Hush (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 1) (9 page)

"You really don't want, or
need, to do this. Go away. Now." It didn't seem friendly, and a few of the
larger men in the crowd bristled. Like they wanted to fight him with their
fists.

Their side, if she was on one of
those, didn't have any weapons out, and for her part everyone ignored what she
was doing. True, she didn't know what cars people had come in, but there were
fresh tracks now, so she could tell who had pulled in most recently. She was on
the tenth car when something finally happened. That was Impulse being shot. In
the face.

The girl bobbed back a bit, then
grinned. It wasn't really happy, but she was faking it like an actress might,
in case there were cameras catching the whole thing. It was better than the
rage she was sort of feeling suddenly.

"Okay-doke! That means that
I get to play now. Just so you all get this, you're under arrest. I'm Infected
and will be using Infected powers to affect that arrest. If you resist, I can,
and
will
, subdue you. That will probably mean you die. Lie down on the
ground, now, and drop your weapons."

That got her shot several more
times. Then, almost as one, a cry and clatter went up, as every visible weapon
hit the ground with a clang. A few people screamed as their guns suddenly weighed
half a ton or more. It damaged the parking lot a bit, where they hit. The metal
even made a few sparks, but nothing went off.

Doug, the super hero known as
Gravity winced at that.

"Darn it. I think I over did
things again. It was probably the thing where they shot that little girl, you
know?" He was watching the crowd, and joking about the whole thing, even
if the wince had been real. He'd honestly tried for about a tenth of what he'd
just done. The man was just that powerful.

Then, without pausing to ask the
collected people to politely lie down in the cold slush again, Proxy and Hobbs
moved. People just started falling then, hitting the ground with cries of pain.
Cindy looked around, and noticed her friend with the bad back was hobbling
towards Hobbs. Before he got there, she ran up behind him and stomped the back
of his right knee. That caused a scream, too. A delicious one. There was a
rewarding crunching feeling under her nice shoe at the same time. It was
slippery out, so when she was tackled by a large bearded man they both went
down. That hurt.

Enough that she lost it for a
moment, and just fought, getting hit a few times. The asshat was
huge
,
being over three times her weight, she bet. Still, she ripped at his eyes well
enough, and that got him to roll over, trying to stand up and get away from
her. Slipping a choke hold on him, she tossed her meager weight to the side,
which caused him to end up on top of her. That was kind of crushing, but he was
still being choked out, and his friends had a harder time getting to her. So as
long as she could hold her breath longer than he could go without blood to his
brain, she was fine.

A few men tried to kick her,
thinking that she was trapped, which wasn't wrong, but most of them hit their
buddy, the big man. That helped him go out a bit faster, though she was going
to be stuck there, surrounded like she was. That wasn't fair, but that was
fighting. She started by using all her strength to roll the man off of her to
the left, and kicking at some knees, hitting only one of them before the world
went almost silent.

Her elbow had a bloody scuff on
it, and her entire outfit was soaked. Dirty, too. Looking over she realized
that Bridget was still tidy. Then, she
had
declared her goal of not
getting her new clothing ruined. Proxy and Hobbs had the people on the ground
though, and it looked like their backup was finally there. It seemed like too
little, too late, but the men in black brought them a large container of
plastic handcuffs, and helped them use it on the twenty-seven people on the
ground.

Looking at the scene, she headed
over to Proxy. He wasn't untouched, but other than scuffed knuckles, and a damp
knee he didn't look too bad. Hobbs was in about the same condition she was, but
he'd
managed some cool looking rolling moves that had cut people down as
he did it. The man wasn't even shaking yet, which she was. From the cold. It
was snowing after all, and she wasn't huge.

"This is
so
a cocoa
moment." That got Bridget to nod and jog over to her. Steady the entire
time, even as she left tracks in the slush.

"Great idea. We'll be
inside. We should treat those wounds anyway. I wonder if they have a first aid
kit?"

It turned out that there was one,
and they were allowed to use the back room, so that they wouldn't be treating
cuts in the food areas.

There was a chair, which Bridget
gestured to, her face going harder than it had been before.

"Morons. I can't even have a
meal out anymore. This
isn't
the first time this has happened. This is
supposed to be a vacation for me. Believe it or not, I was looking forward to a
relaxing holiday. My mom and dad are coming in tomorrow, to meet Great Grandma
and Grandpa. They aren't married, or even that old. Like, in their forties?
Brian went back in time and knocked up my grandma in the early eighties. That
really isn't common knowledge." There was a slightly pouty look then.

The young lady knew better than
to go giving out all the secrets, but her first mode made that too hard to
resist sometimes. Part of it at the moment was nerves. Like anyone else
fighting tended to leave her feeling jazzed up. That meant her control got
shaky. So she opened her mouth to near strangers. The other part was that she
liked Cindy already.

That was surprising, since other
than stealing some fries from her, they hadn't had much to bond over.

Cindy smiled and shook her head a
bit then.

"I caught some of that one
earlier. My power, you know?"

That left the redhead feeling
better. She didn't need medical help herself, ever, healing almost instantly
from anything that actually hurt her, which most things couldn't. Still, she
was good with the bandages, had the two major scrapes covered up about three
minutes later.

As she finished the girl patted
Cindy on the shoulder.

"That was
sooo
neat! Brian
will be all worked up, but you should totally date him. He's really nice. Smart
and funny, too. Plus you have stuff in common. You both like kicking butt. I
mean, who doesn't, but it's a good start."

Cin nodded, since it was about as
good of a plan as anything. After all, the point was to stay close enough that
no one would suspect her without her knowing about it. Hanging out with them
based on the idea that she wanted to tear off a piece of Proxy was a good
enough one.

"If he wants to date me now.
That wasn't exactly the best introduction, was it?" She glanced down at
her sodden skirt and rolled her eyes a bit.

The girl pretended not to get her
meaning. It was sort of obvious, but her intent was kind enough.

"You mean how you only got
two of them? Yeah... I can see that. Still, you got us a warning, so part of
the rest of it goes to you too. That's how it works. Now, we came for
cocoa?"

That they had, and being that
they weren't jerks, or at least Bridget wasn't that mean that everyone outside
got some, too. At least the ones on their side. The Agents, and when they came,
the police. They had to talk to a lot of people, and she was sort of publically
given away as Infected instantly.

She made a hard face, and shook
her head.

"Fuck. Well, there goes my
job. Glenda, my boss, is kind of a bigot. This is going to be on the news,
isn't it?"

Brian nodded, and looked around,
since there were two news vans there, and more people that had camera phones
out. The fight wasn't the problem, but the Agents didn't know that she'd been
concealing her status, so had told the police, who in turn had helpfully run
their mouths in front of the cameras.

Annoying, to say the least.

The man moved over to her and
took a deep breath.

"Um, have you ever
considered government work? We can find a place for someone with your skills. I
bet you're good at investigations. Your power has to make you a natural. Plus,
you're tough, and not easily scared. We can use that." He clearly meant it
to be polite, and helpful. He wasn't even thinking about himself on the matter.
The man just felt bad about her suffering because of them.

The problem, other than possibly
being fired, was that the IPB base would have all those telepaths and people
that might figure out who was going around killing people at the base. That
would be happening if she had to live there, sooner or later. It wasn't like
she had a choice in the matter.

For some reason she kind of
thought that the IPB might just have an issue with that sort of thing.

So she shrugged.

"I like it here. I don't
really want to move to... Where are you based? Montana?"

Brian smiled then, which seemed
real.

"Colorado. We're spreading
things out now however, since there have been some problems. You could work out
of Portland, I bet. Maybe even part time, if you don't lose your job? You
shouldn't, since firing a person for being Infected is illegal, and it would be
nearly impossible for your boss to claim that wasn't the reason now. At least
for the next few years. It can happen anyway. Sorry about that. I should have
kept that part quiet."

Except, as his story was telling
her, he hadn't really even considered the idea that anyone would be stupid
enough to mention it in front of the cameras like that. Then, he had a history
with the local police and while none of them had done it on purpose, they
weren't about to feel bad about damaging one of Proxy's little Infected
buddies. That was clear in almost all of them. About half of them kind of
wanted to pull their weapons on him, and only the fact that they'd die from
trying stopped them.

As it was, Cindy noticed that
none of them even tried to question any of them directly. The Agents were sent
in for that part. One of them, Agent Rizzo, was waved over by Brian before they
could all leave.

"Hey, do you have a card for
Cindy? We might be able to have her work out of your office. Her power is
unique. She reads people like books." He grinned, but she was the one that
ended up having to explain.

The man wasn't bigoted in
particular, for a regular human. He didn't really think that Cin looked to be
like the kind of person that he wanted to work with however. That was down to
her size, though he also knew that she'd gotten two of the men by herself. He
just didn't think that was
real
.

It would have made her mad, except
that it was the exact thing that she wanted people like him thinking. Little
old her wasn't enough to take out a big strong man, after all. Even thinking
that would be ridiculous. On the good, possibly great, side, was the fact that
the Portland office didn't have any Infected people working there at all.

For all that the man wasn't
impressed with her supposed physical abilities, he did see the use of her
ability almost instantly.

"We could use someone like
that. Questioning and that kind of thing? Would you mind working with other
agencies? We have a pilot program now, where we lend out some of our talent to
other groups, at need. I can see how well you'd fit. You can pass, for one
thing. What's your first mode?" He said it casually, as if it weren't a highly
personal thing.

Brian looked away, but it was a
thing that he'd been curious about the whole time too. Mainly because he hadn't
noticed anything too bad. He kind of suspected that she didn't have a normal
sense of fear, which got her to smile. That was better than the lack of empathy
she really had, and it
was
part of her, so she could fake that one well
enough.

Her answer came with a soft
smile.

"Nothing too major? I'm kind
of fearless. Not to a level that I'm normally stupid about it, and I can worry
if things are important enough, but it can get in the way at times. Like
tonight? I really should have left the fight to pros. Most of the time I do
better, I swear. Oh, did you get the plate numbers? Just in case anyone got
away. I don't think so, but..." The paper had been dropped, and was wet,
but still legible.

Then, as if it made any sense,
the Agent took her name and phone number, which left Proxy feeling slightly
upset. Due to his not having gotten that first. Except of course he had. He
recalled that just about the time she read the idea above his head.

When the others cleared out, he
started to walk toward his car, which was a rental. He was the one driving,
since it was in his name. It made sense, but got her to wave him over, and then
make motions for Bridget to go away when she tried to come too. The kid got the
idea, not being that young, despite her looks. Besides, it was clear that she
could hear what they were saying anyway. That was a good thing to keep in mind.
No matter what, she couldn't do
anything
with the girl in town.

The best way to watch them was to
be right on top of the little group however. There was danger in it, but less
than if she weren't there. At least she hoped that was the case.