Hush (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 1) (15 page)

Having a few minutes left, she
checked on Proxy. She expected him to be worried, focused on the new threat to
a level that he didn't even notice what was going on around him. Instead he was
all
about trying to manage the people around him. Bridget's mother,
Charlotte, was Infected too, and her first mode made her grumpy and angry
seeming all the time.

Strangely enough, the woman was
trying to be on her best behavior, even if there were still issues there. Her
husband, Scott, was on his last nerve already. That was mainly due to the fact
that he'd invited Mary. His biological mother, to attend. The woman could
teleport, so had her own transportation, but she'd also managed to break
Brian's heart pretty well, having conned him into thinking they were in love
for over thirty years.

She'd been working with Braid,
who after clarifying that she was Devorah Timberland, Cin kind of understood.
The woman had been brought to their version of Earth solely to influence Proxy,
and hurt him at the right time. He'd let a lot of the pain go at the end, which
had saved them all, but Mary had known what she was doing, the whole time.

So things might not be going that
smoothly as far as the evening went.

On the great side, Brian had a
date for the evening, so he could look like he was moving on, and was strong,
not being eaten by the memories of a life that could have been. Leaving, she
realized that polite people brought things when invited to special meals.
Nothing would be left open she didn't think, so she grabbed a bottle of
mid-priced white wine from her stash of such things, and headed out.

Not drinking at the moment made
sense to her, but it was the thought that counted.

The trip there went quickly, the
roads being nearly empty. Keeping an eye out was wasted effort, though when she
found the place, which was a nicely kept, if modest home. The yard was
carefully trimmed, and the front walk was clean of all leaves, and even dust.
There was no one watching them that she could see, but she looked around before
going in, just in case. If there was observation, it was being done from a
distance.

Seeing a man down the street, a
good ways off, Cindy tried to focus on him, and managed to bring his words,
which looked like a legal notebook to her mind, close enough to herself to
read. He was going to visit his parents. More, he was a pacifist, who didn't
seem to have a problem with anyone in the world.

There was no one else on the
front side of the building, so she approached the door. Carefully. Like a
ninja. One that was boldly walking up the front walk, holding a bottle of wine,
and dressed up in bright blue. It was a pant's suit, and looked kind of funny,
but had pockets, which was rare for that kind of thing. That way she wouldn't
have to lug a purse around all day.

Knocking on the door she didn't
know what to expect inside, and was about to check when the door burst open,
showing a familiar face. She didn't know him, but everyone could recognize
Prime.

The man saw her, and took her in,
appraising her looks instantly, and rather sternly, reminded himself that even
if the woman was cute enough, he was married, and that meant something.

"Hello?" He wasn't dull
witted, and took in the bottle in her hand, as well as the fact that she wasn't
in jeans and a t-shirt. "May I help you?"

His words flowed well, showing
his concern that she was in the wrong place. Worse, if she weren't ready to see
him, she could respond poorly. Either with fear, or with hero worship. That was
rarer than the bad responses, but did happen to him.

She nodded, seeing how that would
work. He was exotic, with his gold skin, that was metallic close up, if gently,
and lavender eyes. His clothing was nicely casual however, being comfortable
looking tan slacks, loafers and a pull over long sleeved shirt. Dressy, but not
overdone.

Meaning she'd nailed the
approximate style of dress for the day.

"Hi! I'm Cindy. Brian's
date?"

That Proxy had a date was a
surprise to the man, since no one had mentioned her it seemed. Not to him. On
the good side that
didn't
seem like a bad thing. He hadn't called Mary
and invited her in order to fix the two people back up. That one, to his mind,
wasn't going to happen. The bridge had been too firmly burnt. His goal was all
about patching things up, since they were his parents, and he didn't really
want to have to eventually avoid either of them for the rest of his life to
make the other person happy.

That an ambush wasn't exactly the
best way to do that
had
occurred to him. There just hadn't been a better
way to get things done, so he was taking his chance.

He beamed at her however, a large
hand coming out, to shake. To his mind that was a risky thing to try with a
woman. Half of them would fail at it, and then feel awkward, and the other have
would take it as him coming on to them.

Cindy just transferred the bottle
to her left hand and tried for a nice firm shake, which was hard, given how
vast the man's hand was. Hard, too. More so than a man that worked out would
have. Then, he was Prime. A class five Infected, which meant he was probably
special in a lot of very deadly ways.

That didn't keep him from being
impressed with her simple ability to clasp hands.

"Oh? Wonderful! Come in...
Come in... Let me find Brian. I think he's helping with the food?"

She got two steps into the room
when Prime suddenly moved to the left, pushed out of the way with a gentle
looking nudge from Bridget. That the physics of that shouldn't have worked
didn't stop it from happening. Then she was half tackled, the seventy odd
pounds of girl enveloping her in a hug.

"Cin! That's a cool name, by
the way. Come on. I saved a space on the sofa. We're watching the Lions playing
footy-run against the Timberwolves. I'm betting on the Lions. I mean, who would
win in a fight, right?"

There was a chuckle from behind
them, as Prime recovered his footing. He was about to admonish the girl, for
grabbing someone she didn't know, but he got that Cindy wasn't responding too
poorly. People could, which might well ruin the day for everyone.

 She stumbled along, and smiled.

"Don't be silly, Bridget.
Footy-run would be soccer. This is
tackle-slam
." The words were
deadpanned, and got Bridget to stop dead in space, to look at her.

"Duh. I should have thought
of that! We have snacks. This way!"

Going that way took her to a
nicely kept, nearly immaculate, living room. The carpet was white, which showed
either great trust in Bridget's eating habits, or that someone with OCD lived
there. The furnishings were tan, but light as well. There were windows in the
room, including a big one that she looked out of, scanning the environment, in
case an attack was coming.

Bridget looked that way, and got
a bowl of mixed chips. They were cheese themed, and the small wooden thing was
passed to Cin, instead of eaten instantly. There was also a relish platter,
with olives, stuffed celery and carrot sticks. Deviled eggs too, which were odd
to see, but also not offered to her for some reason.

The tiny girl, who had a decently
pointed face shook her head.

"Nothing so far, outside.
I've been running a perimeter every hour or so."

The words seemed to summon
several people, who entered the room nearly all at once. From the pictures
she'd seen before, it was Brian's mom, her new husband Ron, Charlotte, and
Brian himself. She passed the bottle over to him, not wanting to hold it
herself.

"Hi!" He got a hug, but
only that, since his mother was right there. The idea of doing more didn't
bother her, but he was kind of panicked, in a quiet way, over the idea. As for
Ron... Well, he didn't really know the man at all. He seemed really laid back
to her, however.

Like a person that was Infected.

If so, it didn't come up on his
feed, which was very much like a stock ticker. Honestly, while she hadn't been
expected by the man, he was tolerably pleased to see that there was an extra
person there who didn't seem
quite
as high strung as the rest of them
were.

Charlotte sneered at her, which
wasn't
what she'd been trying for. The new person slightly irritated her, but
everything did, so she was attempting to smile, and be polite. It didn't really
work. Cindy smiled back, because the effort was enough for her, even if Scott
was tense over the woman, and so was Brian.

"Hello. You're Charlotte?
Bridget's mom?" She didn't have a lot to say, but the woman was tolerably
pleased suddenly, that she was recognized. That didn't happen very often to
her.

"I am! I didn't get your
name? Brian mentioned that he had a guest coming, but I think I must have
forgotten." She hadn't, and it wasn't a pissing contest, no matter what it
probably sounded like to the others. Her game was about letting her be
introduced to everyone else.

The woman wasn't pretending to
forget her name in order to trivialize her, which was what Brian suspected.
That was, in his mind, due to the fact that Charlotte was attracted to him.
Which was true, but not it at the moment.

"Cindy Mableton. Research
librarian." She didn't add anything else, since that gave the two things
that most people cared about on first meeting you.

Well, that and the fact that she
wasn't married or had children, but if they wanted to know that one, they could
ask. Which Charlotte
did
. Almost instantly, and well before anyone could
stop her. The entire room winced, except for her. It really was a bit blunt,
but to her mind she needed to know that kind of thing. After all, her job was
to deal with the press and if Proxy was going to take up with a woman that had
that kind of baggage, she needed to get on that right then.

So Cin just shook her head,
faking a smile that was easy enough to do, not caring about that sort of thing.

"No to both. I don't do
drugs, or have sex with minors either. I
do
jaywalk like a fiend
however. When I go running?" She smiled, and her voice was polite about it
all, because she got the general idea. To this woman she needed to know if
Cindy was going to be a problem, and asking got results. Mainly lies, which she
hadn't done yet herself, but it let the other lady relax and manage something
like a real smile of her own.

"Excellent. Now, everyone
else here is Infected. Are you comfortable with that?" She stared then,
her face fixed, as if she expected something like panic over the idea.

Which would have been possible,
she guessed. Still, the woman knew about the events of the night before, so it
wasn't
just
about bigotry. The question was explained in the words
however. Charlotte really wanted to make sure Cin wasn't going to have a
strange first mode reaction. Her basic ability had been described as low level
telepathy and empathy, but nothing had been given out about her reactions to
things. Fear was a pretty common primary emotion to have, so asking wasn't out
of the question.

It was also considered both
needed, and rude, to simply ask people things like that. Which meant Brian was
turning pale, wondering if a fight was about to break out, or at least an
argument.

"Nope? I mean, it wasn't
planned
,
was it?
I
don't have anything against non-Infected people myself. Some
of my best friends are regular people. I'd hate to have walked into a hotbed
bed of hate, after all."

That response worked well enough
it seemed, and got a hand to come out from the woman to shake, which she nailed
again. That got the public relations lady to nod.

"You don't quite have the
looks for Team One. Close however. Your power seems to be useful, without being
frightening. Telepathy? There are some issues there, but as long as the range
isn't too great, most don't have a problem with it. The people with secrets can
just avoid you."

There was a rush of thoughts from
around the room. Bridget was worried that her mother was jumping to the wrong
conclusions,
and
being mean. You had to be really special looking to
make Team One, after all, and while Bridget had managed it, for a while, that
was mainly due to her being around her entire life, not her looks.

Cindy looked around and then
shrugged.

"It isn't really telepathy
exactly. I... In the last few days I've been learning to do more with it, so
far distance doesn't seem to be the issue, and I can find people. Um, by the
way, I checked out the people from the other night? The Denny's crowd? Their
organization doesn't seem to be involved with the stuff from last night. It
will take a while, but I looked at the twenty or so top people, and they don't
have anything on it. So my guess is that it's someone else."

That news got Brian to grin.

"Really? All right, that will
save some time. We need to get all of that written up. Later though? This isn't
really supposed to be an inquisition, believe it or not." The look he gave
Charlotte wasn't exactly a glare, but it wasn't totally smooth and friendly
either.

Smiling again, Cin looked out the
window.