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

  She didn’t stand to gawk, like the other fifty or sixty people there were doing, just waving as she moved into the building. That was filthy, but not that badly beat up, since it was far enough away from the scene of the battle that it had survived unscathed, more or less. No matter what it had looked like to anyone else, it had been that, in truth. A battle of magic and strange technology, right there on their doorstep. A thing that was so incredible that the fact anyone had lived through it was largely due to the concept that neither Tor was really a killer. Not in their hearts.

  Interestingly, her new, rather nifty, space craft was sitting there still. No one had moved it, which probably meant that the alien guys at least figured that her claim on it was as valid as anything. She moved over to it quickly, trying not to smile. Someone at least needed to look inside. There could be anything inside of it, after all. Some kind of magical nuclear bomb, for instance. The thought got her to wince, since she’d run off to get food, instead of dealing with that part of things. No one else had thought to check on it either, not even Marcia.

  When she got to it, there was no door, which was interesting, but didn't get her inside the thing.

  “Great, so I own a space ship I can’t use?” That seemed pretty likely, once she bothered to think about the idea. Not that she was going to really get to keep it. Touching the side, it felt neutral. Not warm, not cool. Just air temperature. That was cold now since it was winter, but she wasn’t feeling it, herself. Standing there got Tor to wave, stopping his work for a bit. Instead of calling back, she looked at what his story was trying to tell her. That part was interesting, since it was basically a set of instructions on how to make the magical thing work. Good ones, as far as she could tell. After looking at it all for a while, she nodded, waved for him to get back to work, then tried to apply it.

  Touching the purple craft, which had a metallic sheen to it, she imagined what she wanted. For a door to come into being. It wasn’t impossible, but took enough effort that she wasn’t afraid of doing it by accident. That would be a disaster in a craft that flew, she didn’t doubt. Getting in, she looked first, taking two steps up before reaching the main cabin. She really had expected to find a bomb, or the magical equivalent. That or for the thing to be empty. Both kind of made sense.

  Even finding pie there, while unlikely, seemed kind of like it might be possible for some reason.

  Instead, she heard something from the back, which was familiar, if very different than she would have thought. It was a soft whimpering. Not like a child. That was nice, at least. Cindy was kind of cold inside, but had been developing a fondness for puppies and children. It was more than a little sickening, but probably couldn’t be helped now that her first mode was gone.

  Behind a row of seats, she found a girl however. One that didn’t look old at all. Sixteen possibly. She was short, had black hair and looked shell shocked.

  Then, it was kind of clear that her older brother had just died. Rather horribly, as it turned out.

  “Taman? Not the one I know, but…” The woman looked up, wondering if she needed to have a weapon out. These people had killed Tor. It was written over her head clearly.

  Then, she was intelligent enough to see past her own pain at that. Tor, her own brother, her kind, helpful and often wonderful hero of a brother, had tried to kill these people. He’d gone to that strange world, which had never wronged him in the slightest, to murder people, at the orders of a shadowy group that he’d refused to tell her about. She’d gotten a bit from him, but not enough to honestly understand why he was doing the evil things that he’d been planning.

  Then Tor, the one that she thought of as hers, stopped being. She’d felt that, even through the shield of the craft she was in. Leaving her stranded there, in a world that she didn’t belong in at all. A place that she didn’t know why she was at. Possibly to help her brother kill the people there, but he had to have understood that she wouldn’t do that.

  It still hurt, her brother being dead. The very thought of it sent a chill through her. Still, her head came up at her name, the rest of the sentence being in English. She’d learned that one, to deal with the others who had come. People from other worlds. Ones that had wanted them to aid them in ending everything, to save everyone in existence from life in an eternal void.

  The words over her head were very clear on that point.

  That was what they figured would be happening at the end of all things. Except that they didn’t have proof. Just belief. A religion of sorts, that said that no one ever died, in their own universe. People would see others die, but they’d live on, to their own perspective. Eventually ending up the only thing in their own private universal void. Forever.

  Except that, to this particular Taman Baker, that didn't seem likely at all.

  Most of the people back home that knew anything about it felt the same way, but her brother, Tor, had bought into it for some reason. It didn’t make sense, given that he was normally smart enough to see that it probably wasn’t true, and if it was, murdering everyone wasn’t the best way to stop it from happening. Especially once you considered the fact that there was no proof at all. Not even circumstantial evidence.

  Still, even with tears in her eyes, having just been making miserable noises, her story told of how she needed to rally. To face her death nobly. After all, her brother had tried to attack these people. To them it was going to look like she was in on it with him, no matter what she told them. The best she could expect was an execution that wasn’t too painful. Even resisting them too harshly wasn’t going to be allowed, since she was, more or less, guilty by association.

  She didn’t even know why Tor had brought her along.

  Cindy nodded.

  “We should go out? Would it be all right if you took your shield off and any weapons you have? We aren’t planning you harm, but… Well, you get the idea, prisoner and all that?” She spoke slowly and softly.

  Disappointed, since she doubted that she was going to get the space ship now. It was really nice inside and could be made both huge and into what was essentially a mobile city. Just by thinking at it. It had been in the instructions that Pie Tor the Good had provided to her.

  The girl stood, but instead of fighting, took off all her amulets, except one. That was her clothing, but also had a communications device on the same thing. Not one meant for the place she was in. Reading up on it, Cin nodded again.

  “Keep the clothing and the speaking device. You’re too cute to walk around nude. No one will get any work done if you do that.” She was kidding, and didn’t feel bad about it, even when the woman simply nodded, not smiling.

  Then, she was the one that had just suffered a big loss that day. Thankfully, since if either man had just been waving the explosive weapons around, a lot of people would be dead at that moment. Everything in her hand was passed over instantly.

  “I’m your prisoner.” Then she stopped speaking.

  Cindy just waved and walked out, stopping to seal the door as they left, taking the time to read more about the woman she was with. In a lot of ways, more so than the two Tor’s this was the same woman that she’d met before. Only not from the same reality.

  Which, nicely enough, wasn’t her problem.

  Walking back to where everyone was standing nearly got the small girl killed. Tor moved quickly, going for a weapon, as Will froze, then started to do the same thing. To both of them, if you saw someone you knew, but in the wrong place, you killed them. If you could. That was why Willum had nearly died, on their first meeting. Though this was more reflexive. Tor and Dareg had planned that one a good bit more than these men did now.

  Cindy waved at them, and yelled.

  “She’s one of us! On our side. Her brother wasn’t, but that isn’t her issue. Back off. Her reality isn’t against us, just a handful of religious weirdoes that are making some mistakes.” She was ready to fight about it, as were the crowd standing there, as soon as the words were said. After all, most of them there
thought of Taman as an incredible being if not a personal friend. It seemed almost like they bristled a bit, but at least twenty people were ready to unleash energy based powers at Tor if he didn’t stop going for a weapon.

  Which he did, not even knowing about that as a possibility, based only on the fact that Cindy had told him to. The woman who had almost died not two hours before, saving his life. His hands moved away from his sides suddenly, which got Will to do the same.

  The very tall man nodded.

  “How? Isn’t she from a world that believes that everything needs to be destroyed?”

  That one wasn’t too hard to pick up, working things out rapidly enough that there was barely a pause in speaking.

  “Well, her brother, Idiot-Tor, thought that. Why would she, in particular? I mean, your Tam isn’t totally certain that the whole thing is actually wrong. She just isn’t willing to sacrifice all her friends and family for it. This one thinks it’s wrong and also isn’t willing to do that. It isn’t hard to understand. Most people in all worlds probably don’t buy into the idea. It’s kind of dumb, after all.”

  The big, thin and rather fit looking man nodded then.

  “Oh. I’m sorry then. Your brother…” He actually was sad about it, even while knowing that he’d do it again if the situation came up. The other him was intent on killing people. It meant that he’d needed to be stopped. It might happen again at any moment.

  Which didn’t mean he couldn’t feel horrible for this woman who was, for all intents and purposes, his youngest sister.

  Taman moved in, going for a hug. That was strange, but to her this man was her brother, even if he wasn’t. She didn’t even try to stab him or use her own magic to do anything other than read that this Tor was the same. Except not trying to kill people. It was hard for her, but she didn’t let go for a bit. Not until Marcia came over to them. She’d been in the front office, fielding phone calls. It was due to the alien incursion, naturally.

  “What’s this? Did Taman come in because of the attack?”

  The answer had to be handled correctly, being that it was Marcia Turner there.

  “She’s on our side. But the other Taman. From my new ship? Again, on our side. I read her pretty carefully. Most people from her world aren’t in on the whole death cult thing. We can get Chris to redo it, if you want?” Marcia wasn’t always totally trusting of Cin, she knew.

  Turner paused, thought about killing the threat, then nodded.

  “Do it. This stuff… I’d whine about it, but it’s always been like this. I swear, I’m going to retire one of these days.”

  Cin got that one. The whole thing was enough of a mess that she didn’t really want to bother with it either. Then she jogged away, to call Christian Poures.

  The telepath was reachable by email, phone or mind, but she hated that last one and only kind of disliked the phone. She didn’t check her email all the time though, so the woman would just have to work on her issues that way, for the time being.

  Chapter two

  “Hey, Mableton, get in here.” The voice was that of her boss, so even if she was trying to work on the Anthony Levitt problem, she got up.

  After all, if she pissed off Turner, heads would roll. Odds were that if she didn’t take out the enemy herself, whoever they were, someone else would manage it. Probably Proxy. The guy was good at uncovering things and fighting them. All by himself. That meant she needed to move her behind and hop when Marcia called for her to do things, even if it wasn’t what she was working on at the moment. It was annoying to her, but had to be done.

  The big issue there, to her mind, was that Tony had tried to shoot her in the head. Sure, she was all tough now, and had just soaked the thing like it had been a love tap from a five-year-old, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t wanted her dead. It was kind of personal to her, now. She was feeling all petty that way.

  “Coming.” Her voice was a bit subdued, mainly due to the fact that she was being distracted while she tried to work on her own project.

  It didn’t shock her to find that the problem was one surrounding Pie-Tor and the Not-So-Evil Taman. They were both inside of Marcia’s office at least, along with Will and for some reason, Bridget Chambers. Instead of asking about what was up, she just read things from each person, doing it quickly. Interestingly, all the data came to her in English, which always happened, even if the other person didn’t know that language and she had no clue about theirs. It was kind of handy, as far as translating went.

  The situation wasn’t that hard of one, for once. Other Tam Baker wanted to go home, and was grieving the loss of her brother, even while sitting with his exact double. Logically Cindy understood the idea, though honestly she wouldn’t have been thinking that way herself. The big problem there was that the other guy hadn’t been some kind of evil monster. Other than that single poor decision, the one that led him to want everything be destroyed, the man had been the same as the one next to her. Even down to how they’d brushed their teeth that morning and what they’d eaten. Bite for bite, as far as she could tell.

  Kind, gentle and generally more focused on helping people and pie delivery than anything as grandiose and insane as the destruction of everything. The big thing at the moment was that Marcia wasn’t all that certain about letting the new girl leave. She was buying that she wasn’t in on trying to kill them all, mainly. As much as Turner could be. It was just that she could be a huge asset to them, being capable of fixing first modes using magic.

  It was tempting to hold her prisoner and use her as slave labor.

  Cindy nodded after a bit, then interrupted the chatter going on, which was actually very polite, all things considered.

  “We can’t make her stay. For one thing, she has obligations to many people in her own world. Soam?” She glanced at Taman, but Will shook his head.

  His voice was pleasant however.

  “So-am. You’re the Ancient of that place, like our Taman?”

  That got a nod, but no one explained what that meant, even as Marcia looked at the aliens suspiciously.

  Cindy had to work that out, but the basic idea wasn’t that hard.

  “Um… She’s the ruler of a continent, more or less. South America. The hidden hand behind the throne is also possible, but that doesn’t seem to be her current plan there. Really… It’s probably the best rule of a place I’ve ever heard of. All she does is try to make life better for everyone in her area of control. So, that. We can’t kidnap her, or it will hurt millions of other people. Ones that actually need her. They had a…” The idea kind of baffled her for a bit, seeming so very out of place.

  Interestingly, it was a thing in all three books. That meant it had happened, virtually identically, in both worlds. After a minute or two, everyone staring at her and not speaking, she nodded.

  “Right. They had a nuclear attack. Several of them really. Like, bombs as we know them, not some kind of magical thing. That seems strange, but they all know it. That event took place in both realities.”

  The three sitting in front of the desk nodded. They all looked very similar, she realized. Too pretty and healthy, really. None of them had a single zit even. No scars, either. That seemed wrong, given the number of fights that Tor had been in.

  Then, Marcia Turner kind of had that going on as well. For that matter, so did Cin. Bridget did too, but had cute and decorative freckles to mix things up, unlike the rest of them.

  Shaking her head, she grinned.

  It was Will who took over then.

  “Yeah. We were attacked by a group of insane Ancients. Immortals that had lived thousands of years. They used clones of themselves to build an army and old technologies to try and destabilize the climate of the world, figuring they could hold out in underground bunkers. Timon made a magical plague that only killed the very long lived, which ended that. They still nearly did it. Kill the rest of us? We had a decade of storms that were… Vast. Crops couldn’t get be gotten in for a long time. If it wasn’t for Tim’s f
ood making devices we would have all died of starvation. The entire world.” The purple haired boy looked at the others and then shrugged. It was a very normal looking thing, though it was clear he was doing it on purpose, to try and fit into the world he was in.

  Tor nodded, smiling. It was a bit grim, since he didn't want to make the woman next to him feel too poorly about the loss of her sibling.

  “That makes me sound a bit lazy, doesn’t it? Tim did great work on both of those. He was only about fourteen when he came up with the things. Thirteen actually. It was about a year after he’d gotten married.” Then he looked at Marcia and winked. “To you, basically. Patricia.”

  The Director sighed then, and shook her head a bit. It was a subtle thing, for her.

  “All right. You can go home, I guess. I hate the idea of leaving someone in a position to become an enemy, but if you aren’t one, then holding you won’t help with that. Baker, you can get her home?”

  Cindy interjected instantly, before Tor could agree.

  “She means Will. That’s his job.”

  The boy nodded, his face pleasant enough about the whole thing.

  “Let’s do that? It won’t be hard for me. Say… Is the Willum Baker in your world in on the whole end everything project or not?”

  That was directed at Taman, who shook her head a bit.

  “I don’t know a Willum Baker at all there. Who’s child are you?”

  “Taler? He’s your older brother.” That was said with certainty, but got a puzzled look. She honestly didn’t know who his children were, so it was possible that the other boy was back at home, as far as she knew.

  Interestingly, Will figured that the kid was dead. That had seemed to be the pattern so far. Other than him, all of the other versions were on the other side or just gone. Also, when he’d looked into the fractal pattern of everything, the realities on either side of him, going into the tens of thousands, they were empty. Of him, not everything else. He was just checking in this case. If the other him was an agent or about to become one, it might be possible for him to use that to find out what worlds the attacks were coming from.