The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  Lancaster read files that he'd brought with him. He didn't like to waste time, she didn't think. Penny was just bored though. Close to starving too.

  "Hey... Um, is there anything to eat? I sort of missed dinner."

  The man didn't seem to hear her at all. That would have been normal, once upon a time, but now it just seemed a bit rude. She didn't bother trying again, but eventually they took off, and while the long benches weren't comfy, they didn't have too long of a trip left to make. It wasn't until they set down that the Agent spoke, his voice slightly darker than normal.

  "Cooper, we need to debrief. Before you go to bed. Turner and Moore will be interested in some of what you have to say, I think."

  Penny was nearly taken by surprise, since she didn't expect him to say anything to her at all.

  "I need to shower first. And to eat something. Can I have an hour? Please, I mean?" It was meek and shy sounding, but got a nod.

  "That should be fine. Floor two, Moore's office. You know how to get there?"

  She did of course. She wanted to tell him that she snuck in there all the time to get the best gossip, but the words wouldn't come out, what did was a soft muttering that sounded a bit like she'd said "sure". That was all that came out before they had to get off the plane. The weight of the bullet vest comforting and snug around her, reminding her that she was safe. Safer at least. No one was there to meet them, but they weren't special and hadn't been gone for a long time either. It would have made her feel good, but she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out which of her thousands of friends would have been standing around in the near desert, in the cool night air, just to see her.

  Since there was only the one person that could do that at all, she forced a grin and got herself inside at a jog. She decided to keep the vest, if no one remembered to ask for it. It could come in handy. Sure, no one shot at her on purpose, but it had saved her life that day. That probably meant it had a weak spot, but it would serve for the time being, until she got a new one. She just needed to check it out from the armory.

  On her way down the stairs she raided the store, taking about ten thousand calories worth of baked goods that got stuck in a plastic bag from behind one of the checkout counters. She didn't bother hiding what she was doing, since they could always take what she owed from her wages. It wasn't like she'd ever spent any of them. She really needed to get with Christian and have her send some of that off to her family. Her mother at least. Her dad had kind of flaked on the rest of them when it had seemed she died.

  Invisible wasn't exactly the same thing, but it had been close enough. Still, her mom could use a bit extra and it wasn't like she needed it all. Jogging a bit, she hurried, wanting to have a good scrub before she ate the snacks she'd collected.

  Killing always left her feeling filthy, and this time she even had the blood on her hands to earn the sensation. It wasn't a great thing, but really, she had to feel pretty good about the whole day, over all. The fear and all included. Penny had saved those kids, and knew it, which was kind of a novel sensation. When she'd taken out people before there was always doubt that it was the right thing. This time that was stripped away. She'd been the good guy and no matter what anyone else said about it, those men had needed to die.

  If she'd been a bit better she might have saved that one boy, the chubby kid that had tackled the last gunman, possibly at least, but that was the only thing she needed to fix. That would require her becoming a better shot. If her abilities there were greater it would have been simple to just aim and shoot from a distance. Fifteen feet, maybe twenty... It didn't sound like a big deal, and wasn't, against a paper target. If Penny had gone all sharpshooter in there the odds were that at least one bullet would have opened up some kids head instead of one of the bad guys.

  That part didn't thrill her and she felt a bit odd about the whole situation, since that boy had been hard core in the end. After hours of sitting there, probably knowing he was going to die, he'd gotten up anyway, when things changed in the room, not understanding it at all, and sacrificed his own life for those girls on the floor. Screaming out Brian's code name was weird, but she kind of thought she got it. After a fashion.

  Brian was the poster child for regular people right now, wasn't he? It wasn't true, since he was about a normal as a box of nuclear weapons when it came to fighting, but from the outside he looked like some shlub that was dropped into a world that no one could have handled, and he did it, over and over again. By not giving up. By doing what had to be done, no matter what it cost. All that Boy Scout garbage. Worse he was even all humble about it, acting like anyone could do the same thing, if only they were willing to try.

  Of course if that was the case, the example got that kid killed. Saving at least a half dozen other people at the same time. Ones that probably wouldn't be worth half of what the boy that died would have been, but who knew? Maybe they'd take the sacrifice as a gift and actually make something of themselves? They had everything they needed after all. Visibility, life... What else could they ask for?

  Penny scarffed some of the food she'd looted from the store, enjoying it just a little more for having earned it for herself, doing all that hard work of collecting it from the shelves and all. She made a meal out of a box of peanut butter wafers that were covered with chocolate. Mark would have glared at her for that one, eating something so cheap, but it wasn't like she could just go and order things up from the dining room, or make it on her own. She didn't even have a key to the kitchen. It would have been a lot more insulting if cooking was actually a real possibility for her.

  Growing up she'd learned to microwave, but not actually do a lot more. Boiling water would be an adventure no doubt.

  When she was done eating there was a quick trip to the bathroom, to brush her teeth. No dentist in the world would be able to help her if she got a cavity, so that meant taking care of things day to day. Her teeth might not be perfectly straight, and God knew what color they were now, but they were relatively clean. She flossed daily too. It only made sense. For the moment it was peppermint Crest and a few minutes spent making sure nothing was stuck in her teeth.

  That meant she was able to use the elevator, which came with the push of a button, not caring about her state of visibility at all, and get to the mustard and gold colored second floor that always reminded her of the therapist's office that her mother had sent her to for her shyness as a little girl. That might be worse now, being her first mode, but it had always been a part of her. People were just terrifying, and always had been.

  Yes, she knew that her power was a manifestation of what she'd secretly wanted for herself inside. Hell, when she was little, Penny used to pretend she couldn't be seen all the time. Right up until the day that she'd gone to school and vanished in gym class, right after Pete Camberson had pantsed her, taking her shorts down in front of nearly fifty other kids. It was just a thing that they'd all been doing to each other for a few weeks, and normally harmless enough. Every other day or so, someone would sneak up behind another person and just do it, without warning. Just the shorts, but Pete had caught her panties too and done it so fast that she was standing there for nearly five seconds, totally bare.

  Then she was gone so totally that no one even remembered it happening. It took a while for her to get what was going on. At first it had seemed like she'd died and she nearly starved until she realized that she could just walk into stores and take what she wanted. It had been gratifying to see people looking for her, since it wasn't something she would have thought might happen, not just for her.

  It was months later when the helicopter landed in the school's football field, a man's voice calling for her on a bull horn. Lancaster as it turned out.

  Her hero.

  "Which is why I so badly want to get with him, no doubt." She didn't mutter it softly, even though the cameras would pick it up. She was alone after all, and even if she wasn't, she was her. That would be enough to keep most people from noticing it. Especially over the
yelling.

  That was coming from the director's office, and didn't sound happy at all. It was the man himself, Director Moore, who seldom let his voice rise beyond a conversational tone. At the moment however he was blasting away at someone. The door was closed, so Penny let herself in, having an appointment. It wasn't a great reason, but it was enough of one for her.

  Penny the Pirate. Arrrr. She was a rebel and no one could stop her.

  Almost no one.

  Brian turned and looked at her, standing in front of the Director's desk, looking way too calm for a person being yelled at. Behind him were three men. Denis, Tobin, and Jason who was from Team One. They all had similar expressions on their faces, but were hard to read. Behind the Director stood Marcia, who was wearing a nice navy blue dress for once, instead of her normal white fighting outfit.

  Maybe she had a date?

  It wasn't impossible, it was after dinner time, but the restaurant was open late and she was kind of cute. A little skinny, but that was hardly something that would keep her from getting with a guy, was it? Her make-up was perfect, but it always was, since that was a Team One thing. You had to be camera ready all the time. Except in bed, or when you were actually working out. Even the guys had to do that, which was hilarious. It made them all look like little nancy boys that were trying to look oh so precious all the time.

  Also hot, but that didn't change the fact that they looked funny.

  "We can't have our own personnel running around assaulting our management teams! I can't believe you men thought you could get away with this. Robert's still in medical, with several broken ribs and a fractured eye socket. He has a press event tomorrow with his people. What are we supposed to tell the public."

  Denis shrugged, smiling in that crooked way he had that meant he was about to be an asshole and knew it. He didn't get to speak though, since Jason, of all people, did it first.

  "How about we tell them it was a training accident? That happens here." It was said softly and with humility, which was the great looking speedster's thing. Marcia snorted at him a bit and Brian nodded a few times.

  Tobin chimed in then, looking like he was still ready to fight. It was the tiny fists clenching that really did it.

  "Or we could tell them that he was being punished for being a Lady Glory abusing jerk. He knows better than to do that. Karen didn't have a real choice about saying yes, and he didn't have a good reason for asking. It just came up? That's not a reason for anything, except what he got." The normally shy, very tiny man crossed his very thin arms, his small green jumpsuit looking like something a large doll of a mechanic would wear. His shoes were the same ones she had on, but smaller. "Maybe even more. This wasn't some kind of first mode problem. He knew what he was doing and that he shouldn't. He's her Team Leader! That would have made it spotty if he slept with anyone on Team One. Everyone knows that she has to ask the other person first. Everyone. I know my entire team was briefed on it, more than once."

  There was actually anger under the words, which was a bit surprising. The man shouldn't have been able to speak at all, with that many people there, but instead he sounded like he was about to go toe to toe with his own boss on the matter. Brave and strong.

  It was kind of awesome.

  Penny looked at him and spoke herself, knowing that Brian would get the idea, even if no one else did.

  "There's a point there, I think. I mean, Robert's kind of hot. He could have scored with half the women here without doing more than just asking. For that matter he could have just waited for you to get back and suggest that she'd be better off going out with him. Your self-sacrifice would have made that pretty certain. Instead he went behind your back like that, as if it could be kept secret here? What the crud was he thinking?" She was talking directly to Brian, but everyone else reacted to the words in one way or another. It took a few seconds for her to get that they all had ear pieces in.

  Denis did that a lot, at least if he knew she was going to be around, and Tobin had before. That probably meant they were friends or something. After a second she got that the Director and Marcia had probably been waiting for her to get there, and had slipped theirs on for that. That left Jason, which was just odd. They'd talked before, once, but that had mainly been her stammering an awkward hello and him seeming a bit bored, or at least like he wanted to leave. He was a bit jumpy and twitchy most of the time, so it probably wasn't about her. That didn't cause his current state of Penny awareness make sense though, did it?

  Denis waved toward her, getting the wrong side of the room, meaning he had his button in place on the left side.

  "Yeah, no fucking doubt. I know that Karen's a grown woman, but there are... I don't know, things that have to be kept in mind. It isn't fair to come to her and seem needy. Hell, even Clark knew better than to try that with her, and he's about as desperate as anyone I've ever met." There was a bit of anger there too, mainly directed at Moore, who frowned, his old wrinkled face looking sour, even with the nice full head of silver hair on top. He normally smiled, so it was strange to see him like that.

  The Director glared. At Proxy.

  "I suppose you put them up to this? She was your girlfriend at the time."

  He shook his head, smiling a bit, his voice raspy and a bit dark when he spoke.

  "Nope. I didn't know anything about it. I would have told them all not to bother. I'm sure Robert won't do it again, and wouldn't have anyway. Anyone can screw up. We can't afford the bad PR right now either. It's going to make it a bit harder to write the whole thing off as being just a misunderstanding now, if this gets out."

  There was another soft snort from behind the Director, which got the older man to turn and glare a bit at the woman.

  "Turner? Let me guess... Extra judicial punishment?"

  She was about to take the credit for it when Penny felt her own mouth move. It wasn't a normal thing at all. For a second she felt nearly possessed, but there the words were anyway, even though they weren't the truth.

  "It was my operation sir. I ordered it. Flashed my credentials and everything. They had to go along with it, didn't they? After all, everyone knows that the cool kids on Team Three outrank the rest of them. It's one of the only perks we get. Plus, I have all these feminine wiles. Who could resist?" The voice that came out wasn't her normal speaking one at all. No, it was Pirate Penny. "Arrr." She didn't even try to hide the little sound effect that went with the thought. No one asked either.

  Then it was kind of hard hear, what with all the screaming that started from in front of her about six seconds later. That was the time delay on the listening devices.

  Director Moore growled at her, but didn't glare, even though he was trying to. He had no clue where she actually was, which, she reflected, meant she could make it out of the room without too many problems if it came down to it. As long as Brian wasn't on his side.

  That didn't seem to be the case. At least he didn't look at her when he let his eyes go slightly wide and his mouth popped opened, as if faking shock. It was pretty obvious, but no one was paying that much attention to him. Again that was because of the loud talking from in front of them.

  "Of all the stupid, over-reaching, lame headed... Miss Cooper, you are now on report. If I ever hear of anything like this happening again with your name attached to it, I swear I'll lock you up in a cell and forget I put you there. Now, everyone else, get out of here this instant. Turner and Cooper... Stay." The old man leaned forward, his hands placed on the slick wooden surface of his desk, one hand on his ink blotter, one off. "Now."

  The guy did not seem pleased at all, and for some reason no one else moved. Brian made sense, being that his first mode was self-sacrifice, but the others all started trying to talk at once, mainly about how it hadn't been Penny's idea at all, until Marcia yelled at them.

  "You heard him. Get out! Now. Just so you know in the future, follow the chain of command. Team Three isn't in yours. We'll let this go, once, since we've been a little remiss in going over th
at sort of thing here, but this won't happen again, with Robert or anyone else, is that understood?" She raised a single eyebrow, which looked well plucked. The woman always looked clean and ready for anything after all. Penny envied that some days.

  The men all walked out then, Denis stalking off a bit, actually casting a worried glance behind him. Tobin was breathing hard, almost seeming panicked. Out of all of them only Jason seemed relaxed, which was a bit strange. Not that much, since Penny was almost certain that neither Moore or Marcia thought she'd actually ordered the Team One leader beaten. She would have done it, if it had occurred to her it might work, but that really wasn't all that likely. Who'd listen to her? When Brian closed the door the Director sat back and shook his head.

  "Well, that beats having Denis put to death, doesn't it? Good thing it's all your fault. A very good thing. We'll have to lock you up for a few days, to make an example of you. Two weeks actually. Kind of a shame, you've been doing so well." The voice was calm enough then, almost as if he'd planned the whole thing.

  "Um... Denis?"

  It was Marcia that answered her, her voice going soft suddenly.

  "Normally this kind of thing wouldn't be that big of a deal here. The actual assault was carried out by Denis, and he doesn't have a physical power. Even Robert said that he didn't use his other abilities. It was even nearly a fair fight, or would have been if Rob had bothered to swing back. A bit of guilt there, I'd guess, since he didn't. That was too bad really, our mutual combat policy is pretty loose here. Anyway, Denis is about two months away from his probation being over. Technically we would have had to throw the book at him, which would mean reinstating the Death Warrant. Instead you can just go sit in a cell for a few weeks. It'll be fun, at least in comparison. I'll bring you some books. You like fantasy, right?"