far as I know. OK. Bye, see you in fifteen."

  They didn't exactly make small talk, the Captain getting on his phone to try and find Officer Shaw, who was in a lot of trouble if he wasn't kidnapped. Leaving your squad car on the road like that was a big deal, even if it was understandable.

  Brian shrugged.

  "If he wasn't guilty, he wouldn't have run." OK, that was counter to common sense, but it was what the police always said, right? Brian watched the Captain talking on the phone get more annoyed with the words than he had been, so he kept going, keeping to a monotone.

  "Then since some police are bad or corrupt, they're all guilty of something, right? Just like the Infected?"

  On the fifth little paraphrased police truism Lancaster pulled his own phone and pushed a single button, then handed it off to Brian without speaking. He had an odd feeling he was about to be scolded.

  Sighing he made himself smile, waiting to hear the voice to see how bad it would be. Surprisingly it wasn't Director Moore, or even Marcia, though she might have yelled at him for needling the police Captain while he was in the hospital like this.

  No, it was, of all people, Denis.

  "Yi, what are you up to now? Lancaster told me I was supposed to talk you down if he called. Um, don't do it? Life is precious and shit like that? Sorry, I mean 'stuff'. What were you doing that got him worked up?" No hello or anything, or thought that the Agent might have been the one calling him, instead of handing the cell phone off instantly. It smacked of something pre-planned.

  "Just mentioning that if a police officer takes off knowing that he's wanted, he must be guilty. Well, a few more things, but that's fair, right? It's what they always say about everyone else, so it must be true." His voice was a little warmer, because, somehow, over the last month or two he was actually starting to like Denis. The guy used to be an ass, and had his moments still, but now he seemed more like a crazy uncle from television that always gave you cake and beer when the parents weren't looking, instead of just a dick all the time.

  "To their faces?"

  "Well, there's only one of them right now, but I suppose so."

  "Ah, OK, let me see here, I made some notes... This one I think. 'How not to be a douche' First, when working with anyone, try not to insult their religion, hygiene, occupation or personal appearance. People can be sensitive about these things and take them in a way that will cause anger and resentment. The best way to avoid this is to not speak to the person at all, or if that can't be avoided, making a point of avoiding the potentially sensitive topics. Does that help? I also have a good one here about not being a "Ho-bag" too, but it didn't seem to apply, unless you're working the streets of your old town? If so, that's pretty fast."

  Brian actually chuckled, getting the idea. If Denis said he was being a douche that was probably just the case. He was an expert in the field.

  "OK. I'll take it down a notch. Since when does Lancaster go to you for things like that? Aren't you still in D.C.?" It was like a war zone there, since the attacks had happened. Bridget and a few other people, all Infected, had managed to fight the jets and bombers off, which killed one of them in the process. Maybe two. Both civilians who had used their powers to try and protect people, most of whom hated them. The planes crashing had killed a lot more people than the fragile human bodies when they fell from the air. There'd been some bombs dropped too. He'd been there for that part. He still wasn't sure how he'd survived it, but his power had gotten the President's daughter out in time. All he remembered was pain and his body doing things on its own, blocking flying debris in the air, even though he couldn't see it in the dark space. The whole thing had left him having flashbacks at random. Then he had a lot of those anymore.

  "Yeah, working a kitchen here with the people from the Food Network. I wouldn't have thought it, but they've really stepped up. One second..." There was a muffled sound and then he was back.

  "There's someone here that wants to talk to you."

  This voice was familiar too, almost chipper, even though everyone there had to be exhausted.

  "Brian! Didya miss me?" She giggled a little, as only a hyper fifteen year old girl could. Bridget.

  "I did. What are you doing there? I thought you'd be on a detail with the President."

  There was a strange sound, but then she sighed.

  "Here with Maggie Lawrence and Lauren. She decided that it would be best to keep busy, after her mom died. I need to get back to the food line myself, things slow down when I'm not there. Probably because everyone keeps wanting to stop and talk to the famous people. How are... how is your project going, do you need me? Or... Lauren will come, or dad. Maggie would too I think, but we can't let her." She whispered then, her voice soft.

  "Or, if you need us, we all will. They can lock down the President for a few days, they don't want to, because it will make him look weak. That's really why Maggie is here. It's nerve wracking, because anyone with half a brain would be planning to take a shot at her and they can shoot all day. I just have to miss one bullet." The girl sounded like she was taking the job seriously at least.

  That was hard for her, since she was so impulsive, but she could do the job if she tried.

  "I'll let you get back to it then. Tell Denis I promise to be good so he doesn't have to scold me anymore." He let a smile touch his voice, which actually carried over.

  "Got it. We're just a phone call away if you need us."

  "Thanks. Be safe."

  He hung up the phone and gave it back to Lancaster, knowing that he should have his own, but also that it would be a waste of money. The first time he had to trade out he'd drop it and it would break. Or the second. It would happen sooner or later regardless. Looking at the big agent he raised an eyebrow.

  "Or you could have just said to cut it out."

  It was the bigger man's turn to look serious then.

  "Sure, but I'm saving that one for when I really need it. If I keep telling you to stop now, later, when you're killing someone that you shouldn't be, you'd be less likely to listen to me. So I have Denis, Chris and even Mark ready to go on this if you need it. I asked
Charlot Chambers to do it too, but she suggested that she could come and help you kill them all. Kind of a fan of yours, you know that?" The man didn't make a big deal of it, though a few people had, including Dharma. He waited for her to pop out and do it now, but she kept silent instead of going on about how obvious it was that the woman had the hots for him. She was pretty enough and they actually got along, but she was married, and Brian wasn't willing to do that to her husband. They were friends too.

  "I always listen. I just don't always obey. It's been a trend in my life. I used to all the time, but that didn't work out for me too well. So now I do what I think is right, I can't help it if you don't see it all the time." It was just true, but about that time a man walked up to them, looking concerned.

  "Bill? Are you OK?" The man pulled the little blue curtain around them, and then started kissing the man on the bed several times. When he stood back he looked concerned, even a little scared.

  He was very tan, but a white person for all that. Thin on a level that probably meant a major addiction to either drugs or exercise, if he wasn't Infected. His hair was deep brown and he had a big nose, but the face looked friendly enough and the eyes sane. That was important to Brian. He'd met too many people with eyes that were simply gone lately. It was hard to explain, but he could tell insane people at a glance now. This one was normal.

  "What happened, you said you had an accident?"

  Monroe looked at Brian and didn't speak for a few seconds, as if he didn't know what to say.

  Brian did, it was a simple enough story after all.

  "I dislocated them at the elbows. He was getting in the way of me serving a legal Death Warrant. I opted to use less than lethal force, though I could have killed him leg-"

  Rick's skinny arm didn't carry a lot of force, but by the time Brian realized he was being attacked he had to force himself to freeze, or he would have killed the man, his fist stopping at half extension as it traveled towards his throat. It meant taking the inexpert blow to the face, which knocked him over, since he'd just been standing, not getting ready to fight. He ended up on his butt, pushing the blue curtain out a bit. Brian just stood up, ready to block if the man pressed the attack, which he did. This went on for about half a minute until he realized that nothing else was going to get through. The Captain was talking to him, but Rick didn't seem inclined to listen yet.