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

  She expected a fight on that score. After all, she used to be a serial killer. Even being a great person… Well, she was sort of inclined to not be that nice all the time even now. If it had been her making the call, she would have at least asked about her ideas. The thing there was that she got it.

  Out of all the people on the planet, Ms. Turner was the one being who understood what it all meant. She’d basically been a spy for years, then lived with telepaths for two decades while being close to paranoid the whole time. More than any other person on the planet who didn’t have special powers related to mind reading directly, this woman understood what that kind of satellite system would mean to them. It was location sensitive, so if Cindy wasn’t on the base, or in a known location, it would be really hard to find her. Maybe impossible.

  Unfortunately, she was only one person.

  That flashed over the boss’s head, along with the idea that there were a few people that would be best to send on this particular mission. After all, the names on the list Cindy had delivered were all freaking high level people. Politicians, businessmen and people so deeply entrenched behind the scenes that they might well have to dig them out of the ground in order to get at them. Physically move dirt and rock that was.

  The trick would be in keeping the team small, unobtrusive and their absence pretty much unnoticed. Ten tricks for that came to mind for the Director in moments. The problem there was actually Cin, herself. She might be allowed to go to other realities, but no one sane would let her do anything alone. Even after being fixed like she had been. She had a full pardon, from the President, but even he didn’t really want her to go around unattended.

  It would seem incredibly fishy.

  Worse, that meant they couldn’t send an Agent with her at all. If they did that, no one would buy it. They were all too locked on to the job to be easily subverted. The same was true of Stasis, Cindy thought. He was too high profile for that kind of thing, even if having his powers on their side would be nice. Especially since he wasn’t nearly as afraid of things now. Still a pacifist, but a lot of that had to do with his first mode. Part of it was his classic behavior pattern as well.

  “I can run. Take a few people with me? Ones that might do that kind of thing… Escape from this place I mean.”

  She was scowled at, but again, it wasn’t about her trying to set it up to get free. That Marcia wasn’t even considering that was nice. A thing she didn’t trust to last long, but it wasn’t her first thought. It felt almost like she was part of the group or something. Like they might even be friends.

  Turner grunted.

  “Who though?”

  That part was harder. The girls, Phoebe and Sinclair, might do that again soon, having tried it once, but both of them were useless in a fight, much less going around murdering people. Phoebe had the fighting skill of a sock puppet. Her powers, while useful, being healing, weren’t needed for the mission. Sinclair was better that way, being able to teleport and fight all right, but her first mode was basically friendliness. That wasn’t what you wanted to look for in a killer.

  That was her plan, for the moment. It wasn’t subtle, but exposing these people wasn’t going to work. Even finding them all might not. They were so deeply entrenched that the only thing that might stop them from coming after the IPB was to make it too costly, without letting them reach the point where counter attack to survive seemed like the only option. Thankfully there were many factions in on the whole thing. She only had to remove about half of one of them. No more than a few hundred people.

  Tops.

  Doing more than that would be hard to get done, but if she could take out a few thousand evil cult members, the world would have a chance at becoming a much better place. That task seemed too large for her at the moment, so she just focused on what might be possible to make happen for real.

  Shrugging, she grinned, going for cute, instead of insane. Marcia didn’t really think she made it, which was probably right. She was feeling a bit fierce, after all.

  “Cellophane. She’s basically your assassin already, plus so hard to see that no one really misses her when she leaves. I can keep track of her though, all the time, so we can work that way.”

  “You can? I didn’t know that.”

  “Oh, yeah, we tested it and everything. If I can focus more, I can get more information. From things, even, which was strange. I mean objects. Like glasses of wine or pieces of bread. Tim Baker set that off in his world, which is why I had the breakthrough when I came back. That doesn’t mean I can focus like that on my own yet.”

  “Ah. Okay. That’s a bit different. Is it a problem?”

  She shook her head, but then tilted it and shrugged.

  “No? He doesn’t live here and it just seemed to be me copying what he was doing, since we’re, you know, the same person. Like you and Patricia?”

  That got a blink and a grin suddenly.

  “Wait… In another world… We’re married?”

  She hadn’t really considered that one yet, but made a face and nodded.

  “Yeah. I suppose we should start dating then. Too bad I’m going to be fleeing into the night. So, Penny… Then…” She thought hard then smiled. “How about Kerry? She’s higher profile, but not so much that we can’t just dye her hair and give her some goth makeup. That, or a nose piercing and some problem glasses.”

  Turner looked at her and shook her head.

  “Problem glasses? Also, Trivia might be a creeper? I thought that was a sex thing… I’m getting so old.” She didn't seem upset about it, just a bit pensive. “Set that up. I’m going to have to set the orders in person. Can you get them out here… It just looks so suspicious coming all the way out here and then having them vanish. I do get the thing with her… You know Kerry’s secret?”

  Cindy nodded. She knew a lot of things about most of the people there at the base.

  “That she’s actually about ten times more powerful than she knows about? Yeah, I picked up on that, actually. Remember, I had her put Lauren’s arm back on…”

  “Right. So, we honestly figure her as a class six. Penny is probably a seven. You… Well, you’re actually still just a five. Data can only do so much in a fight, after all. Your new powers might push that up to a six, but probably not. Sara did good work on that part. She told me that she kept you weak enough that we can take you if we have to.”

  That got a smile.

  “I understood that at the time, actually. Still, it’s better than nothing. Then we’re going to go and kill a whole lot of people. You get that part? I’m not sneaking it past you, right?” Cindy knew that the woman really did, but needed to hear the words. It wasn’t a sane thing to think about, mass slaughter like that.

  If there was a better way to get things done, that she might miss, not thinking of other people as more than expendable most days, then that moment was the time for her to be schooled on it. That part was a bit of a worry for her, since she didn't know if Kerry was a killer or not. The thing there was that the girl herself wasn’t certain either.

  Her first mode was rage however, or had been, so she might have enough anger left over to get some things done that way.

  “Oh… Um, a Team Four member? I don’t know if… Rigsby has tried to keep his people kind of peaceful, for fighters. Comic book rules really. Powerful, with no killing.”

  That got a wink.

  “Good, we can keep track of you that way, or… Crap, no… We can’t. He has to stay here, the satellites.”

  “Damn, right. That part is going to take a lot of care to make happen, isn’t it? So, we need to be out of here tonight. Um, meet us, well, closer to the gate. In the dark tonight though, we need to be… If the things are focused on us, then we need to be a quarter mile away. They don’t hit all the time, but figure an hour a day, at random.”

  “Good. Go over the wire though, and meet… On the south-east side. You’ll need to steal a vehicle. That or carry the others. Look that up? How to hotwire things?�
� She meant by using her powers, but that didn’t take a genius to work out. Doing it on the computer would leave a trail. Then again, that could be useful, if it wasn’t so obvious as to be fake.

  “Yeah. I’ll handle all that. Call it one in the morning? Late enough to be useful. We just need to not think about this anymore. You can hold that for a few months, right? I don’t think they can get more than surface thoughts. In fact, I know it.” A man named Carlson James, who had invented the whole thing some thirty years before, had all the data on the system, after all.

  There was a man to kill, if she could. He and about seven others held all the keys to that particular weapon. If they were gone, then the devices would be useless for a good long while.

  On the great side, if they could murder him and a few others, it would be really hard for Mariah to rebuild that system. They’d have it for decades though, but wouldn’t be able to replace it forever. Not easily. It was a weakness in their system. They compartmentalized things so closely that no one knew all the secrets on almost anything. Just the end goal.

  World domination. Leading to the destruction of the whole thing, though only the top people understood that bit.

  As if that made any sense. Still, her goal was to live and save the IPB for the time being. After all, the whole current plan was really about getting Impulse, who was, in the end, her pal. That she had one of those was interesting, since it was kind of a first in her life.

  They didn’t go back together. In fact, Cindy waited for Marcia to go in to work, her thoughts focused on her tasks rather well, before dashing back, coming through the front gate and signing in, pretending to have been out for a jog the hard way. Running for an hour first. That had her into town and back, so that other people would see her on the road, dressed in her uniform. That was going to have to go, before they left that night. On the great side, she had some clothing. Not a lot that was great for killing, but she knew where to get more.

  “Hobbies are a good thing. Rounding, as far as personality goes.” The gate guard who was checking the list gave her a puzzled look, but she just smiled at him, then winked.

  “I was thinking about taking up sewing. You know, making my own clothing and stuff like that?” It was a strange thing to say, but she still looked small and cute, so the guy smiled at her, as if it made any sense at all.

  “That sounds fun, then. I can’t even darn a sock, so… You know, not my kind of thing, but I can see how it might be useful. My sister does that. Sews.”

  She nodded, then on a whim, patted his arm on the way past. The man was about thirty, but didn’t have a ring on, after all. Instead of glaring at her for it there was another, softer, smile.

  Then pictures over his head of some fairly interesting sexual positions they could try. None were too kinky even. If things had been different she might have even given him a try, but there was no time just then. He didn't grab the bull by the horns and suggest anything either. It probably wasn’t allowed. They had a lot of rules that way, for different people on the base.

  She was damp when she got back in, so made a point to shower before going to find the others. Kerry was in the gym, working on power lifting for some reason, and Cooper was… She found her sitting in the courtyard, with her pants down, changing clothing. Right out in the open. It was a bit cold for that kind of thing, but being as invisible as she was to most people, it was hardly a crime.

  In a way, it was perfect.

  Standing and looking away, seeing a picture of the woman’s book floating in the air, which gave her a lot of visuals at the moment, she spoke softly.

  “Meet me at the fence line, packed for a mission. Bring your tools.” Then she walked on, reading that the woman figured it was either a real thing, or she was going to get lucky with the new gal. If that was the case, then they were doing it outside. It was chilly for that, but she’d been being good enough about not just raping people when she felt like it that doing something a bit risky sounded fun. Even if she wasn’t that into women.

  Not when they knew she was there, anyway.

  Getting with Kerry and explaining things proved to be a lot harder. She was sweating hard, lifting enough weight to be impressive, since she didn’t have a physical power at all. Grunting, the rather plain, slightly snub nosed woman ignored her at first. When Cindy didn’t go away, she settled the barbell on the mat, carefully.

  “Do you need to work in?” She actually sounded nice enough about it, given that she kind of thought that Cindy hated her for betraying the IPB.

  As if she’d care about that kind of thing.

  “I need to talk to you about some things. Nothing big, but you know, away from here?”

  Interestingly, the woman went over a lot of things suddenly, most of them being focused on Tobin, her boyfriend. He’d been made good looking, so she figured that he was going to leave her.

  Probably for Cindy, since she was really pretty now.

  If he didn’t run off with Christian Poures first. Those two had been seeing each other enough that it was kind of obvious that the slightly older woman liked him. She had even before he was normal looking. As a tiny frog man.

  Cindy had to admit that he had been cute that way as well.

  Still, that was kind of an odd idea, that Cindy would come to her to discuss stealing her boyfriend from her. Which was what she really figured was going on. It made her mad, but sooner or later Tobin would be leaving her now. It had always been the most likely outcome.

  Which, Cin figured, was more or less true. Not for the reasons that Kerry was thinking. Not even her low self-esteem driving him away. It would with her, if it had been pointed that way. It was just that they were both young and frankly, neither one had ever seen a lot of good relationships being modeled for them. Not that she was going to throw stones. Cindy was about as useful in a relationship as any psychopath.

  Not much.

  Then, because it was all that she could think of, the rather plain girl asked a stupid question.

  “Is this about Tobin?”

  It was tempting to say yes, but Cindy tried not to be that big of a bitch. After all, an angry Kerry could kill her almost instantly, new powers or not.

  “Nope? Why would it be? I’m not talking to him here, you might have noticed? I can’t want to get my girl on with you?” It should have been funny, or the wrong thing to say, but Kerry was freaking open minded that way, thanks to her totally fouled up childhood. Her “husband” had married her at ten. As one of his something like fifty wives.

  Some of them had made sure to take care of each other’s needs that way, even if it was against the will of god. Not that Kerry believed that crap.

  Except when she did.

  So instead of being shocked, hurt or even joking the woman smiled, meaning it.

  “Oh? That’s… Better, actually. I suppose we could talk about it?”

  It took a bit of coaching to get her outside, where they went over the wire together, then walked about half a mile away.

  “All right. We need to get you out of here. Tonight. There’s a plot to kill you, so we have to move fast. We have a meet at twelve-thirty. Bring your gear with you. Everything you need to blend into society. We’ll be gone at least three months. There are telepaths involved, so don’t think about it. Understood?”

  She looked worried, her face falling.

  “Is this because of… What I did?” She actually felt bad about that, so figured it made sense to kill her over it.

  She was, after all, a wicked and dirty traitor who had sold her people out for mere drugs. Also, an addict, but she’d mainly broken that now that she didn't have to self-medicate as much thanks to the genetic treatment.

  Now she nodded, agreeing with Kerry’s plan as to how to get her to the right place with the needed stuff.

  “Exactly. It isn’t the top people even, so go figure. We’ll handle it. Actually, Turner will. We just have to make sure you don’t buy it first. We get backup, but be careful and for God’s sak
e, don’t let your guard down before we leave.”

  The words meant she had to deal with a conflicted Kerry then, but thankfully the woman was a pro. Of sorts. Not a ninja like Penny was, but smart enough to understand that she was either being helped or set up to die. If so, then she figured that she might be able to take Cin in a fight.

  That was just the truth, as much as it rankled. The woman wasn’t just powerful, but what she had could almost perfectly get around what Cin did. Even the new physical powers she had. Oddly, Cin could take on Penny, but Kerry would lose there. Kerry couldn’t handle the invisible woman alone, needing to know what she was doing at the very least, in order to use her telekinesis. So at least there was balance on the team.

  Like a potentially lethal game of rock, paper, scissors.

  After that, she went to dinner, trying to think about delicious food for a while. That left her with several hours to nap, before her meeting, even. Which was nice, since being up all night sucked too much to put up with on a daily basis.

  Interestingly, Will came and sat down next to her, regarding her with his strange purple eyes.

  Inside of him, he assessed what was going on with her, and then read her field. It was kind of like low powered telepathy, but when the words started to show in his thoughts, he skillfully shut them down. Even if he suddenly understood a good chunk of the plan coming up.

  “So, Tor was asking after you, earlier.”

  “Oh? Well, he is kind of cute. He decided that he desperately needs a bit of Cindy in his life? That might be a little hard on his wife, but I suppose I could do that.”

  Instead of laughing at her, he shrugged.

  “My understanding is that Alyssa Baker would be fine with that. Or with you joining them. Not that I know firsthand. It wasn’t about that, however. He wants you to go there for a while, if you can get away from your work here?”