Asunder (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  Then she screamed out loud, as if that was going to help.

  “Move back! Fly backward, shield on! Shield on! Arc to the left, past the pillar there! Now!” She kept talking, loudly, which was probably going to shock everyone into thinking she was insane. Interestingly, even if the being on Mars couldn’t understand why he was doing all of what he was, it was working. Preventing him from being hit by the bullets, taking most of them on the shield.

  The hiding part was to get the girl to follow him, so that anyone that didn’t have their shield on yet wouldn’t learn about bullets the hard way, by taking them to the head before finding out they were a real threat. Hess had that problem, since attacks weren’t real to him. Which was why she’d gotten him to manually activate his protections.

  It was actually explained rather well, and quickly, by the being, as he moved away from the threat, the small woman coming at him until her weapon was empty. Then she paused to reload. There was still no sign of Dareg or Samantha. Just Nadia the human bomb.

  The only other person near at all was a tiny, very passive seeming human man. She didn't have any time to get his name or anything, before she had him activate his shield and rush the girl there. If the other Princess was small, thanks to being young, this tiny fellow was special that way.

  Easily under five feet. Slender as well.

  “Right. Protect Hess. Don’t let this woman close her left hand.” She didn’t really have time to explain about the bomb vest on Nadia to the fellow she was printing instructions for. Worse, the man didn't have a knife or anything he could take her hand off with. If the plunger on the device was depressed, it was going to go boom in a rather spectacular fashion. Killing all of them, no doubt.

  Not, thankfully, at the level that the thing that Neesa from the other world had been using. That would have ended the Earth. This would just take out anyone inside about fifty feet. Like Hess. Even if he had a shield on. It might help, but it was kind of clear that this second Allison wasn’t a hapless pawn like the alien girl had been. She was an agent, attempting to kill what she saw as an enemy. Using any tools she could to get that done. Like Nadia the hostage.

  The little guy, Nareem, fought for control of the larger, more powerful arm, getting that it wasn’t going to be enough. He did understand what a bomb was, more or less, however. Even that the large pale woman to the side was wearing one.

  In his own language, he screamed at Hess, almost incoherently.

  “Run! She will kill you! Flee! I will stand here and die.” It wasn’t enough.

  Hess was trying, but just couldn’t get far enough back in time. Ysidril weren’t a speedy bunch as a rule. Nadia, and the others, were simply about to die.

  The evil Princess, and she wasn’t just a bit misguided, like the other Tor had been, grinned. Then she spoke in Afrak, directly to the tiny man who was holding her arm rather uselessly.

  “Yes. I will kill him. Time to die, Demon.”

  Then her thumb moved to the plunger, to end all four of them. Her only regret being that she hadn’t managed to take out even more of them at that same time.

  Cindy took a sudden breath, then took a full page to write one line. You can’t move!

  The letters were in bold print and filled the entire page.

  It was enough to distract the girl, but not really hold her forever. Not even for a full half minute. Doing it over and again could buy some time, but the kid was smart enough to bypass that before it started, shunting the function of her thumb, moving down out of her conscious mentality to the subconscious part of her being.

  Which was kind of impressive, Cin realized. It showed a lot of training that probably didn’t overlap with anything Cindy really understood. It meant the bad girl was moving again, half a moment later, getting ready to kill Hess, Nadia and Nareem before she had a chance to do anything at all to save them.

  So she shrugged.

  “Fine then, bitch. Push me to it. Die. Now.” She didn't go fancy on that part, explain that it was time to stop breathing or sleep, just printing the single word out on blank book page after page, over and again, in the girl’s story. Faster than she knew to even try to recover from. Hundreds or thousands of times in a few moments. There was a struggle then, but after twenty seconds, she fell down, her hand not able to clamp down at all.

  Dead.

  Just in time for Dareg to get there, and assess the whole thing. Hess looked on in bafflement.

  “This human girl did something, then the man… That is right?” He looked at Dare closely, recognizing him due to the copper square on his shirt front, rather than by his face or build.

  The man nodded.

  “Right on both of them. The woman… She looks exactly like Princess Allison. Her from another world. This man… He seems to have stopped her, somehow. I don’t know who this last lady is? Are you well, Miss?” The look he gave the fellow was pleased at a guess. The words spoke of him being happy that a man of Afrak could do anything except freeze in the face of danger. Still, the focus of the moment was on the woman, who just stood there for a bit, then seemed scared.

  At first Cindy figured that it was about wearing a bomb, which wasn’t helping anything. She didn't speak Standard however. Looking at the text book over the woman’s head, it didn’t take long to work out that Nadia Fields wasn’t from Noram or Mars.

  She was from the U.S.A. In a world that was, if not identical to Cin’s own, then close enough to mean she spoke English. That meant there was a temporary language barrier.

  Nareem hadn’t actually managed to stop anything. True, part of his fighting at all had been her recommending it to him, but the man had really done the work on his own, past that first bit. Still, she needed to make certain he wasn’t accused of murder. She might need to run away, she realized, but Nareem had done his part pretty well.

  That she felt protective of him was annoying, but she held out her hand to Tim, who instantly passed over the speaking device. Understanding her point without asking. There could have been an issue with finding the right name to call back, but it was still selected, helpfully enough, so tapping the name once got Dareg to turn his communication unit back on as well.

  He started right in.

  “The other Allison didn't succeed in taking Hess away from us. She died in the attempt. I’m not certain how. We have two others here. One with a device that I think is a bomb. She hasn’t spoken. The other is a man who fought to save High Leader Hess.”

  Cindy sighed, and answered in Standard, going slowly.

  “I killed her. Using my power. Nareem tried to stop her, but was failing, so… I ordered her to die.” Cindy managed to sound like that was a bad thing. It didn't really feel like it to her, but Tim nodded, his face held in a somber fashion to make it look like he cared anything about it at all. Even the boys in the room were doing that. “Nadia speaks English and is from another world. We should get the bomb off of her and then help her get back home, wherever that is.”

  Terlee actually felt a bit worried over the death. Mainly that Cindy had to kill someone to protect their friend on Mars. One of her people. So far though, and Cin checked carefully, no one was considering putting her in jail, or hanging her for the action. It wasn’t even a remote possibility to any of them. That left her feeling a bit better about the whole thing.

  After a moment, Dare nodded.

  “Good work then. I didn’t know anyone could do that. You’re on Earth, correct?” He’d switched to English, his voice accented, but kind of sexy for it. The words got Nadia to perk up a bit.

  “You… Speak English here? I… Can I get some help?” She didn’t know how to explain that, but Prince Dareg nodded at the woman, who seemed more than a bit careworn to him, now that he focused on her. Tired and abused.

  “Yes, of course, Miss. Cindy Mableton of the IPB has already asked that I return you to your own world, if that will serve? It was she that saved you here today. Using her powers… She’s Infected, if that means anything to you? From
a different world?” He waited, but there was a gasp.

  “She… Is? We have people like that back home!” The woman felt excited to hear about it, rather than upset. After all, Proxy had saved her life once, so she was kind of a fan of the IPB.

  Then, smiling a bit, Dare ignored the woman, since he was being rude to a foreign emissary, even if it was for a good reason.

  “That use of power was incredible, Miss Mableton.”

  She kind of had to agree.

  “I didn’t know I could do that at all. Not in that time frame. I know, you’d think it would come up, but I honestly don’t go around ordering people to die with my mind all the time. I didn’t before anyway. Now I bet my workload will increase at home.” She managed to sound a bit wry about the idea. “Actually, I know it will. There are some people that need to die, who were beyond my reach. They might not be now.”

  Tim just laughed.

  “Or here, if you want? A person that can not only find our enemy, but remove them from the field where they stand could be useful. It would be abusing your good will… Still, you can come and go? I’ll bribe Dare to go to your world regularly? Or beg Will to do that? For that matter, Tor will give you all his wealth, for that kind of service. Not that it’s fair to ask that of you, even for that level of riches. This isn’t your battle.” He was so conflicted and processing things so fast that his mind, which was normally crystal clear, actually caused the text on his pages to blur and smear.

  Cindy shook her head a bit, then smiled.

  “We should get back to work now. We hit this one just in time, but if there are ten others going on right now, we can’t sit back and wait.”

  That got Timon to school his mind so fast and hard that she actually blinked in awe about what he did. He’d been more than halfway to losing it, then turned that off like a switch, moving to so clear that her own head kind of ached just being near him.

  They kept going through the list of likely people, stopping only for food at lunch time, which meant they all had pizza. It was decent and they all liked it well enough. She used the food unit for it herself, and while a bit messy, everyone enjoyed the special treat from another world. Then they worked, uncovering several more agents as the day wore on.

  None of them were about to kill anyone, so she just found out where they were, which was all over the place, and Tim set up a watch on them. After all, that would allow them to follow them home, if they ever went. At least it would let Willum do that. She picked that part up when the kid came back to Tamerlane’s house, along with Taman Baker.

  The small, incredibly good looking woman brushed her long black hair out of her face, and shook her head a little bit.

  “Are you all right? We heard that you were… Forced to use your powers for death?” She was trying to be delicate about the whole thing, as if she didn’t realize that Cindy wouldn’t care about a single murder. “Dareg mentioned that you also saved a woman? He’s taking her home. He wished me to tell you that. If you aren’t too battle shocked to care just now?”

  Oh, certainly, it didn’t leave her tingly between the thighs or anything like that, but she wasn’t going to be able to consider it as real in particular. The hard part was trying to explain that to the woman there. At least without being a bit crude in front of the kids and Terlee. That Clem at least wouldn’t be that bothered by the idea was different seeming. Not that he was a psychopath. Then, Will wasn’t either, and he kind of understood things better than the rest of them.

  Which meant she could let him try to put it all in context.

  “Cindy is a warrior born, Aunt Taman. She won’t lose sleep over that kind of thing. Even if she had to use her own hands for it. Her last mission involved killing hundreds of evil people. Some at close range. So, we don’t need to worry for her that way. Though I wager that Ms. Turner will love to find out that she has this kind of power. Not that it will truly be abused. That woman is a set of contradictions that way. She sees what is needed, but is often too kind to her adversaries. Cin at least can stand for her that way. To protect Marcia from the goodness of her own heart. She’s much like Uncle Tor, I think. So is Mr. Yi.”

  She got what he meant, and so did Tim and Taman, for some reason. Dumas thought he had parts of it, but the others just looked at Will a bit blankly. Finally, Timon waved at her.

  “This was a lot of work. Now, I need to go and speak to some people. Can you stay for another night? It’s been less than a quarter of a day in your world so far.”

  Which she knew to be true. Not that it was important. Except that she had to work out what to do with her new ability. Killing anyone, in any location… That might just be useful. It would have really helped if she could have known about it two months before, but that was as it had needed to be. What she could do now was make sure that the people in the deep bunkers that thought they were safe, learned that it wasn’t actually enough.

  Then… Really, killing them all was probably a good enough plan. If she could manage that, then her entire world would be safe. From Mariah. That didn't remove the rest of the dangers. That was just life though. There was always going to be something over the next hill that might kill everyone.

  It also would have to be done in secret.

  Visions of nuclear weapons taking the base out came to her about then. All it would take for that to happen would be anyone in the government ever learning that she could actually kill with her mind like it seemed was the case.

  Cin thought about it for a moment, then nodded to herself.

  She was willing to bet that Christian Pours could do the same thing, if she wanted. It kind of explained why the woman was considered a class five while only being a telepath. Reading minds was useful, and even handy in a fight, but it wasn’t that level of a power. Except that Marcia and some of the others had pointed out that it was, in reality. Meaning it was a known thing, but nothing that they even let themselves consider, day to day.

  Given the mind reading satellites, that was probably what had kept some of them alive over the years. They just assumed that kind of thing could be happening at any given time. So, they lived with rules in place to prevent certain things from being thought about, whenever possible.

  Having already admitted to being able to control Kerry had probably pushed her up at least a full power class herself, officially. From a five to a six. This could potentially make her a class seven. Maybe even higher than that. After all, she could, at least in potential, take over some of the others, even if they were very powerful, forming an army of slaves to fight for her.

  Even a bullet to the head wouldn’t be enough to take her out now.

  Except that, even if she was kind of a psychopath still, she wasn’t much of one anymore. She didn’t take pleasure in killing for instance. That meant she was left feeling a little empty inside. Once upon a time, not that long before, it had been her entire life. The residual of that was fading even, over time. There was no glee left in taking a life for her.

  Now all she had left were her friends. Which, thankfully, were cool as fuck.

  “Sure, I can hang out for a bit. We’ll need to hide what I did from my people. Removing Allison like that? I know that might seem strange, but I don’t want everyone to be afraid of me.” She didn't know if anyone there would understand that, but Dumas nodded instantly.

  His face held a small smile.

  “I understand. You are a good and brave person, who acted to protect our friend, Hess of Mars. Not out of anger or personal desire to do harm. A warrior, as Willum pointed out. Not a killer. I give my word that I shall not inform any from your world of what took place today. Even if I must lose my life to do so.”

  She blinked, since he meant it. Even to the point where he’d kill himself to prevent his mind or field from being read. She bowed to him.

  “Within reason? After all, if you’re alive, I can always come and crash here, if I get found out, right? I appreciate the thought, however. We just have telepaths and you might not be a
ble to protect your thoughts from them. That isn’t worth your life. Not just in exchange for mine.”

  Timon nodded then.

  “Great point. So, we should modify that, to say we will back you in this, to the best of our abilities? I’m in on that as well. We’ll hide this from your people, so that they will not have to live in fear of their friend.”

  That got the rest of them to go, except Willum, who was glared at by the others for his lack of response.

  Finally, he winked.

  “What? I have to actually go to that world. On the good side, I think that only Brie and Christian will be able to get that from me directly. If you don’t simply share this with them openly, you’re a fool.”

  Which was probably true. Chris because they were in the same boat and Trivia…

  Because the woman was a super-villain.

  Yes, she’d been working with and for the IPB for decades while only pretending to be that kind of person, but it was kind of obvious that she had to have known all about who their enemies were the whole time. Instead of going after them herself, or even setting someone else on them, she’d waited for Cindy to work out how to get them on her own.

  That might have been a valuable training tool, of course, or just less work, but it probably meant something far more sinister. Not just about getting with Brian Yi, either. That was, clearly, part of the lady’s personal plan. Still, there was more to it. A thing which was clearly being protected from Chris and her. It wasn’t that she couldn’t find out about what was going on in Brie’s head, of course. It was simply that the woman would know about it if she tried.

  The other way around wasn’t the case. Trivia could know everything she did. And would instantly. That might not call it to her attention all the time, but if Brie considered the idea, even casually, she’d know what Cindy was thinking about her.

  On the great side, she didn’t give half a flying fuck as to what the other woman was doing, as long as it didn’t hurt Cindy personally. Or her friends. That part was new in her life, but she decided to keep it. At least for the time being.