The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

Team One ready for sure.

  Karen stood next to Jason and Marcia, huddled together... Next to Lancaster, who kept very carefully not looking at the larger group of people that was gathering in front of the building. Denis did, but he was mainly focused on the front gate. It meant he was acting shifty and so obvious that everyone should have been noticing it. Too much so really.

  "This isn't about an attack, is it? You guys are setting something up. Some kind of... exercise?"

  The whole group turned to look at her, but it was Lancaster that spoke.

  "Right in one Cooper. This is a drill. The first part is about taking over HQ, the second is gaining control over the Operatives. Turner came up with a scenario that could work and, as she pointed out, if she can think of it, several other people might be able to as well." He spoke in a low tone that was meant not to carry at all. The man was good at that kind of thing.

  "Well this will break up the day, won't it? I don't suppose anyone considered that some of these people might think it's real if you start trying to take over? I bet a fight breaks out inside fifteen minutes."

  That actually got a smile from Marcia, "deal. Say a hundred on it?"

  "Why not? It's not like I do anything with my paycheck anyway."

  Penny won. Not even twenty seconds later a fight broke out. It seemed to be nothing at first, a first mode squabble, but it wasn't that, it was a distraction. Led by Christian Poures, who sent Lauren from Team Two and ten other people that rushed at them all at once.

  She scampered to the side as the large woman's brown and black armored form hit Marcia so hard the air itself sent a shockwave through the ground. Then the woman in her nice white outfit went flipping away, rolling across the dirt that made up what they had as far as a front yard went. The others hit after that, laughing as they did it, obviously having been given a heads up that it was an exercise. One that the group was currently thwarting pretty handily.

  Tobin was grabbed up by Nan, who wasn't huge herself, but got his feet off the ground, her arms wrapped around him, one going up to cover his mouth. His power was in his song after all.

  "Gotcha!"

  Lancaster suddenly found himself floating about ten feet over the ground, being spun in a circle gently. Looking around Penny saw Kerry standing with her arms crossed, looking smug. Until she fell over. That got the Agent dropped to the ground, with a thud.

  "Ugh." Penny shook her head. "That has got to hurt. I'm pretty sure Marcia owes me money. This counts as a fight, right?"

  No one answered her, being too busy. Mainly being dragged to the ground. Except Denis who was clearing the field pretty well. No one could touch him, anyone that tried just fell asleep. No one visible.

  "Oh, duh. Right. Protect the base. Silly of me." Putting a gun to the back of his head would be a little too much, especially since she'd have to shoot him to make that work. Instead she used a thrust kick and knocked him down. His face would have hit the ground, but he managed a fairly sweet looking roll out of it. He even kept using his power almost the whole time, which meant no one that was down climbed to their feet at all. That was... impressive.

  So she grabbed a handful of dirt and tossed it into his face, which he wasn't able to even blink out of the way at first. His eyes closed with a gasp.

  "Argh!" Denis grabbed his face, which effectively ended his part of things.

  "Yep. Arrrr. No one messes with Pirate Penny."

  No one listened to her either it seemed. Even when she yelled for someone visible to cover his eyes. All the people that could hear her were working on the "bad guys" side, trying to take the base over. Really they should have recruited her first. It was a bit of an oversight on their part. Chris too, clearly. That or at least gotten them out of the way.

  The best way to do that would have been to distract them with a mission.

  Or an exercise.

  "Crap... Chris!" It almost had to be the case. "Christian! This is a trick! We're under attack! Crud..." No one was around to listen to her at all. Making a face she thought for a few seconds, then ran to Denis.

  "I need to borrow your ear piece Den. One sec."

  He didn't react, probably because she didn't let him on some deep level. She didn't think she was all that worked up, but it was a bit of excitement. Then she looked around and found someone that might help her, the Team Two leader, Sparks. After getting the ear bud in she started screaming at him.

  "Sparks! We're under attack. I don't know if it's a part of the exercise or not. We need to find it, the real threat, if it exists. This is the distraction. Something else is happening here. Maybe."

  "Huh?" The man looked like a cop, which fit, since he used to be one. It meant he wasn't a genius, but was smart enough to adapt to a new situation when it came up. "Uh, who said that?"

  "Penny Cooper. Team Three. This is a set up. We need to get Chris to read some minds, but she isn't bothering to read mine right now, so she can't hear me. Will you set that up for me? Please?" She put a lilt in her voice and half expected the man to yell about dealing with an ex-con or something, but he just started calling out as if they always worked on the same team.

  "Poures! We need a situation check. Possible hostile action." He waved at the attractive and cool looking blonde Team Two leader and that got her to wrinkle her nose at him cutely.

  For about twenty seconds.

  Then she let her head drop.

  "Inside! They're going after the computer servers. Level twelve."

  That got a dozen people to run into the building at speeds a lot faster than she could have managed at all, so she didn't even try to follow. After all, her getting hurt wouldn't help, and being stomped on the stairs would just be annoying. She stood and waited, trying to put the whole thing together.

  It sort of made sense. They were out of the building, but whoever had started the whole thing knew that Chris would be reading their minds, so the people doing that part wouldn't be in on it. If they had been, Chris would have gotten the whole thing from their thoughts. The most likely person to have put it together then would have been... her, really.

  That made the most sense, except that it wasn't the case. Christian almost never bothered to actually read her mind. It was probably because, a lot of the time, she couldn't. Or more accurately, she did it, and then forgot it had happened. Like when people heard her talking but didn't remember the conversation later. Maybe. It was hard to tell. It could also have just been that Chris didn't like her.

  The woman also didn't like to read Brian's mind, because he was always in pain...

  "Brian." She said it out loud, but no one seemed to hear her. "My arch nemesis."

  It made sense, being all... Nice and good like he was. Ok, so her idea might be a little flawed. Still, he'd been headed down in the building, toward the server complex. Why that would be she didn't know. That probably meant it was actually an exercise then. That, or some dark and no doubt convoluted plan to... Mess with the computers? Unless that was a trick. In that case... It was too much for her to figure out.

  Also, not her job. She just had to kill people and steal stuff. That and spy on the shower room. That was what invisibility was for after all, right?

  Ten minutes later the others pulled a laughing Proxy out of the building, a blue suited Team Two member on either arm. It was Kerry and Sue, each of whom seemed to be enjoying their work. It was a bad plan. A stupid one, letting the two small women try to control him. Kerry was a telekinetic. Powerful, but she was way too close to him. Sue was strong and fast, but Brian had fought against people that were so much beyond her that way that it wasn't even funny. He was supposed to be some normal guy, but no one sane wanted to fight him. They should have blindfolded him and floated him through the air, upside down and backwards.

  If it were a real situation they still would have died, even doing that, but it would be a better plan at least. Luckily for them he was taking it all as a joke. Penny had to wonder though.

  After all, she'd been at the IPB for
three years. In that time no one had ever run a drill like this before. Not even close. Something was wrong here, and she knew that someone would have to get to the bottom of it.

  Fast.

  Normally she would have elected Brian for the job, but just in case he was compromised, it looked like that wasn't going to work. No, she was going to need to find someone that could get the job done other than him. There was only one person she could think of that fit the bill.

  Chapter five

  Director Moore stood outside the fence, looking off into the distance. He was an old man, but he ran about five miles most days, so Penny didn't feel like she was going to kill him with a short walk. He'd still given her dirty looks when she asked him to come out. Well, the old fellow had tried at least. It was more that his face had twisted into a wrinkled glare that the back wall had no doubt found pretty scathing. Poor wall.

  Then it had taken about fifteen minutes to actually get the man to agree with her that talking about whatever it was she wanted made sense. Before she could start talking though, the Director took a deep breath and started speaking in a rather firm and slightly angry sounding tone.

  "I understand that you might be upset about the incarceration, but I assure you that blackmail isn't the way to resolve any issues that we might have."

  Penny smiled and rolled her eyes.

  "Um, noooo. That isn't what we're doing here. Would that even work? You already explained that all to me. It made sense, I think. Besides, what do you think that I'd ask for that I don't already have? I pretty much just take what I want you know, cash doesn't really work for me. I just want you to tell me if you know what's going on with the whole 'exercise' we had earlier. Is it something that you know about, or is it possibly a real thing? An actual attack? I'd ask Brian, but if he's being controlled or something he'd just lie, right?"

  She could see the gears shifting in his head and after a few seconds he blinked at her and looked off into the evening sky.

  "I see. The answer to that is, yes. I knew about the event before it happened, and signed off on it. I guess I shouldn't keep you in the dark, but please, don't tell anyone else. It's hard to keep secrets when too many people know about them. Our computer system was compromised five months ago and we placed a small program into the server today to trace where the information is going. Brian placed it in earlier. We don't know if it will end up being efficacious or not. We couldn't let anyone know about the plan, for obvious reasons." There was a sad look on his face, as he stood with his hands behind his back. His dark gray suit jacket pulled across his shoulders a bit in the front. It didn't inspire a lot of confidence for some reason.

  After a few seconds she stood back and stared at him closely. It was something that people really couldn't do normally, not other people. It was a different part of her power. She could watch and not be seen doing it, which meant she didn't miss as much. Most of the time people just glanced quickly at faces and fooled themselves into thinking they actually saw what was there. In this case she noticed the squinting around the eyes, and the set of his shoulders, which were tense still, even if she wasn't blackmailing him. That meant it wasn't about their little chat, she didn't think.

  "OK. Just checking. That was all, unless you want to talk about those Death Warrants you have ready to go for Team Three, and those others? I noticed one for you in there too. Any thoughts on that you want to share? Maybe like who you think is going to kill us all? I suppose Brian could do it, but he wouldn't. I mean, I guess if we went rogue and were hurting people, but not just because some government guy said so. Is there some secret killer around here I don't know about that can take out the rest of us? I'm not sure that all of us together could stop Brian, just to be honest about it. Maybe you could do it..." He had the power, but it would have to be used just right.

  He could make anything simply not be. That included people, but he had to see them, she was pretty certain. If Moore hesitated, or did anything wrong, Brian would take him out instead.

  "That has been discussed. It's worse than you think, to be perfectly frank. Brian could be taken out in a number of ways, but calling in a nuclear strike isn't exactly a good method of assassination, if it can be helped. Given everything that's happened that wouldn't go over well at all right now. I don't know if we have any other way to really make it work. Ms. Turner is another problem. There are a few things that might kill her, starvation, asphyxiation and drowning. We think. Other than that we don't even know if she can die. You can handle Mark or Denis, but you're a problem. As you mentioned, Brian won't kill you, and Mark won't hurt anyone. Everyone else would just be flailing around, hoping to hit something." He didn't turn around, looking off into the growing darkness away from the lights of the base, not letting his mouth move much at all. Even here he felt they might be watched. Listened to at the very least. It wasn't impossible, but who would care that much about what he muttered to himself in a situation like the one he was in at the moment?

  "Great. Well, I can't see any of us going so far south that we have to be killed, not for real. What did you think I'd be trying to blackmail you for? I can't think of anything really. Sex? I guess you are kind of cute, in a... distinguished way. That's a polite way to say old, isn't it?" After she said the words Penny snorted softly, wondering how she'd actually gotten them out.

  The Director just laughed.

  "No. My guess would have been for a Death Warrant or two, to be named later. The right to legally get rid of someone you don't like has its charms. Mr. Clarkson perhaps? I was rather shocked to learn that he didn't accidentally pass in the night during your stay you know. Ms. Turner all but put the gun in your hand and ordered you to do it."

  "Really? That would make me look so guilty though, wouldn't it? If I wanted someone dead like that, which I don't at the moment, I'd just get them to follow me out here and do it quietly. A knife to the throat from behind. Bring a shovel and make sure no one could find the body." Shaking her head she grimaced a little. "Except that wouldn't take care of the tracking chips almost everyone here has, would it? Maybe a powerful AC magnet run over it would damage it enough to take those out of play? I don't know." Now she blushed, since it was a thing she'd heard about, but didn't really know how to set up. It had been in a book actually, so might not even be a real thing. That was the problem with being a fan of certain kinds of fiction. It could mess with your vision of what might really exist or not.

  The man next to her still didn't turn, but a considering look slowly formed on his face. He went silent for long enough that Penny was about to remind him of her presence when he turned and started to walk back toward the base. He spoke though, in a low but professional tone.

  "Very good then. Well, if it isn't about that, and I'm not being lured to my death out here, I should be getting back. This job produces never ending streams of paperwork. I should get you in to work on that, when you aren't out in the field." After a second he stopped walking and nodded. "That's actually a good idea, isn't it? You already have access to the most secret information on the base and seem to have a good working knowledge of the personnel. Yes... Let's do that. Report to Ms. Turner's office in the morning for that. Eight, I think. She tends to start early."

  For a half second she nearly balked at the idea, but then shrugged, since it wasn't like she had all that much to do. Work out and try to get some training? Watch television and reread some stolen books? That didn't mean she could actually do anything useful, but what harm would there be in showing up?

  "Ah, well, yeah. Why not? I can write, and use a computer well enough. I don't know if Marcia will like having me around all the time, but I don't think she actually hates me. It's more like I weird her out a bit. She probably thinks that I'm spying on her in the shower or something." Which wasn't true. Mostly. Penny had followed her a few times to collect some information, sure, but it wasn't anything that huge.

  The Director just kept walking and stopped talking as soon as they hit the fence line. By the time the
y'd gotten to the door it was really clear that he'd forgotten her altogether, which meant that she could skate on the new job, most likely, if she wanted to.

  Heading down to dinner, she hoped that someone would be around for it, so that Janine would have bothered to open the doors and make something. She wasn't sure what day it was, but when she got there she realized it must be Tuesday. Meat loaf night. Excellent, since she was starving. There was fresh bread with it too, and mash potatoes made from scratch, since Janine didn't bother with the fake kind. It was one of her favorite meals really. That and spaghetti. She loved garlic bread, especially if it was toasted.

  There were two people there already, Mark and Rachel, both sitting at different ends of the table. They weren't trying to avoid each other, Penny didn't think. No, they'd just gotten in the habit of sitting in those places. Mark was reading something carefully and Rachel just sat quietly, not disturbing him. They both wore the same kind of Team Three sweats, which were just blue bottoms and white shirts with the designation written on the front in big blue letters. Penny had on the same thing, since it was what she took from the laundry area. It made it easy to get dressed in the morning, not having to pick out the best outfit for that day or anything. At least that's what she told herself.

  After a minute Mark looked up and smiled at her.

  "Hey Penny. We missed you. How are things? You aren't too mad about being locked up, are you? I would have come and visited you, but we were actually told not to. Marcia was afraid it would look too much like you were getting special privileges if we were all hanging out with you each day. No one goes to see Clark after all. Which is his own fault really."

  That statement got a nod from the other end of the table, and Rachel hopped up, dashing out of the room without explaining anything. Mark waited for her to answer, like a normal person though.

  "Mad? Not at all. I mean the bed wasn't the most comfortable thing ever, but they didn't mistreat me or anything. I was bad, so had to be punished, you know how it is." She wondered for a minute if he really thought she had ordered the whole thing, not that it mattered to her. It was better for her to spend a few days sitting around than for Denis to be dead, right? Besides, she figured that if she'd been there, the beating would have been a lot worse. She'd been planning to break Rob's arms and legs for him. The jerk deserved it. Even if he wasn't all that bad really.