Infected 8: Impulse: A Whole New Day (7 page)

"Nay. I... gave my word of protection to her. I must see her to her domicile. Else I will be foresworn..."

Bridget blinked.

Not because she didn't think the boy would do what he'd said, but because camping out with all of them, the Elcampayns and Charity, would be more of a chore than just the one girl. Besides, so far
she
was the useful one. Pulling her to safety when Bridget might have been hurt and getting them past the guards in town.

The thing there was that the boy was
also
a lot more into the whole honor thing than not. If she told him that he had to go against his word... Well, it just wouldn't be happening, would it? There would be an argument and in the end she'd have to fight him over the issue. Given how easily she'd win, that would hurt his feelings even more and then she'd be cried at, or at least subjected to pouting. Instead she nodded, and looked at Deidre.

"Can you go with Doug and Lancaster? They're Hobbs men, so you know, you'll be safe. They won't abuse you too much, or anything." She grinned and nearly added that Deidre tossing them off a few times would probably be enough, just to see if Ed would back down and go with his sister, to protect her. It was just as well that she didn't since the shy little alien girl handled that part pretty nicely.

"Nay, I shall but offer my body to them, to slake their manly desires, to pay my passage. Tis no worry, kind cousin. When left unguarded a woman will do as she must in order to survive. That is the way of all worlds, I don't mischance." There was a shy look away from her brother,
or
slightly toward Doug, who was looking back at the girl with a bit too much shock on his face, rather than the raw lust that might make the whole thing work.

Lancaster didn't help either, laughing a bit. It was dark and sad sounding, but not sinister.

"That's a point. Ed, you should come with us, to protect our virtue, from your sister. Chambers has this. She's a fully trained Operative, not just a kid. Looks aside. That might even help in this case as long as you two lay low. Think you can handle it?"

Bridget nodded, because yeah, she could camp out for a bit, and so could Charity. She looked at Ed however, who was clearly up on what everyone had been doing to him.

"Honestly, I can. Better than if we had more people along. Really, Charity could do it alone, but I can go with her, for company. We'll double back to Mary's shop later today and hide there. Or out back at least. That way we can pretty much vanish and keep an eye on things." It was closer to the base, being on the other side of town. It would mean a lot of walking for Charity, but if she didn't mind they could just camp out that night and walk around the long way. It would make it easier than hiding from soldiers, and crawling through town directly.

Lancaster gave her a direct look that didn't even hint at the idea that she might be the wrong person for the task. Then, really, there wasn't a lot of risk to her in it, was there? The real danger was all going to be for Charity. If they got caught, it would associate her with Impulse, the well known Infected girl. The IPB Operative and poster child of the organization. One of them at any rate.

That wasn't lost on the man, but the concept behind it was clear. It was a training mission for her. Keep Charity safe and alive. Except it wasn't training anymore, was it? This was real, and if she messed up, the girl might just die.

So, she reflected, keeping her face blank, no pressure or anything.

The man looked at each of them, including Doug, and gave a single nod.

"Right. Tibs, you're in with them. Remember, the objective is to be invisible. I'd rather send Cooper in for this one, but you two can handle it. Right now we need to offload the food. It's in the trunk."

That got taken out with a bit of teamwork and strangers or not, Lancaster had the Elcampayn kids tucked into the vehicle, and was driving away without looking back some ten minutes later. Bridget smiled and started opening cans of food, using the pull tops for that. She didn't eat, as much as drink, the contents of the things for a long while. She had to pace her eating since her stomach was only so large. That meant doing it while they walked. At least she could fit it all in her bag. The remainder at least. There was a heavy bottle of oil too, which she eyed carefully. Thoughtfully, she hoped.

It was hard to just
down
things like that. Disgusting and bland at the same time. It was also nearly enough calories to keep her going for a few hours, if she did it. The food she'd had stopped the pain in her middle, but she didn't know what was going to be needed, energy wise, did she? Sighing, she tried to clear her mind, like Hobbs had taught her to do, and drank the container dry, without stopping or letting it move away from her lips.

It took a lot more discipline than she thought she had, and her middle felt too full when she was done, but that would fade. She metabolized things too fast for that feeling to last long. Doug just watched her blandly as she drank it all, then turned to Charity and gave her a charming look.

"You know, before I met her and her grandmother, Rachel, I thought that being able to eat all the time like that would be
fun
. You know, not having to worry about calories or having an extra sandwich every now and then? It's way too much though. I don't think it's better that way. I guess I'll stick to just eating a lot of salad and keeping the cake to a minimum."

It wasn't said in a mean way, so Bridget winked at him, wiping the oil off her mouth.

"On the good side, after that, I could probably deep throat you without any trouble. It's gross." She waved the bottle in the air. "Drinking oil like that. I got the idea from Marcia. She has to eat a lot too. Lucky her though,
she
doesn't have to taste it. Speaking of deep throating things, have you hit that yet?" She started walking, knowing that she was being a bit improper. It was just to distract Charity though, not her actually trying to hook up with Gravity on a mission. She wasn't
that
big of a newb, after all.

The girl, who was a nice deep tan color, looked awkward and embarrassed, but followed when Bridget started to walk away.

Probably due to the talk.

Doug snorted.

"Nah. She's my boss, so that wouldn't be good. She's nice though, isn't she?"

That was a hard thing for her to answer, but given that there was an empath there, she decided to go with her honest feelings on the matter.

"She's all right, I guess. We used to be partners, but she kind of helped set things up about a year ago, so that everyone would think that I was sleeping with my dad. I get that her first mode makes it so that she suspects almost everything, all the time, but that kind of hurt. It still does. First mode crap though, so I'm working on letting that go. For her." That was a good place to stop, and no one grilled her on what she meant. Doug hadn't been there for it, and if Charity was good enough to nearly read minds, she either understood the whole idea, or wasn't working her mojo on Bridget at the moment.

Both worked for her.

"She
is
pretty cute though. Really, I don't think she's actually your boss now either. Do we even have the IPB anymore? I say, if you see her again you should invite her to bed. Anyone else that you might be interested in too. Who knows if you'll ever get even that much of a chance?" That was a bit dismal, but she managed to rally after a bit. "For now, why don't you make things lighter under Charity, so that we can speed up a bit? The route I have in mind will take about fifteen miles of walking. We can't do too much, but saving on sore feet won't hurt anything."

The other girl sighed.

"My feet are already killing me. I don't walk much. We've gone what, twenty miles already today?"

Looking over her tiny shoulder at her, Bridget winced.

"Just a bit over five. Here, Doug, can you help her out?" If he made the area of effect small enough it wouldn't burn too much of his energy, she didn't think. It was hard to tell with different people's powers though, and they'd never talked about it. Georgia, from Team One had mentioned that she had to watch her weight all the time, even though she was always putting out at least a little bit of effort that way. Some of the others burned vast amounts when they did their thing. She kind of thought that Doug really
did
use up a lot when he worked. He just didn't know it yet, since he'd started kind of chubby. Once he made a bit of effort, the pounds had really come off fast though, and that didn't happen for everyone. Not without a lot of struggle.

He nodded, then set his mind to the task, which was mainly visible due to Charity kicking herself up into the air about two feet with her next step. Yelping. It would have been funny if they weren't trying to infiltrate an area teaming with armed men that had no reason not to shoot at them. It was even legit if they did, since they were, like it or not, the enemy now. Not morally, maybe, but as far as the government would be concerned the IPB would be on the shit list.

Big time.

Probably. To some of them it might actually not be that way. A government agency being attacked was a big deal. That got her thinking, but she kept her new ideas to herself. If things worked out, they could have the IPB, or something like it, without leaving her people in the middle of the coming meat grinder. Done right, even their enemies might just ignore them. That was for later, though.

For the moment she had to resist the urge to laugh at Charity.

"Gah!" She fell slowly though, drifting to Earth like a leaf, and landed without a lot of sound. It was the way that Bridget always imagined her own landings, when she flew. Normally right before the big thud came. She could get down on her feet now, most of the time, so things were better that way. For the first few months that had been pretty iffy really. A lot of the time she kind of had to roll out of her landings. It had been embarrassing.

Bridget giggled, thinking about that. She did it softly, trying not to let things be too serious for the new girl. Not that she was on the team yet. Given everything it would be a lot better if that didn't happen. If they had any choice in the matter.

"We call him
Gravity
for a reason. He's pretty much the master of it. Be careful though, and don't make too much noise. If we find any patrols,
hide
. Otherwise we'll probably have to kill them and that will just make problems. They'll try to shoot us, and we'll have to make them stop." Killing always did make a mess, it seemed.

Not that she wasn't ready to do some of that, if the right people showed up. Braid for instance, would be going down, if she ever met the woman. Even if she was a nearly perfect precog. Really, she'd make that happen even if it meant dying. Too many of her friends had been damaged by the woman already. Brian, of course, but Tobin too. Even Christian Pours, the Team Three leader. Her
child
had been taken away, and placed in a home, by Devorah Timberland herself, even before Chris had popped Infected. She'd just been a party girl heiress back then. That child had turned out to be Tobin Peterson. True he was doing well enough now, but who knew what he might have become if he'd had a healthy home life and a rich mom looking out for him.

It wasn't like Chris was incapable of love. She was just a snitch that would tell on you for even thinking the wrong thing. At least if it was a crime. She was rich too, so bribes wouldn't work to get her to look the other way. Bridget knew, having attempted that one, a time or two. Instead, just to get around her, over the years, she'd had to learn not to think about certain things too much. She was doing better lately, but for years that had almost not worked at all for her.

Impulses started with an idea, and she hadn't had any real defense from them. Now that she did, well, Chris wasn't even around for her to use her new found skills on.

They walked for a while, Charity using almost any excuse to jump a little, since she probably weighed about ten pounds at the moment. It made for some interesting tricks. Like running along the side of a log, as she nearly fell, then pulling her legs under her to land on the ground softly. The reason it looked so cool was that she just wasn't falling that fast. Bridget caught Doug's eye and pointed at her, then whispered.

"New trick?"

It was, it seemed, since the black haired and brown eyes man winked. Then he picked up a rock and handed it to her. The thing was kind of round and a bit dirty, since it had rained a few days before and not totally dried yet. It seemed to weigh about a pound, though it should have been about ten times that heavy.

He pointed at it, using a strange overhand gesture that looked a bit fabulous, considering he was straight. That meant he was copying someone, she was willing to bet. She just didn't know who.

"Drop it."

When she did, it barely moved, drifting slowly toward the ground. She took it again and it still seemed to be the same weight, even when she moved it around. But it didn't fall nearly as fast as it should have.

"Awesome. That is
really
neat. You can explain it to me, later." They really should have been using total operational silence, but she was willing to bet that the only person there that had ever been told about things like that was her. That meant it was her job to be the good example. Because when it came down to it the impulsive girl was
always
the one for that task, wasn't she?

Except that, honestly, she was almost certain she could do it, now. It would take work, and a lot of focus, but Bridget wasn't running off and French kissing light sockets for fun anymore, was she?

Trained for what they were doing or not, Doug got the idea and Charity, even though she still had a bit of fun jogging along with them, didn't make a lot of sound. She even dove to the dirt, laying on her stomach, when the military men came into sight. They were on the edge of the woods, and made plenty of sound tramping around.

"I thought I saw something in there." The voice was female, which was interesting, since the army didn't have a lot of those as far as Bridget knew. "It might have been a dog. I saw one earlier."