Asunder (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 3) Read online

  The man nodded then, grimacing a bit.

  “Ah? Sorry to hear that. If you don’t have time, I understand. That kind of thing… It can be disruptive.” He looked down at her, his eyes soft.

  Like he actually cared.

  He honestly didn’t that much. Mainly because he really wanted that candy for his friends. On the interesting side, he was both willing to help and kind of felt that Cin was on the job, and would figure it out. Especially after working out how to use her powers more clearly that evening. There wasn’t any real difference between the worlds after all. That was all about her, and like Tor had mentioned, the focus that Tim had accidently caused in her. Plus, she was basically him, which meant she could handle it.

  She shook her head a bit after reading that and sighed at the man.

  “I’ll send a few care packages for your friends. Hey, do you want some baked goods, too? Will said that the stuff from here is different. I kind of noticed that tonight. I mean, I’ll have to arrange same day shipping for that, but it should be doable.”

  He smiled then, and seemed pretty happy about it all. Even though they hadn’t spoken about how much it would cost, so far. The issue there was that Tim didn’t know how to bring that up with her people. They’d offered to pay him and Taman for their work, flatly admitting that they really couldn’t at the same time. They honored and valued their work helping others very highly. Thinking it to be priceless. So it wasn’t fair to use that against them, in his book.

  It took work for him to think that, but he managed it, instead of seeing the twenty obvious ways to use them. Only, he saw that too of course, and just didn’t allow himself to go down those roads. Trying not to be evil. On the great side, he wasn’t going to freak out and try to kill them all. Just other versions of him from different realities would be doing that.

  Cindy didn’t let him off the hook price wise. It could be made a gift later, after all. That would have more impact on him, even though that wasn’t a huge thing really. Not because he wasn’t worth that kind of effort, just because he really wouldn’t buy it. Still, a part of him kind of expected that sort of thing to take place in his world.

  That everyone would be looking out for their own people first, and moving to gain better position on the others. It probably wasn’t worth worrying about, but she was trying to fill her time. Hopefully no one got into bringing super bombs to their world. They’d managed the problem that day, but the fact was, if she hadn’t been there, along with Dareg, at the same time, then the entire reality they were standing in, at least the Earth part of it, would be dead or dying right that moment. She wasn’t making a big deal out of it, but a few of the others there were kind of up on the whole thing. Queen Tiera and Ambassador Neesa both understood how close they’d really come to being gone totally.

  None of them were thinking about the obvious yet though.

  If the reality had been destroyed, then the Tor there, or maybe one of the others, couldn’t do what the enemy wanted. There was no benefit in killing them all, since without the attacks, the others, whoever they were could have just left them all alone, if they had another plan. Until they started the first counter attack, there was no point in just killing them. Trying and failing would cause action, but trying and succeeding, that didn’t make any sense.

  At least the other Tor hadn’t hated them at all. He’d come to get them, based on a plan, but that hadn’t been due to malice on his part at all. If anything, he’d been kind of reluctant to do his part, but had come to try it anyway, out of desperation.

  She didn’t explain that to them however, since getting her thoughts clear first and sending a note might just work better.

  “I’ll get on that. Can I send that with Will?” He could do the work, but she couldn’t really afford his rates. Or, rather, she could, if she traded with him for it. It was in his story that he’d take trade in goods, sex, gold or sometimes information. She could get three of those, without too much work.

  More to the point, she understood that the kid would probably do it just because they were friends. That meant a lot in his world. The balance on that one was that she kind of needed to be willing to do the same thing for him if it came up. Not that he was demanding. If anything, he was almost boring, considering ninety percent of the women on the base would do him if he suggested it politely. The only reason it wasn’t a hundred percent was due to the fact that the rest of them had personal issues that would prevent that sort of fun.

  Like Marcia, who wasn’t certain he wasn’t a spy, put there against them. Meant to find all their secrets. Which, they really did have. For one thing they’d taken an Army Captain out and killed the man not two months back. For a second she reflected on that thought, reveling in it a bit. Not enough to kindle the old feelings, but it was still kind of there.

  The screams had been delightful. Spine tingling and somehow fulfilling at the same time.

  Blinking she smiled at Tim and winked, as the box opened back up. Brian planned to go in after her, since it was easier to get Will to take him back home than to do it himself. He could move between worlds, but it was a bit iffy, as to where he was going to land still. The new guy was way better than that. Not as good about where he could leave from, but everything had its drawbacks. That was what Brian was thinking as his hand brushed her behind.

  She nearly mentioned it, but just moved into the box. For once when she was being felt up, she knew for a fact that he didn’t even mean it sub-consciously. Given that they’d actually dated a few times, she would have thought he might be just a bit more interested in her. Searching the index in his book, she found that page in his mind. Which was fairly favorable toward her. She was even in his top five women on the base to nail, if he was ever single and suddenly better looking. At the moment he was dating Karen, who wasn’t cuter than Cindy was anymore, but she was famous and good looking enough. Really nice, as well.

  Inside the box, which glowed red inside, Will put his arm on Brian’s first, then they both vanished. A minute later he was back and did the same with Denis. It took a while, and they didn’t strictly have to wait in the hut, but Marcia had decided to do it that way in order to make them seem a bit more organized. Less like they didn’t know what they were doing. Plus, the things were kind of tough. If anyone started blasting magic at them, they could hide inside the red structures and stay pretty safe.

  Cin went last, which meant Will smiled at her and touched her arm a bit more gently than he had with most of the others.

  “Alone at last.” He laughed though, not meaning it like it might have sounded.

  “Good. We can pass the secret messages here. I need to have something delivered to Tim Baker tomorrow morning. Maybe sooner. You don’t sleep, right?” That sounded offhand, like a joke, even to her, but got a nod. The man had been changed so he didn’t need to.

  She would have gone insane, if she couldn’t get a break once a day for a few hours.

  Instead of talking price, he simply nodded, figuring that it would be handled with more information, or at least a written report on the second Neesa. Thinking about that, he swallowed.

  “Um… Aunt Tiera was wondering if we’re to be blamed for that. You all nearly died, while a guest here. I kind of informed them all that none of you would think of it that way. Is that… I didn’t have a right to speak for you. Any of you.”

  She smiled at him and patted his arm. He was too young for her, but that was just a number and honestly conditional for the guy. He was either seventeen, or several thousand years old, depending on how you counted things. Old enough she could rationalize doing him, she decided. Not that he’d offered.

  “Didn’t you? Besides, you were right. This had nothing to do with anyone here or even that second Neesa. She was a crime victim and lucked into doing the right thing in an alien environment. That was pretty good work on her part. Also, when we were going to chop her hand off, she was going to do it. Right then, without whining about it or anything. To save us. That�
�s damn hard, considering her people can’t even fight at all. We need to track these jerks down though. Also, I might have some news on that. Thoughts, really. No one else was… Anyway, I can give that to you later? Tim wants some candy for Karina and Sara. I don’t know who they are. A version of our Sara?”

  The man next to her shook his head.

  “I don’t know? Maybe. The name is similar. Karina is one of the Princesses of Noram though, I bet. The one that just got married to Cousin Dareg. I met her, briefly. She seemed nice. Sara… That one is the Ancient of the Martian Circle? I don’t know that much about her. Her family isn’t noble, I don’t think. Then I didn’t think mine was either, so who knows?”

  She rolled her eyes then.

  “All right, so we need to get the good treats for them? Probably a lot, too. I’ll bug Brian for that. We need to get some shopping done.”

  There was a simple nod then, as if all of it only made sense to him. Tim Baker was both a noble, tall and a wizard. Also an Ancient. The one for Austra. If he asked for things, it made sense to curry favor with him. Even if it was a bit hard to do.

  She nodded.

  “Don’t forget all the work he’s done to help us out, too. Though I did tell him that if you asked me to pay off in sexual favors, he had to cover that part.” It was a bit of a mean dig, but the man understood she was playing so didn’t blush or anything.

  He just screwed his face up and looked at the wall of the hut they were still standing in, on the Moon, in a different reality. There were glowing blue letters on it, ones that would take them to hundreds, possibly thousands, of different places almost instantly.

  Touching her suddenly, Will made the world go black. It was only a single blink to her, but she could feel a change in the world around her. The strange labels on everything were still there, which meant she was more focused on things than she normally managed. That played out in different ways, of course, but would fade over time. She was used to being herself, and that meant she was used to being mentally lazy, most days.

  “I need to go and do some work on several things. I was teasing about the sex stuff. I’ll pay off in information? If you want sex, make an appointment, like everyone else?” She actually kind of meant it, but had never really hinted that firmly to Will before.

  For his part he just nodded, and didn’t know what to do. Except that sex was kind of simple for him to get now and good data was still hard. That made Cin’s statement sort of nice to hear. They could be closer friends and still handle commerce with things that would be really helpful to him.

  “All right. I should be in the kitchen this evening. Can I be contacted there? We have to hurry, since every three hours is going to be about a day later back home.”

  She knew that, but it was a great point, to be honest.

  “I’m on it then. Stay ready to move.”

  It felt strange, standing in the cool evening air, and it wasn’t that late yet, in her little black dress like she was. Still, in the direction of her desk lay a Brian, so she jogged quickly. For once, instead of being tucked in the side conference room, doing paperwork, or in with Marcia Turner, Brian was speaking with Lydia, the underage secretary. Not that he was being inappropriate. They were actually just talking about Phoebe and her friend, Sinclair.

  “I… Sinclair is kind of scared here now. I think that… I don’t know. She thinks that she might be killed.”

  Cindy nodded happily, but didn’t speak, Brian was about to reassure the girl that it wouldn’t be happening, but the other girl, who wasn’t old at all, had gotten herself taken prisoner and raped, by throwing in with their enemies, trying to escape the IPB. Instead of just walking away. True, she hadn’t thought she really could, but it had still been an idiot move on her part. Phoebe had gotten luckier, just being locked up for weeks. That, and forced to heal people.

  Cindy grinned then. It was a bit forced and sudden, but not a lie, really.

  “Fucking-A. I can do this.” She tried to meditate and hold on to her deeper state of mind for as long as she could. “I need to do some work, I think. Um, Brian… I need candy. Two very large boxes or nice baskets, for some rich friends of Tim Baker’s. Can you get that? Will is up for the delivery on that. Three hours or less. I…” She walked away, not even sure if he’d nodded at her or not. She could pay him back if it was needed.

  Instead of doing anything else, she went to her office, and started reading. First on Phoebe, making connections from people that had just been near her, while she was in the cage. Especially the ones that she’d healed. You didn’t bring people that didn’t matter to a healer like that, only the special ones. Then she collected all their names, to check on them later, in case anyone was different than who they’d caught when they’d raided the place. It was almost certain to be the situation.

  Then, her hold on the needed state slipping, she tried to do the same with Anthony Levitt. The trick there wasn’t to get things from his mind, but his family. His father and older brother. The brother was about the same as Tony there was, she knew, having searched him before. The Dad however was dead. Available to her now, however. Thanks to Tim Baker and his magical focusing skills.

  This time she was able to access a lot more information on Mariah the Divine Wind.

  One of the many code names that the secret cabal used. It was one group, with a thousand faces. Or more like twenty, but the idea was kind of a solid one.

  In there was a lot more data held in the life of the old man. Way more.

  The Levitt boys were basically pawns in the game so far. Not that Anthony wasn’t one of the in-group. He was just a little fish in the strangely murky pond. If he ever wanted to be more than that, he’d have to prove that he was worth the effort. Most of the people in the collectives didn’t make that level of things.

  The father however, he’d been in deep and for a long time before he’d died. In fact, when he’d passed away, he’d been part of controlling the whole thing for nearly eighty years. Given that his official age was a lot younger than that, it was interesting. Not impossible, if he were, say, Infected.

  Which wasn’t the case. No, the group just had access to longevity technologies. They hadn’t invented them, but then, they didn’t do that kind of thing really. No, they basically preyed on humanity to get that kind of thing done for them, then stole it. Almost everything, actually. They didn’t even make their own food, if they could help it. Not that they weren’t humans themselves.

  They just thought they were more. Because of their birth. That and the fact that most of them were like Cindy. Psychopaths.

  “Well, it had to be something like that, didn’t it, Morris?” That had been the man’s name, for the last fifty years of his life or so. Before that he’d been several different people.

  It wasn’t that big of an issue however. The main thing was that, unlike his rather useless kids, the man had known a whole lot of people that were involved in the different groups. There were vast bunches of them, at different levels. More than she would have guessed by far.

  Thankfully Mariah itself wasn’t all that huge. Starting there she could work out what needed to be done. Now.

  Smiling to herself, Cindy started writing. Typing the words onto her computer. Or starting to. Instead she got up and walked to Marcia’s office. The woman was actually there, and dressed in tan fatigues, since it was the uniform of the job and all that military sounding stuff. It was hours later after all. They’d been back for half a work day already.

  “Hey, boss. We need to take a walk. Outside the wire. Bring a note pad and pens. This is… Decently large, I think?” She smiled, which got Marcia to do it.

  “Something good? Like Cin good?” She meant murder-liscious, but since that wasn’t a real word, the woman didn’t leap to it directly. Still, that was what she was going for.

  “Yep. Exactly that kind of thing.”

  Then she waved and ran to change. She moved faster than she’d figured she could, in a dress. It was kind of h
ard on the new outfit though. Especially the nice little, black, pumps that she’d been given to go with it.

  Not that she cared about that at the moment.

  Chapter four

  Marcia just looked at her, a bit of hesitation on her face. The words over her head didn’t doubt Cindy, however. That was very different than she’d expected of the skeptical and nearly paranoid woman.

  “Fuck. You mean all those conspiracy assholes were right?” Even standing ten miles from the base, under trees, the woman whispered the words. She was probably correct in doing that.

  After all, their enemies really were watching. Even their thoughts, in potential. It was in the data when she thought to check on it. They could do that from satellite, of all things. Thankfully they didn’t have a million of the devices or the ability to watch everyone at one time. Yet.

  The IPB was a favorite target for them, as far as mind reading went. It was one of the reasons that they could keep beating them like they were. It wasn’t even a human mind doing it, so the telepaths, or even Trivia, wouldn’t be able to pick up on it directly.

  “Wait. Trivia…” She didn’t really mean anything by it, but the woman knew everything. Her big problem was that she needed to comprehend that it was something to look at first. Still, Marcia got the basic idea. Then, if she didn't trust Cin as a matter of course, she kind of hated Brie. That wasn’t her name at all, just the one that she was using to try and get with Brian Yi.

  For nearly thirty years, or a bit more than that, she’d been in deep cover with Braid, the super villain. So deep inside that in the end the only person that knew about it was Braid. Not anyone on their side of things. It really wasn’t helpful in the end.

  Turner grinned suddenly.

  “Right. I can see that. She has the basic mission specs. How could she not pick up on it given that. Can you check that for us?”

  “Not without her knowing about it. It’s kind of like with Christian. I can read her and I don’t think she can really stop it, but she will know it’s happening. The other way around as well.” She smiled back for herself. “Honestly, we might as well just ask her about it. She might lie, or try to, but I can read her, if she does that. Hiding it won’t actually help anything though. Then, if she’s being a creeper on this she’ll probably vanish. Really, I think I need to as well. Today.”