The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  It was still the limit of what she could really take that way, having so many bodies around, but the walking helped and if she kept quiet people would forget she was there. That even worked, for about fifteen minutes, as they walked to the one stand of trees that was available in a three mile radius of the base. It was a spot that she came to sometimes, when she felt too lonely or sad. There was a bit of a clearing near the middle and the trees were mainly evergreen, so they had needles to provide cover, even this time of year. The other plants were starting to bud however, which was nice too. That didn't do much to hide them from satellite observation, but the wispy cloud cover would help that way, she figured.

  Brian started to help with the mat that needed to go down but Marcia shook her head and did it alone.

  "Oh, ye of the broken hand. I can't believe you slammed it in a car door. On your own too. It wasn't even during a fight or rescue mission. I'd make fun of you, but I know that can't feel good."

  He made a face, tightening his lips and then pointing to the blanket, which looked nice and soft.

  "Things happen. Sooner or later I almost had to do something like that, didn't I? At least it didn't get anyone killed." He glanced at the splint on his arm and started to reach for the blanket, which Penny took, taking a moment to relax first. Just letting herself go limp, so that she nearly fell down. Then she spread the blanket by herself, snapping it out and letting it drift into place.

  That got a bit of attention at least, since everyone stared at it except Brian. He could see it was her doing it and the others figured it out without being told what was happening. No one ran away or anything at least.

  Marcia grinned though and clapped a few times, which was pretty friendly of her.

  "Not bad. I saw that!" Turning to the others she explained the new stuff that Penny was trying to learn, which got everyone else to seem decently happy about it as well.

  She sighed.

  "It's pretty hard though. I don't know if I can learn to do it on missions or anything. On the good side that should stay stable, with no one really noticing me when it comes time to do the important stuff. You know, like force feeding Marcia. Speaking of which, you should get some food."

  They actually started to eat first, with Lancaster and Brian splitting a portion of food, which was fried chicken that had been de-boned and stuffed into hollowed out croissants with a delicate white sauce of some kind. There was a salad of finely chopped vegetables that was both sweet and slightly sour and a container of fruit juice to drink, as well as water, and coffee that was still pretty warm in a special little container.

  After about three minutes of eating she looked up to see that the sky was completely covered with white clouds with only the barest hint of light blue showing through.

  "OK. I'm planning to go to D.C. to, um... sanction a certain person?" She really didn't know who knew what, but Brian just looked at her frankly and nodded.

  "I think we can talk here. The plan is to kill Senator Hooper. Make it look like natural causes or an accident?" He seemed dark and pensive suddenly, more so than normal, as if it was a big deal to consider killing someone. Like he didn't do it almost every day himself? She'd killed some people. He'd done a lot more. Hundreds by now.

  Those weren't assassinations, it was true, but that didn't really make a big difference, did it? Dead was dead in the end and no one could doubt that Senator Hooper needed killing. Could they? She sort of thought that Lancaster might have a problem with it, but he just ate his single filled sandwich thing and looked at the others, his face blank.

  Rachel seemed a little tense about the idea though.

  "So we just kill him? That's a bit obvious, isn't it? He walks on the current charges, or it seems likely to be the case, and then he has a heart attack or stroke suddenly?"

  No one spoke for a bit, so Penny filled the gap, her fingers a little greasy feeling from the buttery crust in her right hand.

  "I've been thinking about that. It might be better if he commits suicide. Not much, since some people won't believe it anyway, but if the gun is in his own hand and, I don't know, if he does it on camera? That might work. It won't be easy to pull off though. Or he could jump from something very high, in similar conditions. Done in public, if possible?" She took a bite and swallowed, before going on. No one interjected or even did more than eat themselves. "The more public the better. In the end it might not really matter though. I think that we might find that having him gone is worth it, even if he's made out to be a martyr. What's the worst that can happen? People rally around his name and hate the Infected? He's a prime mover behind the hate movement already, as far as I can tell."

  That was just true. The man didn't rally the troops to war, perhaps, but almost all the violence done toward the Infected in the States was done in his name, and he was highly reluctant to go on television and denounce it. In short, the man was a monster and too hard to fight while he was alive. He'd pretty much gotten out from under murder and child rape charges, even while clearly hiding his guilt from the investigators. Making sure his wife and daughter couldn't be questioned for instance was so suspicious that the FBI had to be pulling their hair out over it all.

  Nadia Fields not being found yet was just as bad, and yet he was going to just shrug all that off, even with a video being out about it.

  The Director seemed a little less than pleased with the idea, but the reason for that wasn't what she thought it might be. No, it was something that she'd have never seen coming at all.

  "Miss Cooper... It's a bit much to ask you to do this. It's one thing, asking you to risk your life in an effort to save hundreds of children, but to simply assassinate a man? I agree it needs to be done, but we have others that might be able to do it."

  It was Darryl that sighed and let his mouth go tight then, which made Brian, who'd been about to say something, close his lips suddenly.

  "Yes. We have nearly a dozen Agents and Operatives that could pull it off. Maybe more than that, since there are probably at least a few that I'm not counting, even though I should be. The thing there is that Penny is just about the most effective assassin on the planet at the moment. There might be a few that could do the job more safely, from a distance, or by forcing him to do it himself. But when it comes to simply infiltrating a person's world, there isn't anyone that comes close." He stared at Marcia then for some reason, not seeming happy with her at all.

  After taking the last bite of the sandwich thing the big Agent shrugged, the movement making his suit jacket show the weapon in the under arm holster show just a bit.

  "So, do I like the idea? No. We shouldn't be murdering people as a rule, and if we have to do it, we shouldn't use a nineteen year old girl to get it done. On the other hand, it would be irresponsible not to use the best person for the job. In this case that's Penny Cooper, without a doubt."

  "Awww. See I knew you loved me, Lancaster." It came out sounding like her and not a wallflower, so everyone smiled, if a bit darkly. The good looking Agent coughed and stopped talking then. He seemed slightly uncomfortable about it all. Like they wouldn't just take it as an offhand comment?

  The others went back and forth on what could, and should, be done then. It was pretty clear that the most controllable thing to do would be to act fast, during the current session, so that the man would have to report to work regularly, for votes and what not. He had secret service protection, twenty-four hours per day. Normally that wouldn't be a big problem for her, if she was just going to drop a bullet in the man's skull, but they'd try to stop him if he wanted to jump off a building, or tall bridge. A sudden gunshot to the head would be best then, but for it to be plausible it would need to come from one of Hooper's own weapons.

  "Is he a gun owner?" She wondered that out loud. Brian tilted his head considering the question.

  "Well, he's a Republican and that means he should be pro-gun rights. If he isn't it will make things harder. The video didn't show him shooting Ms. Fields though, did it? So we need at l
east one and probably more, alternative idea's."

  That worked things into three main methods of disposal. The first was the easiest. Penny would go into his apartment and steal one of his own weapons, then use it on him in public, making it seem like he was doing it to himself. If not that, then she'd do the same thing, only off camera.

  The second idea involved just pushing him off something high, but that would require him to go somewhere like that. Dragging him up a flight of stairs while he screamed for help wouldn't work at all.

  "I can also get some digitalis and slip that to him. It should make it look like he died of a heart attack, if he has enough. That will show on a test though, if they do one, and given everything we have to assume they will." There were untraceable poisons, but what they were she didn't really know, not off the top of her head. "Well... I guess I could also plant a bomb. That would look like an attack, but like I said, I doubt that anything we do will really be a lot worse than letting him run free."

  It took about three hours, but they worked out how it would be done. It was a pretty loose idea, mainly letting her take the lead on it. On the good side she was going to get Lancaster for it. That way he could help her arrange things on the ground, if she needed the help. No one could come up with exactly how that was going to happen, but it was nice to know that she had someone that was going to be there for her. Like a safety net. A tall, warm, black suited teddy bear to protect her from being stuck or left behind.

  That made her feel better actually.

  It had been an issue in the past. Her first missions hadn't gone very well at all, and she'd pretty much always been left behind, the Agents with her just wandering off after a while, forgetting she existed. It wasn't their fault, but she'd stopped accepting operations after that, until Brian and some lab techs had figured out how she could be heard. Now she actually had some training and everything.

  They went back separately, Marcia and the Director together, Rachel walking with Lancaster, touching his arm and back a lot more than was strictly proper, and Brian hanging back with her, waiting for the others to get all the way inside before heading back. They had the empty basket and the pad and blanket, since they were the junior members of the group. It made sense after all.

  They were the kids, at least for this particular group.

  Brian stood in the center of the little clearing, not looking at Penny at all, just waiting it seemed, until he pulled back a few steps and started to take off his splint.

  "Hey, Penny, I'm going to have to leave from here. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but, do you think you could hang out, just in case I need help on the tail end of it?"

  "What? You know that you're leaving? I mean, I guess you would, but..."

  The man didn't run like he normally did, instead there was an eerie stillness to him suddenly and he bent backward contorting his arms in space in a funny fashion, then went away. He was just gone. There was no noise or anything along with it, not even a pop as the air filled in the hole that his body had to have left.

  She milled for a bit, waiting. It could be a minute, or an hour. Or a week. It better not be that long, if she had to sit here waiting for him to get back. Not that he had any control over that kind of thing, but she didn't even have a cell phone, so that meant that she'd have to find some way of getting him back, if he couldn't walk on his own. She didn't know if she could carry him all that way. Definitely not quickly. She was just getting ready to make a run back to the base and get some help from medical when Brian came back, just being there, standing where he left from, if in a different position. He seemed perfectly fine.

  After a few seconds he nodded at her and started walking back on his own, which didn't work, since she held out his splint, stopping him.

  "If you aren't hurt, let's get this back on. What was that?" Sometimes he didn't like to talk about what had happened. She got the idea, some of the things he saw had to be about the worst things imaginable. In general he didn't go anywhere if someone wasn't about to die. Those things didn't always end cleanly either. Normally he saved the people he was there for, but at times it was pretty evil for everyone else.

  "Rape. A ten year old girl. Attempted rape anyway. Those guys won't be trying it again. One had a gun, so it wasn't that hard. They didn't touch me." He seemed almost relaxed about it. As if it wasn't a big deal.

  "You killed them?"

  "Yes. They were teens, but there were five of them and... You know, I don't care. They were going to rape a little girl. That's enough for me. I'm not going to justify it past that. I know, I should have given them another chance or something, but I wouldn't have been there if the girl was going to survive it. I couldn't tell which boy was going to be the actual killer though. Does that mean I did the wrong thing? What would you have done?" He stopped, but let her start to put the splint back on, over his armor, which hugged his skin tightly.

  "Me?" She took a deep breath and then just smiled sadly, knowing that he'd actually see it, but not caring for once. This was too important to let that stop her from telling him the truth. "I would have done the same thing, Brian. You know that, don't you? We aren't the law, not really. We work for the government, but they can't control us, they don't choose what we do, or how we do it, they just slap a veneer of humanity and control on it, so that everyone else can sleep at night. But yeah, I would have killed them. I didn't try to tie up the men that took those kids hostage, and they weren't even planning to rape anyone. Hey, did they tell you about that?" She stopped working at the bindings for a second.

  Brian's face didn't shift at all. He just went still as well.

  "That they were probably military? Ex-special forces recruited by someone in the government to make it look like a terrorist action had taken place? I've heard something about that, yes."

  "Uh... no. I wasn't talking about that. Is that real?" She didn't wait for him to speak, but he nodded enough for her to get the idea. "No, I meant that kid that called out your name before he attacked the last gunman. Proxy. It was kind of strange. He wasn't a big kid, I mean, he was. Chubby. Short though, not impressive looking or anything, but he wasn't a jock. He just didn't stop. Even after he was shot, like four times. He was still trying to fight as he died, hitting the man. He saved a bunch of girl's lives though. I don't know what it means though. Brave, but..."

  Brian shrugged.

  "Not a thing I know about at all. Sounds a lot tougher than most people. It happens sometimes. Regular people standing up like that. I've seen it. No one has ever called my name out first though. That's just weird. I hope someone tells his parents. He died a hero, it might not make it better for them, but they should know."

  She just finished wrapping the wounded hand and then started back, not bothering to mention it again. Brian had changed over the time they'd known each other. He'd become hard and dead inside. When he'd first come to the IPB base the guy had been filled with life. Fear too. That and pain. Not that he hadn't earned it all. Now he was just... dead inside. Even when he smiled it seemed like he was just moving his face.

  It was sad.

  "So, you have a date tonight? I should meet your new girl. See who the competition is."

  He chuckled.

  "Mary's great. Different, but very sweet. Not your competition though. You took yourself out of that running a long time ago, pretty clearly. You might recall that, if you think hard enough. Maybe not, though."

  "Ouch. True enough, but, I mean you understand why, don't you?" It wasn't something she knew for certain, but he waved his good hand, as if throwing it away.

  "Not until the other day. I get the basic idea. Now. You might have just told me."

  "And have you go away? Or just leave me alone? I couldn't risk that. I couldn't handle you, but that didn't mean I wanted you to not be there with me. It's just... How do you explain that to someone, especially you? At any given moment you might vanish forever and I'll be all alone again."

  "That was true, once. A week ago. Now? I don'
t think so. At the rate you're going, by this time next year you'll be visible and going to crowded parties with your date. The pattern is pretty clear here. If you can manage things well, you'll gain a lot of control over your abilities. Be careful though. Things are more dangerous than they seem. Being too easy to find might not be a good thing soon."

  She nodded, her feet making soft sounds on the dirt, Brian's did too.

  "That better not be the case. We're going to have some real problems if that's how things really are. Things seem pretty messed up already."

  That got a smile, but not a happy one. Brian didn't say anything else. Not about that, since they were going through the main gate, the guards watching them, but not asking them to sign back in. That would defeat the purpose of secret meetings, wouldn't it? They hadn't logged out either. No paper trail, no problem.

  He smiled though and patted her on the back.

  "Well, good talking to you. You know... there was a time when I was really interested in you. You're a good person Penny. It's too bad that things couldn't have worked out differently for us."

  "Yeah, well, that's always been the problem with being Infected, hasn't it? People don't always get to pick and choose what they want to do. I wish it could have gone differently too. I wish I was a better person. I'm just so broken by my first mode that I can't really fix it. I don't think."

  That got him to stop and stare at her for a bit, his black uniform a bit dusty, now that she bothered to look at it.

  "Wah. Poor little Penny. The girl that no one notices. I do though, and now a lot of other people do too. I've seen people with a lot less do more than you have so far. You're different than what you've shown us all, I get that now. I know that you have a lot to show me. I look forward to seeing it." Then he started to walk away, covering ground faster than she was, as if they weren't talking anymore.