Ripped Open (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 2) Read online

  Mainly it was pictures of people, but also other fun things. Like guns, knives, puddles of blood, and animals being tortured. That part wasn’t her favorite. It didn’t bug her as much as not do anything of note for her. Still, when she got out of the thing, Kiko didn’t seem displeased. At least if the clapping and squealing could be believed.

  “That went much faster than I thought it would! You’ll keep changing I think, for a while, but there’s significant neural remodeling already and in all the right places. I mean, it’s clear that you have a lower emotional index than most people still, and probably will, but… Yes… I think you’re going to be fine. No more serial killing in your future. Let me call this in?” She seemed happy about it. Pleased that her pet project was working on women as well as it seemed to be doing.

  Then, being that she hadn’t grown any antlers or anything, so was Cindy.

  The rest of the picture, the stripping of her life away, wasn’t nearly as much fun, of course.

  Chapter two

  Still moist from the shower, where Cindy had taken care to shave all of her hair off, and then spread coconut oil over herself, she sighed. The tan fatigues that she put on were hers, and even had her name on them, over the breast pocket. It wasn’t the poor fashion and style choices that being in the IPB had foisted on her that she didn’t like however. After all, she looked freaking adorable in hers. Tiny, and like someone should be using her in a military porn shoot.

  Probably not that great looking, but they could sell it as real enough, she was willing to bet. Not knowing why she should bother, she put on a tiny bit of makeup, smoothing her skin out, and making her lips a pretty pink color that would almost seem like she just had gloss on. She also had a bright red she could go with, and as far as she knew there were no real rules against that kind of thing for her there. Some of the other women wore that kind of thing every day, for instance.

  Mainly the ones on Team One.

  She thought about that part in particular, since a knock came at her door as she finished tying her hair back in a single tail. It was easier that way, and while she could do more complex things with her blonde locks, it wasn’t even noon yet. That meant she was up for work.

  Focusing, she tried to read who was on the other side of her door. It was a book that she’d read parts of before. One that, amusingly, seemed more like a trashy romance novel than anything else. There were pictures though, in the upper right hand side of the pages. Several of which showed a fairly realistic version of Cindy in different combinations with the woman that was standing there.

  Georgia. The Team One member known as Pixie.

  When she opened the door, there was a rather winning smile on the woman’s face, as she got ready to start her spiel. After all, the lady had needs, and given the last few days of her life, she really hadn’t been able to have them met. Which was forcing her to spray lust, and some rather pleasant tingly feelings, directly at the new person.

  “Cindy? We haven’t really met yet, I’m Georgia?”

  That was true enough. Cin had read her story, to make sure she wasn’t a replacement, or one of the people conspiring against the IPB. Not that she really cared that much, herself, except that she was kind of being kept alive by the current power structure, and there was no way that the people that wanted to overthrow Marcia Turner and her minions would let even a reformed serial murderer go free. Most wouldn’t, but people afraid of the Infected definitely couldn’t see that she was wonderfully valuable, now that she wasn’t going to kill every man she met.

  Not that she’d ever done that. It had always been about a select few for her.

  “And Georgia needs to get her groove on, and rather quickly?” It was right there, the idea floating over her head. In fact, the woman was about to try and go full on Pixie seductive on her, if she wasn’t willing to put out. Basically that was rape, but it was also a thing the other lady couldn’t help but do, if she weren’t being taken care of well enough. Which for some reason, she hadn’t been.

  Blinking, the other woman, who was a bit taller and heavier than Cindy was, even if most would have counted them both as tiny, nodded.

  “Right. Is that…” She came in, her hand lingering on Cin’s shoulder in a way that actually felt really nice. It wasn’t even backed with the feel good power of the super being, just contact. A thing that had been in short supply for a while. At least the friendly kind.

  Cindy shook her head, and sighed.

  “In an emergency, I can put out. Otherwise, I kind of need to get with my boyfriend on that. We could get him in for a threesome. Or could, if he and I had done anything yet. Brian?”

  The woman made a tight face then and sighed.

  “Fudge then. I can’t cockblock him. He also won’t let me do him, for some reason. Probably the whole slut thing.”

  From the words over her head, she really seemed to think that it was that. Brian Yi was a good guy, but a bit shy about some things, which probably meant very moral. In Pixie’s world that often meant that people were judging her for being what she was. After all, she pretty much had to have all the sex, and if people were against that, they tended to blame her for being less than they were in their own minds.

  Cindy checked with Brian’s story though, the computer screen coming up quickly, since she really did pull the data up several times a day. After all, the man was the one tasked to kill her, if she messed up and killed the wrong people. He had been at least. At the moment he was busy however, doing paperwork that the fed’s needed, about a certain super-soldier that had been put down using a Death Warrant. On the good side for Georgia, he really didn’t have anything against her. Not even for sex.

  She grinned and shook her head at the smaller woman in tan.

  “Nope. Brian just doesn’t want to use you. Since you can’t help but get turned on, he kind of sees it as you not getting a choice in things. A first mode thing, but not a moral judgement. Not even one about not wanting you… He really does. So put that out of your head. I’m pretty sure we can set up that threesome, later. If I seal the relationship deal.” She stopped, and held up a hand. It was her left, and the other woman just stood there, feeling a bit baffled by the sudden move.

  Then, over the course of a minute, she worked through about twenty different tales, bringing them up and looking at the indexes in the air. Reading about who was both available at the moment and kind of wanted to get with Georgia in particular.

  “Say… Do you know Dave? From Team Two?”

  Georgia perked up then, and nodded. Her nipples firming up. It wasn’t a thing that could be seen visibly thanks to the heavy military blouse she had on, but the pictures in the air were illustrative that way. It really was basically like the woman lived in a porn novel. One with her as the star of the thing.

  “He’s yummy. I haven’t been able to get him to be interested yet though. I gave up a few years back, figuring he just wasn’t into me.”

  Shaking her head, Cin snorted a little bit.

  “He’s down on himself, for being blue. I noticed that part before. It’s stupid, but there we go, right? So… You have a phone? They haven’t given me one for some reason. Probably because they thought I was going to use it as part of my clever escape plan. Now that I’ve been fixed, and my first mode is going away, that could change, but…” Given who Marcia Turner was, that probably wouldn’t be happening any time soon.

  The woman was paranoid, after all.

  More exactly, her own first mode forced her to be cautious about everything. All the time. In the last months people really had been out to get her, and her friends as well, so her natural inclination had sparked into pretty close to full blown hyper-alertness. Everything seemed a danger to her now. That meant a certain ex-serial killer probably wasn’t going to be given all the computer codes that day. Not that she didn’t have them already.

  A small black device was pulled from a trouser pocket, and passed over quickly enough. Then all Cindy had to do was find the person c
losest to Dave, who was in the recreation area, that had one as well. The Team Two member didn’t rate a phone either, it seemed. The whole operation took about ten seconds, and interestingly enough Karen Young’s number was the second one on the menu, so she didn’t even have to get the actual numbers or anything. It was…

  Due to Georgia and her getting it on about three or four times a week. They used to, at any rate. Then the press had decided that Lady Glory and Pixie might be a lesbian couple. Which the higher ups at the IPB had decided wasn’t wholesome enough for public airing, even if they didn’t care who was hooking up otherwise. Which explained why Georgia hadn’t just called the number herself, to get her needs met.

  “Hello? This is Karen Young, how may I help you?” The words sounded professional, and the ones in the woman’s book, that floated in front of Cin at the moment, spoke of knowing that it was Pixie, but also not wanting to give anything away, due to orders.

  She was still kind of in hot water after all, for being a drunk. Not that she’d been allowed to have anything in a long time. She still wanted to though. Enough that her mind tried to spin ways for that to happen. Most of them involved stealth moves and cat-burglary. Unfortunately, the woman didn’t know who had things like that on the base, and she wasn’t allowed to leave without someone to watch her.

  “Hi, Karen! This is Cindy Mableton? I’m using Pixie’s phone. Um… Well, basically, I can’t do her right now, for reasons, so wanted to set up Dave and her?” That could have been dangerous to say, but Karen was so filled with compassion, for pretty much everyone in the world, that she seemed nearly thrilled with the idea. Even if Georgia was basically her secret girlfriend.

  That hadn’t really been what Cindy would have expected, but as soon as the words came up, it was all right there, in front of her. Open minded and willing to do anything she needed to help both Dave and Georgia score. They both needed it after all. She was even willing to take part, if they could get away with it. People tended to be a bit standoffish with her, due to the fact that anyone that wanted to have sex with her could pretty much get some, just for asking.

  So no one did. That meant her world was kind of boring that way, most of the time. Not that she was a sex fiend or anything, but sitting on a sofa and watching soap operas for months on end was getting to her. Honestly, the woman needed to be working, but everyone had kind of written her off that way, over the last six months or so. Karen wasn’t considered a good risk due to her problems.

  Her voice was still pleased.

  “Great! Here, let me… Dave? Cindy Mableton for you?”

  That got sounds to come, as she watched Pixie, who seemed hopeful, and had neatly turned her mind toward doing things with the all blue guy. Along with Karen, Brian, and Cindy. Doug and Tobin entered the complicated scene about then too, as the woman began to breathe a bit harder.

  Finally, whole seconds later, a cool sounding mechanical voice, that was like three people talking at one time if not more, announced himself.

  “Dave here. What’s up?” He was being almost professional, because he was nearly certain that the pretty new blonde woman wasn’t calling him up for a date.

  That was him being kind though, since Cindy knew that she was closer to average than anything else. If it wasn’t for the fact that she worked out and her power burned a lot of calories she might not have had even that going for her.

  “Hi Dave. I… Okay, this is going to sound weird, but it’s real, and time sensitive… Can I get you to have sex with Georgia in the next ten minutes? She’s been trying to get you to be interested in her for a long time, but you’ve been missing the fact that something like half the women on the base think you’re hot. If not, then I have to do her myself, which is doable, but there are reasons I shouldn’t right now. So, are you in? I know this is short notice.”

  The man went still for a few seconds, hopeful words coming into his story, with a flood of doubt following along after that. Still, he was polite, if lonely, so didn’t suggest she was lying to him. He really figured that it was about some kind of secret meeting that Cindy wanted to put together, and this being a way of getting him there without saying the words on a line that could be monitored. Still, that beat sitting and watching Lady Glory turn into a shadow of her former self. That part was sad for him, since she used to seem so perky and fun all the time.

  Now she just kind of sat, and was letting herself go a bit. Getting slightly plump, due to inactivity.

  “I guess? Where do we meet?”

  That was actually going to be his room, since it was closer at the moment to where everyone was. She got his room number, which was one floor down from her own, interestingly enough.

  “Meet at your place? Run? Also, tell Karen to report to the front office. Now. Um, Dave?” She waited, the man more convinced suddenly that it was about something other than getting lucky.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m kind of getting what you’re thinking and… It isn’t that. It’s the sex thing. I also wasn’t kidding about the rest of it. You sort of need to pull out of the low self-esteem thing now. You’re missing out on a lot of fun, and it makes for a boring read. Tell Karen to meet me at the head office in ten.”

  That was enough time for her to get there herself, so she hung up the phone and handed it back.

  “This building, floor two, room seven. He’s coming directly. It’s been a while for him, so cut him some slack that way?”

  Georgia nodded, and practically ran out of the place, which got Cindy to do the same thing. With her it wasn’t quite as eager, of course. Then, she was playing busybody, in order to try and get in good with Marcia. Nothing else. Karen was a possible asset, and as she walked, the whole story came out. The Director and the former Olympic gymnast were best friends. Oddly enough the third member of their little group was actually Charlot Chambers, the bitchy PR woman.

  When she got to the tan one story building, which had a glass door on it, like a business might, there was a rather dowdy looking redhead waiting for her. That probably wasn’t actually fair, but the gray sweats, lack of makeup, and extra ten pounds weren’t really helping her that way. She wasn’t exactly in a depression or anything though, her first mode not allowing her to put that kind of weight on those around her. She even smiled, and meant it, when Cindy walked up.

  “You’re out of uniform.” She smiled though, and put her hand out to shake, pretending to be professional. Women didn’t normally do that, but Karen used to be the political front person for the organization, so knew to do it back. She even grimaced cutely at what Cindy had said.

  “I didn’t know I was going to be working…” Because, simply enough, she hadn’t been for a long time.

  “From now on, you work here, five days a week. Come on.” The next bit was a little dangerous, even though the basic plan was one that Marcia had come up with herself.

  She might not take well to Cindy setting it up. If she wasn’t useful however, then the hassle of having her around might not be worth it to the head lady, so she had to try.

  To that end she waved for Karen to follow her, in a fashion that would have had Cin arguing with someone if they tried to treat her in such a high handed fashion, and waved at Wren. She was running the front desk that day. Mainly answering phones, but she wasn’t being hidden in the back, even if the young girl did look like a blue bird. A human one. Two arms, two legs, yellow beak and a covering of rather pretty blue feathers.

  They walked right past her, into Turner’s office, with Karen holding her arms across her stomach a little bit. Like she was in trouble. Cindy smiled as she tapped on the frame of the open door, which got Marcia to look up, a phone pressed to her ear. She waved them both in however, speaking to whoever was on the other end.

  Which, when she read up on it, turned out to be the head of the FBI.

  “We might be able to help with that, actually. Can you send the name of the person you want looked into to us? I have just the person for that. She’s new, but d
oes good work.”

  It took cross referencing, but the man on the phone, Rich Calls, wanted one of his own undercover people looked into as soon as possible and didn’t know if he could trust his own people. The man in question was Lester Blamly. The man had been acting funny enough that it seemed like he was going native on them.

  She nodded.

  “Got it… He’s… Actually, he’s being watched too closely to get all the information to the FBI right now. I can pass that along for him from here, if you want? He hasn’t turned or anything, communications are just way too risky. There’s a lot of good stuff here though. Human trafficking data, mainly. A shipment is coming in from the Eastern Block at ten in the evening in two days. Let me… I have all of it. The port data and even the shipping container number.” She really did, which got the phone passed over to her, so that the head man of the entire FBI could take down data that was probably fifteen steps below his pay grade.

  “Perfect. I can get with you on this? I know that the inter-departmental program is new… Do I need to go through Director Turner each time?”

  She nearly nodded, but then shook her head and locked eyes with Turner. Those were a nice warm brown color.

  “No. Our liaison for that will be Karen Young. Let me get you her direct line. Day or night, you can call on her.” She passed the woman’s direct cell number, which got her to stand a bit straighter. As if she might not be being brought in for a dressing down.

  Marcia glared at her, but nodded anyway, and took the phone back, saying her goodbyes rather cheerfully. When she was done, she looked up at Cindy.

  “You have a plan?”

  That got a nod.

  “The one that you came up with. Having Karen get back to work again, with a watcher on her for meals while on meet and greets. I’m just dumping the FBI on her like this because she’s the only person I know with a phone here that has time. You know, you should get Dave from Team Two on this with her. He’s relatable enough, and has a great voice over the phone. I like it anyway. Karen?” She turned a bit, to see the woman light up a little.