by P. S. Power
There was a time when things like that would have phased her a bit, finding out that there were basically aliens running around, but now it was pretty much normal. Not that anyone really cared how she felt about things like that. Not even Brian had talked to her about it. Sure, she'd cut him off pretty hard at one point, basically telling him that she didn't want to date him, even though it hadn't been brought up yet, but that was no reason for him not to communicate about his new squeeze was it? They were supposed to be friends again.
Penny shrugged, and let a sigh escape.
That was really about as good of a reason as any, once she thought about it. There was still the thing with Karen too, which had to hurt. He might not be talking about things because of that. Karen had been going out with Brian and then slept with Robert, the Team One leader. Everyone had kind of thought that Proxy would answer that slight with at least a beating for the man, but Penny knew that wouldn't happen. Brian's first mode was self-sacrifice for cripes sake. If he had to let Karen go so that she could be happy, he would. For that matter he would have let Robert sleep with her and kept dating the woman, or any other combination needed. No matter what it did to his self-esteem and pride. That was just who he was. Anyone thinking differently wasn't paying attention at all.
What that really meant was that Penny needed to have a "conversation" with the Team One leader herself. Someplace where no cameras could see them. He wasn't that powerful really. Torque, he was called, because he could use a form of mental force to cause a person to accelerate into the ground really hard. It only worked on one person at a time and he had a really common weakness in that regard. The dapper man had to be able to see what he was doing. That meant, when the time came, he'd just be a regular man fighting someone he couldn't see when she laid into him.
After all, conflicted sounding or not on the topic, Brian was her best friend. She just couldn't stand him, that was all. That didn't mean he wasn't a great person that didn't need to have that kind of crap poured all over him. Sure, some people might have thought it was Karen's fault, but her first mode made it so that she basically couldn't say no to anyone that had a good enough reason for something like that. Like they worked too much... Or thought she was hot. Compassion at the extreme could be a problem. It wasn't as bad as a lot of first modes, but it was bad enough. Nothing taken to the extreme was that brilliant. The best one that she'd seen so far was the new Team One guy, Doug.
He just couldn't become angry or annoyed.
That was practically a super-power in and of itself. Especially since it didn't stop him from fighting when it was needed. He just did it calmly, like a true pro. She would have hated him for it, but that was too petty, even for her. He was a nice guy. Like most, he couldn't see her at all. Like only a few, he kept his ear bud in place most of the time, just on the off chance she was going to be around. That was really sweet of him, since it made her feel almost like a person or something, instead of just a ghost.
Since the door of the dining room was locked, which was frustrating, Penny decided to see if that would hold at all and decided to see if Doug might be willing to set her up with something to eat in the restaurant. Or at least if someone would. Technically they weren't supposed to just have their meals there, day to day, since it was the Team One dining facility and that meant it was for the fancy people and dignitaries that came to visit. More to the point, it was nearly impossible to get anyone's attention there, for her at least. Normally that wasn't a big problem. The cooks they had for her team kind of rocked, and knew to leave food for her, if no one was around to set things up otherwise.
With the new intercom set-up she could even order up a specific meal or two, by yelling it loud enough from the other room. Burt the morning guy was particularly good about things like that. He used to be a Marine cook, and found the idea of fixing food for under ten people less than challenging. He'd make almost anything she wanted, as long as she could get his attention. Janine the dinner cook was harder, since she just couldn't keep Penny in mind at all for some reason. Some people just couldn't, and it wasn't her fault. Normally Brian or Mark would make sure she got enough to eat, but they were gone, no doubt having a nice, professionally prepared hot meal made by five star chefs at that very moment, with their famous guests.
That meant most of the rest of the team would be gone as well. Or all of them. Denis would be there, being on the show, and Christian would be with her friend, Tara... Probably there as well, if she'd really come to try and get a cameo on Mark's show. It's what Penny would have done after all, and the woman had said she was a pirate too.
That left her, as far as food went, and Janine couldn't remember her most of the time, so she'd probably taken the evening off. Well, her and Rachel, but the hot redhead was banging the Director, so she'd be off with the others, wouldn't she? Not that Penny had a problem with the woman sleeping with the boss. They were old friends, even if she didn't look that old. She was seventy and could pass for being in her twenties without make-up. She was also a bit of a slut. Moore knew that though, it was linked to her first mode, so there wasn't a lot that could be done about it. Most of the guys were actually being pretty good about it so far, but that wouldn't last much longer. If a woman kept throwing herself at a lot of men long enough, eventually some of them were going to bite. Penny shook her head after a few seconds. Guys and gals. Rachel was not all that picky.
At loose ends though, Penny reviewed her options. It was either finding a way to get food from the restaurant on the first floor, sneaking in and lifting some from the fifth floor with Team Two, who really would set her up if she could find anyone to ask, since they weren't assholes, just kind of the second tier, power wise. That, or she could lift food from the store on the fourth floor. That was her fallback, of course, and not what she wanted to do that night if possible. Because hot food was what dinner was supposed to be, and being forgotten made her feel entitled to better than another meal of room temperature Hot-Pockets.
One of these days she needed to steal a microwave for her room.
She took the elevator to the first floor without knowing how it would really go. The people there were mainly normal, hired to make the Senators and movie stars that came in feel safe and like they weren't surrounded by insane super humans that could snap and kill them all at any moment. Like her. Not that she'd break that way. No, she'd just go silent and stop talking to anyone if she ever got out of control.
The restaurant was nice. Done in red and leather, with real tables that had fine cloths on them and candles that were lit for each meal, even if it was a waste most of the time. A section had been put together at the back so that a large group could sit and see almost everyone. It was most of her team, and their guests. Everyone except her, of course. She stuck her tongue out at them, which no one noticed at all. Even Brian was busily talking to Alan, their heads close together, so that they could whisper back and forth like little school girls, without anyone else hearing them overly. The only thing that saved the situation for them was a lack of giggling. It meant that Brian didn't see her though.
That made her feel like going up and tipping his chair over, but she refrained, since he'd understand who had done it and was clearly trying to be part of the group, even if he was getting it wrong, whispering to one person. She didn't want to spoil things for him. Instead she just tapped him on the shoulder, knowing that her voice was going to be wrong for the situation. She wanted to seem a little pissy and like she had a right to be there, since they'd all forgotten her, but that wouldn't come out right, so she set herself to seem meek and mild again.
"Um, hey, Brian? The dining room on our floor was shut down..." Just to be funny she wanted to order him to get in the kitchen and fix her a sandwich, but her voice locked up. He just made her feel so nervous all the time. Especially when he spun to look at her, his lips curling into a smile that made the three scars on his cheek crinkle a bit.
"Hey, Penny!" Before he could say anything else Alan started gest
uring for people to move over a bit, then got up and grabbed another chair, gesturing to the waiter, who was a man that Penny had never seen before. He was about thirty though and had that hard look that around here meant you were either super-human or ex-military.
"Excuse me, we need another place setting? Penny Cooper is here. She's invisible." The words came from the man's mouth like he said things like that all the time. No one else seemed to think it was that odd that she'd be joining them either, though it was clear that at the table he was the only one that had an ear piece in. Denis, across the expanse did too, but he took his out. No one else noticed, but she got it. He seemed to actually get that having too much attention bugged her and was trying not to be inconsiderate.
"Thanks Alan. Brian. I was just going to steal your plates when they came, but this is a bit nicer. Almost as if I'm actually here or something." She sounded pleased by that, which didn't make her seem like a total witch, so she ran with it. After all no one wanted to be around a bitch, did they?
Then Brian got her order and walked to the kitchen with it, since that was the kind of thing he did. After a few minutes he was back and Alan made a point of including her in the conversation. He was really sweet about it too. It wasn't until dessert that anyone else said anything to her, and that turned out to be Marcia Turner, who slipped her own ear bud in and waved her hand until Brian nodded and patted Penny's arm to get her attention.
"Looks like you're up."
She looked at the woman in her white uniform, and wanted to avoid talking to her at all costs, but she was the second in command, and even though it was pretty clear that she hated Penny, or at least didn't trust her, she never turned it into anything overly personal. Mainly she just ignored her. Penny's power made that happen, which, when the other woman could be bothered to think about her, probably made things that much worse. Her first mode was suspicion, which meant that not being able to remember an invisible person was around had to be a pain. It just put them into a feedback loop, since the more Marcia tried to remember her, the angrier she got. Then she tried to hide it, since it wasn't a sane thing, which made Penny uneasy, forcing her power to try and hide her even more.
Today she just got up and walked toward the door, not bothering to say goodbye to anyone at all. It was strange, since they didn't spend a lot of time sneaking off to chat or do each other's hair. Not that Penny wouldn't have been willing to try, but the woman was scary intense most of the time.
There was no speaking for a long time, and Penny had to wonder if the woman had forgotten her already. It was possible after all. Kind of funny too, but after a bit they got on the elevator and then slowly went out the front door of the place, walking out into the night, the compound being made far brighter by floodlights and the glow of the place through the windows.
Most of it was underground, but the new above ground part sparkled like a jewel at night.
Following along Penny noticed that the other woman headed toward the front gate and kept walking for a while, until the only thing easily visible was her heavy white outfit.
"Cooper, did you make it out here with me?" The words were hushed and whispered, which was a little strange since no one would be able to hear them that far away.
"Yeah. What's up? Do you secretly want me to kick Torque's ass for you, so that no one can prove what happened? If so I'm totally down with that. Just tell me when and where. Anything I can do to help on the matter..." She was half joking and instantly wished she hadn't said anything. This way, if Marcia remembered the conversation later she might have to report it. She winced, but didn't take the words back. It was a real enough point, for all that she was being playful.
Rather than chastise her, the Deputy Director smiled, "get with Denis on that. I think he's heading up the effort there. No, this is about something else. I need you to be ready to go on a mission solo. It won't be easy, but we need someone killed and frankly we can't afford to be as sloppy as we have been." There was a hesitation then, half a breath perhaps, and finally the woman sighed. "Senator Hooper. He's going to walk. There isn't enough proof to show that he killed Nadia Fields or that he really raped his daughter. The current line is that it was a set up from the Infected." She shrugged and smiled again. "I can't swear it wasn't either. He has to die and it has to seem like it was natural causes. That means we need to fake a heart attack, stroke or something along those lines. A suicide could work, but that will almost certainly be blamed on us."
That just made sense. Even an illness could be, so there was a pretty small window that could be used to make it look real. She knew how to kill, but poisons hadn't been gone over closely. It wasn't exactly what she'd been trained for, was it?
Penny nodded anyway, then sighed.
"OK. So... I have no idea how to do that. Digitalis or Coumadin? Does he already take any medication that we can use to make it look real, or like an accidental overdose?" She tried to think of every spy novel she'd read that had anything like that in it, but drew a blank past those words.
Marcia inhaled sharply.
"That's pretty sharp, for being just off the top of your head. Digitalis to fake a heart attack, Coumadin to possibly make him bleed out. The answer is no, however. He's as healthy as a horse, as far as we can tell from his records. An angry and hate filled equine. We don't want to turn him into a martyr, but once we find his location he has to be taken care of, if he's truly going to walk on the charges. It might be a few days, or a year, but like I said, we're sending you in solo. Are you willing to do it? I know that going out on your own isn't your favorite thing."
That was true. She hated it in the main, since it was hard for her to arrange things like travel for herself. She couldn't drive a car or even ride a bicycle, if there were going to be cameras around. That would show later. It could be done though, if she did it right. Busses and lots of walking. Not comfortable, but if she chose carefully she could even sneak on commercial flights. They had to have empty seats, but yeah, that could be done.
"I'm in. I need a good location and if you have any ideas as to how to get the right compounds to fake a death by natural causes that would help. I could break into a pharmacy, or just walk in during the day, but I need to know what to get."
"I'll dig that information up for you. That could take some doing, but we can't let there be a record of that sort of thing in the computers, so don't just Google it. Glad to hear that you're on board. Hopefully we won't have to use this. I... might be being too careful, you know, first mode crap, but we can't afford to let Hooper recover from this. So, that's all I have right now. Are you planning to take a recovery day tomorrow?" There was no hint of anything in particular in the voice, but the face was too hidden by the dark to make out. It was a pain, since it made the other woman too hard to read.
Penny thought about it for a second.
"Um, no. I was thinking that I should have a regular work out and practice day, since as far as the schedule says I was kind of taking a mini-vacation the last few anyway. That was even true, after a fashion. I didn't get a lot of exercise in. Some walking."
They actually chatted for a few minutes about nothing in particular, which was nice enough, but didn't make sense to Penny at all. It wasn't until they both decided to go in that Marcia actually said what she'd been hinting at.
"So... Alan Brown, huh? He's cute enough. Single too. I checked. Straight... Are you going to be in his room tonight?"
For a second Penny thought that Marcia was asking if she was going to be sneaking in, but then she got the real meaning.
"Uh... Well. I don't know. I mean, I'm willing, and he really does seem nice, but I don't think that he'd get a lot from it if we did anything. Think he'd let me anyway, if I asked?" She managed to sound pleasantly playful, which surprised her a bit.
Marcia started walking, her face showing a bit, once she'd turned back toward the compound.
"Yep. I think that almost any guy would. Just make sure you don't get pregnant. God, I can't imagine e
ven trying to handle that, can you? So keep it to safe sex."
She didn't say anything else thankfully.
It was a tempting idea, but didn't happen, since after dinner everyone else kind of vanished. She didn't try to dig them up, even though the men had been invited to hang out with her, because she was a little tired and it got old, everyone forgetting about her like they did. Her habit was just to do things when she got bored and the rest of the time she worked out or read. It wasn't the most exciting life in the world, but what else could she do?
Blinking she remembered something that Marcia had said and headed to Denis's room. Not to get him into bed, but to discuss some plans. If that hadn't been a joke, he was the man to see about a team leader beating.
She had to follow her regular pattern and pound on the door one down for a while before he noticed anything and came to look. He was familiar enough with what it meant to get his listening device in at least. He looked sleepy, and was wearing a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt, but that was all. He wasn't wearing any underwear she didn't think, by the way he was bulging a bit. He was alone, so she figured that he was actually planning on getting some sleep that night.
His words were a bit tired sounding too.
"Penny? Is that you, or am I just imagining things again?"
"Again? You imagine that I come to your room at night often?"
He grinned, his lips going crooked. It was very nearly a smirk. "Oh yeah. Normally it starts like this, then you invite yourself in... after a few seconds I'm getting lucky... you know, positive thinking and visualization, all that. Is it working? If so tell me that you're already naked." He seemed to be making fun of her, but she didn't really care. He was an ass, and used to be worse, but he wasn't bad looking at all. Trim and decently featured. It was why Mark let him be on T.V.