The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  It wasn't the same as fear, she didn't think, this kind of reaction. Or maybe it was? That creature had been scary enough. The news that Hooper was Infected and had been working with Braid and her crew was kind of amazing as well. Shocking even. It took a while to get out of the building, since it went into lockdown, but not that long, because, as always happened, there was one guy that didn't want to be locked in, so ran out the doors before that happened, once he understood what was going on. What he'd been up to she didn't know, but he looked so guilty now, running away like that.

  True, she was too, but no one would notice that, if she'd done everything correctly. She didn't think there were any cameras in the apartment at least. If they were hidden well enough that might work, of course, but even then she might be all right. It depended on who looked at the recordings later, didn't it? If they were looking closely and the things existed, there would be some floating guns. That could be anything though. Telekinesis, illusion, or a person being digitally removed from the image. It was only a problem if that came up though. Which it wouldn't. Not with the mess that was in that room.

  The walk to the convenience store took longer than she liked, since it was cold and her feet started to hurt. She was careful not to step on anything too sharp as she worked through the mess of boards and trash. They were still there and untouched, thankfully. Penny slipped her clothing on after that. It was more comfortable and a good bit warmer, though after that night she'd need a new uniform most likely. At least if anyone saw her on camera. It was too big of a deal to take chances with. Well, she hadn't really been into the whole pleather thing anyway. That was Lancaster's deal, right?

  At six in the morning she was back in the room, having taken three cab rides and the underground rail system for a while to get back. She had to wait for them to begin their day for that last part, which took extra time, not that it mattered that much. Hooper wouldn't be coming back to life, she didn't think. After she stripped down, she shook her partner awake, since he'd sensibly gotten some rest.

  "Lancaster..." She didn't know where to start at all. It was a mess, but the man didn't move, since she was still way too worked up for him to notice her. Even relaxation exercises didn't help for a long time. Finally, after an hour of letting things go she tried again.

  "Darryl. Time to get up." She wasn't thinking about much, other than staying calm. "Time to get up. Stillness killed Senator Hooper." It wasn't smoothly done, but it got the man to open his eyes instantly and sit up. He was in a white t-shirt and tight shorts that looked like he was ready to go and ride a bicycle. They were tight enough to outline his goodies, which she stared at for a moment before going on.

  "Is this room secure?" That it might not be was why she'd claimed that someone else had taken out Hooper, even though there was no way she could possibly know about that yet.

  It was probably not needed, but the man smiled and gave a nod. "Swept it last night. Sit-rep?"

  "Um, I did the thing. I found Stillness there, planning a terrorist action with Hooper. When I killed the first man, Stillness, Hooper manifested an energy being that did a real number on the guards in the room. I don't know if they lived or not. I planted weapons to make it look like the first two shot each other." She didn't have to explain the nuances, since Lancaster was good at his job. He just sat up and turned on the television.

  It was being reported as a robbery gone wrong. Horribly so. That or an assassination, in which case the killer might have been one, or both, of the guards in the room. It was a muddled and convoluted story, but Agent Lancaster seemed oddly pleased by it.

  "Two birds, one stone. Nice work. I've been worried about that fucker Stillness for half a year. How could we beat a guy that could control any of us? This isn't a great situation for us though. Was it better than letting the terrorist event take place?"

  Penny shrugged, which she thought might actually show, but she wasn't certain. Darryl didn't have an earpiece in, so that was a sign she was managing, wasn't it?

  "They were planning to hit high schools and shopping malls. That was the revised plan, the one Stillness got in place. Originally Hooper wanted to go after elementary schools to get everyone whipped up. We need to watch for that still. Some kind of attack. I don't know what the others in Braid's group can bring into play, but I have to imagine she's not going to take this lying down. She already nearly had the base nuked and took out big parts of D.C. What else can she pull off?"

  It might be harder now without her mind control guy, but how much did she already have in place? It was scary to think about, which meant another half hour of deep breathing and trying to let go of things as Lancaster made some calls.

  Then, after she got a shower, Penny was expected to get off to work at the White House. It seemed like a horrible idea, but Maggie Lawrence was going into lockdown for the time being, and the Secret Service was smart enough to want people with super-powers on their side if it was possible. It wasn't lost on them that in the D.C. attack the President had only lived because they'd had IPB Operatives there to save him.

  That meant being whisked away and put into a rather nice bunker on a military base along with the President's daughter, Bridget Chambers and her dad, Scott. Along with a dozen other people to watch the girl and make sure they had whatever they needed. Nothing much happened, except that Maggie and Bridget managed to keep getting into trouble, trying to sneak out and meet guys on the base. Penny got put in charge of stopping them, since Prime, for all his powers, couldn't keep up with a couple of teen girls very well. Maggie thought he was handsome, and told him so regularly, which was good for his ego, but he didn't realize that the girl was using it to influence him, handling the man like an old pro.

  She was too young for him by a good bit, but he still preened at the attention, even if the girl was only cute at best. Bridget brought her own powers to the game, which included flight and super speed. It was hard to beat. Penny managed it with a tracking device that she taped to the middle of Maggie's back. Super glued into place actually.

  On the good side the kids didn't go off base. They were just kind of bored and looking for fun, not death. That, or trying to get laid. It was her job to see that one didn't happen though. All the military men were perfect gentlemen however and made sure that the girls didn't get more than a polite smile from anyone. By the second week it was getting bad though and she kind of had a feeling that Maggie wasn't her biggest fan ever.

  "I don't like you, Miss Cooper. You're no fun at all." There was a hint of teasing in it at least, which took some of the sting out. No one wanted to be the stick in the mud. Especially not her.

  "I really am, but this isn't the situation for it to show. Sorry. I hear that we might be leaving soon, so hang in there." She sounded very adult now, she realized, instead of like a shy little kid.

  She didn't have a lot to do other than practice relaxation after all. The girls were right on one score, it was kind of dead at the base. They had television, but that was about it as far as recreation went. Computers were off limits and they weren't supposed to hang out in the open more than needed, so they couldn't even play outside. Penny did get to watch the fallout from what she'd done. It wasn't good.

  There were massive attacks against Infected people all over the country, in retaliation. The actual investigation was ongoing, but no one had mentioned the idea that anyone outside of the room had anything to do with it. Not openly at least. No one that mattered. The word on the street was different, with the hate groups fearing that they'd lost their best friend in the Senate. Which had been the point. That was enough for most of them to make a wild guess that it was the "Evil Infected" that had done it. That was even pretty close to the truth, so Penny couldn't fault them for thinking that.

  Not too much.

  After all, she wasn't evil, was she? No, she'd stopped the murder of hundreds, possibly thousands, by killing Hooper. Maybe more than that in the long run. It didn't make her feel good to see innocent people being beaten, and
in two cases, killed, over it. She'd have nightmares about that, without a doubt. If she'd done nothing though, or waited, it would have been worse.

  After a while, nearly three weeks, the Secret Service decided that it would be safe enough for Maggie to head back home and even pack the IPB Operatives away for a bit. The amount of threats toward the President had actually gone down in the wake of the attack on D.C. and no one had even hinted that Lawrence would have had anything to do with Hooper being killed or anything like that. He was thought of as a bit soft by the hate groups, and as a good person by almost everyone else. Even his enemies didn't bother going to that place in their accusations.

  There was just no point in doing it.

  Penny kept waiting for someone to realize that she could have done it, but it wasn't even mentioned. Not in the press and not online. Even the chat rooms and message boards that pretty much thought the IPB was Satan didn't name her in it at all. A few did try to blame Proxy for it, but he was actually on live television at the time it had happened. Total happenstance, except that with him nothing ever really was.

  It was almost as if she wasn't worth noticing at all. Just the way she liked it.

  When she got back to the base she kind of expected someone to call her on the whole thing, since it was a bit of a fiasco, but no one did. Peggy was a bit sad, since she had to go back to her day job, which was being a prisoner, but Marcia looked like she'd gained a little bit of weight. Not a lot, but it was enough that it was noticeable. It meant that the woman had done a good job while she was gone. That meant it was probably worth keeping her on in some capacity or another.

  "Hey you two, things going well?" She half expected them to ignore her, but both of them looked up and Marcia smiled.

  "There you are. Enjoy your vacation? Were you tied up by the natives for a week?" There was a lilt to it and the curly haired woman in white smiled as if they were friends or something.

  "It was closer to that than I like to admit, to tell the truth. Maggie's a good kid, but I wouldn't want to have that job full time. It's going to take weeks to get Bridget back in line. Luckily that isn't my problem. Who's her partner anyway?" Penny wasn't sure, but she guessed it was probably Agent Burke.

  Marcia sighed.

  "Me. I need to do a better job of it. Luckily I can pawn that off on my assistants now."

  That got Peggy to go still, her long face pointed toward their boss.

  "Wait... I'm not laid off now that Penny is back?"

  "What? Hell no. I finally have people to do the leg work for me. We need to get you both trained so that I don't have to do as much. Why, at this rate I should be able to take a real vacation in a year. Maybe even a whole week, what do you think? Are you in, Peg?"

  "Yes!" She sounded excited at least. "It's a hundred times better than what I have been doing. It isn't being free really, but baby steps. I can work with it. Maybe use my new found power to work the paperwork around on my release?"

  It seemed like a good idea. If she did a lot of high profile stuff, long enough, Peggy might even end up being truly free. It wouldn't hurt anyway.

  They'd need to get her another desk though, that or they'd have to share. That wasn't the pirate way though, was it? Smiling she decided to put in an order for one. Another office too. There were three of them, so it made sense they each got their own place, even if it wasn't big. A tiny closet or something.

  They could stuff the new girl in there. Seniority and all that, since Penny had been there a whole three days before Peggy was. Or was it four? Either way, she was the old timer now.

  A lot had happened while she was gone, but it had to be hinted at, and she wasn't just told what to expect. There were new attacks all over the country, a lot of them targeting kids. Some were hate groups going after low level Infected, but there were others too. Savage things that clearly looked to be in retaliation for the attacks on Infected people. Brian kept ending up going and saving people. On both sides. It was vastly tense and the world was starting to notice that it was happening.

  After the first couple of hours she wandered off to find Lancaster, who'd been traveling all around the nation himself for weeks, trying to put out fires. He actually smiled at her, and stood up almost instantly.

  "Cooper. Let's go for a walk." He could see her clothing which was just the leather jacket Mark had given her, jeans and a t-shirt that she'd stolen from a shopping mall. Actually she'd gotten a whole range of outfits. Now that she needed them it only made sense.

  "Sure. Hello, by the way. Long time no see and all that."

  "Yup." He didn't smile at her, but seemed distracted, rather than upset. It was kind of telling, she thought. "Let's go."

  They walked out quickly and she expected something far different than what happened. When he turned he shook his head and sighed.

  "New mission. Another one. We have an Agent that's undercover with a hate group that calls themselves 'God's Army'. Someone leaked who he was to the higher ups and they took him. So far he seems to be alive, but we need an extraction. It might get a bit hairy or we'd send in Mark. Are you willing to give it a shot? If so you'll need to leave right now."

  "All right. I guess. I was hoping that you'd be able to fill me in on what's going on? Something seems to be, but I can't tell what it is. Not exactly."

  The good looking Agent just stood and looked away from her, facing the horizon.

  "Really? Isn't it obvious? They're taking our people and holding hostages. Kids are being killed and sides are polarizing. You took out one of Braid's people, but killing Hooper... I think we were played. It's backfired big time, Cooper. We've been working to keep a war from happening, but I don't think we can now. Not anymore. All we can really do is try to keep it all from getting too bad." He didn't sound hopeful about the prospects.

  Not at all.

  "Well, we haven't had any major battles yet, so maybe there's hope?" She looked at the big man and stepped closer to him. Her arms moving out to go around him, wondering if she'd be pushed away. Instead he pulled her close and just stood there, holding her for a long time.

  "That's what keeps me getting up in the morning. Hope. Anyway, we need to get our man back. I have a briefing package for you to look at. We leave in three hours. Sooner if possible."

  After a bit he stood back and looked at her.

  "You'll need to be armed."

  She already was though. That was just the new way of things. Penny made a point of it now.

  "Let's get to it then."

  She took his hand as she walked away, and for once someone actually noticed it happening and smiled about it. It wasn't a happy look, but that part she understood. They were screwed. Something bad was coming and every time they did anything to try and stop it, they kept playing into their enemies' hands.

  "Hey Lancaster..."

  "Yes?"

  "Do you want to have sex? When I get back. With me, I mean. I know it's horrible as far as protocol goes, but I don't know that many people. It's probably stupid, but at this rate who knows what's going to happen tomorrow? You know, Jonny's off to war and we may never get another chance." It came out sounding shy, but she said the words and didn't go invisible to the man, she didn't think. Well, her clothes didn't.

  Instead of telling her no, the man kept walking, and when they got to the gate shrugged.

  "Why not? It's not like we'll be the first people here to ever bend the rules a bit. We might as well have what fun we can now. I don't think it will last long."

  She blushed, but didn't let go of his hand. She did tense enough then that he forgot she was there, but she was still holding him to it later. He better not forget her.

  She decided that she wasn't going to let that happen, even if she had to tattoo it on the man's hand to remind him that they had a date.

  She grinned.

  "Arrr, matey." She didn't explain it, but then, at the moment, she didn't have to, did she?

  It was her thing, not being noticed.

  She
planned to pack at a run as soon as they hit the door, but forced herself to relax enough that Lancaster blinked and smiled, looking down at his hand first.

  "I haven't forgotten. Not yet at least."

  Smiling, she ran for the stairs. Happy after a fashion, if a little concerned about what was coming.

  She really needed to find this Braid woman. It was her part in all this mess, after all. She just wondered if killing her would be enough in the end. The woman was so many steps beyond them that Penny really didn't think it would be.

  But it wasn't hopeless. They had some time left after all. Not a lot, but the storm on the horizon hadn't come yet.

  Maybe they could still steer around it?

  If not, the world was about to get interesting, that was for sure. She just hoped they all survived it.

  Goblin

  P.S. Power

  Orange Cat Publishing

  Chapter one

  The show itself had gone really well, Tobin thought, more hoping than knowing. The idea involved other people, and that was always an iffy area for him. They'd applauded, and stood up at the end, which was a nice sign, but that just could have been about happiness that the tiny Infected monster was going to get off the stage.

  After all, The Carson Brothers were playing next, being the headlining act, and they were a really big name in country music. Or at least they used to be. So it was probably that. His stuff was mainly pop, and the crowd might be a lot more interested in something different.

  It was easy for him to wave and walk off stage, his back-up singers following him, neither looking particularly happy, even if they'd both done a great job. He could tell that was the case, since he had a good ear for other people's work, but neither woman was exactly expressive, as far as their faces went. Peggy looked like a flesh colored alligator woman who could have played pro-football if not for her jaws, and Lauren dwarfed them all, her brown and black armored form looming over him, even if she was ten feet back.