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

  Just like Cindy had hoped she’d do. Huge flows of packed dirt moved like water as the stout and muscular woman pointed at things. It took her about two minutes to make a pit so deep that once Lester Sterra was in the bottom, no one was going to find him. Probably ever.

  After that, Cindy got them on the road, the vehicle roughly theirs for the next half year or so.

  Without explaining, she patted the large wheel that her head was just popping up over.

  “We can’t afford to speed, or be pulled over, but no one is reporting this beast as being missing. Plus, Penny just saved the state millions of dollars in prosecution fees. Great work, by the way.” Cin wasn’t really trying to prop the other woman up, but there was a certain gratitude that came off of her.

  The kid was a psycho and a killer. She still didn’t want her friends to think poorly of her in particular. As it was she kind of feared that Kerry was going to anyway. Only because Penny didn’t understand just how much the snub-nosed lady hated being killed in the night.

  “Yeah. That was pretty messed up. I kind of liked him, too. He seemed so… Normal.” Kerry was a bit shaken about the sudden death that had taken place, but her feelings were all about anger, not fear. Even with her mode fading like it was, that was probably going to be her default response to anything that put her in danger for the rest of her life.

  Cindy was actually just left feeling kind of pleased over the whole thing. After all, she didn’t really mind the death part of things, and they weren’t going to be caught, so it was all good fun. True, it would have been better if she could have been the one to do it, but Penny had simply out maneuvered her, getting there first. She could, with some work, pick up the next one.

  Except that wasn’t really the plan. They were out to assassinate some specific people. A lot of them. The invisible woman doing that part just made sense. She could get at them almost anywhere they went. If she couldn’t do it, then Kerry would be the backup, making the men and women drop dead at a distance with her mind. It was a bit boring, but Cindy was kind of just there to work out where the people would be and help out by getting all the best data in a timely fashion.

  That meant she had to be content with second hand glory on the kills for the mission. That wasn’t ideal for her, but with her mode gone she could manage it. That part still left her feeling a bit sad from time to time. Still, she’d picked the right person to catch a ride with that night, and it had ended in the killer being dead, which was a nice bonus for her.

  By morning they were parked in a lot about ten miles from the spot where the first kill would be going down. It meant that a certain invisible woman was going to be walking a long distance in her bare feet, but the reason why made sense. Penny Cooper had been trained to not be noticed sneaking away from her kills. The first one was a real sniper operation, which only had one real draw back for her. The girl didn't know what her target looked like.

  Cindy froze on that one, since Gillis was up second for the day. Penny was planning on having a few mental issues due to that being the case. Lowenstein might have as well been a local plumber as far as the woman was concerned. It took half an hour for Cindy to work out how to get a picture to Cooper for the identification of the fellow.

  She found a mental picture of the man, from his wife’s mind, and pushed that into Penny’s skull, so that she’d know the man when she saw him. Not before though. It was far more subconscious than that. The pirate novel in Penny’s head had blank pages toward the back, but no room to work a photo in on the right pages, so it was going to have to work out.

  Interestingly, after the woman stripped and grabbed the case with her weapons in it, she left Kerry and her there in the parking lot, to sleep in Lester the killer’s bed. The man needed to have washed his sheets more often, but other than that it was restful enough. Too hot, by the time that Cooper made the kill, though. Before she got back, Cin drove toward her, and managed to get her on the land boat before the woman had to walk more than two miles. It wasn’t to the plan, but the kid was barefoot on the Hollywood streets. Naked as well, so that she wouldn’t show on camera.

  Not that she didn’t have to avoid that kind of thing anyway. Otherwise the strange floating case with the sniper rifle in it might just call attention to itself.

  As she climbed in, the girl yawned, which was invisible, except for the sound. That they could hear her at all meant the girl was fairly relaxed about the whole thing.

  “One down. I’m not looking forward to Glen. The asshole. I can’t believe… I mean I can, but still, people I know aren’t supposed to be in with secret life ending cults or whatever he’s into. How long before we…” The woman knew the rough plan, but it could change, if the man moved around.

  Except for the fact that he was going to be staying home all day. The man was getting older, and while he was in great health, thanks to some tricks that the Mariah group allowed their lower level people, he didn’t have the energy that he used to. He also didn’t have real security, since no one in the world was all that into killing older men who used to be famous, twenty years before.

  “His place. We should be there in about half an hour. Forty minutes? Something like that. No people will be there, but he does have cameras. Then, we don’t need to torture information from him. I know you don’t really want to kill him.” Cindy was about to try and offer to do it herself, even if that would be harder, since she couldn’t let herself be seen, but Kerry chimed in then, getting why Penny wouldn’t want to do it.

  Not that she really wanted to be a murderer herself.

  “I can do it? Um… I think I can anyway. I know what he looks like, and if I can get within half a mile or so… I mean, a stroke isn’t that hard to make happen. I’ll need to be guided, but Cindy…” She didn’t know if it would work that way at all, but Cin nodded.

  After all, the book over the woman’s head knew the real facts of the matter that way. She could do it from there, even. If the man had to be levitated out a window that wasn’t going to work, since Kerry didn't have that kind of raw power at that sort of distance. She could make little things take place from well off, however.

  Especially if Cindy did her part and described what was needed for her well enough.

  So she nodded.

  “That will work. We need to find someplace to park. Let me…” It took longer to do that part than it did to walk Kerry through her first purposeful murder at a distance.

  They were just on the side of the road, off the beaten path by a good way. About four miles from Glen’s house. It took both of them to get the work done, because Kerry didn’t functionally have a real imagination. That had been beaten out of her as a child by her religious nut-job of a father. Slash husband. The whole thing had been pretty screwed up, once Cindy took a few seconds to figure out what was going on inside the snub-nosed woman.

  So she did that for her, which actually worked, once she had the girl relax and do what she told her to. That wasn’t too hard to make happen, since she was able to reinforce things by forcing printed instructions into her brain. Along with pictures of the man, which Kerry wouldn’t have managed to visualize on her own at all.

  The inside of the motor home was warm in the spring sun, but no one whined about it as Kerry tried to work. She pitted out, sweating hard after a few minutes. That was all about nerves however, not the effort needed.

  Cindy tried her best to sound soothing.

  “Focus on the eyes for a moment. They’re a light blue. Almost ghost like. Like a wolf. Behind them there are networks of veins and neurons. The brain. Now, imagine a knife. One of the ones from the kitchen at the base. The good ones with the metal handles. Right there, resting behind the eyes.” They had to go over that a few times, but when it happened, Cindy could feel the story end.

  So she smiled.

  “Now, move it right to left. Slowly.”

  There was a grunt of effort at that part, but the move wasn’t needed. Glen was already dead. Alone in his living room
, reading a newspaper, like it was still nineteen eighty-seven. The man had the internet, but barely bothered to use it, outside of getting his orders from the secret group. On the good side, he was old enough to have met some people, which meant that Cin had that data now.

  “It’s done. We should leave the area. It will be a few days before anyone finds him.”

  Penny smiled, which no one there could see.

  “Neat! Between the three of us no one is going to be able to stop us. Not easily. So, where to next?”

  Penny had forced herself to relax so that she could be heard by Kerry. On purpose. Making the murder seem like a good thing, to prevent the other woman from feeling horrible about what they were doing. After all, one of the women was not like the others, and that one was the rather innocent T.V. chef.

  The next kill on their list was actually all the way across the country. In Virginia. It was tempting to do less work than that, finding things nearer to where they were, but even doing two kills in the same state in one day meant they could be tracked for a bit.

  So, Cindy drove while Kerry and Penny slept in the back, trading off with Kerry after five in the evening, so that she could get some rest herself. Cellophane offered to drive, but while she could do it, she didn’t have any skin dyes on at the moment, which meant there would appear to be no one at the wheel, which would end up being noticed. Still, Lester had been fastidious about engine care if not washing his bedding, so they made good time.

  Penny had to get them more money a few times, stealing from bank vaults carefully, but that just meant they were able to pay in cash. The reason for the care wasn’t about keeping them unnoticed either, but in making it look like an infected person had used their powers to do the deed, so the bank tellers and managers wouldn’t end up in prison being sodomized and beaten for their fuel money.

  Cindy knew that one, since Pen explained it to them on her third job.

  “Mainly it’s about not being a huge bitch, you know? It takes more time, but…”

  Kerry reached out to pat the other girl on the shoulder, but managed to roughly pet her left breast. Penny chuckled, but didn't mention it. It showed in her story however, so Cin got it as she drove into Virginia. They’d been living off of truck stop food for three days, not stopping for more than an hour at a time. It was mainly filled with grease and too heavy, but it didn’t make them ill, since they were all burning it all off, just riding along.

  Poltergeist, which was Kerry’s code name, was using her powers constantly, even if she didn't really mean to be doing it. That was down to feeling a bit conflicted internally over the Gillis murder. Talking about it wasn’t going to help though, so Cin just made sure she ate enough and didn't say anything about objects being tossed around constantly. Even if she was being hit about twice an hour. It didn’t hurt, or distract her as she drove, so it was fine.

  If a little annoying after a few days.

  Worse, Kerry really didn't have control over it. She blamed Cin for the death, but also didn’t. If it had really been about her, then the woman wouldn’t have had an issue with it at all. Penny noticed it happening, but didn’t get the why of it.

  The woman they needed to kill in Virginia was the number four person at the CIA. Worse, she was an old friend of Marcia Turner’s. Not that it was going to save her life. Even if Turner had known she was on the list to die as a message to Mariah. They’d had each other’s backs in a political sense a few times over the years, but the woman was also dedicated to killing everyone in the IPB if she could pull it off. Way more so than Glen Gillis had ever been. That man had been sent in as a spy at a few points, to collect information. As far as he’d been concerned the kids there were decent enough people, even. It was just the assignment that he’d been given.

  Barb Netterson had ordered Agent Burkes to be kidnapped and replaced.

  The lady died in her office, her own handgun tucked gently into her mouth by a helpful invisible hand. The prints had to be wiped off, but it really did look like a suicide. Then there was a tense two days while the building went into a lockdown and Penny, invisible or not, had to avoid being captured.

  Worse, Kerry started to panic, waiting in the motor home after the first day.

  “What do we do? What do we do?” The refrain was annoying, but Cindy smiled each time and shook her head a little.

  “Relax. They aren’t even close to finding her. They have sensors, but they can’t see what’s on them in her presence.” Which was a bit off, if she were being honest about the real events.

  The CIA had heat sensors in the building and knew that they had someone sneaking around, having reviewed the tapes after the fact. They didn’t know where Penny was, but they knew they had a bogey in the building. In the end, when they nearly had her, and the girl was about to kill a whole lot of agents to make good on her escape, Cindy had an idea.

  More to the point, she actually stole the idea from one of the searchers. It was a good one, though would take Kerry not being a freak about things to make happen. Plus, a drive-by on the building, which was harder to make up a reason for. They could get about a quarter of a mile away, which meant that Kerry was about to have a real issue with her when Cin stopped and parked on the road side.

  “We have about fifteen minutes here. I’m going to walk you through something…”

  The other woman yelled at her.

  “No! I don’t want to kill anyone else! You… You’re evil.” She meant it, but pulled back after a moment, feeling bad about pointing that part out.

  Cindy just nodded, her face bland for the moment.

  “I am. Keep that in mind, in case we have to do anything like that again, all right? I’m the bad one. It’s honestly true. But, this time we just need to break a window and make sure that Penny can get out without breaking a leg. You can do this from here. It won’t be easy, since we need to float a whole Penny, sight unseen. I can help you do it, though. Ready? We don’t have time for a meltdown right now.” She might have been a little bit sharp about the point, but the other woman didn’t seem to notice that part. Not overtly.

  She was just relieved about the lack of planned death at the moment.

  Penny was hiding, but Cin managed to put words in her head that got her to a third story window at the right time. The glass didn’t fall, being settled gently to the floor, stacked in nice triangular sections. Then the girl was lowered from the window. Even if Kerry wouldn’t have been able to do that part without Cindy guiding her.

  She generally had to see what she was doing, after all. It did let her have a way inside the girl’s mind though, as they waited for Penny to come find them.

  “You know, I actually am evil. You get that, right? I mean for real? Even after my first mode has been removed. I’m a psychopath.” She made her voice low and a bit menacing. “You also have to do what I say. So, it really isn’t your fault. When I’m guiding you… Well, you have to do it, so it isn’t really you making the call on things. I know you get that, on some level. You’re being used. It’s the job and you don’t get a choice. The thing there is that it isn’t your fault. It’s not really you doing it, the whole thing is me.” Staring at the girl, she waited, since Penny was almost there, having worked out that she was being broken out of the CIA building, when she’d started floating to the ground instead of dying in the fall.

  When she got in, the tense woman yelled at her.

  “Drive!” It showed in huge letters floating in the air.

  Cindy did it, even though she really couldn’t hear anything. That was part of Cellophane’s super power, after all. When she got worked up enough, no one could see or hear her. She even made people forget seeing things floating through the air if she were moving them around. She still had body heat, for all of that, which had been the issue for the last two days.

  A nearly fatal one, more than once.

  “Got it. Get some rest, Cooper. I’ll get us out of town. Then we need to regroup. I’ve been checking on the effects here.”


  That was true, but Penny was going down, falling asleep after the last days of tension, regardless of what they wanted to do. So Cindy drove, carefully. Not rushing at all. Following every road rule so well that even the police that saw them didn't think twice about it. They were just people driving in a motor home. Not a kill-mobile.

  Even if they really were.

  Kerry managed to take her turn driving, so by the time Penny was awake, they were able to stop for food and got enough to make up for the fact that Pen hadn’t eaten for nearly three days. That looked a bit odd, since Cindy had to get ten burgers for the three of them and lots of fries, but the people in the shop weren’t looking at her like a freak, since there could have been six or more people in the motor home. She acted like it was normal, so the kids working the food counter just filled the order. The young man there was far more concerned about trying to get with the girl that worked the drive through window than he was with what Cindy was getting that day.

  The poor guy didn't stand a chance though. Mainly because the girl he liked was into darker skinned men and he was a light skinned ginger fellow. So, that one just wasn’t happening for him. In a way, he kind of reminded her of her old work buddy, Wallace. The guy was thin, nervous seeming and perfect in a lot of ways. Hard working and conscientious. Which meant they both ended up being used at work by the women around them. It wasn’t fair, but was really pretty common.

  Worse, the drive-through girl didn’t even see that she was using the guy like she was. She figured that they were friends, even as the counter guy did half her work for her each day. As if your buddies did that for you, if they were women.

  The gossip she was picking up, or the insider information, didn’t really make a difference. No one was spitting in the food, so that was all she really cared about for the moment. She paid in cash, which was noticed but not so odd they didn’t see it every day from people traveling, and she took her food away, in three large paper bags. It smelled good, but Cindy was getting ready for a nice salad soon.