Infected 7: Ghost Girl Read online

  It was pretty clear to her that both Brian and Director Moore got the idea. The old man knew what everyone on the base could do pretty exactly, since it was part of his job. Brian just suspected that everyone was like he was, and would sacrifice almost anything to help others. It wasn't true, but that kind of thing colored his thoughts all the time anyway.

  Karen hugged her again.

  "I'd love to. Are you going to be really busy right now? We could go and talk... I'm so sorry."

  Dharma let her face go stern, and then crossed her arms.

  "Don't be a ditz, sis. You didn't kill me. I first moded out and jumped off a roof. Angst as a first mode pretty much meant I was dead from the moment I popped. It was only thanks to you, and some of the others here that I lasted as long as I did. Thank God that I didn't go the other route and kill a bunch of other people first. It was a lot closer than you know, at the end. That was part of the reason I did it. Killing myself so that I wouldn't hurt anyone I loved."

  That got Karen to stop talking at least. She seemed subdued, rather than hurt, which was about as much as Becky could ask for. She gave her another hug, just in case Chris got tired of all the drama and dropped her back to being her regular ghost girl self. She half expected that to happen, since Christian didn't suffer fools gladly.

  It took a few seconds, but she looked ahead in her mind, thinking about what was coming. Like a real psychic, nearly. Not all of the fights that Proxy went to were scheduled in advance very far, but she got about ninety percent of them, now. She could even tell a bit about the people involved most of the time. The thing was that Brian had started to work that out too, and really didn't need her anymore.

  For a while he had, but now she was pretty much dead weight. Just a voice in his brain that said annoying things and kept him from banging Lady Glory. That had been her fault. All of it. They'd broken up, Brian and Karen, because Dharma was in his head and couldn't stand the idea of him getting busy with her older sister. If they'd been doing it, then Karen would have never slept with Rob, her team leader. Or, more to the point, the man would have never done her. He'd been lonely, and Kare was hot, so in a weak moment, he'd done it. If he hadn't known for certain that Brian and Karen weren't having sex, he would have backed off. No one would have risked having to fight Proxy, after all. Not if they were sane, which the Team One leader was.

  Just horny, and too willing to use alcohol as an excuse for screwing up. Or at least screwing Karen.

  That wasn't her problem right then, since the man was still off in D.C. watching the President. Torque wasn't a slouch in a fight after all, and could take down most Infected by himself, if only one at a time. He pretty much just slammed them into the ground, but it worked a lot better than most would have thought. Especially when he had secret service backup. Guns weren't a super power, but they could still beat most people, when used by a professional.

  She was starting to feel a bit out of place when Prime looked at her, made a face that was less than pleasant and then, instead of telling her to go away, which was what she sort of expected from him, spoke directly to her. Like she was actually there, and everything.

  "You have a plan for dealing with Wendy McConnell?"

  It was pretty clear that the great looking ego on legs was feeling a little bit uncomfortable. Maybe he was afraid of ghosts? The idea didn't thrill her as much as it would have once. She got it now that her old first mode didn't exist anymore. Prime was just a product of his own drives. Just like she had been. Now she was free of that, and he was still stuck, living in a bubble of his own self-interest.

  She felt a pang of pity for him. She didn't let it show, knowing that he'd have to react negatively to that sort of thing.

  "Yeah, I do have some thoughts on the matter. We need to keep her off guard, not let anything too bad happen and prevent anyone from rising to whatever bait she puts out. You did a good job earlier, with that pig that was trying to get you going. Houser. It might have been a bit better if you hadn't kicked him in the balls, Mary, but at least you got the camera away first. That was good thinking, Director Moore." She giggled, which got Brian to give her a pained look, but then she explained, since she wasn't a total bitch.

  Not anymore. Not for years. Being dead had totally mellowed her out that way.

  "Oh, just by the by, I can't be seen or heard on camera, so be careful when answering me, but I can say whatever I want." Literally too. She could call Prime a child molester all day long, and the buffoon couldn't do anything about it at all.

  As a ghost she couldn't be hurt. Not physically. The rest of it was a bit more negotiable, now that everyone could talk to her. Her feelings could be hurt, just like anyone else.

  Moore looked at Brian, as if were his fault that this new and unholy menace had been released on them, and then sighed. It was a long suffering thing that spoke of more than a little annoyance. That was because of the fact that Brian kept stepping on the other man's dick all the time, and undermining his authority. Worse, the young Asian guy was a genius and had psychic powers. That meant he was almost always right when he did things like that, which had to be a pain in the ass for the old man.

  Most people kind of liked to believe they were in charge of the things that they were the Director of. Kevin had done fine for decades, and then Brian came along and started acting like he should be in co-command. That had to cheese the man off. That he held his tongue as much as he did probably meant the man was a better person than she was. If it had been her having to put up with that kind of thing all the time, she would have failed. Possibly using violence as a solution. At least name calling.

  Brian just shrugged, since this time it wasn't him at all, and he could prove it at need, by pointing at the ghost. He was about to do that in fact, which she could feel happening, when Prime moved in and patted her on the back. It wasn't a loving thing, or a shove. To be fair it was probably meant to be a sign of ownership over her, given who was doing it. Still, it felt nice. People hadn't touched her for a long time. Not on purpose. Now that she could sort of do it, the first person to manage it was the self-centered jerk. The pretty one that she'd always felt a bit too attracted to for her own good.

  He winked at her, making the move seem friendly, and only a bit like he wanted to do her in the hallway. That could be her projecting the idea on him, but it was hard to tell.

  "We should go and see to that then? Do we need to take a walk?" There was a hesitancy to that last bit.

  Everything on the IPB base was watched. The bathrooms had more than one camera, and there were rumors that the contents of the toilets were checked with every flush. The idea was that you didn't do anything there that you didn't want to be known. So if you had something really secret to share, you took a walk outside the fence. Scott didn't really get that she knew about that sort of thing yet. To him it probably seemed like she'd been gone for years and only returned moments before. He was pretty, but not all that smart.

  Still, she thought for a bit before answering. It wasn't a horrible idea. Not needed for the moment, but she could do that with people too now. All on her own. As long as they didn't go too far from Brian.

  "We should be fine. We aren't going to hurt the witch or anything, just control who she sees and interacts with. Can you hold things together well enough with her? She's not your biggest fan, but hasn't gone after you like most of the rest of us either. You're Prime after all." The last bit was tacked on, since an appeal to ego was always a good idea with the man. Presenting a challenge was too, but that part was riskier. He could be made upset by it.

  This time he just nodded.

  "I think so. The woman is a master of pushing buttons and as far as I can tell, is willing to say anything without a sense of conscience. It isn't like I don't have my hot button issues. We can keep most of the others away from her, I think. We shouldn't expose Charlot to her. She'd put her through a wall. In fact, I've lost two televisions to her practicing for that, so far." It was said with a smile, but Beck
y didn't doubt that it was a simple fact for a minute.

  Charlot Chambers was a barracuda of a PR person, and knew how to work the public like almost no one else in the world. She could also project force blasts and was annoyed by almost everyone, all the time. That was her starting place in life, so putting a horrible harpy of a human being into the same space as her was asking for a death.

  Becky didn't know what kind of Infected power Wendy McConnell had, but was willing to guess it was pretty minor. Otherwise she wouldn't hate the Infected nearly as much. Unless her first mode forced her to.

  That was a fun thought, and had been true about certain other people in the past, but the knowledge from inside Brian's subconscious mind informed her that it wasn't the case this time. Wendy was just that big of a pain in the rear. That was all. There was no excuse either. No mental illness, Infection or early childhood abuse to put forth as a reason. She'd simply seen that being a hate monger was a potential career path, and taken it without looking back.

  She got to pass out more hugs, and Karen didn't want to let her go for a long time, but finally pulled back.

  "Tonight? After dinner?" Becky didn't know the plan. Senator Roberts wasn't the kind to try and get Lady Glory into bed, being happily married. They weren't supposed to talk about it, but several of the women on Team One had basically been forced to whore themselves to politicians for their votes in the House and Senate, trying to keep the Hooper act from going through. It was the revised version, true, but that was still pretty much a declaration of war on the Infected by the government. Even Jason, the first team's speedster had slept with a few rather crusty looking old Republican women in order to try and get them to not send them all to the gas chambers.

  So far it was working.

  Not that the law actually spoke of gas chambers specifically. Just internment camps. That, and summary execution for any Infected individual that they didn't feel they could control using normal means. As Brian had pointed out a few times, that was almost everyone they knew. Not that she counted, but if Proxy took a nuke to the head, she was probably gone too.

  It made keeping him alive pretty important to her. It was that or find alternative living arrangements. She wasn't certain if anyone else could hold her like he did, however. Maybe Chris could, but that was an awful lot to ask of a person that didn't really want to be around other people most of the time.

  Karen nodded, and smiled, which caused her face to light up a lot. "That would be good. I should be in my room at about eight?"

  That decided Becky actually managed to escape the scene. It had gone a lot better than she'd figured it would have. No one cried at her at all, or screamed about seeing a ghost. Not yet at least. If she had it right, she should be seen by almost everyone in the place, just like anyone would if they had a body.

  She was tempted just to phase through the floor, heading to the ninth level first, since she sort of wanted to surprise her new team, when she realized that Prime was following along behind her. Like they were walking together. Which, no doubt, made sense.

  "Elevator or stairs?" She was good with either.

  To her surprise the man just looked away.

  "Elevator?" There was an uneasiness to him, that hadn't been there a few moments before. He probably figured that after being dead for years she'd be up for a quickie now. They'd done that before, in the elevator, so it wasn't without precedence. She didn't correct him on it, even if she wasn't all that certain she wanted to do it. Things hadn't ended well between them, and really hadn't been resolved by the time she'd died.

  Part of her deciding to kill herself had been over that rejection. It wasn't fair of her to blame him now, and really, she didn't. Like she'd said to Karen, her mode had pretty much been a death sentence back then. That didn't mean she wanted her first time to be with Prime, now that she was able to feel things again.

  Plus there was the fact that Christian would know all about what she was doing and with who. That meant some of her options would be limited, didn't it? Mark was off the table, even though he was nice. Certainly worth spending time with. Also dating Chris, so asking her to set it up so he could feel her would be a bit too much. Tobin was her son, which only a few people knew, even at the base, so he was probably not getting any cool ghost girl action either. That was too bad, since he was pretty interesting, looking like a tiny frog man like he did. A cute one.

  Like a doll, or possibly a puppet.

  Prime was doable, in more ways than one, but again, she was sort of holding a grudge there. A tiny one, but it was real enough. When someone got done having sex with you for the last time, the first words out of their mouth weren't supposed to be "I'm done with you now, go away." They just weren't.

  Now that her first mode was gone, Becky could tell that it hadn't just been her being too sensitive, which she'd kind of wondered at the time. Back then if her favorite show had been cancelled, she felt like the world was ending, so it had been more likely than not that she'd been overreacting. Now she could tell that it was pretty much just Prime being his normal narcissistic self. Being a good person, she tried to feel that pity for him again. It didn't really come, even as the door to the elevator opened and they both stepped in.

  "Hit nine? Or... Do you want to talk?" She really hoped he wouldn't turn to her, and try to kiss her. It was going to be too tempting and she needed to stay strong.

  The man hit the first button, but didn't stop the elevator.

  "We can talk later? I-" There was pause that went on for about five seconds, until the car started to move. That seemed to shake the golden, and very attractive, man into speaking. "I need to apologize to you. I've been thinking about that. I, you remember... back when we were seeing each other? I shouldn't have done that."

  The door opened about then and they both stepped off into the golden carpeted hallway of the ninth floor. It was the short kind that offices and public buildings had most of the time. Like a hotel. There was the scent of cooking from the dining room, and no one was in sight. Down the hall to the left, Chris was in her office, which Becky felt like a point of warmth in her head. There was a connection there now, that was nearly as strong as the one she had with Brian. The others were all in the room, waiting to eat.

  She stopped and waited, wondering what else the man had to say to her. That he even remembered having slept with her, given his life, was a big thing. That he felt guilt about it, well, that just sounded unlikely. Did the man feel things like that at all? Could he?

  He didn't make her ask what thing he was talking about, clarifying for her rather nicely.

  "All of it. I knew better, or should have. I shouldn't have been unfaithful to Charlot. I know that a lot of people cut me slack on that, because of my first mode, but I'm not a narcissist. I just seem like I am to most people. I have to seem like I'm powerful and in control all the time, which is different. I know right from wrong, and risking you, with all that angst, it was wrong. I've always wondered if what I did to you... Did I make you kill yourself?" There was real fear in the words, and she was really tempted to just let the man off the hook. It didn't matter now. Becky Young was dead and buried, and that was the end.

  Except, here she was, able to exact her revenge.

  "You aren't a narcissist? Really?" It was rude, but she smiled, hoping it wouldn't insult him too much.

  "I know, who can tell? The answer is no. I generally don't bother to tell anyone that. People see me that way for a reason, and arguing that I don't feel like that all the time isn't going to change their minds, is it? I take it that you're dodging my question? That can't be good, can it?" He looked down the hallway to the left, as if noting where the people were. That was probably because he'd heard something. She thought he had hyper senses like that. Better hearing and probably vision, than most people did.

  Dharma focused inside herself, half hoping that Brian would have to go and fight someone, or better yet, save another puppy. That event had come out of the blue. Honestly she was nearly ce
rtain his subconscious mind had set that one up on purpose, just so he'd leave at the right time for impact on the situation they'd been in. There was nothing that way, now. No relief from the awkward conversation at all. Then she tried to think at Christian, to get her to make her vanish, but the telepath ignored her, or pretended to. Since that probably wasn't really possible, it meant something. Like the woman wanted her to actually act like a grown up and talk to the man next to her.

  That sounded like something she'd do. Not that part where she'd force a confrontation, but the one where she'd ignore a plea for help, so that she just wouldn't have to deal with anyone else. They all had their burdens, and that one was the telepath's.

  "It... You heard what I said to Karen? About how my mode pretty much meant that I was doomed? That wasn't wrong." She wanted to leave it there, and was tempted to dash off into the dining room, in hopes that other people being around would at least delay the conversation. That might have worked, but it wasn't exactly the kind of person she wanted to be, so she took a fake breath and then regarded the man closely. He was looking directly into her eyes, not blinking. Not breathing either.

  Tightening her face a bit, she soldiered on. She'd gotten on Brian's back about being a little bitch man too often for her to puss out now.

  "I guess... Well, yeah. I mean, I'm not blaming you, except that you were a prick, but that didn't kill me. I did. It's... was it on my mind around that time? Yes. Any rejection probably would have done it. Not that you should use that as an excuse, but my death wasn't your fault." Except that it sort of had been.

  He got that too, it was clear. It showed in his eyes as he finally took a breath of his own, and looked away.