by P. S. Power
"This, is a cluster fuck. After Madison died earlier today, this is going to look like it was planned by the same people. Blind chance, but we can't tell anyone that. It will probably end up in a lot of innocent people dying, one way or the other. It always does anymore. Fuck. I hate this crap." Lancaster sounded tired suddenly, on top of the anger.
Didn't everyone hate it though? She reached over and patted his shoulder gently. It was the kind of thing you did with friends, to reassure them, when life was just a pile of crap that they had to wade through every day. Most of the time people didn't seem to feel any better when she did things like that, but Lancaster stopped talking at least, which might be a good sign. It was possible that he'd picked up her action on some level, at least until she thought about it, which instantly pushed her power up to the next level. She didn't just exist in one state. Brian had taught her that. At her highest level of stress even he could barely see her.
The large Agent next to her didn't have a chance then, that being the case. Not to feel the warmth of her hand or know that she wanted to make him feel better about things.
Penny tried to speak anyway.
"I know. We did our part, and even called it in. We can't do anything else for them. Not without jeopardizing the operation." She really didn't think that he'd get that last line, but he nodded, clearly making out what she'd said.
They rode in silence. She couldn't take over for him, not having a license. She laughed at her own joke, imagining the reaction of the police to a car that seemed like it was driving down the street alone, a sleeping Lancaster in the passenger's seat. It wasn't workable at all, so she just tried not to be too big of a pain. She did talk every now and then, and after she got bored she went through the briefcase, which got her attention after a bit.
"Ooohhh. Isn't Nadia Fields the name of the nanny that he supposedly killed? Hooper I mean? Her name is all over these things. Large payouts to her. I didn't know that kind of work was that good of a job. She had weeks where she collected nearly ten thousand from him. Even if she was sleeping with him, that's a bit much. Hush money maybe? If so, that would add some fuel to the idea that he actually wasted her." She was distracted and was used to talking to herself, just so someone would say her name occasionally. It was an old habit now.
It really shocked her when the agent answered.
"That would explain it. Good work. Try to keep that info to yourself for now. I know how you like to explain everything to Brian and Denis. How are things going there?"
She knew what he meant, but she wasn't his little spy girl. Or, well, she was, but not against her friends. That the men both counted as that now amazed her to no end. Brian was great really, but was too much of a good thing for her first mode to allow. Denis however was a prick, or at least used to have been one. Ever since he'd gotten out of the holding cells and started working with Hobbs he'd really cleaned up a lot. Now he was even a television star. More than that, he was cool about it. If anything being a little famous had made him nicer than before.
He had a woman that he sort of had a relationship with, Peggy, but they weren't serious really. They had regular sex and he was really sweet with her, but she didn't insist they were exclusive, which was great for Penny. It meant that he'd probably do her if she ever asked. Not that he'd know about it overly. That was all right, as long as she got off. It was something to consider really. It had been a while since she'd done anything with anyone and it was starting to make her edgy.
She scoured the papers, since it was very probable that no one would ever tell her anything about the case again. Her part was to go and get things, not analyze data. They had people for that, some of them with powers that made it very effective to use them for that purpose. The rest had I.Q.'s that pushed the limits of sanity. That was something she'd heard one of them say once, as they sat around talking about the latest information that had come in. She always went to the meetings, but no one ever gave her a file with all the information in it. Marcia got them, but she was the Deputy Director of the IPB. Lancaster was the head of the Agents Division as far as that went. They weren't a huge organization, but that wasn't the real reason for the man working with her personally.
No, it was Team Three. For a long time Penny had really thought they were just the dregs of the organization. Powerful enough, but made up of people that didn't play well with others. Even Denis was there because no one else would work with him for years. No one could work with her, and Mark... didn't need anyone else.
His power to stop time basically meant he could do anything, to anyone he wanted, anywhere he could reach. True, he had to ride a bicycle or walk a lot to do it, but that just kept him looking good. He could even dodge bullets and take down teleporters, since they just weren't fast enough to do anything to him.
The thing there was, once she'd looked into the files on them, it turned out that there were two sets. The ones that everyone had access to, and the secret set, kept in Director Moore's office, in a special drawer that was hidden behind the cabinet in his desk. She'd happened to be watching him one day when he'd gotten into it, or she never would have guessed it was there.
The information was more than a bit scary.
For instance, there was a termination order filled out for Brian Yi. Proxy. It was in the President's name, but also signed by most of the heads of the government. She'd nearly freaked when she saw it, but, even though signed, it didn't have the date sections filled out. That was insane of course, since trying to kill Brian would probably end with anyone attempting it being the dead one.
Maybe Mark could do it. Possibly. Except that he was a complete pacifist.
Then she'd read the other files, which was even worse, once her mind let her realize what they said. There was one for him too, a death warrant for Mark, and a sheet admitting that it wouldn't work if they sent a team in. They all had them. Including Bridget from Team One. She was still too young to legally have sex, but they had a kill order ready to go on the kid. Team Three was all there, but a few others were too, including Director Moore, and for some reason Charlot Chambers. She was Infected, true, but her power wasn't that special. An energy blast that was about as effective as a powerful handgun.
The note there talked about her leaving though. She did the PR for the agency and if she tried to get out, they couldn't risk the damage she might do to them.
Penny's didn't talk about that at all. With her they assumed that the only way to take her out was to use some kind of weapon of mass destruction that she just couldn't outrun. They'd never know if they got her, of course. If she died, it was just expected that she'd leave an invisible corpse to rot.
The rest of the base was safe at least. Oh, they might be killed at any time, but at least the President hadn't already signed off on it. Some day Penny was going to take Moore out for a walk, outside the wire, to see what he had to say for himself about all of that. She kind of thought there would be a good story there. After all, he was keeping the one for him too. The question then would be, why?
If any of them flipped out and became a danger, it was perfectly legal to do anything they had to, in order to stop them already. They couldn't be arrested by outside forces for anything except murder, but if they did that, no one would really be able to take them to trial, would they? No, it would be death in that case, but an order for it wasn't needed. Not at all. So why have things ready to go for them like that? It nearly didn't make sense. That probably meant it was about something else, like killing them before they could do anything wrong. Preemptive measures?
If that was the case they all needed to run the second the government passed any version of the Hooper Act, or whatever they called the next version, since he probably wasn't going to get his through at all, given everything. She wasn't planning to go to a concentration camp personally, or put anyone else in one just for being Infected. If the government tried that shit she'd hunt them down one by one and slit their throats.
Which might just be why they had th
at order ready to go, now that she stopped to think about it.
Lancaster, being a gentleman, stopped for more food, which he paid for in cash and took with them, to eat on the plane. It was a private jet, which belonged to the Team Three leader, Christian. It was a boy's name, but Penny didn't care about that. Chris was a cold and brittle bitch most of the time, who vacillated between not being able to tell she was even around, to stern disapproval of the things she got up to. Of course it was easy to judge others, when you were a rich heiress that was worth nearly a billion dollars. She'd made big chunks of that herself, doing God knew what. Porn and capitalizing on the fame from it, Penny thought. Maybe some acting, before she gave that all up for the wild life of an IPB Operative. Not that any of them really had a choice in the matter once they popped.
Sure, the government couldn't really force most of Team Three to do it, but where else were they going to go? They all had different reasons for being there, but it pretty much boiled down to knowing that every other option was worse. For now. Until the Feds finally turned on them and tried to send them to those camps.
The bag was filled with Arby's sandwiches of different kinds, enough for ten regular people, or the two of them, if they didn't have to share with Christian's friend. There would be food on the plane, but the staff could almost always be counted on to forget about her. Unless Brian was with her. He never let anyone forget her. Then he acted all hurt when she told him she didn't want to date him. Like he couldn't see the correlation?
At least he had someone now. She hadn't met Mary, but the woman sounded neat. Prime's bio-mom, so how cool was that? Brian turning out to be the time traveling father of the guy was a little strange, but she was fine with it. That just meant that no babysitting duties got shunted over to "Aunt Penny". That was good, because hot or not, and the golden colored man was that for certain, she always avoided him. He was just big enough, and powerful enough, to accidently kill her by mistake. Bridget was bad that way too, but at least she was little and unintimidating to look at, giving a false sense of safety.
The plane wasn't empty when they got on board. It had not one, but three people on it. A woman that seemed to be about Chris's age, so about forty-something, but who looked like plastic surgery was her friend and constant companion. She seemed nearly perfect, but in the almost creepy way that dolls did. Her hair was shoulder length and had just a bit of fake curl to it. Instead of dressing for comfort, she was in a dress that probably cost more than the bonus that Penny would have gotten for killing Ivan earlier, if that had been on the books at all. Technically she was in her room at the base, reading and sulking a bit. Less officially she was out on a training operation with Lancaster, just following him around. Learning to do paperwork and read files. It was nearly even true.
That meant she was supposed to be on the plane at least, which was good, since one of the men looked familiar. Alan Brown. Penny dropped into the seat next to him and started talking, as Lancaster fought a smile from his face while hanging up his hanging luggage bag and putting the weapons in the little closet they had for their things. She didn't have one, her tooth brush and other things being in the Agent's bag.
"Alan! I knew you couldn't stay away for too long. Coming to sweep me off my feet finally? About time. We never did get together for that lunch we talked about. I blame Marcia for that. You know, I get so shy around strangers and she was kind of throwing me at you." Leaning into him a little she whispered into his ear directly. "I'm not wearing any clothes, we could sneak off to the bathroom if you want... Do that whole mile high club thing?" It was fun to do that, say outrageous things, and even Lancaster wouldn't hear her, not at this range.
Alan pushed his glasses up and nodded, not looking at her directly.
"Sounds like a great plan. I'm actually going to be getting with Brian Yi about the network's Christmas show. We only have a few months to get that set up. I know, it's still winter, but we need to tape in July and these things always take longer than it seems like they should. Do you know him? Yi, I mean?"
Penny yelped and then laughed, touching the man's left ear.
"You wore your ear bud? You kept it?"
It took a bit, but the man nodded happily. "You bet I did. Top secret technology that lets me have special, super-secret conversations with a real super-hero? You couldn't pay me to let go of it. Are you really naked?" His voice was friendly, but she felt her face grow warm.
"Um, well, yeah." It was her tiny voice again, since she knew for a fact he was listening. It really made a difference. She tried to fight it, but it didn't make much of a difference. "Otherwise the clothing would show on camera and make everyone think a weird ghost was haunting them when they looked at their vacation pics. We can't have that, can we? I'm all about protecting people from ghosts."
For a second she was tempted to take his hand and draw his hand onto her leg to have a good feel of her bare flesh, but knew that wouldn't really work. Most people couldn't feel her at all either. They didn't even notice when she touched them. It was part of the deal. That thought actually left her feeling a bit better though, so she was able to talk to the man without being half as self-conscious, once she remembered that little helpful tidbit.
The guy kept talking, and since to the other two people that had to look insane she nearly got him to stop. Before she could mention it the older man walked over and sat across from him, smiling, his hand coming out.
"Glen Gillis. Pleased to meet you." He had a relaxed and cheery air about him, for all that he looked a little sleepy. He was wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans, having taken off a coat that looked like it had been bought from K-mart. Alan looked a bit like someone had kicked him in a delicate place though, which he managed to hide after a few seconds. He didn't speak for a bit, clearly awestruck.
Penny nudged him, laughing a bit and actually moving his right hand into place for him physically.
"Shake. Try not to act like a shy schoolgirl. Glen here seems to want to actually make friends after all. If he tries to bite I'll punch him, so don't be intimidated. You have backup here."
The arm didn't stay limp long and he took the other hand, his face shifting after a few seconds into something professional. His wire rimmed glasses and slightly thinning light brown hair helped with that, she thought. It made him look more like a grown up. His face was youthful, but that was just part of being in television, she thought.
"Alan Brown, Food Network. I'd heard you were working with us, but I didn't know that you'd be in on things this early. Good to have you aboard. You're doing our song and dance choreography?"
"That's the plan. Brian told me to get my ass out to the base to talk with him and Mark Steinberg. He was a little more polite about it than that, but I took it to mean that I shouldn't try to stand on my old reputation on this project or I'd find myself booted off. I'm almost positive that the kid doesn't have a clue who I am." The man winked, then smiled charmingly, which was clearly something he was good at. "Which is fair, since I had no clue who he was until my grandson told me. Did you know that he's a super-hero? The only one of those I've ever met personally is Lady Glory. That was before the powers too, when she was in the Olympics. Nice girl. Very chipper. Perky... assets too."
Alan nodded, his face a bit more normal looking now that he'd started talking and realized that the man with the Scottish accent in front of him was, like it or not, just another person.
"I've met her too. Karen Young. Very sweet person. Oh! My manners... speaking of superheroes we have one right here with us. Penny Cooper? She's very invisible. I can hear her, since I have a special ear piece in. I suppose I could lend it to you for a few seconds, if you'd like to say hello? She's mine though. I saw her first... Or, well, I didn't, but you get the idea? No poaching." He winked back and put his hand out to his left, nearly touching her on the stomach. Before he could dig into his ear, Lancaster got up and walked over, holding his own hand out toward the older man. Instead of shaking, he dropped a little ear piece in it.
It was a foam covered bit that was designed to fit almost anyone perfectly.
"Here you go. I should get the lady over there one too, but so far she hasn't looked up from her book."
That wasn't really true, the rich woman had, but only to smile at him a couple of times. She'd ignored the rest of them. Not that Penny found that strange for herself, but the other two were kind of famous too. Lancaster was still the best looking man on the plane, true, but Alan clearly had his charms. Glen was older, but Penny wouldn't have kicked him out of bed either. He had lovely clear blue eyes. They were almost like gems.
After a few seconds the man got the device into place, and she suddenly felt shy again. It was so hard to move past that part of herself. That's what first modality meant, that it was a constant thing. The very first thing you did in any given situation. In her case it meant that for each person that could talk to her and knew she was there, she felt a lot more uncomfortable. Five was about her top limit. After that she'd have to go around and pull the devices out of people's ears. That or get one or two of them to hold a private conversation. Most of the time she just found a reason to leave. It was crippling and annoying all at the same time.
Lancaster knew that though, so moved off, leaving her with only two people. They were new, so it was still hard, but manageable.
"Hello. These things work on a six second time delay, but otherwise I can't really chat at all. Nice to meet you. I'm Penny."
"Glen." He held his hand out again, as if that made any sense at all, and looked no more than happy when his hand seemed to start pumping on its own. "So, are you in on this little adventure too? The Christmas Special? I hear we're getting two hours, which is a vast time block for something like this. Prime time too."
"Um, well, I don't show up on video, and outside of a shower I can't sing at all. I'm a good dancer, of course, one of the best in the world, but no one can see it." That part was actually true. In her own room, with the door closed and the music on loud, she was nearly world class. At least she thought so. There was no one to claim otherwise.