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

by P. S. Power

  She just didn’t want to cheat Cindy out of her fun. Even if it was sick and perverted. That had been part of the deal with the serial killer. That she’d be allowed to kill, if only the right people. It was also clear to her that if anyone deserved that kind of punishment, it was traitors. Marcia really hated that kind of thing, and took it personally.

  Cin waved the whole thing away.

  “No problem. You broke my spirit, and now I barely want to kill anyone at all. Not that I can’t do it. That part doesn’t bother me at all. I just… You know, all my hope is gone, now.” She meant it, but for some reason Marcia grinned at her.

  “Sure. I believe that. You think that I don’t know when I’m being played? You just want to get on my good side, so that I’ll let my guard down.”

  Cindy shook her head.

  “Yes. No, as well. I’m trying to make myself useful, so you won’t kill me and I might get free someday. That part is manipulative. I also know that you’ll never let your guard down. So, I’m telling you the truth about how I feel right now. I can be useful. I won’t murder anyone without permission. Well, not because I can’t help it. I mean, if I have to for some other reason, I will, and not lose sleep over it. Just like anyone that way though.” She was really being honest, but didn’t know if that would meet with Marcia’s inner drives very well.

  Her first mode was a powerful thing.

  “All right. So try to keep people alive this time. If we need to do any torture, I can still call you in for it?”

  “Me… Or Hobbs. The man has more plans for that than anyone I’ve ever heard of.”

  There was no outward response, but internally the remark was noted clearly. There was an actual mental checklist inside of the woman that swung around into view.

  Then it changed, to the crew she wanted to go in on the operation. Thankfully Cin wasn’t expected to do it all herself, being that she didn’t know a lot more about firearms than pointing and pulling the trigger. A bit more than that, like where the safety was on some models, but not a whole lot. Brian was on the list, but Mark was going in first again. Like he had last time. Along with Level, who was still sitting in the brig on the base, having betrayed them once already.

  That was, honestly, why the woman was being sent in. If anyone had to prove they were on the side of right at the moment, it was her. Lauren.

  “How about Kerry? We can have her stand back and take down anyone trying to escape?”

  “Not bad. We probably won’t need that. Not with the door codes that we have. I get the point however. So, you’ll stand back and make sure that nothing happens we aren’t prepared for. For instance, is the place wired to blow up if we go in? The last one wasn’t, but I would have set that up, knowing a base was taken like it was.”

  She checked, but no one in the place knew anything about that kind of situation.

  “Not… That I’m getting right now. Which doesn’t mean it might not be the case. The people behind this are good. Not to flatter them, but I’m not certain I could get past me, Trivia or Christian like they have been. That means someone smart, and careful.” It also meant that she was stating the obvious, though Marcia didn’t take her to task for that part of things.

  Even if it had already occurred to her, several times.

  “We leave in two hours. You’ll want body armor, and a weapon. Get that checked out.” There was no yelling about moving, but it was clear that she wanted to.

  They weren’t in the military however, which meant being careful about people’s feelings that way. Cindy jogged out anyway, since it would get a good response from her boss.

  Finding the armory wasn’t that hard, though it was locked and no one was working there or anything. You needed door codes to get inside, and the Agents held that information. Particularly Burkes, at the moment. He was still convalescing, after having been taken prisoner and being drugged for several months. It had affected his mind, a bit, and shaken his confidence. He’d been the head of his section, and hadn’t managed to prevent himself from being used against the group.

  He would have quit already, but the truth was that his health insurance wasn’t as good as what he’d get on the base. Burkes was too young to retire, and sort of needed his job. So he’d been going to counseling daily, and marking time, being uncertain that he could handle the work any longer.

  “Which is bullshit.” Cindy could read that inside of him, with only a little digging. To that end she got the door code on the cage, and used the phone inside to call his cell.

  “Um… Burkes here. What’s the situation?” It was his work phone, so he had to know it wasn’t his daughter calling to check up on him or anything.

  “This is Cin Mableton. I’m at the armory right now. We have an operation in… One hour and forty minutes. Taking out an underground base. The same people that had you before? They’re holding people of ours. Sinclair and Phoebe? Also a Jeremy Cooper. You’re needed to organize things. Also, to get me up to speed on weapons. We don’t have a lot of time. How soon can you get here?” She was being pushy with the man and rushing him, but it was what he needed.

  If she’d acted like there wasn’t a big emergency, or that people weren’t at risk, the man would have tried to hem and haw. To act like someone else should have been in charge of his section. That wasn’t going to work though. Not at the moment.

  Besides, Lancaster was currently in charge of the Agents section, and the man was Infected. That was supposed to not be allowed. Sooner or later they were going to replace him. If it was with Burkes, and he was willing to work with her, then her life would be easier. In theory. Lancaster still kind of thought that she wanted to kill him. Burkes had no such feelings.

  “Seven minutes. On my way.” He hung up, but had actually started to run first.

  Five minutes later, the man rushed into the room, breathing hard.

  “Do we have any mission specs?”

  “Um… I think? We have maps, there are eighteen bad guys. They don’t have any powers, but do have twelve hostages. In cells, some of them are drugged. We have the door codes to get in, and all that. What else do you need to know?”

  That, it turned out, was almost everything. He didn’t leave the armory, but got on the computer there, and grabbed copies of the information on the mission, using her codes. Then he called out what weapons she needed, and where the body armor was. Several other people came in to get things like that. All of them were on Team Two, except for a good looking golden colored man.

  “Hi. I’m Jason? Um, Argos? I was told to get ready for a mission? I was thinking I should get a vest, in case I get shot. I can handle it, but it kind of hurts. Is that all right? Or… Someone else probably needs it. Maybe I shouldn’t have one?”

  He was speaking to her, and the words over his head were a bit more confident than the ones that came out. He was very humble, and put everyone ahead of himself, but he knew what was actually needed. Better than she did, even.

  “Get one. For everyone else going, too. Then help me with the weapons?” That took more time than she would have thought, since Burkes grabbed her, and showed her how to use a nine millimeter. Including where to shoot people. It was in the head, and a small section of the upper chest, if she wanted to kill people.

  His words were almost soft when he looked down at her. He rubbed at his short brown hair, looking casual, in a pull over t-shirt and jeans.

  “It can be hard, shooting a person. On a mission like this, you can’t hesitate if it comes up.” Internally he was trying to come up with a way to explain what was really needed that way, and showed surprise and a bit of disbelief when she nodded at him.

  “I’ve killed before. It won’t be a problem.”

  “You have?”

  She nodded, and smiled up at him. He wasn’t a giant, but had at least a foot on her size wise.

  “The library was a rougher place than most would ever think.”

  He took it as a joke, but also got that she knew how to use a shoulde
r holster. Having done it before, on the last mission. She still needed the lesson however, and tried to memorize what he was saying. It was pretty much shoving a weapon at the right place and squeezing the trigger smoothly, for the time being. There was more that would be needed for a real fight, but that was enough to keep her alive, as long as she was smart enough to hide and run away for the most part.

  The man pulled a vest for himself, and got several weapons, including a rifle.

  “If you get a chance, you should always stand back and snipe first. We won’t have that on an insertion like this, but handguns are secondary weapons. I just don’t have time to go over it all right now. Are you going in on the first wave?”

  She knew that one, from the boss.

  “Nope. I’m on backup. You know, standing back and trying to find the booby traps from a distance, with my mind. So far I’m getting nothing, but that can change. Really…” She had an idea of where to look for that kind of thing. Either Brian or Bridget. They both had subconscious psychic powers, even though Bridget didn’t really know that part yet. Proxy did, but he wasn’t great at using the ability consciously. For her part however, she could use both of them that way. Like her own personal Magic Eight Balls. Maybe even asking questions of their subconscious selves. It was worth trying.

  Burkes slapped her on the arm. Not that hard, but he was trying to prop her up emotionally, getting that the tiny blonde wasn’t exactly a fighter. Not in his book.

  For this kind of fight, he was even right.

  As soon as everyone was armed and armored, they all moved as a group, back toward the front of the headquarters building. There were forty of them, since playing fair was for suckers. Not all of them had armor, or even weapons, but about ten of the people going looked like they were ready to go on television as SWAT members. The rest were in their tan daily wear outfits. Interestingly, they were all Operatives. The only Agent there was Burkes.

  The rest of them were busy however, even though they were the ones that had training for the kind of thing they were about to do. Marcia smiled when she saw the man, and didn’t try to send him away.

  “Good. Charles, you’re on the second team. I’ll go in with Stasis, Level and Prime… Bridget…” She nearly asked if the girl could handle working with Lauren, since they had a history, but then she simply shrugged. The girl was either ready, or she’d lie and asking would cause problems either way.

  Cindy nodded, looking around at the different stories that were presenting at the moment.

  Impulse was too powerful to play with that way. On the good side, she was also still a kid, more or less.

  “She’ll be fine.” Cin spoke softly, but everyone else had gone silent, so heard it pretty clearly.

  The girl nodded.

  “Yeah. I’m good. Burkes? How about you?” It was a deflection, and the man nearly told her that he wasn’t a hundred percent. That wasn’t actually the truth however, so Cindy waved at him.

  “He’s good, too. Everyone is right now. At least that we have here with us.” It was actually true, even if some of the people were a little low on self-esteem at the moment.

  Marcia snorted at her, and a few people glared, feeling that their minds were being read. It was close enough that she didn’t explain. If they wanted to have problems with her, then they could. Later.

  After they all lived.

  Turner waved at the head Agent then, “Burkes, you’re on with the third wave. Keep a watch on the support staff for the time being. Normally we wouldn’t have the softies going in like this, but Mableton is our information extraction specialist for the mission. It’s power related, as well as… Special team.”

  The last bit got the man to spin on her, and stare, not certain if he was being told things correctly. Given the context, it could be that the woman was simply a telepath, but that didn’t explain the rest of it. Turner was indicating that this tiny woman was going to torture people, if it was needed.

  No one else really got that part of things.

  She just looked at him, and nodded.

  “It’s not really reading minds. I see books, screens, and things like that and can read about people. As for the other thing… Yes. It’s what she meant.” It was the truth, but the man didn’t totally believe her.

  “Right. I’ll need an update on that. I’m out of the loop, I guess.” He didn’t demand it right then or anything.

  Interestingly enough, their support team involved Proxy, since he was getting them into place, via teleportation, Denis, Kerry and Tobin Peterson. Basically everyone from her morning meditation class was going in with them. Hobbs and Bridget were on different teams however.

  Still, Burkes was impressed with who he was getting. Any one of them could have probably taken the base on their own. Possibly even the little new girl. Sin. He misspelled that in his head, naturally. It was cute enough, but she didn’t comment on the whole thing yet.

  Interestingly enough, they were also getting Gravity on their team. The thing there was that the man looked different than the last time she’d seen him. He was nearly totally different. Before he’d been all right looking, but average enough. Now he was about four inches taller, had perfect skin and gemlike green eyes.

  In short, he’d gone from nice looking, to incredible enough that some of the women had just been staring at him, and didn’t get who he was yet. She wouldn’t have bought it, if not for the story in his head. He’d just gone to a different world and had himself genetically altered. Using magic.

  Because that made perfect sense. Proxy had taken him, and there was more to the whole thing that she needed to find out about, but it would have to be later. After they finished up for the day.

  Technically, the man should have been on the second team given his power level, not the third for the day, but Marcia didn’t want to put their second in command in that much danger, in case she died going in. Not that she really could, being invulnerable to almost everything.

  Kerry probably shouldn’t have been going at all, come to that. There were reasons for things however, so they were all going that day.

  They had a real briefing, with everyone learning the maps, and getting the codes to get them through all the doors. There were two ways in and out, with a third tunnel that her group was going to be watching, since no one would be leaving that way. Unless someone did by mistake. Only a few of them knew about it, that were inside the secret base.

  After going over the whole thing and several backup plans, in case things went sideways, Brian took them all in. Not at once, but in five different groups. Then the man, dressed in tan and wearing blue body armor over that, like she and the rest of her team had going on, pointed a rifle at the hatch they were watching.

  Gravity, looking hotter than seemed correct, waved a hand in that direction, getting ready.

  For her part, Cindy stood back, a handgun in her right hand, and reading Marcia’s story.

  “Stasis is going in… Three… Two… One.”

  Then, there was no noise at all, until the shooting started.

  Chapter five

  It was kind of clear that their secret hatch to the wonderful world of underground pleasure wasn’t going to be used by the bad guys. That meant that a certain group got to stand around, pretending not to be bored for forty minutes, while all the troublemaking people inside the bunker were rounded up. Not all that gently either. That part was mainly down to a combination of factors, however.

  The main one being that Mark, when he got inside the place, was seen when he stopped to put in the correct door combination on the second door. The people inside were all armed, which made things far more interesting than not. Then, after he walked away, stalling time for everything but himself, he located Sinclair first.

  Who was busily being raped by three of the men at the time.

  The man was a pacifist by nature, and so afraid of everything that he’d had to spend almost a week recovering from seeing that. At least from his perspective. Meditating
on what to do about the situation. No one else got it, but Cindy did. What the peaceful, very calm and somewhat dopey seeming man did was take one of the handguns from the man who was currently on top of the blonde girl. Then, because of his desire to not kill anyone, he removed the bullets. They were carefully lined up, along one of the walls.

  Then beat the three men over and over again, popping in and out of time to do it. One blow of the handgun at a time. That took a very long time for him. Hours at the very least. It meant the three men were down when the others got in place. They all figured that someone else had done it, even if they understood what the young and rather drugged woman being naked had to mean.

  Cin read up on what everyone had been doing, skipping from one person to the next. She also shared what was going on, not hiding anything from Brian now.

  “They were raping her? Just as we came in?” His mind was reeling from it all.

  Next to him Doug sighed.

  “It was in the reports. She… Probably isn’t the only one, either.”

  Brian seemed ready to dash off and go lay down some pain all on his own, when Cindy put her hand out toward him.

  “I lied to you and Karen, so you wouldn’t run in before we were ready. This, right here and now, is pretty close to the best plan we could have put together. What we’re doing this moment. You going in and fighting earlier than this would have led to innocent people dying. It was right there, in your own head. So if you want to blame anyone for it, know that it was me that set this up.” Not that it was all true. There had been a hidden nature to things for Brian, but that didn’t tell her the complete why of his actions.

  Rather than hit her, or yell, he closed his eyes very briefly, gripping his handgun harder. It stayed pointed at the Earth. Everyone had a weapon out, except for her, since she didn’t really know how to use it yet. Not at the level she needed to for this kind of event.