The Infected [Books 1-6]

by P. S. Power

  Then as soon as he dried off, she walked into the room, even though she was holding his clothing and the towel was held in his hand, not wrapped around him. She looked down, and let her gaze linger, which started to get him to respond. It was embarrassing, but she didn't make him feel too bad, just handing the clothing to him and leaving, even as she smiled at him.

  "I'm doing my makeup now." That was a hint to hurry, it was clear.

  She was dressed more nicely than he was, in a light blue skirt and matching top. It had white and red accents, which he got. Patriotism and all that. His outfit was made up of his own clothing, along with a blue t-shirt with an American flag on the front. That was one of hers, and she waved at it, after he had it on.

  "Good, we can share clothes still. I have some really cute underwear you can try on later too. We're going to have so much fun! Oh, darn... Well, I think we should run then." They both had running shoes on, so she wasn't kidding, letting him keep up, if just barely. She was considerably faster than he was, so it showed a lot of control on her part.

  It was impressive, he realized. She seemed almost like she had real control of her first mode. It was probably an illusion, like when he managed to seem confident, even while terrified. It looked good though.

  They headed down the stairs, and went into one of the offices, with the girl stopping before entering and letting him catch his breath a little.

  "Marcia's office. She should be in."

  The woman was, along with Peggy, who was one of her assistants. It hadn't been a big deal while they were gone, but they seemed busy now. Penny worked there too, but wasn't in. Or, if she was, he couldn't see her at all.

  Bridget went in smiling and waved to everyone.

  "Is Penny here?" It was clear she was listening, but there was no answer. Tobin didn't have an ear bud in, but Ms. Turner looked up from her paperwork and shook her head.

  "Hey girl. No, she's off on assignment. Can we help you?" She looked suspicious, but the girl nodded in return.

  "Yep. I'm firing you as my partner, and putting Tobin on Team One with me. Hobbs said he was my new partner." She stopped there, and the attractive Deputy Director looked skeptical. Then, she always did.

  Tobin made himself smile, his fake one that split his face nearly in two.

  "I don't think that's what he meant. He just wants us to work on meditation together."

  That got the girl to nod a lot faster, "see how good he is already? Keeping me in check right off the bat. You kind of suck as a partner, but Tobin will be good. Plus, we both have fans in the same demographic. It's a good idea." She wasn't asking however, and seemed like it was already accomplished.

  Marcia... Laughed.

  "All right. You aren't wrong about me in that way. Tobin, are you willing to watch this little brat? She's actually been doing a lot better over the last year, so is only about half as annoying as before."

  He stopped and shook his head slowly. He liked the girl, but the thing there was that he liked her. Could he do the job without being bad? He doubted it.

  Plus, no one would let him be on Team One, would they? Not really. If he didn't try though, then they'd never let an ugly on that team, would they? It was one of those things that he didn't want to really try, but knew that he had to, even if it meant being rejected again. If he wouldn't do it, things would never change at all.

  "Sure. I'll try."

  That got a bit of clapping and a hug from Peggy, who actually ran around her desk on the right side of the room to do it. She picked him up and swung him back and forth a bit.

  "That's great! Everyone loves you already, and you don't look like Prime or Argos. It will almost be like the IPB isn't ashamed of us all still." She sounded excited about it, and dropped him, but pounded his back a little. Enough to bruise.

  He managed to speak, and force himself not to whisper what he wanted to say. It took work, but he did it, trying to remember what it was like when Denis had been helping him before.

  "This doesn't mean that I'm on that team though. We can try it, but it's possible that it will be shut down instantly."

  That got a nod from the Deputy Director at least, her smooth face makeup free so far that day.

  "Probably. I'll tell everyone that it's a done deal. Go with the line that Hobbs ordered it, and that I made it real."

  Then, without waiting for further instruction, they were running again, toward the nice restaurant on the first floor. They walked out of the stairwell however and went to the right, so that they could enter the very rich looking place. It was nice, done in rich red and real wood. It was decorated and nothing was ever allowed to seem shabby or worn at all. At the door they were met by a woman that smiled at Bridget, but who hesitated for a second when she saw Tobin. She was pretty, in an older way, and very nicely dressed, in a tight black dress that had to be hard to move around in, with her dark brown hair up.

  "I..." She looked around, seeming uncertain for a bit, since the less than pretty people weren't always allowed to use the nice facilities. She seemed to be about ready to send him away even, when Mark, from Team Three saw them and waved them over to the table he was at with Denis, Brian and Prime. It was an odd group, made more so by the fact that Charlot Chambers was there too. She was the IPB's PR person.

  Also married to Prime and Bridget's mother, so maybe it wasn't that strange?

  He was tugged again, over to the table, and Bridget pulled up a chair for him, right next to her own. It was clear that he wasn't expected at all. They didn't have enough plates.

  It was also clear that Mark, at least, thought he belonged, waving to the hostess to help set that up instantly.

  "Welcome back. I saw that your tour went well?" Mark sounded a bit too relaxed, like he was meditating all the time. That was how he stayed in regular time with them, Tobin thought. If he wanted, he could stop time for himself. Since he could move objects, and sometimes people, it meant he was virtually unstoppable. Also, it seemed, very nice, even if they'd never been all that close.

  Tobin felt himself brimming with confidence and a sense of relaxation of his own, and noticed that Denis was watching him when it happened. It was a lot nicer than having to fight through his first mode alone and worked better, even if it didn't mean he wasn't feeling shy at the same time.

  "Not too bad. We need to improve the act a bit. Lauren and Peggy did great, but it's a bit boring for the audience I think. Just me, jumping around and singing. We need fireworks or dancers. Something like that." If he ever did one of those things again, which wasn't his plan at all. He probably wouldn't do another album even. He loved to sing, the rest of it just wasn't worth it to him.

  Next to him, just as the plates came, the hostess seeming more relaxed herself now, Bridget looked at everyone. It was done one by one and so obviously that they looked back. It was a very controlled and deliberate thing, and she landed on her mother, of all people. Again, probably not that strange, except that it was clear she knew that the woman was going to have a problem with what she said next.

  "Tobin is on Team One now. It's already a done deal. We need to get him on the roster, and into training. He's also my new partner. Marcia is too busy and..." Then she stopped, looking slightly like she was ready to argue the point with the woman at greater length.

  Charlot wasn't always a pleasant person, Tobin knew. Her first mode basically made her dislike almost everyone and take offense really easily. She wasn't shy about letting that be known either. How that worked with her husband's well known narcissism, he didn't understand. She turned her hard gaze on him though, as if he was the one ruining her perfectly crafted plans. Her words however were a lot kinder than he'd expected.

  "Brilliant." There was no sarcasm to the word at all and she actually smiled. Yes, it looked bitter, but she sounded pretty nice about the whole thing. "Mr. Peterson's single is number three on the Billboard top forty right now. While he might not meet the traditional criteria for that team, his personal fame and high polling number
s will work well for it. Children find him remarkably accessible and he's the favorite right now with young women. Also the most hated by conservative men. We can work with that however." She winked at him, and her smile grew warmer. "That honor normally goes to Scott. I think the idea is that they don't want you to steal their daughter's hearts from them."

  Then, as if it were settled, everyone else just started working on the meal, which was actually about thirty dishes, that they were supposed to sample, and give Mark feedback on. The food was brought out by Kerry from Team Two, as well as a chef that Tobin only knew in passing and from Mark's cooking show. Warren. That and having made some sandwiches for a picnic once under his direction, were about all he knew in regards to him. He was nice and had talked to Tobin, but that didn't mean they shared a lot of personal information.

  They both joined them, after unloading the carts that the food was loaded on, pulling chairs over too, as well as grabbing plates for the food.

  Warren started to carefully dish out tiny portions to everyone, which had Bridget, looking hurt, as if she were being starved on purpose. Mark walked around and got her more of each thing, which got Warren to blink and then act like it was completely normal, even for a food tasting. The girl needed to eat a lot, after all.

  "First we have the meat dishes. Rosemary turkey, with a light honey glaze, home smoked ham slices and roast goose."

  As each thing was tasted, one at a time, they were each supposed to give a breakdown of what they thought of it all. It was good, but he didn't know what to say, otherwise. They went around the table and Tobin tried to carefully examine the turkey, since that seemed to be the job of the moment.

  "It's... got a good flavor, but it's a little dry. Not too much, but it looks better that way than it tastes." He wanted to wince away, even with Denis doing active work to keep him from being too shy.

  Warren just looked at Kerry and nodded.

  "Agreed on that one. It's not horrible, but we might try raising the cooking temperature a bit more." That got written down, which made Tobin feel less like he was being mean to the man. It was really good. Probably the best turkey that he'd ever had.

  Prime smiled and seemed to be paying close attention too, but then shook his head, almost looking like he meant the words that came out next.

  "I can't tell. It's very nice and I wouldn't think anything of it, if I were given a plate of it on a holiday. Not anything bad."

  That didn't get written down, but Kerry smiled. She was a bit plain looking, but in a freckled and snubbed nosed way that meant she could go out in public and just never be noticed. In most ways she was even kind of cute. A bit stocky, until you saw her working out in the gym and you realized that it wasn't fat, just her having lifted a lot of weights for a regularly powered girl. She was a telekinetic, but also liked to lift. Tobin had spent more than one early morning workout session checking her out from the corner of his eye.

  When they finished the meat, they went on to five different kinds of dressing, of which he liked the apple cranberry cornbread the best. He was the only one that did though, so it probably wasn't going to make the cut. Then they had a lot of vegetables, of which he only had a single bite of each and ended with desserts, which they had puddings, and pies for, as well as a chocolate mousse.

  He actually pointed at that one with his spoon.

  "This is incredible. Not very holiday-ish, but really, really good. I think it's my new favorite food. Let me have some more, and I'll check to make sure." That got a chuckle and a bit more, which, given how much he'd eaten already was a good thing. It was incredible however and had Denis buffing his fingernails on his shirt front.

  Mark smiled at the man, "but notice, he agrees that it doesn't fit the theme at the same time. I agree however, it's good. We should save it for a regular season show."

  Then, as if there was real work to be done, Brian passed him some papers, which turned out to be the script, or at least the part of it that had his lines.

  "Memorize those, but remember, they'll probably be rewritten. Glen mentioned that I should let you know that, ahead of time. He's in charge of the song and dance numbers and wants you in that with him. He likes the idea of a modern pop star being his assistant, I think." He seemed to like the idea, and smiled, which was good to see. Brian didn't all the time anymore. It was like his soul had been crushed over the last months. That... Just seemed to be the case too.

  Everyone was more subdued than they used to be. It was probably because they all feared that one day they'd wake up, and be ordered to a concentration camp. If that happened Team Two would fight. They'd all agreed to that, going out past the fence to hold talks, since everything done inside was watched all the time. Even when they went to the bathroom or watched porn on the internet.

  Tobin didn't have a lot to learn, only about six lines. It wouldn't take long. He had five songs however, though three were marked as only being potentially used. He was just doing choral backup for those anyway. They were classics, so he had them down already, but would make a point of going over them again, since it was the professional thing to do.

  "I can do that. Run get the coffee and that kind of thing." It was for Glen Gillis after all. The man was famous. Not for his singing, which was pretty good, but for his comedic acting. Getting him was huge for the show. Really it was only because of the attack on D.C. and the IPB base, Tobin thought.

  That had been a rogue portion of the military and some covert operations people, but the Infected were blamed for it in the minds of a lot of bigots. Even some that were normal, but just afraid. After all, if they hadn't been going around, being all different, then they wouldn't have pushed the military into trying to kill the President and his family, as well as a lot of other innocent people.

  Just thinking of it made his stomach sour, so he looked at his lines, and tried to learn them. They only had five days before they had to head to California after all.

  Chapter three

  Tobin was about to head back to his own room on the fifth floor when Bridget rolled her eyes at him, and gestured toward the other wing of the first floor. Since the whole thing was underground, that was an easier walk, but he didn't actually understand what she meant at first. After thinking for a moment, it made sense. She'd taken everything that he owned with her when they left earlier, which wasn't hard to do, and placed it in her own room. That meant he'd need to carry it back down, which really wouldn't be that huge of a problem.

  Instead she walked him to Robert the Team One leader's office and opened the door. There was no one inside, since the man was in hiding, after having slept with Karen, who functionally couldn't say no to a person in need. It was an unwritten rule that you didn't do that at the base. Worse, the man was really good-looking and could get women when he wanted them.

  Half the guys on Team Two had wanted to take a shot at Karen more than once and didn't, knowing that it would be wrong, even when that meant they really couldn't get sex at all, possibly ever. For a man like Rob to do it... That was like molesting a child, really. You were supposed to wait for her to ask you, not the other way around. It hadn't happened that way however, so Tobin and Denis, along with Jason had taken the man outside and beaten him.

  Well, Denis had done the actual physical part of it, since it wasn't meant to kill the man, and he didn't have any powers that way. Torque didn't either, so it had been a fist fight, rather than an epic battle of titans. Denis had been practicing with Hobbs though, and it paid off. They'd gotten in a little trouble for that, but for some reason that Tobin had never understood, the Director had locked up Penny for it for two weeks. Yes, she claimed that she'd ordered them all to do it, but that hadn't happened at all. It was so clearly the case that everyone had to be able to see it. He'd protested at the time, but Marcia had told him to shut up, and not do that.

  It wasn't that she didn't like Penny, who she had in as her assistant after that even, so he didn't know what to think about the whole matter.

  Right
now the office was empty, the dapper man in Washington D.C. on the Presidential detail still. He wasn't the most powerful Operative they had, just one of the best on camera. Lately he'd shown this by carefully not saying much of anything at all to the press. It was genius, because Jason, as humble as he was, had mentioned the whole thing to Prime, who was also Lady Glory's friend. He in turn had casually let the whole affair out into the open air, so that Rob wouldn't get away with it too easily.

  It was fair.

  Still, at the moment, from the way the small and intensely driven girl in front of him was digging in the man's desk, they were going to steal from him. That wouldn't work, because they were on camera. Otherwise he was still mad enough at the man that he was willing to try, if it would disrupt his day at all.

  "Here it is!" Bridget held up a small device that was about the size of a pack of playing cards, but with a lens and a small thumb pad on it. He'd seen one before, since it was how the people that owned valuable things set the locks on their rooms. They were all biometric.

  She fussed with it for a bit, then held the device up to his right eye, and when the green laser reader was done scanning back and forth, leaving him seeing spots on that side, she grabbed his right thumb and placed it on the pad, then settled in at the man's desk top. She tapped away as if she'd done it before and a few minutes later slid the USB cable into the machine. It was older technology, but still worked pretty well, not getting all that much use. When it beeped she packed the whole thing away in the desk again and typed for a few more minutes.

  "Okaydee. Room nine, which isn't the best one left, but is only a few down from Georgia, so you can hop over for a booty call or two when you want. I'm further down, in fourteen, since no one wants to listen to me tossing and turning all night. I'm a light sleeper. Come on, let's make sure I did this right. Otherwise we need to go and bug Marcia over it, and she seems busy, don't you think?"

  Tobin nodded, since it was just the truth.